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Utah art teacher fired after showing classical nude paintings to his class


RT
Sun, 31 Dec 2017 14:42 UTC
School children kids
© Getty Images/iStockphoto
Educational cards depicting Impressionist and Rococo nudes were accidentally shown to 6th graders, and now a Utah art teacher is fighting for his job back. A pornography complaint lodged against him was rejected by prosecutors.

Mateo Rueda plans to appeal his firing, claiming defamation of character over how Lincoln Elementary School handled it. The school, however, reportedly didn't fire Rueda strictly over the nude paintings, but for how Rueda reacted once students were upset by them, according to the Herald Journal.

The incident occurred on December 4, when students were instructed to study art postcards from the Cache County school's library. 'The Art Box' collection had been a part of the library for years, before Rueda began teaching there, and he says he was unaware that several of the 100 cards contained nudity.
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Briefcase

Detroit files lawsuit against opioid manufacturers

Kelly Burch
The Fix
Thu, 21 Dec 2017 17:17 UTC
opioid lawsuit
© WXYZ.com
The lawsuit targets major pharmaceutical companies such as Purdue as well as drug distributors and retail pharmacy chains.

Detroit is the latest city to sue opioid manufacturers, joining forces with nearby Macomb County to launch a lawsuit that includes many Michigan cities to attempt to stop pharmaceutical companies from making false or misleading marketing claims.

"Opioids-profligately sold to treat virtually any ailment-have destroyed the lives of countless men and women who had the misfortune of suffering from back pain, arthritis, workplace injuries and a countless array of other relatively minor and term-limited painful conditions," the lawsuit reads, according to MLive.

Comment: Will opioid lawsuits by county officials against big pharma set a legal precedent?
According to the attorney who will be filing Bensalem's lawsuit, Greg Heller as pro bono counsel, "Nuisance, fraud negligence, in some situations, breach of contract," apparently will be some of the charges filed. Fraud seems to be a prominent 'attribute' mentioned by those who complain about Pharma tactics regarding pill-pushing...

It will be extremely efficacious legally when some lawsuit can get that legal point "embedded in case law" and have it applied at law regarding the overly-powerful, "money talks" Big Pharma strangleholds on the CDC, FDA and public health agencies due to their lobbying techniques but, more so, with their fraudulent, self-produced-funded-often-fraudulent-and-pseudoscientific "consensus science" research, plus their ever-present sham medical journals they own, produce and publish. Let's not forget Big Pharma's media presence, advertising and political leverage.


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Airplane

Captain Jack Sparrow? Delta pilot reroutes jet back to Detroit due to a bird in a cockpit


RT
Sun, 31 Dec 2017 12:08 UTC
Bird in jet
© Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP
A Delta flight had to reroute and return to Detroit after an unexpected 'feathered' passenger was discovered inside a cockpit. The stowaway - reportedly a tiny sparrow - apparently sneaked inside the flight deck during boarding.

The pilots of Flight 1943 from Detroit to Atlanta saw a small bird that snuck on board shortly after take-off on Saturday, AP reported, citing Delta's statement. The captain decided to turn the jet around and return to Detroit to "avoid a potential distraction" during the flight, Delta said.

The plane landed safely in Detroit, and the unexpected passenger was removed from the cockpit and set free unharmed. While Fox 2 Detroit says it was a sparrow, the captain told ClickOnDetroit.com that the bird looked like a hummingbird.
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Pistol

Kansas: 'Swatting' videogamer hoax results in man shot dead by police in Wichita

Mythili Sampathkumar, Shehab Khan
The Independent
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 12:00 UTC
SWAT team officer
© Shutterstock
SWAT team officer


Online gamers accused of making prank calls by the authorities

A man has been arrested after a father-of-two was killed in a "swatting" prank in Kansas.

A Wichita police officer shot and killed Andrew Finch after a prank caller - suspected to be 25-year-old Tyler Barriss - reportedly told authorities Mr Finch had killed his father and was holding hostages inside the man's home.

Authorities later learned that the call was a hoax, known as "swatting," in which people falsely report an emergency to authorities that requires a police response, usually by Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT, teams.

A law enforcement official who earlier confirmed Mr Barriss' arrest said the shooting stemmed from a dispute over the "Call of Duty" video game. The official was not authorised to discuss the investigation publicly, however.


Comment: It is hard to decide what is more shocking: That videogamers think it is ok to send a SWAT team your way as a prank, or that SWAT officers are so eager to pull the trigger when there is clearly no threat.

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Ambulance

Utility workers find two-year-old child wearing only diaper wandering in cold in Massachusetts


Yahoo!
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 00:01 UTC
winter snowy street

Utility workers found a two-year-old girl wearing only a diaper wandering into traffic on a frigid day in Massachusetts.

Comcast Technicians Shawn Bronson and Michael Payne told The Boston Herald they were restoring service to customers in Monson Thursday when they spotted the child heading toward the middle of the road.

The workers scooped up the child and brought her to a store where they waited for police.

Comment: More from USA News:
Workers find child wearing only diaper wandering in cold
Posted on December 31, 2017 by Jessica Harington

"They did the absolute right thing, they saw a situation and reacted, and the company is extremely proud of them." Comcast spokeswoman Elizabeth Walden said. "In a situation like that, you have a gut response, and they did the right thing. Our top priority was getting her to safety," Payne said. "We just wanted to make sure this little girl was taken care of."

Massachusetts child welfare officials have also been notified.

At the time the toddler was found wandering through the small western Massachusetts community, the temperature was hovering around 9 degrees, though the wind chill had it feeling like it was well below zero, according to the National Weather Service. Once the two men and the toddler went inside the store, a clerk who had just given birth rushed to the storage area and brought back a blanket.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature at the time of the incident in Monson was just 9 degrees. With the wind chill, it felt like well below zero.



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Cut

Two suspects charged in savage murder of 2 women and 2 children in upstate New York

Mark Osborne, Emily Shapiro and Morgan Winsor
ABC News
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 20:53 UTC
Justin Mann and James White
© Troy Police Department
Justin Mann (L) and James White (R) were arrested in connection to a quadruple homicide in Troy, N.Y.
Two men have been arrested in connection with the brutal murder of two women and two children in upstate New York.

James White, 38, and Justin Mann, 24, both of Schenectady, New York, were arrested in the Dec. 21 quadruple killing in Troy, New York, according to Troy Police Capt. Dan DeWolf.

White and Mann were arraigned in Troy City Court on Saturday morning and remanded to the Rensselaer County jail. They had both been brought in for questioning by the police Friday night. Each of the men was charged with one count of first-degree murder and four counts of second-degree murder, according to DeWolf.

They pleaded not guilty to the charges. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 4.

At a press conference later Saturday, Troy Police Chief John Tedesco said one of the men was acquainted with one of the victims.

Comment: See also: Police identified 2 young children, same-sex couple 'savagery' killed in upstate New York

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Target

Jewish leader in Germany calls for stronger police protection as acts of anti-semitism grow

Chris Tomlinson
Breitbart
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 00:00 UTC
Palestinian protest
Former president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany Charlotte Knobloch claims that Jews are increasingly under threat in public and may require police protection to lead a normal life without harassment and violence.

Ms Knobloch, who is now the President of the Jewish Community of Munich and Upper Bavaria, said that Jews are increasingly under threat, Die Welt reports.

"Aggressive anti-Semitism, from verbal hostility on the Internet and in the analogue world to desecration and destruction to physical attacks are commonplace in Germany," she said.

"Jewish life can only take place in public under police protection and the strictest security precautions, or it must be completely cancelled for security reasons," Knobloch added.

Comment: The tragic irony here is that the vociferous call of "never again," and the commensurate acts of brutality that Israel sees as justified in light of this, is exactly what puts Jews in the greatest danger.

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Eye 2

'End of equal rights': Police union chief blasts Berlin's New Year's Eve women's safety area


RT
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 18:19 UTC
Berlin Police
© Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters
The head of Germany's Police Union has slammed the creation of a special safe zone for women at a New Year's Eve celebration at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, saying it implies that women celebrating outside the zone won't be safe.

Rainer Wendt of the German Police Union (DPolG) told the Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung, a German-language daily, that the planned 'Women's Safety Area' sends a "devastating message" that women who venture outside the designated safe zone will be vulnerable to sexual assault. "It says that there are zones of security and zones of insecurity," Wendt said, adding that the zone marks "the end of equal rights, freedom of movement and self-determination."

The union chief added that the zone has a negative "political dimension" and would reignite fears of sexual attacks two years after hundreds of women reported being assaulted or robbed during New Year's Eve celebrations in Cologne.

Organizers of the event - Germany's largest New Year's Eve party, according to the Berliner Zeitung - say that Berlin police proposed the zone after a similar system was introduced in Munich during the city's annual Oktoberfest. The safe zone will be located in a tent set up by the German Red Cross, where a number of specially-trained staffers will be on hand.

Comment: See also: Berlin will provide women-only 'safe spaces' new year's eve

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Attention

The year of technology

James Corbett
Corbett Report
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 13:35 UTC
Biotech
© Big Think
As you no doubt remember, dear reader, I kicked off 2017 with my customary look at the year ahead. This year's prediction? "2017: The Year of Technocracy." As I observed lo those many months ago:
"I find it more and more difficult to shake the conviction that technological developments will shape the narrative of 2017. If this does turn out to be so, it would hardly be the start of some new, never-before-seen trend. Yet even though it's no longer novel to observe that the pace of technological change is accelerating, there are certain inflection points where those changes stop being so theoretical and start impacting our daily lives. I contend that we are living through one such inflection point right now and that it will manifest in all sorts of ways over the next year."
So how did that prediction fare? Well, if this headline from the loyal propagandists at Bloomberg doesn't tell the story, nothing does:

Warming, indeed.
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Star of David

'Day of Rage': Thousands of Palestinians clash with IDF in anti-Trump demonstration


RT
Sat, 30 Dec 2017 20:41 UTC
Palestinian demonstrator hurls stones
© Mohamad Torokman / Reuters
A Palestinian demonstrator hurls stones toward Israeli troops during clashes at a protest against U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, near the West Bank city of Nablus, December 29
Scores were injured as thousands of Palestinians clashed with the IDF, which used live ammo, tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails in the latest Day of Rage anti-Trump protest.

At least 40 people were injured, four seriously, by gunfire in the Gaza Strip in scuffles between protesters and the Israeli Army, which used live ammunition to break up the protest, according to the Palestinian health officials.

The Israeli military said that it retaliated after around 2,000 protesters amassed in the buffer zone at nine locations along the Israeli border and started throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the officers, allegedly shouting "death to America, death to Israel, and death to Trump."

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