Society's ChildS


Wolf

Rescue dog dies after saving seven from quake rubble

Amy Drew
Life With Dogs
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 22:58 UTC
Dog saves people
Dayko searches the rubble for survivors.
A brave 4-year-old rescue dog lost his life in line of duty not long after saving at least seven people from the rubble of the magnitude 7.8 earthquake that devastated Ecuador on April 16.

Dayko, a Labrador retriever, suffered a heatstroke last week, the City of Ibarra Fire Department had posted on its Facebook page, which led to a fatal heart attack.
Read More...
Stock Down

Pension funding crisis spreads: Major UK pension fund slashes benefits


Zero hedge
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 04:00 UTC
money down drain
As we continue to cover the pension crisis that is unfolding in the United States (recently here and here), it is important to remember that these problems are not unique to just the U.S.

One of the largest educator pension funds in the U.K., the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) is implementing significant changes to the plan benefits as it becomes increasingly under-funded, just like its peers in the United States. The changes are drastic, and are meant to keep the fund solvent in order to at least pay some benefits rather than none over time. The plan represents 330,000 members across 400 institutions, according to its website.

The changes were foreshadowed in 2014, when in discussing the funding issues, the USS said "this means it is likely that, given the increased cost of providing future pensions and the need to deal with an increased deficit, higher contributions and/or other responses will be required."

Upon the completion of the 2014 actuarial valuation, the first of those "other responses" was for the fund update its deficit recovery plan to include employer's contributing 2.1% of salaries toward the deficit over a period of 17 years.

Comment: One would be wise to keep their money out of such schemes, given the current climate.

Read More...
Alarm Clock

The U.S. Foster Care System: Child trafficking & modern day slavery

Medical KidnapStaff
Health Impact News
Thu, 21 Apr 2016 19:54 UTC
Fostercare
Foster Care: "Best Interest of the Child" or "Child Abuse"?

May is National Foster Month, "Honoring, Uniting, and Celebrating Families." But is this really what foster care is doing? Theoretically, foster care provides a temporary loving, nurturing and safe home for children who are removed from their own families due to heinous neglect or abuse. This theory helps those involved in the system sleep good at night and feel like heroes.

Molly McGrath Tierney, the former Director of the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, gave one of the most insightful TEDx talks about the problems with the "Foster Care Industry" - an industry where children become a commodity that profits doctors, lawyers, judges, social workers, advocates, and other organizations, an industry that can only exist by taking other people's children, an industry that damages the very children it purports to be helping. She goes on to explain the trauma inflicted on children by the foster care industry, saying:
... we're digging a wound so deep, I don't believe we have a way of measuring it. This dismantling of families - it has enormous consequences. Kids that grow up outside of families - they don't master the things that can only be learned in that context, like who to trust, how to love, and how to take care of yourself, and that frankly does more damage than the abuse and neglect that brought the kid to my attention in the first place.
Read More...
Red Flag

Atlanta WalMart: Officer goes into berserk Robocop mode; breaks man's leg over a tomato

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 18:39 UTC
walmart police beating
© wsb-tv
An innocent Atlanta man spent multiple days handcuffed to a hospital bed with a broken leg and a severed artery after an Atlanta cop falsely accused him of stealing a tomato that he actually bought.

Tyrone Carnegay spent then spent three days in jail before the charges were finally dropped. The interaction was all caught on a Walmart security camera.

"I was chained to my bed in Grady. They said I assaulted him and obstructed him from doing his job," Carnegay told the local news. The video proves that none of this was true.

Comment: Even if the tomato had been stolen it is a complete overkill for such a situation.

Read More...
Sheriff

Louisiana: 'Blue lives matter' bill will make resisting arrest a hate crime and put cops in a protected class

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 18:13 UTC
hate fist
Last year, in an outburst of pure insanity, the National Fraternal Order of Police, a union representing over 300,000 officers, called for cops to be included under Congress's hate crimes statute. This demand has now materialized into actual legislation being presented to Louisiana lawmakers.

Bill HB 953 would change the state's hate crime law to include law enforcement and firefighters.

A hate crime is defined by Congress as a "criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender's bias against a race, religion, disability, ethnic origin or sexual orientation."

Comment: Police are already out of control -- beating, maiming and killing at will. If the Louisiana bill passes other states will surely adopt similar bills. Just imagine how much worse it will get with an official blessing from the state.

Read More...
Pistol

People panicked and hiding in shops amid multiple scenes of shootings in Acapulco, Mexico


RT
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 06:35 UTC
acapulco shootings
© Pedro Pardo / AFP Mexican army secure a tourist area in Acapulco after gunmen attacked a hotel where federal police stay, April 24, 2016
People in panic in the streets or hiding in local shops and sounds of never-ending gunshots - that was the scene in the Mexican resort of Acapulco amid multiple shootings overnight.

According to Aztecanoticias newspaper, there was a confrontation between federal police and suspected criminals. A police officer has been allegedly injured in the shooting.

Videos posted on Twitter recorded the sounds of never-ending gunshots. Other photos and videos captured frightened people hiding in local shops or malls and police vehicles patrolling the streets.
Read More...
Syringe

Colorado Nazi vaccine database decided

Shirley Shaw
Truthkings.com
Tue, 26 Apr 2016 17:34 UTC
Vaccines
Chalk one up for mandatory vaccine opponents in Colorado who helped defeat a proposed law which would have allowed the government to track children who haven't been vaccinated through a database. In fact, the legislation didn't even make it to a vote. The legislation is now off the table for at least a year. According to KOAA, the "public health" argument failed to defeat common sense.
Democratic sponsors had enough support to steer the database through the House. But the proposal faced certain death in the GOP Senate, where some Republicans complain the state Health Department has already overreached by contacting parents about their children's immunizations.

"The public health of Colorado was not enough to convince opponents of the bill," said Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver Democrat who proposed the database. "The politics around the 'I word,' or immunizations, just got to be too intense."
Read More...
Eye 1

Michigan State Police accused of using social media to spy on critics of Flint lead contamination crisis

Claire Bernish
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 17:04 UTC
facebook spying
After needlessly contaminating Flint's water supply with lead, a new report reveals the government now monitors social media for hints subversive communications relating to the Flint Water Crisis.

According to MLive, officials with the Michigan State Police have been conducting online surveillance for comments about Flint's lead contamination crisis. One of over 127,000 emails released by Gov. Rick Snyder's office shows one man's allegedly threatening Facebook post concerning the government's mishandling of the Flint crisis — which led to the initiation of criminal proceedings.

"It's time for civil unrest. Burn down the Governor [sic] mansion, elimionate [sic] the capitol where legislators RE-INSTATED the emergency dictator law after the PEOPLE voted it down, and tell the Mich [sic] State Police if they use military force, we will return with same," the unnamed Copper City man's Facebook post stated, according to MLive.

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

Read More...
Take 2

Turkey asked Swedish channel not to air film about WWI-era genocide


Sputnik
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 09:54 UTC
genocide
© www.crossmap.com
A programme director of Swedish TV4 television network said in a statement that the Turkish embassy called for the broadcaster to withdraw a film about the genocide of Assyrians, Armenians and other ethnic minorities in the Ottoman Empire during the World War I.

The broadcaster showed a documentary entitled "Seyfo 1915 — The Assyrian Genocide," on Sunday. Seyfo is a term that is used to describe mass killings of the Assyrian population in the Ottoman Empire that took place during the World War I alongside with the genocide of other ethnic groups, such as Armenians.

"Turkish embassy [to Sweden] has tried to exert pressure on TV4 to stop a documentary. They urged us to 'reconsider our decision' to broadcast the 'Seyfo 1915 — The Assyrian Genocide' in the evening," Viveka Hansson said in a statement published on Sunday. She added that the TV channel would never accept such demands and would protest against attempts to bring pressure on freedom of expression.

During and after World War I, the Ottoman government ordered a series of mass killings and starvation against the country's minorities, such as Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks. Turkey refuses to recognize the massacre as genocide, claiming that Turkish nationals were also victimized.

Turkey's attempts to impose restrictions on freedom of speech both within the country and abroad, have previously been criticized by the international community, including the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Turkey ranks 151th out of 180 countries in the RSF 2016 press freedom index.

Comment: Turkey's war with journalists and media has spilled over onto the rights and privilege of other countries. There is no way to rewrite history and no lessons to be learned if it is ignored or erased. Turkey should watch this film!

Read More...
Arrow Up

Oklahoma police forced to return $53K cash seized from Christian band over trumped-up drug charges

Samantha Vincent
Tulsa World
Mon, 25 Apr 2016 00:00 UTC
eh wah asset seizure
Eh Wah, a Dallas resident who was born in Myanmar, challenged the seizure of more than $50,000 in cash by the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Department after he was pulled over for a traffic stop Feb. 27.
More than $50,000 seized by Muskogee County deputies in a traffic stop will be returned to a Dallas man and others who said the money was intended for a Thai orphanage and a Christian school in Myanmar.

Eh Wah, who lives in Dallas and is originally from Myanmar, was pulled over on U.S. 69 for having a broken brake light about 6:30 p.m. Feb. 27. Authorities seized $53,000 they found in his car and indicated that it would not be returned.

The Washington Post reported on the issue ahead of a press release issued by the man's attorneys Monday.

District Attorney Orvil Loge told the Tulsa World he has dismissed a drug-related felony charge and efforts to keep cash belonging to Wah, the tour manager for Burmese Christian rock band The Klo & Kweh Music Team. Money also will be returned to the band, its bassist, an Omaha, Nebraska-based church and an orphanage.

Comment: This is a rare and fortunate outcome. Civil asset forfeiture has become quite a lucrative business for U.S. police departments, where the funds and property of innocent people are routinely stolen and often never returned.

Read More...