Society's ChildS


Dollar

Jury awards woman $1.6mln in lawsuit against DuPont for chemicals in Teflon


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:51 UTC
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© Denis Balibouse / Reuters
An Ohio woman has been awarded $1.6 million after a jury ruled that a chemical from a DuPont Co. plant contaminated drinking water and contributed to her development of kidney cancer. The verdict could influence thousands of similar lawsuits.

Carla Bartlett of Guysville, Ohio, sought damages after a DuPont chemical plant in Parkersburg, West Virginia, discharged perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), also known as C8, which was once used to make Teflon. That chemical then made it into water drunk by Bartlett, who later developed kidney cancer.

After less than two days of deliberation, the jury found DuPont responsible for negligence and infliction of emotional distress.

Bartlett's attorneys, Mike Papantonio and Gary Douglas, also argued that DuPont knew the risks of C8 but showed "conscious disregard" for residents by downplaying or hiding the chemical's effects.


Comment: Teflon is well-known for its numerous adverse health effects on the human body, and DuPont has been disregarding those concerns for quite a while:
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Syringe

It's back: Ebola infected nurse admitted to hospital with 'late complications'


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:18 UTC
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© Justin Tallis / AFP An ambulance pulls away from The Royal Free hospital in north London on Janurary 3, 2015, where it was announced that British nurse Pauline Cafferkey, who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, is in 'critical condition'.
A British nurse who contracted Ebola while working in Sierra Leone, but was treated and discharged earlier in the year, has been readmitted to hospital after suffering an "unusual late complication" linked to the infection.

Pauline Cafferkey was transported from Glasgow to the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, in a military plane under strict supervision. She will be kept in isolation and closely monitored, but Public Health England say there is very little risk to the general public.

People who have been in close proximity with the nurse are also being monitored by Scottish health authorities.

"We can confirm that Pauline Cafferkey was transferred from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow to the Royal Free London hospital in the early hours of this morning due to an unusual late complication of her previous infection by the Ebola virus," the Royal Free Hospital said in a statement.

"She will now be treated in isolation in the hospital's high-level isolation unit under nationally agreed guidelines.

"The Ebola virus can only be transmitted by direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of an infected person while they are symptomatic, so the risk to the general public remains low and the NHS has well-established and practiced infection control procedures in place."
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Eye 2

No human rights: Saudi employer reportedly chops off Indian maid's hand after she asked for pay


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 10:45 UTC
Saudi Arabia swords
© Fahad Shadeed / Reuters
An Indian maid is in serious condition as a result of her Saudi employer allegedly chopping off her hand after she reportedly told officials about physical and mental harassment and torture she was subjected to at work.

Kasthury (Kasturi) Munirathnam, (aged 50-58) from Tamil Nadu state, southeastern India, left for Saudi Arabia in July this year to work as a housemaid. According to her sister Vijayakumari, Kasthury, who has four children, "was forced to take up the job abroad as the family was facing financial problems after the marriage of her three daughters."

However, during her work as a maid she was allegedly subjected to mental and physical torture. Her employers even didn't give her food and didn't pay her, her sister, Vijayakumari, told PTI news agency.

Kasthury then decided to tell local officials about the harassment she was facing there, but her employer "got angry," Vijayakumari said.

Comment: So much for human rights in the country leading the UN Human Rights Council.

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Sheriff

Cop caught on video pushing and hitting teen after traffic stop, telling him to "leave my city"

Arturo Garcia
Raw Story
Wed, 07 Oct 2015 11:06 UTC
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19-year-old Kamal Gelle
Members of the Somali Human Rights Commission met with police in Richfield, Minnesota on Tuesday after a local officer was caught on video pushing and hitting a 19-year-old man following a traffic stop, KARE-TV reported.

"He said, 'Leave my city, and don't come back for the rest of tonight or I'm going to tow your car,'" Kamal Gelle said of his encounter with the officer last Saturday, which was posted on Twitter.

Gelle told the Minnesota Star-Tribune that when he was initially pulled over near a park, he did not have his license with him and that he was not immediately able to give the officer his insurance information.
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Heart - Black

Judge berates visibly upset domestic violence victim before jailing her for contempt

Arturo Garcia
Raw Story
Wed, 07 Oct 2015 10:57 UTC
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Seminole County Judge Jerri Collins
A judge in Seminole County, Florida will not discuss her harsh tone toward a sobbing domestic violence victim whom she sentenced to three days in jail, WFTV-TV reported.

WFTV published footage of the July hearing on Tuesday. Collins has refused to comment on her decision because the woman could still file an appeal.

Collins, who was re-elected last year, sent the woman to jail for refusing a court order to appear during the trial of her abuser. According to WFTV, she also had the option of fining the woman or ordering her to perform community service for failing to respond to the subpoena.

The unidentified man, who is the father of the victim's 1-year-old son, was accused of choking her and grabbing a kitchen knife. The woman says in courtroom footage that she refused to attend the trial because she was dealing with depression.
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Handcuffs

The U.S. is set to release 6,000 prisoners early. Here's where they're headed


Washington Post
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 10:26 UTC
Prison cell
© Edgard Garrido / Reuters
Texas will receive the largest number of inmates who are being freed early from prison in the largest one-time federal prison release, an effort by U.S. officials to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received severe sentences, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

The 578 inmates who will return to Texas will come from federal prisons in the state and other facilities across the country. The state of Florida will receive the second largest number of released inmates with 295, as the map below shows.

Inmate release

Comment: While it is good to see these ridiculous prison sentences reduced, there is concern of letting out so many prisoners at the same time.

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V

3 Dutch media companies sue government demanding full release of info on MH17 crash


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 09:30 UTC
MH17 crash
© Maxim Zmeyev / ReutersEmergencies Ministry members walk at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash, MH17, near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.
Three Dutch media companies have filed a joint lawsuit against the country's Security and Justice Ministry, demanding that it disclose more documents relating to the MH17 catastrophe investigation after the ministry's refusal to release the information.

The Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation (NOS); the Dutch subsidiary of the European TV, radio and production company RTL Group; and the Dutch daily Volkskrant have joined forces to appeal the Netherlands Security and Justice Ministry's refusal to make public "many documents" concerning the Malaysian Airlines MH17 crash in Eastern Ukraine last year, NOS said in a press release.

The three media companies had previously appealed to the ministry separately, asking it to disclose MH17 investigation data based on the Freedom of Information Law (WOB). The aim of the companies was to bring to light the details of the tragedy, as well as to reconstruct the actions of Dutch officials after the catastrophe.

The three media companies asked for the reports of ministerial and other official committees that were involved in the MH17 investigation to be released. In response to the media outlets' request, the ministry reportedly released about 575 documents related to the MH17 case, including the correspondence of the members of the national crisis group that was formed immediately after the tragedy.
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Red Flag

Sick: Danish zoo plans to bring in audience to view lion dissection


RT
Fri, 09 Oct 2015 08:54 UTC
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© Jaime Saldarriaga / Reuters
A Danish zoo says it is planning to dissect a lion in front of an audience, saying that its heart, lungs and other body parts will be displayed. Similar cases of killing and dissecting animals a year ago in another Danish zoo sparked public outrage and criticism.

The Odense Zoo in eastern Denmark has scheduled the dissection of a lion from 12:00 to 13:30 on October 15 and is inviting everyone for the "show."

"Be there when one of the zoo's employees dissects a lion. There will be explanations when the animal is cut up and the heart, lungs and other body parts will be displayed," says a statement on the zoo website.

If the audience wishes "to closely study body parts, that will be possible and the whole thing will be geared toward dialogue," the zoo added.
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Sheriff

NYPD improperly trained officers on use of force for years


RT
Thu, 08 Oct 2015 07:17 UTC
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© RT
A new report has found that the New York Police Department has been improperly training officers on the use of excessive force for years, according to an investigation by the NYPD Inspector General.

The IG's report analyzed 179 cases between 2010 and 2014 in which the Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) found police officers had used excessive force, a figure it called "a notably modest number, given the size of NYPD, and a positive indication of the NYPD's restraint."

However, the report's findings have raised numerous concerns, Alex Vitale, an associate professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College told RT.

"In those cases, they found many of the officers didn't report the force they used, used unnecessary force, failed to de-escalate confrontations when they could have, and in some cases instigated aggressive interactions that were totally unnecessary," he said.
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Pistol

Man, 71, fatally shoots himself in Murray Hill apartment as NYC marshal comes to evict him

Rocco Parascandola, Joseph Stepansky
The New York Daily News
Tue, 06 Oct 2015 02:16 UTC
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© GoogleThe 71-year-old man turned a shotgun on himself, ending his own life as a city marshal knocked on his door to evict him from his Murray Hill apartment at 305 E. 40 St. on Tuesday, police sources said.
A 71-year-old man turned a shotgun on himself — ending his own life — as a city marshal knocked on his door to evict him from his Murray Hill apartment on Tuesday, police sources said.

NYC Marshal George Essock Jr. knocked on the apartment door at 305 E. 40 St. and the tenant asked him through the door to give him a few minutes to get dressed around 11:30 a.m., a spokesman for NYC Marshals said.

"(The marshal) said a few minutes later there was a loud noise. He didn't know what it was," said Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the City Marshals.
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