Society's ChildS


Syringe

The former Australian of the year Patrick McGorry has aborted a controversial trial of anti-psychotic drugs on children as young as 15

Jill Stark
The Sydney Morning Herald
Sun, 21 Aug 2011 11:39 UTC
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© Angela WyliePatrick McGorry ... a formal complaint was lodged
The former Australian of the year Patrick McGorry has aborted a controversial trial of anti-psychotic drugs on children as young as 15 who are ''at risk'' of psychosis, amid complaints the study was unethical.

The Sun-Herald can reveal 13 international health experts lodged a formal complaint calling for the trial not to go ahead.

They were concerned children who had not yet been diagnosed with a psychotic illness would be unnecessarily given drugs with potentially dangerous side effects.

Quetiapine, sold as Seroquel, has been linked to weight gain and its manufacturer AstraZeneca, which was to fund the trial, last month paid US$647 million ($622 million) to settle a lawsuit in the US, alleging there was insufficient warning the drug may cause diabetes.
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Penis Pump

US: Jury Rules in Favor of Doctor Who Cut Off Part of Kentucky Man's Penis

Jason Riley
The Courier-Journal
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:01 UTC
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© Scott Utterback, The Courier-JournalPhillip Seaton leaves the courtroom after the jury ruled against him in determining that Doctor John Patterson did not act improperly when he partially amputated the plaintiff's penis.
Jurors rejected a truck driver's claim for $16 million in damages after part of his penis was amputated because they believed the doctor saved the man's life, the jury forewoman said in an interview Wednesday.

After only about an hour of deliberation Wednesday, the six-man, six-woman jury in Shelby County Circuit Court found that Dr. John Patterson acted appropriately and Phillip Seaton, 64, of Waddy, should get no money in the lawsuit.

"We felt bad for the circumstances. (Seaton) has our sympathy. But at the same time, he's alive today because this man did what he did, because this man performed the surgery," jury forewoman Lydia Tapp told The Courier-Journal in a phone interview.
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Family

Shocking Need: American Kids Go Hungry

Kimberly Brown
ABC News
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:59 UTC

In high school, Katherine Foronda trained herself not to feel hungry until after the school day had ended. She wasn't watching her weight or worrying about boys seeing her eat.

She just didn't have any food to eat or any money to buy it.

"I thought, if I wasn't hungry during class I'd be able to actually focus on what we were learning,'' said Foronda, now 19.

Every day, children in every county in the United States wake up hungry. They go to school hungry. They turn out the lights at night hungry.

That is one of the stunning key findings of a new study to be released Thursday by Feeding America, a network of 200 food banks and the largest hunger charity in the country.

As many as 17 million children nationwide are struggling with what is known as food insecurity. To put it another way, one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life, according to the study, "Map the Meal Child Food Insecurity 2011."
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Family

US: Mom Got Parking Validated After Baby Allegedly Dropped from Garage


The Los Angeles Times
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:56 UTC
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Prosecutors confirmed Wednesday that the infant who was allegedly dropped off a parking garage at the Children's Hospital of Orange County was a patient there.

According to prosecutors, Sonia Hermosillo removed the baby's helmet before allegedly pushing him from the parking structure. Then she reportedly walked into the hospital and validated her parking ticket.

Hermosillo was reportedly being treated for postpartum depression. Her husband, Noe Medina, told the Orange County Register that she was not allowed to be alone with the baby.

Hermosillo, 31, of La Habra, is charged with attempted murder and child abuse in connection with her 7-month-old son being dropped from the fourth story of the parking structure Monday evening.

The baby remains in critical condition at UCI Medical Center.
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No Entry

Poland: President vetoes bill allowing GMO seeds

Gabriela Baczynska
WTAQ News Talke
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:25 UTC
No GMO
© Unknown
Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski on Wednesday vetoed a new legislation that would allow some genetically modified seeds in the country, saying it ran against European Union rules.

Poland currently forbids any GMO cultivation or sales on its soil and must align its legislation with the more lenient one of the EU after Warsaw lost a court case against Brussels on it.

But Komorowski said the bill was faulty after parliament changed the government's original proposal significantly, finally approving a bill that still contradicted EU rules.

"If the parliament approves my veto, I will immediately propose a seeds bill that would not have the GMO element because we need a seeds bill," Komorowski said, adding he knew of no proof that GMO food could be dangerous for human health.


Comment: That's hard to believe: GMO: Health Risks


This is the second presidential veto of a law put forward by the center-right government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who brought Komorowski to the presidency a year ago.
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Bizarro Earth

Why the birds and bees are dying: The EPA knows, but aren't telling


Brasscheck TV
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:12 UTC
Banned everywhere, but legal in the US

Does it get more corrupt than this?

A corporation is allowed to rip the heart of America's agricultural system (honeybees are ESSENTIAL for pollination) and not one of the scumbags in Congress or the empty suits in the White House are doing a thing about it.

We don't have a government in this country. We have a gang of self-serving thieves.

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Arrow Down

Sad! National Organization for Marriage Speaker Blames East Coast Earthquake on Gays

David Edwards
RawStory
Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:14 UTC
Within hours of an earthquake striking the eastern U.S. Tuesday, a rabbi that has spoken for the anti-gay group National Organization for Marriage (NOM) was already blaming homosexuals.

In a video posted to YouTube, Rabbi Yehuda Levin asserted that "one of the reasons God brings earthquakes to the world is because of the transgressions of homosexuality."

"An email went out in my community just a few hours ago, 'How long will it take Rabbi Levin to tie this earthquake in with homosexual marriage?'" he began. "Not very long at all. I'm happy to see that people - even if some of them are scoffers - are starting to see the connection."

"Yes, there is a direct connection between earthquakes and homosexuality. There was in Haiti and it is here, in New York, in Washington, D.C., where they passed homosexual legislation ordinances, in New York City and state, where they opened, especially on Sunday early, where they passed the homosexual marriage law."
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Heart - Black

Perth, Australia: Terrified man 'threatened with snakes'

Aja Styles
The Sydney Morning Herald
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:33 UTC
Jagoe leaves court
© Channel TenGriffin Xanda de la Hunty Jagoe leaves court.
A 20-year-old man has described being tortured with railway spikes, having salt rubbed into knife wounds and then enduring a threat of being thrown into a pit full of snakes during his 12-hour kidnapping by "a genuine psychopath".

Griffin de la Hunty Jagoe continued giving evidence against Simon Sun, 46, Ranjardar Said, 28, and Sammy Conteh, 19, in a Perth District Court today.

All three men deny the charges of kidnapping, extortion and assault occasioning bodily harm.

Mr Jagoe was rescued by the police Tactical Response Group after they were alerted to his capture by his mother Barbara de la Hunty, the court heard.

Mr Jagoe was taken to a house in Bentley where he was allegedly threatened for more money on Friday, October 15 last year, until the following evening as part of ongoing extortion efforts by the three men, the prosecution and Mr Jagoe claimed.

Some of the alleged incidents were filmed on a mobile phone and played to the jury.
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Megaphone

NATO's Libya generals should be hauled to court, says Dennis Kucinich

Reid J. Epstein
Politico
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 08:10 UTC
bombs, libya
© ReutersDennis Kucinich wants NATO 'held accountable' for its airstrikes in Libya.
NATO commanders who authorized the Libya bombing campaign should be "held accountable" to international law and hauled before the world court for civilian deaths, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) said Tuesday.

"NATO's top commanders may have acted under color of international law, but they are not exempt from international law," Kucinich said in a statement released by his office. "If members of the Qadhafi regime are to be held accountable, NATO's top commanders must also be held accountable through the International Criminal Court for all civilian deaths resulting from bombing. Otherwise, we will have witnessed the triumph of a new international gangsterism."

Kucinich, who in March suggested President Barack Obama's authorizing of airstrikes on Libya were "an impeachable offense" and sponsored a July measure to defund the military effort there, criticized what he called an evolving rationale for the NATO offensive.

The seven-term Cleveland congressman released his statement just as forces loyal to Qadhafi appeared to have abandoned their defense of his heavily fortified Tripoli compound. It was not clear where Qadhafi is, though a Russian chess official said he spoke with the dictator and reported he remains in the capital.
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Sheriff

US: The 'West Memphis Three' and combating cognitive biases

Jennifer L. Mnookin
The Los Angeles Times
Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:50 UTC
Damien Echols
© Danny Johnston / AP PhotoDamien Echols, right, one of three men who pleaded guilty to crimes they say they did not commit, and his wife Lorri speak to reporters after the three were freed at the Craighead County Court House in Jonesboro, Ark., Friday, Aug. 19, 2011.

The case shows we see what we expect to see. That can mean innocent people go to jail while criminals remain free.

Last week, the "West Memphis Three" were released from prison, having spent half their lives - 18 years - behind bars for crimes they almost certainly didn't commit. So what made prosecutors and investigators sure they had the right guys, and why were those beliefs, once established, so hard to reverse?

The crimes for which the three Memphis men were convicted were brutal. Three 8-year-old Cub Scouts were found dead, hogtied and apparently mutilated. The police decided early on that it was likely the boys had been victims of a satanic cult killing, which led them to consider self-described Wiccan teen Damien Echols, a young man with asymmetric black hair, a pale face and oddball taste in clothes and music. They hauled in an acquaintance of his, a minor named Jessie Misskelley, who had an IQ of 72, and interviewed him for hours without his parents or an attorney present. Finally, he confessed, implicating Echols and another friend, Jason Baldwin.
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