The deadline draws closer by the hour. In New York, the band of good-government reformers, labor unions, enviros, community organizers, religious leaders, and more have until Thursday night, when the current legislative session ends, to press state lawmakers to pass legislation combating political corruption and kickstarting a public financing program for statewide elections. Standing in their way: The odd coalition of breakaway Democrats and Republicans who control the state Senate and who are blocking the public financing bill, which passed the state Assembly earlier this year and is backed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Friends of Democracy, the super-PAC run by political operatives Jonathan Soros and David Donnelly, is one of the most aggressive backers of public financing in New York State. Soros, the son of liberal financier and mega-donor George Soros, and Donnelly see New York as the front line in the post-Citizens United battle against big-money politics. In an interview on Tuesday, Donnelly had a cut-and-dry message for the independent Democrats, who broke away from the traditional Democratic caucus to form a new leadership coalition, and the Republican legislators who are denying a vote on public financing: Support reform, or we’ll fight to replace you.

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The New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against the New York Police Department over its surveillance of Muslim communities, accusing the police of trampling on religious freedoms and constitutional guarantees of equality.

The surveillance by the NYPD’s intelligence division has extended beyond New York City’s five boroughs into neighboring New Jersey and other nearby states. The police department says that surveillance of Muslims is legal under an earlier federal court order.

The lawsuit is the latest skirmish in an ongoing battle between the NYPD and civil liberties advocates over the department’s aggressive policing tactics – including its stop-and-frisk practices, which are the subject of a separate federal lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, in Brooklyn, seeks to put an end to the NYPD’s surveillance of Muslims, the destruction of all records on individuals created as a result of the program and the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee the department.

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A controversial provision that would have struck down late-term abortion restrictions in New York state has died in the state senate. The measure, which would have radically expanded abortion-on-demand for reasons of “health,” among other changes, was the tenth point of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Act.

However, just after midnight last night, the Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) introduced the other nine planks – and others of its own creation – while ignoring the abortion language.

Governor Cuomo struck out at the IDC during a public radio interview on Monday, vowing a bruising political fight against the group’s four members.

“They decided, by their actions, to deal with it in an election contest. I think it is a serious mistake,” Cuomo said on “The Capitol Pressroom” show. “This is going to be an electoral decision, and it’s going to be in the re-election campaigns of these senators.”

The New York legislative session ends on Thursday, making it a practical certainty that the abortion provisions will not be reintroduced, let alone passed this session.

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A business owner shot and killed a robber Monday in Newark.

Around 3:20 p.m., the suspect walked into an unidentified business in the 500 block of Central Avenue in Newark with a loaded gun and a backpack, according to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office and Newark police.

The suspect announced a robbery, and ordered the owner to fill the backpack with money and gold. The suspect said he would shoot the owner’s family members if the owner did not comply, authorities said.

But the owner fought back. He pulled his own gun, and shot the suspect.

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Vice President Joseph R. Biden said Tuesday the fight for congressional action on gun legislation is far from over while outlining unilateral steps the Obama administration has taken to combat gun violence in the wake of the Connecticut school shootings in December.

The address was simultaneously a summary of what President Obama has been able to do through executive actions since the shootings in Newtown, Conn., and a rallying cry to remind voters and lawmakers that neither Mr. Biden nor Mr. Obama is going to let the issue fade from public memory.“The most important message to take from here today is the president and I are a team,” Mr. Biden said. “We have not given up. Our friends in the House and Senate, they have not given up.”

Mr. Biden said because of a “perverted” rule requiring 60 votes to herd off potential filibusters in the Senate, the 41 Republicans and four Democrats who opposed the administration’s gun control bill were able to block it even though it had the support of 51 Democrats and four Republicans.

“I know for a fact some of them wonder about, now, whether that was a prudent vote,” said Mr. Biden, who described the shooting deaths of 20 first-graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School as “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in the gun debate.

An anti-gun violence rally at the Statehouse plaza on Tuesday turned ugly when gun rights supporters turned out to protest the event and one pro-gun advocate had to be Tasered by Concord Police after resisting their efforts to detain him.

Daniel Musso, 52, of Brentwood attempted to interject commentary while John Cantin of Manchester was speaking about his efforts to influence U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, on the background check issue.

Musso, who was wearing a pro-Native American rights T-shirt, asked Cantin to take his glasses off and later, challenged Cantin’s statements and statistics. Private security hired by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns group asked Musso to leave but he didn’t budge. After a few minutes, Musso threw up his hands and left Cantin’s side.

Later, police were led by the private security team to the Musso’s location, interspersed with other gun rights advocates and began speaking with him. A scuffle broke out and three officers attempted to subdue Musso.

The three officers eventually pinned Musso up against the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce information booth in the plaza and repeatedly warned him to stop resisting while he denied he was resisting. An officer kneed Musso and he was then Tasered by another officer and brought to the ground before being taken into custody.

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Last week, Obama’s political action arm, Organizing For Action, held rallies throughout the country advocating for stricter gun laws. Their rallies drew small numbers as seen here and here.

We can thank the vigilant San Bernardino Sun for putting a spotlight on perhaps the smallest of the rallies.

“On Flag Day growing up, I used to always wave a flag with my grandson, and it hit me that the victims of that horrible tragedy won’t ever be able to do that,” said Curtis Lewis, the group’s gun violence prevention coordinator. “We need people to stand up and write to Congress to say they want laws that respect the Second Amendment but also help prevent these tragedies.”

Lewis said he supported HR 1565, a bill that would require background checks for sales at gun shows and online, “close the gun show and other loopholes,” and create a commission to study the causes of mass violence in the United States.

“It’s three people today, but it will be 23 next time, and we’ll see the time after that,” Lewis said.

OFA, by the way, is a 501 (c) (4) group that was able to swiftly obtain its tax exempt status, earlier this year.

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After an increase in crime, residents of an Oregon neighborhood have decided to take up arms instead of involving the police.

According to the DailyMailOnline, neighbors have organized what they call a ‘Glock Block,’ after several residents obtained concealed carry permits.

Fliers posted around the neighborhood read, ‘This is a Glock Block, We don’t call 911.’

The history of the tourniquet dates at least as far back as 500 BC when the Romans designed a device to control bleeding during amputations. It was made mostly of bronze and was lined with a bit of leather for “comfort”.

Primarily because of the practical need to control bleeding during surgical procedures, other tourniquet designs proliferated during the 18^th, 19^th, and 20^th centuries. These were quite simplistic and culminated in the development of a pneumatic tourniquet that is currently used thousands of times/day across the world to permit the creation of a bloodless field during procedures on both the upper and lower extremities.

The Romans were probably the first to use a tourniquet in an emergency setting like one would encounter during a violent altercation (for our purposes, the only concern worthy of consideration). However, tourniquet use gradually fell upon disfavor around the time of the Civil War, presumably because of the significant number of injuries that resulted from prolonged TQ use prior to the performance of surgical amputations.

For many years lay people and uneducated emergency responders feared the damage that could be wrought by the use of a tourniquet despite their widespread safe use in operating rooms. Indeed, there are precautions that need to be followed in order to prevent injury in the elective surgical setting, but this record of successful use should comfort the timid when controlling massive hemorrhage in the non-hospital setting.

The tissues at risk for potential injury from use of a tourniquet are muscle and nerve. Damage to the muscle appears to come from the lack of oxygen while the TQ is in place, and nerve damage occurs from the direct pressure of the device. Wider, broader TQ’s are less risky to the nerves, and a shorter duration of use lessens the likelihood of muscle damage. Of course, in the situation of a life threatening injury, these concerns need to be kept in perspective.

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It’s impossible to be perfectly prepared for an imperfect world. Sometimes you just have to go MacGyver and solve common problems by using the resources you have on hand – combined with a little ingenuity, of course. I’ve always said that the ability to improvise is one of the most important survival skills.

This article is a collection (not all my own I’ll admit) of a few, creative, makeshift lighting solutions you may have to deploy as a last resort if the grid goes down. You just never know when one of these innovative ideas might shed some light into your darkness one day.

Shining Sardines

Sardines are an excellent survival food. They have a long shelf-life and are full of protein and fats. Maybe you have some sardines packed in your emergency food storage. If not, consider them.

On a different note, oil lamps have been used for hundreds of years. From rendered whale blubber to modern kerosene lanterns, oil lamps are excellent “off-grid” lighting solutions. What do sardines and oil lamps have to do with each other? Quite a lot, actually, if your sardines are packed in olive oil.

Once you’re done smashing those tasty bites of fish, place a natural fiber wick into the remaining oil and slightly over the edge of the sardine container. The wick, in this case a cotton string from a mop head, will absorb the oil. Once the wick is fully soaked, simply light the end. A sardine lamp with just a little bit of oil will burn for many hours. Sure, it’ll smell like fish, but that’s what you get for not including emergency candles in your “bug in” supplies. Running low on oil? No problem, just top it off with some more olive oil from the pantry – or any cooking oil for that matter.

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