Author: Angel - NYC

Yahoo Shine – by Beth Greenfield

A California public school district has backpedaled after an eighth-grade assignment — to write a persuasive essay on whether or not the Holocaust occurred — came under serious fire and prompted death threats to administrators. 

“We are aware of the controversy surrounding the distribution of an eighth grade Writing Prompt during the third quarter of the academic year,” notes a press release issued Monday by Rialto Unified School District interim Superintendent Mohammed Islam. “The intent of the writing prompt was to exercise the use of critical thinking skills. There was no offensive intent in the crafting of this assignment. We regret that the prompt was misinterpreted.”
Continue reading “California School District Under Fire for Holocaust-Denial Assignment”

Live Science – by Becky Oskin

Mile for mile, there are almost as many earthquakes rattling Oklahoma as California this year. This major increase in seismic shaking led to a rare earthquake warning today (May 5) from the U.S. Geological Survey and the Oklahoma Geological Survey.

In a joint statement, the agencies said the risk of a damaging earthquake — one larger than magnitude 5.0 — has significantly increased in central Oklahoma.   Continue reading “Rare Earthquake Warning Issued for Oklahoma”

Reuters – by JULIE STEENHUYSEN AND SHARON BEGLEY

A healthcare worker who had traveled to Saudi Arabia was confirmed as the first U.S. case of Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS), an often fatal illness, raising new concerns about the rapid spread of such diseases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday.

The male patient traveled via a British Airways flight on April 24 from Riyadh to London, where he changed flights at Heathrow airport to fly to the United States. He landed in Chicago and took a bus to an undisclosed city in Indiana.   Continue reading “First U.S. case of deadly MERS virus confirmed: CDC”

AOL

John LaDue, a 17-year-old from Minnesota, has been arrested both in connection with the March discovery of explosive devices at a local elementary school, and for another, even more sinister plot.

KARE mentions “The plan that LaDue laid out in a journal police now have would have included bombs in the schools, murdering the school resource officer and then shooting at will until he was taken out by a SWAT team. LaDue planned to die.”
Continue reading “Attack thwarted: Teen planned massive assault”

EWG

EWG publishes its annual rating of conventional foods with the most and least pesticide residues to fill the void left by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which has largely failed to tell Americans they have a right to know about the risks of pesticide exposure and ways they can reduce pesticides in their diets.

The Food Quality Protection Act of 1996 marked dramatic progress in the federal government’s efforts to protect Americans from dangerous pesticides. The landmark legislation, which EWG played a major role in pushing through Congress, required EPA to assess pesticides in light of their particular dangers to children and to ensure that pesticides posed a “reasonable certainty of no harm” to children or any other high-risk group. This law is credited with reducing the risks posed by pesticide residues on food. It forced American agribusiness to shift away from some of the riskiest pesticides. But worrisome chemicals are not completely out of the food supply. Residues of many hazardous pesticides are still detected on a handful of foods.    Continue reading “EWG’s 2014 Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce”

AOL – by Mike Stobbe

NEW YORK (AP) — Health officials on Friday confirmed the first case of an American infected with a mysterious Middle East virus. The man fell ill after arriving in the U.S. about a week ago from Saudi Arabia where he is a health care worker.

The man is hospitalized in Indiana with Middle East respiratory syndrome, or MERS, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is investigating the case along with Indiana health officials.    Continue reading “CDC confirms first case of MERS virus in American”

Anchorage Daily News – by SUZANNA CALDWELL AND TEGAN HANLON

The Alaska State Troopers say they have taken two men into custody in connection with the shooting deaths of two troopers in Tanana on Thursday.

Nathanial Lee Kangas, 19, of Tanana was arrested Thursday for the murders of Sgt. Patrick “Scott” Johnson and Trooper Gabriel “Gabe” Rich, according to a troopers release issued Friday morning. Formal charges are being prepared by the troopers with the help of the Office of Special Prosecutions and Appeals.   Continue reading “19-year-old arrested for killing two troopers in Tanana, Alaska; 2nd man charged after standoff”

Huffington Post – by Christopher Mathias

The New York City Police Department has a problem: three officers in the span of a week have drunkenly fired their weapons at people, in one case striking a man six times as he sat in a car.

“These unfortunate incidents highlight the reality that lack of accountability at the NYPD has enabled a culture in which some officers believe they are above the law,” Priscilla Gonzalez of Communities United for Police Reform told The Huffington Post.   Continue reading “NYPD Cops Can’t Stop Getting Drunk And Shooting At People”

NBC DFW – by Ray Villeda

Camp Bowie Animal Cinlic veterinarian, Dr. Lou Tierce, was arrested for animal cruelty after turning himself into Fort Worth police Wednesday night. He is now out on bond.

A popular Fort Worth veterinary clinic is under investigation after a family says instead of euthanizing their sick pet the vet secretly kept the dog alive for blood transfusions.

Fort Worth police, the city of Fort Worth and state investigators are involved in the investigation that started when a client of the Camp Bowie Animal Clinic found out his beloved pet, believed to have been euthanized, was alive.   Continue reading “Fort Worth Vet Accused of Keeping Dog Alive for Transfusions”

My Fox Tampa Bay – by Josh Cascio

PALM HARBOR (FOX 13) –Pumping iron builds a lot more than just muscle for Krista Grubb.

“Through lifting weights and working out, I gained a lot of confidence,” Grubb said.

So naturally she was thrilled when her 13-year-old son Mason also began to take an interest.
Continue reading “LA Fitness kicks mother, son out of gym”

Yahoo News – by Donna Bryson

DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Symphony Orchestra said Tuesday it will play a series of “cannabis-friendly” fundraising concerts sponsored by the state’s burgeoning pot industry.

The state’s only full-time professional orchestra hopes the unusual shows dubbed “Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series” will boost its audience as it struggles with dwindling attendance and shrinking budgets.   Continue reading “Colorado Symphony links up with pot industry”

Daily Mail – by Sam Web

An Australian company says it has located the wreckage of a commercial airliner lying on the ocean floor in the Bay of Bengal – an area located in the northern tip of the original search area, but thousands of miles from where authorities are currently focused.

Tech firm GeoResonance claims its sensor technology has found the wreckage of a plane in the Bay of Bengal, 118 miles south of Bangladesh.

The company said images taken of the same spot five days earlier showed it had appeared between the 5th and 10th of March 2014. The plane disappeared on March 8.   Continue reading “Australian company detects ‘wreckage of a commercial airliner’ in the Bay of Bengal”

AOL

NEW YORK (AP) – Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been banned for life by the NBA in response to racist comments the league says he made in a recorded conversation.

Commissioner Adam Silver said he will try to force the controversial owner to sell his franchise. Sterling has also been fined $2.5 million, and Silver made no effort to hide his outrage over the comments.   Continue reading “Clippers owner Donald Sterling banned for life by the NBA”

Huffington Post – by Meredith Davis and Theopolis Waters

CHICAGO, April 27 (Reuters) – John Goihl, a hog nutritionist in Shakopee, Minnesota, knows a farmer in his state who lost 7,500 piglets just after they were born. In Sampson County, North Carolina, 12,000 of Henry Moore’s piglets died in three weeks. Some 30,000 piglets perished at John Prestage’s Oklahoma operation in the fall of 2013.

The killer stalking U.S. hog farms is known as PEDv, a malady that in less than a year has wiped out more than 10 percent of the nation’s pig population and helped send retail pork prices to record highs. The highly contagious Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus is puzzling scientists searching for its origins and its cure and leaving farmers devastated in ways that go beyond financial losses.
Continue reading “Killer Pig Virus Wipes Out More Than 10 Percent Of Nation’s Hogs, Causing Spike In Pork Prices”

Reuters – by Nick Macfie

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un urged the army to develop to ensure it wins any confrontation with the United States, the reclusive country’s news agency said on Sunday, a day after U.S. President Barack Obama warned the North of its military might.

Kim led a meeting of the Central Military Commission and “set forth important tasks for further developing the Korean People’s Army and ways to do so”, KCNA news agency said.   Continue reading “North Korea says army must develop to be able to beat U.S.”