Search for Missing Malaysian Jet Yields Discovery of Wreck from Two Centuries Ago; Ceres Photographed From Closest Vantage Point Yet, Lights Still Baffle Scientists; Philadelphia Train Wreck Kills Six, Injures 50, Five Critically; Congress Votes Down Obama's Trade Bill Despite McConnell's Assistance; Five Teens Charged in Sadistic Beating of Baltimore County Man, 61

BALTIMORE, Maryland May 13, 2015 - As an international team continues its lonely search for the still-missing Malaysian Airlines Jet in the remote southern Indian Ocean, there is news that its efforts will not be totally in vain.  A 19th Century Ship has been discovered on the ocean floor two and one-half miles below the surface of the sea.  The cargo vessel was laden with goods when it was lost in the early to middle of the century which began in these United States with word that the father of our country, George Washington, had gone to heaven to be with our Lord.  This discovery is far from the only scientific news in the teapot this morning.

NASA has released another series of photographs taken by the Dawn Spacecraft now orbiting the proto-planet Ceres, the largest asteroid in the Asteroid Belt.  The odd celestial body - spherical while all of the other asteroids in the belt are, literally, odd chunks of rock in all manner of shapes - orbits the sun with the other asteroids in a path between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.  Scientists believe that all but Ceres are the remnants of a planet that blew apart for reasons still unknown.  What draws attention to the photographs are the two bright lights situated at the bottom of an otherwise unremarkable crater found just north of what would be the equator of the asteroid, discovered originally by the brilliant Enlightenment Astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi of the Academy of Palermo, Sicily, in 1800.  The idea that a planet should be found in the area where Ceres was actually discovered was put forth by Johannes Kepler, the incredibly brilliant German Astronomer, in 1596.  The lights are so bright that the Hubble Telescope picked up the luminosity from Earth's orbit in 2004.  Scientists are completely baffled by the lights and no small number of "experts" are assigning extraterrestial intelligence as being the base cause.  The Dawn craft took the latest photographs directly above the lights during an orbit some 8,400 miles above the surface of the asteroid.  The Dawn mission calls for more photographs during the coming weeks as the craft descends to orbits as low as 210 miles.  

The news this day is dominated by the grizzly crash of an Amtrak Train in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  As I write this post, six people have been confirmed dead in the wreck, which occurred around 9:30 pm Monday night as the train, which began its journey in Washington D.C. and included stops in Baltimore and Philadelphia and other places.  There were well over 200 people on the train, including AMTRAK crew members.  Nearly 50 of the passengers were injured, in addition to the deaths, and five of those injured are said to be in critical condition.  In addition, rescuers at the scene continue to search the badly-mangled wreckage for other victims.  The train had just headed north from its Philadelphia stop and was heading into a sharp corner turn when survivors said the front five cars and tbe engine "began to shake."  The engine and five cars separated from the rest of the train and derailed.  At 9 a.m. authorities had still not determined a cause for the wreck, nor had they decided whether the train itself or the track were at blame for the wreck.  One man who said he had ridden the AMTRAK to New York from Baltimore at least 100 times, said trains typically travel very slowly during the part of the trip where the wreck occurred.  

Also in the news is the decision by Congress to reject the Obama Administration's Free Trade Bill.  Stunningly, the rejection - which came on a procedural vote - was fueled not by the loyal opposition in the GOP, but by the President's own Democratic Party.  While administration spokespeople called the rejection a mix-up that would be reversed in short order, congressmen in the majority were in agreement.  This was a vote that found the increasingly turncoated Mitch McConnell, the GOP member now serving as Senate President, out in front of the Obama supporters, while Dingy Harry Reid led the senators voting against the secretive measure.  Many believe that the bill is laden with secret riders that would mandate unlimited immigration from Mexico and increased statutory limits on obtaining firearms.  It is said to be all but impossible to obtain copies of the bill.  Obama, meanwhile, visited Georgetown University on Tuesday and engaged in an openly Marxist pep talk with left-leaning students.  The mainstream media has been reticent to report the open manner with which Obama now discusses his hardcore Marxist beliefs.  Yesterday, for instance, Obama criticized successful people who send their children to private - instead of public - schools, and have them practice their athletic skills at private clubs instead of public parks.  In Obama's opinion, these successful people are "withdrawing" from mainstream society.  Obama failed to mention that he sends his own two daughters to the most exclusive private school in Washington, D.C., Sidwell Friends, or that he plays golf several times per week at private golf clubs.

In Baltimore County, Maryland, the State's Attorney had returned charges on seven people, at least five of whom are teenagers, in the severe beating of a 61-year-old Dundalk man who asked the seven to move away from his vehicle, which was parked on a public street directly in front of his home.  According to police, the victim looked out his window and saw an altercation between two women being joined by onlookers, all of whom were extremely close to and surrounding his pick-up truck.  He walked outside of his door and merely asked the group to move their activity away from his vehicle.  Instead, the seven sat upon him and beat him so severely that both of his eyesockets were broken, his nasal bone was broken, and his injuries were so severe that doctors placed him in a medically induced coma.  Many witnesses told police that the attack was racially motivated, inasmuch as the victim is white while all of his attackers are black.  All of the charges are brought against the perpetrators as adults.  Unlike attacks in which the alleged perpetrator is white and the victim black, and which receive very extensive media coverage, this incident has received virtually no media interest.  The attack was caught on video, and the video is said to have thousands of hits on Youtube.