Society's ChildS


Ambulance

Princeton study finds white middle-aged people in US dying quicker than in any other developed nation


RT
Tue, 03 Nov 2015 15:28 UTC
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© Toby Melville / ReutersCity workers cross the Millennium footbridge over the River Thames on a misty morning in London, Britain, November 2, 2015.
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Angus Deaton and Anne Case have come out with shocking conclusions that white middle-aged Americans are the only first-world group of people dying faster than their counterparts in any other developed country.

According to them, this is due to an out-of-control alcohol and drug habit, as well as suicide and depression. Researchers have described this as an "epidemic" that threatens the fabric of future America.

The research by economists Deaton and Anne Case, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, follows another paper of theirs from 1999, where questions were raised regarding the relationship between income and mortality.

Comment: A sad statistic indeed for the US. A culmination of factors that will be difficult to address in the current economic situation.

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2 + 2 = 4

Recent 'Teacher Of The Year' and 21-year teaching veteran resigns in Alabama after being told she's 'unqualified to teach above 3rd grade'

Bill Chappell
NPR
Sat, 31 Oct 2015 02:30 UTC
Oliver Elementary School in Birmingham, Alabama
© Google MapsOliver Elementary School in Birmingham, Ala., where Ann Marie Corgill taught until Friday. The recent Alabama Teacher of the Year says she quit her job after being told she wasn't highly qualified to teach fifth grade.
Less than two years after being named Alabama's Teacher of the Year, Ann Marie Corgill resigned her post this week, citing her frustration with bureaucracy. After Corgill was moved from teaching second grade to fifth, she was told she wasn't qualified to teach fifth-graders.

In January, Corgill was named one of four finalists for the National Teacher of the Year award. She is a 21-year teaching veteran whose story — and candid resignation letter — has made waves in the education community and beyond.

After running into a "wall of bureaucracy," Corgill said in a statement to AL.com, "When the news came that I was not considered highly qualified, my frustration boiled over."

Comment: Thankfully, Corgill isn't the only one that sees the institutional problems with the American education system, and her standing up adds to the chorus calling for real, positive change.

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Pills

California doctor convicted of murder by over-prescription

Steve Gorman
Yahoo News
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 15:09 UTC
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© Los Angeles TimesDr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng Tseng is charged with second-degree murder.
A Southern California doctor was found guilty of murder on Friday for over-prescribing drugs that caused the fatal overdose of three patients, in a landmark verdict prosecutors called the first such conviction in the United States.

The case comes amid what public health officials describe as a national epidemic of prescription drug abuse. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last year the trend was fueling nearly 17,000 overdose deaths annually, as well as a rise in heroin addiction.

Comment: While it appears that Dr. Tseng was giving her patients potent, addictive medications that they may have not needed, one has to wonder when Big Pharma will be held accountable for their role in unnecessary prescription deaths: Big Pharma: Getting Away With Murder
Big Pharma companies are not in the business of curing disease. They are out to make money - even if it costs your life. It's high time for a corporate death penalty in America along with appropriate prison sentences for those behind the crimes.


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Bomb

Amazon's new parental leave policy is good, and good public relations

Julia Greenberg
Wired
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 15:18 UTC
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Amazon has updated its parental leave plan. The retail giant has expanded paid maternity leave to up to 20 weeks for birth moms and added six weeks of paid leave for new parents regardless of gender.

As reported by The Seattle Times, this means that for the first time new dads at the company will be able to take time off following the birth (or adoption) of a child.The news comes just months after other tech giants, most notably Microsoft, Adobe, and Netflix, announced improved parental leave plans for their employees. Amazon, meanwhile, has faced public scrutiny over how it treats its employees following a scathing New York Times investigation that called its work culture into question. (Amazon and the Times later engaged in a very public back-and-forth over the fairness and accuracy of the story.)

Comment: We'd like to welcome Amazon, Microsoft, Adobe, and Netflix to the 21st century. According to Wikipedia, "In 2014, the International Labor Organization reviewed parental leave policies in 185 countries and territories, and found that all countries except two (the USA and Papau New Guinea) have laws mandating leave; laws vary in whether leave is paid by the employer or through social security." So while the USA still has no law requiring paternal leave, it appears some of the larger companies are now instituting their own policies, quite possibly only to avoid bad public relations, which of course hampers their profits.

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2 + 2 = 4

The extraordinary case of the Guevedoces


BBC News
Sun, 20 Sep 2015 14:11 UTC
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Catherine and his cousin Carla, Guevedoces in the Dominican Republic
The discovery of a small community in the Dominican Republic, where some males are born looking like girls and only grow penises at puberty, has led to the development of a blockbuster drug that has helped millions of people, writes Michael Mosley.

Johnny lives in a small town in the Dominican Republic where he, and others like him, are known as "Guevedoces", which effectively translates as "penis at twelve".
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Camcorder

ACLU obtains gov documents on Stingray surveillance spy tools - your cell phone is a bug


RT
Tue, 03 Nov 2015 05:02 UTC
stingray
© www.rt.com'intrusive' and 'secretive'
The ACLU has acquired the Justice Department's guidelines on the use of Stingray technology, showing the surveillance tools are capable of tracking targets, recording and listening in on calls - even of innocent parties - and bugging.

"The government is using intrusive new forms of technology to invade our privacy but it is shrouding its practices in secrecy, and Stingrays are a very poignant example of that," Linda Lye, senior staff attorney with the Northern California American Civil Liberties Union, told RT. "We shouldn't have to surrender our privacy merely by using the modern conveniences of daily modern life like a cell phone."

The documents confirm long-held suspicions that the controversial devices, which mimic cell phone towers and trick cell phones into thinking it is a legitimate tower, are capable of recording the numbers of a mobile phone's incoming and outgoing calls, as well as intercepting the content of voice and text communications.


Comment: There is currently no official transparency nor disclosure of the stingray operation and its usage capacity. In fact, prosecutors have agreed to drop cases rather than disclose information about the technology. Is this kind and depth of surveillance warranted? And, maybe equally important: what, exactly, happens to all that secretly collected data from both criminal targets and innocent third parties? We will most likely never know.

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Fire

US infrared satellite detected 'heat flash' over Sinai prior to Russian plane crash


RT
Tue, 03 Nov 2015 07:16 UTC
Sinai desert from Airbus A-321-200
© Doomych / WikipediaSinai desert from Airbus A-321-200
Just before a Russian passenger airliner crashed in Egypt's Sinai on Saturday, a US infrared satellite reportedly detected a heat flash in the same vicinity, indicating that an explosion may have happened on board.

The US intelligence community believes that a fuel tank or bomb may have been the source of the heat signature, NBC News reported. The same satellite ruled out a missile attack, as it didn't detect a heat trail that a rocket engine would have produced, the channel's source said.

The heat flash may not be related to the crash since the Sinai Peninsula is a volatile place with regular military activity, a Pentagon official told ABC News.

Comment: An exploding "fuel tank or bomb" or even meteor perhaps, could produce such a heat signature. See also: Russian Flight 9268 downed by extreme weather/meteor event?

On another note, if a U.S. satellite can track the heat trail of any missile fired from the ground, why haven't they come forward with any information about the alleged BUK missile that took down MH17? We guess their infrared sensors just don't work in Ukraine!

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Stock Down

Heartbreaking: Study estimates over 100,000 UK children will be homeless this Christmas


RT
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 17:40 UTC
homeless child in shelter
© Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters
More than 100,000 vulnerable children in Britain will wake up homeless on Christmas Day, a leading charity has revealed.

The report by homelessness charity Shelter found the number of children who will be homeless on Christmas morning has risen by more than 15,000 on last year. This is equivalent to four youngsters in every UK school.

It also found the number of children living in temporary accommodation is at the highest level since 2008, and is predicted to hit 105,251 by the end of 2015.

Since 2010, the year Prime Minister David Cameron first took office, the number of families living in bed and breakfast accommodation has more than trebled to almost 2,700, the report found.

Comment: It's truly heartbreaking to see so many children suffering from economic disparity and homelessness while the rich just keep on getting richer and richer. A government run by people with consciences would tax the excessively wealthy and the corporations to ensure that no child went hungry or homeless, especially at Christmas. See more:

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Stormtrooper

New Jersey cops beat a man bloody over parking infraction, their department says 'nothing wrong'


Filming Cops
Sat, 31 Oct 2015 23:06 UTC
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Phillip A. DuBose and his wife, Cheryl, sued the city, the Bridgeton Police Department and six police officers after a Feb. 20, 2013 traffic stop that left DuBose with a concussion, two orbital fractures, eye injuries, and numerous abrasions, according to court documents cited by the Press of Atlantic City.
Bridgeton city has paid half a million dollars to settle a court case filed by a couple that suffered abuse at the hands of local police two years ago. However, the department says the officers involved acted responsibly and exactly as they should have, that they engaged in "no wrongful conduct."


Comment: That's a terrible contradiction. The department settled the lawsuit for half a million dollars, but still maintains these officers 'acted responsibly and exactly as they should have?' If that's so, why the payout?


On February 20, 2013 Cheryl DuBose was hoping that the staff at the Bridgeton police station would be helpful. She had gone there looking for her husband. A police officer named Lieutenant J. Branch seemed to have some information about Phillip DuBose, but his attitude was far from helpful.

He asked: "Wanna see your husband, Missy?" Then he showed her photograph of her husband, which had been taken only hours ago; in it Philip's face was bruised and he was bleeding profusely. For Cheryl this was a complete shock.

In addition to this, the officers at the station made it extremely difficult for her to post her husband's bail. They asked her numerous times for her bank book and other documents. Branch is not the only officer who showed insensitivity towards the DuBoses that night.

Comment: So not only did they brutally assault this man over a parking infraction, they harassed him and his wife afterward. Then the 'thin blue line' comes down hard and defends the officers actions? Time and time again we see police behaving like childhood bullies, committing crimes in the process, and getting away with it.

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Sheriff

Ex-cop on trial for raping a teenage girl while on duty, other officers reportedly watched

Cassandra Fairbanks
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 02 Nov 2015 22:41 UTC
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Erasmo Mata, Jr. pictured right, is accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a child
Trial is set to begin December 1, in the case of former Pharr police officer Erasmo Mata, Jr., accused of repeated first-degree felony sexual assaults of a child. A federal civil lawsuit filed with Texas Southern District Court back in May accused Mata of assaulting the minor five times, on five separate occasions, all while on duty. The suit alleges that the attacks took place in abandoned houses around the city as other Pharr police officers stood by and watched.

The lawsuit also accused the department of engaging in a cover-up to protect the officers from criminal charges, as well as not conducting a rape kit or immediately testing the evidence.

The lawsuit was filed against the officer, the City of Pharr, the Pharr Police Department and the Pharr police chief. Claims against the City of Pharr and the Pharr Police Chief Ruben Villescas were dismissed, however the motion to dismiss Mata was denied. The Pharr Police Department did an internal investigation, but the family claims Chief Villescas told them not to hire an attorney and that he would personally take care of the allegations against the officer, Valley Central reports.


Comment: In typically psychopathic fashion, someone took the fall. The larger crime of covering-up the rape or indicting the higher-ups gets a pass, however. More evidence that the problem with the police is not 'a few bad apples'.


Comment: It's been clear to those of us paying attention to the police force in the US that there is a systemic problem. Officers who commit crimes are generally never charged. When they are, the rate of convictions is very low, and then their sentences are much lighter than the general population. One could argue that when an officer abuses his or her authority they should receive harsher sentences, but that doesn't seem to happen.

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