Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Paraguay police arrest 4 alleged parrot smugglers with 211 wild birds, many taken from nests


The Republic
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:13 UTC
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© AP Photo/Paraguay's Environmental MinistryIn this Dec. 15, 2012 photo provided by Paraguay's Environmental Ministry, rescued Blue-fronted Amazons parrots, whose scientific name is Amazona aestiva, are taken from a box by veterinarian Carlos Britos, right, at the Teniente Agripino Enciso National Park in Paraguay on the border with Bolivia border
Police have rescued 211 protected parrots taken from the remote forests of Paraguay, and made four arrests.

Veterinarian Carlos Britos of Paraguay's environmental ministry identifies the rescued birds as blue-fronted Amazon parrots, whose scientific name is Amazona aestiva. He says many are still juveniles and were taken from their nests.

He said Wednesday that the birds are being cared for by government biologists in a national park, and will be returned to the wild once they can fly.
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USA

6 year-old suspended for pretend gunshot

Matt Connolly
Washington Examiner
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:21 UTC
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A Montgomery County elementary school student was suspended for a pretend gunshot a week after Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The 6-year-old, who attends Roscoe R. Nix Elementary School in Silver Spring, made a gun with his hands, pointed it at another student and said "pow," according to Robin Ficker, the boy's attorney. He was given a one-day suspension, with a conference on the matter planned for Jan. 2, the day students return to school from winter break.

"What they're doing is looking at the worst possible interpretation of a young, naive 6-year-old," Ficker said. "This is a little child who can't form the intent to do anything like that."

According to a letter sent by Assistant Principal Renee Garraway to the child's parents, this was not the first time something like this had happened.

"Your son ... was involved in a serious incident," Garraway wrote. "[He] threatened to shoot a student. He was spoken to earlier today about a similar incident."

Ficker said the boy's family was never told about any previous issues. "They won't say what the similar incident is," Ficker said. "It just shows the overreaction."
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Ambulance

Woman dies on plane from Brazil to Texas


Global Post
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:57 UTC
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A passenger died aboard an American Airlines flight to Texas. The passenger, a 25-year-old woman, showed no signs of trauma, the Associated Press reported. The flight was diverted to Houston after her death.

American Airlines officials said the flight later continued to Dallas, its original destination, The Houston Chronicle reported.
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Life Preserver

Brazilian teen puts virginity on sale


wafb.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:46 UTC
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© CNNA Brazilian teen is auctioning off her virginity to help care for her bed-ridden mother.
A Brazilian teen is placing her virginity up for auction to the highest bidder.

Rebecca Bernardo,18, made the decision out of desperation to care for her bed-ridden mother.

"I made up my mind right after my 18th birthday," said Bernardo through a translator. "That's when my mother suffered a stroke."

While Bernardo tried other forms of employment, the money she earned barely covered the costs of a caretaker.

She was inspired by the virginity auction of another Brazilian woman, Catarina Migilorini.

Migilorini offered to sell her virginity through an Australian website. She received widespread publicity and was offered modeling contracts.

"There comes a time when you have to make decisions to get what you want," said Bernardo. "You have to be strong."
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Syringe

Indiana hospital fires eight veteran nurses because they refused to take flu shot for religious reasons


Daily Mail
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:15 UTC
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© IU Health.orgFired: IU Health Goshen said its decision to fire workers who don't take the flu vaccine is backed up by the CDC
An Indiana hospital has fired eight employees, many of them veteran nurses, because they refused to take the flu vaccine.
IU Health Goshen is just the latest hospital to force its employees to receive the jab and fire or discipline the ones who object. At least four of the nurses who was terminated tried to appeal the vaccine on religious grounds with the help of a lawyer. The hospital rejected their arguments and fired them anyway.

The Elkhart Truth reports that the hospital informed its staff in early September that vaccinations would be mandatory for all employees. The hospital said it was following guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Medical Association, which both recommend mandatory vaccinations for employees.

'As a hospital and health system, our top priority is and should be patient safety, and we know that hospitalized people with compromised immune systems are at a greater risk for illness and death from the flu,' hospital spokeswoman Melanie McDonald told the newspaper.

'The flu has the highest death rate of any vaccine preventable disease, and it would be irresponsible from our perspective for health care providers to ignore that.'
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Ambulance

Mom: Boy didn't steal plane in crash

Phillip Rawls
ABC News
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:50 UTC
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A teen pilot killed along with two friends in an Alabama plane crash had his own key to the aircraft and had flown it many times, his mother said Wednesday, denying authorities' assertion that the plane had been taken without permission.

Sherrie Smith said her 17-year-old son Jordan Smith was the one flying the plane that went down in the Alabama woods Tuesday night, killing the him and two other male teens. The Federal Aviation Administration said the Piper PA 30 crashed less than a mile from the Walker County Airport in Jasper, which is northwest of Birmingham.

Smith says the owner of the plane had let her son fly it many other times and had given her son his own key.

"He had used the plane many times before," she said.

She said her son was a high school junior who fell in love with flying at an early age and was one test short of earning his private pilot's license.
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Brick Wall

The Colombian village I've come to know

Mathew Mulholland
Huffington Post Canada
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:31 UTC
I am in a remote village on the Pacific coast of Colombia. One road leads in and out, extending as far as the next village. It is a thoroughfare for cocaine transportation -- processed deep in the jungle, transported up the coast, en-route to Panama -- a ruthless commodity akin to conflict minerals or diamonds. Fuelling both addiction and war, affecting the lives of every person in this area.

There exists a palpable sense of death here. At the very least, a recognition of one's mortality -- it seeps through the air. Ten people have lost their lives in so many days. Eight trapped in their rooms on a passenger ship sunk off the coast, two murdered and four wounded in narco-trafficking conflicts and domestic disputes. Yet life goes on. Death is, for the residents, a practical outcome of the day to day -- dogs hang their heads in the street, gaunt, homeless, searching for scraps of food. Cows show ribs and chickens spotted with featherless patches roam aimlessly. The military casually occupies benches in the town centre equipped with all manner of assault rifles, sidearms and even rocket launchers.
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Bad Guys

Twice unlucky for jailed Mormon cult leader


3 News
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:17 UTC
Warren Jeffs
© 3 NewsWarren Jeffs in his police mugshot.
The leader of a breakaway Mormon sect has incorrectly prophesied the end of the world for the second time in as many months.

Warren Jeffs, head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), issued his latest edict last week, saying the apocalypse would occur before the New Year.

CNN reports on December 31 authorities in Colorado City, where the church is based, were preparing for the worst.

"Jim Jones, Koresh, history has showed us that these things happen when religious zealots take charge of a group of people," said Sam Brower, a private investigator who has worked on cases for ex-FLDS members.
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Question

Weird U.S. state laws take effect in 2013

Marc Lallanilla
LiveScience
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:42 UTC
Hog
© Dreamstime.comReleasing a hog into the wild is now illegal in Kentucky.

A number of new laws went into effect after the toll of midnight on Dec. 31, and from the wise to the wacky, they're now officially on the books in states across America.

In Kentucky, for example, it's illegal to release a feral hog into the wild. The law makes sense, according to Politico, because wild hogs have been running amok in Kentucky's farmland, destroying crops and spreading disease.

Though the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been using gun-equipped helicopters to cull packs of wild hogs in the state, their populations continue to increase. The beasts are now found in 37 of Kentucky's counties, up from 19 counties in 2009, reports Politico.

The state of Illinois has dealt a blow to necrophiliacs, specifically outlawing sex with a corpse for the first time. Previously, the only charge authorities could level was "criminal damage to property."

"The death of a loved one is bad enough, but it should be much more than criminal damaged property," state Rep. Daniel Beiser told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "This is a completely inappropriate charge."
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Arrow Down

Restaurant rival poisons 80 diners' dishes in China

Makini Brice
Medical Daily
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 13:41 UTC
Eggplant Dish
© Medical Daily
Diners in China received quite the uncomfortable surprise recently when they ordered eggplant dishes in a Beijing restaurant. The dishes had been laced with clonidine, a drug prescribed for a variety of conditions, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, menopause and LSD flashbacks. The event sent 80 diners to the hospital; 34 patrons needed to have their blood pumped in order to remove traces of the drug.

According to the Annals of Internal Medicine, the perpetrators were connected to a neighboring restaurant, who wanted to gain a leg up on the competition by making its patrons sick. The pair hid the drug, a white powder without a scent, in the restaurant's starch, which the chefs used to thicken the braised eggplant.

Clonidine was likely chosen because it takes only a small trace of the drug to make a person sick and would be tasteless. The diners fell ill almost immediately, becoming dizzy, tired, nauseous. Some diners also reportedly suffered from blurred vision and started vomiting.

Doctors at an area hospital quickly discovered that the source of the diners' symptoms was potentially toxic levels of clonidine in their blood. The police traced the drug to the restaurant before linking the chemical with the nearby restaurant. The perpetrators were snagged and sentenced to one year in prison.
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