Society's ChildS


Attention

3 dead in Amtrak accident in Madera County, California


RT
Fri, 13 May 2016 23:54 UTC
train accident
© Mike Blake / Reuters
Three people died when their pick-up truck was hit by an Amtrak train in Madera County, California, just northwest of Fresno. The train conductor suffered minor injuries. No passengers were hurt.

The fatal accident took place around 1:00pm local time, when a pick-up truck tried to go around a stopped freight train on Avenue 9 in Madera County, said the California Highway Patrol (CHP), according to Fresno's KFSN-TV.

Comment: See also: Two killed, 30 injured in Amtrak crash near Philadelphia
  • Amtrak train with over 140 on board derails in Kansas, nearly 30 injured


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Pistol

Psycho-nation: US 'Justice' Dept returns gun used to lynch black teen Trayvon Martin to George Zimmerman - Killer puts it up for auction

Kerry Sanders, Gabe Gutierrez & Erik Ortiz
NBC
Fri, 13 May 2016 20:55 UTC
Zimmerman
Zimmerman continues livin it up in Psycho-Nation
George Zimmerman wants to sell the gun he used to kill Florida teenager Trayvon Martin to the highest bidder in an online auction.

The firearm was initially placed on a listing on GunBroker.com, and included a description written by Zimmerman, a former neighborhood watch captain acquitted by a jury in the teen's 2012 shooting death. The killing sparked a national conversation about race and "stand your ground" laws.

But around 11 a.m. ET — just as the auction was set to open — the page displayed a notification saying the "item you have requested is no longer in the system."

The firearm listed was a 9 mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol, and bidding was to start at $5,000. Zimmerman's post had described the firearm as "a piece of American History."

Zimmerman's brother, Robert, earlier confirmed to NBC News that the gun sale was "legit."
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Eye 1

Ninth-grade teacher moonlighted as a black-market gun dealer and traded sex for A's

Kate Briquelet
The Daily Beast
Tue, 10 May 2016 17:11 UTC
Phillip Smith III
© Birmingham Police Department
An Alabama teacher who allegedly preyed on female students was also a convicted felon who took a leave of absence from the school to serve his prison sentence.

An Alabama history teacher who allegedly offered A's in exchange for sex also moonlighted as a black-market gun dealer, records show.

Phillip Smith III, of Birmingham, was indicted on federal gun charges while teaching social studies in 2004. Yet the school district never knew, even as the high school instructor took a seven-month leave to serve his prison sentence.

Now the 43-year-old is facing a lawsuit from the family of a female student, who claims Smith cornered her in class and solicited sex.

The complaint also alleges Smith operated a "sex for grades" scheme that targeted children who struggled in school. Birmingham City Schools and the city's board of education, accused of negligence, are also defendants in the lawsuit.

"He kind of liked to dance around the classroom," the unidentified student told AL.com, which first revealed the creepy teach's tactics.

"My friends told me to have my boyfriend walk me to his class," the girl added.

Smith allegedly put the moves on the student in December 2013, when he was administering a history exam at Huffman High School.

The convict teacher—who was also a women's volleyball coach at the school—was later fired and criminally charged as a result of the girl coming forward, her attorney, Julian Hendrix, told The Daily Beast.

While Hendrix's client wasn't sexually assaulted by Smith, authorities allegedly found a 14-year-old girl who was, according to a 2014 AL.com report.
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Alarm Clock

Julie Smolyansky: Campus rape & 400,000 unexamined rape kits

Valerie Tarico
Alternet
Fri, 13 May 2016 19:17 UTC
untested rape kits
© Shutterstock
Julie Smolyansky discusses campus rape and the outrage of untested rape kits.

Swabs for wiping the lips, face, thighs, vagina and anus. A comb to collect fibers and hair. A pick for scraping debris from under fingernails. A blood sampling device and microscope slides. Baggies for underwear. Documentation forms and labels.

These are just some of the items in the standard sexual assault evidence collection kit, or rape kit, used by American hospitals and police departments. Sexual assault turns the victim's body into a crime scene and the process of evidence gathering—prodding, swabbing and questioning—can take hours. Victims who subject themselves to this ordeal do so in the hope of justice and the hope that the perpetrator will be stopped from hurting anyone else. But over the last 30 years as many as 400,000 rape kits have piled up, untested, in back rooms and storage lockers across the country. Stacked together they would fill a warehouse the size of a football field and three stories tall.
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Arrow Down

Dangerous precedent: Maine judge gives Nestle control of towns' groundwater for up to 45 years


RT
Fri, 13 May 2016 17:58 UTC
water protest Maine
© FacebookFood & Water Watch - Maine
Nestlé has secured the rights to the groundwater under the Maine town of Fryeburg for up to 45 years, thanks to the efforts of the state's Tea Party Republican Governor Paul LePage.

Maine's Supreme Judicial Court quashed activists' efforts to appeal the deal by ruling in favor of Nestle on Thursday.

The advocacy organization Food and Water Watch along with local resident Bruce Taylor appealed the 2014 decision, claiming the long contract is outside the authority of the water district and highlighting the fact that three commissioners had to recuse themselves due to ties with Nestlé.

US Uncut reports this is the first US contract to grant water access for such a long period of time and activists are concerned it will set a dangerous precedent for future corporate contracts on natural resources.

"Today's decision by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court paves the way for a private corporation to profit from a vital public resource for decades to come," Food & Water Watch's Nisha Swinton said in a statement.

Comment: The US is on the verge of a severe water crisis and over two-thirds of the world's population is facing severe water shortages. Water privatization is enabling corporate psychopaths to exploit this looming disaster for their own benefit.

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Sheriff

Flashback Former Baltimore cop spills the beans on police corruption

Radley Balko
The Washington Post
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 19:01 UTC
baltimore riot police
© Jabin Botsford/The Washington PostOfficers stand guard during protests over the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Md. on Friday May 01, 2015.
On Wednesday, a former Baltimore Police Department officer named Michael Wood caused a stir online when he began tweeting some of the horrible things he claims to have seen during his 11 years on the job. I spoke with Wood Wednesday afternoon for a phone interview. Here's a transcript, interspersed with some of Wood's tweets.

Balko: So how long were you a cop in Baltimore? When and why did you leave?

Wood: Eleven years. I joined in 2003. I was a sergeant when I retired. I started by walking the Western District on foot. That's where Freddie Gray was killed. That was my first beat. I also worked in the Southern and Northern districts for a while. Then I was promoted to the Violent Crime Division. I did street work with a narcotics division for six months. Then I was promoted to Major Crimes. I left in January 2014 due to a shoulder injury. I wish I could say my injury came with an interesting story, but it's pretty boring.

Comment: If only more police officers would wake up and grow a conscience.

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Heart - Black

Woman accidentally records her own death after fight with boyfriend escalates into murder


RT
Thu, 12 May 2016 19:09 UTC
wesley webb
© gofundme.com
A Pennsylvania mother inadvertently recorded her own death at the hands of her boyfriend who shot her while her young children were in the house. The suspect then attempted suicide, shooting himself in the face.

On May 2, Wesley Webb was fighting with her boyfriend, Keith Smith, in their Pennsylvania home when she decided to start recording their argument on her phone. Things escalated quickly when Webb, 40, told Smith, 43, that she and her two children wanted to leave.

In the audio recording, which is now in possession of police, Smith can be heard yelling, "You want to record it now, b***?" according to the Timesof Chester County.

Smith, authorities said, pulled out a single-shot, 12-gauge shotgun and fired on Webb, striking her in the chest, as she sat on the couch.
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Snakes in Suits

Pharma giant Bayer considering purchasing Monsanto


RT
Fri, 13 May 2016 18:26 UTC
activist gas mask
© Jörg Carstensen / AFPAn activist wearing a gas mask sprays in front of the chancellery with a device reading "Government, Bayer, Monsanto, BASF and co" during an action on the International Day for Biological Diversity in Berlin
German pharmaceutical giant Bayer is considering making a bid to buy American agrochemical company Monsanto, Bloomberg reports. With Monsanto's $40 billion market cap, the combined enterprise would become the largest supplier of farm chemicals and seeds.

The deal is likely to raise many questions from competitors and authorities.

"Trying to do this merger is like going sailing in a tsunami. This is going to raise real significant concerns at the Justice Department," a former departmental lawyer who has worked on behalf of farmers, David Balto, told the Financial Times.

The possible merger comes after Monsanto failed to acquire its rival, Switzerland's Syngenta for about $46.2 billion last August. Syngenta was bought by ChemChina for reported $44 billion.
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Robot

No end in sight for creepy DARPA human control programs

Mac Slavo
STFplan.com
Thu, 12 May 2016 18:12 UTC
terminator
© Orion Pictures
How Dark Will Our Future Be?

There's every reason to suspect that the powers-that-be are writing us out of it.

There are more dark projects and secret research grants than anyone can keep track of, but this list is a good start - and an indicator of how serious they are about control.

From robots to artificial intelligence and software to read your mind, the Pentagon and its Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have ways of reducing the population to little more than automatons and prisoners in a high-tech worldwide control grid.

Comment: Mind control projects are alive and well.

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Eye 1

Woops! Philly cops caught trying to disguise spy vehicle as a Google Maps car

Dustin Slaughter
Motherboard
Thu, 12 May 2016 17:40 UTC
fake google spy truck
© Dustin SlaughterThe vehicle in question.
The Philadelphia Police Department admitted today that a mysterious unmarked license plate surveillance truck disguised as a Google Maps vehicle, which Motherboard first reported on this morning, is its own.

In an emailed statement, a department spokesperson confirmed:

"We have been informed that this unmarked vehicle belongs to the police department; however, the placing of any particular decal on the vehicle was not approved through any chain of command. With that being said, once this was brought to our attention, it was ordered that the decals be removed immediately."

Comment: Police surveillance is no secret. Several departments across the country make it a regular part of their operations. This is a police state, after all.

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