The Raw Story

A non-profit news blog, focused on providing independent journalism.

Tuesday, 28 October 2014

Stop thanking me for my service

© Shutterstock.com As a veteran, I'm tired of being blindly celebrated. Good intentions aren't a substitute for good politicsLast week, in a quiet indie bookstore on the north side of Chicago, I saw the latest issue of Rolling Stone resting on a chrome-colored plastic table a few feet from a barista brewing a vanilla latte. A cold October rain fell outside. A friend of mine grabbed the issue and began flipping through it. Knowing that I was a...

Former cop headed to trial for raping a child while other officers watched

© LiveLeak.com Pharr, Texas - Trial is set to begin December 1, in the case of former Pharr police officer Erasmo Mata, Jr., accused of repeated first-degree felony sexual assaults of a child.A federal civil lawsuit filed with Texas Southern District Court back in May accused Mata of assaulting the minor five times, on five separate occasions, all while on duty. The suit alleges that the attacks took place in abandoned houses around the city as...

Graphic video released in "firing squad" style police killing of mentally ill man

Saginaw, MI - The gruesome dashcam video of a summary execution of a mentally ill man by police has been released to the public this week.The video shows six police officers, in firing squad fashion, execute mentally ill, Milton Hall, in broad daylight in a Saginaw parking lot.Hall was several meters away from the closest police officer when the shots began. He posed very little threat to the officers as he was armed with a small pocket knife and could have easily been brought down with a taser.Six Saginaw police officers fired 47 times at the...

Utterly insane! Utah police shut down dance party because people were dancing without a "dance permit"

© UnknownA dance party in St. George, Utah was shut down over the weekend because the city will not allow people to dance without permits. However, "Heart of Dixie", the company who organized the event was actually under the impression that they had all of the permits that they needed.The group has held their annual Halloween event "The Monster Mash" for the past three years in other areas of Utah. This year, they moved their event to St. George,...

Colorado man vanishes at stadium during Broncos game

© Courtesy of Tia BakkePaul Kitterman, second from left, poses for a photo with his son, left, and two family friends shortly before his disappearance. Paul Kitterman told his friend Tia Bakke that the experience of being at his first ever Denver Broncos game in person with his son was "awesome" - and that was the last she heard of him.The 53-year-old from Kremmling, Colorado, seemingly vanished into the Sports Authority Field crowd at the Broncos-Chargers...

NASA rocket bound for International Space Station explodes just seconds after takeoff

An unmanned rocket exploded shortly after takeoff Tuesday evening on Virginia's eastern shore. Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket was carrying thousands of pounds of equipment to restock the International Space Station.The launch was supposed to be the third of eight planned Orbital missions to ferry gear and food to astronauts aboard the ISS. The rocket had some 5,000 pounds of food, supplies and science experiments, which all were engulfed in a...

Audit reveals U.S. government secretly monitoring mail on massive scale

© AFP Photo/Mychele Daniau Questions are being asked of the United States Postal Service after the release of an audit confirming that roughly 49,000 pieces of mail were monitored by the agency during the last fiscal year.The Ron Nixon reported on Monday this week that a 2014 audit of the USPS's little-known surveillance program showed that nearly 50,000 pieces of mail were scrutinized during a 12-month span upon the request of authorities using...

Time to ramp the fear up: U.S. government buildings beefing up security over phantom terror threats

© Eric Thayer/Getty Images/AFP"Tribute in Light" is reflected on the 9/11 Memorial The United States is beefing up security at thousands of government buildings around the country due to "continued public calls" for terrorist attacks, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced on Tuesday.Johnson said the new security measures will affect more than 9,500 federal buildings as well as the 1.4 million people who visit these facilities...

Moscow calls reports of U.S. diplomats being harassed in Russia 'groundless'

Reports of US diplomats in Moscow being systematically mistreated are "groundless," Russia's Foreign Ministry said. It also accused US special services of provocations and attempting to recruit Russian diplomats in Washington.Responding to an ABC "exclusive," the ministry said that voiced "complaints" are "banal fantasies" that"do not reach the level of cheap spy detectives.""What is outrageous is the peremptory and contrary to the facts statement...

Here's why US home ownership rate dropped to 1983 levels

The last time US home ownership declined down to 64.4% (which the Census Bureau just reported is what US home ownership declined to from 64.7% in Q2), was back in the fourth quarter of 1983. It goes without saying that this is about the bearishest news possible for those few who still believe in the American home ownership dream.Of course, those who have been following real-time rental market trends would be all too aware there is no rebound coming...

Hunger will tame the fiercest animals: Engineered poverty in the UK

© Matt Kenyon What would you do to keep your baby from starving? Perhaps the same as Lucy Hill. At the start of October, the 35-year-old mother from Kidderminster was broke. After missing an interview at the jobcentre, her disability benefits had been stopped - which left her, her partner and her toddler of 18 months without anything to live on. So she went to the local Spar and stole a chicken and some soap powder.Two weeks later, Hill was up before...

Exhibiting no symptoms, New Jersey woman forcibly quarantined in 'prison-like' conditions

© Steven J. HymanKaci Hickox in quarantine. Newark - A humanitarian worker says she is being detained against her will and "treated like a criminal" after selflessly working to provide health care to the people of Africa. The quarantined nurse has not tested positive for any disease and has exhibited no symptoms of illness.Kaci Hickox, 33, recently returned from the West African nation of Sierra Leone, part of an assignment from Doctors Without...

Beauty myths: The 'Certified Organic' deception

Natural and organic cosmetics and skin care products are becoming more and more popular, as more of us are addressing our state of wellbeing. Whilst I feel this is a wonderful shift in culture, it can also be quite confronting, confusing and deceiving. If you have recently jumped on the wellness train, and gone through the process of detoxing your bathroom cabinet, then it's highly likely you've come across words such as organic, natural, biodynamic,...

Indiana town moves to seize over 350 homes to make room for private developer

© FacebookA resident mows his lawn in the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood of Charlestown, Indiana. Charlestown , Indiana - A town is working to "demolish a working-class neighborhood" by seizing 354 homes and passing the land off to a private commercial developer. Using federal dollars and the highly-abused power of eminent domain, the city intends to evict multitudes of families to make way for economic progress.The community under fire is called "Pleasant...

Politics can interact with evolution to shape human destiny: Just look at the horrible decline of society under the rule of psychopaths

© Ninjin Club Politics can have unintentional evolutionary consequences that may cause hastily issued policies to cascade into global, multigenerational problems, according to political scientists."Most western democracies look at policies as if they are bandages, we fix what we can and then move on," said Pete Hatemi, associate professor of political science, Penn State. "But we need to consider generational policies so that we can fix what we...

Scientists engineer toxin-secreting stem cells to treat brain tumors

© Credit: Khalid Shah, MS, PhD, Harvard Stem Cell InstituteEncapsulated toxin-producing stem cells (blue) help kill brain tumor cells in the tumor resection cavity (green). Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital have devised a new way to use stem cells in the fight against brain cancer. A team led by neuroscientist Khalid Shah, MS, PhD, who recently demonstrated the value of stem cells loaded with cancer-killing...
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