Society's Child

'Dozens of arrests yet to come' in sex-trafficking ring, Martin County sheriff says: report

Joe Mario Pedersen
Orlando Sentinel
Sat, 23 Feb 2019 00:11 UTC

© Palm Beach County and Martin County sheriff's offices
Hua Zhang, 58 of Winter Garden, and Lei Wang, 39 of Hobe Sound, were arrested Tuesday by Palm Beach County and Martin County sheriff's offices for their suspected involvement in a large sex trafficking ring spread throughout the Sunshine State.

Florida law enforcement officials recently arrested multiple people in a large sex-trafficking ring stretching throughout Orange, Indian River and Martin counties with ties to New York and China, according to a report by Treasure Coast Newspapers.

A 16-page affidavit was released Wednesday detailing the arrests of Hua Zhang, 58 of Winter Garden, and Lei Wang, 39 of Hobe Sound, who have suspected involvement in the sex trafficking operations at Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Martin County, one of several businesses targeted in the investigation.

"This is a complex case that has been going on for months," said Sheriff William Snyder in Tuesday a press conference. "We have dozens and dozens of arrests yet to come."

'A dangerous game of chicken' on drilling near Chaco Canyon

Jodi Peterson
High Country News
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 21:09 UTC

Chaco Canyon

BACKSTORY

Northwest New Mexico's Chaco Canyon was the hub of an Ancestral Puebloan civilization extending hundreds of miles. The region, which is sacred to Navajo and Pueblo tribes, holds extensive ancestral sites and remnants of ancient roads. While 34,000 acres are protected as Chaco Culture National Historical Park, most of the federal land in the Greater Chaco region has been leased for oil and gas development. Native Americans, New Mexico lawmakers and environmental groups have fought to protect the remainder ("Drilling Chaco: What's Actually At Stake," HCN, 4/13/15).

Comment: See also: Resistance to drilling grows on the Navajo Nation

'Alternative facts' anyone? CNN insists Maduro 'blocked' never-opened bridge to stop aid

RT
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 21:07 UTC

© Reuters / Carlos Eduardo Ramirez
Venezuelan National Guards stand guard at the entrance of the Tienditas cross-border bridge.

In the alternative reality of CNN, Venezuela closed a border bridge to stop delivery of humanitarian aid from the US. The news network apparently missed the thorough debunking of this myth.

Venezuela is moving towards a feared spree of violence on its border, as opposition leader and Washington darling Juan Guaido threatens to take a shipment sent by the US across it in defiance of the border guards.

The US and its protégé say the crates are filled with much-needed medicine and food, but the government in Caracas fears that the aid is actually weapons meant to arm the opposition. After all, US envoy for Venezuela Elliott Abrams did exactly that for the Contras in Nicaragua - running guns under the guise of humanitarian aid.

Comment: So what else is CNN lying about?

Nanny state in Virginia remains strong as governor signs ban on people under 21 from buying tobacco

Associated Press
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 19:54 UTC

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has signed legislation banning people under 21 from buying tobacco and nicotine products, a measure enacted in a state known historically for its tobacco production.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the bill, signed Thursday, received bipartisan support as well as backing from Altria, the nation's largest tobacco company.

Julian Assange gets a new Australian passport - Will UK allow him to finally leave?

Richard Baker
Sydney Morning Herald
Thu, 21 Feb 2019 19:13 UTC

Fugitive Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been issued with a new Australian passport after lengthy negotiations over whether he was subject to an arrest warrant for a "serious foreign offence".

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade official confirmed in a Senate estimates hearing on Thursday that Mr Assange's 2018 application for a new passport had been accepted. Consular and Crisis Management Division first assistant secretary Andrew Todd said, "Mr Assange does have an Australian passport".

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed Mr Assange received his new Australian passport in September 2018. The passport has gone unreported until now.

It's an important development for Mr Assange amid reports the Ecuadorian government, which has housed him in its London embassy since 2012 after Swedish authorities requested his extradition as a suspect in a rape case, may be preparing to end his political asylum.

'A haven for jihadis': Swedish MP lashes out at politicians for lax terrorism laws

Sputnik
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 19:05 UTC

Swedish Moderate Party MP Hanif Bali said his country's politicians should apologise to the people for not legislating against terrorism several years ago. Now it's already too late, he said, while comparing Sweden to a haven for jihadists.

During a televised debate on jihadis retuning to Sweden, Moderate MP Hanif Bali has lashed out against the government's passive attitude toward extremism and the lax laws allowing terrorists to go unpunished.

"These [jihadist] trips have been happening for several years now, but you haven't done anything", Bali told Green Party spokesman Rasmus Ling, whose party has been part of the Swedish government during Europe's migrant crisis and enacted laws that led to the current situation.

Bali called it offensive that there are people whose parents have been slaughtered by terrorists and who are stuck in refugee camps in Syria, and Sweden chooses to take care of terrorists instead.

Comment:

Jussie Smollett's hate crime hoax exposes America's shocking skepticism shortage

Michael McCaffrey
RT
Thu, 21 Feb 2019 19:06 UTC

Jussie Smollett story is a microcosm of what is wrong with America and the mainstream media.

On Thursday, US actor Jussie Smollett was arrested in Chicago after being charged with filing a false police report.

Smollett, a gay African-American actor who stars on the hit TV show Empire, claimed that on January 29 he was the victim of a hate crime when two white men hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him, punched, kicked and poured bleach over him, and then put a noose around his neck while taunting him by proclaiming "this is MAGA (Make America Great Again) country."

Smollett's story was dubious to some because the idea of two Trumpites out at 2am in progressive Chicago hunting gay black men with a noose and bleach in minus 20 degree weather seemed far-fetched, as does the idea that they would be pop-culturally aware enough to have watched Empire and recognize a marginal celebrity like Smollett in the first place.

Woke and broke: Oscars resort to purging rather than risking going off script

Simon Rite
RT
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:59 UTC

The Oscars is upon us, where people full of plastic will be rewarded for being good at pretending. The only real tension comes from waiting to find out which fake scandal will be cooked up at the ceremony this year.

The organizers now live in a such a state of fear of causing offence that it's going ahead without a host this year. Comedian Kevin Hart was going to take on the low-reward, high-risk gig, but someone unearthed homophobic tweets he'd sent back in 2010, so that was the end of that, and he stepped down.

In some ways, I was impressed how ahead of his time Hart was. There can't have been many people who had spotted Twitter's potential for bigotry all the way back in 2010!

Personally, I'm waiting for a remake of 'Back to the Future' where, after being sacked over an inappropriate photograph taken decades earlier, Marty McFly takes his DeLorean back in time to burn all the copies of his high-school yearbook and assassinate the inventors of Twitter. Now THAT would be a film deserving of an Oscar.

Blasphemy! Russian Orthodox churchgoers offended by anime drawings of religious icons

RT
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:56 UTC

A social media account sharing anime-style drawings of religious icons has caused public outcry in Russia, with priests and believers calling the artwork "inappropriate" and "sinful."

A social media group followed by thousands of people has been posting images of religious icons with the faces of characters from Japanese cartoons. The pictures, which feature representations of Jesus, Mary and a number of saints, seemed to capture the imagination of netizens but failed to impress members of the Russian Orthodox Church, some of whom accused the artists of blasphemy. A number of people even suggested that the controversial pictures may have breached Russian laws.

The provocative images came to the public's attention in mid-February, when a TV channel in the Russian city of Ufa (1,355 km east of Moscow) aired an interview with a local church leader who called the artists' creative efforts "inappropriate" and "sinful."

Singer R. Kelly charged by grand jury with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse, warrant for his arrest issued

The Blast
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 18:51 UTC

The R. Kelly case was presented to a grand jury and now the singer has been hit with 10 separate counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Kelly is due in court in March.

As The Blast first reported, the grand jury was convened last week after attorney Michael Avenatti delivered an alleged sex tape to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office of Kelly appearing to engage in sexual acts with an underage girl. Kelly is also still under investigation in Fulton County, GA over similar accusations.

Avenatti will be holding a press conference Friday afternoon to address the charges against Kelly. After he was charged, Avenatti said, "After 25 years of serial sexual abuse and assault of underage girls, the day of reckoning for R Kelly has arrived."

The R&B star has continually denied any allegations of sexual abuse.

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Society's Child

'Dozens of arrests yet to come' in sex-trafficking ring, Martin County sheriff says: report

'A dangerous game of chicken' on drilling near Chaco Canyon

'Alternative facts' anyone? CNN insists Maduro 'blocked' never-opened bridge to stop aid

Nanny state in Virginia remains strong as governor signs ban on people under 21 from buying tobacco

Julian Assange gets a new Australian passport - Will UK allow him to finally leave?

'A haven for jihadis': Swedish MP lashes out at politicians for lax terrorism laws

Jussie Smollett's hate crime hoax exposes America's shocking skepticism shortage

Woke and broke: Oscars resort to purging rather than risking going off script

Blasphemy! Russian Orthodox churchgoers offended by anime drawings of religious icons

Singer R. Kelly charged by grand jury with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sex abuse, warrant for his arrest issued

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