Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

Bullying attack leaves Pennsylvania boy in coma

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© Good Morning America/ABC News
A Pennsylvania boy is currently in a medically induced coma after a schoolyard fight with classmates who he and his family claims were bullying him.

Sixth-grader Baily O'Neil, an honors student, of Darby Township, Pa., was involved in a fight four weeks ago at the Darby Township School. He was struck several times in the face by another student; the blow fractured his nose and he fell to the ground.

His parents brought their son, who had a concussion, to the A.I. DuPont hospital in Wilmington, Del., where he was treated and released. But his father saw that something wasn't quite right with their son when they returned home.

"He was sleeping. He was moody. He wasn't himself. He was angry a little bit. He wasn't really eating," Bailey's father Rob told ABC Affiliate WPVI-TV.

Just a few days later, Bailey started having violent seizures and needed to be hospitalized again. The seizures were so bad that doctors at A.I. DuPont were forced to put Bailey in a medically induced coma nearly two weeks ago.

Black Cat 2

James Cromwell, babe actor, arrested over cat torture protest

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Cromwell, 73, was released from jail on Thursday afternoon
Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell has been arrested at an American university over a cat torture protest.

The Babe actor was held for disorderly behaviour after protesting at the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents meeting on Thursday.

Cromwell, 73, and an animal rights group activist held signs showing a cat with metal implanted in its head at a UW-Madison laboratory.

They were released from jail on Thursday afternoon.

The director of the university's Research Animal Resources Centre said government agriculture officials have found their claims to be false.

Horse

Findus beef lasagne meals 100% horsemeat

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Firms are ordered to test their beef products, as the Food Standards Agency warns criminal activity may be behind contaminations.

Tests on Findus beef lasagne have revealed that some of the ready meals were made entirely from horsemeat.

Findus analysed 18 of its beef lasagne products and found 11 meals contained between 60% and 100% horsemeat, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said.

There is no evidence to suggest the horsemeat found in the Findus beef lasagne is a food safety risk, the FSA said.

However, the agency has ordered urgent tests on the lasagne for the veterinary drug phenylbutazone. Meat from animals treated with "bute" is not allowed to enter the food chain in Britain as it may pose a risk to human health.

All food companies have been told to test their beef products, with the FSA saying it was "highly likely" that criminal activity was to blame for the contamination.

Stormtrooper

Women delivering newspapers in Torrance shot in manhunt for ex-cop

police shot two women
© Unknown
Two women who were shot by Los Angeles police in Torrance early Thursday during a massive manhunt for an ex-LAPD officer were delivering newspapers, sources said.

The women, shot in the 19500 block of Redbeam Avenue, were taken to area hospitals, Torrance police Lt. Devin Chase said. They were not identified. One was shot in the hand and the other in the back, according to Jesse Escochea, who captured video of the victims being treated.

It was not immediately known what newspapers the women were delivering. After the shooting, the blue pickup was riddled with bullet holes and what appeared to be newspapers lay in the street alongside.

Pistol

Thought crimes: What's really behind the punishment for fake guns in schools

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© babble.com
In the latest episode of Ban Fake Guns, we have a boy suspended from school in Florence, Arizona, for carrying, yes, a picture of a gun on his computer. Screen saver. This is surely a sign of complete mental breakdown by school officials. And yet one more reason to home school.

Steve Watson, writing at infowars, runs down the recent litany of fake gun crimes at schools across America, resulting in student suspensions, suspension hearings, and actual school lockdowns:
  • Transparent toy gun. South Carolina.
  • Gun built from lego bricks. Massachusetts.
  • Two kids talking about a nerf gun. New York.
  • An actual nerf gun. New York.
  • A pink bubble gun. Pennsylvania.
  • A paper gun. Pennsylvania.
  • Pointing a finger and saying "pow." Maryland.
  • Playing cops and robbers with fingers. Maryland.
  • Making a gun "hand gesture." Oklahoma.
Should we assume that because cops and school officials can't stop real crimes, they're settling for stopping fake crimes?

Can you hear the typical response to these school suspensions and lockdowns? "Well, everybody in the community is on edge these days, after Sandy Hook."

That remark garners a "Mmm, well, sure."

Then, the follow-up: "It's unfortunate that school officials and police MAY HAVE overreacted. Suspension from school is PROBABLY too much. These kids need some form of LESSER DISCIPLINE, and, of course, EDUCATION about the dangers of guns."

And there you have it. It's a sleight-of-hand trick. Go completely overboard with an officially certified insane action (suspension, lockdown), and people will ask for something slightly less insane instead.

Heart - Black

Two Manitoba sheriffs charged with sex assaults on drugged women

Two Manitoba sheriffs face more allegations that they drugged and sexually assaulted women while off-duty.

Last October, two people were arrested in Winnipeg after a 30-year-old woman complained that she was given a substance at a couple's home in April that made her unconscious.

She said when she woke up, she discovered that she had been sexually assaulted and contacted police.

Winnipeg police say three other women have come forward with similar allegations that go back as far as 2000.

"The three victims individually and on separate occasions had attended the accuseds' residence," police spokesman Const. Eric Hofley said Thursday.

"During these incidents, two were administered a stupefying substance and at least one of the victims was rendered unconscious. During these incidents all three of the victims were sexually assaulted."

Bullseye

"Rarer than rare" 1865 antique baseball card sells for $92,000

A rare 1865 photograph of the Brooklyn Atlantics baseball team, discovered at a Maine yard sale and considered one of the first baseball cards ever, sold for $92,000 at an auction on Wednesday.

A Massachusetts man offered the winning sum in cash after a brief round of bidding at Saco River Auction Co., said Troy Thibodeau, manager and auctioneer at the company in Biddeford, Maine. Thibodeau declined to name the buyer.

The photograph mounted on a card, known as a carte de viste, is the only one of its kind known to exist, though the Library of Congress has a similar image made from a different negative, Thibodeau said before the auction.

"It's rarer than rare."

Family

Police in San Francisco renew probe into fate of Kevin Collins, the first missing child to have his picture on a milk carton

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© Handout/Reuters
Police using cadaver dogs and jack hammers have renewed their probe into the fate of a young San Francisco boy who became a national symbol for abducted children three decades ago, and they publicly identified their prime suspect for the first time on Wednesday.

San Francisco police held a news conference to enlist the public's help in learning more about a man investigators had questioned in the disappearance of 10-year-old Kevin Collins just days after he vanished in 1984.

The suspect, Wayne Jackson, who was known to go by four other names, lived across the street from the Catholic grammar school that Kevin attended in the Haight-Ashbury District. He had a history of sex crimes against children and died in 2008, police said.

The American public came to know Kevin after he was among the first missing children to have his picture printed on milk cartons distributed throughout the nation. Newsweek magazine ran his photograph on its cover under the headline "Stolen Children."

"This is a case that haunts the San Francisco Police Department and the city of San Francisco," police Chief Greg Suhr said.

Handcuffs

Canadian senator Patrick Brazeau arrested for domestic violence and kicked out of the Tory caucus

Controversial Senator Patrick Brazeau has been arrested for domestic violence and has been booted out of the Conservative caucus.

Senator Brazeau
© ReutersSenator Brazeau
PostMedia News is reporting that Brazeau was arrested at 9:10 A.M. on Thursday morning and is currently being held at a Gatineau jail. As of Thursday evening he has not been charged but is expected to spend the night in jail and appear in court on Friday morning. Additionally, according to PostMedia, Brazeau's home has been "cordoned off with crime-scene tape."

Sources have told CTV News reporter Robert Fife and he has tweeted that Brazeau is to be "charged with sexual assault and domestic violence."

Government leader in the Senate, Marjory LeBreton released this statement this afternoon:
"In light of the serious nature of the events reported today, Senator Brazeau has been removed from the Conservative Caucus. As this is a legal matter, I cannot comment further."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Brazeau to the Senate in 2009. Prior to joining the government caucus, Brazeau was the National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, an organization that advocates for Aboriginal people living off-reserve.

He's been no stranger to controversy since 2009.

Bomb

Who is the Canadian suspected in the Bulgarian bus blast?

Jason Kenney says suspect moved to Vancouver with his mother when he was a boy

Bulgarian bus bombing
© ReutersA former Canadian resident is being sought by Bulgarian officials in connection with a deadly 2012 bus bombing that killed five Israelis, their Bulgarian bus driver, and the bomber himself.
The Canadian dual citizen accused in a deadly bus bombing in Bulgaria last year was born in Lebanon and moved to British Columbia with his mother as a boy, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday while declining to release the suspect's name.

"This individual came to Canada as a child, I think at the age eight, settled into Vancouver with his mother, and became a citizen three, four years later," Kenney said during an interview with Evan Solomon on CBC News Network's Power & Politics.

A day earlier, Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov made public his country's ongoing search for the former Canadian resident, who is one of two suspects being sought by security officials in the July 18, 2012, blast in Burgas that killed five Israelis, their Bulgarian bus driver, and the bomber himself.

Kenney said the suspect has "not normally been a resident of Canada" since leaving the country 10 years ago.