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NYC study finds frequently jailed struggle with drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness while being guilty of mostly nonviolent offenses

Rebecca Davis O'Brien
Wall Street Journal
Thu, 17 Sep 2015 17:00 UTC
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© SETH WENIG/ASSOCIATED PRESSAn inmate behind bars and thick plastic looks toward a correctional officer in an enhanced supervision housing unit on Rikers Island
They are known as "frequent fliers": a small population battling substance abuse, severe mental illness and homelessness that cycles regularly and quickly through New York City jails for mostly nonviolent offenses.

The 800 people with the most jail stays from November 2008 through 2013 accounted for 18,713 incarcerations through December 2014 at a cost of $129 million, according to a study by city officials published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health.

At least one person was jailed 66 times during the six-year period, the study's data show.

In 88.7% of these detentions, the top charges were misdemeanors. Petit larceny and possession of trace amounts of drugs accounted for more than half of the top charges. Less than 1.2% of the top charges were violent crimes such as murder, rape and felony assault.
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Ambulance

"Ride The Ducks" tour bus crashes in Seattle - four dead, twelve critically injured


RT
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 02:13 UTC
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© Seattle Fire DepartmentFirefighters assist victims after a crash between a bus and a tour vehicle on the Aurora Bridge in this picture from the Seattle Fire Department, in Seattle, Washington September 24, 2015.
Four people have been killed and many are suffering from critical injuries after a crash between a charter bus and an amphibious "Ride the Ducks" tour vehicle in Seattle, Washington, fire officials told local media.

Fire officials added that 12 people are in critical condition and another 20 suffered from non-life-threatening injuries. More than 44 patients were transferred to Harborview Medical Center and other hosptials, the Seattle Fire Department said in a statement.

All four of the people who died were international students at North Seattle College.

Everyone involved has been removed from the vehicles, the Fire Department stated on Twitter.

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© Via twitter@KIRO7Seattle
It's currently unclear how the accident over the Aurora Avenue Bridge occurred. Two passenger vehicles were also involved in the incident and the bridge has been shut down for an investigation.

Onboard the charter bus were multiple foreign students, according to the Associated Press, and officials were working to contact the necessary consulates.

Meanwhile, there is no information to be shared yet regarding the "duck boat," a vehicle that doubles as a boat and an on-road bus. The tour company involved, called Ride the Ducks, offers tours of Seattle featuring loud music and guides who quack through megaphones.

"It was devastating," said Ride the Ducks President Brian Tracey. "All I care about is the safety of the passengers and the people who were injured on the duck."
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Heart - Black

Cruel: Video shows homeless man weeping after animal activists take his puppy


RT
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 15:00 UTC
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© Seven LE DUC / YouTube
The French animal rights group, Cause Animal Nord, has come under fire after a video emerged of the activists taking away a puppy from a crying homeless man in central Paris.

The video shows the man fighting for his dog, but eventually losing out as three members of the group, including the organization's president, seized the puppy and ran away. The homeless man was left in tears.

Comment: This is deplorable. Who could be this cruel to the poor homeless man? Lately it seems that people's inner natures are being amplified to extremes whether good or evil.

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Heart - Black

Psychopathic CEO facing prison for knowingly shipping contaminated peanut butter

Julie Fidler
Natural Society
Tue, 22 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
court case peanut corporation
Later today, Stewart Parnell, former CEO of Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) could find out that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars. If convicted, Parnell could be the first person involved in a food poisoning outbreak to ever receive such a harsh sentence.

Parnell was convicted on September 19, 2014, of knowingly shipping peanut butter contaminated with salmonella from a PCA plant in Blakely, Georgia, to Kellogg's and other customers who put the ingredient in everything from crackers to pet food.

Former employees reported filthy conditions at the Georgia plant, where investigators found disgusting and unsanitary conditions at the plant, including the presence of roaches, rodents, mold, and a leaking roof near the production area. [1] [2]

Comment: Considering the low or non-extant level of conscience in many corporate executives, one has to wonder how often contaminated products are foisted on an unsuspecting public.

So much for food safety: Each week products are found contaminated with allergens, pathogens, particulate matter

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Question

Overhead explosions? Loud booms in Delmarva and Chincoteague, Maryland still a mystery


WBOC
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 08:45 UTC
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© wboc.comChincoteague Island from Chopper 16
People across parts of Delmarva are talking about a loud boom heard Tuesday night.

"What I heard sounded like a 50-foot-tree dropping on the ground and everything shook and just a big boom," said Krista Shannon of Pocomoke City.

"We just heard, like you said, a big boom," said George Milbert of Crisfield. "Like a, you know, like a echo and I assumed at the time it was um, a jet but its very rare that jets do that at night."

In the past those loud booms have been a result of jets breaking the sound barrier.

WBOC reached out to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River to try and find out if what people heard was, in fact, a sonic boom. However, officials said there were no flights in the area at the time.

NASA Wallops Flight Facility officials said they are also trying to figure out what caused the noise near Chincoteague.

Comment: There is such a thing called "an overhead explosion", where a space rock can explode causing these booms and ground shaking. Read Comets and Catastrophe series to learn about examples from the past and how to recognize cosmic events for what they are.

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Stormtrooper

Islamophobic NYC cops question woman over T-shirt with Arabic writing

Travis Getty
Raw Story
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 13:17 UTC
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New York City photographer said she was stopped and questioned by police about her T-shirt, which had Arabic writing printed on it, as she walked her dog past the 9/11 Memorial.

Miru Kim said she initially thought the officers were concerned about her dog, which had been barking at another dog — but they instead pointed to her shirt Wednesday afternoon and asked her about the message on it, reported Gothamist.
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Attention

Over a million liters of cyanide solution leaked from Veladero mine in Argentina


RT
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 14:06 UTC
veladero mine argentina
© Pav Jordan / Reuters A traffic sign is seen near Barrick Gold Corp.'s Veladero gold mine
Over a million liters of a cyanide solution leaked from Barrick Gold's Veladero mine in Argentina's western San Juan province - nearly five times more than previously reported. Meanwhile, a judge has lifted a ban on pumping toxic substances at the site.

The Toronto-headquartered mining company initially said it had spilled just 224,000 liters of the toxic liquid into the Potrerillos River. By comparison, an Olympic-sized swimming pool holds 2.5 million liters.

The leak happened when a valve failed and a sliding gate was left open on September 12 at around 8pm local time. Because of the gate problem, the cyanide solution passed through all the emergency pools and into the river.

The solution is used to filtrate gold from processed rocks, which is a fairly common method employed for extracting gold.
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Heart - Black

Delware police murder disabled man in wheelchair because 'he wouldn't raise his hands'

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 24 Sep 2015 12:37 UTC
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On Wednesday police responded to a 9-1-1 call about a man in a wheelchair who was allegedly suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Upon arriving on the scene, police officers immediately escalated the situation and within seconds the man was killed, according to witnesses.

The victim, 28-year-old Jeremy McDole was repeatedly told by police to "show your hands," but he did not immediately respond. The first officer fired a single shot at him with a shotgun and appeared to strike McDole in the chest.

From what we can see in the video, it does not appear that McDole was pointing a weapon at officers. He was merely moving his hands back and forth when police let loose on him a second time, unleashing a frenzy of gunfire.

According to eye-witnesses and family members on the scene, McDole did not have a weapon. However, in a statement from police, they claimed to have found a .38 caliber pistol by his side after he was killed.
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Airplane

'Bang, flames, lights went out': Cathay Pacific jet diverted to Bali with one engine out


RT
Fri, 25 Sep 2015 06:10 UTC
Cathay Pacific Flight CX170
© DlimexCathay Pacific Flight CX170 was flying from Perth to Hong Kong and was diverted to Bali (pictured at Denpasar airport) after an 'engine defect'
A Cathay Pacific flight en route from Australia to Hong Kong was diverted to Bali after one of the plane's engines reportedly caught fire and cut out. Witnesses described a loud bang, flames outside and power shutdown on board.

The Cathay Pacific flight CX170 was cruising at 36,000 feet when a "No.2 engine defect" was reported.

"There were flames and sparks flying out of the motor," passenger Joel Sirna told 6PR presenter Gary Adshead, as cited by the West Australian.

The CX170 departed from Perth, Australia, just before midnight local time and was scheduled to land in Hong Kong at 7:40am on Friday.

"Mid-flight, we heard a loud bang and the plane started to shake, all the lights went out and I looked to the window and have just seen some flames and some sparks - the wing and the motor was on fire," Sirna said.

The pilot announced that one of the engines had stopped working and then all the power in the cabin went off, Sirna told reporters.

"There were a few people that were pretty shaken. The girl next to me started freaking out and crying, so I just tried to calm everyone down. That's what we had to do," he said.

The captain made a decision to divert the plane to the nearest airport "for safety reasons." The plane, an Airbus A330, landed safely in Denpasar, Bali.

Comment: This latest 'engine defect' follows the fiery explosion and dramatic evacuation of a British Airways jet at Las Vegas Airport recently after a 'catastrophic' engine failure, and the Singapore Airlines plane that plunged 13,000 ft after both engines failed earlier this year, among many others.

Some other aircraft related incidents include: Planes suddenly 'disappearing' from radar, sometimes in "unprecedented" blackouts; more planes diverting due to "electrical burning and smoke smells", "engine fires" and plane wings "bursting into flames".

Statistics showing a disturbing trend in "air rage"; the tragic Germanwings crash not being the full story and the still unresolved mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370? It looks like a continuation from last year, see also:

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Year of the planes Cluster of plane problems as 2014 comes to a close

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Attention

The US Federal Reserve: "All that's left is a reset, shutdown of the system"

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan
Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00 UTC
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Did Janet Yellen make the right decision in delaying a Federal Reserve rate hike? Did the United States dodge a bullet? Of course not.

And the system is on course for a dangerous, hard landing.

As far as many experts can tell, there is no right way or good way out of this crisis under Fed control, and the exit isn't likely to be smooth or pretty.
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