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This is child care? Two teens commit suicide at same youth care center in TN

Man alone for suicide article
© Inconnu
After two Tennessee teens died in custody of the Department of Children's Services, an independent review of a facility in found widespread problems.

Mountain View Youth Development Center, which oversees the welfare of 114 teen boys, fired two security officers Tuesday and the security manager resigned the same day.

A report from the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth found widespread delays in children's medication, failure to conduct required checks on kids, poor staff training and several staffing shortages.

Brandon Greene, 16, fatally hung himself at the facility in his room on July 13, The Tennessean reported. The teen had been on suicide watch three times before. Four days after he was taken off suicide watch he hung himself with a T-shirt wrapped around a laundry bag cord and attached to a metal shelf above his bed.

Comment: Firing a few staff members will change nothing - this center needs to lose its license. Putting children on psychotropic drugs is nothing more than a panacea while being a huge boon to Big-Pharma, which is why they are in such wide use. The pathocrats running the child protective services system don't care about the children for the most part anyway.

Pedophiles in Power: Congresswoman Nancy Schaefer says U.S. Child Protective Services is a threat to children everywhere
How the mental health industry creates disease, works with Big Pharma


Airplane

Symbolic?: Ukrainian plane carrying oil equipment crashes in Algeria

crahes ukranian plane
© EPA-PHOTO/EPA/Mohamed Messara
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Saturday that a Ukrainian plane crashed in Algeria.

A cargo An-12 plane of the Ukraine Aero Alliance company with a Ukrainian crew crashed in Algeria on Saturday morning, the ministry cited its embassy in Algeria as saying.

The plane was carrying oil equipment on a flight from Tamanrasset (Algeria) to Malabo (Equatorial Guinea).

According to preliminary reports, all the seven crew members died. Search work was continuing at the site. Experts were working there, the Foreign Ministry said.

Algerian media reported that the An-12 crashed three minutes after the take off. The plane fell 15 km south of the airport in the province of Tamanrasset. It was on a flight to Equatorial Guinea.

Among versions of supposed causes is a technical fault.

Cardboard Box

Shortage of truck drivers hits USA

truck chicago
© Getty ImagesTruck drivers navigate a rain-covered highway on the outskirts of Chicago, in Hinsdale, Ill.
From deliveries of online shopping orders to massive pieces of equipment,the open road and trucking help drive the U.S. economy. Autonomous cars and drones may be on the horizon, but trucks - with drivers - still haul and deliver goods to doorsteps. There's just one problem.

America has more open trucking jobs than available commercial drivers. As older drivers retire in greater numbers, the industry faces a driver shortage.

The years long labor shortfall was masked during the recession as trucking volume plummeted. Consumers bought less, and builders hauled fewer materials with the housing market's collapse. The U.S. economy and trucking volume have since recovered. And the industry has some 30,000 to 35,000 unfilled truck driver jobs, according to the American Trucking Associations, or ATA, which represents the national trucking industry.

"The underlying driver shortage never went away,"said Bob Costello, ATA's chief economist.

The driver shortfall feels more acute this time. "As the economy continues to recover, now we're feeling it again, but worse than ever," said Brian Fielkow, president of Jetco Delivery, a Houston-based company that specializes in regional trucking.

The turnover rate of drivers at large truckload carriers leaving the industry averaged 130 percent in 2005, according to ATA data. While off those levels, the turnover rate was still high for the first quarter of 2014 at an annualized rate of 92 percent. And the trucking industry is trying to avert a more severe driver shortage.

Che Guevara

Archbishop Tutu urges Dutch pension fund to pull out of Israeli banks

Desmond Tutu
© UnknownArchbishop Desmond Tutu
South Africa's archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged civil service pension fund ABP to stop investing in three Israeli banks and 'strike a powerful, non-violent blow for peace in the Middle East'.

The appeal came ahead of ABP's monthly management board meeting and would be discussed, a spokeswoman for the fund - which is one of the biggest in the world - told Reuters. ABP has holdings totaling over €50m in the three banks.

Tutu said in his letter the investments 'enable the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territories, and profit from the illegal seizure of this land'.

Comment: Desmond Tutu is truly a man of conscience. Whether ABP will take any action remains to be seen.

Also see:

- Desmond Tutu: Suspend Israel from the international architectural body
- Desmond Tutu calls for global boycott of Israel
- Desmond Tutu: US lawmakers must end efforts to curb free speech on Palestine


Bug

U.S. bacteria threatening the Mediterranean olive trees

olive tree
Very disturbing information has emerged recently in several foreign news outlets: the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa is threatening to destroy the centuries-old olive trees in Italy. According to The Daily Mail newspaper, the microbe, which was previously located only in America, has already infected 800,000 olive trees in the municipality of Salento, located in the Italian province of Apulia.

The province produces more than a third of the national harvest of olives, i.e. about 11 million tons of olives per year. The produced varieties of olive oil in Apulia are among the best in the world. The epidemic has already cost the producers nearly 250 million Euros and it is expected that losses will only continue to increase. As noted by Angelo Corsetti, the representative of the Italian agricultural organization Coldiretti, the Italian olive oil producers now need to create a sanitary zone covering an area of 8,000 hectares, where olive trees will have to be destroyed.

Nuke

Is Miami on the brink of a Fukushima style nuclear disaster?

New reports indicate a Fukushima-style nuclear disaster is inevitable in the Miami area, and need to be investigated immediately.

turkey point nuclear reactor
© Unknown
Concerns over the possibility of a Fukushima-like nuclear meltdown event in the U.S. have been growing, with the most likely next disaster predicted in 2011 to be surprisingly close to Miami Florida, at the Turkey Point facility 20 miles east of Homestead.

According to a July 23rd NPR story, the Turkey Point facility was found to be (literally) in hot water, over its cooling system, which caused federal regulators to be so concerned, that they upped the nuclear plant's cooling system allowable temperature to exceed the 100 degree limit for 10 days - up to 103 degrees if necessary. The plant has come close to 100 degrees, which should mandate an immediate shut down. But instead of exercising precaution, regulators simply increased their legal limit causing environmental groups in nearby Biscayne National Park to express grave concern. Read or listen to the NPR story, Nuclear Plant May Be In Hot Water Over Its Cooling System, to learn the alarming details, which includes the following highly disturbing fact:

The Turkey Point facility has a canal-based cooling system, technology like something out of the Dark Ages. What happens if that system fails as it appears to be doing now? Will the non-canal based cooling back up system (diesel-based) work? These questions need to be asked and answered, but the most poignant question of all is: is a core infrastructure failure occurring and responsible for the insufficient cooling system the plant is experiencing?

Comment: The USA is littered with nuclear plants under strain due to the bad decisions of the greedy. Luckily, if a disaster ensues from their negligence, they can always do the popular thing and blame Putin!


Light Sabers

Serbian volunteers destroy Ukrainian artillery in Ukraine's Donetsk region

Donetsk militia soldier
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail VoskresenskyA militia soldier near a residential building in the center of Donetsk, hit by the shelling of the Ukrainian Army.
A group of Serbian volunteers, helping Donetsk militia to fight government troops in eastern Ukraine says they have repelled an offensive of pro-Kiev military forces who attempted overnight to break through to a vital motorway.

"Two tanks, belonging to the neo-Bandera [thugs], and one self-propelled gun together with their crews, as well a mountain gun, were destroyed during the fight," the press office of the Donetsk self-defense forces cited the Serbs as saying.

According to the report, two Serbs were lightly wounded during the standoff, and soon re-joined their battalion.

Reports claiming that volunteers from the Jovan Sevic militia battalion were fighting in the breakaway Donetsk territory - the self-styled Donetsk People's Republic, or DPR - started emerging as early as in May, when a group of Serbs first arrived in the then besieged city of Slaviansk near Donetsk.

Comment: Western media is trying to cover the Kiev Junta's losses from the Serbian, Spanish, Czech (and of course East Ukrainian) volunteers by blaming it on a Russian Invasion, but with NO PROOF.


Wolf

Dog spends 15 days without food while guarding burial site of Indian owner

Tommy the dog
© Blue Cross of India/Cover Asia PressTommy the dog, having clearly eschewed food for many days, sits at the grave of his master, Bhaskar Shri, a construction worker killed in a car accident Aug. 2 in Chennai, India.
Tommy the dog went without food and water and braved the hot days and cold nights in Chennai, southern India, as he stood watch over the grave of his master, Bhaskar Shri, 18, who died in a car accident Aug. 2.

A loyal dog in India refused to leave a graveside for two weeks after the death of his teenage owner.

In an extraordinary display of loyalty, Tommy the dog went without food and water for 15 days and braved the hot days and cold nights in Chennai, southern India, as he guarded the burial site of his master, Bhaskar Shri, 18, who died in a car accident Aug. 2.

The young construction worker had adopted the dog five years ago and the two quickly became inseparable.

But when Bhaskar was killed in a car accident earlier this month, the pup couldn't leave his side.

Light Sabers

George Galloway 'badly bruised' in street attack

George Galloway
© Lewis Whyld/PA WireRespect MP George Galloway is in "pretty bad shape" after the attack.
Controversial Respect MP George Galloway was badly bruised after he was attacked in the street tonight, his spokesman said.

Mr Galloway was posing for pictures with people in Notting Hill, west London, when the incident happened.

The spokesman said: "George was posing for pictures with people and this guy just attacked him, leapt on him and started punching him.

"It appears to be connected with his comments about Israel because the guy was shouting about the Holocaust.

"George is badly bruised but OK. He has bruising to his head and face and is in a pretty bad shape."

Metropolitan Police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of ABH and taken to the south London police station where he remains.

Compass

Worked to death: New Jersey woman working 4 jobs dies while napping in car between shifts

Image
© Courtesy of Elizabeth police departmentMaria Fernandes
A New Jersey woman who worked four jobs, who sometimes "wouldn't sleep for five days," according to a co-worker, died Monday while napping between shifts in her car on the side of the road.

Maria Fernandes died in her 2001 Kia Sportage after inhaling carbon monoxide and fumes from an overturned gas container she kept in the car, according to the New York Daily News.

The 32-year-old Newark woman pulled into a WAWA convenience store lot in Elizabeth, New Jersey for a nap early Monday. She left the car running. The carbon monoxide and gasoline fumes were the likely cause of death, authorities said.

Fernandes was found dead in the car around eight hours later when EMTs responded to a 911 call of a woman found in a vehicle with closed windows and doors. Emergency workers sensed a strong chemical odor upon entering the vehicle, authorities said.

"This sounds like someone who tried desperately to work and make ends meet, and met with a tragic accident," Elizabeth police Lt. Daniel Saulnier said, according to NJ.com.

An autopsy this week failed to determine the exact cause of death. Police are awaiting results of toxicology tests, Saulnier said, adding that no foul play is suspected.

Fernandes emigrated to the United States from Portugal. She was beloved by co-workers at the Penn Station Dunkin' Donuts in Manhattan, who called her a model employee.

Comment: Capitalism as it is today is detrimental to 99% of the people in the U.S. It has become a psychopathic web of inequality and exploitation designed to benefit those at the top of the food chain.
  • The Cynical Psychology of Capitalism