A former Ottawa police officer who was caught in an online teen sex sting after expressing his desire in a fetish chat room to experience the "gift of a 14-year-old's virginity" was sentenced Tuesday to 10 1/2 years in prison.
Paul Maher, 60, of Richmond, Ont., plans to petition the government in Canada to allow him to serve most of his jail time north of the border, public defender Thomas Livingston said after the sentence was imposed by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.
Maher pleaded guilty in October to two counts: travelling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, and coercion and enticement of a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl. He faced a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence and could have received up to 11 years and three months in prison under sentencing guidelines.
Maher was arrested June 27, 2008, after travelling nearly 1,000 kilometres to a Pennsylvania motel for a meeting he had arranged with the "teen" - actually an undercover police officer from Mount Pleasant, a borough about 50 kilometres southeast of Pittsburgh.
He didn't go through with the meeting because he believed he was under police surveillance, court heard.
"Your criminal conduct in this case was depraved and vile," U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry said before sentencing Maher, who opted not to address the judge. "You are without doubt a sexual predator.
Society's Child
© The Raw Story
A new campaign by a national network of activists kicked off Monday morning with a splash as it led hundreds of fed up homeowners in a series of protests that brought business to a halt at a major bank and the House speaker's office.
The National People's Action network picked Monday to launch the "Make Wall Street Pay" campaign thanks to another show in town: the National Association of Attorneys General's Convention in Washington, D.C.
But they didn't stop there.
Moving from the meeting of all 50 Attorneys General, the crowd made their way to a Bank of America branch on Pennsylvania Ave. While about 300 stood outside, another 300 moved indoors, filling up the lobby and bringing business to a standstill.
This morning, I woke to the news that a woman had been stabbed to death in South Tel Aviv. Two men - dubbed migrant workers by the Hebrew press, but referred to as "African descent" in the English-language media, suggesting they were probably asylum seekers - were briefly held under suspicion for the crime. They were interrogated and released without being charged.
The story hit me on many levels: I used to live in South Tel Aviv, an impoverished area that is home to migrant workers, African refugees, and poor Jews. During my time there, I volunteered in a black market Filipino kindergarten. I developed a deep attachment for the "foreign" community. I put quotes around the word "foreign" because, as cliché as it might be to say this, I quickly realized that migrant workers and African refugees aren't foreign at all. I have never met anyone, anywhere in the world, that I have been unable to connect with on some basic level, even if I don't agree with their politics or decisions.
The story hit me on many levels: I used to live in South Tel Aviv, an impoverished area that is home to migrant workers, African refugees, and poor Jews. During my time there, I volunteered in a black market Filipino kindergarten. I developed a deep attachment for the "foreign" community. I put quotes around the word "foreign" because, as cliché as it might be to say this, I quickly realized that migrant workers and African refugees aren't foreign at all. I have never met anyone, anywhere in the world, that I have been unable to connect with on some basic level, even if I don't agree with their politics or decisions.
A Bad Gas
Many of our computers and electronic gadgets are possible thanks to the production facilities in China. The focus on production capacity sometimes leads to neglect for the conditions that human beings must endure just to make the latest piece of technology.
Now several workers from Wintek, which make touch screens for Apple devices, has written a letter to Steve Jobs regarding the hardships they had to endure, particularly with regards to the use of hexyl hydride, also called n-hexane, from May 2008 to August 2009.
According to Reuters, part of the letter read: "This is a killer, a killer that strikes invisibly. ... From when hexyl hydride was used, monthly profits at Apple and Wintek have gone up by tens of millions every month, the accumulated outcome of workers' lives and health."
Wintek used n-hexane in the production of touch-panels, but has since stopped when it found out that it was making its workers ill. Now the plant has switched back to alcohol, which achieves the same result but slower.
It's not immediately clear what the workers are hoping to achieve by sending an English version of the letter to Apple. One technician said, "I hope Apple can respect our labor and our dignity. I hope they can stand up and apologize to us," while another worker explained, "We are unable to cope with the medical costs of treatment in the future."
© Unknown
Now several workers from Wintek, which make touch screens for Apple devices, has written a letter to Steve Jobs regarding the hardships they had to endure, particularly with regards to the use of hexyl hydride, also called n-hexane, from May 2008 to August 2009.
According to Reuters, part of the letter read: "This is a killer, a killer that strikes invisibly. ... From when hexyl hydride was used, monthly profits at Apple and Wintek have gone up by tens of millions every month, the accumulated outcome of workers' lives and health."
Wintek used n-hexane in the production of touch-panels, but has since stopped when it found out that it was making its workers ill. Now the plant has switched back to alcohol, which achieves the same result but slower.
It's not immediately clear what the workers are hoping to achieve by sending an English version of the letter to Apple. One technician said, "I hope Apple can respect our labor and our dignity. I hope they can stand up and apologize to us," while another worker explained, "We are unable to cope with the medical costs of treatment in the future."
Or read Psychiatric Disorders
New Orleans - Louisiana demands more than $1 million a day from each of the companies responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, in accord with the Louisiana Oil Spill Prevention and Response Act of 1991, the Oil Pollution Act, and the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act.
In his federal complaint, Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell outlines BP's and the other defendants' disregard of safety practices and regulations every step of the way.
The attorney general says that before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, "warning signs of well flow were being transmitted to the rig, to Halliburton's Houston office and BP E&P's Houston office in real time for almost an hour before hydrocarbons reached the rig, alerting rig workers to shut down the well. Nevertheless, the rig workers apparently ignored these warning signs until it was too late. Moreover, during the critical hour before the well blowout, there was no one at the Halliburton or BP E&P offices to monitor this data and issue the appropriate warnings." (BP E&P stands for BP Exploration & Production.)
The complaint continues: "The initial explosion on the Deepwater Horizon on the night of April 20, 2010, was caused when an engine in the rig's engine room sucked in the gas vapors from the MGS vent pipe, causing the engine to overspeed.
In his federal complaint, Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell outlines BP's and the other defendants' disregard of safety practices and regulations every step of the way.
The attorney general says that before the Deepwater Horizon exploded, "warning signs of well flow were being transmitted to the rig, to Halliburton's Houston office and BP E&P's Houston office in real time for almost an hour before hydrocarbons reached the rig, alerting rig workers to shut down the well. Nevertheless, the rig workers apparently ignored these warning signs until it was too late. Moreover, during the critical hour before the well blowout, there was no one at the Halliburton or BP E&P offices to monitor this data and issue the appropriate warnings." (BP E&P stands for BP Exploration & Production.)
The complaint continues: "The initial explosion on the Deepwater Horizon on the night of April 20, 2010, was caused when an engine in the rig's engine room sucked in the gas vapors from the MGS vent pipe, causing the engine to overspeed.
Bahrain anti-government protesters outside the US Embassy in Manama
The protesters gathered in front of the embassy on the 22nd day of protests on Monday, chanting slogans such as "Down down Hamad" -- a reference to the country's king -- and "Down with the monarchy! People want democracy!"
Demonstrators also chanted, "The people want to topple the regime!"
"If the Americans say 'OK, stop' ... I'm sure the regime won't say no," said Muneer Shehab, a 39-year-old activist.
© NY Daily News
Tragic: Lana Rosas was knocked unconscious and fell to the ground after an alleged altercation with Oscar Fuller over a parking space in New York's East Village
Tragic: Lana Rosas was knocked unconscious and fell to the ground after an alleged altercation with Oscar Fuller over a parking space in New York's East Village
The altercation took place on February 25 when 4ft 11in, 100 pound Lana Rosas, 25, was standing in the space she was saving for her boyfriend on 14th street in New York's East Village and refused to let 35-year-old, 150-pound Oscar Fuller park there.
The argument that followed left Rosas lying in the street unconscious with blood pouring from her mouth. She has been in a coma at Bellevue Hospital ever since the February 25 incident.
© Cable News Network
Women were very visible in Cairo's Tahrir Square among demonstrators who toppled Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
Women were very visible in Cairo's Tahrir Square among demonstrators who toppled Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak.
"We are not after minority rights. We are not after symbolic political representation," they said in a statement on Facebook.
Activists highlighted the role of women in the protests that swept Egypt this year.
"The bodies of women, so often used as ideological battlegrounds, have withstood all kinds of police violence, from tear gas to live bullets. The real battleground did not differentiate between women and men," they said on Facebook.
Women were very visible among demonstrators who toppled Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak last month, which feminists called a breakthrough for Egyptian society.
© Cable News Network
Stephanie Coontz
Stephanie Coontz
The new report indicates that women still earn less, on average, than men and are more likely to live in poverty. They are also at much greater risk of sexual assault and of violence at the hands of an intimate partner than men.
To be sure, the report shows that there is still plenty of progress to be made. But it is Women's History Month, and a good time to pause for perspective.
There have been astonishing improvements in the status of American women in the 48 years since the first report was published. For one thing, the authors of this year's report saw no need for a section detailing the legal disabilities facing American women.
