Society's ChildS

Light Sabers

US: Adult children's 'bad mothering' lawsuit dismissed

Steve Schmadeke
Chicago Tribune
Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:34 UTC
Raised in a $1.5 million Barrington Hills, Ill., home by their attorney father, two grown children have spent the last two years pursuing a unique lawsuit against their mom for "bad mothering" that alleges damages caused when she failed to buy toys for one and sent another a birthday card he didn't like.

The alleged offenses include failing to take her daughter to a car show, telling her then 7-year-old son to buckle his seat belt or she would contact police, "haggling" over the amount to spend on party dresses and calling her daughter at midnight to ask that she return home from celebrating homecoming.

Last week, at which point the court record stood about a foot tall, an Illinois appeals court dismissed the case, finding that none of the mother's conduct was "extreme or outrageous." To rule in favor of her children, the court found, "could potentially open the floodgates to subject family childrearing to ... excessive judicial scrutiny and interference."
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Newspaper

US: Soldier Sought in 4 Deaths Found Dead in Pennsylvania

Nancy C. Albritton and Ron Todt
The Associated Press
Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:21 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Warwick Township Police DepartmentLeonard John Egland.
An Army officer suspected of killing four people in Pennsylvania and Virginia was found dead in a wooded area Sunday after a manhunt during Tropical Storm Irene's winds and drenching rains paralyzed residents in this Philadelphia suburb.

Hours after he fired at several officers, wounding two of them, the body of Leonard John Egland, 37, of Fort Lee, Va., was found around 3:30 p.m. in this Bucks County community, said Warwick Township Police Chief Mark Goldberg.

The police chief said Egland had a gunshot wound but he would leave it to the coroner to determine whether it was self-inflicted.

Egland's body was found several hundred yards behind a Lukoil gas station where authorities say he had fired a semiautomatic rifle at SWAT team members who discovered his truck and found him before dawn in a trash bin. The officers chased him into the woods but lost him as the storm raked the area, Goldberg said.

"It was bad," he said. "Weather conditions were horrible and it was a very dangerous situation."
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Stop

Gulf Air plane skids off runway in India


BBC
Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:21 UTC
Image
© Associated PressThe flight was carrying 137 passengers
A Gulf Air plane has come off the runway at Kochi airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala, injuring at least seven passengers.

The flight, coming from Bahrain, was carrying 137 passengers and six crew. An inquiry has begun into the accident.

Officials say the runway is closed and several flights have been diverted.

Reports said some passengers jumped down from the aircraft in panic through the emergency door even before the ladder was brought to the flight.
'Jumped too soon'

"The Gulf Air flight GF270 deviated from the runway at 0355 [2225GMT] this [Monday] morning," news agency Press Trust of India (PTI) quoted airport director ACK Nair as saying.
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Question

Arizona, US: Unexplained power outages cause one man concern for his families health

Joe Ducey
ABC News
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:00 UTC
Power outages can be life-threatening with this extreme Valley heat.

It's especially troublesome for the elderly or people with medical conditions.

One Valley man emailed the ABC15 Investigators about unexplained overnight blackouts over a few weeks.

He's mostly concerned because he and his daughter have asthma and need cool temperatures to breathe well.

"It's almost like a drowning feeling and that's what happened the last three weekends for me," he remembered.

The man says it happened on three recent and consecutive Saturday nights.


He says the power was off for a total of about eight hours, and the whole neighborhood was affected, including street lights.
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Book

How Disney Instills Greed and Consumerism in Babies as Young as Three Months Old

Martha Sorren
Alternet
Fri, 26 Aug 2011 22:17 UTC
Image
© Alternet
Few people have considered the hold that the Disney Corporation has not only on their own lives, but on the world as a whole.

In American culture, Disney has become synonymous with childhood. Present-day grandparents grew up watching the animated films, wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas and begging to go to Disneyland. But while it all seems innocent, few people have considered the hold that the Disney Corporation has not only on their own lives, but on the world as a whole.

Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock explore this relationship between consumer and industry in their book The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence. [Full disclosure: Henry Giroux is a member of Truthout's Board of Directors.]
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Bizarro Earth

Local Reporter Covering Hurricane Gets Slathered In 'Sea Foam' (Likely Raw Sewage?)

Frances Martel
Mediaite
Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:56 UTC
sea foam,sewage
© Snip/Fox

The image says it all: WTTG Fox D.C. reporter Tucker Barnes braved the beach at Ocean City, Maryland to give a live report of the wind and water power of Hurricane Irene. Except, unlike most of the unfortunate, courageous reporters out tonight braving the elements, Barnes had to suffer neither rain nor water, but what he called "sea foam," which Fox later explained was "probably the remnants of raw sewage."

Barnes was covering the storm Maryland for WTTG, but also reported in live for Fox's New York affiliate - just as many of the media's bravest (and Geraldo Rivera) have been doing all day up and down the East Coast. Barnes explained to the anchors at home, however, that what was engulfing him didn't "taste" or "smell" great and had a "sandy consistency," but he had no idea what it was, other than "some sort of organic batter." At some point, Barnes mostly disappeared under the foam, knee-deep in foam. The worst part? According to WTTF, the "bizarre wild substance that is about to bury you" was "often a toxic mix of pollution and cyanobacteria."

If this isn't award-winning storm coverage, it's at the very least some irrefutable evidence to bring to the table for a worker's comp claim.

The video from WNYW Fox 5 below:
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Alarm Clock

US: Texas Boy, 10, Died After Parents 'Refused to Let Him Drink Water for Five Days as Punishment'

John Stevens
Dailymail.co.uk
Sun, 28 Aug 2011 15:12 UTC
A 10-year-old boy collapsed and died in front of his twin brother after his parents refused to let him drink water for five day, it is claimed.

Jonathan James died from dehydration in Dallas after his father and step mother allegedly denied him water as punishment after he took some guitar strings from one of his siblings.

Michael Ray James and Tina Maria Alberson have been arrested and charged with injury to a child.
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Briefcase

Altai Ethnic Group to Sue Russian Officials Over Progress Loss


RIA Novosti
Sun, 28 Aug 2011 07:26 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti/Oleg UrusovThe Progress M-12M
Tubalar - small ethnic group native to the Alati Repubglic's Choya district where Russia's ill-fated Progress space freighter recently fell, will file a lawsuit against officials guilty of the incident, minority's leader Maria Sakova said on Sunday.

The Progress M-12M space freighter, carrying food and other items to the ISS, fell in South Siberia's Altai Republic on August 24 after failing to separate from its Soyuz-U carrier rocket, the first loss of a Progress freighter in the history of Russia's space industry. A rocket engine failure is believed to have caused the accident.

The freighter was carrying toxic heptyl fuel, although experts say it would have burnt up in the atmosphere. Russian medical officials have also said no trace of the fuel has been discovered.
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Stormtrooper

Shooting and Crying: Israeli Soldiers After Their Service

David Zlutnick
Truthout
Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:30 UTC
Israeli soldiers
© Rina Castelnuovo/The New York TimesIsraeli soldiers and relatives mourn during the funeral of Staff Sgt. Moshe Naftali, who was killed in an attack by militants on Thursday, at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, Aug. 19, 2011.

"Shooting and crying" is a phrase popular in Israel regarding soldiers and their engagement with civilian life following combat. In this short film, former Israeli soldiers reflect on their service and reintegration into society following their experiences serving in the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. From attempting to break their "violent instincts" to grappling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), from escapism to apathy, the realities of soldiering in an occupying army are explored from the point of view of those who have been there and didn't like what they saw.
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Dollar

Canada: British Columbia Votes 55% to Scrap HST


CBC News
Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:17 UTC
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© CBC NewsB.C. Finance Minster Kevin Falcon says it will take the province about 18 months to reinstate the seven per cent PST and five per cent GST.
British Columbians have voted to scrap the province's controversial harmonized sales tax, according to the results of a binding, province-wide referendum.

Elections B.C. announced on Friday morning that 54.73 per cent of the 1.6 million British Columbians who cast a ballot in the mail-in referendum voted to get rid of the tax and 45.27 per cent voted to keep it.

B.C. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon said the government will now move to reinstate the PST with all of its previous exemptions. The transition is expected to take at least 18 months he said.

Falcon said eliminating the HST and reinstating the PST will cost the province more than $3 billion, but the province has a plan already in place to manage the change.
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