Society's ChildS


Roses

Veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas dies


CBS News
Sat, 20 Jul 2013 10:03 UTC
Helen Thomas
© www.kruufm.com
Veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas died early Saturday morning in Washington, D.C., CBS News confirms. She was 92 years old.

A cousin of Thomas' confirmed her passing to CBS News White House correspondent Peter Maer. There are tentative plans for a funeral in her hometown of Detroit. Friends and relatives are also discussing a Washington remembrance at a future date.

During a long career in Washington, Thomas covered every president since Dwight Eisenhower. She worked for 57 years for United Press International, where she eventually became White House bureau manager. Between 2000 and 2010, she was a columnist for Hearst Newspapers.

An indefatigable presence in the White House briefing room, Thomas became a pioneer for female journalists. She was the first female member of the Gridiron Club and the first female president of the White House Correspondents' Association. As news of her death spread on Saturday, several prominent female journalists took to Twitter to hail Thomas as a groundbreaking figure.

Despite her long career, Thomas became embroiled in controversy in 2010 when she was asked about her views on the State of Israel. An Arab American who was raised as a Christian, Thomas suggested Israel was "occupying" Palestine and that Israelis should "get the hell out."
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Bad Guys

Italian senator says black minister has 'features of orangutan'

Lizzy Davies
The Guardian
Sun, 14 Jul 2013 08:33 UTC
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© Tiziano Brodolini/Barcroft MedCécile Kyenge, who has faced repeated racial slurs since becoming minister for integration in April.
Roberto Calderoli is condemned after speech in which he also said Cécile Kyenge should work as minister 'in her country'.

The Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, has condemned as unacceptable comments made by a senior rightwing senator in which he suggested the country's first black government minister had "the features of an orangutan".

Cécile Kyenge, an eye surgeon who was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo but has Italian citizenship, has faced repeated racial slurs and threats since being appointed minister for integration by Letta in April.

She was once again on the receiving end of grossly offensive comments on Saturday when Roberto Calderoli, a former minister under Silvio Berlusconi and senate vice-president of the Northern League, told a rally in the northern town of Treviglio that Kyenge would be better off working as a minister "in her country".

According to the Corriere della Sera, which reported the event, he added: "I love animals - bears and wolves, as is known - but when I see the pictures of Kyenge I cannot but think of the features of an orangutan, even if I'm not saying she is one."

The remark provoked horror from the rest of the Italian political class, especially in Kyenge's centre-left Democratic party. In a statement, Letta said the remarks were unacceptable. "Full solidarity and support to Cécile," he added.

Asked about the comments, Kyenge said it was not up to her to call on Calderoli to resign, but hoped all politicians would "reflect on their use of communication". "I do not take Calderoli's words as a personal insult but they sadden me because of the image they give of Italy," she told the Ansa news agency.
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Handcuffs

Berlusconi found guilty of paying for sex with underage prostitute, sentenced to THIRD prison term so far this year

Lizzy Davies
The Guardian
Tue, 25 Jun 2013 08:08 UTC
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© AFP/Getty ImagesSilvio Berlusconi, left, and Karima el-Mahroug, known as Ruby Rubacuori, who both deny having 'intimate relations'.
Former Italian prime minister given seven-year jail term and banned from public office for life at Milan court.

After more than 26 months, 50 court hearings and countless breathless column inches from journalists worldwide, it took just four minutes for the sentence that Silvio Berlusconi had feared to be delivered. At 5.19pm, before a fascist-era sculpture showing two men struck down by a towering figure, the judges swept into the courtroom and pronounced their damning verdict for Italy's longest-serving postwar prime minister. By 5.23pm, it was all over.

At the culmination of a trial that helped strike the final nail in the coffin of the playboy politician's international reputation, the judges found Berlusconi guilty both of paying for sex with the underage prostitute nicknamed Ruby Heartstealer and abusing his office to cover it up. They even went beyond the prosecutors' sentencing requests, ordering him to serve seven - rather than six - years in prison and face a lifetime ban on holding public office.

Perhaps fittingly for a case that cast a spotlight on the murky nexus of sex and power that prosecutors argued was at the heart of his premiership - in which young women were procured, they said, "for the personal sexual satisfaction" of the billionaire septuagenarian - all three judges were female.

Comment: Berlusconi sentenced to 1 year behind bars in wiretap trial
Don't hold your breath: Ex Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to 4 years in jail for tax fraud after losing appeal - Will appeal again to higher court

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Stock Up

Czech food prices grew nearly 7 percent in 2012, fastest rate in EU


Global Times
Sat, 20 Jul 2013 06:28 UTC
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The consumer prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks in the Czech Republic grew by 6.9 percent in 2012, which was the fastest growth among all European Union (EU) members, a report said on Friday.

According to the report compiled by the Institute of Agricultural Economics and Information (UZEI), the growth was driven mainly by a growth of value added tax (VAT) rate on food from 10 to 14 percent, a 7 percent rise in prices of imported food, and a growth in commodity and energy prices.

Prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks in the Czech increased more than 2.5 times compared with the average growth in the entire EU.

"Beside a higher VAT and higher prices of agricultural commodities, food prices were also affected by a growth in imports of food from abroad, a growth in energy prices, inflation and then by retailers' higher margins above all on higher-quality food," said Food Chamber spokeswoman Jarmila Stolcova.
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Cards

One way to deal with a gambling addiction? Axe-wielding man smashes slot machines in northern Italy


YouTube
Sat, 20 Jul 2013 00:31 UTC
Nure Bregu smashed up the machines at a bar near Padua in northern Italy. He walked into the bar and smashed up the machines in a 30 second rage. When he had finished, the father-of-two calmly walked back outside. He was arrested and sentenced to six months in jail in an immediate trial. Bregu, a labourer, will not serve the sentence due to prison overcrowding. This is the dramatic moment a frustrated gambler returned to an Italian bar and smashed up seven fruit machines with an axe after losing more than £4,000.

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Handcuffs

Questions haunt family of man with Down syndrome who died in police custody

Theresa Vargas
The Washington Post
Thu, 18 Jul 2013 22:21 UTC
ethan saylor
© Katherine Frey / The Washington PostPhotographs of Ethan Saylor as he was growing up adorn a side table in the dining room of Patti Saylor’s home in Mount Airy. With an IQ of 40, he still believed in Santa and would reach out to hold someone’s hand whenever he walked in the rain or on ice, said his mother, a 55-year-old nurse with a special education degree.
He was crying out for her.

"Mommy!" someone heard Ethan Saylor scream as three off-duty Frederick County deputies yanked the 26-year-old with Down syndrome from a movie theater seat and dragged him, struggling, toward the door.

Patti Saylor was already in the car on her way to the Regal Westview cinema after getting a call from her son's 18-year-old aide, saying she was unsure what to do. They had just finished watching Zero Dark Thirty, and now Ethan didn't want to go home. He had hit a Lenscrafter store's window in protest.

Patti was maybe five minutes away when she called the aide, expecting to hear that Ethan had already calmed down, that the two were fine and eating at McDonald's. Instead, she was told that Ethan was unconscious, not breathing and on his way to the hospital.

Only this week - after the Frederick County Sheriff's Office released long-awaited documents detailing its investigation into Robert Ethan Saylor's death Jan. 12 at the hands of its deputies - would his mother read the witness statements describing how her son had called out for her in his last moments.

"I have to stop myself and think he's not experiencing that fear at this moment," Patti said, crying in her New Market living room, where the Saylor family had gathered for their first sit-down interview since Ethan's death. "That's over. That's done. He's not feeling that now."

For six months, the Saylor family has remained quiet, patiently waiting to learn how a young man fascinated with law enforcement died with handcuff marks on his wrists.
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Camera

'Face of terror': Boston sgt suspended over leak of Tsarnaev's arrest photos


RT
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 21:18 UTC
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After Boston Magazine published previously unseen photographs of the night of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokar Tsarnaev's capture, in response to a now controversial Rolling Stone cover, the man who released the pictures has had his badge revoked.

The new images, which were provided by Sgt. Sean Murphy, a tactical photographer with the Massachusetts State Police, were accompanied by a statement written by Murphy, who was angered by the magazine cover of Tsarnaev, arguing that it promoted an unfair image of the suspected terrorist.

"The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine," wrote Murphy.

Comment: What ever happened to innocent till proven guilty, Dzhokar Tsarnaev has already been convicted by the MSM with garbage like this from Rolling Stone, they just parrot the "official" narrative which has so many holes in it that you could call it Swiss cheese!

For a more objective analysis read:

The True Face of Boston Terrorism

Strategy of Tension - Boston Marathon bombing

Ink Blot Tests and 'actors' at the Boston bombings

Why there were no 'actors' at the Boston Marathon bombing

'It's all a hoax!' Boston Bombings and "Crazy Conspiracy Theories"

Lambs to the Slaughter: Boston lockdown for manhunt of bombings 'suspect'

Listen:

SOTT Talk Radio: Baghdad to Boston - Terrorism Strikes the American Homeland

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USA

The experience of being brown in America

Badtux
Badtux the Snarky Penguin
Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:44 UTC
Another blogger asked the question, "why is it always about race when a white person kills a black person? Why is it never about race when a black person kills a white person?"

For real? I really need to explain this to people? Here, watch a video:


Okay, you're back? Good. Here's why it's about race: It's about race because it's about race.
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X

11-month-old Gabriella Luong dies in hot car in Alabama, mother 'had too many things on her mind'

Sarah Rae Fruchtnicht
Opposing Views
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:34 UTC
11 month old dies in car
© MYFOXAL.COMJuly 17, 2013: This image shows flowers and notes left near the site where an 11-month-old girl died after being locked inside an SUV
An 11-month-old girl died Thursday after she was left inside a hot car in Homewood, Ala., for hours because her mother "had too many things on her mind."

Gabriella Gi-Ny Luong's mother, Katie Luong, was thinking about other things as she drove to work Wednesday morning. The baby was asleep in her car seat, presumably in the backseat. Luong forgot to drop her off at the babysitter's. She proceeded to work and left the baby in her SUV, completely forgetting that the infant was even there. She didn't realize the baby was in the car the baby-sitter called her Wednesday afternoon.

Gabriella was found unconscious in her car seat. It was 91 degrees outside.

Police said they received a call at 1:30 p.m. about a baby locked in a vehicle. Gabriella was pronounced dead at the hospital. She had been in the car for roughly three and a half hours.
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Stock Down

Detroit: largest US city to file for bankruptcy (for now...)


BBC News
Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:13 UTC
detroit bankrupt
Detroit may be gearing up for a battle with creditors the day after it became the largest US city ever to file for bankruptcy, with $18bn (£12bn) of debt.

Creditors fear they will not be paid, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said, adding the city is "basically broke".

Court papers filed on Thursday night listed 100,000 entities as creditors to the city. But unions have described the bankruptcy filing as a power grab.

Detroit, once a symbol of US industrial power, has faced decades of decline.

It is seeking protection from creditors who include public-sector workers and their pension funds.

Detroit's problems stem from declining industry. Public services are nearing collapse and about 70,000 properties lie abandoned.

Mayor Dave Bing has vowed that public services will keep running and wages for public workers will be paid.
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