Society's ChildS


Telephone

Poll says that only 19% of Americans trust the government. Why would anyone trust the government?

government
© flickr
The drastic long-term drop in Americans' trust for government since the 1950s periodically evokes pearl-clutching on the center-left. Liberal radio talk show host Leslie Marshall recently tweeted, as apparent cause for concern, a Pew Research poll finding the percentage of the public that trusts government to "do the right thing" most of the time or "pretty much always" at 19% in 2013 (by way of background, it peaked at 77% in 1965). She linked to a piece by Julian Zelizer at CNN ("Distrustful Americans still live in age of Watergate," July 7), lamenting the low level of faith in government ("which is necessary for a healthy society") as a cultural inheritance from Vietnam and Watergate and calling for political forms to root out corruption, restore public trust and render the political system once again functional.

Stock Down

Confused TSA agent stops reporter with DC ID, doesn't know District of Columbia is in the U.S.

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It's something most students learn in elementary school -- the United States is made up of 50 states and the District of Columbia. But Cox Media Group reporter Justin Gray found out it's a lesson that an Orlando agent with the Transportation Safety Administration seems to have missed.

Gray, who lives in Washington, D.C., was flying out of Orlando International Airport when a TSA agent said Gray's District of Columbia driver's license wasn't a valid form of identification. Gray said his license is legal and up-to-date, but the TSA agent didn't seem to know what the District of Columbia was when Gray arrived at the security checkpoint over the weekend.

When Gray handed the man his driver's license the agent demanded to see Gray's passport. Grays told the agent he wasn't carrying his passport and asked why he needed it.

The agent said he didn't recognize the license.


Radar

Malaysian flight escorted by Kiev jets minutes before disappearing from radar

boeing 777
© REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev
ETN received information from an air traffic controller in Kiev on Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

This Kiev air traffic controller is a citizen of Spain and was working in the Ukraine. He was taken off duty as a civil air-traffic controller along with other foreigners immediately after a Malaysia Airlines passenger aircraft was shot down over the Eastern Ukraine killing 295 passengers and crew on board.

The air traffic controller suggested in a private evaluation and basing it on military sources in Kiev, that the Ukrainian military was behind this shoot down. Radar records were immediately confiscated after it became clear a passenger jet was shot down.

Military air traffic controllers in internal communication acknowledged the military was involved, and some military chatter said they did not know where the order to shoot down the plane originated from.

Obviously it happened after a series of errors, since the very same plane was escorted by two Ukrainian fighter jets until 3 minutes before it disappeared from radar.

Radar screen shots also show an unexplained change of course of the Malaysian Boeing. The change of course took the aircraft directly over the Eastern Ukraine conflict region.

Newspaper

Malaysian flight crash: 295 dead, accusations made against Ukraine, rebels, and Russia

Malaysia Airlines Boeing
© Reuters/Maxim ZmeyevAn armed pro-Russian separatist takes pictures at the site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014.
A Malaysian airliner was brought down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, killing all 295 people aboard and sharply raising the stakes in a conflict between Kiev and pro-Moscow rebels in which Russia and the West back opposing sides.

Ukraine accused "terrorists" - militants fighting to unite eastern Ukraine with Russia - of shooting down the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with a heavy, Soviet-era SA-11 ground-to-air missile as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.


Leaders of the rebel Donetsk People's Republic denied any involvement, although around the same time their military commander said his forces had downed a much smaller Ukrainian transport plane. It would be their third such kill this week.

The scale of the disaster affecting scores of foreigners could prove a turning point for international pressure to resolve a crisis that has claimed hundreds of lives in Ukraine since pro-Western protests toppled the Moscow-backed president in Kiev in February and Russia annexed Crimea a month later.

Reuters journalists saw burning and charred wreckage bearing the red and blue Malaysia insignia and dozens of bodies strewn in fields near the village of Hrabove, 40 km (25 miles) from the Russian border near the rebel-held regional capital of Donetsk.

Despite the shooting down of several Ukrainian military aircraft in the area in recent months, including two this week, and renewed accusations from Kiev that Russian forces were taking a direct part, international air lanes had remained open.

Vader

Fascists! Ohio University considering mandatory "re-education" classes for students caught violating no smoking ban

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Students at Ohio University could be forced to attend mandatory re-education classes if they are caught flouting the campus's smoking ban.

The university in Athens plans to outlaw the use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes on any part of the 1,850-acre public campus during the 2015-16 academic year.

If caught smoking, students could be made to attend a series of smoking cessation programs and classes to help them quit. It is the latest in a string of anti-smoking policies to be implemented at U.S. universities. Institutions to have enforced such bans so far include Ohio State University, San Diego State University and every public college in Georgia.

Brick Wall

Florida inmate still on death row despite DNA proof of innocence

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© ReutersPaul Hildwin is pictured in this undated handout photo courtesy of Florida Department of Corrections
Years of legal wrangling over conclusive DNA evidence proving his innocence led the Florida Supreme Court to overturn Paul Hildwin's murder conviction and death sentence two weeks ago. Yet Hildwin remains on death row.

Twenty-eight years after his conviction for a 1985 murder, Hildwin, 54, must wait - possibly for several months - for state prosecutors to decide whether to retry the case or drop the charges.

Two weeks ago, in a 5-2 ruling, the majority of the Florida Supreme Court said that "we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that a significant pillar of the state's case, as presented to the jury, has collapsed."

Hildwin's case shows how a severe court backlog and legal maneuvering by state prosecutors can delay justice in the face of strong DNA evidence. Moreover, the case adds to the list of around two dozen death row inmates in Florida who have been found innocent - more than any other state. Hildman's is the second death row case in a month overturned by the Florida Supreme Court.

Handcuffs

Free Speech Muzzled: Woman in French Guiana sentenced to 9 months in jail for comparing French Justice Minister to a monkey

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© Screenshot from Anne-Sophie Leclere facebook account
An ex- candidate of France's Front National will spend nine months behind the bars after she posted a photo on Facebook comparing the country's Justice Minister to a monkey. The sentence exceeded the prosecutor's request for a four-month jail term.

The court in the French overseas city of Cayenne, capital of French Guiana, gave the author of the post Anne-Sophie Leclere a nine month prison sentence and a €5,000 fine.

The former candidate didn't appeared in the court, and later said she would appeal the verdict.

The right-wing National Front was also fined €30,000 as Leclere was the party candidate in this year's local elections in the region of Ardennes, northern France. However, she was excluded by the organization in December 2013 after the incident.

Airplane

Flashback Ukraine admits missile may have downed Russian plane in 2001

A Ukrainian official today admitted that his country's military may have mistakenly shot down a Russian commercial airliner over the Black sea last week, killing all 78 people on board.

The announcement by Yevhen Marchuk, the head of the Ukrainian security council and a member of the commission investigating the tragedy, marks the first time that the country has conceded it may be responsible.

"The reason for the crash could be an unintentional hit by an S-200 missile during the Ukrainian air defence exercises," Mr Marchuk told a press conference today, adding that investigators would make their final conclusions after further, complex research.

The Russian chief of the investigative commission, Vladimir Rushailo, said today that the aircraft had been hit by an anti-aircraft missile, the Interfax news agency reported.

Mr Rushailo said: "The Tu-154 flying from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk crashed because it was hit by the warhead of an anti-aircraft missile." He added that investigators were continuing to examine fragments of the downed plane.

Airplane

Passengers suffer serious injuries as Johannesburg-Hong Kong flight encounters severe turbulence over Kuala Lumpur

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Passengers were hurled off their seats, some suffering serious injuries, when an SAA flight from South Africa to Hong Kong experienced severe turbulence over Kuala Lumpur early on Wednesday.

It felt like the plane was in free-fall. The pilot had just turned on the "fasten seatbelts" lights, but before he could make the announcement of the upcoming turbulence everyone on the plane was thrust into the air.

Of the 20 hurt, 17 were passengers. The rest were crew members, SAA spokesman Tlali Tlali said.

"Two were seriously injured. The other 18 experienced minor injuries," he said. "The flight crew immediately requested medical assistance for the passengers, which was ready on arrival of the aircraft in Hong Kong," said Tlali.

Airplane

Malaysian Boeing 777 carrying 295 crashes in eastern Ukraine

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© Reuters
A Boeing 777 Malaysian airlines crashed in Ukraine near the Russian border, Interfax is reporting, citing "a source in the aviation circles."

"Boeing Malaysian airlines operate flights to Amsterdam - Kuala Lumpur for 50 miles before entering the airspace of Russia, began to decline, he was subsequently found burning on the ground in Ukraine," the source said, adding that 280 passengers and 15 crew members were onboard.

Reuters picked up the news first.
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© Reuters
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© Twitter/RT_com
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© Twitter/RT_com