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Explosion and fire at chemical plant leaves dozens injured in Qazvin, northern Iran


RT
Tue, 06 May 2014 18:42 UTC
Image

Google map
An explosion and subsequent fire has torn through Qazvin, north Iran, according to local news agencies. Authorities expect high numbers of casualties.

Unconfirmed local reports stated that as many as 50 could have been injured in the city, which is considered a commercial hub. While two emergency servicemen have suffered complications resulting from smoke inhalation, no deaths have yet been reported. The explosion was thought to have taken place in a chipboard and oil storage facility.

The blaze engulfed the city in a cloud of smoke. Roads leading to the site of the fire within a 2km radius have been closed off and people evacuated, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

Comment: From AP:
Earlier, the semiofficial Fars news agency said an explosion had gone off in a wood and oil storage facility in Qazvin, leaving nearly 50 people injured - many in serious condition. Many cargo depots are located in the city, some 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of the capital, Tehran.


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Arrow Down

Michigan residents lose 'right to farm' in backyards


Police State USA
Tue, 06 May 2014 13:44 UTC
Backyard chickens
© MLive.com
Backyard chickens.

Property rights took a hit this week when the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development voted to to take away protections for backyard farmers statewide - which will result in many small farms being shut down.

Backyard and urban farms were previously protected by Michigan's Right to Farm Act. The Act stated that local ordinances could not trump the state's Generally Accepted Agriculture Management Practices (GAAMP). After the rule change, however, these protections no longer apply to many homeowners who keep small numbers of livestock.

Lands that are located within 1/8 mile proximity to 13 neighboring homes, or that are 250-feet away from just one neighboring home, will no longer receive protection of the Right to Farm Act. The regulatory mess is going to shut down many small farms completely, and leave many others with large sections of property that is prohibited for farm use.

Backyard farmers who raise their own chickens, goats, pigs, and honey may have to give up their operations and go back to shopping for mass produced meats at the supermarket.
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Clock

French Metro sex attack - no one helped


The Connexion
Fri, 25 Apr 2014 10:54 UTC
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© Subways.net
A woman endured a 30-minute sex assault in Lille Metro, while fellow passengers and passers-by did nothing.

The 29-year-old mother-of-four's ordeal began at 10.30pm on Tuesday, when she was approached by a visibly drunk teenager on the platform of the subway, a court in Lille heard.

The man threatened her, before kissing her and touching her inappropriately, Voix du Nord reports.

The victim told the court in Lille: "I screamed for help. I begged for help."

But other passengers, who were also waiting on the subway, did nothing, she said.
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Handcuffs

School handcuffs seven-year-old boy for misbehaving


CBS St. Louis
Thu, 01 May 2014 09:32 UTC
A second-grader said a school security guard put him
Image
© Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images
in handcuffs because he was misbehaving.

"Some of the kids were messing with me," Kalyb Primm Wiley told KSHB-TV.

Kalyb told the station that kids were teasing and taunting him but nothing got physical. A teacher was unable to calm him down and he was taken to the principal's office by a school security guard.

"We were halfway down the hall, he put handcuffs on and twisted my wrists a little," Kalyb added.

"I don't think any 7-year-old should be put in handcuffs unless he was armed with a weapon, or violent," Kalyb's mother, Tomesha Primm, told KSHB.

Kalyb's parents were called when he was misbehaving. Kalyb's father said his son was in handcuffs when he showed up.

Comment: Talk about hysteria! This is yet another case of schools treating our children like criminals and terrorists. How can kids learn while under the thumb of these bullies and authoritarians?

If you take into consideration the fact that schools are in place to indoctrinate, not educate, then everything is unfolding exactly in perfect order and appropriateness...

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Health

Mortality drop seen to follow '06 Romneycare health law in Massachusetts

Sabrina Tavernise
The New York Times
Tue, 06 May 2014 09:41 UTC
Image
© Dominic Chavez/The New York Times
Dr. Stelios Maheras, of the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center, said much had changed under the state’s 2006 health law.
Boston - The death rate in Massachusetts dropped significantly after it adopted mandatory health care coverage in 2006, a study released Monday found, offering evidence that the country's first experiment with universal coverage - and the model for crucial parts of President Obama's health care law - has saved lives, health economists say.

The study tallied deaths in Massachusetts from 2001 to 2010 and found that the mortality rate - the number of deaths per 100,000 people - fell by about 3 percent in the four years after the law went into effect. The decline was steepest in counties with the highest proportions of poor and previously uninsured people. In contrast, the mortality rate in a control group of counties similar to Massachusetts in other states was largely unchanged.

A national 3 percent decline in mortality among adults under 65 would mean about 17,000 fewer deaths a year.

"It's big," said Samuel Preston, a demographer at the University of Pennsylvania and an authority on life expectancy. Professor Preston, who was not involved in the study, called the study "careful and thoughtful," and said it added to a growing body of evidence that people with health insurance could reap the ultimate benefit - longer life.
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MIB

Afghanistan heroin users skyrocket 1000% despite US investment of $7.5 billion to 'eradicate' opium production

Samuel Eaton
Benswann.com
Sat, 03 May 2014 08:51 UTC
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The SIGAR, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, issued a report on April 30th stating that opium poppy cultivation has increased by over a third. The report also stated that there are now 1.3 million heroin users in the country. This is up 10 fold since 2005 when there were roughly 130,000 heroin users.

International forces occupying Afghanistan have had little success slowing down the poppy cultivation and heroin production. In 2013, only 41,000 kilograms of opium out of 5.5 million kilograms produced were seized.

The drug trade has boomed in spite of the US spending $7.5 billion since 2002 on eradication efforts.

John Sopko told a Senate panel in January that the increased opiate production has placed "the entire US and donor investment in the reconstruction of Afghanistan at risk."

Comment: So, the US invests $7.5 billion to eradicate opium production, but the exact opposite has happened. What a surprise! Opium production resumed in Afghanistan only when the US destroyed everything else in the country; remember that it was banned under the Taliban. And now that the heroin industry is flourishing where is all that drug money going? Golly, could it be used to fund US black ops!?

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Blackbox

Six injured in yet ANOTHER coordinated knife attack at Chinese train station


The Guardian
Tue, 06 May 2014 04:46 UTC
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© AFP/Getty Images
Investigators at the scene of the knife attack at Guangzhou railway station.
Incident in Guangzhou is third high-profile attack at a Chinese train station in a little more than two months

Six people were injured in a knife attack at a busy railway station in southern China, police said - the third high-profile attack at a Chinese train station in a little more than two months.

The incident happened in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province. Officers shot and subdued a male suspectafter he failed to respond to a warning.

It was not clear from the police statement whether there was more than one assailant. The Guangzhou Daily cited witnesses as saying there were four attackers. It said the injured included a person who was stabbed in the head and neck and was in critical condition, and others who received arm wounds. Police said six people were injured and taken to hospital, not including the suspect.
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Arrow Down

Mass acceptance of police violence - rape victim may serve seven years while the NYPD rapist goes free

Molly Knefel
The Guardian
Mon, 05 May 2014 03:36 UTC
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© Ramin Talaie / EPA
The violence against Occupy protestors was widespread and well-photographed. So why is one non-violent protestor now convicted of police brutality?
The verdict in the biggest Occupy related criminal case in New York City, that of Cecily McMillan, came down Monday afternoon. As disturbing as it is that she was found guilty of felony assault against Officer Grantley Bovell, the circumstances of her trial reflect an even more disturbing reality - that of normalized police violence, disproportionately punitive sentences (McMillan faces seven years in prison), and a criminal penal system based on anything but justice. While this is nothing new for the over-policed communities of New York City, what happened to McMillan reveals just how powerful and unrestrained a massive police force can be in fighting back against the very people with whom it is charged to protect.

McMillan was one of roughly 70 protesters arrested on March 17, 2012. She and hundreds of other activists, along with journalists like me, had gathered in Zuccotti Park to mark the six-month anniversary of the start of Occupy Wall Street. It was four months after the New York Police Department had evicted the Occupy encampment from the park in a mass of violent arrests.

When the police moved in to the park that night, in formation and with batons, to arrest a massive number of nonviolent protesters, the chaos was terrifying. Bovell claimed that McMillan elbowed him in the face as he attempted to arrest her, and McMillan and her defense team claim that Bovell grabbed her right breast from behind, causing her to instinctively react.
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Airplane

Small plane crashes into Colorado house


Press TV
Tue, 06 May 2014 03:17 UTC
plane crash in house

A pilot walked away with minor injuries after his small plane crashed into a house in Northglenn, setting the plane and house on fire
A small plane crashed into a Northglenn, Colorado home Monday afternoon, causing a fire.

The crash happened before 4 p.m. at 11067 East Livingston Drive, authorities said. The pilot was able to walk away from the crash and call 911.

No one was home at the time of impact, North Metro Fire Rescue officials reported.

Neighbor Mike Papp said there was the sound of "buzzing and then a loud boom" when plane hit the house. The plane flies frequently in that area, towing a banner for Geico insurance, Papp said.

Papp said he knew the family whose home was hit, but not well.

It is unclear what caused the crash.

The fire was extinguished by 4:15 p.m. The fire extended from the second story into the basement, a fire department spokeswoman told 7News.

Source: Denver Post
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Health

Obamacare is reducing the percentage of uninsured in the United States

Jenna Levy
Gallup
Mon, 05 May 2014 23:35 UTC
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Washington, D.C. -- The uninsured rate for U.S. adults in April was 13.4%, down from 15.0% in March. This is the lowest monthly uninsured rate recorded since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in January 2008, besting the previous low of 13.9% in September of that year.

The uninsured rate peaked at 18.0% in the third quarter of 2013, but has consistently declined since then. This downward trend in the uninsured rate coincided with the health insurance marketplace exchanges opening in October 2013, and accelerated as the March 31 deadline to purchase health insurance coverage approached -- and passed -- for most uninsured Americans. The Obama administration decided in late March to extend the deadline to April 15 for those who had already begun the enrollment process.

The uninsured rates for the first quarter of 2014 and the month of March are averages for the entire quarter and month, and do not necessarily reflect the uninsured rate for the day of the March 31 deadline. The April estimate better captures the impact of late sign-ups since all interviewing occurred after that critical date.

These data are based on more than 14,700 interviews with Americans from April 1-30, 2014, as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
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