Philly swim club may see a racial discrimination lawsuit soon

Valley Club in Huntingdon Valley is accused of refusing to allow black children from a day camp to swim. The children allegedly heard members of the club make racial comments about them while they were at the pool.
The parents and staff from Creative Steps Inc. are considering legal action directed at the Valley Club.

There are 65 campers that are part of the Creative Steps day camp. The children are African American and Hispanic.

On June 29 the campers arrived at the private swim club around 3:30 p.m. on a first visit. The camp had made arrangements for the children to swim at the club on Mondays through August 10.

Three campers came up to Alethea Wright, the executive director, on that first visit saying that they had heard members of the swim club asking what African Americans were doing at their club.

NBC Philadelphia reports:

“When the minority children got in the pool all of the Caucasian children immediately exited the pool,” Horace Gibson, parent of a day camp child, wrote in an email. “The pool attendants came and told the black children that they did not allow minorities in the club and needed the children to leave immediately.”

The children were upset but they remained at the pool for the time that had been scheduled. Wright approached the club president John Duesler about the event and he seemed to be sorry for the incident.

On Friday July 3 the camp received a refund for the $1,950 they had paid in membership fees to the swim club. The children no longer were allowed access on Mondays.

There was no reason given for the refund.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on a statement given from Duesler:

“There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion . . . and the atmosphere of the club.”

The pool that the camp had previously used, New Frankford Community Y closed last month because of a lack of funds.

The camp is a 20-minute drive away from the swim club.

Campers also use the indoor door at the Jewish Community Center in Philadelphia twice a week but had wanted the children to also have time at an outdoor pool.

Tara McDonald wants daugther’s killers to die

Tara McDonald, mother of the 8-year-old Tori Stafford who went missing, is speaking out about the arrests of two people in connection to her daughter’s abduction and murder. She says the police were too focused on her and not enough on the real culprits.

In an interview with The London Free Press newspaper, McDonald said, “My daughter’s not coming home. I want the killers dead. I know there are sick and twisted people in the world but I had no idea. I don’t want to sound selfish and I wish this on no one, but I sometimes think, why did it have to be my daughter?

“To think someone took my daughter and then … I can’t even think about it,” she said.

McDonald is angry about the treatment she says she and her son, 11, received from the police. At one point in the investigation, she said she was informed she was the prime suspect. She states that Daryn, her son, was interviewed without a parent or family member present.

McDonald’s ‘cool’ behaviour during the ordeal leading up to the arrests this week had critics pointing fingers at her. Local media and police questioned if the mother was the one behind Tori’s disappearance.

She faced the news cameras dry eyed, begging for her daughter’s return. The public wanted to see her tears. She fought them off until behind closed doors.

As she hoped for the safe return of her daughter, McDonald had to battle the public about everything from looking like the police composite to being in a biker gang. Both of those were false.

She also recently admitted she’s using methadone to fight her addiction to Oxycontin.

The Edmonton Sun reports:

“People have asked many times, ‘Why aren’t you crying, why aren’t you showing emotion?’ ” she said to counter the oft-mentioned criticism. “I don’t do it out here. I do it in there with my friends and family, with people who can console me.”

McDonald said she knew the mother of Terry-Lynne McClintic, 18, because of dog breeding. She had visited Carol McClintic at her home three times to discuss the subject. McDonald said she was high on drugs the one time that Terry-Lynne was in the apartment.

After two people were arrested in connection with young Tori’s disappearance, questions are now emerging about two previous attempted abductions in the Fergus, ON area. The two people arrested in connection with Tori’s disappearance were found in this area.

School children in Fergus were sent home with a note warning parents about a dark-coloured van after the two attempts.

Girl,5, shot in latest Toronto gun violence

Yesterday a little five-year-old girl in Toronto became the latest victim of gun violence. A gunman sprayed bullets on Bellevue Crescent with at least one traveling through the girl’s door and into her back exiting out of her chest.

The little girl was playing inside her family’s townhouse near near Lawrence and Weston Rd. when one man fired at a group of people sitting on an apartment patio early Thursday evening.

The child was rushed to Humber Regional Hospital by her parents. She was then transported by ambulance to Toronto’s Sick Children’s Hospital. Doctors have removed the bullet that struck her lung. She is now listed in stable condition at the children’s hospital.

Her pregnant mother, Sharlene Reynolds was escorted to Sick Kids Hospital by the police after 9:45 p.m. last night.

The police are looking for witnesses to the attack. They believe that two others were wounded in the attack and ask for those victims to come forward.

One person has been taken into custody as a person of interest. Police are looking for the gunman. Two firearms were used in the attack.

CBC reports:

“We’re going to leave no stone unturned until we find who has done this,” said Staff Sgt. Karen Smythe. “This is horrific.”

Constable Wendy Drummond of the Toronto Police told Digital Journal that the person of interest was released last night. At this time there have been no arrests or additional victims.

The area is becoming known for violence. Saron Ghebressellassie, 22, is quoted about the neighbourhood by the National Post:

“For every woman who has to walk home at night, it’s disgusting, an utter catastrophe. I fear for my life.

“It’s absolutely gut-wrenching to hear that it was a child. It’s become a social norm to come home and have, like, 10 police cruisers outside. I’m shaking right now. There’s a crisis in the neighbourhood. That could have been my brother and my sister. It’s devastating.”

In recent months there have been nine murders and many incidents where gunfire was involved. Neighbours blame gang wars for the gun violence, pleading for the police to end the blood being spilled.

Suzanne Gold, spokesperson from Sick Kids told Digital Journal that at this time they are unable to release any information about the little girl’s status.

The Amber Alert Is Not Used For All Missing Children

Why wasn’t Tori Stafford featured as an Amber Alert? While the police were searching as hard for the young girl she was not part of the Amber Alert system.

On April 11 Const. Laurie-Anne Maitland of the Oxford Community Police explained to Canada.com the reasoning behind Tori not being part of the Amber Alert notification system:

“There have been a lot of questions about the Amber Alert and why it wasn’t issued,” Maitland said Saturday. “At the time of the call coming in, we didn’t have what was required for an Amber Alert – not even close.

“At the time, we did not have a confirmed abduction . . . we did not have (information indicating) serious bodily harm or death and we have to have descriptive information of the child and the abductor and any vehicle.”

“When the criteria is not met, (the Amber Alert) is not done. It’s no less of an alert because it’s not called an Amber Alert. That’s one of the things that’s been difficult for a lot of people to understand – they have this belief that there’s something we could be doing that we’re not, when that’s not true.”

At a news conference today the police still are insisting that the criteria was not met for Tori.

While police were looking for a woman that Tori went home from school with on the day of her disappearance it was not thought she was abducted. Instead the police considered this a criminal investigation from the very beginning.

The Amber Alert stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response.” It was named for Amber Hagerman who was murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996 at the age of nine. The program is in the United States and Canada.

AMBER Alerts are distributed via commercial radio stations, satellite radio, television stations, and cable TV by the Emergency Alert System (where they are termed “Child Abduction Emergency” or “Amber Alerts”), as well as via e-mail, electronic traffic-condition signs, the LED billboards which are located outside of newer Walgreens locations, along with the LED/LCD signs of billboard companies such as Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and Lamar, and wireless device SMS text messages.

The criteria for a child being placed in the system is:

1. Law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place
2. The child must be at risk of serious injury or death
3. There must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor’s vehicle to issue an alert
4. The child must be 17 years old or younger

Not all police departments use the second criteria when placing an Amber Alert resulting in many Amber Alerts focusing on parental abductions where it is not thought that the child is in risk of serious injury.

The only difference between Canada and the United States is who is notified. (RCMP instead of the FBI)

The sad truth about the children on the Amber Alert program is that there are many more sad outcomes than positive ones. Still the alert can at times save young lives.

Arrests made in missing Tori Stafford case (updated)

There have been two arrests in the case of the missing girl, Tori Stafford. The 8-year-old Tori has been missing from Woodstock, Ontario since April 8.

Tori’s father, Rodney Stafford said he and his wife were informed by police about the Tuesday night arrests.

The Canadian Press reports:

“Tara and I were both given a phone call last night and made aware that two arrests have been made,” Stafford told media. We’re not sure where from, who they are and they (police) didn’t give details on Victoria or anything like that.”

Tori was last seen April 8 leaving school with a woman wearing a puffy white coat. There have been extensive searches in the area of her home that have failed to produce any evidence of the child.

A private investigator has offered to help find the girl free of charge, saying that returning the child would be all the reward he needs.

The police gave a news conference Wednesday afternoon and the family was informed of Tori’s death last night. During the press conference, police revealed the following information:

The court date is May 28 and suspects were arrested yesterday. Police have arrested two natives of Woodstock, Ontario. Michael Thomas C.S. Rafferty, 28, and Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, were arrested. Both are charged with abduction and Rafferty is charged with first-degree murder. McClintic is also charged with knowingly aiding and enabling Rafferty. The woman’s charges could be updated and she is being charged with crimes after the fact.

Police have yet to find Victoria and are still looking for the child’s body.

Police are not saying much more about the case, as they’re now working to give the Crown attorney a case for court. When Tori is found, the media will be notified.

Questions about how and when she died can not be answered at this time, and police are not commenting on the location at which they are currently searching for Tori’s body. Police suggest sexual assault may be also been a factor in this case.

Tori’s disappearance did not meet the criteria of the Amber Alert program, and police are not commenting on motive. They say, however, they are not anticipating any other arrests at this time.

One piece of evidence brought the police to where they are in their investigation, but that item was not identified.

Toronto Program Helps Poor Students With Educational Obstacles

The Models Schools for Inner Cities program has helped bridge community and several elementary schools in Toronto. The program is a grassroots effort to even the playing field in some of the city’s poorer areas.

The grassroots program, Inner City Advisory Committee (ICAC), has helped children with not only educational goals but by providing some basic health needs. Children in the schools that are in the program last year had vision and hearing tests for their students. The results were profound. Some of the children could not see the blackboard, some could not hear their teachers. The program not only tested but then helped parents obtain corrective surgeries, glasses and hearing aids for their children. The program is funded through The Sprott Asset Management Gift of Sight and Sound program in partnership with the Toronto Foundation for Student Success, Wal-Mart Canada and The Canadian Hearing Society. this program will carry over to 50 inner city schools again in September.

The program has shown that it works but it also faces an uphill battle as funding can be hard to obtain. It is asking for $8.5 million to be dedicated in the TDSB budget to maintain the Model Schools for Inner Cities program, $1.0 million be added to the MSIC budget to allow the support of up to 24 model middle schools and $2.5 million be added to expand the program to serve up to 30 secondary schools.

Seven schools in Toronto’s inner city are model schools, Firgrove, Nelson Mandela Park PS, Willow Park, Forest Manor, George Webster, Kingsview Village Jr. and Bala Avenue Community School. These schools all have one common thread, students who live in poverty attend.

As the Toronto School Board site states:

“This is our collective effort as communities, as a Board and as individuals to level the playing field for all our children,” said Sheila Cary-Meagher, TDSB Trustee for Ward 16 and Chair of the Model Schools for Inner Cities Task Force. “By working together with students, families, schools and the community, we can make a real difference in the lives of our children in poverty.”

The program started in November 2006 providing stability and a safe haven for the students. By developing partnerships with higher education institutions the education of the students have been able to provide support for the students. Every teacher has a teacher candidate from York University at one of the schools. One of the programs is a Saturday arts program with art and music.

Children are given snacks and lunches helping families even more.

Parent Michael Corniffe whose daughter attends Forest Manor feels his involvement is important. “Getting involved in this type of program is fantastic. It’s really beneficial to the kids in the school and in the community. The school is very dedicated to its parents.”

The program is not just for the students but their parents as well. There are monthly parent workshops. This month the program explores School Profiles and Principal/VP role in parent engagement at the school level.

One school in the program is George Webster ES. Principle Nancy Steinhauer discussed the benefits of being a model school: “The program has definitely helped my school. We have parental involvement and more community agencies now as a result of the program. Today some of the student are in fact out with community support workers getting glasses as part of the vision testing.”

The funding that the program provides really does level the playing field for Steinhauer’s students. The classes have all had opportunities to go on three field trips this year that are relevant to their curriculum. In a school that has a high poverty population getting funding for these types of events is rare. Fund raisers can only bring in what the community can afford, without the funding from the school board for Model Schools the children would not be getting as many of these precious memories.

The children are feeling safer in their school in just two years. 71 per cent of the students have said that they like going to school compared to 61% before the program. School spirit is at 80% now.

Parents have the resource of after school programs for their children at George Webster. 51% of the children no longer go straight home from school now, instead they are involved in safe and educational after school programing that doesn’t end until 6:15 p.m. each evening. In an area where there isn’t a close community center that’s a godsend.

This summer the children of the school will have a preschool program. By teaching skills earlier the kids will be able to thrive when they enter school. That fits in with the school’s goals of being a heart of the community. Steinhauer wants her parents to feel safe and welcome at her school.

Academically it’s early in the stages as to how much of an improvement there has been. The testing though is showing some very positive results. Before the program reading tests showed students below grade level. That has changed — this year the kids were on grade level or above at the start of the year.

Perhaps the most positive sign though is the lack of school suspensions this year. Not one children has had to be disciplined in that way.

Parents also are more involved with their children’s education at George Webster. Whether it is reading to their children from books in their first language or attending parent meetings the involvement has increased.

Last week Digital Journal talked with Cassie Bell, Inner City Project Coordinator. At that time she stressed how important the funding is for this program. Each year ICAC has to fight hard for the next year’s funding budget. The program has to as Ms. Bell says “rob Peter to pay Paul.”

“At what part do we stop yakking and get to work.”

It’s a positive program that is working for the schools involved. Hopefully funding will continue and the program will grow. Each school in Toronto deserves to be a model school, each student deserves the very best education that the community can provide.

A video of the program is located here.

How Women Can Prevent Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder

There’s one birth defect that is 100 per cent preventable: fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. The only way to prevent this detect though is to not drink a drop of alcohol while you are pregnant.
When a mother drinks alcohol while pregnant she risks her fetus with each sip. The condition fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, or FASDs can affect the development of the fetus and cause lifelong learning and behaviour challenges. The condition is also known to cause birth defects in the heart, brain and other organs that last a lifetime. There is no cure for these conditions, only prevention.

It’s not known what amount of alcohol is safe for a mother to drink which is why the Centers of Disease Control recommends that pregnant women refrain from all alcoholic beverages during their pregnancy, that includes prior to the knowledge of being pregnant.

In the United States about 1 in 12 women use alcohol during their pregnancies. The condition happens in 0.2 to 1.5 cases per 1,000 live births.

Young girl dealing with breast cancer at the age of 10

At the age of ten Hannah Powell-Auslam should be putting pink ribbons in dolls hair instead of dealing with breast cancer. The young girl was diagnosed recently with stage 2 cancer, a rarity in young girls.
When Hannah complained to her mother of an itch no one could have thought that in days the girl would be having surgery a mass. The doctors didn’t expect to find cancer. because of that the surgery didn’t remove all of the tumor because it had grown into breast tissue. The mass was sent off for testing with the doctor reassuring the family not to worry because breast cancer does not happen with children.

Sadly the truth was that Hannah does has Stage IIA Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, an adult form of breast cancer.

Hannah had a mastectomy of her left breast on Thursday. When she is older reconstruction surgery, which she calls recreation surgery can be performed.

Sadly one of the sentinel lymph nodes have come back from pathology as positive for cancer. Still her doctor believes that Hannah can beat this disease. She has an 85 per cent chance of a five-year disease-free survival.

The family has had difficulty finding an oncologist that deals with breast cancer in one so young. They are working with the doctors at UCLA Medical Center who deal with adults going through the disease.

Her battle with cancer is being journaled at ourlittlesweetpea.com, a site started by her uncle and father.

If you would like to support Hannah the family is accepting donations.

Turkish Police Mistakenly Fire Tear Gas At School

Dozens of children have been hurt after Turkish police made a mistake, firing a tear gas canister into a school in the town of Altinsehir.
Police were in responding to a disturbance over the decision of local authorities to tear down unlicensed buildings with water cannons and tear gas. Protesters were filmed throwing stones at the police and setting fire to tires.

About ten children aged seven to 15 had to be taken to hospital from exposure to the fumes. Tear gas irritates the eyes, nose, mouth and lungs.

A four-month-old infant was also taken to hospital when another of the canisters was fired into the window of an apartment building.

Opinion: Inside Toronto’s Gun Violence, No Excuse When Kids Are Dying

hen I moved to Toronto it was during the summer of gun violence. To someone from the States it really didn’t seem so bad, after all it was handguns. It’s amazing how much an attitude can change in just a few years. Today violence shocks me, as it should.

Toronto is now dealing with a spat of gun deaths in the West Side. Senseless murders, young lives lost. When 14-year-olds are gunned down in a field and left to die something is indeed wrong.

These gun wars have nothing to do with the recession. They are a sign of the times though, desperate acts from desperate people. There is no justification. Drugs could be the motive but that can’t be the entire answer. What has happened to our youth that makes pulling the trigger even be in their thought process?

When Basil Bryan, 23, was shot in the chest, laying on the sidewalk there is footage of someone just walking on by. Has the city become that callous?

How many times will words of shock and grief be printed in newspapers like City News after Daniel Da Silva died.

“I’ve known him since he was a little kid,” said Will Roque. “What are you going to say? (His mother) is hysterical, crying, I don’t even think she’s going to the coroner’s office.”

“That’s one of the best kids in the world,” adds family friend Vitalina Rolo. “I can’t say anything bad about him, nothing.”

Kids standing at bus stops aren’t even safe.Jarvis St. Remy, 18, was gunned down in the street waiting for a bus.

City News quotes Mayor David Miller:

“Imagine being a mom, your son being gunned down like this, it’s just heartbreaking for everybody,” he said. “We just simply have to get at the guns and get them off the street.”

So what can be done to stop this violence? One answer is education. In Toronto there is one program that started in 2004 called Inner City Advisory Committee (ICCA).

Digital Journal spoke to Cassie Bell, Inner City Project Coordinator about what her program does for the youth in at-risk areas. The group works with 7 elementary schools with a total of 50 schools being touched by the program to bring a more level playing field to the early educational game. With hard fought for grant money the program last year was able to have hearing and vision tests given to students at the model schools. What they found was confounding. There were children who were in need of vision surgery, children who were deaf. Working with partnerships those children were able to be treated. Once treated, kids who had been behaviour problems in school started to be star students according to Ms. Bell.

“At what point do we stop yakking and get to work. We have to deal with the problems now.”

The program is showing results. It also like many programs that work has to fight each year for the funding to continue.

MP Mario Silva sent Digital Journal the following statement:

Of course I am concerned about gun crime in my city. Our police service works very hard to keep the streets safe and I have always been fully committed to giving them the tools they need to do their jobs properly.

More than that, along with my colleagues in the Liberal Party, I have stood up against any attempts to weaken our current gun legislation.”/quote]
In September it was announced that Toronto was taking action to prevent crime in Toronto to the tune of more than $4.9 million in funding for a project that is aimed at preventing and reducing street gang activity.

Public Safety quotes Toronto Police Chief William Blair:

“A meaningful approach to prevent and reduce crime must start with an intelligence-based, targeted enforcement approach, along with a strong community mobilization component, such as our effective Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy, but it must build on TAVIS, to encompass government and community initiatives and involvement to be truly effective,” said Toronto Police Chief William Blair. “Today’s announcement furthers the process of keeping Toronto a safe, vibrant, and diverse city.”

The money will to go to:

* addressing early risk factors among vulnerable children and youth;
* preventing youth gang and drug-related crime;
* preventing recidivism among high-risk groups; and
* fostering crime prevention in Aboriginal communities.

Yet the crimes are getting worse, the deaths more frequent. With the millions being tossed around what is being done at the street level? One program that has gotten funding is the TAVIS program. The program partners the communities at risk with Toronto police officers. The Toronto Police web site states the goal of the program:

We expect that TAVIS will reduce crime, particularly violent crime, in neighbourhoods across Toronto. It will also help the community to take charge of their own neighbourhoods; you and your neighbours will have the primary role in solving problems and preventing crime.

In the next few weeks look for more in-depth articles about school programs that work in Toronto and the TAVIS program in Toronto.

Adrian Johnston, 14, Shot Down In West Toronto

Police in Toronto are looking for the person who killed Adrian Johnston, 14, on Monday afternoon. The young teen was gunned down in a field near Scarlett Road and St. Clair Avenue.

Shocked neighbours heard three shots and saw a man running away from the scene. They raced to the boy as he lay dying in a pool of blood from wounds in his chest, stomach and shoulder.

The Toronto Star reports:
“I’ll never forget that image,” Melanie Cebry said, holding back tears. “All I saw was a kid – a child – lying on the ground alone.

“I want his mother to know he was not alone. A lot of people were there and we all tried to help him.”

A tarp covered the child’s body at the scene for hours as the police combed the area.

The man running from the scene is described as male, black, 5′-5′6″, dark pants, dark hoodie and a bandana covering most of his face.

Adrain attended Runnymede Collegiate Institute in Toronto. Spokesman John Caldarone told Digital Journal that the school’s focus at this time is to support the students who are grieving at this time. There are grief counselors at the school to help the children with this.

Adrain is the 18th murdered person this year in Toronto, the fourth in the area where Johnston was gunned down. Jarvis St. Remy, 18, was another gunned down just a few blocks away at a bus stop just last week.

Police have not commented on a motive for this latest shooting. When Digital Journal spoke with the police department they said a press conference will take place at 2 p.m.

9 votes

Sick Kids Hospital Part Of Canada’s First Fetal Heart Surgery

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and Mount Sinai Hospital have successfully operated on a fetus to correct a heart problem.

The doctors were able to expand the infant’s aortic valve using a balloon catheter.

The device, inserted through the mother’s abdomen and then into the baby was able to reverse heart failure.

The team included Dr. Edgar Jaeggi, Head of the Fetal Cardiac Program at SickKids, Dr. Greg Ryan, Head of the Fetal Medicine Unit at Mount Sinai and Dr. Lee Benson, Director of the Cardiac Diagnostic and Interventional Unit at SickKids. The doctors were able to do the valve procedure allowing baby Oceana to remain in the womb for an extra month.

Sick Kids reports:

“The fetal intervention was minimally invasive for the mother and lifesaving for the baby,” says Ryan. “Our ability to repair the aortic valve at 31 weeks gestation allowed the fetus to grow and thrive for four more weeks in the mother’s uterus, resulting in a bigger, healthier baby at birth with decreased likelihood of additional health risks. Had the baby been delivered at 31 weeks, the heart’s left ventricle could not have been saved. The collaboration of expertise between SickKids and Mount Sinai saved this infant’s life.”

Mother Vicki McKenzie of Ottawa was 30 weeks pregnant when an ultrasound sounded Oceana was suffering from Critical Aortic Stenosis, meaning there was severe narrowing of the main outlet valve of the left ventricle. McKenzie was quickly taken to Toronto and offered the option of the experimental procedure.

“They have saved my daughter’s life. Having access to the expertise at these two hospitals was a comfort. I could confidently have my baby at Mount Sinai and know that she would immediately receive the urgent care she needed across the street at SickKids,” says McKenzie.

“The intervention recovered Océane’s ventrical function completely. It is operating at a normal level now. We hope this successful collaboration opens the door to giving other babies a healthier start in life,” says Jaeggi.

Oceane McKenzie was born April 15. She has had two procedures since her birth. She is now recovering and should be able to go home soon.

The first fetal cardiac surgery was performed in September 2001 at Boston’s Children’s Hospital.

Baby ‘Jack’ was a 23-week-old fetus when doctors opened a his aortic valve with a balloon catheter. The procedure saved his life. When he was born he did not require further surgery and is being followed by Wayne Tworetzky, MD in the cardiology clinic. The child may in the future have to have another aortic valve dilation.

Camp Quest Now In England, An Atheist Summer Camp

Every year parents send their children to camp. Many camps have a solid religious background. What about camps for non-religious families? Camp Quest was the first camp in the US for children of Atheists. The camp this year crosses the ocean to England.

The British version of the camp is founded by ex-University of York student Samantha Stein. Stein is modeling her program after Camp Quest which was started by Edwin and Helen Kagin in 1996. It now has five locations in the United States and one in Ontario, Canada.

The campers are required to sign a “Declaration of Religious Belief” when they attend the 5 day program.

Stein took the program to England after research showed her that there were no other camps geared to non-believers. This year’s session will be from July 27th until July 31st in Bath.

Campers are not required to be atheists but parents should be aware that the camp adopts a critical, scientific approach as opposed to a “faith-based” approach. The theme of this year’s camp is Evolution. During the mornings campers will explore many ideas including philosophy for Children, pseudoscience, astronomy, evolution, critical thinking, nature games and the famous Invisible Unicorns Challenge. Afternoons will be devoted to physical activities like archery, climbing and rafting.

The Yorker reports:

“We aren’t about converting children or trying to tell them what is right or wrong, rather we seek to promote critical thinking, philosophy and science in the context of those without religious belief. Our aim is educational – we are not an indoctrination scheme trying to push some ‘atheist agenda’ to abolish all religion.”

Stein added: “There are few social networks for the children of nonreligious parents, in the same way that children may make friends at church or Sunday school, and this is part of what that attempts to be: a way in which children can meet to discuss their ideas, have fun and know that they are not alone.”

The camp’s goal is to introduce children to “logical fallacies in a fun way”.

Stein graduated from York last year with a degree in Psychology, and is currently pursuing a masters in Religion in Contemporary Society at Kings College London.

The Ontario program was founded in 1992 in Guelph. This year’s session will take place in Waterloo July 19-25.

School Wins-California Supreme Court Sexual Discrimination Case

The California Supreme Court ruled in favor of a school that expelled two students because they were having a lesbian relationship.

The state’s highest court ruled in favor of California Lutheran High School’s right to expel the young teenagers. The school according to the court was within their right to exclude students based on their sexual orientation because it is a private, religious organization.

The private school is a Christian institution that teaches its students the ‘unchanging will of God.’

The girls had sued the Riverside County school in 2005 using the state’s anti-discrimination law.

The Court’s ruling could open the doors for private schools to discriminate against students on any basis including sex and religion.

This goes against the California Safe School Coalition for public schools which states California Student Safety and Violence Prevention Act of 2000 prohibits discrimination and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in California public schools.

Had the school been considered a business opened to the public their expelling students based on sexual orientation would be considered discrimination. That was the angle that the lawyers for the two female students suing the school went for.

In January the California’s 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that the school was not a business.

Both girls are now attending college.

Raccoon Ringworm Hits Two In New York

A rare disease transmitted by raccoons has left an infant with brain damage and a teen blind in one eye in New York. The city is on the alert for Raccoon Ringworm, a very rare disease that can affect humans who come in contact with raccoon feces.

The disease can cause permanent nerve damage and in the most serious cases death.

The New York Daily News reports:

Parents should closely supervise small children in areas where raccoons live to prevent possible ingestion of raccoon feces,” said Sally Slavinski, of a Health Department unit that deals with diseases that can be transmitted between animals and humans.

The infant that was infected last October. It is believed that he got the disease in upstate New York. He has been in hospital since that time. His symptoms started with seizures and spinal problems which caused brain damage.

The Brooklyn teen lost sight in his right eye this January.

There have been fewer than 30 cases of Raccoon Ringworm reported nationwide. Once a person is infected it takes two to four weeks for the symptoms to appear. Symptoms include nausea, loss of coordination and muscle control, and blindness, to develop. The disease is prone to children and especially developmentally disabled children.

Healthy Body Image Badge Coming Soon For The Girl Guides

The Girl Guides of Canada have come out with a new badge to promote a healthy body image. Girls from five to seventeen can earn the Love Yourself Challenge badge that promotes healthy eating, a positive body image and self-esteem.

The new badge is purple is green with three female stick figures of differently shaped girls and will be launched on May 11.

The challenge program was helped by the National Eating Disorder Information Centre. The Center approached the Girl Guides about the idea last year.

There are different activities depending on the age of the girl earning the badge.

In recent years the Girl Guides have been working on updating their image.

CBC reports:

“Guiding has an old-fashioned stigma to it. It’s been around for 100 years and our membership has dropped,” Rebecca Tye, girl program coordinator for the group, said Tuesday.

“We don’t usually deal with something so progressive … but we know it’s important to our 80,000 members,” she added.

The Guides started in 1909 when Lord Baden-Powell at the Crystal Palace in London, Great Britain organized a Scouting rally for boys. To his surprise a number of girls showed up. Baden-Powell impressed by the girls asked his sister Agnes to create a program just for them.

By 1910 the program had come to Canada with the first unit in St. Catherines, Ontario. In just two years there were units in each province.

Morning Sickness Makes For Brighter Kids

That morning sickness you are dealing with may be cause to celebrate. Researchers at the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto say that morning sickness could make for brighter kids.
A new study appearing in The Journal of Pediatrics shows that that queasy feeling enhances children’s long-term neurodevelopment.

This is the first study that assesses the direct impact of morning sickness on children’s neurodevelopment. Past studies have suggested that there are benefits to morning sickness but the long-term effects for children had not been investigated before.

Sick Kids reports:

“Our findings suggest an association between NVP and improved neurodevelopment in the offspring,” says Dr. Irena Nulman, lead author of the study. “NVP is a widespread and puzzling physiological phenomenon that has yet to be sufficiently studied,” adds Nulman, Associate Director of the Motherisk Program, SickKids Associate Scientist and staff physician in SickKids Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, and Associate Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto.

The participants of the study were recruited using the Motherisk’s NVP hotline database. The researchers used 121 women who called the hotline from 1998 to 2003. The participants were spilt into three groups of mother-child pairs: mothers who experienced morning sickness and were treated with diclectin (a drug used to treat nausea and vomiting during pregnancy); those who experienced morning sickness and did not take diclectin; and those who did not experience morning sickness.

The children aged three to seven were then given standardized age-appropirate tests to measure their intelligence and behaviour. Other outside factors were figured into the study including mother’s IQ, number of cigarettes smoked per day, alcohol consumption and socioeconomic status.

The findings showed that all of the children in the three groups had normal ranges for neurodevelopmental outcome. What was surprising though was that children whose mothers had morning sickness scored higher on performance IQ, verbal fluency, phonological processing and numerical memory. The use of diclectin did not make a difference in the intelligence of the children. The severity of morning sickness did make a difference along with maternal IQ.

Sick Kids reports:

“The results from this study emphasize the need for further scientific investigation into the physiological basis of NVP, in order to provide safer management and more successful pregnancy outcomes in the future,” says Dr. Gideon Koren, principal investigator of the study, Director of the Motherisk Program, Senior Scientist at SickKids and Professor of Paediatrics, Pharmacology, Pharmacy and Medical Genetics at the University of Toronto.

Boy Dies After Attempting Stunt From TV Show Roadies

Chandan Singh never missed an episode of the show Roadies. On Saturday night the nine-year-old died trying to do a stunt on the show.
The young boy accidentally hung himself after watching the Saturday night episode of Roadies. In the show two female contestants were made to stand on a wooden stool with their hands tied. A rope was placed around their necks as another contestant had three minutes to save them.

NDTV News reports:

“He watched the episode on the third floor of our house along with his friends and tried to imitate the stunt after his friends left. After hearing a loud noise, I rushed to the room and found Chandan hanging from the ceiling fan,” his uncle Bhagat Singh told media persons.

Inspector Jaganath Saroj of Vikas Nagar police station said: “According to his uncle, Bhagat Singh, with whom he used to live in the Vikas Nagar locality, Chandan never missed any episode of the show.”

The boy was pronounced dead at hospital.

Women and children make up large portion of death count in Iraq

The bombs drop on a village said to be housing insurgents. The death tolls mounts. The village mourns their dead women and children.
That is the sad tale of too many villages in Iraq where the most innocent members of the war have been the ones that pay with their lives. Analysis being carried out for the Iraq Body Count report the 39 per cent of those killed in air raids are children, 46 per cent are women. When it comes to mortars used by both American and Iraqi government forces and the insurgents the death toll is even higher; 42 per cent children and 44 per cent women.

Those road side bombs that make the news do not just kill the military. One in five of the deaths are children and one in four are women.

The Raw Story reports:

“Analysis carried out for the research group Iraq Body Count (IBC) found that 39 per cent of those killed in air raids by the US-led coalition were children and 46 per cent were women,” Kim Sengupta reports for The Independent. “Fatalities caused by mortars, used by American and Iraqi government forces as well as insurgents, were 42 per cent children and 44 per cent women.”

When suicide bombers hit a market even more women and children perish. Pushing the numbers at King’s College and Royal Holloway, University of London academics see that the highest cost in the war in Iraq has been those who have the least amount of say, the children and women in small villages. the figures were reported in the report The Weapons That Kill Civilians, Deaths of Children and Noncombatants in Iraq.

There have been 99,774 total deaths so far in Iraq according to the IBC. The death tolls according to The Lancet is much higher with one study saying in the first three years of the war 600,000 people were killed.

IBC reports:

The authors conclude that “Policymakers, war strategists of all persuasions, and the groups and societies that support them bear moral and legal responsibility for the effects that particular combat tactics have on civilians — including the weapons used near and among them.”

Scare Tactics or Facts? New Ad Campaign Against Obesity in UK

Did the Department of Health in the UK try to scare mothers from giving their children sweets? The agency recently spent 500,000 pounds to place two adverts in women’s weekly magazines that made treats look like a demon meal.
The ads are part of a £75 million program to help slim the public’s waistline. It now has critics throughout the country including the National Obesity Forum.

Mothers are objecting to the message that giving their children a treat now and then is leading their young to a premature death.

The Taxpayers Alliance isn’t thrilled about the spots either. They are saying that people are not happy that the government is using their hard owned tax dollars to bash them about the way they live their lives.

The Telegraph reports:

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum described the initiative as sending out “an absolutely ludicrous message”.

“The idea that a cupcake will kill you is totally over the top, and for that reason the whole thing is totally counterproductive.

“Obviously cakes have to be an occasional treat, but the idea that a healthy child eating a cupcake at a party is dicing with death is absolutely crazy. Parents will switch off,” he said.

The Department of Health has reason though to target mothers with their ads.

The Guardian reports:

“Early signs show that we may be halting the rise in childhood obesity,” said the public health minister, Dawn Primarolo. “But there’s still more to do in particular to tackle obesity in adults.

“More than 60% of adults in England are overweight or obese, leaving them at increased risk of type two diabetes, cancer, heart and liver disease.”

The truth is that the UK is in an obesity crisis and the young will be paying the ultimate costs later on. With many parents in denial about the health risks that their children’s waistlines can pose there may have to be drastic steps taken. Obesity in the UK is increasing. In 2006 almost 30 percent of children under the age of 16 were classed as obese or overweight. The adults are doing even worse, 67 per cent of men and 56 per cent of women were listed as overweight or obese.

A government survey found that many of the 1,200 parents questioned were in denial about their children being overweight.

The Change4Life campaign has been in full swing since the beginning of the year.

Food Navigator reports:

“We have already made progress on things like labeling and fat and salt content working with the industry. But … if this three-year campaign does not succeed, we don’t rule out regulating in future,” health minister Ben Bradshaw is quoted as saying.

The Department of Health is backing their campaign saying that its based on extensive research. A spokesman said that the ads are not using scare tactics just “straightforward language” and pointed out that obesity costs the NHS £4.2 billion a year. The ads are being backed by Diabetes UK, Cancer Research UK and The British Heart Foundation.

BBC reports:

Health Secretary Alan Johnson said: “The message that we received from parents was clear – we recognize that obesity is a big problem, but it’s not our problem.”

Studies also show that parents are having a hard time understanding all of the literature and information that is being handed them about feeding their children in a healthy manner.

With a more fast paced life style convenience foods are becoming the norm. Britain’s consumption of ready made meals is doubling that of France and six times higher than Spain. It could be to due with the fact that 80% of homes in the UK have a microwave while other European homes don’t have the appliance as often.

Kids in the UK are consuming an increasing about of soft drinks, crisps and savory snacks, fast food and pre-sugared breakfast cereals. Research suggests that while many mothers think they know what a healthy diet is, they are at a loss as to how to make this attractive to their children.

Two violent brothers raise questions in UK

As the two child victims of a horrific attack that took place in the UK this weekend recover in hospital questions about their child attackers are surfacing. The attacks are just 10 and 11, brothers that are part of the nation’s foster care program.

Two brothers hurt two other boys in the UK this weekend. They are part of the foster care program. They have a mother who has washed her hands of them. They are just ten and eleven years old. What went wrong along the way and why were these boys allowed to roam the streets when social workers knew they were dangerous?

The boys mother told The Sun newspapers that ‘It’s got nowt to do with me – they weren’t even in my care.’

The boys have been charged with attempted murder and robbery. They have been described as ‘chaotic and dangerous’.

Relatives of the injured boys are outraged that the brothers were allowed to be roaming the area when it was known that they were dangerous.

The Daily Mail reports:

The aunt of the 11-year-old thrown in the ravine said: ‘They knew what the two attackers were capable of, but they did nothing.

‘Social services should have taken them into more secure care, not just let them roam the streets. If he had been found just half an hour later my poor nephew would have died.

‘Now the worry is that the people responsible won’t be put away. They will go to a detention centre with a nice X-Box. That’s not punishment if you ask me.’

The boys aren’t the brothers first victims. The Daily Mail reports that just a week earlier Callam Flett, an 11-year-old choirboy at St John’s Church in Edlington was beaten by the boys at the same spot. Callam’s parents reported the attack immediately. The police according to Mrs. Flett wasn’t that interested, in fact the parents were warned that they could get in trouble if the bandied around the brothers names.

I am appalled and shocked,’ said Mrs Flett. ‘The attack on my son was horrific and he could quite easily have been very seriously injured.’

Just hours before the brothers attacked the children that are still in hospital they were questioned by the police concerning Callam’s attack.

The oldest boy was the most seriously injured Saturday. He had to be airlifted to Sheffield Children’s Hospital. Yesterday he improved from critical to stable and the ventilator keeping him alive was finally able to be removed.

His 16-year-old brother said: ‘He could hardly open his eyes in hospital. They were swollen shut with a slice cut running along the bottom of one eye. His face is covered in bruises and cuts. He looks like he has been battered in a boxing match. None of us can believe what’s happened. Kids get into little fights but this is something different. It’s horrible.’

The boy’s parents released a press statement thanking those who have prayed for their son reports The Telegraph.

His parents said: “We would like to thank all the community for their help in finding our son and for all their continued support through what is a very traumatic time. We are hoping that our son will continue to recover from his ordeal and ask that the media would please respect our privacy and not approach our family or friends.”

Because of their ages the brothers can not be named. The Daily Mail though has discovered that they spent time in the care of Doncaster council. Detectives have been granted an additional 36 hours to question them.

Since the incident the brothers have been in custody. The Telegraph reports:

Chris Hartley, Head of the CPS’s Crown Court unit, said: “South Yorkshire Police have been investigating an incident in Edlington during which two young boys aged nine and eleven received significant injuries. They arrested two boys aged ten and eleven in connection with this incident.

“South Yorkshire CPS has been advising the Police during the last few days as their investigations continued. We have now authorised the police to charge a boy aged ten and a boy aged eleven.

“Each boy will be charged with an offence of attempted murder of each victim and each boy will also be charged with an offence of robbery against each victim. This gives a total for four charges for each boy.”

Neighbours of the foster family that was trying to care for them say that the boys claimed ownership of the street.

The Daily Mail reports:

Charles Dunn, 52, said: ‘They were tearaways who were completely out of control.

‘They were strutting around like cocks of the walk and seen wandering barefoot and dirty, trespassing, lighting fires and being rowdy.

‘I saw them smoking and wouldn’t have been surprised if they weren’t drunk.’

Philip Metcalf, 45, an odd-job man, said: ‘Their behaviour was shocking. They were running riot and it didn’t look like the foster parents could exert any control.’

The event has been deemed shocking by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Downing Street.

Teletext.co.uk reports:

Paul Hart, managing director of Doncaster Council, said: “This is a truly shocking and upsetting incident and we are working closely with our partners to assist the investigation. We can confirm that the two boys in custody have recently been placed into foster care. As this is an ongoing criminal investigation we cannot add anything further at this time.”

The Doncaster Council department is already being looked at as investigations are underway about the deaths of seven children in the borough since 2004. This year Children’s Secretary Ed Balls replaced the management team of the children’s service at the authority.

As she laid sleeping Paris Whitehead-Hamilton was killed Sunday

As she lay sleeping in her bed Paris Whitehead-Hamilton was taken from this world with a bullet shot outside of her home. An eighteen-year-old suspect opened fire piercing the home with more than 50 bullets.

At about 2:20 AM Sunday young Paris was ripped from life as a single bullet hit her upper torso.

The Lakeland Ledger reports:

“It’s shocking to see that baby get hurt,” said Twynette Green, 37, a six-year resident of the street whose 2-year-old grandchild was among the nine people in the house during the shooting. “At first, we thought it was firecrackers, but then it just locked in and all we heard was shooting.”

Paris’ father, Robert E. Hamilton has yet to be contacted. He’s serving his country in the military.

The child’s mother died from a fall in 2006.

She lived at the house at 771 Preston Avenue South with her aunt, Shenita Joseph, 42. Paris’ aunt is staying at a hotel now. Her grief is too strong to be around family.

The man that stands accused of killing her began his criminal history at just a year older than the life that was taken last night. At nine he was charged with disrupting a school environment. More charges followed him at age 11 and then again at age 12.

By 2006 he was charged with possession of cocaine. This year in February he was charged with aggravated fleeing and eluding, marijuana possession and operating a vehicle without a license. He now sits in a cell at Pinella County Jail. Police say they have other suspects in the case.

Investigators have discovered that there was an on-going dispute between a male that lived at the home and the suspect. A fight, retaliation. A child is killed.

News-Press.com reports:

“I’m not going to say this is gang-related but we know there was a neighborhood dispute,” said Chief Chuck Harmon of the St. Petersburg Police Department.

It’s being said that was the motive for this senseless killing.

Detectives seized three assault rifles, two shotguns and one bullet-proof vest from an apartment at Citrus Grove Apartments at 711 15th Street South.

ABC Action News reports:

Chief Harmon said he wanted like to reassure the citizens of St. Petersburg that “the St. Petersburg Police Department will aggressively pursue any criminal who uses an assault rifle to commit acts of violence against innocent victims in our community.”

Police have charged Stephan C. Harper of St. Petersburg with first-degree murder. They say he planned and then participated in the shooting.

Today as the children that knew little Paris return to school they will be greeted by grief counselors. The 360 children at Imagine School of St. Petersburg are returning from Spring Break this morning. Today they will have to learn a harsh lesson, a child died, their friend will not return.

Some lessons should never have to be taught.

Child Critically Wounded In Attack, Two Children Are Suspects

One child is cut from head to toe and another in critical condition after being attacked by two other children demanding their shoes, money and mobile phones. The crime is breaking the heart of those that reside in Edlington, Doncaster, South Yorkshire.

An eleven-year-old is fighting for his life in Edlington, Doncaster, South Yorkshire after and his friend is struggling to deal with a knife attack. Two other children are suspected of crime.

The crime has shocked the community with the horrific tale of two children being brutalized by other children. The younger of the boys attacked wandered the streets coated in his own blood from numerous stab wounds until a man brought him into his home and called an ambulance.The Daily News reports that Derek Wright rescued the child.

Mrs Wright, 68, said: ‘My husband saw him walking past the outside of our house and he was covered in what my husband thought was red paint. When he went out he saw it was blood.

‘We brought him in and my husband calmed him down. He had a big gash on his arm and he was covered in blood on his head. He was shaking very badly and going into shock.

‘He had no shoes or socks on and he was wet through. To me I thought he had been in water, that’s what it looked like from the waist down, he was just wet through.

‘My husband got a few words out of him, what his name was and that two boys had attacked him.’

It’s being reported that the two young boys were confronted by the other children while bike riding.

The two suspects demanded that the children hand over their cell phones, money and shoes. When the two resisted the attackers tortured them with burning cigarettes, stabbed them from head to toe and beat them with bricks according to witnesses.

The child now in critical condition was pushed down a 30ft embankment. He was found at the bottom of the embankment semi-conscious. He was then air-lifted to hospital. The younger child is being treated at at Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

The Daily Mail reports:

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said: ‘An 11-year-old boy was found partially conscious with life-threatening injuries to his head.

‘He was airlifted to Sheffield Children’s Hospital and placed in intensive care. His condition was described as critical but stable.’

The police have arrested two boys, aged 10 and 11 in connection with the attack.

Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Some Baby Formulas

Perchlorate, a chemical in rocket fuel, has been found in samples of powdered baby formulas tested by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The threat to infants is not known. In the United States formulas must contain iodine which counteracts perchlorate’s effects. The chemical is not listed on the ingredients on formula labels.

The small study tested 15 powdered formulas and all were found to have the chemical in them. The formulas ranged from milk-based, soy-based, lactose-free or “elemental,” which are made with synthetic amino acids for babies who can’t digest standard formulas. Formulas derived from cow’s milk had the largest amounts of perchlorate. The researchers would not release the brand names of the formulas to the Associated Press.

The study did not measure the levels of perchlorate in infants. That study is considered essential because it would tell if infants are absorbing the perchlorate to which they may be exposed.

UPI reports:

“Perchlorate contamination of drinking water is a very serious concern, particularly for infants,” Dr. Anila Jacob, a senior scientist with Environmental Working Group, said in a statement. “As this unprecedented study demonstrates, infants fed cow’s milk-based powdered formula could be exposed to perchlorate from two sources — tap water and formula.”

Researchers say that when the formula is mixed with water containing trace amounts of perchlorate there could be potentially dangerous levels. According to the scientists significant amounts of the chemical can affect thyroid function. Fetal and infant brain development can also be affected by thyroid problems.

Lisa Jackson, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, has pledged to act quickly to reduce perchlorate contamination in drinking water. Perchlorate has been found in drinking water in 28 states and territories, according to the Environmental Working Group.

Mother Accused of Drugging Daughter to Impregnate Her

A western Pennsylvania mother is accused of drugging her 13-year-old daughter so that her boyfriend could get her pregnant without the child’s knowledge.

It is being reported that the mother was no longer able to have children yet wanted to have another child with her current boyfriend, Duane Calloway. She hatched onto a plan to allow the man have sex with her child in order to achieve that goal.

The mother, Shana Brown, 32, turned herself in on Thursday after being charged with endangering the welfare of a child. The boyfriend was arrested on Wednesday. He is facing several counts of attempted rape.

The child told the police about the plot to impregnate her. Her mother had approached her about the idea of the child carrying the man’s baby in December. The teen refused. At that point the boyfriend attempted to rape the child three separate times.

The police found an empty rum bottle, Tylenol PM and a pill crusher at the residence.

Lemon Soda Used By Priest For Baptism

It may seem like an April Fool’s joke but a priest really baptized a baby with lemon soda in Norway when the church’s taps froze.

Norwegian priest Paal Dale had to do some fast thinking when there was no holy water on tap in Stord, Norway. Using some lemon soda that had gone flat the holy man daubed a newborn’s head in order to perform the religious ceremony.

Dale only felt the need to tell the parents after the lemony smell lingered.

The Mirror reports:

“They didn’t say much but I assumed they smelled the aroma as well,” Father Paal said.

Baptism is not only a symbolic ceremony in many Christian religions but a means into heaven. That is the reasoning behind infant baptism for Catholic, Eastern Orthodox Church and Oriental Orthodoxy.

In some religions not using water would render the baptism illicit. There is no word if this is a concern with lemon soda.

Pawnee Elementary School Introduces The ‘Walking School Bus’

special to digital journal:

A new program at Pawnee Elementary School in Overland Park, Kansas is getting kids outside and walking with the ‘Walking School Bus’ program. The school’s principal explains why it’s a good idea.

The ‘Walking School Bus’ program is part of a national effort to get kids exercising and fight childhood obesity. Adult volunteers walk the children to and from school. The volunteers are called “bus drivers.”

There are now 10 walking buses at the school and 28 children and 18 adult volunteers are signed up for the program.

The program is being funded with $25,000 in grants. The Kansas Department of Transportation has given $15,000 of that grant money. Part of the Safe Routes to School, the walking school bus is a national effort begun by the Department of Health and Human Services.

Last year, the city was given the grant money for the program and searched for the right school to start a pilot program. Pawnee Elementary School was chosen, in part because of the short distances that children had to travel and because the school itself does not have school bus service. They approached the school’s principal to ask for his participation last year. For whatever reason it was put on hold until this year. In an interview with this Digital Journalist, first-year Principal Justin Green said that he was approached this year and thought it was a wonderful idea.

Green then worked with the coordinator hired by the Safe Routes To School, Janice Bode. Ms. Bode oversees the program while Green does promotion within the school setting and provides the kids. Green and Bode took time to plan the start of the program making sure that there were enough adult volunteers to cover the children. By using morning announcements and PTA meetings that goal was met and on Monday complete with a clown on stilts the ‘walking school bus’ program was underway.

In 1969 it was very rare that a child would be suffering childhood obesity. That is not the case in today’s world. The childhood obesity rate has risen times higher than the 5 per cent figure in 1969.

Forty years ago almost half of all students used their legs to get to school. In 2008 only 16 per cent of students were still walking to school. It’s not just the kids fault today though. Parents have legitimate fears for allowing their children to make their way to school on their own. Traffic, crime, weather conditions and bullies are some of the concerns along with the sheer distance that some kids have to travel.

88 per cent of Pawnee Elementary students live within a 15 minute walk to school. Most parents though drive their kids to and from school. That has created problems with traffic, car exhausts and parking.

With five to 10 children on board the adult volunteers walk the children to school and back home again at the end of the school day. Green said he hopes the program grows but it will take more parents volunteering their time to do so.

“I think this program is great for the kids,” he said. “They can make friends while walking to school safely. Everyone is a winner with the program.”

Green also said because of the program there will be fewer cars on the roads, making it much safer for the children to walk to and from school.

Miracle Catch As Toddler Saved From 40-Foot Window Fall

Two Massachusetts men are being touted as heroes after catching a toddler who fell out of a third story window Sunday evening.

Father of two Robert Lemire was chatting on his cell phone when he saw the tyke dangling out of a window across from a pizza shop in Lawrence, Massachusetts. He was joined by 23-year-old Alex Day who had been in the home for a Bible study in time to have save the 18-month-old from a free fall. The pair worked as a team with Day catching the top of her body, while Lemire grabbed the lower half.

Boston.com reports:

“She looked at me and had a weird look on her face as if to say, ‘Wow, all of a sudden I’m down here,’ ” Day recalled in an interview today. He said he rushed the baby back upstairs to her home. On the stairs, he said, the baby actually started chuckling.

Little Caliah Clark’s father was in the home at the time tending to a newborn sibling. She was taken to Lawrence General Hospital for evaluation but the police believe that she had no serious injuries.

The Eagle Tribune reports that Caliah’s father expressed

“his disappointment as to what had just occurred,” according to a police report. Clark told police he was caring for a newborn child in the apartment’s bathroom when he heard a commotion outside. When he went to see what the kids were doing, he found his two oldest children near the “wide open window,” the police report said.

“He then reported not seeing the 11/2 year old anywhere in the room and felt like something had gone wrong. He ran down to the second floor where he was met by Alex Day with his child in his hand,” the report said.

The window did not have a protective screen or child guard on it. The Department of Social Services have been notified and are expected to investigate the incident.

6 Dead In Santa Clara Shooting

Police are in the process of investigating a shooting that has left six dead in Santa Clara, California. The shooting took place Sunday night in the Rivermark Townhome development. It is believed that the shooter took his own life after killing a family.

News reports have come in that four children and two adults are dead after a shooting in Santa Clara, California.

It is believed that the shooter is among the victims. The police responded to a injured person report at about 8:30 PM Sunday night. When they entered the residence they were confronted with five people dead from multiple gun wounds. Three of the dead at the scene have been said to be children.

Two more victims were transported to hospital in critical condition. Since that time, an infant girl has passed away from her injuries.

On Monday morning Lt. Phil Cooke of the Santa Clara Police Department said that the crime is being considered a “family on family” murder scene. There are indications that all of the victims, including the shooter are members of the same family.

Mercury News reports:

“It just simply never happens here. I mean never,” said Jane Thornton, a neighborhood resident who came up on a scene Sunday night as she was walking her dog. “We are in hard times here.”

It’s now being said that neighbors called in the report to the police when they sensed something was wrong at the townhouse.

The San Francisco Gate reports:

“Certainly it is a grievous tragedy, and the city’s thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims,” Santa Clara Mayor Patricia Mahan said today. “Words just can’t describe the enormity of the tragedy.”

She added, “When things get tough in life, in the world, it seems that these kinds of incidents erupt, and I would just urge all of our community to pay attention to your neighbors. So often the greatest regret is the feeling that this could have been prevented if somebody had seen something or someone could have intervened in some way.”

This crime scene is the city’s deadliest shooting.

Traditional Parents Tend To Have Well-adjusted Tykes

Do you tell your kids no from time to time? Did you breastfeed? Do you want your kids to achieve greatness? Chances are your children are doing well then. A British study is showing that being a traditional parent is a good way to have well adjusted kids.

From breastfeeding to having high expectations for little one are ways to insure happy kids.

The study of 1,136 mothers reading a story book to their one-year-old found that breastfeeding for six months was assiciated with parents that continue positive parenting skills beyond infancy.

The UK has one of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in Europe. Many mothers give up early on because of lack of support or they have to return to the work force. Fewer than eight in ten mothers breastfeed from birth. Only one fifth of have continued to feed their babies breast milk six months later.

Researchers at the Institute of Education in London recommend that more is done for mothers of infants so that they can breastfeed their young, including if necessary helping them with money so they can delay returning to work until their children are a little older.

The Telegraph reports:

Dr Leslie Gutman, who led the research, said: “Breastfeeding is a time-consuming activity and mothers can be tempted to put their babies on the bottle earlier if they feel they have to return to work for financial reasons.

“Mothers are given information leaflets in hospitals about breastfeeding but we may need more than this. Another option is workplace nurseries where mothers could go and feed their babies during the day.”

Breastfeeding has proven to be the best nourishment for infants. Studies have shown that breastfed children are less prone to obesity, have fewer allergies and respiratory illnesses and have higher IQ.

The study showed that the mothers who most benefited from breastfeeding were low income mothers. Those mothers had a higher quality of interaction with their children even five years later.

It appears that martial status though doesn’t change the quality of mother interaction with children. If anything single mothers who breastfeed seemed to make more of an effort to connect with their kids.

The Daily Mail reports that Gutman’s study also shows that strict parents have more ‘competent’ children. This is very important when raising girls. Those who lack confidence tend to turn to drugs according to the left-wing London’s Institute of Education.

‘Multiple studies have documented that children who have authoritative parents – that is, both firm disciplinarians and warm, receptive caregivers – are more competent than their peers at developmental periods, including pre-school, school age and adolescence,’ said the report.

200 Children In UK Have Been Identified As Potential Terrorist

British police have identified two hundred children as potential terrorists, some of whom are only 13-years-old. Eighteen months ago a new program was started to ID possible young terrorist and it appears to to working.

In the eighteen months since the terror prevention program started Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and Britain’s most senior officer in charge of terror prevention, states at least 200 cases have been intervened.

That number is a huge increase from the 10 children identified prior to the June 2008 start of the The “Channel project”, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers.

The project asks teachers, parents and other leaders in the community to watch for signs that their children are being groomed by extremists or drawn to the viewpoints of extremists.

The Telegraph reports:

“One of the four bombers of 7 July was, on the face of it, a model student. He had never been in trouble with the police, was the son of a well-established family and was employed and integrated into society.

“But when we went back to his teachers they remarked on the things he used to write. In his exercise books he had written comments praising al-Qaeda.

“That was not seen at the time as being substantive. Now we would hope that teachers might intervene, speak to the child’s family or perhaps the local imam who could then speak to the young man.”

When a child is identified outreach workers come in to discuss with the family the concerns. The outreach workers are religious figures in the community like a local imam.

Sir Norman said that some of the children have had police directed intervention.

The basis of the project is to build trust and confidence within the community. By targeting children that could be vulnerable they are hoping to stop terrorism in its tracks. Sir Norman is clear that this is not to be confused with a target on the Muslim community instead they are targeting criminals and would-be terrorists that could become entrenched in Islamic extremism rhetoric.

The project is covering Lancashire, Lambeth in London, West Yorkshire, the Midlands, Bedfordshire and South Wales. It is now set to be started in the rest of London, South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

The Telegraph reports:

A Home Office spokesman said: “We are committed to stopping people becoming or supporting terrorists or violent extremists. The aim of the Channel project is to directly support vulnerable people by providing supportive interventions when families, communities and networks raise concerns about their behaviour.”

There are some concerns that the project could infringe on children’s privacy the Daily Mail reports:

Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said: ‘There is a difference between the police being concerned or believing a person may be at risk of recruitment and a person actually engaging in unlawful, terrorist activity.

‘That said, clearly in recent years some people have been lured by terrorist propaganda emanating from al-Qa’ida-inspired groups.

‘It would seem that a number of Muslim youngsters have been seduced by that narrative and all of us, including the Government, have a role to play in making sure that narrative is seen for what it is: a nihilistic one which offers no hope, only death and destruction.’

Madonna Due In Court Monday To Adopt Little Girl

Madonna is said to have given up boy toy Jesus Luz in order to adopt a little girl she’s wanted for newly two years. The singer is due to fly to Malawi this weekend to bring home the child.
Little four-year-old Mercy James is also getting ready to have a new home. The child was taken to a lodge outside Lilonwe this week to get prepared for a homecoming with Madonna.

As long as nothing goes wrong, Madonna and her new daughter will fly out of the south-east African country in a week.

Reuters is reporting that the rumors are true about Madonna adopting a little girl. The adoption may have a few hitches in it this time around.

“Our official policy is that we do not encourage our children to be sent into broken homes,” a senior official from Malawi’s Ministry of Women and Child Welfare Development said when speaking about Madonna’s adoption. “Her relationships may negatively affect the adoption of Mercy.”

Because of those feelings its been rumored that her current boy toy Jesus Luz is out the door. Madonna and Luz had been together since she spilt from former hubby Guy Ritchie.

The Daily Mail reports:

Mercy has been handed over to Madonna’s people, who are already at the lodge, and is being cared for by a nanny,’ says the source.

‘They are waiting for Madonna to arrive so mother and daughter can be united and then Madonna is expected to take Mercy with her when she leaves.’

On Monday it is expected that Madonna will be in court to formalize the adoption. The judge could say no but it is expected to go in Madonna’s favor.

There has also been harsh criticism about Madonna’s adoption plans from child advocacy and human rights groups. They think that the speedy adoption and the fast tracking allows for the celebrity to get special treatment.

Madonna has three children, Lourdes, 12, Rocco, 8, and adopted son David Banda.

Cases of Kidney Stones in US Kids Increasing

Kidney stones are one of those ailments that can come with aging. They are not generally seen in children but that may be changing as fast food diets gain more popularity.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has seen about 10 children a year with kidney stones in 2005 climb to five patients a week. John Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore had even lower rates 15 years ago of kids dealing with the painful condition. today the Baltimore center is getting cases every week.

According to a 2007 study doctors at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center has had a fivefold increase in children with kidney stones between 1994 and 2005. The study was published in the Journal of Urology.

Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill. doctor David Hatch has had a eight-month-old female patient whose mother found a pea-size kidney stone in her diaper.

While doctors are not completely sure what is causing the increase in children they are speculating that diets with too much salt is a leading problem. Excessive salt can bring forth excessive calcium in urine. As most kidney stones with children are calcium-based eating habits and not enough water is putting them at risk.

While most kidney stones main symptom is extreme pain there is the chance for kidney damage if urine flow is blocked by the stone.

Drinking plenty of water is one key way to avoid kidney stones. Children who have already had a stone are told to drink citrus juice like lemonade to help keep urine from forming new stones.

A Song For Peace

On Wednesday a group of teenagers performed for a special audience. They begin with We Sing for Peace for their elderly audience who looked on smiling.

what makes this concert special was the choir was made up of teens from the West Bank and their audience was made up of Holocaust survivors.

The enemy sang for the enemy. Only this time there were no enemies. Only songs of peace.

The thirteen children aged 11 to 18 had no idea who their audience was. They belong to Strings of Freedom. The orchestra was put together in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

The adults in the audience also were unaware that the children that were entertaining them were Palestinian.

The choir was formed seven years ago to help the children overcome war trauma.

War trauma is something both groups understand.

The group was even late for the event because of the war. They were held up for thirty minutes at a military check point just outside the town they live in.

The event took place in the Holocaust Survivors Centre at Holon, Israel on “Good Deeds Day.” The yearly event was started by billionaire Shari Arison, Israel’s richest woman.

The New Zealand Herald reports:

“I feel sympathy for them,” said Ali Zeid, an 18-year-old keyboard player who said he was shocked by what he learned about the Holocaust, in which the Nazis killed 6 million Jews in their campaign to wipe out European Jewry.

“Only people who have been through suffering understand each other,” said Zeid, who said his grandparents were Palestinian refugees forced to flee the northern city of Haifa during the war that followed Israel’s creation in 1948.

Rooftop Design a Mystery to Father For a Year

A year or so ago Rory McInnes, 18, decided to paint a large object on the roof of his family’s estate. In fact the young artist used white paint for a 60-foot penis to grace the manor.

McInnes of Hungerford, Berk may not be his father’s favorite child at the moment. The giant phallus stayed on the home’s roof until a helicopter spotted it and called the local newspaper.

Rory decided to do the art work after watching a documentary about Google Earth. He figured that a giant willy would help his parent’s £1million house stand out. After all Mum and Dad had just gotten the builders to finish up the perfect canvas, a flat roof.

The Sun rang up Andy McInnes, 54, to ask him about his rooftop decoration.

The Telegraph reports:

“It’s an April Fool’s joke, right? There’s no way there’s a 60ft phallus on top of my house.”

After talking to his four children Rory came clean. The lad is safe since his dad had to call him long distance in Brazil on a gap year.

Rory is safe for now but when he returns home his father has something special waiting for him. As his Mum told the Sun.

Rory’s mum Clare, 49, said: “We don’t want any more children, so the idea of sleeping under a giant fertility symbol is rather worrying.”

Andy added: “We don’t want to lie in bed at night and hear couples at it above us.

“When Rory gets home he will be given a scrubbing brush and white spirit and he can go and scrub it off.”

ThinkFirst Canada and Aviva Canada Working To Stop TBI In Kids

In Canada minors make up 17 percent of the population yet they account for 30 percent of traumatic brain injuries. On March 24 ThinkFirst Canada and Aviva Canada will be hosting an event to educate students how to not become a statistic.

On March 24 Dr. Charles Tator along with ThinkFirst Canada and Aviva Canada will be hosting an event to help educate elementary students on how to prevent brain and spinal cord injuries.

Injuries that kill or cause serious lingering injuries are almost always preventable. In fact some statistics show that 95% of those injuries could have been prevented. ThinkFirst’s goal is to change the numbers up so that those 95% are at a zero percentage.

ThinkFirst began in 1992 when Dr. Charles Tater envisioned a future free of traumatic brain and spinal injuries among children and youth. Using education as a means to change behaviours about risk taking ThinkFirst is working to achieve this goal.

Every year 390 children die and 25,500 are sent to hospital because of injuries. Many of the 100 people that die as a result of a bicycle accident are under the age of 15. When a bike helmet is worn 85% of the time head and brain injuries can be prevented.

Dr. Tator is a Professor in the Department of Surgery at The University of Toronto. He has worked at some of Toronto’s best hospitals as part of their Neurosurgical Staff including The Toronto Western Hospital where from 1985-1988 he was Neurosurgeon-in-Chief. He then moved on to a ten year term as Chairman of the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of Toronto in 1989.

This year ThinkFirst and Aviva Canada will be expanding a program begun called Aviva Brain Day. Last year the program set for grade 5 and 6 students reached almost 6000 elementary students in more than 200 classrooms in 9 cities across Canada.

One of the programs that ThinkFirst has worked on is getting more sports helmets on the heads of kids. From Thunder Bay to Windor more than 4500 helmets have been handed out with with MHP-ThinkFirst Ontario Safe Sport Helmet Initiative. The final phase of this program will be handing out more than 6,000 vouchers for helmets to Ontarian children in need. By contacting your local Public Health Unit parents can find out if they qualify for a voucher.

In 2006 Aviva chose ThinkFirst Foundation Canada as its first signature charity.

Brain damage in children is difficult at times to measure. With adults there are records such as prior academic records, I.Q. scores, and job histories that give a clue to how well a person functioned. With children there often aren’t tools to gauge.

Because of their age some neurological deficits that result from head trauma aren’t manifested until years later. Consider frontal lobe functions which develop later in a child’s growth. These functions control social interactions and interpersonal skills. These skills don’t come into play until school age.

Recent studies have shown that a child’s skull is only 1/8 as strong as an adults making the young more vulnerable to injuries. For this reason alone prevention is key.

17 dead in Butte, Montana plane crash

Emergency crews were called at 3 p.m. to a Butte, Montana airport as a plane missed the runaway and burst into flames. CNN is reporting that there were 7 fatalities.

The turboprop plane left Orville, California at 11 A.M. and had a flight plan for a final destination of Bozeman, Montana. There are additional reports that 17 have died as a result of the crash. The FAA has confirmed that there are no survivors.

The crash took place in Butte’s Holy Cross Cemetery.

The pilot changed his plan at some point heading to Butte. The plane crashed just 500 feet short of the airport as it attempted to land at Burt Moony Airport. At the time of the crash weather conditions were not that bad even though a storm front was coming through. At the time it is now being said that weather conditions were clear.

There are reports that many of the victims were young children. They were on a ski vacation.

The Pilatus PC-12 plane was registered to Eagle Cap Leasing Inc. in Enterprise, Oregon. It was manufactured in 2000. The plane is designed to carry a total of 17 people.

This is a developing story. More news will be added as it becomes available.

An eye witness said that the plane made a nose dive into the ground. Other witnesses thought that the plane was a stunt plane because of the motions.

Martha Guidoni, an eye witness at the scene said that it was impossible to help any of the victims. She was a quarter mile away from the cemetery when the crash happened. Her husband said that there was nothing left from the crash scene.

Steve Guidoni said that the crash was in the cemetery. He said that everything was on fire and a pit had formed from the plane. He was told by the police to leave the scene because it is now considered a crime scene.

Former NTSB Vice President Bob Francis said that as far as he is aware there has never been this type of crash with the Pilatus PC-12.

Canadian Stops School Arson In The UK

Concordia music student JP Neufeld may have saved the lives of 950 students in Norfolk, England after reporting a student’s threat in a chatroom.

JP Newfeld was browsing newgrounds.com Tuesday morning when he came across this piece:

“Today, at 11:30 GMT I will attack my school with arson and other forms of violence. Those bastards will pay”

Mr. Newfeld knew that someone needed to warn the school and notified the Norfolk Constabulary. He then engaged the boy into a chat giving the police enough time to get to the school.

The boy was tired of being bullied. After chatting with the Montreal resident he went to school ready to torch the building. Police found fuel, matches and a knife on the teen when they stopped him on his way into the school.

The Age reports:

“The constabulary was alerted by a member of the public after a message was posted on a website inferring the criminal damage of Attleborough High School,” said Superintendent Katie Elliott.

“When the individual attended the school the youth’s bag was confiscated. Inside a knife, matches and a canister of what is believed to be a flammable liquid was discovered.

“The youth was arrested for threats to commit criminal damage and possession of an offensive weapon.”

The boy has been detained under the Mental Health Act.

Florida Boy Suspended For Passing Gas on the Bus

An eighth grade student at Bill Duncan Excel Center in south Lakeland has been suspended from riding his school bus for three days. He didn’t cuss the driver, bully other students or do anything more harmful than farting.

Yes, Jonathon Locke, Jr. can’t ride the bus because he farted.

The Lakeland Ledger reports that Jonathon says he isn’t even the child that passed wind. That made no difference to the bus driver.

“Jonathan passes gas on the bus to make the other children laugh and it is so stink [sic] that you can’t breathe after he does it,” the bus driver wrote on a misbehavior form.

While passing gas isn’t on the rule books according to Jerome Corbett, senior director of specialized services for the Polk County School District disturbing the bus is.

Fred Murphy, assistant superintendent of support services, directed calls to Corbett but said that “if it (passing gas) caused a disruption on the bus, that would be an issue to deal with.”

According to Jonathon on Monday another student on the bus passed gas and he laughed because it was a bad smell. The next day the bus driver handed him a suspension form and ordered the boy off of his bus. Jonathon had to call his father for a ride home.

Papa Jonathon is not very happy about the matter.

“I had no notice about anything,” Locke said. “It’s costing me time (at work).”

This isn’t the first time his son has been in trouble at school. Bill Duncan is an alternative school of last-chance. Jonathon is attending after being expelled from Mulberry Middle School for fighting. If a student is expelled from Bill Duncan they are kicked out of the district school system for good.

Baby With Two Penises Survives Surgery

A Russian baby boy had surgery to correct massive birth defects. The child identified only as Artyom G. was born with two penises, no bladder, and no abdominal wall.

The operation took place at St Vladimir’s Children’s Clinical Hospital.

Doctors combined the two penises into a single organ. It is believed that the little boy will have a normal sex life when he’s older and will be able to father children.

Called fetus in fetu (FIF), the condition is very rare. It is caused by an unusual cause of retroperitoneal abdominal mass in infants. It is more common with girls.

The Telegraph reports:

“The surgery was complicated. We had to form one penis out of two, make the abdominal wall and create a bladder,” said a doctor involved in the five hour operation.

“When our colleagues asked for help we said yes immediately but we couldn’t imagine the case would be so complicated.”

Last June a baby in China was born with two penises. The second sex organ was on his back. The infant lives in Hejian city in central China’s Henan province.

10 Children Served Windshield Cleaner At Arkansas Day Care

Ten children in Little Rock, Arkansas are recovering after drinking windshield wiper fluid. The children were served the liquid at their daycare by a staffer.

Doctors estimate that the children, aged 2 to 7, consumed an ounce of the fluid late Thursday afternoon before discovering that it tasted funny. One child remains in hospital with ‘measurable levels’ of methanol. The highly toxic alcohol can result in comas and cause blindness.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

“All we know was that the individual at the day care had recently shopped and had come back to the day care with a lot of different products,” Laura James, a pediatric pharmacologist and toxicologist at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock told The Associated Press. “This product was mistakenly grabbed and thought to be Kool-Aid and put in the refrigerator.”

The name of the center is not being named by either Laura James or the state Department of Human Service. DHS investigators will be visiting the day care center on Friday.

AP reports:

“It has not been reported to us yet,” DHS spokeswoman Julie Munsell said Friday morning. “Either it happened and they didn’t report as they should have … or it happened after business hours.”

Antifreeze and windshield wiper fluid are easily mistaken for fruit drinks by children. That mistake can be deadly. Always make sure to store these and other poisonous products where children can not get into them.

Recession Pinch Hits Summer Camps

There may be more family time this summer as summer camps begin to feel the pinch of the recession. Bonuses that used to pay the high camp fees are disappearing and as they do so are the funds for weeks away for the kids.

Camps are still enrolling children, but they are doing later enrollments than usual this year says a Wall Street Journal article. Peg Smith of the American Camp Association said that the 2,900 camps in their membership are expecting more demand for financial aid.

Some families are opting for less expensive versions of camp; day-camps. These tend to be run by nonprofits like the YMCA.

At Bunk1.com the numbers are clear. There has already been a drop of 10% to 15% less registrations for private summer camps this year. Nonprofit camps are seeing a rise in registrations.

The Kansas City Star reports that it is clear that while parents are still looking to send their children to camp this year they are budget shopping.

http://www.kansascity.com/842/story/1071924.html

“They want to make sure their kids aren’t sitting home all day playing video games this summer,” said Pam Watkins, director of operations for the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, which offers camp sessions all summer.

“Parents are absolutely going to cut back on summer vacations and weekend excursions, but as far as camp for their kids, it’s the one thing they’re willing to put the money out there for.”

Families may wait until later in the season to register their children hoping for deals that other years would not be available.

That may be a wise gamble. If the camps can’t fill their bunks they will have to be more flexible to survive.

Some camps are offering shorter seasons at their regular day cost. In the past The Aloha Beach Camp, a water-sports camp in Los Angeles, required a stay of at least 12 days at $107 per day. Last year they lowered the minimum to 5 days. This year if all a family can afford is two days they can get a two day spot.

Other camps are offering ‘early bird specials’ with discounts. That is what Berkshire Hills Emanuel Camps in Copake, N.Y. did this year for families signing up last summer. Instead of the $6,500 per child the cost in March was $6,100 for a full summer session.

Many camps offer ‘camperships’ for children who qualify for financial aid.

The UJA-Federation of New York will give $1,250 for kids attending a Jewish sleep away camp for the first time and $750 for the second time.

Not all camps can afford to offer funding. The River City Youth Foundation, an Austin, Texas, nonprofit, had funding cuts this year. The city says the camp should be spared but it is still dicey for the kids who could be attending a free summer day camp. If the funding doesn’t come through than low-income, at-risk children in Austin will not have the camping experience.

The National Camp Association and summercamps.com can help you do an online search for the camp that fits your families needs.

Some families have decided to have a family vacation this year instead of camp. With high session costs it is just more practical.

Campbell Child Custody Case In Court Today, No Ruling As Of Yet

The three Campbell children with Nazi inspired names are in the news again. The Family Court in Hunterdon County was to decide if the children could return home.

The children were removed from their home in January. Their father believes that removal was due to the publicity stemming from a supermarket’s refusal to decorate a birthday cake with the name of son Adolf Hitler Campbell, 3.

The children; Adolf Hitler Campbell, JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell have been in protective custody since that time. They were placed in the same foster family.

The parents left the court Thursday afternoon with no word on if they will have their children returned. Their lawyer Pasquale Giannetta, said he’s “pretty confident” that the judge will in the end rule in favor of the parents.

NJ.com reports:

DYFS spokeswoman Kate Bernyk said the agency takes custody of children only “when there’s an imminent danger to a child.”

Mother Deborah Campbell says that there were false allegations of abuse reported by a neighbour.

NJ.com reported in January:

“My husband and I would never abuse our children, and he would never harm anybody,” Deborah Campbell told the newspaper. Campbell said a neighbor made allegations that the children had been abused and that Campbell’s husband, Heath Campbell, had abused her.

There were previous domestic abuse allegations against Heath Campbell during a prior marriage.

There is no word as to when the final decision will be made.

Opinion: New Israeli Indoor Playground Comes With Rocket Warning

Israeli children have a safe place to play in Sderot. Inside a convert warehouse lies a fortified play area complete with soccer field. The play ground also has an alert system giving a 15-second warning if rockets are coming.

Welcome to a new world where children are forced to enjoy playing indoors, not because of the weather but because adults shoot rockets at each other.

The new indoor playground was opened on Tuesday in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. The town is often battered by rockets being fired at it by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Canoe News reports:

“It’s an amazing thing. Until now, only the house and school were safe,” said Pesah Hajbi, a 43-year-old father of three. “It’s cold comfort,” he added. “If they don’t stop firing, at least there is a safe place to play.”

The centre cost $5 million and was funded by the Jewish Nation Fund- United States. The brightly coloured walls are anti-shock wave can comfortably house 500 people.

The building is divided into two sections. One is for the youngest players, the infants and toddlers of the town. The other side of the building will be used by school kids during the afternoon and other residents during the day and night.

The play areas allow the children to be kids, instead of prisoners trapped at home for fear of a bombing.

Parents of the town are grateful and yet a little sad that it has come to this. Kid are meant to be free and enjoy the sun while they run and scream with joy.

Canoe reports:

“It makes me happy but also sad,” Devora Biton, 43 said. “I’m glad the kids will have a place to go, but it means the kids will have to live under a reinforced roof, rather that play outside as they should.”

At least the children in this one town have a chance to experience a fraction of childhood. Is it wrong though to feel intense sadness that the adults of this world can’t get along well enough that our children have to play in fortresses with reinforced walls?

Is the Cervarix vaccine safe? Some in the UK say no

There is concern in the United Kingdom about the cervical cancer vaccine after more than 1,300 schoolgirls have had adverse reactions to the shot.

Doctors are reporting that some young girls as young as 12 have suffered paralysis, suffered convulsions and sight problems after receiving the vaccine. Other girls have had less serious reactions of pain ‘in extremity’ while others suffered from nausea, muscle weakness, fever, dizziness and numbness.

The government has a program that gives the vaccine to girls in order to prevent cervical cancer in the future. It is hoped that in time the vaccine will save 700 lives a year.

On Saturday campaigners called for the suspension of the vaccine in light of the side-effects.

The Daily Mail reports:

Last night Jackie Fletcher of the vaccine support group Jabs said: ‘When they introduced this new vaccine, we had major concerns about its safety. The current statistics detailing adverse reactions – including cases of epilepsy and convulsions – bears out that we were right to be concerned.

‘The Government needs to look at the future of this programme given the number of side-effects coming through.’

Health experts in the government are debating that 700,000 girls were given the vaccine and there were just 1,340 reports of any reaction to it. They also said that the act of the injection rather than the vaccine itself could be to blame for some of those more serious reactions.

Robert Music, director of cervical cancer charity Jo’s Trust, said: ‘I urge every mother to ensure their girls have the vaccine, because we believe the obvious benefits outweigh the risks. Quite simply, the jab could save their daughters’ lives.’

Two young soccer fans dead after being hit by a train in Paris

A Paris commuter train hit a group of soccer fans killing two young boys on Saturday night. The brothers were with a group walking down the tracks in an off-limits area.

Eleven others were injured during the accident which took place in a Paris suburb.

Reports say that brothers aged 11 and 17, were killed and their father, 40, was seriously injured. Two other minors are also in serious condition at hospital.

The fans of the Lille soccer team were taking a short cut along the tracks to get to a bus when the accident occurred. The area they were in was in an off-limits zone protected by barriers and gates.

News 24 reports:

Guillaume Pepy, head of SNCF, said the accident was “without precedent” and stressed that walking on the tracks is illegal.

“Never, never, never, for any reason, are you allowed to walk on tracks,” Pepy said, calling it “extraordinarily dangerous”.

Thousands of fans return home was disrupted as a result of the accident. More than 78,000 people were at the Stade de France Saturday night watching Lille beat defending champion Lyon 2-0.

Traffic was back to normal around 4:00 a.m. Sunday morning.

Canadian study says LGB teens have higher risk of pregnancy in BC

Research has shown that lesbian, gay and bisexual teens in British Columbia have a higher rate of teenage pregnancy. The study focused on a cross section of teens in Vancouver.

The higher rate is a direct result of discrimination, sexual abuse and harassment that these teens face.

The study, based on the B.C. Adolescent Health Survey, which is conducted every five or six years in school districts across the province by the McCreary Centre Society, was published in the December issue of Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality. The study took place in 1992, 1998 and 2003-among 30,000 high school students from grades 7-12 in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The survey asks teens about sexual health as well as risky behaviours they may deal with. There are also questions on sexual orientation. British Columbia is the only province that tracks trends in sexual health regardless of a teen’s sexual orientation. By using the term “pregnancy involvement” it allowed the researchers to take teens with a different sexual orientation into account.

The University of British Columbia reports:

“Teen pregnancy is declining, but the risk is still higher for LGB youth,” says lead author Elizabeth Saewyc, an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at UBC and Research Director at the McCreary Centre Society. “These results are linked to higher rates of discrimination and harassment among LGB teens at school.”

The results showed that lesbian and bisexual teens who dealt with pregnancy face discrimination double to teens who are heterosexual. Harassment at school is also an issue for LGB teens who have not become pregnant.

While the study deals with British Columbia teens Saewyc says that higher pregnancy rates are higher throughout the world.

“Population studies in other countries have also documented higher rates of teen pregnancy among sexual minority youth. We expect other provinces in Canada would report similar results if they conducted similar surveys.”

Trends in risk behaviours lead to pregnancy is also common due to sexual abuse.

Catherine Jefcoat, director of Lesbian Community Care Project, has some concerns about the study. She was interested though in the fact that the study included LGB teens as possible parents. In most studies these teens are generally shifted to a non-parent status automatically.

The Canadian reports:

“We need to know more about the truth of young queer lesbians’ lives; this adds to the work.” Jefcoat sees a need for more resources given that “It’s incredibly hard to build programs that address young queer female lives when funders [and many segments of the public] are only interested in our ability to make babies and not our sexuality, and that includes straight sexuality.”

This study was given funding by CIHR’s Institute of Population and Public Health and CIHR’s Institute of Gender and Health.

Obama surprises daughters with White House swing set

The landscape has changed a little at the White House today. When Malia and Sasha Obama came home from school a surprise swing set was waiting for them.

The new swing set sits right outside the Oval Office allowing the President to watch his children at play while he is working. It includes a a tire swing, a slide, a fort, a climbing wall and climbing ropes.

The Obama’s had set to work earlier Wednesday while their daughters were in school for the afternoon surprise. The swing set is an attempt by the parents to make the White House more inviting for their children.

Michelle Obama spokeswoman, Katie McCormick Lelyveld told Fox News that the girls were happy with their parent’s gift.

“They ran right for it. They were really, really excited. All four of them,” McCormick Lelyveld said.

The girls played on the set for almost an hour in chilly weather, she said.

The swing set was manufactured by Rainbow Play Systems based in Brookings, South Dakota company using American Redwood and Cedar lumber.

Gaza School Children Victim of Food Poisoning

Seven children are in critical condition as a result of food poisoning in Gaza. The police say that about 80 school girls have been sickened at a United Nations school.

Islam Shahwan, police spokesman, said that the children ate food that had passed its expiry date.

The school in Khan Younis is run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. There was no immediate comment by the agency that is in charge of Palestinian refugees.

The children are being treated at Nasser Hospital in the city of Khan Younis. Twenty of those ill have been admitted to the hospital.

It has not been determined if the food was provided by a local shop or by the UN itself.

Young Azharuddin Ismail star of Slumdog Millionaire Is Ill

Young Azharuddin Ismail star of Slumdog Millionaire has become very ill. After returning to India the actor has developed a 103 degree temperature.
Azhar has been seen by local doctors who prescribed antibiotics saying that he is suffering from fever and exhaustion. His condition has started to worsen.

Neighbours have built the family a 8ft by 5ft metal structure to protect the child from the elements.

Both Azhar’s family and the family of Rubina Ali say their children are having a hard time readjusting to the poverty of the slums after going to California for a week to attend the Oscars.

The Telegraph reports:

Rubina’s father Rafiq Qureshi said. “Getting used to life back here in the slum again is proving tough for her and she has not wanted to see her friends since she got back. She just wants to spend all her time away from the slum now and I just hope we get the flat that has been promised to us.”

It’s not surprising that the children are missing the items that most in the West take for granted; soft beds, toilets and clean water. Social workers agree that returning the children to the slums is almost to cruel. They have asked for the two to be placed in care and given protection either by Danny Boyle and the film production company or by Indian authorities.

“I cannot believe these kids have just been left like this after being taken to Hollywood. It is bound to affect them psychologically,” said social worker Sanjay Bhatia, who works in the slum.

What also is driving this request for care is the beating young Azhar took at his father’s hands on Friday. The child was beaten for being too tired to speak to a journalist who was offering the young actor’s father money.

Lisa Pagan’s Kids Will Tag Along When Mom Returns to Service

Lisa Pagan was honorably discharged from the Army four years ago. She settled down and had two children with husband Travis. Everything was wonderful until she received an order to return to service.
That order can be issued at anytime for the thousands of former service members who have time left on their original enlistment contracts. It doesn’t matter that they are not getting a salary or training, they are on “individual ready reserve” status, property of the United States.

Lisa Pagan is reporting to duty on Sunday with a little extra packaging, her two children. She has no choice. Husband Travis travels for work and there is no one else who can take care of the children. Pagan tried to appeal the order but her claim was rejected. That left her with two choices; refuse the order and face charges or deploy to Iraq and abandon her children. She decided to shake things up instead. The kids are coming with her to Fort Benning, Georgia on sunday.

The Lakeland Ledger reports:

“I guess they’ll have to contact the highest person at the base, and they’ll have to decide from there what to do,” Pagan said. “I either report and bring the children with me or don’t report and face dishonorable discharge and possibly being arrested. I guess I’ll just have to make my case while I’m there.”

When she gets to the base her commander will have to decide what to do with her. 7,500 of the 25,000 ready reserve troops who have been recalled since 2001 have been granted deferments or exemptions. About a thousand have refused to report to duty. While the chances are high that Pagan won’t face charges she could be given an “other than honorable” discharge.

“The Army tries to look at the whole picture and they definitely don’t want to do anything that jeopardizes the family or jeopardizes the children,” O’Donnell said. “At the same time, these are individuals who made obligations and commitments to the country.”

It’s not that Pagan hasn’t given time to protect the US. She joined the service in September 2002 and served until 2005. She met her husband Travis while they were both stationed in Hawaii. She always knew she could be recalled but to survive she buried that information in the back of her mind.

“When I enlisted, they said almost nobody gets called back when you’re in the IRR,” she said.

Travis got a job as a salesman near Charlotte, North Carolina in the college town of Davidson. Lisa enjoyed the pleasures of being a stay-at-home mom to Eric, 3, and Elizabeth, 4. She opened a home daycare and started taking a few classes at Fayetteville State.

She first got the return orders in December 2007. She told the Army that no one could take care of her kids. If Travis quit his job to be at home with the children the family would face bankruptcy and foreclosure. The couples parents live in New Jersey and Texas and are not able to help out with child care.

The Army didn’t care then. She filed another appeal after hiring lawyer Mark Waple including a letter from Travis’s employer.

“In order for Travis to remain an employee, he will be required to travel.”

The answer from that appeal came in December. Rejected.

So Lisa Pagan will appear before her commanding officer today with Eric and Elizabeth. That commander will have to decide if he wants to ship a mother to Iraq and put two children into the foster care program.

“Usually the only way that someone can get out of the deployment or get out of the military due to a family hardship is if they get into a situation where the kids will be put into foster care,” Tarantino said.

“That’s how serious it has to be, and I’m sure what the military is telling her — and I’m not saying that this is exactly the right answer — but the fact that it is inconvenient for her husband’s job is not the military’s problem. It’s very harsh.”

Let’s hope for Eric and Elizabeth’s sake the commander thinks with his heart and not with the rule books.

UK’s Teen Pregnancy And Abortion Rates Rose in 2007

Britain is having an epidemic of pregnant teenagers and a record number of girls under the age of 18 are opting for an abortion. Some sides are encouraged by the rate of abortions while others are more concerned that young girls are engaging in risky sex.
Official figures from the UK show that more than 21,000 girls under the age of 18 have terminated a pregnancy in 2007. This is the first time that abortion rates have hit the 50 percent mark with pregnant women.

In 2007 the conception rate of girls under 18 was 41.9 per 1,000. Even more startling was that 8,196 pregnancies in 2007 were with mothers under the age of 16.

The Telegraph reports on that proportion of girls choosing to abort those pregnancies is 50/50.

Ann Furedi, chief executive of the charity the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), the UK’s largest abortion provider, said: “The fact that half of the teenagers in this position felt able to end their pregnancy in abortion is actually a positive sign.”

Not everyone is looking at the higher abortion rate as a positive measure. many believe that the focus should be on the high pregnancy rate among young women.

“Instead of endless reviews and leaflets for parents, ministers need to ensure that all of our young people are getting the relationship and sex education they need,” Annette Brooke, the Liberal Democrat Children Spokesperson said.

While some areas have actually seen lower pregnancy rates that is not the overall picture coming out of the UK. That is something that activists are calling to the government to key in on.

The Independent reports:

Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said: “This is another Government target missed.

“Once again it demonstrates how pointless it is to set targets if the Government doesn’t do what is needed to deliver on them.

“Reducing teenage pregnancy requires more than teaching children about sex.

“It requires a supportive and responsible family together with high-quality relationship education which gives teenagers the self-confidence and guidance needed to recognise their interest in avoiding early and unprotected sexual intercourse.”

The high rate shows that more teenagers are having unprotected sex and may be engaging in risky behaviour.

“Our strategy is to encourage teenagers to delay early sexual activity, but to use contraception when they do become sexually active,” said Beverley Hughes, the Children and Young People’s Minister.

Hilary Pannack, of the sex education charity Straight Talking, believes that the nation is failing its children. The fact is that teenage parents often have children who are themselves teenage parents. Those families tend to be in the lower economic groups.

No Free Hot Lunch In Albuquerque Schools

When mom and dad don’t pay up kids get stuck with a cheese sandwich. That’s the fate in Albuquerque school lunch rooms for kids without the coins to pay for a lunch.
There is no free hot lunch in the Albuquerque Public Schools for parents unwilling to pay the tab. If the tab is unpaid, students are given a cheese sandwich, piece of fruit and milk carton to sate them until parents pay up. The schools are having to put this policy in effect to keep budgets on line and still allow children a meal, just not a hot one. Chula Vista, Calif., Hillsborough County, Fla., and Lynnwood, Wash. are also changing to the cheese sandwich policy.

Some critics are saying that the cold meal is a punishment to children whose parents simply can’t afford to pay. Not paying is just what has happened in Albuquerque, to the tune of $140,000 through the first five months of this school year. If the debt keeps on the same pattern by the end of the school year the department will be dealing with about $300,000 in food debt. That debt has risen sharply from the $55,000 that was unpaid for school lunches in 2006.

In New Mexico alone there are almost 204,000 low-income students. Those students are entitled to a free or reduced-price lunch from federal funding. When a family hasn’t qualified though there are no funds to bail out the schools unlike federal bailouts for the banks.

MSNBC reports:

“We can’t use any federal lunch program money to pay what they call bad debt. It has to come out of the general budget and of course that takes it from some other department,” Mary Swift, director of Albuquerque’s food and nutrition services said.

Since the new policy begin a little over $50,000 of the debt has been collected. There are also 2,000 students who are receiving free or reduced lunches. Getting more children in the lunch program means more federal dollars to put into the district.

As for the critics giving Albuquerque Public Schools a hard time, Swift says the kids are still getting a lunch. That is more than other school districts do when kids come empty handed to class..

Albuquerque Public Schools “has historically gone above and beyond as far as treating children with dignity and respect and trying to do what’s best with for the child and I think this is just another example,” Swift said.

Opinion: Are The Gosselin’s Courting Problems By Exploiting Their Kids?

In the world of reality television big families equal huge ratings. Do those ratings short change the youngest money makers on the screen? A few are saying that the Gosselin parents are guilty of that.
Back before the days of reality TV big families were an easy way for a TV show to get ratings. The Brady Bunch, Eight is Enough and 7th Heaven all focused on large families and were all hit TV shows. It showed producers that America likes their families super-sized.

The most popular show on TLC is Jon & Kate Plus 8 with 1.6 million viewers. On May 10, 2004 within 6 minutes their family of four increased to a family of 12. Within weeks the family was getting the swag that only celebs are used to.

The first swag gift? A remodeled home by Home Delivery.

After a one-hour special in September 2005 the family got their own series in April 2007. The ratings skyrocketed as viewers tuned in to see a ‘normal’ family coping with so many kids.

Today the Gosselins are everywhere; Oprah, Good Morning America, In Touch Weekly and People. The public can’t get enough of the bickering parents and cute little tykes.

The family gets tons of free stuff that comes with a hidden price. Nielsen ranks the series eighth out of 149 cable shows for product placement.

The New York Times reports:

“Every day is painfully the same, yet vastly different,” Ms. Gosselin says in the show’s interview segment. Ms. Gosselin is a confident and remarkably open former nurse who seems not terribly bothered by the vitriol expressed toward her in the blogosphere, where she is frequently vilified as a publicity-hungry control freak.

The success for Jon & Kate is in part because they are normal unlike the Duggars of “17 & Counting.” The Duggars come off as too good to be true while the Gosselin crew seems hard core average. Mom Kate can be a nag, dad Jon can be thoughtless and the kids can be brats.

Those brats are a gold mine. They have enabled Mom and Dad to get out of town more often for speaking engagements. Talking is one way to make more bucks in a huge way. At three thousand a pop and first class travel those trips are more like a vacation.

Now comes the backlash. Some are questioning though if the lure of free swag and bigger houses has changed the family.

One of those who is coming forward with negative words is “Aunt Jodi.” Jodi is married to Kate’s brother Kevin and was a frequent guest on the show. Aunt Jodi babysat the kids a lot. When she disappeared from the air questions were raised. Last June, Jodie’s sister Julie set the record straight on her blog that TLC had finally decided to compensate Jodi for appearing on the show, at which point, she says, Kate lost it, insisting that only she and Jon be paid. The TLC camp are saying that this is not accurate.

Another is Jon’s former boss. The couple on the show say that Jon was fired because the company didn’t want to insure him. David Rothermel says not so fast. Rothermel is a friend of Jon’s parents and that former boss. He claims before the babies had popped out of mommy Jon was on the phone wheeling and dealing on the company dime. The state unemployment agency ruled that Jon improperly did a side job while he was on company time.

Of the naysayers Kate Gosselin says on the family’s blog:

Quite honestly, we don’t pay attention. First of all, we don’t have time to worry about what people are saying and second of all, we know that our show is benefiting so many people that we need to continue. Any flack we receive is just typical stuff that anyone on TV on a regular basis receives. Furthermore, although this is the absolute hardest job (aside from raising 8 kids, that is) that Jon and I have ever had, it is also the most amazing blessing that we can be home with our children while working and when asked, all 8 of our children agree…for now, we need to continue on…and so we will!

There are ethical questions on the amount of time the children spend in front of cameras and their lack of privacy.

There’s no doubt that the family has greatly benefited from being on television. They recently moved into a huge house and have had more vacations than most Americans. Mommy had a tummy tuck and daddy has new hair. Basically the kids are supporting the family’s rich lifestyle.

Canada’s own Dionne quints had this advice for the parents of multiples in the late 1990’s as The Vancouver Sun reports:

“Multiple births should not be confused with entertainment, nor should they be an opportunity to sell products,” they wrote. “We were displayed as a curiosity three times a day for millions of tourists. . . We sincerely hope a lesson will be learned from examining how our lives were forever altered by our childhood experience. If this letter changes the course of events for these newborns, then perhaps our lives will have served a higher purpose.”

In the end the future will finish this story. Will the ten Gosselin children make it through the television maze unscathed?
Will they look back at their childhood remembering all the special times they were granted or wish they could have been alone in a room?

As the Philadelphia Magazine reports:

“As their friend, as somebody who loves the kids, I was always the one saying [to Jon and Kate], ‘Okay, be careful.’ Because they’re not just a commodity, they’re people,” says one of the kids’ former babysitters. “And someday will come and … you know? Nothing comes free. Everything, everything, has a price. And because I love them, I don’t want them to pay a price that’s too dear.”

Slumdog Millionaire Kids Leave Hollywood For the Slums

It seems that the promise of a new flat for the child stars of Slumdog Millionaire may not play out. On Wednesday Ashok Chavan denied that clearance had been given to Rubina Ali and Azharuddin Ismail from Garib Nagar in Bandra for new housing.

This announcement closely follows the Mhada clearing a proposal for each of the actors to have a flat. The CM has been sent the file for approval.

Charvan is quoted by the Times of India:

Chavan said, “We have not allotted a flat to any of the children. The proposal is being considered.”

On Thursday the children were back in their slum homes after a week in Hollywood.

CNN quotes the mother of Azharuddin:

“It would be nice to get a proper home.” She says she has heard rumors the government may provide her family with one, but no one has confirmed any plans for a new home. “I’ve been praying for a new home for so long. It’s all up to Allah now.”

New Skin Disorder Dubbed PlayStation palmar hidradenitis

There’s a new reason parents should limit the amount of time that their kids with those PlayStations; a skin disorder. That’s right, some people may develop painful sores from over gaming.

The condition being called PlayStation palmar hidradenitis was recently written about in the British Journal of Dermatology.

The researchers outlined the case of one 12-year-old Swiss child who went to hospital after developing sores on her palms. The girl played on a game console often. When she abstined for ten days the sores healed.

The true name of the condition is ‘idiopathic eccrine hidradenitis’. It has previously been linked to children who take part in heavy physical activities like jogging. Most often the sores are found on the soles of the feet.

The fact that the girl’s hands were involved was very unusual. Her parents confirmed that she played for several hours a day on the family’s PlayStation. After getting the sores she continued to use the gaming device.

This condition can be added to a growing list of problems that can come from excessive gaming. There have been enough acute tendonitis cases for the term Wiitis to come out.

The BBC reports:

“If you’re worried about soreness on your hands when playing a games console, it might be sensible to give your hands a break from time to time, and don’t play excessively if your hands are prone to sweating.”

Boy Charged With Murders Of Kenzie Houk, 26, And Unborn Infant

Friday morning a Wampum, Pa. boy coldly shot and killed the woman that was pregnant with his half sibling before stepping on the school bus to go to school with the victim’s young daughter.

It is said that Jordan Brown, 11, was so jealous of the unborn baby that he blew away Kenzie Houk, 26, as she lie in bed.

Brown is being charged as an adult for ending the lives as Houk and the infant due in just two weeks. He has been charged with two counts of criminal homicide.

Family members knew that Jordan was upset at the upcoming birth of his younger brother.

Between 7 am and 8 am Brown is alleged to have taken a youth-model 20-gauge shotgun won two weeks ago at a shooting competition into the bedroom of Houk. He then fired once, shooting Houk in the head. He acted as nothing was unusual as he and Houk’s daughter, 7, got on the school bus.

After the police talked to the girl they charged Jordan.

The last thing the little girl heard her mother say was to hurry so the two children would not miss the school bus. She claimed that Jordan took the shotgun downstairs and then took it back upstairs. She heard a big boom while she was putting her shoes on for school. When she asked Jordan what the noise was he refused to tell her.

The New York Daily News reports:

“She didn’t actually eyewitness the shooting. She saw him with what she believed to be a shotgun and heard a loud bang,” said Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo.

Houk’s younger daughter, just four-years-old walked into the bedroom discovering her mother was dead. She fled the home flagging down nearby tree trimmers.

The murder weapon was found under Jordan’s bed.

At the time of the shooting Christopher Brown, father of Jordan, was working.

Brown is being held in a cell away from others in the Lawrence County, Pennsylvania jail.

The Daily Contributor reports:

“I wouldn’t know anybody in the whole world who would want to kill a 26-year-old beautiful daughter like mine and take a child,” Houk’s father, Jack, told MSNBC. “I don’t know who would be crazy enough and nutty enough to want to do something like that — has got to be sick. I hope they find out who it is and they give them life or whatever the got to do with them, it’s horrifying.”

35% of UK kids have cellphone by age 8

Today’s primary school child gets out of school, races for a school bus, grumbles about homework and calls their parents on their cell about their day. That’s right, the youngest members of a family often have their own cell phone.

Believe it or not, the average age of a new cell phone user in the United Kingdom eight years old. By the time they’ve reached 15, three-quarters of the population has at least one cell with which they can chat and text friends.

Researchers from the charity Personal Finance Education Group found kids are hitting the electronic age hard and at a very young age. Data was collected from an online survey questioning 1,435 people. Those questioned included 546 children aged seven to 15, 676 parents and 759 grandparents. The survey was held between Jan. 16 and 26.

By the time kids are 10, they have the skills to go online and buy stuff. That means kids have been given their parent’s credit cards or have slipped those numbers away for online shopping. They tend to get computer games or vote in television competitions like American Idol.

Sadly, only 18 per cent use their parent’s hard-earned dollars to buy a book online.

The Telegraph reports:

Wendy van den Hende, chief executive of the charity, said: “Children today face a kind of ‘technological tipping point’ forcing them to develop financial awareness at an earlier age. It is therefore, vital, that they are equipped with the skills and judgment to make sound decisions about money management from an early age.” The research also found that average weekly pocket money now stands at £6.32.

In the UK, it’s cheaper for kids to be chatting it up with their friends; the average cost of cell phone service is $479.05 a year according to an interactive map provided by CBC. Comparatively, cellphone service costs about $572.86 per year in Canada and $635.72 per year in the United States.

Two Girls Found At Washington Barracks, One Dead, One In Hospital

Two teenage girls have been found on an Army base in Tacoma, one unconscious and one dead. The girls were found in barracks on Sunday morning. One girl was pronounced dead at the scene while the other was in stable condition at a hospital on Monday.

Neither girl had signs of physical trauma according to Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek. The results of an autopsy on the deceased girl may take a week for the details to be available.

The Army is investigating the matter. They are looking into if drugs or alcohol were involved. Just the girls being in the barracks at 3:30 a.m. is a breach of the barracks visitation policies. Violations where civilians are on the bases are a serious security concern. Civilians are supposed to be tracked when they enter the base and when they take leave.

The names of the girls are not being released because of their age. A fort Lewis soldier who knew the two has been questioned. No arrests have been filed at this time.

The Army waited to release information about the incident until Monday in order to notify the families of the girls. Piek also stated that the death took place on a holiday weekend.

Florida 7-Year-Old Baker Acted For School Room Tanrtum

When a little seven-year-old became uncontrollable on Wednesday in his Largo, Florida classroom the police stepped in and used the Baker Act. The child was forced to spend the night at Morton Plant Hospital against his parents wishes.

The child had thrown a temper tantrum in his class at Mildred Helms Elementary School. He alledgedly caused a mess in the room during his outburst. He also stepped on a teacher’s foot and “battered” a school administrator. According to Largo deputy police Chief John Carroll the other students had to be removed from the room during the tantrum. The school called both the police and the boy’s parents. When the police arrived they decided that the kid needed to be seen for a mental health exam.

This was not the first time the police had been called to the school about this child. The police officer at the scene decided that the child needed help instead of going home with his mother.

The Lakeland Ledger reports:

“He just felt that this young man needed some mental health service he wasn’t getting,” Carroll explained. “The Baker Act is a kind of a Band-Aid that allows us to have somebody introduced to the service providers that can actually do something for him.”

Mother Barbara Smith says that the police would not allow her to defuse the situation by seeing her son. She agreed to ride with the boy in the police car on route to the hospital. Since the incident neither the boy nor his sister, 9, have returned to school out of fear.

Raine Johns handles Baker Act cases for the Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender’s Office. The Baker Act is used to get a mental health exam for people who are in danger of harming themselves or others. It can be used against their will.

That’s not the purpose of the Baker Act at all,” said Johns, who is not involved in the case. “Stepping on somebody’s foot doesn’t rise to the level of substantial bodily harm.”

In the Pinellas school system this year the police have evoked the Baker Act 83 times.

Carroll believes that the officers did the right thing for this child.

“The child got interviewed by mental health professionals,” he said. “He didn’t get arrested. There’s no criminal charges against him.”

The boy’s parents do not follow that belief. Richard Smith and his wife are not sure of their next step however they plan to speak to a lawyer.

Horror At The Subway, Man Pushes Two Teens In Front of Train

Friday night the Dufferin Subway Station in Toronto was the scene of what could have been the murder of three teens. A middle aged man pushed three teens into the path of an oncoming Toronto subway train.

Adenir DeOliveira appeared in a Toronto court room on Saturday. He is accused of shoving three teens into the path of a train at the station. A psychiatric evaluation has been ordered for the 47-year-old.

It appears that the attack was unprovoked. Two of the teens fell onto the tracks after being pushed. One of the boys escaped injury but the other was partially struck by the train.

Jacob Greenspon, son of Edward Greenspon editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail was taken to Sick Kids Hospital after his foot was run over. Jacob suffered some minor internal injuries and had to have surgery on his foot. He will remain in hospital for a few days for observation.

Incredibly neither boy touched the electrified bar.

The driver of the train hit the brakes when he saw the two teens on the tracks. Jacob’s friend rolled out of the way of the train pulling him back as the train sreeched to a stop.

The Globe and Mail reports:

“It’s an incredible trauma to suffer to be pushed in front of a train like that, and we’re extremely grateful they were not killed,” TTC spokesman Brad Ross said.. “I can’t imagine what they must be going through.”

The three teens that were not pushed into the path of the train chased DeOliveira when he tried to flee. A TTC collector was shoved by the escaping man as he ran outside. The collector caught up to him and with the help of another witness tackled the suspect, holding him until police arrived.

DeOliveira is also facing charges for assault on the TTC collector and the Good Samaritan.

The three teens ran to the platforms as emergency crews arrived. One pulled a lever to kill power to the train while the other two talked to their friends below them.

“They are not life-threatening injuries,” Mr. Greenspon said, adding media reports that said his son had lost his toes are not accurate.

Mr. Greenspon said his son is just trying to figure out why this happened. “Jacob was bewildered that anyone could just come and push kids onto a train track. He really wanted to understand why.

“And I want to know if there were cracks in the system that led to this. All of us need to be concerned with the public safety aspect of this. I have questions about that which I hope will be answered as the investigation continues.”

Nadya Suleman Has Been Getting Death Threats

Nadya Suleman is back in the news as LA police begin to investigate threats made against her. The police will be advising her publicist on how to handle the slew of nasty mail coming in his office about the octuplet mother.

It seems that many people are a bit peeved that the mother of fourteen has been receiving public assistance. They have been letting her publicist Mike Furtney know by phone and e-mail what they think of Suleman and her children. Furtney already had 500 new e-mails early Thursday about his client.

The Associated Press states:

“We are aware of the media accounts of the threats, and that they are being sent to the West Los Angeles detectives for appropriate action,” Romero said.

Some of the constant phone calls though have offered the huge family some assistance. One Midwest family even offered the mother a home on their home.

Because of the threats Suleman’s location is being kept secret. She is visiting her newborns every day. The babies are expected to remain in hospital for several weeks.

Suleman has been receiving $490 a month in food stamps and Social Security Disability for three of her oldest six children. Those payments could total $2,379 a month.

She has said that her in vitro fertility procedures cost roughly $100,000. She said that she saved up that money by working double shifts and with an award she got for disability from an on-the-job back injury. That award exceeded $165,000.

The cost of raising 14 children until the age of 17 is estimated between $1.3 million to $2.7 million dollars.

Salma Hayek Nurses Another Woman’s Infant In Sierra Leone

Salma Hayek breast fed a child that was starving in Sierra Leone. The infant’s mother was unable to nurse her child so Hayek stepped up to the plate.

Hayek has a 1-year-old who is still nursing which is how she could offer a meal to the child. She was in the poor nation as part of Pampers’ “One Pack = One Vaccine.” The project is benefiting UNICEF’s fight against maternal and neonatal tetanus.

Salon reports:

Hayek also managed to powerfully endorse the wonders of breast milk. “It is the best thing you can do for your child, not only the bonding, that’s how you build the immune system, so in a [place] like Africa imagine how important it is for the mothers to do that,” she said.

In Sierra Leone many mothers stop nursing within the first few months under pressure from their husbands. It is considered unacceptable to have sex with a nursing mother in the culture.

Because of malnutrition and other factors the nation has the world’s highest infant mortality rate in the world. One in five infants born die before their fifth birthday.

Fox News Producer Busted On Child Porn

Aaron Bruns, a producer for Fox News, has been arrested and charged with one count of possession of child pornography. Bruns was allegedly conducting “pro-active undercover investigations” on an unnamed P2P network.

Bruns, 29, has been charged with having photos and videos on his computer that featured children under the age of 10 being sexually abused by adults. The Pennsylvania state police had been investigating a secret peer-to-peer network and found that Bruns was acting as a distributor.

Bruns allegedly taken naked pictures of himself.

This is his second arrest on child porn charges. In 1999 he was running a similar network while in college. At that time child porn was also found on his computer during a raid of his dorm room at the University of Michigan.

He has covered Hillary Clinton’s campaign during last year’s presidential race.

Media Bistro has a copy of the affidavit of this crime.

He is due to appear today in Washington D.C. federal court. A judge scheduled another hearing for Thursday, where he will consider whether to continue holding Bruns in jail.

Fox News is surprisingly silent on this matter. But Bruns has been suspended without pay.

Sophie Waller, 8, Starved To Death

An eight-year-old died after doctors pulled all of her baby teeth. Little Sophie Waller had gone to the dentist for a cracked baby tooth. That act started a chain of events that lead to her death.

She refused to open her mouth so doctors at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro took that tooth and the rest of her baby teeth out in an operation.The doctors said that they needed to pull all the teeth to avoid the need for any further operations.

After the surgery Sophie refused to open her mouth, even for her parents. She stopped eating. The doctors ignored that behaviour and sent her home anyway. Three weeks late the child had starved to death.

Janet Waller was told to take her daughter to a child psychologist. That doctor said not to fear the weight loss the child suffered from refusing to eat. Another doctor told the family to give her nutrition drinks without bothering to examine her.

On December 2, 2005 Sophie was dead. The official cause was kidney failure brought on by starvation and dehydration. Before Sophie’s operation she weighed a healthy 72 pounds. The coroner saw a child weighing a third less than that.

Canoe reports:

No one saw her after she was discharged from hospital,” Waller, 34, told the inquest Monday. “I told (a child psychologist) she was sucking on a watermelon, she told me that was enough for her to survive on.”

The child had been in hospital for eight days after her surgery. That was the last time she was seen by a doctor. The doctors said that they were not concerned by the girl’s rapid weight loss.

After almost four years an inquest is being held on the child’s death.

Opinion: The Jolie-Pitt Kids Act Like Real Kids

Brad Pitt took his partner to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) on Sunday leaving their little darlings with a nanny at the pricey Dorchester Hotel. Reports are coming in that the kids behaved like children. Oh dear!

The family had the almost entire third floor booked. It seems the kids enjoyed the space. They were said to be running in the hallway for an hour.

Oh my goodness, folks the kids were being (insert gasp!) kids! Pax, Zahara, Maddox and Shiloh were having fun on the floor that their parents had paid for running around.

There were complaints from the high paying guests that also were on the floor. Funny, when kids are having fun they are loud.

Both of their parents were up for an award at the BAFTA event; Pitt for ”The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button” and momma Jolie for ”Changeling.”

The next day, though, the gossip rags weren’t talking about how swanky mom and dad were looking. Oh no, it was being touted that the kids were brats. The Improper even went as far as to say already seem to have adopted Angie’s rebellious streak an air of entitlement.

Entertainment One India quotes another guest of the hotel:

“They were running up and down the hallway for over an hour,” the Sun quoted a troubled guest as saying. “Their nanny tried to quieten them down and move them out the way when people came through. “But she had her hands full with the four of them,” the guest added.

The guest do pay a fortune for their rooms. The double suites cost over 4,000 pounds and that’s not including a breakfast. They have the right to expect that the halls will be quiet. What hasn’t been said is if the area that the kids were having fun in was paid for by their parents. If that is the case then these little snippets are folks just wanting to slam the family.

Honestly if the worst that can be written about a family’s children is that they were running down the hallway the parents most be doing something right. The walls weren’t damaged. No carpets were destroyed. It sounds like a case of letting some happy and active kids get energy out of their little bodies.

I say keep up the good job of allowing your kids to be just that, kids.

Opinion: Let’s Get Real, Taxpayers Will Support The Suleman Family

She just had eight babies after fertility treatments. She has six children at home. She is unemployed and receives food stamps. Three of her six children have disability payments coming in.

Still Nadya Suleman told Ann Curry on Monday that she does not receive welfare.

With the eight children in the hospital likely having lasting disabilities it is likely her payments will go up in the coming months. She already gets $490 a month in food stamps and an undisclosed about in payments for her disabled children. The LA Times quotes her publicist Michael Furtney :

“In Nadya’s view, the money that she gets from the food stamp program … and the resources disabilities payments she gets for her three children are not welfare,” he said. “They are part of programs designed to help people with need, and she does not see that as welfare.”

Perhaps making more babies than you can afford is profitable? Of course it’s not. Her mother pays the rent and has already lost one home.

Suleman told Curry that she plans to support her brood of fourteen once she gets her master’s degree in counseling.

We all know the high rates social workers and the like bring in. Somehow I find it hard to believe that her paycheque will cover the cost of diapers, food, formula and a roof over the families head. It’s hard enough for a good wage covering those costs for a small sized family at times.

Now throw in day care for 14 kids. That would come to about an average of $14,000 a month for childcare. That’s $168,000 a year just to have someone watch the tykes to go to work. I know that’s high end but you have to factor in the extra needs for children with health risks that these children are very likely to have.

Somehow it doesn’t seem likely Suleman will command that kind of a salary as a counselor. So what are her choices?

Those choices are having taxpayers foot the bill so she can be a ’super-mother.’ Many families would love to be at home parents but they have to work, in part to pay taxes.

I wonder if Suleman will in years to come write a big thank you to all those working families for supporting her children?

Perhaps the clinic that implanted the embryos should be liable for the cost of this family. If these clinics would be held liable for the future security of bills being met it is less likely they would risk the taxpayers dollar.

Have Your Kids Had Their Mud Pie Today?

Today’s child in most developed countries are eating more healthy food. Moms and dads provide a nice range of veggies and fruits and keep their tykes clean. Maybe there’s a bit of over kill though according to scientists. Kids no longer taste the dirt.

Children need to eat a little soil every now and then in order to boost their immune systems. It is being thought that some allergies, immune system disorders and asthma may be increasing with cleaner kids. Those conditions have increased by the tens of thousands with North American kids.

It’s now thought that this could be due to excessive hygiene. It’s not a new idea, back in 1989 British epidemiologist David P. Strachan dubbed the idea as “the hygiene hypothesis.”

Immunology expert Mary Ruebush explores the hypothesis in her book Why Dirt Is Good. She contends that a baby’s immune system is like a computer that has yet to be programmed. It needs to have viruses and bacteria entered in to learn what to fight and what to ignore.

Now being cleaner isn’t a totally bad idea. Considering 80 per cent of diseases in the world come from water contamination being clean is being healthy.

In the future researchers may come up with a vaccine that kick starts a youngsters immune system. Until that time it may make sense to let Junior play in the dirt more. maybe mom and dad can just use old fashion soap and water to clean their kids up instead of spending more for those antibacterial soaps.

In other words, let the kids be kids. Mud pies may be more than just fun times, they may help keep the doctor away.

Mother Plasters Town With Posters, Don’t Serve My Daughter Drinks

A mother will do anything to save her child. That’s why Isobel Higgins is posting posters warning people not to give her daughter Jody, 16, alcohol. The child is an alcoholic and her mother wants to keep her alive.

Posters of Jody are all over Carlisle in the UK. They have Jody’s picture on them and the words, do not serve or buy alcohol for this girl.’

Higgins, 33, admits feeling a bit embarrassed by plastering her daughter’s face all over the town but she had to do something. Jody started drinking a year ago and quickly became addicted.

Her mother tells the Daily Mail:

‘She will drink vodka, cider, shots, whatever she can get her hands on and she doesn’t see she’s doing anything wrong. I think it’s an addiction.

‘I’ve tried everything in the book, including a curfew but you just can’t control a 16-year-old, not even with the help of the authorities. I don’t know where she is during the day. I can’t lock her up.’

Higgins turned to social services but that didn’t help. Jody was arrested for damaging the windows at Higgins home. That only got her known to the police.

Jody is now in counseling with Straightline, a drug and alcohol support service, and is getting help with her education.

Higgins hopes that by speaking out that she not only helps her own daughter but others. Public awareness is key.

Says the concerned mother:

‘This doesn’t just hurt the family, it is ruining her education and, most importantly, her health.

‘She is drinking to the point where she can’t stand up, that must be doing so much damage to her body. I will do anything I can to stop it and help her help herself.’

‘The White House Boys Survivors’ Sue State Of Florida

The claims are heartbreaking. Almost 100 men who spent time in Florida reform schools five decades ago say they were raped and beaten by the employees hired to take care of them. Those men are now suing the state.

The group, “The White House Boys Survivors,” were inmates at the Florida School for Boys in Marianna during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Last October the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice admitted that the abuses took place. In January the group filed their lawsuit.

One of the stories coming out of that lawsuit is of an 11-year-old whose arms and legs were tied to two trees. The child was repeatedly kicked in the groin.

More of the stories are of children being lashed up to 100 times with a leather razor strip. There were times when the boys underwear had to be removed from their bodies with surgical tools.

The Lakeland Ledger reports:

“I’m ashamed of what they did to these people. When I heard these stories it cried out for something to be done,” said Thomas Masterson, a St. Petersburg lawyer who filed the lawsuit in Pinellas County Circuit Court. The lawsuit seeks class-action status.

There are claims of boys being sodomized with a ‘probing rod,’ of employees placing bets on who could draw first blood during beatings and other abuses. At least two of the boys who were abused can not be involved in the lawsuit, they died at the hands of those past employees. One of the dead died after being put in an industrial clothes dryer.

Thomas Masterson, a St. Petersburg lawyer, filed the lawsuit in Pinellas County Circuit Court after interviewing the men. The stories remained the same even though the men lived hundreds of miles apart. Those stories had horrific details that were supported time and again.

“If a reasonable person talks to the people who were there, you cannot help but draw the conclusion that these people are telling the truth,” Masterson said. “I don’t think that you can defend this by saying they’re not telling the truth or it’s an exaggeration.”

the lawsuit names four state departments as defendants, including the Department of Juvenile Justice, as well as former Marianna reform school employees Troy Tidwell and Robert Curry.

Governor Charlie Crist asked in December that the 30 unmarked graves near the Marianna School be investigated.

60-year-old Calgary Woman Gives Birth To Twins

After decades of trying to have a child Canadian Ranjit Hayer is the mother of two boys. The 60-year-old is one of the oldest women in Canadian history to give birth.

The boys were born in Calgary by C-section Tuesday morning. Hayer is recovering in intensive care and the twins are in the neo-natal intensive care unit.

The babies had to be born early because Hayer had begun to hemorrhage this week. Doctors delivered the infants and then had to remove her uterus. She is in the ICU because she required blood transfusions to become stabilized.

Her previous three pregnancies had always ended in miscarriages. This one has left her with some serious medical conditions, high blood pressure and diabetes. She also suffered placenta previa which was the cause of her bleeding. That condition required the woman to spend the last 4 weeks in hospital.

One of the babies is able to breath on his own with the help of special equipment, the other is not. Other than their premature lungs though the boys are doing well. They will be released from hospital when they are large enough.

Many are questioning the ethics in Hayer’s case. That includes the specialist in Calgary that helped her to conceive.

The CBC reports:

“It all sounds very fine when this age group — isn’t it fantastic what medical technology can do, how we’re stretching the boundaries and everything else — but there’s so much more involved in this. It’s not just having the babies and being born,” he told CBC.

“There’s not just one generation gap here, there’s two generation gaps. They’re really what would be like the age of grandparents.”

Hayer had to return to her native India to have IVF treatments to get pregnant. She got pregnant with triples. One of the triples though had to be terminated because of medical reasons.

In Canada the cutoff age for IVF is between 45 and 50 years old.

“We need to think of this as the broader context, not just the individual circumstances here, as to what obligation is there in the Canadian health-care system or on the Canadian taxpayer to support the after-care for people who’ve received an initial intervention, at cost, somewhere outside of Canada,” she said Thursday.

Teen Could Face Almost 300 Years For Sexual Abuse Case

Anthony R. Stancl is accused of posing as a girl online to blackmail 13- to 19-year-old boys in get them to perform sex acts. He was charged on Wednesday of sex crimes in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

New Berlin High School had been the site of a bomb threat last November. On November 14 the school had to be closed. The threat was sent to the school from a computer at the New Berlin Public Library.

Stancl was the name that came up during an investigation.

As that investigation was starting a shocking twist came into light. A 15-year-old went to authorities alleging that Stancl was blackmailing him and forcing him to perform sex acts. He came forward after Stancl had demanded that he get photos of his younger brother. That was enough. The teen went to his parents and then to the police.

The police were told a tale of how Stancl blackmailed the teen after telling him that a girl he met on Facebook would release naked photos to the rest of the school. The teen had sent the ‘girl’ the photos through Facebook. That girl turned out to be Stancl himself. The 15-year-old was only one of at least 31 other boys who were caught in Stancl’s web.

All of the teens attend New Berlin Eisenhower Middle/High School. The sexual attacks happened at the high school, the school parking lot, a restroom at the New Berlin Public Library, Valley View Park, Malone Park, Minooka Park and some of the victims homes.

As the information came in the police obtained a search warrant for Stancl’s computer. That computer held the evidence to back up the 15-year-old’s story and much more. Stancl had more than 300 photos and movie clips of New Berlin boys. There were an additional 600 professional movies of child porn. The photos and movie clips were in 39 files labeled with either the children’s names or their screen names.

Authorities are asking that victims come forward.

Stancl used pictures of females from Facebook pages to persuade male students to email nude photos to him.

Stancl has been charges with the bomb threat plus repeated sexual assault of same child (at least three violations of first- or second-degree sexual assault), possession of child pornography, second- and third-degree sexual assaults, and five counts of child enticement. If convicted of all crimes he could be sentenced to almost 300 years in prison.

Stancl is currently being held on $250,000 bail after his first appearance in Waukesha County Circuit Court in Waukesha on Wednesday.

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel reports:

“In this court’s 7 1/2 years on the bench, this is the most horrific complaint the court has ever reviewed,” Waukesha Circuit Court Commissioner Laura Florian Lau said. “The defendant is facing 293 years if convicted on these 12 counts. . . . This is a crime allegedly that involved many, many, many victims. The court is extremely concerned as to whether defendant will return to court.”

Guilty Verdict Comes In On Baby Grace Case

A Texas jury spent less than two hours deliberating before turning in a guilty verdict for Kimberly Trenor. Trenor was found guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter dubbed by the media as “Baby Grace.”

Trenor will be given a life in prison sentence. the prosecutors in the case did not seek the death penalty.

Royce Clyde Zeigler II will face a jury later in the same case. Zeigler and Trenor are said to have killed her daughter Riley Ann Sawyers as they disciplined her.

Young Riley Ann endured a beating that included being dunked in cold bath water. After a day of torture the child’s skull was fractured. That punishment was designed to teach her good manners.

The couple is said to have enjoyed a picnic less than two weeks after the child was murdered.

The child’s remains were found in October 2007 in Galveston Bay. The toddler was identified by relatives in Ohio who saw news reports.

Opinion: Does Nadya Suleman Plan On Cashing In On Her Babies?

She’s a single mom. She wants the money. Is that why Nadya Suleman has kept having babies? It’s been revealed that she wants 2 million from commercials and interviews. She wants interviews to plans with Oprah and Good Morning America’s Diane Sawyer.

With fourteen children under the age of eight Nadya Suleman, 33, has to find a way to feed a lot of mouths. From her hospital bed she is trying to line up interviews and sponsorships. Was that one of the reasons she decided to have so many babies? Did she think that she would become rich from being a single mother of a slew of infants?

That money may not be forthcoming with her story front and center of ethical controversy. She ignored medical guidelines putting both herself and her eight youngest children at medical risk.

As the public becomes more aware of her story many have critized how an unemployed mother of six could consider adding eight more children to her family when she was not able to provide for the first batches. She has already added to her own parents financial strain.

Angela Suleman is watching her daughter’s oldest six until Nadya leaves the hospital. She claims her daughter is obsessed with children.

The children are the product of a sperm donor. She at one time worked at a fertility clinic. It is suspected that the donor is a friend of hers who is also the father of her twins.

Times Online reports:

Michael Tucker of the Georgia Reproductive Clinic, Atlanta, said Suleman’s story stunned him. “We are policed by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, which frowns upon implanting more than two or three embryos at a time. It is remarkable that any practitioner would undertake such a practice.”

Is it possible that shows like ‘John and Kate Plus 8′ and ‘17 And Counting’ on TLC have had a part? Both shows feature enormous children and families that appear to have it made financially.

The Duggar family have 18 children. They were all born from natural means. Their father has rental properties that supports them. they also make money from their books and shows.

The Gosselins have struggled at times according to their show with money. The show and other endorsements though have helped them to provide for their family. John works full time and Kate is a nurse.

Could the popularity of these two shows be responsible for a new trend of huge families? Could those families believe that they to will be famous and get money for having mega-sized families?

Opinion: The Number Two Pencil Tests Right Is Failing Students

The No Child Left Behind Act is not working, instead it is leaving a nation of children behind. A system based upon testing and statistics is not how to elevate students to knowledgeable adults. In the future it may be well called Leaving Everyone Behind.

Tests are not how children learn. Under the No Child Left Behind era reading and math were the only objective. Children have been subjected to cuts in other fields of education.

Using test scores as a measure to how well a school is doing and then how much funding that they receive has failed.

Progressive.org reports:

“The achievement gap between whites, blacks and Hispanics — as well as with rich and poor students – was well known before NCLB and it does nothing to close the gap,” says Fair Test’s Robert Schaeffer. “You don’t need to set up a system that punishes schools instead of helping them and creates pressures for classrooms to become test prep centers.”

Reading and math instruction are the main core subjects being taught at length due to the standardized tests.With 75 percent of class time dominated by teaching for the test other important skills are being neglected. That leaves subjects like history, geography, civics, and science fraying in the wind.

Without the basics that children used to get in primary grades once a child gets to high school they don’t have a foundation for these core subjects.

As Monty Neill, Ed.D. states the schools are pushing out students unprepared for college level work. The U.S. cannot test its way to better schools.

The system itself has the pit fall for setting schools and teachers up to fail. Disabled students and students where English is not their first language drag down the test scores. Some schools are now in the position of having to drive those students out of their schools to qualify for that prized funding dollar according to Neill.

The risk of losing funding could drive schools to cooking the books, juggling the numbers, and “customizing” definitions of grade levels and ethnic origins to stay ahead. Teachers are having to leave the very schools that need them to be eligible for raises. If your school is failing you don’t get the big bucks. If the tests are failing the students who else can be blamed but the teachers? That would seem the right answer except the best teachers don’t teach for the testing, they teach for learning. And that often does not mix.

What the United States has created is a system that will produce more unemployable members of society. Jobs are not based upon test scores. Employers want well rounded, educated employees.

Somehow learning how to pencil in the right box with your number two pencil just isn’t cutting the job.

Our grandparents and great-grandparents sat in one room school houses soaking up knowledge. Today there are so many methods and theories around on how to best educate and yet the schools fail. Perhaps it is time to take a few steps back and examine how schools succeeded in the past and apply those methods to schools today.

Grandmother Critical Of Daughter Desire To Have More Children

Her daughter always wanted babies according to the mother of Nadya Suleman, 33, who gave birth to octuplets this week. Angela Suleman has dealt with stress in the wake of her daughter’s obsession for children.

A psychologist has told Angela to order her daughter out of her home. That Angela couldn’t do as CBC reports;

“Maybe she wouldn’t have had so many kids then, but she is a grown woman,” Angela Suleman said. “I feel responsible and I didn’t want to throw her out.”

The elder Suleman’s filed for bankruptcy in 2008. They owe $984,426.30 to their creditors. When the couple did not follow through with the court proceedings the bankruptcy case was closed on July 22, 2008.

Nadya Suleman already had six children before she underwent fertility treatment resulting in the eight births this week. The father of four of the children David Solomon is in the service.

Angela Suleman admits she has not been supportive of her daughter’s latest round of fertitlity treatments. The Associated Press quotes Ms. Suleman;

It can’t go on any longer,” she said in a phone interview Friday. “She’s got six children and no husband.

“I was brought up the traditional way. I firmly believe in marriage. But she didn’t want to get married.”

The eight infants will likely remain in hospital for a month. Nadya should be released within a week. While she recovers Angela is taking care of her six older grandchildren, one of whom is autistic.

The older children range in age from two to seven.

When the doctors discovered that Nadya was carrying eight embryos they recommended that she abourt some of them, as did Angela. Nadya refused.

Three years ago Yolanda Garcia, 49, of Whittier, California offered to care for the autistic boy.

“From what I could tell back then, she was pretty happy with herself, saying she liked having kids and she wanted 12 kids in all,” Garcia told the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

“She told me that all of her kids were through in vitro, and I said, ‘Gosh, how can you afford that and go to school at the same time?”‘ she added. “And she said it’s because she got paid for it.”

All of the children have the same sperm donor.

This case has sparked debate over the ethics of fertility treatments. Medically it is irresposbile to implant eight embryos, both for the children and the mother.

CBS reports:

Dr. Mark Surrey, a fertility expert, told Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman that it is irresponsible and medically risky to implant eight embryos. “(Any doctor who would do that) should be criticized, censured, and professionally reviewed,” Surrey said.

“I don’t know of anyone who would applaud this as a good outcome,” said Surrey, adding that it was fortunate that all eight babies survived.

“I completely agree with Dr. Surrey,” Dr. James Grifo, Program Director at the New York University Fertility Center and one of the nation’s top infertility specialists, told Early Show Saturday Edition co-anchor Erica Hill. “I know no physician who would put eight embryos in a patient. We don’t do that, because of the risks. Our goal as practitioners is to help patients have a healthy offspring.

Nadya Suleman holds a degree in child and adolescent development from California State University. She is studying for her masters in counseling.

Obama Girls Baffled By Snow Day

Barack Obama’s daughters are a little baffled at how ice could stop a city. The Chicago-bred children of the President of the United States missed school this Wednesday because of a little ice.

When schools closed in Washington D.C. because of ice the two little girls asked what was up with that. In Chicago it takes a major storm to shit down the school system. The last time that happened was in 1999 when the city got a dumping of snow of two feet. Where the girls went to school in Chicago, The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools has only shut down once in the past 30 years.

So Washington D.C. what’s up?

As their father told reporters and business leaders Wednesday D.C. needs to toughen up a bit.

The LA Times quotes President Obama.

“As my children pointed out, in Chicago, school is never canceled. In fact, my 7-year-old [Sasha] pointed out that you’d go outside for recess in weather like this. . . . You wouldn’t even stay indoors. So it’s — I don’t know. We’re going to have to try to apply some flinty Chicago toughness to this town.”

Opinion: Does Cursive Writing Still Belong In School?

At one time penmanship was an important part of education. That was before the age of computers. Now learning computer skills is considered more vital than learning cursive. With schools dropping some programs should cursive go the way of the dinosaurs?

While cursive is still being taught nationwide some professionals in the education field are questioning if it is a skill that can be eliminated. Society seems to working in the favor of canceling out the art of writing. It is now rare to see cursive other than in a school situation.

As it is now having beautiful penmanship is no longer the objective; being able to write efficiently is. Cursive is nice for letter writing but other than that where is it used in society today? While my own mother may be rolling in her grave as I ask this, sometimes progress requires some skills of olden days to be replaced. Perhaps cursive is one of those subjects.

When I was in school I had to have all important papers written in cursive. My kids have to turn in their work after typing it up on their computers.

Perhaps cursive could be taken from the curriculum and recess take its place. Could it be possible to bring back art classes and have a unit on cursive as an form art?

If I had my choice removing cursive for the arts and physical activity may be the way to go.

Eliminating Recess Does Not Benefit School Children

There is a growing trend in public schools to take away recess from primary schools. Adults would scream loudly if their coffee breaks were removed yet recess is an easy target in primary schools. Children, like adults need time to regroup and socialize.

The time is needed by younger children to let off stream and learn to get along with others.

Dr. Romina Barros and a team of colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York recently published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics their findings from a study of more than 10,000 children. They concluded that children aged 8 and 9 need at least 15 minutes of recess per day to function better in class.

The benefits of recess are wide spread. Health, learning and social development each benefit from even the smallest amount of free time.

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has lead many school districts to reduce time for recess, arts and physical education so that they can focus on reading and mathematics.

Recess has taken the hardest hit with this program focusing on test scores and not the human element. Educators argue that shaving time from the playground is not in place in an instruction devoted to academics.

Education World reports:

“The big thing in this country now is standards,” Marie Diamond, president of the Connecticut Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, stated in a recent Hartford Courant interview.

“We’ve raised the bar; our standards are higher,” says Diamond. At the same time, she adds, “The majority of kids need some time for recess, just like people in offices need coffee breaks.”

These schools tend to be in poorer areas, have a larger black population and inside the inner city.

Reuters reports:

“This raises concern in light of evidence that many children from disadvantaged backgrounds are not free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless they are accompanied by adults,” the team said. “For many of these children, recess periods may be the only opportunity for them to practice their social skills with other children.”

There are also realistic fears that the children are in danger while on the playground from outside sources.

Another factor on eliminating recess is the sheer size of the average classroom in these areas. With overcrowding the spaces that the schools once used for recess or physical education are now being needed for additional classroom space.

Not only do the children suffer from lack of social skills but their health takes a back seat. Childhood obesity needs to be addressed by offering more instead of less activities where children can be physical.

The amount of free time at school has reduced since the 1970’s. While the children in the United States spend more and more time sitting at a desk children in Asia are spending more time relaxing. Asian schoolchildren tend to have a 10 minute break for every 40 to 50 minutes of education. Asian children are also topping the school test scores.

Christopher Dotson Endured Days Of Being Beaten Before He Died

A 6-year-old Dallas boy is dead at the hands of a live-in boyfriend. Christopher Dotson died Tuesday after being beaten throughout the day and then pushed underwater. The mother did not report the beatings the little boy endured for days before his death.

The Dallas police arrested Anthony Lamar Beckett, 24, on Tuesday for the child’s death. Late Thursday evening Erica Dotson was charged with injury to a child in the case of Christopher Dotson.

The Dallas County medical examiner has ruled that the child died from blunt force injuries and possible drowning.

Christopher was found covered in bruised and not moving on Monday afternoon. Beckett told the paramedics that he had punished the child by dunking him underwater for seconds at a time. The child’s beating began on Sunday evening. On Monday the child attended school for the day. He was struck again when he returned home. Beckett used fabric and a leather belt to hit him all over his small body.

Beckett is in the Dallas County Jail on a $1.5 million bail. Dotson has yet to be processed at the jail.

What’s In A Name? Adolf Hitler Campbell Removed From His Home

Last week Adolf Hitler Campbell and his siblings were removed by the New Jersey Division of Youth and Family Services from their home. This removal came even without any reports of abuse or neglect. Or were they?

Heath Campbell has said that the children haven’t been removed while Holland Township police chief David Van Gilson said they were.

The family came into the news when a local grocery refused to add little Adolf’s name to a birthday cake.

The parents of Adolf Hitler have given their other children equally unique names; JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, 1, and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell, who turns 1 in April.

A hearing is scheduled to decide if the children should be placed in another home on Thursday before Superior Court Judge Peter A. Buschbaum at the Hunterdon County Justice Center. An earlier hearing was postponed after Heath Campbell requested a private attorney.

After a story appeared in The Express-Times about the children’s names and the refusal of a supermarket to pen Adolf Hitler on a birthday cake another Campbell family in the area received death threats. Those threats were meant for Heath Campbell. Police are investigating that threat.

The website lehighvalleylive.com
reports on the letter sent to Melanie Campbell in December. The letter was meant for Heath Campbell.

“Your hateful thoughts will cause your death and the deaths of your children,” the letter reads.

“You will not be able to prevent this, you will not know when it will happen, you will not know how it will happen,” it reads. “Your children will die. You will all end up like your Nazi friends: dead.”

The typewritten letter was followed by another in December. Melanie Campbell gave both letters to the police.

Mailing a death threat is punishable with a three to five year prison sentence.

Mexico Is Considering Banning All Toy Guns

Mexico is considering banning toy guns in an effort to lower aggression among Mexican children dealing with the wave of criminal violence throughout the nation.

If the Mexican parliament does ban the guns it will be a wide hand ruling. The ban will include production, import, sale, rent and use of plastic weapons of most kinds.

Last year the death toll because of guns was over 5,300. Drug wars have made Mexico a deadly battleground.

The Guardian reports:

“The nation’s serious problem of violence means it is urgent to take measures to control these kind of toys that do nothing to contribute to making a peaceful and aware society,” the bill states.

In 2002 a ban came into play for all realistic replicas. The penalties though only are limited to confiscations. Other than a few police sweeps during the Christmas holiday season the ruling is not taken seriously. Some local programs do offer children the chance to hand over their toy guns in exchange of educational toys. Those promotions though don’t do well.

In Mexico most children receive most of their toy gifts on January 6, Three Kings Day. Reporters from La Jornada easily found toy Kalashnikovs and other toy assault rifles along the many street markets in Mexico City just days before the holiday.

The Plight On One Boy, Prince Jelom

When the times are tough it is always the children who suffer. Such is the plight of Zimbabwe ’s children fleeing to other countries for some kind of future. Prince Jelom is one of those children.

He has sold eggs, carried bags and other menial work to survive. He is 13.

The young boy knows where to grab a few hours shut in in a bus shelter, how to work harder than many adult men and can bluff his way across the border.

When he’s not having to be a street wise kid though he thinks of home. Back at home is a loving grandmother that he left behind.

He now lives in a church shelter in the border town of Musina. There he dreams of becoming a pilot, a job his father also wanted. He may not have the education yet, but he still has his hopes and dreams.

He is like many of the other 100 or so boys seeking refuge in the shelter. Big dreams, little plans. They want to find their families. They want to escape poverty. They want to be free.

Both of Jelom’s parents are now dead. AIDS made him an orphan, war made him a refugee. He hopes to remain in South Africa. He’s one of more than one million Zimbabweans with that dream.

He is just the beginning. Inflation in Zimbabwe is in the trillions. Most of the population is in need of food. Cholera is at an epidemic stage.

But young Jelom has his dreams. Perhaps in time he will be flying a plane. But that time is a long ways away.

Opinion: It’s Time For The Kiddie Version of the Sims, Military Style

The Department of Defense has come up with a nifty way of keeping little boys and girls in touch with Mommy and Daddy serving their country. Only the whole thing just seems to be even more traumatic for the tykes.

Because of the six years of year the DOD has finally figured out that lots of little kids don’t have a parent around. Have no fear now kids, Mom and Dad’s image can come to a computer screen in front of you. Now mind you it’s just their image and that feedback they are giving you is pre-programmed. It’s fine though, after all it’s the thought that counts, right?

The program will allow a child to have a simulated conversation with their parent about everyday topics. It’s kind of like the Sims but scaled down to good nights and I miss yous.

Yep, you read right. The DOD is making a computer program that looks and sounds like Mommy or Daddy but isn’t. I guess now it’s okay to teach the young that the government doesn’t mind a little white lie here and there.

The program is aimed at three to five year olds.

International Red Cross Finds Many Wounded In Gaza Forbidden Area

The International Committee of the Red Cross has found at least 15 bodies and several starving children in an area that Israeli military forbid ambulances.

The find came after the Red Cross received reports of casualties in a neighbourhood south of Gaza City in Zaytoun. The Israeli military refused to allow the international humanitarian group to enter until Wednesday afternoon.

The Washington Post reports that a public statement on the incident was issued by the Geneva headquarters of the group.

The Red Cross called the episode “unacceptable” and said the Israeli military had “failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded.”

In one of the homes 12 corpses were on a mattress with four young children too weak to stand up laying next to their slain mothers. Those children were rushed to hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces would not comment on the incident Thursday but did say in a statement that the military “has demonstrated its willingness to abort operations to save civilian lives and to risk injury in order to assist innocent civilians.”

The statement went on to say that any allegations made against the conduct of the IDF will need a formal investigation once there has been a formal complaint.

Israel also stated that they have returned fire on a rocket-launching site in Lebanon. The site has reportedly fired several rockets into western Galilee landing around the city of Nahariya. Eighteen wounded survivors were taken by donkey carts for medical attention. Rescue workers were chased by Israeli soldiers but refused to leave.

This is a shocking incident,” Pierre Wettach, the Red Cross’s head of delegation for Israel and the Palestinian territories, said in a statement. “The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded.”

There is no official comments from Lebanon on this incident. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah has stated though that Lebanon would attack Israel for the action ongoing in Gaza.

Journalists reporting from within Gaza have confirmed large numbers of survivors are arriving at the Red Cross hospitals in Gaza from Zaytoun.

Of the 680 Palestinians that have died since the conflict began last week one third have been women and children.

There Were No Hamas Militants At Gaza Bombed School Says UN

United Nations investigators have uncovered no evidence of Hamas fighters being holed up in a Gaza school where 40 civilians were killed on Tuesday. Many of the dead were children.

The Israel Defense Forces Spokesman’s Office is claiming that they only fired at the school because they were in pursuit of Hamas fighters. They also claim they were returning fire.

Chris Gunness, a spokesman of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) says that after a preliminary investigation of the Fakhura girl’s elementary school is not turning up any militants. Gunness said the UN was 99.9% sure of that finding.

Before Israel bombed the school 400 Palestinians had taken refuge there. They had fled the shelling of the Jabalya refugee camp believing that Israel would heed the U.N. flag flying at the school. The U.N. also believed that the school would be safe after they had communicated its coordinates of all its schools and buildings to the Israeli military. The goal was to that the military would spare humanitarian missions.

They appear to be wrong on that assumption.

30 people who had sought help died as the mortars or artillery shells hit the school. Ten others have since died last night from their injuries in hospital. Three other civilians died at another school on Tuesday that was bombed by Israel.

Israel is insisting that the mortars were fired from within the crowded schoolyard. It also claims that Hamas is using civilians as human shields. The IDF has listed Imad and Hasasan Abu Askar as the ones who fired the mortars. IDF has not though explained how they were able to identify those two among the many casualties. The IDF has not visited the school nor do they have access to a casualty list from Gaza’s hospitals.

Woman Goes To Hospital For Kidney Stone, Comes Home With Baby

A Newfoundland woman went to the hospital on New Year’s Eve in severe pain. She figured she had a kidney stone. She was wrong. She delivered son Nicholas early in the morning.

Juanita Stead had no idea she and husband Terry were adding on to their family. She admits she’s plus sized but she had no signs that she was carrying a full term baby. She is a rare breed of lady who never skipped her period.

Stead had been at a New Year’s Eve Party when her back started to hurt. When the pain increased she and brother-in-law Wayne Broughton of Broughton’s Ambulance Service figured she was dealing with a kidney stone. Broughton insisted that she go to the hospital and drove her there. After a series of blood tests the woman went into X-ray. That’s when the doctors got a surprise, a baby was in clear view.

The Compass Reports:

“The technician looked at me and said my dear you’re pregnant with a full term baby,” says Juanita. “And I said no sir, you got the wrong woman and you’re looking at the wrong screen. There is no way I’m pregnant. I can’t be.”

“This is some kidney stone isn’t it,” she says cuddling her newborn baby. “We’re all still in shock. We just can’t believe it.”

Nicholas was ready to make his appearance and wasted no time in doing so. Six minutes after Juanita had been taken into the case room Nicholas was delivered bum first.

Two years ago when big brother Cameron was born Juanita didn’t have time to make it to the hospital. He was born at home two months early. Cameron though was not a healthy baby like little brother Nicholas. Last year the toddler underwent bowel, liver and pancreas transplant.

While seven pound, 12 ounce Nicholas is healthy the same may not be said of Daddy Terry. Juanita joked that when he heard that the baby was on route he almost had a heart attack.

The family now scrambles to get the clothes a newborn needs. Juanita admits she once scoffed at stories where mothers didn’t know they were pregnant. Now she knows that it can happen.

“I said it was impossible, there was no way it could happen. They would have felt something, some movement. However I know the difference now because I’m one of them.”

Holding Nicholas out for his big brother to kiss she adds: “He’s a little miracle, that’s what he is. Both my kids are.”

Israel Bombs UN School In Gaza City, Kills 34

Israel has bombed the United Nations school in Gaza that was set up as a refugee camp. As the international community has demanded a ceasefire, Israel has marched on killing more civilians.

The Palestinians have also launched a rocket attacks, one of which killed an infant Israeli.

The United Nations said 34 people died in the attack on the school. The school was being used as a refugee camp for hundreds of people in Gaza City. The missile landed in a courtyard late Monday.

The Associated Press reports:

“There’s nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized,” said John Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza.

“I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this,” he said, speaking at Gaza’s largest hospital. “They are responsible for these deaths.”

The United Nations had provided the location coordinates to the Israeli army to avoid this kind of attack. There are no comments on this attack coming out of Israel. In the past the government has alleged that Hamas leaders and militants are using schools, mosques and neighbourhoods to store their weapons and launch attacks from.

Those at the school for their safety were evacuated to other places after the strike.

The United Nations is providing refugee camps in this densely populated area to try to protect civilians. The Guardian reports:

Adnan Abu Hasna is an official with the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency who visited several of the schools yesterday. “I found hundreds of people are fleeing their homes just in the Jabaliya area. There’s a lot of fear, a lot of panic. You can see it with the children too,” he said. “We are talking about Gaza as a very tiny area. Where do they go? We are talking about very poor areas. People arrive without anything. We are providing them with mattresses, blankets and certain amounts of food. We try and give families privacy where the schools are not too crowded. But there are huge numbers coming in some areas.”

Of the 500 people killed in the Gaza Strip, over 100 have been civilians.

Nine Israelis have died since the conflict began.

Did You Hear About The Kids Who Wanted To Honeymoon In Africa?

Three German children decided that they were tired of being cold. It only made sense that since Africa would be warm that they should take off and go get married there. The three plotted and took off when their parents were asleep New Year’s Eve.

The three kids, aged five, six and seven, lived together with his father and the girl’s mother.

The six-year-old boy and seven-year-old girl had dreams of being Mr. and Mrs. and the youngest girl at a mere 5 was going to be their witness to the affair. Off the trio trekked from their home in Hanover to the train station early New Year’s Day. They almost made it. A tram had been taken to the central station and they were almost aboard a train to the airport when the police stepped in.

Reuters reports:

“The children wanted to do something really special for the New Year,” said police spokesman Holger Jureczko. “They had it all planned out. They had three suitcases, filled with food, swimming costumes, a lilo and even sunglasses.”

They kids picked Africa because the boy figured it would be even warmer than Italy where he had once visited.

The police took them to the police station for a tour after convincing them that a trip to Africa without money may be a bit hard to do. After the tour the trio were handed over to their parents.

Father Kills Child So He Doesn’t Have To Pay Child Support

When Danny Platt of New Orleans was told he had to pay child support he vowed to kill either his wife or child. On Saturday he was arrested on killing his 2 1/2 year-old son Ja’ Shawn Powell.

Platt kidnapped the child and later told the police where to find the body. Police are calling it an “extremely hideous” murder.

Police Superintendent Warren Riley of New Orleans did not know the amount of child support that Platt had been ordered to pay. He would not reveal to the media how the little boy died. He did say the coroner would talk about it once the autopsy was completed.

Riley said the mother was in a safe place.

Platt, 22, had visiting rights but until Friday had never seen the child. On Saturday police put a notice out asking for people to look for the child. His father had said three men in dreadlocks and AK-47 rifles have kidnapped the boy before midnight Friday.

The Associated Press reports:

“His story never really added up,” Riley said. “He was a suspect from the very beginning.”

Platt had a couple of minor arrests before he was arrested on Saturday.

“How does an individual — because he’s ordered to pay child support to take care of a kid … believe that this is so much pressure that he would face — he would do this hideous act to his own child, or to any child, and think that is a remedy to paying child support?” Riley said. “I mean there are some sick individuals in this society, and this gentleman is clearly one.”

Studio Brings Music to Texas Cancer Ward

The Purple Songs Can Fly recording studio is set up in an unlikely place, Texas Children’s Hospital. Since March 2006 it has produced 116 songs that may not be mainsteam but do a world of good.

The children at the hospital who deal with life and death have the studio to take their minds off of their everyday troubles. Founder Anita Kruse knows that music’s creative edge can help the kids soar.

The Houston based songwriter raised $10,000 to start Purple Songs. Since then it has been funded by donations. As she told MSNBC the studio gives the kids a creative outlet.

“Seeing someone going through something really difficult let that go, even if it’s just for the moment, it’s beautiful.”

The studio is part of the cancer center’s Arts in Medicine program.

Many of the young patients write about pets or their families like one of the latest recording artists Jalen
Huckabay. Jalen recently recorded a song about her puppy after writing the lyrics with the help of Kruse. Within two hours the pair came up with lyrics and the finished tracks.

Jalen’s works may find airplay like the ones being featured on audio tracks aboard Continental Airlines flights. Some of the children’s work have even made it to space, being played aboard the space shuttle.

Opinion: The Young Pay The Cost

The law of nature is that a child buries their parents. That has been reversed in many war zones. The Gaza Strip is no different. Instead of targeting the governments and military the way to fight a war is bombing areas where children live.

The Gaza Strip is mourning its young. Children running along siblings coffins tears flowing is not the way it should be.

Children dumping garbage in an empty field died on Tuesday. A missile fired from a warship snuffed out two of three sisters and a young brother from the Hamdan family.

Samar Hamdan is just one of those children. This week she has seen three of her siblings laid to rest.

While Israel has said that the targets they are attacking are Hamas militants more than 30 children have paid the price.

When Nizar Rayyan died during Thursday’s attack so did nine children aged 2 to 19. all of Rayyan’s wives also perished with their husband.

It’s not just Israel. Hamas is guilty as well of putting those too young to figure into the politics of these actions. Add in Iraq, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Columbia and other nations that war has touched. It’s the children. They pay the price.

In Croatia the lingering death toll from weapons related child deaths carried on five years past the end of the war. Children have become desensitized from the constant death and destruction waved in front of them. Weapons are commonplace. Children have to grow up before their time.

UNICEF reported that the nations that are at war have the highest child mortality rates in the world.

Worldwide in 2006 almost 9.7 million children died before their fifth birthday. While disease made up a high percent of that number so did war. In times of war health care is often unavailable for children. All medical services are focused towards the wounded.

And the children pay.

Something is wrong with that picture.

Lifelights Aims To Light Up Orphaned Households In Rwanda

With the help of Tom Hanks and other donations 10,000 orphaned households in Rwanda will be receiving Lifelights, a lantern that is powered with renewable energy.

Instead of lighting homes with dangerous kerosine lanterns the Freeplay Foundation is planning to distribute the Lifelights lantern to 10,000 homes. The homes of orphans have been targeted by the non-profit group.

The lanterns are designed to help the poorest 90 percent of the world’s population. They are charged by solar power and a wind-up technology designed by Freeplay Energy. The light that is emitted by the lanterns is comparable to what the more dangerous kerosene lamps give off.

Redding.com reports:

“Westerners take for granted having a day as long as we want,” says Miclelle Riley, Freeplay Foundation’s director of external affairs. “Millions of people in developing countries don’t have the ability to extend their day to do income-producing things like beading or sewing.”

The lamps last for thousands of hours. Compared to fluorescent lighting these models are non-toxic. As it is now, thousands of children in the poor nation of Rwanda die believing that the kerosene that is fueling their home is actually water.

Some of the funding for this project has come from US Ambassador, Tom Hanks. The project will cost about $295,000 to provide 10,000 lifelights. Each lamp costs about $30. If you would like to donate to this worthy cause the donation page is here.

Gastric By-Pass May End Diabetes For Obese Teens

For the obese child with diabetes obesity surgery may reverse the disease just as it does with adults. A new study on type two diabetes studied 11 morbidly obese teens.

All but one of the 11 teens who underwent weight reduction surgery were free of diabetes a year after their surgeries. The eleventh patient, while still diabetic had a much reduced need for insulin. Dr. Thomas Inge of the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center tracked the 11 patients for a year following their surgeries. Inge believed prior to the study that like adult diabetics, weight loss surgery could be a cure for diabetes.

Because of the successful outcome from the study more morbidly obese teens with diabetes may be candidates for gastric by-pass. Because of the long term side effects of the surgery teenage patients must be carefully selected.

The 11 teens in the study ranged in age from 14 to 21. They weighed between 250 to 403 pounds. All were taking diabetes pills and one was having to take insulin to control their type-2 diabetes. The operations took place at five different medical centers. The 11 were then studied along with 67 mostly obese teens with diabetes at Cincinnati Children’s. The patients in the study who did not have the surgery had their blood sugar controlled by diet and medication.

Those who underwent the surgery had lost between 72 and 218 pounds within the year. None of them were at a normal weight yet ten of the patients were no longer diabetic. The one patient that still had the disease also had a younger sibling and his mother who were diabetic. Three years after surgery he was no longer overweight but still needed to take insulin.

Inge also coincided that the teen’s diabetes may have been more advanced than the other teens. It has been noted in adult studies the best chances of eliminating diabetes through gastric by-pass happens soon after diagnosis.

Judge Refuses To Allow Lesbian Couple To Spend the Night Together

A Tennessee judge went over the wishes of a father by refusing to allow a divorced mother the right for her partner of nine years to spend the night.

The woman and her girlfriend are requesting the Tennessee Court of Appeals to remove an overnight “paramour” clause in a child custody agreement.

The clause was put in place even though the father of the two children did not request it by Chancellor George Ellis of the 28th Judicial District in West Tennessee. An evaluation had also shown that the children were not harmed by the relationship. The clause has been in effect since May of the year according to mother Angel Chandler.

Tennessean.com reports:

“This decision has been disruptive to our family,” she said. “We lived together in a stable, functioning family, and this was rather shocking to all of us. This is about the person we choose to be with, not about what my ex-husband asked for or what’s in the best interest of the children.

“The judge decided to interfere, and it’s had a very negative affect in our lives.”
Efforts to reach Ellis were unsuccessful. According to the appeal filing, he cited local law and precedent for the paramour clause.

The ACLU believe that Ellis has violated the constitutional rights of Chandler.

The paramour clause is a tool that is used in the state to affect same-sex couples who have children by another marriage. While it is also used with heterosexual couples they can marry to get around it. In Tennessee that is an option not allowed gay couples.

“A straight couple in the same situation would have a constitutional claim,” Cates said. “But they can get married. Same-sex couples don’t have that, and Tennessee doesn’t recognize (gay) marriage outside of the state.”

After Ellis imposed the rule on the couple chandler’s partner moved out of their home to Asheville, North Carolina. Chandler and her 13-year-old daughter followed her. Chandler’s 15-year-old son lives with his father. The couple spends the day together but at night Chandler’s partner goes to the other side of a duplex they own to sleep.

“Unfortunately, this case is an all-too-familiar example of how unfairly lesbian and gay parents are treated in custody and visitation proceedings,” said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the ACLU of Tennessee.

“All the children’s health and welfare organizations have long recognized that lesbian and gay parents are just as capable of being good parents as straight couples, and their children are just as well adjusted.

“We’re hopeful the Tennessee courts will come to that realization, too.”

Casey Anthony Denied Attending Caylee Anthony’s Funeral

Casey Anthony has been denied from attending her daughter’s funeral. Anthony remains in custody in Orange County, Florida charged with first degree murder of 3-year-old Caylee Anthony.

There has yet to be a funeral scheduled for the toddler whose remains were found last week close to her grandparents home.

Caylee was reported missing in July. Last week her death was ruled a “homicide of undetermined means” by Orange County Chief Medical Examiner Jan Garavaglia.

Casey Anthony has plead no guilty to the crime.

Middle School Student Charged With Making Threats At Lake Gibson

A twelve-year-old has been accused of writing threats on his school’s bathroom walls. The threats at Lake Gibson Middle School in Lakeland, Florida disrupted classes on December 12.

Because of the boy’s charge of only a misdemeanor his name is not being released to the press. The youth was charged with disrupting a school function. That charge was filed with the State Attorney’s Office this past Friday.

The child whose actions prompted parents to keep their kids out of school in droves will get a slap on the wrist if found guilty. He could be made to enter a diversion program where he would be forced to write a letter of apology or perform community service.

The wall threat was similar to another at Lake Gibson High School found on November 18. The high school threat warned of a shooting spree with the shooter committing suicide in the end. Another threat came days later about a possible bombing.

The middle school student’s threat was less graphic. It was written in pencil simply saying that something would happen on Friday. Principal John Barber alerted parents of the threat by automated message.

Because of the threat additional police were at the school. According to school officals the middle school student was a copycat who wanted a day off.

Students have been warned that they could be expelled if they were found making threats. The middle school student’s light possible punishment does not reflect what the school has said would happen to students making threats.

Study: Most Weight Gain Hits Kids Before Age of 5

That baby fat your child is toting around could signal obesity. Scientists have found that the majority of weight gain happens before kiddies even hit the school trail.

This finding is raising doubts over UK government policies that target fatter children only when they start their school years. The researchers have asked for new policies to target children in pre-school who are overweight.

In England about a quarter of kids aged four to five are overweight. Of those children about 10 per cent are considered obese, which is a medical danger.

Experts blame the standard diet in England for the vast numbers of fat children. Diets high in salt, fat, sugar and easy to prepare processed foods added with unhealthy eating habits of parents are to blame.

The journal Paediatrics published the recent findings from the EarlyBird study of 233 children from birth to puberty. Those findings were presented Wednesday to ministers.

The average weight of a newborn in the UK is much the same as 25 years ago. That can not be said of the average weight of children hitting puberty. Most of the additional weight was put on before the age of five. Birth weight is not an indicator of what a child will weigh at 9 but the weight at the age of five is.

The Daily Mail reports:

Lead researcher Professor Terry Wilkin, of Plymouth’s Peninsula Medical School, said: ‘When they reach five, the die seems to be cast, at least until the age of puberty.’

The good news is that obesity can be treated fairly quickly. It’s one of the few serious medical problems that can.

The Department of Health said: ‘We have made obesity prevention, nutrition and physical activity a priority in the updated Child Health Promotion Programme.

‘In addition, the Healthy Start scheme provides vouchers to put towards the cost of milk, fresh fruit and vegetables or infant formula to around half a million pregnant women and children under four in low income and disadvantaged families.’

Victoria, Australia Soon To Offer Humanist Curriculum

Students in Victoria, Australia primary schools will soon be offered to take religious education courses that teach that their is no evidence that God exists. The curriculum is being drawn up by the Humanist Society of Victoria.

The state government accreditation body has said that they intend to approve the new curriculum according the The Sunday Age newspaper.

Volunteers who have accreditation will teach their philosophy during class time that has been allotted for religious education. The lessons will be delivered by faith groups. Parents have the option to request their children not attend the classes.

News.com.au reports:

“Atheistical parents will be pleased to hear that humanistic courses of ethics will soon be available in some state schools,” Victorian Humanist Society president Stephen Stuart said.

The society does not deem itself a religious organization. It believes ethics have “no necessary connection with religion”. Humanists believe that people have responsibility for their own destiny and reject the belief that a supernatural force of God is in control.

Follow Up: Dollar Tree Decides To Do What’s Right

Just three weeks after an angry grandmother went public about Dollar Tree’s insurance refusing to pay death benefits the company has offered a settlement. Taneka Talley’s son will now have the money to attend college when it’s time.

Talley was killed by a man who wanted to kill a black person while working at Dollar Tree in March 2006. Dollar Tree’s insurance company tried to state because the death was hate related the company was not liable.

Dollar Tree and the insurance company held firm to that decision until Carol Frazier went public on the details. Frazier, mother of Talley, was upset that the company refused to pay death benefits that would ease the load for caring for her grandson.

In a surprise twist the company decided to do the right thing.

ABC News reports:

“While we were advised that the claim would not be covered under the state worker’s compensation law,” Dollar Tree’s vice president of investor relations, Tim Reid wrote, “we feel this is the right thing to do for Taneka’s son.”

Did You Hear About The Teens Who Tried To Steal a Police Car?

Some car thieves just don’t have what it takes. Case in point, the three teens from Tampa, Florida who broke into an unmarked police car Monday night.

Two undercover police officers had watched the demented trio wandering around the West Columbus Drive and North Oakdale Avenue area looking for a new car to zip around town in without putting a down payment. Thinking that chances would be high that the teens would want to score on their Dodge Stratus the cops parked in the parking lot of Columbus Court Apartments.

The police knew they were right when they heard one of the teens proclaim, “Hey, how about we get this car?” The trio was armed with the tools of the car stealing trade; flat tip screwdrivers, a flashlight and a piece of concrete rock. With one of the teens shining the flashlight another was about to smash the rear window. That’s when they got a special surprise. The cops jumped out of the car and nabbed two of the three.

The two captured admitted they had plans to steal the car not knowing that it belonged to the police.

The two teens, 15 and 17, have been charged with auto burglary, possession of burglary tools and resisting arrest without violence. The third was faster than his friends and remains at large.

Child Dies After Being Crushed By Christmas Parade Float In Texas

Aaliyah Carter, 11, died in a horrible accident during the Beaumont, Texas Christmas parade on Saturday. She had been running along side one of the floats when she tripped and fell under the wheels.

The young girl attended Homer Elementary School in Beaumont.

Young Aaliyah tripped over another little girl falling in the road. The driver of the float was unaware that a child laid in the road ran over her with the float wheels crushing her tiny body. Carter was pronounced dead on arrival at Christus St. Elizabeth Hospital from severe head wounds.

Aaliyah had been on a float sponsored by the I-Rule Dance Studio in Beaumont. The girls on the float had been performing at the Beaumont Civic Center as part of the Very merry Main Street Market.

The children were about to get off the float in the staging area when the accident happened. Carter had already been warned not to jump on and off of the truck prior to the accident. While the truck was paused in traffic Carter fell. The truck then restarted completely unaware that the girl was in its path.

A fund will be set up to help the family at Capitol One Bank in Beaumont.

Opinion: Oxford University Press Eliminates Words About Christianity, Monarchy

The Oxford University Press has removed words form its Junior Dictionary that have to do with Christianity and British history.

Gone are words like “aisle”, “bishop”, “chapel”,”abbey” and “saint”. Apparently those are no longer words for kids who use the dictionary. Words that have to do with the internet like “blog” and “broadband” however made the new edition.

The publisher says that the language changes reflect the modern, multicultural, multi-faith society that England has become.
Academics aren’t buying it. They fear that using this edition of the dictionary will short change youth when it come to their British heritage.

The Telegraph reports:

“We have a certain Christian narrative which has given meaning to us over the last 2,000 years. To say it is all relative and replaceable is questionable,” said Professor Alan Smithers, the director of the centre for education and employment at Buckingham University. “The word selections are a very interesting reflection of the way childhood is going, moving away from our spiritual background and the natural world and towards the world that information technology creates for us.”

When words such as abbey and willow are replaced by modern terms like MP3 player and voicemail something is dangerously wrong. Language does change with the times but eliminating words that are still used in society is a step into the world of censorship that we can not take sitting down.

Mother Lisa Saunders is “horrified” by the huge change from 1978 that has taken place with the most current edition of the dictionary.

“I decide to take a closer look and compare the new version to the other editions,” said the mother of four from Co Down, Northern Ireland. “I was completely horrified by the vast number of words which have been removed. We know that language moves on and we can’t be fuddy-duddy about it but you don’t cull hundreds of important words in order to get in a different set of ICT words.”

Oxford defends the changes saying that it selects the words with the aid of the Children’s Corpus. The Children’s Corpus is a list of 50 million words that make up general language from children’s books and terms found in school curriculum. Lexicographers use word frequency as a means of adding and deleting words from the list.

The head of children’s dictionaries at Oxford University Press says that a huge consideration is the size of the volume and little hands that have to handle it.

“When you look back at older versions of dictionaries, there were lots of examples of flowers for instance. That was because many children lived in semi-rural environments and saw the seasons. Nowadays, the environment has changed. We are also much more multicultural. People don’t go to Church as often as before. Our understanding of religion is within multiculturalism, which is why some words such as “Pentecost” or “Whitsun” would have been in 20 years ago but not now.”

Words removed from this edition of the dictionary.

Carol, cracker, holly, ivy, mistletoe

Dwarf, elf, goblin

Abbey, aisle, altar, bishop, chapel, christen, disciple, minister, monastery, monk, nun, nunnery, parish, pew, psalm, pulpit, saint, sin, devil, vicar

Coronation, duchess, duke, emperor, empire, monarch, decade

adder, ass, beaver, boar, budgerigar, bullock, cheetah, colt, corgi, cygnet, doe, drake, ferret, gerbil, goldfish, guinea pig, hamster, heron, herring, kingfisher, lark, leopard, lobster, magpie, minnow, mussel, newt, otter, ox, oyster, panther, pelican, piglet, plaice, poodle, porcupine, porpoise, raven, spaniel, starling, stoat, stork, terrapin, thrush, weasel, wren.

Acorn, allotment, almond, apricot, ash, bacon, beech, beetroot, blackberry, blacksmith, bloom, bluebell, bramble, bran, bray, bridle, brook, buttercup, canary, canter, carnation, catkin, cauliflower, chestnut, clover, conker, county, cowslip, crocus, dandelion, diesel, fern, fungus, gooseberry, gorse, hazel, hazelnut, heather, holly, horse chestnut, ivy, lavender, leek, liquorice, manger, marzipan, melon, minnow, mint, nectar, nectarine, oats, pansy, parsnip, pasture, poppy, porridge, poultry, primrose, prune, radish, rhubarb, sheaf, spinach, sycamore, tulip, turnip, vine, violet, walnut, willow

Words added to the dictionary.

Blog, broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, attachment, database, export, chatroom, bullet point, cut and paste, analogue

Celebrity, tolerant, vandalism, negotiate, interdependent, creep, citizenship, childhood, conflict, common sense, debate, EU, drought, brainy, boisterous, cautionary tale, bilingual, bungee jumping, committee, compulsory, cope, democratic, allergic, biodegradable, emotion, dyslexic, donate, endangered, Euro

Apparatus, food chain, incisor, square number, trapezium, alliteration, colloquial, idiom, curriculum, classify, chronological, block graph

Teacher Binds Students During Slavery Lesson

A lesson about slavery has a teacher in hot water. Haverstraw Middle School teacher Eileen Bernstein binded the feet and hands of two girls in her social studies class to show conditions on slave ships.

Bernstein in a white teacher and the two children were black. They were not the only blacks in the class. The girls were traumatized after the incident and their mothers are irate.

The Associated Press reported that one mother, Christine Shand wishes that the teacher be removed from the class. Those wishes were announced during a meeting on Thursday that a local represtative from the NAACP attended.

“I think the teacher should have gotten some discipline,” Shand said. “I know if that was me, I would be uncomfortable going back to that class. Why should my daughter have to switch?”

Superintendent Brian Monahan of the North Rockland School District has refused to announce any actions that are planned to be taken against the teacher. The teacher was still on Friday.

“We encourage our teachers to deliver the curriculum in a variety of ways, to go beyond just reading the textbook,” the superintendent said. “We don’t want to discourage creativity. But this obviously went wrong because the student was upset.”

The incident took place on November 18 during a class about the conditions that Africans underwent while aboard slave ships going to the United States. Bernstein bound the girls and had them crawl under a desk to simulate the experience.

That afternoon Gabrielle Shand broke down in tears upon arriving home.

“There are other ways to demonstrate slavery,” Christine Shand said Friday. “It doesn’t matter the color of the kids, it’s just not right to tie them up. My daughter is still upset, still embarrassed. She didn’t go to school today.”

Wilbur Aldridge, director of the local chapter of the NAACP, says that the lesson on slavery went wrong when the teacher used binding on a student regardless of the colour of the child’s skin colour. He is also concerned that while the teacher apologized to Gabrielle it wasn’t for the wrong she had placed on the child but rather that she had upset her.

Shand is not sure of where this will go but it is possible a lawsuit could happen.

Watering Down Infant Formula Is A Deadly Way To Save Money

In these tiring economical times everyone is looking for a way to save a dollar but one way could prove dangerous. Watering down baby formula is deadly.

A Tampa, Florida mother almost lost her 5-month-old after watering down his formula. Last week little La’Damian Barton stopped breathing after having a seizure. He was put in the hospital and should be able to go home today.

The diagnosis was malnourishment and water intoxication.

His mother, Jeri Moss, 23, is in technical college and couldn’t afford to buy more formula than what she was allotted with WIC. The federal WIC program gives supplement foods including formulas to low income families. It is not meant to cover all of a child’s nutritional needs.

The maximum monthly allotment for a woman with a 5-month-old child is as follows:

403 fl.oz of infant formula
286 fl. oz of juice
24 oz. of infant cereal
36 oz of cereal
24 quart of milk
and 2 dozen eggs

Alan Scherr and Daugher Naomi Among The Dead In Mumbai

She was a mischievous thirteen-year-old, he was a peaceful 58-year-old. Together father and daughter died as bullets cut through the dining room of the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai, India.

“People remain unhappy regardless of wealth, leisure time, any attainment of skill or knowledge, or any other conditional state. The miracle of this life continues to unfold for me on a daily basis.”
-Alan Scherr

Alan Scherr and his daughter Naomi are but a few of those who lost their lifes during India’s 9/11.

The pair were in Mumbai as part of a two-week pilgrimage from the the Synchronicity Foundation, a spiritual community in Central Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. They had traveled with 25 others.

Scherr was a former art professor at the University of Maryland. In the 1990’s he and wife Kia moved to the Virginia community founded by Charles Cannon in 1983. There they raised and homeschooled young Naomi and her brothers with about 30 other families.

They were in Mumbai visiting ashrams and holy sites before their planned departure this coming Monday. Scherr was the guide.

Naomi had planned to use her experience in India in an essay for a scholarship application to Emma Willard School in Troy, New York.

Father and daughter were dining with Andreina Varagona when the rampage began. The Associated Press quotes Varagona’s recantation of the night.

“Within two minutes, they were on us,” Varagona told the Associated Press from her bed in a hospital intensive care unit in Mumbai, where she was recovering from arm and leg wounds.

Mother Kia Scherr heard the news of her husband and daughter’s in Florida.

Brooklyn-Raised Rabbi Killed During Mumbai Violence

It has been confirmed that the rabbi who was speaking to the Israeli consultant when the lines went dead at Chabad Lubavitch was killed along with his wife. Their infant son was rescued by his nanny.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivka and three others were slain during the violence in Mumbai, India. As reported earlier the rabbi was talking to the Israeli consultant about the siege when the line went dead.

Their son Moshe is now an orphan after his nanny bravely escaped the building when terrorists attacked.

The New York Daily News reports:

“Tuesday we put the finishing touches on opening a new branch in Bangalore,” said Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky. “He was the nicest gentleman you can imagine. Never saw him without a smile.”

The rabbi and his wife were inside the building when Indian commandoes tried to save them with a daring raid.

The couple married five years ago in an arranged marriage. They will be buried in Israel. Their infant son will turn 2 on Sunday. He is being cared for by his mother’s parent who are in India.

Florida Teacher Facing Child Abuse Charges After Child Punched

A 8-year-old student from Fort Lauderdale, Florida is recovering after his teacher allegedly punched him in the eye. The child has a bruised eye after being hit with a loosely closed fist.

Art teacher David. A Grant, 36, allegedly punched the youngster at Sunland Elementary School on November 5. The details about why the assault took place are not clear.

Grant turned himself in after being contacted by detectives. He has been charged with child abuse. Effects to reach Grant by the Lakeland Ledger went unanswered Tuesday.

He is being held without bail at Broward County jail.

Grant worked at Sunland Park and Thurgood Marshall elementary schools before the incident. Within days of the alleged punching he was reassigned to work away from students.

If Grant is convicted of the crime he could lose his teaching certificate.

D’Zhana Simmons Can Tell Her Friends She Really Once Was Heartless

D’Zhana Simmons walked out of hospital Wednesday with a beating heart. That’s not unusual but what for more than 100 days the fourteen-year-old lived without a heart.

Simmons had been at Holtz Children’s Hospital since July. During that time the young teen underwent two heart transplants and lived because of an artificial heart pump beat in her chest.

In July D’Zhana arrived from Clinton, South Carolina to the Miami children’s hospital to have a heart transplant. She and her family had learned this past spring that she had an enlarged heart that was too weak to pump the blood throughout her body.

Two days after she had the heart transplant doctors found it was not working properly and had to remove it fearing it could rupture.

The doctors then did something extrodiary; they replaced the heart with a pair of artificial pumping devices to give the girl a chance to grow up hoping a second heart would come in time.

Artifical hearts have been approved for adults but not children. The reason is that children rarely have life-threatening heart conditions and companies don’t invest as much technology in research as they do adults. Most often a child in D’Zhana’s case is left to die. Because of the courage of this young girl and her team of doctors it may give other young heart patients an option to help them survive.

For four months the teen struggled to survive long enough for another heart to become available. She dealt with kidney and liver failure and gastrointestinal bleeding plus breathing problems. She was confined to her bed most of the time. To take a short walk in the hospital’s hallways required four people to help steer the machine that push blood though her body.

On October 29 D’Zhana was strong enough to go through a second heart transplant. For the rest of her life she will take medicine to fight organ rejection and there is a strong chance by the age of 30 she will need another heart. In the meantime though the teen will be able to go to school, the prom, college and have the life of a normal teenage girl.

As the Associated Press reports:

“I truly believe it’s a miracle,” said her mother, Twolla Anderson.

Teen Attacked At Calgary High School Because He Is A Red-Head

A teenager in Calgary was beaten for the colour of his hair. The Grade 10 red head at St. Francis High School is recovering with bruises to his upper body.

The incident took place Thursday after gym class when thirteen other students singled out the teen for the colour of his hair.

CBC Canada reports:

The fact of the matter is from a policing perspective, it is a hate crime, and this individual was targeted because of the fact they have red hair,” said police spokesman Kevin Brookwell.

The crime is being linked to a Facebook group known as Kick a Ginger Day. The group urged its members to kick a person with red hair on November 20. Calling redheads ginger kids is linked to an episode from the television show South Park.

One grade 12 student at the school, Ken Logel, admitted that he had been kicking some of his fellow students with red hair and that that had been a running joke at the school during the day. Logel’s friend Simon Burke continued about the incident where the victim was surrounded by a gang of kids:

“Some kids took it too far in the locker room yesterday and ended up really hurting one of the kids at our school. It’s really hard to hear about it and I’m pretty disappointed in the kids that did it.

“Mostly, kids at the school are pretty good people and don’t really expect people to be hurting other ones just for having red hair. It’s just pretty ridiculous.”

Schools in several provinces sent warnings to students and parents about the prank. One Vancouver Island middle school had to send 20 students home after they kicked red-haired students.

Deer Hunter Accidently Kills Toddler Sitting in Grandparents’ Home

A toddler is dead from a bullet intended for a deer. Edward Taibi of New York allegedly shot 16-month-old Charly Skala in the torso.

Taibi was hunting Sunday afternoon in Swan Lake, New York. He had permission to be hunting from a neighbour on the property. He was within 500 feet of an occupied residence. That is within the law.

The bullet, intended for a deer, went into the side of little Charly’s grandparents home. The toddler was airlifted to hospital but died when doctors could not repair the damage.

Taibi has been charged with second-degree manslaughter. He is fully cooperating in the investigation as he grieves for the little girl’s death.

Taibi has a 17-year-old daughter and lost one of his own children two years ago to cancer.

Bhs Sells Sexy Gifts Next To Children’s Toys

The British retail chain Bhs has a nice offering of edible thongs, nipple tassels and other sex gifts. There may not be a problem with that selection if it was located in any other area in the store besides near the children’s toy spot.

The Bhs stores owned by Sir Philip Green are coming under fire from families that think nipple tassels and doll babies don’t mix.

As the Daily Mail reports:

Mrs Moss, 45, from Ascot, Berkshire, said: ‘Selling this sort of tat normalises crudity. We just don’t need it.

‘I have a teenage daughter and I don’t expect youngsters out shopping with their parents to be confronted with this. It was only a few yards from the children’s department.

The store says it is sorry it’s upset anyone by placing their sex items so close to kiddie toys.

Maybe next time the retail chain will think twice before putting a bell to ring when your partner is ready for sex or a mug shaped like a breast where children can check them out.

Father Joe Ellis in Surrey adds:

‘They can be seen as funny but I find them offensive.

‘They are on shelves right next to the kids’ presents and either of my two children could just pick them up and ask me what they are.

‘I do think it’s wrong, I think they should be moved to a different part of the store.’

Brazilian Teen Survives Rabies Infection

A teenager in Brazil has enjoyed a rare recovery from the rabies infection. He is in a very select group of survivors from the virus and the first ever from Brazil.

The fifteen year old was bitten by an infected bat in the state of Pernambuco. After being in the hospital for a month the youth has been declared clear of the virus.

There have only been three known cases where an infected person has survived the virus. There are five other cases where people have survived from suspected rabies infection.

The virus is transmitted from an infected animals. Dogs, cats and bats are often the hosts that carry the virus to humans. The infection travels from the infected animals saliva when they bite, scratch or lick a human. The infection causes inflammation in the brain and is almost always fatal.

Brazil’s health ministry is now investigating why the teen was not given a rabies vaccine as soon as he was bitten. Instead the boy was treated with a combination of antiviral drugs, sedatives and injected anesthetics. The Milwaukee procedure is named after the U.S. city where it was first applied successfully in 2004.

The story of the boy’s survival will be published in an international medical journal by the doctors at the Oswaldo Cruz University Hospital in Recife. It is not known if the teen will suffer permanent motor function problems from the treatment.

Brazil aims to eradicate rabies transmitted to humans from tame animals like cats and dogs by 2010. There is an ongoing vaccination campaign for pets to achieve this goal.

Pregnant Man Doing It Again

It seems Thomas Beatie enjoys being a man trapped in a pregnant woman’s body. Beatie is having a second baby due on June 12. His and wife Nancy welcomed their first child on June 29 this year.

34-year-old Beatie had a sex change operation ten years ago, up to a point. He is legally a man but retained his female reproductive organs.

Beatie told Barbara Walters that he is in his first trimester of pregnancy during an interview for the show 20/20. The program will air on November 14. Walters talked about the interview on the daytime chat show, The View, Thursday.

Beatie told Walters that after giving birth to the couple’s daughter in June he decided to not go back on the male hormone testosterone because he wanted one more baby.

Nancy Beatie can not have children because of a prior hysterectomy. The couple choose to have Beatie carry their children after being artificially inseminated using donor sperm and Beatie’s own egg.

The couple and daughter Susan live in Bend, Oregon.

Obese Children Can Have Arteries That Look Like They Are Middle Aged

Some obese children as young as 10 can have arteries that look like they are have a 45-year-old a study shows. This and other heart abnormalities how that obesity in childhood puts the young at risk for heart disease.

Doctors used ultrasound tests to look inside the hearts of obese children for a study conducted by Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children’s Hospital in Kansas City. Raghuveer and other doctors involved in the study presented their findings at an American Heart Association conference on Tuesday.

The Associated Press reports:

“As the old saying goes, you’re as old as your arteries are,” said Dr. Geetha Raghuveer of Children’s Hospital in Kansas City, who led one of the studies. “This is a wake-up call.”

American’s children are increasingly becoming overweight. About one third of American kids are overweight and one-fifth are obese. While many parents believe that “baby fat” will melt off as a child grows older it is now known that most fat kids will become fat adults. Heart disease is one of the risks for those who are overweight.

Using ultrasound tests Raghuveer and colleagues tested the thickness of a major neck artery in 70 children aged 10 to 16. Many of the children were obese. Most of the children had abnormal cholesterol levels.

The shocking results showed that many of the obese children had a ‘vascular age’ that was about 30 years above their biological age.

“Obesity is not benign in children and adolescents,” said Dr. Robert Eckel, a former heart association president and cardiologist at the University of Colorado-Denver. It is why the American Academy of Pediatrics recently recommended cholesterol-lowering drugs for some kids, he noted.

Britney Spear’s Youngest Son In Hospital

Britney Spear’s youngest son is in hospital after having a reaction to something he ingested. Jayden James Federline was admitted to Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center on Sunday.

The toddler is expected to be discharged on Tuesday. The hospital is close to Spear’s home in Kentwood, Louisiana. She is reported to be staying with her family.

Federline and Spears also have an older son, Sean Preston.

Kevin Federline has custody of the two boys but Ms. spears has gradually been gaining more visitations with her young sons.

Four Children Pulled From The Rubble At Haiti School Collapse

As the death toll mounts at the Haitian school that collapsed on Friday four children were pulled out of the rubble alive on Saturday. There are 88 confirmed deaths.

The children ranged in age from 3 to a teenager. They appeared to be in good health other than the 3-year-old having a cut on her head. The toddler was alert and drinking juice.

search teams arrived from the United States and France on Saturday hoping to dig more survivors out of the rubble that once was the College La Promesse in suburban Port-au-Prince.

On Friday the school was in the midst of a party when the three floors tumbled down. Because of the celebration the students were not wearing their normal school uniforms. That change in dress code is hampering the identification process.

Parents stood waiting for news with pictures of their beloved children clutched in their hands. Riot police had to chase away some who crossed the yellow tape to dig in the rubble.

Doctors Without Borders is on the site treating more than 80 of the survivors.

As more than 38 search and rescue officials looked for survivors four specially trains canines from Virgina scoured the area.

On Friday the voices of trapped children were heard beneath the rubble. As neighbours attempted to pass the children cookies the ruined shifted once more crashing down on the students. That was the last time their voices cried out.

The buildings shoddy workmanship is being blamed for the collapse. It is thought that many of the structures in Haiti are at risk for a similar disaster.

Brandon Crisp Died From Injuries From A Fall

The autopsy report says that the teen died of injuries to the chest. Using dental records the coroner positively identified young Crisp as the body found on Wednesday by a tree close to his home in Barrie, Ontario.

The medical report states that Brandon Crisp, the Ontario boy that ran away from his home after being banned from playing a video game, died from falling out of a tree in the woods.

What is not known is how long the 15-year-old laid on the ground in fall condtions wearing only a T-shirt before he died.

The Crisp family was told the results Friday evening. His parents are in seclusion this weekend as they begin the mourning process for their son.

The area where Brandon was found had not been part of the massive search begun after he stormed off when his parents told him he was not allowed to play his X-box.

His funeral is set for 10 a.m. Friday at St. Mary’s Church in Barrie

Arizona Boy, 8, Accused of Shooting Father and Another Man to Death

Two men in St. Johns, Arizona were believed to have been shot to death by an 8-year-old boy. One of the men was the child’s father. The child had never before shown signs he was troubled or abused. The shooting happened on Wednesday.

The court determined there is probable cause that the child shot his father, Vincent Romero, 29, and Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos with a .22-caliber rifle. The boy has been charged with two counts of premeditated murder.

Both men lived in the home in which they were found dead. Officers arrived just after the crime took place.

Romans was renting a room from his fellow employee Romero. The two worked for a construction company that was working at the Salt River Project power plant near St. Johns.

The boy went to a neighbour stating he believed his father was dead. Police began to question the boy and obtained a confession. The child’s attorney, Brad Carlyon, said the boy was questioned without representation and was not advised of his rights.

The Associated Press reports:

“They became very accusing early on in the interview,” Brewer said. “Two officers with guns at their side, it’s very scary for anybody, for sure an 8-year-old kid.”

The judge ordered the boy undergo a psychological evaluation. He is being held at the Apache Country juvenile detention center.

Considering the child’s age it’s unclear how this case will play out. Under Arizona law, a child under the age of 8 is treated as a dependent child. Charges are allowed on children 8 and over.

St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick believes the child did not act on the spur of the moment.

Defense attorney Mike Piccarreta says it would be difficult for an 8-year-old to comprehend the act of murder and the implications of that act. He is not involved in this case.

“If they actually prosecute the guy, it’s a legal minefield,” he said. “And, two, society has to make a decision as to whether they want to start using the criminal justice system to deal with 8-year-olds. That doesn’t mean you don’t have a troubled kid.”

The child lived with his father who had full custody. His mother had visited St. Johns on the weekend before returning to her home in Mississippi. She returned to Arizona after the shootings.

Opinion: The Littlest White House Residents

Not since Amy Carter or the Kennedy tots has the White House needed a toy room. With the election of Barack Obama though there will be Barbies in the Oval Office again. Make way for Sasha and Maila Obama.

Sasha Obama is a mere seven years old. She will be one of the very youngest to ever have her bedroom located at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Malia is ten. Amy Carter was just nine when her father took the nation’s top job.

Sasha and Malia have been dealing with the cameras in recent months but from now on they will be the shutter bugs focus. Their world is about to become the size of a microscope.

Grandma will also be moving to Washington to help with caring for the girls. Their mother Michelle doesn’t want to use a nanny. There will also be a new member of the family in short order. Their father promised them a puppy when the campaign trail ended and he means to keep his promise to his girls. During his victory speech he let them know that a new pup would be coming with them to the White House.

As Americans look forward to change so will the littlest Obamas. They will be getting more used to the men in black that will protect them as they grow up. They will be dealing with a new school and new friends. They will have to natigate the perils of having a famous parent and kids who cozy up to them for that reason alone.

Welcome Sasha and Maila to the big time. I think you two will be having a blast.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

Mexican Kidnappers Kill 5-Year-Old By Injecting Acid Into His Heart

Javier Morena was killed by cruel kidnappers who injected acid into his tiny heart. The child was abducted from a Mexico City street. His father, a poor man who sells fruit in the district of Iztapalapa searched for the child since Sunday October 26.

A taxi driver remembered driving the boy and a teenager from the market where his father worked that fateful day. He dropped the pair off about a block from the police station. He recalled that the child was crying and that the teen said it was because his older brother had been stolen. The teen told the driver that they were meeting Javier’s mother at the police station.

Javier was the oldest child in his family. The teen has been identified as a family friend and is thought to be the kidnapper.

The teen was arrested at his home during a police raid. He confessed that he and others killed the child before asking for a 300,000 peso ransom. The teen and other assailants injected the boy with acid and then buried his little body on a hill outside the capital city.

Javier’s body was found and yesterday he was buried.

The motive for the kidnapping has not been revealed.

Lily Edwards Dead At The Hands Of Her Babysitter

Steven and April Edwards of Lakeland, Florida thought nothing of leaving their 15-month-old daughter Lily with family friend Gordon Finley Dugger III. The 24-year-old had babysat the little girl before. She is now dead.

Dugger was watching the little girl on Thursday night when she began to cry. When he could not calm he he bounced her on his knee. That must have still not done the trick as his next step was to toss her in the air. The man told detectives that he tossed her abour 5 1/2 feet into the air and dropped her. The child landed on the back of her head knocking her unconscious.

Trying to wake up the injured child Dugger shook her. When she would not wake up he then hit her on the back of the head 10 times, striking her harder with each blow.
Finally he called for emergency services.

Dugger lied to the detectives that the child was fine when he put her to bed but at 2 a.m. she was unresponsive. He lied again telling the police that he had used CPR prior to calling 911.

Little Lily was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center where she was pronouced dead. The Medical Examiner’s Office listed her death as head trauma and declared her death a homicide.

Dugger had been a tenant of the Edwards family since July 2008 and had often tended to Lily.

He has been booked into the Polk County Jail.

Black And Orange Day? Meet the New Wording For A Toronto Kids Halloween

The Toronto District School Board is making sure that no one can bellyache about Halloween being offensive to those religious groups out to end any possible association with school and a religious holiday.

Tomorrow in many of the city schools kids will be having fun on “Black and Orange Day.”

The TDSB has already taken measures into it’s own hands making sure that tomorrow’s fun filled holiday spirit will not infringe on anyone’s beliefs. While to many it may sound a bit silly it makes a bit of sense. Every year schools have to deal with the C-word in December.

The school board has outlined six reasons why Halloween had to be changed for this school term.

1. “Halloween is a religious day of significance for Wiccans and therefore should be treated respectfully.”

Now mind you there are no numbers of how many kids in Toronto are of the Wiccan faith but it’s best to be ultra Politically Correct these days.

2. “Peer and social/media consumer pressures target all children and their families as consumers of costumes, makeup, food products, etc. Many students and their families can feel this socio-economic marginalization keenly.”

That’s right, Junior and Missy don’t want to break the bank getting gussed up as a witch or goblin this year during school hours. After all they are very concerned with their parent’s bank accounts.

3. “The images and icons associated with consumer-oriented Halloween can come into conflict with some students’ and their families’ religious beliefs.”

Dressing up can be an affront to some one. We mustn’t rock the boat focks. And blood and gore is just not kosher anymore.

Just don’t tell that to the lines of kids going to see this year’s version of Saw.

4. “The food products that are marketed heavily during the Halloween period can come into conflict with students’ and their families’ dietary habits.”

Candies are bad. Peanuts may be in them. Dentists abhor them. It’s just good dietary sense to ban sweet things.

Just don’t go to the teacher’s lounge and take away their chocolates. It could get ugly.

5. “Some students have had first-hand traumatic experiences of violence that make talking about death, ghosts, etc., extremely alienating.”

Kids can’t tell the difference between pretend and reality. After all in this age of American Idol, Paris Hilton’s BFF and The Hills reality can be a bit of pretend.

6. “Many recently arrived students in our schools share no background cultural knowledge of trick-or-treating or the commercialization of death as ‘fun.’”

Let’s not culture shock the kiddies with a fun activity.

So kids get dressed up tomorrow for your school’s “Black and Orange Day.” You may not understand the reasoning but don’t worry you can still go door to door to nab candy in the evening.

Hawaii Ends Universal Health Care For Children

Just months after launching universal child health care Hawaii is shutting down the program. The reason? Budget cuts have eliminated the funding that the program requires.

Families that dropped their private coverage for the program will be eligible for the subsidized plan.

Yahoo reports:

“People who were already able to afford health care began to stop paying for it so they could get it for free,” said Dr. Kenny Fink, the administrator for Med-QUEST at the Department of Human Services. “I don’t believe that was the intent of the program.”

There are 2,000 children who would no longer have health coverage as of November 1 had Hawaii Medical Service Association, the private partner, not decided to extend the coverage until the end of the year.

“We’re very disappointed in the state’s decision, and it came as a complete surprise to us,” said Jennifer Diesman, a spokeswoman for HMSA, the state’s largest health care provider. “We believe the program is working, and given Hawaii’s economic uncertainty, we don’t think now is the time to cut all funding for this kind of program.”

The program was approved by state lawmakers in 2007 to ensure each child would have basic medical care. It was aimed at children from birth to the age of 18 whose parents didn’t have health insurance. The program cost the state about $50,000 a month or a mere $25.50 per child.

The universal health care program cost the families only $7 per office visit. Many of those no longer with insurance are not eligible for Medicaid.

These children also could sign up for the HMSA Children’s Plan, which costs about $55 a month.

“Most of them won’t be eligible for Medicaid, and that’s why they were enrolled in Keiki Care,” Diesman said. “It’s the gap group that we’re trying to ensure has coverage.”

Levi Johnston Speaks

Levi Johnston is going to be a teenage father in the coming months. The young man from Alaska isn’t worrying about providing for his new family though, he’s enjoying the campaign trail with soon to be mother-in-law Sarah Palin when he’s not working.

Johnston has been told to hush up by the McCain-Palin campaign advisers. He may have a mind of his own seeing how he agreed to talk to MSNBC.

Since learning that his girlfriend Bristol Palin was pregnant young Levi has dropped out of high school to take a job. He is an apprentice electrician in the North Slope oil fields.

Johnston wanted to set some records straight. First off the MySpace page that states: “I’m a … redneck.” and “I don’t want kids.” According to the young man his friends are the ones that created the page a few years ago.

Bristol has been his girlfriend since grade nine. They had always planned to get married.

MSNBC quotes Johnston:

“We were planning on getting married a long time ago with or without the kid,” he said. “That was the plan from the start.”

The marriage will take place next summer.

Bristol is the one who asked young Levi to go to the Republican National Convention according to Levi.

“At first, I was nervous,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘Whatever.’”

Johnston isn’t an expert on politics. He says he’s rooting for John McCain and future mother-in-law Sarah Palin though.

“I just hope she wins,” he said. “She’s my future mother-in-law. She better win.”

Batty Mom Lets 90 Kids Touch Rabid Dead Bat, Now They Get Shots To Stop Rabies

A mother allowing students at an elementary school to touch a dead bat may not get “Good Mom Of The Year” this year. The woman’s actions put 90 children at risk for rabies.

The dead bat had rabies. The woman took the diseased animal to 5 classrooms for a presentation. She then offered each child her touched the diseased animal a sanitary wipe.

Each of those children are now being subjected to six shots of anti-rabies vaccine.

Officials at Stevensville Elementary School have stated that liability insurance will pay $70,000 for the shots. The final tally though for all of the students could easily pass $150,000.

The school has since changed their visitors policy. Now visitors must obtain a pass at the office. Chances are bats and batty mothers will not get a pass.

Los Angeles Family Dead After Father Snaps From Financial Crisis

Monday Los Angeles police entered the beige house on Como Lane to find a family laying dead, victims of a father caught up in the financial crisis.

Friends had called the police after not being able to get in touch with the dead that laid behind the walls at Como Lane.

Police found the father, 45-year-old Karthik Rajaram, still clinging to the gun that took his family’s life.

Laying in their own beds Rajaram’s wife, three sons and mother-in-law were gunned down by the man who once worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Police found two suicide notes and a last will. They were able to piece together the last places that the unemployed Rajaram had worked including PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sony Pictures. He had been unemployed for several months losing almost all that he had worked so hard for.

Yahoo reports:

“This is a perfect American family behind me that has absolutely been destroyed, apparently because of a man who just got stuck in a rabbit hole, if you will, of absolute despair,” Deputy Chief Michel Moore said. “It is critical to step up and recognize we are in some pretty troubled times.”

In both suicide letters that were found the man planned his own death, the only difference between the two notes was whether or not to kill his family with him. He choose to end all of their lives believing it was more honourable.

When wife Subasri, 39, failed to show up for a ride to work a neighbour called the police. There they found Indra Ramasesham, 69, dead in her first floor bedroom. The trail of bodies continued on the second floor with Subasri in her bed and 19-year-old Krishna in his bed. the third floor held 12-year-old Ganesha dead on his floor and his 7-year-old brother, Arjun laying in his bed. Laying close to his youngest sons laid their father, his gun still holding the gun.

Ed Winter, coroner’s assistant chief, said the victims has been shot multiple times between Saturday and early Monday morning.

There are no records with mental health workers in Los Angeles County that show mental disabilities concerning Rajaram, but there were signs.

Co-workers at PricewaterhouseCoopers say the man was fired in 2005 after he displayed erratic behaviour.

In 2006 the family sold a home in Northridge for a huge profit. They did not own the home they died in.

Yahoo reports:

“The market was going down and he wanted to get out before the bottom dropped out,” Northridge neighbor Sue Karns told the newspaper. “I talked to him last December and he said, ‘I feel I did a good thing by selling when I did.’”

The family was from India. It is believed they had legal status in the United States.

The Newest Living Goddess Was Appointed On Tuesday In Nepal

Matani Shakya, 3, of Nepal is the newest living goddess. The toddler was approved by priests and President Ram Baran Yadav in a centuries-old tradition on Tuesday.

The ceremony has ties to Nepal’s monarchy which was abolished this past May.

Matani Shakya was carried from her parent’s home to the ancient palatial temple in Katmandu, Nepal. She is now considered a “kumari” or living goddess. The child will remain at the palace until she reaches puberty. At that time she will lose her divine status.

Little Matani will be worshipped by Hindus and Buddhists as an incarnation of the Hindu deity Taleju.

The “kumari” is selected from a group of 2 to 4-year-old girls who are part of the Sharya goldsmith caste. Judges check their horoscopes and the children for physical imperfections. The living princess must have perfect hair, eyes, teeth and skin with no scars. The child can not be afraid of the dark. The final test involves the little girl to spend a night alone with only the heads of ritually slaughtered goats and buffaloes to keep her company. If the child shows no fear she is then deemed a living goddess.

Matani will wear red as long as she lives at the palace. Her hair will be pinned in topknots and a third eye will be painted on her forehead.

Those who worship the kumari touch the girl’s feet with their forehead. This is the highest sign of respect for Nepal’s Hindus. The living goddess is wheeled about in a chariot pulled by devotees during religious festivals.

Once the kumari is named she is sent to live in almost complete isolation in the temple. Only when the onset of menstruation takes place will she be allowed to return to her family. At that time a new kumari will be named.

The practice has come under attack by international and Nepalese laws on child rights.

Once a girl has reached puberty they are thrust back into a life they have little memory of. Because of Nepalese folklore believing that men who wed a former living goddess will die young, few former kumari marry. With little prospect for marriage most of the girls face a life of hardship and poverty.

Walking The Walk; Oral Lee Brown Sends Oakland Class To College

Twenty years ago Oral Lee Brown promised a group of first graders in Oakland, California that they would be able to attend college on her dime. This year she fulfilled that promise made on the spur of the moment.

It started outside of the real estate office she owned in east Oakland when a little one asked for some money to buy food. Ms. Brown understood that kind of hunger, she herself had grown up poor in Mississippi. She decided then to adopt the first grade class at Brookfield Elementary School.

In 1987 she promised her ‘babies’ that she would send them to college.

ABC 7 reports:

“It’s the one thing that I can give them that no one can take it away,” says Brown.

Now Oral Lee isn’t the first to offer to send a class to college. She is one of those rare individuals who’s words have a huge personal sacrifice, she was only making $45,000 a year when she promised. She scrimped putting $10,000 into a trust fund for her little ones.

Brown did more than just put money away for the kids. She gave her babies spending money, tutors and love. She created a foundation that held fundraisers to add to her own money gifts. In 1999 her dreams came true, 19 of the original 23 students threw their caps into the air when they graduated from high school.

Some did fall, dropping out. One of Oral Lee’s babies died in those mean streets at the hands of a killer.

Her dream has given her numerous honors including a hero award from the U.S. Secretary of Education. Still in the end it’s seeing those babies achieve their dreams that makes it all worth it. Something she believes that all the ‘babies’ in the United States should be able to do.

“If all a child wants is an education and we in America can’t give it to them, something’s wrong with us,” says Brown.

Kitezh, A Fairytale Village For 30 Russian Orphans

An orphanage in Moscow is trying to make life a fairy tale for their young charges. Kitezh is located 190 miles southwest of Moscow. It houses those that have seen way too many horrors for their tender years.

The International Herald Tribune reports:

“If we can, we try to create the atmosphere of a fairy tale,” said Mikhail Shchurav, who has lived at Kitezh for three years and has an adopted son. “Fairy tales help these kids forget what they’ve been through.”

Kitezh has proved to be a successful alternative to institutional care for orphans. The goal of the village is to change the way Russia takes care of their children and be a model of reform for the child welfare system.

The name Kitezh comes from a mythical Russian city that escaped an army by disappearing. It left only the sould of church bells behind for the invading army to find.

In 1992 a former radio talk-show host, Dmitri Morozov founded Kitezh. He hoped to make a different kind of orphanage. Today there are about six homes built in Russian-folk style, a school, a dining hall and a small Orthodox church.

The 30 or so children that reside there eat, work, study and play together. They live in homes with adoptive parents. Those parents are also trained teachers, psychologists and medical personnel.

The director explained his philosophies with IHT:

“We are trying out the latest methods in psychological therapies: play therapy, art therapy, drama therapy,” Shchurav said. “We even play economic games. No one in Russia has tried what we are doing with these children.”

If the 40 children who have graduated from Kitezh are any indication the home is a success. They have all found good jobs with 60 per cent going on to higher education.

Vasily Burdin is one of those graduates. He was just 4 when his parents died from complications of alcoholism. He says that he was treated well but only after leaving Kitezh did he get an understanding of the world.

“I will proceed with law for my business, for my career,” he said. “But after I have stability, I will do something with music — maybe open my studio. It’s a dream.”

The youngest at the village today is 7-year-old Maxim Tarasenko. He describes his life prior to coming to the village as “very bad.” When he first arrived he was a little fighter. After a year though he has become a sweet little social butterfly.

“My parents were very drunk, and didn’t understand anything,” he said. “They didn’t understand that you’re not allowed to drink only vodka and that you’re not allowed to smoke.”

Still the model of Kitezh is not gaining a hold with other orphanages in Russia. Russia though is promoting adoption to ease the strain placed on orphanages.

“Our experience is not being put to use because it requires that adults receive a significant amount of training,” said Morozov, the founder. It also requires a strict allegiance to the collective that can be at odds with Russia’s new materialistic and individualistic ethos.

Colton Dale Saunders Will Be Buried In His Halloween Costume

Colton Dale will be buried in his favorite Halloween whale costume. His mother will bury her three-year-old son who was killed by his father. She had fought the courts trying to keep her son safe, the courts ordered her to let him visit his father.

Friday Meara McIntosh took her little boy to his father’s home like the courts had ordered her to. Less than two days later the mother was mourning little Colton Dale. His father had murdered the child and killed himself with carbon monoxide fumes from a backyard barbecue brought indoors.

Ms. McIntosh had wanted to make a fresh start in Ottawa. The courts said no, she needed to stay in Alberta so that her estranged husband could visit the child. McIntosh told the courts that he was threatening her and had irrational behavior. The courts didn’t care.

Canada.Com reports:

Are you going to wait until one of us is dead before you open an investigation?” she says she asked RCMP.

For eighteen months the couple battled it out in family court disputing the child custody agreement. The couple had to go to the local RCMP detachment to pass their child back and forth for those visitations.

Two and a half months ago McIntosh thought she finally had the proof that her husband was dangerous. She has a tape-recorded conversation where he admitted harassing her. The police told her that they could arrest her for making false complaints.

The end result is a 27-year-old mother burying her son in his favorite little whale costume.

“He loved it; he’s been wearing it for weeks,” said McIntosh, clutching her son’s favourite egg-sized stuffed purple monkey in her hands for comfort during an interview.

“I grabbed this on the way out the door Sunday so he’d have something to play with on the way home,” she said. “It’s been in my pocket ever since.”

This week mother and child would have been settling in Ottawa had the judge allowed the move.

Instead she buries her son.

Girl, 14, Gives Birth at School Then Discards Infant in Trash

A newborn baby was found alive this morning at Osborn Middle School in a trash can. The principal heard the infant, quickly calling the Phoenix Fire Department.

It is now known that the baby was born on the campus. The child still had his umbilical cord attached when he was removed from the trash can. He is now at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.

The 14-year-old mother gave birth to the baby boy inside the administration building on Wednesday. She was found at a nearby apartment and taken to hospital in good condition.

Because the mother did not use the Safe Haven Law this will become a child abuse case. Child Protective Services are involved.

The Safe Haven law allows for unwanted newborns to be dropped off within 72 hours at a fire station, police station, hospital or church. Those that do so can be sure that there will be no questions asked.

Toronto School Shooting, Teen In Critical Condition

A school shooting at an east-end Toronto school has a young man fighting for his life in hospital. Schools locked down in the area, some for two and a half hours.

The shooting happened at Bendale Business and Technical Institute Tuesday during an altercation outside of the building. The victim is a 17-year-old student. He is in critical condition at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. His parents are with him.

Police are looking for at least four suspects. One of the suspects has been described as a male, black, in his late teens, five-foot-eight to five-foot-10, and wearing a cloth hat.

A witness who was at his home during the shooting heard three shots fired.

Yahoo reports:

“One individual discharged a firearm, but there were at least three other young men that were at that location at that time and certainly were witnesses to the altercation and the firearm discharge,” said Toronto police Chief Bill Blair.

Mother and Three Children Found Dead, Teen Being Held For Murder and Arson

A teenager has been arrested Wednesday for investigation of four counts of murder and arson in Lancaster, California. The teen is said to have killed a mother and her three daughters before setting the home on fire.

All of the victims appeared to have been killed before the house was set ablaze. The remains all showed signed of trauma not associated with a fire. Firefighters found the bodies in separate rooms Tuesday while attempting to put out the engulfed home.

Three bodies were burned beyond recognition and will take days to positively identify. One of the victims has been positively identified according to coroner’s investigators.

The woman’s car was found at a near-by Wal-Mart with a smashed window. It is believed that the parking lot it was found is a secondary crime connected with the murders.

Corey King, 18, was an associate of the victims. He was taken to the police department on Tuesday for questioning. His bail is set at one million dollars.

Mother Arrested After Two-Year-Old Found In Car Trunk

The body of a two-year-old has been found in the trunk of his mother’s car after it had been in a wrecking yard for six weeks. It is possible the woman drove around with the body in the trunk for months.

Summer ManyWhiteHorses was arrested for the deliberate homicide of her son James on Monday. An autopsy is being conducted at this time.

ManyWhiteHorses has told police that James’ death was an accident. She placed his body in the car on May 29.

The woman’s has a $250,000 bail. She will be represented by a public defender.

Six weeks ago on July 21 ManyWhiteHorses was arrested for driving erratically. She crashed into a parked car after driving through several red lights when the police attempted to stop her. Her 11-year-old daughter was in the back seat of the car at that time. Her son was in the trunk at that time also, undiscovered.

The car was then towed and put into a storage facility.

Her daughter was placed into custody in August. Child welfare workers at that time begun to search for the boy.

Detective Bruce McDermott has stated that the woman’s story changed depending on who she spoke to. She finally admitted that the child who had autism died in late May and she wrapped his body in a blanket before placing it in a plastic bag.

ManyWhiteHorses’ aunt Ernestine Small had taken care of the children in the past when their mother was in trouble with police. She had hoped to tend to them this summer but her niece said that the toddler had been placed in foster care.

As Yahoo reports:

“Nobody expected this,” Small said in an interview at the courthouse. “I know she gets violent, but never thought she would do this to her baby.”

Police say that there was no reason at the time of ManyWhiteHorses arrest to search the trunk of the car. At the time there was no legal reason to do so and would have required a search warrant.

Bubble Kits Sold At Toronto’s CNE May Cause Health Risks

Health Canada is warning caregivers that bubble kits sold at this year’s Canadian National Exhibition may be posing serious health risks to the children who bought them.

The kits were sold in the International Pavilion at three booths before the federal department removed 1,574 on August 20.

CBC reports:

“Children’s balloon-blowing kits have been banned in Canada since 1973,” Health Canada said in a release issued Wednesday.

“These toys typically consist of a solvent mixture in a tube and one or more plastic straws for blowing. Children can form balloons or bubbles by dipping the short straw into the solvent and blowing through the straw.”

The solvents in the kits may effect the central nervous system. Symptoms include euphoria, hallucinations, dizziness, difficulty with co-ordination, muscular twitching, unconsciousness and coma.

There have not been any reports of adverse health effects.

If you did purchase one of these kits for your children Health Canada advises throwing them in the trash and making sure the children don’t retrieve them before the trash man comes.

Seven-Year-old Takes Four Viagra A Day To Stay Alive

Four-year-old Natalie Archibald collapsed two years ago Christmas Day. At first medics thought the child, now seven was over excited. Sadly it was much worse. She was suffering from primary pulmonary hypertension.

Natalie was treated for the lung condition at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The child now takes four Viagra a day.

The transformation after treatment with the drug more commonly used for treating male impotence is amazing.

Natalie’s mother Janis spoke to the Telegraph about her daughter’s unusual treatment.

She added: “I’ve never seen her so happy. She can run, jump, skip, all the things her friends do. We have a wheelchair for her if she gets exhausted, but we’ve never had to use it, and I hope she grows out of it before we need to.”

The condition primary pulmonary hypertension is a progressive disorder that causes high blood pressure that affects the lung’s artries. It is rarely seen in children.

New Yorker Sought Nanny For Kids Claiming They Were Pains

Rebecca Land Soodak is looking for a nanny. The Manhattan mother of four started her ad for the perfect child tend with “My kids are a pain.”

Soodak put a 1,000 word ad of Craig’s List seeking someone to care for her children. the ad worked, a woman who’s never been a nanny before is taking a leap into the fire for a woman who admits she’s difficult to work for.

The ad has made the rounds including being the inspiration for an article in Thursday’s New York Times.

Soodak, a painter, and her husband who owns a wine store settled on Christina Wynn, a 25-year-old University of Virginia graduate to take care of their kids aged from 6 to 12.

“I made a commitment to stay in the job for at least a year,” Wynn told the Times. “I met the oldest child, but not the others, which my mother said was crazy — to accept the job without meeting all the kids. So we’ll see.” She noted that one of the pluses is that the children are all in school for several hours each day.

Soodak’s ad also warned applicants that this is one wealthy family who isn’t frivolous.

“I have all sorts of theories on how to stack my dishwasher, and if you are judgmental about Ritalin for ADHD, or think such things are caused by too much sugar, again, deal-break city.”

No word on how Wynn is working out. By the sounds of it she may qualify for combat pay by the time a year is up.

Opinion: Do Clothes Make The School Or Turn Them Into Cookie Cutters?

Dress code violations are popping up all over the news. Could what kids wear to school really effect their ability to learn or is it just a lesson in learning to conform or else?

From kids not being allowed to wear certain types of belts to cheerleaders not allowed to bounce down the school hallways dress code violations are in the news.

Parents are starting to question what is going on that allows a school to ban their kids from an education just because of what they wear or how their hair is dyed or cut.

Not to mention the cost factor. Buying the clothes that allow your kids to stay in school costs money. If you make a mistake and buy the wrong thing that costs even more money.

Here’s a question for you, How does it help a kid learn? Does dressing like everyone else benefit a child in the end or does it impede on their own individuality?

Instead of teaching teachers are being asked to police what their charges are wearing. And those failing to make the ‘grade’ get an in-school suspension.

There’s the ‘rules are rules’ idea that some people back. But shouldn’t the rules make sense? Wouldn’t it be better to offer in house suspension for kids who don’t bother to bring in a pencil to write instead of wearing a Pride t-shirt?

Yes, some kids go overboard on their personal style but it tends to be the more creative kids. What we wear makes a statement, it’s who we are. When kids are told it’s more important to dress the ‘right’ way than to be in class what message is that sending?

Schools should be in the business of education not fashion policing. By making a huge fuss over what to wear they are in effect encouraging some to rebel. Those who rebel are then labeled as being ‘bad’ kids.

I leave you with a question; Do you want your child to be able to have an individual though or walk around being just like all the other cookie cutter kids?

Another Day, Another Kid Denied School Because of Dress Code

In Mountain Grove, Missouri lives a free spirit by the name of Amelia Robbins. The 12-year-old has dyed her hair in honour of her father who passed away when she was just 6. Amelia has pink hair. The school board is having a fit.

At the end of last year’s school term Amelia had pink streaks. Now granted the school board at that time told her to stop those streaks but she decided to go full pink instead.

Now instead of teaching the seventh grader, the school is refusing to allow her and her pink hair to walk down the halls saying the colour is too much of a distraction.

The Mountain Grove Middle School pupil doesn’t agree.

According to the school handbook, administrators have the right to decide if a student is causing a distraction. Officials are remaining mum on Amelia’s case.

An Email Saves Florida Toddler’s Life

Madeline Robb of Manchester, UK and Megan Santos of Florida have two little girls. They have been friends since meeting on a message board after their girls were born on the same day. That friendship may have saved the life of Rowan Santos.

The two friends exchanged birthday pictures of their little girls. Looking at the cute pictures Madeleine spotted something that alarmed her. All of Rowan’s pictures showed light reflecting off of her eyes. She told the BBC that emailed her friend about it knowing it could be quite serious.

“I recognised something I’d seen in a news article,” Mrs. Robb said.

“The eye was reflecting a light but it wasn’t just reflecting in one picture – but in a few of them.

“I sent her an e-mail just saying it was important she have it checked.”

That same day Megan Santos took her daughter to the doctor and her condition was diagnosed. The child has Retinoblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer. Rowan has already undergone an operation and is on life-saving chemo.

Mrs. Robb sharp eye noticed the only symptom that shows up in the earliest stage of the disease.

Mrs. Santos feels blessed to have such a friend.

“Other than an on-line message board she doesn’t know me from anyone and I have to say she saved my daughter’s life.

“She’s selfless and wonderful. She really thought hard about sending that email and I’m so glad she did.”

“I wish I could meet her and give her a hug as she’s the reason we are going to have our baby for her second birthday.”

Rowan will lose her eye but hopefully not her life thanks to the keen eye of a faraway friend her mother has yet to met.

A video from the BBC is located here on this story.

Little Boy’s Long Hair Causing A Fuss In Texas

Adriel Arocha, 5, of Needville, Texas has a problem. The Needville Independent School District doesn’t allow for long hair on their male students. Adriel is Native American from the Apache tribe and his long hair is part of his culture.

The child wears his hair over his shoulders for religious reasons. That doesn’t seem to be good enough for the school board. Last month they told his mother Michelle Betenbaug that his hair had to be cut. The dress code states that boys hair can not be past their collars.

Betenbaug stood her ground and Adriel went to school on Monday with no problems after a compromise was made.

The school board said that if his hair is braided and tucked inside his collar he can go to kindergarten. Monday he went to school with his hair braided but it was not tucked away.

Adriel’s father Kenney Arocha vowed that when his son was born he would teach him his Native heritage. Cutting the boy’s hair goes against that hertiage. Hair holds a spirtual meaning the family told ABC News.

“It tells us how long I’ve been here, by your hair, so it’s your history,” Adriel said.

“It’s our tradition it’s what we do,” Kenney said.

The school board says that they need more proof that hair is indeed part of the religion. In the past the board has been exceptions on dress code rules on religious grounds but parents must prove the reason.

“I was trying to find out what recognized religion they are that discusses they cannot cut their hair and the information I received then was basically it’s their choice,” said Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes.

Local parents seem to be backing Adriel’s right to have long hair.

“I don’t think longer hair than their ears is going to hurt their education,” said Needville resident Jana Hausler.

“If it has to do with his religion, I don’t think anyone should infringe on their religious rights,” resident Jamie Hausler said.

The ACLU has been working on the case.

Jericho Scott Is Too Good To Play Little League

Jericho Scott, 9, can whiz a fastball almost 40 mph. That’s impressive for a kid, too impressive. The Youth Baseball League of New Haven in Connecticut has told the young baseball player he can no longer pitch on the league.

Last week Jericho took the mound anyway. The opposing team saw the boy ready to play and packed up their gear forfeiting the game.

There are about 100 players for the three year old league on eight teams. Officials have said that they plan on disbanding Jericho’s team and put the players on other teams. Anyone not on board with that is free to be refunded their $50 sign up fees. Wilfred Vidro, Jericho’s coach has resigned over this mess according to the big wigs.

Vidro says that he didn’t quit and his team has refused to disband. Players and parents held a protest on Saturday urging the league to allow the little boy to pitch.

Yahoo reports the boy’s coach saying:

“He’s never hurt any one,” Vidro said. “He’s on target all the time. How can you punish a kid for being too good?”

This mess seems to be good old small town politics. It seems Jericho turned down an invite to play for the defending league champion. That team just so happens to be sponsored by an employer of one of the administrators for the league. Jericho decided to join the team sponsored by Will Power Fitness. The team was going gang busters, 8-0 and on its way to the playoffs when the administrators decided that young Jericho was just too good.

Peter Noble, the attorney for the league says that Jericho is being banned because he pitches too fast. He says that some of the parents expressed concern over their children being injured. Noble did note that Jericho has never once beaned another player. They also say that Nicole Scott, Jericho’s mother has threatened to close down the league because of this issue.

“I have never seen behavior of a parent like the behavior Jericho’s mother exhibited Wednesday night,” Noble said.

Scott denies the allegation that she threatened anyone but admits to calling the police. She also admits to being angry that her son is being singled out for having such talent.

“I think it’s discouraging when you’re telling a 9-year-old you’re too good at something,” said his mother, Nicole Scott. “The whole objective in life is to find something you’re good at and stick with it. I’d rather he spend all his time on the baseball field than idolizing someone standing on the street corner.”

The league has suggested that Jericho play on an older team or on a different league.

Attorney John Williams thinks that this all mess is wrong. He will be meeting with Jericho’s family Monday to discuss legal options.

At the heart of this problem is a little nine-year-old boy who misses playing a game he loves.

“I feel sad,” he said. “I feel like it’s all my fault nobody could play.”

And that my friends is a crime.

Patrick Kelly of Texas Gets Life Sentence For Child Sex Ring In Swinger’s Club

41-year-old Patrick Kelly of Tyler, Texas has been given a life sentence for his part of grooming children as young as five to perform in sex shows at a small-town swingers club.

Kelly was also fined $10,000.

The jury took a little over 2 hours to decide that the East Texas man was guilty of the charges.

Defense attorneys had sought a suspended sentence for their client of less than ten years. They had hoped that he would be placed on probation believing that Kelly is innocent.

Prosecutors pushed for the life sentence. They contended that he had damaged the lives of five innocent children that had been sexually abused by the man.

According to authorities Kelly was a member of the Mineola Swinger’s Club. It was alledged that Kelly set up a “kindergarten” where children were taught to dance in a suggestive manner. The children were also given drugs like Vicodin that adults passed off as silly pills. Kelly has denied his involvement in these actions.

The case is the result of a 2-year investigation that begun after foster care mother Margie Cantrell reported discussions that some of her foster children had with her. They related being forced into sex 18 months prior to the discussion in windowless rooms of the day care center that Kelly owned.

Kelly has stated that he had never been to the Mineola Swinger’s Club nor had ever taught the children anything of a sexual manner. He had no knowledge of “silly pills” that have also been reportedly linked to him.

The defense attorney, Thad Davidson blasted the testimony and investigation.

“So you got these incredible suggestive, tainted … interviews. And who takes over the interviews? The woman who has custody of the three children,” Davidson said.

Witnesses for the defense said that swinger parties did take place at the building of the day care but not when children were present.

Kelly’s family has stood by the man saying that he is innocent.

I thought things would go the justice way, but justice is fickle I guess,” Kelly’s mother, Linda, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “I honestly don’t know why it went the way it did. This is the first time I’ve heard all this stuff that the D.A. is putting out – that is not my child.”

Jaime Pittman and Shauntel Mayo have also received life sentences as members of the child sex ring. Three others are awaiting trial.

Australian Family Flees So 2-Day-Old Son Does Not Have To Be Vaccinated

An Australian family is on the run because they refuse to allow doctors to vaccinate their 2-day-old son for hepatitis B. The child’s mother was diagnosed several years ago with the virus.

The parents believe that their infant son is to small for the vaccine. He is only 2.49 kilograms and would receive the same dose as all infants. The father wants to have more time to become informed about the risks of the vaccine before he allows his son to have the shot.

The father and the infant’s Chinese born mother took their infant and older sister into hiding when child protection authorities won a Supreme Court order to vaccinate the child regardless of how his parents feel.

The family believes that aluminum in the vaccine is more dangerous than the damage the child could have from contracting hepatitis B. They would rather disease management for the virus than risk their child to potential neurological damage.

Vaccinations are not mandatory in Anstralia. There is although a law that mandates all infants born to hepatitis-B-positive mothers be offered immunoglobulin in the first 12 hours of life and then four doses of the vaccine over their first six months.

The father granted an interview to Sydney Morning Herald. Their daughter born in 2005 also has not had the vaccine.

“I am a strong believer in vaccinations being voluntary but not getting this baby vaccinated is a form of child abuse,” said David Isaacs, a professor in paediatric infectious diseases.

“We are talking a potentially major and awful outcome for this child and it is our job to protect children when they can’t make decisions for themselves,” the Herald quoted him as saying.

The family’s names have been undisclosed.

Florida Principle Demoted; When Two Generations Differ On Tolerance

The American Civil Liberties Union took up the case of a Florida lesbian high school senior and a peaceful protest for gay tolerance resulting in her principal being demoted.

Principle David Davis outed the teen to her parents and ordered her to stay away from children after she told him students were taunting her for being gay. He also let her know that he believed her sexual orientation was wrong.

The girl’s friends who stood by her wearing gay pride T-shirts and buttons at Ponce de Leon High School faced suspension according to court records. Davis also asked dozens of students if they were gay or associated with gay students.

When the American Civil Liberties Union took up the teen’s case they had to deal with a school administer on a “witch hunt” when it came to gay students. A federal judge ruling in the case ordered Davis to be demoted and that school employees take part in sensitivity training.

Still there are those in the Florida Panhandle town that are confused to what Davis did that was wrong. After all the community is in the Bible Belt were the bible rules with an iron fist.

Ponce de Leon High School sits in Holmes County right on the Georgia border. Ponce de Leon, Florida has less than 500 residents.

In a MSNBC report Steve Griffin explains his community:

“We are a small, rural district in the Bible Belt with strong Christian beliefs and feel like homosexuality is wrong,” said Steve Griffin, Holmes County’s school superintendent, who keeps a Bible on his desk and framed Scriptures on his office walls.

There are many in this small community where most are employed by the local prisons or schools that support Davis. They believe that outsiders are forcing their beliefs on their way of life. Griffin had to demote Davis but the former principle is still teaching at the school Griffin says that the teens in his district aren’t exposed to the kind of things that city kids deal with.

“I don’t think we are that different from a lot of districts, at least in the Panhandle, that have beliefs that maybe are different from societal changes,” Griffin said.

The young girl known only as “Jane Doe” in court records was admonished by the former principle. When other students heard how Davis treated the teen they put on gay pride shirts and rainbow-coloured clothing to protest. Davis then started questioning those students about their own sexuality.

“Davis embarked on what can only be characterized as a ‘witch hunt’ to identify students who were homosexual and their supporters, further adding fuel to the fire,” U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak recounted in his ruling. “He went so far as to lift the shirts of female students to insure the letters ‘GP’ or the words ‘Gay Pride’ were not written on their bodies.”

The ACLU was called into action by Ardena Gillman, the mother of Heather Gillman. Heather took part in the protests. Ardena, mother of three, works as a corrections officer knew that other parents may become angry with her call. Still she had to support her daughter’s cause and wanted to help protect the students’ freedom of speech.

“I just felt like I had to stand up for the kids. Heather wanted to do this, and I had to back her,” she said.

Students have a constitutional right for peaceful protests, such as the wearing of a T-shirt that states their beliefs.

“I think a shirt that says ‘I support gays’ is very different from a shirt that says ‘Gays are going to hell,’” said Benjamin Stevenson, an ACLU attorney. “One can be very disruptive for a child’s self-esteem; the other supports other people and their ideas.”

In January the ACLU sued the school district. This summer Judge Smoak ruled that Davis had indeed violated Heather Gillman’s rights.

“I emphasize that Davis’s personal and religious views about homosexuality are not issues in this case. Indeed, Davis’s opinions and views are consistent with the beliefs of many in Holmes County, in Florida, and in the country,” Smoak wrote in an opinion released last month. “Where Davis went wrong was when he endeavored to silence the opinions of his dissenters.”

The lawsuit has not made for a happy community. Many believe that Davis is a hero. The Gillman’s have been accused of trying to bankrupt the school district because it has to pay $325,000 in lawyer fees.

The community shows the division between the young who have learned tolerance of others and the elders who cling to a different era.

“David Davis is a fine man and good principal, and we are a gentle, peaceful, Christian, family-oriented community,” said Bill Griffin, 73 and a lifelong Ponce de Leon resident who is no relation to the district superintendent. “We aren’t out to tar and feather anyone.”

Breaking News: Tennessee School Shooting Leaves One Dead

A student at Central High School in Knoxville, Tennessee has been killed during a shooting around 8 a.m. Thursday morning. The 16-year-old was in the school cafeteria when the incident occurred.

The victim’s name has not been released. He died at University of Tennessee Medical Center.

A suspect has been taken into custody. Knoxville chief deputy Bill Roehl said that the suspect and victim knew each other. This was not a random act.

The school has about 1,400 students. The school was placed in lockdown after the shooting.

The school is planning on releasing one classroom at a time. Students will then be bussed to a local church where parents can pick them up.

Fewer Canadian Teens Are Having Sex

Fewer teens in Canada are sexually active than a decade ago. There’s even more good news though as those who have teenage sex also use a condom when they do.

According to data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday 43% of teens aged from 15 to 19 have sex at least once in 2005. That compares to 47% of teens in 1996-1997 having sex.

It’s believed that more teenage girls are choosing to wait before becoming sexually active is the reason for decreasing numbers. According to the 1996-1997 survey 51 percent of the girls interviewed had experienced sex at least once. That number dropped to 43% in 2005.

The number of teenage boys having sex between 15 and 19 remained the same at 43 percent in both surveys.

The majority of sexually active teenagers of both genders said that they used condoms the last time that they have sexual intercourse in the 2005 survey.

Used condom during last sexual experience-2005
Girls: 70%
Boys: 80%

During the 1996-1997 survey questions on condom use were not asked.

How safe is cheerleading?

The most dangerous sport for female athletes in high schools and colleges is cheerleading. While some may laugh at the notion that cheerleading is a sport those twists and turns can be deadly.

The University of North Carolina’s National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research has listed 67 fatal or life-threatening injuries due to cheerleading since 1982. Compare that to 9 in gymnastics and it’s easy to see the risk.

One of the reasons that the sport is so dangerous is the lack of regulations that education systems have concerning spirit squads. More than 95,000 male and female students a year perform yet school boards don’t impose rules that would insure student safety.

Because of the lack of regulations for reporting injuries there are likely more injuries than reported.

Each year as the sport becomes more competitive young adults take great risks that could end up ending their lives.

Many schools cut out gymnastic teams in the 1980s because of the high liability costs. When that happened more and more cheerleading squads added high flying acrobatics to their routines.

Only 20 states even recognize that cheerleading is a sport. Because of the lack of athletic status there is an oversight when it comes down to the safety of the activity.

Many of the injuries that are life-threatening take place because of falls when a routine goes wrong.

In 2005, Ashley Burns, a 14-year-old from Medford, Mass., died after being thrown into the air and landing on her stomach, causing her spleen to rupture.

Massachusetts athlete, 20-year-old Lauren Chang, died in April, after she was accidentally kicked in the chest during a cheerleading competition.

In 2006 Sacramento City College student Jessica Smith landed headfirst, breaking her back in two places when a teammate who was supposed to catch her lost his balance and fell backward.

Because of these and other incidents more states are beginning to regulate the sport but it’s not enough. Until all schools understand the risks that come with cheerleading there will be accidents that will alter lives forever.

Scottish Girls Will Be Given The HPV Vaccine But Denied Safe Sex Literature

Scottish schoolgirls are set to get the HPV vaccine next month but additional information about safe sex that generally goes hand in hand with the shot will be denied to them because of the Catholic Church.

The reason behind the lack of information is a deal struck by Scottish health officials and the Catholic Church. The church backing the vaccine though is a big step. In the past it has raised objections to the shot because of an ideal that the vaccine would lead to promiscuity.

The vaccine will be given to 12 and 13-year-olds at every Scottish school in September. The hope is that cervical cancer deaths can be reduced by stopping the human papilloma virus in its tracks. The virus is a known cause of cervical cancer. It is passed on during sex.

The Catholic Church allowed for the vaccine of their students but only if additional information about safe sex and the use of condoms was not part of the shots.

Parent groups and health campaigners are opposed to the deal. They warn that by not giving the additional information some girls may not understand that the vaccine only covers two strains of HPV and not other sexually transmitted diseases.

Those opposed to denying the girls with information on safe sex and the use of condoms believe that a key element of the vaccine is being taken away.

As Scotman.com reports

Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet, said parents would be annoyed by the omission. She said: “The moral position is being imposed upon them. It seems a bit archaic to let the Catholic Church decide on this.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The HPV vaccine is about saving lives and protecting future generations of young girls from cervical cancer.

“Scottish Government officials consulted with many stakeholders and undertook research with parents and girls to ensure the right level of information was included in the leaflet. The Scottish Government is absolutely committed to promoting safer sex, and we are taking forward our sexual health strategy ‘Respect and Responsibility’.”

Adults Often Fail To Detect When Children Falsely Deny Actual Events

A new study out from the University of California, Davis shows that adults are easily fooled when children deny an actual event took place. That’s not good when it comes to protecting the young from sexual predators.

Adults can generally figure out if a child makes up a tale but when it comes to them hiding facts of events it becomes more difficult.

In the world of forensic child sexual abuse investigations this study shows that innocent people are often able to get out of trouble which is good for the adults. It also shows that children will lie when it comes to their own pain, bad news for the kids.

At the annual meeting of the American Psychology Association in Boston on Sunday the study’s results were presented by Gail S. Goodman.

“The large number of children coming into contact with the legal system — mostly as a result of abuse cases — has motivated intense scientific effort to understand children’s true and false reports,” said UC Davis psychology professor and study author Gail S. Goodman. “The seriousness of abuse charges and the frequency with which children’s testimony provides central prosecutorial evidence makes children’s eyewitness memory abilities important considerations. Arguably even more important, however, are adults’ abilities to evaluate children’s reports.”

Goodman and her team asked 100 adults to view videos of 3 and 5 year olds being interviewed about true and false reports. The children in the tapes either accurately confirmed facts about events that had honestly happened or denied that it had happened. The children also were taped for false events in the same way.

The adults were then asked to evaluate each of the tapes to decide if events had or hadn’t taken place.

When the event was a false one most of the adults could detect that the children were not telling the truth. However when children denied events that had actually happened the adults believed them.

“The findings suggest that adults are better at detecting false reports than they are at detecting false denials,” Goodman said. “While accurately detecting false reports protects innocent people from false allegations, the failure to detect false denials could mean that adults fail to protect children who falsely deny actual victimization.”

Goodman is one of the first researchers to do academic studies on children as eyewitnesses. She has written three books and over 170 articles in the field. Some of her research has been used in United States Supreme Court decisions.

Ethics Behind 3 Infant Heart Transplants; When Do You Declare A Donor Dead

When it comes to organ donation what is the ethical time of death? That question is being raised in the case of three heart transplants involving infants in Denver.

For decades organs can only be harvested when brain death has occurred. In the case of the three infants though the donors had little brain function but were not technically considered brain dead.

Each of the infant donors in question were taken off ventilators with their families consent. Surgeons removed their hearts mere minutes after the organs stopped beating on their own. All three of the transplants were successful and the three babies that received hearts have survived.

“It seemed like there was an unmet need in two situations,” said Dr. Mark Boucek, who led the study at Children’s Hospital in Denver. “Recipients were dying while awaiting donor organs. And we had children dying whose family wanted to donate, and we weren’t able to do it.”

The controversial procedure is called donation after cardiac death. It is being encouraged by the federal government, organ banks and others because it will make more organs available and more families the option of donation.

The ethical question falls into play when these donations involve children. Critics cite that the procedure violates laws set in place to govern of how and at what point an organ can be removed to transplant..

Last year 10% of all decreased donors were from cardiac-death donors. That was 793 donors that changed countless lives. Most of those donors were adults whose kidneys and liver were harvested.

Generally hearts are not harvested from this type of donor because the organ may be damaged from lack of oxygen.

In the more common donor situation the brain-dead patient is kept alive on life support until transplant patients have arrived at the hospital. This keeps the organs saturated with oxygen rich blood.

The three infant heart transplants from Denver are detailed in New England Journal of Medicine published on Thursday.

Two of the transplant teams harvested the donor hearts within 75 seconds after death while the third heart was retrieved after five minutes.

These transplants defied the widely accepted “dead donor rule.” There is to be a waiting time between when the heart stops to make sure that it does not restart on it’s own.

Because the hearts were able to be restarted after they were transplanted the operations toe the legal line. The deaths were not declared either brain deaths nor heart function deaths that had irreversible heart damage.

“In my opinion, it’s an open-and-shut case. They don’t have irreversibility, and they don’t have death,” said Robert Veatch, a professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University.

The transplants took place over the past three years. One in 2004 and the other two last year. Each of the infants whose hearts were harvested were about four days old and had they survived would have been severely brain damaged.

New Study Shows Gender Difference In Childhood Asthma

When it comes to the sexes and childhood asthma boys often outgrow the condition more often than girls. Boys are also more prone to it earlier in life.

A new study out from Harvard Medical School points to an unknown mechanism behind the development of the ailment. 1,000 children had their lung function tested for the study over a nine year period. The results of this latest study are in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

In the UK one out of ten children deal with asthma. Experts in that nation believe that sex hormones may have a role in the disease.

Most children who suffer from asthma stop having symptoms by adulthood. The reasons for this though are not yet understood.

Dr Kelan Tantisira, who led the study found that boys are both more likely to wheeze during childhood and to outgrow the symptoms by the time they reach adolescent.

This study is the first to study the difference that gender may play in a documented way.

The children in the study were all between the ages of five and twelve. They all had mild to moderate asthma.

The children were tested annually over a nine year period. Doctors gave the children a drug to cause their airways to narrow. It was noted how much of a dosage was needed to achieve this.

The amount of the drug needed for the girls did not change much over time while larger doses were needed each year for the boys. By the age of 18 only 14% of the girls failed to have a reaction to the drugs compared to 27% of the boys.

Dr Tantisira said: “While our results were not unexpected, they do point to intriguing potential mechanisms to explain the gender differences in asthma incidence and severity.

“Especially intriguing is that the differences in gender begin at the time of transition into early puberty.”

The researchers plan to continue the study with the test subjects throughout adulthood.

This study may be able to find new treatments for asthma that focus on genders.