Society's ChildS


Dollar

US: Fishermen Receive Apology, Almost $650,000 in Returned Fines From Feds

Beth Daley
Boston Globe
Tue, 17 May 2011 17:45 UTC
Acknowledging that some federal fish police "overstepped the bounds of propriety and fairness", US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is returning almost $650,000 in fines to 11 fishermen or businesses, the majority in the Northeast.

The unusual move - and apology - comes after years of accusations by fishermen of excessive fines and intimidation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's office of Law Enforcement. Locke had appointed a special investigator last year to investigate 30 cases that a federal Inspector General's office report said appeared problematic.
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Heart - Black

US: Mother is Charged in Death of Boy Found on Maine Road

Maria Cramer, Travis Andersen, and John M. Guilfoil
Boston Globe
Thu, 19 May 2011 17:33 UTC
Maine boy found dead
© Bob Whitaker/Lowell Sun/APState Police took custody of the woman's vehicle. A vehicle matching that description had been seen near where the boy's body was found.
A Texas woman taken into custody earlier Wednesday in Chelmsford was arrested late Wednesday night on charges that she suffocated her 6-year-old son. The arrest came four days after the child was found dead on a Maine back road in an episode that shocked the region.

Julianne McCrery, 42, of Irving, was charged late Wednesday night with second-degree murder in the death of her son, Camden Pierce Hughes, New Hampshire Attorney General Michael A. Delaney said in a statement.
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Magnify

US: Discovery of human bones raises questions about "cold case"

Forrest Saunders
KITV
Thu, 19 May 2011 16:30 UTC
Human bones were recently discovered inside a building set to be torn down in Dow City, Iowa. That's raised a lot of questions. Whose bones are they? How did they get there? And, are they connected to a 14-year-old Crawford County "cold case".

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Family

US: $45,000 Cash Discovery Leads to a Lesson in Honesty for New Bountiful Homeowners

Wendy Leonard
Deseret News
Wed, 18 May 2011 16:22 UTC
Josh Ferrin cash
© Deseret NewsLincoln and his father, Josh Ferrin, who recently closed on a new home, unloads bags of money and ammo boxes to turn over to Dennis and Kay Bangerter, sons of the former owner.
He hit the mother lode, but not once did Josh Ferrin even think of laying claim on the more than $45,000 cash that he found in his garage.

In fact, he gave it all back.

"You can't make plans for money like this that's found in a situation like this," Ferrin said. "It just doesn't feel right to do anything but give it back."
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Bizarro Earth

Iranian FM says Bushehr nuclear plant is operational


Jerusalem Post
Thu, 19 May 2011 13:56 UTC
Image
© Stringer Iran / Reuters
Nuclear power plant has reached critical mass, will be powered up within weeks, Salehi says, echoing statements of senior Russian diplomat.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that the Bushehr power plant is operational, Press TV reported on Wednesday.

"As we have previously announced, Bushehr power plant has reached the criticality stage, meaning it has been successfully launched," Salehi reportedly said.
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Ambulance

Plane Crash in Argentina: 22 People Have Died


Day Breaking News
Thu, 19 May 2011 13:08 UTC
Image

A private jet of the Argentinian Sol Company crashed Wednesday night in in a desert region of Patagonia (South), killing 22 people - 19 passengers and three crew members - has announced an official source.

"We have not found any living person. No survivors. Everything is charred in thousands of pieces, " said Ismael Ali, director of the hospital in Los Menucos, who participated in the rescue operation.

Sol company said in a statement that Flight 5428 disappeared from radar screens while on the route "Cordoba, Mendoza, Neuquen, Comodoro Rivadavia" in southern Argentina.

The Company spokesman, Horacio Farre, confirmed that there are no survivors.
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Laptop

5 Internet memes that could kill you

Peter Finocchiaro
Salon
Wed, 18 May 2011 12:31 UTC
planking
© YouTube/pewpewpewlazers17An example of planking.

Given the abundance of kitschy memes circulating on the Internet (think "Rick-Rolling" or "LOLcats"), there are bound to be a few that perpetuate and encourage brazen, risky or downright insane activities. Such was the case when a man died earlier this week while trying to perform a stunt called "planking."

Planking is a popular game that involves laying prostrate in unusual -- and often precarious -- locations, while an accomplice documents and uploads the pose to the Internet. An Australian man, Acton Beale, was posing for a planking photo on a the guardrail of a seventh-story high-rise apartment balcony when he lost his balance and fell to his death. As a result, much media attention has been cast on the game and its risks.

But planking is just the latest Internet meme that poses potentially grave risks. Here is our list of the five Internet memes that have the most potential to go awry.
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Bizarro Earth

Powerful and Primitive

Maureen Dowd
The New York Times
Thu, 19 May 2011 11:03 UTC
Image
© Fred R. Conrad/The New York TimesMaureen Dowd
Oh, she wanted it.

She wanted it bad.

That's what every hard-working, God-fearing, young widow who breaks her back doing menial labor at a Times Square hotel to support her teenage daughter, justify her immigration status and take advantage of the opportunities in America wants - a crazed, rutting, wrinkly old satyr charging naked out of a bathroom, lunging at her and dragging her around the room, caveman-style.
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Bad Guys

Fracking: Natural gas industry keeping water testing data from researchers

Ed Brayton
The Colorado Independent
Thu, 19 May 2011 11:03 UTC
Image
Protesters against Marcellus Shale drilling march across the Rachel Carson Bridge in Pittsburgh in November 2010.

Despite having complained for years that studies on the effect of hydrofracking on drinking water supplies are deficient because they don't include pre-drilling water quality data on wells and water systems, the natural gas industry has been keeping that data away from researchers.

ProPublica reports:
The absence of baseline data was one of the most serious criticisms leveled at a group of Duke researchers last week when they published the first peer-reviewed study linking drilling to methane contamination in water supplies.

That study - which found that methane concentrations in drinking water increased dramatically with proximity to gas wells - contained "no baseline information whatsoever," wrote Chris Tucker, a spokesman for the industry group Energy in Depth, in a statement debunking the study.

Now it turns out that some of that data does exist. It just wasn't available to the Duke researchers, or to the public.
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Vader

U.S.: 84-year-old man allegedly beaten by police officer after calling 911

Eric W. Dolan
Raw Story
Thu, 19 May 2011 10:13 UTC
Image

An Alabama police officer allegedly hospitalized an elderly man who called 911 to report an accident across the street from his house while his wife watched the entire beating from her wheelchair.

The Courthouse News Service reported that 84-year-old Dorsey Henderson of Fairhope, Alabama called 911 after investigating the car accident and discovering that the driver of the vehicle was severely intoxicated.

Henderson told the driver of the car he was under citizens arrest and needed to wait near his car until police arrived.
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