Society's ChildS


Stormtrooper

Wrongful conviction based on exaggerated FBI testimony leads to $13m payment


RT
Mon, 29 Feb 2016 00:53 UTC
FBI v
© Chip East / Reuters
A judge has ordered the District of Columbia to pay $13.2 million to a man who served 28 years in prison based on flawed, overstated FBI testimony regarding forensic hair evidence.

Santae A. Tribble, 55, was put on trial for the 1978 killing of a taxi driver in Southeast Washington, DC. In the trial leading up to Tribble's January 1980 conviction, an FBI forensics examiner testified that Tribble's hair matched those found in a stocking at the crime scene, saying that it would be a "1 in 10 million" chance that the hairs belonged to someone else.

Tribble was exonerated in 2012, after court-ordered DNA testing confirmed his hair did not match any of the 13 hairs found at the scene of the crime. The hairs had come from three other people and a dog.

Tribble's "journey of injustice subjected [him] to all the horror, degradation, and threats to personal security and privacy inherent in prison life, each heightened by his youth, actual innocence, and life sentence," wrote DC Superior Court Judge John M. Mott in his opinion, released on Friday, according to the Washington Post.
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Pistol

4 students injured in Ohio high school shooting


RT
Mon, 29 Feb 2016 23:08 UTC
madison high school
© madison-lake.k12.oh.us
Four students were injured during a shooting at Madison High School in Mansfield, Ohio. A fifth student is in custody, and all students are safe, according to the school district.

At least two of the injured students were airlifted to nearby hospitals, the Butler County Journal-News reported. None of the injuries are life-threatening, Madison Local Schools said in a statement.

Two of the students were shot, and the other two are believed to have been injured by shrapnel, WLWT reported, citing Butler County investigators. The shooting occurred in the school's cafeteria.
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Horse

A New York City night-mare: Cooked horse head found in city park


RT
Mon, 29 Feb 2016 20:20 UTC
Horse head
© Carlo Allegri / ReutersLuckily this horse found himself a job.
A Sunday stroll turned squeamish when a woman discovered a severed horse head in a box in Manhattan's Highbridge Park. The head ‒ which appeared to have been cooked ‒ was found in a cardboard box alongside fruit, vegetables and other animal bones.

The woman was taking a walk at 11am when she found a discarded Corona beer box containing the grisly contents that were likely part of someone's meal, a police source told the New York Post.

We know Europeans have a taste for "horse-burgers," but has the fad finally reached the US?

Probably not, according to police, who say the horse was likely an unlucky guest at Dominican Republic's Independence Day celebrations on Sunday and used as part of a meal. Goat and sheep body parts were also discovered in nearby Inwood Hill Park.

Were all the butchers in New York closed on Sunday? Surely there was a better way to get meat than this. Or was this a Godfather-style warning message from the New York pedicab drivers?
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Control Panel

Odious Trump is favorite candidate of a corrupt U.S. police state

John Vibes
True Activist
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 20:20 UTC
Fascist Trump
© Wikimedia
This week, presidential candidate Donald Trump released a nauseating video praising police, at a time when they are killing and arresting more innocent people than ever. In the video, Trump attempted to gloss over the harm that police have on American culture, and instead suggested that the daily crimes committed and oppression inflicted is just "a few bad apples" or bad situations.

"The fact is, they do an incredible job, we have to give them more authority and more respect. Without police, we wouldn't be sitting here, we wouldn't have the lives we have," Trump said in the video.

However, if there were so many "good cops" out there as Trump claims, then they would break ranks with the other police and actually do something about the "bad cops." Instead, these supposed good cops allow the corruption to continue, and they themselves continue to enforce laws that they know are unjust. The only good cops are the ones who become whistleblowers, break ranks with their gang, and refuse to enforce unjust laws.

Trump suggests that police need to be given more authority when in reality the problem is that they already have so much authority that they are effectively above the law.

Trump's constant praise of police during a time where they are extremely popular, has already won him some votes and support from law enforcement. While most of the other candidates are recognizing the problems that exist with police brutality, at least for the sake of pandering to voters, Trump has taken a hard line in support of police and has disregarded any of the legitimate complaints against him.

Several months ago one of the larger police unions in the country actually went so far as to endorse Donald Trump.
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Laptop

Hysteria: 12-year-old Virginia girl charged for emoji choices to combat bullying on Instagram


RT
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 01:46 UTC
Emojis
© Mike Pont/Getty Images for AWXII/AFP
It may already be hard enough to figure out someone's tone on the internet, but emoji are now adding a whole new layer of complexity. In Virginia, a middle school student is currently facing charges after punctuating an online post with guns and a bomb.

Although first reported by the Washington Post over the weekend, the case actually dates back to December 14, 2015. At the time, a resource officer at Sidney Lanier Middle School in Fairfax, Virginia was tipped off to a potentially threatening post that was made on Instagram.

The post itself featured the word "killing," followed by a gun emoji. It also stated, "meet me in the library Tuesday," which was in turn followed by emojis of a gun, a knife, and a bomb.

Afterwards, an emergency request was issued and investigators discovered that the IP address for the Instagram account belonged to a 12-year-old female student at Sidney Lanier Middle School. According to a search warrant from the case, the girl admitted that she made the post and used another student's name to do so.

Police ended up charging her with threatening the school and computer harassment, though the threat. While the case is currently on track for juvenile court later this month, the Washington Post said that it is not certain whether the girl will still appear or if the case has been resolved.

The student has not been identified, but the girl's mother did tell the newspaper that the student created the post as a result of bullying, that the girl has "never been in trouble before," and that she believes the charges were unwarranted.


Comment: America's Children: The trials of growing up in a police state

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Bomb

How your car could replace your credit card


Credit.com
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 05:18 UTC
Honda and Visa showed the ability to pay for gas and parking in-car and without a credit card.
© Matt HamblenHonda and Visa showed the ability to pay for gas and parking in-car and without a credit card.
Get ready for a whole new type of "auto" pay. Visa announced earlier this week that it is developing new technology that would effectively turn your car into a credit card — at least when it comes to paying for gas and parking.

The issuer is currently teaming up with Honda and Park Whiz to test out two apps that allow for car-based commerce via your vehicle's dashboard. Its Fuel App is designed to notify drivers when they're running low on gas, direct them to a nearby station and pay for the exact amount of fuel needed once they're next to the pump. Drivers also would potentially be able to pay for convenience store items with the app.

Visa's Parking App similarly allows people to pay the exact amount they owe at parking meters, eliminating annoying overpayments as well as the need to race back to your car if your shopping trip runs a bit longer than expected. The app, instead, would keep of track of how much time you were spending at a spot and pay once the parking session was through.

Comment: Consumers would be wise to use such technology sparingly, or not at all.

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Quenelle

With manure from 15 cows and bulls, fed up Ohio farmer expresses his feelings for Donald Trump

Amanda Froelich
True Activist
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 19:18 UTC
Trump is BS
© CNN/Screenshot
Sick of Donald Trump and politics, this farmer spelled out his feelings with manure from 15 cows and bulls.

Most people use social media to express their favor or disdain for certain candidates, not manure from the barnyard. But, then again, Jerry Slankard of Strasburg, Ohio, is not most people.

The farmer, who feels very strongly about the upcoming presidential election, used the manure of 15 cows and bulls to spell out a message on his land.

As is revealed in the video above, the message "No Trump" is splayed across his property.

Certainly, you have to be very passionate about a topic to invest the amount of time and skill required to send a message to air travelers... in manure.

According to Daily KOS, it took Slankard four hours to haul enough manure to finish his Donald-is-full-of-sh*t message.

Where candidate he's hoping makes it in the White House, we're not sure. But what is clear, is that he's hoping Trump - or Drumpf - stays as far away from office as possible.

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Family

American family values: Fox host Bill O'Reilly loses custody of children over domestic abuse allegations


RT
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 13:49 UTC
Bill O'Reilly
© Brendan McDermid / Reuters
Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly lost custody of his teenage children over allegations of domestic abuse by his ex-wife.

The New York Appellate Division unanimously ruled that O'Reilly's 13- and 17-year-old children should live full time with their mother, Maureen McPhilmy, who was married to the conservative commentator for 15 years.

A 1,400 word opinion using anonymous names was issued by the court last week, but the media only figured out who it was this week.

The ruling states it was the "clearly stated preferences of the children" to live with McPhilmy, citing their "age and maturity"as well as "the home environment provided" by her.

Comment: Will Fox News give this slimy creature the boot? O'Reilly has been Fox's "Lewis Prothero" (from V for Vendetta), spouting his disease-ridden degeneracy for years. The day he's no longer on the air will be one for celebration.

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Laptop

'Fessing up: IRS now admits hackers targeted 1.2 million Americans


RT
Tue, 01 Mar 2016 18:54 UTC
Irs hackers
© Dado Ruvic / Reuters
Hackers may have compromised more than 700,000 taxpayer accounts, the Internal Revenue Service revealed, more than doubling the number it first reported in May 2015. Another 300,000 IRS accounts were targeted, but hackers failed to steal any data.

On Monday, the IRS started notifying the taxpayers whose accounts at "Get Transcript" application were targeted by hackers.

"The IRS is moving immediately to notify and help protect these taxpayers, including through free identity theft protection services as well as Identity Protection PINs," the IRS said in a statement.

The agency announced on Friday that its "expanded review" revealed that 390,000 more users might have been compromised by hackers, bringing a total number to 724,000 Americans.

Comment: "We are moving quickly to help these taxpayers." How nice of them. Why design a better system in the first place? Or better yet, how about the IRS stop collecting every single scrap of personal information they can get their hands on?

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Black Cat

Fed fraud charges over food stamp program could topple Warren Jeffs's polygamous Utah sect

Yanan Wang
Washington Post
Wed, 24 Feb 2016 20:57 UTC
polygamy Jeff food stamps scandal
© Rick Bowmer/Associated PressIn this Jan. 21, 2015, file photo, Lyle Jeffs leaves the federal courthouse in Salt Lake City.
The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has found itself in dire straits.

Warren Jeffs, the leader of the polygamist sect on the Utah-Arizona border, is currently serving a life sentence for child rape. The self-described "prophet" is associated with a slew of accusations, from exerting tyrannical control over his numerous wives to molesting underage girls.

With Jeffs behind bars as of 2011, however, his brother Lyle Jeffs has taken over FLDS. But the church's legal tangles didn't end after their leader's imprisonment.

The community of Hildale in Utah once run by jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs is split between loyalists who still believe Jeffs is a victim of religious persecution and defectors who are embracing government efforts to modernize the town.
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