Society's ChildS


Handcuffs

Captain Arrested Amid Growing Anger After Italian Cruise Ship Runs Aground

John Hooper and Tom Kington
The Guardian, UK
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 14:30 UTC
Francesco Schettino investigated for manslaughter and abandoning ship after three die and 41 unaccounted for

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© screenshot guardian.co.ukClick here to watch video.
The Italian captain of the ship that sank off the coast of Tuscany was detained by prosecutors as efforts continued to search for the missing.

Three people were confirmed to have died and 41 were still unaccounted for after the 114,000-tonne Costa Concordia smashed into rocks near the island of Giglio.

Authorities said that Francesco Schettino, 52, who has worked for the owners of the cruise liner for 11 years, was being investigated for manslaughter and abandoning his ship. Prosecutor Francesco Velusio was quoted as saying that the vessel "was mistakenly close" to the island on a route ordered by Schettino through well-mapped sea lanes.

There was speculation that a power failure on board the ship could have led to a loss of navigational control, sending it smashing into the rocks. Experts said that passengers reported a power blackout and a large blast, which may have indicated an explosion in the engine room.
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Heart - Black

US, California: New San Francisco Sheriff Charged with Domestic Violence


Fox News
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© unknownJan. 13, 2012: San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi walks away after speaking to reporters at City Hall in San Francisco.
San Francisco's new sheriff is vowing to fight domestic violence and other misdemeanor charges that prosecutors allege are related to a New Year's Eve incident with his wife.

Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi faces one count each of domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness, San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said Friday.

Mirkarimi was booked at San Francisco County Jail, said San Francisco police Sgt. Michael Andraychak. He was released on $35,000 bail. A police mugshot showed Mirkarimi with his eyes closed.

The sheriff, 50, vowed to remain in office while he fights the charges. He told reporters outside his office Friday afternoon the he denies the allegations.

"The charges are very unfounded," he said calmly. "We will fight the charges."

"We are cooperating," he said.
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Pistol

US: Mall Shooting at Independence Center in Kansas City Metro, Two Injured

Joel Mackey
Z6 Mag
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© unknown
Another mall shooting is starting to trickle out through the news from the Kansas City area. The mall shooting took place on January 14th, 2011 in the late afternoon. The mall was the Indepence Center shopping mall located in Independence, MO which is part of the Kansas City metro area.

The mall had been put in full lockdown as police attempted to find the suspect who has shot at least two people. A phone interview of a man live on the news revealed that most of the shooting happened in the end of the Independence Mall where Sears Deparment store is located.

Stores had started to pull down lock gates as the shooting took place. Some stores in the Independence, Missouri mall allowed customers to come in and stay in the back of the stores until things calmed down.

Personal accounts are mentioned at The Examiner reported by Kelly Evenson. The interview of three sisters revealed the girls heard three shots in the mall and they quicly returned into the CJ Banks store to take shelter as the store locked the customers down. The three sisters said that after the shots were heard shoppers were seen, "screaming and running like a herd of cattle."
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Crusader

US: Priest Gets 3 Years in Prison for Stealing from Church

Ashley Powers
Los Angeles Times
Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:54 UTC
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© Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Msgr. Kevin McAuliffe, left, outside the courthouse in Las Vegas.
Msgr. Kevin McAuliffe stole about $650,000 from his Las Vegas-area parish over nearly a decade to feed a gambling addiction. His parishioners had urged the judge to show mercy.

For years, Msgr. Kevin McAuliffe lived something of a double life.

He was widely admired by his flock at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, which he helped build into one of the largest Roman Catholic parishes in the Las Vegas area. But at the same time, he was stealing money from the church.

Over nearly a decade, he pocketed about $650,000. His motive was all too familiar in Nevada. McAuliffe was a gambling addict.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge James C. Mahan judge waved off the defense's request to give McAuliffe probation. He sentenced the priest, who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the thefts, to more than three years in prison and ordered him to pay restitution.

McAuliffe's attorney, Margaret Stanish, had asked the court to consider his lifelong devotion to the Catholic Church, which started with helping nuns when he was a schoolboy. McAuliffe has also been diagnosed with social anxiety disorder and depression, she said, but in recent months had "excelled" in gambling addiction treatment.
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Newspaper

US: Billionaire Detroit Bridge Owner Released from Jail

David Bailey
Reuters
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 09:52 UTC
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© Reuters/Wayne County Sheriff's OfficeManuel ''Matty'' Moroun (L), an owner of the company that controls the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit with Windsor, Canada, and company executive Dan Stamper are seen in a combination of booking photos
The billionaire owner of the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest crossing between the United States and Canada, was released after one night from the jail where a judge ordered him held for failing to complete a road construction project.

Manuel "Matty" Moroun, 84, who controls the Detroit International Bridge Co, and company President Dan Stamper were ordered jailed on Thursday by a Wayne County judge until they complied with his order in February 2010 to complete the project or until they no longer have the power to do so.

The Michigan Court of Appeals on Friday ordered both men freed while they appealed the contempt ruling by Wayne County Judge Prentis Edwards. The court scheduled oral arguments in the appeal on February 2.

"All other aspects of the order are not stayed during the pendency of this appeal," the appeals court ruled.
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V

US: Occupy 'Will Never Die': Protesters in Washington


Raw Story
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:06 UTC
Occupy Wash protestors
© flickr
Protesters with the "Occupy" movement in the US capitol said Friday the authorities' efforts to evict them would fail, after the city mayor called for their removal.

"They are trying to annoy us, to get our spirits down but I really think it's not working," said Sam Mellot from Virginia who has been camping at McPherson Square, a few blocks from the White House, one of two downtown sites being used for an encampment by "Occupy Washington" and "Occupy DC" demonstrators.

"Evict us, we'll multiply - Occupy will never die," he said.

Washington Mayor Vincent Gray asked the National Park Service on Thursday to remove protesters from McPherson Square, saying he wants the protesters removed to eliminate rats and trash and allow restoration of the park.
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Sheriff

US: Police Believe Man in Custody is Responsible for California Homeless Killings


Fox News
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:00 UTC
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© The Associated PressJanuary 13, 2012: A crowd gathers at the intersection of Imperial Highway and La Palma in Anaheim, Calif. Friday night following the discovery of a dead man behind a Carl's Jr.
Police in Southern California said Saturday they believe a man in their custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County.

Anaheim police said at a news conference that investigators have tied 23-year-old Itzcoatl Ocampo of Yorba Linda to the killings.

Ocampo was detained Friday night after a fourth homeless man was found slain in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.

Three other homeless men have been found stabbed to death in north Orange County since mid-December, and a task force of police officers, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents had been looking for the single suspect they believed was responsible for all three.

Ocampo could not immediately be reached for comment. A phone number listed in his name rang without an answer, and no one answered the door at two addresses listed in his name.
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Footprints

India: Shrine Stampede Leaves Ten Dead


South Asian News Agency
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:42 UTC
A stampede during a religious ceremony in central India has left at least 10 people dead, an official said.

According to Senior police officer Rajesh Vyas said the stampede occurred early Saturday when a large number of people surged forward to gain entry into a Muslim shrine.

Vyas said some pilgrims fell down and were crushed to death.

The shrine is near Ratlam, a town in Madhya Pradesh state nearly 480 miles southwest of New Delhi. Police in the region could not be immediately reached for details.

Deadly stampedes are relatively common at religious places in India, where large crowds gather in tiny areas with no safety measures or crowd control.
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Bizarro Earth

Two Years On, Haiti Still Reeling from Earthquake

Moni Basu
CNN
Fri, 13 Jan 2012 12:02 UTC

Fabiola Leocal's story ought to be uncommon, but in post-earthquake Haiti, it's not.

All she has left of her previous life are a stack of photographs and a few other things scavenged off the rubble of the building she called a home.

When the catastrophe struck, as the Haitians say, her house tumbled, along with many others that dotted the hillside in the Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Canape Vert. Her husband of nine years, Rene, was crushed under concrete.

She lived in a camp for a while but returned to where she belonged. Now she has a tin shack and memories -- photographs carefully tucked away in loose, laminated photo album pages of herself and Rene. He, in a suit. She, in a much finer dress than the black sleeveless top and printed skirt she has on now.
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Einstein

US, New York: Homeless Long Island Teenager Is Intel Competition Semifinalist


CBS News, New York
Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:51 UTC
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© Sophia Hall / WCBS 880Samantha Garvey and her father at Brentwood High School - Brentwood, NY - Jan 12, 2012
Samantha Garvey has good reason to be the recipient of high fives and congratulations from the faculty and students in the hallways at Brentwood High School.

The 17-year-old senior says she cannot believe that she is one of the semifinalists in the highly prestigious Intel Science Competition, in part because she lives in a Bay Shore homeless shelter with her parents, brother, and twin sisters.

"I am currently homeless. Like I've said, this motivates me to do better. I do well and I pursue my passion because it's what I have and it's a way out, you know, and it'll lead to better things," Garvey told WCBS 880 reporter Sophia Hall.
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