Society's ChildS


V

Insane America: Chicago G8 protestors found not guilty of terrorism, but guilty of protesting


RT
Fri, 07 Feb 2014 21:14 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Chicago PoliceThe 'NATO 3': Brian Church (L), Brent Vincent Betterly (C), and Jared Chase are seen in these handout photos from the Chicago Police department released to Reuters May 19, 2012.
Defendants in the 'NATO 3' trial were found not guilty of terrorism charges on Thursday. The three young men, accused by the state of Illinois of plotting violent acts at the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, were found guilty on two counts of mob action.

Brian Jacob Church, Brent Betterly and Jared Chase were acquitted of charges including material support for terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism.

The defendants were found guilty of two much lesser mob action charges and one count each for possessing an incendiary device to commit arson, which carries the possibility of up to 30 years in prison.

After nearly three weeks of trial proceedings, the jury in the case deliberated for just under eight hours before the verdict was read at around 16:15 CST. Closing arguments lasted around five hours on Thursday.

Illinois state prosecutors and attorneys for the defense said the verdict in the trial would create a clear line between terrorism and violence. In addition, throughout the case, the defense showed how much the supposed plot to use molotov cocktails in Chicago during the 2012 NATO meeting was shepherded by law enforcement, highlighting increased counter-terrorism operations by police in the US that critics say border on entrapment. The defense also warned that dissent should not be conflated with terrorism.
Read More...
Sheriff

Out of control LAPD cops who riddled cars with bullets in manhunt for renegade Marine Chris Dorner escape with slap on the wrist

Erika Aguilar
Southern California Public Radio
Tue, 04 Feb 2014 21:10 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Chris Carlson,FileThis Feb. 7, 2013 file photo law enforcement officers look over the scene of an officer involved shooting in Torrance, Calif.
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck and the L.A. Police Commission have found eight officers violated department policy when they fired at two women delivering newspapers in Torrance last year during the hunt for ex-LAPD cop Christopher Dorner. Beck will now decide the discipline the officers will receive.

"In this incident the Police Commission unanimously adopted the recommendations of the Chief of Police for all officers who discharged their service weapons," police commissioner Steve Soboroff said in a written statement.

Two women were delivering newspapers early Feb. 7, 2013. At about 5:15 a.m., eight LAPD officers fired more than 100 rounds at their blue Toyota Tacoma truck. Two bullets struck Emma Hernandez, 71. The other woman, Margie Carranza, 47, was injured by broken glass.

The officers were protecting an LAPD official's home who had been threatened by Dorner. Law enforcement across Southern California had been on the lookout for a gray Nissan Titan that was reportedly driven by Dorner. A few hours before the LAPD shooting, Dorner fired on two Riverside police officers, killing one of them.
Read More...
Attention

Crybabies of the 1 percent: Spoiled rich kids, Tom Perkins and the real affluenza

Paul Campos
Salon
Sat, 08 Feb 2014 08:00 UTC
Forget affluenza. The rich's real "disease" is failing to get that their privileges come at a price: our contempt.

Ethan Couch, Tom Perkins
© CBS DFW/AP/Eric RisbergEthan Couch, Tom Perkins
More than half a century ago, "West Side Story" satirized the idea that what was then known as juvenile delinquency was a product of poverty and the psychological maladjustments it produced, and that therefore "this boy don't need a judge, he needs an analyst's care."

Since then, America has been busy transforming itself into an unabashed plutocracy: while median household income has barely budged since the mid-1960s, the annual income of the top 1 percent has increased by an average of approximately 200 percent in real terms.

So perhaps it's not surprising that the belief that economic deprivation leads to psychological hardship, which in turn inspires youthful crimes, has not merely been discarded but, in some cases, actually inverted.

Consider the case of a Texas teenager who killed four people and severely injured two others while drunk-driving in his father's pickup truck. Prosecutors wanted to send him to prison for 20 years, but a judge decided to give him no jail time at all after an expert witness for the defense testified that the defendant was suffering from "affluenza."
Read More...
Clipboard

7 of 10 voters prefer that Obama work with Congress, not go around it

David Sherfinski
The Washington Times
Wed, 29 Jan 2014 11:24 UTC
Image
© AP/Manual Balce CenetaPresident Barack Obama makes a face as he speaks to Costco employees during a visit to a local Costco in Lanham, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014. The president is promoting his newly unveiled plans to boost wages for some workers and help Americans save for retirement no action from Congress necessary.
In a new poll released Wednesday, nearly seven in 10 likely U.S. voters say it's better for President Obama to work with Congress rather than act alone, compared to 27 percent who say it's better for him to go around Congress if necessary "to accomplish what he feels is important."

Mr. Obama said in his State of the Union Address Tuesday night that he'd like to work with Congress but that he's prepared to take action on his own when necessary to act on big-ticket items like the economy.

Fifty-three percent of those polled think it's more important for the Republican party to work with the president, while 40 percent say it's more important for the GOP to stand for what it believes in.

Thirty-eight percent say the president more closely resembles the will of the American people, compared to 40 percent who say Congress and 21 percent who aren't sure.
Read More...
Pistol

California man points gun at Girl Scout at his door to sell cookies

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Mon, 03 Feb 2014 12:45 UTC
Image
© KCAL
A California man was taken into custody over the weekend after he allegedly pulled a gun on a young Girl Scout who was selling cookies.

A press release from the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's office that the father of the girl, who is a minor, contacted authorities after he saw 59-year-old John Dodrill point the gun at his daughter while she was selling cookies door-to-door on Sunday.

"When the victim knocked on the suspect's door, he opened the door and pointed a gun at her," the release said.

Dodrill was taken into custody for suspected assault with a deadly weapon. His firearm was confiscated as evidence, the sheriff's office said.

The Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's office has asked anyone with information about the case to call Officer Garcia #4162 at the Southwest Sheriff's Station at 951-696-3000.
Read More...
Post-It Note

The complete guide to everything that's happened since the massive chemical spill In West Virginia

Kiley Kroh
Think Progress
Sun, 09 Feb 2014 12:15 UTC
Image
It's been one month since a leak was discovered at a chemical storage facility operated by Freedom Industries on January 9, spilling an estimated 10,000 gallons of crude MCHM - a chemical mixture used in the coal production process - into the Elk River and the water supply for 300,000 West Virginians.

Despite assurances from federal and state officials that the water is safe, residents and experts remain concerned as the black licorice smell characteristic of crude MCHM is still being detected in homes and schools.

"The scariest part is that we really just don't know what's going to happen," 21-year-old Charleston resident Kellie Raines told ThinkProgress. "All of us are using the water now and we're okay now but in 30 years - I'm young, I don't want to in 30 years realize that I have cancer because of this water."
Read More...
Stock Down

100,000 protest against austerity cuts in North Carolina

Esther Yu-Hsi Lee
Think Progress
Sun, 09 Feb 2014 12:57 UTC
Image
© Planned Parenthood
Somewhere between 80 to 100,000 people from 32 states turned out to protest four years of drastic state Republican initiatives in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday.

The "Moral March on Raleigh," organized by Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ), marched from Shaw University to the state capitol to push back against the "immoral and unconstitutional policies" of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory during the 2013 NC General Assembly session. Since North Carolina Republicans took over both legislative chambers in 2010, legislators have eliminated a host of programs and raised taxes on the bottom 95 percent, repealed a tax credit for 900,000 working families, enforced voter suppression efforts, blocked Medicaid coverage, cut pre-Kindergarten funding, cut federal unemployment benefits, and gave itself the authority to intervene in abortion lawsuits.
Read More...
Smoking

The totalitarian crusade against second-hand smoke

Brendan O'Neill
Reason.com
Sun, 09 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Assef Elweter
If there really were such a thing as a bullshit detector, a machine that bleeped upon encountering nonsense, it would probably go into meltdown whenever someone talked about second-hand smoke.

In the modern public sphere, there are few issues that are as riddled with myth, misinformation, contradictory claims and outright claptrap as the scare about what smokers' foggy puffing is doing to us innocent non-smokers.

In recent years we've been told that second-hand smoke, or passive smoking, as some people call it, is as bad as smoking itself and can give you lung cancer. And apparently if you are surrounded by it in a car that has its windows closed that is like being in the most smoky, nicotine-stained bar you could ever imagine (if such bars still existed, which of course they don't).

Comment: See: 'World Cancer Day 2014' - The Cancer Pandemic: Forget Sugar! Blame The Smokers!
Smokers' lungs used in half of transplants: Improves Survival Rate!
Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer
Smoking Does Not Cause Lung Cancer (According to WHO/CDC Data)
Air pollution causes lung cancer in non-smokers (erm, can't it cause it in smokers too then?)
Government Suppresses Major Public Health Report
Air pollution leading cause of cancer, World Health Organisation warns
5 Health Benefits of Smoking
'World No Tobacco Day'? Let's All Light Up!

Read More...
Alarm Clock

California drought impact seen spreading from fires to food cost

Jennifer Oldham & Michael B. Marois
Bloomberg.com
Thu, 06 Feb 2014 14:16 UTC
Image
© Chieko Hara/The Porterville Recorder/AP PhotoThe Tule Riverbed stands dry on Feb. 4, 2014.
The drought that's gripping California may soon have the rest of the country seeking relief.

The emergency, which follows the state's driest year on record, is likely to boost the prices of everything from broccoli to cauliflower nationwide. Farmers and truckers stand to lose billions in revenue, weakening an already fragile recovery in the nation's most-populous state. And California and other Western states are seeing a surge in wildfires.

As lawmakers rush to enact measures to help farmers and ranchers contend with the immediate threat to the nation's most productive agricultural region, the prolonged dry spell is sparking calls for a radical rethinking of how the state, and much of the West, distributes water to residents.

"We are at that point the risks for the future are really significant," said Peter Gleick, president of the Oakland-based Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan research organization. "We have to fundamentally change the way we manage water."

The drought is a stark reminder that California built the world's 10th-largest economy, the nation's top farming industry, and Silicon Valley, the epicenter of information technology, in a semi-arid environment that's struggling to sustain the water needs of 38 million people.
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

Suspicious death of JPMorgan Vice President under investigation in London

Pam Martens
Wall Street on Parade
Sun, 09 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
London Police have confirmed that an official investigation is underway into the death of a 39-year old JPMorgan Vice President whose body was found on the 9th floor rooftop of a JPMorgan building in Canary Wharf two weeks ago.

The news reports at the time of the incident of Gabriel (Gabe) Magee's "non suspicious" death by "suicide" resulting from his reported leap from the 33rd level rooftop of JPMorgan's European headquarters building in London have turned out to be every bit as reliable as CEO Jamie Dimon's initial response to press reports on the London Whale trading scandal in 2012 as a "tempest in a teapot."

An intense investigation is now underway into the details of exactly how Magee died and why his death was so quickly labeled "non suspicious." An upcoming Coroner's inquest will reveal the details of that investigation.

Comment: See: Two top American bankers commit suicide in London as one jumps 500ft to his death from JP Morgan skyscraper and another hangs himself

Read More...