Category Archives: Fail!

Federal withdrawal from private prisons won’t affect Tacoma immigration detention center — yet | The News Tribune

The Department of Justice is getting out of the private-prison business, but for the moment that won’t affect the largest privately operated detention facility in the state: the Northwest Detention Center on the Tacoma Tideflats.DOJ leaders announced Aug. 18 that they would not renew existing contracts with private prison operators, saying they provide lower quality service and are less safe than publicly run prisons. The decision followed an earlier inspector general’s report that found so-called “contract prisons” have poor safety records and high rates of assault between inmates and against staff.The decision didn’t affect the 1,575-bed detention center. Owned by the GEO Group, it operates under a recently renewed contract with a different federal agency: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). But the DOJ’s move is prompting members of Congress, including U.S. Rep. Adam Smith, to push for a similar withdrawal from the use of privately owned facilities such as the detention center.

Source: Federal withdrawal from private prisons won’t affect Tacoma immigration detention center — yet | The News Tribune

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Israeli soldiers routinely shoot heads of injured Palestinians, court told | The Electronic Intifada

 

“In terrorist incidents I witnessed, I saw with my own eyes that in every instance in which a terrorist attacked, soldiers shot him in the center of mass until he was neutralized … and [shot] a bullet to the head to ensure that the terrorist could not set off a suicide belt or continue the attack. These soldiers never went to court,” Liebman, the longtime civilian security chief for Jewish settlers in Hebron, told the court.“A ‘neutralized terrorist’ means: either he attempted to carry out an attack and was shot in the chest and killed and then shot in the head to make sure – as is taught in the IDF [Israeli army] according to the rules of opening fire – or it means that the terrorist was checked by a sapper and was cuffed by the hands and feet,” Liebman added.

Source: Israeli soldiers routinely shoot heads of injured Palestinians, court told | The Electronic Intifada

US first: E coli resistant to both colistin, carbapenems | CIDRAP

US researchers say they’ve identified a strain of Escherichia coli that is resistant to both colistin and carbapenem antibiotics in a US hospital patient.According to a study published today in the journal mBio, the strain was isolated from the urine of a 76-year-old male patient who was being treated for a urinary tract infection at a New Jersey hospital in 2014. Whole-genome sequencing of the isolate, performed this year, confirmed the presence of the MCR-1 and blaNDM-5 genes, which confer resistance to colistin and carbapenems, respectively. The strain was found to harbor resistance genes to several other antibiotics, as well.The finding confirms fears that were aroused when researchers in China first identified the colistin-resistance gene MCR-1 in E coli isolates from pigs, pork products, and humans in November 2015. Colistin is considered an antibiotic of last resort in humans, used mainly when bacterial infections won’t respond to other drugs.

Source: US first: E coli resistant to both colistin, carbapenems | CIDRAP

Airbag Propellant Bound for Takata Factory Detonates en Route – The New York Times – what’s in your airbags?

Lucila Robles was killed in her home by the explosion of a truck carrying airbag inflaters and propellant that crashed in front of the house. Credit The Eagle Pass News GramA woman was killed in her home and four other people were injured when a truck carrying Takata airbag parts and explosives crashed and detonated on a Texas road last week, the company and local authorities confirmed on Monday.The immense blast — the victim’s remains were not located for two days — highlighted the potency of the explosives used by Takata in its airbags as a propellent to activate its bags in a car crash. It also pointed to the risks associated with Takata’s transport of the explosives across the country from a propellant factory in Washington State to Mexico.Takata’s airbags, and the explosive material used to make them, are at the center of the largest auto safety recall in history. Takata airbags installed in automobiles can explode violently when activated, and have been linked to the deaths of at least 14 drivers as well as to the injuries of over 100 people. Fourteen automakers have recalled more than 64 million inflaters over the defect.The airbags use a propellant based on ammonium nitrate, which has come under scrutiny for its tendency to break down over time and combust violently when triggered.

Source: Airbag Propellant Bound for Takata Factory Detonates en Route – The New York Times

Israel Joins Bikini Fray, Ordering Concert Singer to Cover Up – The New York Times

 

“The ministry’s policy, led by the minister of culture, states that festivals and events which are funded by public money will honor the general public that attends the events, which includes all the various sectors and communities,” Sivan Carmon, a ministry spokeswoman, said in a statement.The ministry intervened after a concert in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv, on Friday took a surprise turn. Onstage was Hanna Goor, a singer known for her appearance on “A Star Is Born,” a long-running Israeli reality television program featuring new vocalists.As she performed, Ms. Goor was wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a bikini top and shorts when, she said, a man from the production company contracted by the state approached her and told her to cover up. She said she had refused, only to have the man threaten to kick her off the stage. She sang another song anyway, then noticed the production company official return with a security officer, at which point she left the stage to avoid a confrontation.Ms. Carmon, the culture ministry spokeswoman, said by telephone on Sunday that Ms. Goor’s attire was not appropriate for performing in front of the general public. Ms. Carmon denied that the singer had been forced offstage, but said that the program had been running late and that Ms. Goor’s time had been cut short by maybe one song.In an interview on Sunday, Ms. Goor said she was only trying to stay cool in the late summer heat, and was dressed no different from many watching from the beach.“It’s Friday noon,” she said. “Everything is so sunny, so hot, I was only thinking about how tolerable it would be onstage.”She said she was stunned by the objection to her clothing. “They made it such a big deal, and now there are new regulations they want to put on and force artists to be more modest,” she said. “It’s just not right. I’m against it, and I will speak my mind about it as much as I can. It’s very important for me to sing the way I want to sing and get up on stage dressed how I want to dress.”

Source: Israel Joins Bikini Fray, Ordering Concert Singer to Cover Up – The New York Times

Police investigate after mosque door is bricked shut – The Local

Police in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have opened an investigation after the 1 metre-high brick work was found in the doorway of the mosque, which is currently under construction, on the morning of August 26th, a police report states.According to broadcaster NDR, police are investigating two charges – one of property damage, the other of incitement of hatred.One of the flyers seen on a Facebook picture posted by the Parchim Refugee Network reads: “You call yourselves believers. We call you invaders.”Another is an alleged quote from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which reads: “The mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the believers our soldiers.”

Source: Police investigate after mosque door is bricked shut – The Local

Enough cruelty | In English | EL PAÍS

In the video, the poor animal, which is not even two years old, is stabbed with banderillas. It stumbles to the ground over and over, and is seen bleeding profusely until its death. The lack of moral fiber of the people who continue to applaud these anachronistic traditions, which are based on the exhibition of an intolerable level of sadism, is disturbing.There are more than 300 Spanish municipalities that hold becerradas each summer, but there are other cruel traditions that still pervade – the correbous, for example, which involves attaching sticks with flaming wax or fireworks to a bull’s horns.The footage from the fiestas in Valmojado has only served to put an old question back on the table: do we want to continue to be a place where people can, albeit for just a few hours, bring out the worst of what they carry inside themselves? The most upsetting part of the video in which the calf is being tortured is hearing the laughter of a group of children who are watching.How long will this go on for?

Source: Enough cruelty | In English | EL PAÍS

In firing human editors, Facebook has lost the fight against fake news | Technology | The Guardian

Zuckerberg insists that Facebook is a technology company and not a media company, building tools instead of creating content. However, as Facebook’s algorithm – which, after all, is built and maintained by human beings – decides which content people see in their news feeds, it is arguably irresponsible for the company to allow misinformation to spread unfettered when it is now so influential in the daily distribution of news.Advertisement“Machines think in black and white,” said Mandy Jenkins, head of news at Storyful, which specialises in verifying and distributing social news. “I don’t think verification can be automated yet. What something means to be real and verified is not black and white.“A judgement call has to happen. It’s about asking questions and seeing how a story adds up against other facts we know. What is the background of the source or site? Who is the person who wrote this story? Where does it come from? These are too many questions for a robot to answer on its own.”Trained humans with fact-checking and journalism skills, such as those fired from the company last Friday, aren’t 100% foolproof, but they can intervene to keep algorithmic wildfire at bay. Perhaps it’s time for Facebook to rehire them?

Source: In firing human editors, Facebook has lost the fight against fake news | Technology | The Guardian

Vivas o Muertas: How Immigrant Women Inside Berks are Fighting for Liberation

In an open letter addressed to Jeh Johnson, the women wrote that many of their children have contemplated suicide and all lack proper care within Berks. Faced with few options, the mothers have resorted to organizing as their only way out. They said they plan to leave the Pennsylvania family detention center either “vivas o muertas”—alive or dead.While organizing puts the families at risk for backlash, risk taking is not new for these women. These are 22 mothers who came from Central America escaping violence, corruption, the impacts of climate change, and United States intervention and occupation. Twenty-two mothers who put their bodies on the line more than once: providing for their families in Central America, immigrating to the United States, surviving each day in detention, and finally having no other choice but to refuse to eat. Twenty-two mothers who wanted what was best for their families. Twenty-two mothers who have been retraumatized each day by the country they hoped would protect them.  Twenty-two mothers who are fighters reminding us they have power despite being detained.The 22 women on hunger strike are putting everything on the line for the safety of their families. As they enter their third week, the women are rapidly losing weight. We have a duty to these families. We have a duty to share their stories, to take action, to show up in genuine ways, and take action to end all deportations.

Source: Vivas o Muertas: How Immigrant Women Inside Berks are Fighting for Liberation

Monday Open Thread | The Protests At Standing Rock | 3CHICSPOLITICO

 

Lawrence O’Donnell: From the start of colonial intrusion, the free and original peoples of this hemisphere “have been treated as enemies and dealt with more harshly than any other enemy in any other war.”While this in itself is not news, the source of this statement is. This quote comes not from an activist, a historian or a researcher squirreled away in an obscure academic corner, but from a high-profile commentator speaking on MSNBC.“After all our other wars we signed treaties and lived by those treaties,” noted Lawrence O’Donnell at the segment at the end of the August 25 edition of his nightly news show The Last Word. “After World War 2 we then did everything we possibly could to help rebuild Germany.”In other words, “no Native American tribe has ever been treated as well as we treated Germans after World War 2.”

Source: Monday Open Thread | The Protests At Standing Rock | 3CHICSPOLITICO