Society's ChildS


Airplane

Lufthansa jet and unmanned drone nearly collide at LAX

LAX control tower
The pilot of a commercial jetliner said his plane nearly collided with a drone while approaching Los Angeles International Airport on Friday afternoon, sparking a search by L.A. police and sheriff's officials for the owner of the unmanned aircraft.

The near-miss was reported before 2 p.m. about 14 miles east of the airport at an elevation of 5,000 feet and involved a Lufthansa Airbus A380, said Los Angeles police Lt. Robert Binder. The drone flew 200 feet over the aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

L.A. County Sheriff's Department and police helicopters were headed to the area to try and locate the drone pilot, Binder said, adding that it would be a long-shot search.

Document

More PCB contamination: Portland becomes 7th city to sue Monsanto

PCBs Portland
© flickerDowntown Portland and the Steel Bridge from the east side of the Willamette. The city has spent more than $1 billion cleaning up pollution in the river.
Portland, Oregon is suing Monsanto over contaminating the city's waterways with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a highly toxic group of chemicals that endangers human health and the environment.

Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday authorizing city attorney Tracy Reeve to sue the biotech giant.

"Portland's elected officials are committed to holding Monsanto accountable for its apparent decision to favor profits over ecological and human health," Reeve said in a statement. "Monsanto profited from selling PCBs for decades and needs to take responsibility for cleaning up after the mess it created."

Comment: Monsanto's dirty dealings — chemical reform bill could grant the evil empire legal immunity for PCB pollution
Pay no mind to research that demonstrates PCBs are exceptionally toxic to humans, wildlife and the environment. Also turn a blind eye to the fact that Monsanto knew for decades the chemical was extremely poisonous. And ignore that the corporation not only continued to manufacture the chemical after recognizing its toxicity, but decided it was a good idea to dump tonnes of raw PCBs into a creek adjacent to the chemical plant, essentially poisoning an entire community over the course of 40 years. For the grand finale, lets add a provision into a chemical reform bill, which protects Monsanto from lawsuits concerning said PCB contamination.

As noted by The Environmental Working Group: "Slipped at the last minute into the House version, H.R. 2576, of a bill to update the broken Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 is a provision that could shield the company from liability for decades of pollution with a family of chemicals made only by Monsanto: polychlorinated biphenyls, better known as PCBs. While the insertion was so subtle many lawmakers probably did not even notice it, the implications of the Monsanto bailout clause are huge. The implications of the provision — added at the last minute — are significant enough that perhaps it should be called the "Monsanto bailout clause."



Easter Egg

Crimea celebrates second anniversary of Russian reunification with massive rallies and fireworks

crimea anniversary celebration
© Reuters Children take part in a celebration of the anniversary of Russia's annexation of Crimea
President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Crimea on the second anniversary of the peninsula's reunification with Russia. The day saw massive celebrations across the country as well as a gorgeous fireworks display in Simferopol.

"This historical justice had been long awaited and dreamed of without any exaggeration by millions of people," Putin said as he congratulated the people on the Day of Sevastopol and Crimea's Reunification with Russia, stressing that it only became possible after "the residents of Crimea and Sevastopol freely voiced their preferences in a referendum two years ago."

On Friday, the Russian president visited Tuzla Island in the Crimea region, where he held a meeting dedicated to the development of the peninsula.

Comment: Crimea chose wisely: Growth fastest in 20 yrs thanks to Russia, sanctions


Airplane

Flydubai plane crash in Rostov-on-Don, Russia - kills all 62 passengers and crew on board

fludubai wreckage

Flydubai flight FZ981 has crashed in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don killing all 62 passengers and crew on board. The flight was en route from Dubai and crashed during its second landing approach amid poor weather conditions.

Air-traffic control and local emergency services confirmed that the Boeing 737-800 jet crashed near the runway during a second approach in conditions of poor visibility.

"According to preliminary data, the Boeing 738 crashed in poor visibility conditions, some 50-100 meters left of the runway," the source said.

A video recorded at the crash site reveals the Boeing-737-800 disintegrated on impact. Tiny pieces of the aircraft are scattered over a large part of the runway at Rostov-on-Don's airport.

Comment: Update 19 March 2016 - 8:24 UTC

RT cites a Russian emergency service employee stating that:
"According to preliminary information, the Boeing fell vertically, practically nose-diving into the ground. The debris was dispersed a short distance. And the fragments are small."
Indeed, this video, apparently showing the plane crash, shows something nosediving into the ground:


Another report cites an expert from the FOBOS weathercast center in southern Russia claiming that:
"The plane crash site experienced a very rare natural phenomenon - the so-called jet stream with wind speeds exceeding 100 km/h, close to hurricane force."
We could be looking at yet another airplane downed by some sort of extreme microburst.


Eye 1

'American ISIS fighter' surrenders after finding it 'very hard to live in Mosul'

American ISIS fighter
An ISIS fighter believed to be US-born says he wanted to return home after finding it "very hard" to live in Mosul, the terror group's stronghold. He told Kurdistan24 TV he was led to the area by someone who vowed to take him "near Turkey's border."

Mohamad Jamal Khweis, a 26-year-old US citizen from Virginia as described by the channel, surrendered himself to Kurdish Peshmerga forces near the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq on Monday, after living in Mosul for "about a month." The city is under the control of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).

In early 2016, Khewis traveled to Turkey via London and Amsterdam, where he met an Iraqi girl from Mosul. The two decided to travel to the IS stronghold together.

"First, we took a bus from Istanbul to Gaziantep...from there, a driver picked us up and took us to the border and then [we went] from Syria to Iraq," he told Kurdistan 24 news channel. They arrived in Mosul on January 16.

But before he even arrived in Mosul, Khewis realized he had made a "bad decision."

Comment: What did this man think he was going to find when he made it to Mosul and joined Daesh?


House

Over 200 families face eviction in Dublin after Goldman Sachs vulture fund deal

Homeless Man
Scores of families in the Tyrellstown area of Dublin, Ireland are at risk of losing their homes after a Goldman Sachs venture fund purchased an €89 million loan on their housing development.

Some 60 families have already been served eviction notices, according to The Sunday Business Post.

The move comes after Sachs purchased the loan that Irish company Twinlite had secured on the Cruise Park development. Sachs and Twinlite subsequently reached a deal to sell 208 of the development's houses.

Under Irish tenancy and eviction laws, landlords have to provide notice of between four and five months to their long-term tenants before evicting them from a property.

Many of the tenants at risk of eviction in Tyrellstown are social housing recipients, who will likely need to source alternative accommodation through their local authority. However, it is unclear where these people will go if forced from their current home, given the current demand for social housing.

According to figures published last month, there are almost 140,000 people currently on waiting lists for social housing properties around the country.

Bizarro Earth

Two brave women share hidden camera footage of life and death in the Daesh capital of Raqqa

Using hidden cameras, two brave Syrian women have apparently managed to provide a sneak peek into the heart of the terrorist movement known as Daesh.

Dilapidated buildings, armed religious police hunting for unaccompanied, 'improperly' dressed women, brutal public executions - this is, apparently, how the once-thriving Syrian city of Raqqa looks today, according to the Swedish newspaper Expressen, which managed to obtain the video.

The women had to be especially careful during their trips around the city, as females are prohibited from going about their business alone or dressing inappropriately.


Comment: These women are incredibly brave to stay in Raqqa to help their friend, and more so to have taken this footage and shared it with the world. A truly terrifying glimpse of the heart of Daesh and the evils supported by the West and its allies in the Middle East.


Sheriff

Cop arrested after punching & choking 7 year old girl for 'lying' to him

Ryan Ferguson
Ryan Ferguson, left, was arrested after medical examiners confirmed an unidentified girl's story of being brutally attacked by the officer.
Deputy Ryan Ferguson, 29, with the Pasco County Sheriff's Office was arrested Thursday after a 7-year-old girl came forward with disturbing allegations of brutality.

According to the arrest affidavit, the girl, who remains unnamed, told investigators that Ferguson shoved liquid soap into her mouth and accused her of lying. He then picked her up, threw her on the couch and began beating her rear end.

While choking and gagging from the soap, Ferguson then picked the little girl up and slammed her down on the tile floor where he attacked her further. Ferguson was throwing both open hand slaps and closed-fist punches into the face of this innocent child as he began choking her to death. According to the affidavit, the girl could barely breathe as he held his hand on her throat while punching her in the face.

The next day, the girl reported Ferguson to police and detectives confirmed her injuries. A doctor with Pasco's Child Protection Team (CPT) also found that the girl had bruises under her eyes, which were consistent with being choked for an extended period. She had bruises on her forehead, according to the doctor, which were consistent with being punched with a closed fist.

Comment: Regardless of their relationship, no child deserves to be treated like that. Unfortunately, it's likely that his position as an officer will be 'taken into consideration' throughout this process and that he'll receive special treatment because of it.


Airplane

Tragic: Passenger plane crashes at Rostov-on-Don airport in Russia

A passenger FlyDubai Boeing-737-800 en route from Dubai to Russia's Rostov-on-Don crashed at the city's airport after missing the runway amid poor visibility. There were 7 crew members and 55 passengers on board the crashed Boeing 737-800 plane, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a statement.
boeing 737 800
© Flickr/ Woodys Aeroimages
"According to preliminary information, there were 62 people on board (55 passengers and 7 crew members), the information is being verified," the statement on the ministry website says.


Most people on board the crashed passenger jet Boeing-737-800 were residents of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, there also were foreigners among them, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's Southern Regional Center's chief Igor Oder said Saturday.

"There were mainly residents of Rostov-on-Don on board. According to preliminary data, there also were three foreigners there," Oder said during a video conference in the Emergencies Ministry.

Better Earth

Revitalizing Food: Oglala Lakota chef serves pre-colonization menu

Lakota chef
A Lakota chef is helping bring a Native American food culture into the modern world.

Before there was fry bread, there were sage, white pine, chokecherries and wild buffalo.

Before Europeans unloaded wheat and sugar cane and introduced beef to Turtle Island, Natives hunted and fished. They planted potatoes, squash and corn, and they flavored their food with purslane, rose hips and dandelion.

That traditional diet, or what Chef Sean Sherman calls the "pre-colonization diet," is the bedrock for a new restaurant set to open this fall in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Sherman, who is Oglala Lakota, plans to use only indigenous foods in the restaurant, which he has appropriately named The Sioux Chef.