Thomas Donald, a military veteran, was reportedly out hunting with his 11-year-old son and armed with an “unloaded” single-shot .410-gauge shotgun (his son chose to use a crossbow instead) when he confronted a man riding a dirt bike on his 10 acres of land. The man and his son then reportedly escorted the trespasser to the front of his property and told his wife, Heather, to call the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to file a “recreational trespass.”

What happened when the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department arrived shocked them both, though Sheriff Kirk Wakefield tells TheBlaze quite a different story.

In an exclusive interview with TheBlaze, Heather Donald recounted what happened from the couple’s perspective. Her husband, Thomas, declined to speak with us on the advice of his attorney and due to the charges against him. His attorney also declined an interview request.

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Goodbye, US passport.

That’s not a concept that Americans contemplate lightly. But it’s one that many of them seem to be considering – and acting on.

The number of expatriates renouncing their US citizenship surged in the second quarter of 2013, compared with the same period the year before – 1,131 cases to 189 in 2012. It’s still a small proportion of the estimated six million Americans abroad, but it’s a significant rise.

The list is compiled by the Federal Register and while no reasons are given, the big looming factor seems to be tax.

A new law called the Foreign Accounts Tax Compliance Act (Fatca) will, from 1 July next year, require all financial institutions around the world to report directly to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) all the assets and incomes of any US citizens with $50,000 (£31,000) on their books. The US could withhold 30% of dividends and interest payments due to the banks that don’t comply.

It’s an attempt by the US authorities to recover an estimated $100bn a year in unpaid taxes on US citizens’ assets overseas. Unlike other countries, Americans are taxed not only as residents of the US but also as citizens, wherever they live.

Suddenly, some expats are waking up in a cold sweat. They have always had to file tax returns and disclose foreign accounts on a form called the FBAR, although in practice many didn’t. But now Fatca means they have to be more rigorous or face huge fines, in the knowledge that the US authorities could know a lot more than they have in the past.

Many would say the IRS is only trying to get what it is owed, but critics say that in trying to track down the wealthy tax-dodgers, ordinary people are being dragged into an expensive and time-consuming form-filling nightmare. And for some, it’s become too much.

American in Germany

Bridget, who asked the BBC not to use her real name, gave up her US citizenship in 2011, 32 years after leaving for a new life in Scandinavia.

“This has nothing to do with avoiding taxes. I was never in danger of having to pay taxes in the US since I pay more here. The issue for me was that it was becoming harder and harder to follow the tax code and comply. It was difficult already but when I knew Fatca was coming, I thought, ‘Do I want to go through with it anymore?’”

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The penal code has been on the books for decades. Some officers say it’s the most humane thing you can do, while others call it barbaric.

Officers use deadly force to save the lives of others, but what about shooting severely injured dogs or cats found on the street?

According to a California penal code, it’s an officer’s discretion, saying in part:

“…any officer… may, with the approval of his or her immediate superior, humanely destroy any abandoned animal in the field in any case where the animal is too severely injured to move or where a veterinarian is not available and it would be more humane to dispose of the animal.”

“No one wants to see an animal lose its life, but if death is inevitable, and it’s just being prolonged,” said Sacramento County Sgt. Jason Ramos.

He says the sheriff’s department doesn’t have a specific policy for shooting injured animals, but his agency understands why an officer may be forced to.

“Sometimes in the middle of the night you don’t have a vet available, you might be in an extremely rural area. Quite honestly, taking an animal’s life might be the most humane thing to do under those circumstances.”

Policies vary across the state. In Sacramento, officers aren’t allowed to shoot animals.

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Retired farmer Dhaqabo Ebba, from Ethiopia, says he is a staggering 160 years old, which would make him the world’s oldest living man.

He claims to have clear memories of Italy’s invasion of his country in the 19th century – however, there is no birth certificate to prove his age.

This would make him 46 years older than the oldest ever recorded man.

‘When Italy invaded Ethiopia I had two wives,and my son was old enough to herd cattle’, said Mr Ebba.

He then recounted his eight-day horseback rides to Addis Ababa as a child – a journey that takes only a few hours today.

As Mr Ebba grew up in an oral society, there is no paper trail and no living witnesses to verify his age.

However, if his claim can be medically confirmed, he would oust 115-year-old Misao Okawa, who is currently recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living person.

He would also overtake French woman Jeanne Calment as the oldest person to have ever lived.

Ms Calment died in 1997 at the age of 122.

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The drill was based around “sovereign citizens” attempting to steal a shipment of ammunition traveling through the facility by seizing hostages and planting bombs as part of their wider agenda to overthrow the government.

“These weren’t foreign-born America-hating terrorists. These were native-born America-hating terrorists. And they were making things difficult for the good guys,” barks a dramatic Florida Sun Sentinel report.

The whole spectacle was basically an opportunity for the Fort Lauderdale Police SWAT team to show off its arsenal of militarized gear, including “Two Bears — massive armored vehicles with turrets for automatic weapons fire — a beefed up front-end loader that lifted an overturned car like a toy and Hummers packed with serious firepower.”

The exercise ended with the seven terrorists – being played by FBI agents – “neutralized” and all the hostages rescued.

“It’s all about being prepared,” said SWAT chief Capt. Eddie Grant. “South Florida is a hot area, we have a stadium, two major ports. We have a lot of high-profile targets.”

As we have documented, the trend of the federal government portraying American citizens as terrorists in both training exercises and promotional material has gone hand in hand with the increasing militarization of law enforcement.

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The allegation was denounced as bizarre by victim Delbert “Shorty” Belton’s family and even dismissed by the defense lawyer for the other teen accused in the Spokane, Wash., case, which has drawn national attention.

Demetruis Glenn, 16, listens to his lawyer, Christian J. Phelps, before a first appearance in District Court in Spokane, Wash., on Monday.

“That’s a bunch of crock,” daughter-in-law Barbara Belton told NBC News on Tuesday afternoon after suspect Kenan Adams-Kinard made his first court appearance to be charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery.

“He was a little senile, a little eccentric, but he was not into drugs,” she said, accusing the teen of concocting a self-serving story that would make the victim seem less sympathetic.

“Of course these kids are going to make excuses.”

Adams-Kinard and Demetruis Glenn, both 16, are accused of attacking Belton when he resisted a robbery attempt in the parking lot outside his Fraternal Order of Eagles lodge last Wednesday night. Both were charged as adults.

The teens, who have previous convictions for assault, were caught on security cameras in the area at the time of the slaying, but Glenn’s lawyer said there are no eyewitnesses or forensic evidence tying them to the crime.

An affidavit from prosecutors says that while he was on the run for four days, Adams-Kinard told two friends that the beating was the result of a drug deal gone bad. Police seized a letter signed with Adams-Kinard’s name that gave a similar account.

The letter said that after buying a “zip of crack cocaine from Shorty,” the teens “proceeded to sock him.”

“I took his wallet and another ounce of crack from his pockets,” the letter said, according to the court document. “He was unconscious so I made sure he was still breathing, and then I took off.”

The letter was purportedly an explanation the teen was writing to his mother, police said.

Kenan Adams-Kinard, 16, will make his first court appearance Tuesday in the beating death of 88-year-old World War II vet Delbert Belton.

Spokane police said they doubted the drug-buying story, with spokeswoman Monique Cotton saying in a statement: “We have no evidence to support that.”

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The revelation is the the first evidence of a financial relationship between the government and Silicon Valley, the newspaper claims.

The government is required to cover compliance costs. Critics say Silicon Valley and the federal government’s increasing coziness creates opportunities for collusion and costly cronyism at the expense of taxpayers.

“The line you have to watch for… is the difference between reimbursement for complying with a lawful order and actually a profit-making enterprise that would incentivize the companies to support government surveillance,” American Civil Liberties Union legislative counsel Michelle Richardson told The Hill.

The Washington Post revealed last week that the NSA violated privacy rules thousands of times by vacuuming up thousands of Americans’ emails, despite promises from President Barack Obama that innocent Americans were not being surveilled.

According to The Telegraph, NSA employees have also used their surveillance powers to spy on lovers and romantic interests. NSA workers even have a code name for the practice–”Love-int”–to denote eavesdropping on lovers or love interests.

In June, Obama promised Americans that “When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls… and with respect to the Internet and emails, this does not apply to U.S. citizens, and it does not apply to people living in the United States.”

Obama’s critics say the revelations further undermine the president’s promises that his would be “the most transparent Administration.”

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Although now, the march has undergone a public-relations makeover and the organizers, the American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC), have changed its name to “Million American March Against Fear.”

Fear of what?

AMPAC claims,” Many non-Muslim Americans are terrified of Muslims, who are portrayed by Hollywood and the U.S. media as fanatical terrorists. Muslims, too, live in fear – of being dragged off in the night to Guantanamo and tortured, simply for the crime of being Muslim in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

What bothers James Neighbors, the founder of Overpasses for Obama’s Impeachment, is AMPAC is choosing to make its statement on the very day fanatical Muslim terrorists did indeed kill some 3,000 Americans, on Sept. 11, twelve years ago.

“They could’ve picked any other day of the year. There’s 364 other days of the year they could’ve picked, but the fact they chose 9/11 just simply apppears to be a slap in the face to America and an insult to every American who died in attacks on those days (in 2001 and 2012.)”

“We simply could not tolerate 9/11 being hijacked like that. It seems like a lot of people like to hijack things in this country, like Obama tries to hijack the word patriot for his progressives,” he added.

Overpasses had begun to organize it’s own march on Washington on Sept. 9, dedicated to bring attention to its primary mission, removing President Obama from office.

But founder James Neighbors changed plans and called for a nationwide protest in the streets and on overpasses on Sept. 11. specifically to oppose the Muslim march, after he learned of it.

They won’t be the only protesters, as WND reported a Facebook page has been created dedicated to bringing “2 Million Bikers to DC” to counter the Muslim march.

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The inspection of five missile defense interceptors is the only one allowed under the 2010 arms accord. The treaty requires cuts of U.S. and Russian deployed strategic warheads to 1,550.

A defense official said the visit was a treaty verification visit hosted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

A State Department official declined to comment on the inspection but confirmed it was related to New START. “Implementation activities under New START are confidential,” the official said.

However, Thomas Moore, a former Senate Foreign Relations Committee professional staff member, said the inspection of the base was a controversial part of U.S. and Russian arms talks leading up to New START that was ratified by the Senate in December 2010.

The United States had opposed including the five Ground-Based Interceptor (GBI) silos in the treaty inspection terms, said Moore, a specialist on arms control issues.

The Russians refused, and because the five silos had been converted from offensive intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos, negotiators settled on a single inspection, Moore said, adding that he believed this week’s Russian review was that inspection.

Russia had demanded including the five silos in New START inspection provisions to monitor the conversion of long-range launch tubes into missile defense shooters.

“The United States is required to conduct a one-time exhibition not later than three years after the treaty entered into force at Vandenberg to show Moscow how it distinguishes GBI silos from ICBM silos,” Moore said.

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The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System — or BOSS — last fall after two years of government-financed development. Although the system is not ready for use, researchers say they are making significant advances. That alarms privacy advocates, who say that now is the time for the government to establish oversight rules and limits on how it will someday be used.

There have been stabs for over a decade at building a system that would help match faces in a crowd with names on a watch list — whether in searching for terrorism suspects at high-profile events like a presidential inaugural parade, looking for criminal fugitives in places like Times Square or identifying card cheats in crowded casinos.

The automated matching of close-up photographs has improved greatly in recent years, and companies like Facebook have experimented with it using still pictures.

But even with advances in computer power, the technical hurdles involving crowd scans from a distance have proved to be far more challenging. Despite occasional much-hyped tests, including one as far back as the 2001 Super Bowl, technical specialists say crowd scanning is still too slow and unreliable.

The release of the documents about the government’s efforts to overcome those challenges comes amid a surge of interest in surveillance matters inspired by the leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor. Interest in video surveillance was also fueled by the attack on the Boston Marathon, where suspects were identified by officials looking through camera footage.

In a sign of how the use of such technologies can be developed for one use but then expanded to another, the BOSS research began as an effort to help the military detect potential suicide bombers and other terrorists overseas at “outdoor polling places in Afghanistan and Iraq,” among other sites, the documents show. But in 2010, the effort was transferred to the Department of Homeland Security to be developed for use instead by the police in the United States.

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