Society's ChildS


Eye 1

Ohio mom wrapped duct-tape around son's face and head, court

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© AFP/Getty ImagesAn Ohio mom pleaded not guilty to two charges of child endangerment after allegedly wrapping duct-tape around two children's faces.
An Ohio mom faced court Friday charged with child endangerment after it was alleged she wrapped duct-tape around two children's faces and heads.

Police said Tiffany Ennis, 31, of Sandusky, Ohio, took a photo of her son, 8, wrapped in the tape and sent it in a text message to the boy's father, Rudy Yado, on February 18, ABC News reported.

The photo showed his forehead, eyes and mouth covered in tape.

Arrow Down

80 percent of South African meat mislabeled

Barcode
© Shilova Ekaterina/Shutterstock
A new study has pointed out some serious flaws in meat labeling in some South African grocery stores.

Researchers working with game meat in South Africa suggested in the journal Investigative Genetics that DNA barcodes should be used to help identify even closely related species.

The authors wrote after the study about how the labeling of game meat in South Africa is very poor, with different species being substituted nearly 80 percent the time in food packaging. Game meat in South Africa is a large business, with nearly 10,000 wildlife farms. The meat is considered to be "healthier" than beef because it is both lower in fat and cholesterol, and perceived to be lower in additives.

By using mitochondria COI BNA barcoding and cytb sequencing, researchers analyzed samples of game meat from supermarkets, wholesalers and other outlets, comparing them to known samples and library sequences.

Researchers found that out of the 146 samples taken from these markets, 100 of them had been mislabeled. They reported that all of the beef samples were correctly labeled, but 92 percent of meat labeled kudu was inaccurately labeled.

According to the study, only 24 percent of springbok and ostrich biltong was actually labeled correctly. The rest of the mislabeled meat included horse, impala, hartebeest, wildebeest, waterbok, eland, gemsbok, duiker, giraffe, kangaroo, lamb, or beef.

Info

Adopted Russian boy's death ruled accidental in Texas

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© FacebookMax Shatto was adopted from an orphanage in north-west Russia last year by Laura Shatto and her husband.
The death of an adopted 3-year-old Russian boy has been ruled an accident in Texas, just a week after Russian officials accused the boy's adopted parents of killing the child.

Authorities said today that Max Shatto, who had been adopted by Laura and Alan Shatto in November, died of a self-inflicted wound on Jan. 21.

An investigation into the boy's death was opened after he was rushed to Medical Center Hospital's emergency room shortly before 5 p.m. on Jan. 21 and later died.

Today's announcement carried contradicted a top Russian official who accused the boy's mother of murder last week.

Pavel Astakhov, Russia's children's rights commissioner, started wrote on Twitter last week: "An adoptive mother has killed a three-year-old Russian child in the state of Texas. The murder occurred at the end of January."

"The boy died before an ambulance called by his mother arrived. According to a report by medical examiners, the boy had numerous injuries," he added.

The tweets were later deleted, but Astakhov continued to blame the boy's adoptive parents for his death. On Thursday, he said he was told by a Texas social worker that the mother was responsible for the boy's death.

Cut

U.S. budget cuts to hit military school districts first

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© The Associated Press/Killeen Independent School District/Todd MartinStudents move through the halls of Meadows Elementary School in Fort Hood, Texas.
Fort Hood, Texas - Public schools everywhere will be affected by the government's automatic budget cuts, but few may feel the funding pinch faster than those on and around military bases.

School districts with military ties from coast-to-coast are bracing for increased class sizes and delayed building repairs. Others already have axed sports teams and even eliminated teaching positions, but still may have to tap savings just to make it through year's end.

But there's little hope for softening any future financial blows.

"Next year is scarier than this year," said Sharon Adams, chief financial officer for Muscogee County schools in Georgia. The district serves the U.S. Army's Fort Benning and could lose $300,000 in federal funding out of its $270 million in general funds before the end of the school - and more than four times that in 2013-2014.

The schools' losses will come from cuts to a federal program known as "Impact Aid" that supplements local property tax losses for districts that cover federal land, including military posts and Indian tribal areas. About 1,400 school districts serving roughly 11 million children nationwide - including nearly 376,500 students from military families - benefit from the aid, said Jocelyn Bissonnette, director of government affairs for the Washington-based National Association of Federally Impacted Schools.

Eye 1

Sequester could cut more than $400,000 in the fight against Domestic Violence in New York State


The Violence Against Women Act has been in affect since 1994. The United States House of Representatives authorized to re-new the act yesterday, but the good news for victims of domestic violence may be short lived. The sequester is expected to cut $20 million in funding for victims nationwide. The effects will be felt through out the state, and right here in Rochester.

This morning, dozens gathered at The College at Brockport for the 14th annual legislative breakfast on domestic violence.

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"Her very worse fears are realized. For those of you who don't know how the story ends, her husband Vince shot Amy in the head at close range, killing her instantly," said one supported of the Violence Against Women Act.

It's stories like these that pushed congress to re-new the Violence Against Women Act.

"Funding for non residential services should not be taken out of the New York State budget. There are more people like me with no where to turn and no answers," said a victim of domestic violence.

On the heels of this event, news of sequester cuts threaten some of the most vulnerable people in our community. The state could lose more than $400-thousand in funding that aid victims of domestic violence. That means 1,600 abuse victims won't receive much needed help.

The numbers trouble those who see the affects of domestic violence every day, like Jaime Saunders, the CEO of Alternatives for Battered Women.

Pumpkin

Hysterical USA - 7 year old Brooklyn student accused of eating breakfast pastry 'into shape of a gun': suspended for two days

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The suspicious pastry was immediately quarantined while school administrators checked that it was not loaded and in safety-off mode
Children at Park Elementary School went home with a letter today explaining there was a disruption in school.

Seven year old Josh Welch, and his father, say the disruption lead to a two day suspension for the second grader in Brooklyn Park.

Academics are hard for Josh, who suffers from ADHD, but he excels in art class.

It is Josh's own creativity that may have gotten him into trouble. At Park Elementary school, Josh was enjoying his breakfast pastry when he decided to try and shape it into a mountain.

Josh said, "It was already a rectangle and I just kept on biting it and biting it and tore off the top and it kinda looked like a gun but it wasn't." Josh takes full responsibly for trying to shape his breakfast pastry, but admits it was in innocent fun.


Comment: The fundamental point here, the basic 'common sense' intelligence at the heart of the matter, is that it WAS NOT A GUN! The seven year old grasped that; that adults apparently did not.

And "Josh takes full responsibly"? Number 1, it's 'RESPONSIBILITY' and Number 2, SINCE WHEN DID IT BECOME A CRIME OR IN ANY WAY SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOUR FOR A 7-YEAR-OLD TO PLAY WITH HIS FOOD???


Comment: Further confirmation, as if we already needed it, that the United States of America is certifiably insane. Between his sense of humor and his basic human intelligence (a vanishingly rare thing these days), Josh will no doubt soon be labelled with Oppositional defiant disorder. Long may he 'suffer' from it, because at this rate, he'll be one of the few to emerge from our collective dystopian nightmare with his mind still intact.

SOTT Talk Radio: Cosmic Catastrophe, Drones and Social Hysteria


Cult

Female cardinals and the morning-after pill: Change possible in the Catholic Church?

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© APBenedict XVI, now the pope emeritus, acknowledged before leaving St. Peter’s that the Roman Catholic Church is a “living body,” always in flux.
No, the next pope will not be a nun - yet there could well be major changes in the role of women in the church, even without any changes in current church law. It's not widely known, but nothing precludes women from serving as cardinal-electors, even though they can't be ordained as priests. So the next pontiff could easily appoint female cardinals - and send the message that women really do have an important leadership role in the church.

No, the next pope won't be making any big announcements, either - not on Day One or Day 1,001 - about changes in the church's position on priestly celibacy, or heaven knows, abortion. Yet before he left St. Peter's on Wednesday, Benedict XVI himself made clear that change is a constant, even in the Eternal City. He referred to the church as a "living body," always in flux.

In fact, important changes have happened in recent weeks, even beyond the historic news of Benedict's retirement. Though eclipsed by the focus on the pope, German bishops cautiously voiced approval of the use of the morning-after pill to prevent conception following a rape.

Mr. Potato

Hysteria! Chinese official goes berserk after missing flight

A high-ranking official in the Chinese government lost his cool (and then some) when he and his family missed their flight at the Kunming Wujiaba International Airport in Yunnan Province, China.

A video shows the man, identified as Yan Linkun, standing near a boarding gate. There is no sound, but reports from Beijing Cream suggest he'd just learned that he and his family had has missed their flight - for the second time.

It's then that the temper is lost, never to be found again. Yan tosses computers, bangs on the desk and acts in a manner frowned upon at preschools, let alone highly trafficked airports. A crowd gathers to watch the spectacle, but nobody appears willing or able to stop the carnage.

Eye 1

Colorado theater shooting suspect may plead insanity

James Holmes
James Holmes during his first court appearance on July 23. Was he 'greenbaumed'?
Denver - Attorneys for the suspect in the deadly Colorado theater shooting said for the first time that they're considering entering a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity on behalf of their client.

But they said in court papers made public Friday that they can't make their decision about their defense of James Holmes until the judge rules on their motion challenging the constitutionality of the state's insanity defense law.

The attorneys say the law is unfair to defendants who invoke it because it requires the disclosure of potentially incriminating information, such as mental health records, while those who plainly plead not guilty are not required to turn over any evidence.

Prosecutors have not announced whether they will pursue the death penalty, but they have 60 days from when a defendant enters a plea to do so. Holmes' hearing is March 12.

A legal expert said the maneuvering may be part of a defense strategy to make sure prosecutors never get their hands on a notebook that was purportedly sent by Holmes to his psychiatrist and included descriptions of a possible attack.

The notebook was the subject of court hearings in the months after the July shooting. Under state law, the notebook was protected because it was part of a doctor-patient relationship that Holmes had with the psychiatrist.

"That's why there's a big issue there, there's information that the prosecution may not be entitled to unless they plead not guilty by reason of insanity," said Karen Steinhauser, a Denver criminal defense attorney and law professor who is a former prosecutor.

Cut

France proposes to cut school summer holidays

France's education minister has sparked uproar by proposing to to cut summer holidays from eight to six weeks to prevent the country's children falling further behind in international league tables.
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© ReutersVincent Peillon has further inflamed the teaching profession by announcing his intention to lop two weeks off France's long summer holidays
Paris - Reforming "le mammout" (mammoth) as France's huge, unwieldy, state education sector, is known, has been the bane of both Left and Right governments, with militant teachers' unions notoriously prepared to go on strike over even modest timetable changes.

Industrial action was matter of course last month when Vincent Peillon, education minister in President François Hollande's socialist government, announced he wanted to end the four-day week in primary schools to include a half day on Wednesday, which is currently totally off.

Now, he has further inflamed the teaching profession by announcing his intention to lop two weeks off France's long summer holidays.

French pupils currently spend among the longest daily number of hours in class in the world, while the number of days spent in school is among the lowest in all countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.