Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

US: JetBlue Flier Who 'Peed' on Girl Could be Axed from US Ski Team

Robert Vietze
© Doug WilliamsRobert Vietze, a US Ski Team member, is refusing to apologize after he allegedly peed on a girl aboard a JetBlue flight.
He probably just pissed away his Olympic dreams.

The drunken JetBlue passenger who treated a sleeping 11-year-old girl like his personal potty is a member of the US Ski Team who refused to apologize yesterday for the high-altitude humiliation.

Robert "Sandy" Vietze, 18, is among the 75 most elite skiers in the nation -- but he may have blown his chance to compete in the 2014 Winter Games in Russia.

His name was bumped from the team's developmental roster yesterday afternoon, although officials refused to comment about his status.

The leaky loser expressed no remorse outside his family's palatial Vermont home, where he ignored questions about the incident and showed no interest in apologizing to his victim.

Family

US, Georgia: Thousands Line Up for Free Dental Services

Woodstock free dental care
© John SpinkHundreds of people lined up overnight to receive free dental service. Woodstock First Baptist Church teamed with Georgia Mission of Mercy to begin a two-day FREE, dental clinic for low- or no-income adults who cannot pay for dental care.
Thousands of people waited in line overnight at Woodstock First Baptist Church for free dental care.

The two-day clinic at First Baptist Church of Woodstock on Hwy. 92 is being sponsored by the Georgia Dental Association and its Foundation for Oral Health.

"The line went around the building, all the way through the parking lot and around a warehouse," said Dr. Richard Smith, who practices in Atlanta. He estimated the line at 2,000 yards and said that at its peak, 4,000 people were in line.

People

Thousands Riot in China's Guizhou Province: Xinhua

china riot
© AFP
Thousands of rioters took to the streets in southwestern China, with some smashing and burning vehicles, after a city official injured a female cyclist, state news agency Xinhua reported on Friday.

The riots broke out late Thursday in Guizhou province and carried on all night, with 10 police officers wounded in the violence, the report said.

Rioters also blocked the city's main roads using trucks, the state-run China National Radio reported on its website.

Xinhua said the riots were set off when "chengguan" officials, responsible for low-level policing on China's streets, injured a female cyclist while trying to confiscate her bicycle for illegal parking.

Attention

US, Texas: Dog Comes Home with Human Hand

Brownsville: A family dog in Mission brought home a severed human hand Thursday, launching a search that turned up the body of a suspected unauthorized immigrant, police said.

Sgt. Jody Tittle said police were called to a residence around 8:25 a.m. on reports that the family's black Labrador retriever had the hand in its mouth.

Attention

US, Michigan: Man Dies After Being Run Over By Horse-Drawn Wagon

Amish wagon
© Getty Images
Authorities say a 38-year-old Amish man has died after being run over by a horse-drawn farm wagon that broke free in southwestern Michigan.

The Kalamazoo Gazette and WTVB-AM report Daniel Yoder of St. Joseph County's Nottawa Township was driving the wagon loaded with hay Thursday night when the yoke between the horses broke, part of the trailer gave way and the wagon rolled down a hill and off the road.

Alarm Clock

US: Why Illinois Can't Afford its Poor Dead

Pat Quinn
Governor Pat Quinn
The state of Illinois has reached a new level of broke. Come Monday, it won't have enough cash to bury its indigent dead.

Illinois officials sent a letter to more than 600 funeral directors around the state to let them know there's no money for funerals for individuals on public assistance.

Bizarro Earth

UK Riots: Big Brother Isn't Watching You

riots
© Jeff J Mitchell/Getty ImagesYoung people in Birmingham during riots in the city centre.
Dismissing rioters as mindless is futile rhetoric. However unacceptable the UK riots, we need to ask why they are happening

I no longer live in London. I've been transplanted to Los Angeles by a combination of love and money; such good fortune and opportunity, in both cases, you might think disqualify me from commenting on matters in my homeland. Even the results of Britain's Got Ice-Factor may lay prettily glistening beyond my remit now that I am self-banished.

To be honest when I lived in England I didn't really care too much for the fabricated theatrics of reality TV. Except when I worked for Big Brother, then it was my job to slosh about in the amplified trivia of the housemates/inmates. Sometimes it was actually quite bloody interesting. Particularly the year that Nadia won. She was the Portuguese transsexual. Remember? No? Well, that's the nature of the medium; as it whizzes past the eyes it seems very relevant but the malady of reality TV stars is that their shelf life expires, like dog years, by the power of seven. To me it seems as if Nadia's triumph took place during the silver jubilee, we had a street party.

Wolf

US: Music Teacher Caught Having Sex with Doll Outside School

Police in Spring Hill, Tennessee, arrested a local music teacher Thursday morning after he was caught engaging in a sex act with a doll outside a local elementary school.


Officers were called to Allendale Elementary School on Prescott Way in Spring Hill amid reports of a white male with a duffle bag under a bridge on school property. The bridge provides access to the school from the main road.

Spring Hill police told Nashville's News 2 the responding officer witnessed the man, identified as 56-year-old Daniel Torroll, performing sex acts on a child-like doll police later discovered he'd cut holes into.

Attention

In Photos: London Retailers, Before and After the Riots

London Riots_1
© MinyanvilleKeep calm and carry on shopping!

When asked why he targeted a certain store during the London riots, one teenaged looter told Sky News: "They didn't reply to me emailing my CV, or going up there so this was payback man, payback."

His "payback" contributed to estimated losses by business owners of £17.4 million in stolen merchandise stock and £43.5 million on repairs,and shopping comparison site Kelkoo predicts a collective loss of £392 million in one week.

Stolen during the looting sprees, which quickly fanned out from London to other cities, were iPads, BlackBerrys, XBoxes, Playstations, clothes, athletic shoes, even diapers -- but thieves have largely left bookstores untouched.

In a statement, eBay announced that it will "cooperate fully with the investigating authorities to identify and remove any listings which are linked to criminal activity."

Here's a look at some before-and-after shots of the damage done to small businesses (and one Sony regional distribution center) over the past few days -- as well as a wonderful example of a very British stiff upper lip in the face of adversity:

Ambulance

US: Army Suicides Hit Record in July

army coffin flag
© unknown
The U.S. Army suffered a record 32 suicides in July, the most since it began releasing monthly figures in 2009.

The high number of deaths represents a setback for the Army, which has put a heavy focus on reducing suicides in recent years. The number includes 22 active duty soldiers and 10 reservists. The previous record was 31, from June 2010.

Army officials cautioned that investigations are still underway in most of the deaths to confirm the exact cause.

"Every suicide represents a tragic loss," Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the Army said in a written statement. "While the high number of potential suicides in July is discouraging, we are confident our efforts ...are having a positive impact."

Over the last several years, the Army has launched a major effort to institute new training to improve soldiers' ability to bounce back from stress and setbacks in combat and in their personal lives. It has hired hundreds of mental health and substance abuse counselors and has launched a push to convince soldiers that seeking help for mental health problems will not have a negative impact on their careers.