Society's Child

California prof.'s email discusses buying 12 machine guns, shooting 200 students

CBS News
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 02:21 UTC

© Orange County District Attorney's Office/The Associated Press
a booking photo of Rainer Reinscheid, 48, a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who was arrested July 24, 2012 and charged with numerous felony arson charges.

Santa Ana, California - When his son killed himself after being punished by his high school for stealing, pharmaceutical sciences professor Rainer Reinscheid was angry.

He blamed the Irvine school's treatment of his son for the teen's death - and the next month, wrote emails describing in graphic detail a plan to buy guns, murder students and administrators, carry out sexual assaults, burn down the school and kill himself, authorities said.

Now, the 48-year-old is being held without bail as prosecutors say the professor who has spent more than a decade at University of California, Irvine is a danger to society.

Prosecutors have charged Reinscheid with five counts of arson and one count of attempted arson for lighting objects ranging from newspapers to brush to a plastic porch chair at the park where his son hanged himself in March, University High School and the home of the assistant principal.

Psychiatrist warned university about accused Colorado gunman

Keith Coffman and Dan Whitcomb
Reuters
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 10:52 UTC

Denver - A psychiatrist who treated the former graduate student accused of killing 12 people in a shooting rampage at a movie theater in Colorado warned her university about him more than a month before the massacre, a published report said on Wednesday.

Dr Lynne Fenton notified a so-called threat-assessment team at the University of Colorado, Denver, in early June that she was alarmed by the behavior of James Holmes, but no further action was taken, the Denver Post reported, citing an anonymous source. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report.

Holmes, 24, was charged on Monday with 24 counts of first-degree murder and 116 counts of attempted murder in the shooting at a midnight screening of the latest Batman movie in suburban Denver, one of the worst outbursts of U.S. gun violence in recent years.

Court papers filed by defense attorneys last week said Holmes, a former neuroscience student at the university's Anschutz Medical Campus, had been a patient of Fenton, who is medical director for student mental health services on campus.

Fox News has reported that Holmes sent Fenton a notebook outlining his plans for the shooting, illustrated by stick-figure drawings, but that it was not opened before the attack.

A university spokeswoman, Jacque Montgomery, declined to comment to Reuters on the Denver Post report, saying she was bound by a protective or "gag" order issued by the judge in the case and by student confidentiality laws.

"I believe, until it's been demonstrated otherwise, that our people did what they should have done," University Chancellor Don Elliman said in a statement, according to Montgomery.

Ontario woman recovering from lightning strike in Manitoba

CBC News
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

Canada - A 23-year-old Ontario woman says she's in good spirits after she survived being struck by lightning while canoeing in a Manitoba river this week.

Corynne McCathie of Innisfil, Ont., says was with six other people, taking part in a Manitoba Pioneer Camp canoe trip on the Bloodvein River, when a major storm blew in on Sunday afternoon.

The group was retreating to safety on a nearby island when McCathie, who is a camp staff member, was hit by lightning while hauling a canoe to shore.

McCathie told CBC News she does not remember the precise moment she was struck, but she remembered having trouble speaking and feeling disconnected from her body.

"I remember waking up and being very disoriented and just seeing my arms in front of me and realizing that I couldn't feel them," she said Tuesday from Winnipeg.

"I saw arms and legs [but] they didn't feel like they were mine, even though they were attached to my body."

Group arrested during G20 sue police, alleging profiling, sexual assault

Sarah Ratchford
The Vancouver Sun
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

Warning! Contains strong language.

Canada, Toronto - A lawsuit against Toronto police is more about alleged sex-based discrimination than being profiled for having "hairy legs," one of the plaintiffs said Wednesday.

Alicia Ridge, 27, is part of a group of seven people from Hamilton suing Toronto police for $1.4 million over their arrests during the 2010 G20 summit, claiming false arrest, battery and malicious prosecution.

The women in the group claim they were profiled by an officer who wrote in his arrest notes that all the women had hairy legs - something he said he associated with G20 protesters.

Ridge, who is a nurse and studying to become a midwife, and also volunteers with a sexual assault centre, said the lawsuit was prompted by allegations beyond the "hairy legs" comment.

"My arresting officer, who was male, decided to do an initial search of my body, which was just basically running his hand up the side of my leg and grabbing my ass, along with sexualized comments and comments that were put out there to create fear," Ridge said Wednesday after serving the lawsuit at police headquarters.

None of the claims has been proven or tested in court. The Toronto Police Services Board was not immediately available to comment on the lawsuit.

The group alleges the police wrongfully arrested them on June 27, 2010 - a day after vandals went on a rampage in downtown Toronto - as they emerged from a pizza parlour.

12-Year-Old Girl Tased Inside Victoria's Secret

Mike Rush
5 KSDK
Fri, 27 Jul 2012 22:23 UTC

Judge Overturns Murder Convictions After Facebook Post Leads to New Witnesses

Michael Allen
Opposing Views
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC

Raymond and Thomas Highers have been in jail, since 1987, for the murder of Robert Karey, who was shot dead at his home.

However, they may be set free due to a Facebook post by an old friend named Mary Evans.

Evans told Fox Detroit what she wrote on the Northeast Detroit Alumni Facebook page in 2009: "All I said was it's too bad or it's sad that the Highers brothers are in prison for life, and that there just started this domino effect."

Apparently, another classmate, who saw the Facebook post, recalled hearing that someone else had committed the murder and tried to find witnesses.

Judge Lawrence Talon, on Thursday, reversed the brother's convictions after "credible and reliable" new evidence surfaced from some [then] teens, who said they were in a car outside Karey's house the night he was shot.

Arkansas police claim man shot himself in head despite handcuffs

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:51 UTC

A Mississippi mother is accusing police in Jonesboro, Arkansas of killing her son after he was found shot in the head with his hands cuffed behind his back in a squad car.

A police report obtained by KAIT indicated that 21-year-old Chavis Chacobie Carter had been a passenger in a pickup truck when Officer Ron Marsh found "some marijuana" and plastic baggies in his possession. Marsh also determined that Carter had been wanted on a warrant after he missed a court date for drug charges in DeSoto County, Mississippi.

Marsh then had Carter "exit the patrol unit, placed him into handcuffs, searched him a second time then placed him into the back seat of the patrol unit."

Jonesboro Police Sergeant Lyle Waterworth told WREG that Carter had been "handcuffed behind his back and double locked, and searched."

UK homeless rate rises by 25% in the recent three years

PressTV
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:06 UTC

© Unknown
A new research shows the number of homeless households in England has surged by a quarter in the recent three years.

The number of the homeless families and individuals in England has surged by 25 percent in the recent three years, a new research shows.

The number of homeless families and individuals in England has surged by a quarter in the recent three years, a new research warns.

According to data experts SSentif, the number of people classed as homeless and in need of emergency accommodation was 50,290 in 2011-12, showing an increase of over 25 percent when compared to 40,020 in 2009-10.

The research also found that regionally, the East of England faced the highest increase, with the number of cases increasing from 3,660 in 2009-10 to 5,270 in 2011-12, up by 44 percent.

Moreover, the figures revealed that the British government's spending on tackling the problem of homelessness has dropped from £213.7m in 2009-10 to £199.8m in 2010-11.

However, a spokesman for the UK Department for Communities and Local Government claimed that these figures were "a narrow and misleading snapshot," adding that the homelessness "is actually lower than for 28 of the last 30 years - and is half the average rate seen under the previous government".

Powercut Cripples Grand Cayman

Søren Dreier
Zen-Haven
Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:00 UTC

A power outage in Grand Cayman, which started at 6:30 this morning and lasted until late afternoon, crippled the entire island Wednesday.

Businesses across Grand Cayman were forced to draw operations to a halt due to the loss of electricity, with many telling their employees to stay home.

Hospitals used backup generators to continue offering services, while police had to be dispatched to direct motorists on the street due to the blackout.

Caribbean Utilities Company, the only electricity provider on the island, said the outage was caused by a fault in one of its substations which affected the entire system.

Assange's Mother Worried About His Health in Embassy 'Conditions Similar to Detention'

Diego Torres
Associated Press
Tue, 31 Jul 2012 00:00 UTC

© AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa
Ecuador's Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, right, talks with mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Christine Assange, during their meeting in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, July 30, 2012. Christine Assange is in Quito to appeal to Ecuador's government to grant her son asylum. The 40-year-old Australian has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since applying for political asylum on June 19.

Quito, Ecuador - The mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said Monday after meeting with Ecuador's foreign minister that she's worried about her son's health after nearly seven weeks' confinement at the South American nation's London embassy.

''He is under a lot of stress and it's been long-term stress now for nearly two years and in conditions which are similar to detention,'' Christine Assange told The Associated Press.

Her son took refuge in the embassy on June 19, requesting political asylum after exhausting all legal appeals to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about sexual misconduct allegations.

Julian Assange, who angered U.S. officials by publishing secret U.S. diplomatic cables and military documents, calls the accusations trumped up and says he fears Sweden will extradite him to the United States for trial.

Ecuadorean officials have said they will not announce a decision on the asylum request until after the London Olympic Games end in mid-August.