Texas Governor Greg Abbott told state troopers to monitor a US military training exercise, codenamed Jade Helm 15, after locals showed concern that the looming maneuvers actually look more like an "exercise in the imposition of martial law." The large-scale operation involves elite teams from four branches of the military, including the SEALs and Green Berets, and is set to kick off in seven st [...]

The evidence is mounting... While broadly-speaking, both 'hard' and 'soft' macro data has disappointed, as we noted previously, the scale of those 'missed expectations' is stunning - worst since Lehman. While this is blamed on weather, the fact is that America had 30% less snow this year than last and still, as the following charts strongly suggest, the YoY drops are on a scale that screams "reces [...]

After more than half a century at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, a World War II-era aircraft carrier potentially containing one hundred barrels of nuclear waste has been rediscovered by scientists. The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday that it has once again located the USS Independence. Scientists sunk the carrier in 1951 off the California coast af [...]

At the height of mass protests last year in Ferguson, Missouri, the state’s National Guard referred to demonstrators as “enemy forces” and “adversaries,” according to internal documents obtained by CNN. Through Freedom of Information Act requests, the news network obtained files authored by the Missouri National Guard last year as it readied to deploy in the St. Louis suburb of Fergus [...]

A third of higher income Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, even when they earn $75,000 a year because they would rather spend money on eating out and experiences than save money for retirement, according to a new survey. In a poll of 519 households earning $75,000 or more, nearly a third of them live paycheck-to-paycheck, at least some of the time, SunTrust Bank found. [...]

Paratroopers of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vincenza, Italy, have arrived in western Ukraine to provide training for Ukrainian government troops. The announcement came on US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt's twitter account. The diplomat posted pictures of the US paratroopers marching through the airport in the western Ukrainian city of Lvov. [...]

Results from two new polls found the majority of Americans support making cannabis legal, with the large majority of young adults crossing party lines and states to support the idea. Nationally, 53 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. [...]

The NSA is implementing a huge migration to custom-designed cloud architecture it says will revolutionize internal security and protect against further leaks by data analysts with unfettered access to classified information. Put simply, the NSA hopes to keep future Edward Snowdens out by employing a cloud file storage system it built from scratch. [...]

Four men who worked for the private military contracting firm formerly known as Blackwater are scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on Monday, more than seven years after they massacred Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad. A sentencing hearing for the four men – Nicholas Slatten, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty and Paul Slough – was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. ET in Washington, DC [...]

The British Foreign Office, as well as the US Secretary of State, have thanked Moscow for the evacuation of their citizens from war-torn Yemen, as Russian planes and ships take hundreds of Russian and foreign nationals from the conflict zone. In a phone conversation with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry “expressed gratitude for assistance in evacuati [...]

Although some lawmakers, including Democrats, believe Congress should have a say in any potential removal of Iranian sanctions, most Americans say Congress should not keep a possible a nuclear deal from being implemented. Roughly 61 percent of Americans support the framework agreement struck between Iran and the P5+1 (the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany) earlier this month, according [...]

The presence of a radioactive, cancer-causing element has increased in parts of Pennsylvania where hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been on the rise in recent years, according to a new study. Researchers with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said this week they’ve discovered a correlation between radon levels and fracking across the Keystone State. [...]

South Carolina state police have released dascham footage from officer Michael Slager’s car captured moments before he shot an unarmed black man named Walter Scott. The video shows Scott running away after being pulled over. Made public Thursday by the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the footage does not reveal any details about the moment unarmed man Walter Scott was ki [...]

California lawmakers took a step forward in protecting citizens who record or photograph the actions of police - but do not obstruct their duties - from reprisals by law enforcement, passing legislation out of committee. [...]

The chief of police for North Charleston, South Carolina, told reporters on Wednesday that he was "sickened" by video that surfaced this week of a local police officer fatally shooting an unarmed man eight times from behind. “I have watched the video and I was sickened by what I saw,” Chief Eddie Driggers said at a press conference on Wednesday. “And I have not watched it since.” [...]

The process of destroying America's largest remaining stockpile of chemical weapons began on Wednesday in Colorado, more than a decade after the Defense Department approved the destruction of 780,000 shells containing 2,600 tons of mustard agent. It will take four years to destroy the inventory leftover from World War II at Pueblo Chemical Depot in southern Colorado. [...]

The number of Americans aged 16 and older not participating in the labor force hit 92,898,000 in February, tying December's record, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Over the longer trend, the labor force participation rate was between 62.9 percent and 62.7 percent from April 2014 through February, and has been hovering around 62.9 percent or lower in 13 of the [...]

A mother who has taken flight with her son to prevent his circumcision could face a prison sentence if she fails have the boy undergo the procedure, a judge ruled, in a case that has become a rallying cry for ‘intactivists.’ The case, which began as a domestic dispute between Heather Hironimus and her husband, Dennis Nebus, over whether or not to circumcise their four-year-old son, has caug [...]

This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke with American protocol and delivered a speech before the US Congress without consulting the White House first. Many Democrats viewed the speech as an attempt by a foreign leader to chastise and change Washington’s foreign policy efforts, specifically with regards to Iran over its alleged efforts to obtain nuclear weapons. [...]

A 36-year veteran of America’s Intelligence Community, William Binney resigned from his position as Director for Global Communications Intelligence (COMINT) at the National Security Agency (NSA) and blew the whistle, after discovering that his efforts to protect the privacy and security of Americans were being undermined by those above him in the chain of command. The NSA data-monitoring pro [...]

Washington "fears" a resurgent Russia, which harps back to the Cold War says George Friedman, the CEO and founder of forecasters Stratfor. He also believes the US started to meddle in Ukraine in retaliation for Russia outfoxing Obama over Syria. Friedman says the United States has been intervening around the globe for over a century with the goal of making sure it keeps potential rivals in chec [...]

The number of whistleblowers being retaliated against is increasing every year as former federal workers warn its almost impossible to raise grievances through official avenues within the government, a new report reveals. Among the employees and contractors working for the United States military and the American intelligence community, more than 8,700 have filed claims since 2001 in which they [...]