Anti-War Website Sues FBI For Spying On Them

The website’s founder and managing editor Eric Garris, along with longtime editorial director Justin Raimondo, filed a lawsuit in federal court, demanding the release of records they believe the FBI is keeping on them and the 17-year-old online magazine.

Antiwar.com says this is one more example of post-9/11 government overreach, and a stark reminder that the First Amendment has been treated as little more than a speed bump on the road to a government surveillance state. The lawsuit is particularly timely, considering recent scandals in which the Department of Justice secretly seized months of journalists’ phone records at the Associated Press, and did the same and more to a FOX News reporter, while the IRS is acknowledging it singled out conservative groups that criticize the government for extra scrutiny.

Hosea Feed the Hungry

Carol and Willie Fowler’s daughter Tamara had planned to get married at the Villa Christina catering hall, but the wedding was unexpectedly called off just 40 days before the event was slated to take place. At the initial news, the family was understandably upset that the planned celebration was not going to happen. But, then they had an idea, they didn’t want to let all of their planning and money to have to go to waste.

So they decided to invite 200 of the cities homeless to feast on the four-course meal which had been planned for Tamara’s wedding reception. In order to organize the event, the family contacted Elizabeth Omilami, from the Hosea Feed the Hungry organization. The gesture was so generous, that at first Omilami thought that it was a prank. Children make up a large portion of Atlanta’s homeless, so in order to make the event more entertaining for the children, a clown was hired for the evening. The event has been titled ”The First Annual Fowler Family Celebration of Love,” and the family asserts that they will be hosting another charity dinner next year, planning to make the act a yearly ritual.

1500 Indigenous Native Brazilians Occupy the Capital

The proposed amendments to the Constitution (PECs) include numbers 038/99, 215/00 and 237/13, Bill 1610/96, the bill for Complementary Law (PLP) 227/12, and the Portarias (ministerial orders) 419/11 and 7957/13. A summary of the bills was circulated via the support communities on social media for Chief Raoni:

• PEC 38 would give the Senate power to approve processes of demarcation of Indigenous lands, determining that “the demarcation of Indigenous lands or units of environmental conservation respect the maximum limit of 30% of the surface area of each state”;
• PEC 215 gives Congress exclusive authority to decide the boundaries of all Indigenous lands;
• PEC 237 permits the possession of Indigenous lands by rural producers;
• PLP 227 limits federal lands that can be used for demarcation;
• Portaria 419 intends to streamline the licensing of public projects by means of the reduction of Indigenous rights, of the rights of traditional communities and of the environment;
• Portaria 7957 creates the Environmental Operations Company of the National Force of Public Security to permit the use of military force against Indigenous Peoples who oppose the large-scale projects of the PAC (Program for Acceleration of Growth), especially hydroelectric dams;
• PL 1610, allows mining in Indigenous lands.

The protestors, composed of more than one hundred ethnicities, attempted to enter the National Congress but were met with pepper spray by the police.

Live Animals Being Sold As Key-Rings In China

Keyring ornaments are perhaps the most useless item you’ll ever carry in your pocket or stuff in your purse — but now, thanks to an increasingly popular item being sold in China, it can easily be the cruelest, too. For the price you might expect to pay for some kitschy trinket, Chinese street vendors are selling live animals, permanently sealed in a small plastic pouch where they can survive for a short while as someone’s conversation piece. Apparently, these unimaginably inhumane keyrings are actually quite popular — and worst of all, it’s totally legal

According to The Global Times, these keyring accessories containing live animals are widely available and sold publicly in subway stations and on sidewalks. Potential buyers (read as animal-abusers) have the choice between a living Brazil turtle or two small kingfish, sealed in an airtight package along with some colored water. One vendor claimed that the trapped creatures “can live for months inside there” because the water contains “nutrients,” though veterinarians have already disputed this claim.

Smog Shuts Down Chinese City Of 11 Million

Winter is coming, that’s for sure. The northeastern city of Harbin today ushered in the season with smog so thick that visibility was reportedly limited to 10 meters in some places. Classes were canceled, roads closed, and planes grounded, in the country’s first major air pollution crisis of the winter.

An index measuring PM2.5, or particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5), reached a reading of 1,000 in some parts of Harbin, the gritty capital of northeastern Heilongjiang province and home to some 11 million people.

A level above 300 is considered hazardous, while the World Health Organisation recommends a daily level of no more than 20.

The smog not only forced all primary and middle schools to suspend classes, but shut the airport and some public bus routes, the official Xinhua news agency reported, blaming the emergency on the first day of the heating being turned on in the city for winter

Fukushima Is Here In San Francisco

Help break the media logjam. Please share this video widely through social media, connect with others and take action wherever you live. Go to www.FukushimaResponse.org for ideas and materials that can help you raise awareness of this critical issue

McDonald’s sues Australian town for rejecting its fast food

Plans by fast food giant McDonald’s to build its first restaurant in the Australian town of Tecoma, located in the state of Victoria, are being challenged by nearly 100,000 individuals who recently signed a petition demanding that McDonald’s stay out of the area. According to Yahoo! TV in Australia, representatives from an activist group known as BurgerOff recently flew 10,000 miles to the McDonald’s global headquarters near Chicago to deliver the petition and signatures, which company officials reportedly refused to touch.

For over two years, BurgerOff and the people of Tecoma have been fighting to keep McDonald’s out of their town, pointing out that the company’s intent to build a large, 24-hour drive-thru location near an elementary school would be “a giant advertisement for junk food” for young children who would walk by it daily. But according to the International Business Times, this massive grassroots effort that has included public demonstrations, flash mobs, social media and other forms of community outreach has thus far been unsuccessful at thwarting McDonald’s plans.

So to raise the stakes, BurgerOff went straight to the heart of the beast, bringing along signs, petitions and plenty of fervor, which has put the effort in the global spotlight. The group even set up little inflatable kangaroos at a busy McDonald’s location in Chicago, which helped draw even more attention. The ultimate goal of the protest, of course, is to show McDonald’s that it is not welcome in Tecoma and needs to look elsewhere for its expansion endeavors.