25 Fires Burning in Minnesota

At least twenty-five wild fires are burning in Minnesota.

At least fifty buildings have been lost to the fires, at this point.

Helicopters and planes are battling the blazes, but with many lakes still covered in ice, some sources of water have been closed to them.

The largest is the Green Valley Fire, which has forced the evacuation of the entire town of Menahga.

It has burned over four thousand acres, as it is spurred along by wind gusts hitting on thirty miles per hour.

Two fires near Red Lake have burnt nearly seven thousand acres, but rain in that area is helping the battle.

Gordon Fire Burns 47 Buildings in Wisconsin

A fire that began Tuesday afternoon has burned nearly nine thousand acres, in Wisconsin.

Behind it, lay the remnants of forty-seven burned out structures, seventeen of them homes.

Firefighters battling the blaze were able to save at least seventy-seven other buildings.

Officials had evacuated most of the town of Gordon, with no time table yet for the evacuation will be lifted.

Multiple aircraft, joined fifty-two fire trucks and have the fire at ninety percent containment.

Swedish Man Dies After Sex With Wasp Nest

A thirty-five year old Swedish man died on Monday, from repeatedly being stung by wasps.

The resident of Ystad was found swollen to the point of barely being recognizable.

He had received one hundred and forty-six stings, fifty-four of them to his genitals.

According to authorities, he had attempted to have sexual intercourse with a wasp nest.

Traces of his semen and pubic hairs were found inside the nest and on dead wasps.

Animal rights activists have come out mourning the "murdered" creatures.

Bulgaria's President Asks Parliament to Cooperate

Rosen Plevneliev

President Rosen Plevneliev asked for his country's parliamentarians to come to agreement, for the sake of a stable government. 

Plevneliev told reporters that, "it is important to have a stable government. Everything else, new elections, would mean destabilization. Bulgaria does not need new elections now. This will scare away investors."

Bulgaria's elections, over the weekend, had only a fifty-one percent turnout, as Bulgarians showed their dissatisfaction the government. Making matters worse, the vote was also inconclusive, requiring parliament to form a coalition. However, the parties have refused to work together, leaving the country without a working government.

For a coalition to be considered legal, it must control one hundred and twenty-one of the two hundred and forty seats. At this point the largest coalition hasn't come near the mark.

Part of the problems include the GERB party's control of ninety-seven seats. While they have the single largest amount, no other party will even consider working with them, due to scandals the party has been mixed up in.

While parliament is avoiding coming to an agreement, extremely important issues for the country's future are being left unattended. The economy is already beginning to hurt a bit from the uncertainty surrounding the government's future.

Israeli Police Arrest 25 Palestinians For Attacks

Twenty-five Palestinians were arrested in two separate incidents, on Wednesday.

Nineteen were arrested when a mob attacked the Nablus gate.

They threw bottles, rocks, and other objects at police, injuring six officers.

Stun grenades and water cannons were used against the rioters.

Later, another group of protesters began attacking people who were on their way to the Western Wall for prayers.

Police intervened and arrested six of the attackers.

31 Killed in Bombings in Iraq

Thirty-one people were killed in a  series of bombings in Iraq, on Wednesday.

Most of them took place in Baghdad, but two bombs went off in Kirkuk, and another hit outside of Mosul.

Government, police, and Shiites were the main targets.

Al Qaeda continues to disrupt life in the country, as they work towards seeing the Iraqi government removed.

They and other Sunni groups have gained encouragement from the Syrian civil war, as they watch Sunnis slowly win against the Shiite government.

A Flurry of Hearings, Probes, & Litigation Awaits the IRS

On Monday, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) sent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) a letter demanding that it immediately grant tax exempt status to ten Tea Party groups which have been zeroed in on for additional review. The ACLJ represents twenty-seven Tea Party organizations nationwide. Of those, only fifteen have been granted the tax exempt status they applied for. The focus of the demand letter is the status of the ten organizations that are pending. The ACLJ is calling for the IRS to respond by Friday, May 17th or face possible legal action.

“This is one of the most abhorrent breaches of trust imaginable,” said Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the ACLJ. “We now know this coordinated intimidation scheme went beyond Tea Party groups to include Jewish organizations and even groups that discussed the Constitution. The IRS must be held accountable for this dishonest and notoriously disgraceful conduct. We are demanding that the IRS grant our remaining clients tax-exempt status immediately. If that does not occur by Friday, we will advise our clients of their right to sue the IRS for the redress of their grievances. The targeting scheme employed by the IRS not only violates their own rules and regulations, but is certain to result in a growing mistrust of the IRS by the American people.”

The ACLJ puts forth the following demands in its letter to the IRS Acting Commissioner:

(1) That the IRS approve immediately, and without further delay, the pending requests for either 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) tax exempt status of the following organizations: Albuquerque Tea Party, Allen Area Patriots, Greater Phoenix Tea Party Patriots, Greenwich Tea Party Patriots, Laurens County Tea Party, Linchpins of Liberty, Myrtle Beach Tea Party, North East Tarrant Tea Party, Patriots Educating Concerned Americans Now (PECAN), and Unite in Action.

(2) That the IRS identify and appropriately discipline all IRS employees who either concocted, knowingly carried out, knowingly failed to stop, or knowingly misinformed Congress or the public about, the scheme to target Tea Party and similar groups in violation of IRS rules and regulations, thereby unlawfully politicizing the IRS and its approval process.

 A copy of the letter can be viewed on the ACLJ's site. The ACLJ makes the following points:

• First, by singling out Tea Party and related groups for special scrutiny based on their political views, IRS agents violated the IRS mission to operate with integrity and fairness.
• Second, by singling out Tea Party and related groups for special scrutiny based on their political views, IRS agents violated the requirement to act impartially.
• And third, by singling out Tea Party and related groups for special scrutiny based on their political views, IRS agents engaged in dishonest, notoriously disgraceful conduct. The same can be said of IRS leaders who knew of, but failed to rein in, such biased, politically-motivated conduct, thereby allowing the politicization of the IRS.
• Agencies like the IRS must be scrupulously apolitical to retain the confidence and trust or the American people. With respect to its treatment of Tea Party and other conservative groups, the IRS failed miserably. The growing mistrust of the IRS is the inevitable (and totally understandable) result of its unwise actions.

Sekulow has indicated that many of the questions asked by the IRS are simply inappropriate and fall well outside the scope of legitimate IRS inquiry. A sampling of those questions can be found here.

Additionally, the ACLJ has launched a national petition calling on President Obama and members of Congress to hold those responsible for this conduct accountable.  You can sign the petition here: Petition to End IRS Abuse.

Then too, Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a Justice Department probe into the matter.  Holder said the FBI is coordinating with the Department of Justice to see if any laws have been broken, and referred to it as “outrageous and unacceptable.”

Rep. Dave Camp, (R-MI), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, along with Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), ranking member of Ways and Means, announced that a hearing will be held on the IRS situation on Friday. And, Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), Senate Finance Committee chairman said in a statement: “The IRS should be prepared for a full investigation into this matter by the Senate Finance Committee.”

Darrell Issa (R-CA) is planning to hold hearings on the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report which is located here.

“Let’s go through it,” Issa said. “Let’s see what the instituted changes need to be to make this not happen again.”

Colorado High Schooler Arrested Over Explosive Device

A sixteen year old high school student has been arrested in Lafayette, Colorado.

The student is being investigated for bringing an explosive device to school.

A teacher at Centaurus High School found the device in a "high traffic area", on Monday morning.

After finding the device, the teacher took it outside and called police.

Police evacuated the school and used bomb dogs to search for further devices, but found none.

The Boulder County Bomb Squad safely detonated the device, in a nearby field.

According to authorities, the device would have caused injuries to those in it's proximity, had it gone off.

School resumed on Tuesday.

Vermont Passes Assisted Suicide Bill

Lawmakers in Vermont have passed a bill that will make the state the third to allow for assisted suicide.

Under the bill, if a person's primary doctor and a second opinion both agree that the patient has a terminal illness then the person may request for a lethal dosage of drugs.

Patients must also be considered mentally capable of making such a decision.

The request must be witnessed by two people, who are not connected to the case.

After fifteen days, the person can then request the drugs again.

If both requests are made and all requirements met then a doctor may prescribe the drugs.

For it to be legal the person must take the drugs themselves.

Governor Peter Shumlin is expected to sign the law into being.

4 US Soldiers Killed in Afghanistan

Four US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, on Tuesday.

They were in a convoy traveling through the Zhari district of Kandahar province, when their vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb.

In 2013, fifty-six ISAF troops have been killed, with forty-three of them being Americans.

Around one hundred thousand ISAF troops are still present, throughout Afghanistan.

They are scheduled to leave in 2014.

Taliban forces continue to assault the ISAF and free Afghanistan.

Afghanistan's war with the Taliban has no end in sight.