RandySF
RandySF's JournalAlaska is the rape capitol of the United States
In its short history as a state, Alaska has earned an unnerving epithet: It is the rape capital of the U.S. At nearly 80 rapes per 100,000, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Report, Alaska’s rape rate is almost three times the national average; for child sexual assault, it’s nearly six times. And, according to the 2010 Alaska Victimization Survey, the most comprehensive data to date, 59 percent of Alaskan women have been victims of sexual assault, intimate partner violence, or both.
But those numbers, say researchers, just skim the surface, since sex crimes are generally underreported, and may be particularly underreported in Alaska for cultural reasons. “Those numbers are conservative,” says Ann Rausch, a program coordinator at Alaska’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. “They’re still staggering.”
The causes of the violence are complex and entrenched. Government officials, law enforcement personnel, and victim advocates note the state’s surfeit of risk factors, from an abundance of male-dominated industries, like oil drilling and the military, to the state’s vast geography, with many communities that have no roads and little law enforcement. “There are so many factors that tip the scale for Alaska,” says Linda Chamberlain, executive director of the Alaska Family Violence Prevention Project. Not the least among them: the lack of strong law enforcement presence, or support services of any kind, in remote towns like Tanana. “It’s easier for perpetrators to isolate their victims and not get caught. And for people not to get help.”
Some believe that this fact both attracts and encourages criminals. The suspect for a recent rape in southwest hub community of Dillingham, for instance, was a white man who’d just arrived from somewhere in the Lower 48 to take a job at the Wells Fargo in town. “Because it happens in rural Alaska,” one victim advocate cautions, “doesn’t mean it’s only rural Alaskans who are a part of it.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/rape-culture-in-the-alaskan-wilderness/379976/
Senate Update: Democrats In Purple States Are Beating The National Mood
If feels a little like déjà vu. In the summer of 2012, the national polls and state surveys were telling us very different things about the presidential race. And we’re seeing something similar now. The latest FiveThirtyEight forecast gives Republicans a 59 percent chance of taking back the Senate, but the national data suggests state-level polls may be too optimistic for Democrats — or vice-versa.
On Friday, CNN/Opinion Research released a survey in Iowa giving Democrat Bruce Braley a small lead over Republican Joni Ernst, 49 percent to 48 percent. We have Braley with a 55 percent chance of winning; he’s led in three of the last five surveys and was tied in one.
Iowa is part of a pattern: Democratic candidates hold small leads in other purple states. We have Colorado Senator Mark Udall with a 68 percent chance of winning, and North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan with a 61 percent chance of holding her seat.
So the polling in Iowa, North Carolina and Colorado implies a national political environment that slightly favors Democrats. But our best measure of the national mood favors Republicans. A newly released Pew Research poll found a generic Republican ahead of a generic Democrat on the congressional ballot 47 percent to 44 percent. That gap is in line with other generic ballot polls over the past few weeks; Republicans have led by an average of 4 percentage points among likely voters.
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/senate-update-democrats-in-purple-states-are-beating-the-national-mood/
Iowa: Hillary helps Hilary while O'Malley helps the Democratic ticket.
Several sources have told The Daily Beast that the Maryland governor, a War of 1812 aficionado, has placed staffers through the Iowa Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign, the umbrella organization that runs field efforts for all the Democratic candidates. That’s in addition to the campaigns of the Democratic nominee for governor, Jack Hatch, and Democratic nominee for secretary of state, Brad Anderson, as previously reported by the Des Moines Register. The staffers are focused on either field efforts or political outreach.
O’Malley, who was the first Democratic presidential hopeful to appear in the Hawkeye State is the only Democrat with staff on the ground in Iowa. He also has sent staffers through his political action committee, the O’Say Can You See PAC, to New Hampshire and South Carolina. In Iowa, O’Malley is mirroring former Indiana senator Evan Bayh, who in 2006 sent a number of paid staff to help Hawkeye State Democrats before eventually deciding not to run for president.....
But O’Malley doesn’t have the Hawkeye State all to himself. Hillary Clinton is scheduled to appear Sunday at the Harkin Steak Fry, the premier Democratic fundraising event in the state. It is Clinton’s first visit to Iowa since the 2008 caucuses, but her super PAC, Ready for Hillary, has been organizing in the state in recent months and has bought access to the Iowa Democratic Party’s voter file. And while Clinton likely won’t have any staff on the ground in Iowa this cycle, she did have quite a few people campaigning on her behalf there just six years ago.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/09/12/2016-overachiever-martin-o-malley-now-has-11-staffers-working-in-iowa.html
Batman vs. Superman Batmobile stolen in Detroit
It's being reported that one of the Batmobiles that are currently in Detroit for Batman Vs. Superman has been stolen.
Details are slim as Bleeding Cool mentions they heard it, but not from whom, and they state WB hasn't responded to inquires.
It's known that there are at two versions of the Batmobile in Detroit as two were spotted recently under a tarp.
Cosmic Book News will update when more becomes available.
This isn't the first time the film has had issues in Detroit as reportedly Henry Cavill almost got into a fight with a bunch of Detroit locals at a bar that dub themselves the "Deaf Wolfpack."
http://movies.cosmicbooknews.com/content/batman-vs-superman-batmobile-stolen
Track Palin got into another fight after the party.
The police chief, Mark T. Mew, said Friday that even if the victims did not decide to press charges, the municipal prosecutor could still file charges if the facts warranted it.
Well from what I hear they are more than warranted.
By the way I have just learned that Track actually got into another at a local bar, and apparently got his second beating of the night.
Kind of makes you wonder just what kind of military training this kid received? Not hand to hand combat, that's for damn sure.
http://theimmoralminority.blogspot.com/2014/09/witness-to-palin-brawl-who-went-public.html
Bristol Palin faces legal trouble on two fronts.
It's looking pretty clear that, by numerous accounts, Bristol Palin assaulted a man because he was about to stop sister Willow from assaulting his wife. She didn't just punch him, she did so six times and charges MIGHT yet be filed. In the meantime, Palin is involved in a nasty custody dispute with young Tripp's father, Levi Johnston.
http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/05/bristol-palin-levi-johnston-tripp-child-support-custody-battle-court/
Now, if reports are correct that she took her son to a party at 11pm, where there were drugs (based on some reports), alcohol and violent outburst that included the "born again virgin", Mr. Johnston may decide to bring that to the court's attention andMs. Palin and family may have to testify under oath about what happened that night. Now, what I don't know is whether testismony is public in custody fights? if so, and it plays out the way I think it plays out, the Wasilla Hillbillies will have to admit what a group of thugs they all are.
My doctor treated me like a junkie over a spider bite.
It started late Wednesday afternoon near quitting time at lush, wooded California campus. I don't remember the exact moment the spider bit me, but at some point I noticed pain in my thumb and smashed the little creature as soon as I saw it. Thursday morning, it itched, and oddly enough, that sensation shot like like electricity into my forefinger as if traveling a nerve. By the time I got home from work, I was just miserable. It swelled on one side and ached and itched at the same time. I popped as much ibuprofen as I felt safe and iced it down but I knew it had to be looked at, or a least it seemed like a good idea.
I make an appointment and saw the doctor this morning. By this point my my self-treatment brought the swelling down to a bump. So when he looked at it, his first response was "Sorry, I don't think antibiotics are necessary." I was too annoyed to say that I just wanted the pain and itching to go away. "I'm not a junkie. I barely touch alcohol. I'm your patient." He hadn't yet asked me how I was feeling at that moment. Did he ask about the degree of pain, the itching? No. So I spent the next few minutes giving him the answers to the questions he didn't ask. He eventually prescribed an ointment, after again making the point that antibiotics were going to work. Maybe I should have worn a suit to the appointment.
Ohio woman raped after bus driver boots her onto street at 1 a.m. over a broken flip-flop
An Ohio woman who was raped over the weekend said that she was kicked off of a bus because the flip-flop she was wearing had broken.
According to Ohio State University newspaper The Lantern, the woman said that she had taken off her flip-flops after one of them broke early Saturday morning, and the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) bus driver informed her that she was in violation of the rules.
“The bus driver said, ‘Hey, you have to have shoes on,’ so she got off to try and find a cheap pair of flip-flops,” detective James Ashenhurst explained.
A press release from the Columbus Police Department (CPD) stated that three bike patrol officers spotted Randy Graham Jr., a homeless man, sexually assaulting the woman in a parking garage at around 1:50 a.m. Saturday morning.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/11/ohio-woman-raped-after-bus-driver-boots-her-onto-street-at-1-a-m-over-a-broken-flip-flop/
California judge fines Hewlett-Packard $59 million for bribing Russian officials
San Francisco (AFP) – A judge on Thursday ordered US computer giant Hewlett-Packard to pay $58.8 million for bribing Moscow government officials to win a big-money contract with Russia’s prosecutor general’s office.
Northern California US District Judge Lowell Jensen hit HP with the fine after the company pleaded guilty to violating anti-bribery and accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, the US Department of Justice said in a release.
According to a negotiated plea bargain, executives in an HP Russia subsidiary created a multi-million-dollar slush fund, from which money was used to bribe Russian officials who awarded the company a $45 million (35 million euro) contract with the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia.
“Hewlett Packard’s Russia subsidiary used millions of dollars in bribes from a secret slush fund to secure a lucrative government contract,” principal deputy assistant attorney general Marshall Miller of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a release.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/11/california-judge-fines-hewlett-packard-59-million-for-bribing-russian-officials/
Alaska Blog: Charges might yet be filed against Bristol Palin.
So, here it goes: What I have heard since, without much trying, and what I knew then, is that the cops were called after the brawl. It’s confirmed that the Palins, all of them, were in some way involved in a fight at a house in Anchorage where a party was going on. Bristol’s son, Tripp was at the party. I have confirmed from multiple sources that Bristol punched someone repeatedly, and that charges might be filed. I spoke to a source yesterday who witnessed part of it. She said that some in the crowd were trying to restrain Sarah, who was clawing to get involved in the fight, which had moved to the cul-de-sac outside of the house. She was also screaming loudly. She wore platform high-tops with the American flag on them, and Bristol wore big, round shades. As I reported, Track was at some point in the night, shirtless.
The whole family arrived in a stretch Hummer limo, and had to be told to leave the house.
http://amandacoyne.com/politics/a-note-to-readers-about-the-palin-family-brawl/
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit Area, MI
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Current location: San Francisco, CA
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