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Suspected Boko Haram members released a video on Saturday that shows three kidnapped members of an oil exploration team in northeastern Nigeria, one of whom asks the government to reduce the use of force against the jihadists. The team, which included university staff and employees from Nigeria's state oil firm, was kidnapped by suspected members of the Islamist militant group while searching for oil in the conflict-ridden northeast on Tuesday. A rescue attempt on Wednesday ended in the deaths of at least 37 members of the original prospecting team and the rescuers, including Nigerian military and armed vigilantes, according to...

Burlington College closed in 2016, crushed under the weight of debt it took on in a 2010 real estate deal. In its last five years, this tiny liberal arts school of fewer than 200 students occupied the former St. Joseph’s Orphanage (and its 33 acres, including the last virgin lakefront in town) overlooking Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. A $10 million acquisition from the cash-strapped Catholic diocese was made while Jane Sanders, the wife of Vermont’s most famous socialist, was president of the college. The site offered just what Sanders needed to fulfill the promise she made in 2004 to...

In today’s 21st-century digital climate, newspapers are looking for creative ways to cut costs that go beyond trimming staff and cutting page sizes. Print is dead. Or so some say. In reality, the industry, like many others, is going through a massive transformation. Newspapers were once the primary — sometimes the only — form of communication and a mainstay of the community. Today, we get our news from a variety of sources, but community journalism is still here to stay. That means newspapers were (and still are) big business. But in today’s 21st-century digital climate, newspapers are looking for creative...

After rising in mid-May to $3.424 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange, natural-gas futures promptly fell to $3. They’ve hardly budged since. Prices for the heating and power-generating fuel have traded within about 5% of $3 since the start of June, and many expect that to persist. On Friday, futures settled at $2.941. Goldman Sachs Group forecasts an average price of $3 for the next 12 months. Barclays this week trimmed its price forecasts for this year to $3.03, and for 2018, to $3.10. Citigroup makes a case for prices to average $3.20 this year...

The official estimate of the deficit for Oregon's public pension system climbed by $2.4 billion Friday. As a result, state and local agencies and school districts face even higher pension costs over the next two decades than they had earlier expected. And the new deficit figure continues to fuel controversy over what the governor and state Legislature should do to ease those rate increases. The new debt figure is the result of a unanimous vote by the board that oversees the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System. They chose Friday to reduce an estimate of how much PERS expects to earn...

SOME RESEARCH PROVIDED BY ANDREW McCARTHY (sarcasm provided by poster): bank fraud was the stated charge on which Debbie Wassermann Schultz's IT aide, Imran Awan, was arrested at Dulles Airport, as he was fleeing the United States for Pakistan, via Qatar.......the same route taken by his wife, Hina Alvi, in March, when she suddenly fled, with $12,400 in cash (NOTE: it is against the law to take more than $10,000 out of the US). By the time of Imran's arrest, the proceeds of his fraudulent $165,000 "loan" from the Congressional Federal Credit Union had been wired to Pakistan.... part of...

Molotov cocktails, fireworks, and bottles have been hurled at police during a ‘Black Lives Matter’ riot in East London following the death of an alleged drug dealer. Rashan Jermaine Charles, 20, died in hospital after being apprehended by police in Dalston, Hackney on the 22nd of July. He was attempting to flee a shop while swallowing a stash of drugs when tackled by officers, according to reports. Following the death, masked activists bearing ‘Black Lives Matter’ placards shut down Kingsland Road, set fire to bins and mattresses, and even attempted to storm a passing lorry, the BBC reports.

"Please don't mention my son," he asked the Marine Corps officer introducing him. Four days earlier, 2nd Lt. Robert M. Kelly , 29, had stepped on a land mine while leading a platoon of Marines in southern Afghanistan. He was killed instantly. At 6:10 a.m. on Nov. 9, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., one of Kelly's oldest and dearest friends, rang the doorbell at his home in the Washington Navy Yard. The instant Kelly saw Dunford, dressed in his service uniform, he knew Robert was dead. His wife, Karen, was still asleep. "I then did the most difficult thing I've...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem The Ark of the Covenant, The Tabernacle, and The Temple Leviticus 10 The Death of Nadab and Abihu 10 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said: “‘Among those who approach me     I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all...

Gov. Scott Walker wants state taxpayers to dole out up to $250 million annually in incentives to Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn to lure a manufacturing plant to Wisconsin that he claims will generate $181 million in tax revenue. Think about that. Gov. Walker proposes we pay about $70 million more a year in incentives to a foreign corporation than will flow back to our state coffers. Does that sound like a good deal to you? And this is just one detail that requires us to be wary about what is being described by proponents as the largest job announcement in...

Betty La France found a way to deal with a doctor who demanded she pay her entire bill upfront because the state could not be counted on to pay insurance reimbursement: She stopped going. While IL leaders waged a two-year budget battle, the state fell years behind in reimbursing medical providers for their services, skimping physicians and dentists even if their patients were up-to-date with their premiums. At public universities, officials and workers say some doctors and dentists, particularly those outside an insurance plan's provider network, increasingly asked patients to pick up the state's tab during the impasse. Some physicians,...

President Obama never was shy about using his phone and pen to achieve what he could not get from Congress on regulatory matters. But documents revealed last week show the Obama administration may have been willing to get around congressional decisions on spending by using a slush fund of sorts funded by the profits of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the two government-sponsored home loan giants. Fannie and Freddie are federally chartered enterprises which buy mortgage loans from banks and bundle them into securities that are sold to investors, thus freeing up capital so that banks can make more home...

The U.K. is set to ban all petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040. Ministers will unveil a fund of £225 million ($332 million) to help councils take measures to deal with pollution from diesel vehicles. "What we're saying to local authorities is come up with an imaginative solution to these proposals," said Environment Secretary Michael Gove. The clean air strategy favoring electric cars would be published later by the government before a High Court deadline. After a legal battle the government was ordered to come up with new plans to curb the level of nitrogen dioxide pollutants, BBC...

In other words, Russia was against Trump in the 2016 Election - and why not, I want strong military & low oil prices. Witch Hunt! https://t.co/mMSxj4Su5z— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017

Google announced on Wednesday a new $50 million initiative to study and prepare "for the changing nature of work," beginning with investments in the U.S. and Europe to help train job seekers and improve the working conditions for those already employed. The commitment comes by way of Google.org, the search giant's philanthropic organization. Its president, Jacquelline Fuller, unveiled the campaign in a blog post this morning, stressing the goal is to "make sure that as many people as possible can make the most of the new jobs, industries and opportunities that are emerging — some of which we couldn't have...

A $27 billion energy project in Canada just became the latest casualty of a worldwide glut of natural gas. Malaysia’s Petroliam Nasional Bhd abandoned on Tuesday its plans for the Pacific Northwest LNG terminal, a plant that would have liquefied Canada’s gas and sent the fuel by tanker from the western shores of British Columbia to buyers in Asia. Petronas cited market conditions in its decision. Pacific Northwest LNG joins a growing list of projects that have been killed in recent months by plummeting LNG prices, throwing the economics of export terminals from Australia to Russia to Mozambique into question....

The Trump Administration still hasn’t designated the Muslim Brotherhood as a Foreign Terrorist Organization as it was expected to do. Designation falls under the purview of Secretary of State Tillerson, who has chosen the Muslim Brotherhood and its backers in Qatar and Turkey over their Arab rivals. Tillerson recently signaled his opposition to designating the Muslim Brotherhood in mid-June. He only has negative things to say about the idea. His main point is that the Brotherhood’s political parties have representatives in governments like those in Bahrain and Turkey. That is irrelevant. If it was such a problem, Bahrain itself wouldn’t...

While the mainstream news media hunts for evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, the public record shows that Democrats have willfully used Moscow disinformation to influence the presidential election against Donald Trump and attack his administration.The disinformation came in the form of a Russian-fed dossier written by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele. It contains a series of unverified criminal charges against Mr. Trump’s campaign aides, such as coordinating Moscow’s hacking of Democratic Party computers.Some Democrats have widely circulated the discredited information. Mr. Steele was paid by the Democrat-funded opposition research firm Fusion GPS with money from a Hillary Clinton backer. Fusion...

Bristling at the intense criticism his agents are getting over enforcing immigration laws, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly told the gripers Tuesday to “shut up,” and demanded they stop questioning the patriotism and professionalism of his workforce. Mr. Kelly said he’s fed up with calls from lawmakers complaining that his officers are unfairly targeting airline passengers because of their race or religion, and with chiding from advocacy groups that are upset he’s unleashed his agents to enforce the laws on the books on everything from marijuana to immigration. “If lawmakers do not like the laws they’ve passed and we...

Thousands evacuate North Carolina's Outer Banks after power outage By Joe Sterling and Rose Schmidt, CNN Updated 9:07 AM ET, Sat July 29, 2017 (CNN)Kalla Bruhl and her boyfriend's family had their Outer Banks vacation in North Carolina short-circuited. They were among thousands of tourists on Ocracoke and Hatteras islands who have been ordered to pack up and evacuate after a major power outage early Thursday. A transmission line was cut during construction work on a bridge, knocking out electricity to the two tourist meccas. "We were all upset," said Bruhl, 22, of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, who left Ocracoke by...