Society's ChildS


Bomb

Couple arrested in New York after police claim to find cache of weapons and bombmaking explosives in their apartment

Jamie Schram, Antonio Antenucci & Matt McNulty
New York Post
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:19 UTC
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© Facebook
The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend - a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist - have been busted for allegedly having a cache of weapons and a bombmaking explosive in their Greenwich Village apartment.

Morgan Gliedman - who is nine-months pregnant - and her baby daddy, Aaron Greene, 31, also had instructions on making bombs, including a stack of papers with a cover sheet titled, "The Terrorist Encyclopedia,'' sources told The Post yesterday.

People who know Greene say his political views are "extreme," the sources said.

Cops found the stash in the couple's West Ninth Street home Saturday when they went there to look for Gliedman, 27, who was wanted for alleged credit-card theft.

A detective discovered a plastic container with seven grams of a white chemical powder called HMTD, which is so powerful, cops evacuated several nearby buildings.

Police also found a flare launcher, which is a commercial replica of a grenade launcher; a modified 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun; ammo; and nine high-capacity rifle magazines, the sources said.

Comment: The New York Post had earlier published police claims that the couple were part of the Occupy Wall street movement, but later retracted this statement when 'spokespersons' for OWS said there was evidence of any connection:

Occupy Wall Street Denies Link To Young Couple Busted With Bombmaking Materials

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Bad Guys

Man charged in burning of Los Angeles homeless woman


Independent Record
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:02 UTC
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The bench on which a woman was sleeping Dec. 27 when she was set on fire.
A 24-year-old Los Angeles man was charged Monday with attempted murder after a homeless woman was set on fire last week as she slept on a suburban bus bench, the district attorney's office said.

Dennis Petillo is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on the attempted murder charge and an additional count of aggravated mayhem, said Deputy District Attorney Sean Carney. Carney will ask that Petillo's bail be set at $1.03 million.

Prosecutors say Petillo threw a flammable liquid on the 67-year-old woman then set her on fire last Thursday. She remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition, officials said.

Police have released no motive for the crime that shocked the San Fernando Valley community of Van Nuys, where the woman had made her home on the streets for years.
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Evil Rays

2012: The year of the suicide

Kera Bolonik
Salon
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:44 UTC
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© Credit: APDon Cornelius, Tony Scott and Jovan Belcher
Suicide rates among Americans are steadily rising and have been for years. Why are we killing ourselves?

Let's call 2012 the year of the suicide: On Friday, the Department of the Army released a report revealing that suicides continue to outnumber combat-related deaths among American soldiers - an average of one suicide a day - a number that's increasing despite the fact that the armed forces have installed new training and awareness programs over the past few years. Stateside, suicide has become the leading cause of death by injury, and is the 10th leading cause of death overall. According to a CDC report released over the summer, suicide attempts by high-school students has risen to from 6.3 percent in 2009 to 7.8 percent in 2011, and accounts for 13 percent of all deaths among people between the ages of 10 and 24 - the third leading cause of death in that age group.

These are sobering statistics. And with the statistics comes more data to explain them: The Washington Post reported that "the stress on the force after more than a decade of lengthy and multiple deployments for many troops in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," while Defense Secretary Leon Panetta attributed the high rate to "substance abuse, financial distress and relationship problems ... that will endure beyond war." Among civilians, the number of suicides have been attributed to the recession - historically, there is a spike with every economic downturn. And 20 percent of high-school teenagers say they are being bullied - 16 percent say they've been cyber-bullied through texting, IM-ing, email, and Facebook or other social media.
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Eye 2

Ruthless smuggling rings put rhinos in the cross hairs

Jeffrey Gettleman
NY Times
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:12 UTC
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© NY TimesRanch workers and a veterinarian helped to raise a sedated rhino after it was dehorned at a ranch outside Johannesburg in an attempt to prevent poaching.
They definitely did not look like ordinary big-game hunters, the stream of slender young Thai women who showed up on the veld wearing tight bluejeans and sneakers.

But the rhinoceros carcasses kept piling up around them, and it was only after dozens of these hulking, relatively rare animals were dead and their precious horns sawed off that an extravagant scheme came to light.

The Thai women, it ends up, were not hunters at all. Many never even squeezed off a shot. Instead, they were prostitutes hired by a criminal syndicate based 6,000 miles away in Laos to exploit loopholes in big-game hunting rules and get its hands on as many rhino horns as possible - horns that are now worth more than gold.

"These girls had no idea what they were doing," said Paul O'Sullivan, a private investigator in Johannesburg who helped crack the case. "They thought they were going on safari."

The rhino horn rush has gotten so out of control that it has exploded into a worldwide criminal enterprise, drawing in a surreal cast of characters - not just Thai prostitutes, but also Irish gangsters, Vietnamese diplomats, Chinese scientists, veterinarians, copter pilots, antiques dealers and recently an American rodeo star looking for a quick buck who used Facebook to find some horns.
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Camcorder

Caught on tape: Dramatic rescue of man who fell into frozen lake


CBS Los Angeles
Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:50 UTC
A man fell through a frozen lake in Wrightwood Christmas day and the dramatic rescue was caught on tape.

The incident occurred at Jackson Lake.

According to witnesses, people were sledding on the lake believing it was frozen over enough to support their weight but an unidentified man fell through around noon.

As a crowd tried to help him, other people started to fall through. Witnesses said at least a dozen people ended up in the water.

Some in the crowd threw inner tubes in an effort to help.

Acton resident Mickey Herman captured the entire ordeal on tape.

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Chart Pie

NYPD sued in record numbers


RT
Thu, 27 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
NYPD
© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Mario Tama
It's another red-letter year for New York's boys in blue: the New York Police Department has spent $185 million to settle lawsuits filed during fiscal year 2011.

In all, 8,882 suits were filed against the NYPD during the last fiscal year, an increase of 10 percent from the year prior. That tally also sets the record for the most claims against a single police agency filed during the last fiscal year.

The news comes upon the release of a report from New York Comptroller John Liu, who analyzed settlements paid by the city between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. The New York Daily News reports that figures for fiscal year 2012 have not yet been made public.

Although the amount of claims against the NYPD has only increased by 10 percent, the total monetary pay out issued by the city surged by roughly 35 percent. In the year prior, the total pay out for suits against the NYPD amounted to only $137.3 million.

The city should "explore a unified method to track individual officers named in claim suits and the payouts," Liu's report reads.

Taking into account all payouts signed-off by the city, NYC spent $550.4 million to settle personal injury and property damage claims in fiscal 2011, a figure which comes out to roughly $70 spent for every citizen in all of New York City. In the fiscal year prior, the city spent only $522 million to settle claims.
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Arrow Up

Chicago murder rate sets new record


RT
Sat, 29 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/Getty Images/Scott Olson
A Thursday evening shooting in the west side of Chicago marked a milestone for the Windy City: for the first time since 2008, the city can likely claim 500 homicides in a single year.

With still a few days to go until the new year, 40-year-old Nathaniel T. Jackson became the five-hundredth person killed in Chicago, Illinois since the start of 2012.

In 2011, the city saw only 435 homicides.

Superintendent Garry McCarthy confirmed to the Chicago Tribune late Thursday night that the passing of Mr. Jackson marked murder number 500 for the Windy City, and that no suspect had been identified by the police at that point. On Friday afternoon, though, the department issued a statement to the press reclassifying a death earlier in the week as being still under investigation. With that update, the slaying of Jackson makes him one murder shy of the 500 mark, but with a homicide rate of more than one per day, that milestone is expected to be met before 2012 comes to a close.

Discussing the grim news on Friday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said it was "an unfortunate and tragic milestone, which not only marks a needless loss of life but serves as a reminder of the damage that illegal guns and conflicts between gangs cause in our neighborhoods."

Emanuel, a former Obama administration staffer known like the president for his staunch pro-gun control stance, condemned the National Rifle Association earlier this month after the NRA's vice president asked for armed guards in every school across America.

"That is not the right answer for our society, our schools and most importantly our children," Emanuel said.
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2 + 2 = 4

Philadelphia school district plans to close dozens of schools

John Hurdle
The New York Times
Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Mark Makela for The New York TimesA class at University City High School in Philadelphia this month. Students there will be forced to transfer if a proposal to close and consolidate district schools is passed in March.
Philadelphia - Like many public schools here, University City High School is underused, underfinanced and underperforming.

Nearly 80 percent of its 11th-grade students read below grade level in statewide tests this year, while 85 percent failed to make the grade in math. Last year, about only a quarter of its students participated in precollege testing like the SAT.

Largely because of the lure of local charter schools, the school is one-quarter full, with fewer than 600 students for its nearly 2,200 seats. It needs major work on its infrastructure, including lighting and heating systems, that would cost an estimated $30 million.

Now, facing deep financial problems, the Philadelphia School District has proposed an unprecedented downsizing that would close 37 campuses by June - roughly one out of six public schools, including University City. If the sweeping plan is approved, the district says it will improve academic standards by diverting money used for maintaining crumbling buildings to hire teachers and improve classroom equipment.

The 237-school district faces a cumulative budget deficit of $1.1 billion over the next five years, after $419 million in state cuts to educational financing this year. The district's problems are compounded by the end of federal stimulus money and rising pension costs.

Even after borrowing $300 million to pay the bills for this academic year, the district faces a deficit of $27.6 million, a figure that officials say will rise sharply in coming years.
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Wolf

18 arrested in dog fighting raid


Indiana News Center
Sun, 30 Dec 2012 00:00 UTC
Indiana - A dog fighting investigation has led to the arrest of 18 people in Churubusco.

Last night Whitley County police raided the home of 36 year old Edward E. Smith after they received a tip of a dog fighting contest at his house.


Inside the garage, police found a bloody and injured pit bull type dog inside a fighting ring constructed of plywood.

Two other dogs were found inside the house. One was another injured and bloody pit bull type dog. The other was a younger dog that had no injuries. All three dogs were taken by the Whitley County Humane Shelter.

All 18 people are charged with a Class A misdemeanor of attending an animal fighting contest.

Source: WISE Webcast
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Ambulance

Oregon bus crash: 9 people dead, dozens injured

Christina Ng
ABC News
Sun, 30 Dec 2012 19:56 UTC
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© Oregon State PoliceAt least five people died after a passenger bus slid off the ice on Interstate 84 and crashed 200 feet down an embankment Sunday morning, Dec. 30, 2012 in Pendleton, Oregon, police said.
Nine people are dead and dozens are injured after a charter bus crashed in Oregon, according to Oregon State Police.

Police have not yet indicated what caused the crash, but images from highway I-84 show icy roads. The bus crashed through a guard rail and fell down an embankment, police said.

Emergency responders trained in rope rescues were on-scene helping retrieve people from the crash back onto the highway, police said.

The crash happened about 10 miles east of Pendleton, Ore., in the Blue Mountains.
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