Society's ChildS


Health

Parents could face neglect charges after vegan toddler is admitted to ICU for malnutrition

baby in hospital
© Stringer / Reuters
Two Italian parents could face criminal charges after their daughter was found to be suffering from malnutrition - and their vegan diet is being blamed.

When the unnamed couple brought in their two-year-old child, identified only as 'Chiara,' to a pediatric hospital in Genoa for a check-up, she was immediately transferred to intensive care due to her serious condition.

Doctors found the little one to be underweight and suffering from a number of complications, including low levels of hemoglobin, poor responsiveness and slow movements, as well as a B12 deficiency, according to The Local.

While doctors are investigating if there are any hereditary diseases that may have contributed to the child's health problems, it's thought the root cause is linked to the lack of animal products in her diet.

Heart - Black

Heartless: Denmark confiscating assets from asylum seekers

danish migrants
Danish police made use of a controversial law allowing them to confiscate valuables from asylum seekers for the first time since the legislation was passed.

Police seized the equivalent of 79,600 kroner ($11,875) from five Iranian citizens, according to an e-mailed statement on Thursday. The people had tried to enter Denmark via Copenhagen airport using "false documents," police said. The three women and two men had a total of 129,600 kroner in cash with them, police said.

The law, which was passed earlier this year, led to international condemnation at the time with the Guardian depicting Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen as a Nazi. Danish businesses urged lawmakers to act to stem the backlash.

Comment: Following in the footsteps of the Nazis: Switzerland to seize assets of migrants


Top Secret

Something to hide? Fed orders police to deny public records requests on Orlando shootings

orlando shooting scene
A letter revealed by the Orlando Sentinel shows the FBI requested law enforcement agencies who responded to and investigated the massacre at Orlando's Pulse nightclub to withhold information from the public.

A letter from the FBI dated June 20 attached to a lawsuit brought by the City of Orlando seeking the release of 911 calls in full, as well as other records pertaining to the shooting, had also been forwarded to the Seminole County Sheriff's Office — but included instructions for law enforcement to deny all requests for information.

Under the guise of protecting the investigation — as well as the victims and their families — the letter asks law enforcement agencies to deny information to anyone asking and "immediately notify the FBI of any requests your agency received" so "the FBI can seek to prevent disclosure through appropriate channels, as necessary."

Comment: Similar to other mass shootings in the US and abroad, the Orlando shooting stinks to high heaven.


Chart Pie

First census in over 20 years shows Bosnia lost 25% of its population

bosnia
© ReutersVolunteers hand out leaflets with information about new Bosnia's census in Jablanica, 60 kilometers south of Sarajevo, in September 2013.
Bosnia-Herzegovina is set to publish the results of its first census since the end of its civil war two decades ago, providing the first statistical view of how much the fighting redistributed its population geographically.

The expected publication on June 30 of the census, conducted in 2013, is widely expected to raise tensions in the ethnically divided country, where memories of the 1992-95 conflict remain fresh.

The war killed 100,000 people and displaced 2 million more amid widespread forced movements of civilians on all sides.

Although they have not been leaked, the new census figures are likely to confirm that the once ethnically mixed capital, Sarajevo, is now overwhelmingly Bosnian Muslim.


Comment: Some preliminary results:
The first census since the end of the civil war in Bosnia shows the country's population shrank by nearly one-quarter over the past 25 years. According to the 2013 census published on June 30, 3.5 million people live in the country, compared with the nearly 4.4 million counted in 1991. Half of the population -- or 50.11 percent -- are Muslim Bosniaks, 30.78 per cent are Christian Orthodox Serbs, and 15.43 percent are Roman Catholic Croats.

Comment: Authorities from the Republic of Srpska immediately refused to recognize the census. As journalist Zlatko Dizdarevic put it, "Without 50 percent means sharing power in three equal parts. More than 50 percent of one ethnic group would be a different state, a Bosniak [Bosnian Muslim] Bosnia-Herzegovina with two other minorities."

A little history: The Weight of Chains: US/NATO Destruction of Yugoslavia (Documentary)


Eye 1

Travel alert! Border Patrol wants to vet social media accounts of travelers entering the US

border patrol
© Chris Hondros/Getty ImagesReporter notes that proposed change to visa forms, as phrased, could include: Twitter handle, the url for your Facebook page, OkCupid or Grindr handle, Instagram account, Tumblr, Vine account, Snapchat, Reddit account, Pinterest page, PornHub account, "and any random messaging forums in which you take part."
File this under Another Unsettling Development: People who want to travel to the United States may soon have their Facebook profiles and other social media accounts "vetted" by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) before entering.

A proposed change to the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) and to Form I-94W posted to the government's Federal Register last week suggests adding the following question: "Please enter information associated with your online presence—Provider/Platform—Social media identifier."

These forms are filled out by all international travelers who wish to travel to the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program.

The report states that this would be an "optional data field to request social media identifiers to be used for vetting purposes, as well as applicant contact information."

Megaphone

Judge Napolitano: FBI transcript shows nobody died in Orlando shooting until SWAT teams entered the nightclub at 5:13am

orlando police
© REUTERS/Steve NesiusOfficers arrive at Orlando police headquarters during the investigation of the deadly shooting at the Pulse
What should have been front page news everywhere, somehow got buried amid the official narrative we were given about the Orlando shooting. Judge Andrew Napolitano told FOX News that an FBI transcript indicated that no one died until 05:13am Sunday morning when the police SWAT teams entered the building.

"Here's what is news in the summary - nobody died until 05:13 in the morning, when the SWAT team entered. Prior to that no one had been killed. The 53 that were injured, and the 49 that were murdered all met their fates at the time of, and during, the police entry into the building," Judge Napolitano said.

Consider that the narrative we have been given was that Omar Mateen entered the club around 02:00am on Sunday morning to begin his killing spree, so why was no one actually killed until 05:13am, over three hours later?


Comment: See also:


Attention

Nanny state hysteria: Police called to school over 9 year old's brownie remark

preschool stress, school stress
It's difficult to say which trend is more alarming in America today. It could be the rampant political correctness that is turning everything into a thought crime. Others would argue that the proliferation of our nanny state is far more alarming. But no one could argue that there's anything worse than when these two forces collide.

That seems to be what occurred at the William P. Tatem Elementary School in Collingswood, New Jersey earlier this month. During an end-of-the-year class party, a third grade student made a remark about the brownies that were being served (the precise wording of that statement hasn't been revealed). Another student claimed that the statement was racist.

Instead of letting it go, or perhaps dealing with the issue internally if it warranted that, the school's staff called the Collingswood Police Department, and a police officer showed up to question the 9-year-old child. The police would later tell the boy's father that the incident had been referred to the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency.

Eye 2

Flashback Mega-restaurant chain Darden rips off workers by paying wages with high-fee debit cards

debit card employee ripoff
Chances are good that you've never heard of Darden Restaurants. They don't advertise under their name, but they are the food-service behemoth that owns popular eateries such as The Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse. You've probably eaten at one of those restaurants more than once in your life and perhaps even enjoyed the food they serve. But how good would the food taste if you knew how the restaurant was exploiting their workers with the help of big banks?

Workers at restaurants owned by Darden are not paid by cash or check, like most of us. Instead, they are given prepaid debit cards. A quarter of workers who were surveyed by the Restaurant Opportunities Center (ROC) said they had repeatedly asked to be paid some other way and were told the debit cards are their only option.

Darden, you see, is trying to cut costs anywhere it can because the company is struggling financially, but their use of debit cards places a very expensive and unnecessary barrier between workers and the money they have earned through their labor. How so? Well, the cards come with a variety of fees for usage: 99 cents for using it to pay a utility bill, 50 cents if the card is ever declined at a cash register, $1.75 to withdraw money from an out-of-network ATM, and 75 cents just to check the card's balance. And if a worker happens to lose the card, he or she will be forced to pay $10 to have it replaced.

Comment: Classic corporate psychopathy. Only the bottom line matters.


Fire

Massive explosion levels house and damages dozens of adjacent homes, killing one person

house explosion
© Twitter/News_Executive
A massive explosion killed one person and injured nine others in the Canadian town of Mississauga, southwest of Toronto. At least one house was completely wiped out, while over a dozen of adjacent homes were damaged.

The footage from the site shows massive debris piled up. Locals have posted devastating photos and videos from the scene, with heavy gray smoke seen rising above from where the house used to stand.

Dozens of police, fire and ambulance vehicles are in the area. Police are going door-to-door to investigate what happened. At this point it is unknown what caused the blast.

Emergency crews found one victim with no vital signs. So far nine people got help from paramedics, but none were sent to the hospital for treatment.

Penis Pump

Drunk Florida woman threatened boyfriend with hatchet for refusing sex

axe, hatchet
© Reuters
Florida police arrested a woman after a man claimed he had been chased around her home and threatened with an ax - because he refused her sex.

Leslie Mills, who had been on a drinking binge, had a boyfriend staying over at her home in Ocala city when she began demanding sex from him.

The man refused, but Mills kept badgering him to "engage in sexual activity with her," according to the police report first reported by The Smoking Gun.