Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Sunday, December 27, 2015

The Daily Drift

Welcome to Today's Edition of Carolina Naturally.
Remember Summer ...!
 
Carolina Naturally is read in 205 countries around the world daily.   
  
Making friends at the Zoo ... !
Today is - Visit The Zoo Day

You want the unvarnished truth?
Don't forget to visit: The Truth Be Told
Some of our readers today have been in:
The Americas
Argentina - Brazil - Canada - Curacao - Guatemala - Nicaragua - Puerto Rico
United States - Venezuela
Europe
Bosnia and Herzegovina - Bulgaria - Czech Republic - England - France - Germany - Hungary  Ireland - Italy - Latvia - Netherlands - Poland - Portugal - Romania - Russia - San Marino 
Scotland - Slovakia - Slovenia - Spain - Turkey - Ukraine - Wales
Asia
China - India - Malaysia - Mauritius - Pakistan - Sri Lanka
Africa
Djibouti - Morocco - South Africa
The Pacific
New Zealand - Philippines
Don't forget to visit our sister blogs Here and Here.

Today in History

1512
The laws of Burgos give New World natives legal protection against abuse and authorize Negro slavery.
1831
HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, departs from Plymouth. It will eventually visit the Galapagos Islands where Darwin will form his theories on evolution.
1862
Union General William Rosecrans‘ army begins moving slowly toward Murfreesboro, Tennessee, from Nashville.
1913
Charles Moyer, president of the Miners Union, is shot in the back and dragged through the streets of Chicago.
1915
In Ohio, iron and steel workers go on strike for an eight-hour day and higher wages.
1932
Radio City Music Hall opens.
1933
Josef Stalin calls tensions with Japan a grave danger.
1939
A series of vicious earthquakes take 11,000 lives in Turkey.
1941
Japanese bombers attack Manila, despite its claim as an open city.
1944
General George S. Patton’s Third Army, spearheaded by the 4th Armored Division, relieves the surrounded city of Bastogne in Belgium.
1945
The International Monetary Fund and the Bank for Reconstruction and Development are created.
1947
The new Italian constitution is promulgated in Rome.
1950
The United States and Spain resume relations for the first time since the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s.
1956
Segregation on buses in Tallahassee, Florida, is outlawed.
1968
The United States agrees to sell F-4 Phantom jets to Israel.
1979
President Hafizullah Amin of Afghanistan is ousted and murdered in a coup backed by the Soviet Union, beginning a war that will last more than 10 years.
1983
Reagan takes all responsibility for the lack of security in Beirut that allowed a terrorist on a suicide mission to kill 241 Marines.
1984
Four Polish officers are tried for the slaying of Reverend Jerzy Popieluszko.
1985
Palestinian guerrillas kill 18 people at airports in Rome and Vienna.
1996
Taliban forces retake strategic Bagram Airfield during Afghan civil war.
2001
China receives permanent normal trade relations with the US.
2004
 Radiation reaches Earth from the brightest extrasolar event ever witnessed, an explosion of magnetar SGR 1806-20.
2007
Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto assassinated.
2007
After Mwai Kibaki is declared the winner of Kenya’s presidential elections, rioting begins in Mombasa, precipitating an economic, humanitarian and political crisis.

Always Buy the Men’s Version

Check out the price difference between these two scooters at Target! It may be a particularly egregious example, but the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found an average 7% average cost difference in products labeled for men and for women when they surveyed nearly 800  gendered consumer products. The pink version will cost you more, even when controlled for quality. Now, about those scooters…
A Target spokesperson said the company lowered the price of the pink scooter after the report was released Friday, calling the discrepancy a "system error." (The retailer blamed the same kind of glitch last year after catching heat for selling black Barbies at more than double the price of white Barbies.)
When asked about the price differences of other gendered toys — like the Raskullz shark helmet ($14.99) and the Raskullz unicorn helmet ($27.99) or the Playmobil pirate ship ($24.99) and the Playmobil fairy queen ship ($37.99) —  the representative pointed to a company statement, declining to elaborate: "Our competitive shop process ensures that we are competitively priced in local markets. A difference in price can be related to production costs or other factors."  
The “gender tax” holds up across product categories. Women pay more for clothing, razors, deodorant, automobiles, and services like haircuts and dry cleaning. Read more about the “gender tax” at the Washington Post.

Climate and Weather

It was a year of milestones that we would have liked to avoid.
The infamous polar vortex is actually linked to the unusual warm winter weather in the eastern U.S., though that pattern could soon flip.

Evil-Thwarting 'Rattles' Found in Prehistoric Infant's Grave

Tiny figurines that may have been used to ward off evil spirits were discovered in the grave of an infant dating back 4,500 years.

13 People We’d Love to See Go Away in 2016

Our long national nightmare was more vividly rendered thanks to these folks.
It’s possible that 2015 will go down in history as a year filled with horrid people saying and doing appalling things. (Not the only year, but a noteworthy addition to the pile.) A lot of those people got a lot of attention for their bad behavior, which means we often watched the horrorshow play out in real time, over and over. It would nice if we didn’t have to rewatch the whole gross affair next year, too.
Because this is the season, here’s a wishlist made up of people it would be great never to hear a peep out of in the new year. The main requirement for inclusion is that, in addition to being horrible, they all committed some grievous act in 2015. So while Cheney and the Koch brothers certainly measure up on the horribleness scale, they don’t appear here. (They still retain their place in the Hall of Fame, though!)
Here are 13 people we’d love to see go away in 2016.
1. Dumbass Trump.
You know that joke about how Dumbass Trump is like a comments section that came to life and ran for office? Yeah, well, turns out the joke is on all of us—every single sane one of us from coast to coast and around the world—since he just keeps rising higher and higher in the polls. Dumbass Trump’s campaign is a towering shit-pile made out of hateful comments about Latinos, African Americans, women of all races, Muslims, the disabled, Asians, Jews, and too many individual people to get into. It would be wonderful to wake up on January 1, 2016, to find he’s returned to whatever gaudy gold-and-diamond encrusted hole he climbed out of, but it seems unlikely. A girl can dream, though!
2. ...and his supporters.
Surveys show Dumbass Trump’s base is mostly white wingnuts with only a high school education. By and large, his fans think there’s nothing wrong with this country that getting rid of all the blacks and gays and Mexicans couldn’t fix. Sixty-one percent of them believe Obama is a secret Muslim (as if it matters either way) and that Trump’s plan to ban all Islamic immigration to the U.S. is a step in the right direction. During televised interviews, they prove they’re absolutely batshit and then top it off by lying about being new to politics. Over the last few months, the thugs at Trump’s rallies have assaulted a Latino protester, spit in the face of another and used racial slurs, fists and kicks against a black activist. They have shouted out for “white power,” and at a more recent campaign event, reportedly yelled the following at protesters: “kick his ass,” “shoot him,” “light the motherfucker on fire,” “white lives matter,” and “Sieg heil.” Trump’s security officers beat up one immigrant protester and threw another woman to the ground. And two Boston men who attacked a homeless Hispanic man, punching him in the face and urinating on him, stated they were inspired by Donald Trump’s rantings. In short, like their leader, Donald Trump’s followers are the absolute fucking worst.
3. All the wingnut pretender candidates, actually.
While it’s true that Dumbass Trump’s horribleness just barely makes the rest of the wingnut lot seem like decent people, it's also true that every Republican contender is still absolutely terrible. Fiorina knowingly lies again and again about that heavily edited Planned Parenthood video and then acts surprised when some lunatic commits a terrorist act based on her lies. Huckabee seems to think his racism, transphobia and Islamophobia is just adorable. Christie tells us to be afraid of Muslim children, scaremongers about Black Lives Matter and creates heart-touching videos expressing empathy for drug users even though he’s dedicated his career—and the early days of his pretender campaign, even! —to supporting the futile war on drugs, and by extension, the mass incarceration it has caused. Rubio plays to homophobes by pretending he can overrule the Supreme Court on marriage equality. Carson is a spontaneous “crazy quotes” generator who doesn’t understand that solid pyramids cannot serve as grain containers. Jeb expresses admiration for racists and dog whistles that African Americans are just looking for handouts. And Cruz went ahead with a pro-gun rally two days after the San Bernardino shooting because god forbid he show a little empathy if it might cost him a few gun nut votes. (A pox on his racist birther dad while we’re at it.) At least we’re lucky enough not to have to share a dorm room with him, I guess.
4. Martin Shkreli.
Also known as “Pharma Bro,” Shkreli become widely loathed after raising the price of Daraprim, a drug that helps both AIDS and cancer sufferers, from $13.50 a tablet to $750 a tablet. He announced he would lower the price but then changed his mind and said —I’m paraphrasing here — fuck you, pay me. (He later told Forbes that he should’ve jacked up the price even more.) Shkreli’s company recently bought KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, which sells benznidazole, a drug used to treat Chagas disease, a tropical parasitic infection. Previously, the medication was given out for free by the Centers for Disease Control, and a round of treatment in Latin America cost between $60 to $100. Now, Shkreli is trying to get FDA approval for the drug, which is primarily used by poor Latino immigrants, so he can raise the price by as much as 150,000 percent. Did I mention Shkreli allegedly sent an ex-girlfriend he hadn’t spoken to in years a text offering $10,000K to go down on her? Smooth operator, right? No wonder Bernie Sanders refused Shkreli’s campaign donation, opting instead to give it to an AIDS charity, and Wu-Tang donated the reported $2 million Shkreli paid for their single-issue album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin,” to the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. Shkreli was just arrested for securities fraud, so things aren’t looking so great for him at this point. I suppose that, depending on how the trial goes, he might be the person on this list most likely to actually disappear from the public eye soon.
5. R. Kelly.
This year, R. Kelly was given the much coveted closing spot on the Soul Train Music Awards. He got a standing ovation, and host Erykah Badu gave him a glowing introduction which included crediting him with having “done more for the blacks than anyone.” This statement is problematic for a bunch of reasons, including that it’s phrased like something Donald Trump would say. The main issue, though, is that many, many young girls, some as young as 14, have accused R. Kelly of sexual abuse, and there is endless evidence to suggest he is guilty. This includes a video of Kelly having sex with an underage girl and then peeing on her face and in her mouth. Had even just that one girl, among the dozens of Kelly’s accusers, been blonde and blue-eyed, I’m pretty sure the singer would be breaking rocks in the hot sun right about now. But they were all African American girls from Chicago’s South Side, and as Jim DeRogatis, whose excellent reporting brought the allegations against Kelly to light, once said, “The saddest fact I've learned is nobody matters less to our society than young black women. Nobody." Instead of jail, Kelly is walking around free, putting his gall on full display by chastising black people for not buying his new record in significant enough numbers. Here’s hoping the lack of a new hit convinces him to just shut it, already.
6. Daniel Holtzclaw.
If you are looking for yet more proof that black women are valued less, welcome to the case of Oklahoma police officer Daniel Holtzclaw. The media, with few exceptions, seemed to find Holtzclaw’s indictment and trial for the rape and sexual abuse of 13 African American women unworthy of coverage. Which is precisely what Holtzclaw banked on when screening for his victims: that no one would believe, or even care about, stories of a cop committing sex assault against poor black women, many of whom had criminal records. Those women knew that too, which is why almost none of them reported him. ("What kind of police do you call on the police?” one teen survivor asked at trial. Another told investigators, “I didn’t think anyone would believe me. I’m a black female.”) Holtzclaw’s last victim only happened to be driving through the neighborhood he stalked, but she didn’t live there. A middle-class African American woman with no record who lived across town, she had the privilege of thinking she might be believed.
On December 10, an all-white jury defied widespread expectations and convicted Holtzclaw on 18 of the 36 sexual abuse charges against him, recommending a sentence of 263 years. The media, suddenly interested, widely reported the decision, and images of a sobbing Holtzclaw appeared everywhere. Seeing Holtzclaw cry reminded me of this old South Park episode, which is to say I have never cared less about the distress of another human being. He’s currently on suicide watch. The women he violated will have to live with his crimes for the rest of their lives.
7. Josh Duggar.
The arbiter of sexual morality and family values in his role as executive director of the Family Research Council—an organization that spends most of its time decrying marriage equality and gay rights—Duggar’s hypocrisy really knew no bounds. This is a man who spent years spreading myths about how gay marriage is a threat to traditional 'christian' family values and doing the whole “think of the children!” thing. Meanwhile, between 2002 and 2003, Duggar molested four of his own sisters and a babysitter. He apologized, but he couldn’t have been that sorry, because from February 2013 to May 2015, he paid for an account on cheating site Ashley Madison. Busted yet again, Duggar released a statement: "I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the Internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife...The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country, I was hiding my own personal failings.” He’s currently in a long-term rehab situation of some sort, where he is hopefully being taught some CBT that will help him STFU.
8. George Zimmerman.
In just the last year, the man who murdered Trayvon Martin engaged in the following behaviors:
  • Allegedly threw a wine bottle at an ex-girlfriend and faced charges of aggravated assault. The charges were dropped when the woman recanted her story.
  • Retweeted a photo of Trayvon Martin’s dead body.
  • Responded to an insult on Twitter: “We all know how it ended for the last moron that hit me. Give it a whirl cupcake.”
  • Tweeted the message: “Cops lives matter, black slime doesnt [sic].”
  • Made a painting of the Confederate battle flag with the explicit purpose of selling it so the proceeds could be divided between himself and Andy Hallinan, a guy who banned Muslims from a shooting range he owns. The two also planned to sell signed copies for about $50 a pop.
  • Tweeted that Obama is an “ignorant baboon” and used a homophobic slur.
  • Tweeted a nude photo of his ex-girlfriend along with her phone number, writing, “She cheated on me with a dirty Muslim...She’ll sleep with anyone.”
Here’s hoping George Zimmerman, candidate for the Worst Person in the World, disappears next year. I don’t care how or why. Just. Go. Away.
9. Antonin Scalia.
Earlier this year, Antonin Scalia had a public hissyfit in the dissenting opinion to a recent SCOTUS decision upholding Obamacare. (Like a hack comic, he actually included a joke about the sexual habits of hippies, but somehow restrained himself from identifying rock and roll and television as “fads.”) That was bad, but Scalia’s shining moment of awfulness came more recently, when he basically stated that black people are stupid. Here the quote in all its lengthy, awful glory:
“There are...those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having slower-track school where they do well. One of — one of the briefs pointed out that — that most of the — most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas…They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re – that they’re being pushed ahead in — in classes that are too — too fast for them…I’m just not impressed by the fact that — that the University of Texas may have fewer. Maybe it ought to have fewer. And maybe some — you know, when you take more, the number of blacks, really competent blacks admitted to lesser schools, turns out to be less. And — and I — I don’t think it — it — it stands to reason that it’s a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible.”
Abigail Fisher — a woman too mediocre to have her own entry on this list — will likely prevail in her anti-affirmative action case, thanks to attitudes on the court like Scalia’s. (Clarence Thomas probably gave him a fist bump after the above bit of nonsense.) And yet, as the Daily Beast notes, Scalia himself failed to get into Princeton and blamed his rejection on the fact that he wasn’t a WASP, saying he was “an Italian boy from Queens, not the Princeton type.”
10. Sean Toon.
Remember the McKinney pool incident? The bystander video of the scene caught an adult male cop named Eric Casebolt menacingly waving his gun at children, manhandling and slamming a 15-year-old girl to the ground, and sitting on top of her as she sobbed. That whole scene was instigated by Sean Toon and his wife, who several witnesses say yelled racial epithets at the teenagers and then turned around and called the cops on the kids they insulted. After the whole thing blew up, Toon made a big show of walking around with signs praising the police for “keeping [him] safe,” and did a tour of talk shows to commend the officers. But as he played the role of scared upright citizen—a part made possible thanks to white privilege—his arrest record surfaced. Turns out back in 1999, an 18-year-old Toon and some friends were arrested for brutally slaughtering a bunch of animals, which is the kind of thing you hear about serial killers doing. He was sentenced to 285 days in jail and fined $300. That same year, Toon was charged with “aggravated assault with a deadly weapon” and sentenced to 75 days in jail. What I’m saying is that Sean Toon is an ex-con with a record of violence against both people and animals, and he very likely participated in a racialized attack on a group of kids whose crime was being black at a party in his neighborhood. In fact, those kids had a lot more reason to fear him than he ever did to be afraid of them. I hope this entry is the last time any of us have to read about him ever again.
11. Jared Fogle.
The tapes of Jared Fogle, former Subway sandwich shop mascot, talking about his sexual desires toward young children, his sexual abuse of kids, and his methods for seducing his young victims are absolutely chilling. In one recording, he states, “I had a little boy, it was amazing. It just felt so good. I mean, it felt—it felt so good.” In another, he talks about how “fun” it would be for he and the women he mistakenly thought was his accomplice to have sex with a child. “I think that girl from the broken home could be a possibility,” he suggests. He even asked that same woman if he could put a camera in her own kids’ room. It’s horrifying. Fogle was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for possession of hundreds of child pornography videos and sex with underage children.  
12. Kim Davis.
Despite being divorced three times, Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis appointed herself the moral authority on love when she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Davis went so far as to cease issuing the licenses to all couples, gay and straight, just to avoid providing them to same-sex pairs. She was arrested, which led to her being hailed as a martyr by the right, who believe it’s totally cool for cops to shoot black people who so much as get mouthy, but white homophobes who break the law are a national treasure. Mike Huckabee suggested god had come down to Earth and shape-shifted into the form of Kim Davis! Her fans held a rally where some said she should be president! The pope met with her! (Though later, he was kind of like, 'Kim who?') Davis is still clerk of Rowan County. In November she lost another of her numerous appeals to block same-sex marriage in Kentucky.  
13. Michele Fiore.
Cliven Bundy supporter and Nevada Assembly member Michele Fiore loves guns. She loves them so much she cast herself as the central gun-wielding character in a wall calendar titled “Michele Fiore’s 2016 Walk the Talk 2nd Amendment Calendar.” She had her entire family—save for a few babies—pose with guns in the photo that graces her Christmas card this year. And to top it off, she said that she’d like to fire bullets into the heads of Syrian refugees, because Michele Fiore is a total nightmare:
“I’m about to fly to Paris and shoot ‘em in the head myself. I am not OK with Syrian refugees. I’m not OK with terrorists. I’m OK with putting them down, blacking them out, just put a piece of brass in their ocular cavity and end their miserable life. I'm good with that."
In 2016, I would like never to hear about Michele Fiore saying anything, much less publicly threatening the lives of total strangers.

How The Grinch Brothers Stole The Sun – So They Could Sell It Back To You

Koch Brothers GrinchesThe Grinch Brothers – a.k.a. Charles and David Koch – have effectively stolen the sun. Why? So they can sell it back to you.
On Tuesday, Republican-controlled utility regulators (make that Koch-controlled utility regulators) of Senator Harry Reid‘s home state of Nevada dealt a lethal blow to rooftop solar power – the latest skirmish of a nationwide green energy battle that has pitted the Senate Democratic leader against his favorite target, the Koch brothers.
The move by Nevada’s utility regulator, which voted to slash the economic incentives for homeowners to install solar panels, was most immediately a showdown between billionaires Warren Buffett, owner of the state’s largest power company, and Elon Musk, whose SolarCity is the nation’s largest installer of panels that create electricity from the sun. But it also served as a proxy fight in a national struggle about states’ green energy programs, in which free-market groups backed by industrialists Charles and David Koch have fought to roll back incentives that they argue distort the marketplace and force some customers to subsidize other people’s power choices.
The Kochs’ advocacy groups didn’t directly enter the fight in Nevada, although they have campaigned in states such as neighboring Arizona to cut back programs that allow solar-owning residents to sell their excess power back to the electric grid. And Reid has singled out the Kochs’ opposition to solar incentives as part of his litany of complaints about the billionaire brothers, whom he has accused of “trying to buy the country” to promote their pro-fossil-fuel, anti-regulation agenda.
“The Koch brothers are worth more than 135 million Americans combined,” Reid told the Las Vegas Sun in August. “Why are they interested in stopping rooftop solar? It hurts their bottom line.”
Reid had no immediate comment on Tuesday’s action by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission, but in the past he has been highly critical of the Koch brothers, with none other than Cruz, R-Texas, accusing Reid of branding them ‘The Grinch Brothers.’
“I’m beginning to think [the Koch brothers] are a character almost out of Dr. Seuss in the majority leader’s mind, they are the grinch who stole Christmas in his telling,” Cruz said last year.
The three-member Nevada utility panel, responding to a law signed last spring by Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval, voted to slash the payments that Buffett-owned NV Energy must pay to homeowners whose rooftop solar panels feed electricity into the grid, and to hike the fees for homeowners to connect their panels to the wider power system. Companies like SolarCity and rival solar-leasing firm Sunrun have said the decision will most likely prompt them to stop operating in the state, which is the nation’s fifth largest in solar power capacity.
Even more galling to solar advocates, the commission made the decision retroactive — meaning the payments will stop and the fees will rise even for homeowners who had installed their panels under the previous program.
The American Energy Alliance, a Koch-funded group that opposes these kinds of “net metering” programs, said Tuesday’s move “makes positive changes to protect all ratepayers.”
“Folks who have rooftop solar tend to be wealthier homeowners, so you have a situation where the poor and middle class are paying for the wealthy to have solar power,” AEA spokesman Chris Warren said.
Solar companies like SolarCity and Sunrun have blossomed in recent years by installing panels on homeowners’ roofs at no cost, and then charging a monthly leasing fee that is typically lower than residents’ monthly utility bill. But those energy cost savings will disappear after the state commission decided to cut the payment to homeowners by 75 percent, from the retail power price to the wholesale level. NV Energy can also charge rooftop solar owners a fee for allowing them to sell power to the grid.
Sunrun quickly blasted the Public Utility Commission, saying it “ignored months of public input and over 30,000 public comments and voted in favor of solar fees.”
The company, which has filed a lawsuit against Sandoval to obtain records about his interactions with NV Energy, said its industry group The Alliance for Solar Choice planned to file a lawsuit challenging Tuesday’s PUC action.
The Nevada utility commission’s decision does not affect large-scale solar power plants that supply electricity to utilities, like the $1 billion Crescent Dunes solar project partly financed by President Barack Obama’s stimulus program, and NV Energy is a major purchaser from them.
Earlier this month, Congress agreed as part of the omnibus budget package to extend a federal tax credit for solar power to 2022, an incentive the industry has said was crucial to keeping it on a path that would make it economically viable without subsidies.
That federal victory for solar power comes as a rising number of states try to adapt their energy policies to accommodate the rising pressure from homeowners and greens – as well as libertarian groups like Georgia’s Green Tea movement – to foster more growth of rooftop solar.
Another fight is playing out in Florida where a group of tea-party, environmental and solar advocates are seeking a ballot measure for 2016 that would prevent the state from regulating small solar installation. Utilities there are pushing a rival ballot initiative that would keep in place the current system that requires homeowners to sell power to the utility.
The cost to install rooftop solar installations has dropped by half in the past five years, and the rooftop companies had put panels on nearly 800,000 homes and business across the country by mid-2015.
But the success of leasing business mode has prompted utilities to push back against the net metering policies, which threaten to eat away at their business growth while increasing their costs.
By the end of 2015, total solar power capacity in the United States is expected to be near 28,000 megawatts, or enough to supply some 5.6 million homes. Still, even with the fast-paced growth, solar power provides less than 2 percent of the electricity consumed in the United States.
If the Grinch Brothers have their way, future growth of solar power in the United States will depend on their ability to steal the sun and sell it back to consumers – to sell it back to you.

How Can We Stop America's Deadly Epidemic of Loneliness?

Hounded For Old Debt, And Losing The Right To Fight Back

Hounded For Old Debt, And Losing The Right To Fight Back

Lack Of Public Options Is How The Economy Gets Rigged Against Us

In a country with a Constitution beginning with the words, "We the People," should our economy work for all of us instead of just a few of us?

Lowering threshold for prescribing blood pressure medication could save millions

Lowering threshold for prescribing blood pressure medication could save millions:

Florida woman dies after being forced out of hospital over ‘the volume of her voice’

A Florida woman who had sought medical attention at a hospital for breathing difficulties died when doctors kicked her out, going so far as having police handcuff her and forcibly remove her.

Texas cuts off funding for Planned Parenthood’s HIV prevention program

In a notice received by Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast late Monday, an official with the Department of State Health Services informed the Houston-based provider that it would not renew its contract for HIV prevention services.

Las Vegas newspaper vows to defy wingnut billionaire owner Adelson

"You can be assured that if the Adelsons attempt to skew coverage, by ordering some stories covered and others killed or watered down, the Review-Journal's editors and reporters will fight it," a Sunday editorial read. "We will fight for your trust. Every. Single. Day.

Prosecutor paralyzed after shooting inspires Georgia bill banning gun sales during divorces

"Divorces and separations are volatile times, high emotions, and the escalation can go from zero to 100," said Fulton County Assistant District Attorney April Ross. "It's a no-brainer. That's a dangerous time for someone who's trying to get out of a relationship."

Gun Dealers May Actually Have To Pay For Some Of The Carnage They Cause In Seattle

NRA FURIOUS As Judge Rejects Case Against Seattle’s ‘Gun Violence Tax

NRA FURIOUS As Judge Rejects Case Against Seattle’s ‘Gun Violence Tax’The law is raises money to fund violence prevention programs, so OF COURSE the NRA hates it.


Man unhappy about wildlife officer boarding his boat defecated into the water

A 60-year-old Florida man's response to a wildlife officer boarding his boat was to defecate into the water, throw drugs away and threaten to beat the officer.
James Christian Bates, owner of Bates Plumbing in Port Charlotte, was arrested on charges of dumping raw human waste into state waters, resisting arrest without violence, boating under the influence, obstruction of justice and marijuana and paraphernalia possession, according to an arrest report.
Michael Morrison, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer, was in Charlotte Harbor near Mile Marker 1 when he saw a yellow 15-foot 1972 Glastron propeller vessel zipping through a manatee zone with no lights at about 8:30pm on Sunday. When Morrison stopped the vessel, he said in the report that Bates threw three marijuana joints into the water and Bates, who later failed a field sobriety test, seemed drunk. "
Also, while attempting to climb on board Mr Bates' (sic) vessel to arrest him, Mr Bates disobeyed all lawful orders and defecated over the side of the vessel," Morrison wrote in the report. Bates was so combative, the report said, Morrison had to use pepper spray. Bates also made a comment to Morrison that he should have beaten him, "left (him) there and no one would have known," the report said. He paid his $8,500 bond and was released from jail, but he has a Jan. 11 court date in Charlotte County.

Robbery suspect identified by his distinctive tattoos

Police have arrested two people who allegedly forced their way into an apartment complex in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and robbed a man at knife-point on Friday. Paul Wayne Terry, 27, and Sonja Marie Moro, 30, are accused of robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Terry was booked in the Tulsa Jail on $100,000 bail. Moro was booked on $50,000 bail. The victim told police he heard knocking on his front door at about 5pm. When he opened it, his ex-girlfriend and a man forced their way inside the apartment.
The man, whom the victim described as having horns tattooed on his forehead, reportedly pulled out a knife and threatened to stab him if he didn’t hand over his money. The apartment resident said he gave his wallet to the man, who then walked out of the apartment. The woman stayed behind and asked for additional money. She fled after the victim said he was calling 911.
Police identified Terry, whose tattoos matched the description given by the victim, and Moro as the suspects in the robbery. They were arrested on Saturday night without incident. In June, Terry pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery, malicious injury to property and interfering with an emergency telephone call, court records show. He was given three suspended one-year sentences, which were to run concurrently.

School Lunch Lady Fired For Giving Free Food To Hungry Child

School Lunch Lady Fired For Giving Free Food To Hungry Child (IMAGE)So apparently letting kids go hungry is what this school district thinks is the right thing to do.
***
Note: she was offered her job back after the hew and cry raised the roof about her being fired for giving food to a hungry child - a dismissal that should not have happened in the first place.

School to review step-by-step cocaine trade homework

A teacher in Texas sent home an assignment titled “The Cocaine Trade: From Field to Street” with an 11-year-old boy, and his parents are upset. Keller Independent School District is now reviewing the sixth-grade assignment that had students make a step-by-step plan showing how cocaine gets from a drug cartel to a street dealer.
“I walked by and noticed that in big bold letters across the front of his assignment it said… COCAINE,” said Scott Pick. Pick says his son missed a few days of school at Bear Creek Intermediate in Keller after getting strep throat. Pick says he was going over his son’s make-up work for Science Class and came across the assignment in a section for “Following a Sequence”.
“I felt like they were giving my kid a diagram of how to become a drug dealer,” Pick said. The assignment lists the steps of the drug trade from Cartel to street dealer. “I was shocked by it. It startled me. It took me aback for a second… I grabbed the paper immediately.” Keller ISD say they now plan to investigate and have issued a statement.

“Keller ISD takes the issue of drug abuse very seriously, and as such, allocates multiple resources to combat abuse through drug education and intervention. The study sheet in question will be reviewed before being considered for future use. The district will continue its concerted efforts to review, remind, and revise drug educational material on a regular basis.” Pick didn’t let his son turn in the assignment, and says it has already spurred some uncomfortable questions.

Kansas high schoolers uploaded sex assault video to Facebook hoping for ‘likes’

Teen posing during sexual assault in Kansas City motel room - (KCTV screenshot)
Police in Kansas City are investigating two high school students after they posted a video of themselves sexually assaulting an unconscious teen in a motel room.

Racist lady goes completely berserk after mistaking Brazilian comedy team for terrorists

Lady accuses Brazilian men of being terrorists (YouTube)
Two Brazilian men said they were filming a video for their YouTube comedy channel when an irate white woman pulled over because she mistook them for terrorists. “I was filming a sketch for YouTube in front of a local airport, when a racist woman stopped her vehicle on the side of the road and started calling my friend and I terrorists,” performer Uhoh Nick wrote on Facebook. “Being that I’m an inspiring filmmaker, I pulled […]

South Dakota man plots to bomb veterans’ hospitals — but ends up in one after blowing himself up

A South Dakota man planning to blow up Veterans Affairs hospitals was arrested after he accidentally detonated his home-made bombs on himself.

‘Greedy’ doctor blames Obamacare after performing unnecessary surgeries on patients

Dr Harry Persaud, 56, protested his innocence to the Guardian on Tuesday after it was revealed that the Ohio-based cardiologist will spend 20 years in prison for putting patients through invasive tests and open heart surgery that they did not need – billing insurers for millions in the process

Florida man punches child in the face for being late to cult

According to WKMG, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said that 49-year-old Angel Rivera became impatient because the child was slow to put on shoes.

10 Best Dinosaur Discoveries of 2015

This year was one of the best ever for paleontology, marking the discovery of a diverse group of new dino all-stars.

Blind dog rescued after being trapped in well for months

After months of living alone in a well, a blind, elderly dog has been rescued. "Surprisingly, the dog is in fairly good, physical condition," said Laura Simpson, founder of The Harmony Fund in Holden, Massachusetts.
"The blindness of course is from a pre-existing condition, but he's now in foster care and we’re hoping he can find a home there he’s loved and respected in the way he should be." Simpson said that it was last week when international animal rescuer Fahrudin Caki Bravo and his friend Ratko Koblar received word of a dog trapped in a well in Bosnia.
"The dog had been there for months and they don’t know if he was thrown in, or if he fell in," Simpson said. "We’re certainly hoping that he fell, but with the dog being completely blind, he was only kept alive because the local children were kind enough to feed him." "He [Bravo] and his friend thought it was perfectly feasible getting the dog out and they did a great job," she added. "They made it look easy."

Bravo and Koblar lifted the dog from the well, which was 8 meters (26 feet) deep, in just minutes, Simpson said. Following his rescue the dog received veterinary care and has been placed in foster care. Simpson added: "He is a very gentle dog with a very sweet, and forgiving disposition." The Harmony Fund is planning to send a special donation to Fahrudin and his small team so they can continue their good work in Bosnia.

Animal News

Many winter animal sleepers are rubbing their eyes and waking up to the summer-like temperatures.
Scientists get an unprecedented look at how New Caledonian crows fashion hooked stick tools to hunt insects.

Animal Pictures