The Raw Story

A non-profit news blog, focused on providing independent journalism.

Sunday, 14 June 2015

'Blizzard' of mayflies swarm bridge in Pennsylvania

© Blaine Shahan Swarming Mayflies caused the closure of the Rt 462 bridge between Columbia and Wrightsville late Saturday. The Veterans Memorial Bridge over the Susquehanna River between Columbia and Wrightsville reopened Sunday after mayflies forced its closure Saturday night, police said. Thousands and thousands of mayflies swarmed the lights on the Route 462 bridge, died and fell to the road, causing three motorcycle crashes, a fire official...

The Doomsday Bunker For Billionaires

Two months ago we went inside the Fed's "doomsday" bunker: a 135,000 square foot facility built in 1969, and nestled inside Mount Pony, east of Culpeper, Virginia that housed some $4 billion in hard currency as well as the central hub of FedWire, the computer network which allows the nation’s banks to communicate and transfer funds. It was meant to ensure that the US banking system could still function in the event there were still any banks left...

Psychopathic cop tases 13-yr-old child while choking him!

© Unkown We have just received a deeply unsettling video of a police officer choking and shooting a child with a taser gun yesterday afternoon, Saturday June 13. More details are coming out, and we do not have the victim's name yet, nor the officer's name, but we do know this happened in Fallbrook, California. A witness at the scene provided us the following information. The child was 13-yrs-old (on the video other witnesses assume he's "15 or...

Some of the most obnoxious things rich people have done recently

© Unknown Lloyd Blankfein and the scowl that says it all. Millionaires and billionaires have resumed their ostentatious and tin-eared ways. After the dust cleared from the economic implosion of 2007-2008, being rich became briefly unpopular. Investment firm CEOs, Wall Street bankers and craven house flippers had crashed the economy, and as details of their Gatsby-esqe lifestyle surfaced—Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld, for instance, took a helicopter...

Invasion of the blob? Giant purple sea slugs slime California beaches

© Morgan Dill Giant sea slugs called sea hares have been washing up in some East Bay beaches in unusual numbers this summer. Alameda -- A giant purple blob from the sea -- a slug -- is invading East Bay beaches and waterways this summer to the wonder and curiosity of beach combers and naturalists. It's no danger to people -- unlike the tar-like in the classic 1958 science-fiction movie about an alien goo that devours everything in its path. These...

Raccoon realizes it is not a rock or log

© Richard Jones Raccoon stands on top of gator. Ocala, Florida —A Palatka man said he snapped a picture of a raccoon on top of an alligator in the Ocala National Forest Sunday morning. Richard Jones said he and his family were walking along the Oaklawaha River watching alligators when his son walked through some palm fronds to get a good picture. Jones said his son must have startled the raccoon, which stumbled toward the water and hopped on top...

Raccoon realizes this is not a rock or log

© Richard Jones Raccoon stands on top of gator. Ocala, Florida —A Palatka man said he snapped a picture of a raccoon on top of an alligator in the Ocala National Forest Sunday morning. Richard Jones said he and his family were walking along the Oaklawaha River watching alligators when his son walked through some palm fronds to get a good picture. Jones said his son must have startled the raccoon, which stumbled toward the water and hopped on top...

75-year-old Texas woman recieves ridiculous arrest warrant for tall grass; four children come to the rescue

© Screengrab/KWTX Had it not been for the help of four young brothers, a 75-year-old Texas woman could have ended up in handcuffs already. Why? Because the grass in her field was overgrown. After seeing a news report that the city of Riesel had issued an arrest warrant for Gerry Suttle because she never received a court summons for her grass, missed her hearing and got a bench warrant, Blaine Reynolds and his brothers leaped into action in an effort...

American Conservative magazine: Why the U.S. needs endless war, not victory

© Sputnik/ Vladimir Pirogov Freedom and democracy is a warm gun. America doesn't "win" its wars, because winning a war is secondary to other goals in our war making. Winning or losing has little immediate consequence for the United States, because the wars we start, Wars of Choice, are not of vital national interest; losing doesn't mean getting invaded or our cities being destroyed. The following are some of the interests Washington has in , reasons...

Increase in cosmic rays

For the past month, solar activity has been low. The last big burst of solar activity happened on May 5th when an X2-class solar flare erupted from the sun's eastern limb. Since then ... quiet. To investigate the effect of low solar activity on the atmosphere, Spaceweather.com and the students of Earth to Sky Calculus have been launching helium balloons at ~weekly intervals. Equipped with X-ray and gamma-ray sensors, the balloons measure ionizing...

Absurd ordinance would ban smoking in downtown Providence, Rhode Island

© Jeff Nickerson/Wikimedia Commons Burnside Park You can already get a ticket if you smoke in Burnside Park or any other city park in Providence. That ordinance was passed six months ago. Next up -- if it passes -- all downtown public spaces. Businessman and former Mayor Joe Paolino walks the street that rings the south end of Kennedy Plaza, pointing out the discarded cigarette butts that litter the area. In fairness, the ashtrays were removed...

DDT: The gift that keeps on giving?

Chemical-polluters The DDT manufactured back in Rachel Carson's day, recent reports indicate, is still killing robins and other birds. The Velsicol Corporation that produced it is the company that threatened Rachel Carson with a lawsuit if she dared to publish her environmental health classic, , in 1962. Carson ignored the threats and helped spark the modern environmental movement. Velsicol continued to manufacture DDT, dieldrin, and other nasty...

Racist Walmart throws four black men out of store for 'walking too slow,' one arrested

Since the advent of smartphones, America has become a laundromat - all its unmentionables are showing and people are beginning to talk now that all the cotton and lace is visible. Much the way smartphones have allowed the common practice of police brutality to be witnessed nationally and thereby condemned, so we are able to do the same with racism. Though thankfully no one was killed in the video below now circulating social media, it is nonetheless...

'Drugs, Oil and War' - The hidden government group

Peter Dale Scott is considered the father of "Deep Politics"— the study of hidden permanent institutions and interests whose influence on the political realm transcends the elected, appointed and career officials who come and go. A Professor of English at Berkeley and a former Canadian diplomat, he is the author of several critically acclaimed books on the pivotal events of our country's recent past. Daniel Ellsberg said of his book Drugs, Oil and...
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