Society's ChildS


Fire

Bus explosion filmed on Massachusetts Turnpike

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Bus bursts into flames on Massachusetts Turnpike
Authorities in the Boston area said all passengers were safely evacuated from a bus before it exploded at the side of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The bus departed New York City about 11 a.m. Monday and spent about two hours undergoing repairs in Connecticut before continuing on the road, but passengers started to smell smoke about 4:45 p.m. in Newton, minutes away from the bus' final destination in Boston.

"A car that was in front of us, a man gets out and starts screaming, 'you're on fire, you're on fire.' So we're all on the bus and starting to panic," passenger Madeline Halimi told cable network NECN.

The bus pulled to the side of the Massachusetts Turnpike and the 46 passengers evacuated the vehicle just before an explosion, which was caught on camera.


Attention

'Decades of neglect' have led to a railway crisis in the United States

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© Reuters / Bryan WoolstonRescue workers search for victims in the wreckage of a derailed Amtrak train in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania May 12, 2015.
The US is no stranger to fatal railway accidents: over the last decade, dozens of lives were lost, and hundreds of people injured in train wrecks. All this is due to lack of funding, infrastructure and development, critics say.

The latest Amtrak train crash has left at least five people killed and dozens injured, with the cause of the crash remaining unknown.


It came on the eve of the railway budget bill that could see the funding for Amtrak slashed by 20 percent, from $1.4 to 1.13 billion.

Comment: Decades of neglect have left most of the US in shambles. Check out:


Attention

Fire at Indian Point nuclear reactor causes oil spill into Hudson River

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© GUSTAVUS GRICIUSSmoke is seen over the Indian Point nuclear power plant in New York.
Oil leaked into the Hudson River on Sunday after a transformer fire and explosion a day earlier at the Indian Point nuclear plant north of New York City, and Governor Andrew Cuomo said he was concerned about environmental damage.

Cuomo visited the plant for a briefing on Sunday. The governor, who in the past has called for the plant to be shut down because of its proximity to densely populated New York City, also visited the plant on Saturday.

When the transformer exploded, it released oil into a holding tank, which then overflowed, sending oil onto the ground and into the river, Cuomo told reporters on Sunday after he was briefed by emergency and plant officials.

He said crews were working to contain and clean up the oil spill but it was not clear yet how much oil had been released.

Comment: As Robert Kennedy Jr., Chief Prosecuting Attorney for Riverkeeper and Senior Attorney at NRDC, said:
"The more you learn about Indian Point, the more you know it must close. It's too old, near too many people, and too vulnerable to fire, earthquake, outside attack and a host of other potential disasters. What's more, we simply don't need Indian Point's dirty, dangerous power: current surpluses are sufficient to consign Indian Point to the scrap heap when its licenses expire if not sooner. New York is safer, more secure and simply better off without Indian Point."



Sheriff

NY Port Authority sued by police union for unjust phone search

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© Image from wikipedia.orgNew York Port Authority
A police union is suing the New York Port Authority over improper policing, claiming in a federal civil rights suit that the agency had no right to search officers' private cell phones during the investigation of a graduation party gone wild.

In seven documented instances, Port Authority investigators coerced officers into giving up access to private cell phone data without proper warrants or presence of counsel, says the lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association and one former officer.

"The Port Authority's policy of searching the cellphones of its probationary employees is an impermissible violation" of the fundamental right to privacy, the lawsuit asserts.

Comment: Another case of police officers thinking they are above the law.


Ambulance

Philadelphia train crash: 5 dead, dozens injured after Amtrak derailment

Amtrak crash in Philadelphia
© AFP Photo / KYW-TV CBSPhillyThis still image from video courtesy of KYW-TV CBSPhilly shows rescue workers after an Amtrak train derailed near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with up to 10 cars rolling over, US media reported
An Amtrak train has derailed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leaving at least five people dead and dozens injured as emergency workers scramble to help victims at the scene.

The accident occured on the Wheatsheaf Lane block, when seven cars, including the engine, on a New York-bound train derailed in northern Philadelphia. More than 65 people have been injured, officials added, with at least six in critical condition.

Amtrak said that 238 people and five crew members were on the train at the time of the accident, which has been dubbed a level three mass casualty incident. Not everyone who was on the train has been accounted for.


The accident is "an absolute, disastrous mess," Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said to reporters. "It is a devastating scene down there."

Nutter added that hundreds of police, firefighters and emergency personnel have responded to the scene.

At least 10 people have been transported to Temple University Hospital's trauma unit, according to CNN. Others have been moved to Jefferson University Hospital, Hahnemann University Hospital, and Einstein Medical Center, ABC 6 reported.


Comment: Other train derailments in North America during the past week include:

a fiery oil train derailment in North Dakota

a non-hazardous mixed freight train derailing in Cook County

Eight train cars carrying sulphur derailing in Alaska


Airplane

New plane-ly bizarre behavior? China counts 12 cases so far this year of people trying to open airplane doors

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© Reuters/Xavier Larossa
BEIJING — Chinese air travelers have tried opening emergency doors without authorization 12 times in barely four months on planes that were taxiing or at a standstill, and one man was put on trial in the country's first such legal case, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said Monday.

There is no immediate explanation for the apparent spike in the behavior this year, although Chinese are traveling in record numbers, many of them flying for the first time and lacking basic aviation safety knowledge.

The man, identified only by his family name of Piao, stood trial Monday on the charge of endangering public safety in the northeastern city of Yanji, the administration said in a statement.

Piao opened an emergency door on an Asiana Airlines flight on Feb. 12 when the plane was taxiing, causing the emergency slide to eject and prompting the flight crew to take emergency measures to halt the aircraft, the administration said.

Comment: Perhaps there is a link between this "apparent spike in behavior" and the cluster of plane problems we are observing nowadays?

Such as: Planes suddenly 'disappearing' from radar, sometimes in "unprecedented" blackouts; more planes diverting due to "electrical burning and smoke smells", "engine fires" and plane wings "bursting into flames"; statistics showing a disturbing trend in "air rage"; the tragic Germanwings crash not being the full story and the still unresolved mystery of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370?

SOTT EXCLUSIVE: Year of the planes Cluster of plane problems as 2014 comes to a close


Handcuffs

VIDEO: Turning America into a battlefield: Preparing for domestic war

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© Unknown
Why is the federal government distributing obscene amounts of military equipment, weapons and ammunition to police departments around the country? Why is the military using southwestern states as a staging ground for guerilla warfare drills (Jade Helm 15)? What exactly is the U.S. government preparing for? Whatever the answer, John W. Whitehead, in this week's vodcast, warns of the pending day when our so-called "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is no longer answerable to "we the people."

Comment: See Signs that the American elite are feverishly preparing for something BIG


Pocket Knife

Yet another Bangladeshi blogger hacked to death

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© CNN
The attack on bloggers critical of Islam has taken on a disturbing regularity in Bangladesh with yet another writer hacked to death Tuesday.

Ananta Bijoy Das, 32, was killed Tuesday morning as he left his home on his way to work at a bank, police in the northeastern Bangladeshi city of Sylhet said.

Four masked men attacked him, hacking him to death with cleavers and machetes, said Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan.

The men then ran away. Because of the time of the morning when the attack happened, there were few witnesses. But police said they are following up on interviewing the few people who saw the incident.

"It's one after another after another," said Imran Sarker, who heads the Blogger and Online Activists Network in Bangladesh. "It's the same scenario again and again. It's very troubling."

Comment: These gruesome public killings definitely create fear. Some of these attackers don't even know what a blog is so never read them. This brings to mind that the attacks are orchestrated with the masterminds hidden. The people can't rely on the government for protection. People must organize to defend their free speech.


Evil Rays

Woman fired for uninstalling app on company phone that tracked her 24 hrs a day

gps tracking
© Reuters / Alessia Pierdomenico
A California woman has sued her former employer, which fired her shortly after she disabled a GPS tracking feature on her company iPhone. The app was used to monitor employees even on their personal time, the lawsuit alleged.

Myrna Arias has claimed that her boss, John Stubits, at money transfer service Intermex in Bakersfield boasted about monitoring employees' locations while they were not on the job, according to the lawsuit filed in Kern County Superior Court.

Arias, a sales executive for the company, said she was "scolded" and subsequently fired -- even though she "met all quotas during her time with Intermex -- after she uninstalled Xora, a mandatory job-management app that was applied to company phones.

"After researching the app and speaking with a trainer from Xora, Plaintiff and her co-workers asked whether Intermex would be monitoring their movements while off duty," the suit says.

"Stubits admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving at specific moments ever since she installed the app on her phone. Plaintiff expressed that she had no problem with the app's GPS function during work hours, but she objected to the monitoring of her location during non-work hours and complained to Stubits that this was an invasion of her privacy. She likened the app to a prisoner's ankle bracelet and informed Stubits that his actions were illegal. Stubits replied that she should tolerate the illegal intrusion...."

The suit alleged invasion of privacy, retaliation, and unfair business practices, among other accusations.

"This intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person," the lawsuit claimed.

Arias' attorney told Ars Technica that the mandatory app was intrusive in its constant monitoring.

"The app had a 'clock in/out' feature which did not stop GPS monitoring, that function remained on," Gail Glick said.

"This is the problem about which Ms. Arias complained. Management never made mention of mileage. They would tell her co-workers and her of their driving speed, roads taken, and time spent at customer locations. Her manager made it clear that he was using the program to continuously monitor her, during company as well as personal time."

Arias is seeking damages in excess of $500,000. Intermex did not immediately respond to Ars Technica for comment.

Rose

Man kills four people and self in Swiss domestic shooting

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© REUTERS/RUBEN SPRICHSawdust covers the street in front of a house in Wuerenlingen, Switzerland May 10, 2015.
A gunman killed three relatives and a neighbor in a late-night rampage in a Swiss village before turning his weapon on himself, local police said on Sunday.

The presumed killer, a 36-year-old Swiss national who was separated from his wife and the couple's three children, shot dead his father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, police told a news conference.

The killings took place late on Saturday in and around a residential building in Wuerenlingen, a community of some 4,500 people north-west of Zurich.

Police said the gunman lived in another part of Switzerland and was known to police for violent behavior. The murder weapon was unregistered, they said.