Society's ChildS


Blackbox

US: Preparing for coming chaos? Super blood donors could be tapped in a 'disaster'

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© Unknown
FDA considers shrinking emergency intervals to as little as 48 hours for some

Next time a national disaster strikes, whether it's an earthquake or a pandemic, dedicated blood donors could be tapped - quite literally - to give again within as little as two days, under a plan being considered by federal health officials.

The Food and Drug Administration is asking advice from blood experts this week about whether it's a good idea to dramatically shrink the intervals between blood donations in the event of emergencies.

Under proposals being considered by the Blood Products Advisory Committee, donors would be allowed to reduce the interval from the normal eight weeks down to four weeks without a doctor's approval, and down to as little as 48 hours with a medical release.

"If things got really bad, we would like the ability ... to draw more fully qualified donors more quickly," explained Dr. Louis Katz, executive vice president of medical affairs for the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, who supports the idea.

Sherlock

US: Painting Solves Mystery of World War II's Pilot's Disappearance

Lt. John Ramsay was an intelligence officer with a love of painting during World War II. He was sketching a Corsair plane about to take off from the Solomon Islands when Herman Spoede climbed into the cockpit.

"I'll give this to you when you come back," Ramsay told Spoede, whose name he didn't know.

The young pilot never returned.

Nearly 70 years later, thanks to the curiosity of two generations of Ramsays and the web site of a military researcher, Herman Spoede's family finally received the painting the artist had promised.


Heart - Black

UK: Psychopath who bit toddler 'to teach her right from wrong' and fractured her skull in horrific beating is jailed

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Vicious: Dean Cochrane, 24, was jailed for beating and biting a young girl

A man has been jailed indefinitely after he severely beat a toddler leaving the child with two skull fractures, 68 bruises and swelling of the scalp.

Dean Cochrane, 24, refused to accept he had attacked the girl throughout his trial and instead blamed her family.

Cochrane shouted 'nice one' to the judge as his sentence was handed down yesterday at Teesside Crown Court, Middlesbrough.

Wolf

UK: Policeman found with 'disgusting' child porn in sting operation walks free from court

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Antony Vodden: The police sergeant was found guilty of child porn offence but was spared jail

A policeman caught with a child porn stash after bragging about it online has been spared jail.

The Metropolitan Police sergeant was trapped in an online sting by an Australian officer, but walked free from court yesterday.

Antony Vodden, 46, kept 110 vile images on his home PC, including 12 at the second highest level of severity.

Evil Rays

Fatal Radiation Level Found at Japanese Plant

Tokyo - The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant said Monday that it measured the highest radiation levels within the plant since it was crippled by a devastating earthquake. However, it said the discovery would not slow continuing efforts to bring the plant's damaged reactors under control.

The operator, Tokyo Electric Power, said that workers on Monday afternoon had found an area near Reactors No. 1 and 2, where radiation levels exceeded their measuring device's maximum reading of 10 sieverts per hour - a fatal dose for humans.

The company said the reading was taken near a ventilation tower, suggesting that the contamination happened in the days immediately after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, when workers desperately tried to release flammable hydrogen gas that was then building up inside the reactor buildings. The release, known as venting, failed to prevent crippling explosions that destroyed the reactor buildings.

Bizarro Earth

Virginia, US: Woodpecker-Saving Daughter Costs Mom $500, Possible Jail Time


Fredericksburg - Eleven-year-old aspiring veterinarian, Skylar Capo, sprang into action the second she learned that a baby woodpecker in her Dad's backyard was about to be eaten by the family cat.

"I've just always loved animals," said Skylar Capo. "I couldn't stand to watch it be eaten."

Skylar couldn't find the woodpecker's mother, so she brought it to her own mother, Alison Capo, who agreed to take it home.

"She was just going to take care of it for a day or two, make sure it was safe and uninjured, and then she was going to let it go," said Capo.

People

Japan: People Power! Protesters Rally in Fukushima Against Nuclear Power

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An estimated 1,700 people gathered to call for an end to nuclear energy on Sunday in the regional capital of Fukushima, where a nuclear power plant that was crippled by a March 11 earthquake and tsunami continues to cause concern.

Nuke

Japan: Fukushima Teacher Muzzled Over Radiation

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As temperatures soared above 37 degrees on a recent July morning, schoolchildren in Fukushima Prefecture were taking off their masks and running around playgrounds in T-shirts, exposing themselves to a similar amount of annual radiation as a nuclear power plant worker.

Toshinori Shishido, a Japanese literature teacher of 25 years, warned his students two months ago to wear surgical masks and keep their skin covered with long-sleeved shirts. His advice went unheeded, not because of the weather but because his school told him not to alarm students. Shishido quit last week.

"I want to get away from this situation where I'm not even allowed to alert children about radiation exposure," said Shishido, 48, who taught at Fukushima Nishi High School. "Now I'm free to talk about the risks."

Family

Disaster payments from BP being taken from those who owe child support

Baton Rouge, Louisiana -- Disaster payments from the BP oil spill are being intercepted by the state from those who are behind in their child support.

The Advocate reported Monday that $5.5 million has been seized so far. Lisa Andry of the Department of Children and Family Services, said that names of about 9,400 people owing $101 million in child support have been found among those applying for BP disaster payments.

Andry says there have been very few complaints among parents who saw their disaster payments diverted. The largest individual seizure was just over $33,000.

So far, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has paid more than $5 billion to individuals. Louisiana has a backlog of $1.2 billion in unpaid child support.

Document

US: Rhode Island's Central Falls Files for Bankruptcy

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© Brian Snyder/ReutersA sign calling Central Falls, Rhode Island a "City of Dreams" marks the town's boundary on Higgingson Avenue.
Central Falls, Rhode Island, one of a handful of U.S. cities and counties facing fiscal collapse in the wake of the economic recession, filed for a rare Chapter 9 bankruptcy on Monday.

The bankruptcy filing, a risky and potentially expensive move that could freeze the city out of the U.S. municipal bond market, marks a symbolic blow as state and local governments struggle to pull themselves out of the recession.

The smallest city in the smallest U.S. state made the filing as it grappled with an $80 million unfunded pension and retiree health benefit liability that is nearly quadruple its annual budget of $17 million.

"This is a wake-up call for other struggling towns," said Eileen Norcross, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. "States should be looking at Rhode Island and saying, 'How can we avoid this?"