Society's ChildS


Arrow Down

Young and homeless in America: Utility workers find children living in sewers near Seattle

children living sewers seattle
Friday afternoon in Federal Way, Wash., a city to the south of Seattle, utility workers came across a manhole that refused to stay closed.

Meter readers with Lakehaven Utility District first noticed the sewer cover left ajar. They pushed it shut; to fall down an open manhole, after all, could mean injury or worse. It proved to be a stubborn grate. Later in the day — twice — workers found the manhole open again. The third time, the meter readers had enough, summoning the Lakehaven sewer crew, who decided to investigate how a 80-pound metal slab could behave like a screen door with a busted latch.

What the crew found was even stranger. At the bottom of the 14-foot descent was a cache of kids' items, miscellany that belonged in a treehouse or rec room: a pair of binoculars, snacks and toys, including a pistol for shooting foam darts. They discovered clothes, too, as well as a makeshift bed made out of plywood.

"This should not happen at all," as Ken Miller, a product engineering manager with Lakehaven Utility District, told KIRO 7 News. "This is where all our waste goes from our houses and our businesses."

And, finally, the crew noticed the two boys watching.

They appeared to be about 12 or 13. When approached, one said he had been living within the manhole. Miller was shocked. "I've been doing this kind of work for over 30 years, and I've never, never come across it before," he said. "No one should be down there ... this could have been life and death."

Pistol

Las Vegas man shot and killed for not holding the door open for a woman at McDonald's

Las Vegas police car
© NLVPD / Facebook
A Las Vegas man has been killed for the seemingly innocuous act of failing to hold a door open for a woman entering a fast food restaurant.

Mohammad Robinson was shot dead on Saturday night after an argument outside a McDonald's on Las Vegas Boulevard North. The 31 year old was reportedly set upon by a man after he did not open a door for a woman entering the restaurant, report KSNV Las Vegas News.

Heart - Black

Moscow rebukes jihadists' 'inhuman efforts' to disrupt Aleppo aid deliveries

Russian aid convoy
© AP Pavel GolovkinRussian aid convoy traveling to Aleppo.
Russia has condemned jihadists' attempt to disrupt a vital UN humanitarian aid mission in Aleppo and urged western "sponsors" of armed extremist groups to exert influence over the responsible opposition militants on the ground.

Condemning radical Syrian opposition members' "inhuman efforts" to disrupt UN aid deliveries in Aleppo, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, called the jihadists' latest move an attempt to "exploit" deplorable humanitarian conditions to achieve their "own destructive goals."

The situation in Aleppo continues to deteriorate, and last week the UN outlined core elements of an Aleppo emergency response plan. The first element focused on sending convoys of aid to supply food to 80,000 people in eastern Aleppo. The delivery of the aid was routed via the Castello Road, which had been recognized as the safest and most direct route. The second measure focused on the simultaneous distribution of aid to western Aleppo, also besieged by terrorists.

UN convoy
© www.forbes.comStalled UN convoy.
However on Monday the Russian foreign ministry revealed that jihadists disrupted the deliveries to eastern Aleppo at the last minute despite having a prior agreement in place. "At the last moment these jihadist members of the opposition began to add completely unacceptable and unrealistic conditions to their prior consent to allow a convoy of trucks with food for civilians to pass," Zakharova said in a statement.

The incident which jeopardized the lives of thousands was not covered in the media, the spokeswoman said, as western outlets refused to report on the opposition militants' misdeeds. "Regrettably, there is nothing surprising about how this is being reported in the West and a number of regional capitals that are so keen to exploit the tragic humanitarian situation in Syria," the statement read. "There is no mention of the fact that the UN efforts in Aleppo are being subverted by militants who, secure in their impunity, shamelessly blackmailed the members of the UN humanitarian mission by refusing to ensure the safety of the cargo on Castello Road."

Pistol

Gang-raped teen, killed and fed to alligators

Brittanee Drexel
© www.huffingtonpost.com
A teenager who vanished from Myrtle Beach, SC, in 2009 was repeatedly raped in a gang "stash house" for several days — then she was shot dead and fed to alligators when her disappearance generated too much media attention, the FBI said last week.

The shocking new details about the mysterious disappearance of 17-year-old Rochester, NY, native Brittanee Drexel came largely from a "jailhouse confession" that was subsequently substantiated by others with "tidbits" and "secondhand information," FBI Agent Gerrick Munoz testified in a federal court transcript obtained by the Post and Courier of Charleston.

The inmate who gave the alleged bombshell confession, Taquan Brown, is serving a 25-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter in a different case. Brown told authorities he was present during the final agonizing moments of Drexel's life, Munoz said. Brown claimed to have seen Drexel when he visited a "stash house" — typically a place used to keep guns, drugs or money — in the McClellanville area, the general location where Drexel's cellphone last pinged.

Munoz said Brown told officials he saw Da'Shaun Taylor, then 16 years old, and several other men "sexually abusing Brittanee Drexel." Brown then said he walked to the back yard of the house to give money to Taylor's father, Shaun Taylor. But as Brown and Shaun Taylor talked, Drexel tried to make a break for it. Her escape attempt was in vain, however, and one of the captors "pistol-whipped" Drexel and carried her back inside the house. Brown said he then heard two gunshots. The next time Brown said he saw Drexel, her body was being wrapped up and removed from the house.

Drexel's body has never been found, but Munoz said "several witnesses" have told investigators she was dumped in an unspecified McClellanville pond teeming with alligators.

Comment: It doesn't get much worse than this.


Arrow Down

Life under siege: The untold suffering in Syria's northwestern villages caused by NATO terrorists

child foua kefraya syria
The children of Foua and Kefraya are left lonely in a demolished town with a lack of food and medical aid
Part One highlighted the siege and shelling of two villages in northwestern Syria which have been under siege by al-Nusra and allies since the end of March, 2015. As of August 17, at least 130 residents. "K" is introduced as a resident of Kafarya studying in Beirut. His name is withheld, for the safety of his family still in Kafarya and Foua.

Shia Problem? A Closer Look

The very few reports which have mentioned the names Kafarya and Foua have promoted a sectarian angle to the continued shelling by NATO-backed militants, portraying this as a Sunni-Shia issue. And while to be sure many of these largely foreign terrorists do adhere to the Saudi Wahhabism or Qatari/Turkey Salafism, the predominantly Shia population originally in Foua and Kafarya have long existed with their non-Shia neighbours in harmony.

K tells me more about the two villages and the surrounding region.

"In that area of Syria there are minorities living together, from about 1,000 years ago. In Kafarya and Foua there are Shia. Before this war, the people of Foua and neighbouring Binnish were very close, they intermarried, celebrated festivals together.

At the time that this all started in Syria, I was home, still a student. We studied at a school in Ma'rat Mesreen, which was a mostly Sunni city—many of them pro-government, by the way—and some Shia. Like with Binnish, our people were friends with those in Ma'rat Mesreen, intermarried with them.

My uncle was working in al-Raqqa, but when the militants took over, he and others went back to Kafarya. The original population of Kafarya was around 10,000. Now, it's much much more, with IDPs from various areas, like Ma'rat Mesreen, and including many Sunni pro-government Syrians from other villages, but also Shia from surrounding areas."

Iyad Khuder spoke of the tradition unity of the villages and surrounding area.

Telephone

Anonymous threats spur the closure of 5 USDA facilities

Beltsville Agricultural Research
© AP Photo/Jacquelyn MartinThe Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, the Agriculture Department's agricultural research center and library in seen from a locked gate after employees were informed of a threat in the morning and sent home, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2016, in Beltsville, Md.
The Agriculture Department said Tuesday it had closed offices in five states after receiving anonymous threats that it considered serious.

USDA spokesman Matthew Herrick said the department had received "several anonymous messages" late Monday that raised concerns about the safety of USDA personnel and facilities. He said offices in six locations in the five states were closed Tuesday morning until further notice.

Herrick said the threat was one email message sent to multiple employees at all of the locations.

"Without getting into detail of the email message, USDA continues to work closely with federal and local law enforcement, including the FBI, to determine whether the threat is credible," Herrick said.

Sheriff

Human rights groups say police departments should accurately report civilian deaths in police custody or lose federal funding

black woman arrested
© Adam Anderson / Reuters
The Department of Justice should withhold federal criminal justice grants from any law enforcement agency that does not report comprehensive data on civilian deaths in police custody, a group of 67 organizations says.

In a letter sent to top Justice Department (DoJ) officials, including US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the organizations offered several critiques to an August 4 proposal from the DoJ regarding implementation of the Deaths in Custody Reporting Act (DICRA). The law, passed in 2014, aims to boost law enforcement requirements for disclosing custodial deaths to the federal government.


Attention

Three cheers to Kaepernick for 'standing up'

"Yes, I'll continue to sit. I'm going to continue to stand with the people that are being oppressed. To me this is something that has to change. When there's significant change and I feel like that flag represents what it's supposed to represent, and this country is representing people the way that it's supposed to, I'll stand."

— Colin Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick
© Getty Images
If you don't think it takes guts to stay seated during the National Anthem, then buy a ticket for a major sporting event - let's say, a baseball game - and refuse to stand up when the singing starts. Then you'll see the fur fly. Then you'll see how rankled people get when you don't participate in their patriotic rituals.

On Friday night, San Francisco 49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, refused to stand for the national anthem before a preseason game with the Green Bay Packers. As a result, he's been universally excoriated, scorned and reviled by liberals and conservatives alike. I mean, it's only been 48 hours since the incident, and already the man has already been dragged through the meatgrinder. Almost overnight, Kaepernick has become the guy that everyone loves to hate, the new Hitler.

But, why? Because he had the audacity to make a statement about the treatment of blacks in America today? Because he wanted to draw attention to the numerous young black men that have gunned down by cops in cities across the country? Because he wanted people to realize that the "land of the free" ain't so free if your skin isn't lily-white? Is that why everyone is so pissed off?
"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color...To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder." (C. Kaepernick)
He's got a point, doesn't he? The killing of black men by cops has reached an epidemic level and yet nothing ever happens. Nothing. The perpetrators conjure up some goofy alibi with the help of their lawyers, and invariably get off scott-free. Every damn time. Why is that? Why can't African Americans get justice in this country? It's sickening and ridiculous at the same time.

Why is it ridiculous?

It's ridiculous because the masses are more incensed about Kaepernick's 'sit-down' protest than they are about the dozens of black men who end up getting snuffed-out by trigger-happy cops. Talk about 'getting your priorities wrong.'

So now we're going to have to suffer through weeks of anti-Kaepernick hysteria and demonization so the media can further exacerbate racial divisions by triggering a firestorm of rage from the uber-patriot crowd that thinks that black athletes should 'shut-the-hell-up and play ball or leave the country'.

Books

Societal decline: 1 in 20 British adults have the reading age of a 5-year-old

man reading
© Luke MacGregor / Reuters
A quarter of British adults have literacy levels so low they would struggle to read a bus timetable, new research has found.

Government figures indicate some 28 percent of UK adults are at literacy level 1 or below, the equivalent to GCSE grades of D to G. A pass grade for GCSE level is considered to be a C or above.

Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found 5 million adults lack basic reading, writing and numeracy skills deemed necessary to carry out a job.

England is among the worst performing countries in the OECD, with roughly one in 20 adults found to have the literacy and numeracy levels of a five-year-old.

It is also the only nation in the OECD where the average literacy score for 16- to 18-year-olds is lower than 55- to 65-year-olds.

In other developed nations, young people tend to have much higher literacy and numeracy scores than their older counterparts, but in Britain the opposite trend is occurring.

Bad Guys

Aboriginal boy's death sparks riots in Australia

australia riots child death
© AU / YouTube
Riot police were deployed to a protest over the death of a 14-year-old Aboriginal boy, where demonstrators smashed the windows of police cars and tried to force their way into the courthouse where the man accused of causing the death was due to appear.

Elijah Doughty, 14, was riding a stolen motorbike when he was involved in a crash with a Nissan Navara utility vehicle on Monday. He was found dead next to the motorbike by police, who arrived at the scene after receiving a call about the crash.


Comment:The driver couldn't exercise the basic humanity of finding out if the person he hit was injured?


Both the truck and the stolen motorbike were linked to a 55-year-old man whose name has not been released.

That man has been charged with manslaughter in Doughty's death, and was due to appear in the Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court in Western Australia on Tuesday morning - news of which attracted around 300 outraged protesters.

Comment: Australia's long history of abusing its aboriginal population is finally blowing back.