Students starting at Champlain College in Vermont will be able to silently communicate their preferred gender pronoun using new pins handed out during first-year orientation.

The move helps accommodate those who consider themselves to be 'gender non-conformist' and prefer to be called a pronoun other than the one imposed on them at birth.

Stephen Mease from the school confirmed the initiative and said "it's part of ongoing work to be more inclusive," according to NBC.

Hundreds of pins were handed out at new student orientation as well as to older students, faculty members, and staff.

More pins had to be made after the initial batch ran out, said Danelle Berube, the college's director of residential life, according to the Burlington Free Press.

"We have a number of students who identify as transgender or on the non-binary spectrum, and about a week before orientation while we were pulling together materials, the idea just kind of came out of the air," Berube said. "It just seemed like a no-brainer - a very easy way to make the first day of college for a number of our students maybe a little bit easier."

A domestic dispute call turned deadly for a suspect and a police officer in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Another officer was reportedly injured. New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez has called for an end to violence against police.

One officer was confirmed dead and another injured after a Friday morning shooting at the White Sands Trailer Park, according to KOB-TV.

The suspect has also died of his injuries, KRQE reported citing the man's family. The suspect was involved in a domestic dispute, and "gunfire was exchanged" when the police arrived.

A dense and disturbing report found widespread sexual abuse at St. George's boarding school in Rhode Island in the 1970s and 1980s. Sixty-one witness accounts led investigators to conclude that both faculty and students had committed crimes.

"The picture that emerges from this investigation is profoundly disturbing," attorney Martin F. Murphy wrote in the preface to the 390-page report documenting the abuse which was released on Thursday.

The report, the result of interviews with 150 witnesses and analysis of thousands of pages of documents, found faculty and staff members at the elite Rhode Island boarding school sexually abused at least 51 students during the 1970s and 1980s. Students sexually abused at least another 10 of their fellow students. Six of the faculty and staff were named in the report.

In January of this year, Brock Turner brutality beat and raped a woman, behind a dumpster, on the Stanford University grounds. The "slap on the wrist" punishment and editorials written by his parents have kept this case in the national spotlight.

Scary Mommy Reports:

On January 18th, 2014, 19-year-old Brock Allen Turner was arrested after a couple of students on bikes spotted Turner thrusting his body on top of a half naked, unconscious woman behind a dumpster on the Stanford University grounds. The students tackled Turner after he attempted to run, and called police. When the police were interviewing the men, one was crying so hard he could barely speak because of what he had seen.

He was caught in the act. He was arrested and charged with five felony counts: rape of an intoxicated person, rape of an unconscious person, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an intoxicated woman, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an unconscious woman, and assault with intent to commit rape. He was released from jail on $150,000 bail.

He was found guilty of three of the five felonies he was charged with: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person, and penetration of an unconscious person.

Then Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced him to six months in Santa Clara County jail. He was facing a maximum sentence of 14 years.

Six months.

With good behavior, he was expected to serve three months. And he has. He will be released this Friday.

That's right, Brock Turner, rapist, gets charged with three felony counts and will walk out of a county jail three months later. Just in time to join his despicable family for a nice long, Labor Day weekend. Remember Turner's dad's letter to the judge? We'll refresh your memory: it had a lot to do with Brock's loss of appetite since he became a rapist, and how sad it was making everyone in the family: "I was always excited to buy a big ribeye steak to grill or to get his favorite snack for him... Now he barely consumes any food and eats only to exist."Mom was upset that she couldn't redecorate their new home because she was so beside herself about her son's arrest. Neither parent mentioned the woman he attacked, or expressed remorse for their son's actions.

The judge in the case had sensible people everywhere ready to throw their computers out the window. "A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him ... I think he will not be a danger to others," Judge Persky said during the sentencing. A severe impact on him. Yeah. Wouldn't want to ruin a rapist's chances at a gleeful, productive life by making him — oh, I don't know — PAY FOR THE CRIME HE COMMITTED WITH JAIL TIME. LIKE EVERY OTHER FU*KING CRIMINAL WHO'S BEEN CONVICTED.

"I noticed that he was smiling. So I said, 'Why are you smiling? Stop smiling,'" testified Peter Jonsson, one of two Stanford graduate students tackled Turner when they caught him assaulting an unconscious woman. "I was laughing at the situation of how ridiculous it was," he testified, according to the documents.

The Department of Homeland Security declared on Monday that it will review its widespread use of for-profit immigrant detention centers, in what amounts to an implied acknowledgment that human rights abuses plague its prisons, some of which house mothers with their children.

If the announcement translates into meaningful action, it could help chip away at the political power of a private prison industry that has aggressively lobbied for harsh immigration policies, including the congressional immigrant detention quota, which today directs Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold an average of 34,000 people in detention on a daily basis. Meanwhile, the announcement left many wondering whether the federal agency will also revisit mass detentions and deportations of refugees, immigrants and migrants, which have soared to record levels under the administration of President Barack Obama.

However, a critical aspect of the DHS announcement has gone overlooked. The federal agency's plan is contingent on a review process initiated by the so-called "Homeland Security Advisory Council." Here is what DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that process will look like:

The Pledge of Allegiance is not an expression of patriotism. It is a loyalty oath that one normally associates with totalitarian regimes. People who love freedom, should be appalled by the idea our children are being coerced to stand and declare their support for the state. This is the worst form of indoctrination and it is completely anathema to the principals articulated in the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I cannot imagine outspoken libertarians like Thomas Jefferson or Tom Paine ever proclaiming their loyalty to the state when they correctly saw the state as the greatest threat to individual freedom. Which it is.

Now I know that many people think the Pledge is simply an affirmation of their respect for the flag, their love for the country, and their gratitude to the men and women who fought in America's wars. But that's not what it is. The Pledge is an attempt to impose conformity on the masses and compel them to click their heels and proclaim their devotion to the Fatherland. That's not how it's supposed to work in a democracy. In a democracy, the representatives of the state are supposed to pledge their loyalty to the people and to the laws that protect them. That's the correct relationship between the state and the people. The Pledge turns that whole concept on its head.

A Lowell, North Carolina cop has been accused of impregnating a 14-year-old girl he volunteered to mentor.

WSOCTV reported the ordeal began when Officer James Blair offered to mentor two children — the now impregnated teen, who had previously run away, and her sibling. The girl's mother says he told her he wanted to take a role in their lives "To show them, 'Hey, policemen are good.'"

The mother told WSOC she was hesitant at first but allowed him to spend time with her children because he was a policeman. He visited them often and, on one occasion, took them on a trip.

Colin Kaepernick met with the media Thursday evening following the San Francisco 49ers preseason victory over the San Diego Chargers. He got a chance to get into significant detail about his protest, the causes he supports, and how things will work moving forward.

Kaepernick told the media he will be donating the first $1 million of his 2016 salary to various community organizations. He talked about putting his money where his mouth is, and will use this money to help various organizations. He said he has been speaking with various organizations to move this beyond the why of the protest, and into the underlying issues of the protests. This will include working in communities in need, and effecting change as much as he can. Charles Robinson posted an article shortly after the game talking about the potential pivot we might see on this. It reads like someone who has spoken to sources close to Kaepernick. It's a good read.

A US college student who vanished during a trip to China in 2004 is alive and living in North Korea after being abducted by Pyongyang, the head of a South Korean abductees organization says. Chinese police called the disappearance a hiking accident.

David Sneddon, then a 24-year-old college student, vanished in western China's Yunnan Province in 2004. Police said he likely died while walking in Tiger Leaping Gorge near the Jinsha River.

It's a story that Sneddon's family never believed, particularly because a body was never recovered.

Now it appears that over a decade of doubt may have been warranted, with an official from South Korea's Abductees' Family Union, Choi Sung-yong, saying Sneddon was kidnapped to be an English tutor to Kim Jong-un, long before he took over his father's post as the country's leader.

Choi cited a source who reportedly told his organization that Sneddon is living in Pyongyang and teaching English. He has a wife and two children, the Japanese News Network (JNN) reported.

A woman beaten to death with a lamp in an act of domestic violence. A man fatally stabbed during an argument outside a tavern. A man shot and killed while returning from a funeral for his grandfather. Those are just three of the 24 homicides recorded in August — what Milwaukee police have termed the "deadliest month" in 25 years. It is the highest monthly total since July 1991, when the victims of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer were discovered, Milwaukee police said.

"We've had a slight increase in domestic violence homicides this year, but the biggest driver of our homicides is arguments and fights and retaliation among people with criminal records," Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn said Thursday. "Some of our challenge is simply consistently being able to deter armed offending through the criminal justice system," he added. "The penalties are too weak."


Although Chicago has captured national headlines for having its deadliest month in nearly two decades, Milwaukee had a higher per capita rate of killings (4 per 100,000 people) in August compared with its neighbor to the south (3.3 per 100,000 people), according to Milwaukee police.