FBI

• Record month ends in pain as biotech, small-caps, Apple tumble (BBG)
• Japan inflation rises for first time in nearly a year (WSJ)
• US Navy starts to accompany ships in strait where Iran seized cargo carrier (WSJ)
• Russia may be readying for new Ukraine offensive: NATO commander (Reuters)
• Big banks use loophole to avoid ban (WSJ)
• China April official PMI shows factories struggling to grow (Reuters)
• CME suspends traders for alleged Sarao-like manipulation (BBG)

• Marchers protest police violence in Baltimore, New York (Reuters)
• Majority of Financial Pros Now Say Greece Is Headed for Euro Exit (BBG)
• Greece signals concessions in crunch talks with lenders (Reuters)
• Greece, Euro-Area Partners Target Deal by Sunday (BBG)
• Iglesias Says EU Risking Right-Wing Backlash With Greek Pressure (BBG)
• Student-Loan Surge Undercuts Millennials’ Place in U.S. Economy (BBG)
• Majors’ Quandary: Why Drill for Oil When They Can Buy Somebody Else’s? (WSJ)

Seven years ago, the U.S. Army War College issued a report calling on the military to be prepared should they need to put down civil unrest within the country. Summarizing the report, investigative journalist Chris Hedges declared, “The military must be prepared, the document warned, for a ‘violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States,’ which could be provoked by ‘unforeseen economic collapse,’ ‘purposeful domestic resistance,’ ‘pervasive public health emergencies’ or ‘loss of functioning political and legal order.’ The ‘widespread civil violence,’ the document said, ‘would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security.’” At what point will all of the government’s carefully drawn plans for dealing with civil unrest, “homegrown” terrorism and targeting pre-crime become a unified blueprint for locking down the nation?

The leniency shown former CIA Director (and retired General) David Petraeus by the Justice Department in sparing him prison time for the serious crimes that he has committed puts him in the same preferential, immune-from-incarceration category as those running the financial institutions of Wall Street, where, incidentally, Petraeus now makes millions. By contrast, “lesser” folks – and particularly the brave men and women who disclose government crimes – get to serve time, even decades, in jail. Behold, the virtual immunity enjoyed by the well connected.

The lines have been drawn in many police departments: it’s us vs. them. Trust in many departments has been utterly shattered within some communities because the police hold themselves to a different standard than they do the populace.  But the recent cases of police brutality are simply a symptom of a much larger problem. Society in the US is breaking down, civility has been lost, and the country is rapidly becoming uncivilized. This extends within and across all of the most important institutions.

Today, we find precisely how and why Sarao was singled out: he not only ratted out the parasitic trading strategies of the real culprits behind the broken market, the massive HFT firms (such as Virtu which just went public just a day before the Sarao charges were filed) which gave the "regulators" no choice: one of them had to be put away for good, but found a way to capitalize on the algos' stupidity, and actually make money by beating them at their own game.  As such, regulators and exchanges such as the CFTC and CME had no choice but arrest him and prevent him from trading ever again!

This is the story of an 11-year-old boy who bravely defended his mom’s used of cannabis oil during a anti-drug program at his school...

The Statue of Liberty was evacuated Friday afternoon after someone called in a bomb threat and parks police reported a suspicious package, law enforcement sources tell NBC4 New York. The NYPD's bomb squad was called to the scene, along with EMS workers. A security sweep of the island is also being conducted. As yet, no devices have been found.

A woman who was arrested for allegedly plotting to break her husband out of jail pens an expletive-ridden tirade against a judge who dismissed her $10 billion lawsuit against the state. She also included an eloquent tax manifesto for good measure.

What’s so shocking about the story below is not that a 20-year veteran of the Houston police force, who was previously named one of the “Officers of the Year” by the Officers Union, was trafficking weapons for drug cartels. What’s shocking is that he was actually indicted and faces life in prison. He should’ve worked for a federal agency like the DEA or TSA, in which case he might not have even been fired.

Authorities have located one of the gold bars stolen last month in what was the eleventh-largest gold heist in history. Police now suspect the robbery may have been an inside job.

• FUTURES TRADER ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED ROLE IN 2010 FLASH CRASH
• FUTURES TRADER CHARGED WITH ILLEGALLY MANIPULATING STOCK MKT
• SARAO HAS BEEN CHARGED WITH COMMODITIES, WIRE FRAUD: GOELMAN
• SARAO WAS ARRESTED AT HIS HOME IN LONDON TODAY, GOELMAN SAYS
• CFTC FILES CIVIL CASE AGAINST NAVINDER SINGH SARAO

The American justice system is broken. Completely and totally broken... "The Justice Department and FBI have formally acknowledged that nearly every examiner in an elite FBI forensic unit gave flawed testimony in almost all trials in which they offered evidence against criminal defendants over more than a two-decade period before 2000."

June 1, 2015 is a very important day for American civil liberties and the Constitution. On that day, Section 215 of the Patriot Act, one of the most egregious pieces of legislation passed in U.S. history, will expire automatically without reauthorization from Congress. Naturally, this is causing a panic attack within the heart of the NSA, FBI and all the authoritarian lackey legislators in Washington D.C. With the chances of a clean reauthorization next to none, these crafty “representatives” and their puppeteers need to figure out a way to sneak it into another piece of legislation. What better way to do this than making it a part of something that ostensibly appears to be reining in surveillance powers. Enter the USA Freedom Act.