Ironically, the places that benefited the most from the debt-and-death paradigm are likely to see the quickest outbreak of chaos when dollar collapse begins in earnest. The concentrated aggression, hyper-competitive atmosphere, and wealth disparity of the typical city should be avoided if possible. Recent riots serve as a clear example of what can happen ... and the lights are still on and the financial infrastructure is still in place. In a full-blown dollar collapse, all bets are off. So, think about moving to "boring" parts of the country with real communities. Do it on your terms while options still remain.

Several parents are fired up after hearing a student's hot lunch was dumped in the trash in front of her classmates because her lunch account was past due.

Parents claim Bedford Elementary School did something it preaches against: In their words, "bullying" the child, not to mention wasting food to embarrass her.

On May 20 an elementary school lunch was packed with a hidden punch a child never saw coming.

"Someone came and took her lunch while she was sitting there with her friends and everybody else," said the girl's aunt, Leslie Chilton, who also happens to be the Bedford Elementary PTO Treasurer.

Chilton said it would be embarrassing for any child who has no idea their lunch account had a negative balance.

"An actual employee told me that afternoon because I was at school," she said of the incident." It was awful to think about her being there, sitting there and she was crying. She's a shy girl anyway, she's 10 years old and she's knows what's going on."

Yesterday, New Yorkers walking by the Ocean Luxury Rental apartment building at 1 West St around 10:40am, were greeted with a gruesome sight: a 29-year-old man had just jumped to his death from the 24th floor.

The Federal Aviation Administration says that four commercial airplanes were struck by a green laser while in the sky on Thursday evening outside New York City.

No injuries were reported, the FAA said, but federal officials consider illuminating an aircraft to be a serious crime punishable by up to five years in prison and a hefty $250,000 fine.

The four planes—American 185, Shuttle America 4213, Delta 2292 and Delta 2631—were each around 8,000 feet off the ground on Thursday evening when they were hit while traveling over Long Island. The incidents all occurred between 9:30pm and 10:00pm, and at least two of the planes were leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, according to the Associated Press.

A local CBS News affiliate obtained audio from an exchange between air traffic controllers and one of the pilots affected:
"Looks like some lasers coming outside now," the pilot said, adding later that "it is lighting up the inside of the windshield."

A provision tacked on to the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 makes it illegal to aim a laser pointer at an aircraft.

For the past 25 years, the criminalization of the homeless in the United States has been increasing.

As the National Coalition of Homeless points out, criminalization of homeless refers to laws that prohibit life sustaining activities "sleeping/camping, eating, sitting, and/or asking for money/resources in public spaces" and include criminal penalties if someone violates the ordinances.

This issue, while not dormant, I believe came to light more when Pastor Dwayne Black along with pastor Mark Sims and 90-year-old Arnold Abbott were arrested for feeding the homeless in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 2014.

"We fed about six or seven people when the police approached," Black told The Christian Post. "We actually said a prayer and then gave communion to the homeless. If feeding them is going to get me arrested, let me get arrested for giving them communion. The police stayed off to the side, but then they suddenly made a move forward, and Abbott and I stayed."

A group of US volunteers is headed to the Philippines on a contract to fight groups allied with the Islamic State. One counterinsurgency specialist wonders if their enthusiasm will make up for the lack of logistics, weapons and training.

Those in the group have day jobs and regular lives but feel the need to help people endangered by militants who have pledged loyalty to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), a group in southern Florida told RT's Maria Finoshina.

Palestine has dropped its motion to suspend Israel from FIFA, Palestinian Football Association president Jibril Rajoub said. A committee was proposed to monitor the situation between the Palestine and Israeli associations, which FIFA approved.

Speaking at the FIFA congress, Rajoub said he was dropping the motion to have Israel suspended from the organization.

"I have decided to drop the suspension," Rajoub said, adding that he instead proposes that free movement be ensured for Palestinian players. He also wants an investigation launched into alleged Israeli racism and a vote on Israeli teams on Palestinian territories.

Have you heard of the saying "sell in May and go away"? Traditionally, the period from May through October has been a time of weakness for stocks. In fact, on average stocks hit their lowest point of the year on October 27th. And most people don't remember this, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average actually began plunging right at this time of the year just prior to the financial crisis of 2008. Most people do remember the huge stock crash that happened in the fall of that year, but the market actually started to slide in May. Throughout the first four and a half months of 2008, stocks moved up and down in a fairly narrow range, and the Dow closed at a short-term peak of 13,028.16 on May 19th. From there it was all downhill for the rest of the year. So will a similar thing happen in 2015 as we approach the next great financial crisis? Since March 20th, the Dow Jones Transportation Average has already fallen by almost 800 points. So will the Dow Jones Industrial Average soon follow? Well, only time will tell, but the Dow was down 190 points on Tuesday. Signs of trouble are popping up all over the place, and the "smart money" is getting out while the getting is good.

The chart that I have posted below shows how the Dow Jones Industrial Average performed during 2008. As you can see, stocks began plummeting long before the financial crisis in the fall. From May 19th through early July, the Dow fell by about 2,000 points. Should we expect to see a similar pattern this summer?...

So, it's in the news everywhere: A Duggar son groped his sisters while they slept when he was 14. The family essentially hushed it up. And, now that he is buddies with Ted Cruz, it became a juicy news story. (Nothing like a political AND sexual scandal to sell ads...)

And the aftermath is predictable. The Duggars get their show suspended, and the (now adult) kid loses his job. And, there is a brobdingnagian pile of schadenfreude to be found in the tabloids.

I have been saying privately for years that something like this would absolutely come to light regarding the Duggars, so this is no surprise to me at all.

As an attorney, I have handled several cases involving fundamentalist families with sexual issues, and the facts seem very familiar.
I'm not going to get into specifics, because of attorney client privilege. However, there does seem to be a certain amount of commonality in how these go down.

I firmly believe that the beliefs within Christian Fundamentalism strongly contribute to these failings - and indeed make them inevitable.

First, let me note again that I spent a portion of my teens involved in Bill Gothard's organization. My law school education was at his law school, so I know of what I speak. The Duggars are big in the Gothard organization, and promote it through their TV show. So, I know the exact teachings that they follow and promote.

That's why, despite never having seen more than a few minutes of the show at a time, and having no idea which kid was Josh, I was able to make this prediction. All I needed to know was that they followed Gothard's teachings about sex and gender, and I knew that it was more likely than not that a sex scandal would surface sooner or later.

In addition, I have been discussing this with some friends, many of them also ex-Gothardites, and some common issues have arisen, and I decided I probably should address them a bit from the perspective of both a lawyer and a former Fundie.

Because the perpetrator in this case (and in my cases as well) was a minor - age 14 - a boy in the throes of puberty - the issues are not quite as straight forward as they would be in a typical pedophile case.

While I would not defend what this boy did - it was pretty clearly sexual assault - I do understand some of why, and strongly believe that Gothard's teachings contributed to the way he acted out.

Again: I am not minimizing sexual assault, or excusing perps.

What I intend to show is that Fundamentalist teachings on sex tend to lead to young men who would not otherwise be predators act out in predatory ways.

In a testament to the "trigger-happy" nature of NYPD cops, the city Housing Authority has ordered all workers fixing elevators in NYC housing projects to wear construction orange vests.

New policies were enacted by the Housing Authority after officers pulled a gun on a maintenance crew and fatally shot an unarmed man in a stairwell in a separate incident.

According to a New York Post report:

"[The elevator workers] were basically told the reason was because of recent incidents where cops had pulled a gun on a caretaker and a supervisor on the roof of a housing project," a source said.

"No one got shot, but they also referred to the cop shooting and were told, 'We're doing this for your protection. Your lives are in jeopardy, and we don't want you to get hurt,' " the source said

Pulling no punches, one Housing Authority supervisor allegedly told his crews that the new policy was due to NYPD cops being "trigger-happy."

In addition to wearing the bright orange vests, workers will now also be required to wear their official identification on a neck lanyard.

"They said that in case a cop stops you, we don't want you reaching around in back pocket That could be another reason for a cop to shoot you," the source told the Post.

According to a Housing Authority spokeswoman, the new policies were simply standard operating procedure regarding safety.

"The issuance of the safety vests was one action taken to increase safety for elevator personnel through our ongoing 'Safety in Motion' initiative. Although not tied to any particular incident, we hope that this simple action will further protect these hardworking employees and allow them to be easily identified when needed," the spokeswoman said.

Regardless of the Housing Authority's public statements, it's quite clear that new measures are a response to the overall violent demeanor of the NYPD. More specifically, they are in response to the killing of unarmed father of two Akai Gurley in a dimly lit stairwell on November 20, 2014.

When city agencies feel the need to have their employees wear brightly colored vests to be sure they aren't killed by cops while on the job, you may just have a severe policing problem on your hands.