7962
7962's Journal"Teachers aren't cops": Unions praise Supreme Court ruling
Source: Washington examiner
Teachers are not law enforcement, so statements from a student to a teacher are admissible in court even if the student doesn't testify.
The Supreme Court unanimously decided as much when it announced its ruling in Ohio v. Clark on Thursday. In March 2010, a preschool teacher asked a three-year-old student about the student's bloodshot and bloodstained eye. The child said her mother's boyfriend had caused them. The teacher reported the injuries, as required under Ohio law, leading to the boyfriend's arrest and conviction for child endangerment, among other crimes.
The Supreme Court of Ohio eventually ruled that the child's statement to her teacher was inadmissible evidence. Because teachers are required to report suspected child abuse, the teacher was acting as an agent of law enforcement, so the child's out-of-court statement was inadmissible, the court said. The federal Supreme Court's decision reversed that ruling.
Read more: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/teachers-arent-cops-unions-praise-supreme-court-ruling/article/2566636?custom_click=rss&utm_campaign=Weekly+Standard+Story+Box&utm_source=weeklystandard.com&utm_medium=referral
9-0. Pretty obvious that this shouldnt be a problem in the future. It was a ridiculous assumption in the first place, IMO.
Russia Is Using Mobile Crematoriums to Hide Ukraine's Dead
Source: Bloomberg
Russia is so desperate to hide its military involvement in Ukraine that it has brought in mobile crematoriums to destroy the bodies of its war dead, say U.S. lawmakers who traveled to the war-torn country this spring.
The U.S. and NATO have long maintained that thousands of Russian troops are fighting alongside separatists inside eastern Ukraine, and that the Russian government is obscuring not only the presence but also the deaths of its soldiers there. In March, NATO Deputy Secretary General Alexander Vershbow told a conference, "Russian leaders are less and less able to conceal the fact that Russian soldiers are fighting -- and dying -- in large numbers in eastern Ukraine."
Hence the extreme measures to get rid of the evidence. “The Russians are trying to hide their casualties by taking mobile crematoriums with them,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry told me. “They are trying to hide not only from the world but from the Russian people their involvement.”
Read more: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-05-26/putin-burns-his-dead-to-hide-ukraine-aggression
I've always thought Putin's biggest fear was not the West, but Russian mothers.
So far ALL GOP presidential candidates would NOT have invaded Iraq.
This must make the far right's heads explode. I was especially surprised to see Ted Cruz saying it. Dick Cheney must be really pissed. I guess he wont be campaigning for the GOP nominee. Of course, that may help the guy.
I love pointing this out to my friends who still think Iraq was a GOOD idea.
NOBODY running for president would have invaded Iraq. Amazing. And good. I really thought there would be a lot of half-answers or non-answers from them.
FWIW, I really do think Jeb didnt pay attention to the question, simply because when he answered he said "And so would Hillary, by the way". So it was obvious he was referring to her support in the beginning. But he sure has looked like a doofus bouncing all over the place.
George Stephanopoulos discloses $75,000 contribution to Clinton Foundation
Source: Politico
ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos has given $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation in recent years, charitable contributions that he did not publicly disclose while reporting on the Clintons or their nonprofit organization, the On Media blog has learned.
In 2012, 2013 and 2014, Stephanopoulos made $25,000 donations to the 501 nonprofit founded by former President Bill Clinton, the foundation's records show. Stephanopoulos never disclosed this information to viewers, even when interviewing author Peter Schweizer last month about his book "Clinton Cash," which alleges that donations to the foundation may have influenced some of Hillary Clinton's actions as secretary of state.
In a statement to the On Media blog on Thursday, Stephanopoulos apologized and said that he should have disclosed the donations to ABC News and its viewers.
"I made charitable donations to the Foundation in support of the work they’re doing on global AIDS prevention and deforestation, causes I care about deeply," he said. "I thought that my contributions were a matter of public record. However, in hindsight, I should have taken the extra step of personally disclosing my donations to my employer and to the viewers on air during the recent news stories about the Foundation. I apologize."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/05/george-stephanopoulos-discloses-contribution-to-clinton-207120.html
Racial slurs turn into self defense shooting, cops say.
This poor man did everything right, but ended up having to shoot some drunk racist. What he did after the shooting is equally impressive. Knowing that when the cops arrive to a scene of a "black man with a gun" it could be dangerous, he informs 911 that he has put his gun on the counter and will be lying on the floor when police arrive. He was not charged as the video shows he did nothing wrong.
http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2015/05/01/state-irons-details-fatal-waffle-house-shooting/26750905/
I couldnt get the video on this link to work, maybe my computer, but found another on a commentary post on FB
https://www.facebook.com/ActiveSelfProtection/videos/784115611696221/
In U.C.L.A. Debate Over Jewish Student, Echoes on Campus of Old Biases
Source: New York Times
LOS ANGELES — It seemed like routine business for the student council at the University of California, Los Angeles: confirming the nomination of Rachel Beyda, a second-year economics major who wants to be a lawyer someday, to the council’s Judicial Board.
Until it came time for questions.
“Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community,” Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, began, looking at Ms. Beyda at the other end of the room, “how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?”
For the next 40 minutes, after Ms. Beyda was dispatched from the room, the council tangled in a debate about whether her faith and affiliation with Jewish organizations, including her sorority and Hillel, a popular student group, meant she would be biased in dealing with sensitive governance questions that come before the board, which is the campus equivalent of the Supreme Court.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/06/us/debate-on-a-jewish-student-at-ucla.html
Absolutely disgusting behavior. Can you imagine if the same questions were asked of a black student? A Hispanic one?
ETA: Faculty leader says this is a "teaching moment"? Good lord.
Attackers in Bangladesh hack to death American blogger
Source: Washington Post
DHAKA, Bangladesh — A prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death as he walked through Bangladesh’s capital with his wife, police said Friday.
The attack Thursday night on Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, occurred on a crowded sidewalk as he and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, were returning from a book fair at Dhaka University. Ahmed, who is also a blogger, was seriously injured. It was the latest in a series of attacks on secular writers in Bangladesh in recent years.
A previously unknown militant group, Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility for the attack, Assistant Police Commissioner S.M. Shibly Noman told the Prothom Alo newspaper.
Roy “was the target because of his crime against Islam,” the group said on Twitter.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/unidentified-attackers-hack-us-blogger-to-death-in-dhaka/2015/02/26/a7b8944a-be30-11e4-9dfb-03366e719af8_story.html?tid=trending_strip_6
Venezuelans on edge after Caracas mayor arrested on ‘endless coup’ claim
Source: Washington Post
Venezuela’s turbulent politics appear headed for a new phase of confrontation a day after intelligence agents stormed the offices of the Caracas mayor, Antonio Ledezma, seizing the opposition leader for his alleged role in what President Nicolás Maduro called an “endless coup.”
Ledezma will be indicted on charges of “conspiracy,” according to a statement released by Venezuelan state prosecutors Friday night after the 59-year-old mayor’s appearance at a Caracas tribunal. He was taken directly to the Ramo Verde military jail, the statement said — the same facility where another opposition leader, Leopoldo López, has been imprisoned for the past year.
In a speech Friday night, Maduro said he would lay out recordings and videos next week in a special broadcast revealing the “gringo intervention in Venezuela” that Ledezma allegedly conspired with. “In Venezuela, no one is untouchable,” he warned.
Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/venezuela-on-edge-after-caracas-mayor-arrested-on-coup-plot-claims/2015/02/20/47647515-2198-4419-b686-317f124c8d91_story.html
Looks like the disintegration is starting a bit quicker than I expected
Venezuela's 'socialist paradise' turns into a nightmare: Medical shortages claim lives as oil price
Source: TelegraphUK
For Jose Perez, a Venezuelan taxi driver from Caracas, the hardest part about watching his wife die from heart failure was knowing just how easily she could have been saved.
The surgeons at the Caracas University Hospital were ready to operate on 51-year-old Carmen, but because of the shortages of medicines now ravaging Venezuela, they had no stocks of the prosthetic artery that would have saved her life.
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“It’s the government who is responsible for my wife’s death, not the doctors,” Mr Perez, 63, told The Telegraph last week. “Things are very bad in this country, and they are getting worse. I feel that we are in a dictatorship. At the start I believed in Chavez, now I can’t look at him. He is in the best place now.”
Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/11385294/Venezuelas-socialist-paradise-turns-into-a-nightmare-medical-shortages-claim-lives-as-oil-price-collapses.html
Iran launches Holocaust denial cartoon contest
Source: France24
An international cartoon contest has been launched in Iran around the theme of Holocaust denial, in response to French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo’s decision to publish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.
Holocaust denial is not uncommon in the Islamic Republic, an arch-foe of Israel, but the controversial competition is a response to the January 14 issue of Charlie Hebdo, whose cover featured a teary Prophet Mohammed holding a sign saying “Je Suis Charlie” (I am Charlie).
The three-word slogan became a rallying cry across France and much of the world in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks on January 7 at the magazine's offices, carried out as revenge for drawings published by Charlie Hebdo that mocked the founder of Islam.
Read more: http://www.france24.com/en/20150202-iran-holocaust-denial-cartoon-contest-charlie-hebdo-cover-tehran/
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