Society's ChildS


Evil Rays

'Interpreter' at Mandela memorial event says he does not remember being up on stage with world leaders

interpreter at mandela
© Associated Press/Tsvangirayi MukwazhiThamsanqa Jantjie gesticulates at his home during an interview with the Associated Press in Johannesburg, South Africa,Thursday, Dec. 12, 2013. Jantjie, the man accused of faking sign interpretation next to world leaders at Nelson Mandela's memorial, told a local newspaper that he was hallucinating and hearing voices.
The man accused of faking sign interpretation while standing alongside world leaders like U.S. President Barack Obama at Nelson Mandela's memorial service said Thursday he hallucinated that angels were entering the stadium, suffers from schizophrenia and has been violent in the past.

Thamsanqa Jantjie said in a 45-minute interview with The Associated Press that his hallucinations began while he was interpreting and that he tried not to panic because there were "armed policemen around me." He added that he was once hospitalized in a mental health facility for more than one year.

Comment: Mind control?

The firm he was supposedly hired from is a cut-out:

Firm that employed fake interpreter for deaf at Mandela memorial service has 'vanished'

And then, there's this:

Family concerned about priest after bizarre call regarding an assassination plot involving himself and interpreter


Pistol

The debt collecting machine: mystery company threatens homes from Washington, D.C to Ohio

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© Michael S. Williamson/The Washington PostAn Aeon-owned property in Cleveland.
Aeon Financial foreclosed on more than 400 properties in Ohio's biggest county. It threatened more than 1,900 in D.C. and Maryland. To distressed homeowners, it's a debt-collecting machine.

The firm that threatened to foreclose on hundreds of struggling D.C. homeowners is a mystery: It lists no owners, no local office, no Web site.

Aeon Financial is incorporated in Delaware, operates from mail-drop boxes in Chicago and is represented by a law firm with an address at a 7,200-square-foot estate on a mountainside near Vail, Colo.

Yet no other tax lien purchaser in the District has been more aggressive in recent years, buying the liens placed on properties when owners fell behind on their taxes, then charging families thousands in fees to save their homes from foreclosure.

Aeon has been accused by the city's attorney general of predatory and unlawful practices and has been harshly criticized by local judges for overbilling. All along, the firm has remained shrouded in corporate secrecy as it pushed to foreclose on more than 700 houses in every ward of the District.

"Who the heck is Aeon?" said David Chung, a local lawyer who said he wasn't notified that he owed $575 in back taxes on his Northwest Washington condominium until he received a notice from Aeon. "They said, 'We bought the right to take over your property. If you want it back - pay us.' "

Aeon's story underscores how an obscure tax lien company - backed by large banks and savvy lawyers - can move from city to city with little government scrutiny, taking in millions from distressed homeowners.

The firm came into the District eight years ago with hardball tactics, sending families threatening letters and demanding $5,000 or more in legal fees and other costs, often more than three times the tax debt.

Handcuffs

Flashback Charles Dickens redux: In jail for being in debt


You committed no crime, but an officer is knocking on your door. More Minnesotans are surprised to find themselves being locked up over debts.

As a sheriff's deputy dumped the contents of Joy Uhlmeyer's purse into a sealed bag, she begged to know why she had just been arrested while driving home to Richfield after an Easter visit with her elderly mother.

No one had an answer. Uhlmeyer spent a sleepless night in a frigid Anoka County holding cell, her hands tucked under her armpits for warmth. Then, handcuffed in a squad car, she was taken to downtown Minneapolis for booking. Finally, after 16 hours in limbo, jail officials fingerprinted Uhlmeyer and explained her offense -- missing a court hearing over an unpaid debt. "They have no right to do this to me," said the 57-year-old patient care advocate, her voice as soft as a whisper. "Not for a stupid credit card."

It's not a crime to owe money, and debtors' prisons were abolished in the United States in the 19th century. But people are routinely being thrown in jail for failing to pay debts. In Minnesota, which has some of the most creditor-friendly laws in the country, the use of arrest warrants against debtors has jumped 60 percent over the past four years, with 845 cases in 2009, a Star Tribune analysis of state court data has found.

Not every warrant results in an arrest, but in Minnesota many debtors spend up to 48 hours in cells with criminals. Consumer attorneys say such arrests are increasing in many states, including Arkansas, Arizona and Washington, driven by a bad economy, high consumer debt and a growing industry that buys bad debts and employs every means available to collect.

Whether a debtor is locked up depends largely on where the person lives, because enforcement is inconsistent from state to state, and even county to county.

In Illinois and southwest Indiana, some judges jail debtors for missing court-ordered debt payments. In extreme cases, people stay in jail until they raise a minimum payment. In January, a judge sentenced a Kenney, Ill., man "to indefinite incarceration" until he came up with $300 toward a lumber yard debt.

House

Manhattan apartment rents drop for a third straight month

nyc apartments
© Daniel Acker/BloombergThe median monthly rent in Manhattan dropped 3 percent from a year earlier to $3,100.
Manhattan apartment rents fell for a third month in November and the vacancy rate reached the highest in at least seven years, signs the market is weakening amid a spike in homebuying and the lure of leasing in Brooklyn.

The median monthly rent in Manhattan dropped 3 percent from a year earlier to $3,100, according to a report today by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. The vacancy rate climbed to 2.8 percent, the highest since the firms began tracking the data in August 2006.

Rents had been climbing for almost two years and approaching the 2006 peak of $3,265 a month before they began to slide in September. Manhattan home purchases jumped to a six-year high in the third quarter as buyers rushed to make deals before rising mortgage rates pushed costs higher, Miller Samuel and Douglas Elliman said. Sales of one-bedroom units reached a 15-year high, suggesting an influx of first-time buyers.

Arrow Up

Meet Lucia Topolansky, Uruguay's first lady like no other

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Lucia Topolansky is a first lady like no other. An outspoken senator, former Tupamaro guerrilla and key member of her country's ruling coalition, she is more than qualified to follow her husband Jose Mujica into the presidency.

But would she?

"No way," she told The Associated Press in an interview in her Senate office. "Now that I've seen the presidency up close, I wouldn't wish it on anybody. Look, I remember well how in your country Barack Obama didn't have a single gray hair in his first term, and now he's totally gray!"

Topolansky is, however, being talked about as a potential vice president for Tabare Vazquez, who preceded Mujica in office and is a likely front-runner to retake the presidency in 2014.

Now 69 and gray herself, Topolansky still speaks with the intensity of the young, blond militant who tried to change her country through armed revolution starting in 1966, organizing jailbreaks and even crawling through sewers to escape from prison.

Recaptured just before Uruguay's 1973 military coup, she suffered torture during her nearly 14 years in prison. With democracy's return in 1985, she and Mujica were among the former guerrillas granted amnesties. They eventually got married and kept working for change, achieving through the ballot box what bullets couldn't.

Mujica won the presidency through his charisma and common touch, but credits his wife for his political backbone - missing her birthday while visiting the United Nations last week, he called her his "hard drive."

Comment: See also: Man of the people: President of Uruguay José Mujica gives away 90% of his salary


Roses

People Power: Italy hit by wave of Pitchfork protests as austerity unites disparate groups

Protesters
© NurPhoto/Rex FeaturesProtesters with loosely formed movement I Forconi (The Pitchforks) demonstrate in Turin, Italy.
Demonstrations point to frustration with traditional politics, with minister warning parliament of a country in 'spiral of rebellion'


They blocked roads and stopped trains,occupied piazzas, clashed with police and closed shops. From Turin and Milan in the north to Puglia and Sicily in the south, Italy was hit this week by a wave of protests that brought together disparate groups and traditional foes in an angry show of opposition to austerity policies and the government.

"They [politicians] have brought us to hunger; have destroyed the identity of a country; have annihilated the future of entire generations," read one poster from the "December 9 Committee", an umbrella organisation urging Italians to rise up against the euro, Brussels, globalisation and, primarily, Enrico Letta's government. "To rebel is a duty."

In a loosely formed movement which has gone largely by the name of I Forconi (the Pitchforks), lorry drivers, farmers, small business owners, students and unemployed people staged protests venting their fury at a political class which they blame for Italy's longest post-war recession and want to "send home".

But they were not alone. Alongside them were anti-globalisation groups, members of the Veneto Independence movement, elements of the far right and - for good measure - football "ultras". Among the sights "rarely seen before", reported the Turin-based daily La Stampa, were supporters of arch-rivals Juventus and Torino standing "side by side".

Although the protests had been publicised, especially on the internet, their scale and occasionally violent nature - particularly in Turin, a historic city of protest - appeared to take many by surprise.

In a country struggling to exit a two-year long recession, in which unemployment is at a record high of 12.5% and one in 10 children is thought to be living in absolute poverty, the causes of the unrest are hardly unfathomable.

Dollar Gold

Class divide: Wealthy travelers now have private terminal at Newark Airport

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Ever wonder where celebrities and sports teams go when they fly into Newark Liberty Airport and want to avoid prying eyes? One of the places is an unassuming building off an access road at the northern edge of the airport, yards from truck traffic lumbering down an interstate.

Now, well-heeled travelers arriving for February's Super Bowl will find even cushier surroundings.

Signature Flight Support cut the ribbon Friday on a revamped, $11 million private terminal that offers amenities including a lounge with large flat-screen TVs, an executive conference room, free Wi-Fi and courtesy shuttle service.

Plans for the new building were already in place when MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford was selected to host the Super Bowl in 2010, according to general manager Eric Richardson. The awarding of the game and the possibility of a significant bump in customers provided more momentum to the project.

Bad Guys

NYPD broke down door without warrant, beat up family, stomped pet bird to death

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© NY Daily News / Shawn InglimaEdwin Avellant standing next to the birdcage.

"They (the cops) don't care about us as humans, they're going to care about the bird?"

A Staten Island family barbecue turned into a nightmare when it was interrupted by police investigating the improper use of a parking cone to save a parking spot on the street. What resulted was a day the family will never forget, as their home was invaded without a warrant, several family members were bludgeoned, and a NYPD officer sadistically stomped on a pet parakeet that lay helpless on the floor.
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© NY Daily News / Shawn InglimaEvelyn Lugo displays a picture of her beloved pet parakeet, Tito.

The incident occurred on September 2nd, 2012, as the family of Evelyn Lugo celebrated Labor Day at their St. George neighborhood home. Lugo, 57, and her children and grandchildren were at the home eating and enjoying each other's company.

When Lugo's son Edwin Avellanet, 26, went outside to dispose of a bag of garbage, he was approached by police investigating a parking cone. Someone had placed a cone on the street to reserve a parking spot without city permission. Avellanet was stopped and questioned about the suspicious cone, but insisted that he had done nothing wrong.

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© NY Daily News
Not accepting his denial, police demanded identification. Avellanet had nothing to show them. When he was grabbed by the arm by one of the uniformed bullies, he broke free and retreated into the house.

Comment: When the police are behaving in such a violent, sadistic, unlawful and pathological way, how 'safe' - even within our own homes - can any of us really consider ourselves to be?


Bulb

Italy's Grillo urges police to join "pitchfork" protests - some police comply


The head of Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star Movement Beppe Grillo urged police on Tuesday to join protesters as a wave of "pitchfork" protests gave vent to bitter frustration after years of austerity and recession.

The "pitchfork movement", originally a loosely organized group of farmers from Sicily, has been joined by other protestors including truckers, small businessmen, the unemployed, low-paid workers and others who have staged rallies in cities from Turin in the north to Sicily in the south.

Grillo, whose movement has no direct connection with the protests, welcomed reports that several police officers took off their riot helmets and expressed sympathy with demonstrators on Monday.

Heart - Black

Death sentence for Chinese school knife rampage - slashed 22 children

Psycho
© IBTimesMin Yongjun goes on a rampage with a knife at a Henan, China school.
A man has been sentenced to death for going on a knife rampage at a school in China last year.

Twenty two children were injured in the slashing spree by Min Yongjun in a school in the central province of Henan on 14 December 2012 - the same day as the Sandy Hook school massacre.

The 37-year-old Min Yongjun was caught on CCTV bursting into the school and chasing terrified youngsters through a gate, before being tackled by a group of adults equipped with brooms.