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Highest ranking officer in Freddie Gray case to receive $127k in back pay, all charges dropped


RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 21:47 UTC
Protest
© Sait Serkan Gurbuz / Reuters
Baltimore police officers are seen as demonstrators gather near Camden Yards to protest against the death in police custody of Freddie Gray in Baltimore April 25, 2015.
Lieutenant Brian Rice ‒ the highest-ranking police officer involved in the in-custody death of Freddie Gray ‒ will receive nearly $127,000 in back pay, a Baltimore, Maryland panel has announced. Rice was acquitted of all charges.

Rice, 42, was suspended without pay per department policy on May 1, 2015, the same day the state's attorney's office charged him with involuntary manslaughter, assault in the second degree, misconduct in office and false imprisonment. A judge found him not guilty of all charges at the end of a bench trial on July 18, allowing Rice to be reinstated ‒ and receive back pay.

Comment: See also: Poll shows many young blacks and Hispanics have experienced police harassment or violence

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People 2

Muslim representative demands polygamous marriages after Italy allows same-sex unions


RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 23:00 UTC
Muslim women
© Abed Omar Qusini / Reuters
Polygamy must become a civil right in Italy similar to same-sex civil unions, which the country allowed earlier this year, a prominent Muslim representative has said.

"There's no reason for Italy not to accept polygamous marriages of consenting persons," Hamza Piccardo, founder of the Union of Islamic Communities and Organizations (UCOII), wrote in a controversial Facebook post last week.

"When it comes to civil rights here, then polygamy is a civil right. Muslims don't agree with homosexual partnership and still they have to accept a system that allows it," he stressed.


Comment: Right or wrong, Piccardo does have a point.

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Attention

Devil in the details: Alcohol lobby using skewed data on car accidents in effort to block marijuana legalization

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
legal marijuana
When the good people at Marijuana.com went through the WikiLeaks dump of the DNC emails, they found something unrelated to the trove of damning information on the criminal Hillary Clinton. Within the mountains of email texts, was a paid segment by the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), stoking fear within Washington, encouraging politicians to be wary of marijuana legalization.

The May 24, 2016 edition of Huddle, a daily Politico newsletter for Capitol Hill insiders, contained this paid advertisement:
** A message from Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America: While neutral on the issue of legalization, WSWA believes states that legalize marijuana need to ensure appropriate and effective regulations are enacted to protect the public from the dangers associated with the abuse and misuse of marijuana.

23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medicinal marijuana while Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and D.C. have legalized possession and recreational use. In the years since the state legalized medicinal use, Colorado law enforcement officials have documented a significant increase in traffic fatalities in which drivers tested positive for marijuana.

Congress should fully fund Section 4008 of the FAST Act (PL 114-94) in the FY 2017 Appropriations process to document the prevalence of marijuana impaired driving, outline impairment standards and determine driving impairment detection methods.
While the paid segment is not as fantastical as some of the claims coming from the reefer madness crowd, they are basing their paid propaganda on entirely skewed data.
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Gold Coins

The rich get richer: Billionaires around the world increase in number

Veronica Dagher
Wall Street Journal
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 05:59 UTC
billionaires
© Bloomberg News
Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, left, showed off his ping pong skills to fellow billionaire Bill Gates, chairman and founder of Microsoft, during the Berkshire shareholders meeting last year.
Whatever the world's economic and market turbulence last year, one group has held up well: billionaires.

The combined wealth of the world's billionaires, defined as individuals with a net worth of $1 billion or above, increased by 5.4% to a record $7.7 trillion, according to Wealth-X's 2015-2016 billionaire census. By comparison, the gross domestic product of the U.S. is around $17 trillion.

The world's billionaire population grew by 6.4% to 2,473 in 2015.

Billionaires controlled 3.9% of the world's total household wealth in 2015, slightly down from 4% in 2014, according to Wealth-X, a consulting group that uses public records and research staff to manually track the habits of ultra-high-net-worth individuals, or people valued at more than $30 million.

"Wealth helps accumulate more wealth," says David Barks, associate director of custom research for Wealth-X.

Comment: What a load of nonsense. This article by the Wall Street Journal quite conveniently leaves out all the illegal and downright evil ways so many of the rich make and maintain their fortunes. From working with 'inside information' to exploiting many millions of workers, to empowering companies like Monsanto - the list goes on and on. But the WSJ is a cheerleader for "capitalism" and its job is to sell the "American dream" of having vast amounts of wealth and power - despite the cost to many others of course.

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Arrow Down

Travesty of 'justice': Native American teen faced prison sentence for possessing one gram of marijuana

Justin Gardner
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 08 Aug 2016 00:00 UTC
Devontre Thomas

Devontre Thomas - far from the menace to society that one would think federal prisons are reserved for.
In Oregon, a state that has legalized the recreational and medicinal use of cannabis, 19-year-old Thomas was federally charged for possessing one gram of cannabis - equivalent to about one joint.

He could be sentenced to a year in prison and a $1,000 fine, and would also be denied federal student loans and other forms of government aid for his entire life. Ideally, he can succeed without help from the same leviathan that victimizes so many non-violent citizens through an immoral War on Drugs, but the stigma of a federal conviction can be a lifelong problem.

This abomination of justice appears to be due to the fact that Thomas is Native American and was caught with the "illicit" plant at Chemawa Indian School, which is operated by the federal Bureau of Indian Education. The county or the Indian tribe does not have jurisdiction there, leaving the teenager in the clutches of a state apparatus stuck in the Reefer Madness era.
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Attention

Nanny state hysteria: Australian judge bans mom from breastfeeding because she got a tattoo

Christina Sarich
Underground Reporter
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 17:43 UTC
tattooed lady
© Pixabay
An Australian judge has ruled that a mother cannot breastfeed her child because she chose to get a tattoo. Judge Matthew Myers' injunction against the woman comes despite the fact that the mother tested negatively for both hepatitis and HIV — diseases that are sometimes, but rarely, transmitted through tattoo needles. He argues that the mother put her 11-month-old at risk.

Does this set a dangerous precedent that allows governments to decide what is best for our children? Why is the 'stick' of a tattoo arguably more dangerous than that of a vaccine? Why does the tattoo prevent a mother from doing one of the most natural and positive things on the planet? And who gave our government a say over deciding which particular needle a mother should succumb to?

Arguably, more women should be breastfeeding, not less, but women are even being verbally berated for breastfeeding in public, though there are countless developmental, as well as physical and emotional, benefits for both the mother and child. One mother was even kicked out of a courtroom for breastfeeding her sick child recently. Has it really come to this?

Comment: Okay, judge -- how will you enforce this ruling? Will the mom be locked in jail until her breast milk dries up?

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Black Cat

Former missionary sentenced to 25 years for sexually abusing boys at children's home in Malawi

Jon Herskovitz
Reuters
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 11:30 UTC
Gerald Campbell
© AP
Gerald Campbell
A Texas man who managed an orphanage in Malawi was sentenced on Tuesday in federal court to 25 years in prison for sexually abusing children in his care, U.S. prosecutors said.

Gerald Campbell, 66, of Odessa, who pleaded guilty in May, could have faced up to life in prison, according to papers filed in federal court in Texas.

Campbell reached a plea agreement and admitted to engaging in sexual acts with eight minors, all of whom were orphans living at the Victory Christian Children's Home in Malawi between 1997 and 2009, U.S. prosecutors said.

"Campbell admitted that he knew that what he was doing was wrong and that he thought nobody would believe the minors if they reported the abuse," they said in a statement.

He told U.S. investigators he lured children, including one infected with HIV, into his home to sexually abuse them. The home had more amenities than the orphanage and he used that to entice a few of the children to live with him for several months, court papers said.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

Comment: Read Dr. Anna Salter's book, "Predators, Pedophiles, Rapists And Other Sex Offenders" and learn how you can protect yourself and children. From the introduction:
This is not a book with a complete and comfortable answers. It will not finish with a checklist for identifying a sex offender: Just add up the points, and you too can spot your neighborhood pedophile or rapist. But if I do my job right, reading this book will make it harder for sex offenders to get access to you or your children. It will make it harder because knowing how they think and act and operate is the best protection that we have. Indeed, it is the only protection that is possible.
Also, listen to the SOTT editors' interview with Dr. Salter below:

Behind the Headlines: Predators Among Us - Interview With Dr. Anna Salter

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Gear

'Create bomb for Miss Universe': ISIS affiliate calls for attack on beauty pageant in Philippines


RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 07:10 UTC
ISIS
© AFP
A Philippine Islamic State affiliate has posted a video calling for the 2017 Miss Universe pageant set to take place in the Philippines to be targeted, while suggesting that an explosive belt or bomb be made especially for the beauty contest, SITE reports.

"Philippines jihadi Telegram channel posted a video for making an explosive belt and suggested 'Create bomb for miss universe,'" the group wrote on a Telegram Messenger group called "IS Philippines supporters," according to SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the online activity of jihadist organizations.



Comment: SITE is most likely a creation of Mossad, which means there is a specific reason why they created this story. Probably to underscore the "irrationality" of ISIS in targeting a beauty pageant.

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Brick Wall

University of California chancellor installs $9,000 'escape hatch' to flee rowdy student protests

Victor Skinner
EAG News
Fri, 05 Aug 2016 20:07 UTC
UC Berkeley protest
© Reuters/Robert Galbraith
Student protests at the University of California Berkeley are apparently getting so out of hand that the school's chancellor recently had an escape hatch installed in his office to "provide egress" when students storm the administration building.

Workers spent last weekend installing a special $9,000 door in the hallway outside of Chancellor Nicholas Dirks' office in California Hall after a series of increasingly aggressive student protests in 2015, including one in which students commandeered the lobby outside of the office and refused to leave, Quartz reports.

University spokeswoman Claire Holmes told The Daily Californian in an email that the new escape hatch is designed to "provide egress to leave the building"as a safety precaution when student protests get rowdy.

According to the news site, "construction of the door was requested about a year ago in response to a protest in April 2015 when protesters stormed the chancellor's suite.

"During the protest, students staged a sit-in outside Dirks' office where they banged on desks and chanted loudly. They were eventually escorted out of the building, some in handcuffs, by UCPD officers." Students have also targeted Dirks' home, known as the University House, with large protests and vandalism.
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Dollars

The Refusers: 7 million Americans are defaulting on student loans

Lori Harfenist
RT
Tue, 09 Aug 2016 17:52 UTC
student loan debt
According to a new report by the Wall Street Journal, 7 million Americans are flat-out refusing to pay back their student loans because they feel scammed by their universities and government. They feel like they were told to go to school and are now left with worthless degrees, no jobs, and no prospects for the future. The government has tried many tactics to reach these defaulters, but their efforts have been fruitless for over a year.

Comment: More on the student loan debacle:

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