Society's ChildS


Black Magic

Berkeley, CA joins list of cities suing Monsanto for poisoning San Francisco Bay

san francisco
Monsanto and its ancillaries are facing another lawsuit over pollution caused by their manufactured chemicals. A 6-0 vote by the Berkeley City Council last week prompted an official complaint demanding the conglomerate pay for a cleanup of the PCB-compromised San Francisco Bay.

PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were almost exclusively produced by Monsanto from 1935 to 1977, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The ATSDR marked the company's production figure at 99 percent. The Environmental Protection Agency banned PCBs in 1979, deeming them probable human carcinogens. However, the chemical, commonly used in products like paint and ink, is still present in the environment, and it is seeping into the Bay through storm drains.

The January 5 closed meeting of the Berkeley City Council led to the filing of a lawsuit in San Jose's Northern District Court. The lawsuit points to "elevated levels of PCBs in sport fish" as the cause of long-standing contamination across "all segments of the Bay."

"Monsanto's conduct was malicious, oppressive, wanton, willful, intentional, and shocks the conscience, warranting punitive and exemplary damages, because Monsanto callously decided to increase sales and develop new ways to promote PCBs, knowing PCBs are toxic, cannot be contained, and last for centuries," the lawsuit argues.

Comment: Monsanto's long history of death and destruction appears to be finally catching up with them, and it cannot happen soon enough.


Arrow Down

Following in the footsteps of the Nazis: Switzerland to seize assets of migrants

migrants
© Arnd Wiegmann / Reuters
Switzerland says it will introduce legislation which will force refugees to hand over cash and valuables to the authorities to help pay for their upkeep. The move by the Swiss follows a similar plan implemented by Denmark.

Refugees arriving in the Alpine nation will have to turn over any assets they possess which are worth more than 1,000 Swiss francs ($997).

"If you have property worth more than 1,000 Swiss francs when you arrive at a reception center you are required to give up these financial assets in return for a receipt," an information sheet for refugees states, as cited by Reuters.

However, the move has been met with condemnation by human rights groups, who have called it "undignified." Stefan Frey from refugee aid group Schweizerische Fluechtlingshilfe said that the practice "has to change."

Comment: Stealing assets from those whose lives are in shambles as a result of the EU's participation in the global wars of conquest in Africa and the Middle East is nothing short of pathological.


Ambulance

U.S. emergency rooms experiencing increased shortages of life-saving medications

emergency room drugs
U.S. emergency rooms are increasingly running short on medications, including many that are needed for life-threatening conditions, a recent study documents.

Since 2008, the number of shortages has risen by more than 400 percent, researchers found. Half of all emergency room shortages were for life-saving drugs, and for one in 10 there were no available substitutes, they report in Academic Emergency Medicine.

Half of the individual shortage incidents had no explanation, the authors found. The rest had a variety of systemic causes that add up to a U.S. drug supply too low to meet public demand.

"Drug shortages are of particular concern in emergency care settings where providers must rapidly treat ill and injured patients," said lead author Kristy Hawley of the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C. "For most medications, substitutes exist but may not be as effective and may have more side effects, or providers may not have as much experience with them," she told Reuters Health by email.

Alarm Clock

Residents of Flint are being billed for poisoned water and threatened with shutoffs if they don't pay

Flint_water
© AP?Paul SancyaFlint resident Genetha Campbell gets free water
Last week Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R) declared a state of emergency over the level of lead being found in Flint's tap water, and this week he activated the state National Guard to help provide residents with bottled water, filters, and lead testing kits.

But even in the midst of this crisis, city residents aren't just being charged for their poisoned tap water — they're being threatened with shutoffs if they don't quickly pay their bills.

In 2011, Flint lawmakers imposed a rapid 35 percent increase in water rates, against a city law that requires utility hikes to be implemented gradually, and started issuing shutoff notices to those who were past due. A judge halted the shutoffs last summer, ordering the city to undo the increase and revise customers' bills. But the shutoff notices resumed in November based on the prior rates, going out to about 1,800 past due households.

And while they were paused for the December holiday season, they have once again resumed this week. Finance Director Jody Lundquist could not tell Michigan Live how many notices are expected to be sent out in this round.

Even residents who aren't behind, though, are frustrated that they're still being billed for water they can't even drink. "The city is still billing residents for the contaminated water being pumped to their homes and expecting immediate payment," Sylvia Orduno of the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization explained in an email to ThinkProgress.

Eye 1

Man becomes first to use an implanted microchip to take a flight

Andreas Sjöström
© Youtube/Andreas SjöströmAndreas Sjöström strolls through Stockholm airport.
A man who implanted a microchip containing his airline booking details into his hand was able to use it to pass effortlessly through security to his flight.

Andreas Sjöström, vice president of digital for technology consulting company Sogeti, had the near-field communication chip (NFC) about the size of a grain of rice injected into his hand with a syringe, before using it at Stockholm Arlanda Airport to pass through security and board his plane.

The technology has been used before to make digital payments, control a mobile phone and unlock doors, in the same way contactless payment cards work. All it requires is a scanner to link up to that is compatible with the NFC.

Comment: Effortless and convenient or just a push to get everyone chipped?

BBC Propaganda: "Why I want a microchip implant"


Shopping Bag

Canadians are going loonie over skyrocketing food prices

cucumber price canada
It's no secret that America has a serious inflation problem. Though the Federal Reserve insists that our inflation rate is only at around .5%, we've all seen the price of food, rent, healthcare, and energy skyrocket over the past 10-20 years. However, this has been a gradual shift. Canada on the other hand, has just seen the price of every day goods rise precipitously over a very short period of time.

The crash in oil prices has crippled their economic growth, and led to the decline of the Canadian dollar, as well as a predictable increase in the cost of imports like food. For those of us living in the US, this provides a really good example of what life may be like should the dollar take a plunge in the near future. Here's what our northern neighbors have been dealing with:

Eye 1

Welcome to the US: Immigration officials at LAX detain Pakistani-born member of Australian parliament, ask her how she got Australian passport

border control
© Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Australia's first female Muslim MP, Dr Mehreen Faruqi, was detained at a US airport after immigration officials grilled her about how she was granted an Australian passport. The Pakistani-born member of the New South Wales parliament said it was a clear case of "racial profiling."

Dr Faruqi is touring the US as part of a fact-finding trip on drug law reform. She told the Daily Mail that after she and her husband were questioned about how they got their Australian passports, they were sent off to the interview room and interrogated separately about "why we were in the US and my links to Pakistan."

Dr Faruqi migrated to Sydney from Pakistan in 1992 and joined the Australian Greens in 2004. She has been an Australian citizen for 22 years.

"Being asked how 'we got' Australian passports and then about my Pakistani history clearly points towards racial profiling,"the politician said in a statement, according to ABC Australia.

Ambulance

One brain dead, five others critically ill, in drug trial gone horribly wrong

Rennes University Hospital
The six volunteers are being treated at Rennes University Hospital.
Six volunteers are seriously ill in hospital after a medical trial at a private clinic in France. One person is described as "brain dead" while the other five are critically ill. Some of those who have been taken ill were suffering from a "handicap that could be irreversible," French Health Minister Marisol Touraine said.

A seventh person has been taken to hospital, but is not thought to be seriously affected. Initially it was believed the trial involved a cannabis-based painkiller, but later reports suggested there was no cannabis in the drug.

Comment: Tragic. One wonders if the guinea pigs study subjects truly knew what they were getting themselves in for? If they truly grokked the risk for death or serious injury would they have signed up? Also worth noting: Touraine later said that the pill did not contain cannabis or its derivatives but acted on the body's endocannabinoid system. Is the article just confusion or are they trying to develop and test a synthetic alternative? Or one of the 85+ cannabinoids isolated from cannabis? Is it something else entirely? Cannabinoids are a class of diverse chemical compounds that act on cannabinoid receptors in cells that repress neurotransmitter release in the brain. Ligands for these receptor proteins include the endocannabinoids that are produced naturally in humans and animals.


Heart - Black

Gulf War veteran with PTSD has children taken away by CPS for using medical marijuana

cannabis
© Mark Blinch / Reuters
The family of a Gulf War veteran suffering PTSD lost custody of their youngest kids after moving from Colorado, where treatment with medical marijuana is legal, to Kansas, where pot is illegal. They have seen their children three times since last April.

Veteran Raymond Schwab and his wife Amelia are fighting to get back their five children, aged five to 16, taken from them by Kansas child-protection workers after a family squabble, while the family was preparing to move back to Colorado from the Kansas capital, Topeka. Raymond had worked there as benefits agent for fellow veterans since 2013 and was offered a same job in Denver.

Kansas child-protection workers took five youngest Schwab children after Amelia's mother took the kids to a police station in another county and reported them abandoned - something she now reportedly regrets.

The children were taken from their parents' custody and a child-abuse investigation was launched, alleging that Raymond and Amelia emotionally abused all five children. The allegations were dropped as unsubstantiated three months later, however the children were not returned to the parents.

Comment: This is how our war veterans are treated. They are used by the elites to spread their terrorism and imperialism, then discarded. When the cannon fodder find difficulties dealing with the psychological effects of the elite's war activities, they are left on their own and fighting against a system that has no compassion for what they have been through. And not only is this man dealing with a system that poisons him instead of healing him, they then take away his children because he uses cannabis, which is a treatment that actually works. One can only imagine the frustration and pain that family is going through because of a system that has lost its touch with reality decades ago.


Bulb

New Mexico to sue federal government over toxic waste spill into Animas River

yellow mine waste river
© EPA / ReutersYellow mine waste water from the Gold King Mine is seen in San Juan County, Colorado, in this picture released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) taken August 7, 2015
New Mexico has signaled that it will sue the federal government, along with the owners of two Colorado mines, for a massive spill of 3 million gallons of toxic metals into the Animas River. The spill contaminated rivers and agricultural lands in four states.

New Mexico made its intent to sue known in papers filed on Thursday claiming the government had created "an imminent and substantial endangerment to the health of New Mexico's citizens and the environment of the Animas and San Juan Rivers," the Associated Press reported.

The notice targets the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as the Gold King and Sunnyside Mines, whose waste polluted the Animas and San Juan rivers on August 5, 2015.

"From the very beginning, the EPA failed to hold itself accountable in the same way that it would a private business," Ryan Flynn, cabinet secretary of New Mexico's environment department, said in a statement. "The EPA caused an unprecedented disaster that may affect our state for years to come; they must take responsibility."