Society's ChildS


Chess

Supreme Court unanimously strikes down nominee Judge Gorsuch ruling


RT
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 11:59 UTC
US Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch
© Jonathan Ernst / ReutersUS Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch
A ruling made by US Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch in a federal appeals court has been struck down 8-0 by the Supreme Court. Gorsuch apologized for his ruling during a Senate confirmation hearing, but defended it based on circuit precedence.

Gorsuch's lower court decision was overturned Wednesday, during the second day of his confirmation hearing to be the Supreme Court's ninth justice. The unanimous decision overturned his 2008 ruling in Thompson R2-J School District v. Luke P.

Gorsuch's ruling had determined that a school district was not in violation of the federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA) if they provided an education that "must merely be 'more than de minimis.'"
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Pirates

75-year-old man charged with deserting from U.S. Air Force during Vietnam War


RT
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 08:51 UTC
MacDill Air Force base
© us.archive.org
A Florida man is in custody after the Air Force determined he went "absent without leave," or AWOL, 45 years ago. The 75-year-old was found living a quiet life with his wife under an assumed identity, and his neighbors had been none the wiser.

His crime, committed half a lifetime ago, has come back to haunt Linley Benson Lemburg. He was found to have deserted his post in 1972 and seemingly disappeared into thin air. That is, until Tuesday, when he was arrested by a Marion County Sheriff's Office deputy in Florida.

After Lemburg's fingerprints were confirmed to match ones taken during his enlistment, he was handed over to military officials to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. But what happens next remains a mystery. No military officials have commented on the matter. However, given that his desertion took place during the tail end of the Vietnam War, he could conceivably even face the death penalty.

Lemburg had been living with his wife in Ocala under the name William Michael Robertson. His neighbors told the Ocala Star-Banner that Lemberg and his wife were extremely quiet, but nice people who made themselves useful in the neighborhood.

"He would clean neighbors' gutters and would help anyone who needed any type of assistance," Jack Blanton, an Army veteran, told the Star-Banner.
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Fire

Largest munitions depot in Ukraine up in flames, nearly 20,000 evacuated


RT
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 09:23 UTC
Ukraine munitions depot fire
© Роман Чуловский/YouTube
Thousands of people are being evacuated from Balakleya in the Kharkov region of Ukraine, as a massive fire has broken out at a munitions depot, which is said to be the largest in the country. There are reports of explosions and shattered windows.

Chaotic scenes with hundreds of vehicles stuck in traffic jams were reported on social media after the Balakleya city administration ordered an emergency evacuation of most of the city.

Videos uploaded by local residents show a huge blaze with what appears to be a missile flying off in a random direction and falling to the ground, as detonations are heard in the background.

Most of the population of Balakleya have been evacuated, the civil defense department of the city's district administration told RIA Novosti.
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People

'Heil Merkel!' German city protests visit by chancellor


RT
Thu, 23 Mar 2017 08:52 UTC
German protesters
© Ruptly
Protesters in the western German city of Halle set up a giant anti-Merkel banner and were shouting "Heil Merkel!" as Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived to visit the National Academy for Science.

The protesters carried large red banners and flags, saying "Heil Merkel!" and bearing a logo showing two hands pressed together in a "diamond" - Merkel's distinctive gesture.

Protesters were also heard loudly chanting the same provocative slogan as the chancellor's car arrived at Germany's Leopoldina National Academy for Science. Merkel appeared oblivious to the clamor.
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Arrow Down

[UPDATE] Magnitsky lawyer "falls" from the fourth floor of his apartment building, seriously injured ahead of court date


Radio Free Europe
Tue, 21 Mar 2017 15:03 UTC
Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky
© file photoRussian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died in custody in 2009.
A lawyer representing the family of the deceased Russian whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky has been hospitalized in Moscow with serious injuries after falling several stories.

The incident on March 21 happened one day before he was to appear in court in connection with the Magnitsky case.

Magnitsky's former employer, U.S.-born British investor Bill Browder, said in a statement on March 21 that lawyer Nikolai Gorokhov was "thrown from the fourth floor of his apartment building."

Russian news reports suggested his fall may have been an accident.

Comment: His condition seems to be improving:
Browder said in a March 22 statement that Gorokhov's condition had been changed from critical to serious, and that he was able to speak with doctors earlier in the day.


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Family

"They kept shooting": Father of 6yo boy killed by cops speaks publicly for first time

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 20:10 UTC
Jeremy Mardis
© Family photoJeremy Mardis was killed by police on Nov 3rd, 2015. He was 6 years old
It is now day three of the trial for Derrick Stafford, one of two officers charged with the 2015 murder of six-year-old Jeremy Mardis. Jeremy's father, Chris Few, who was also shot that fateful night, took the stand Tuesday and spoke about the murder of his son for the first time in public.

During his heartbreaking testimony, Few noted that officers Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr. immediately started firing — with no warning.

"The only thing I heard was gunshots. Then I heard verbal commands after they were through firing," Few said. "I stuck my hands out the window. They kept firing."

Comment: Family suing after Louisiana cops with history of terrorizing community kill six-year-old autistic son

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Footprints

Top ISIS operative - arrested, freed, and flagged - slips through the net

Erin McLaughlin, Margot Haddad, Lauren Said-Moorhouse
CNN
Thu, 16 Mar 2017 03:57 UTC
Atar
© Krone
Authorities missed an opportunity a decade ago to stop a key ISIS operative thought to be behind the Paris and Brussels attacks, a former Belgian intelligence officer says. Instead, Andre Jacob, who at the time was the head of the anti-terrorism unit for Belgian intelligence, says that Oussama Atar, believed by French authorities to be the elusive "Abu Ahmad," was incarcerated in multiple Iraqi detention centers where he became further radicalized. The Belgian-Moroccan national, now 32, would years later introduce his own family -- including his cousins, the El Bakraoui brothers who carried out the Brussels attacks -- to his extremist ideologies, according to French and Belgian authorities.

But when Jacob first met Atar in 2006 he was 22 and a baby-faced detainee in Baghdad, a far cry from the "monster" he would eventually become. It was July and the height of the Iraq War when Jacob walked through the doors of Camp Cropper, a newly-opened US-operated detention center. He'd been invited to help question Atar by the CIA and US military intelligence.

"I saw a young boy disappointed to be there," Jacob tells CNN. "Surprised also and who was trying to tell us that he wasn't a terrorist but he was in Iraq to help Iraqis and not to be a foreign fighter." This was the first in a sequence of events in which Atar would ultimately be released by authorities and go on to become a prime suspect in the attacks.
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Handcuffs

3 California prison guards on trial for brutal murder of mentally ill inmate


RT
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 20:01 UTC
man in handcuffs
© imago stock&people / www.globallookpress.com
The trial has begun for three Santa Clara County correctional officers who are accused of involvement in the beating death of a mentally ill man. Prosecutors said the man begged for his life before dying.

"Power and abuse of power - that's what this case is about," prosecutor Matt Braker said in his opening statement in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Tuesday, according to the Mercury News. "The three of them thrived on the power and control they had over inmates."

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Bullseye

'I was trained to identify resistors': Education whistleblower tells how she was taught to con the community

Isaac Davis
Waking Times
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:46 UTC
Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
"I was taught really how to con the community." ~Charlotte Thomson Iserbyt
Charlotte Iserbyt has a long history of work with the U.S. Department of Education as a former policy advisor during the Reagan administration, as well as having worked for local school districts. In her seminal book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, she tells the story of how her interest in educating children was overshadowed by the dark truth of the modern education system, and the top-down plan to overhaul education to achieve statist aims.

As the reality that education is used against us sinks in for everyday Americans, her work becomes ever more valuable, and of the many startling truths she has revealed, one fact stands out as particularly relevant to today's environment, where the nanny state increasingly usurps authority over individual and family decisions, turning us into de facto agents of state control.

Speaking in an interview, Iserbyt explains how school system functionaries are trained to identify resistors, the parents among us whom would dare to object to the unreasonable changes in schools and educational programs.

Comment: The dumbing down of America - By design

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Info

United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports West Mosul displacement surges 22% amid ongoing coalition offensive


RT
Wed, 22 Mar 2017 20:55 UTC
Refugees
© Youssef Boudlal / Reuters
The total number of displaced civilians in the western part of the Iraqi city of Mosul has increased 22 percent week-on-week as Iraqi forces keep battling Islamic State militants, the United Nations says.

Nearly 45,000 people have fled the fighting between Iraqi government forces and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISISL) militants in western Mosul over the past week, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported on Wednesday.

The latest development brings the number of people displaced from western Mosul up to around 135,000, the UN humanitarian aid office said, adding that "camp expansion is rapidly accelerating to ensure capacity keeps pace with demand."

"Significant shortages of drinking water continue to be a major humanitarian concern in eastern Mosul city. Civilians in many neighborhoods of southwestern Mosul also have no access to the public network and are accessing untreated drinking water," the office said.

Around 330,000 people had to leave Mosul since the military operation began in October, with only 72,000 returning home, according to OCHA.

Comment: See also: Refugees describe Mosul terror: 'ISIS cut off heads, break legs and provoke airstrikes'

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