October 9, 2015

New 282 square ft micro units in SF, for 3k two can sleep in the kitchen

Studio Details

Elongated studios: 282 sq ft
Beds: Two Beds
Kitchen: Inclusive
Bathroom: Private with Bathtub
Storage: Built In






The third option is a studio. These are 282 square feet and, according to the official website, offer two beds, a kitchen and bathroom plus storage. Unfortunately, they are not exactly cheap: The starting price for such a studio is $2,980 monthly. However, in comparison to some other options out there (S.F.’s median 1-bedroom rent recently hit $3,458 a month), it could be a good deal, especially if two people are splitting it, as there are two beds. We just hope in the case of a 282-square-foot studio, these people really, really get along.

http://blog.sfgate.com/ontheblock/2015/10/08/new-mission-tower-rents-only-to-students-and-interns/#photo-694232

October 9, 2015

Cat used by S.F. cops to coax suicidal man off building ledge

The man, barefoot and wearing only black shorts, was distraught and hanging out of a third-floor window of a building at 10th and Harrison streets, threatening to leap. Officers set up foam pads below him as the department’s trained hostage negotiators perched precariously on a fire escape, urging the suicidal man figuratively and literally off the ledge.

But after three unsuccessful hours, reinforcements arrived — in the form of the man’s orange-and-white feline.

Using his pet, hostage negotiators were able to persuade him to go back inside the building, come down the stairs and surrender without incident.

Within 45 minutes of the cat’s arrival, the 3½-hour standoff was over.

“Using the cat was ingenious,” said Officer Albie Esparza, a police spokesman. “Never underestimate the power of the love between people and their pets. I think it was great to think outside the box like the officers did. It made enough of an impact on this person to bring him down and come to his senses.”

The man had run into the building about 2:30 p.m., after he had been stopped while driving a white Toyota Highlander that had no license plates.

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Cat-helps-S-F-cops-talk-suicidal-man-off-6559376.php#photo-8755261

October 9, 2015

Family of Walter Scott reaches $6.5M settlement with city

Source: usa today



The family of Walter Scott, a black South Carolina man shot and killed by a police officer who is now facing murder charges, has reached a $6.5 million settlement with city officials.

The North Charleston, S.C. city council approved the settlement Thursday night at a hearing attended by Scott's family and their attorneys.

Officer Michael Slager, who is white, was arrested and charged with murder after a videotape taken by a bystander showed the officer shooting a fleeing Scott in the back multiple times. Scott died at the scene. The video, replayed across the country, captured national attention and underscored increasing tension between white police officers and black men.

"I am glad the city and the family were able to reach a settlement without the necessity of a lawsuit," North Charleston Mayor R. Keith Summey said shortly after the settlement's approval. "Both sides have met many times and worked very hard over the past several months to resolve this matter."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/10/08/family-of-walter-scott-reaches-65m-settlement-with-city-officials/73619624/

October 9, 2015

‘I am Hispanic, and I vote for Mr. Trump!’

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

LAS VEGAS -- As Donald Trump complained about how his nose looked on the cover of People magazine last week, he spotted a woman in the crowd waving a copy.

"There it is! Come here!" Trump said, walking across the stage and pulling up Myriam Witcher, an immigrant from Colombia who has become one of his super-fans. Witcher bounced with the excitement of a teenaged girl meeting a boy-band heartthrob: "I love Mr. Trump!"

"I am Hispanic," she proclaimed to the mostly white crowd at a rally here on Thursday afternoon, "and I vote for Mr. Trump!"

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"And is this a set-up?" Trump asked Witcher, as she shook her head. "Did I ever meet you before? Huh?"

Witcher then exploded with enthusiasm, jumping up and down: "We love you! We love you! We love you!"

"I swear to you -- I think she's totally beautiful and yet I've never met her before," Trump said. "This all started with a People magazine."

Trump signed the magazine, kissed Witcher on the head and sent her back to her seat, declaring: "And that's my relationship with Hispanics." Later in the day, he tweeted: "Just leaving Las Vegas. Unbelievable crowd! Many Hispanics who love me and I love them!"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/10/08/one-of-donald-trumps-fans-took-the-stage-in-vegas-and-declared-i-am-hispanic-and-i-vote-for-mr-trump/

October 8, 2015

‘YouTube effect’ has left police officers under siege, law enforcement leaders say

Chiefs of some of the nation’s biggest police departments say officers in American cities have pulled back and have stopped policing as aggressively as they used to, fearing that they could be the next person in a uniform featured on a career-ending viral video.

That was the unifying — and controversial — theory reached Wednesday at a private meeting of more than 100 of the nation’s top law enforcement officers and politicians.

With homicide rates soaring inexplicably this year in dozens of U.S. cities, the group convened by new U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch concluded with a brief news conference promising a robust response to the reversal of decades of falling violent crime rates.

But for hours preceding that, mayors, police chiefs, U.S. attorneys and even FBI Director James Comey privately vented in a Washington ballroom that they don’t really understand the alarming spike in murders and applause filled the room when mayors said police officers’ sinking morale could be a factor.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/10/08/youtube-effect-has-left-police-officers-under-siege-law-enforcement-leaders-say/?tid=pm_national_pop_b

October 8, 2015

The prisoners who kicked Harvard’s ass: Only people who think Ivy Leaguers are smarter than felons w

The prisoners who kicked Harvard’s ass: Only people who think Ivy Leaguers are smarter than felons were surprised

When prisoners from Eastern New York Correctional Facility beat Harvard University in an exhibition debate last month, it made national headlines. It had all the elements of a classic underdog story, with a motley trio made up of violent offenders adjudged to be society’s worst, going up against a fresh-faced team made up of America’s best and brightest. Yet in this most civilized of battles, where words were the only weapons, the prisoners won.



What happened, Harvard? Was the match fixed? Nearly every report on the story explored the niggling question that the judges were biased against the Ivy League team. To the Wall Street Journal, lead judge Mary Nugent defended their decision for Eastern New York Correctional, stressing: “I don’t think we can ever judge devoid of context or where we are, but the idea they would win out of sympathy is playing into pretty misguided ideas about inmates. Their academic ability is impressive.”

To educators and advocates who work with vast and varied prison populations, the win was perfectly plausible on a generalized and specific level. (This same debate team had won a match against West Point in 2014.) As of last official count, the United States currently boasts a federal and state prison population of just over 1.5 million, of which 106,000 were female. Per numbers crunched in 2008, approximately 1 per 100 adults in the U.S. is incarcerated.

As far as these prison advocates are concerned, it’s the general public that needs to be educated regarding the systemic socioeconomic asymmetries feeding the dismal growth of rates of incarceration in a this country. The contemporary prison is no longer a penitentiary, a place of penitence and reflection, but an industry that requires demeaned and docile bodies off which it can profit. Correspondingly, there has been an alarming strengthening of the preschool-to-prison pipeline, as well as the reappearance of debtors’ prison, which makes being poor a crime in itself.


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She explains that a raft of prejudices make it too easy to dismiss “a bunch of inmates” as being incapable of debate skills and logical thinking. “The tide might be turning about mass incarceration,” she concludes, “but it’s time to look inside the humanity and abilities of the people inside prisons.”

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/06/the_prisoners_who_kicked_harvards_ass_only_people_who_think_ivy_leaguers_are_smarter_than_felons_were_surprised/

October 8, 2015

Outrage as female judge berates and then JAILS sobbing domestic abuse victim for failing to appear

Outrage as female judge berates and then JAILS sobbing domestic abuse victim for failing to appear in court at trial of her attacker

Victim charged with contempt for not testifying against ex-boyfriend

Judge Collins of Seminole County, Fla, could have fined the woman

But she was enraged by her excuse that she missed trial due to 'anxiety'

Screams 'you think you have anxiety now?' then jails her for 3 days

The victim was allegedly choked by her ex in front of their one-year-old

Her ex-boyfriend, who has a criminal record of domestic violence, allegedly choked her and grabbed a kitchen knife in front of their one-year-old child.



The victim said she had been attending a therapy group that supported that decision but her request was denied.

'I'm just not in a good place right now,' the woman says while audibly holding back tears

The judge hits back: 'And violating your court order did not do anything for you.

'I find you in contempt of court. I hereby sentence you to three days in the county jail.'

The woman screams and cries, 'please! I'll do anything!' which Judge Collins ignores.

Collins has stood by her decision and refused to comment to the media.

Advocacy groups in Florida have slammed the ruling, insisting it will severely impact the way this woman and other abuse victims interact with law enforcement.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3265029/Outrage-female-judge-berates-JAILS-sobbing-domestic-abuse-victim-failing-appear-court-trial-attacker.html#ixzz3o0mFxgef

October 8, 2015

Elephants: Large, Long-Living and Less Prone to Cancer

A number of scientists have speculated that large, long-lived animals must evolve extra cancer-fighting weapons. And if that’s true, they reason, then the biggest, longest-lived animals should have an especially big arsenal. Otherwise, these species would go extinct.

“Every baby elephant should be dropping dead of colon cancer at age 3,” said Dr. Joshua D. Schiffman, a pediatric oncologist at the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

Writing Thursday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Schiffman and his colleagues report that elephants appear to be exceptional cancer fighters, using a special set of proteins to kill off damaged cells.

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Dr. Schiffman and his colleagues found in their research that elephants have a remarkably low rate of cancer. They reviewed zoo records on the deaths of 644 elephants and found that less than 5 percent died of cancer. By contrast, 11 percent to 25 percent of humans die of cancer — despite the fact that elephants can weigh a hundred times as much as we do.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/13/science/why-elephants-get-less-cancer.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

October 8, 2015

And Now Here’s a Makeup Artist Transforming Himself Into Kim Davis

http://time.com/4064313/kim-davis-makeup-artist/



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October 8, 2015

For Many Central American Migrants, U.S. Border Is Now Beyond Reach

Ortega directs the federal El Edén center in San Pedro Sula, Honduras' second-largest city. El Edén means "Eden." But to the folks who end up there, it's hardly the paradise they were reaching for. Instead, it's back to square one — the place that receives migrants who are bused back into Honduras after they're intercepted in Mexico on their trek to the United States.

On this summer morning, Ortega's smartphone is telling him to get ready for three busloads of deportees: More than 300 people — about 30 of them minors traveling alone.

"It's our job to make those children feel like they've come home," Ortega says, pointing to a new mini-soccer field the center is building. "We don't want them to feel like they're in another detention facility."

As weary families and lonely teenagers file out of the buses, Ortega's staff directs them to a meal of Honduran beef stew. Youths store their belongings in large lockers as matter-of-factly as high school students heading to class.

Soon they'll be processed, examined by doctors and given shelter for up to three days before relatives pick them up.
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/10/07/446082338/for-many-central-american-migrants-the-u-s-border-is-now-beyond-reach