Society's ChildS


Laptop

Russia may launch probe into Facebook after Belgium surveillance disclosure

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© © Dado Ruvic / Reuters
A Russian nationalist MP has asked prosecutors to launch a probe into Facebook and other major social networks after a court in Brussels ruled Facebook must pay a daily fine of €250,000 for its cookie policy tracking non-users.

On Monday, the Belgian court gave Facebook 48 hours to stop tracking the online activities of non-users in Belgium unless they have their explicit consent, or face a daily fine of €250,000. "If a surfer doesn't have their own Facebook account, Facebook from now on will have to explicitly solicit consent and provide the needed explanations," the Brussels court of first instance said.

Facebook lawyers said they would appeal the ruling.

Comment: Belgium gives Facebook 48 hours to stop tracking non-users or pay €250K per day


Fire

Massive fire engulfs building site in heart of London's tech district

Old Street fire
© Kieran Ball A building site has caught fire in Old Street, sending huge plumes of black smoke into the air near London's financial district.
A massive fire that broke out Thursday morning in the heart of London's Tech district is now under control, according to the London Fire brigade.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

The fire, which broke out before 9 a.m, occurred in a six-storey building that's under demolition on Old Street, the fire department said.

"Crews worked hard to contain this blaze and to stop it from spreading. The main fire was concentrated around the building's central lift shaft. This created a chimney effect, which is why smoke could be seen for miles around during the early stages of the incident," Station Manager Gareth Cook said in a statement.

The blaze was under control by 10:15 a.m., after the first emergency calls started rolling in around 8:44 a.m. Eight fire engines and 58 firefighters were on the scene.

Comment: There was another huge fire in London the previous day: Blaze on London's Fleet Street near Goldman Sachs offices


Cell Phone

Daughter gets 18 years for killing mom, texting corpse photo to dad

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Susan Lee Hutson
Susan Lee Hutson didn't think her daughter was serious when she lifted the shotgun.

She told Rachel she was crazy, that she would tell her dad about this when he got home, Rachel Hutson testified.

Then Hutson pulled the trigger.

Stormtrooper

Bizarre behaviour: Cop attacks woman in parked car, drags her by hair and punches her

yukon police
© KOKO
Police officials in Oklahoma just acknowledged what eye-witnesses have said since Saturday morning: that a police officer attacked a woman inside of a parked car, brutally beating her.

The Oklahoma City police say that now they are considering recommending charges against a Yukon police officer as a result of the assault.

The police report, obtained by KOKO states that the innocent woman had reported the attack early on Saturday morning.

The report tells us that witnesses observed 29-year-old Zachary Dean Bradford dragging the woman from her car. He was observed dragging her by her hair and then punching her.

Strangely enough, Bradford then took off his shirt and tucked it in his pants. Right after that he left the scene of the attack.

As for the woman, she told the responding officers that she did not know Bradford before being attacked by him.

She was simply sitting in a vehicle and was talking to one of the witnesses of the attack. That's when Bradford came from a nearby home.

Comment: Police are walking time-bombs. No one can predict when they are going to go off.


Newspaper

Media graveyard: Newspapers, magazines in death spiral - report

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© gilesbowkett.blogspot.com
Hard news faces the same kind of extinction as newspapers and magazines, the result of a dramatic death spiral of reporting jobs and ads and the rise of the type of opinion journalism popular two and three centuries ago, according to a new report and analysis.

"Hard news is in danger," said a new report from the Brookings Institution.

The report detailed a fall-off in advertising revenues and employment and raised the question that without editorial employees filtering the news, credibility will be undermined.

"These trends have left many people wondering who will collect hard news for the general public. While the Internet world has made it possible for everyone to express their opinion widely — whether they know anything or notit has also confused readers. In the absence of supposedly neutral intermediaries such as reporters, fact-checkers, and editors, readers are having a hard time judging the credibility of what they read," said the report.

Filling in the hard news gap appears to be more opinion journalism. At a conference to discuss the report, for example, Emma Green, managing editor of TheAtlantic.com, said that the media is shifting to more opinion news. In digital journalism, which is exploding, she said, "there's a slide that is going on where we're in a golden age of opinion journalism, and there's greater analysis, and sort of more interesting analytical gray zone that's happening in the way that news is presented."

Comment: Today, the media's job is to tell people what to think and what the facts are regardless of what the truth is. They are not reporting the most heinous crimes going on in government and society-at-large. Maybe folks are confused, maybe they are tired of being brain-washed, propagandized and stupefied by MSM news organizations in the U.S. who constantly feed them lies and charge them for it? Maybe they are looking to fill the deficit and seek fresher sources with more truth in them?


Black Cat

Secret Service officer arrested after texting naked photos to a police officer posing as a teenage girl

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A U.S. Secret Service officer assigned to the White House was arrested this week after he sent naked pictures of himself to someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl, according to a criminal complaint.

Lee Robert Moore, 37, of Church Hill, Maryland, turned himself in to Maryland State Police on Monday and faces charges including solicitation of a minor, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

The complaint details a series of pornographic online chats starting in late August between Moore and a Delaware State Police detective posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Eye 2

Video shows man who died while in police custody being tasered 20 times while handcuffed

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© MSNBCVideo shows 46-year-old Linwood Lambert as he is Tased by three police officers oustide the ER at Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in Virginia on May 4, 2013.
When three Virginia police officers put Linwood Lambert in a squad car around 5 a.m. on May 4, 2013, they said they were taking him to the ER for medical attention because he was speaking delusionally. Just over an hour later, Lambert died in police custody.

He was never given medical care, though the officers of South Boston, Va. did drive him to the hospital. He was not initially put under arrest, though the officers ultimately arrested him, shackled his hands and legs, and tased him repeatedly. While in custody he was agitated and ran from the officers. Ambulance workers say police later claimed he fought them at a time when videos show he was actually unconscious. Police dispute that account and deny allegations of excessive force.

Over two years later, there have been no charges and no full public accounting of what happened. But a new investigation, including police videos obtained exclusively by MSNBC, shows the deadly trip for the first time.


Airplane

Increasing trend: More than 20 aircraft struck by lasers past 12 hours

laser strikes airplane
Laser strikes on planes are growing even as the federal government enacts tougher penalties for people caught shining the devices.

From Wednesday night through Thursday morning, federal authorities fielded reports of 20 laser strikes on aircraft, adding to an already record-breaking number of strikes this year.

The Federal Aviation Administration recorded 5,352 laser strikes through Oct. 16, up from 2,837 for all of 2010. Such strikes can temporarily blind pilots at critical times when they are taking off and landing. People convicted of pointing a laser at a plane can be sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Comment: What is going on here? Are there really that many people out shinning lasers at airplanes? For what purpose?


Heart - Black

Released video shows cop slamming 13yo boy to ground and twisting arm

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© NINTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT STATE ATTORNEY’S OFFICEA video was released Tuesday showing Kissimmee Police officer Mario Badia taking down a middle school boy.
A Florida police school resource officer slams a 13-year-old boy to the ground and twists his arm for over 40 seconds in a video released Tuesday.

Investigators said the Kissimmee Middle School student did nothing to provoke the takedown, and officer Mario Badia was placed on leave and arrested in May after the run-in earlier that month, according to the Kissimmee Police Department. Badia, 41, pleaded not guilty to battery and child abuse last month, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The video investigators viewed of the incident before charging Badia went public ahead of Badia's trial later this year, according to Angela Starke, the spokeswoman for the Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office. Badia found out he has been fired from the force Friday.

The one-sided clash between the officer and the boy, who is African-American, happened months before other school officers faced discipline for their treatment of students.

The footage shows the officer pointing at the middle schooler after the boy and his mother argued in the lobby on the morning of May 8. Police said Badia yelled at the boy over his behavior toward his mother and tried to grab the boy's chin to turn him and make him listen better. The boy stepped back and tried to block the officer with his arm, but Badia shoved him in the chest and grabbed his shirt and right arm, according to an arrest affidavit.


Comment: What is wrong with people that they have gotten so angry and drunk with power that they are now attacking children? Police used to understand that teenagers are rebellious and will say things to provoke them, but had the maturity and self-restraint to control themselves. An adult attacking a child is inexcusable, whether the adult is a police officer or not. Cops are going to have keep being fired and charged with assault until they realize that being a cop is not a license to beat children and adults.


Handcuffs

Three former TSA agents busted for smuggling drugs through airport security

TSA cocaine
Earlier this week, three former TSA agents were indicted on charges of defrauding the government and smuggling cocaine.

According to the indictment, 35-year-old Joseph Scott, 32-year-old Michael Castaneda, and 27-year-old Jessica Scott, all former TSA agents at San Francisco International Airport, were involved in an ongoing operation to help transport drugs through airport security.

Federal investigators were tipped off about the operation and sent undercover agents to arrange their own controlled deals with the TSA agents to gather additional evidence on them. Sting operations occurred between May 2013 and April 2014, where the TSA agents in question knowingly allowed large amounts of cocaine to pass through security checkpoints and through the X-ray scanners without an additional search.

Comment: The TSA is just full of fine, upstanding citizens. Thank God we have them to keep us safe from terrorists!