A California judge has been publicly criticised today for controversial comments he made saying a rape victim didn't put up a fight during her assault and that if someone doesn't want sexual intercourse, the body 'will not permit that to happen.'
Echoing the widely condemned comments on 'legitimate rape' of outgoing U.S. representative Todd Akin, Superior Court Judge Derek Johnson said 'If someone doesn't want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down.'
Furthermore, the states Commission on Judicial Performance attacked the the judge for taking ten years off the recommended sentence for the rapist in the case, imposing a six-year sentence instead.
Society's Child
© Fox
Tears: Shelbi Walser, who suffers from a brittle bone condition, is filmed crying after TSA agents at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport detained her for an hour after detecting explosive residue on her hands, her mother said
Tears: Shelbi Walser, who suffers from a brittle bone condition, is filmed crying after TSA agents at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport detained her for an hour after detecting explosive residue on her hands, her mother said
A TSA agent swabbed Shelbi's hands and she tested positive for explosives. But the wheelchair, which is likely to have transferred any substance to her hands as she pushed it, was never tested, her mother said.
A video of the December 8 incident shows Shelbi sobbing as officials detain her in front of hundreds of travellers at security, but refuse to allow her mother to get close enough to comfort her.
Daniels told Fox that they even called a bomb specialist to the scene, while other passengers reportedly spoke out in support of Shelbi and offered her tissues and candy.
A princiapal and at least two children are believed to have been shot after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Connecticut. Police were called to Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown after reports of shots being fired at 9.41am by a gunman who was said to be in the main office of the school. There are said to be a number of people with injuries. At least three are being treated at a local hospital.
State police sources said one shooter is dead. Earlier reports of a second shooter are still unconfirmed but police are said to be going from room-to-room at the school. Two handguns have been recovered at the scene. Teachers and students were said to be in morning meetings when the shots were fired. The children were locked inside their classrooms until police came and evacuated them to a nearby fire station.
One child was seen being carried from the school by a police officer, apparently seriously wounded. A person in one room had 'numerous gunshot wounds', police told the The Hartford Courant.
State police sources said one shooter is dead. Earlier reports of a second shooter are still unconfirmed but police are said to be going from room-to-room at the school. Two handguns have been recovered at the scene. Teachers and students were said to be in morning meetings when the shots were fired. The children were locked inside their classrooms until police came and evacuated them to a nearby fire station.
One child was seen being carried from the school by a police officer, apparently seriously wounded. A person in one room had 'numerous gunshot wounds', police told the The Hartford Courant.
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Traumatized students were seen being led out of the school crying and holding hands
Traumatized students were seen being led out of the school crying and holding hands
Doty told The Baltimore Sun that photos included with the ticket issued on April 24 made it "shockingly obvious" that his four-door Mazda wagon stopped at a red light with the break lights on. A three-second video clip provided as evidence also showed that Doty's car was motionless as he waited for the light to turn green.
"It was like someone was so obviously asleep at the switch," Doty explained. "I thought that was not supposed to happen."
Denver police say four people were set afire during an assault in North Denver Thursday night.
The incident happened in the 4300 block of Lipan Street shortly before 7:30 p.m.
Police spokesman Raquel Lopez said two black males knocked on an apartment door and when a woman answered, she was sprayed with some type of liquid from a lawn and garden sprayer. She was then set afire when the men threw a match or lighter on her. She said the initial report of a small propane torch was incorrect. .
Three others inside - 2 men and a second woman -- the apartment were also sprayed and set afire, but suffered only minor burns, she said.
Lopez said the woman who answered the door was the most seriously burned and she was transported by ambulance to a local hospital.
Police do not have a motive for the attacks but they called the incident "highly unusual and extremely scary."
Police were trying to get better descriptions of the suspects.
© The Associated Press/The Colorado Springs Gazette/Mark Reis
Sgt. Vincinte Jackson is shielded from cameras as he's led into court Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 for closing arguments in his court-martial at Fort Carson, Colo. Jackson is charged with premeditated murder in the death of Spc. Spc. Brandy Fonteneaux
Sgt. Vincinte Jackson is shielded from cameras as he's led into court Thursday, Dec. 13, 2012 for closing arguments in his court-martial at Fort Carson, Colo. Jackson is charged with premeditated murder in the death of Spc. Spc. Brandy Fonteneaux
Sgt. Vincinte Jackson said he doesn't know why he killed Spc. Brandy Fonteneaux, 28, of Houston. She was found dead Jan. 8 in her barracks room, stabbed 74 times. A military panel sentenced Jackson to life in prison with the possibility of parole, though prosecutors couldn't immediately say how many years he would serve before becoming eligible.
"I will be forever haunted by what happened," Jackson said. " ... It's only fair that I continue to have nightmares about what I've done."
His testimony came at the end of an emotional sentencing hearing that included statements from the families of Jackson and Fonteneaux.
The same panel of eight soldiers who convicted Jackson decided his sentence. The potential sentence for unpremeditated murder ranged from no punishment to life in prison without parole.
The panel -- the equivalent of a jury in a civilian trial -- convicted Jackson earlier Thursday after 2 1/2 hours of deliberations. It acquitted Jackson of premeditated murder, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors asked for life without parole, while Jackson's defense attorneys asked for 28 years.
A Texas man rang the police to tell them he had carved a pentagram into his six-year-old son's back because it was "a holy day".
Richland Hills police said Brent Troy Bartel faces charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and has been jailed in lieu of a $500,000 (£309,400) bond.
In the 911 call released by police, Bartel calmly provides the dispatcher with his home address before telling her: "I shed some innocent blood."
When asked why he did it, Bartel replies: "Because it's a holy day."
The incident took place on December 12, 2012 - or 12/12/12 - considered an auspicious date in many communities around the world.
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Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chavez
The surgery, which lasted more than six hours, was done in Havana on Tuesday. Ernesto Villegas, Mr. Chávez's information minister, did not say when doctors detected the bleeding or got it under control. But he said that Mr. Chávez was recuperating in a way that he described as "progressive and favorable."
Given how little information the government has released on Mr. Chávez's health throughout the course of his illness, the recent change in its tone suggests that his condition is extremely serious and that there are doubts about how fully he may recover.
On Wednesday, Mr. Villegas had warned the country that Mr. Chávez, 58, might not be able to return to Venezuela by Jan. 10, when he is scheduled to be sworn in for a new six-year term. In that case, Mr. Villegas wrote in a note posted Wednesday on the Information Ministry's Web site, "the people should be prepared to understand. It would be irresponsible to hide the delicacy of the present moment and the days to come."
Nasa appears so confident about their prediction that he world will not come to an end that they have released the video early
Nasa has released a video ahead of schedule tackling the 'myths' surrounding the belief the world will end on December 21st.
The video, which was clearly intended for release the day after the 21st, begins: "December 22, 2012. If you're watching this video, it means one thing. The world didn't end yesterday."
It goes on to attempt to debunk the ideas surrounding the so-called 'Mayan prophecies', saying the date is based on a misconception.
Making the argument point by point the video sets to put to rest the catastrophic prophecies, including debunking the notion that the sun will irradiate the atmosphere or that another planet will smash into Earth.
Indeed Nasa appears so confident about their prediction that the world will not come to an end that they have released the video early.
Nasa has released a video ahead of schedule tackling the 'myths' surrounding the belief the world will end on December 21st.
The video, which was clearly intended for release the day after the 21st, begins: "December 22, 2012. If you're watching this video, it means one thing. The world didn't end yesterday."
It goes on to attempt to debunk the ideas surrounding the so-called 'Mayan prophecies', saying the date is based on a misconception.
Making the argument point by point the video sets to put to rest the catastrophic prophecies, including debunking the notion that the sun will irradiate the atmosphere or that another planet will smash into Earth.
Indeed Nasa appears so confident about their prediction that the world will not come to an end that they have released the video early.
According to The Atlantic, the protests, part of the Fast Food Forward campaign, were organized by groups like New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and community organizations in a push to get them to form a union.
The impetus for the campaign, said NYCC organizing director Jonathan Westin, was his group's discovering that most employees at companies like Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King and Kentucky Fried Chicken couldn't cover basic necessities like transit fare or food, or even to be able to make their rent making the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, forcing them to rely on public assistance.
Comment: It probably isn't an accident that this video was released 'early'. What we find most interesting about the video is the conflation of the Mayan-calendar-end-of-days 'prophecy' with catastrophes brought on by cometary bombardment. The Western New Age promoters of the Mayan schtik largely avoid the issue of cyclic catatophism, preferring instead to promote John Major Jenkins' theories about the planet's alignment with galactic center on that date and a subsequent sudden mass enlightenment/spiritual ascension, along the same lines as the Christian fundie 'Rapture'.
So they aren't using the Mayan schtik to pooh-pooh the dominant New Age meme; instead, they're using it to ridicule the very real historical threat of cyclic catastrophes brought on by close encounters with large cometary bodies and their progenitors. Given the incredible increase in the rate of reported fireball sightings in 2011 and again in 2012, it seems that they 'doth protesteth too much' by using the New Age '12.21.2012' phenomenon as a strawman to downplay the fact that Something Wicked This Way Comes.