Texas School Staff Forced 'Smelly, Dirty' Third-Grader to Shower, Lawsuit Says

The parents of a third-grade boy have sued two Texas school employees, alleging that they forced their son to strip and shower in front of them because he "smelled badly, was dirty and had bad hygiene."

The eight-year-old was singled out last November and taken to the nurse's office at Peaster Elementary School where he was forced to remove his clothes, the suit alleges, the Courthouse News Service reported.

The two school officials then "began violently washing his body with a washcloth, scrubbing him over a large portion of his body, stuck cotton balls in his ears, all while ridiculing and harassing him about being 'dirty,'" the complaint claims.

More

Rodney King, Key Figure in LA Riots, Found Dead

Rodney King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, died Sunday. He was 47.

King's fiancé called 911 at 5:25 a.m. to report that she found him at the bottom of the swimming pool at their home in Rialto, Calif., police Lt. Dean Hardin said.

Officers arrived to find King in the water and unresponsive, with no signs of foul play. He was transported to Arrowhead Regional Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:11 a.m, Hardin said.

The San Bernardino County coroner will perform an autopsy within 48 hours.

More

If Immigration Laws Don't Apply, Then Which Laws Should Americans Respect?

Pres. Obama today ordered that young illegal aliens not be deported and that they be granted work permits.

How many ways is this wrong?  America is a nation of laws where all are treated equally -  unless the administration chooses to waive the law for some.  Second, this country has millions of unemployed, and teenage unemployment is stratospheric.

If immigration laws don’t apply, then which laws should Americans have respect for?  Some of them…or none of them?

More

Molester Beaten to Death by Texas Dad Identified, Disturbing New Details Released

The man who was beaten to death by a Texas dad for allegedly molesting his 5-year-old daughter has been identified by authorities.

Previous news reports had identified the girl as a 4-year-old, but her age was corrected by Lavaca County authorities in a press release Friday, obtained by the Victoria Advocate.

Lavaca County Sheriff Micah Harmon said that the 23-year-old father killed Jesus Mora Flores, 47, from Gonzales, Texas. The sheriff said Flores was not in the U.S. illegally and was in possession of a green card also known as a permanent resident card. Investigators have been working with Mexican Consulate officials to locate his family, the news release revealed.

 More

A Comment On Cherrystone Campground Worthy Of A Post

Coming across this blog online was rather upsetting for me because it's very true. I'm 20 years old now, and my family has gone to Cherrystone every summer since I wasn't even a year old. So this hits right at home because growing up, even as a 17 and 18 year old, Cherrystone was the only thing I knew and looked forward to every single summer. When I was still an infant, my family was still in their tent camping stages. I was 3 or 4 before they finally upgraded to a pop-up camper and about 11-12 before they upgraded to a 30 foot trailer. Due to these upgrades, every summer we started staying longer. Every since we got our trailer, we've gone to Cherrystone every summer for a straight 4 weeks. And let me tell you, Cherrystone was fun when I was little, but even being young, I saw all of the changes happening every year as I grew up and I hated it. I can't remember the name of the original owner but things were great when he ran the park. When he died, I believe his son took over and when the son passed away from a heart attack, that's when it really went downhill. The main issue is that it's practically run by teenagers now. They took the family out of the campground by charging for kids (which I believed they've changed now by 2012, kids are included now). Ernie(used to run the Bait and Tackle Shop with his wife) was even told to leave Cherrystone because they didn't like how they, quote, "ran it like a mom and pop store." They took what was good and fun out of Cherrystone. Just like in a grade school, the pumped the place full of rules and the only people who seem to get penalized for breaking the rules are the ones that might break one rule once, rather than the kids who run around cussing or riding their bikes at night or the people who catch kill or keep illegal sized fish and crabs or the people who otherwise readily abuse the system. They're still jacking up prices for no reason. The highlight of our summer trip was always watching the fireworks for fourth of july. 10 years ago, those shows last 30 minutes plus. In the last couple years, they've lasted just over 10 minutes. The campground is poorly managed, their activities and amenities are getting cheaper and yet their prices are becoming ridiculous. Honestly, the only reason my family even goes there anymore is for flounder fishing, soft crabbing, and hard crabbing. I didn't get to go last year since I was employed for DNR but I'm excited to be going to visit my family for 8 days this summer (Even though it'll cost me, my boyfriend and my car $35 a night to stay. Honestly, it's not worth $300+ but we have no where else as good as Cherrystone for soft crabbing especially, and also to be honest, it's like a tradition that I miss). Cherrystone was awesome back in it's day and if you didn't ever camp there before the mid 2000's I completely understand why you hate it. My request though is not to hate the campground, it's still good for everything it's got. Hate the people running it, hate the people employed there, and hate the economy. I miss the old Cherrystone.

By Ashley Moreland on Cherrystone Campground Just Isn't What It Used To ... at 6:42 PM

On A Positive Note?

Citizens of Salisbury can start to relax when it comes to their gas points at Giant and the controversial numbers at Shell Gas Stations.

Remember the old Sheila's Party World location on Rt. 13 across the street from Giant. Well, Giant is actually going to build a new gas station at that location. Yes, you heard it here first on Salisbury News.

Now let's see how willing and cooperative the City and County are going to be on this one.

ACLU Not So Sure If It's Going To Help The KKK Adopt Georgia Highway

After a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan was denied its application to be part of Georgia's adopt-a-highway program, the group is turning to an unlikely potential ally — the American Civil Liberties Union. It seems the ACLU is slightly uneasy about helping the KKK, but not because of the group's beliefs. The ACLU isn't sure if the KKK's freedom of speech has been violated or not.

More »

School's Ban On 9-Year-Old Blogger's Cafeteria Photos Lasts All Of One Day

First, the bummer news: After various news reports bashed a Scottish school and its lunches, which were the subject of a 9-year-old student's food blog, school officials told the girl she couldn't take photos in the cafeteria, rendering her blog pointless. Now the yay news: a local official ordered the school to reverse the ban after just one day.

More »

Auto Bailout Or UAW Bailout? Taxpayer Losses Came From Subsidizing Union Compensation

Abstract: The U.S. government will lose about $23 billion on the 2008-2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. President Obama emphatically defends his decision to subsidize the automakers, arguing it was necessary to prevent massive job losses. But, even accepting this premise, the government could have executed the bailout with no net cost to taxpayers. It could have—had the Administration required the United Auto Workers (UAW) to accept standard bankruptcy concessions instead of granting the union preferential treatment. The extra UAW subsidies cost $26.5 billion—more than the entire foreign aid budget in 2011. The Administration did not need to lose money to keep GM and Chrysler operating. The Detroit auto bailout was, in fact, a UAW bailout.

The government bailout of General Motors (GM) and Chrysler between 2008 and 2009 will cost taxpayers approximately $23 billion. President Barack Obama emphatically defends his decision to subsidize the automakers, arguing it was necessary to prevent massive job losses. Even if one accepts this premise, the government should—and could—have executed the bailout more efficiently, with no cost to taxpayers, had the Administration required the United Auto Workers (UAW) to accept standard bankruptcy concessions. Instead, the Obama Administration gave special treatment to the UAW above and beyond what other creditors and unions received:

Legally, the UAW’s claims had the same status as those of other unsecured creditors, but the UAW recovered a much greater proportion of the debts that General Motors and Chrysler owed the union.

Bankruptcy typically brings uncompetitive wages down to competitive levels. However, existing UAW members did not take pay cuts at General Motors.

The Administration could have kept the automakers running without subsidizing the UAW’s above-market pay and benefits.

Subsidizing UAW compensation cost $26.5 billion—more than the government spends each year on foreign aid.

The cost of subsidizing UAW pay and benefits accounts for the entire net taxpayer losses—$23 billion—in the bailout.

UAW members at General Motors and Chrysler are among the most highly paid workers in America. High salaries are good, but they must be earned. The taxpayer losses came from the special treatment that President Obama bestowed on the UAW. The auto bailout was actually a UAW bailout.

More

Smith Named 2012 SU Employee Of The Year

Todd Smith, Web communications manager in the Publications Office, is Salisbury University’s 2012 Employee of the Year. Announced during SU’s annual Employee Appreciation Day, the winner receives a $1,000 cash prize. Smith, one of SU’s 12 SU Employees of the Month for the past fiscal year, was nominated for his creativity and teamwork.

More

Today's Survey Question 6-17-12

Who's the best Father in the whole wide world?

The Fed's Secret Phone Menu

Very few know about the Federal Reserve's "other" phone number. You know, the one reserved for those in the innermost ring of power. Someone gifted me the number, and I found it offered up the most curious menu of choices:

Greetings. Please select one of the following options.

The Working Group for Global Domination does not exist. Members please press 1.

If you are a European leader seeking a secret bailout, please press 2.

If you are Chinese leader seeking assistance purchasing another Beverly Hills mansion with cash, please press 3.

If you are a domestic banker seeking another tranch of our $29 trillion in backstop funding, please press 4.

If you are an incumbent POTUS seeking re-election in a recessionary year, please press 5.

If you represent one of our proxy trading desks, please press 6 for your S&P 500 futures purchase instructions. As a reminder, please trade your own account via black pools.

If you would like today's target for the S&P 500 and Treasuries to assist in trading your own individual account, please press 7.

For bulk purchases of Hopium and/or Delusionol, please press 8.

Curious, indeed. America's privately owned central bank is an enchanted world, to be sure, where shadow systems do not officially exist, where blatant manipulation of the stock market is denied, and where global bankers get preferential treatment of all their needs.

In this shadow system, democracy, accountability and transparency do not exist. Within the innermost ring of power, democracy is merely the necessary illusion maintained for the psychological benefit of the easily distracted debt-serfs.

As long as they believe in democracy, social mobility and the supremacy of American might, they are happy to while away their time playing or watching mindless games. It's the perfect setup for easy control.

And if they get restive, there's always food stamps and a media-injected "treatment" of Delusionol.

Source

PETSMART Helps With Pit Bull Spay/Nuter

Treaty Negotiated In Secret – Hidden Even from Congressmen Who Oversee Treaties – Threatens To Destroy National Sovereignty

The normally-reserved Yves Smith asks whether Obama should be impeached over it.

Democratic Senator Wyden – the head of the committee which is supposed to oversee it – is so furious about the lack of access that he has introduced legislation [7] to force disclosure.

Republican House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa is so upset by it that he has leaked a document on his website to show what’s going on.

What is everyone so furious about?

An international treaty being negotiated in secret which would not only crack down on Internet privacy much more than SOPA or ACTA, but would actually destroy the sovereignty of the U.S. and all other signatories.

It is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Wyden is the chairman of the trade committee in the Senate … the committee which is supposed to have jurisdiction over the TPP. Wyden is also on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and so he and his staff have high security clearances and are normally able to look at classified documents.

And yet Wyden and his staff have been denied access to the TPP’s text.

This is similar to other recent incidences showing that we’ve gone from a nation of laws to a nation of powerful men making laws in secret.

For example, in the summer 2007, Congressman Peter DeFazio – who is on the Homeland Security Committee (and so has proper security access to be briefed on so-called “Continuity of Government” issues) – inquired about continuity of government plans, and was refused access. Indeed, DeFazio told Congress that the entire Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress has been denied access to the plans [11] by the White House (video; or here is the transcript). The Homeland Security Committee has full clearance to view all information about COG plans. DeFazio concluded: “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right”.

More

POLICE ARREST PAIR OF BANK ROBBERS WANTED FOR MULTIPLE BANK ROBBERIES IN THREE STATES

(McHenry, MD) – Efforts by Maryland State Police investigators and other federal, state and local law enforcement result in the arrest of a pair of bank robbers suspected in multiple bank robberies in Maryland, West Virginia and Pennsylvania during the month of May.

The accused are identified as Corbin Jay Will, 39, of Garrett, Pennsylvania and Nichole Lynn Durst, 23, of Meyersdale, Pennsylvania. Both Will and Durst are in police custody in Pennsylvania, after suspected of robbing the First Summit Bank in Salix, Pa., First United Bank and Trust in Friendsville, Maryland, the WesBanco Bank in Bruceton Mills, Wes Virginia, the First National Bank in Logantown, PA and attempting another bank robbery at the M&T Bank in Tyrone, Pennsylvania. Charges are pending in all three states.

On Tuesday June 12, 2012, Will and Durst were taken into police custody by the Pennsylvania State Police from the Somerset Barracks after conducting a traffic stop on the suspected vehicle observed in multiple surveillance videos obtained during the robberies. The two occupants in the vehicle, Will and Durst, matched the description of the suspects wanted in the bank robberies.

Will and Durst were transported to the Pennsylvania State Police Somerset Barracks for questioning. Search warrants were obtained in Somerset County for the vehicle and their residences, which led to the discovery of several pieces of evidence, which were used in the commission of the crimes.

Investigators from the Maryland State Police McHenry Barracks were part of the federal, state, and local law enforcement effort to find the pair of robbery suspects. Deputies from the West Virginia Sheriff’s Office, Preston County, the Tyrone Pennsylvania Police Department, the Adams Township Police Department, troopers from the Pennsylvania State Police, Lamar Barracks, and the FBI also assisted with the investigation of the multiple bank robberies.

What Facebook Knows About You- Scary!

Cameron Marlow calls himself Facebook's "in-house sociologist." He and his team can analyze essentially all the information the site gathers.

Few Privacy Regulations Inhibit FacebookLaws haven't kept up with the company's ability to mine its users' data.

If Facebook were a country, a conceit that founder Mark Zuckerberg has entertained in public, its 900 million members would make it the third largest in the world.

It would far outstrip any regime past or present in how intimately it records the lives of its citizens. Private conversations, family photos, and records of road trips, births, marriages, and deaths all stream into the company's servers and lodge there. Facebook has collected the most extensive data set ever assembled on human social behavior. Some of your personal information is probably part of it.

And yet, even as Facebook has embedded itself into modern life, it hasn't actually done that much with what it knows about us. Now that the company has gone public, the pressure to develop new sources of profit (see "The Facebook Fallacy") is likely to force it to do more with its hoard of information. That stash of data looms like an oversize shadow over what today is a modest online advertising business, worrying privacy-conscious Web users (see "Few Privacy Regulations Inhibit Facebook") and rivals such as Google. Everyone has a feeling that this unprecedented resource will yield something big, but nobody knows quite what.

Even as Facebook has embedded itself into modern life, it hasn't done that much with what it knows about us. Its stash of data looms like an oversize shadow. Everyone has a feeling that this resource will yield something big, but nobody knows quite what.

More

"Are You The Teacher Or The Student"

Truth: Living the purpose is far greater than just living……
Here’s the truth…..
Everything happens for a reason. Whether we accept, embrace, receive or believe it, where we are right now at this very moment is where we’re supposed to be. You are not at this place in life by mistake; your exact location, circumstance, or life experience is part of a plan larger than you can ever imagine. Every trial, triumph, connection and encounter was divinely orchestrated by God. The question is, are you serving your purpose? Is the plan for you to be the teacher or the student? Are you living in the now, stuck in the past, or daydreaming about the future? Every experience in life is for a reason, whether it’s for you to learn today in order to be a teacher tomorrow, it’s planned. Then there are those experiences we’re supposed to be the teacher, it’s our plan to pass on the knowledge gained through our experiences to those we come in contact with. Many times we miss it… We can’t see our purpose in our current situation because we’re blind by our lacks, and sometimes our abundance of what we have. We miss out on the reason and find ourselves trapped in situations far longer than we should. The benefit of accepting where we are “now” is that we see the lessons to either be learned or taught. We notice others and how we can learn from them or impact their lives. We see our circumstances for what they are, a lesson to learn. We embrace the fact that “today” is all we have yesterday is a memory and tomorrow is a dream. The truth is… nothing is by mistake. Every connection and encounter is a part of the plan for our lives. Whether we’re supposed to be the teacher or the student, we’re here at this place, at this time, in this season of life for a reason. Maybe you’re in what appears to be a bad space right now; we encourage you to learn all you can from this experience so you can be a teacher later in life to those who are going through it. Or maybe you’re in a place where you’re over qualified, then teach what you know so your legacy will live longer than your physical body on earth. Living the purpose is far greater than just living…… Are you the teacher or the student????

Source

The "Solution" Is Collapse

So the root problem is the system, human nature, blah blah blah. There are no "solutions" that can fix those defaults. Thus the "solution" is collapse.

Policies create incentives and disincentives. Some are intended, some fall into the category of unintended consequences. Regardless of their intention, policies that create windfalls ("easy money") or open spigots of "free money" (or what is perceived as free money by the recipient) quickly gather the allegiance of everyone reaping the windfall or collecting the free money.
This allegiance is soon tempered into political steel by self-justification: humans excel at rationalizing their self-interest. Thus my share of the swag is soon "absolutely essential."

Humans don't need much incentive to pursue windfalls or free money--seeking windfalls in the here and now is our default setting. Taking the pulpit to denounce humanity's innate greed, avarice and selfishness doesn't change this, as seeking short-term windfalls has offered enormous selective advantages for hundreds of thousands of years.

That which is painful to those collecting free money will be avoided, and that which is easy will be pursued until it's painful. Borrowing $1.5 trillion a year from toddlers and the unborn taxpayers of the future is easy and painless, as toddlers have no political power. So we will borrow from the powerless to fund our free money spigots until it becomes painful.

More

Perfect Storm Coming To America

Last week, I attended a meeting in Denver, Colorado featuring Michael Brownlee, a speaker on the fastest growing organization in the 21st century: www.transititiontowns.org. Over 900 cities across the globe participate in preparation for the coming resource crisis. For anyone who might be concerned as to the future of this nation, you will find a plethora of information at the websites provided. Additionally, you will be able to hook-up with people in your state.

A “Perfect Storm” gathers on the horizon as Peak Oil, Economic Instability, Climate Change and Hyper-Population Growth collide within the United States. While Americans watch multiple breakdowns throughout their economic and environmental systems, a gathering citizen armada prepares for an uncertain future—that most assuredly looms on the U.S. horizon.

Dana Miller, director of the “Denver Transition Movement” in Denver, Colorado, sponsored Michael Brownlee, a man sporting swept-back silver hair and wearing John Denver glasses, to speak about how average Americans can mobilize to deal with the coming loss of cheap oil energy, called “Post Peak Oil.” With his compelling power point program, Brownlee addressed a packed house on what all Americans face in the coming decades.

“We face a Perfect Storm with the triangulation of Peak Oil, Climate Change and Economic Instability,” Brownlee said. “These converging factors create a dynamic that we are unprepared for. James Howard Kunstler addresses them in his book, “The Long Emergency."

More

Thanks Dad

Happy Father's Day