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Family sues school district over sexual abuse of disabled son; perp given 48 hours community service


RT
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 17:17 UTC
Begich Middle School
© Google MapsBegich Middle School in Anchorage, Alaska
The parents of a special-needs student are suing the Anchorage, Alaska school district, arguing it waited too long to investigate a teacher's aide over claims of sexual abuse. In a plea deal, the aide served 48 hours of community service.

Begich Middle School teacher's aide Julianti Clarke, 62, was charged with abuse in October 2014, after surveillance video showed her fondling a disabled male student in the lunchroom. In November 2015, prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that would let Clarke serve 48 hours of community service and dropped the charges.

In a lawsuit filed this week in Anchorage Superior Court, the student's parents argue that the school district edited the video to hide Clarke's abuse of another student while their son watched. They say the district "negligently failed" to supervise Clarke and failed to protect students, asking for damages over $500,000 for "foreseeable severe emotional distress," according to Alaska Dispatch News.
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Robot

Rise of the machines: Security robots already patrolling parking lots and malls - are our neighborhoods next?

Shan Li
LA Times
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 17:00 UTC
security robot
© Mark Boster / Los Angeles TimesBesides playing a security role in malls, the robots could have uses with government agencies or homeowner groups
William Santana Li imagines a future where robots will keep Americans safe.

Communities, he dreams, will take security into their own hands by investing in wheeled machines that patrol streets, sidewalks and schools — instantly alerting residents via a mobile app of intruders or criminal behavior.

"What if we could crowd-source security?" said Li, co-founder and chief executive of a robotics company, Knightscope, that hopes to eventually do just that.

His question is like many posed by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs seeking to modernize, privatize and monetize services once entrusted to the government — and it's one that has intrigued venture capitalists who have pumped $14 million into his start-up.

Already, Knightscope robots are edging into the private security industry, patrolling parking lots, a shopping center and corporate campuses in California. The company's ambitions, though, are much bigger.
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Pistol

Atlanta cop indicted on murder charges for killing an innocent, unarmed man

Andrew Emett
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 17:05 UTC
Officer James Burns
© CNNOfficer James Burns
Recently fired from the Atlanta Police Department for gunning down an innocent driver, a former cop was indicted Wednesday night on multiple charges including murder, making a false statement, and violating his oath of office. Although the ex-cop reported that the driver was attempting to run him over when he opened fire, investigators determined his claims were false after reviewing dashcam footage and witness statements.

Shortly before midnight on June 22, Officer James Burns responded to a call from an off-duty cop reporting a suspicious person breaking into cars. Arriving at the scene in his patrol car, Burns hit his lights and siren immediately after seeing a 2011 Ford Fusion driving towards him.

Burns suddenly exited his vehicle and fired a single bullet into the head of 22-year-old Deravis Caine Rogers. According to Burns, Rogers ignored his order to "Stop!" before gunning his engine and attempting to run him down with the sedan. Blinded by the headlights and fearing for his life, Burns claimed that he killed Rogers in self-defense.
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Monkey Wrench

New trade deal TISA could be an even greater threat to public services than TTIP

Global Justice Now
defenddemocracy.press
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 16:55 UTC
TISA deal
© www.globalresearch.ca
  • Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) could lock in privatisation and increase ability of big business to call the shots on health, education and basic utilities
  • Rights of some migrant workers could regress to system similar to Saudi Arabia and Qatar
  • UK likely to emulate Norway signing up as individual nation post-Brexit
A global trade deal currently being negotiated in secret and involving 50 different countries could prove to be a serious threat to public services according to a briefing published today by campaign group Global Justice Now.

The Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) is a proposed international trade treaty between 23 parties, including the European Union and the United States. Unlike most trade deals, TISA is about services, not goods. The briefing argues that this means it will affect areas like labour rights, banking regulation and whether public services like electricity and water are run for public good or private benefit.

Nick Dearden the director of Global Justice Now said:

"This deal is a threat to the very concept of public services. It is a turbo-charged privatisation pact, based on the idea that, rather than serving the public interest, governments must step out of the way and allow corporations to 'get on with it'. Of particular concern, we fear TiSA will include clauses that will prevent governments taking public control of strategic services, and inhibit regulation of the very banks that created the financial crash. TISA will also affect countries that haven't even had the opportunity to develop decent public services like Pakistan. No wonder Uruguay has already walked away from the talks. We urge MEPs to tell the European Union to do the same.
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Stormtrooper

Another senseless death: SWAT team raids unarmed man's home and kills him over two grams of pot

Justin Gardner
Free Thought Project
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 16:25 UTC
war on drugs
Another life was taken by cops in the senseless war on drugs, this time an unarmed man sitting in a bedroom with two grams of weed.

A military-style raid took place at the home of Levonia Riggins, 22, by a SWAT team looking for "illegal narcotics." Riggins, who had previously been arrested for cannabis possession with intent to sell, was subject to a month-long "drug investigation" before being gunned down in his home.

According to Tampa Bay Times:
"When investigators arrived at the house at 1432 Longwood Loop with a search warrant about 8 a.m., everyone inside came out except for Riggins, the major said. Others who left the house told deputies Riggins was inside, most likely in the rear, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said in a news release.

That's when Deputy Caleb Johnson, 32, a seven-year veteran of the agency, entered the house with fellow SWAT members.

"After making numerous commands for Riggins to exit the residence, Deputy Johnson visually located Riggins in a bedroom, at which time Johnson perceived Riggins as an immediate threat and fired one shot, striking Riggins," Carter reported.

Riggins was taken to Tampa General Hospital, where he died."

Comment: The "The War on Drugs" is a fraud and a complete failure. Just look at the victim Levonia Riggins. He was killed over 2 grams of weed. Meanwhile intelligence agencies are flooding the planet with illicit hard drugs. Read more:

Insignificant arrest of El Chapo versus the longstanding CIA global drugs business

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Attention

Vegetables are ugly! Miami judge rules front yard gardens illegal

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Thu, 01 Sep 2016 16:51 UTC
vegetable garden judgment
Last week, a Miami-Dade judge became the focus of much-deserved anger when she ruled on an ordinance banning front yard vegetable gardens. The village of Miami Shores, according to the ruling, has every right to take legal action against residents who dare to grow food in their own yards because they are "ugly."

The ruling was a whopping ten pages long as it was filled with legal analysis and definitions of what constitutes a vegetable. Even though she ruled in favor of the ban, Judge Monica Gordo acknowledged that she wasn't quite sure how a vegetable garden can ruin the aesthetics of one's property.

However, she stated that the democratically elected government has every right to dictate what constitutes an ugly front yard, and gardens are apparently a contributing factor.

"Given the high degree of deference that must be given to a democratically elected governmental body ... Miami Shores' ban on vegetable gardens outside of the backyard passes constitutional scrutiny," Gordo wrote.

Comment: More on the War on Gardening:

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Pistol

Attacker who stabbed a police officer in a Paris suburb is shot dead


RT
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 16:39 UTC
police attack paris
A police officer has been seriously injured in the Paris suburb of Vincennes, local media said. The attacker was reported dead after an exchange of gunfire in the area.

The incident took place on Friday morning when a 29-year-old man tried to attack a nurse, French Le Figaro newspaper reported.

The victim called the police and officers arrived at the scene. The man then attacked a female police officer with a knife, reportedly injuring her in the throat.
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Info

Biden silences protester by invoking memory of his son during Clinton rally

Daniel Halper
New York Post
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 16:33 UTC
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden
© Jeff Haynes / Reuters
Vice President Joe Biden invoked the memory of his son to silence a protester at a campaign event for Hillary Clinton.

"My friends died, my American friends," an audience member heckled, interrupting the vice president at a campaign rally Thursday night in Cleveland.

The crowd tried to silence the protester with chants of "U-S-A!" and "Hillary! Hillary!"

The heckler, referring to the US policy in Syria and the fight against ISIS, continued, "My friend died."

"Will you listen?" Biden answered. "So did my son, OK?"
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Health

Organ trafficking: Prostitutes used to lure migrants into selling their kidneys

Tom Esslemont
Yahoo News
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 16:22 UTC
kidney removal scar
© EPA/STR
Brokers in Egypt's underground trade in human body parts use prostitutes to tempt migrants to sell their kidneys as hospitals turn a blind eye to illicit dealing in donated organs for transplants, a report says.

Undocumented African migrants arriving in Cairo, desperate for cash, told the British Journal of Criminology that sex workers were offered as a "sweetener" before or after removal of their organs.

"(One pimp) used the services of sex workers as leverage when negotiating fees with both sellers and buyers," the report said. "A night with a sex worker was offered as an extra inducement to sell."

Organ purchase is banned in Egypt, though the country is a common destination for transplant tourism, along with India, Pakistan and Russia, according to separate research by Erasmus MC University Hospital Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Comment: Illegal organ trafficking is big business throughout the world.

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Eiffel Tower

French hysteria: Mosque busted for "illegal school" - teaching Koran to children


RT
Fri, 02 Sep 2016 16:08 UTC
Mosquée Al Islah de Villiers-sur-Seine
© Google MapsMosquée Al Islah de Villiers-sur-Seine
An Illegal Koranic school teaching up to 20 children as young as six was discovered inside a mosque, earlier attended by several extremists, in a Paris suburb. French prosecutors believe the children were at risk of being "turned into jihadist recruits."

The 'Little Bees School' was found during a police raid in Al-Islah mosque in Villiers-sur-Marne commune in Paris eastern suburbs on Wednesday. Some 40 police officers were involved in the operation, French media reported.

It was organizing Koran classes for some 15-20 children between six and 12 years old, Le Parisien newspaper reported. The classes were held for some two years.

"The investigation has confirmed the existence of a Koranic school, which was illegally teaching students and where [children] were at risk of indoctrination," the French interior minister said in a statement.


Comment: They'd better have some good evidence for that. Otherwise, this amounts to little more than busting a church group for running Sunday school and saying the kids were at risk of becoming radical Christian white supremacists.

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