Society's ChildS


Better Earth

Revitalizing Food: Oglala Lakota chef serves pre-colonization menu

Lakota chef
A Lakota chef is helping bring a Native American food culture into the modern world.

Before there was fry bread, there were sage, white pine, chokecherries and wild buffalo.

Before Europeans unloaded wheat and sugar cane and introduced beef to Turtle Island, Natives hunted and fished. They planted potatoes, squash and corn, and they flavored their food with purslane, rose hips and dandelion.

That traditional diet, or what Chef Sean Sherman calls the "pre-colonization diet," is the bedrock for a new restaurant set to open this fall in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Sherman, who is Oglala Lakota, plans to use only indigenous foods in the restaurant, which he has appropriately named The Sioux Chef.

Monkey Wrench

Not-so-transparent: Obama administration sets record for failing to disclose documents for FOIA requests

obama
© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters Secretive President Barack Obama
President Barack Obama's promise to have the "most transparent administration in history" doesn't hold water, as the government has set a new record for failed public records searches under the nation's transparency laws.

In 2015, the government failed to disclose any documents for nearly 130,000 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, according to an Associated Press analysis that involved all requests made to 100 federal agencies.

Notably, the FBI failed to find any related documents to 39 percent of FOIA requests it received, while Customs and Border Protection came up empty handed 34 percent of the time. The Environmental Protection Agency's regional office covering New York and New Jersey failed to stump up for a staggering 58 percent of requests.

In 77 percent of all cases, the Obama administration either censored documents it turned over, or simply withheld their release. That amounted to 596,095 cases, also a new record. In 250,000 of these cases, the administration said it couldn't find records, that the request was unreasonable or improper, or that the person making the request would not pay for copies.

Comment: Do as we say, not as we do? The U.S. bellows about freedom, democracy and peoples' rights to other countries but yet it is growing more secretive and paranoid with each passing year. Perhaps the U.S. should think twice about lecturing other countries and focus on their own growing lack of transparency in government?

Documents reveal Obama administration tried to kill transparency despite claims of openness


Robot

Rise of the machines? Robot 'jokes' that she will kill humans

sophia the robot
© cnbc
You've just crossed over into... The Twilight Zone.

Just kidding, we are already there. We've been there for a while now.

The CNBC headline asked, "Could you fall in love with this robot?" and the outlet also called her "hot," but the real question should be, "Can you see how all of those nightmarish sci-fi movies are about to come true in our lifetimes?"... although I guess the latter would have been an awfully long headline.

Meet Sophia, a lifelike robot (partially based on Audrey Hepburn (supposedly) with "realistic" facial expressions and cameras for eyes that "jokes" about destroying humans (at least, I think it was supposed to come off as a joke).

Comment: Unlike Sophia's creators, not everyone is so enthusiastic about the rise of the robots.


Info

Would professional liability insurance requirement for police weed out the bad cops?

cops with sticks
In almost every city across the US, tax dollars are used to cover the damages and settlements from lawsuits filed against their police departments due to officer misconduct. Taxpayers, in essence, pay out massive amounts in damages for officers not doing their job properly. Additionally, the cost is compounded because taxpayers are forced to continue paying the salaries of these criminal cops.

City officials don't have the guts to hold officers accountable for their actions. So, a new approach is necessary to hold rogue officers responsible for their conduct.

Just like doctors have to carry malpractice insurance, police officers should be required to carry professional liability insurance as a condition of employment. For years, the Free Thought Project has been advocating this approach to force police accountability and, according to a new report out of Reuters, it's happening.

Sheriff

Denver police have been accessing confidential databases for less-than-official reasons like dating and stalking

police car computer
© motorola
Denver Police have been abusing the confidential database in their department for personal reasons — as in trying to get dates and to "enable stalking."

According to the report by the Denver Office of the Independent Monitor, which assessed law enforcement performance for 2015, officers often faced only minor oral or written reprimands for their transgressions. But this discipline could be seen as disproportionate to the potential harm caused by breaching the database for unofficial, unsanctioned purposes.

Both Denver Police and Sheriff's Department were evaluated by the monitor, and both were found to have abused the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) and Colorado Crime Information Center (CCIC).

Comment: Another example of how the boys in blue consider themselves above the law and use their positions to prey on others.


Stock Down

Ian Brzezinski reveals how to end the Russian economy

Russia sanctions
Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ

Western countries should impose additional sanctions against entire sectors of the Russian economy, and not just deal with the extension of the current restrictions. This was stated by senior researcher of the analytical center "Atlantic Council" Ian Brzezinski.

"The West should get to strengthening these actions from targeted sanctions, directed against certain Russian citizens and organizations to the more extensive and comprehensive sanctions against Russian financial and energy sectors instead of discussing the relevance of extension of sanctions against Russia," said Brzezinski during the hearing at the US Senate.

Comment: Apparently Ian Brzezinski hasn't figured out that no matter what sanctions get put on Russia, it will find a way to use them to its advantage.


Arrow Down

Citizens oust prosecutors criticized for mishandling cases of police brutality

Anita Alvarez
Anita Alvarez
Two prosecutors criticized for mishandling cases of police violence against Black youth in Chicago and Cleveland lost primary battles in their counties Tuesday night.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez was defeated in Tuesday night's primary by Democratic challenger Kim Foxx, amid criticism of the incumbent's mishandling of the Laquan McDonald case. McDonald's death sparked a national outcry after video surfaced last November showing police officer Jason Van Dyke shooting the teen 16 times in less than 30 seconds as McDonald faced away.

"I have been criticized that I wasn't a very good politician, and that's probably right, and that's probably why I stand before you tonight," Alvarez said Tuesday during her concession speech. "But I am very damn proud of the fact that I am a good prosecutor, I have been."

Many, however, argue that Alvarez helped Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cover up the death of McDonald. Although the state's attorney did eventually charge Van Dyke with murder after a judge ordered video of McDonald's shooting to be released, that was 400 days following the teen's death.


Comment: While Alvarez's ouster was much needed, Rahm Emanuel's head should be on the chopping block as well for his role in the cover up of not only the Laquan McDonald murder, but also the secret facility Homan Square that the Chicago Police Department used to disappear and torture thousands.

Airplane

American Airlines flight struck by lightning, forced to land at JFK

American Airlines
© Robert Alexander/Getty Images
An American Airlines flight bound for New York's LaGuardia Airport made an emergency landing Thursday night after it was struck by lightning, ABC-owned WABC in New York reported.

American Airlines flight 4233 was en route to LaGuardia from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, when a pilot reported a lightning strike around 6:06 p.m. Thursday, according to WABC. The flight was diverted to nearby JFK airport, which has longer runways.

Snakes in Suits

Selective memory: Trump denies saying he would pay legal fees of supporter who punched protester

Donald Trump
Crackers
Two days after saying he told his team to look into paying the legal fees of a supporter who sucker-punched a protester at one of his rallies, GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump argued he never said he would pay the fees.

Speaking on ABC's Good Morning America, Trump was asked by George Stephanopoulos whether paying the legal fees for the protester would constitute supporting violence.

"I don't condone violence," Trump said. "I didn't say I would pay for his fees."

"Nobody has asked me for fees and I haven't even seen it, so I never said I was going to pay for fees," he added.

Comment: Demagoguery and cognitive dissonance: Making America great again?


Nuke

Fukushima five years later: "Fuel rods melted through their containment vessels, no one knows where they are now"

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 10, 2016
© Toru Hanai / ReutersFukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan February 10, 2016
Today, Japan marks the fifth anniversary of the tragic and catastrophic meltdown of the Fukushima nuclear plant. On March 11, 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the northeast coast of Japan, killing 20,000 people. Another 160,000 then fled the radiation in Fukushima. It was the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, and according to some it would be far worse, if the Japanese government did not cover up the true severity of the devastation.

At least 100,000 people from the region have not yet returned to their homes. A full cleanup of the site is expected to take at least 40 years. Representative of the families of the victims spoke during Friday's memorial ceremony in Tokyo. This is what Kuniyuki Sakuma, a former resident of Fukushima Province said:
For those who remain, we are seized with anxieties and uncertainties that are beyond words. We spend life away from our homes. Families are divided and scattered. As our experiences continue into another year, we wonder: 'When will we be able to return to our homes? Will a day come when our families are united again?'

There are many problems in areas affected by the disaster, such as high radiation levels in parts of Fukushima Prefecture that need to be overcome. Even so, as a representative of the families that survived the disaster, I make a vow once more to the souls and spirits of the victims of the great disaster; I vow that we will make the utmost efforts to continue to promote the recovery and reconstruction of our hometowns.
Sadly, the 2011 disaster will be repeated. After the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, Japan was flooded with massive anti-nuclear protests which led to a four-year nationwide moratorium on nuclear plants. The moratorium was lifted, despite sweeping opposition, last August and nuclear plants are being restarted.

Meanwhile, while we await more tragedy out of the demographically-doomed nation, this is what Fukushima's ground zero looks like five years later. As Reuters sums it up best, "no place for man, or robot."