Society's ChildS


Wolf

Republicans Are Blocking the Violence Against Women Act

Adam Serwer
Mother Jones
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 17:04 UTC
woman with bruised face
© Kayla Bailey/Flickr
There are three reasons some Republicans are trying to block the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act: Gays, immigrants, and Native Americans.

The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which first passed in 1994 and has been reauthorized twice since then, increased federal penalties for domestic violence and provided funding for groups and services that aid victims of domestic abuse. The bill hit the bipartisan sweet spot of being both tough on crime and oriented toward women's rights. Usually it's reauthorized without much fanfare. This time around, however, several Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), are putting up a fight. Despite the fact that the bill has several Republican sponsors, all eight GOP senators on the Judiciary Committee voted against the bill when the committee considered it last month.
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Camera

Employers ask job seekers for Facebook passwords

Manuel Valdes and Shannon Mcfarland
Associated Press
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:33 UTC
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© Associate Press/Steve RuarkRobert Collins of Baltimore poses for a photo Friday, March 16, 2012 at Cylburn Arboretum in Baltimore.
Seattle - When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.

In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.
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Ambulance

Kony island: Inside the weird world of Jason Russell

Owen Vaughan, Chris Paine
Herald Sun
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:25 UTC
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KONY 2012 director Jason Russell describes himself as a radical, rebel soul and dream evangelist.

"If Oprah, Steven Spielberg and Bono had a baby, I would be that baby," he told a magazine last year.

Now he can add another attribute to the list, one that Oprah, Spielberg and Bono are unlikely to approve of: man who runs through the street naked ranting about the devil.

Russell, the co-founder of controversial charity Invisible Children, was taken to a psychiatric ward in San Diego, California, on Thursday after suffering a meltdown in public. He is to be released later today.

TMZ released video footage of Russell hitting the pavement with his fists, swearing to himself and shouting.

It was claimed that Russell was also caught masturbating in the street.
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Heart - Black

One in ten British women have been raped


Belfast Telegraph
Mon, 12 Mar 2012 14:43 UTC
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© Unknown
The devastating scale of sexual violence against women in Britain is exposed today by new research which indicates that the vast majority of victims do not report perpetrators to the police.

One in 10 women has been raped, and more than a third subjected to sexual assault, according to a major survey, which also highlights just how frightened women are of not being believed. More than 80 per cent of the 1,600 respondents said they did not report their assault to the police, while 29 per cent said they told nobody - not even a friend or family member - of their ordeal.

Negative social attitudes to rape and sexual assault victims play a big part in the reluctance of women to come forward, the survey by Mumsnet suggests. Nearly three-quarters (70 per cent) of respondents feel the media is unsympathetic to women who report rape, while more than half say the same is true of the legal system and society in general.
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Cult

White supremacist sheriff candidate says he's just a "concerned citizen"

Eric Pfeiffer
The Sideshow
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Jason HuntShaun Winkler stands next to Aryan Nations leader Richard Butler during a 2001 Idaho protest
US, Idaho - Distasteful and often baseless accusations of racial insensitivity are nothing new in politics. But one man running for sheriff in Idaho proudly proclaims his prejudice but says he won't discriminate on the job.

According to the Bonner County Daily Bee, local sheriff candidate Shaun Patrick Winkler, 33, has ties to the Aryan Nations and Church of Jesus Christ-Christian, both white supremacist organizations. And despite having taken part in race-based protests, Winkler says he's running in opposition to "increasing federal reach" into the county.

"Whether people will believe me or not, it will be entirely up to their own discretion," Winkler told the paper.
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Dollar

Afghan Murder Suspect Bales 'Took My Life Savings,' Says Retiree

Brian Ross and Megan Chuchmach
ABC News
Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

US - Robert Bales, the staff sergeant accused of massacring Afghan civilians, enlisted in the U.S. Army at the same time he was trying to avoid answering allegations he defrauded an elderly Ohio couple of their life savings in a stock fraud, according to federal documents reviewed by ABC News.

"He robbed me of my life savings," Gary Liebschner of Carroll, Ohio told ABC News.

Financial regulators found that Bales "engaged in fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, churning, unauthorized trading and unsuitable investments," according to a report on Bales filed in 2003. Bales and his associates were ordered to pay Liebschner $1,274,000 in compensatory and punitive damages but have yet to do so, according to Liebschner.
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Document

Idaho Senate Votes to Require Pre-Abortion Ultrasound

Laura Zuckerman
Reuters
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Reuters/Joshua Lott Guadalupe Hernandez receives an ultrasound by nurse practitioner Gail Brown during a prenatal exam at the Maternity Outreach Mobile in Phoenix, Arizona October 8, 2009.
US: Salmon, Idaho - The Idaho Senate on Monday approved a measure requiring women seeking abortions to undergo an ultrasound before ending a pregnancy, joining a number of states passing ultrasound measures to discourage abortions.

The bill now heads to the state House of Representatives, where it was expected to pass.

Idaho's Republican Governor, C.L. "Butch" Otter has not yet said whether he would sign the bill into law and a spokesman declined to comment on Monday.

Otter said last April, after signing a measure banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy, that he supported restrictions on abortion.

Idaho is among 10 states considering a form of ultrasound legislation, said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion-rights think tank.

A law recently passed in Virginia goes into effect in July, which will bring to eight the number of states requiring pre-abortion ultrasounds, she said.

The bill moving through Idaho's legislature is modeled after a Texas law which requires abortion providers to show or describe to a woman an ultrasound image of her fetus.
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Heart - Black

Death of U.S. teen by neighbourhood watch captain prompts outrage

Barbara Liston
Reuters
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Reuters/HandoutAn undated handout photo released by the Martin family public relations representative shows 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
US: Orlando, Florida - Responding to an international petition, celebrity tweets, and spreading public outrage, the Justice Department opened an investigation on Monday into the shooting of a black teenager by a neighborhood watch captain who escaped arrest.

More than 435,000 people, many alerted by tweets from celebrities like movie director Spike Lee and musician Wyclef Jean, signed a petition on Change.org, a social action website, calling for the arrest of the shooter, George Zimmerman.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and the FBI announced they have opened an investigation into the February 26 shooting in Florida of an unarmed 17-year-old, Trayvon Martin.

"The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation," the department said.

The campaign to draw attention to the case is the third largest in Change.org's history, and surpassed a petition of about 300,000 signatures credited last year with persuading Bank of America to drop plans for a $5 debit card fee, said Megan Lubin, a Change.org spokeswoman.
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Handcuffs

Woman arrested after seven-month-old baby found abandoned behind Manitoba school


The Canadian Press
Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Robin Dudgeon / QMI AgencyPortage Emergency Services responded to a call of an abandoned child at about 3:45 a.m. Saturday behind Fort La Reine School. The 28-year-old mother was arrested and is due to appear in provincial court at a later date.
Canada - Manitoba RCMP say a seven-month-old baby girl was abandoned outside a school in the middle of the night before being found by a passerby.

The lightly dressed baby was left in some leaves near the school's steps early Saturday and spent about two hours alone before a man came by on a bicycle and heard a faint cry, Cpl. Miles Hiebert said.

"He heard a sound that he thought at first was a cat," Hiebert said Monday. "He went by, and then decided on second thought to return and check it out, and it actually turned out to be this baby.

"Luckily, this gentleman did find her and prevented a real tragedy."

The baby was taken to hospital and treated for exposure, and is reported to be doing well, Hiebert said.

Police officers discovered a stroller nearby and later found the mother, who police say had been drinking.
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Bomb

Wave of bombs kills dozens in 12 cities across Iraq


MSNBC
Tue, 20 Mar 2012 03:30 UTC
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© Ako Rasheed/ReutersIraqi security forces inspect the site of a bomb attack in Kirkuk on Tuesday. A car bomb exploded near a police headquarters, killing seven people and wounding 30, police and health sources said.

At least 39 people were killed and 188 wounded as car and roadside bombs exploded in at least 12 cities and towns across Iraq Tuesday, police and hospital sources said, extending a spate of violence ahead of next week's Arab League summit in Baghdad.

The meeting is seen as the country's debut on the regional stage following the withdrawal of U.S. troops in December and Iraq's government is anxious to show it can reinforce security to host its neighbors. Tuesday is the ninth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.

The AFP news agency reported that while violence in Iraq was down from the peak in 2006 and 2007, a total of 150 Iraqis were killed last month.

The deadliest attack on Tuesday occurred in the southern Shiite Muslim holy city of Kerbala, where twin explosions killed 13 people and wounded 48, according to Jamal Mahdi, a Kerbala health department spokesman.

"The second explosion caused the biggest destruction. I saw body parts, fingers, hands thrown on the road," 23-year-old shop owner Murtadha Ali Kadhim told Reuters.
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