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SOTT Focus: The Truth Perspective: Tammi Stefano - The Truth About Child Protective Services

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This week, on the Truth Perspective, we discussed the recent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that have been menacing the planet over the past weeks, along with the strange portents of the births of disfigured humans and animals.

On the second part of the show, the Truth Perspective interviewed Tammi Stefano, Executive Director of The National Safe Child Coalition (NSCC). Tammi has spent over two decades on frontlines fighting for child safety and serves on numerous committees aimed at protecting children from their abusers, who are often those who should be protecting them in the first place. We discussed the darker side of child protective services, the deep problems of corruption when it comes to children at risk, and what can be done.

Running Time: 02:21:00

Download: MP3


People 2

Mexican girl unjustifiably sent to US, family feels joy and rage

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© AP Photo/Mario ArmasAlondra Luna Nunez smiles after attending a press conference upon her arrival to the Guanajuato International Airport in Silao, Mexico.
When a woman in Texas claimed that Alondra Luna Nunez was her long-lost daughter, the girl's real parents in Mexico say they presented more than a dozen documents from baptismal records and a copy of her birth certificate to family photographs. They were sure it was enough to demonstrate her true origins.

In the end, they say, Alondra was sent screaming to the U.S. based on a scar on the bridge of her nose resulting from a remote-control car mishap as a young girl. And they blame their traumatic weeklong separation squarely on the judge who made the final call.

"The other girl had a scar, but on the eyebrow, and I have one on my nose. I mean all this was stirred up over that," Alondra, 14, told The Associated Press on Wednesday at an emotional reunion with family after nearly a week away. "The judge said, 'No, it's her,' and that was that."

Comment: . It's sad to think this child was taken from her "real" family and given to a total stranger and the Mexican court decides without DNA testing that she belongs to someone else! Hopefully the Nunez family decides to seek legal council against Garcia and the magistrate who ruled on the case. Thank the stars for the video on social media and that Alondra is home safe with her family.


Stormtrooper

Sadistic cop ruptures man's spleen, fellow cops laugh, take pics, as he lays dying, begging for help

cop ruptures man's spleen
An Orlando cop has been arrested after surveillance video showed him violently kneeing a handcuffed man. But further investigation into the matter shows that his fellow officers were not only complicit in covering it up, but also sadistically laughed as the man lay bleeding internally in the cell.

Orlando police Officer Peter Delio was arrested in March and charged with felony battery after surveillance video showed him kneeing a handcuffed, Robert Liese, in the gut.

Several hours later Liese underwent emergency surgery to remove his spleen.

What happened between the initial blow to the stomach and the time the paramedics were notified is disturbing, to say the least.

Robert Liese was in jail after he says a friend left him with a $60 bar tab that he was unable to pay. Besides being drunk, not once did Liese ever pose a threat to officers. In fact, he peacefully offered Delio his hands to be brought to jail after knowing that he was not going to be able to pay.

But Liese says that Delio didn't care that he was nice and then kicked the handcuffed man in the stomach as he was loading him into the squad car.

Once in jail, Liese headbutted the door because he was upset and injured, and he was trying to get the attention of someone besides the officers who were outside of the door ridiculing him.

Officer Delio, who apparently wanted to take out more frustrations on the restrained man, then walked into the cell and kneed him in the stomach so hard, that it ruptured his spleen.

The pain was so great that Liese was immobilized. Delio picks the man up like a ragdoll and laughably yells to Liese, "stop resisting."

He could barely breathe, and he fell to the floor in agony. He was then picked up and dragged out of the cell to be placed in leg restraints.

During the two hours long video after Liese was struck by the officer, he begged for help.

Sgt. Michael Faulkner reported to internal affairs that Liese not only didn't ask for medical attention, but that he refused it.

Unlike Sgt. Faulkner, however, the video does not lie. Not five, not ten, but at least twenty times Liese can be heard on video begging for medical attention.

"I need medical attention, please," Liese said.

Bomb

Statue Of Liberty evacuated following bomb threat and suspicious package

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The Statue of Liberty was evacuated Friday afternoon after someone called in a bomb threat and parks police reported a suspicious package, law enforcement sources tell NBC4 New York.

The NYPD's bomb squad was called to the scene, along with EMS workers. A security sweep of the island is also being conducted. As yet, no devices have been found.

Comment: Wonder who will get blamed for this scary incident?


Bulb

Hopium: How far can irrational optimism take the U.S. economy?

hopium obama
© John Bostrom
If enough people truly believe that things will get better, will that actually cause them to get better? There is certainly something to be said for being positive and thinking that anything is possible. And as Americans, optimism seems to come naturally for us. However, no amount of positive thinking is ever going to turn the sun into a block of wood or turn the moon into a block of cheese. Any good counselor will tell you that one of the first steps toward recovery is to stop being delusional and to come to grips with how bad things really are.

When we deny reality and engage in irrational wishful thinking, we are engaging in something called "hopium". This is a difficult term to define, but the favorite definition of hopium that I have come across so far goes like this:
"The irrational belief that, despite all evidence to the contrary, things will turn out for the best."

Heart - Black

Psychopath caught on camera: Hidden nanny cam catches man savagely abusing cat

A family that opened their home to a houseguest was shocked to discover that the man who they thought was a trustworthy friend was actually a vicious animal abuser.
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Jordan Lindquist
Kaleb Cloward allowed his friend 19-year-old Jordan Lindquist to stay at his family's home. Kaleb's mother, Colleen, told CBS Las Vegas that Lindquist seemed like a "nice young man." But when the family's cat Shadow began to have health problems, the Clowards installed a nanny cam to figure out what was going on.

The hidden camera captured Lindquist abusing Shadow. The man was caught shaking the cat, punching the feline in the head, and slamming the cat to the ground. Police who saw the footage called the act "torture."

Comment:


Stock Up

Get what you give: CEO who slashed his salary to raise employees to $70k/yr seeing amazing growth

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© CNN MoneyDan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, recently slashed his Salary to give his employees a minimum salary of $70k/yr
You've got to spend money to make money and a generous CEO is making a lot more money a week after he invested in his employees. The company, Gravity Payments, has been flooded with new business since CEO Dan Price announced he'd raise every one of his employee's pay to $70,000 a year — and slashed his own annual pay from $1 million to the same $70,000.

"I'm actually shocked by the reaction from businesses," Price told CNN Money. "It has me on cloud nine."

Price says the credit card transaction processing company he founded has recorded the best week for acquiring new clients in the 11 years since he founded it. He says dozens of new clients have signed on with the company and he's thinking about expanding his staff to 120 people.

Good News Network reported last week Price announced he was raising the pay of 70 of his workers after reading a study on how having extra money made a difference in the lives of people earning under $70,000 a year. The raise doubled the salaries of 30 workers.

And more people want to work for his company. Gravity Payments received 3,500 job applications in the past week for two open positions — roughly five times what they usually get for an opening.

Comment: The media attention alone is well worth the money he reallocated. This kind of behavior is how you really invest in your business. Perhaps we'll see more of it in the future as this story spreads.


Oscar

Bare your sword: Japanese politician appears nude on campaign poster

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© AFP Photo / Toshifumi Kitamura
Politicians are always creative in trying to attract voters, but some go to extreme lengths. A Japanese nationalist has decided to win the hearts of his voters with a naked photo of himself holding a sword, the national flag in the background.

Sunday's second wave of unified local elections in Japan revealed that candidates employ various tools to gain votes, including nudity. Indeed, right-wing singer Teruki Goto, 34, decided to distinguish himself by preparing a poster of himself in his birthday suit.

The text on the poster, however, hides... well, everything that should be hidden.

Comment: Well, he definitely got exposure!


Candle

A growing number of British women are becoming nuns while others turn away from religion

British nuns
© Reuters / Ammar Awad
The number of women becoming nuns has trebled in the last five years as more and more opt for a religious lifestyle.

Last year 45 women became nuns, compared to just 7 in 2004. The Catholic Church said that of these, 14 were 30 years old or younger.

"In a really obvious sense, the women feel a religious calling to do so. On a more sociological level, these are women who have lived in the world and who find themselves in their late 20s, 30s or 40s making a conscious and hard choice to enter religious life," lecturer in Catholic Studies at Durham University Anna Rowlands told the Guardian.

"These days we live fairly transient lives, many people end up single and living between communities. Often the religious orders these women are joining are connected with serving the needs of the poor."

Comment: In trying times such as these it's interesting to see some seeking religion while others are turning away from it. On one hand it's understandable that some are looking for something more than the barren, materialistic reality, but on the other hand it's also forgivable that others reject the major religions given what they have come to represent.


Stormtrooper

Cops go car to car in traffic jam, issue $18,000 in fines for cellphone use at a near dead stop

cellphone fines
© The Free Thought Project
Writing tickets was like shooting fish in a barrel for Honolulu police earlier this month when they went car to car issuing citations for cell phone use.

According to motorists, police moved into the middle of the street during the worst traffic jam in years and began a ticket writing assembly line that made them over $18,000. In total, 65 drivers were given tickets that amounted to $290 a piece.

In an extreme traffic situation like this, it is understandable for people to use their phones to contact loved ones and rearrange their plans. This is especially important for those who are responsible for taking care of children or elderly people.

Police representatives admit that the ticketing strategy was unfair, but they claim that this operation was pre-planned and that the officers were not opportunistically taking advantage of the traffic jam. In fact, police representatives told local reporters that they were totally unaware of that the highway was in gridlock. This is despite the fact that it should have been obvious to the individual officers in the street, as well as their superiors back at headquarters.

"This cop was walking the highway and motioned for all these cars to move into the gas station parking lot, and they had an assembly line of cops giving tickets," commuter Tiffani Breeden told reporters after she was ticketed by police.

Honolulu Police Department Assistant Chief Clayton Kau said that the whole thing was just one giant misunderstanding.

"At the time, that they were doing that, they weren't aware of the traffic problem. When they were notified, at that point, they ceased enforcement action," Kau said.

Breeden, however, is not buying their story. "I knew about it at noon, in my office in Honolulu, and I'm not even a cop patrolling the streets. How are they unaware of street conditions?" she said.

During a press conference earlier this month, Captain Darren Izumo admitted guilt, saying that the operation should have been cancelled.

"I'll take the hit for that, in that we were concentrating on getting the westbound traffic flowing, so I failed to cancel that operation,"he said.

Even after admitting that the tickets should not have been issued to begin with, the police department is still refusing to cancel them. Instead they are asking the commuters to fight the tickets in court and take their chances with the judge.

Comment: Everybody that got a ticket that day should show up to court. Flood the court.