In the coming days, Louisiana officials will incarcerate about two dozen children inside the old death row of Louisiana State Penitentiary, also called Angola, a massive maximum security prison for adult men that was once notorious for its violence.

Children as young as 10 with a history of assault may be transferred from their current juvenile correctional facilities to the former death row, where they will sleep in windowless cells with floor-to-ceiling metal bars that lock them in. The conditions are more punitive than those at the state’s high-security juvenile facilities, where kids normally sleep in dorms. The Office of Juvenile Justice will house the children at Angola temporarily while finishing construction on another place to detain them.

Several Louisiana law clinics and the ACLU sued to try to stop the transfers, arguing that keeping children at the adult prison—even temporarily—was unconstitutional and psychologically harmful, and that it might increase their risk of suicide. Though the kids will be housed separately from the adult men, the facility “is going to scream ‘prison’” to them, Vincent Schiraldi, a juvenile justice expert for the plaintiffs and the former commissioner of the New York City Department of Correction, told the court.

But on Friday, Chief District Judge Shelly Dick reluctantly signed off on the plan, stating that incarcerating kids at Angola would potentially be “traumatizing” for them, but that government officials had nowhere better to keep the kids, who pose security risks. “The prospect of putting a teenager to bed at night in a locked cell behind razor wire surrounded by swamps at Angola is disturbing,” the judge wrote. But “the threat of harm these youngsters present to themselves, and others, is intolerable.”

https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/09/louisianas-infamous-angola-prison-will-now-lock-up-children/

Lousyanna. That is all.

An Iranian journalist who reported on the death of Mahsa Amini has been thrown into solitary confinement, with no information about the charges against her, amid a major crackdown on the press in the country.

Niloufar Hamedi, a reporter at the Tehran-based Shargh newspaper, was among the first to write about Amini, 22, who fell into a coma and died on September 16 after Iran’s morality police apprehended her and brought her to a “re-education” center for not wearing her hijab properly. Authorities say Amini died after a heart attack, but her family says she had no prior health problems and accuse the police of beating her.

The 22-year-old’s death ignited massive protests across Iran, organized primarily by women, whose rights have been heavily restricted since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Her name has also gained global recognition, with world leaders condemning her death and the subsequent violence toward protesters. “We call on the Iranian authorities to hold an independent, impartial, and prompt investigation,” experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement last week.

Hamedi took a photograph that went viral of Amini’s grief-stricken parents hugging in the hospital, according to the news site IranWire, which wrote about the reporter’s incarceration on Monday. At least 18 journalists have been arrested in Iran since the demonstrations began, according to the nonprofit Committee to Protect Journalists. Press freedom groups have called for their immediate release. “They were doing their jobs,” the Association of Iranian Journalists said in a statement. The country has also experienced a near internet shutdown and disruptions to phone and social media networks that have made it more difficult to share news. “[T]he Iranian authorities are sending a clear message that there must be no coverage of the protests,” the Middle East desk of Reporters Without Borders, another nonprofit, said in a statement. “We demand the immediate release of these journalists and the immediate lifting of all restrictions on Iranians’ right to be informed.”

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/09/iran-mahsa-amini-niloufar-hamedi-journalist-crackdown/

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Thursday that aims to legally protect transgender youths and their parents if they flee conservative states that have restricted access to gender-affirming care.

The bill seeks to “offer refuge” to trans minors and their families “if they’re being criminalized in their home states,” state Sen. Scott Wiener, who introduced the bill, said on Twitter after Newsom signed it.

Wiener said states like Texas and Alabama “are seeking to tear these families apart,” referring to efforts in both states to bar parents from providing their trans children with medical care like puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

(snip)

The bill Newsom signed is intended to protect families and children like those from prosecution in their home states if they travel to California for gender-affirming care or if they move to California after already receiving transition-related care elsewhere.

“We believe that no one should be prosecuted or persecuted for getting the care they need — including gender-affirming care,” Newsom said in a statement after signing the measure. “With the signing of this bill, California will ensure that these kids and their families can seek and obtain the medical and mental health care that they need.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/california-governor-signs-bill-offering-legal-refuge-transgender-youth-rcna50240

Fresh allegations of racist slurs being used at a BYU athletic event have emerged, a month after similar claims involving the Duke volleyball team.

Five women’s soccer players from a visiting team told the Guardian they heard the N-word being directed at them and their teammates from the crowd during a game at BYU in 2021. Players had knelt for the national anthem to protest racial and social injustice when they say they heard shouts from the crowd.

“I just remember that there was like a consistent chant of ‘stand up, N-words’ during the anthem and right after,” one of the players told the Guardian. “And when brought to the attention of the BYU coaching staff there was no real response or sense of, like, alarm.”

She added: “I felt disappointed but not surprised. Backlash for kneeling was not new for our group but to hear that in person was shocking. I think both the fans and coaching staff knew we wouldn’t cancel the game after the incident, which once again shows this could be part of a bigger cultural issue within BYU as an institution.”

Four of her teammates independently confirmed to the Guardian that they also heard the chants.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/sep/30/byu-racism-allegations-womens-soccer-college-sports

Fresh allegations of racist slurs being used at a BYU athletic event have emerged, a month after similar claims involving the Duke volleyball team.

Five women’s soccer players from a visiting team told the Guardian they heard the N-word being directed at them and their teammates from the crowd during a game at BYU in 2021. Players had knelt for the national anthem to protest racial and social injustice when they say they heard shouts from the crowd.

“I just remember that there was like a consistent chant of ‘stand up, N-words’ during the anthem and right after,” one of the players told the Guardian. “And when brought to the attention of the BYU coaching staff there was no real response or sense of, like, alarm.”

She added: “I felt disappointed but not surprised. Backlash for kneeling was not new for our group but to hear that in person was shocking. I think both the fans and coaching staff knew we wouldn’t cancel the game after the incident, which once again shows this could be part of a bigger cultural issue within BYU as an institution.”

Four of her teammates independently confirmed to the Guardian that they also heard the chants.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/sep/30/byu-racism-allegations-womens-soccer-college-sports

Just a few months after narrowly defeating the first Black sheriff in Columbus County, North Carolina, sheriff-elect Jody Greene went on a racist, paranoid tirade about his Black staff members in a phone call to the then-interim sheriff, calling them “bastards” and threatening to fire them all.

“Fuck them Black bastards,” Greene said during a phone call with then-interim chief Jason Soles back in February 2019. “They think I’m scared? They’re stupid. I don’t know what else to do with them, so it’s just time to clean them out.”

The audio, first obtained by NBC affiliate WECT, was captured by Soles, who told the outlet that he documented these calls because of the alarming language Greene had used. Only now, as Soles prepares to run against Greene for his seat, has the state Bureau of Investigation begun looking into the phone calls.

North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s public information director confirmed to VICE News Thursday that District Attorney Jon David requested that the agency investigate allegations of obstruction of justice concerning the Columbus County Sheriff’s Office this week.

During the calls, Greene expressed his suspicions that one of the department’s Black officers was leaking unspecified information about him to then-Sheriff Lewis Hatcher. At the time, Greene was still embroiled in the aftermath of the tight election, which he won by a margin of just 34 votes. As a winner was still being determined, Soles had been named interim sheriff.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/z34qwx/sheriff-threatened-to-fire-all-his-black-officers-in-racist-tirade-caught-on-tape

Lovely. Just lovely.

The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has stripped 47 deputies – 10% of the force – of their guns and arrest powers because they failed psychological exams in the wake of a fatal double shooting allegedly committed by a former deputy.

It was “horrible’’ to have to relieve the deputies of their duties, sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Ray Kelly told KTVU-TV.

The station obtained a copy of a letter notifying the deputies of their change of status last Friday. The deputies will still receive their pay and benefits.

The move came after the Sheriff’s Office conducted an internal audit of deputies’ psychological examinations from January 2016 to the present.

The letter from Sheriff Gregory Ahern notified a deputy – whose name was blacked out in the copy – that the deputy had been graded “D. Not Suited” in a psychological evaluation and under state law couldn’t serve as a peace officer.

The letter said the Sheriff’s Office had previously been operating under incorrect advice received several years ago from the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training, which said it could hire candidates who received such a rating.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/09/27/california-deputies-suspended-psychological-exams/10443703002/

Need to do this more places, and it should be done on an ongoing basis.

A cheating controversy rocking the chess world just won’t let up. One conspiracy theory promoted by Elon Musk without evidence is that young chess wiz Hans Niemannn defeated world chess champion Magnus Carlsen in early September with the aid of a vibrating set of anal beads.

It’s an intriguing idea, but is such a thing even possible? Ron Sijm, a software engineer in the Netherlands, wants to find out and has developed software to test the theory. He’s posted the code to open-source coding platform GitHub, and all he needs now is the right sex toy.

“I’m not sure if anyone actually tried to test it in practice,” he told Motherboard. “That’s why I built the library, to actually test this.”

For those who haven’t been briefed on all of this, 19-year-old Niemann beat Carlsen in a match at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis on Sept. 4, 2022. It was an upset so historic that some people assumed Niemann had cheated. Carlsen has implied as much without directly saying he lost the September 4 match because of it. In a digital match between the two on the 19th, Carlsen resigned after one move and shut off his webcam. Niemann has admitted to cheating in the past and Chess.com banned him from playing on the site. He said he was ashamed of this, however, and denied cheating in other matches.

That hasn’t stopped people from theorizing how the buzzing anal bead theory—which, again, has no evidence to support it—may have worked in practice, though. The chess matches and board state are broadcast live, so a team could watch the board, feed it into an AI chess player, and communicate the AI’s moves back to Niemann. In the anal bead theory, Niemann’s team would vibrate the anal beads in a certain way that would tell the 31-year-old player how to move. A cam site has even offered Niemann $1 million to play nude and prove he’s not using an AI-powered sex toy.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d3w9z/did-hans-neimann-cheat-at-chess-with-a-sex-toy-this-coder-is-attempting-to-find-out

OK, folks, now you have your answer

I went to work in the clinic this morning and was greeted by a litter of five (count 'em) itty bitty kittens one of our workers brought in that had been dropped off at a local convenience store, apparently minus their mommy. They are way too young to be away from her, although they are managing canned kitten food pretty well and attempting kibble. But they were hella dirty and they needed a Dawn bath for the fleas, so each one had to be individually shampooed and blow-dried (much cuddling) before being put back in their kennel on a heating pad. Of course they were all tired out after that ordeal, so here they are in a pile---four girls, one boy. Oh, I forgot to mention, three of them are polydactyl---two with thumbs, one with six toes!

[url=https://postimg.cc/pmbz2MbN][img][/img][/url]

Tamara Thomsen was giving a scuba diving lesson in Wisconsin's Lake Mendota when she noticed a piece of wood peeking out of the sand. Her student didn't think much of it but Thomsen, who is a maritime archaeologist by trade, knew exactly what it was.

"This is not a joke. I found another dugout canoe," she texted her boss.

The boat discovered in May was the second artifact Thomsen accidentally stumbled upon within the past year. In November 2021, Thomsen spotted a 1,200-year-old canoe while swimming in the same lake during her day off.

Archaeologists from the Wisconsin Historical Society — where Thomsen works — determined that the most recent find is even older — about 3,000 years old, the group announced on Thursday.

Thomsen said that when the radiocarbon dating results from came back, she wrote "1000 B.C." on a Post-it note and stared in disbelief.

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/24/1124817721/3000-year-old-canoe-found-wisconsin

I grew up near the shores of Lake Mendota, in Madison, so this is of great interest to me