Author: Ring of Fire Staff

The head of the U.S. Navy Pacific command says climate change is the biggest long-term security threat in the Pacific region. Although he faces concerns in North Korea, China, and Japan, Navy Admiral Samuel J. Locklear III said Friday that global warming “is probably the most likely thing that is going to happen… that will cripple the security environment, probably more likely than the other scenarios we all often talk about.” Locklear noted that “You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea levels. Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they...

In an attack on the rights of LGBT citizens in the state of Kentucky, a Democratic Senator has introduced a bill that would allow Kentuckians to sidestep anti-discrimination laws in the name of “sincerely held religious beliefs.” House Bill 279, sponsored by Conservative Democrat Rep. Bob Damron, was not only introduced, but has alarmingly passed in the State Senate. The bill would allow anyone to “ignore state regulations or laws that contradict his or her ‘sincerely held’ religious beliefs.” That means conservative Christians and other groups could deny certain types of people access to public facilities, employment opportunities or...

The organizer of a sophisticated multi-state fraud scheme that led to approximately $64 million in fraudulent Medicare billing has pleaded guilty to healthcare fraud and money laundering charges. He was the owner of a string of community mental health centers through the now defunct health care provider, Health Care Solutions Network Inc. (HCSN). Armando Gonzalez, 50, of Miami, was sentenced in February to serve 168 months (14 years) in prison by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga in the Southern District of Florida.  In addition to his prison term, Gonzalez was sentenced to serve three years of supervised release...

List the consequences for committing sexual assault… for members of the Catholic clergy or the United States military. Having trouble? That’s because consequences are rare, and rarely fit the crime. In the latest sexual assault injustice, Air Force Lt. Col. James Wilkerson was found guilty of sexual assault last November and, as punishment, he will not be receiving a promotion to colonel. Last November, Wilkerson was convicted of aggravated sexual assault by an all-male jury at his court-martial at Aviano Air Base in Italy. He was sentenced to a year of jail time, and dismissal from the Air Force. Then last...

A scientific study on global temperature, which looked at changes over the past 11,300 years, has determined that the earth is warming up at an “unprecedented” rate. Lead author of the study, Shaun Marcott, said that the “rate of change” the scientists observed is “amazing and atypical.” The group determined that, over the past 100 years, the average temperature has increased by 1.3 degrees, whereas the last increase of that rate occurred over a period of 5,000 years. The study also found that current global temperatures are warmer than during 75 percent of the Holocene temperature history. The study, which appeared...