Society's ChildS


Dollar

American judge fines BP for manipulating US gas markets after Hurricane Ike


RT
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 20:19 UTC
BP
© Reuters
BP is facing millions of dollars in fines after an American judge has ruled the British oil major manipulated US gas markets in the aftermath of a hurricane in 2008.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) judge Carmen Cintron says BP artificially dumped gas prices at a Houston hub in 2008 to make a profit.

"The evidence in this case shows that the Texas team had hundreds of affirmative acts in furtherance of the manipulative scheme during the investigative period," Bloomberg quotes her as saying.

Comment: BP has been caught manipulating prices before, so despite what they claim, it would not be surprising to think these practices are ongoing.

BP and Shell raided for rigging prices for more than a decade

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Hardhat

Police Service investigates explosion at MI5 regional headquarters in Northern Ireland

Henry McDonald
Guardian, UK
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 12:24 UTC
Image
© Lesley-Anne McKeown/PAPalace Barracks in Holywood, Northern Ireland, where police believe a bomb was detonated.
An explosive device, believed to have been a bomb hidden inside a postal van, has gone off at the regional headquarters of MI5 in Northern Ireland. There were no reports of any casualties.

Police confirmed they were investigating an explosion inside Palace Barracks in Holywood, Co Down. The base on the eastern edge of Belfast is home to British army regiments as well as an important regional centre for the security services.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said one line of inquiry they are pursuing is that the Royal Mail van fire was caused by a small bomb detonating inside the vehicle. The fire spread to two other vehicles and at least one garage in the base's car park.

The Guardian understands that the explosion went off 200m from the door to the MI5 compound. As well as housing up to 1,000 MI5 operatives, Palace Barracks is home to the Royal Scots Borderers of the Royal Regiment of Scotland who have been stationed there since August 2014.

Though no one was injured in the explosion and fire, the incident will raise serious security questions if it is confirmed that an explosive device was able to be smuggled into such an important military and intelligence-gathering centre.

In recent years Republican dissidents have attempted to use Royal Mail to post and deliver packages containing hidden bombs. Explosive devices addressed to army recruitment offices as well as government ministers and MPs have been intercepted by Royal Mail.

Comment: Connection? See also: Death squads, pedophiles and psychopaths: Inside the British establishment

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X

Not legal tender: Pennsylvania man denied right to pay parking ticket with 2500 pennies

Melissa Dykes
The Daily Sheeple
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 14:43 UTC
penny
Since when are pennies and nickels not a form of legal tender in this country? Our Fed fiat money is still money. We aren't a fully cashless society... yet.

Justin Greene, a Pennsylvanian who attempted to protest what he felt was an unfair $25 parking ticket by paying for it with 2,500 pennies in Chambersburg, was told he couldn't because... federal law says the coins aren't legal tender.

Greene reportedly got the ticket for parking on the wrong side of the street for ten minutes when he went back to a job site to pick up some tools he left behind. To protest what he felt was an unfair situation, Greene showed up to pay his fine with thousands of pennies only to be told that a federal law says pennies and nickels are not legal tender for transactions over 25 cents.

Oh, wait, make that a repealed federal law from 50 years ago! The town official who told Greene this was 100% wrong. The idea of coins not being legal tender in this country was long ago made irrelevant when the Coinage Act of 1965 passed. Regulations specify that all U.S. coins, like Fed notes, are legal tender for "all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues."
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Fire

Texas man sues fracking companies, seeks damages in pump house methane explosion

Samantha Page
ThinkProgress
Wed, 12 Aug 2015 20:02 UTC
Cody Murray burns
© Murray familyCody Murray received burns on his back, face, and arms after an explosion near his well.
A Texas man is suing a group of fracking companies after burns from a methane explosion near his house allegedly hospitalized him for a week, burned his family, and caused permanent damage.

Cody Murray, 38, and his father, wife, and four-year-old daughter were all burned by a "fireball" after methane built up in his pump house and exploded when Murray entered the shed to check on a water issue. The lawsuit, filed last week against EOG Resources, Fairway Resources LLC, and three subsidiaries of Fairway, alleges the methane was from the defendants' fracking wells just 1,000 feet from Murray's house, which sits 35 miles outside Fort Worth.

"At the flip of the switch, Cody heard a 'whooshing' sound, which he instantly recognized from his work in the oil and gas industry, and instinctively picked his father up and physically threw him back and away from the entryway to the pump house," the complaint states. "In that instant, a giant fireball erupted from the pump house, burning Cody and [his father], who were at the entrance to the pump house, as well as Ashley and A.M., who were approximately twenty feet away."

Comment: Hopefully, the Murray family will get some justice in this case.

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Fire

Huge fire engulfs Texas chemical plant (PHOTOS, VIDEO)


RT
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 23:08 UTC
chemical plant fire in Conroe, Texas
© RE ACTION / YouTube
A three-alarm fire is raging at a chemical warehouse in Conroe, Texas as firefighters battle the blaze, local media reported.

Local media outlets were able to catch the fire on video.

Comment: This is the latest fiery incident of chemical related explosions and fires within the past week.
  • Investigations continue into the 'apocalyptic scenes' following massive explosions in Tianjin, China
  • In Moscow it appears a heating oil spill caused a 'river of fire' after igniting
  • An extensive fire erupted at a chemical works in northwestern Czech Republic
Is it purely coincidental that these explosions and fires occurred just as August's annual Perseid meteor shower reached its peak? As atmospheric electric discharge events increase, could unusual electric 'overloads' be at fault here?

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Hearts

"Erasing Dad" - What rights do fathers have?

Borrando a papá
Borrandoapapa.com.ar/
Fri, 14 Aug 2015 17:18 UTC

Comment: A moving documentary (in Spanish, with English subtitles) about the violation of visiting rights, and in particular the differences made when interpreting the Law in regards to fathers' and mothers' rights in Argentina (and how these same legal interpretations have spread to other countries). Even when tangible evidence exists that a mother is abusing her children, the legal system seems quite biased towards the mother.

Some extreme feminists vehemently affirm that "ALL men lie". Why such double standards, when what should really be analyzed is the damage that family violence is causing in children, and the actual facts of each case? This seems to be another example of how differences which should not be deterministic (gender, race...) are over-emphasized and used to pervert justice, generating immense suffering. The really important difference lies in the boundaries between normal human behavior and psychopathology (and disturbed characters of all kinds).


borrando a papá
© Borrando a papá
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Attention

Syria: From the sublime to the shameful

Vanessa Beeley
thewallwillfall.wordpress.com
Thu, 13 Aug 2015 19:52 UTC
Image
Rimal Beach, Tartous, Syria
What follows is a report from a resident of Aleppo whose identity is not revealed for reasons of security. Their reports delve deep into the terrorist underworld and expose many of the NGO and media narratives, as propaganda and hypocrisy. We are thankful to these brave, courageous people who bring us the truth from inside Syria, without them we would still be in the dark as to the extent of the terror they are forced to endure day after night at the hands of the US alliance funded and armed mercenary brigades.

Comment: The people always suffer in the geopolitical games of the psychopaths. For more analysis on the Syrian situation: Interview with General (Ret.) Amine Htaite of the Lebanese Armed Forces on Syria.

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Stormtrooper

Prison-industrial complex: Private companies charging exorbitant fees for phone calls in U.S. prisons


RT
Thu, 13 Aug 2015 19:38 UTC
Image
© Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
Private phone companies are making a pretty penny by nickel-and-diming prison inmates and their families, sometimes to the tune of $2 a minute for in-state phone calls. Yet the exorbitant fees keep taxpayers from footing the bill.

The prison phone industry has been booming since the 1990s. It's grown to a $1.2 billion-a-year industry dominated by a few private companies, as people made some 500 million calls totaling more than six billion minutes both to and from prisons and jails in 2014 alone, the New York Times reported.

RT's Lindsay France called Global Tel*Link (GTL), which contracts with Los Angeles County, to set up an account to call a fictional friend at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.

"The nice lady on the phone told me that first off, I'd be hit with a nearly $5 sign-up fee, a possible service fee, possible facilities fee depending on where I wanted to call into," France said. "And when my fictional friend or loved one gets out and I ask for a refund on the money left inside my account, I get hit with a fee then too."

On top of those fees, France learned that there was no way to determine the per-minute rate of a call until it had been made and paid for.

Comment: See also:

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Whistle

Ridiculous! Missouri parents threatened with jail over childrens' swing set

Lou Colagiovanni
The Anti Media
Thu, 13 Aug 2015 18:59 UTC
swing
Two Lee's Summit, Missouri parents have found themselves in hot water for having a swing set for their children on their property. The Stout family is facing sanctions, fines, and possibly even jail time.

Leading the charge against the family—which has been ongoing for over a year—is the most dubious of opponents: The Raintree Lake Neighborhood Homeowner's Association. The claim against the family swing set is that it infringed on HOA guidelines, which specifically state that play equipment must be "subdued and within harmony with other colors of the community."

Let's note, for the record, that the definition of "harmony" is suspiciously missing from the HOA's guidelines.

Marla Stout, speaking for her family, said the dispute originally began over the color of the swing set, which was red. That color was deemed not in "harmony" by the HOA, and the Stout family was fined. They fought the HOA on that charge and the decision was reversed.
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Shopping Bag

What economic recovery? Food banks struggling to keep up with demand

Scott McFetridge
AP
Thu, 13 Aug 2015 19:27 UTC
Cincinnati food bank
© Associated Press/Al Behrman
Food banks across the country are seeing a rising demand for free groceries despite the growing economy, leading some charities to reduce the amount of food they offer each family.

U.S. food banks are expected to give away about 4 billion pounds of food this year, more than double the amount provided a decade ago, according to Feeding America, the nation's primary food bank network. The group gave away 3.8 billion in 2013.

While reliance on food banks exploded when the economy tanked in 2008, groups said demand continues to rise year after year, leaving them scrambling to find more food.

"We get lines of people every day, starting at 6:30 in the morning," said Sheila Moore, who oversees food distribution at The Storehouse, the largest pantry in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and one where food distribution has climbed 15 percent in the past year.
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