Society's ChildS


USA

Bank of America employee bonus for illegal foreclosure: checks, lies and bankster red tape

bank of america
© Pranav Bhatt
Surprise, surprise.

Just when we thought the big banks couldn't hit a new low, they do.

Six former employees of Bank of America have come forward, alleging that the big bank intentionally denied eligible homeowners mortgage loan modifications, and lied to those homeowners about the status of their mortgage payments and documents.

Bank of America allegedly used these dirty tactics to lead homeowners into foreclosures and in-house loan modifications, both of which helped reap massive profits for BOA's bottom-line.

The employees who have come forward have also said that the big bank rewarded customer service representatives with hefty cash bonuses and gift cards to popular stores when they foreclosed on homes.

According to a lawsuit filed in federal court, a Bank of America employee who placed ten or more mortgage accounts into foreclosure a month could get up to a $500 bonus.

Heart - Black

Civil disobedience is domestic terrorism?: Keystone XL activists labeled possible eco-terrorists in internal TransCanada documents

eco-terrorism cartoon
© Susie Cagle of Grist
Documents recently obtained by Bold Nebraska show that TransCanada - owner of the hotly-contested Keystone XL (KXL)tar sands pipeline - has colluded with an FBI/DHS Fusion Center in Nebraska, labeling non-violent activists as possible candidates for "terrorism" charges and other serious criminal charges.

Further, the language in some of the documents is so vague that it could also ensnare journalists, researchers and academics, as well.

TransCanada also built a roster of names and photos of specific individuals involved in organizing against the pipeline, including 350.org's Rae Breaux, Rainforest Action Network's Scott Parkin and Tar Sands Blockade's Ron Seifert. Further, every activist ever arrested protesting the pipeline's southern half is listed by name with their respective photo shown, along with the date of arrest.

It'sPSYOPs-gate and "fracktivists" as "an insurgency" all over again, but this time it's another central battleground that's in play: the northern half of KXL, a proposed border-crossing pipeline whose final fate lies in the hands of President Barack Obama.

The southern half of the pipeline was approved by the Obama Admin. via a March 2013 Executive Order. Together, the two pipeline halves would pump diluted bitumen ("dilbit") south from the Alberta tar sands toward Port Arthur, TX, where it will be refined and shipped to the global export market.

Activists across North America have put up a formidable fight against both halves of the pipeline, ranging from the summer 2011 Tar Sands Action to the ongoing Tar Sands Blockade. Apparently, TransCanada has followed the action closely, given the level of detail in the documents.

Bad Guys

Iceland resumes controversial fin whale hunt

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© News of IcelandKristjan Loftsson, CEO of the the company Hvalur hf
Iceland has resumed its disputed commercial fin whale hunt, with two vessels en route to catch this season's quota of at least 154 whales, Icelandic media reported on Monday.

An international website that tracks vessels showed two Icelandic whaling ships, Hvalur 8 and Hvalur 9, well west of Iceland on their way to whaling areas, while national media said the two ships left port late Sunday.

Hvalur, the only company that hunts the giant mammals, was unavailable for comment on Monday, which was a public holiday in Iceland.

Hvalur killed 148 fin whales in 2010, but none in 2011 and 2012 due to the disintegration of its only market in quake- and tsunami-hit Japan.

Briefcase

Sources: Atty. charged in home invasion commits suicide

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© NBCWashington.com
Paul Mannina, the U.S. Department of Labor attorney charged in a home invasion, was found dead in a D.C. jail cell of an apparent suicide Tuesday, reported NBC4's Mark Segraves.

Mannina, 58, was arrested last week in connection with a violent home invasion at the residence of one of his coworkers.

He was "found unresponsive on the bunk in his cell by facility security staff" around 3:45 a.m. Tuesday, D.C. police said. Police said in an official release that the cause of death is under investigation.

Heart - Black

Infant dies after being raped; mother encouraged the attack and watched

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A mother is under arrest after allegedly allowing her boyfriend to rape her infant child, causing the child to die.

Jessica Lynn Howell, 25, of St. Charles County, Missouri, was arrested in connection with the death of her four-month-old daughter, Ashlynn Lilith Peters. Ashlynn died December 3, 2012.

Originally Howell was not charged as she claimed innocence in the attack, but prosecutors say text messages between Howell and her boyfriend Jordan Lafayette Prince are conclusive and damning.

Che Guevara

'People Revolution' spreads to Brazil: Thousands take to streets in anti-government protests

What started as small protests about higher bus fares has swelled into nationwide, massive anti-government demonstrations in Brazil. Last night, reports O Globo, more than 100,000 protesters filled the streets of Rio de Janeiro, while an additional 65,000 hit the streets of São Paulo. Nothing tells the story quite like this video of the streets of Rio posted by Lucio Amorim on Twitter: Reporting from São Paulo, NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro tells our Newscast unit that people on the streets are demanding that the government pay attention to them. "The cost of living here is extremely high, there's a massive rate of inflation, and so people say that they are fed up, that they want their government to do something for them," Lourdes said. One of the big issues is that Brazil has been gearing up for the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016. Lourdes says people feel as though the government has been focusing on those big, international events while allowing them to languish.

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Planetary meltdown: Stressed by the physical changes sweeping the planet, civilizations and governments, already burdened by deception, debt, inequality, and corruption could begin to crumble one by one. Change has come to planet Earth.
The New York Times says the protests are the largest and "most resonant since the nation's military dictatorship ended in 1985." What's more, the Times reports, the protests share something in common with the mass protests occurring halfway across the world in Turkey. The newspaper writes: "The demonstrations in Brazil intensified after a harsh police crackdown last week stunned many citizens. In images shared widely on social media, the police here were seen beating unarmed protesters with batons and dispersing crowds by firing rubber bullets and tear gas into their midst. "The violence has come from the government,' said Mariana Toledo, 27, a graduate student at the University of São Paulo who was among the protesters on Monday. 'Such violent acts by the police instill fear, and at the same time the need to keep protesting.'"

Stock Down

Fake shop fronts hide Northern Ireland economic woes before G8

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© Reuters/Cathal McNaughtonKevin Maguire, age 62, walks his dog past a vacant shop, with graphics pasted to the outside to make it look like working butchers shop, in the village of Belcoo, Northern Ireland June 3, 2013. The forthcoming G8 summit will be held at a nearby golf resort. Local councils in Northern Ireland have painted fake shop fronts and covered derelict buildings with huge billboards to hide the economic hardship being felt in towns and villages near the golf resort where G8 leaders will meet this month.
Local councils in Northern Ireland have painted fake shop fronts and covered derelict buildings with huge billboards to hide the economic hardship being felt in towns and villages near the golf resort where G8 leaders will meet this month.

Northern Ireland's government has spent 2 million pounds tackling dereliction over the past two years, the province's environment department said, demolishing some buildings and giving others a facelift in a bid to make areas more attractive.

Almost a quarter of so-called dereliction funds were freed up for local councilors in the county of Fermanagh in anticipation of Britain hosting the annual Group of Eight leaders summit there on June 17-18. More than 100 properties have been spruced up.

In the one-street town of Belcoo, the changes are merely cosmetic. At a former butcher's shop, stickers applied to the windows show a packed meat counter and give the impression that business is booming.

Across the street, another empty unit has been given a makeover to look like a thriving office supply shop. Locals are unimpressed.

Comment: This is the essence of psychopathy in power. They are so disconnected from reality, and their internal make-up is so fundamentally different from normal people, they can't see how insulting, cruel and useless it is.


Stormtrooper

School refuses to lift suspension for 5-year-old who they interrogated for hours over toy gun until he wet himself

cap gun
© Unknown
School officials in Calvert County, Md., will not lift the suspension they gave to a kindergartner for bringing a toy cap gun onto his school bus in May despite allegations that school officials interrogated the boy for more than two hours until he wet himself.

Dowell Elementary School in Lusby refused to expunge the suspension in a letter on Friday, which was obtained by The Washington Post. The boy, who was not identified, was suspended on May 29 for 10 days. The punishment was scaled down to three days after a disciplinary hearing was held.

The letter said the suspension would not be removed because the boy "did bring a cap gun in his book bag" and that some kids were frightened, not knowing whether the gun was real or fake.

The boy was accused of carrying a cowboy-style cap gun in his backpack onto the school bus. He told his mother he did it because he wanted to show it to a friend, who had brought a water gun the day before.

Pistol

Toddlers with guns kill more Americans than terrorists

children with gun
© Unknown
Americans hate terrorists and love our kids, right? So you might be shocked to know that preschoolers with guns have taken more lives so far this year than the single U.S. terrorist attack, which claimed four lives in Boston.

This is admittedly tongue-in-cheek, but one has to wonder if the NSA's PRISM program would have saved more lives had it been monitoring toddlers - or gun owners - rather than suspected terrorists.

11 Deaths in Five Months Where Shooter Was 3 to 6 Years Old

Listed below are the 11 gun fatalities I found where a preschooler pulled the trigger (from Jan. 1 to June 9, 2013). Starting with a list of five toddler shooting deaths The Jewish Daily Forward published in early May, I unearthed six additional cases. This tragic, unthinkable event has happened every month, like clock-work.

Heart - Black

Two women sue Live Oak County Jail, Texas, claiming guards ran a 'rape camp'

Jail bars
© Unknown
Two women in Texas claim the Live Oak County Jail employed guards who ran a "rape camp" out of the facility and "repeatedly raped and humiliated female inmates."

The suit filed in federal court names Live Oak County and former jailers Vincent Aguilar, Israel Charles Jr. and Jaime Smith. The three guards - all employed by the Live Oak County Sheriff's Office - were arrested and charged with sexual assault in August 2010.

The two women, who were identified only as JAS and JMN, claim that, "beginning sometime in 2007 to at least August of 2010 the Live Oak County Sheriff's office ran a 'rape camp' known as the Live Oak County Jail."