Society's ChildS


Hardhat

Appalachian coal mining operations are destroying forests, polluting streams and flooding communities

coal mining appalachian mountains
An explosive is detonated at an A & G Coal Corporation surface mining operation in the Appalachian Mountains, Wise County, Virginia. Critics refer to this type of mining as 'mountaintop removal mining' which has destroyed 500 mountain peaks and at least 1,200 miles of streams while leading to increased flooding
For more than forty years, mining companies have been destroying entire mountain peaks in West Virginia, Kentucky and other areas of Central Appalachia.

The technique, known as mountaintop mining, practice provides much-needed jobs and the steady supply of coal that America relies on for more than half of its electricity needs.

But residents say they are paying a high price, with the practice destroying forests, polluting streams and flooding communities - and now a new study has backed up their claims.

Scientists have found mountaintop coal mining has made parts of Central Appalachia 40 per cent flatter than they were before excavation.

Comment:
Community Impacts of Mountaintop Removal

Communities near mountaintop removal sites frequently experience contaminated drinking water supplies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that iron and manganese concentrations surpass drinking water guidelines in at least 40% of wells on the Appalachian Plateau, and in about 70% of the wells near reclaimed surface coal mines of the region.

Coal slurry, the waste left after washing and processing coal with water and chemicals, is highly toxic and can leach into groundwater.
Coal sludge, or slurry, is the toxic byproduct of removing coal from rock, and it contains dangerous heavy metals such as antimony, beryllium, cadmium, chlorine, chromium, cobalt, lead, manganese, nickel, selenium, arsenic and mercury.

The forceful blasting from mountaintop removal often occurs close to homes, and at all times of the day. Drinking water wells and building foundations crack from the sheer force of the explosions, significantly depreciating property values, which is oftentimes a family's most substantial asset. Communities are blanketed in dust, and sometimes pelted by rocks ranging from pebble to boulder size.

Before coal companies remove a mountaintop, they strip the land clean. Without trees on steep mountain slopes, rainfall can quickly accumulate to dangerous levels, subjecting nearby communities to powerful flash floods. Some of the most devastating flash floods occurred in Mingo County in southern West Virginia in May 2009, when rising water forced residents from their homes and prompted then-Governor Joe Manchin to declare a state of emergency. It was the 19th flood in 11 years to hit Mingo County and surrounding areas of southern West Virginia's coalfields.



TV

Watch what you say in front of your Smart TV

samsung smart tv
In a troubling new development in the domestic consumer surveillance debate, an investigation into Samsung Smart TVs has revealed that user voice commands are recorded, stored, and transmitted to a third party. The company even warns customers not to discuss personal or sensitive information within earshot of the device.

This is in stark contrast to previous claims by tech manufacturers, like PlayStation, who vehemently deny their devices record personal information, despite evidence to the contrary, including news that hackers can gain access to unencrypted streams of credit card information.

The new Samsung controversy stems from the discovery of a single haunting statement in the company's "privacy policy," which states:
Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party.

Comment: Cutting edge technology is not worth losing your privacy.


Clock

Single, global time zone?

World Time Zones
© Thinkstock/iStock
Are time zones obsolete? According to two Johns Hopkins University professors, Steve Hanke and Richard Henry, an economist and an astrophysicist, respectively, the world would be better off if everyone set their watches to the same time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Trying to change how the world tells time might seem like a crazy idea at first glance, but in a globally connected world, a single time zone has its benefits.

For starters, time zones are political creations, not scientific ones. The world isn't divided into 24 precisely demarcated lines based on sunlight patterns. Instead, there are around 40 different locally observed times created by different nations and regions. Some countries, such as Nepal, Venezuela or North Korea, have 30- or even 45-minute offsets separating their time from their longitudinal neighborhood.

Countries also change their time zones regularly. As the Washington Post mentions in an interview recently with Hanke and Henry, five countries changed theirs last year.

Arrow Down

US Okinawan military base secretly contaminating local waterways with toxic chemicals

water contamination kadena air base
© Jon MitchellA fire extinguishing agent is washed out in a storm drain at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture on Dec. 4, 2013, in a photo obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act
U.S. documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that lax safety standards at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa may be to blame for the recent contamination of local drinking water sources.

The internal reports expose a spate of accidents at the base during the past 15 years that have involved at least 21,000 liters of fire extinguishing agents — some of them toxic.

In one incident last May, described by base officials as "vandalism," a drunk U.S. Marine activated a firefighting system. It filled a hangar with more than 1,500 liters of JET-X 2.75 percent — a foam classified by the U.S. government as hazardous. It contains chemicals known to cause cancer, and neurological and reproductive disorders.

Although the agent flowed off the base into nearby waterways and the ocean, military officials decided not to report the accident to Japanese authorities or local residents.

Other incidents at Kadena, the largest U.S. air base in the Pacific, included the escape of approximately 17,000 liters of fire extinguishing agents during a three-day period in 2001, attributed by base officials to mechanical and electronic malfunctions.

Comment: It's little wonder the Japanese are fed-up with the US military presence:


Book 2

D.C. madame: Will her 'little black book' see the light of day?

Deborah Jeane Palfrey
© AP PHOTO/JACQUELYN MARTINDeborah Jeane Palfrey
Yes, Madam. Call us crazy, but we do think it's a little strange when a person ends up dead exactly the way they said would never happen. Especially if that person was in possession of documents that could topple the careers of hundreds of powerful people.

"D.C. Madam" Deborah Jeane Palfrey said she would never commit suicide.

Now, to be sure, we know that some people who make such declarations do go on to kill themselves. And we know that no physical evidence was reported that proved Palfrey was murdered.

Still, we find her death worth a closer look. Especially since she said, shortly before her death, that someone had put out a contract on her.

Her death was two election cycles ago, but now, her little black book is in the news again. Which is all to the good, in our opinion. Any attention to her rather suspicious death is more than welcome.

Comment: See also: Kevin Barrett: Is Obama killing 'kill list' critics?

Palfrey's story is not the first of its kind. Henry Vinson went through the same thing (though Vinson went to prison and thankfully wasn't murdered!) back in the 80s, in a scandal that overlapped with the Franklin pedophile-ring scandal.


Sheriff

News crew inadvertently captures brutal arrest on camera in Tennessee

Memphis PD
© Via Youtube/Papa Bear
Reporters with the Local 24 news crew inadvertently caught a brutal arrest on camera while working on an unrelated story at the Country Squire Apartments in Cordova. While the crew was filming for their other story, they heard sirens and noticed a man running away from police.

While he was in front of the cameras, the man dropped to the ground where he was repeatedly bludgeoned with the officer's baton and kicked several times. After assaulting the man, the officer ordered him to put his hands behind his back. The man obeyed and the officer lifted him up from the ground by his handcuffs while having his other hand around the man's throat. He then kicked the suspect into the back of squad car.

The film has sparked an investigation into the officer's actions and has even drawn comments from state lawmakers. "There's obviously some abuse going on here, excessive force. When I'm looking at a young man that's on the ground and supporting himself with one arm laying down, that is not a position where he's a threat to anybody standing," State Representative G.A. Hardaway said after watching the video.

Steve Mulroy, a former federal prosecutor and civil rights lawyer for the Department of Justice, also expressed his disgust with the incident, saying, "When the suspect was already down on the ground with his arms indicating that he was going to comply, offering no resistance and not failing to obey any commands from the officer, it was not justified for the officer to strike him with the nightstick or to kick him."

"That's unacceptable, completely unacceptable. It unravels every bit of goodwill that has been rolled out. Any child that sees that is going to be imprinted with it for lifetime. Any adult is going to be imprinted with it. They're going to teach their children that this is what the police do," he added.


Comment: That is exactly the point of allowing police brutality. It's state-sanctioned terror passed down through generations; a tactic the 'powers that be' use to control and terrorize populations. See: Does fear lead to fascism? A culture of fear and the epigenetics of terror



Comment: See also: Authoritarianism and Psychopathy


Ambulance

Teen loses an arm in botched Craigslist robbery

SUV hits gate
© Sam Costanza/NY Daily NewsA police officer secures the handgun (on grass at officer's feet) that was dropped when the robber was struck by the gray SUV (pictured l.) on Avenue M near E. 86th St. in Canarsie.
A robbery victim, who decided to take the law into his own hands by mowing down an armed teen thief, severing his right arm, is now in handcuffs himself, police said.

Police arrested the robbery victim, Philip Pierre, 39, of East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and charged him with attempted murder. The alleged teen thief, Zachary Sam, 17, also of Canarsie, Brooklyn, was charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon in the Craigslist robbery gone wrong. Both were charged on Friday.

Police sources say the teenager connected with Pierre on Craigslist on Friday. Pierre was selling a pair of Air Jordan sneakers.

They met about 1 p.m. near Avenue M and East 84th Street in Canarsie, where Sam got into Pierre's Honda Pilot SUV and pulled out a gun, a police source said. The teen allegedly stole the Jordan Retro 8 sneakers and walked away.

Comment: The driver's life was no longer in danger once the teen left the vehicle. Running him over was an act of retribution.


Eye 1

Snyder invites himself to speak before Congress, releases 20,000 emails concerning Flint water crisis

Michigan Governor Rick Snyder
© Shannon Stapleton / ReutersRick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan, speaks during an interview in New York, November 8, 2013.
Michigan Governor Rick Snyder (R) invited himself to speak before the House Oversight Committee concerning the Flint water crisis amidst the release of over 20,000 emails from various state agencies involved in the failure to prevent lead contamination.

A Thursday phone call to congressional committee chairman Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) led to Governor Snyder being confirmed on Friday for a future hearing. He will sit alongside US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy, though no date has yet been set.

"The people of Flint have suffered because they were failed by all levels of government, and so it is understandable that there are questions at all levels of government," Snyder said in a press release. He also expressed the intention to help other cities facing similar risks of water poisoning.

Comment: See also:
  • Activist called to court for Flint water crisis Facebook post; 'threatening behavior' cited



Handcuffs

NYPD cop convicted for killing unarmed father of two as he walked home

Peter Liang/Akai Gurley
© The Free Thought Project
After fatally shooting an unarmed innocent man in a dimly lit stairwell, NYPD Officer Peter Liang was convicted of manslaughter and official misconduct after killing the man for no reason and making no attempt to help the dying father of two young girls. Instead of administering CPR or requesting an ambulance, Liang bickered with his partner and whined about possibly losing his job.

On November 20, 2014, NYPD officers Peter Liang and Shaun Landau were conducting patrols on the upper floors of the Louis H. Pink housing project in Brooklyn even though Deputy Inspector Miguel Iglesias had ordered them not to conduct vertical patrols inside the building. Liang initially reported opening the door to the stairwell with the same hand holding his Glock .9mm pistol. Instead of opening the door with his right hand, which held his flashlight, Liang claimed he accidentally fired a shot that ricocheted off the wall and into Akai Gurley's chest.

"They didn't identify themselves," recalled Gurley's girlfriend, Melissa Butler. "No nothing. They didn't give no explanation. They just pulled a gun and shot him in the chest." Standing on the floor below them, Gurley staggered down to the fifth floor where he collapsed.

Melissa Butler ran to an apartment to ask for help and called 911. As the operator instructed Butler to administer first aid until the paramedics arrived, Liang and Landau remained in the stairwell
texting their union rep instead of immediately calling in the shooting or requesting an ambulance. "It was an accident," Liang whimpered to his partner. "I'm gonna get fired."

Gurley was transported to Brookdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Officers Liang and Landau were taken to a separate hospital for treatment of tinnitus. Liang was placed on administrative duty following the incident. "There was absolutely no threat to him, his partner or any resident," stated Assistant District Attorney Mark Fliedner. "He mishandled his weapon, and as a result Akai Gurley is dead."

Comment: The NYPD obviously engages in rampant misconduct and brutality. Up to this point, it has been allowed. We hope this cop ends up being sentenced for murdering an innocent man, but we aren't holding our breath.

See also:


Ambulance

Oh, the irony! UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt launches doctors' morale review... while imposing deeply unpopular contracts

UK junior doctors strike
© Toby Melville / Reuters Junior doctors and NHS staff hold placards during a strike outside St Thomas' Hospital in London, Britain February 10, 2016.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has been ridiculed for announcing a government review into the morale of junior doctors on the same day he said a new, deeply unpopular contract would be forced upon them.

Hunt told the House of Commons the review will look at doctors' quality of life and well-being, including inflexibility around annual leave, separation from family members and lack of notice about hospital placements a long way from home.

The health secretary said he discovered "deep - seated issues relating to junior doctors' morale" during negotiations with doctors' union the British Medical Association (BMA).

Twitter users were quick to mock Hunt, who appears to be unaware of the irony of his statements.


Comment: Grinding down the people: UK Govt to impose contract on junior doctors