March 7, 2015

87 year old hears apology from teen who participated in her rape

They beat her, sexually assaulted her and used knives and bottles during the attack, according to a Riverside County Superior Court criminal complaint.


Prosecutors said the teens also poured bleach down the woman's throat.

During the sentencing, Miranda apologized for his actions, Hall said.

The woman, who was identified only as Jane Doe, now has to use a wheelchair and an oxygen tank to help her breathe as a result of the attack, Hall said.

At the sentencing, she thanked Miranda for apologizing, but said their actions were evil.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-teens-sentenced-for-rape-20150306-story.html

March 7, 2015

Lincoln Center paid Avery Fisher's heirs 15 mill to rename hall David Geffen for 100 mill donation

Late last year, Lincoln Center—a nonprofit organization that is meant to use its money to bring cultural programming to New York City—paid the heirs of Avery Fisher an eye-popping $15 million. Fisher was a philanthropist who believed in supporting the arts in New York and who even donated $10 million to Lincoln Center in 1973. So what was going on here? It makes sense for philanthropists to give millions of dollars to nonprofits, but why would nonprofits turn around and give millions of dollars to their former donors?

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And why would Lincoln Center want to do that? Well, it hoped to spend $500 million on a massive revamp of the facility, and, as Alexander Podkul puts it, “raising a half-billion dollars without the leverage of negotiating naming rights is implausible and impractical.”


The answer is that Lincoln Center had put Fisher’s name on what used to be called Philharmonic Hall, and Fisher’s family had threatened to sue if his name was ever removed. Lincoln Center, however, really, really wanted to be able to change the name of Avery Fisher Hall. So the nonprofit paid up: For $15 million, it got the ability to change the name to anything it liked.

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So, what kind of person is vain and shallow enough to raise his donation to Lincoln Center by more than $15 million, if only that results in him getting his name on the building? I mean, you’d need to be some kind of self-aggrandizing Hollywood billionaire or someth ...

O, hai, David Geffen. I shoulda guessed.

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2015/03/david_geffen_gives_100_million_to_lincoln_center_why_the_sale_of_naming.html

March 7, 2015

faith based groups are trying to block sexually assaulted migrants from receiving emergency

Estimates suggest that anywhere between 60 and 80 percent of migrant women and girls are raped on their journey as they travel across the southern United States border. But many of the organizations that provide medical care to these migrants are refusing to provide emergency contraception or make pregnancy-related referrals to girls who have been raped. What’s more, the religious organizations that operate these groups are opposing a move by the Obama administration to address epidemic rape of young unaccompanied migrants by requiring contraceptive care.

During last year’s border surge, a total of 68,541 unaccompanied children streamed through the southern Texas border from Latin America. Almost half of the children apprehended by border patrol agents were girls. Rape and sexual assault are “major motivating factors” for why girls flee their home countries of El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, a Women’s Refugee Commission report found last October. The report stated that children on the run who traveled with smuggling guides known as coyotes reported sexual abuse, including one child who “told of how women and girls were kept in a separate room and could be heard screaming while being raped.” And even once in the United States, some migrants alleged that sexual assault (especially among LGBT detainees) took place in detention, sometimes by guards.

Those children may not receive adequate care after border patrol agents pass them onto group shelter homes, the majority of which are operated by faith-based organizations such as the Baptist Child and Family Services (BCFS), which received $190 million in a single grant last year. But it was the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), which received roughly $22.1 million, that sent a letter last week objecting to a Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) regulation by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) that would require federally funded organizations that house unaccompanied migrant children to provide victims of sexual abuse with “unimpeded access to emergency medical treatment, crisis intervention services, emergency contraception, and sexually transmitted infections prophylaxis, in accordance with professionally accepted standards of care, where appropriate under medical or mental health professional standards.”

http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/03/05/3627571/faith-refugee-contraception/

March 7, 2015

former cop road rages on the freeway

Swigger was northbound on the freeway when the other motorist switched lanes in front of him, prompting the officer to begin pursuing the driver while regularly honking his horn, prosecutors allege.

Swigger allegedly cut off the other motorist, causing him to stop in the middle of the freeway. A gun-wielding Swigger then got out of his vehicle and ordered the other motorist out of his vehicle at gunpoint, prosecutors allege.

When the other motorist refused to get out of the car, Swigger got the driver’s side door open and pulled the man out, prosecutors allege.

The defendant allegedly slammed the man up against his own vehicle repeatedly while pointing a gun at his head. He also allegedly dragged the man behind the vehicle, prosecutors said.

Swigger, who no longer works for the Signal Hill department, was arrested today by California Highway Patrol officers and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.
http://mynewsla.com/crime/2015/03/06/former-signal-hill-police-officer-arrested-alleged-road-rage-attack/?google_editors_picks=true

March 7, 2015

What color is your domestic violence?

NOTES & ERRATA BY MARK MORFORD
What color is your domestic violence?
By Mark Morford on March 6, 2015 4:03 PM
4
dress-salvation-army-hed2-2015.jpg

Say what you will about the Salvation Army and its imperfect reputation (anti-gay, conservative, reputed to have not exactly the most sound business practices) but they do know one thing: how to leverage – or rather, reinvent – an otherwise endlessly obnoxious viral meme for a very good cause.

Apologies in advance for bringing it up again, but at least this time #TheDress, AKA the meme that just won’t die, has been gutted, flipped around, and aimed right back at the culture as a brutally effective anti domestic-violence PSA.

Does it work? You be the judge. The campaign, from the Salvation Army’s South Africa division, places a white and gold dress on a severely battered woman, covered in bruises.

tweet

“Why is it so hard to see black and blue”? the tagline asks. It is, you have to admit, one of the more potent, effective inversions of that usually lightweight question, among an ocean of them. Followed by: ”The only illusion is if you think it was her choice. One in 6 women are victims of abuse. Stop abuse against women.”
http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2015/03/06/what-color-is-your-domestic-violence/

March 7, 2015

why killer whales live long after menopause - 40 yrs longer than males- their knowledge & leadership

Menopausal female killer whales are knowledgeable leaders who help younger members of their community find food, particularly in years in which prey is scarce, according a new study. The findings suggest that the older females end up living so long — as much as 40 years longer than male killer whales — because the knowledge they possess helps the whole group survive.
“Postreproductive individuals act as repositories of ecological knowledge,” the study’s authors write.

The study sheds a little more light on why menopause exists in the first place. Menopause (when a female loses her reproductive capabilities naturally with age) is a really weird trait, considering that the point of life is to reproduce. And it’s rare. We know of just three species — humans, killer whales and short-finned pilot whales — whose females can live long beyond their reproductive years.

Though plenty of species with close-knit social groups seem to benefit from the presence of older females (for instance, older female elephants), those elders are still able to reproduce for their entire lives.

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“Our study is the first to demonstrate that the value gained from the wisdom of elders may be one reason female killer whales continue to live long after they have stopped reproducing,” Brent said in a statement about their findings. Researchers looked at 35 years’ worth of data from the Center for Whale Research and observed 102 individual killer whales in the wild.

Here’s what they found. First, menopausal killer whales are more likely to be leaders of movement for all the whales in their group. In the observed groups of whales, this often includes offspring: both male and female killer whales tend to hang around their mothers into adulthood.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/science/why-killer-whales-live-long-after-menopause/article_85df6baa-0eb8-5a6c-8fe5-56e493226822.html

March 6, 2015

Walking in Ferguson: If you're black, it's often against the law

African Americans accounted for 95% of “manner of walking in roadway” charges from 2011 to 2013, the report says.

“We called it walking black," said resident Kevin “Chris” Seltzer, 30. "You would leave out of your house to go to the store, and might not make it back.”


Seltzer said the police seemed to lie in wait for blacks so they could arrest them.

"They’ll stalk you and stop you and be like ‘Where you headed?’ and I’m like ‘You know where,’ ” Seltzer said, referring to the QuikTrip gas station, since destroyed during looting that followed Brown’s death last summer.

“They will say, ‘Hey, what’s your name? Got any warrants? Why are you strolling through the neighborhood? Come here, you look suspicious.’ If they say something and you respond, they got you until they decide to let you go,” said Seltzer, who said he has been stopped and searched several times. “Certain things make you a target: If you walk with a book bag you’re suspicious, if you’re walking slow – it’s stupid stuff.”

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Seltzer had a truck, and offered rides to fellow residents in exchange for gas money.

“People will pay $5 to go to the gas station just to avoid the police,” he said.
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-walking-black-ferguson-police-justice-report-20150305-story.html

March 5, 2015

Rikers Island inmates save female prison guard from rape by fellow convict

EXCLUSIVE: Rikers Island inmates save prison guard from rape by fellow

A group of inmates rescued a female correction officer who was nearly raped by a hulking prisoner inside a locked vestibule on Rikers Island Saturday night, The Daily News has learned.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/exclusive-rikers-island-inmates-save-prison-guard-rape-article-1.2135187

The inmates helped responding correction officers frantically tear away Plexiglas on the outside of the bubble-like watch post inside the Anna M. Kross Center at 8:15 p.m., according to multiple sources.

A skinny inmate slipped inside the so-called “A station” bubble through the small crack and opened the security door. A team of inmates then took down the assailant, Raleek Young, 27, until other officers arrived.

During the attack, Young, who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 290 pounds, pulled down his pants and began masturbating while choking the officer, court records show.

.....
“I appreciate (them) helping a sister officer because that could have been their mother, wife or sister,” Seabrook said, noting 90% of the inmates “are there to do their time and go home.”

March 5, 2015

untrained stud dog grabs grandma during als bucket challenge

Mrs Rigdon’s son posted underneath the video: “This is my mom when she was viciously attacked by a pit bull last year during the ALS ice bucket challenge.

“She lived to tell the tale of it and didn't want this released until she was ready.

“This should serve as a warning to all pet owners. Unless you are going to take the time to make an animal a pet then it will remain an animal.

“This was my sister’s dog who she only kept to stud out for breeding purposes.”

“This should serve as a warning to all pet owners. Unless you are going to take the time to make an animal a pet then it will remain an animal.”


http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/graphic-warning-moment-liverpool-gran-8768884

March 5, 2015

single mom pays $1,000 a month for a garage in SF

http://www.cnn.com/videos/opinions/2015/02/25/change-the-list-poverty-garage-sutter-orig-ba.cnnSky-high rents in Silicon Valley are forcing parents into difficult living situations. CNN meets a woman who is raising her daughter in a single-car garage.
Meet the Silicon Valley mom forced to live in a GARAGE - that still costs her $1,000 per month - as San Francisco rents skyrocket
Nicole Jones lives in the tiny space with her 18-month-old daughter and she also has a son on the way
The converted home in suburban San Mateo includes a central space which is utilized as a living room, kitchen, bedroom and dining room
In the back, there is a toilet and stand-up shower
Jones says she used to live in a normal apartment but was forced to downgrade after losing her job
Although she has found work, she is going to stay put for now
The average property rent in San Mateo is $3,608, according to the real estate firm Zillow.com

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2979345/Meet-single-mother-living-250-sqft-GARAGE-costs-1-000-month-rent-continues-skyrocket-Silicon-Valley.html