Society's ChildS


Family

Indian Child Welfare Act: State of California returns 'Lexi' to her family

Lexi goes home
On Monday, March 21, pandemonium broke out in Santa Clarita, California, at the home of foster couple Summer and Russell Page as social workers from the Department of Children and Family Services arrived to pick up a 6-year-old girl who was being held by the couple in defiance of a court ordering her returned to relatives after a five-year custody battle.
On Monday, March 21, pandemonium broke out in Santa Clarita, California, at the home of foster couple Summer and Russell Page as social workers from the Department of Children and Family Services arrived to pick up a 6-year-old girl who was being held by the couple in defiance of a court ordering her returned to relatives after a five-year custody battle. At 2:45 p.m. PST, the sobbing girl was carried to a vehicle and whisked away as dozens of media outlets and protesters looked on, bringing an end to a stand-off over the child's custody that had made headlines around the world.

The girl, who goes by the name "Lexi," was ordered to be placed with relatives, including her biological sister, in Utah in compliance with the Indian Child Welfare Act. Her identity was released to the media by the Pages over the weekend, including a Facebook page titled "Save Lexi," in which they sought public support in defiance of the court's order, according to legal experts in California.

Comment: There are many states in the US that snatches young Native Americans from their homes and places them in foster care for bogus reasons. Bottom line it's big money for the state.

* Each year, South Dakota removes an average of 700 Native American children from their homes. Indian children are less than 15 percent of state's the child population, but make up more than half the children in foster care.

* Despite the Indian Child Welfare Act, which says Native American children must be placed with their family members, relatives, their tribes or other Native Americans, native children are more than twice as likely to be sent to foster care as children of other races, even in similar circumstances.

* Nearly 90 percent of Native American children sent to foster care in South Dakota are placed in non-native homes or group care.

* Less than 12 percent of Native American children in South Dakota foster care had been physically or sexually abused in their homes, below the national average. The state says parents have "neglected" their children, a subjective term. But tribe leaders tell NPR what social workers call neglect is often poverty; and sometimes native tradition.

* A close review of South Dakota's budget shows that they receive almost $100 million a year to subsidize it's foster care program.


Airplane

Parts of Denver International Airport evacuated over security threat


No threat was found at Denver International Airport after an evacuation of a section of the main terminal because of potentially suspicious packages.

Denver police cleared a part of the main terminal on the west side between doors 600 and 610 on level six and 500 to 510 on level five, according to an airport tweet. Level five is the bag claim and passenger pickup level, and level six is for passenger dropoff and check-in.

The terminal re-opened to the public just after 4:45 p.m.

Airport officials said "several packages"were screened to determine the validity of the threat that was originally reported by TSA.

Denver police spokesman Sonny Jackson said the alert was "strong enough" to prompt an evacuation and full response.

Airport officials did not make any ties or connections to the terrorist attacks in Brussels.

"We are just looking at this particular incident," officials said. "We would respond like this on any day."

Boat

Secret mission: 730 pounds of plutonium being shipped to South Carolina on an armed British ship


An armed British ship carrying 730 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium left a port in Japan Tuesday, destined for a secret mission to South Carolina.

Authorities have declined to say anything about the trip, citing security concerns. But Kyodo News has reported that the shipment is part of a 2014 agreement Japan struck with the U.S. to decrease its massive stockpile of plutonium.

The ship, accompanied by a second vessel, is headed for the Savannah River Site, a nuclear reservation in South Carolina, where the plutonium is to be downgraded and stored.

Shopping Bag

Ramping up the fear: Portion of Denver airport evacuated due to suspicious package

Denver airport
© Joe Amon, The Denver PostThe Denver International Airport and hotel from the far side of the airfield.
A section of Denver International Airport has been evacuated because of a possible suspicious package, officials said Tuesday.

Denver police are evacuating a part of the main terminal on the west side between doors 600 and 610 on level six and 500 to 510 on level five, according to an airport tweet. Level five is the bag claim and passenger pickup level, and level six is for passenger dropoff and check-in.

Affected ticket counters include: American Airlines, Aero Mexico, Air Canada, Lufthansa and British Airways. Flights are continuing, the airport said, although delays are possible.

Details about the the DIA threat have not yet been released, other than saying police are investigating a suspicious package.

"As a precaution, TSA is deploying additional security to major U.S. airports and at various rail and transit stations," said a tweet from Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson.

Bacon n Eggs

Supporting the troops: Soldiers share photos of mold & maggots in army issued food

undercooked chicken
© Facebook
British soldiers have taken to social media to share shocking photos of meals allegedly prepared for them by Ministry of Defence (MoD) contractor Sodexo as they petition the government for better quality food.

Military personnel across the UK have posted pictures of revolting meals allegedly served in army mess halls.

The nauseating photographs show maggot-infested tomatoes, raw chicken, and moldy eggs covered in green spots.

Water

Unsolved burglary where water files kept 'an inside job' says Flint police chief

City of Flint Municipal Center
© Mlive.com
Mystery still surrounds an unsolved December break-in at an executive office inside City Hall where Flint water files were kept.

As of Friday, March 18, there were still no suspects in the case, and officials say it may never be known what -- other than a TV -- was taken.

But the city's new police chief Tim Johnson says it's too suspicious that there was a break-in where important documents were kept, just as investigations began heating up and decision makers were beginning to be held accountable.

"It was definitely an inside job. The power cord (to the TV) wasn't even taken. The average drug user knows that you'd need the power cord to be able to pawn it," Johnson said.

The office was not assigned to any city employees at the time of the break-in, city officials have said."It was somebody that had knowledge of those documents that really wanted to keep them out of the right hands, out of the hands of someone who was going to tell the real story of what's going on with Flint water," he said.

Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said documents were strewn about the room, and it is impossible to know if any of them were taken. Weaver wasn't so quick to allege it was an inside job, but did say the situation seemed odd and suspicious to her. "Well sure (it's suspicious) when they go into a room where all the water files were and they take a TV, but not the cord to make it work, yes," she said.

Comment: The crisis in Flint is about more than water


Eye 2

It CAN happen here: the rise of fascism in the United States

trump fascism
Ordinarily, I abhor political comparisons to Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich. No matter the similarities with other authority figures, however authoritarian or totalitarian, Hitler represents a particular sequence of events in world history, and this particularity is glossed over in such comparisons. The comparison of public figures to Hitler is often based on intellectually lazy equivalences of evil. Such comparisons often focus on the authoritarian tendencies in all governments in a way that avoids nuance, rigor, and specificity, and additionally haphazardly flatten differences in regime types. This simplistic comparison is especially troubling now, when it has proliferated to the point were not only politicians of all stripes are subject to it, but even professional athletes, actors, and others in celebrity culture are called fascist whenever they do or say something divisive. The critique of fascism loses much of its weight when it is ascribed to anyone and anything that we don't like.

I too am guilty of these comparisons, as a young radical critiquing the George W. Bush presidency, for the far-right, nationalistic militarism seemed to fit in nicely with a wider critique of fascism. As I studied, learned, and grew intellectually, however, I came to see these easy comparisons as dishonest and stifling to the formations of deep understanding of particular regimes and how their power might be resisted. Yet, despite my aversion to what I (and others) refer to jokingly as reductio ad Hitlerium, we seem to have arrived at a Weimer moment in United States' American politics. We are quite evidently witnessing a figure running for the highest elected office in the U.S. who is by every measure modeling himself, his movement, and his rise to power on the populist far-right rhetoric of European fascism in the mid-20th century. This person is, of course, Donald J. Trump.

Attention

Australian organic farmer loses GM court battle - forced to pay over US$600k in costs

monsanto lawsuit australia
© Erik De Castro / Reuters
An Australian farmer who tried to sue his neighbor after claiming his organic business was ruined after genetically-modified (GM) canola blew on to his fields will now have to pay over US$600,000 in costs after a stay of order was lifted.

Steve Marsh took his neighbor and childhood friend Michael Baxter to court in February 2014 for negligence over the alleged contamination of the land that Marsh used for growing organic oat and wheat crops in Kojonup, 250km southeast of Perth, Western Australia.

Marsh said he had lost organic certification for 70 percent for crops produced at his farm because his land had become contaminated by Baxter's herbicide-resistant canola crop. Marsh had been initially seeking US$60,000 in compensation, but now he will have to pay US$610,000 in costs to his neighbor after the Western Australian Court of Appeal ruled against him.

Comment: The evil Monsanto juggernaut claims another victim.


Pirates

Disgusting! Budget airline Ryanair tells Brits 'pay £6,000 to fly home from Brussels'

Ryan air brussels attack
© Darren Staples / ReutersA Ryanair aircraft.
Ryanair told a group of Britons they would have to pay up to £6,000 if they wanted to fly home from Brussels on Tuesday evening after the city was rocked by two terror attacks, which left 34 dead and 240 injured, an MP has said.

Labour MP for Sefton Central Bill Esterson told the House of Commons: "I have been contacted by a number of my constituents who are in Brussels, who travelled there today and are trying to get home, as I'm sure many others are as well. "They have been told by the airline Ryanair that it will cost them £6,000 to be brought back to this country."

RT called the airline to get a response to Esterson's claim and received an email from Ryan Air that, while not addressing the issue directly, tried to explain the circumstances surrounding the situation.

"This group of 28 passengers were travelling from Brussels Charleroi to Manchester tomorrow (Wednesday) at a fare of £20 each," the budget airline told RT. "They arrived at the ticket desk in Brussels Charleroi this morning requesting to change their flight from Brussels Charleroi to today (Tuesday) and in common with all other passengers were offered this change at our change fee (£60) plus the upgrade to the available fare (£154) on this evening's flight. "This group declined to accept this change offer as is their right and we look forward to welcoming them on their scheduled flight from Brussels Charleroi tomorrow," the statement said. It went on to say that the upgrade fee was necessary because there were only 12 seats remaining on this evening's flight.

Comment: And there you have it: Capitalism in all its glory. The Russians would have handled it differently:

Westerners - including Americans - abandoned by their leaders to Saudi bombing of Yemen, evacuated by Russian ships and planes


Handcuffs

Native American girls disproportionately represented in the juvenile prison system

native american in prison
© indiancountry
New statistics show that American Indian and Native Alaskan girls account for a disproportionate amount of the population in the juvenile justice system.

According to the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, American Indian and Native Alaskan girls are nearly five times more likely than white girls to be confined to a juvenile detention facility, the highest rate of incarceration of any ethnic group. PewTrusts reports:
Native girls are 40 percent more likely than white girls to be referred to a juvenile court for delinquency; 50 percent more likely to be detained; and 20 percent more likely to be adjudicated, according to the Office of Juvenile Justice. They are also more likely to face harsher sentences for the same offenses, said Joshua Rovner of The Sentencing Project.