Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

'Massive environmental disaster' in Canada as toxic tailing pond floods waterways

toxic tailing
© Image: Screenshot from Cariboo Regional District video
Water ban put in place as a tailing pond gives way and tens of millions of gallons of waste course through area rivers and lakes

A middle-of-the-night breach of the tailings pond for an open-pit copper and gold mine in British Columbia sent a massive volume of toxic waste into several nearby waterways on Monday, leading authorities to issue a water-use ban.

Slurry from Mount Polley Mine near Likely, B.C. breached the earthen dam around 3:45 am on Monday, with hundreds of millions of gallons - equivalent to 2,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, according to Canada's Global News - gushing into Quesnel Lake, Cariboo Creek, Hazeltine Creek and Polley Lake. An estimated 300 homes, plus visitors and campers, are affected by the ban on drinking and bathing in the area's water.

Chief Anne Louie of the Williams Lake Indian band told the National Post the breach was a "massive environmental disaster."

With salmon runs currently making their way to their spawning grounds, "Our people are at the river side wondering if their vital food source is safe to eat," said Garry John, aboriginal activist and member of the board of directors of the Council of Canadians, in a press release.

Heart - Black

Insurance broker pays out $21K settlement to 73-year-old in buckets of small change

Andres Carrasco
© KNBCAndres Carrasco and his "settlement."
" What a bunch of a-holes.
Andres Carrasco filed a lawsuit in 2012 against Adriana's Insurance Service, Inc. alleging he was physically assaulted by one of the company's employees.
After agreeing to a settlement with Andres Carrasco in June, Adriana's Insurance decided to deliver the funds in the form of a check -- and buckets and buckets of quarters, dimes, nickels and pennies.
The guy is a senior citizen and recently had a hernia operation and is unable to lift the buckets. Apparently eight Adriana's Insurance Service employees arrived at Carrasco's lawyers office and just started dropping off buckets of loose change that amounted to around $21,000.
"I am disappointed by the way Adriana's treats their customers and the elderly," Carrasco said in the statement. "We might be poor, but we are people too."
Unsurprisingly, when contacted by the press, Adriana's Insurance Service was unavailable for comment.

Not really sure that they could say anything to defend such a cruel and childish action anyway.

Bomb

'Bomb Gaza': Users call on Google Play to remove game that lets users carry out Israeli air strikes on Palestinians

bomb gaza game
© Google Play
Users have called on Google to remove the game, which has been available to download since 29 July

Google is facing criticism for continuing to allow Android mobile users to download a game called "Bomb Gaza", in which players are required to "drop bombs and avoid killing citizens".

The app, which was uploaded on 29 July, has been installed up to 1,000 times and received at least one report as "inappropriate". As of Monday evening, the game was no longer available on Google Play.

According to the game's description and a series of screenshots, users gain points by controlling aircraft marked with Israeli flags as they drop bombs on cartoon Hamas militants.

It comes as more than 1,800 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Gaza conflict. Israel has confirmed that 64 of its soldiers have died in combat, while three civilians have been killed by cross-border shelling from Gaza.

Responding to the game in its review section online, Iqra Iqbal wrote that it was an "abomination", adding: "This is a violation of human rights. My beloved brothers and sisters are dying in Gaza and some stupid ignoramus decides to make a game like this.

Others said it was a "messed up game" and "disgusting", while Saadat Ali said: "Request all to scroll to the bottom and flag this app as inappropriate to Google."
bomb gaza_ google
People also took to Twitter to voice their criticism of the game, and user Elliott Clarkson wrote: "Google Play's approval process? Non-existent. So games like Bomb Gaza get through."

It is not the only game available on Google Play that involves bombing Gaza, including "Iron Dome", "Gaza Assault: Code Red" that tells users to "secure the region" by taking control of "an Israeli UAV equipped with powerful weapons in an attempt to secure the region".

Bug

New York courthouse overrun by fleas, forced to shut doors

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© Orleanschamber.com
A flea infestation forced a courthouse in western New York state to shut its doors for the second straight day on Tuesday, officials said.

The Orleans County Courthouse in Albion, about 34 miles northwest of Rochester, is airing out after being flea bombed in recent days, said county spokesman Chuck Nesbitt.

"There needs to be a period of ventilation prior to re-occupation," Nisbett said.

It was unclear how the courthouse became overrun by fleas, Nisbett said. The problem was first reported late last week, according to local media.

Flea poison fumes would likely clear by Wednesday morning, making it safe to use the building again, Nesbitt said, noting that the final decision on when to reopen lay with court officials.

A statement on the New York courts website said that Orleans County Court matters scheduled during the closure would be diverted to a nearby Village of Albion office building. Court officials did not return calls on Tuesday.

Evil Rays

Florida police officer fired for taunting hungry inmate with food, then threatening to Tase him

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© Hlntv.com
A Sanford, Florida police officer was fired after he taunted a jailed inmate with McDonald's french fries and later threatened the inmate with his service Taser while the inmate washed his patrol car, The Orlando Sentinel reported.

Nine-year-veteran Mickey Hinkley was placed on administrative leave when his superiors discovered the incidents on June 4, 2014, but was only fired yesterday after an investigation determined that he had violated departmental policy.

According to police documents obtained by The Sentinel, Hinkley forced inmate Victor Gonzaga Rivera to wash his patrol car. When Hinkley complained that Rivera had not put enough "tire shine" on his wheels, he also activated his service Taser, which caused an afraid Rivera to take off running.

Rivera was not hurt, and Hinkley told investigators that he was merely "testing" his Taser when he turned it on. The investigation also revealed that earlier that same day, Hinkley had taunted Rivera with a bag from McDonald's that he claimed contained french fries.

Sheeple

Louisiana church posts video of priest receiving standing ovation after child sex accusations

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© Rawstory
A Louisiana priest received a standing ovation from his church over the weekend following new details about sexual abuse of a 9-year-old boy in the 1970s.

A report released by Minnesota Public Radio last month included a never-before-published affidavit, which had been sealed by a federal judge in 1995. The document indicated that Father Gilbert Dutel "had been accused of coercing young adult men into having sex."

"Well, he would just put his arms around me and he was I guess trying to be consoling, kind of gentle and then he just started playing with me and he unzipped my pants," the victim recalled, according to the affidavit. "He performed oral sex on me."

The victim said that he had around eight sexual encounters with Dutel in total. Two other priests were also mentioned in the affidavit, but this was the first time that Dutel's name had been made public. According to Minnesota Public Radio, Bishop Harry Flynn later told lawyers that Dutel had been "cured," and that the diocese needed to keep him due to a shortage of priests.

Star of David

"I'm a rabbi in mourning for a Judaism being murdered by Israel."

Gaza, palestine
© Reuters/Suhaib SalemA Palestinian boy comforts his father, who medics said was wounded by Israeli shelling in Shejaia, at a hospital in Gaza City, July 30, 2014.
My heart is broken as I witness the suffering of the Palestinian people and the seeming indifference of Israelis. All my life I've been a champion of Israel, proud of its many accomplishments in science and technology that have benefited the world, insistent on the continuing need for the Jewish people to have a state that offers protections from anti-Semitism that has reared its head continuously throughout Christian and Islamic societies, willing to send my only child to serve in the Israeli Army (the paratroopers unit-tzanchanim), and enjoying the pleasures of long swaths of time in which I could study in Jerusalem and celebrate Shabbat in a city that weekly closed down the hustle and bustle of the capitalist marketplace for a full 25 hours. And though as editor of Tikkun I printed articles challenging the official story of how Israel came to be, showing its role in forcibly ejecting tens of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 and allowing Jewish terrorist groups under the leadership of (future Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir) to create justified fears that led hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians to flee for their lives, I always told myself that the dominant humanity of the Jewish people and the compassionate strain within Torah would reassert itself once Israel felt secure.

That belief began to wane in the past eight years when Israel, faced with a Palestinian Authority that promoted nonviolence and sought reconciliation and peace, ignored the Saudi Arabian-led peace initiative that would have granted Israel the recognition that it had long sought, an end to hostilities, and a recognized place in the Middle East, refused to stop its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and imposed an economically crushing blockade on Gaza. Even Hamas, whose hateful charter called for Israel's destruction, had decided to accept the reality of Israel's existence, and while unable to embrace its "right" to exist, nevertheless agreed to reconcile with the Palestinian Authority and in that context live within the terms that the PA would negotiate with Israel.

Ambulance

New York EMTs jump in to help handcuffed man being beaten by NYPD

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© NYDailynews
The New York Police Department said on Tuesday it was investigating a report that two emergency medical technicians jumped in to stop four police officers who were punching a handcuffed patient.

The NYPD's Internal Affairs unit was looking into the report that the officers repeatedly struck a shackled and handcuffed patient on a stretcher before the New York Fire Department EMTs intervened to end the beating, an NYPD spokesman said.

He declined to confirm details of the July 20 incident at the 67th Precinct station house in the East Flatbush section of Brooklyn, which was first reported by the New York Daily News. Fire Department officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Citing an FDNY report, the Daily News said the police officers and the EMTs had been called to the station house to help transport the patient, who was combative and banging his head against the wall, to a nearby hospital.

The emotionally disturbed patient spit on the officers and swore at them, and they responded by hitting him in the face, pulling him off the stretcher to the ground and then hurling him back onto the stretcher, the Daily News said.

Comment: With the violent history of the NYPD and what recently happened to Eric Garner, hopefully more people will stand up against this sort of horrific brutality.
  • NYPD Twitter campaign backfires, flooded with photos of police abuse
  • Father of six dies after New York police place him in chokehold for selling untaxed cigarettes



Camera

Haunting photos reveal the lives of Syrian refugees

Now in its fourth year, the Syrian war is as bloody as ever, with more than 170,000 people killed in the conflict since 2011, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Journalist and photographer Ben Taub has spent recent weeks in Kilis, a Turkish city near the Syrian border, documenting the lives of people displaced by the ongoing horror of war.

"Syria's war can be heard every day in distant booms and ambulance sirens," Taub told BuzzFeed. "For most Syrians, escaping the line of fire does not qualify as having left the war behind, as the crisis continues to haunt those from whom it took homes, friends, family members, pets, comfort, and sometimes limbs."

Taub said he wants his work to "give a sense of this loss, but also a glimmer of hope through the strength and resilience Syria's civilians demonstrate in spite of what war has taken from them."
syrian refugee
© Ben TaubA Syrian refugee who suffers from a congenital heart disorder, living in a makeshift camp in Kilis.
"Bakri Douer's son didn't give a name, but did explain that he's in need of medical care for a congenital heart condition. A long-healed scar bisects his ribcage from prior heart surgery. While medical care and NGO support is readily available to registered Syrian refugees in southern Turkey, residents of the makeshift camp lack documents and have no addresses, no running water, and no electricity for which to pay and show utility bills as proof of residency. Proof of residency would render him eligible for the medical treatment he needs. Meanwhile, he can sometimes be found begging in front of the few hotels in Kilis."

People 2

Pennsylvania mother discovers son is dead after smelling foul odor in home

Image
A mother, alerted by a foul odor, found out her son died four days earlier in their Pennsylvania home, and on Monday an autopsy was under way and the boy's father remained jailed in the case.

The 8-year-old boy, Jarrod Tutko, Jr., was among five children in the family who suffer from medical or developmental problems, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News website.

He was being cared for by his father in an upper bedroom of the Harrisburg home while his mother, Kimberly Tutko, tended to his 10-year-old sister, who is comatose, on another floor, according to the Patriot-News website.

The mother had not seen the boy, who was prone to smear feces on himself, in four years out of fear she would carry an infection back to his sister, the news site reported.