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Ural Airlines A321 plane was taking off from Moscow's Zhukovsky airport Thursday when it hit a flock of birds One of the engines caught fire while the other one spluttered and then stopped working, Russian media says Hero pilot Damir Yusupov brought the plane down in a cornfield, leaving 23 people with just minor wounds In total, 23 of the 226 passengers and seven crew on board were sent to hospital for minor injuries, though only one - a 69-year-old woman - required further treatment.

Republican John Lee defeated Democrat Loraine Lundquist on Tuesday in a special election for a vacant northwest San Fernando Valley seat on the Los Angeles City Council in which the Democrat backed L.A.’s version of the “Green New Deal.” Lundquist, an academic, supported L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s plan to shutter three natural gas power plants and replace them with wind and solar power, though officials said that would be insufficient for the city’s needs. Lee, a former City Hall staffer, attacked the Green New Deal and received support from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 18. The IBEW,...

As a draft of the California’s first high school ethnic studies curriculum enters revision, state schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond is asking the commission writing it to include experiences of Jewish Americans and other communities that legislators and civic groups say are missing or skewed in the current draft.

A praying mantis ensured there were no flies on commuters as it hopped aboard a New York Subway train Tuesday and caused quite a stir. City Councilman Keith Powers was traveling Uptown on the 6 train, when another rider told him that his head was dangerously close to the long-legged insect. He snapped a picture of the mantis as it clung onto the metal inner frame of the subway cart and stared at passengers. Captured in its synonymous 'praying pose,' the bug seemed unfazed by worried people around it all eyeing up its sizable green and brown torso and black...

An epidemic of African Swine Fever is sweeping through China's hog farms, and the effects are rippling across the globe, because China is a superpower of pork. Half of the world's pigs live in China — or at least they did before the epidemic began a year ago. "Every day, we hear of more outbreaks," says Christine McCracken, a senior analyst at RaboResearch, which is affiliated with the global financial firm Rabobank. McCracken and her colleagues now estimate that by the end of 2019, China's production of pork could be cut in half. "That's roughly 300 million to 350 million...

Here's a tune written and performed by Gene Autry: Way Out West In Texas (1933). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Former Vice President Joe Biden, in December 2018, said, "I am a gaffe machine." File that under the category of truer words have seldom been spoken. President Donald Trump benefited in the 2016 presidential contest because the unfavorable numbers of his opponent, Hillary Clinton, matched or exceeded Trump's own unfavorable numbers. This time, in his bid for reelection, Trump's opponent could be Biden -- at this early date, still the front-runner for his party's nomination. Trump, of course, has been harshly attacked by Democrats, the media and even some Republicans for misstatements, exaggerations and, according to The Washington Post, uttering...

While the CRS stalwarts of Cygnus and Dragon are regular visitors to the ISS, Program Manager Kirk Shireman cited the need for “dissimilar redundancy” in adding Dream Chaser to the mix – a key selling point previously used by SNC during Dream Chaser’s crew transportation aspirations. The only blot on her report card was a landing gear failure during a 2013 landing test at the Dryden Flight Research Facility in California. The test was designed to verify and validate Dream Chaser’s low-atmosphere aerodynamics, flight control surfaces, flight characteristics for approach, flare and landing, and landing systems. However, as it approached...

The US Department of Justice has made a last-minute application to block the release of the Iranian oil tanker Grace 1, which was seized by authorities in Gibraltar last month, a spokesman for the Gibraltar attorney general told CNN. Gibraltar attorney general Joseph Triay revealed the application had been made at a short hearing at the Supreme Court on Thursday morning. A decision by the court on whether the tanker could be released was expected on Thursday morning, but has now been delayed until later in the day because of the US request, the spokesman added. The Gibraltar Chronicle reported...

Morning "Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide." Genesis 24:63 Very admirable was his occupation. If those who spend so many hours in idle company, light reading, and useless pastimes, could learn wisdom, they would find more profitable society and more interesting engagements in meditation than in the vanities which now have such charms for them. We should all know more, live nearer to God, and grow in grace, if we were more alone. Meditation chews the cud and extracts the real nutriment from the mental food gathered elsewhere. When Jesus is the theme, meditation is...

A new report from ABC News has revealed that, in at least 36 criminal cases, Trump's name was invoked in connection with violence, assault, or the threat of violence. "In nine cases, perpetrators hailed Trump in the midst or immediate aftermath of physically attacking innocent victims," the outlet reported on Tuesday. In 10 cases, perpetrators of violence "cheered or defended Trump," while in another 10 cases "Trump and his rhetoric were cited in court to explain a defendant's violent or threatening behavior." .....

Sen. Kamala Harris faced criticism for promoting her campaign's gun control plan during an appearance on CNN that coincided with breaking news about the police standoff in Philadelphia in which six officers were shot. “When will it stop?” the Democratic presidential candidate asked CNN’s Wolf Blitzer when he asked for her reaction to the initial reports of the shooting. As Harris related details of her plan, information about the ongoing standoff was still sketchy. Ryan Saavedra Democrat Kamala Harris rushes to politicize the police shooting in Philadelphia before any facts have come out Social media was quick to deride the...

Keeping its focus on what really matters, the Trump White House is currently circulating drafts of an executive order that would address "anti-conservative bias" in social media. The exact contents of the executive order are unclear, but it is definitely not going to be good. One unnamed official who Politico spoke to offered the conservative rationale for the move: "If the internet is going to be presented as this egalitarian platform and most of Twitter is liberal cesspools of venom, then at least the president wants some fairness in the system." Of course, there is no anti-conservative bias in social...

Miniature horses are among the service animals approved to take on flights, according to new guidelines provided Thursday by the federal government. Service animals on planes has been the subject of much debate over the past several years, especially when the animal is a little exotic. To curb some of the debate, the U.S. Department of Transportation clarified which common service animals should almost always be allowed. “With respect to animal species, we indicated that we would focus our enforcement efforts on ensuring that the most commonly used service animals (dogs, cats, and miniature horses) are accepted for transport as...

Some 80 years ago, on Aug. 23, 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, formally known as the "Treaty of non-aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics." The world was shocked — and terrified — by the agreement. Western democracies of the 1930s had counted on the huge resources of Communist Russia, and its hostility to the Nazis, to serve as a brake on Adolf Hitler's Western ambitions. Great Britain and the other Western European democracies had assumed that the Nazis would never invade them as long as a hostile Soviet Union threatened...

Her townhouse in Manhattan has been sold. Her home in London sits dark. And along the rocky north shore of Boston, past signs marked “No Trespassing,” the latest trail has gone cold. Where is Ghislaine Maxwell? The question gained new urgency on Wednesday as television news trucks descended on picturesque Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, in search of Maxwell, whose long entanglement with Jeffrey Epstein has made her a figure of international intrigue. The media scrum was prompted by a report in Britain’s Daily Mail that said Maxwell -- whom employees at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion referred to as the “lady of the...

You may have noticed, I’m burned out: on news, lies (but I repeat myself), society in general and progressive society in particular. So until further notice feel free to discuss such topics amongst yourselves. I’ve decided to go in a different direction. Specifically… I understand there are rules, the first of which is “begin your post titles #TBT” which I’ve already broken. Here are the rest:Again, feel free to break any or all of them. All subjects will be considered eligible, such as:Art:From the way-back before artists hated America.A Corn Street, Boston, 1919, Childe HassamThe Avenue in the Rain, New...

Today’s Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends) The case just isn’t cooperating with the whole “suicide” narrative. – The Washington Post reported last night that the autopsy of human trafficking pedophile Jeffrey Epstein found “multiple broken bones” in his neck. That was revealed in the story’s opening paragraph. The Post of course spends the rest of this 25-paragraph piece doing everything it can to continue to prop up the “suicide” narrative. The fake newspaper’s writers and editors do this by carefully focusing only on the broken hyoid bone, which is a part of a man’s Adam’s Apple. The piece...

The New York Times just published what’s known as an “on background” conversation between one of their business reporters, James B. Stewart, and the now dead billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.“On background” is journalism speak for an interview subject leaking information to a media outlet and in exchange remaining anonymous in the story. You the viewer/reader won’t ever know the source of the information.In 2019, it’s the media standard when you’re talking about Donald Trump. “Sources say, close associate says, a White House insider tells us, a close friend of the President says, a former employee says…” That’s “on background.” Personally, I think it’s...

SINGAPORE — The sister-in-law of American actor and filmmaker George Clooney appeared in a traffic court in Singapore on Thursday (15 August) to face a total of four charges including for drink driving and driving without a licence. Tala Alamuddin Le Tallec, 47, a Singapore permanent resident, is accused of having close to three times the legal limit of alcohol in her breath while she was driving a car along Holland Road towards Ulu Pandan at about 2.30am. Tala, who is the older sister of Clooney’s wife Amal, allegedly had 95mcg of alcohol per 100ml of her breath. The legal...