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Stormtrooper

Footage emerges showing G4S private security force guards violently beating asylum seekers in February riot at super-secret Australian detention center

Michael Gordon
The Age
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 05:45 UTC
Image

Caged beasts? The Australian government thinks so.
Papua New Guinean nationals employed as security guards on Manus Island attacked asylum seekers at the detention centre more than 24 hours before Iranian Reza Barati died in a night of shocking violence, new footage shows.

The footage, obtained by Fairfax Media, shows the security guards attacking a group of asylum seekers who had absconded from the centre after being told they had no prospect of being settled outside PNG if their claims for refugee status were eventually recognised.

There are also images that show no action was taken to rope off the scene of Mr Barati's killing before evidence was either compromised or completely cleared away, including the rock that witnesses say made sure he was dead.

The footage and images raise new questions about what was done to reduce the risk of violence at the centre and the adequacy of the subsequent investigation.

The morning after the violence, Immigration Minister Scott Morrison reported that the centre would resume "normal operations" and maintained: "G4S utilised personal protection gear but no batons or other weapons were in situ and were in control of the centre for the entire period."


Comment: See also:



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Alarm Clock

Greeley school parents' fury forces oil and gas driller to back down

Bruce Finley
The Denver Post
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 18:23 UTC
greely school
© AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post
State regulators and Greeley officials have allowed more than 425 wells inside Greeley, including these near Northridge High School. Mineral Resources has withdrawn its application to drill near Frontier Academy.
An oil and gas industry proposal to drill 19 wells within 900 feet of an elementary school in Greeley ignited such parent fury that company officials on Monday backed down.

Mineral Resources Inc. officials said withdrawing their application to drill by the Frontier Academy school is an example of listening to community concerns.

They made their decision as state regulators are investigating recent fires and explosions at industry storage tanks northeast of Denver - including one last week near a different elementary school.

"We're grateful. Now our children are safe," said Trisha Golding, head of the Frontier Parents' Group, who pressed their case Thursday with Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission director Matt Lepore.

"And we're not going to rest until this city and schools make sure this doesn't happen again behind our school or any other school," Golding said.

The showdown began this month when parents found out about the project. Colorado last year made a rule requiring 1,000-foot buffer zones around schools and hospitals.

But Mineral Resources had proposed drilling 19 to 67 wells as close as 478 feet from the school's playground, 828 feet from the building, before the rule. The COGCC granted initial approval in May 2013.

Last week, an oil storage tank fire in Frederick, about 1,800 feet from Legacy Elementary, put teachers and students on orders to "shelter in place."

Comment: And, who decides what a safe distance is, and how is that determined?

New study links fracking to birth defects in heavily drilled Colorado

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Robot

Robocop to start patrolling streets by 2014, perform unwarranted searches

Kristan T. Harris
Cudhay Now
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 22:09 UTC


As we reported earlier, a Silicon Valley company called Knightscope has developed a prototype robot that has all the capabilities that Hollywood has projected to be available by 2050. William Santana Li, CEO of Knightscope, says the robot is, "everything that's great about Silicon Valley, its robotics, big data, predictive analytics, its sensors," and will be patrolling streets in 2014.

The robot is known as the Knightscope 5 (K5). The Knightscope 5 was designed to have a more friendly look, similar to R2D2, so it is easier to interact with according to Knightscope. The Knightscope 5 will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology that will cross-reference your appearance with social media networks and use analytical data to "predict future crimes." K5 is also loaded with a 360 degree 3d mapping system, thermal imaging, facial recognition and a license plate recognition system that collects 300 license plates a minute.
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Attention

New Jersey parents required to swipe driver's license to enter school; soon a background check


Police State USA
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:54 UTC
License Swipe
© Police State USA
Driver’s license swipe.
Denville - Parents in a New Jersey school district have been notified that visits inside their children's school will require now an electronic scan of their drivers' licenses - and soon, a full background check.

A letter dated April 21, 2014, explains the new security measures, as decided by the Denville Township Board of Education. In order to keep "students and faculty safe," the school wishes to record digital information from the visitors' state-issued ID cards upon each visit beyond the main office.

The letter states that each swipe will log the owner's personal data and will generate a visitor badge.

Read the letter below:
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Attention

Legal harassment of the poor and disenfranchised across the USA

Michael Krieger
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:40 UTC
Puppet Master
© Ken Murray/New York Daily News
The NYPD said Kalan Sherrard’s incomprehensible puppet show created a hazardous condition and they charged him with disorderly conduct.
The following story is the latest in a series of articles I have written recently highlighting the over-prosecution and legal harassment of the poor and disenfranchised across the USA. While wealthy white collar criminals rape and pillage society with total immunity, those who have no voice are being increasingly stomped down upon by an unjust system. Some recent articles on the topic can read below:

Hyper-Sensitive Illinois Mayor Orders Police Raid Over Parody Twitter Account Charleston

Man Receives $525 Federal Fine for Failing to Pay for a $0.89 Refill The Homeless in

NYC Are Now Living in Tiny Spaces in the Frame of the Manhattan Bridge

In some of these cases, there is a ridiculous law on the books to allow such over-prosecution or harassment, while other times, such as in the case below, the cops appear to be making shit up and are acting completely outside of the law.

As someone who grew up in New York City and lived there for 28 years, I am quite familiar with street artists in America's largest metropolis.

Personally, I've always enjoyed them. Some are extremely talented, others not so much, but they always added to the unique character of the city and only rarely posed any sort of threat or engaged in threatening behavior. This is why the following story and video really struck an emotional chord with me and I became overcome with sadness. In so many ways, what happened to Kalan Sherrard is what is happening to our country and culture in general. We are being collectively transformed into drugged out, bland, soulless zombies by a parasitic and incredibly corrupt financial system coupled with unrelenting corporate and government propaganda. Anyone who is interesting or stands out is shouted down by the establishment as a "conspiracy theorist," a "radical," or as Harry Reid himself recently stated, a "domestic terrorist."

Make no mistake about it, what just happened to Kalan Sherrard is happening to us all. It's just that many of us don't see it yet.
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Cardboard Box

The American middle class is no longer "middle"

David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy
The New York Times
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Nicole Bengiveno/The New York Times
The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that honor, and many Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the country. “Things are pretty flat,” said Kathy Washburn of Mount Vernon, Iowa. “You have mostly lower level and high and not a lot in between.”
The American middle class, long the most affluent in the world, has lost that distinction.

While the wealthiest Americans are outpacing many of their global peers, a New York Times analysis shows that across the lower- and middle-income tiers, citizens of other advanced countries have received considerably larger raises over the last three decades.

After-tax middle-class incomes in Canada - substantially behind in 2000 - now appear to be higher than in the United States. The poor in much of Europe earn more than poor Americans.

The numbers, based on surveys conducted over the past 35 years, offer some of the most detailed publicly available comparisons for different income groups in different countries over time. They suggest that most American families are paying a steep price for high and rising income inequality.

Although economic growth in the United States continues to be as strong as in many other countries, or stronger, a small percentage of American households is fully benefiting from it. Median income in Canada pulled into a tie with median United States income in 2010 and has most likely surpassed it since then. Median incomes in Western European countries still trail those in the United States, but the gap in several - including Britain, the Netherlands and Sweden - is much smaller than it was a decade ago.
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Stormtrooper

Albuquerque police execute third person in five weeks, this time a teenager SUSPECTED of stealing a truck


RT
Tue, 22 Apr 2014 19:24 UTC
Image

19-year-old Mary Hawkes, murdered in broad daylight by government enforcers
A 19-year-old woman was shot and killed by police in Albuquerque, New Mexico early Monday after being suspected of stealing a truck. This week's death of Mary Hawkes now marks the third time in five weeks that Albuquerque cops have killed a civilian.

Albuquerque Police Chief Gordon Eden told the Associated Press this week that an officer was pursuing the suspect on foot Monday morning when the woman reportedly "stopped, turned and pointed a handgun at close range." Recently retired Valencia County Magistrate Danny Hawkes identified his daughter Mary as the victim later that evening, and the Albuquerque Journal reported the next morning that the woman had two previous run-ins with police as an adult, in addition to charges lobbed at her as a youth.

Reports about the Monday morning incident that have surfaced in the hours since have focused heavily not on Mary Hawkes, however, but rather on the sordid actions that has brought the Albuquerque Police Department into the national spotlight as of late and spawned a series of protests.

Comment: DOJ investigation confirms: Albuquerque police 'executing' citizens

Protesters descend on Albuquerque City Hall calling for police reform

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Stock Down

Faltering economic system 'will likely lead to famine and civil unrest'

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 10:52 UTC
molotov cocktail
© unknown
With China's debt now bursting at the seams and the economic outlook in the United States signaling a major recession the governments and central banks of the world are very rapidly running out of options.

So much so that well respected Swiss asset manager Egon von Greyerz of Matterhorn Asset Management warns that they will have no choice but to ramp up monetary printing at an accelerated pace in 2014. Failure to do so will likely seize up the global flow of credit and lead to a massive financial collapse as liquidity gets sucked out of the system.

The problem, of course, is that policy makers have backed themselves into a corner and their only remaining option will likely lead to an even more disastrous outcome; one that will have a direct impact on your long-term financial well being and quality of life.
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Pistol

Crips gang-banger shot dead in courtroom after lunging at witness (VIDEO)


BBC News
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 18:16 UTC
Siale Angilau

Siale Angilau was the last of 17 people to be tried in the 2010 case
A man accused of robbery and assault was shot and killed in a Salt Lake City court after he lunged at a witness giving evidence.

Siale Angilau, 25, died in hospital after being shot several times by a US marshal in front of the jury at the new federal courthouse.

The FBI said he had rushed towards the witness with a pen in an "aggressive, threatening manner".

Angilau was the last of 17 accused gang members tried as part of a 2010 case.

The case included 29 counts, including assault, conspiracy, robbery and weapons offences.

Perry Cardwell, who was in the courtroom with his adult daughter, told the Associated Press news agency at least six shots were fired.

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2 + 2 = 4

Looking at costs and risks, many skip health insurance

Abby Goodnough
The New York Times
Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:58 UTC
Image
© Credit Jabin Botsford for The New York Times
“I realize that I’m gambling,” said Steve Huber, who has chosen not to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
Steve Huber, an affable salesman who is still paying off an unexpected medical bill, was not among the millions of Americans who signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act during the enrollment period that ended March 31.

After seeing television ads for Kentucky's new online insurance marketplace, Mr. Huber, 57, made several attempts to explore the website but found it too complicated. Moreover, his income has dropped in recent years, he said, and he felt certain that he could not afford coverage. So he never priced plans or researched whether he qualified for financial assistance.
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