Society's ChildS


Attention

Widening sex scandal rocks Texas Air Force base


CBS News
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 13:44 UTC
From a chapel pulpit on Lackland Air Force Base, where every American airman reports for basic training, Col. Glenn Palmer delivered his first order to nearly 600 recruits seated in the pews: If you're sexually harassed or assaulted, tell someone.

"My job is to give you a safe, effective training environment," Palmer said firmly.

What the colonel did not mention directly in his recent address was a widening sex scandal that has rocked the base, one of the nation's busiest military training centers. Allegations that male instructors had sex with, and in one case raped, female trainees have led to criminal charges against four men. Charges against others are possible.

The most serious accusations surround an Air Force staff sergeant scheduled to face a court-martial in July on charges that include rape and mult
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© AP Photo/John L. MoneIn this June 22, 2012, image made from video, female airmen march during graduation at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.
iple counts of aggravated sexual assault. The other three defendants were charged with lesser crimes ranging from sexual misconduct to adultery. All of the defendants were assigned to turn raw recruits into airmen in eight weeks of basic training.

A two-star general is now investigating alongside a separate criminal probe, which military prosecutors say could sweep up more airmen. Advocates for female service members and members of Congress have started taking notice.

"It's a pretty big scandal the Air Force is having to deal with at this point," said Greg Jacob, a former Marine infantry officer and policy director of the Service Women's Action Network. "It's pretty substantial in its scope."
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Heart - Black

Israel subjecting Palestinian children to 'spiral of injustice'

Harriet Sherwood
Guardian.co.uk
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 12:56 UTC
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© Abed Al Hashlamoun/EPAIsraeli soldiers stand guard over Palestinian children arrested in the West Bank city of Hebron.
A belief that every Palestinian child is a potential terrorist may be leading to a "spiral of injustice" and breaches of international law in Israel's treatment of child detainees in military custody, a delegation of eminent British lawyers has concluded in an independent report backed by the Foreign Office.

The nine-strong delegation, led by the former high court judge Sir Stephen Sedley and including the UK's former attorney-general Lady Scotland, found that "undisputed facts" pointed to at least six violations of the UN convention on the rights of the child, to which Israel is a signatory. It was also in breach of the fourth Geneva convention in transferring child detainees from the West Bank to Israeli prisons, the delegation said.

Its report, Children in Military Custody, released on Tuesday, was based on a visit to Israel and the West Bank last September funded and facilitated by the Foreign Office and the British consulate in Jerusalem.
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Stormtrooper

Military Exercises in US Neighborhoods Excite Corporate Media's Fascist Tendencies

Alex Thomas
theintelhub.com
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 10:06 UTC
In a move that many have seen as yet another sign of the continued push towards martial law and the normal use of troops on the streets of America, the U.S. Army is currently "training" throughout St. Louis, complete with 100′s of heavily armored military vehicles driving through St Louis neighborhoods.

The exercise, part of a program to train military police to drive heavily armored vehicles through highways and city streets, has drawn widespread criticism throughout the alternative media while the corporate media has essentially worshiped it, going out of their way to distort the facts in their numerous propaganda pieces on the subject.

In an initial report by a local corporate news outlet that was prompted by hundreds of calls from concerned citizens who had, in a scene more reminiscent of North Korea than a supposed free country, seen the military rolling through their neighborhood, the media simply told the citizens to not be alarmed.

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Sun

Kids Suffer Serious Sunburns Because Washington State Law Forbids Sunscreen Lotion in School

Michael Allen
opposingviews.com
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:30 UTC
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© opposingview.com
Violet Michener, 11, and her 9-year-old sister Zoe were badly sunburned after spending an afternoon in the sun at school in Tacoma Washington, reports the Daily Mail.

Their mom, Jesse Michener, was furious when she learned that teachers refused to allow the children to apply any sunscreen because of a state law (video below).

In Washington State, students are not allowed to apply or carry sunscreen in school because it is deemed a prescription medication, even though it is purchased over-the-counter.

Comment: Sending kids' outside without hats or other protection is obviously harmful, suncreen products could be contributing to skin cancer.
Is Your Sunscreen More Harmful Than Being in the Sun?
Senator asks FDA to Share Data on Possible Sunscreen Chemical-Cancer Link
Toxic Fears Spark Some Parents to Rethink Sunscreen
Study: Many Sunscreens May Be Accelerating Cancer
More Bad News About Sunscreens: Nanoparticles

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Arrow Down

Inside the Cat and Dog Meat Market in China


CNN
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:33 UTC
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Dog meat dishes being sold on the streets of China
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Handcuffs

Teacher, Students Arrested in Hazing Investigation


The Associated Press
Tue, 26 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
Emmanuel Delarosa
© The Associated Press/Fontana Police DepartmentEmmanuel Delarosa, 27, a high school teacher who was arrested on suspicion of directing students to assault at least one other student in a classroom hazing incident
Fontana, California - A masonry teacher and four students have been arrested on allegations that attempted sodomy was part of a brutal hazing in masonry classes at a Southern California summer school, according to police.

Three boys were attacked in separate incidents in the classroom of teacher Emmanuel De La Rosa at A.B. Miller High School, Fontana police Sgt. Robert Morris said.

One 18-year-old student - Fernando Salgado - is being investigated for child cruelty, assault with intent to commit mayhem or rape and attempted sodomy. Salgado is due for arraignment Tuesday.

De La Rosa, 27, may have directed the students to carry out one of the assaults, Morris said.

"They would assault the other kids to basically maintain order in the classroom on their own," Morris said. "The teacher at some point became aware of the situation, and knew about what was occurring and in one incident may have actually directed them to do it."

One of the victims suffered minor injuries. Morris declined to detail the nature of the assaults, citing the ongoing investigation.

De La Rosa was arrested Saturday for investigation of child cruelty and has been placed on administrative leave. Three other students arrested were minors.

De La Rosa, who was released Sunday, could not be immediately reached for comment. Nor could Salgado, who is being held on $100,000 bail.
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Smoking

Judge Blocks Roll-Your-Own Cigarette Taxes

Mike Baker
The Seattle Times
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 07:57 UTC
Cigarettes
© unknown
Olympia - A Washington judge blocked the collection of taxes on roll-your-own cigarettes Monday, citing a voter-approved initiative that makes it harder for lawmakers to raise taxes.

Franklin County Superior Court Judge Bruce Spanner granted a request for a preliminary injunction, said Department of Revenue spokesman Mike Gowrylow. He said Spanner considered the upcoming tax in violation of a voter-approved initiative requiring two-thirds of lawmakers to support tax increases.

The Legislature voted earlier this year to force roll-your-own cigarette stores to collect the state's 15-cents-per-cigarette tax, with lawmakers arguing that they were simply enforcing an existing tax and saying that the stores were exploiting a loophole to avoid taxes. Dozens of roll-your-own cigarette stores have appeared recently in Washington, selling cigarettes at less than half the price offered by most retailers.
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Handcuffs

FBI: Washington Sweep Pulls 6 Juveniles from Prostitution


The Seattle Times
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 11:48 UTC
An FBI spokeswoman says the federal agency and local law enforcement agencies have pulled six juveniles out of prostitution and arrested seven people accused of promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor.

Spokeswoman Ayn Dietrich in Seattle said Monday that the sweep late last week was part of a three-day national enforcement action. This particular operation targeted sites in King and Pierce counties. The spokeswoman says victims and pimps travel throughout Western Washington and don't necessarily live in the area where they were found.

She says the young women were offered services including job training, housing and medical and education assistance. They were found with the help of undercover agents and detectives and by canvassing areas where street prostitution is known to occur.

Source: The Associated Press
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Extinguisher

Detroit to Lay off 164 Firefighters

Suzette Hackney
USA Today
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated Press/Paul SancyaDetroit firefighters fight a house fire.
As Detroit continues to work through its financial difficulties, the city will lay off 164 firefighters by the end of July, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's office announced Monday.

The layoffs could be temporary, as the city hopes to secure a federal grant that would restore the jobs of 108 firefighters. Still, there is no guarantee the city will be awarded the grant, Detroit Fire Commissioner Donald Austin said during budget talks this spring.

"Since I became mayor, I've made public safety my top priority, and I've said I would protect the jobs of police and firefighters, but fiscal realities have made this untenable," Bing said in a statement. "With my administration continuing to work to fiscally stabilize the city and with recent cuts to the city's budget, we're announcing the layoffs of 164 Detroit Fire Department firefighters by the end of July."

Bing said he hopes that many, if not most, of the remaining 56 firefighters who will lose their jobs will be recalled as the fire department loses others through retirement and attrition. The layoffs represent nearly 19 percent of the fire department's 881 sworn firefighters. There are also 248 EMS technicians.
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Black Cat

Assange's Ecuador Bid Sparks Wacky Escape Ideas

Katy Lee
Agence France-Presse
Mon, 25 Jun 2012 00:00 UTC
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© Agence France-Presse/Carl CourtJulian Assange wants to go to Ecuador to avoid being sent to Sweden
London - It sounds like a brainteaser: how could WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange get from Ecuador's embassy in London onto a plane to its capital Quito, without setting foot on British territory?

When he walked into the embassy on Tuesday seeking political asylum, the Australian ex-hacker pinned his hopes on Ecuador as his ticket out of extradition to Sweden, where he faces questioning over sex crime allegations.

But legal experts say the dramatic escape bid has lured 40-year-old Assange, who had exhausted his British legal options -- into an apparent dead end.

Britain's Foreign Office says that as long as the anti-secrecy campaigner stays in the embassy, which occupies a flat in London's plush Knightsbridge district, he is beyond the reach of the police.

But if he steps outside, he faces immediate arrest by the police for having breached bail conditions, which include staying at his bail address between 10:00 pm and 8:00 am. And Scotland Yard officers are guarding the exits.
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