Society's ChildS


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Bulgarians take to Facebook to lambast bad, lazy, dangerous cops


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00 UTC
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© FacebookTaking it easy
Thousands of Bulgarians have joined a Facebook group collecting photos of local police breaking rules while on duty. The law enforcement agency is already subject to special monitoring by the EU for failing to tackle corruption and organized crime.

Created less than a week ago, the "Film the Police" group already has more than 8,000 members and hundreds of allegedly incriminating photos.

Most show policemen routinely taking up disabled parking spots, and asleep en masse in a patrol car during work time. Others supposed violations are more serious; a photo of a policeman at the wheel holding a large opened bottle of beer, or an officer on a motorcycle performing a dangerous stunt on the wrong side of the road. Some are accompanied by names and comments showing specific policemen demanding bribes, or calmly looking upon a group of apparent prostitutes on the curb.
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Phoenix

Gas pipeline inferno wreaks havoc in Moscow suburb


RT
Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:00 UTC

A massive fire caused by a gas pipeline leak struck a Moscow suburb during the night, obliterating 17 buildings. Firemen only managed to bring the raging inferno under control three hours after it broke out.

Both gas and electricity were temporarily cut off from the Northeastern Moscow suburb of Sholkovskaya near the village of Almazovo after a gas pipe caught fire, reports RIA Novosti.

The flames of the ensuing inferno reached 10 meters in height and covered an area of approximately 600 square meters.

The fire caused significant damage to the surrounding area, destroying 17 country houses. Authorities said that no one was injured in the blaze.
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Laptop

Sacramento veteran pollster fired over an e-mail protesting against U.N. observers

Ben Sosenko
CBS Sacramento
Fri, 02 Nov 2012 04:02 UTC

Sacramento, California - A poll worker is out of a job, and she says it's all because of an email she sent her supervisor.

The woman says she was concerned about poll inspectors coming to Sacramento for Tuesday's election.

Shannon Lewis has been a poll worker in Sacramento for 15 years. She said she sent that email and was fired 10 minutes later.

"I just tapped out a really fast email," said Lewis.

But that quick email ended Lewis' 15 year job as a Sacramento County pollster.

"I just wanted to get my feelings known and get an answer to the question before polling day," said Lewis.

Lewis' email inquired about something she saw on the internet, United Nations observers coming to local polling stations.

"I was on Facebook one day and I saw this thing that I thought was a brand new thing," said Lewis.
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Cowboy Hat

'It's Like the Wild West': Lawlessness and fear take over the outer boroughs as millions in misery endure a sixth day without power

Rachel Rickard Straus and Snejana Farberov
The Daily Mail, UK
Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:00 UTC
  • Residents claim they are the 'forgotten victims' of Sandy
  • Also say that lack of power and law enforcement means more looting and violent crime
  • Those in stricken areas stockpiling weapons like kitchen knives, machetes, and bats to protect themselves
  • Coney Island residents say they are forced to 'scavenge for food like animals'
  • Power unlikely to be returned to Brooklyn, Queen's and Staten Island until sometime next week
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© The Associated PressWhat remains: Julie Traina tries to recover some personal items from the destroyed home of her parents in Staten Island yesterday
As lights have begun flickering on in Lower Manhattan, residents of the Rockaways in Queens continued struggling without power, heat or food for a sixth day as their neighborhood slowly descended into chaos.

With little police presence on the storm-ravaged streets, many residents of the peninsula have been forced to take their protection into their own hands, arming themselves with guns, baseball bats and even bows and arrows to ward off thugs seeking to loot their homes.
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© Reuters/Shannon StapletonVigilante justice: A sign is seen outside a home in Long Beach in Long Island on November 2 gives a dire warning to would-be looters
It has been reported that crooks have been disguising themselves as Long Island Power Authority workers and coming by homes on the peninsula in the middle of the night while real utility workers were nowhere to be found.

'We booby-trapped our door and keep a baseball bat beside our bed,' Danielle Harris, 34, told the New York Daily News.

The woman added that she has been hearing gunshots likely fired in the nearby housing project for three nights in a row.

Meanwhile, local surfer Keone Singlehurst said that he stockpiled knives, a machete and a bow and arrow.
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Road Cone

New Jersey Governor Christie orders gas rationing in 12 NJ counties

Charisse Jones,
USA TODAY
Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:00 UTC
The governor declares that the shortage could endanger public health, safety and welfare.

NJ gas lines
© Michael Loccisano, Getty ImagesPeople wait for hours with gas canisters at a Gulf gas station Thursday in Manalapan, NJ.
For many in New Jersey in search of gasoline, the mantra has become sit, wait and hope.

Beginning noon Saturday, that exercise in patience will become even more confounding and complicated. Gov. Chris Christie late Friday ordered gas rationing in 12 counties, declaring that the current shortage could endanger public health, safety and welfare.

The affected counties are Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Middlesex, Morris, Monmouth, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren.

Motorists in these counties whose license plates end in even numbers can fill up only on even-numbered days. Odd-numbered plates -- which includes those not ending in number -- can fill up only on odd days.

The "state of energy emergency" order states that stations "will be required to only sell motor fuel for use in a passenger automobile bearing license plates." That indicates dealers could refuse to sell to pedestrians seeking to fill containers.

Christie and Attorney General Jeff Chiesa pledged to "aggressively and vigorously enforce" the order, and the governor warned that violators "will be prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted."
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Handcuffs

Grenade burns sleeping girl as SWAT team raids Billings home

Zach Benoit
Billings Gazette
Fri, 12 Oct 2012 08:00 UTC
Billings Montana: A 12-year-old girl suffered burns to one side of her body when a flash grenade went off next to her as a police SWAT team raided a West End home Tuesday morning.

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© Jackie FaschingJackie Fasching provided the Gazette with this photo, which shows burns to her daughter's side caused by the detonation of a flash grenade during a SWAT raid on Oct. 9.
"She has first- and second-degree burns down the left side of her body and on her arms," said the girl's mother, Jackie Fasching. "She's got severe pain. Every time I think about it, it brings tears to my eyes."

Medical staff at the scene tended to the girl afterward and then her mother drove her to the hospital, where she was treated and released later that day.

Police Chief Rich St. John said the 6 a.m. raid at 2128 Custer Ave., was to execute a search warrant as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation by the City-County Special Investigations Unit.

The grenade is commonly called a "flash-bang" and is used to disorient people with a bright flash, a loud bang and a concussive blast. It went off on the floor where the girl was sleeping. She was in her sister's bedroom near the window the grenade came through, Fasching said.
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Info

Vandals admit muffin-crystal-thingie assault at Serpent Mound

Alan Johnson
The Columbus Dispatch
Fri, 02 Nov 2012 08:52 UTC
Serpent Mound
© Ohio Historical SocietySerpent Mound is part of the Ancient Ohio Trail.
A group of "light warriors" buried what may be hundreds of small muffinlike resin objects, embedded with aluminum foil and quartz crystals, at Serpent Mound with the intent of realigning the energy of the ancient Native American site in Peebles.

The Ohio Historical Society and Adams County Sheriff K.R. Rogers haven't arrested anybody yet in what they consider a serious vandalism case. But the people who apparently did it made it easy by laying out their actions in an extensive YouTube video where they acknowledge they "did some work" in September at the site in Adams County to help "lift the vibration of the Earth so we can all rise together."

State officials aren't seeing the light, however, and expect to file charges soon against three to five people who they say vandalized and desecrated the 1,000-year-old site that is on the National Register of Historic Places. The perpetrators face second-degree misdemeanors, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.

So far, only three small buried items, known as "orgonites," have been located. But there could be hundreds on the site, said George Kane, director of historic sites and facilities for the Ohio Historical Society. "Adding things to the property is just not acceptable," Kane said. "This is very serious."

Kane said officials were tipped off to "suspicious activity" at the Serpent Mound site mid-September but learned more by watching a YouTube video, "Serpent Mound Reactivation 2012," which has been removed from the video site.
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USA

Drivers waiting for 6 hours at midtown gas station


CBS Local NY
Sat, 03 Nov 2012 07:19 UTC
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Cars wait in line for fuel at a Gulf gas station on November 1, 2012 in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
With patience running thin and tension running high in the fight for fuel after Superstorm Sandy, the scene at area gas stations has been chaotic.

On Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said gas is finally on its way. But not soon enough.

Speaking at a news conference, Gov. Cuomo acknowledged there is a shortage of fuel, but said "there is no reason to panic."

Try telling that to drivers at the Hess station at 44th Street and 10th Ave. As CBS 2′s Tony Aiello reports, drivers coming up from the South are waiting six hours to fill their tanks at the station.
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Crusader

Top Christian shrine may shut down over unpaid water bills


RT
Sat, 03 Nov 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/ Gali TibbonA general view showing one of Christianity's holiest site, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre
One of the holiest sites in the Christian world, believed to be the place of Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, is now under threat of being closed over unpaid water bills.

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also known as the Church of the Resurrection, was founded during the rule of Emperor Constantine the Great in the 4th century and withstood invasions, fires and earthquakes. But now, more than 1,600 years later, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which maintains most of the complex, may close the temple's doors as the city's water company Hagihon demands payment of a US$2.3 million bill dating back 15 years, including interest.

"If nothing changes we intend to announce within a few days, for the first time in centuries, that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is closed," Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III said on Friday, as quoted by RIA Novosti news agency.
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People 2

New Jersey kicks out Sandy volunteers because they aren't unionized


RT
Fri, 02 Nov 2012 00:00 UTC
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© European Pressphoto Agency/Allison Joyce/Getty ImagesVolunteers stock basic supplies like diapers, food and water November 1, 2012 in New York City.
Utility workers from across the US are descending on the Northeastern states left ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, but some volunteers making the trek are being told they can't pitch in since they don't belong to a union.

According to a report published late Thursday by WAFF News out of Seaside Heights, crews coming to assist all the way from Alabama's Decatur Utilities were turned away because they aren't unionized, despite making the 800-mile jaunt to lend a hand.

WAFF quotes Decatur worker Derrick Moore, who tells the network that he and his colleagues "are frustrated being told, in essence, 'thanks, but no thanks.'"

Left with nothing to do in New Jersey, Moore and other members of the Decatur team are reportedly waiting in Roanaoke, Virginia to see if Seaside Heights authorities will change their mind. Meanwhile, though, millions of residents up and down the East Coast remain without power after a powerful tropical storm downed power lines and flooded streets from North Carolina to New England.
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