Society's ChildS


Attention

Harper's government policy: Canada's prison population at all-time high

Maureen Brosnahan
CBC News
Mon, 25 Nov 2013 21:20 UTC
Prison
© Unknown
New figures show the number of visible minorities in Canadian prisons has increased by 75 per cent in the past decade, while the number and proportion of inmates who are Caucasian has declined significantly.

As well, Canada's prison population is now at its highest level ever, even though the crime rate has been decreasing over the past two decades. Ten years ago, the number of inmates in federal prisons was close to 12,000. It's now more than 15,000.

These are just some of the statistics expected to be examined Tuesday, when the annual report of Correctional Investigator of Canada Howard Sapers is tabled in Parliament. His report is widely expected to be a scathing indictment of federal correctional policy.

"You cannot reasonably claim to have a just society with incarceration rates like these," Sapers said Sunday in a speech he gave at a church in Toronto.
Read More...
Magnify

Greenwald snarks at MSNBC: I defend Snowden like you defend Obama

Matt Wilstein
MEDIA ITE
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
greenwald_msnbc
© Unknown
Journalist Glenn Greenwald appeared on MSNBC Thursday, one day after Edward Snowden delivered a Christmas address to television viewers in the UK and around the world from Russia. Things got heated when MSNBC anchor Kristen Welker cited critics who've accused Greenwald of "crossing a line" in his defense of Snowden. "What do you say to your critics who say you've become more of a spokesman for Edward Snowden?" she asked.

"I think that's ludicrous is what I say to that," Greenwald shot back. "Every journalist has an agenda. We're on MSNBC now, where close to 24 hours a day the agenda of President Obama and the Democratic Party are promoted, defended, glorified, the agenda of the Republican Party is undermined. That doesn't mean the people who appear on MSNBC aren't journalists, they are."

He said that every journalist has a "viewpoint" and he doesn't hide the fact that he finds Snowden's decision to expose the NSA's surveillance programs "heroic."

I think the point is not so much about MSNBC and what happens here," Welker said in defense of her employer, "but more that sometimes when you talk about Edward Snowden you do defend him, and some people wonder if that crosses a line."

"Sure, I do defend him just like people on MSNBC defend President Obama and his officials and Democratic Party leaders 24 hours a day." When Welker pushed back that "not everyone on MSNBC does that 24 hours a day," Greenwald conceded that it's "not everybody, but a lot of people do."

After comparing Snowden to figures like Chelsea Manning and Daniel Ellsberg, Greenwald said, "I absolutely do defend what Edward Snowden does and I don't pretend otherwise."
Read More...
Arrow Down

Immigration fears spark political firestorm in UK

Sylvia Hui
Associated Press
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 13:01 UTC
UK's Immigration
© AP Photo/Alastair GrantRecent editions of Britain's Daily Express and Daily Mail newspapers, featuring headlines about immigration, are photographed in London, Friday, Dec. 27, 2013. For months, Britain's tabloids have repeatedly warned of the horrors they believe will ensue after Jan. 1, 2014 when work restrictions will be lifted across the European Union for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria — two of the trading bloc's newest members. Those changes, the papers claim, will unleash a mass exodus of the poor and unemployed from the two eastern European countries to Britain.
London -- They're portrayed as pickpockets who will steal British jobs. There are predictions they will beg, the unruly young ones will stir up riots, and some will even try to sell babies.

For months, Britain's tabloids have repeatedly warned of the horrors they believe will ensue after Jan. 1, when work restrictions will be lifted across the European Union for migrants from Romania and Bulgaria - two of the trading bloc's newest members. Those changes, the papers claim, will unleash a mass exodus of the poor and unemployed from the two eastern European countries to Britain.

"In January, the only thing left will be the goat," a Daily Mail headline proclaimed, referring to a remote Romanian village where, the paper claimed, everyone was preparing to move to Britain for the higher wages and generous welfare benefits.

"We're importing a crime wave from Romania and Bulgaria," another headline declared, quoting a Conservative lawmaker who told Parliament that most pickpockets on British streets hail from Romania.
Read More...
Radar

A deeper look: Five myths about Russia

Mark Adomanis
Forbes
Mon, 04 Feb 2013 09:53 UTC
Russia
© Unknown
The past several weeks have been very busy, and I haven't had a chance to post quite as much as I'd like to. I thought I'd throw my hat back into the ring with a short post about where Russia is today. Part of what gets me so frustrated about most mainstream media coverage of Russia is that people tend to conflate the country's condition (e.g. people drink a lot, don't make much money, and are generally miserable) with its trajectory (e.g. people are drinking more, people are making less money, and people are getting more miserable). These are, obviously, two very different things, but they're often treated as if they're interchangeable.
Read More...
Ice Cube

Chinese ship breaks through ice in Antarctic rescue mission

Alok Jha
The Guardian
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 09:56 UTC
first sighting
© Laurence Topham for the GuardianFirst sighting of Chinese icebreaker Xue Long from the top deck of the Akademik Shokalskiy, which is stuck in Antarctic ice.
Xue Long encounters thicker ice than expected as it makes slow progress to reach stranded crew of Akademik Shokalskiy

A Chinese icebreaker ship is making its way through dense pack-ice just off the coast of Cape de la Motte in Antarctica, where a ship of scientists and members of the public have been trapped since Christmas Day.

The vessel, the Xue Long, and a French icebreaker, the Astrolabe, reached the edge of the ice pack, around 13 nautical miles from the Russian-operated MV Akademik Shokalskiy, just before 7pm New Zealand time (6am GMT) on Friday.

The Xue Long started cutting through the ice soon after, and has made steady, but slow, progress since and is now within sight of the stricken vessel. The ice it has encountered at the edge has been much thicker than expected - 3-4 metres thick in some places. It is travelling at between 0.1 to 3 knots depending on the density of the ice and should reach the Shokalskiy some time in the next 12 hours. The Astrolabe has not yet entered the ice field.

"We know that the ice conditions around us are extremely difficult and that the ice is under a lot of pressure," said Greg Mortimer, co-leader of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition (AAE), aboard the Shokalskiy. "The ships that are coming to assist us will probably not have the ability to cut a path into us individually, so they have to work in tandem."

Read More...
Magic Hat

Yasser Arafat died of natural causes say Russian experts report


BBC
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 08:26 UTC
Yasser Arafat
© UnknownYasser Arafat died in a Paris hospital on 8 November 2004, four weeks after falling ill
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died of natural causes, not radiation poisoning, Russian forensic scientists have said.

Their investigation was one of three carried out on his remains in 2012. Arafat died in Paris in 2004, aged 75.

Last month, Swiss scientists said they had detected high levels of radioactive polonium but could not say if it had caused his death.

A French inquiry is also said to have found he was not a victim of poisoning.


Comment: From this article, here were the:
Three parallel inquiries

Swiss report - 8 Nov 2013: High levels of polonium; moderate backing for poisoning theory
French report - 3 Dec 2013: Source says poisoning theory rejected in favour of death by natural causes
Russian report - 26 Dec 2013: Death by natural causes not from radiation exposure
Read More...
People

Migrations: Census bureau expects Florida to surpass New York in population


Breitbart
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
The U.S. Census Bureau said Florida is likely to surpass New York in population in 2014, if it hasn't already.

Demographers expect Florida to replace New York as the third most populous state, separated by as little as a few thousand people.

The Census Bureau is expected to release its population estimates Monday, the New York Times reported Friday. California and Texas are expected to hold firm as the No. 1 and No. 2 most populous states, respectively.

The census figures indicate foreign-born migrants are moving to warm-weather states, like California, Texas and Florida, and New York is losing roughly 50,000 people each year to Florida, most of them retirees.

"It's going to happen," said Andrew A Beveridge, a professor of sociology at Queens College. "And if Florida accidentally grew faster and New York slowed down, it could have happened already."
Read More...
Arrow Down

1.3 million losing unemployment benefits Saturday in the US

Bradley Klapper
Associated Press
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 12:00 UTC
Unemployment Benefits
© AP Photo/Alan Diaz, FileThis Aug. 14, 2013 file photo shows job seekers checking out companies at a job fair in Miami Lakes, Fla. More than 1 million Americans are bracing for a harrowing, post-Christmas jolt as federal unemployment benefits come to a sudden halt this weekend. The development entails potentially significant implications for the recovering U.S. economy and sets up a tense battle when Congress reconvenes in the new year.
For families dependent on cash assistance, the end of the federal government's "emergency unemployment compensation" will mean some difficult belt-tightening as enrollees lose their average monthly stipend of $1,166.

Jobless rates could drop, but analysts say the economy may suffer with less money for consumers to spend on everything from clothes to cars. Having let the "emergency" program expire as part of a budget deal, it's unclear if Congress has the appetite to start it anew.

An estimated 1.3 million people will be cut off when the federally funded unemployment payments end Saturday.

Some 214,000 Californians will lose their payments, a figure rising to more than a half-million by June, the Labor Department said. In the last 12 months Californians received $4.5 billion in federal jobless benefits, much put back into the local economy.

More than 127,000 New Yorkers also will be cut off this weekend. In New Jersey, 11th among states in population, 90,000 people will immediately lose out.
Read More...
Arrow Down

Only NPR is left: Liberal Commercial Talk Radio Disappears in NY, LA, SF in 2014


Truth Revolt
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
ed schultz
© Unknown
2014 will mark the beginning of a massive change for liberal talk radio across the country. In New York, WWRL 1600 AM will flip to Spanish-language music and talk, throwing Ed Schultz, Thom Hartmann, Randi Rhodes, and Alan Colmes off the air. In Los Angeles, KTLK 1150 will be dumping Stephanie Miller, Rhodes, Bill Press and David Cruz off the air in favor of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. In San Francisco, KNEW 960 will leave Miller, Hartmann, and Mike Malloy without a radio home in the market.

Thanks to radio consolidation and the secondary status of leftist talk in major markets across the country, the final death knell for liberal talkers could be tolling. Leftist talkers simply don't have the same radio draw as conservatives; KTLK was ranked #41 in the market in November 2013, with WWRL registering almost no pulse at all. KNEW registered just an 0.4 in the San Francisco market in December 2013, placing it #31 in the market.
Read More...
Arrow Down

As Chicago's cycling grows, so does bike tax temptation

Jason Keyser
Associated Press
Fri, 27 Dec 2013 12:10 UTC
Mike Salvatore
© AP Photo/Charles Rex ArbogastIn this photo taken Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2013, in Chicago, Mike Salvatore, owner of Heritage Bicycles talks about the emerging increase in bike riders at his Lakeview neighborhood store. A recent debate on a proposed city bicycle tax has put the spotlight back on cycling. Salvatore believes that no one would have taken that proposal seriously 10 years ago. “Why would you tax bikers, who bikes?! Seriously, 10 years ago there was a handful of nutcases who biked around Chicago. No one would have taken it seriously.”
Early blasts of snow, ice and below-zero temperatures haven't stopped a surprising number of Chicago cyclists from spinning through the slush this winter, thanks in part to a city so serious about accommodating them that it deploys mini-snow plows to clear bike lanes.

The snow-clearing operation is just the latest attention city leaders have lavished on cycling, from a growing web of bike lanes to the nation's second largest shared network of grab-and-go bicycles stationed all over town. But it also spotlights questions that have been raised here, a city wrestling with deep financial problems, and across the country.

Who is paying for all this bicycle upkeep? And shouldn't bicyclists be kicking in themselves?

A city councilwoman's recent proposal to institute a $25 annual cycling tax set off a lively debate that eventually sputtered out after the city responded with a collective "Say what?" A number of gruff voices spoke in favor, feeding off motorists' antagonism toward what they deride as stop sign-running freeloaders. Bike-friendly bloggers retorted that maybe pedestrians ought to be charged a shoe tax to use the sidewalks.
Read More...