The $7,000 Baby Boy

Some things are just dispicable, and this is one of them.

A woman in central China has been prosecuted for selling her newborn baby for $7,000, state media reports said, the latest of a string of shocking cases that have shed light on the country's shocking trade in children.

The 30-year-old woman, known as Huang, allegedly colluded with an obstetrician, Yang, in Xinxiang county, Henan province, to sell the baby boy, according to details published in the Procuratorial Daily, a legal publication.

Yang sold the baby boy to a couple in the same county for 42,000 yuan. She gave 35,000 yuan to Huang and kept 7,000 yuan for herself, the report said.

The case came to light in August after the boy's grandmother alerted police.

The grandmother said Huang had left the village to go to her parents' home after quarreling with her husband.

When Huang returned two weeks later, she said the baby had died but the grandmother grew suspicious as her daughter-in-law didn't seem sad. A relative then discovered that the boy had been sold like cattle.

Huang had a son from a previous marriage and thought a new baby would be bad for the elder child, reports said.

The boy is now in the care of his father's family.

Child trafficking is a long-standing problem in China. A traditional preference for sons and the country's one-child policy means that boys are particularly valued.

Earlier this month, a Chinese man who was abducted from a vegetable market as a toddler enjoyed an emotional reunion with his father after 24 years apart.

The news came the same week police said they had busted trafficking ring involving at least 103 people, and rescued 37 newborn babies that were transported in handbags, and suitcases to prospective buyers.

According to the U.S. State Department's 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, China does not fully comply with the recommended minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, the report says it is making significant efforts to do so. The fact that Chinese value their male children more than their female children is well known. But I was unaware that they bought and sold baby boys. The irony is, it is impossible to have male babies with female babies who will grow up to bare them.

PR

Oregon's Racist Foundation!

So, what do you know about Oregon?

 I'll admitt it. I didn't  know much about Oregon at all. I know that it's one of the 50 states, and I know that the city that is most associated with it is Portland. But what I didn't know until a few days ago is that there was a time when Black people were not allowed to live there.......NO, seriously!

When Oregon was granted statehood in 1859, it was the only state in the Union admitted with a constitution that forbade black people from living, working, or owning property there. 

It was illegal for Black people even to move to the state until 1926, more than 6 decades after it was granted statehood. Oregon's founding is part of the forgotten history of racism in the American west.

Waddles Coffee Shop in Portland, Oregon was a popular restaurant in the 1950s for both locals and travelers alike. The drive-in catered to America's postwar obsession with car culture, allowing people to get coffee and a slice of pie without even leaving their vehicle. This was a welcomed convenience for some people. But if you happened to be Black, the owners of Waddles "implored" you to keep on driving. When I use the word implored I'm being kind. The restaurant had a sign outside with a very clear message: "White trade only."

It's the kind of scene from the 1950s that's so hard for many Americans to imagine happening outside of the Jim Crow South. How could a seemingly progressive, northern city like Portland have allowed a restaurant to exclude non-white patrons? This had to be an anomaly, right? In reality, it was far too common in Oregon, a state that was explicitly founded as a kind of white utopia, a bubble in which white people could both separate and insulate themselves from Black people.

America's history of racial discrimination is most commonly taught as a southern issue. That's certainly how I learned about it while going to New York City public schools.

 As I've gotten older and conducted my own research I realized that many white people outside of the South seemed to learn about the Civil War and civil rights movements from an incredibly safe (and often judgmental) distance.

The kind of racism that I had learned about as a Black child growing up in New York, seemed like outrageous behavior that could have only taken place hundreds of miles down I-95 south. 

 Most of us have learned about the struggles for racial equality in cities like Birmingham and Selma and Montgomery. But what about the racism of Portland, Oregon, a city that is still overwhelmingly white? The struggles there were just as intense, though they are rarely identified in the history books.

According to Oregon's founding constitution, black people were not permitted to live in the state. And that held true until 1926. The small number of black people already living in the state in 1859, when it was admitted to the Union, were sometimes allowed to stay, but the next century of segregation and terrorism at the hands of angry racists made it clear that they were not welcome.

PR

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (1-24-2014)

Let this be a lesson to those who plan to still their butts out of the window!

Singapore has fined a smoker $15,000 for throwing cigarette butts out of his flat window, the National Environment Agency said, the highest ever such fine. 

The man was fined S$600 per cigarette for the first 33 offences, and ordered to do community service for the 34th, all committed within four days, the agency said.

The 38-year-old smoker, who was caught on surveillance camera, will have to clean a public area for five hours wearing a bright vest bearing the words "Corrective Work Order".

Singapore, famous for its cleanliness, cracks down hard on even minor crimes like littering and vandalism, which is punishable by caning, and bans the import of chewing gum, in part to keep its public areas spotless.

The agency said on its website it deployed surveillance cameras at nearly 600 locations and took 206 enforcement actions against offenders for high-rise littering in 2014.

It did not say which floor the smoker lived on.

When Diane Andryshak left her home in Middletown, New York on Monday morning, she figured her husband would spend the day renovating their home.

NOT!!!!!.......

Instead, her hubby, James Rhein, chose to bulldoze it, without bothering to tell her  or anyone else.

Andryshak came home to see the the house  which was in her name only completely demolished, according to neighbor Steve Belfiglio Rhein bulldozed all of her clothes in there. Washer, dryer, furnace, hot water heater, everything was still in there. In fact, her medication was still in there,” Belfiglio said.

Andryshak was in shock when she saw what once was her house.

Rhein said that he tore down the house because the foundation was bad. He says they were living elsewhere while renovating the home.

Amazingly, Andryshak told the station she and Rhein weren't having any marital problems before his last-minute demolition. None that she knew of! But obviously........

The sudden bulldozing didn't just take Andryshak by surprise. Local officials were also caught off-guard.

Rhein allegedly attempted to get a permit, but couldn't because government offices were closed because of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday.

Rhein went ahead with the bulldozing anyway, and did it without turning off gas electricity or water.........

Officers who responded to a call about a "hazardous condition" made emergency calls to the local utilities to cut the gas and electricity and prevent an explosion.

A city crew turned off everything, police said.

Although no one was hurt by Rhein's demolition, he was charged with criminal mischief and freed on $300 bail. He is due in court on Jan. 30.

Rhein claimed he did try to call his wife before tearing down the house, but shedidn't pick up the phone,according to the New York Daily News.

Andryshak is still perplexed by her husband's actions and what the future holds.

"I have family and friends, right now I'm staying with a friend," Andryshak told the local media. "I don't have any answers for you, I don't have any answers for you whatsoever."

Meanwhile, Rhein said everything is fine between him and his wife.

Yeah right!!!

Police in Toledo, Ohio say a Michigan man with perhaps the worst sense of direction in the universe, drove away from a traffic stop smashed through a gate and landed right in a prison parking lot.

Officers arrested the man early Wednesday after he drove around the outside of the Toledo Correctional Institution and then back into parking lot.......

Court records show that the charges against Jason Davis of Monroe, Michigan, include vandalism of government property, drug possession and failing to use his turn signal. Because when your fleeing from police it is always important to use your turn signal!

Court records do not indicate if Davis has an attorney. A telephone call to his home was not answered.

The 33-year-old was due in court on Thursday.

Shot 9 Times With His Hands Up!!!!!!!!

WARNING!!!!! THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS DISTURBING!! 

http://youtu.be/lspiqbT6zdg

Shocking video and audio of Jerame Reid's fatal Dec. 30, 2014, encounter with police in Bridgeton, N.J., was released by the Bridgeton Police Department. It shows the 36-year-old's last minutes alive before officers shot him.

In the video, police can be seen pulling over a blue Jaguar being driven by Leroy Tutt, 46. Reid was with Tutt on the passenger side during this allegedly routine traffic stop. Officer Braheme Days can be heard in the video explaining that he pulled Tutt over because he ran a stop sign.

Days asks Tutt for his driver's license. Seconds later the exchange turns to turmoil with Days pulling his gun and screaming at the two men in the car to show their hands.

"Show me your hands, show me your f--king hands!" Days can be heard shouting repeatedly, along with, "Don't you f--king move!"

His partner, Roger Worley, can be seen entering the frame of the dashboard camera on the driver's side, also appearing to have drawn his gun.

"Get 'em out the car, Rog. We've got a gun in his glove compartment," Days tells his partner.

As the officers attempt to get the car doors open, Days can be heard again saying, "I'm telling you, I'm telling you! Keep your f--king hands right there, Jerame. ... You reach for something, you're going to be f--king dead."

Seconds later the same officer can be heard shouting, "He's reaching! He's reaching!"

A few seconds later the passenger car door opens, and it appears that Reid attempts to get out. His hands are in front of him. Days quickly retreats before both he and Worley fire their weapons and Reid falls to the ground.

The Cumberland County prosecutor's office is investigating the officers' use of deadly force. An autopsy has been conducted, but the results have not been made public. The office has noted that "during the course of the stop a handgun was revealed and later recovered."

The Bridgeton Police Department only released the video after an Open Public Records request was made.

"The Bridgeton Police Department as a law enforcement agency does not, as a routine, consider the posting of any such video as compassionate or professional," Bridgeton Police Capt. Michael Gaimari said in a news release.  "In absence of the OPRA [Open Public Records Act] request this video would not be released to the public out of respect for the family of Jerame Reid, basic human dignity and to protect the constitutional rights of all those involved." 

The belligerent officer who first approached the vehicle seemed to be black. So for all of those who think that these problems are because of white cops in the black community, keep in mind that most cops are prone to identify with their own kind. Other officers!

PR

Voting At 16?

At the age of 16 a child's brain is still not fully developed. Teenagers lack maturity, the ability to make sound divisions, and lack the fundamental understanding it takes to make adult divisions. But with voter participation at an all time low, some cities are willing to overlook these facts in favor of increasing their voting blocks. 

For years, turning 16 has been a rite of passaqge marked by getting a driver’s license in some states. In Takoma Park, Md., teenagers can soon start marking the occasion with something else: a voter registration card.

Next month, Takoma Park residents as young as 16 will be able to cast ballots in municipal elections, thanks to a change approved by the city council earlier this spring. (The voting age for state and federal elections is still 18.)

Officials hope that getting people involved in local government at a younger age will encourage them to stay more engaged throughout their life. As in most cities, turnout for local elections in Takoma Park is very low, around 20 to 40 percent, says council member Tim Male, who led the push for the change. “It’s so hard to get turnout in local elections anyway.”

The new policy also addresses a challenge that’s common among young voters: Eighteen isn’t a particularly convenient age to earn the right to vote. It’s a time when people are often moving away from home, going to college, or both. That means registration and voting require lots of paperwork, like change-of-address forms and requests for absentee ballots. Sixteen-year-olds generally have more stable addresses—their parents’ homes.

The youth vote was one of several reforms that the city of 17,000, located just outside Washington, D.C., recently passed in an effort to increase turnout. Early voting will now be available in every election, as will same-day registration. The city also now requires apartment buildings to give access to candidates who want to campaign door-to-door within the building.

But not all residents like the new policy. Some think teens will simply vote the same way as their parents. Others are convinced teens will pointedly vote theopposite of their parents. Male says critics were fixated on the idea that 16- and 17-year-olds are too immature to vote.

Takoma Park has a long history of trying new innovations in election policy. Twenty years ago, it gave noncitizens the right to vote in its elections. It was the first community to use a new electronic voting system called Scantegrity, which lets voters and election officials go online to verify that a vote was properly recorded. And it’s one of the few cities in America to have instant-runoff voting, whereby voters rank their candidates instead of picking just one.

Male notes that in about 20 other states, 17-year-olds are allowed to vote in primary elections if they’ll turn 18 by Election Day. If a 17-year-old can vote for president, he reasons, why shouldn’t a 16-year-old be able to vote for mayor? Internationally, the voting age in most places is 18, although Austria, Brazil and Switzerland allow 16-year-olds to vote in some cases.

Male says he’s spoken with several state and local lawmakers across the country in the wake of the change. “You can either believe city government is the place to try new things, or you can believe we’re the last place that should adopt new things,” Male says. Clearly, Takoma Park believes it’s the former.

Should this little "experiment" be a success, it could mean the start of a scary nation wide trend. My 16 year old and yours, the very same people who can never remember to clean their rooms and make their beds, may have a say so in electing a president.

PR

The Bad SEEDS..........

This story is proof that we need to keep our children lifted up in prayer. Not only so they're safe from those who would harm them. But also for them to be saved from themselves. 

Three 9-year-old students in upstate New York plotted in December to kill their fourth grade teacher with hand sanitizer, according to a police report

As the details of the fiendish plot unfolded it was discovered that the conniving classmates in Elba, a small town between Buffalo and Rochester, told fellow students they were going to kill their teacher right before winter break “by putting antibacterial products around the classroom.”

The Elba Elementary School teacher is highly allergic to hand sanitizer and banned it from the classroom, so the students planned to poison her with it.

The names of the students and the teacher have not been released.

The pupils’ plot unraveled when a student who heard about it told parents, who referred it to the school board.

Chief Deputy Jerome Brewster of the Genesee County Sheriff’s Department said that police found little motive for the murder plot beyond the fact that the students said the teacher “is mean.”

He told the Daily News police considered the school scheme “idle chatter” and did not charge the students with any crimes. 

Until I read this surprising detail, I didn't gave a second thought to what race these children are. "Idle chatter", and no charges..........

Police referred the case to the school district, which is treating the threats “very seriously,” Brewster said.

Two of the students were suspended, but the school board wouldn’t release any other information about the case, citing privacy of student records.

PR

No More Heroes.

On Monday the nation observed The Reverand Dr. Martin Luther Kings Jr. 's birthday. Doctor King is a national treasure, one of the worlds greatest humanitarians, and a hero in every sense of the word. When I speak to those who remember and or lived during that time, I am told that they wondered who would take up the mantle, fight for the cause and be the next Dr. King. Of course he was, is, and always will be an irreplaceable icon, I have often pondered this question myself. Who will be the next hero? Will there be another hero? 

Many have said the The Reverand Al Sharpton is our new civil rights leader. But how can a man lead if most of the people that he fights for won't follow. My generation, generation X, has not suffered enough to follow a flawed man with excellent intentions. Especially given the fact that we live in a world where each and every one of those flaws is magnified, dissected, and sensationalized in a constant stream of media. 

While there is still police brutality, high unemoyment, and discrimination to contend with, we can eat lunch anywhere we please, and sit in any seat in any restaurant that we choose. We can occupy any seat on any bus in America without having to spark a movement to do so. How many of us have had crosses burned on our lawns, seen our friends, and neighbors hung in trees or have been chased by the Ku Klux Klan? We have not been exposed to the same injustices or indignities as our parents or Grandparents have. 

I know what you're thinking, and yes thousands of people engaged in peaceful protests all across the country after the vicious murder of Eric Garner. But thousands more stayed home and watched the protests on TV.

We have become an apathetic society prone to short fits of outrage that are never sustained because of our short attention spans and lack of focus. The vast majority of us have been given everything and have never had to fight for anything. So we don't have to. When I say no more heroes, it is not a declaration but an observation. Heroes are made, not born, and if the circumstances don't stir the conscious enough, and inspire individuals to take a heroic course of action, the notion of a hero as we know it becomes nothing more than a ancient history.

PR

A Day To Celebrate.

NO FREEDOM, JUSTICE, OR EQUALITY

KNOW FREEDOM, JUSTICE, OR EQUALITY.

Just When You Thought You Heard It All News (1-16-2015)

A woman apparently found all the comforts of home at a Michigan department store, where she lived for two days before her "eviction." Well, I wouldn't necessarily call Walmart a department store. You can't buy tires and steak at Macys or Belk.

The unidentified and unwanted tenant is a 45-year-old woman who "moved into" a Walmart in Grand Blanc Township on Jan. 6, with no plans to move out.

She was living with her son but he reportedly got kicked out because of an alleged drinking problem.

The woman was able to blend in with other customers for the first couple of days, according to Detective Matt Harburn of the Grand Blanc Township Police Department.

" She'd just meander near the store all day." Harburn said. "At night, apparently she'd go into the bathroom and sleep."

On Jan. 8, store managers were looking at surveillance video and noticed the woman had been there for two days.

They tried to get the unwanted tenant to leave several times before finally calling the police.

"When I first made contact with her she was sitting in a chair, she had her laptop in her lap with headphones in," Detective Matt Harburn said.

At first, the woman was uncooperative and told police she had nowhere to go.Officers noticed she had a light jacket unsuited for the cold weather.

She was slapped with a disorderly person ticket and taken to the Grand Blanc Township Police Department where she was picked up by a relative.

Walmart employees said that it takes customer safety very seriously and the incident did not put customers in jeopardy.

Some things just should not be toyed with. Things like, ahhh, I don't know, the holocaust, slavery, or 9/11 just to name a few. 

When John Denno was assigned a school report on the Holocaust and the Nazi rise to power, the 16-year-old from Liverpool knew he had to provide visuals, but worried that his artistic skills would drag down his grade.

 So this genius decided to make a Hitler Lego figure.....

Denno decided to utilize his LEGO collection to create a 3-dimensional depiction of the fascist era from Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 to the Allied liberation of the concentration camps in 1945 at the end of World War Two.

 A man searching for his wallet in a trash bin in Northern California was scooped up by a garbage truck and taken on a long, smelly, ride. 

I wonder if he checked his back pocket first!

The man survived the ride in the rear of a truck. Yolo County Sheriff's Lt. Martin Torres said the man, whose name was not released, was inside a garbage bin when the truck made a pick-up on Tuesday. The man told police he used lumber in the truck to reach the top of the garbage pile to better avoid the compactor. He was taken to UC Davis Medical Center for complaints of back and neck.

“The man said he was stuck in the truck for about an hour, but estimates show it was more like 3 or 3 1/2 hours,” Torres said. “The truck made several other pick-ups before arriving at the landfill, where the driver saw what he thought was a super-sized rat. then he realized it was a man crawling out of his trash pile.”

PR

#ENDWHITESILENCE

Is there such a thing as not being racist enough? No, I don't think so either. But apparantly some people do.

Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay thought he was practicing an important tenet of community policing when he obliged an activist’s request to take a picture holding an anti-racism sign at the city’s New Year’s Eve parade. The sign read, “I resolve to challenge racism @ work #EndWhiteSilence.”

Instead of winning praise for addressing the deep-seated issue that continues to divide the nation in the form of deadly and explosive confrontations between police and some communities, the chief has sparked outrage among some critics, including Pittsburgh police union President Howard McQuillan. In a hyper-sensitive rant, McQuillan said.

“The chief is calling us racists. He believes the Pittsburgh Police Department is racist. This has angered a lot of officers.”

While issuing an apology for offending anyone, McLay did not back down, MSNBC reports. “To me the term ‘white silence’ simply means that we must be willing to speak up to address issues of racial injustice, poverty, etc.,” he said, the news station writes. “In my heart, I believe we all must come together as [a] community to address real world problems, and I am willing to be a voice to bring community together.”

In a letter to the rank and file, McLay explained that the sign belonged to an activist at the event, the report says. During the parade, he explained in the statement that he stopped at a coffee shop, where he encountered a group and spoke with them “about how implicit or unconscious bias results in misunderstanding on all sides, and how the need is for dialogue to clear up misunderstanding.”

The police chief, who was hired in September by Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto, has his boss’s support. “Chief McLay has been talking about ways the community and the police can come together to address racial issues from the very beginning of his time here in Pittsburgh, and Mayor Peduto completely supports him, that’s why he hired him,” spokesman Timothy McNulty wrote in an email to MSNBC

McLay advised officers in his letter to “simply approach your job mindfully, with a continued motivation to protect and serve,” and he said the department would provide further training on issues of racial sensitivity, the report says.

“Please beware also, race impacts how we view one another, and unconscious bias applies to how we deal with the public. It can also impact how we judge one another; I intend we will confront both through training,” McLay added.

Obviously McLay struck a nerve. Men need not be offended by being referred to as otherwise if they are certain that they are men. Any response other than apathy to the attempted offense is an admission of guilt as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps the most telling thing of all is the way that the sign was interpreted. But on the other hand, this could be a not so clever political move to turn rank and file officers against the chief of police. Time will tell.

PR