Federal agency approves more oil exploration on Alaska’s North Slope

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on Wednesday granted conditional approval for Italian oil company Eni to explore for oil in Alaska's North Slope region. Eni's proposal, which is still subject to local and additional federal approvals, is to drill three oil wells roughly three miles off the Alaskan coast.

Departing Ethics Chief: Sure Looks Like Trump Is Profiting From Presidency

"I know that the effect is that there's an appearance that the businesses are profiting from [Trump's] presidency," Shaub said. Following his abrupt resignation on Thursday -which lawmakers and watchdog groups said should be " deeply unnerving " to advocates of government accountability-Office of Government Ethics head Walter Shaub said in a televised interview on CBS that it appears Donald Trump and members of his family are profiting from his presidency.

There’s a Big Hole in the Center of the Democratic Party

'Where are the calls to restore economic justice, rebuild the middle class, raise wages, end pointless wars, or to protect the women and people of color who live under daily threats of oppression and assault? They fell down the big hole in the center of the Democratic Party.' That's one of the slogans that was recently proposed by Democratic Party strategists, presumably in a lighthearted way.

Forged Trump-Russia Docs Being Leaked to Media

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow promised Wednesday night that she had an exclusive coming, and Thursday night she delivered. Maddow laid out a surreal new story centered around a supposed classified document that was leaked to her, and the upshot is this: someone out there is trying to sell forged documents that falsely discredit the reporters that are working to expose Donald Trump's Russian collusion scandal.

In Poland

Our own fight for the West does not begin on the battlefield -- it begins with our minds, our wills, and our souls. Today, the ties that unite our civilization are no less vital, and demand no less defense, than that bare shred of land on which the hope of Poland once totally rested.

FCC Chairman Hides Gift to Sinclair

DSL Reports: The Federal Communications Commission on Friday quietly approved the transfer of seven major television station licenses owned by Bluestone Television/Bonten Media to Sinclair Broadcast Group -- without informing the agency's sole Democratic commissioner, Mignon Clyburn. ... [FCC chairman Ajit] Pai has long opposed media ownership and consolidation limits, and unsurprisingly has made letting these companies grow immensely larger his top agency priority.

Here’s How Trump Transferred Wealth to His Son While Avoiding the Usual Taxes

In April 2016, as Donald Trump was on the cusp of clinching the Republican nomination for the White House, he sold two luxury condos near Manhattan's Central Park for less than half the price his company had said they were worth. The lucky buyer: Trump's son, Eric.

An American Paradox: Pillorying Fake News while Promoting False Flags

The United States is a schizophrenic asylum of extreme paradoxes: While its internal politics reverberates with fake news-mediated recriminations, Americans yet find merit in the same disinformation machinery that facilitates false flags abroad. The US is now threatening Syria over an imminent " chemical weapons attack " without offering a shred of proof to the international community.

On the eve of Modi’s visit, Israel backs India against Pakistan

On the eve of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "historic" visit to Israel, a senior official from the Israeli foreign ministry said that his country supports India on what he called "terrorism emanating from Pakistan." Israel believes that there is no difference between Pakistan based "Lashkar-e-Taiba" and the Hamas group operating in Israel and Palestine, said Mark Sofer, deputy director general in charge of the Asia and Pacific division.

What have you done, America?

You took a Declaration of Independence and a U.S. Constitution and handed them over to Donald J. Trump, a crass and ignorant person who has emotional defects so aberrant as to put the well-being, and possibly the future, of the United States of America in jeopardy. Almost daily, he acts like a high-schooler pulling pranks during a Friday night drinking binge The question now is whether his presidency will lead to a country in shambles or a country under the boot of a raging adolescent.