Society's ChildS


Mail

US: Postal Service faces grim 'new reality'

postal van

The current mail system of the United States is "no longer financially sustainable," and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is looking for billions of dollars in cuts to its services.

The postal service announced Thursday it was considering closing nearly 250 processing facilities, cutting equipment by 50 percent and slowing mail delivery in an extreme cost-cutting effort. It is looking for $3 billion in annual savings.

And as the president and Congress search high and low for ways to boost job creation, up to 35,000 people could be laid off as part of that effort.

Eye 1

Mayor Bloomberg predicts riots in the streets if economy doesn't create more jobs

Mayor Bloomberg
© Spencer Platt/GettyMayor Bloomberg is sounding the alarm bell over the nation's struggling economy.

Mayor Bloomberg warned Friday there would be riots in the streets if Washington doesn't get serious about generating jobs.

"We have a lot of kids graduating college, can't find jobs," Bloomberg said on his weekly WOR radio show.

"That's what happened in Cairo. That's what happened in Madrid. You don't want those kinds of riots here."

Newspaper

US: Subway station billboard battle is latest flareup in Israeli-Palestinian conflict

israel, billboard
© Julia Xanthos/NewsWESPAC Foundation's subway ad campaign is the first volley in a war of words playing out on billboards. A pro-Israel group plans a counter-campaign.
A subway station billboard war is the latest flareup in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The dispute began with posters urging an end to U.S. military aid for Israel, prompting a City Council member to demand an end to the ads - and spawning an upcoming series of counter-ads.

"This is a highly political campaign with a controversial underlying anti-Israel message," Councilman Lewis Fidler (D-Brooklyn) wrote MTA President Thomas Prendergast.

People

Abbas: Palestinians want full UN membership

UN showdown

Palestinian leader says PA to proceed with UN bid in September because President Obama endorsed Palestinian state; 'I'm going to the UN in order to demand our legitimate rights and secure full membership,' he says

Dramatic speech in Ramallah: The Palestinian Authority will be seeking full United Nations membership in its statehood bid later this month, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas said Friday.

"I'm going to the UN in order to demand our legitimate rights and secure full membership for the state of Palestine," the Palestinian president said in Ramallah. "We hope to secure full membership."

"We are going to the Security Council," Abbas added, but then made it clear that "all options are open" and that a final decision has not been made yet.

Footprints

Mystery Boy Emerges From German Woods

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© GettyAn English-speaking boy has emerged from the German woods, baffling authorities.

Says he lived in forest with father for five years

Police in Berlin are baffled over the identity of a boy who emerged from the forest, saying he'd lived there for five years with his father.

The boy, believed to be about 17, showed up at Berlin's City Hall on Sept. 5. He said he had lived in earthen huts and tents with his father until the elder man died. At that point, the boy, who speaks fluent English and little German, used a compass to walk north for two weeks, finally winding up in Berlin carrying a sleeping bag and backpack, according to The Associated Press.

"He said that he had lived for the last five years wandering around with his father," Police spokesman Michael Maass said. "We don't know where."

Mr. Potato

Canada's top military officer spends $1 million on VIP flights, including vacation

Walt Natynczyk
© The Canadian PressWalt Natynczyk
Canada's Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Walt Natynczyk has spent more than $1 million since 2008 flying on government VIP aircraft as an alternative to commercial flights.

Flight logs obtained by CTV News indicate Natynczyk used a CC-144 Challenger to fly to St. Maarten Island to begin a vacation after he missed a flight for a cruise holiday with his family.

The Caribbean flight cost taxpayers approximately $92,956.80.

The defence documents also show more than $1 million was spent transporting Natynczyk to various "military appreciation nights" at National Hockey League and Canadian Football League games.

The Challenger jets have also taken Natynczyk to military fundraisers throughout Canada over the last two years. Among those, his flight to attend the Support Our Troops Gala in Edmonton in September 2009 cost taxpayers $79,822. It's estimated the gala itself raised only between $200,000 and $250,000.

Dollar

US, Texas: Teen accused of taking $17,000 in donations for cancer hoax

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© unknownAccused of lying: Ruth Angelica Gomez is being investigated after raising $17,000 for her cancer foundation
A Texas teenager faces theft charges after police said she duped her community into giving her $17,000 because they erroneously believed she was dying of cancer.

Ruth Angelica Gomez, 18, of Horizon City, Texas, created the Achieve the Dream foundation, under which she held fund-raising events and solicited donations to help cure her leukemia, which she had said would claim her life before the year ended, Horizon City police Detective Liliana Medina said.

Yet there was no indication that Gomez ever had cancer, police said.

She is being charged with felony theft by deception, punishable by up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

"Ms. Gomez stated that she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness (Leukemia) and was under treatment for the disease, although Ms. Gomez does not have any form of cancer," Medina said.

Attention

US: California - Santa Cruz Man Assaulted By Installer, Camera Broken

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© UnknownWellington employee accused of assaulting a Santa Cruz resident and breaking his camera
This account came in this morning and it is very alarming. It's clear that PG&E is getting desperate and is resorting to physical violence to force their meters into our communities. Alan is currently at the police station filing a police report about this incident. We must come together and refuse to go along with these illegal, violent installations.
Today, September 14, 2011 - Alan Fischer Chestnut St, Santa Cruz, CA

Smart Meter Installation

I received a ring on my doorbell at about 10:45 AM and when I went outside I realized that a technician from Wellington corporation (working for PG&E) was already installing "smart" meters on my building which is only several feet from where I sleep. He was working rapidly and would not stop to acknowledge me throughout most of our interaction. I told him that I am disabled and had been assured when I talked to PGE representatives that I could "opt out", at least temporarily, from having smart meters replaced on my building until a later date, if at all, (which I understood meant the whole building, but now am told that what I was told was incorrect.) I informed that although I was upset about the violation of my rights and well-being that I knew he was just a worker and did not consider him my enemy.

Heart - Black

Why Are Some Americans So Shockingly Cruel?

Every other civilized country in the world provides universal health care for its citizens.Only in America would you have a scene like the one that unfolded at the Republican debate Monday night.

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© N/A
This will surely get taken out of context in my future political career, but I will say it now anyway: I am embarrassed, saddened, and yes, disgusted, by the behavior and beliefs of the majority of Americans.
A new report came out Tuesday, showing that the poverty rate in America rose to a whopping 15.1% in 2010. That means that nearly one in six Americans gets by on less than $11,139 a year, or $22,314 for a family of four. At the same time, the average CEO rakes in $11.3 million EACH.

In other words, you can grab any six people off the street, and the odds are that the average CEO makes 1,000 times as much money as one of them. He only makes 400 or 500 times as much as the other five. That is obscene.

And the sick part? The entire Republican Party and portions of the Democratic Party are completely OK with this arrangement. One sixth of our citizens live below poverty and the calls are for more tax cuts for the wealthy, more benefits for the wealthy, and less for the poor. It's disgusting and people should be ashamed.

Yes, ashamed. There is absolutely no reason for anyone, let alone one sixth of our citizens, to live in abject poverty. We are America and we can do better.

Letting people live in poverty is not the only issue where America is an embarrassment. We are unbelievably cruel and indifferent toward those same poor people, blaming them (and not the system) for their plight. The reality is, no one in this world gets ahead without help. Wealthy people have a natural advantage of a network of family and friends who can push them into the right school, teach them the right values, and help them get into jobs where they can succeed.

Stormtrooper

Canada: No charges for using RCMP Taser on British Columbia boy, but police refuse to explain why

taser
© Unknown
The RCMP officers who stunned an 11-year-old boy with a Taser in northeastern British Columbia won't face charges, but the outside police force that conducted the investigation won't reveal the most basic details about what happened.

The child was shocked with the stun gun in April after several Mounties responded to a stabbing at a group home in Prince George.

The case renewed controversy about Taser use in B.C., which recently held an exhaustive public inquiry into the weapons, and raised questions about why trained police officers would need to use the weapon on a child. The boy is believed to be the youngest person ever to be stunned with a police Taser in Canada.

But an outside investigation by the West Vancouver Police Department has done little to address the controversy, other than to conclude the officers involved didn't break the law.

"My team spent much of this spring and summer interviewing witnesses, collecting and analysing evidence and consulting with those in the legal profession as well as subject matter experts in topics like police use of force," West Vancouver police Chief Peter Lepine wrote in a brief letter released Thursday.