Society's ChildS


Question

China finds another 800 dead pigs in a river

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© AFP Photo
Shanghai fished another 809 dead pigs out of its main waterway on Friday, bringing the total carcasses found this week to 8,300 in a scandal that has spotlighted China's troubles with food safety.

The swine effluent discovered flowing down the Huangpu river - which supplies a fifth of the commercial hub's drinking water - has added the country's most popular meat to a growing list of food items rocked by scandal.

"As of 3:00 pm today, another 809 floating dead pigs have been fished out," Shanghai authorities said on their Weibo account, a service similar to Twitter.

It gave assurances that authorities had not found any substandard pork products on the market and were closely monitoring water quality.

Che Guevara

Argentina activists rally against US Monsanto expansion in Latin America

Argentinians have said no to what they call Monsanto´s "deathly" business in Latin America


In Buenos Aires, the action group "Millions against Monsanto" has led a protest at the House of Cordoba, a province located in the center of Argentina where the US multinational company is developing its biggest regional factory.

According to activists, the construction of the facility has been approved by provincial authorities but no official report on environmental damages has yet been conducted.

Political complicity, leaders of the protest said, is fostering the expansion of Monsanto´s "chain of profit and death": Monsanto sells seeds that are resistant to its own glyphosate-based Roundup, a key herbicide used in Argentina´s "green gold" soybean industry.

Black Magic

Zombie fad: Do we love the undead because we are unhappy with the government?

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© Pinterest
Zombies have once again become popular, taking over from vampires in mainstream culture. The question remains why zombies have become a fixture of television and in real life with "zombie walks," but according to Sarah Lauro, English professor at Clemson University and zombie expert, zombies have become popular because we are dissatisfied with the government or society.

Lauro is currently writing a book, "Rise Up: Living Death, Slavery, and Rebellion," exploring the nature of zombies with society as well as the recent "zombie walk" fad and has published previous scholarly works on the subject. According to Lauro, people dress up as zombies, "To make visible their dissatisfaction with a government they feel isn't listening to them or an economic system that makes them brain-dead consumers; some do it as a kind of exercise of community, just to show how the collective can be organized and made to participate in an event without any ties to commercialism; many have no idea why they do it, but some play dead, one supposes, just to feel alive."

Bizarro Earth

Woman accused of exposing breasts at cameras

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Caught on camera: Wendy Tucker, 56, exposed her naked breasts to surveillance cameras in Barnegat, New Jersey
Barnegat, N.J. police arrested a woman after they say she got out of her car, lifted her shirt and bra and exposed her breasts to surveillance cameras.

A police report says that 56-year-old Wendy Tucker was driving on Lexington Boulevard at 2 a.m. on March 6th when she got out of her vehicle in the middle of the road.

Question

Michael Moore calls for photos of slaughtered Newtown kids to be released

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Schlockumentary filmmaker Michael Moore isn't pleased with the level of outrage or support for stronger gun control following December's massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

To gin this up further, he wants someone to release the pictures of the slaughtered children:
I believe someone in Newtown, Connecticut - a grieving parent, an upset law enforcement officer, a citizen who has seen enough of this carnage in our country - somebody, someday soon, is going to leak the crime scene photos of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre. And when the American people see what bullets from an assault rifle fired at close range do to a little child's body, that's the day the jig will be up for the NRA. It will be the day the debate on gun control will come to an end. There will be nothing left to argue over. It will just be over. And every sane American will demand action.

Sheriff

Bodies found in Surrey dumping area ID'd

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© CBC NewsPolice have identified the two victims found Wednesday on a remote, dead-end stretch of Colebrook Road in Surrey, B.C.
Canada, British Columbia - Police have identified two bodies found Wednesday on a remote stretch of Colebrook Road in Surrey, B.C., the same spot where two other bodies were found earlier this year.

The bodies of Brett Sheldon Lietz, 54, and Nicole Madelynn Brochu, 40, were discovered around 2 a.m. by Surrey RCMP officers conducting a patrol of the area.

While Lietz was not known to police, Brochu had a criminal record dating from 1989 to 2003.

Sgt. Jennifer Pound of the integrated homicide investigation team released the information in a statement Thursday.

"We do know the two victims were known to each other, as they were living together as roommates," she said.

While police have yet to determine a motive for the homicides, Pound said the cause of death appears to be gunshot wounds.

Police say it is likely the shooting occurred on Colebrook Road where the bodies were found.

Autopsies will be conducted in the next two days.

Surrey's Mayor Diane Watts attended the scene and said people have been calling her, concerned about the bodies being discovered there on what seems like a regular basis.

"We were looking at a lot of different options in terms of lighting down there, looking at putting cameras and of course the RCMP increased patrols because we knew there were some issues with that area," she said.

Eye 2

Swiss police raid home of a 'healer' who injected 16 with HIV-tainted blood

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Swiss police on Friday stormed the Bern home of a self-proclaimed healer who failed to turn up for his trial on charges of injecting 16 people with HIV-tainted blood.

Bern police arrested the unnamed 54-year-old man and a woman in the raid, they said in a statement, without providing further details.

The man had reportedly been holed up in the house for 24 hours as police tried to talk him out after he refused to attend a hearing in Bern.

Pistol

'Trained Marine sniper' threatened to assassinate California Democrat over gun laws

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© Shutterstock
A man claiming to be a trained Marine sniper threatened to assassinate a California lawmaker if he supported an assault weapons ban, newly unsealed court documents obtained by the San Jose Mercury News reveal.

Everett Fred Basham, 45, was arrested in February after sending a threatening email to Democratic state Sen. Leland Yee. Police uncovered several homemade bombs and firearms, including a .416 Barrett sniper rifle, at his Santa Clara home.

"I have 39 confirmed kills in afganistan [sic]," Basham wrote in his email to Yee. "Don't make me get to 40."

His military service has not been confirmed. Police also found fake Army credentials in his home.

Bizarro Earth

Child Protective Services was warned of violence by alleged hatchet murderer

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© HECTOR AMEZCUAPhillip Raymond Hernandez is arraigned on Friday, March 1, 2013 at the Sacramento, jail on murder charges in the hatchet death of his 9-year-old son Matthew Hernandez.
Sacramento County Child Protective Services received a report alleging violent behavior and drug abuse by Phillip Raymond Hernandez on Feb. 4, 22 days before he allegedly killed his 9-year-old son with a hatchet in their South Natomas home.

Despite the warnings about Hernandez, CPS didn't consider the situation serious enough to respond immediately, "as the children do not appear to be in imminent danger at this time."

The person who made the report to CPS, who was not identified in records, said Hernandez used cocaine and methamphetamine and is "very abusive verbally and physically." The report is contained in documents released by CPS in response to a Public Records Act request by The Bee.

The report goes on to say that "he has automatic rifles at his home even though (he) is not supposed to have weapons as (he) is a convicted felon," and that Hernandez let his two boys play with the guns.

Handcuffs

Arkansas father arrested in deaths of 2 infant children

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© Photo courtesy: Washington County (Ark) Sheriff's OfficeTravis Fox
An Arkansas man accused of fatally shaking two of his infant children in separate angry outbursts was charged Thursday with two counts of first-degree murder.

A 7-month-old baby was brought Wednesday to Northwest Medical Center, where doctors found the boy to have suspicious injuries.

Under questioning, the baby's father, Travis Fox, 24, of Springdale, told investigators "that he violently shook the child for an extended amount of time because the child was 'fussing,'''police said in a news release.

"He demonstrated the shake and it was violent," the release said.