The Raw Story

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

Monday, 15 June 2015

Legendary firearms maker files for bankruptcy to stay in business

© Reuters/Michelle McLoughlin The firearms manufacturer Colt Defense has filed for bankruptcy protection aiming to cut its $355 million debt. The company has struggled financially due to waning sales and the loss of a key contract. The company hopes filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection will allow an accelerated sale of its business operations in the US and Canada, according to a Colt statement issued Sunday. The company needs to reduce...

It's time to ban toxic flavorings from processed foods

Kudos are due Center for Science in the Public Interest, Natural Resources Defense Council, Center for Food Safety, Consumers Union, Improving Kids' Environment, Center for Environmental Health, Environmental Working Group, and James Huff for the 38-page petition they filed June 10, 2015 with the Director of the Office of Food Additive Safety at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition regarding the removal of seven synthetic flavors and...

Mainstream journalists still act surprised when Israel kills children

© Ali Jadallah APA images Relatives mourn after Israel killed four children playing football last summer. There was nothing surprising about Israel finding itself not culpable for the killing of four boys on a Gaza beach in July last year, as it did in a military judgment released a few days ago. Israel's investigations into its own crimes aren't known for delivering guilty verdicts. What was interesting, however, was the reaction of some mainstream...

Hidden secrets revealed in 1491 world map that may have guided Columbus

© Wikimedia Commons The Yale world map of "Henricus Martellus Germanus" (Heinrich Hammer). It is the most detailed "Dragon Tail" map by Martellus. It is the only one with a coordinate grid. A map of the world produced in 1491 by Henricus Martellus has been subjected to multispectral imaging, which has revealed hidden details on the map not previously visible, including numerous Latin descriptions of regions and people. Henricus Martellus is also...

Medical tyranny: California Vaccine (SB277) Bill passes Health Committee

California is going full totalitarian, but is anyone surprised? The state's controversial and tyrannical mandatory vaccine bill has jumped another hurdle on its path to becoming law. Yesterday, California lawmakers approved the bill, which requires all schoolchildren be vaccinated before being permitted to attend public or PRIVATE schools unless they have a MEDICAL exemption. That's right: they are not going to allow religious or philosophical/personal...

Malaysian tanker with $6 million petrol cargo still missing

Malaysia's Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) believes the missing tanker is in Indonesian waters now, after more than three days of fruitless searching. MMEA's Vice-Admiral Maritime Datuk Ahmad Puzi Ab Kahar said today that its charts showed that the vessel carrying RM21 million worth of RON 95 petrol would eventually reach Vietnam if it kept heading north. The ship disappeared off radar off Johor's Tanjung Sedili four days ago while heading east...

UFOs seen above Loch Ness?

© Alan Betts UFOs over Loch Ness Forget the fabled Loch Ness Monster. Now we've got something else just as strange at Scotland's famous lake where, according to legend, a prehistoric beast makes its home. Move over, Nessie, UFOs seem to take a liking to your backyard. A tourist unexpectedly photographed what looks like a pair of disc-shaped objects flying above the water of the 22-mile-long freshwater lake (pictured below). Back on April 29, Alan...

US Data Breach Unveils Secret, Sordid Lives of Washington's Elite

With one of the largest government data breaches in US history, hackers have potentially gained access to the personal information of every federal employee. That includes the darkest secrets of nearly 14 million people, including drug addictions, psychiatric diagnoses, and even extramarital affairs. Every US federal employee seeking a security clearance must go through the exhausting process of filing a Standard Form 86 (SF 86). As many have pointed...

Ice Age alert: Ocean near Iceland unusually cold, no mackerel

© Páll Stefánsson. A West Iceland beach. The Icelandic Marine Research Institute's annual spring expedition from May 18 to 30 concluded that the ocean temperature off Iceland has not been lower in 18 years, or since 1997. The number of krill is below average and not a single mackerel was caught. "In the past years we have always caught some mackerel, and especially last year. But now we didn't see any," Guðmundur J. Óskarsson, one of the institution's...

Our Phantom Economy

Just as Rome in terminal decline had its phantom legions, we have a phantom “recovery,” phantom democracy, phantom GDP and phantom unemployment rate.Those who believe that phantom recoveries and phantom metrics can be substituted for reality are in for a shock in the next downturn. Those who believe that phantom recoveries and phantom metrics can be substituted for reality are in for a shock in the next downturn. Stripped of artifice, there are...

The hypocritical American Empire is imploding both at home and abroad

© Reuters / Eric Thayer The crisis and chaos engulfing the Middle East and Ukraine is evidence of US imperial decline, as Washington learns the harsh lesson that no empire lasts forever. In the wake of the Vietnam War - the end of which was marked by news footage of US personnel and a select few Vietnamese collaborators being evacuated from the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon in 1975 - the United States entered a prolonged period of decline when...

Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney complains about RT's reach and influence

© Reuters / Chris Keane Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney Former US presidential candidate Republican Mitt Romney has acknowledged RT's reach and influence. He called it part of Russia's "strategy," at the same time as slamming Obama and Clinton's foreign policy mistakes. Romney spoke to an audience of about 200 at the fourth annual E2 (Experts and Enthusiasts) summit in Park City, Utah. He backed his statements up with a PowerPoint presentation,...

Israel blocks UN human rights envoy from entering Gaza for second year in a row

© Reuters / Denis Balibouse United Nations Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Makarim Wibisono Israeli authorities have admitted they blocked a UN human rights envoy from entering the occupied Gaza area for a second year in a row, just as a UN report on last year's Gaza war is about to be made public. "We didn't allow this visit," said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon, as cited by AFP. The visit by the...

Prisons without walls: we're all inmates in the U.S. police state

"It is perfectly possible for a man to be out of prison and yet not free—to be under no physical constraint and yet be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel and act as the representatives of the national state, or of some private interest within the nation wants him to think, feel and act. . . . To him the walls of his prison are invisible and he believes himself to be free."—Aldous Huxley, © highdefdiscnews.com "Free worlders" is...

Possessing an internal locus of control improves our ability to cope with adversity

© Shutterstock For me, one of the hardest facets of stress is relinquishing control. And though there is control in how I personally react and choose to respond to circumstances, there's also a feeling of helplessness; a feeling that control is not completely present. I don't have complete control over genuine and natural shifts in relationships — the progression of people growing apart. New perceptions affect awareness; they affect how connections...

Smart cities will facilitate the total monitoring, control and management of the population

© Wikimedia Commons The century of 'big data' will be the century of unprecedented surveillance. The dream of tyrants down through history has been the total monitoring, control and management of the public, with the ability to predict the behaviour of entire populations the most efficient means of achieving this objective. For millennia, this has mainly existed in the realm of fantasy, however with the vast leap in technology in recent decades,...

Venezuela elections and U.S. efforts to destroy the Bolivarian revolution

The precise date for election in Venezuela is not defined as yet. Probably Venezuelans will go to vote in October - November. President Nicolas Maduro said he wanted an election as soon as possible. The pre-race campaign hits the radar. It could be said without exaggeration that the fate of Venezuelan - style socialism, the goal of Bolivarian movement, is at stake. According to the results of 2010 National Assembly election, the ruling United Socialist...

BRICS must become alternative, not usurper, of US hegemony - Can it?

Recent news has shown China quickly gaining ground against a West which has for centuries maintained hegemony over Asia Pacific. Beyond Asia, China has been steadily expanding its influence throughout Africa and the Middle East. Together with Russia, Iran and other nations of the "East," they are constructing what is commonly referred to as a "multi-polar" world order. This multi-polar world order stands in contrast to the unipolar order the West...
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