Society's ChildS


Footprints

Head of TSA sacked amid furor over long lines at airport security

airport security line
© Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty ImagesPassengers stand in line to go through a TSA security checkpoint as they head to their flights at Reagan National Airport.
The Transportation Security Administration ousted its head of security this week because the agency is seeking a "different approach," not because of any wrongdoing, TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger said Tuesday.

Kelly Hoggan was removed from his post amid an uproar over long lines at airport security checkpoints and intense scrutiny of bonus payments. Neffenger said he hoped to find another place "for Hoggan's talents" within TSA.

"Given the specifics of daily volume, I felt it was important to have a different management approach going forward than we've had in the past," Neffenger told USA TODAY. He said his goal was to gauge how to move travelers more efficiently through lines, rather than just faster.

Comment: See also:


Handcuffs

3rd largest jail system in U.S. sued for jailing people too poor to pay bail

Harris County Sheriff's Office
© Wikipedia701 Jail of the Harris County Sheriff's Office.
The Harris County Jail, the largest jail system in Texas and the third largest in the US, runs a strict detainment system that jails people too poor to pay bail, according to a new lawsuit.

People are detained at the Harris County Jail irrespective of whether they can afford a bail amount and without the assistance of a defense attorney or the ability to argue on their own behalf, according to a lawsuit filed by the group Equal Justice Under Law.

"Harris County's wealth-based pretrial detention system violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the United States Constitution," the lawsuit says. "It has no place in modern American law."

The Washington, DC-based nonprofit is calling for an injunction to halt the current bail system, according to the Houston Press. The lawsuit names Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman and five bail-hearing magistrates who, the lawsuit alleges, rarely inquire if a detained person can pay the bail set for them, which is required by law.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Maranda O'Donnell, 22, a mother of a four-year old who was arrested for allegedly driving without a proper license and then jailed for two days at the Harris County Jail because she could not pay $2,500 bail. O'Donnell and her daughter live with a friend and rely on federal assistance for food. She was scheduled to begin a restaurant job, but her arrest put the position in jeopardy.

Comment: 40 reasons U.S. jails and prisons are full of black and poor people


Stock Down

Despite better socio-economic status, White Americans have far higher mortality rates than Hispanics

multicultural america
A fascinating and disturbing paper from Princeton social scientists Anne Case and Angus Deaton reveals a shocking deterioration of health among what can be called, to echo Michael Harrington's famous 1962 book on poverty, the Other White America.

The Other White America is made up of the approximately 55 million white non-Hispanic American adults who have no formal education beyond high school. This group compromises a little more than one third of all white non-Hispanics, and includes more than one in every five American adults. If it were an independent nation, the population of the OWA would be larger than the adult population of every European country other than Germany.

The deteriorating health of the Other White America is seen most clearly among its middle-aged residents. In a development that has almost no precedent in the public health statistics of advanced economies, the mortality rate for middle-aged whites with no more than a high school education actually increased by 22.3 percent between 1999 and 2013. This increase correlates closely with educational levels: Over this same time, the mortality rate of middle-aged whites with at least a BA degree fell by 24 percent, which is consistent with the rate of decline in mortality in the rest of the population, both in the United States and in other developed nations.

Arrow Down

Brother of 'Guantanamo Diary' author denied entry to US, sent back to Germany

Yahdih Ould Slahi
© acluvideos / YouTubeYahdih Ould Slahi holds up a photo of his brother Mohamedou in a May 2016 video by American Civil Liberties Union.
US authorities detained, interrogated and sent back a German citizen flying in to campaign for the release of his brother - author of the best-selling "Guantanamo Diary," who has been imprisoned and tortured at the US camp since 2002.

Mohamedou Ould Slahi's memoir, heavily redacted by government censors, was published in 2015 and quickly became a best-seller. The Mauritanian native was arrested in 2001 and rendered to Jordan for interrogation by the CIA. He was transferred to Guantanamo Bay the following year.

His younger brother Yahdih, a German citizen, has campaigned for Mohamedou's release for years. Yahdih was supposed to attend a number of events in the US this week, seeking to persuade Guantanamo's Periodic Review Board to set Mohamedou free at the June 2 hearing.

Comment: See also: America's prison system looks more and more like its torture sites


Bell

Culture of cruelty: North Carolina mother outraged after teacher duct-tapes 9-year-old son to desk

Knollwood Elementary
© WCNC
A North Carolina elementary teacher who allegedly duct taped a student into his desk will not face criminal charges, though she resigned from her position after the child's mother complained.

Lynda Santamaria told WSOC her son's classmate at Knollwood Elementary School in Rowan County recorded three videos last Friday of the unnamed teacher using duct tape to restrain her 9-year-old son, and one allegedly shows the boy with tape around his body and chair.

School officials confirmed the incident occurred, but acknowledged only one of the videos that does not show the child with tape on his body. The video shows the student in his seat, with tape running from one side of his desk behind his chair to the other side of his desk, according to the news site.

School officials and the Rowan County Sheriff's office allege the teacher never placed tape directly on the boy's body, but Santamaria contends the other videos clearly show otherwise.

"There was another video where she was putting tape on his stomach and the back of his chair," the mother said. "There were three videos," she told WLTX. "One was tape around the ground as a boundary for him. The other one was a video where she was putting tape around his desk and chair, and another one where the tape went around his stomach and the chair."

Comment: Public education and hystericized society: For children in the U.S., school is the first indoctrination into the American police state


Robot

Rise of the machines: Robots wipe out 60K jobs at Taiwanese factory

human robot handshake
Human labor is worth less than ever at the notorious Foxconn factory.

The company, known for producing Apple products and other American consumer electronics, was already notorious for driving workers to suicide at its Shenzhen, China location and prompting suicide nets outside the buildings.

Now, the rise of robots and automation is displacing a staggering 60,000 of its 110,000 strong workforce at a Foxconn factory in Taiwan, delivering a fatal blow to largely migrant wage earners.

Arrow Up

The growing international revolt against glyphosate

glyphosate protest
I must make a confession. I never thought it would get this far. There is an absolutely amazing international revolt against the most deadly and most widely used weed killer in world agriculture - glyphosate. Those of you who have followed my earlier writings can detect my feeling of pessimism that mere "democratic" grass-roots protest, combined with a scientific assessment from an agency of WHO that glyphosate was a "probable carcinogen" would be enough to stop the pending, twice-postponed EU Commission renewal of the expiring license for glyphosate in the EU. It almost doesn't matter at this point what the ultimate vote is when the next EU Commission glyphosate meeting is convened. The genie is out of the bottle. One of the world's most important eugenics projects to maim and ultimately reduce human population is on the brink of being banned much as DDT decades ago.

On May 19, a revised proposal by the European Commission to re-approve glyphosate for use in Europe for 9 more years (rather than the original 15 years), but with almost no restrictions on use, failed to secure the required qualified majority among EU governments. This is an amazing and very positive development for democratic empowerment against an institution increasingly seen - not only by the British population - as an anti-democratic, even totalitarian structure irresponsive to the most basic concerns for the health and safety of EU citizens.

The agri-chemical industry bigs—Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and friends - are stunned at their failure. Corruption in government corridors whether in Berlin or Brussels seems to be losing its efficacy.

The next step for the troubled glyphosate renewal process will be for the EU Commission, those faceless, unelected bureaucrats, to come up with a new revised proposal that will bring Germany to approval by end of June when the old license expires or order glyphosate withdrawn from the entire EU market within six months according to Henry Rowlands' international GMO watchdog media, Sustainable Pulse.

Comment:


Hearts

Gaza family mourns loss of 3 young children who burned to death from tipped candle (Video)

Mother of al-Hindi sons
© AFP/Mohammed AbedThe mother of the Abu Hindi family (L) mourns during the funeral of three of her sons who died in a fire caused by a candle at the family home, at the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on May 7, 2016.
On May 7, 2016, fire broke out in the Abu al-Hindi home in Gaza's Shati (Beach) refugee camp. Started by a tipped candle, the flames grew quickly grew out of control.

Three children, Yusra, 3, Rahaf, 2, and Nasser, 6 months, perished in the burning house, and Muhannad, 8, was severely burned. Ali, 6, is the only survivor without physical injuries but lives with deep psychological trauma.

Neighbors attempted to rescue the children by breaking a hole through the wall, but by the time they could reach the children, it was too late.

The fire is a direct result of severe electricity shortages due to the ongoing and tightening Israeli/Egyptian since and repeated Israeli military assaults.

In April, Gaza's sole power plant ran out of fuel. Prior to that, the power plant was working at partial capacity due to repeated Israeli military attacks since 2006. This has only been exacerbated by political infighting between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.

Since the beginning of 2016, the Palestinian Authority, which is dominated by Fatah, has gradually lifted fuel tax exemptions to Gaza's power plant and imposed a 'blue tax', rendering the power plant unable to purchase fuel and further forcing Gaza's residents to rely on candlelight.

Deadly candle fires have occurred repeatedly since Israel imposed the siege in 2006. Since 2010, 29 Palestinians, mostly children, have died in home fires.


Comment: All of this - the pain, suffering and heartbreak - just so the psychopaths running Israel can lay claim to a piece of real estate. It's truly horrifying.


Eye 1

'Obsessed' pharmacist drugged co-worker 23 times for rejecting sexual advances

Yan Chi 'Anthony' Cheung
© 9 NewsYan Chi 'Anthony' Cheung (centre in hooded top) pleaded guilty to poisoning offences at Waverley Local Court in Sydney
A pharmacist from Sydney has pleaded guilty to spiking the drink of a colleague 23 times over the space of a year because she rejected his sexual overtures. The defendant would slip the drugs into his victim's coffee or water, leaving her feeling drowsy.

Yan Chi 'Anthony' Cheung pleaded guilty at the court hearing in Australia on Tuesday of putting phenergan, doxylamine, endep, deptran and seruguel, in his 26-year-old colleague's drinks.

The 35-year-old would spike Pamela Leung's drink every couple of weeks and this carried on for one year. The pair worked together at a pharmacy on the University of New South Wales' campus.

"During their employment together the accused began making sexual advances towards the victim, rough brushing past her breasts, buttocks and hands," court documents said, as cited by 7 News.

"The victim felt as though [Cheung] became obsessed with her," the statement added.

Attention

Masked provocateurs: Belgian police clash with anti-austerity protesters at 60,000-strong rally in Brussels

Demonstrators march in central Brussels, Belgium
© Eric Vidal / Reuters
Belgian riot police deployed water cannons to disperse a major anti-austerity demonstration attended by tens of thousands of people in central Brussels. At least two policemen and several protesters have been injured.

Brussels' main commissioner Pierre Vandersmissen was among the injured along with another policeman, local media reports citing Brussels police department.

Initially peaceful the rally that gathered some 60,000 people turned violent after a group of around 100 masked activists broke away from the main rally and started throwing objects at police and vandalizing publicity boards near Brussels South Station. Clashes broke out and police intervened using water cannons and - reportedly - tear gas. Reports say at least 10 people have been arrested so far.

Security measures were reinforced prior to Tuesday's demonstration since the Brussels bombings two months ago.