Men must prove a woman said 'Yes' under tough new rape rules

Men must prove a woman said 'Yes' under tough new rape rules - Telegraph
Men accused of date rape will need to convince police that a woman consented to sex as part of a major change in the way sex offences are investigated.

The Director of Public Prosecutions said it was time for the legal system to move beyond the concept of “no means no” to recognise situations where women may have been unable to give consent.

Alison Saunders said rape victims should no longer be “blamed” by society if they are too drunk to consent to sex, or if they simply freeze and say nothing because they are terrified of their attacker.

Instead, police and prosecutors must now put a greater onus on rape suspects to demonstrate how the complainant had consented “with full capacity and freedom to do so”.

Campaigners described the move as “a huge step forward” in ensuring fewer rapists escape justice.

New guidance will be issued to all police forces and prosecutors as part of a “toolkit” to move rape investigations into the 21st century.

Mrs Saunders said: “For too long society has blamed rape victims for confusing the issue of consent - by drinking or dressing provocatively for example - but it is not they who are confused, it is society itself and we must challenge that....

Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Leaders Hosted at State Department | Washington Free Beacon

Muslim Brotherhood-Aligned Leaders Hosted at State Department | Washington Free Beacon:

"The State Department hosted a delegation of Muslim Brotherhood-aligned leaders this week for a meeting about their ongoing efforts to oppose the current government of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt, who rose to power following the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi, an ally of the Brotherhood, in 2013."

NYC gives machete-wielding thug $5K for menacing cops

NYC gives machete-wielding thug $5K for menacing cops | New York Post:
"He menaced cops with a machete — and the city paid him for it.
A Brooklyn thug who was shot by officers while waving an 18-inch blade at them and later sued the department for $3 million got a $5,000 settlement from the city — even though his own attorney said the shooting was probably justified.
Ruhim Ullah, 24, had pleaded guilty to menacing a police officer after the 2010 confrontation, in which he was shot once in the leg by a cop trying to stop him from attacking ­officers with the machete, according to his lawyer.
Despite his admission of guilt, Ullah still filed a $3 million lawsuit, accusing the officers of wrongdoing.
But despite witnesses who described him as armed, the city offered a $5,000 settlement to get rid of the flimsy suit, despite the message their action sends — that crime, and potentially deadly force against cops, can pay."

Senate Defies Obama, Passes Bill Approving Keystone Pipeline

Senate Defies Obama, Passes Bill Approving Keystone Pipeline | TheBlaze.com:
"It’s possible House Republicans will take up the Senate bill as early as next week.
But House passage would set up the next challenge of how to get around Obama’s veto threat. Despite bipartisan support for the bill, the administration has continued to argue that it would usurp the president’s authority to oversee the regular approval process.
Republicans have scoffed at this answer, since it’s already been more than six years since the application to build the pipeline was first submitted. As Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas) put it earlier this year, “The permitting for the Keystone pipeline has taken longer than it took for the United States to win World War II.”

Obama’s Plan To Play Nice With Cuba Just Backfired

Obama’s Plan To Play Nice With Cuba Just Backfired:
"Cuban President Raul Castro recently demanded that the US return its property at Guantanamo Bay, lift the longstanding trade embargo, and pay damages for the embargo’s effects before US-Cuba relations can be normalized.
Cuba estimates that the embargo, which has existed since the Kennedy administration, has cost a whopping $1.1 trillion dollars. 
Now Castro is demanding not only an end to the embargo, but payment for all the subsequent damages."

Seattle Pot Producer Rolling Out 12,000 Joints Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday

Seattle Pot Producer Rolling Out 12,000 Joints Ahead of Super Bowl Sunday - NBC News.com:
"A Seattle-based medical marijuana retailer is anticipating Seahawks fans will want a "super bowl" for Sunday's big game.
That's why employees at Solstice are working to roll a staggering number of joints — 12,000 in all — for its special "12th Pack" promotion ahead of Sunday, when the Seahawks face the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX.
That works out to roughly 180 to 220 joints made during an eight-hour shift — double the normal pace, NBC affiliate KING5 reported.
"It's not like I go home with cramps or anything," a smiling employee, Katy Filippone, told the station.
The so-called 12th Pack, which is only being sold to medical marijuana users, is a play on the 12th man — the nickname referring to football fans.
Solstice says the 12th Pack is filled with a special "Seahawks Blend," and hopes to make it available to Washington state's recreational pot users by next season, KING5 reported.
Solstice isn't the only pot producer hoping to earn some extra green from the Seahawks' fan base.
Last season, a Seattle marijuana delivery service called Green Umbrella began offering a homemade strain named after running back Marshawn Lynch, calling it "Beast Mode O.G." — a nod to his nickname.
For this year's game, the company has rolled out a new strain called Beast Mode 2.0."

U.S. passports on verge of elimination?

U.S. passports on verge of elimination?:
"A Soros-funded group arguing to replace the U.S. passport with a North American passport appears ready to take up the mantle of championing the concept of a European Union-style regional government to supersede the sovereignty of the United States, Mexico and Canada, fulfilling the dream of the late American University professor Robert Pastor.
The future of the U.S. lies in North America, not in the United States as a sovereign nation, contends the New America Foundation, a Washington-based leftist think-tank with ties to Jonathan Soros, son of famed leftist billionaire George Soros.
Appropriately named “New America,” the foundation believes the U.S. passport should soon become obsolete and replaced with a European Union-style passport issued for all citizens of the U.S., Mexico and Canada."

Under a mattress, in the freezer: Why so many are hiding cash

Under a mattress, in the freezer: Why so many are hiding cash
While banks are still the go-to solution for most consumers, 29 percent say they're keeping at least some savings in cash bills and coins, according to a new survey of 1,820 adults from American Express. Of those holding cash savings, 53 percent are hiding it in a secret location.

Millennials are even more apt than other generations to go the mattress or freezer route, with 67 percent of those saving cash saying that they hide it outside a bank account.

"We've long asked people about how they've planned to keep their savings, and for the past few years, we've seen an uptick in people saving cash," said Kimberly Litt, public affairs manager at American Express.

WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU THINK YOU’RE DONE WITH YOUR RUN AND REALIZE YOU’RE ONLY HALFWAY THERE

Daily Skimm: Pre-Friday is here:
"REPEAT AFTER ME...

WHAT TO SAY WHEN YOU THINK YOU’RE DONE WITH YOUR RUN AND REALIZE YOU’RE ONLY HALFWAY THERE…
Well, that’s super annoying.
Hey, Cuba.
Last month, the US and Cuba announced they were ready to have relations again after more than 50 years of freezing each other out.
And President Obama was REALLY excited about it.
The two governments held talks in Havana last week to hammer out the details.
But then yesterday, Cuban President Raul Castro said he had a few demands that he forgot to mention. 
Small things like, the US fully lifting the trade embargo on Cuba, and compensating the country for millions of damages the embargo has caused. 
And, he wants the US to return its military base at Guantanamo Bay. 
All of which are highly unlikely to happen anytime soon. No word yet on what this could mean for future talks.
Meanwhile, Raul’s big bro Fidel appeared to get into the mix.
Yesterday, he apparently wrote a letter saying that he approved plans to end the longstanding US-Cuba feud, but that he still doesn’t trust Americans.
Great."

History for January 30

History for January 30 - On-This-Day.com:
Anton Checkhov 1860, Franklin D. Roosevelt (U.S.) 1882, Gene Hackman 1931 


Dick Cheney 1941, Joe Terranova (Danny and the Juniors) 1941, Marty Balin (Jefferson Airplane) 1942 


1847 - The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco. 


1862 - The U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship, the "Monitor", was launched. 


1894 - C.B. King received a patent for the pneumatic hammer. 


1933 - Adolf Hitler was named the German Chancellor. 


1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist. 


1962 - Two members of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, MI. 


1979 - The civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return. He had been living in exile in France. 

Who’s the Person Mentioned in the Potentially Embarrassing Note Dropped in a Senate Hallway? | TheBlaze.com

Who’s the Person Mentioned in the Potentially Embarrassing Note Dropped in a Senate Hallway? | TheBlaze.com:

"A Senate staffer dropped a damning note in the Senate Thursday that has Washington, D.C., buzzing about who wrote it, and who that staffer works for.

“So she’s just going to make a short statement about what BS this hearing is,” the note reads. It was found by Matt Laslo, a Capitol Hill reporter."

Al Jazeera English: Don’t Say ‘Terrorist’ — ‘One Person’s Terrorist Is Another’s Freedom Fighter’ | TheBlaze.com

Al Jazeera English: Don’t Say ‘Terrorist’ — ‘One Person’s Terrorist Is Another’s Freedom Fighter’ | TheBlaze.com:

“We try to avoid describing anyone as a terrorist or an act as being terrorist. What we try to do is to say that ‘two men killed 12 people in an attack on the office of a satirical magazine.’ That’s enough, we know what that means and what it is,” Kafala said. “Terrorism is such a loaded word. The U.N. has been struggling for more than a decade to define the word and they can’t. It is very difficult to. We know what political violence is, we know what murder, bombings and shootings are and we describe them. That’s much more revealing, we believe, than using a word like terrorist which people will see as value-laden.”

Though he received criticism for his words, they do fall in line with BBC editorial guidelines, which say: “The word ‘terrorist’ itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding. We should try to avoid the term, without attribution.”

Watch: Loretta Lynch can’t say if she’d trust Richard Nixon’s AG to investigate Watergate | TheBlaze.com

Watch: Loretta Lynch can’t say if she’d trust Richard Nixon’s AG to investigate Watergate | TheBlaze.com:

"Cruz had in mind the idea that a special prosector might be needed to investigate the IRS, after it was found that the IRS was targeting tax-exempt groups. Republicans have called for an independent prosector to follow up on these claims, but so far, Attorney General Eric Holder has refused.

Cruz didn’t get very far with Lynch on Wednesday, and in the end, he tried to see if there was any case in which she might agree to a special prosecutor. He asked if Lynch would trust former Attorney General John Mitchell to investigate his then-president, Richard Nixon."

The corruption continues....

North Korea may be restarting nuke plant: US institute

My Way News - North Korea may be restarting nuke plant: US institute:
"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea may be attempting to restart its main nuclear bomb fuel reactor after a five-month shutdown, a U.S. research institute said Thursday.
If true, the finding, which is based on recent commercial satellite imagery, will be an added worry for the United States and the North's neighbors at a time of increasing animosity over recent U.S. sanctions against the North and Pyongyang's fury about a U.N. push to punish its alleged human rights abuses.
Activity at the 5-megawatt Nyongbyon reactor is closely watched because North Korea is thought to have a handful of crude nuclear bombs, part of its efforts to build an arsenal of nuclear tipped missiles that could one day hit America's mainland. 
Nyongbyon, which has produced plutonium used for past nuclear test explosions, restarted in 2013 after being shuttered under a 2007 disarmament agreement.
It has been offline since August."

Trey Gowdy threatens to subpoena State Dept. officials over Benghazi | TheBlaze.com

Trey Gowdy threatens to subpoena State Dept. officials over Benghazi | TheBlaze.com:

“I am unwilling to let the minority party veto subpoenas when it is clear they have prejudged the outcome of the investigation,” said Gowdy. “The minority has repeatedly indicated it is unwilling to issue any subpoenas. If subpoenas are necessary for the committee to talk to relevant witnesses or access relevant documents, they will be issued.”

Democrats immediately responded by asking Gowdy to convene a special meeting to vote on whether those subpoenas should go out the door. In a letter to Gowdy, they said Gowdy had informed Democrats that he would soon issue the subpoenas, and warned that doing so without any input from Democrats would create a partisan investigation."

Teens Shoveling Snow? Without Licenses?? Quick, Call the Cops

Teens Shoveling Snow? Without Licenses?? Quick, Call the Cops - Hit & Run : Reason.com
What could be more suspicious than two thugs skulking around a suburban neighborhood at night under cloak of snow?

That's apparently what some red-alert citizen of Bound Brook, New Jersey, thought when he or she called the police to investigate this danger... that turned out to be two high school seniors handing out fliers for their snow-shoveling enterprise.

You'd think that would be the end of that, but no. As MyCentralJersey.com reports, the two kids were then pulled over by a cop and told to stop:

The story was shared on a popular Bound Brook Facebook group by a resident who saw [teenager Eric] Schnepf being questioned by police after coming to his door.

"Are you kidding me? Our generation does nothing but complain about his generation being lazy and not working for their money," he wrote on Bound Brook NJ Events' page. "Here's a couple kids who take the time to print up flyers, walk door to door in the snow, and then shovel snow for some spending money. And someone calls the cops and they're told to stop?"

The officer claimed he wasn't bothering the teens for running an unlicensed business, but rather, because of the hazardous weather conditions. Philly.com reports:

Police Chief Michael Jannone... says the officer told the teens it wasn't safe to be out after a state of emergency was declared. The chief says the officer's concern was about their safety and not that they weren't licensed to solicit business.

That actually makes some sense, except that if the weather got too terrible, my guess is the young men in their own neighborhood would simply pack it in and go home. Still, writes MCJ reporter Sergio Bichao:

The teens took the incident in stride and said that police told them that they only needed permission to go door to door, but were still allowed to shovel walkways if residents called them.

"The cops were nice about it. They weren't jerks. They were trying to make sure everything is OK," [Matt] Molinari said Tuesday.

And it was: Despite government interference, the teens lined up five jobs.

VIDEO: Obama’s Holder Replacement Just Invented a New ‘Right’ for Illegal Aliens

VIDEO: Obama’s Holder Replacement Just Invented a New ‘Right’ for Illegal Aliens:

"Senator Sessions asked nominee Loretta Lynch, the current U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who should have a right to a job in America, a citizen, an illegal alien, or a legal immigrant.

“Who has more right to a job in this country, a lawful immigrant who’s here — a green card holder or a citizen, or a person who entered the country unlawfully?” Sessions asked."

Montana school district: No elementary math books, but superintendent gets $45k raise

Montana school district: No elementary math books, but superintendent gets $45k raise - EAGnews.org:

MISSOULA, Mont. – In 2012, Missoula County Public Schools Superintendent Alex Apostle dismissed a massive student protest over a raise he received from the school board, saying, “My contract is an adult issue, not a student issue, quite frankly.”
So last year an adult in the community, Brian O’Leary, decided to address the issue with Apostle.

O’Leary was concerned because his children did not have math textbooks for their elementary classes.

“The only place (the students) can find a copy of their textbook to understand how the materials are being taught is online,” O’Leary said. “MCPS is proceeding as if every student has a computer and internet access.”

O’Leary was told the lack of textbooks was a funding issue.

The math curriculum budget was $500,000, while the “school district only had $200,000 to work with for all curriculum needs across the board,” said a report from NBC Montana.

But O’Leary wasn’t buying that excuse. He thought the district was focused on the wrong priorities, like “overspending” on administrative salaries....

We asked an expert: ‘What exactly is an EMP, and how much damage could it do?’ His response was terrifying. | TheBlaze.com

We asked an expert: ‘What exactly is an EMP, and how much damage could it do?’ His response was terrifying. | TheBlaze.com:

"What would the doomsday scenario of an EMP attack against an America whose infrastructure is not currently protected look like?

In a worst case scenario the detonation would be over Dorothy’s Kansas, in the center of the country. And at 300 miles altitude, you would have a circle, 360 degrees, with a radius of 1,470 miles…that covers the continental United States lower 48 states.

And in a worst case, you could see"

Lt. Clint Lorance could be any one of us

Lt. Clint Lorance could be any one of us - Opinion - Stripes
"...The hardest lesson I learned was that in a combat situation, sheer uncertainty stalks you constantly.
Amid that uncertainty, you’re forced to make instantaneous decisions with incomplete information, surrounded by chaos and under unimaginable stress.
A wrong call can result in tragedy.

To grasp the price of that uncertainty, consider the case of Clint Lorance — a 29-year-old U.S. Army lieutenant sentenced to military prison for ordering his men to fire upon Afghan nationals he believed were a threat.
The facts suggest the punishment rendered to Lorance is a stark injustice — and is a chilling example to all who have had to make tough decisions in complex combat situations.

Here’s what we know:
In July 2012, Lorance was a new platoon leader in the 82nd Airborne Division on patrol in Kandahar province with his platoon.
Three Afghan men approached the platoon on a motorcycle.
Believing the men to be a threat, Lorance ordered his troops to open fire, killing two of the men (the third escaped).
In a war zone, such stories are common.

What’s unusual is what happened next....."

How Student Debt Harms the Economy

Mitchell E. Daniels: How Student Debt Harms the Economy - WSJ:
"To the growing catalog of damage caused by the decades-long run-up in the cost of higher education, we may have to add another casualty.
On top of the harm high tuition and other charges are inflicting on young people, and the way their struggles are holding back today’s economy, we must add the worry that tomorrow’s economy will suffer, too.
Ever-escalating tuitions, especially in the past dozen years, have produced an explosion of associated debt, as students and their families resorted to borrowing to cover college prices that are the only major expense item in the economy that is growing faster than health care. 
According to the Federal Reserve, educational debt has shot past every other category—credit cards, auto loans, refinancings—except home mortgages, reaching some $1.3 trillion this year.
Analyses in The Wall Street Journal and by Experian in 2014 show that 40 million people, roughly 70% of recent graduates, are now borrowers.
In the class of 2014, the average borrower left with an average load of $33,000."

America's "unbiased" media-----CNN Host Kisses De Blasio Before Interview

CNN Host Kisses De Blasio Before Interview | The Weekly Standard:
On CNN this morning, the host kissed Mayor Bill de Blasio before she interviewed him, and handed him a cup of hot chocolate:

The other host, Chris Cuomo, complained that he'd been waiting for an hour and a half for his hot cocoa to arrive.

"The mayor comes and the hot cocoa comes," Cuomo complained as his co-host arrived on set in the middle of his interview with de Blasio. "The hot cocoa comes. I've been asking for it for an hour and a half."

De Blasio admitted the storm wasn't nearly as had been predicted. But, he argued, if it had been worse, New York City would've been prepared.

‘You Don’t Think the Taliban Is a Terrorist Group?’ Listen Closely to White House Spokesman’s Answer | Video | TheBlaze.com

‘You Don’t Think the Taliban Is a Terrorist Group?’ Listen Closely to White House Spokesman’s Answer | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"A White House spokesman had a difficult time answering whether the Taliban was a terrorist organization. The answer, it turned out, is no."

Conservative Political Cartoons Daily shared

(16) Conservative Political Cartoons Daily shared... - Conservative Political Cartoons Daily

NUMBER ONE WITH A BULLET

History for January 29

History for January 29 - On-This-Day.com
Thomas Paine 1737, William McKinley (U.S.) 1843, W.C. Fields 1880 


Katherine Ross 1942, Tom Selleck 1945, Oprah Winfrey 1954 


1820 - Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle. 


1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was published for the first time in the "New York Evening Mirror." 


1850 - Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state. 


1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria. 


1886 - The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented. 


1924 - R. Taylor patented the ice cream cone rolling machine. 


1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear." 


1990 - Joseph Hazelwood, the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, went on trial in Anchorage, AK, on charges that stemmed from America's worst oil spill. Hazelwood was later acquitted of all the major charges and was convicted of a misdemeanor. 


1999 - The U.S. Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two presidential advisers for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.