Society's Child

Rep. John L. Mica on TSA: "This is a huge failing program"

RT
Fri, 13 May 2016 02:47 UTC

If you have a bone to pick with the Transportation Security Administration over lengthy security lines, you are not alone. The head of the TSA had to explain long airport waits as well as the agency's retaliatory management techniques to Congress on Thursday.

TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger had to answer to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee about steps he was taking to boost morale for TSA officers, combat retribution against whistleblowers and - of course - deal with the ever growing lines to get through airport security checkpoints. As Rep. John L. Mica (R-Florida) understated, "There are some very serious concerns about the performance of TSA."

This is the second inquiry that Neffenger has been asked to attend recently to explain misconduct at every level of the TSA.

The agency, parented by the Department of Homeland Security, has recently come under fire for allegations of retaliatory demotions, firings and reassignments to punish employees who attempted to report misconduct or security lapses. However, Neffenger assured the Committee that these methods are a thing of the past, saying "I discontinued directed reassignments explicitly. I don't tolerate that. It's illegal, unethical and most of those people doing directed reassignments no longer work at the agency," he added.

Neffenger also acknowledged that the directed assignments were not only illegal - but also expensive. According to Neffenger, directed reassignments could cost over $100,000 per employee. Neffenger, who was made Administrator in June 2015, assured the committee that with him at the helm of the TSA, employees can find him without fear of repercussion.

Comment: See also:

British tabloid finds 80% of Brits want to move to Russia after Duma considers giving out free land

RT
Fri, 13 May 2016 13:53 UTC

A poll by the Express newspaper found a majority of Brits want to emigrate to Russia after President Vladimir Putin offered free land to people willing to settle the country's sparsely-populated Far East region.

The British tabloid survey found 78 percent of the more than 22,000 respondents replied "Yes! Bargain" when asked: "Would you move to Russia in exchange for free land?"

One respondent told the paper there was something romantic about the idea of homesteading in the Russian wilderness.

"As soon as I read about it, my wife and I discussed it," Simon Sharp said.

Comment: The British people are really not happy with the state of affairs in the United Kingdom.

Nearly 90,000 gallons of Shell crude oil pours into Gulf of Mexico, clean-up effort is now underway

Rt
Fri, 13 May 2016 01:52 UTC

For thirteen miles towards the horizon and two miles across, some 90,000 gallons of crude oil shimmered in the Gulf of Mexico after a spill Thursday evening. A clean-up effort is now underway. Its source was a Shell Offshore Inc. facility off the coast of Louisiana.

The accident was contained and two companies were called upon to take care of the mess, Coast Guard officials told NBC News. No injuries or evacuations were reported.

Comment: The true costs of BP's Gulf oil spill

Gulf War Syndrome comes to the Gulf of Mexico?

Paris explodes as 50,000 take to streets to protest labor reform

Sputnik
Fri, 13 May 2016 03:00 UTC

riot cop pepper sprays protester paris france

Up to 50,000 Parisians protested a labor reform bill pushed through French parliament this week in a show of public discontent that turned violent, French television reported Thursday, citing labor unions.

Police fired tear gas at anti-reform demonstrators outside the parliament building ahead of the no-confidence vote in the lower-house National Assembly.

The protests followed Tuesday's demonstrations when the Socialist government applied a rarely-used clause to bypass a National Assembly vote on a bill that will relax hiring and firing rules to curb rising unemployment.

Comment: Further reading: Eroding workers' rights: French gov't imposes controversial labor reform by decree, despite public opposition

Colorado city to use $1.5 million from pot tax to help homeless

Eleanor Goldberg
The Huffington Post
Fri, 13 May 2016 09:52 UTC

© AP Photo/David Zalubowski
This Friday, Dec. 18, 2015, photograph, shows the logo on the front of jars of marijuana buds marketed by rapper Snopp Dogg in one of the LivWell marijuana chain’s outlets south of downtown Denver. LivWell grows the Snoop pot alongside many other strains on its menu.

We're fired up about this.

Now here's an idea we hope catches fire.

Aurora, Colorado's third largest city, recently announced how it will use $1.5 milliongenerated from a tax on recreational pot to supporting homeless people, the Aurora Sentinel reported. The city first made the announcement in September, and has now designated a number of groups to receive the funds.

The Colfax Community Network, a nonprofit that supports families living in motels, will receive $200,000 from the special fund, according to the Sentinel. Council members said they're going to evaluate the group's progress before committing to renewing the funds beyond the first year.

Council members also agreed to provide two groups — Comitis Crisis Center and Aurora Mental Health - with vans to be used for homeless outreach. Each van will cost between $30,000 and $44,000.

City officials forecasted that recreational marijuana sales would bring in $5.4 million, the Denver Post reported.

143 New York City salons ordered to pay $2 million in back wages

RT
Mon, 09 May 2016 23:56 UTC

Nearly 150 salons owe employees $2 million in outstanding wages, the New York State Nail Salon Industry Enforcement Task Force has found, following a damning expose of the manicure industry which The New York Times published nearly exactly a year ago.

Several days after a May 7, 2015 New York Times article, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo created the New York State Nail Salon Industry Enforcement Task Force to look into the accusations. A year later, the task force discovered that 652 employees were owed back wages and damages, Reuters reported.

"The Price of Nice Nails," written by Sarah Maslin Nir, painted a grim portrait of life for tri-state beauticians going unpaid for training periods, receiving criminally low wages and facing a racial hierarchy that placed Korean employees at the top of the food chain with non-Asian workers at the bottom.

In the past year, the task force has launched investigations into 450 nail salons in New York City. So far, 383 have been completed according to the New York Daily News. Many of the investigations have been random, but some have been based on complaints by employees.

The task force looked into whether or not workers made the state-mandated $9 per hour minimum wage. Many shops paid a weekly rate that fell far below minimum requirements. Some employees earned $200 for 40 to 50 hour work weeks. Others did not pay their entry-level employees for their first few weeks on the job at all.

Comment: Capitalism as it is today is detrimental to 99% of the people in the U.S. It has become a psychopathic web of inequality and exploitation designed to benefit those at the top of the food chain.

Florida cops ticket police activist for walking in road, around debris on sidewalk

Matt Agorist
The Free Thought Project
Wed, 11 May 2016 00:04 UTC

An infuriating video uploaded to YouTube this week highlights the ridiculous nature of arbitrary and predatory policing that does nothing to keep society safe, and, in fact, is designed solely to extract revenue from a victim.

In the video, the victim, who can also be referred to as the host, is a local police accountability activist, Joshua McKnight. McKnight was doing nothing wrong and had harmed no one when two Fort Myers cops targeted him for revenue extraction. Officers Vasquez and Zarillo bravely protected society from the likes of a hardened criminal mastermind who'd dare step into the street for a brief second to walk around debris that was blocking the sidewalk.

"What's the problem?" McKnight asked as the officers moved in.

"Uh, you were walking back there in the middle of the road where there's a sidewalk," said officer Zarillo.

"I didn't walk in the middle of the road," McKnight responded. "If you look on the sidewalk, there's an obstacle with debris on the sidewalk."

Officer Zarillo then asked McKnight for his identification.

Strength in community: It takes a village... to move an entire house by hand

RT
Thu, 12 May 2016 23:05 UTC

While most news involves governments and terrorists blowing things up, occasionally an inspirational story emerges about humans working together to build something - and renews our faith in humanity.

Take this video where people from all walks of life got together and moved a house to the other side of their village.

The cooperative act, which is believed to have taken place in Indonesia, shows the strength and unity of the community.

After a countdown, villagers lifted the giant wooden structure and, in a matter of seconds, maneuvered it across a field with surprising ease.

Bee genocide: Almost half of honeybee hives in US collapsed last year

RT
Thu, 12 May 2016 21:40 UTC

The shocking, and seemingly irreversible, destruction of the US honeybee population took a huge hit in the past year, with 44 percent of all hives collapsing between April 2015 and April 2016.

This was the second worst year for colony losses since the "Beepocolypse" started a decade ago, according to The Bee Informed Partnership, the collaboration between the US Department of Agriculture, research labs, and universities that is tracking the alarming numbers.

Honeybee hives are generally inactive during the winter before being rejuvenated in the summer in a natural cycle, but this past season, colony collapses were three times higher than the "acceptable rate".

The varroa mite, first introduced to the US via Florida in 1995, and pesticides are thought to be the main causes of the collapse, although shipping them in trucks across the country to pollinate monocropped farms is also thought to stress them out.

Snowden: Media is more focused on being instrument of propaganda for government than serving public's interest

RT
Wed, 11 May 2016 21:25 UTC

Lotta Hardelin / Dagens Nyheter / AFP

Journalism as a weapon has never been stronger, but has never been less willing to serve the public good, says whistleblower Edward Snowden. The former NSA contractor has called for a reassessment of the public's relationship to the media.

He outlines his views on the present state of journalism and the increasing role that those in power play in controlling it in an interview he gave to the Columbia Journalism Review.

"One of the most challenging things about the changing nature of the public's relationship to media and the government's relationship to media is that media has never been stronger than it is now," Snowden says. "At the same time, the press is less willing to use that sort of power and influence because of its increasing commercialization."

Part of the reason is capitalistic greed and the 24-hour news cycle, according to Snowden. There is a conveyor belt of information that is aimed more at competition and staying afloat than at questioning the official line or writing a story that would set a source apart from competing outlets.

"One example of this is writing counter-narratives to somebody's exclusive coverage instead of spreading a good story. When the reporting of facts takes a back seat, the media isn't doing its only job."

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Society's Child

Rep. John L. Mica on TSA: "This is a huge failing program"

British tabloid finds 80% of Brits want to move to Russia after Duma considers giving out free land

Nearly 90,000 gallons of Shell crude oil pours into Gulf of Mexico, clean-up effort is now underway

Paris explodes as 50,000 take to streets to protest labor reform

Colorado city to use $1.5 million from pot tax to help homeless

143 New York City salons ordered to pay $2 million in back wages

Florida cops ticket police activist for walking in road, around debris on sidewalk

Strength in community: It takes a village... to move an entire house by hand

Bee genocide: Almost half of honeybee hives in US collapsed last year

Snowden: Media is more focused on being instrument of propaganda for government than serving public's interest

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