Society's ChildS


Heart - Black

California female inmates sterilized: 'more cost effective than welfare' says doctor

female inmates
© @Now.MSN Not only is it morally wrong to pressure women into having this procedure, it is against the law. Federal law makes it illegal to use federal funds to pay for inmate sterilizations.
A horrifying picture of modern-day eugenics is emerging in California, the state that was once known as the country's most prolific sterilizer, with as many 20,000 people losing their ability to procreate between 1909 to 1964. They were so well-known for their practice of preventing the 'inferior' from breeding that historians say Nazi Germany contacted the state's eugenics leaders in the 1930s. You know they must have been doing something terribly, terribly wrong if Hitler was seeking their advice.

That shameful past is coming back to haunt the state as a new report emerges that almost 150 female prison inmates were sterilized between 2006 and 2010 without state approval. The report released by The Center for Investigative Reporting claims that at least 148 women received tubal ligations during that time frame. Records show that between 1997 and 2010 the state paid $147,460 to doctors to perform the surgery on inmates.

Stormtrooper

Texas troopers under fire for yet another perverted roadside strip-search

road trip
© Reuters / Andy Newman
Two Houston women have filed a lawsuit against the Texas Department of Public Safety claiming they were subjected to a humiliating roadside body cavity search that left them violated and traumatized.

"I was embarrassed, in a bikini, on the side of the freeway. And it hurts so bad to even go through something like that," 27-year-old Brandy Hamilton told KTRK News.

Hamilton and 26-year-old Alexandria Randle were driving home to Houston after spending last year's Memorial Day at a nearby beach with family and friends when Texas Trooper Nathaniel Turner pulled them over for speeding on the side of Highway 288 and ordered them to exit their vehicle. The women were still wearing their bathing suits and were not permitted to put clothes on or cover up before exiting the car.

The trooper claimed to smell marijuana in the car and called a female trooper to search the women's body parts for drugs, despite numerous pleas from the ladies.

"The male officer, his words verbatim were, 'We're gonna get familiar with your womanly parts," Hamilton told KXAN.

USA

Fox news panel laughs at the idea that government should fear the people

After labeling NSA leaker Edward Snowden a traitor and a terrorist, the Fox News Watch panel exploded with laughter at the very notion that the government should fear the people.


Right after one panelist devilishly referenced the concept that the government should fear the people as a joke, even referencing the concept as tracing back to Thomas Jefferson, the crew couldn't stop from laughing at the very idea that the people are meant to keep the government in check. And of course it is an idea that is fundamental to not only upholding the Constitution itself (the fabric of our nation), but to keep the continuous threat of absolute corruption and tyranny in check.

Padlock

30,000 California prisoners launch largest hunger-strike in state history

Prison
© AFP Photo/Getty Images/Kevork Djansezian
Around 30,000 inmates held in prisons across California have taken the first steps towards engaging in what could become the largest hunger strike in state history.

Prisoners at 11 state facilities began refusing meals early Monday, after months of plotting a demonstration which they hope will bring change to a number of longstanding grievances against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation - particularly the practice of indefinitely housing some detainees in total isolation.

In a letter obtained by the LA Times, protesters reportedly demanded that the state retire its current solitary confinement policies and allow inmates accused of prison gang involvement to spend a maximum of only five years in isolation. Currently there is no limit on how long inmates thought to be connected to internal gangs can spend in Segregated Housing Units (SHUs). According to the LA Times, 4,527 inmates at four state prisons are now living in such units - including 1,180 at Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California, where the demonstration was hatched.

"The principal prisoner representatives from the PBSP SHU Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement do hereby present public notice that our nonviolent peaceful protest of our subjection to decades of indefinite state-sanctioned torture, via long term solitary confinement will resume today...consisting of a hunger strike/work stoppage of indefinite duration until CDCR signs a legally binding agreement meeting our demands, the heart of which mandates an end to long-term solitary confinement (as well as additional major reforms)," reads the letter, which is posted on Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity website.

Arrow Down

Gases to be dispersed across New York subway stations as part of 'drill'

Subway Station
© Dan Nosowitz2nd Avenue Subway Station, Sans Gas.
No need to fear, though: it's an experiment to see exactly how gases are dispersed through the hundreds of miles of New York City subway tunnels.

Starting today, New York City authorities will be releasing perfluorocarbon gas into several subway stops, some above and some below ground. Sounds scary, but isn't: perfluorocarbon is a harmless gas, odorless and colorless, and it's being used in the largest airflow experiment ever undertaken.

Perfluorocarbon tracers, or PFTs, are used because they're artificial and do not occur in nature, so a very small amount can be detected fairly easily. The work of detection will be done by a large team from three national labs: the Brookhaven, Argonne, and Los Alamos National Laboratories. About 100 interns in addition to professionals from the labs will be constructing and monitoring small black-and-grey boxes in dozens of locations all around the city, all dedicated to checking the air for these tracers.

Those locations aren't merely in the subway; the thing about New York's extensive, massively complex subway system is that it's the quickest way for airborne contaminants to race through (nearly) all portions of the five boroughs. So these testing boxes will be installed on subway platforms, sure, but also on telephone poles above ground.

Health

'Utter chaos' as man crushed by antique firetruck at Independence Day parade

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© Gabor Degre | BDNA man died in an accident during the 4th of July parade in Bangor. The person died as an antique tractor and antique firetruck collided, but Police are working to find out what exactly happened.
An accident cast horror on Bangor's Independence Day celebrations when an antique firetruck crushed to death the rider of an antique John Deere tractor during the Fourth of July parade, police said.

Firetruck riders told police that a mechanical failure caused the truck to go out of control in front of a large crowd of parade-watchers and slam into the rear of the tractor as both turned onto a downhill stretch of Water Street at 12:40 p.m. Thursday, police said.

The firetruck "stalled and started to roll" as it turned onto Water Street from Main Street. That might have caused the truck's braking system to fail, speculated Tammy Haskell, who said she was standing at Main and Water streets when the accident occurred.

"It rear-ended the tractor and the [tractor] driver was not expecting it," Haskell added. "I saw the driver flying through the air. The tractor rolled onto him and [then] the truck" hit him.

"I saw the tractor tip over by the truck and somebody was underneath it," said witness John Bunker, 27, of Bangor. "I heard people screaming, people saying to stop the truck. Then I heard over a loudspeaker somebody saying to clear the area."

Ambulance

7-year-old falls off vehicle, dies in Annapolis, Maryland parade

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Tragedy at the Annapolis Fourth of July parade. A young boy is dead after an accident involving one of the parade floats.

Monique Griego has the very latest.

Police say a 7-year-old boy was riding in a vehicle in the parade when he somehow fell off.

It's still not clear whether he died because of the fall or whether he was struck and killed by another vehicle.

Ambulance

Father driving float accidentally runs over son at Oklahoma Fourth of July parade


An Oklahoma Fourth of July parade turned tragic Thursday morning when a father accidentally ran over and killed his 8-year-old son, who had been on a parade float, police said.

Thousands of people had gathered on the streets of Edmond, Okla., to watch the 40th annual Fourth of July parade, which is part of the weeklong LibertyFest celebration.

Just before 11 a.m. (noon ET), the little boy "either jumped or fell off" of a flat-bed trailer that his father was driving for a local martial arts group, AKA Karate, according to Jenny Monroe, a spokeswoman for the Edmond Police.

The young boy was one of about 20 children on the float.

Health

Child shot in head watching fireworks has died

The seven-year-old boy shot in head by a stray bullet Thursday night has died, Chesterfield Police said. Police said Brendon Mackey, 7, was walking with his father in the parking lot of the Boathouse Restaurant in Midlothian about 9 p.m. Thursday when he was shot. The father and son were there to watch some nearby fireworks.

"A large crowd had been gathering over by the reservoir to watch fireworks and a young boy, seven years old, was walking through the parking lot with his dad. He was a few step behind his dad and he [the boy] fell to the ground," Chesterfield Police Capt. Brad Badgerow said. "Initially they thought he was just passed out. They saw some blood. They thought he may have hit his head."

But when the child was taken to the hospital, doctors made a startling discovery.

"When medical personnel were treating him, they found what they believe to be a bullet wound in the top of his head," Badgerow said.

Laptop

Lawyer's Facebook post no laughing matter in Virginia Beach

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© Vicki Cronis-Nohe | The Virginian-PilotProminent "no cellphones" signs were on display outside of General District Court in Virginia Beach on July 3, 2013.
A social media post has fueled a squabble between two local attorneys, leading to a defamation lawsuit and contributing to a crackdown on electronics use in the city's General District Court.

At issue is whether a Facebook post of a photo taken inside a courtroom this year was a harmless joke or a damaging misrepresentation, according to the lawsuit and response, filed in Circuit Court this spring.

The case also highlights the issues that courts must weigh in deciding whether to allow cellphones and other electronics inside and what limits to put on their use.

The lawsuit centers on the post, included in the court file, which shows defense attorney Jason Swango at the bench in General District Court, flanked by a police officer, a bailiff and his client in a city jail jumpsuit.