Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

Listeners and employees quit Georgia public broadcasting as mind-control conspiracy theorist takes over

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Georgia residents have begun canceling their donations to Georgia Public Broadcasting after a recent report revealed that a former Republican state senator - who believes the United Nations is planning to turn the U.S. into a communist dictatorship using mind control - is receiving a salary of $150,000 to run part of the network.

GPB announced last month that then-State Sen. Chip Rogers (R) would be heading a new initiative to tell the story of Georgia businesses on public radio, but it wasn't until the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that his salary would be higher than Gov. Nathan Deal's (R) that employees and Georgia residents began to express outrage.

GPB member Sandy Wood recently cut off her $20-a-month donation and received a letter from GPB Vice President Yvette Cook, who claimed that Rogers' position would be funded with taxpayer money instead of listener contributions.

Pistol

Loophole allows dealers to hijack Seattle's gun buyback with makeshift gun show

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The so-called gun show loophole which allows guns to be sold without a background check allowed private dealers to effectively hijack a weekend effort by Seattle police to get guns off the street.

Following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut last month, Seattle raised $120,000 to hold the first gun buyback effort in 20 years at a downtown parking lot on Saturday.

The plan was to trade gift cards for guns that would later be destroyed, but a number of dealers set up a mini-gun show just a block away in a effort to buy up the guns and keep them in circulation.

"I pay cash, I don't give Amazon gift cards," one dealer told a gun seller in video captured by KING.

Sheriff

Chicago trauma center protesters accuse cops of roughing them up

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Protesters accused University of Chicago police of excessive force during a demonstration against the school's medical center on Sunday.

According to The Chicago Tribune, authorities arrested four protesters but also allegedly attacked others, including the woman whose family tragedy inspired the campaign against the University of Chicago's youth trauma center.

Sheila Rush said campus police shoved her to the ground during the protest, an attempt to stage a sit-in at a $700 million addition to the facility, which only serves patients 16 years of age or younger. She said the age restriction leaves the city's south side without a similar treatment option for adults.

Cow Skull

Texas public schools: Still teaching creationism

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© Williac/Flickr
In Texas public schools, children learn that the Bible provides scientific proof that Earth is 6,000 years old, that the origins of racial diversity trace back to a curse placed on Noah's son, and that astronauts have discovered "a day missing in space" that corroborates biblical stories of the sun standing still.

These are some of the findings detailed in Reading, Writing & Religion II, a new report by the Texas Freedom Network that investigates how public schools in the Lone Star State promote religious fundamentalism under the guise of offering academic courses about the Bible. The report, written by Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, found that more than half of the state's public-school Bible courses taught students to read the book from a specifically Christian theological perspective - a clear violation of rules governing the seperation of church and state.

Health

Seven still missing after 'freak wave' capsizes Russian fishing boat off Japan

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© Image from trud-ost.ruThe Chance-101
Fifteen fishermen have been saved after a Russian vessel with 30 on board sank in the Sea of Japan Sunday afternoon. Survivors say eight fellow crew-members died of hypothermia and their bodies were eventually dumped to unburden a lifeboat.

The crew is thought to have consisted of 19 Russians and 11 Indonesians.

The Chance-101 would not contact its office at the regular time on Sunday. Ten hours later, the crabber was found floating upside down. According to the rescued fishermen the vessel had been maneuvering in the open sea when it was hit by a "fatally powerful" wave.

Attention

Three-mile oil sheen follows barge crash on Mississippi river

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© Screenshot via WLOX-TV
An oil sheen was spotted up to three miles away after two barges smashed into a bridge near Vicksburg, Mississippi on Sunday, the Coast Guard said in an advisory.

The Old Vicksburg Bridge was not significantly damaged, but officials said that one of the barges carrying up to 80,000 gallons of crude was seriously damaged and spilled an unknown amount of oil into the river.

Question

Cops question 'hoarder' after homeowners find human remains in backyard

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© AFP Photo
Police questioned a Southern California man after the people who bought his former home found a human skull and bones buried in the backyard, KNBC-TV reported Sunday.

"It's scary to know," one neighbor told the station. "You don't know who that person was, how long they've been there."

Bizarro Earth

Harris-Perry: Schools targeted for closure have 'predominantly minority kids'

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On Melissa Harris-Perry on Sunday, she and a panel of journalists and advocates discussed the closure of underperforming schools in the country.

Harris-Perry said that there were discussions of closing "17 in NYC, 37 in Philadelphia, 15 in Washington, D.C., and possibly as many as 15 or more in Chicago."

"The catch?" she asked. "The vast majority of them are filled with children who are predominantly minority kids and from low-income families."

Harris-Perry is referring to the movement to close

Handcuffs

Russian police arrest 23 in organised crime raid

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© Photograph: AlamySt Basil's cathedral in Red Square, Moscow. Police have raided a restaurant and arrested 23 people believed to be involved in organised crime.
Officers say suspects met at Moscow restaurant to plan strategy after murder of criminal godfather known as Grandpa Hassan.

Police have raided a restaurant near Moscow and arrested four suspected crime bosses and 19 others as they met to plan strategy after the killing of a criminal godfather known as Grandpa Hassan, according to the interior ministry.

Officers swooped on the Family Elite-Club restaurant in the town of Nikolina Gora after learning that suspects from Russia and Belarus would meet there to discuss issues of a criminal nature, the ministry said.

"During the secret meeting, held under the cover of a celebration of the birthday of a suspected senior criminal authority, the plan was to discuss next steps after the recent assassination of the head of the Aslan Usoyan clan," it added.

Star of David

Israeli football fans mutiny against Muslims in squad

Beitar Jerusalem fans
© AFP Photo/Menahem KahanaBeitar Jerusalem fans
A group of the Jerusalem-based Beitar fans have lashed out at the club's boss's decision to bring two Muslims from the Russian Chechen republic into the squad.

At the latest Israeli domestic championship's game on Saturday, a group of Beitar Jerusalem supporters, reportedly known as La Familia, held a banner reading "Beitar will always remain pure". The more moderate central stands howled down the move.

Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon lined up with the latter group.

"I was shocked by the racism displayed in the Beitar Jerusalem stands yesterday against having Muslim or Arab players on the team. We cannot ignore these displays of racism which not long ago were directed - and are still being directed - towards the Jewish people," Euronews website quotes his tweet.