Society's ChildS


Sheriff

Illinois school considers making administrators armed part-time cops

Christina Ng
ABC News
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 10:05 UTC
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© Getty ImagesTeachers in Utah may start to get weapons training after the recent school shooting in Newtown, Conn.
An Illinois school is considering making three school administrators part-time police officers, which would allow them to possess guns inside of the school.

The Washington Community High School's administrators and school board will meet tonight to discuss the proposal.

The idea was devised by Washington Police Chief Jim Kuchenbecker and School Superintendent Jim Dunnan after the Dec. 14 shooting at Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 students and six staffers dead.

"We started talking about the tragedy at Sandy Hook and we talked about the six educators that stepped in and gave their lives to protect those children," Kuchenbecker told ABCNews.com. "We looked at each other and said, 'What if?'"
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Cow

Serial cow killers baffle French farmers

Ben McPartland
The Local
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 23:29 UTC
Cows
© Wendi DomeniWill this cow be next? Every full moon spells danger.
Since late November last year police have received reports of seven violent attacks against farm animals, leaving local farmers furious and increasingly concerned. In a bid to stem the bloodletting farmers have reportedly taken to patrolling their fields at night armed with loaded guns.

In the seven attacks four cows and a ram have been killed by a gunshot to the head whilst two other cows were left severely injured after being mutilated. In most cases the attackers helped themselves to the meat from the bodies of the dead beasts.

According to a report in the regional newspaper Sud-Ouest, the attacks occur each time at night under the light of a full moon.

The newspaper carries details of one incident in which a cow was completely mutilated.

"They cut it in two and took the right shoulder, the right leg and all the loin," the animal's owner, farmer Jean Claude Leroy told the paper.

In another incident just before Christmas a cow was killed by hammer blows to the head before its ear, testicles and neck were removed.
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Attention

Thousands apply for just 200 retail jobs in New Mexico


RT.com
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:56 UTC
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Thousands apply for just 200 retail jobs in New Mexico
In the last three days alone, thousands of people have applied for 200 new jobs at Target in Albuquerque, New Mexico, even though candidates only have 2.8 percent chance at getting a job.

With long lines wrapping around the Marriott Upton building in Northeast Albuquerque, each candidate was competing with 7,000 others to get a job that only one out of 35 will be accepted to. Still, many of the applicants expressed their confidence to the media and battled the lines at the job fair, which ran Thursday through Sunday.

"Good luck, 'cause I'm going to blow those people out of the water with my interview," Pauly Garcia told KOAT Action 7 News. Another applicant, Natalie Bryant, said her personality and good looks will land her a position.

The mass applications demonstrate the strong need for unemployed Americans to find a job, even if it means waiting hours in line for a retail position at Target. Retailers have provided many of the new jobs in the US, even though unemployment figures have remained largely the same.
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Syringe

Veterans' hospital exposes hundreds to HIV and hepatitis


RT.com
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:54 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Sajjad Hussain
A New York veteran's hospital may have exposed more than 700 of its patients with HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C by mistakenly reusing its insulin pens, which are used to inject diabetes patients with a hormone produced by the pancreas.

Patients at the Buffalo Veterans Administration Center are now at risk of acquiring the deadly diseases because of the mistakes made by hospital staff, who didn't always label the insulin pens for individual patients and therefore reused them on others.

"Although the pen needles were always changed, an insulin pen may have been used on more than one patient," VA spokeswoman Evangeline Conley told the Associated Press. The reuse of the pens went on for nearly two weeks, putting all patients who received the injections between Oct. 19 and Nov. 1 at risk for the deadly infections. The procedural errors were not discovered until the conduct of a routine pharmacy inspection in November.

Once the hospital discovered the error, it took immediate action to avoid reusing the pens, and began offering free blood tests to any of the patients who might have been contaminated.
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Stop

New York City's school bus drivers plan to strike Wednesday

Andy Newman
NY Times
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 18:37 UTC
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New York City's school bus drivers will go on strike on Wednesday, the head of their union said Monday afternoon.

"While we remain optimistic that we can reach an agreement," said Michael Cordiello, president of Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, the strike is to begin on Wednesday morning.

"This is not a decision we've arrived at lightly, but an action we must take," Mr. Cordiello said.

A strike would require as many as 152,000 city public and private school students to find another way to get to school. The city has said it would provide parents and students with MetroCards and reimburse cab fare for those without access to public transportation.
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V

Academy Award member urges Oscars boycott of 'Zero Dark Thirty' over 'acceptance' of torture

Ben Child
Raw Story
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:25 UTC
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David Clennon has urged others to snub Kathryn Bigelow film at awards for 'promoting acceptance of the crime of torture'.

Hollywood studio Sony has been forced into a fresh defence of the controversial film Zero Dark Thirty, about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, after a member of the body that organises the Oscars called for a boycott.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) member David Clennon said last week he would not be voting for Kathryn Bigelow's film, which has been nominated for five Oscars, and urged others to snub a movie that he said "promotes the acceptance of the crime of torture, as a legitimate weapon in America's so-called War on Terror". Writing on the truth-out.org website, he added: "I cannot vote for a film that makes heroes of Americans who commit the crime of torture."

In response, Sony president Amy Pascal said she was "outraged" that an Academy member would try to influence the voting process. "Zero Dark Thirty does not advocate torture," she said on Friday. "To not include that part of history would have been irresponsible and inaccurate. We fully support Kathryn Bigelow and [screenwriter] Mark Boal and stand behind this extraordinary movie. We are outraged that any responsible member of the Academy would use their voting status in Ampas as a platform to advance their own political agenda."
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Pistol

California school shooting teen charged as adult

Tracie Cone
The Sacramento Bee
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:22 UTC
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Bryan Oliver will face two counts of attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm.
A 16-year-old student who was teased by his California high school classmates for his red hair, social awkwardness and bookish appearance will be charged as an adult for allegedly wounding a classmate with a shotgun and trying to target another.

Bryan Oliver will face two counts of premeditated attempted murder and three counts of assault with a firearm in the attack Thursday at Taft Union High School that left another 16-year-old wounded, the Kern County district attorney's office said. Oliver was scheduled to be arraigned at 3 p.m. PST.

"It was just the factors of the case," said Mark Pafford, the chief deputy district attorney, about the decision to charge Oliver as an adult. "The severity of the actions, the injuries to the victim, that a firearm was used. Those are the things we considered."

The potential penalty for just one count of premeditated attempted murder with a firearm is 32 years to life, Pafford said. If he had been charged as a juvenile and convicted, he would be held until his 23rd birthday.
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Evil Rays

Man arrested at swim meet says Justin Bieber brain-wave message led him there

James Scalzitti
Chicago Sun-Times
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:06 UTC
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© Riverside Police Department photoLawrence E. Adamczyk, 49, of Rockford
A Rockford man will face a bond hearing Monday after he was charged with criminal trespass and disorderly conduct when police found him hanging around a swim meet at Riverside Brookfield High School.
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Sheriff

Prosecutor: Washington DC cop left child to die in hot car


NY Daily News
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:03 UTC
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Richmond Phillips was busted in 2011 after the body of 20-year-old Wynetta Wright was found dead and their child, Jaylin, was also found dead in her car seat with the doors closed and windows rolled up.
Richmond Phillips shot his mistress dead and left their child to die in a car, says Prince George's County, Md., State's Attorney Angela Alsobrooks..

Prosecutors say a D.C. police officer involved in a paternity dispute with his mistress shot the woman dead and left their infant child to die in a hot car.

Prince George's County, Md., State's Attorney Angela Alsobrooks said during opening statements Monday that Richmond Phillips killed the two because he didn't want to pay child support. Phillips is being tried on two counts of first-degree murder along with child abuse and firearms charges.
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Handcuffs

New Jersey hit-and-run suspect had her license suspended 52 times

Arturo Garcia
Raw Story
Mon, 14 Jan 2013 15:56 UTC
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New Jersey police said the suspect in a hit-and-run incident over the weekend has had 52 driver's license suspensions and 16 moving violations since getting her license in 1986.

WCAU-TV reported on Monday that authorities arrested 44-year-old Michele Toussaint in connection with the incident that hospitalized Catherine Calalang, 28, and her 20-year-old cousin, Laurene Jiminez.

Toussaint is accused of driving on a suspended license when she hit the two women on Saturday.
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