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Arkansas mass executions continue in legal limbo after state supreme court & federal appeals rulings


RT
Tue, 18 Apr 2017 12:49 UTC
Arkansas Supreme Court
© courts.arkansas.gov
The start of a series of executions in Arkansas has been disrupted. The state supreme court kept two death row inmates alive Monday, but a federal appeals court overturned a lower court's halt on eight lethal injections planned for the next 10 days.

UPDATE: Around 6:30pm local time, the Arkansas Supreme Court lifted the stay placed on state executions by a county judge on Friday. Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen had ruled in favor of McKesson, a pharmaceutical distributor, which had protested against the use of one of its drugs for lethal injections. It was the second decision on Monday by the state's highest court welcomed by the state's attorney general.

Earlier in the evening, the Arkansas Supreme Court continued its stay on the executions of Bruce Ward and Don Davis, who were scheduled to die by lethal injection Monday after 7:00pm local time. They would have been the first to be judicially killed in a series of eight executions initially scheduled to happen over the next 10 days.

Other legal hurdles remain, so the executions scheduled for Monday evening will not occur.

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Eye 1

School-issued computers spy on children in US without parental consent


RT
Tue, 18 Apr 2017 12:48 UTC
child student on ipad
© Judith Thomandl / Global Look Press
School-issued computer devices - provided to one-third of school children across the US - collect excessive amounts of highly sensitive personal data on the students without parental consent or even prior notice, a new study finds.

Electronic devices distributed in US schools collect unprecedented amounts of personal data on children as young as five years old, according to a new report by Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), dubbed 'Spying on Students' - the result of a two-year study.

The surveillance comes under the guise of "personalized education." Roughly one-third of primary and secondary education (K-12) students have received various electronic devices. Many tech companies provide electronic devices for free or a steeply reduced fee, as they seek their share in the $8 billion education technology (ed-tech) market.
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2 + 2 = 4

Why thousands of American parents are sending their kids to 'Russian Math'

Carey Goldberg
WBUR
Thu, 13 Apr 2017 11:10 UTC
Russian math
When Larisa Itina was emigrating from Russia in 2000, her son Boris told her not to bother packing all the toys, games and puzzles she'd collected for helping children learn math.

He said, " 'Mother, you will never use this in the United States,' " she recalls. "All of the people I know said to me, 'You will never teach in the United States. It's not possible.' "

Comment: How learning Russian can make you better at math

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Candle

Investigators identify boy killed at Sun Dial restaurant in Atlanta

Alexis Stevens
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 17:12 UTC
Sundial restaurant
© File photo
Charlie Holt, 5, died after being trapped inside the Sun Dial restaurant Friday afternoon.
The 5-year-old boy killed after getting stuck against the wall at Atlanta's Sun Dial restaurant was identified Saturday as Charlie Holt, according to the Fulton County Medical Examiner.

Charlie was visiting with his parents from Charlotte, N.C., when he caught between a wall and a table as the dining area rotated shortly after 3 p.m., Atlanta police said. The family had been at a window seat, but the boy wandered away from the table, according to Officer S.R. Brown. The rotating floor shut off automatically when the boy was stuck.
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Bad Guys

Former executioner: Mass executions in Arkansas will haunt correctional officers, but the 'inmates are ready'


RT
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 16:13 UTC
Arkansas executions
© Jerry Cabluck/Getty Images
As Arkansas prepares to execute seven death-row inmates in a rush to use a lethal injection ingredient before it expires, a former executioner told RT he believes the deaths will leave a mark on correctional officers, and that "it's too much for them."

In early April, the state's Governor Asa Hutchinson ordered that the executions be carried out for eight inmates (one was later put on hold by a judge on appeal), since one of the drugs is to expire by the end of the month.

European laws effectively forbid the sale of drugs for execution purposes, and many US companies also refuse to sell the chemicals. In March 2015, the American Pharmacists Association issued a statement calling on its members to deny any sales of such material as "contrary" to the goals of healthcare providers.


Comment: Ponerization:
Ponerization (from ancient Greek poneros - evil), is a ponerological term coined by Dr. Andrzej M. Łobaczewski. Ponerization is the influence of pathological people on individuals and groups whereby they develop acceptance of pathological reasoning and values.

-Individual scale-

On the individual scale it can be described as transpersonification, where people who are susceptible (due to a psychological weakness or to a pathology of their own) assimilate the psychology of pathological people. People who are not themselves characteropathic or psychopathic may lose the ability to distinguish between healthy and pathological actions and reasoning, accepting paramoralistic and paralogistic justifications and doctrines.
See also: Arkansas, struggling to find volunteer witnesses, seeks to rush through 8 executions in 10 days in April

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Heart - Black

Middle school child lands in ICU, traumatized after being handcuffed over 'argument' with another student

Victoria Skinner
EAG News.org
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 00:00 UTC
Tyler Skipper 12-yo traumatized handcuffed by cop
Pamela Millard says her 12-year-old grandson was left crying and bleeding after being handcuffed by a deputy.
A Cumberland County grandmother is sounding off after she alleges her 12-year-old grandson was left handcuffed and bloodied after an altercation at a school dance.

Pamela Millard told WTVD her grandson Tyler Skipper got into a scuffle with another student at a Gray's Creek Middle School last month that ended with the boy in handcuffs in the school office.

Millard said she was called to pick up Skipper around 3 p.m. on March 17 and found the child crying and bleeding from his wri[s]ts when she arrived.

Comment: The most disturbing fact is that events such as this are not uncommon at all: Terrorizing students: The US Police State and the criminalization of children

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People

Marine Le Pen accosted as FEMEN protester storms rally stage


RT
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 22:05 UTC
Marine Le Pen
© Alain Jocard / AFP
With the French presidential election just days away, National Front leader Marine Le Pen was interrupted on stage by a flower-wielding FEMEN protester.

Footage of Monday's incident shows a young female protester running towards the presidential hopeful with a bunch of flowers held above her head, seemingly waving them in the direction of the presidential candidate during a rally at Paris' Zenith arena.

It seems as if the protester is about to remove her top before she is rushed by Le Pen's security detail, who drag her along the ground by the arms and out of sight of the cameras.
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Ambulance

Maryland medical examiner's office buckling under number of drug overdose deaths


RT
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 20:22 UTC
opioid crisis needle heroin
© Max und Moritz / Global Look Press
The heroin epidemic is killing so many people in the state of Maryland that its medical examiner's office is straining to keep up, which could threaten its accreditation. Autopsies in the state have grown 40 percent since 2010 - almost 100 more a year.

"Everyone continues to add on work hours and work faster and hopefully not take short cuts," Dr. David R. Fowler, Maryland's chief medical examiner, told the Baltimore Sun. "They absorb this extra load. But there is a point where they can't continue to add to that and expect the system will function."

Medical examiner pathologists are accredited to carry out a set number of autopsies a year to ensure quality control and confidence in the results. The situation has implications for the criminal justice and public health systems, which rely on the autopsies in court cases.

"Maryland is currently fully accredited," Peterson said. "But as is the case with many offices, it might be facing loss of that accreditation due to the intersection of caseload and staffing level."

State pathologists are performing about 40 percent more autopsies than in 2010, almost 100 more per pathologist, and the toxicology lab runs nonstop, according to officials. There was no increase in examiners and the office struggles to hold on to support staff.

Comment: The article does not touch on the fact that the majority of deaths are due to legally prescribed drugs.

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Pistol

Georgia 13-year-old accidentally shoots himself live on Instagram

Kristen Reed and Joe Henke
11Alive
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 20:09 UTC
Malachi Hemphill
© Courtesy of familyMalachi Hemphill
"I heard a big boom. I couldn't tell if it was a gunshot or what."

Shaniqua Stephens had just watched her 13-year-old son take out the trash Monday evening when she heard a noise. "I just knew that it was something that was wrong," she said.

She and her daughter ran upstairs and found him. "We kicked in the door. We found him just laying there in a pool of blood," Stephens recounted. "My daughter screamed and said, 'Mom turn his phone off!' As I proceeded to look at his phone he was on Instagram Live."

Thirteen-year-old Malachi Hemphill was live on the social media site Instagram handling the gun when it went off. He was rushed to Grady Hospital where he died.

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Red Flag

Atlanta highway system takes another hit as I-20 closes after road buckles


RT
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 19:19 UTC
buckled road atlanta
© DeKalb County Police / Twitter
The highway system in Atlanta, Georgia has taken another hit ‒ its second in less than four hours ‒ as Interstate 20 buckled due to a construction mishap on an underground gas line. One motorist is in critical condition.

Construction crews were pushing concrete to fill an abandoned gas line underground when pressure built up and caused the road to buckle, WAGA reported. All westbound lanes of I-20 were closed, DeKalb County police said.

A motorcyclist who was going 55mph crashed when the road buckled, eyewitness Greg Phillips told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

"[The motorcycle] just fell in," Phillips said. "It was like a dip."
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