Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

BigPharma giant Amgen given two-year regulations delay worth hundreds of millions

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H.R. 8, the bill that averted the fiscal cliff, included a section that granted the drug company Amgen a two-year delay in regulations of its drugs, even though Amgen recently pleaded guilty in a federal fraud case.

The bill will give Amgen two years to sell Sensipar without government price regulations, which means hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for Amgen.

Sensipar is an expensive prescription drug used by kidney dialysis patients. It is projected to cost Medicare up to $500 million over the next two-year period, since the legislation delays Medicare price restraints of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) drugs, reports the New York Times.

The bill does not specify Amgen by name, but it mainly affects the sale of Sensipar, costing the government hundreds of millions while allowing Amgen to keep its prices unregulated.

Red Flag

New York Hasidic leader gets 103 years for abuse

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© AFP Photo
A leader of an Orthodox Jewish sect in New York was sentenced Tuesday to 103 years in prison for sexually abusing a young girl, capping a scandal that lifted the lid on the Hasidic group's parallel society.

Nechemya Weberman, a prominent figure in the ultra-strict Satmar branch of Hasidic Jews, was convicted of abusing the girl over the course of three years in the Brooklyn neighborhood where their community has a huge enclave and he worked as an unlicensed counselor.

Ahead of the judge's sentencing, the victim told the court that Weberman acted "without the slightest bit of mercy," leaving her as "a girl who didn't want to live in her own skin."

The case caused an uproar in the Satmar community, shattering a code of silence imposed by the group's insistence on dealing with matters internally and not going to the police.

"If there is one message to take away from this case, it is that this office will pursue the evil of sexual abuse of a child no matter where it occurs," District Attorney Charles Hynes said.

Eye 2

Los Angeles church files show how Cardinal Roger Mahony shielded pedophile priest, failed child victims

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© Damian Dovarganes / APThe entrance to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, headquarters for Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, is seen Jan. 21.
Prosecutors who have been stymied for years in their attempts to build a criminal conspiracy case against retired Los Angeles Archdiocese Cardinal Roger Mahony and other church leaders said Tuesday they will review newly released internal priest files for additional evidence.

"The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office will review and evaluate all documents as they become available to us," spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said in a brief statement. She declined to comment further.

Thousands of pages from the internal disciplinary files of 14 priests made public Monday show Mahony and other top aides maneuvered behind the scenes to shield molester priests, provide damage control for the church and keep parishioners in the dark.

Some of the documents provide the strongest evidence to date that Mahony and a top aide worked to protect a priest who acknowledged in therapy to raping an 11-year-old boy and abusing up to 17 children, many of them the children of illegal immigrants.

Stop

Groupon to stop gun deals after deciding they are 'not a fit right now'

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© Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesGroupon is one of many companies that has distanced itself from gun sales in the wake of the Newtown shooting.
Groupon, the online discount coupon website, has ended its practice of offering gun deals.

Customers can no longer acquire a "conceal-and-carry course" for up to 63% off or a beginner's target lesson for $49.

"Groupon has been testing firearm-related deals like shooting ranges and concealed weapons courses for the last eight months," Groupon spokeswoman Julie Mossler said in a statement. "Based on performance and customer feedback, it's clear they're not a fit right now."

The Chicago-based company has not specifically said why it is no longer offering gun deals, but it is likely related to the increased call for gun control following the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that left 28 people, including 20 children, dead.

Health

Four-year-old girl dies after being shot in the head by another child

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© Shutterstock
A young girl who was shot in the head by another young child died from her wound on Tuesday, the Kansas City Star reported.

Trinity Ross, 4, was shot on January 10 in her Kansas City home while her stepmother was babysitting three other children. All of the children were under six-years-old.

Pistol

Mentally ill murderer gets weapons permit and buys arsenal of guns

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© Image by KARE 11Christian Oberender
Nearly 20 years after he was convicted of shooting his own mother to death, Christian Oberender of Minnesota is back behind bars for illegally owning a small arsenal of firearms.

Authorities became reacquainted with Oberender, now 32, late last year when a complaint was filed by someone who came across his Facebook page. When authorities examined the social networking account, they found photos of just a sampling of the man's extensive gun collection.

But upon first glance, the Carver County Sheriff's Office didn't see anything to spur intervention. An initial investigation found that there were no "disqualifiers" that would have prevented Oberender from owning any guns, Carver County Chief Deputy Jason Kamerud tells the Herald-Journal. When the leading law enforcement figure in the area came across the report shortly after, though, the agency started to become concerned.

Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson had reason to question the collection of guns - 17 years earlier he worked the case in which a teenage Oberender was convicted of killing his mother.

"The sheriff was one of the detectives on the case in 1995," Kamerud tells the paper. "He had a lot more knowledge of the case than the deputies who took the call."

Question

Drunk drives half-car with dead friend after crash

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© Screenshot from youtube.com @PoliceYaroslavl
After a car crash in the Russian city of Yaroslavl, a drunken man continued at the wheel as if nothing had happened at all. The driver ignored the fact that his vehicle had been practically torn into two and his passenger on the rear seat was killed.

On Saturday morning two buddies working together in a company in Yaroslavl came to work still high from yesterday's drinking marathon. Their boss refused to admit them to work, telling both to go home and sleep it off.

Instead of using public transport, the couple got into an old Toyota Corolla and started to drive homeward.

The 36-year-old driver made no allowance for his condition and after some time of reckless driving and speeding crashed right into the front of a small bus carrying some 20 passengers. The crash happened downtown on the Dobryninsky Bridge.

The bus sustained considerable damage, though the passengers remained luckily unhurt. The 33-year-old passenger in the car was killed. The rear part of Toyota Corolla was actually torn off the chassis.

Padlock

Pennsylvania ex-pastor convicted of killing second wife while awaiting trial for first wife's murder

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© Photo: Pocono Record, David KidwellArthur Schirmer is led back into his murder trial at the courthouse in Stroudsburg, Pa., on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013
A former Pennsylvania pastor awaiting trial in the 1999 death of his first wife was convicted Tuesday in the 2008 death of his second wife.

Arthur Schirmer, a former associate pastor at a Methodist church in Reeders in northeast Pennsylvania, blamed the second death on a slow-speed car crash and said his first wife fell down the stairs. But authorities ultimately charged him with killing both women.

The verdict came after prosecutors argued in court that Schirmer clubbed Betty Schirmer on the head with a crowbar, then loaded her into their PT Cruiser and staged a low-speed accident.

Monroe County First Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso had asked jurors Tuesday to convict the 64-year-old of premeditated murder.

Handcuffs

Dallas stepmom gets 85 years in dehydration death

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© P Photo/Dallas County Sheriff Department, FileThis undated file booking photo provided by the Dallas County Sheriff Department shows Tina Marie Alberson, 44.
A Dallas woman whose 10-year-old stepson died after she denied him water, even as temperatures soared over 100 degrees, was sentenced Tuesday to 85 years in prison.

Tina Marie Alberson did not react as her sentence was announced. She was convicted last week of reckless injury to a child, a second-degree felony, in the July 2011 death of Jonathan James.

Jonathan's mother, Krista Bishop, and other relatives said they were pleased with the verdict.

"We got what we needed," Bishop told reporters outside the court.

Police had thought Jonathan's death was heat-related until the medical examiner's report indicated otherwise.

Extinguisher

Norway goat cheese fire closes tunnel

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Brunost has a high concentration of fat and sugar
A road tunnel in Norway has been closed - by a lorry-load of burning cheese.

About 27 tonnes of caramelised brown goat cheese - a delicacy known as Brunost - caught light as it was being driven through the Brattli Tunnel at Tysfjord, northern Norway, last week.

The fire raged for five days and smouldering toxic gases were slowing the recovery operation, officials said.

The tunnel - which is said to be badly damaged - is likely to remain closed for several weeks, they added.