Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

US: '4 going on 40': Day care owner, 72, convicted of sexually abusing toddler says he did it because she was 'promiscuous'

Michael Zennie
DailyMail.co.uk
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:05 UTC
Image
© Montana Department of Correction'Low risk': Albert Gaub appealed a state ruling that classified him as having a 'moderate risk' of abusing children again
The 72-year-old owner of a day care center in Missoula, Montana, told police he sexually abused a 1-year-old girl he was looking after because she was 'promiscuous.'

After he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting the girl for a year and a half, Albert Gaub was sentenced to 15 years in prison and classified as a moderate risk to abuse children again.

But Gaub's lawyer appealed the classification and said his client is a low-risk sex offender. He argued the state's designation was a 'substantial injustice' to Gaub.

The Montana Supreme Court disagreed and unanimously struck down the legal challenge last week.

When he was arrested in 2010, Gaub - who owned Cuddles and More day care - told police his victim was '4 going on 40,' the Attorney General's Office said.
Read More...
Stormtrooper

US: New York police evict anti-Wall Street protesters

Michelle Nichols
Reuters
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press/Mary Alaffer A demonstrator yells at police officers as they order Occupy Wall Street protesters to leave Zuccotti Park, their longtime encampment in New York, early Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011.
Police wearing helmets and carrying shields moved to evict protesters with the Occupy Wall Street movement early on Tuesday from the park in New York City's financial district where they have camped since September.

Authorities declared that the continued occupation of Zuccotti Park -- which had become a sea of tents, tarps and protest signs with hundreds of demonstrators sleeping there -- posed a health and safety threat.

Scores of police barricaded streets around the park, which had been lit up with spotlights, and were keeping people about a block away. More people were arriving at the scene to support Occupy Wall Street after the protesters sent out a mass text message alerting followers to the raid.

"They gave us about 20 minutes to get our things together," protester Sam Wood said. "It's a painful process to watch, they are sweeping through the park."

The protesters had set up camp in Zuccotti Park on September 17 to protest a financial system they say mostly benefits corporations and the wealthy. Their movement has inspired similar protests against economic inequality in other cities, and in some cases have led to violent clashes with police.

The office of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the protesters should "temporarily leave" the park and remove their tents and tarps.
Read More...
Crusader

US: Bishops Say Government Eroding Religious Liberty

Rachel Zoll
The Associated Press
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 06:34 UTC
Image
© The Associated Press / Patrick SemanskyBishop Robert Finn, of Kansas City, Mo., chats after a meeting at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall assembly in Baltimore, Monday, Nov. 14, 2011. Finn was indicted in October for waiting five months to tell police about hundreds of images of alleged child pornography that were found on a priest's computer. He is the highest-ranking church member in the sex abuse scandal to face criminal charges.
U.S. Roman Catholic bishops vowed Monday to defend their religious liberty in the face of growing acceptance of gay marriage and what they called attempts by secularists to marginalize faith.

Bishop William Lori, leader of a new national religious liberty committee, condemned federal and state policies that he said interfered with the church's ability to provide social services, from health care to immigrant support to international aid.

In Illinois, government officials stopped working with Catholic Charities on adoptions and foster-care placements after 40 years because the agency refused to recognize a new civil union law. Illinois bishops had sued the state but on Monday said they would stop the legal fight and no longer provide state-funded services.

In New York, the bishops, along with Orthodox Jewish leaders and others, have complained that the religious exception in this year's law allowing gay marriage is too weak to be effective.
Read More...
Heart - Black

US, California: Social networking pioneer who took on Facebook commits suicide at age 22

Jessica Satherley and Michael Zennie
The Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:54 UTC
Image
© New York TimesPioneer: llya Zhitomirskiy believed he could change the world by giving users more privacy and more control in social networking
  • One of four friends from NYU who launched Diaspora* site, meant to protect users' privacy
  • Group raised more than $200,000 in donations
  • Mark Zuckerberg praised his project
    • A 22-year-old social networking pioneer and Internet privacy advocate who dared to challenge Facebook and Google is dead.

    Ilya Zhitomirskiy died Saturday after San Francisco police were summoned for a reported suicide, police spokesman Officer Albie Esparza said.

    Mr Zhitomirskiy was one of the founders Diaspora*, a new social networking service meant to give users more control of their information online, and sought to lure people away from bigger sites like Facebook, Google and Twitter.

    Police would not release other details of his death and a medical examiner's report could take weeks before it becomes public.

    Mr Zhitomirskiy and three friends, Daniel Grippi, Maxwell Salzberg, and Raphael Sofaer, launched a trial run of Diaspora* last year that attracted the attention of The New York Times and National Public Radio and left the tech world buzzing.
Read More...
Heart - Black

US, Ohio: Caught by his mom and dad: Boy, 13, faces trial for 'raping girl aged FIVE in McDonald's play area' after parents recognise him on police film

Mark Duell and Daniel Bates
The Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:21 UTC
  • Teenager denies raping girl on October 22 in Anderson Township, Ohio
  • Police say he inappropriately touched him and got her to do the same to him
  • He faces trial for assault from next Tuesday after entering plea on Saturday
A 13-year-old boy who allegedly inappropriately touched a five-year-old girl in the play area of a McDonald's restaurant will be tried for raping her after his parents handed him in to police.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denied sexually assaulting her following the incident on October 22 in Anderson Township, Ohio, in a court hearing in Cincinnati on Saturday.

But authorities claim the boy touched the girl before making her touch him in an inappropriate way and then walked out of the McDonald's as the victim burst into tears and went to her grandmother.
Image
© unknownSuspect: The boy, who is just 13, was brought in to police last Thursday by his parents and charged with rape
Read More...
Stormtrooper

Breaking News! US: Occupy Wall Street: New York police raid Zuccotti Park


Los Angeles Times
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 12:56 UTC
Image
© unknown
New York City police began raiding the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park early Tuesday.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's office ordered the protesters out of the park but said they would be able to return, the Associated Press reported.

The Occupy group's website carried the headline "NYPD is raiding Liberty Square," the former name of the park, while video streaming on the site showed police encountering demonstrators.
Read More...
Heart - Black

Briton: Boy, 10, 'snatched from the street by paedophile' is found tied to radiator in flat

Andy Dolan, Katherine Faulkner and Claire Ellicott
The Daily Mail, UK
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 01:04 UTC
  • Youngster pleaded 'please help, I've been kidnapped' after being taken
  • Police arrest three men on suspicion of kidnap
  • Family move out of the residential block
A boy of ten suspected to have been kidnapped by a paedophile was rescued after he was seen banging on a flat window shouting 'please help, I've been kidnapped'.

He had been snatched off the street 300 yards from his home.

He was found naked and tied to a radiator with a white sheet in the empty flat two hours later after shouting to a passing woman for help.
Image
© unknownConcerned: Neighbours and members of community gather outside Gravity Mews, Oldbury, where the boy was allegedly found
Read More...
Bell

US: Christmas Tree Tax: Ho, Ho, No


The Sydney Morning Herald
Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:00 UTC
snow, christmas tree
© unknown
Most people probably agree that the venerable Christmas tree doesn't need any help with its classic, holiday image.

But not if you happen to work for the Obama administration.

In one of the looniest - if not Grinchiest - proposals ever to come out of Washington's chimney stack in recent years, President Obama's Agriculture Department actually proposed a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees.

Fortunately, someone in the administration had the good sense this week to ax this goofy idea.

But really?

Taxing Christmas trees?

Say it ain't so, Mr. Scrooge.
Read More...
Stop

US, New York: MTA Plans Unprecedented Overnight Subway Shutdowns

Andrew Siff
NBC News, New York
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 10:08 UTC
The pilot program begins on the Lexington Avenue line in January.



The MTA revealed Monday that it plans to shut down entire sections of subway lines overnight for several different periods to complete track work and maintenance, rather than do the repairs in pieces on weekends.

Transit officials plan to pilot the unprecedented program on the Lexington Avenue line between Grand Central Terminal and Atlantic Avenue starting Jan. 9 by shutting down parts of the 4, 5 and 6 trains between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. for several days in a row.

During the shutdown, crews would repair tracks and signals, and perform a "thorough cleaning" of the roadbed, according to the MTA.

The MTA says the plan was created as a way to minimize its weekend disruptions, while also saving more than $1 million.
Read More...
Heart - Black

Beating Babies For Jesus?

Frank Schaeffer
Information Clearing House
Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:06 UTC
Image
© N/A
There is a brutal movement in America that legitimizes child abuse in the name of God. Two stories recently converged to make us pay attention. Last week, a video went viral of a Texas judge brutally whipping his disabled daughter. And on Monday, the New York Times published a story about child deaths in homes that have embraced the teachings of To Train Up a Child, a book by Christian preacher Michael Pearl that advocates using a switch on children as young as six months old.

What many people may not realize is that in the evangelical alternative universe of the home school movement, tightly knit church communities and the following of a number of big-time leaders and authors, physical punishment of children has been glorified for years.

As the Times illustrates -- Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate -- the books of Michael Pearl and his wife Debi have been found in the homes where several children were killed.
Read More...