May 21, 2015

The Resegregation of San Francisco’s Public Schools

Tables representing each of San Francisco’s public schools stretched throughout John O’Connell High School in the Mission one morning last fall. Thousands of parents quizzed principals and teachers to determine where their children should go to school.

This was the school district’s annual Public School Enrollment Fair. Despite the heaving crowds, Mark Sanchez was downright lonely.

Every year, the tables for the city’s 106 public schools are arranged alphabetically. And every year Sanchez, principal of the mostly Latino Cleveland Elementary, sits for hours with hardly anybody approaching him. To his left, white and Asian parents swarm the table for the coveted Clarendon Elementary, a school that is harder to get into than Harvard.

“Every year, it’s the same thing. Every year,” Sanchez said. “Our teachers are just as good as Clarendon’s. … I call it the un-fair.”


http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/18/is-desegregation-dead

May 21, 2015

Texas Senator Who Blamed Baltimore Riot On ‘Absent Fathers,’ Has Nothing To Say About Waco Massacre

In the aftermath of protests surrounding the deaths of unarmed black men and women, outspoken members of the GOP, including Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz (R-TX), were quick to contextualize the tragedies and criticize black people for violent behavior. But in the wake of a deadly gunfight between two biker gangs — which left nine people dead, 18 wounded in Waco, and 170 charged for criminal activity — two of Texas’ most prominent leaders have yet to respond to the violent shootout.

Days into the Baltimore protests sparked by Freddie Gray’s death, Cornyn (R) spoke on the Senate floor about how to understand and address deeply-ingrained tension in Baltimore and Ferguson. “The whole idea of a young man dying in police custody, the confrontations with police, the looting and burning of innocent minority-owned businesses…these are all scenes we would expect perhaps in other countries…but that’s what we saw,” he said of events that transpired in both cities. “We’re doing a great disservice to ourselves and everyone else so clearly frustrated by the status quo, if we isolate Baltimore or Ferguson as just individual instances of civic unrest, and if we don’t step back and see how they fit into the broader issue of our entire criminal justice system.” He also called on families, civic organizations, faith groups, and Congress to “correct injustice” and “remedy basic instability” in similar communities nationwide...


But neither Cruz nor Cornyn has responded to the deadly shootout between the Bandidos and Cossacks — two rival biker gangs that exchanged gunfire outside of a Hooters-like restaurant last weekend. Although the two condemned violent means of expressing anger in Ferguson and Baltimore, in reference to rioting and the looting of local businesses, they have yet to acknowledge the bikers who turned their weapons on law enforcement. Both have stayed quiet about the Bandidos and Cossacks’ long-standing involvement in organized crime, and neither senator has addressed the gangs members’ white supremacist leanings, despite bringing up race in the context of Baltimore and Ferguson.

However, this not the first time conservatives, including Cruz, have been slow to denounce outlaws who’ve resorted to violence against police. When the Bureau of Land Management tried to take cattle away from Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who owed $1 million in grazing fees, Bundy and a host of right-wing supporters engaged in an armed standoff with federal rangers for several days. Without touching on Bundy’s use of force, Cruz blamed Obama for the armed standoff, arguing it was “the unfortunate and tragic culmination of the path that President Obama has set the federal government on.” Former Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) also said, “I have a problem with the federal government putting citizens in the position of having to feel like they have to use force to deal with their own government. That’s the bigger issue.”


http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/05/20/3660499/texass-senators-vocal-baltimore-ferguson-totally-silent-waco-shootout/

May 21, 2015

In case anyone thinks the Bandidos are a social club.

But the past three decades have been shot through with sporadic bike gang battles, often overseas. By the 1980s, both the Bandidos and the Hells Angels had become international organizations. In 1984, a shootout between Bandidos and another gang called the Comancheros killed seven and wounded 28 in Milperra, Australia, near Sydney. The incident became known as the “Milperra Massacre.”

In the mid-1990s, a “Great Nordic Biker War” between the Bandidos and the Hells Angels shook Scandinavia. At least 12 people died and nearly 100 were injured in the three-year skirmish, which featured unprecedented firepower for a gangland rivalry. “These hostilities have involved military [ordnance] as well as automatic weapons,” Quinn writes. “At one point the Angels launched a grenade at a jail holding an enemy leader.”

The two bike gangs faced off again in Canada during the late 1990s and 2000s. This time, the conflict — dubbed “The Quebec Biker war” — reportedly cost 150 lives. The conflict largely ended in April 2006, when authorities found eight Bandidos members dead in a farmer’s field near Toronto. In 2009, an ex-cop on trial for the assassinations accused Bandidos world president Jeff Pike of ordering the killings. The ex-cop and five others were convicted of the crime. Pike denied the accusation and was never charged.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/18/how-the-bandidos-became-americas-most-feared-biker-gang/

May 21, 2015

Florida College Students Forced to Undergo Transvaginal Ultrasounds While Being Called "Sexy"

Let a fellow student conduct an "invasive" transvaginal ultrasound on you while your teacher calls you "sexy" and suggests you should be an "escort girl," or be "blacklisted" from working at local hospitals. That is the choice sonography students at Valencia College, a community college in central Florida, allegedly faced, according to a lawsuit filed last week by two former students.

While asking students to participate voluntarily in certain procedures is not uncommon in education programs, medical professionals told TPM, forcing them to do so goes against established standards of the medical education field.

The lawsuit alleges Valencia College officials unconstitutionally forced students in its medical sonography program to submit to the “extremely invasive and often painful" transvaginal ultrasound procedure. The plaintiffs were threatened with academic and professional punishment when they brought up their concerns, including the presence of a male student who would be performing the procedure on them, the suit says.

The plaintiffs allege that one of the defendants, the program’s chair Barbara Ball, told the students to “find another school” if they didn’t want to participate in the exams. Another one of the defendants, Maureen Bugnacki, a laboratory technician at the college, allegedly threatened to “blacklist” the students at local hospitals if they did not undergo the procedures, the lawsuit says.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/forced-transvaginal-exams-lawsuit

May 21, 2015

Fox Host: Boy Scouts Ban On Water Guns Is ‘Emasculating’ Future CIA Agents

A Fox News co-host said on Wednesday that a Boy Scouts ban on water guns and limitation on the size of water balloons was proof that boys were being emasculated.

“Outnumbered” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, who is married to former MTV "Real World" star and current Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI), said the ban would have an effect on future generations of America's spies and soldiers.

“If we keep emasculating our boys and not letting boys be boys,” Campos-Duffy said, “how are we gonna raise the next generation of hardcore CIA operatives, Navy SEALS?”

“That was a very nice, unloaded question,” former CIA officer and "One Lucky Guy," Mike Baker said.

Baker ultimately agreed with Campos-Duffy.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rachel-campos-duffy-emasculating-boys

May 20, 2015

UBS to Pay Over $500 Million in Fines for Manipulating Currencies and Libor

LONDON — The Swiss bank UBS said on Wednesday that it would pay more than $500 million in fines to the authorities in the United States for its role in the manipulation of currency markets and benchmark interest rates.

UBS said it would not face a criminal charge over currency misconduct but would be required to separately plead guilty to a criminal charge for its prior conduct over the manipulation of the interest rates, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, after the Justice Department tore up a 2012 nonprosecution agreement.

The agreement with UBS resolves a series of investigations by the Justice Department and other authorities in the United States, including banking regulators in Connecticut, into manipulation of currencies.

The Justice Department is expected to soon announce additional agreements with Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and the Royal Bank of Scotland, in which those banks will collectively pay several billion dollars in penalties and plead guilty to criminal antitrust violations for rigging the price of currencies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/21/business/international/ubs-to-pay-more-than-500-million-in-fines-for-manipulating-currency-and-libor.html?_r=0

May 20, 2015

Alan Grayson on his wife: 'Gold diggers gotta dig'

The legal battle between Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and his estranged wife Lolita has reportedly hit a snag.

The couple agreed to the annulment of their 25-year marriage last month, according to the Orlando Sentinel, but matters appear to have been complicated by other considerations in court.

“I’ll sum it up for you. Gold diggers gotta dig. That’s all I gotta say,” the Florida Democrat told Orlando’s ABC affiliate WFTV on Monday. “We had an agreement. She’s trying to renege.”


http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/alan-grayson-lolita-grayson-annulment-battle-118084.html#ixzz3ae28tnqx

May 19, 2015

Hillary Clinton Campaign Begins Drafting Policy Solutions To Heroin Epidemic

WASHINGTON -- After hearing story after story from voters on the campaign trail about heroin's toll, Hillary Clinton instructed her policy team to draw up solutions to the burgeoning opiate epidemic.

A Clinton aide told The Huffington Post that the Democratic presidential candidate decided to make mental health and drug addiction a major campaign issue after stops in Iowa and New Hampshire, where she kept hearing from people that the problem needs more attention. It's the type of issue that may not get much attention inside the Beltway and on Sunday talk shows, but opiate addiction has become a devastating problem.

Clinton brought it up on Monday during a stop in Iowa, telling supporters that she wants to "end the stigma against talking about it."

“When I started running, when I started thinking about this campaign, I did not believe I would be standing in your living room talking about the drug abuse problem, the mental health problem, and the suicide problem," she said at the home of one of the first gay couples in the state to wed. “But I’m now convinced I have to talk about it. I have to do everything I can in this campaign to raise it, to end the stigma against talking about it."



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/18/hillary-clinton-heroin_n_7309930.html

May 19, 2015

Space Station Could Get Laser Cannon to Destroy Orbital Debris

The International Space Station could one day get armed with a laser to shoot down orbiting debris, researchers say.

This concept could eventually lead to a laser-firing satellite that could get rid of a large percentage of the most troublesome space junk orbiting Earth, scientists added.

NASA researchers suggest that nearly 3,000 tons of space debris reside in low-Earth orbit, including derelict satellites, rocket bodies and parts and tiny bits of wreckage produced by collisions involving larger objects. Impacts from pieces of junk that are only the size of screws can still inflict catastrophic damage on satellites, since these projectiles can travel at speeds on the order of 22,370 mph (36,000 km/h).

The problem of space debris is growing as more satellites and spacecraft get sent into space. Moreover, large pieces of junk can generate lots of small fragments if they get hit, and those fragments can then go on to strike other objects in orbit for a chain reaction of destruction.




http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/space-station-could-get-laser-cannon-to-destroy-orbital-debris/ar-BBjUyxb?ocid=mailsignout

May 19, 2015

Bristol Palin And Fiancé Abruptly Call Off Wedding

Bristol Palin and her fiancé Dakota Meyer have abandoned their plans to wed over Memorial Day Weekend, just two months after announcing their engagement.

"Bristol and Dakota couldn’t be more thankful for the love and support of family and friends over the past months while preparing for their wedding. They have informed loved ones that unfortunately the announced celebration planned for May 23 will not be held," Bristol's mother, Sarah Palin, wrote Monday in a Facebook post.

The former Republican vice presidential nominee included a message from Bristol Palin in her post. In the message, Bristol Palin addressed speculation that the wedding was called off due to Meyer's previous marriage:

Regarding salacious headlines in recent days about “secret wives”, Dakota and I discussed our past relationships prior to our engagement. Dakota was legally divorced years ago, as any good reporter could and should have disclosed to readers. As usual, false stories and dramatically written headlines begging controversy should be disregarded, and we have faith that our privacy will be respected at this time by those with decency. Thank you! – Bristol

Gossip site Radar Online reported over the weekend that Meyer, an Army sergeant and 2011 Medal of Honor recipient, married another woman in 2008. The website couldn't confirm whether or not the two had since been divorced.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bristol-palin-dakota-meyer-wedding-called-off