Society's ChildS


Laptop

Maine high school employs computer program after call for foreign language teacher yields no responses


RT
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 19:46 UTC
computers replacing teachers
© reuters
Foreshadowing a future crisis in teacher availability, a small central Maine high school seeking a teacher for French- and Spanish-language classes has come up with a radical solution: employ a computer program instead.

Madison Area Memorial High School, in the 4,800-person town of Madison, Maine, has turned to a Rosetta Stone program to teach the foreign languages after its call for a teacher yielded no responses. The school also hired an education technician to help oversee the class and the program's operation, according to the Morning Sentinel.

Despite posting the job in numerous places, no applicants answered, and the rural high school was left with few options, Principal Jessica Ward said.

"It was coming down to the wire and school was starting," Ward told the Sentinel. "Students were already scheduled for foreign language, and we can't just not offer it."

Comment: More schools may be facing such dilemmas as many teachers are leaving the profession and fewer students are signing up to replace them. A majority of teachers are stressed to the point of burnout, and it's no wonder considering the robotic experiment of Common Core, the police presence in schools and the difficulties posed by having a large majority of students under stress due to hunger and poverty.

In dark times - why teachers matter

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Airplane

Small plane crashes into home in Gilbert, Arizona

Morgan Tanabe
ABC15
Sat, 17 Sep 2016 07:57 UTC
Gilbert, Arizona plane crash
© KNXV
A pilot is being treated for minor burns and four skydivers escaped uninjured after a small plane crashed into a Gilbert home Saturday night.

The crash happened around 7:30 p.m. Saturday night near Ray and Gilbert roads.

An FAA spokesperson says the Cessna 182 plane crashed in the neighborhood during parachute operations.

Gilbert police say the small plane was carrying skydivers for the annual Constitution Fair.

The pilot is hospitalized with minor burns after landing half a mile away from where the plane went down, Gilbert fire officials said. Four skydivers ejected from the plane and landed safely.

According to officials, the pilot noticed flames on the wing before the plane went down. An FAA spokesperson said circumstances surrounding the crash are unclear at this time.

Two people inside the Gilbert home were able to get out unhurt after the plane crashed toward the back of the house.

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V

Entire Seattle high school football team takes a knee during national anthem


Q13 Fox
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 21:17 UTC
seattle football team kneels
© Seattle Times/Dean Rutz
The entire Garfield High School football team, including the coaches, took a knee during the national anthem Friday night before their game against West Seattle High on Friday night to protest "social injustices."

After the game, which Garfield won, Garfield High School head football coach Joey Thomas said that "the players decided to do this" to bring attention to "social injustices," emphasizing that it was "a player-driven" move and that his players plan to continue the practice during the anthem before every game "until they tell us to stop."

About four or five players on the West Seattle High School team also knelt during the anthem at the Southwest Athletic Complex in the West Seattle area.

Comment: See also:

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Airplane

'Dragon Lady' military plane crashes in California; 1 dead


RT
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 21:17 UTC
dragon lady plane
© US Air Force / ReutersA U-2 "Dragon Lady" reconnaissance aircraft
A Cold War-era spy plane nicknamed "Dragon Lady" has crashed in central California during a training flight, sparking a wildfire. Both pilots have ejected, but the US Air Force confirmed one was killed.

The U-2 spy plane went down in Sutter County, approximately 45 miles north of the state capital of Sacramento, local media reported.

The US Air Force has confirmed the crash, and later in the day said one of the pilots had died, while the other was injured.
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Black Cat

The American public doesn't care if politicians lie

Eric Zeusse
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 12 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
lying politicians
To say that a voter cares whether or not a given politician is a liar, is to say that even if the politician is of that voter's own political party, the voter will reject the politician for being a liar.

In the United States, most voters are either Democratic or Republican; and, for example, Republicans accept George W. Bush (he left office in 2009 with a Republican approval rating of 75%, but a Democratic approval rating of 6%) even though he lied us into invading Iraq, and Democrats accept Barack Obama (his latest approval rating is 90% from Democrats but 11% from Republicans) even though he tried to lie us into invading Syria and was stopped only when British intelligence warned David Cameron and leaked to Seymour Hersh that the 21 August 2013 Syrian sarin attack which Obama was using as a pretext for his planned invasion had been done by the jihadists that Obama was arming, not by Assad as Obama was falsely claiming.

An independent American investigation found exactly he same thing. And Obama knew that if he couldn't get Britain in on the invasion, the invasion would need to be cancelled. And, as things turned out, he couldn't get Britain in on it. Cameron didn't want to become another Tony Blair.
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Sheriff

Good cop, bad cop: Breaking the chain of obedience to wake up

Gary 'Z' McGee
Waking Times
Fri, 16 Sep 2016 20:30 UTC
"To live outside the Law, you must be honest." ~Bob Dylan
police badge
We are living in revelatory times. The mask of authoritarian rule is slowly dissolving. The veil is being lifted and the immoral power gained from deception and appropriation is slowly being replaced by a far superior moral power gained from truth and prestige. More and more people are waking up to the fact that power gained from violence is immoral. The era of blind allegiance is coming to an end. But it's a slow and frustrating process for those few of us who have already remedied such a fear-based, slave-prone disposition and eliminated it from our mindset and lifestyle.

The most apparent crack in the tank-like armor of authoritarian rule lately, has been the gradual realization that police are nothing more than hired thugs paid to uphold the outdated laws of the authoritarian state. As it stands, the authoritarian state represents immoral power gained from smoke-and-mirror deception and violent appropriation. Cops are paid to uphold this immoral institution. Even worse, they are expected to be proud of it.

Here's the thing: there are good people, but there are no good cops. In order to be a "good cop" the officer would have to hold people accountable to outdated, stupid, and in some cases, downright violent and immoral laws. Which would make the officer a bad person. So the officer is caught in a catch-22. Either the officer chooses to be a good person and does not enforce those laws, in which case he chooses to be a bad cop; or the officer chooses to be a "good cop" by enforcing those laws, in which case he chooses to be a bad person.
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Apple Green

School cafeteria worker quits after 'lunch shaming' policy forced her to take hot meal from first grade kid


RT
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 20:45 UTC
School kids having lunch
© Rick Wilking / Reuters
A cafeteria employee for a Pennsylvanian elementary school quit her job after she was forced to take a hot lunch away from a child whose parents had fallen behind the $25 limit for school lunches.

Stacy Koltiska says she resigned from Wylandville Elementary in the Canon-McMillan School District last week because she had to deny two children hot lunches under the new strict policy that was enacted to tackle $100,000 in debt built up by unpaid lunch fees.

Under the new rules, students from kindergarten to sixth grade will not be served hot lunches if their parents owe more than $25 to their meal accounts. Instead, the children will be given a cold sandwich, fruit and milk.

Comment: Punishing kids for a parent's failure; never a good idea.

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Sheriff

Blue lives matter if you're a dog: The rise in heat-related deaths of K-9 cops

Kit O'Connell
Mint Press News
Mon, 19 Sep 2016 18:14 UTC
cop and dog
K9 officer John Greene and his dog Nitro sit in their car at the DPS station in Detroit before a chase.
High summer temperatures have claimed the lives of 16 police dogs this year, most of which died as a result of being left unattended in sweltering vehicles, according to figures reported by an animal rights organization and a group that tracks canine law enforcement deaths.

Police dog deaths increased from last summer, when 12 dogs died of heat exhaustion.

This year is edging out 2015 as a more dangerous year for police dogs overall. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, which tracks both human and canine law enforcement deaths in the United States, 28 police dogs have died so far this year. Last year, the group reported the deaths of 27 police dogs.

In addition to a rise in heat-related deaths, this year has also seen a rise in shooting deaths. Eight dogs have died as a result of gunfire in 2016, including two accidental gun deaths, while only four police dogs were shot in all of 2015.

Katie Arth, a media assistant manager at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, told MintPress News that the organization supports the responsible use of police dogs, despite the risks the animals sometimes face.

Comment: Looks like the cops can't even be entrusted with canine lives.

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Dollar

Wage gap between white and black workers largest in 36 years, black men make 31% less than white counterparts


RT
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 17:57 UTC
factory work
© Rebecca Cook / Reuters
The wage gap between black and white workers in the US has increased significantly since 1979, all while productivity has gone up by nearly 63 percent overall, according to a new report.

Racial wage discrimination, racial disparities in "unobserved or unmeasured skills," overall rising unemployment, weakened labor unions, and insignificant minimum-wage increases have led to a widening of the black-white wage gap over the last 30 years, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

In 2015, black men made 22 percent less, and black women made 34.2 percent less, in average hourly wages compared to white men with the same education, work experience, region of residence, and metro status, the EPI found, while black women made 11.7 percent less than white women with the same characteristics. In 1979, black men and women who shared the same characteristics as their white peers made 16.9 percent less and 4.5 percent less, respectively.

Overall average hourly wage gaps have widened as well. Black men's average hourly wages had fallen to 31 percent lower than those of white men by 2015, compared to 22.2 percent lower in 1979. Black women's average hourly wages had decreased to 19 percent lower than white women in 2015, as opposed to 6 percent lower in 1979.
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Ambulance

Passenger train crashes in Calgary, leaving driver in serious condition


RT
Tue, 20 Sep 2016 17:39 UTC
calgary train crash
© why_party / Instagram
A passenger train in Calgary, Canada overshot the platform at Tuscany station Tuesday morning, careering off the tracks and crashing through a fence. The driver received emergency treatment after suffering serious injuries.

According to local reports, the train was carrying only two passengers at the time of the crash at 7 a.m. local time, and no other injuries were reported.

The C-Train operator, a woman in her 60s, was reportedly transported to the Foothills Medical Centre. Emergency Medical Services spokesman Stuart Brideaux said it "was difficult to get her out of the damaged train," reports CBC.
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