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NJ Supreme Court Rules State Can Seek Custody Of Child Without Evidence Of Abuse

"The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled this week that authorities can seek custody of a child, even where there’s no evidence of abuse or neglect. The case involved a divorced Camden County mother of 9-year-old twin girls. In 2007, she asked New Jersey’s Division of Child Protection and Permanency for help, claiming she was unable to care for the girls who had psychological and developmental disabilities and needed to be placed in residential care. 'You can turn to the Division for help, but it may come with a cost,' says Diana Autin, executive director of Statewide Parent Advocacy Network of New Jersey." Continue reading →

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The Brutality of “Border Security”

"This money will be used to create what John McCain calls 'the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall,' staffed by at least 38,405 Border Patrol agents. That’s a larger force than George W. Bush had stationed in Afghanistan when he left office. No wonder it’s been called the 'border surge.' Those agents will be armed with billions of dollars worth of equipment from America’s leading war profiteers. As usual, militarization means obscene corporate profits at taxpayer expense. Moreover, increasing 'border security' funding means expanding an agency whose members routinely violate civil liberties and have even committed murder." Continue reading →

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Warrantless Window-Smashing Weapon Search At U.S. Border Patrol Internal Checkpoint

"I was detained for 9hrs and cuffed 6 of that. I went from an outdoor bench to a detention trailer, fingerprinted, photographed. Did a criminal history search. Brought to admin trailer and cuffed to a bench. My Cameras, Computer, Phone, iPod cataloged. A high clearance Agent was sought view my recent FBI Interrogation. I was trucked to a permanent detention center. All was confiscated. They set me on foot 200miles from home, 100miles from my destination with ID and credit cards." Continue reading →

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“Mental Illness” Diagnoses Are the Slippery Slope to Gun Confiscation

"The definition of someone who is officially 'mentally ill' could be changed at a moment’s notice once these types of laws are in place, making them an extreme danger to rights. So far, only California and New York have implemented them, but other states may follow. As the situation stands now, the New York law mandates that all mental health professionals, psychiatrists, and psychologists must report any patient they believe may be 'dangerous' to local officials, who will then have the authority to seize all firearms that individual might own — don’t make your psychiatrist angry." Continue reading →

Continue Reading“Mental Illness” Diagnoses Are the Slippery Slope to Gun Confiscation

CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou’s Open Letter to Edward Snowden

"Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who is serving a thirty-month sentence in prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, has written another letter. It expresses support for former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who has exposed secret US government surveillance programs and policies, and provided a glimpse of the ever-expanding massive surveillance apparatus the government has built. Kiriakou was the first member of the CIA to publicly acknowledge that torture was official US policy under the administration of President George W. Bush. He was convicted in October of last year of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou’s Open Letter to Edward Snowden

France wants to ‘temporarily suspend’ trade talks with US over NSA spying

"France wants to delay the ‘biggest bilateral trade deal in history' by 2 weeks after learning the USA was allegedly tracking economic communications of EU member states. But Germany says they should go ahead as planned. The trade agreement negotiations, which could potentially be a key factor in reversing the slow economic climate, are set to commence Monday in Washington DC. Despite surveillance claims, Germany wants the talks to go on as planned, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said shortly after France raised a 2-week delay proposal. 'We want this free trade agreement and we want to start the talks now,' he said." Continue reading →

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Teen Jailed For Facebook Comment Beaten Up Behind Bars

"The family of Justin Carter, the 19-year-old Texas gamer who made offensive Facebook comments that landed him in jail, is working with new urgency to get his $500,000 bail reduced because they say he's getting beat up behind bars. 'Without getting into the really nasty details, he's had concussions, black eyes, moved four times from base for his own protection,' says Carter's father, Jack. 'He's been put in solitary confinement, nude, for days on end because he's depressed. All of this is extremely traumatic to this kid. This is a horrible experience.' Carter has been in jail since his arrest in February." Continue reading →

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U.S. Postal Service Logging All Mail for Law Enforcement

"Leslie James Pickering noticed something odd in his mail last September: a handwritten card, apparently delivered by mistake, with instructions for postal workers to pay special attention to the letters and packages sent to his home. Mr. Pickering was targeted by a longtime surveillance system called mail covers, a forerunner of a vastly more expansive effort, the Mail Isolation Control and Tracking program, in which Postal Service computers photograph the exterior of every piece of paper mail that is processed in the United States — about 160 billion pieces last year. It is not known how long the government saves the images." Continue reading →

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16-year-old student in Turkey turns bananas into plastic

"There’s nothing slippery about Elif Bilgin’s idea of using banana peels as a substitute for old-school petroleum-based plastics. The 16-year-old student from Istanbul spent two years perfecting a way to make a bioplastic out of discarded banana peels that could, in turn, be used for the electrical insulation of cables. In her research, Bilgin — who says 'science is my calling' — determined that if starch and cellulose from such food waste as mango skins can be used to make bioplastics, then banana peels ought to do the trick, too." Continue reading →

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UN agency tests long-lasting Ikea refugee shelter

"Ikea's philanthropist foundation has funded the project to the tune of $4 million, while a Sweden-based group called the Refugee Housing Unit has been working with the UN agency on the design. The prototypes, with their semi-hard plastic walls and roofs made from composite material and with room to house five people each, have cost $8,000 a piece, and UNHCR wants to wait for feedback from refugees before giving a green light to more wide-scale production. The new shelters have been guaranteed to last three years and will likely remain standing for longer than that. That is a big plus considering that refugees on average live in their UNHCR shelters for 12 years." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUN agency tests long-lasting Ikea refugee shelter