Society's ChildS


Safe

Safe deposit boxes not so safe in California

lost safe deposit box
A woman says her bank let her safe deposit box vanish. And she's not the only one.

Susan Nomi says when she went to open her Bank of America safe deposit box of 16 years, the entire box was gone.

That's where she kept her family's jewelry and her dad's coin collection.

"I was in shock; I was just like what happened to my box," said Nomi.

She says Bank of America can't explain where her valuables went.

"They don't have an answer. They don't have an answer. They say thanks for letting us know," she says.

Yoda

Ahed Tamimi, symbol of the decades-long Palestinian struggle, prepares for freedom

Ahed Tamimi trial
© Agence France-Presse/FileFebruary 13, 2018, Palestinian teenager and campaigner Ahed Tamimi arrives for the beginning of her trial in the Israeli military court at Ofer military prison in the West Bank village of Betunia. Tamimi is set to go free today after eight months behind bars
A Palestinian teenager jailed by Israel for slapping and kicking Israeli occupation force members in the occupied West Bank is to go free on Sunday after eight months behind bars.

Ahed Tamimi was arrested on December 19, days after she was recorded on video with her cousin Nour Tamimi in the yard of their home in Nabi Saleh, near Ramallah, telling two occupational force members to leave, then shoving, kicking and slapping them.

She was aged 16 at the time and turned 17 in prison.

She was refused bail throughout her detention and subsequent trial in an Israeli court on charges including assault, stone-throwing, incitement to violence and making threats.

Comment: Ahed was received with joy and tears by her family and many supporters.




People

Russia forms military political directorate to help boost troop morale

Russian soldiers Moscow
© Tatyana Makeyeva / ReutersRussian servicemen are seen onboard a military vehicle in Tverskaya Street in central Moscow
Seeking to boost morale and maintain discipline among troops, Russia has formed a special political directorate within its Defense Ministry and appointed a former head of the counter-terror operation in Syria as its commander.

"Colonel-General Andrey Kartapolov has been appointed Deputy Defense Minister and the head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Military Forces of the Russian Federation," reads the Defense Ministry's order published on Monday.

Laptop

#MeToo: The Germans have a Russian hacking story after all

russian hackers
Should we be worried that the Russians now have information which compromises the security of Germans and the EU in general?

Two Germany broadcasters, ZDF and WDR, are claiming that they have become the victims of a new Russian cyber attack. The attack is being reported as being the work of a Russian hacking group known as 'Sandworm'. Reports are saying that the attack occurred in June, but has no clue about what the hackers were after, or whether any sensitive information was stolen. Additionally, the 'Sandworm' hacking group is also suspected of having ties to the Kremlin, and played a role in the attack on the US DNC servers during the 2016 US Presidential election. Sandworm is also billed as having hacked the Swiss labs which were tasked with analyzing the sample of Novichok that was reportedly used to poison former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter on March 4th in Salisbury, UK.

Deutsche Welle reports:

Comment: The silliness is spreading.


Apple Red

Israel's leading newspaper Haaretz says new Jewish-state law makes Israel officially an apartheid regime

haaretz
Haaretz is Israel's leading newspaper, published by the Schocken family and maintaining a global reputation. Today it has an editorial titled "The apartheid prime minister" that states bluntly that thanks to the new "nation state of the Jewish people" law that Netanyahu spearheaded, Israel under Netanyahu is an apartheid regime.
The vote on the law has updated the political fault line in Israel: the discrimination camp vs. the equality camp; the supporters of apartheid against the supporters of democracy. It is true that Israel's Arab citizens have been discriminated against since the state's establishment by the governments on both the left and right. But liberal basic laws and High Court of Justice rulings during the past generation advanced the drive toward equality and integrating the minority, which Netanyahu is now seeking to destroy.

The opposition, now headed by Tzipi Livni, must unite, as it did in the vote on the nation-state law, and present the public with a strong, simple message: equality. There is no more appropriate foundation for Israel's future as a prosperous democratic society. Netanyahu must not be allowed to rip the Declaration of Independence to shreds and turn Israel into a whitewashed version of the occupation regime in the territories.
This is important because while many American voices have said Israel is built on an apartheid system, an understanding spurred on by the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and the Institute for Middle East Understanding, the mainstream media here have denied this fact. Haaretz deserves international support for its position, but sadly it won't get it from the lapdog US press. Let alone from liberal Zionist organizations that are struggling to keep Israel from becoming politicized in the U.S.

Briefcase

Investors suing Facebook & Zuckerberg for failure to disclose slowing revenue growth

facebook
© Eric Thayer / Reuters
Facebook investors are suing the social network, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CFO David Wehner after a poor earnings report wiped out nearly $160 billion of shareholder wealth.

The lawsuit, filed by shareholder James Kacouris in a Manhattan federal court, could be the first of many claims over a disappointing earnings announcement by the social media and social networking service corporation. Facebook is also dealing with dozens of suits over its handling of user data in connection with the UK firm Cambridge Analytica. Many of those lawsuits have been reportedly consolidated in the federal court in San Francisco.

Kacouris accuses Facebook and its two top-managers of making misleading statements or failing to disclose slowing revenue growth, falling operating margins and declines in active users. The lawsuit seeks class-action status and unspecified damages.

Biohazard

US Air Force base poisons water supply with cancer causing chemicals in two Michigan counties

Michigan county PFAS
© Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
A state of emergency has been declared in Kalamazoo County, Michigan, after high levels of man-made PFAS chemicals were found in the drinking water in two towns. The contaminants pose severe health risks and can lead to cancer.

Lieutenant Governor Brian Calley announced the state of emergency on Sunday although high concentrations of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) particles in Parchment and Cooper Township were announced on Thursday, with local authorities giving out bottled water on Saturday.

Tests from Parchment's water supply system showed a level of 1,410 parts per trillion (ppt) of PFAS, 20 times more than the EPA lifetime health advisory stands of 70 ppt.

Parchment, which sits on the Kalamazoo River just north of the city of Kalamazoo, has about 1,800 people. Once known for its paper manufacturing, the town's water system is fed by three groundwater wells in Cooper Township, which encompasses a wider area, home to about 3,100 residents.

Comment: From GMOs to glyphosate, fracking and industrial disasters, the US is at the leading edge of environmental destruction, and killing its citizens in the process:


People

'Slap in the face for victims': Fire survivor slams plans to return burnt-out Grenfell Tower to council

Grenfell Towers
© Global Look Press/ Ray Tang
A Grenfell survivor has slammed plans to return the infamous tower block to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council as a "slap in the face," saying it would "exclude" it from liability for the fire that killed 72.

The 24-storey block in west London is apparently set to return to Kensington and Chelsea despite opposition among the local community, many of whom hold the local government responsible for the June 2017 disaster.

Alison Moses, who escaped from her flat on the fourth floor of the high-rise building north Kensington tower, told RT the move would "exclude the council from liability."

"You can't give the tower back to the very same people who have caused so many deaths and so many people to be without a home.

Comment: See also: Grenfell Tower borough residents suffering from TB and rickets, says new report


Sheriff

Police claim handcuffed teen shot herself in the head during a traffic stop, witnesses disagree

mom killed by cops
A mother is grieving and also crying foul after police say her 19-year-old daughter killed herself during a routine traffic stop. According to the mother, police told her that her daughter was handcuffed when she somehow got a gun and shot herself. But witnesses tell a different story.

Dawn Wilson, the mother of 19-year-old Sarah Wilson has come forward to speak out about the inconsistencies in the case and the possibility of something far more sinister than a suicide.

"In all of her life I have never known of her to shoot a gun, own a gun, or even hold a gun," said Wilson. "I'm not pointing fingers, I don't know what happened. I wasn't there, but I need to know, and I think that's fair I'm her mom."

Wilson explained to ABC 13 that her daughter was the passenger in a car that was pulled over during a traffic stop. Police told Wilson that during the stop, Sarah produced a gun and used it to take her own life.

"Things are not matching up, somewhere somehow, there is a discrepancy," said Wilson who said that police have told her one thing while telling the media something completely different.

Attention

Nothing to worry about: UK government houses sex offenders next to an elementary school

kids playing
Outrage is erupting among government officials and parents as a decision has been announced to house sex offenders in an 'open prison,' with no fence, right by a children's school. Even the police chief is speaking out about the decision, noting that it is a "serious concern."

Students at Appleton Thorn Primary School in Cheshire, UK will soon start seeing an influx of child molesters and rapists moving in next door as the Ministry of Justice begins relocating sex offenders as part of a new program.

The announcement was received with outrage by Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner David Keane who called an urgent meeting to address this incredibly poor decision.

Last week, Keane released the following statement in regard to the move.