JUSTICE: Ohio raises alcohol limit for beer this week.

In three days, you’ll have more choices if you like to drink beer brewed locally. It’s good news for breweries like Hoppin’ Frog Brewery & Tasting Room here in Akron.

In May, the legislature lifted Ohio’s 12 percent cap on beer brewed here. And this Wednesday, breweries can begin serving it to the public.

Lawmakers say the move levels the playing field and makes Ohio even more attractive to smaller breweries.

Maybe I’ve been too hard on Governor John Kasich, who signed the bill into law last spring.

CONTACT? Alien Hunters Spot Freaky Radio Signal Coming From Nearby Star.

Looking at the signal, the researchers say that if it came from a multi-directional, isotropic radio beacon, it would have to be produced by a Kardashev Type II civilization, i.e. an alien civilization that has tapped into nearly 100 percent of its host star’s energy potential. If the signal was targeted directly at our solar system, then it would be of a power available to a Kardashev Type I civilization, i.e. an alien civilization capable of exploiting nearly all of its home planet’s energy potential.

Another possibility, of course, is that the signal is a natural anomaly, such as background noise. French astronomer Jean Schneider is considering the possibility that HD164595 is amplifying a background radio source through a process known as gravitational microlensing.

To move forward, scientists will need to confirm the quality and integrity of this signal and rule out other possibilities.

I hope they’re not transmitting a cookbook.

PROGRESS? Cows the world over rejoice, pineapple leather is now a thing.

While in the Philippines, [Carmen Hijosa] discovered the traditional fabric Piña (meaning ‘pineapple’ in Spanish), made of stripped and woven pineapple leaves.

This inspired Hijosa to explore the possibilities of the natural product. After some experimentation, she discovered she could use the fibres from the leaves to create a non-woven textile, similar to the method of making felt, and developed Piñatex, a leather-like fibre created as a by-product of the pineapple harvest.

As far as a substitute for leather goes, Piñatex beats pleather by a country mile.

Based on tests by the International Standards Organisation, Piñatex meets international standards for strength, colour fastness, water, abrasion and cigarette-burn resistance, and flexibility.

To be fair, most anything is an improvement over pleather.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: UAV Blasted With .20 Gauge Shotgun.

The Faquier Times reports that shooter is Jennifer Youngman. One of her neighbors in the rural county near the nation’s capital is actor Robert Duvall, who bought the property next to Youngman’s several years ago.

Youngman told the paper that she had been sitting on the front porch of her home cleaning a .410 gauge and the .20 gauge shotguns in mid-June when she noticed a black Range Rover SUV pull up in front of Duvall’s property, set up a card table, and launch the aircraft. Youngman said the cows were being disturbed from the aircraft. Then, she said, the aircraft got going a little too fast, the wind caught it, and it “went over my airspace,” Youngman said. That’s when she brought the .20 gauge into play, and the drone did not win that contest.

She said the men yelled at her, but when she threatened to call police, they got back in their vehicle and left.

Youngman said her only regret is that there are still drone parts in her pasture that have caused two flat tires on her tractor.

Don’t try this at home — at least not with a .410.

GOSH, I HOPE SO!

Is your workplace white-sensitive?https://t.co/9n2Ysdw0ew

— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 29, 2016

One of the great advantages to working at home is never having to watch any actual workplace improvement videos.

NO. WAY. Tens of millions of dollars disguised as ‘consumer relief’ are going to liberal political groups.

The administration’s multiyear campaign against the banking industry has quietly steered money to organizations and politicians who are working to ensure liberal policy and political victories at every level of government. The conduit for this funding is the Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group, a coalition of federal and state regulators and prosecutors created in 2012 to “identify, investigate, and prosecute instances of wrongdoing” in the residential mortgage-backed securities market. In conjunction with the Justice Department, the RMBS Working Group has reached multibillion-dollar settlements with essentially every major bank in America.

The most recent came in April when the Justice Department announced a $5.1 billion settlement with Goldman Sachs. In February Morgan Stanley agreed to a $3.2 billion settlement. Previous targets were Citigroup ($7 billion), J.P. Morgan Chase ($13 billion), and Bank of America, which in 2014 reached the largest civil settlement in American history at $16.65 billion. Smaller deals with other banks have also been announced.

Combined, the banks must divert well over $11 billion into “consumer relief,” which is supposed to benefit homeowners harmed during the Great Recession. Yet it is unknown how much, if any, of the banks’ settlement money will find its way to individual homeowners. Instead, a substantial portion is allocated to private, nonprofit organizations drawn from a federally approved list. Some groups on the list—Catholic Charities, for instance—are relatively nonpolitical. Others—La Raza, the National Urban League, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and more—are anything but.

It’s almost as though the Obama Administration had turned the Federal government into a giant shakedown operation.

BREAKING: Anthony Weiner Is out as a Columnist for the Daily News.

He was ever in?

GOOD LORD: Illegal Immigrant Crashes Bus Full of Louisiana Flood Volunteers, Kills Two.

HAWAII, THE FINAL FRONTIER: Mock Mars Explorers Emerge from Habitat to End Year of Isolation in Hawaii.

The crew exited the domed habitat for the first time in 12 months without wearing space suits, and were greeted by family, friends, the mission scientists and team members who supported them through the year, and members of the media.

“There’s no place like Earth. It is a little bit like the tornado returning to Kansas,” said Sheyna E. Gifford, chief medical and safety office and crew journalist. “All of a sudden I click my heels three times and stepped several inches, and 100 million miles later [I’m back on Earth].”

Andrzej Stewart, chief engineering officer, said he felt “mixed emotions” about leaving the habitat.

“I’m a military brat, I grew up with my dad in the Air Force, and where you live becomes home after a while and I’m going to miss the place,” he said.

I’d be interviewing future candidates from the Navy’s submarine force. They’re trained to work complex equipment under adverse conditions in close quarters for months at a time.

IT WASN’T A FAILED COUP; IT’S A SUCCESSFUL PURGE: Erdogan Goes Full Autocrat, Press Freedom Extinct in Turkey.

HMMM: Iran Arrests Person Linked to Negotiations on Nuclear Deal.

The disclosure, reported in the state news media, appeared to be the latest sign of the Iranian leadership’s frustration over the agreement, which has failed so far to yield the significant economic benefits for the country that its advocates had promised. Iranian officials have blamed the United States for that problem.

Despite the relaxations of many sanctions under the accord, which took effect in January, Iran faces enormous obstacles in attracting new investments and moving its own money through the global financial system.

It isn’t as though Iran’s mullahs regime was known for its economic prowess even before the nuclear sanctions were imposed.

RETIRED MARINE GENERAL JAMES MATTIS: US Influence ‘At Lowest In 40 Years’

Mattis offered the example of World War II to back his point. He noted that Americans watched Germany overrun France and bomb Britain, while Japan invaded China, yet they felt it was not a U.S. problem.

“The result was we were attacked [at Pearl Harbor],” said Mattis. “Then, like it or not, they had to get engaged.”

The general said winning the war was not the end of America’s role, pointing to the Marshall Plan and creation of the United Nations, which helped repair the diplomatic relations and broken economies of both allies and former enemies.

“That had never been done before,” Mattis said. “We created the Marshall Plan, three years after Nazis were burning Jews. We offered them locomotives, rail lines, anything to help get their economies going again. That’s the greatest generation. The point is, it’s more than just fighting battles.”

Like Europe in World War II, Mattis explained that issues in the Middle East cannot simply be “contained in the Middle East.”

“We know that intellectually, but there’s a tendency to want to put a pillow over our heads.”

America’s activist postwar foreign policy has hardly been perfect, but up until recent years it was a much smarter strategy than our near-isolationism during the interwar period.

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Gun ownership rises to 44% of all homes.

It’s good to see so many Americans exercising their constitutionally protected rights.

THE MASKIROVKA COMES OFF: Russia putting central bank and ministries go on war footing.

As part of Putin’s plan to check the readiness of the armed forces, the Central bank and the vital ministries of industry and trade, will switch to war-time operation, Radio Svoboda reports Aug. 29.

The readiness of the ministry of communications and military-industrial complex in the south of Russia to repair and supply weapons will also be checked.

It isn’t often appreciated, but banks and networking systems are just as much a part of modern war as armored vehicles and fighter jets.

BYRON YORK: Obamacare is failing. Why isn’t Donald Trump talking about it?

THAT MEANS IT’S WORKING: Even Left-Leaning Econ Writers Are Impoverished by Obamacare.

“We’re Hiring Economics Writers,” says the headline of a post at the web site FiveThirtyEight.

Good for them.

Then they write:

“This is a part-time staff position (up to 29 hours per week) and does not offer benefits.”

Any idea why they chose 29 hours?

Answer: Obamacare.

Unexpectedly.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: DNC Chair Completely Dodges Questions About State Department Links to Clinton Foundation.

“Based on what I’ve seen, I understand that there’s a new round of fresh eyes looking at more emails that might be released,” Brazile said on ABC This Week. “I’ve been dealing with another situation involving emails that were leaked. Private information that has been put out—”

“Let’s stick with the foundation,” host Martha Raddatz said.

“Well, I’ve got to stick with what I know,” Brazile said, laughing. “I’m not an official at the State Department.”

“I know, but answer that question,” Raddatz said. “Do you have a problem with that co-mingling?”

Co-mingling is a feature, not a bug.

I’M NOT SAYING IT WAS COMMUNISTS, BUT IT WAS COMMUNISTS: The secret history of the EU, written on an Italian prison island, reveals why the project is doomed.

We were coyly told that the little island of Ventotene off Naples was where, in 1941, a prisoner of Mussolini’s had written the visionary manifesto that looked forward to building, after the war, a “United States of Europe”. What somehow got omitted was that Altiero Spinelli was a Communist (the Today programme merely described him on air as a “Fascist prisoner”, although, lest this be misunderstood, that was edited out of their online report).

We were not told that Spinelli’s Ventotene Manifesto proposed that his future government of Europe should be quietly assembled by its supporters over many years; and that only when all its pieces were in place would those supporters summon a convention to draw up a “Constitution for Europe”, which would finally reveal to the European people just what they had been up to.

What we were also not told – and this is seemingly one of the best-kept secrets of the whole story – is that many years later, when Spinelli was elected as a Communist MEP in 1979, he became the second most influential person, after Jean Monnet, in shaping “Europe” as we know it today.

Read the whole thing.

THESE THINGS KEEP HAPPENING TO PUTIN’S CRITICS: Russian journalist critical of Vladimir Putin found dead on his birthday with gunshot wound to head.

Officials have speculated that his death was caused by suicide, after a gun was found near his body along with spent cartridges, and the door to his apartment was said to be locked.

Local news source Kyiv Operatyvni reported: “Alexander was sitting on a chair, with a gunshot wound to his head, the gun was lying under the chair. According to credible sources, the case has been classified as suicide, as Alexander sent an email to one of his loved ones where he said he wanted to kill himself.”

I’m skeptical.

WELL, GOOD: GOP presidential nominee Trump plans major ad buy Monday.

The campaign is expects the ads to air as soon as Monday in nine swing states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida, where the campaign has already been on the air, along with New Hampshire, Virginia, Iowa, Colorado and Nevada. 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney lost eight of those nine states.

Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has so far been badly outspent by his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, and groups supporting her. Since clinching her party’s nomination in early June, Clinton has spent more than $77 million on television and radio advertising, largely targeting voters in battleground states, according to Kantar Media’s political ad tracker.

We’ll see if this is enough to get Clinton to start running ads again in Colorado and Virginia, which her campaign called off a week ago.

ELSEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE EAST: ISIS claims deadly attack on U.S.-backed forces in Yemen.

A suicide attacker set off a massive car bomb in Yemen’s southern city of Aden on Monday, killing at least 45 pro-government troops who had been preparing to travel to Saudi Arabia to fight Houthi rebels in Yemen’s north, officials said.

The men were at a staging area near two schools and a mosque where they were registering to join the expedition. The Saudis hope to train up to 5,000 fighters and deploy them to the Saudi cities of Najran and Jizan, near the border, Yemeni security officials said. Over 60 wounded were being taken to three area hospitals, they added.

Yemen is shaping up to become as big of a humanitarian disaster as Syria, with 3 million of its population of 25 million displaced in fighting since March of last year.

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE UPDATE: Turkey’s campaign against Kurds muddles war on ISIL.

Turkey claimed it had “neutralized” 25 Kurdish fighters in airstrikes across the Syrian border Sunday, the latest attack in Turkey’s stepped-up campaign to retake towns from Kurdish rebels.

Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency, citing the Turkish military, said the attack was carried out against “terrorists groups” that had attacked Turkish troops supporting a Free Syrian Army operation targeting Islamic State militants. Five buildings used by the Kurdish rebels also were destroyed, the military said.

The Turkish military said it took “all necessary measures” to protect the local civilian population. The BBC, however, said the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 35 civilian casualties.

The attacks reflect the increasingly complex, uneasy military alliances in the region.

The report also says that the U.S. “has pressed Turkey to show restraint against the Kurds,” but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan isn’t exactly making headlines these days for his restraint.

I wrote here five days ago: “ISIS was Putin’s excuse for pounding his real enemy in Syria: anti-Assad rebels. There’s real danger here of Turkey using the same excuse to pound the Kurds.”

That didn’t take long.

EXPECTING AN EARTH-SHATTERING KABOOM:

Moscow's doing its biggest MILEX since right before the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia. It's either 1 helluva demonstration of power, or…

— John Schindler (@20committee) August 28, 2016

IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Beer-testing Lab Helps Students Learn Chemistry.

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Robot Babies Not Effective Birth Control.

But real babies are.