Society's ChildS


Fire

'Devil incarnate': Pedophile football coach Barry Bennell sentenced to 30 years in jail


RT
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:22 UTC
Arrest
© Caspar Benson / Getty Images
Pedophile former football coach and scout Barry Bennell, described as "sheer evil" and the "devil incarnate," has been sentenced to 30 years in jail with one year on license for abusing dozens of youth players over three decades.

Bennell was told by the judge during sentencing at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday that he had inflicted "the maximum impact upon your victims" and that he may well die in prison, the Guardian reported.

Victims reportedly cried "yes" as the sentence was read out.

The former Manchester City scout and coach for English lower-league club Crewe Alexandra was present in court for the first time during his five-week trial, having previously appeared only via video link.

Comment: See also: 'Industrial scale child molester': Pedophile football coach convicted of abusing young players

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Handcuffs

Girl's suicide leads to cyberstalking charges for 12-year-olds

Ed McConnell
Mirror
Thu, 25 Jan 2018 00:00 UTC
Police in Panama City Beach, Florida, have charged two 12-year-old middle-school students with cyberstalking after the suicide of another student.
Gabriella Green
© CNN12-year-old Gabriella Green
Police said Tuesday in a statement that 12-year-old Gabriella Green, known as Gabbie, was found unresponsive at her home on January 10 and was pronounced dead at a hospital. The medical examiner told CNN that the girl died from hanging.

During the investigation, family and friends alerted police that Gabbie had been a victim of cyberbullying. Police said they looked at cellphones and social media accounts, which led them to interview two children she knew.

Police did not say whether the suspects had lawyers present at the time of the interviews. Their parents gave permission for them to speak with investigators.
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Dollars

Alabama Sheriffs caught siphoning taxpayer money from funds meant to feed inmates

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:53 UTC
Sherriff's food money
Sheriffs in Alabama have found an unscrupulous means of stealing money from the taxpayers of their state by embezzling money from funds that are collected for the purpose of feeding inmates. It is not an isolated incident either.

In only three years, one Alabama sheriff stole over $110,000 in taxpayer dollars that was slated to feed inmates in the jail his department oversees. During the same period, another sheriff was caught writing checks for personal expenses from a similar taxpayer-funded program intended to feed inmates. Others were caught using the money to loan shark. None of the sheriffs has been charged and they all claim their outright theft of tax dollars is entirely legal.

These sheriffs and many more across the state of Alabama are now the subject of a lawsuit jointly filed Jan. 5 by the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

As AL.com reports, the sheriffs contend that they are not breaking the law by taking thousands of federal, state and municipal tax dollars that they receive each year as allocations to feed inmates in their jails. The two sheriffs - and likely others across the state - say they are following the letter of a longstanding Alabama state law that they believe allows for them to keep any funds designated to feed county jail inmates that do not end up being used for that purpose.
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Radar

Some strategies on checking for fake news

Adrian Vore
The San Diego Union-Tribune
Fri, 16 Feb 2018 21:55 UTC
Dan Coates
© Leah Mills - ReutersDan Coates speaks on Capitol Hill on Feb. 13.
The big story that broke Friday was news of 13 Russians being charged with interfering in the 2016 presidential election. Federal officials said the campaign of disinformation to inflame divisions in the U.S. involved ads and posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google.

The lead story on A1 of the Union-Tribune on Wednesday was U.S. intelligence officials predicting Russian meddling to occur again in the midterm elections this fall.

"We expect Russia to continue using propaganda, social media, false-flag personas sympathetic spokespeople and other means of influence to try to exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States, Dan Coates, the director of national intelligence, said during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing Tuesday, according to a New York Times story published in the U-T.

Based on what happened in the 2016 elections and the warnings last week, consumers of news need to be wary of what they are reading in social media, on the web and in items forwarded in emails.

Comment: By that definition, the mainstream media has a long way to go before they can be considered 'news' and 'analysis'. One only needs to look at the media's attacks on everything Russian to see how opinion is passed off as 'news and analysis'.

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Arrow Up

Bill Gates: Super wealthy should pay 'significantly higher' taxes


RT
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:51 UTC
Bill Gates
© Ruben Sprich / Reuters
One of the world's richest men, Bill Gates, says he should pay more in taxes and urged the US authorities to require other billionaires to contribute "significantly higher" amounts.

"I need to pay higher taxes. I've paid more taxes - over $10 billion - than anyone else, but the government should require the people in my position to pay significantly higher taxes," Microsoft founder said in an interview with CNN.

Gates, whose fortune is estimated at $86 billion, also sharply criticized the GOP tax law, which slashed tax rates for big businesses.
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Pistol

Police mistakenly shoot the hero in hostage standoff

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Sat, 17 Feb 2018 16:38 UTC
amarillo gunman
As news of the tragic shooting in Parkland, Florida dominated the airwaves this week, a massive hostage situation-which was quickly turning into a mass shooting situation-was foiled by a hero in a church. That hero, however, is now in the hospital after police showed up to the scene and shot him.

The situation was well on its way to becoming one of the deadliest shootings in history as the gunman took over 100 people hostage inside the Faith City Mission church on Wednesday.

"They said there was a gun in the building everyone started running all different ways," said Clay Murdock, a student at Faith City Mission.

According to WLOX, Murdock said he tried to get as many people inside their sound room as possible.

"We're standing in there and everyone starts praying," said Murdock. "I went outside to see what was going on if I could get more people in there and right when as I went outside the guy was standing right in front of me with the pistol."

Murdock then ran outside.
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Attention

UK experts fear child abuse cases linked to witchcraft and possession will skyrocket


RT
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:27 UTC
child in woods
© ReutersWitchcraft & possession linked to UK child abuse as experts fear cases will skyrocket
Child abuse in the UK: Increasing links to belief in witchcraft
Faith-related killings of children could rise if the UK does not address child abuse linked to beliefs in witchcraft and spirit possession in a number of communities, according to the authorities.

Government statistics have shown 1,500 potential abuse cases had links to belief in possession and witchcraft.

"These beliefs are very real and on occasion people are going to take this to extremes where a child can be murdered," Inspector Allen Davis, who leads the Metropolitan Police's response to the issue, told the Independent.

"There are a number of ways that an adult will try to rid the child of the evil they believe is within them. They might try to burn it out, cut it out, strangle it out, drowning can be involved, or starving and beating."

Within Britain there are a number of communities with a "genuine belief" in possession and witchcraft. High-profile cases have emerged in recent years, including the killing of Kristy Bamu and Ayesha Ali.

Comment: Voodoo 'cleansing rituals' on children in the US:

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Whistle

Former CIA whistleblower 'Jeffrey Sterling has become an invisible hero, forgotten by media'


RT
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 15:45 UTC
Jeffrey Sterling
Journalists never ask about former CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling, who has become an invisible man to the media, former US Senate candidate and political activist Arn Menconi told RT.

The US intelligence whistleblower has been released from prison, where he served time after revealing CIA mismanagement of a classified program to the Senate. He had been sentenced to three-and-a-half years under the Espionage Act, but was freed after two years.

However, Sterling was not jailed for what he told senators - he was accused of leaking classified information he shared with the Senate to a journalist. His sentence was considerably shorter than the usual 19-year minimum, reportedly because all the evidence against him was circumstantial.

Arn Menconi, a former US Senate candidate and political activist who petitioned for Sterling's release, explains how he ended up being treated as a traitor.

Comment: See also: James Risen on his life as a NY Times reporter and getting leaked insider info by CIA veterans

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Laptop

Computer recycler draws Microsoft's ire, faces 15 years in prison

Jack Burns
The Free Thought Project
Sun, 18 Feb 2018 16:20 UTC
Eric Lundgren
Eric Lundgren, an innovative computer engineer, may have to spend 15 months in prison for saving the environment and recycling computers.

Even though Lundgren has a successful computer recycling business, the thought of throwing away or destroying so many PCs was unsettling. So he hatched a plan to copy and sell to refurbishers PCs with Microsoft restore discs. However, when the company learned what he was doing, they tried to put him in prison.

Piracy is a crime and affects the bottom line profits of video game manufacturers, Hollywood films, and software companies like Microsoft. But a Microsoft restore disc is included when someone buys a computer and is available as a free download when someone can prove their product key for Windows belongs to them.

But for people who buy a second-hand computer, if the product key to the copy of Windows does not belong to them (registered with Microsoft) the computer is worthless and must be thrown away.
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Arrow Down

WADA officers disrupt Russian figure skating star Zagitova's practice to take doping test


RT
Mon, 19 Feb 2018 13:51 UTC
Russian figure skater
© Damir Sagolj / ReutersAlina Zagitova
Olympic figure skating gold medal contender Alina Zagitova was prevented from conducting a full training session on Monday, after a doping officer interrupted the Russian's practice in PyeongChang.

"Zagitova took to the ice as was scheduled, but several minutes later she was forced to leave the skating rink, because a doping officer ordered her to take a doping test. The training turned out to be disrupted," a member of the Russian figure skating squad told R-Sport.

The 15-year-old star, who is making her senior debut this season, is widely considered among the favorites to clinch the Olympic title in South Korea.
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