Spanish miners are protesting in Madrid against government cuts that threaten their livelihoods. More than 8,000 have been on indefinite strike since the end of May. Jason Parkinson filmed violent clashes over the past month between miners and riot police and got rare access to interview workers who have occupied the mines for over a month
Society's Child
A Baltimore firefighter has been charged with running an online prostitution ring and unlicensed after-hours club in a Southwest Baltimore warehouse, less than two years after he received probation in Baltimore County in a similar sex trafficking case.
The prior arrest didn't end the city employment of Jamar Marvin Simmons, 29, who continued to work as a firefighter/paramedic out of a firehouse in Roland Park. Fire officials said Simmons has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the most recent arrest.
Simmons and another man, 33-year-old Franklin Coit, were charged Tuesday after the FBI's human trafficking Safe Streets Task Force raided a converted warehouse in the 200 block of S. Pulaski St. as part of an investigation into a prostitution ring that had been operating "over the past several years," according to police.
Authorities seized a .40-caliber handgun, drugs, prostitution "tally sheets" and ledgers, and several computers, laptops and flash drives. Also seized were a "large amount of condoms ... and sex aids," records show.
The prior arrest didn't end the city employment of Jamar Marvin Simmons, 29, who continued to work as a firefighter/paramedic out of a firehouse in Roland Park. Fire officials said Simmons has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the most recent arrest.
Simmons and another man, 33-year-old Franklin Coit, were charged Tuesday after the FBI's human trafficking Safe Streets Task Force raided a converted warehouse in the 200 block of S. Pulaski St. as part of an investigation into a prostitution ring that had been operating "over the past several years," according to police.
Authorities seized a .40-caliber handgun, drugs, prostitution "tally sheets" and ledgers, and several computers, laptops and flash drives. Also seized were a "large amount of condoms ... and sex aids," records show.
Masters caught the whole incident on video (below).
Masters told WJBF-TV: "He let himself in and actually came through the house and into my bedroom. And yelled at me to wake me up, to let me know that I needed to come back outside and sign the violation notice."
"I woke up, I didn't have my glasses on or my contacts in and all I see is this big burly figure standing in my doorway. A big huge guy with a grey shirt. It scared the mess out of me."
After the incident, Erica called the Sheriff's Office to file a complaint against Vowell.
The Columbia County Environmental Compliance Manager, Mike Anderson, said that his office is investigating it. He said that his Code Compliance Officers cannot enter someone's home without permission. If they have probable cause, they would have to be escorted by a police officer.
Masters added: "I do understand that my yard needs to be cut. I understand that. I have no problem with that. I understand them having to serve a violation notice, but the way they handled it was completely unacceptable."
Kenji Takahashi, 59, owner of NOAH (Nature Orientated Animal House) says proudly he is "just trying to increase the love that humans have for exotic animals." He believes being able to view captive wild creatures--albeit in totally unnatural and inhumane conditions --"will help people appreciate nature more, because they realize that's where their pets come from." He doesn't mention how much money he is making from his exploitive enterprise.
During a House Rules Committee debate on repealing Obamacare, on Monday, Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) said that insurance companies should be allowed to discriminate against people with pre-existing conditions, such as brain tumors.
Obamacare, which Republicans will vote to repeal on Wednesday, includes a provision prohibiting insurance companies from turning away sick people.
Rep. Dreier said: "And I believe my state of California has a structure in place to deal with pre-existing conditions. It's a pooling process, which I think is one worthy of consideration, because while I don't that think someone who is diagnosed with a massive tumor should the next day be able to have millions and millions and millions of dollars in health care provided, I do believe that there can be a structure to deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions."
Obamacare, which Republicans will vote to repeal on Wednesday, includes a provision prohibiting insurance companies from turning away sick people.
Rep. Dreier said: "And I believe my state of California has a structure in place to deal with pre-existing conditions. It's a pooling process, which I think is one worthy of consideration, because while I don't that think someone who is diagnosed with a massive tumor should the next day be able to have millions and millions and millions of dollars in health care provided, I do believe that there can be a structure to deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions."
© Andrew Testa for The New York Times
A ship docked at an aluminum plant near Reykjavik last month.
A ship docked at an aluminum plant near Reykjavik last month.
Reykjavik, Iceland - For a country that four years ago plunged into a financial abyss so deep it all but shut down overnight, Iceland seems to be doing surprisingly well.
It has repaid, early, many of the international loans that kept it afloat. Unemployment is hovering around 6 percent, and falling. And while much of Europe is struggling to pull itself out of the recessionary swamp, Iceland's economy is expected to grow by 2.8 percent this year.
"Everything has turned around," said Adalheidur Hedinsdottir, who owns and runs the coffee chain Kaffitar, the Starbucks of Iceland, and has plans to open a new cafe and start a bakery business. "When we told the bank we wanted to make a new company, they said, 'Do you want to borrow money?' " she went on. "We haven't been hearing that for a while."
Analysts attribute the surprising turn of events to a combination of fortuitous decisions and good luck, and caution that the lessons of Iceland's turnaround are not readily applicable to the larger and more complex economies of Europe.
It seems that kids across America are being exposed to the law at a younger age. With the police presence in schools throughout the country, more kids have been getting arrested for things such as disrupting class and even using perfume. Many critics believe that these sort of disciplinary actions are going overboard and only creating a culture of delinquency. Susan Phillips, research analyst for The Sentencing Project, joins us with more.
© Katie Chao and Ben Muessig
The problems that America is experiencing right now are not just confined to the field of economics. The truth is that there are signs of deep decay wherever we look, and without question the United States is rotting from the inside out in thousands of different ways. For a long time our debt-fueled prosperity has masked much of the social decay that has been festering underneath the surface, but now it is becoming increasingly apparent that the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted is beginning to disappear. For many Americans, it is easy to point a finger at a particular group or political party and blame them for all of our problems, but the reality of the matter is that our societal decay cuts across all income levels, all political affiliations and all regions of the country. We are being destroyed from within, and this decay can be seen on the streets of the most dilapidated sections of major U.S. cities and it can also be seen in the halls of power in Washington D.C. and on Wall Street. It is undeniable that something has fundamentally changed. The American people do not seem to possess the same level of character that they once had. So where do we go from here?
The following are 25 signs the collapse of America is speeding up as society rots from the inside out....
© NKY.Cincinnati.com
The Creation Museum has placed billboards featuring dinosaurs near heavily traveled interstate routes across the country.
The Creation Museum has placed billboards featuring dinosaurs near heavily traveled interstate routes across the country.
The comic-book-style dinosaurs are located on more than 100 billboards as far away as Dallas, Orlando., Fla., and Sacramento, Calif.
Ken Ham, co-founder of Answers in Genesis, the apologetics ministry that developed the Creation Museum, said the locations of the billboards demonstrate the broad appeal of the attraction.
"Most of the people who come to the Creation Museum come from outside of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky," Ham said. "We've had a number of visitors from California and a couple of Christian schools bused kids up from Texas, so putting billboards in those places is not a reach."
While most scientists maintain dinosaurs have been extinct for millions of years, Answers in Genesis teaches that the world is only a few thousand years old and dinosaurs roamed the Earth until very recently.
Dinosaurs play a prominent role in Creation Museum exhibits, which include a Dinosaur Den with fossilized eggs and a triceratops skeleton casting.
The museum has attracted 1.6 million visitors since it opened in May 2007 and averages more than 800 visitors each day.
Previous advertising campaigns have included the use of print and television outlets, but Ham said the billboard campaign is a more cost-effective way to cross-promote and reach a broad audience.
"We don't have the marketing dollars that the big commercial operations have," Ham said. "One of the things we want to do is get people to go to the Creation Museum website and get connected to our other sites as well."
© Police Photo
Rampage: Jeremiah Haughee, 22, stripped naked before allegedly destroying property, urinating inside a home and biting its owner.
Rampage: Jeremiah Haughee, 22, stripped naked before allegedly destroying property, urinating inside a home and biting its owner.
A naked man allegedly flew into a violent rampage, biting a chunk out of another man's stomach after leaping from his roof onto a truck and urinating inside his home.
Officers responding to the scene needed backup to restrain Jeremiah Aaron Haughee with leg shackles, a spit hood and handcuffs after he continued fighting despite being Tasered five times.
Authorities did not carry out tests on Haughee to see if he was under the influence of any drugs.
Police first arrived at the home in Flagler Beach, Florida at 4.30 a.m. to find two men restraining the naked 22-year-old in a puddle of urine and glass.
They said they had woken to someone destroying their garden furniture, before hearing the person climb on their roof. He jumped onto a truck and dented its hood, leaving $1,500 worth of damage.
When the two men came outside to find out what was going on, Haughee ran into the house and tackled them, knocking a picture frame to the floor and smashing it.
He then urinated on the floor before biting one of them in the stomach as they tried to restrain him, a report from the St. Augustine Police Department said.
Police said the bite was so severe that it will leave the victim permanently disfigured.
