Society's ChildS


Footprints

Canada's border authorities detain record number of Mexicans

Anna Mehler Paperny
Reuters
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 00:00 UTC
men on fence
© Zero Hedge
Canada's border authorities detained more Mexicans in the first 67 days of 2017 than they did annually in any of the three previous years, according to statistics obtained by Reuters. The spike comes immediately after Canada's federal government lifted its visa requirement for Mexican citizens in December.

Many Mexicans looking north have shifted their focus from the United States to Canada as President Donald Trump vows to crack down on America's undocumented immigrants, about half of whom are Mexican. On Friday, Reuters reported, immigration judges were reassigned to 12 U.S. cities to speed up deportation.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) said it detained 444 Mexican nationals between Jan. 1 and March 8, compared with 410 for all of 2016, 351 for 2015, and 399 for 2014. The CBSA can detain foreign nationals if it is believed they pose a danger to the public, if their identity is unclear or if they are deemed unlikely to appear for removal or for a proceeding.

The number of Mexicans turned back at the airport has risen, too - to 313 in January, more than any January since 2012 and more than the annual totals for 2012, 2013 and 2014.

With the visa requirement lifted, all that Mexicans need to come to Canada is an Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA), obtainable online in a matter of minutes. But they cannot work without a work permit, and the eTA does not guarantee entry.
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Newspaper

Mother and son are becoming father and daughter

Jackie Salo
New York Post
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 18:42 UTC
Corey and Eric Maison
A transgender dad and daughter from Detroit are revealing their incredible journeys as they transition from mom and son.

Corey Maison, 15, first told her parents she identified as a girl four years ago, but it was not until last year she learned that her mother also struggled with her gender identity. The pair are now leaning on each other as they transition together.
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Wolf

Predator-control agents plant 'cyanide bomb', hurts 14yo Idaho boy, kills his dog


RT
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 07:55 UTC
Doggie
© imagebroker / PICANI / Doreen Baum / Global Look Press
An Idaho family is outraged after a device planted by predator-control agents near their home sprayed their 14-year-old son and killed the family dog.

The device, called an M-44, is spring-loaded to discharge poisonous sodium cyanide powder if it is pulled on. The US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services uses the scent-baited booby-traps to kill predator animals like coyotes, foxes, wolves, and cougars that can pose a risk to homes, livestock, and hiking trails.

However, in Thursday's incident, which occurred near Buck Skin Road east of Pocatello, Idaho, an M-44 sprayed Canyon Mansfield, 14, and his three-year-old yellow Lab, Casey, as the two were walking on a hill near the family home.
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Fire

6 injured as huge explosion destroys Brussels neighborhood


RT
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 17:05 UTC
Explosion
© gillesmartin2017 / Instagram
At least six people have been injured in a huge explosion that completely destroyed the upper stories of two houses in the Saint-Gilles area of Brussels, Belgium.

The explosion caused a major fire to break out at the properties on Boulevard de Waterloo on Saturday. Saint-Gilles' mayor, Charles Picque, said that one victim had suffered serious injuries.
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Water

EPA to allocate to Flint, MI, $100 million for drinking water infrastructure


RT
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 13:07 UTC
Water in Flint
© Carlos Barria / Reuters
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be disbursing $100 million to Flint, Michigan, after Congress voted to allocate aid money to the beleaguered city last year. The funds will go towards removing lead pipes and making other improvements.

The EPA announced Friday that funds allocated for the city of Flint by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act will soon be distributed to the city. The act was passed by Congress in 2016 and signed into law by former President Barack Obama.

Flint has not had clean drinking water since April 24, 2014. The city's water was contaminated with lead from the pipes used to transport the water and created a lead poisoning crisis in the city.

Comment: And what about the families who are now suffering the consequences from high lead levels from Flint's contaminated water?

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Attention

Victim's daughter responds to anti-Arab attack in Oregon: 'I don't want this to be considered a hate crime'

Layla Abdel-Jawad
Mondoweiss
Fri, 17 Mar 2017 16:47 UTC
The al-Aqsa restaurant in Oregon
© Layla Abdel-JawadThe al-Aqsa restaurant in Oregon.
Last week a man in Salem, Oregon was charged with assault, intimidation and unlawful use of a weapon after he yelled at an employee working in a Middle Eastern restaurant, "go back to your country, terrorist" and then attacked him with a plastic pipe.

The alleged assailant, Jason Kendall, 52, later told police that he struck the worker in order to free a woman in the restaurant that he believed was abducted, because, kidnapping people, "that is what Arabs do," he said, according to a probable cause statement reported by the Statesman Journal.

He added, her shirt was a "signal" to him that she was being kept a slave. He was on a "warrior's path" to free her. When he saw the "Saddam Hussein looking guy" in the restaurant, he stood up and said to the woman she was "free to leave."
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Laptop

Unprecedented: Police ask for entire city's Google searches, and the court says yes (Update)

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Fri, 17 Mar 2017 17:21 UTC
Google police are watching
An Orwellian precedent is underway just outside of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which could be the downfall of internet freedom as we know it. Police in Edina, MN, have been granted a warrant requiring Google to determine everyone in an entire city who has used its search engine to look up a specific term and identify them to authorities.

The case doesn't involve some massive terror plot to destroy an entire city or a high-level child trafficking ring. It is for a wire-fraud crime — worth less than $30,000. However, if Google caves to the warrant, it could set off a precedent that will undoubtedly be used by police across the country.

According to Ars Technica, investigators are focusing their probe on an online photo of someone with the same name of a local financial fraud victim. The image turned up on a fake passport used to trick a credit union to fraudulently transfer $28,500 out of an Edina man's account, police said. The bogus passport was faxed to the credit union using a spoofed phone number to mimic the victim's phone, according to the warrant application.

Comment: UPDATE: Google has since vowed to fight the search warrant, describing the police's demand as an "overreaching request for user data."
A Google spokesperson told The Star Tribune on Friday that the company will go to court, if necessary, to fight the warrant, which was issued by Hennepin County District Judge Gary Larson in early February.

"We will continue to object to this overreaching request for user data, and if needed, will fight it in court. We always push back when we receive excessively broad requests for data about our users," the Google representative said.


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Cross

Pope Francis urges use of exorcists in cases of 'genuine spiritual disturbances'


RT
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 13:35 UTC
pope francis blessing people in vatican
© Alessandro Bianchi / ReutersPope Francis blesses during the penitential celebration in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican March 17, 2017.
Pope Francis has advised Catholic priests "not to hesitate" in using professional exorcists if they encounter people experiencing "genuine spiritual disturbances."

Speaking to hundreds of priests at an annual course organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican court, which deals with issues concerning the sacrament of confession, the pontiff advised priests to refer people to exorcists if they suspect demonic activity is at work.

However, Francis urged confessors to exercise caution when determining whether a person is suffering from a mental disorder or demonic influences, advising priests to work with psychological professionals when coming to a decision.

Comment: The Pope may be onto something:

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Pistol

Horrific: Police shoot, kill man on Facebook Live, family responds 'he was asking for help' (VIDEO)


RT
Sat, 18 Mar 2017 02:41 UTC
Police killing
© Huggie Pacino / YouTube
A shocking livestream video shows the final moments of a man who was fatally shot by police in Tennessee. His relatives claim he was mentally ill and asking for help.

Rodney Hess, 36, went live on Facebook twice Thursday. The first stream is of him mostly quietly driving his white SUV for several minutes. He is unintelligible at some points talking to himself, and he periodically stops the car on a two-lane highway in Crockett County, blocking traffic before he finally parks his car perpendicular to traffic in the middle of an exit ramp. That video stops shortly after police arrive and park near Hess' vehicle.

The situation turns deadly in the second broadcast, which only lasts for about a minute, as police approach Hess' vehicle. He twice asks for "higher commands to come out." The situation escalates quickly as Hess' vehicle, still perpendicular to the road, is put into reverse and then drives forward off the road. A gunshot is heard and Hess screams in pain. The car continues rolling until it crashes, and Hess' phone falls to the floor of the car where broken shards of window glass lay scattered.

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Stormtrooper

NCIS works to identify Marines United members, bill introduced outlawing future military photo scandals


RT
Fri, 17 Mar 2017 15:51 UTC
marines
© Sgt. Tyler L. Main / Flickr U.S. Marine Corps
A lawmaker has introduced a bill that would prohibit members of the military from sharing intimate pictures without consent, as investigators have begun identifying the members of the Marines United Facebook group that shared nude photos.

On Thursday, Representative Jackie Speier (D-California), introduced the Service Members Intimate Privacy Protection Act to update the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) in response to the Marines United nude photo scandal. Speier is the ranking member of the Armed Services subcommittee on military personnel.

The bill would allow service members to be court-martialed if they publish images or videos of another adult who is identifiable and engaged in a sexual act or undressed that "a reasonable person would know or understand that the image was to remain private," and knew or "reasonably should have known that the person depicted... has not consented to" its distribution.
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