Society's ChildS


Camcorder

Men touting rifles walk through Portland to 'educate'


Q13 Fox
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:25 UTC
Two men carrying assault rifles on their backs said they were simply exercising their Second Amendment right, but police said they scared plenty of people.Calls started coming in to 911 dispatchers shortly before 2 p.m. Wednesday. Callers said two men with guns strapped to their backs were walking through the area of Southeast Seventh Avenue and Spokane Street in Portland's Sellwood neighborhood.

Officers arrived in the area and contacted both 22-year-old men. They were carrying rifles openly on their backs and were valid concealed handgun license holders in Oregon.

The men told officers they were hoping to educate the public about gun rights.

Officers explained that they were likely to continue generating 911 calls from alarmed people in the area, which would require a police response. Officers reported neither man seemed interested in those concerns.

"Exercising my rights with a rifle to try to decrease the demonizing of peacefully exercising your rights in public," one of the men told Fox 12. He said his name is Warren, but did not want to provide a last name.
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Airplane

Snake on a plane: Qantas passenger spots python on wing during flight

Eamonn Duff
Sydney Morning Herald
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:04 UTC
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Qantas had its own dramatic ''snakes on a plane'' episode when a three-metre python joined passengers on an early morning flight to Papua New Guinea.

But unlike Samuel L. Jackson's 2006 fictional Hollywood blockbuster in which a nest of vipers causes death and destruction on a jet, this reptile was concerned only with self-preservation.

QF191 was about 20 minutes into its 6.15am flight from Cairns to Port Moresby on Thursday when a woman pointed outside the plane and told cabin crew: ''There's a snake on the wing ... There's its head and if you look closely you can see a fraction of its body.''

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Target

Car explodes in apparent mob-linked attack in Tel Aviv, at least seven hurt

Yaniv Kubovich
Haaretz
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 15:00 UTC
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© Photo by Tomer AppelbaumFirefighters extinguishing the car hit in a bombing in Tel Aviv on January 10, 2012.
Police believe blast was assassination attempt on criminal kingpin Nissim Alperon; bomb appears to have been detonated by a motorcylist nearby.

A car exploded in central Tel Aviv early Thursday afternoon, after a bomb was apparently detonated by a motorcyclist nearby. At least seven people were lightly wounded, and were being treated by paramedics at the scene.

An initial investigation indicated that the explosion on the corner of Begin Streets was an assassination attempt targeting criminal kingpin Nissim Alperon.

The black Mazda was moving at the time of the blast, and burst into flames. A nearby bus apparently empty of passengers was also hit in the explosion. Alperon was reportedly sitting in the car just before the blast, but managed to escape unscathed.

If this was indeed an assassination attempt, it will have been the eighth targeting Alperon over the last 12 years.
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Eye 2

Indian one-horned rhino poached on reserves


CBC News
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:54 UTC
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© Denis Gray/Associated PressTourists at the Kaziranga National Park take an early morning ride to view one-horned Indian rhinos in the mist in Assam’s tea country in Kaziranga, India, December 3, 2012.
Animals' horns supply a medicine in China that's pricier than gold.

Kaziranga, a refuge to more than 2,200 endangered Indian rhinoceros, and one of the world's best-protected wildlife reserves, rangers follow shoot-to-kill orders. Poachers are laying siege to "Fortress Kaziranga," attempting to sheer off the animals' horns to supply a surge in demand for purported medicine in China that's pricier than gold. At least 18 rhino fell to poachers in and around the park in 2012, compared to 10 in all of India in 2011.

Insurgents eager to bolster their war chests in India's Assam state are also involved, according to police. Authorities are investigating a recent news report that a Chinese company offered two rebel groups a deal: weapons in exchange for horns and body parts of the one-horned species whose scientific name is rhinoceros unicornis.
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Treasure Chest

U.S. Officials: China refuses to help stop investment scams

Matthew Mosk, Brian Ross, and Stuart Johnson
ABC News
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:36 UTC
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© Zhang Duo/Xinhua/LandovChinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan (R) meets with Mary Schapiro, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in Beijing, capital of China, July 2, 2012.
The Chinese government snubbed a U.S. request for help in cracking down on a string of alleged investment frauds that have cost Americans billions, outgoing Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro told ABC News.

The lack of cooperation has stymied efforts to recoup investor losses, she said, in one of the largest sprees of alleged financial crimes in recent memory -- one that has gone largely unnoticed by most Americans.

"The consequence is it's very much more difficult for us to prove our cases," Schapiro said in one of her final interviews before leaving the post, which will be broadcast tonight as part of an ABC News investigation airing on "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."

More than 100 China-based companies have now been de-listed, have left the NASDAQ and New York stock exchanges, have been denied listing, or have withdrawn applications, all following allegations of fraud or accounting irregularities, the ABC News investigation found.

Not every Chinese company was implicated -- many continue to thrive. But experts estimate that Americans -- everyone from small investors to hedge-fund titans -- have lost tens of billions of dollars in the suspect Chinese investments. Prosecutors in the Bernie Madoff case calculated that his investors lost about $20 billion in his decades-long Ponzi scheme.
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Pistol

Fox News' Ben Swann demonstrates why gun control isn't the issue

Ben Swann
Fox19
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:24 UTC
Over the past few weeks the argument over gun control has raged. Among those demanding stricter gun laws is CNN host Piers Morgan.

There is one particular stat that Morgan has been citing for weeks, and it was the center of his argument while debating radio show host Alex Jones on Monday night.

Tonight, Ben investigates the truth behind it in Reality Check.


Comment: So if gun control isn't the real issue, and is in fact being used to distract people from the real issue, what is the real issue?

The Sandy Hook Massacre: Unanswered Questions

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Pistol

Two 'injured' at school shooting in California before police take gunman into custody

Meghan Keneally
Daily Mail
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 12:39 UTC
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© GoogleShooting: Two people were reported as being shot at Taft Union High School outside of Bakersfield in California
At least two people were shot in a California high school on Thursday morning and police have taken the shooter into custody. The shooting took place at Taft Union High School just outside of Bakersfield, California though no official statements have been released.

The local ABC affiliate received two separate calls from people who were hiding in closets during the incident which began around 9.20am. As of 11am, officials from the Kern County Sheriff's Department were still checking each room in the school.

The public school was originally opened in 1912 and has no known history of similar violent incidents. The sheriff confirmed that one student was shot and had to be airlifted to Kern Medical Center with undisclosed injuries. The second person reported only minor injuries and refused medical treatment at the scene.
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Red Flag

Mayan documentary filmmaker breached contract, committed fraud

Jason McClellan
openminds.tv
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:33 UTC
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© Credit: The WrapRaul Julia-Levy
In September 2011, we reported on a documentary film titled Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond that was scheduled for release sometime in 2012. The film's producer, Raul Julia-Levy, made the incredible claim that the documentary would provide evidence that the Mayans had contact with extraterrestrials. But in April 2012, Julia-Levy suddenly stopped production, fired the crew, terminated an agreement with a post-production company, and ran off with the footage. And now, an arbitrator has reportedly concluded that Julia-Levy is guilty of breached contracts and fraud.

Julia-Levy's partner on the documentary, Elizabeth Theriot, took him to arbitration at the Independent Film & Television Alliance. And as the Hollywood Reporter states, "The resulting decision wasn't very kind to Julia-Levy." The arbitrator, Gerald F. Phillips, concluded that termination of production required the mutual agreement of both Julia-Levy and Theriot. Because Julia-Levy acted without the consent of Theriot, the arbitrator found for Theriot on her breach of contract claims.
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Heart - Black

Suspect in shocking Ohio rape case allowed to go on Californian vacation while under 'house arrest'

Laura Collins In Steubenville, Ohio
Daily Mail
Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:26 UTC
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Holiday: Ma'lik Richmond was freed from house arrest to go on vacation even though he was charged with the horrific rape of a 16-year-old girl after film emerged of him carrying her with his co-accused Trent Mays (above)
One of the accused in the Ohio rape case that has outraged America enjoyed a six day vacation in California and watch a football game while supposedly under house arrest, it emerged today. MailOnline has learned that Steubenville High School Football star Ma'lik Richmond was granted permission to travel between December 31 and January 5. Along with team-mate Trent Mays, Richmond is charged with raping a 16-year-old girl at a series of back to back High School parties last August.

Mays is also charged with disseminating photographs of a nude minor as images of the unconscious teenage girl were circulated on Instagram and in text messages.

Richmond, 16, travelled with his former legal guardians Greg and Jennifer Aggresta - with whom he continues to live - to watch their biological son, Johnny, compete in the prestigious All American Academic Football Bowl.

The decision has enraged members of this community in a case where many have alleged that football players in the economically deprived town operate according to different rules.

Speaking to MailOnline Fred Abdalla Jr, Chief Probation Officer at Jefferson County Juvenile Court said: 'Ma'lik Richmond's attorney asked the judge if Ma'lik could have permission to travel with the Agresta family between the dates of December 31 through January 5.'
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House

Squatter lived under 73-year-old woman's home

Alyssa Newcomb
ABC News
Wed, 09 Jan 2013 08:48 UTC
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© Image Credit: KOMO/ABC News
Velma Kellen thought her furnace was broken, and got the shock of her life when a repairman told her a squatter had been living under her house and stealing her heat.

"I said, 'You've got to be kidding me!'" Kellen, 73, told ABCNews.com.

For months, there were mysterious signs - an unlatched gate and the inexplicable odor of smoke inside Kellen's three-bedroom home in Yelm, Wash., about an hour's drive south of Seattle.

"It was worse than cigarettes," Kellen said.

Kellen, a retired caregiver, said her home was cold before Christmas, so she bought a new furnace, but still had the problem.
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