January 27, 2023

The adults in charge failed. And a teacher was shot. By a 6-year-old child.

Connie Schultz


He is a 6-year-old child.

That boy who shot his teacher this month in front of his first-grade classmates at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Virginia? He is 6 years old.

Do you remember when you were 6? Or maybe you recall loving a child who was that age. Maybe this is you now. You’re a parent, grandparent, aunt or uncle, a friend or neighbor – a teacher – who loves a 6-year-old child so much that you are willing to do anything to protect them from harm and to prepare them for the world.

Most of us know what it’s like to be 6 years old. You are completely dependent on the adults in your life who are supposed to love you and keep you safe. You have no say in where you live or who sleeps in the same home. You are not in control of your safety or your access to dangerous things. Your every day is determined by the adults who are in charge of you, and their level of commitment.

Adults failed this 6-year-old boy.

Consider the timeline of the day of the shooting, as described by lawyer Diane Toscano, representing the 25-year-old teacher who was shot.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2023/01/27/newport-news-virginia-school-shooting-result-failures/11106268002/

January 26, 2023

Tennessee students build a new hand for classmate

Starting at a new school this year, 15-year-old Sergio Peralta had all the typical teenage reasons to be nervous.

He was also trying to keep a secret: a hand that was not fully formed.

"In the first days of school, I honestly felt like hiding my hand," he told CBS News, the BBC's US partner. "Like nobody would ever find out."

Instead, a teacher at his Tennessee high school learnt his secret and assigned his engineering class a project: build Sergio a new hand.

"You're supposed to be engineering, coming up with new ideas, solving issues," Henderson High School student Leslie Jaramillo told WTVF, a local CBS affiliate. "And just making things better than how they used to be."

Sergio, born with a right hand that did not fully form, had become used to it. He learnt to write with his left hand and said he could get by with nearly everything else, figuring out techniques for basic tasks like carrying his water bottle from class to class.

The suggestion from his classmates at his Nashville area school came as a happy surprise.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64418260

The kids in TN are a lot better than most of the "adults".

January 26, 2023

Boarding school ignored teen's sickness complaints before she died, ex-staff say

A Native American teenager who died while attending a Utah boarding school for at-risk youth had been sick in the weeks beforehand, but staff had been trained to assume students would lie about being ill and did not try to bring her to the hospital until the day she died, former staff members said in interviews.

Taylor Goodridge, 17, collapsed at Diamond Ranch Academy in Hurricane, Utah, on Dec. 20. While an official cause of death has not yet been determined, her family said in a lawsuit that they believe she died of sepsis, a life-threatening condition that arises from a body’s response to infection.

The Utah Department of Health and Human Services placed Diamond Ranch Academy’s license on “conditional status,” allowing it to remain open while the agency and the Hurricane Police Department investigate Taylor’s death. The Health and Human Services Department said the academy is “actively collaborating with investigators.”

Dean Goodridge, Taylor’s father, sued Diamond Ranch Academy in federal court on Dec. 30, alleging that the school knew his daughter was severely ill but told her to “suck it up” and take aspirin.

An attorney for Diamond Ranch said the facility has “substantial disagreement with many aspects” of the lawsuit and allegations by former staff, but could not respond in detail because of federal privacy law governing education and medical records.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/taylor-goodridge-diamond-ranch-academy-utah-rcna66069

MOre deaths in the "troubled teen" industry. Shut these places down!

January 26, 2023

A TikTok star who was functionally illiterate finds a community on BookTok

Oliver James exudes an abundance of positivity and hasn't let his inability to read stop him from pursuing his interests and needs. He's managing his mental health through reading books instead of therapy.

In the United States, more than 8 million adults are considered functionally illiterate in English.

James, 34, aspires to be a motivational speaker. And, in a way, he's achieving this by sharing his journey with more than 120k followers on BookTok.

"I've had dreams of being more than I was showing myself," James told NPR's Leila Fadel.

#BookTok is a community for book lovers and creators. The popularity of this corner of TikTok exploded at the start of the pandemic, and as of today, it has over 104.4 billion views.

James grew up with learning and behavior disabilities.

"If you asked me a year ago, 'how was school?' I said, 'Oh, good. You know, I just went to school and things happened," James says.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/25/1150611048/oliver-james-learning-to-read-tiktok

Apologies if this is in the wrong place. The article highlights different ways people learn to read. Phonics isn't for everyone.

January 25, 2023

Ebony and Irony: QB who lost scholarship for using N-word on video finally earns offer... from HBCU

As Signing Day approaches, Nease High’s disgraced quarterback Marcus Stokes has a second chance at fulfilling his college football aspirations. After a senior season in which Stokes gained 2,672 yards, rushed for 496 yards, and scored 28 touchdowns, the four-star passer (or 3-star, depending on where you look) accepted an offer from Billy Napier’s Florida Gators. Then, at the tail end of the year, the knucklehead fumbled the ball in the most teenage way possible by singing the N-word on social media, which resulted in Florida pulling his offer.

Props to Florida for that. We can’t have outside parties thinking crooning the N-word is a loophole. The Gators were the best possible offer for Stokes who attends the same school Tebow made famous in the mid-2000s, but he’s not a Tebow-level talent. Based on the visits he’d made, he’s potentially a solid pickup for a Group of 5 program, and a steal for an FCS program. Stokes has offers from other Division I schools, but his most interesting option may be from Division II Albany State.

According to Stokes, the Golden Rams coach visited Nease on Wednesday and his father sounds confused. “It’s very unique. Very interesting,” Marcus’ father told 247 Sports over the phone. “We didn’t expect this at all.”

An HBCU school in Georgia offering redemption to a white high school quarterback from Florida sounds like the plot of a Tyler Perry movie, but let’s not give him any ideas. Stokes sounded open to the move, but he also may be doing his own PR. Most schools have been hesitant to offer Stokes since his social media slip-up and Albany State’s coach offering feels like Al Sharpton inviting embattled figures to Sylvia’s on 125th for a photo-op.

https://deadspin.com/marcus-stokes-qb-n-word-albany-state-hbcu-1850031810

Think he'll take it? Nah....he'll ride the bench somewhere else.

January 25, 2023

A&W Announces 'Polarizing' Bear Mascot Will Wear Pants In Hilarious Troll

A soft drink company’s joking tweet about its mascot’s clothing choices apparently caught Fox Business with its pants down.

On Tuesday, A&W Root Beer announced on Twitter that Rooty the Great Root Bear would start wearing trousers.

The post appeared to be a jesting reference to a recent decision by chocolate brand M&M’s, which put its “spokescandies” on “indefinite pause” after conservative types like Fox News’ Tucker Carlson griped that the green M&M character was now wearing tennis shoes instead of go-go boots.

The A&W tweet read, in part: “America, let’s talk. Since 1963, Rooty the Great Root Bear has been our beloved spokesbear. We knew people would notice because he’s literally a 6-foot tall bear wearing an orange sweater.”

It added, “But now we get it — even a mascot’s lack of pants can be polarizing.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aw-announces-polarizing-bear-mascot-will-now-wear-pants-in-hilarious-troll_n_63d16b19e4b07c0c7e00c097

Do you think the Charmin Bears and the Geico Gecko should wear pants too?

January 25, 2023

Andrew Tate Speaks Out From Prison: 'Cockroaches, Lice, and Bed Bugs Are My Only Friends'

Oh, how the mighty and rabidly misogynistic have fallen: In a newsletter to his supporters on Tuesday, Andrew Tate, who’s currently jailed in Romania facing human trafficking charges, claims he’s facing inhumane conditions in his jail cell, where he’ll remain through the end of this month and next.

“They are trying to break me. Thrown inside a cell without light. Cockroaches, lice, and bed bugs are my only friends at night,” Tate wrote. Seems… a touch dramatic for an alpha male like himself. But it truly must be very difficult for a proud misogynist influencer who once promised male followers he could teach them how to attract dozens of beautiful sex partners each night to now have only roaches and vermin for bedmates.c

Tate’s post, which almost appears written as a poem or haiku, continues: “They try to pour hatred into my heart. … They are trying to break my Iron Mind with unjust imprisonment.” But he emphasizes that his guards believe in him and are “just performing their job,” writing: “My guards know I am innocent. They know it is unjust. They see I will never break and respect my resolve,” he wrote. Sure, dude.

Tate’s claims about the jail’s conditions come weeks after he was reportedly briefly hospitalized whilst “suffering from certain ailments.”

Tate was arrested at the end of last month at his and his brother’s shared compound in Romania, where their alleged human trafficking business was headquartered. Romanian prosecutors say Tate is suspected of being part of a criminal group that lures women via false promises and sexually exploits them, subjecting them to “physical violence and mental coercion through intimidation, constant surveillance, control and invoking alleged debts,” and forcing them to make pornographic videos.

https://jezebel.com/andrew-tate-speaks-out-from-prison-cockroaches-lice-1850024699

Oh dear, it almost seems like he's fallen in with his own kind at last. Bite, bugs, bite!

January 25, 2023

'A terrible public safety threat': Dodge County loses all full-time prosecutors

Starting this Wednesday, Dodge County no longer has either a district attorney nor any full-time state prosecutors in an office that typically houses six attorneys who handle the county’s criminal prosecutions and civil matters.

District Attorney Kurt Klomberg put in his resignation, effective this past Friday, once he realized he’d be the last prosecutor in an office after a string of retirements and resignations that the office hadn’t been able to get applicants to replace.

“I really don’t have a choice,” Klomberg told Naomi Kowles on For the Record this week.

“This has been really one of the most difficult decisions of my life. I built this office with my partners here,” he said. “We were leaders in policy, procedure, management; we had been training other offices, consulting with almost every other DA’s office in the state.”

Klomberg, who has been the county’s district attorney for twelve years, started a plan six years ago to plan for retirements of key assistant prosecutors in the office. One aspect of the plan fell apart when a key replacement for a retiring attorney had to take extended family leave. The office wasn’t getting applicants — something Klomberg attributes to the $56,000 base starting salary for assistant district attorneys, far below private attorney salaries and even many government attorney positions like family attorneys and corporation counsels.

https://www.channel3000.com/news/for-the-record/for-the-record-a-terrible-public-safety-threat-dodge-county-loses-all-full-time-prosecutors/article_767794aa-7850-5dfd-8b6a-c210ef4003ff.html

January 25, 2023

Is the tiny little neighborhood the city of the future?

At first glance, O’Fallon, Illinois, has little in common with Paris, France. Paris has its world-class museums and cream-colored Haussmann-style apartment buildings. O’Fallon, an outer-ring suburb of St Louis with a population of 32,000, has a collection of squat brick buildings settled around a little-used freight rail track in its city center, and a proliferation of mid-century ranch homes on the blocks beyond.

On the other hand, there are macarons for sale at O’Fallon’s Sweet Katie Bee’s organic bakery cafe. And last year, when O’Fallon adopted a 180-page master plan to guide its development for the next two decades, it chose the same “organizing concept” that Paris’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, made the backbone of her 2020 re-election campaign: the 15-minute city.

The idea is relatively simple. Residents should have everything they need within a 15-minute walk or bike ride from home. “Transforming O’Fallon into a 15-minute city will help make our lives more convenient, less stressful and more sustainable,” the plan suggests. Easy enough to imagine in Paris, where there’s fresh bread on every corner. But in a sprawling section of the American midwest?

O’Fallon’s commitment to self-sufficient districts shows what a sensation the 15-minute city has become since Paris first embraced the idea three years ago. In September, C40 Cities, the network of leaders from the world’s largest cities, partnered with UN-Habitat to deliver proof of concept through five pilot projects. The journalist Fareed Zakaria endorsed the idea as a principle for the post-pandemic world. Deloitte identified it as a key trend in its 2021 study of the urban future.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/25/15-minute-city-urban-planning-future-us-cities

Actually this is a lot like things used to be. In my home city, 65 years ago, my grade school was 6 blocks away, high school was 3 blocks, grocery 4 blocks. Dentist and doctor were short bus rides. I'd love to return to that.

January 25, 2023

As police arrest more seniors, those with dementia face deadly consequences

One night in October 2021, Armando Navejas wandered away from his home in El Paso, Texas. The 70-year-old had Parkinson’s disease and dementia, and his family said he could barely speak. Scared for his safety, his wife, Josephine, called 911 for help tracking him down.

By 2 a.m., Navejas was back in front of his house, shirtless and ambling around. According to a video from a neighbor’s home security camera, an officer approached, shining a flashlight in Navejas’ face. Navejas appeared agitated, picking up a string of wooden blocks and walking toward the cop, who retreated behind a parked car. Navejas threw the wood limply toward the officer; it landed on the windshield.

When Navejas turned away, the officer walked around the vehicle and fired a stun gun at Navejas’ back. His body went rigid. He fell face-first onto the sidewalk.

Navejas arrived in the emergency room that night with multiple facial fractures and bleeding around his brain, medical records show. He never came home. He died in a rehabilitation facility in March of unrelated natural causes, according to a death certificate.

The El Paso Police Department found the use of force was “reasonable and necessary,” a spokesperson said in an email. But Navejas’ daughter, Debbie Navejas Aguilar, is suing two officers and the city for the “extreme physical and psychological injury” to her father.

“They acted like he had a gun,” she said in an interview. “This is a 70-year-old man who is lost in his own head. I just don’t understand it.”

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2022/11/22/police-arrests-elderly-unique-risks-dementia-alzheimers/10455567002/

A string of blocks =/= a gun. WTF is wrong with cops these days when everything is a gun?