10 Warning Signs the Alzheimer’s Disease

1.Memory loss that disrupts daily life. One of the most common signs of Alzheimer’s is memory loss, especially forgetting recently learned information. Others include forgetting important dates or events; asking for the same information over and over; relying on memory aides (e.g., reminder notes or electronic devices) or family members for things they used to handle on their own.

What’s typical: Sometimes forgetting names or appointments, but remembering them later.

  2.Challenges in planning or solving problems. Some people may experience changes in their ability to develop and follow a plan or work with numbers. They may have trouble following a familiar recipe or keeping track of monthly bills. They may have difficulty concentrating and take much longer to do things than they did before.

What’s typical: Making occasional errors when balancing a checkbook.

  3.Difficulty completing familiar tasks at home, at work or at leisure. People with Alzheimer’s often find it hard to complete daily tasks. Sometimes, people may have trouble driving to a familiar location, managing a budget at work or remembering the rules of a favorite game.

What’s typical: Occasionally needing help to use the settings on a microwave or to record a television show.

  4.Confusion with time or place. People with Alzheimer’s can lose track of dates, seasons and the passage of time. They may have trouble understanding something if it is not happening immediately. Sometimes they may forget where they are or how they got there.

What’s typical: Getting confused about the day of the week but figuring it out later.

  5.Trouble understanding visual images and spatial relationships. For some people, having vision problems is a sign of Alzheimer’s. They may have difficulty reading, judging distance and determining color or contrast. In terms of perception, they may pass a mirror and think someone else is in the room. They may not realize they are the person in the mirror.

What’s typical: Vision changes related to cataracts.

  6.New problems with words in speaking or writing. People with Alzheimer’s may have trouble following or joining a conversation. They may stop in the middle of a conversation and have no idea how to continue or they may repeat themselves. They may struggle with vocabulary, have problems finding the right word or call things by the wrong name (e.g., calling a “watch” a “hand-clock”).

What’s typical: Sometimes having trouble finding the right word.

  7.Misplacing things and losing the ability to retrace steps. A person with Alzheimer’s disease may put things in unusual places. They may lose things and be unable to go back over their steps to find them again. Sometimes, they may accuse others of stealing. This may occur more frequently over time.

What’s typical: Misplacing things from time to time, such as a pair of glasses or the remote control.

8.Decreased or poor judgment. People with Alzheimer’s may experience changes in judgment or decision-making. For example, they may use poor judgment when dealing with money, giving large amounts to telemarketers. They may pay less attention to grooming or keeping themselves clean.

What’s typical: Making a bad decision once in a while.

  9.Withdrawal from work or social activities. A person with Alzheimer’s may start to remove themselves from hobbies, social activities, work projects or sports. They may have trouble keeping up with a favorite sports team or remembering how to complete a favorite hobby. They may also avoid being social because of the changes they have experienced.

What’s typical: Sometimes feeling weary of work, family and social obligations.

  10.Changes in mood and personality. The mood and personalities of people with Alzheimer’s can change. They can become confused, suspicious, depressed, fearful or anxious. They may be easily upset at home, at work, with friends or in places where they are out of their comfort zone.

What’s typical: Developing very specific ways of doing things and becoming irritable when a routine is disrupted

Black Men Don't Need a Guardian Angel. We Need Our Guardian Slave.

From 12 to 50 it's assumed we're packing, assumed that like the Hulk or zombies we possess superhuman, virtually unstoppable destructive power. So where an average citizen may disagree, even argue and berate a police officer, treating them as the public servant that they indeed are, a black man, if he wishes to continue living, must channel his ancestors. His slave ancestors. He needs to forget there is a black president and remember that the default position of cops, cop wannabes like George Zimmerman, and the population at large is to view him as a perpetual deadly threat.

Our slave ancestors understood this acutely. They understood that paddyrollers, the armed militias employed to ensure wandering slaves returned to their plantations, were all too willing to use lethal force. Every slave in the South knew to make no sudden movement, keep your head down, show your pass, mumble something deferential regardless of the inquisitor's uncivil tone and move along. That survivalist wisdom was passed along for generations as the role of the paddyroller was assumed more by local police officers than the Klan.

And I remembered that wisdom that was passed on to me by my grandfather and father every time I was followed by security guards through Toys R Us as a teenager in Hamden, CT, pulled over in my car in my twenties merely to check my ID in Palm Beach, FL, or stopped by a young cop to again show ID in my thirties in Santa Monica, CA.

Each time after the unreasonable stop I was left shaking and ashamed that I hadn't talked back, asserted my constitutional rights as an equal citizen under the law. But my inner guardian slave reminded me it wasn't worth it. That cop was armed with lethal force, a predisposition to see me as a threat, and a long-standing system behind him built to ensure that whatever he did to me would end without consequence.

In the 1970s, when I was first learning this lesson, the spilt blood of the Civil Rights movement was still fresh. Today, in a world of black presidents, electric cars and talking iPhones, it's so hard to convince young black men, like my 13-year-old son, that if a police officer merely perceives you are a lethal threat, he is explicitly allowed to shoot you dead. However, since the mere combination of your sex, race and age ensures that you are perceived as a threat, police officers are authorized to kill you Q.E.D.

So what I have to drill into him, since I want him to continue to live, is to listen to his Guardian Slave and be preternaturally polite and respectful no matter how ugly and unreasonable the policeman's demand.

Racism without racists’: White supremacy so deeply American that we don’t even see it

White supremacy is so deeply ingrained in American life that institutionalized racism doesn’t even need racists to persist.

Most Americans understand that racism is considered wrong, but many white people fail to see more subtle forms of racial prejudice that are more readily apparent to blacks and other minorities.

“The main problem nowadays is not the folks with the hoods, but the folks dressed in suits,” Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, a Duke University sociologist, told CNN. “The more we assume that the problem of racism is limited to the Klan, the birthers, the Tea Party or to the Republican Party, the less we understand that racial domination is a collective process and we are all in this game.”

Bonilla-Silva calls this “racism without racists,” which is also the title of his book on American white supremacy.

He told CNN that the discussion about the fatal shooting of Michael Brown and the grand jury’s decision not to charge Officer Darren Wilson shows a need for Americans to update their language on race.

Many whites like to claim they “don’t see color,” often pointing out that they don’t care whether a person’s skin is green or purple – colors not commonly associated with human beings.

But research shows that’s simply not true.

Babies show a preference for their own race by about 3 months old, according to the book Everyday Bias, and another study showed white NBA referees call more fouls on black players while black refs call more fouls on white players.

“Human beings are consistently, routinely and profoundly biased,” said the book’s author, Howard J. Ross.

Another study he highlights in the book asked participants to look at photographs of a fight between two white men – one armed with a knife and the other unarmed.

Then the researchers showed a photo of a white man armed with a knife fighting an unarmed black man.

Most participants correctly identified the white man holding the knife in the first photo, but the study found most people – black and white – incorrectly said the black man had the knife in the second photo.

“The overwhelming number of people will actually experience the black man as having the knife because we’re more open to the notion of the black man having a knife than a white man,” Ross told CNN. “This is one of the most insidious things about bias. People may absorb these things without knowing them.”

Another study found job seekers with white-sounding names, such as Brendan, were 50 percent more likely to get invited to interviews than applicants with black-sounding names, such as Jamal.

Most of the people who called Brendan instead of Jamal would probably deny their decision was racially motivated, said a UCLA researcher who has studied racial bias.

“They’re not lying — they’re just wrong,” said researcher Daniel L. Ames.

These unseen biases might even be more destructive than overt racism, he said.

“They’re harder to spot, and therefore harder to combat,” Ames said.

White supremacy is hiding in plain sight, but it still carries the power to shock — as Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson did when he leveled the charge against former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Racism carries such a stigma that it tends to end conversations, rather than start them, so it sometimes softens the blow by referring to racist behavior as racial bias.

But that can be problematic, said Crystal Moten, a history professor at Dickinson College.

“Do you want to lessen the blow or do you want to eradicate racism?” Moten said. “I want to eradicate racism. Yes, I want opportunity for dialogue, but the impact of racism is killing people of color. We don’t have time to tend to the emotional wounds of others, not when violence against people of color is the national status quo.”

No Indictment. White Supremacy gets one of the own off of a murder of a Black man

A grand jury has decided not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch announced Monday.

The Aug. 9 death of Brown, who was unarmed, sparked massive demonstrations in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson and a national conversation on race and law enforcement. Activists had predicted a new wave of demonstrations if Wilson was not indicted -- not only in Ferguson, but in the greater St. Louis region and in other cities across the country.

McCulloch's office had said he would release full transcripts of the grand jury proceedings if the panel decided not to indict the police officer. McCulloch's office took an unusual approach to the grand jury process by simply presenting the panel with all the evidence but not recommending any specific charges against Wilson.

Witnesses to Brown's shooting who have publicly spoken about their recollections largely told the same story about the events that led to his death.

It is well established that Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson were walking in the middle of a quiet residential street near the home of Brown's grandmother when Wilson confronted them shortly after noon on Saturday, Aug. 9. The witnesses who spoke publicly said there was an initial confrontation between Brown and Wilson through the window of his police SUV -- some said they thought Wilson was trying to pull Brown in, while Wilson has reportedly said that Brown reached for his weapon.

Wilson reportedly fired one shot out the window, and witnesses claim that Brown took off running. Wilson emerged from the vehicle, and Brown at some point turned around. Many witnesses who have spoken publicly said that Brown looked like he was trying to surrender and put his hands in the air as Wilson shot the final fatal rounds. Wilson reportedly contends that Brown was headed back toward him.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, reported that seven or eight witnesses largely backed up Wilson's account of the shooting in testimony before the grand jury. Those witnesses, like most of the people in Ferguson, are African-American.

When Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson released Wilson's name on Aug. 15, the police department simultaneously released a video that appeared to show Brown stealing cigars from a convenience store not long before the shooting and shoving a clerk when he was confronted. Jackson has since said that Wilson was not aware that Brown had been involved in any alleged robbery when the officer spotted him on the street.

Marijuana Industry Sets Its Sights On The Mainstream

Marijuana is growing up. As Colorado and Washington’s recreational marijuana industries blossom and new markets in Oregon and Alaska begin to take shape, so-called ganjapreneurs are looking for ways to take cannabis mainstream. Before long, they hope, marijuana products will be as widely available as alcohol -- and just as socially acceptable.

“Ideally, I would like to see the 21-to-35 year-old taking a four-pack of these to a barbecue,” Joe Hodas, chief marketing director for the marijuana product manufacturer Dixie, said earlier this year of the company's new watermelon cream-flavored "elixir," Dixie One. The drink contains five milligrams of THC -- just enough to produce a subtle buzz.

“This is a full experience in a bottle, much like beer," Hodas said. "Sometimes they’ll want a beer, sometimes they’ll want two or three beers. This sort of affords you that calibration."

Since starting in 2010, Colorado-based Dixie has developed a wide array of marijuana products, from THC-infused chocolates to concentrated cannabis for e-cigarettes. Many of its offerings are aimed at experienced marijuana users with high tolerances -- the company's top seller is a line of elixirs containing 75 milligrams of THC. Lower-dose products are proving increasingly popular, however.

“It’s been selling really surprisingly well,” Hodas told The Huffington Post recently of Dixie One. “In some of our stores, it had been outselling our 75 mg elixir. We were going to be happy if it sold decently well, but it was outselling in some cases. That said to us, we were correct, there is a market for that consumer.”

Encouraged by the success of Dixie One, the company is focusing on casual cannabis consumers. This week, Dixie released another low-dose product, a mint that releases THC directly into the bloodstream as it dissolves in the mouth.

“I think the low-dose consumer is an expansion demographic for us,” Hodas said. “It’s my belief that the core marijuana user is a small circle, and in a much larger surrounding circle is the casual user and a much larger market.”

At the moment, the recreational cannabis industry is limited to Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon. Marijuana advocates and business owners say it's only a matter of time before more states follow, bringing cannabis products like Dixie One to store shelves and backyard barbecues across America. More than 20 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, and this month voters in Washington, D.C., approved a referendum to legalize recreational use in the nation's capital.

Already, Colorado and Washington state illustrate how cannabis is shedding its stoner image and entering mainstream culture. Marijuana products have been featured prominently in gourmet dinners and in cooking seminars in both states. The drug has become a fashionable substance to offer as a celebratory toast at weddings. Yoga enthusiasts can seek zen at marijuana-fueled classes.

Earlier this year, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra held a “Classically Cannabis” fundraiser, where well-heeled attendees sipped drinks, shook hands and smoked pot from joints, vaporizers and glass pipes, while a brass quintet played Debussy, Bach, Wagner and Puccini.

"Cannabis is being elevated into the pantheon of refined and urbane inebriants, no different than boutique rye or fine wine," said Matt Gray, the publisher of a new gourmet marijuana cookbook.

A number of worrying episodes have accompanied the legal high, however. In March, a 19-year-old college student leapt to his death from a hotel balcony in Denver after eating marijuana-infused cookies. In April, police said a Denver man shot his wife to death after he said he had eaten marijuana candy and prescription pills.

Hospital officials in Colorado have said that they have been treating a growing number of adults and children who have consumed marijuana products, whose potency can be hard to judge.

State laws in Colorado and Washington already require a “serving” of THC in an edible marijuana product to be limited to 10 milligrams -- about the amount in a medium-sized joint. (The rules in Alaska and Oregon have not yet been set.) Some products, such as candy bars, may contain multiple servings, however, and package labels do not always include serving size or dosage information.

To address these issues, Colorado and Washington officials, and representatives of the cannabis industry, are finalizing new regulations that will require clearer labeling and childproof packaging. And, much like the alcohol industry encourages consumers to "drink responsibly," the makers of marijuana products are taking steps to educate customers and encourage responsible consumption.

“I think the idea of being proactive with our messaging -- being safe and responsible with our messaging -- we’re trying to do that now early on, versus being told to do that after the fact,” Hodas said.

“We are concerned about the uneducated consumer who may have a bad experience with edibles, because that means they may not use our products in the future," Hodas added. "So educating that consumer and making sure they know how to use them is of great importance to Dixie and the rest of the industry."

To that end, Dixie, like most marijuana product companies, has detailed information its website about how to enjoy its products. Marijuana Policy Project launched an educational campaign, aptly named ”Consume Responsibly,” with advice about preventing and responding to over-consumption or accidental consumption, as well as other detailed information about cannabis products, their effects and the laws that govern their possession, sale and use.

Recognizing that Colorado's marijuana laws are luring tourists to the state, the inaugural billboard for the campaign in Denver encouraged moderation and patience. “Don’t let a candy bar ruin your vacation," the sign read. "With edibles, start low and go slow.”

"We are aiming to boost the industry's image by removing negative stereotypes and stigmas, while promoting education surrounding the many uses of cannabis,” said Olivia Mannix, co-founder of Cannabrand, an ad agency representing marijuana-related businesses. “We feel that the public image of cannabis ultimately influences policy makers and is crucial for widespread legalization.”

Still, getting the message -- and brands -- in front of the public has been a challenge for marijuana companies. State laws ban advertisements on television or billboards that directly market marijuana products. Google, Facebook and Twitter refuse to accept marijuana advertising on their websites.

While marijuana businesses may have dreams of mass market sales and global domination, for the moment, they seem to be taking the "go slow" approach.

“The eyes of the world are on us right now, and how we handle that spotlight will go a long way in shaping public opinion about legal marijuana,” Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, told HuffPost. “Our businesses and our people are committed to building an industry we can be proud of. That means no shortcuts and none of the leeway that plenty of other industries out there get."

Her appeal to the marijuana industry is simple: “The future of this industry depends on the present -- don’t screw it up.”

Obama Defends Immigration Executive Order

President Barack Obama is shrugging off Republican criticism of his actions to lift the threat of deportation from millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States.

In an interview broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week," Obama said it was important that he act unilaterally to prioritize the deportation of criminals and recent arrivals and spare those who have lived here illegally for at least five years and have roots, including children who are American citizens.

"Why we would prefer a system in which they're in the shadows, potentially taking advantage of living here but not contributing?" Obama said in the interview, which was taped Friday in Las Vegas after Obama delivered an immigration speech there.

The president pointed to executive orders issued by Democratic and Republican predecessors and said presidents exercise "prosecutorial discretion all the time."

Obama's executive actions, which he announced Thursday, have drawn a withering response from Republicans, but also has laid bare divisions within the GOP over how to deal with immigration.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rejected Obama's claim of prosecutorial discretion. "Essentially he's gotten in the job of counterfeiting immigration papers, because there's no legal authority to do what he's doing," Cruz said on "Fox News Sunday."

A second Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said his party shares the blame for failing to get an immigration bill through the House of Representatives.

"Shame on us as Republicans for having a body that cannot generate a solution to an issue that is national security, it's cultural and it's economic. The Senate has done this three times," Graham said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Indeed, Obama cast his decision as the result of the Republican-led House's failure to act on a comprehensive immigration bill the Senate passed with bipartisan support in June 2013, or advance legislation of its own.

He said Republicans still could pass an immigration bill.

Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, said he had pressed the Republican leadership to start passing legislation two weeks ago on the immigration issue.

"We are going to pass legislation, but it is not going to be the legislation the president is asking for," Labrador said. "We as Republicans don't believe you should give amnesty first and talk about security later, which is what the Senate bill did." Labrador spoke on "Face the Nation" on CBS.

Obama spent the weekend in Nevada, mostly playing golf, after the speech and returned to the White House on Sunday evening.

Boy Shot Dead By Cleveland Police Did Not Point Replica Gun At Officer

 A Cleveland officer was less than 10 feet away when he fatally shot a 12-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun near a playground, and video of the shooting is clear about what happened, police said Monday.

The boy was confronted Saturday by officers responding to a 911 call about a male who appeared to be pulling a gun in and out of his pants.

The 911 caller said the gun was "probably fake," then added, "I don't know if it's real or not." Deputy Chief Edward Tomba said Monday that he didn't know whether a dispatcher shared that information with responding officers.

The president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association has said the officers weren't told the caller thought the gun might be fake.

Police say Tamir Rice, who died Sunday, had an "airsoft" gun that appeared indistinguishable from a real firearm. Airsoft guns fire spherical plastic pellets and have orange tips to show they aren't real firearms, but police said the one the boy had didn't have the bright safety indicator.

Authorities said the boy was told to raise his hands and was shot when he pulled the pellet gun from his waistband, though he hadn't pointed it at police or made verbal threats.

"Our officers at times are required to make critical decisions in a split second," Chief Calvin Williams said. "Unfortunately this is one of those times."

Tomba said surveillance video of the shooting is "very clear" about what occurred, but he wouldn't discuss details of what it shows.

People representing the boy's family viewed the video Monday, but police didn't release it publicly because it is considered evidence and because they want to be sensitive to the family, the community and the officer, who is distraught, officials said.

The shooting has led to an investigation of the officer's use of force. It also contributed to a state lawmaker's plan to propose legislation requiring all BB guns, air rifles and airsoft guns sold in Ohio to be brightly colored or have prominent fluorescent strips.

Once the investigation is complete, the case will be presented to a grand jury to decide whether any criminal charges should be brought, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said.

The two officers involved in the shooting were put on administrative leave under standard procedure. Police haven't publicly identified them.

Candles and teddy bears were left Monday at a gazebo near the playground. At a home less than a block away, a man identifying himself as Tamir's uncle said the boy's family wasn't commenting and referred reporters to an attorney.

The Associated Press left a message for the attorney, Timothy Kucharski, on Monday. He said previously that Tamir went to the park with friends Saturday afternoon, but he didn't know the details of what led to the shooting and wanted to get more facts and talk to witnesses himself.

The Cleveland case is similar to one last year in northern California.

In that case, prosecutors didn't file criminal charges against a sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a 13-year-old boy carrying a pellet gun the officer mistook for an assault rifle. The Santa Rosa boy's parents were outraged by the decision.

In Cleveland, Mayor Frank Jackson said investigators and other officials are trying to be as transparent as possible to ensure the public can trust the outcome.

Asked at a news conference to comment about the shooting with the context of the then-pending grand jury decision about the police-involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, Jackson replied: "Whether there was Ferguson down there or not doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is that it happened in Cleveland, and it happened to a child."

Cleveland's website was hacked amid the investigation. The city couldn't confirm who shut down the site and didn't receive direct information about that, but officials were aware of a YouTube video purporting to be from the hacker collective Anonymous that references website shutdowns and the shooting, city spokesman Daniel Ball said. He said extra security measures are being added before the website is restored.

Ferguson Grand Jury Reaches Decision: Reports

The grand jury deliberating whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown has reached a decision, CNN and The Washington Post report.

Both outlets reported that the St. Louis County prosecutor's office is planning to address the decision in a press conference later Monday.

Wilson fatally shot Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in the St. Louis suburb on Aug. 9, prompting months of protests. Demonstrations have again picked up as the nation awaits the grand jury's decision. The Huffington Post's Ryan J. Reilly reported from Ferguson on Sunday:

Police officers arrested a journalist during peaceful protests in Ferguson on Saturday night, amid widespread speculation that tensions could boil over in advance of a grand jury's ruling about the police officer who shot Michael Brown in August.

That arrest marred what was otherwise a professional and noncontroversial police response to demonstrations under the temporary leadership of Lt. Jerry Lohr of the St. Louis County Police Department. The department is sending officers to manage the police response to the protests on a rotational basis, and Lohr was on duty Saturday night. Lohr has been commended for regularly engaging in conversations with protesters gathered outside the Ferguson Police Department and for de-escalating situations that would likely have resulted in an aggressive police response on other nights.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard last week in anticipation of unrest following the grand jury's decision. The FBI also sent approximately 100 agents to the area.

MSNBC reports that Nixon is set to meet with clergy in St. Louis at 4 p.m. ET Monday.

In an interview with ABC News last week, President Barack Obama urged protesters to remain peaceful regardless of the grand jury's decision.

"This is a country that allows everybody to express their views," Obama said. "But using any event as an excuse for violence is contrary to rule of law and contrary to who we are."

‘Cursed’ child abandoned by parents now thrives thanks to kind Richmond woman

RICHMOND, Va. — Ten-year-old Saule Sadykova is curious bundle of energy with a sunny disposition. She is a long way from a dark place she once called home. Saule’s parents thought she was cursed and abandoned her at birth because of her disabilities.

Saule’s parents thought she was cursed and abandoned her at birth because of her disabilities.

 

Virginia native Vicki Charbonneau knew otherwise. She befriended Saule at an orphanage in Kazakhstan.

“Just cute as a button. There was a spark in her,” Charbonneau recalled.

Charbonneau visited the former Communist country with fellow members of her church in 2000. Five years ago, she moved there and opened J127 Ranch with a friend.

 

Their mission — to help children and single mothers by providing shelter, spiritual guidance and a sense of self-worth.

“I saw the desperation with the kids.”“Caring for kids. Marginalized kids is what I do. Every life is precious,” Charbonneau said. “I’m not good at fundraising. I’m not good at a lot of things, but I am good at loving kids. I saw the desperation with the kids. They didn’t have any chances.”

The woman who never liked to travel, followed her heart to a foreign land. It was a decision that would change the course of many lives.

“I’ll do anything I can for them,” she said. “I get more joys and blessings than I can express.”

In July, Vicki raised enough money to fly Saule and her foster parents to Richmond where surgeons at Chippenham Hospital awaited. Those doctors volunteered their services to mend the little girl on the outside and in.

“It has been an awesome experience getting to know her and her family,” Dr. Christopher Kim said. “If we can help. If it is in our power there is no reason why we shouldn’t jump in.”

“She looks great every day. It is very functional. She should do great from here on out,” Dr. Darrin Hubert added. “You just can’t quantify it. It is just so fantastic. It reminds us of why we do these things.”

With her cleft lip and eye repaired and new prosthetic leg, Saule has enjoyed the simple pleasures like jumping.

“I’m riding. I’m jumping. I’m horse riding. I’m playing. I’m swimming,” a beaming Saule said.

In days Vicki will return to Kazakhstan to continue her mission.

“I might not have much in my checking account. But I am one of the richest women around.”“I’m 53 years old. I can’t imagine a better life,” Vicki said. “I might not have much in my checking account. But I am one of the richest women around I think.”

Saule will be with Vicki on the long trip half way around the world. The little girl who was once abandoned will carry with her a new perspective on life.

Ebola survivor quarantined after semen tests positive for virus

Medecins Sans Frontiers, or Doctors Without Borders, work inside the high risk zone of its Ebola treatment center in Monrovia, Liberia.

NEW DELHI, India– An Ebola survivor has been quarantined in India after his semen tested positive for the virus, health officials there have announced.

The 26-year-old man, an Indian national, traveled to New Delhi from Liberia on November 10, almost two months after he was hospitalized in the West African nation after showing symptoms of the illness, India’s health ministry said in a statement.

He was released from the Liberian hospital on September 30 with documents declaring him free of clinical signs linked to Ebola, the ministry added.

As a precautionary measure, Indian authorities carried out tests on his body fluids, which confirmed traces of the virus in his semen, the statement said.

“Currently, this person is not having any symptoms of the disease. However, he would be kept under isolation in the special health facility of (the) Delhi Airport Health Organization, till such time his body fluids test negative and he is found medically fit to be discharged,” it said.

Passenger surveillance

In the wake of the first detection of the deadly virus in India, the country’s health minister, J.P. Nadda, held talks with top officials from various departments, the government said.

The minister advised strengthening passenger surveillance at the country’s airports and seaports, the government said. He also ordered expert teams to visit states and report back to him on preparedness to deal with the virus, it added.

India’s health ministry, however, urged calm. “The situation is under control and there is no need for any alarm. However, all precautions are being taken in this regard,” it said in its statement.

According to the ministry and doctors, patients whose blood samples test negative for Ebola after treatment continue to shed the virus in their body fluids, such as urine and semen, for variable periods. A survivor with infected semen can transmit the disease to his sexual partners, they say.

“There is no cure that actually kills the virus,” explained Naresh Trehan, chairman and managing director of Medanta The Medicity hospital near New Delhi. Patients, he said, are treated with supportive care.

Experimental vaccines and treatments for Ebola are under development, but they have not yet been fully tested for safety or effectiveness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Healthcare providers, Trehan emphasized, must adhere to standard safety protocols while attending to Ebola patients and survivors carrying the virus in their body fluids.

India’s preparations

India has screened thousands of passengers arriving from the Ebola-hit countries since the outbreak of the disease in West Africa.

“This is like a dress-rehearsal for India, and while we are already in the mode of preparation, this case will help us galvanize into action,” said Hemant Thacker, a consultant physician and cardio-metabolic specialist at Mumbai’s Bhatia Hospital.

“I believe we are theoretically prepared because we have learned the lessons from the West. That, however, doesn’t mean that our medical authorities become complacent,” he cautioned

Convicted Chesterfield child predator free on bond pending February sentencing

CBS-6 legal expert Todd Stone said that allowing a newly convicted felon to remain free pending sentencing is up to the judge’s discretion.

But he says it’s unusual after a conviction that involves preying on children.

Former Chesterfield Baseball Club coach Robert Dodd  won  acquittals on two prior sex charges, which involved an intoxicated teenage girl.

This week he faced  nine other charges of sodomy, indecent liberties with a minor while in a custodial or supervisory role and aggravated sexual battery.

Wednesday afternoon a jury of 11 women and one man found him guilty of all counts and recommended Dodd serve 99 years in prison.  What’s surprising to some of our viewers though, is the judge granted Dodd bond until his formal sentencing in February.

“The charges to begin with are considered violent in nature,” said Stone.  “So there’s a presumption against bond even at the outset of all this. Once you’re found guilty though, a judge normally remands custody to the sheriff because the flight risk goes up dramatically.”

Some of those who’ve accused Dodd in the past were friends of Dodd’s stepson and on the same baseball team.

Bill Harding, who used to coach Pony League himself, says this case throws a change-up as far as the public trust.

“It’s devastating,” said Harding.  “The whole situation is sad. I feel terrible for the children involved and for the guys and ladies out here coaching youth sports on a predominately volunteer basis. You hate to see it because they are mentors trying to help.”

Dodd will have to report to a probation officer, has an 8 p.m. curfew, and cannot have contact with anyone under the age of 18.

Do Women Molest Children More Than Men?

We have seen an era where sex abuse allegations against women have been ignored or ridiculed. Yet, we begin to see that women may not only molest children as much as men, but even more than men. If women commit 3/4 of all child abuse and neglect, murder 2/3 of all children killed, why is it that popular cultural theory of women as abusers can not accept that women commit more than 1% to 5% of the sexual abuse. A well reviewed nationwide study of youth guards by the U.S. D.O.J. turns that number upside down.

“What’s shocking, is that 34% of the molestations were homosexual.” The DCFS information shows that 69% of sexual abuse by mothers was of their foster or subsidized-adoptive daughters. In contrast, 14% of the sexual abuse by fathers was of their foster or subsidized-adoptive sons.

Feminism has sold the Western World on the most improbable of concepts that women commit sex offenses only because they are forced to by some man or that some man has exerted some as yet defined ‘mind control’ over perfectly sane and intelligent women to commit atrocious acts against children. Neither of those myths has any base in reality when the mass of child molestations by women is reviewed.

I was one of the duped and unable to comprehend and accept that women molested. I now know I was wrong. If women abuse children three to four times more often than men and murder children at three times the rate that men murder children, then what inhibition or un-crossable boundary exists for women to NOT molest children? This information on child abuse can be found at a Federal Government website. Since the feds continue to play with their web addresses, you can Google: U.S. Dept of H&HS Child Abuse Statistics by Perpetrator.

Personal involvement in one family case where there was testimony and personal interviews of a generational group of women who preyed upon their daughters and occasionally sons, for five generations, used false allegations of abuse against husbands or boyfriends after those men fell out of favor.

The wall of silence protecting female molesters of innocent children is beginning to fall. The volume of data is becoming overwhelming to the nay sayers. At times the data is a surprise and incidental to the core study, such as a national study on the treatment of juveniles in facilities across the country, discussed in other areas of this paper.

The feminist movement has been central in fighting to keep the reality of female paedophiles under wraps. In the following video Michelle Elliot, Author and Director of “Kidscape” a U.K.charity that assists those who have been sexually abused, addresses the prevalence of female molesters and rapists of children as well as the well organized efforts to silence any public discussion of women as sexual predators of children.

We are seeing any number of online organizations working to overcome the culture blind spot when it comes to women abusing our most innocent citizens, children. Here is one such bibliography available for those who are beginning to inquire: http://www.female-offenders.com/Safehouse/

We are now hearing from professionals over the self-interested clamor of the extreme feminists in the media that women molest for the same reason as men and are probably more prevalent than male offenders only because the women offenders are not taken off the streets.   Children’s outcries are ignored by police, Children’s Services, and courts. Our very culture has become so gynocentric as to make it beyond the conceptualization of many in law enforcement, children’s protective services, the judiciary, and correctional systems.

The same group that has provided the bibliography of current studies, also, provides a bibliography of the study of women predators that is continually growing as others provide new studies. This comprehensive bibliography is by year and begins with it’s oldest study from 1857: http://www.female-offenders.com/Safehouse/bibliography-by-year .

In the vein of the feminist canard that alleged abusers of women also abuse their pets, it seems that not even the pets are safe from some women.   An Oklahoma woman admitted to police that she had sex with her cat.

It is a widely known fact that children in single mother homes are more likely and more susceptible to molestation.   Many of these women pedophiles, as with the male molesters, prey upon the sad, lonely, and confused children of single mothers.   I call this the ‘Sandusky Method’ in dishonor of the football coach who horrifically abused so many young boys.

There are many commonalities of female child sex predators that mimic those who are male. There are studies that indicate women who engage in homosexual activity may be inordinately more highly represented as predators of children than heterosexual women. “These new Illinois findings also suggest that a child’s risk of being molested is considerably higher when their parent engages in homosexuality,” This is taken from a study that can be found at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1354249/posts which was done by the Illinois Dept. of Children’s Services and reported in 2005. The study showed that women molested their foster daughters at much higher rates than men who molested their foster sons. Only 2% of the population is categorized as homosexual based upon their sexual activities yet constitute between 20% in one study to upwards of 75% in studies of sex criminals incarcerated in State facilities.

A conservative website is maintaining a list of convicted female predators at http://www.wnd.com/2012/11/39783/. The Huff Post Live recently did a very informative and inciteful piece on the topic of male victims of women predators at http://live.huffingtonpost.com/#r/segment/female-sex-offenders/50b3e38002a76052c60000c8

Just within the past year, 2011, another study was released by the D.O.J  on the 2008-2009 reporting period showing that children incarcerated in juvenile facilities were sexually molested by women slightly more than 95% of the time while male staff accounted for only 4.6% of the sexual molestation of the minors incarcerated who reported sexual abuse. The study is in pdf format and can be downloaded from http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry09.pdf . (This website address has changed at least three times since this story was originally published and this latest location for this information was updated April, 2013)

The higHlights of this study of sexual abuse in all states in this National Study of Youth Detention Centers are:

“This report presents findings from the first National Survey of

Youth in Custody (NSYC), representing approximately 26,550

adjudicated youth held nationwide in state operated and large

locally or privately operated juvenile facilities. Overall, 91% of

youth in these facilities were male; 9% were female.

• Approximately 95% of all youth reporting staff sexual misconduct

said they had been victimized by female staff. In 2008,

42% of staff in state juvenile facilities were female.

• Thirteen facilities were identified as “high rate” based on the

lower bound of the 95%-confidence interval of at least 35%

higher than the average rate among facilities by type of consent.

Six facilities had victimization rates of 30% or more; 4

had rates between 25% and 30%; and 3 had rates between 20%

and 25%.

• Rates of reported sexual victimization varied among youth:

- 10.8% of males and 4.7% of females reported sexual

activity with facility staff.”

If women constitute only 42% of the staff of these facilities as stated further in this report, yet commit 95% of the sexual abuse, coast to coast, in these facilities, then we have a very frightening scenario for our nations children. I will repeat this question again, “If women committ 3/4 of all child abuse and neglect, murder 2/3 of all children killed, why is it that popular cultural theory of women as abusers can not accept that women commit more than 1% to 5% of the sexual abuse. The nationwide study of youth guards turns that number upside down.

Over the past 20 years since I began to hear of a multi-generational female on female incest from my ex wife in regards to her family.  In those 20 years of attempting to protect my child, I was in the courthouses more and more and began to observe incidental cases involving both women and men molesters.   The men were pilloried with long sentences.  The women, when judges did not dismiss the cases outright,  invariably got suspended sentences or probation .

I have begun to ask mental health professionals, children’s services investigators, and law enforcement about the numbers of people complaining of sexual abuse of children by females. I have heard any number dismiss my questions as saying there must have been some other agenda and they did not believe any of the allegations they had heard of women molesting. On the other hand almost all of the numerous counselors and psychologists questioned stated that they heard more legitimate adult outcries, long after statutes of limitations had run, of people who had been molested by women over the number claimed molested by men. Initially, I, too, was disbelieving of this. I saw my ex’s family as aberrant and way outside the norm even for incestuous families. Of note, the ones who claimed women never molested were either with the Children’s Protective Services or were self admitted extreme feminists who espoused the concept that a woman’s feeling had more substance than fact, even video taped fact. This attitude of accepting a woman’s feelings over the rights and due process of any she accuses is indeed a very slippery slope.

Melissa Mcbee – Convicted Pedophile

Child molestation is an aberration, sick, and criminal. Yet we have these abusers among us.

We have made it profitable with bounty money to prosecutors for each prosecution of a man for child molestation, but not for women. This can skew conviction rates dramatically. It then makes for sensational press. But, it hides half the three quarters of the problem, women predators, and incarcerates many innocent men. The bounty money on men, only, is special grant funding provided through the Department of Justice’s Office of Women. This bounty money is funded through VAWA. It is similar to the old bounty on Indian scalps paid by various local and state governments where even blonde and red headed children’s scalps were turned in and paid. Clearly not Native American Scalps. The same destruction of the innocent is happening with the DOJ grants.

The DOJ pays the same to the prosecutor’s office for a plea bargain with a father who has just had all of his assets frozen or handed over to a soon to be ex in divorce and is unable to pay for a criminal attorney after scraping up his last change for a divorce attorney. These innocent fathers are forced to plea bargain for their liberty. Not only does the woman win all assets and money in this ploy, but she gets the children and the father is lucky to get a couple of hours a month with his own children, if he ever gets to see them at all. Additional incentive for women to help build statistics against men, but mainly fathers is the large cash awards paid to mothers for their claims their childiren were molested or abused, up to $35,000. and then the mother gets an award of up to $25,000 in Witness Assistance funds. The net received for the mother, $60,0000.; full ownership of the children and all property, money, assets, and businesses of the husband and family. The father, even with a plea bargain, loses children, home, future (convicted of either DV or SA of children eliminates most better paying jobs), and future income.

Judges are much more lenient to women than men.  In Pennsylvania a judge reduced a woman’s sentence for child molestation dramatically because the woman claimed she could not control her sexual urges, did this judge release her on her guarantee she would offend again?   What would happen to a man with the same type admission?    Here is an excerpt of that article from the New York Daily News:

– In May, former schoolteacher Kathleen Cawthorne, 33, of Rustburg, Va., successfully negotiated a reduction in her 11-year sentence for having sex with an underage student. Cawthorne’s punishment was set at only four months in prison when she presented the judge with a clinical diagnosis of “hypersexuality,” supposedly showing that she had little ability to control her desire to seduce the boy. [New York Daily News, 5-24-2013]

Cathleen Cawthorn

Convicted Pedophile

Victims Assistance and Witness Assistance programs give large cash bounties to women who claim they or their children were sexually abused. This money is not recovered if the woman recants or the allegation is proven false. Neither is the woman prosecuted for perjury. It is free money with a “Go Home without Going to Jail” pass card. If we want to minimize child sexual abuse, we are going to have to raise public awareness and we are going to have to insist on equal prosecution and sentencing. The best examples are the Duke LaCrosse accuser and Kobe Bryant’s accuser. The two women received Victims Assistance Funds and were not required to repay after recanting.

Even with billions of dollars in VAWA funding, the percentage of child abuse confirmed as being committed by women, continues to be multipliers of what men do, even with the extreme efforts to falsely skew the results.

A private foundation has been tracking the women school teachers who have been convicted of molesting children and provides a list of hundreds with a short synopsis of the sex offenses for which they were caught and convicted.   How many more did just this one list of women molest and destroy.    Children molested by women have the same prognosis, sometimes worse, then those molested by men.  The prognosis is worse because the victims of women are most frequently not believed.

Marla Haskins – Pedophile

A Mayo Clinic research paper, in part, discusses this inequality of reporting,  prosecutions, and convictions as contributing to the disparity of convictions upon which the studies numbers were based.

“In general, most individuals who engage in pedophilia or paraphilias are male.2-7,9,10 There was a time when it was believed that females could not be pedophiles because of their lack of long-term sexual urges unless they had a primary psychotic disorder.4,22 When women were studied for sexually inappropriate behavior directed toward children, these behaviors were classified as “sexual abuse” or “molestation” but not pedophilia.6,7,27 From federal data on sexual crimes, females were reported to be the “molester” in 6% of all juvenile cases.2 The study by Abel and Harlow of 4007 “child molesters” found 1% to be female, but the authors believed this number was low because of the systematic underreporting of women for molestation.15,27 One reason why acts of pedophilia committed by women are underreported is that many acts are not recognized because they occur during the course of regular “nurturing or care-giving activities,” such as when bathing and dressing children.22,27 Another reason is that when adult women engage in sexual acts with adolescent boys, others do not perceive this activity as abuse but rather a fortunate rite of passage.27 The law sees it otherwise.”

Pedophilic women tend to be young (22-33 years old); have poor coping skills; may meet criteria for the presence of a psychiatric disorder, particularly depression or substance abuse; and frequently also meet criteria for being personality disordered (antisocial, borderline, narcissistic, dependent)27 (Table 1). In incidents in which women are identified as being involved in sexually inappropriate acts with children, there is an increased chance of a male pedophile being involved as well.7 When a male co-offender is involved, usually more than 1 child is involved. Molested children tend to be both male and female and are more likely to be related to the offender. In these cases, the female offender is also likely to have committed a nonsexual offense and a sexual offense.28 Cases that involve a male codefendant rightfully or wrongfully often do not result in the woman being charged.27 Unless specifically stated, the rest of this article deals with male pedophiles because most studies are based on male offenders.”

Research Brief No. 7, January 2008 “Protectors or Perpetrators?” which can be found at http://www.americanvalues.org/pdfs/researchbrief7.pdf , addresses many of the commonalites found where abuse of children is present in elevated numbers.   It clearly identifies mothers and their boyfriends and current husbands as the abusers of children in two thirds of the documented cases.

This research brief states:

“One study by David Finkelhor of the University of New Hampshire and his colleagues found that “children currently living in single parent and stepfamilies had significantly greater lifetime exposure than those living with two biological or adoptive parents” to five different forms of victimization—sexual assault, child maltreatment, assault by peers or siblings, being a victim of a crime, or witnessing violence.14 Other studies have found that children are markedly more likely to be killed or sexually abused by stepfathers, compared to children living in an intact, married household.

Information is beginning to surface that would dramatically change the perceptions of professionals on the numbers of women pedophiles.  It is possible women match or outnumber the male pedophiles in numbers so astounding as to be incredulous to the previously un-informed.   We should be asking these questions more in our research and surveys.  It is amazing, considering the PC gender pressures, that any of the studies mentioned above received any funding or approval for publishing.”

Yet, the statistics are skewed against biological fathers when the CPS reports include men other than the biological father as ‘fathers’ then hides the information that ‘father’ unlike mother, is not a bio-parent label but the ‘male-like’ figure in the house when the abuse occurs.   I first located this aberration in the statistics about 2003 and reported it to several organizations devoted to accuracy in government reporting and accuracy in reporting family related statistics. The inclusion of stepfathers was designed to intentionally misrepresent the safety of children with their biological father.   The brief “Protectors or Perpetrators?” also documents and addresses this fact.  “(Sic) Federal data derived from CPS reports in 2005 indicate that mothers were involved in 64 percent of child maltreatment cases, whereas fathers (including stepfathers and other ‘father-like’ figures) were involved in 36.7 percent of such cases”. 

Later in this same research brief, the stepfather vs father issue is addressed further “Other studies have found that children are markedly more likely to be killed or sexually abused by stepfathers, compared to children living in an intact, married household.”

The data is overwhelming.  Children are safest with their biological fathers and most in danger in a single mother’s home from direct abuse by the mother, including sexual abuse.

It is, also, quite evident that the safety of children with fathers is an ideologically uncomfortable subject and a target for misrepresentation.   The data on biological fathers as abusers is dramatically pumped up by including one of the larger categories of abusers, stepfathers, in the mis-labeled ‘Fathers’ classification.   More could be written about other pumping up of ‘Father Abuse’ statistics when they were defined as ‘Father-like’ which included such diverse categories as any masculine acting figure in the presence of the child in a ‘relationship’ with the mother.  This included boyfriends, paying johns, and lesbian lovers as ‘Father’ figures to the children.  The real data on just how safe children are with their biological father is still hidden.  But even pumped up with inclusion of “stepfathers’,  biological fathers are clearly the safest person for children to live.  And, when the biological father is present, the sexual abuse of abusive mothers and the strange men a single woman will offer her children up to are kept at bay

The damage done by a woman pedophile to a child is just as devastating to children as that done by a male. Maybe, it is even more damaging, because many find it humorous and deny the molested male child any support or assistance. A recent statistic from a group called Male Survivors states that 1 in 6 men was molested as a child by either male or female predators. Where is the help for male victims that is made availabe for female victims? And, why are we allowing any of our children to be ‘free bait’ to women?

Local women, including teens, targeted with sex propositions on Facebook

A warning from local women, who have been getting disturbing messages on Facebook.
Dozens of women  have been comparing messages they’ve received in the past week from a stranger, via social media.

Several of the messages going to teenagers. It started when one woman posted a warning on several social media sites,  concerning a message she had gotten from a man.

After her initial post, dozens began to reply, and said they had gotten similar messages and in some cases, similar propositions.

Several police departments are now aware of what has transpired over the last week.

One 17-year-old said she knew immediately that the offer to make extra money for Christmas, was not something she wanted anything to do with and she quickly told her mother.

“This guys a pervert,” said Kim Bear, who immediately told her teenage daughter to ignore the post and to not respond to it. “I’m very concerned about this particular guy, what he’s done, what he’s capable to doing,”she added.

Jackie Bowles, a mother of three, said she ignored the message until she saw the other women’s posts about their strange messages.

“I am concerned about it, because he’s messaged a wide variety, from here, Chester, Colonial Heights, Petersburg and he’s seemed sorta anxious and desperate, that he may act on it,” Bowles said.

Hackers attacked the U.S. energy grid 79 times this year

 The nation’s energy grid is constantly under attack by hackers.

In fiscal year 2014, there were 79 hacking incidents at energy companies that were investigated by the Computer Emergency Readiness Team, a division of the Department of Homeland Security. There were 145 incidents the previous year.

The outermost defenses aren’t holding up. Between April 2013 and 2014, hackers managed to break into 37% of energy companies, according to a survey by ThreatTrack Security.

Cybersecurity firm FireEye identified nearly 50 types of malware that specifically target energy companies in 2013 alone, according to its annual report. Energy firms get hit with more spy malware than other industries, according to a 2014 study by Verizon.

In March, TrustedSec discovered spy malware in the software that a major U.S. energy provider uses to operate dozens of turbines, controllers and other industrial machinery. It had been there for a year — all because one employee clicked on a bad link in an email.

And just last month, CERT revealed that a Russian malware called BlackEnergy had found its way onto the software that controls electrical turbines in the United States.

Investigators didn’t see any attempts to damage or disrupt machines. But the malware gives hackers a backdoor to plant destructive code in the future.

So far, no computer virus has shut down any portion of the grid. But hackers are still breaking in, giving them the potential to flip switches off.

“Our grid is definitely vulnerable,” said David Kennedy, TrustedSec’s CEO. “The energy industry is pretty far behind most other industries when it comes to security best practices and maintaining systems.”

No utility provider contacted by CNNMoney was willing to comment.

Why are energy companies so vulnerable? One reason is that these industrial systems rely on 1970s-era technology. It doesn’t get upgraded, because doing so would interrupt service, Kennedy said.

At a power grid security conference in San Antonio, Texas in October, NSA director Admiral Mike Rogers told energy companies the power infrastructure just wasn’t designed to stand up to today’s attacks.

“Power… is one of the segments that concerns me the most,” he said, according to a transcript obtained by CNNMoney.

So serious are the implications that DHS and FBI are now touring 12 American cities, hosting classified meetings with energy providers and utility companies to brief them on the danger.

So, why haven’t hackers been able to turn off the lights yet?

Energy companies do take precautions. They have cybersecurity teams, and they separate their Internet-connected corporate computers from the stations that control critical machines. Firewalls and passwords help.

And energy companies use so many different types of machines that taking out a city’s power would take a calculated, coordinated effort by an army of hackers.

David Whitehead is a research executive at Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, which builds devices that monitor electrical current. He said it’s easier to cause damage by shooting at power transformers with rifles — like snipers did last year in Silicon Valley.

Storms also currently pose a more potent threat of power outages than hackers.

“There’s all this doom and gloom about how fragile the grid is. But what do we have to fear in terms of power disruption? It’s not a terrorist attack,” Whitehead said. “It’s mother nature.”

HDL president acknowledges difficulties for families after cutting 132 jobs

RICHMOND, Va. — Richmond-based Health Diagnostic Laboratory (HDL) announced Tuesday it would cut 132 jobs as it made an effort to return to its “core mission” of “fighting cardiovascular disease and diabetes with innovative cutting-edge, advanced laboratory testing that can lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.”

“In recent years, HDL, Inc. had become involved in a number of non-core business interests that required significant time, attention and resources,” President and CEO of Health Diagnostic Laboratory Inc. Joe McConnell said in a statement. “The need to reallocate our resources to return to our core mission is what led to the reduction in force.”

HDL said the 132 job cuts equaled about 15 percent of its nationwide workforce.

With nearly 700 full-time employees, Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Inc. was listed among the top 50 employers in Central Virginia by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

“We deeply regret the business necessity that made this reduction in force necessary and we are all mindful that this will pose difficulties and challenges for our former colleagues and their families,” McConnell said. “At the same time, these necessary changes provide us with the opportunity to re-energize our company.”

It has been a tumultuous few months for the company known for being one of Richmond’s fastest growing businesses.

Former Health Diagnostic Laboratory President Tonya Mallory

 

In September, Health Diagnostic Laboratory President and founder Tonya Mallory announced she would step down immediately. She cited family reasons for her departure.

The announcement came weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported HDL, Inc. stopped paying doctors a $20 fee for using their medical tests after those payments triggered a Special Fraud Alert from the Department of Health and Human Services. The Journal reported those payments could “give doctors an incentive to order unnecessary tests.” HDL, Inc. received payments from Medicare for each test.

In October, Cigna sued HDL for more than $80 million in damages. The insurance company alleged HDL extracted more than $84 million in fraudulent payments that involved waiving out-of-pocket fees for patients and then billing inflated rates to the insurance company, according to a report in RichmondBizSense.com.

This is a developing story.

Fetal remains discovered at Henrico wastewater plan

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. — Fetal remains were found Monday afternoon at the Henrico Waste Water Treatment Facility.

The fetal remains were found at the wastewater plant on Jennie Scher Road, in eastern Henrico. The remains indicate that the fetus was pre-term — defined as such when it is less than 37 weeks gestational age — with the umbilical cord still attached, according to sources.

The remains were found by employees processing solid waste.

The fetal remains have been taken to the Medical Examiner for evaluation,  according to Henrico Police spokesman Lieutenant Chris Eley.

At this time there are no further details to release until an autopsy is completed and this investigation is looked into further, Lt. Eley said.

“The Medical Examiner, among other things, will take a look at if the fetus was viable,” CBS 6 legal analyst Todd Stone said. “And then they will pass that information along to investigators who will determine if there was any negligence in the fetus’ death.”

What Happens When the Child Support and Alimony Math Don't Add Up?

It's rare anything good comes in the mail lately and today was no exception. Actually it came yesterday; I hate opening the mail and most of it gets tossed anyway. But this letter addressed to my new husband... it's a good thing I opened that innocent white envelope as he suggested. It looked like junk mail but the barcodes and numbers... something told me to pay attention.

Tip: Always open the mail. Everyday. This official letter from an attorney general's office was to let us know he owed back child support payments totaling dollar amounts that made me a bit faint. My husband is not a "deadbeat dad" -- I see the money leaving our checkbook every week. It's just a problem of math. It's always the math.

This is new uncharted territory for me, and it's a relief to know I'm not alone. Child support calculated using old income under different circumstances doesn't work if the household numbers change. We send money, but that's for alimony too. How is this possible? How can becoming suddenly "poor" make someone suddenly "deadbeat"?

And what about alimony, which had been calculated under old salary numbers -- numbers which existed a mere few months after the divorce. Doesn't it matter if there's a drastic change in household income? Is he supposed to sell a kidney to pay this "debt"? Luckily there is a growing nationwide movement for alimony reform, and it's being pushed not by the men who begrudgingly pay, but by their second wives who stay financially single forever.

I'm glad I'm not alone in my outrage that forever-alimony to keep non-working women in "lifestyles" is something that has to stop. It hurts us as woman, makes us look like we need a man to "lifestyle" us since we can't figure it out for ourselves. But having a hug-fest doesn't get us out of the poorhouse. There's real work to be done for reform, to see that women who truly need support get it, and the ones taking advantage are stopped.

The upside down numbers in this new math economy is felt everywhere, and we've all had to adjust accordingly. Keeping an ex-husband indentured to his ex-wife for life, tied to paying large percentages of a salary he'll likely never see in his middle-age life again -- well, how is that justice?

I don't understand why alimony is doled out forever to women perfectly capable of working, and who have, in fact, earned money and demonstrated skills we all wish we had. Why are women -- so lucky to be afforded the privilege of staying home with their children, never ever having to earn an income -- why do they have this feeling of entitlement, even if it's they who decide to walk away?

Perhaps I'm just bitter. When I got divorced, I waived alimony so my ex could have a life. If he paid alimony to me, he would've joined the ranks of many other divorced men sleeping on relatives' couches, unable to afford a room of his own. I was entitled to alimony, and my career might've been better off had I not worked part-time or freelance, (so I could always be near my children) and had pursued higher goals (and degrees). But it was my choice. Many American women are fortunate enough to be afforded many choices. Women who choose to stay home full time -- and I did that for many years -- have an obligation to think ahead. Sooner or later, they will start a business or jumpstart a career or begin another. No degree? One class at a time, and in 18 years you'll have one or two. Do women really bank on never needing to work, ever? Or wanting to, for that matter?

We are in the new math economy where nothing adds up and things you thought should be aren't anymore. Everyone has been forced to adjust to new lifestyles. It's time the courts caught up and stopped looking at alimony as an entitlement.

The Bill Cosby Rape BULLSHIT Story.

Another woman who claims she was raped by Bill Cosby has spoken out about her encounter with the embattled comedian.

The accusation is just the latest of numerous allegations of sexual abuse by Cosby, and follows the claims of another alleged victim who spoke out earlier this week.

In an essay on Hollywood Elsewhere, music industry publicist and journalist Joan Tarshis claims that Cosby sexually assaulted her twice in 1969 when she was 19. The former actress and Cosby were both working at Universal Studios, and she said he took an interest in her.

Cosby often pushed alcohol on her, Tarshis said, and on one instance when the two had been working on material together, she fell unconscious at his bungalow after having a cocktail he made for her.

"The next thing I remember was coming to on his couch while being undressed," Tarshis wrote. "I thought I was being clever when I told him I had an infection and he would catch it and his wife would know he had sex with someone. But he just found another orifice to use. I was sickened by what was happening to me and shocked that this man I had idolized was now raping me. Of course I told no one."

The second time Cosby allegedly attacked her, Tarshis claims that she had been drinking with Cosby while attending a performance at a music theater. She started to feel shaky, and "the next thing I remember was waking up in his bed back at the Sherry, naked," Tarshis wrote.

Tarshis was prompted to share her experiences after seeing others go public with their allegations, saying "as more and more of his rape victims have come forward, all telling similar stories, the time is right to join them."

Cosby has been dogged by accusations of sexual assault for years, and the controversy returned to the public eye after comedian Hannibal Buress called Cosby a rapist during one of his routines. Following Buress' charge, one of Cosby's alleged victims, Barbara Bowman, published an essay in The Washington Post, titled "Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?"

When pressed by NPR's Scott Simon during Saturday's "Weekend Edition" to address the allegations, Cosby refused to discuss the matter. On Sunday, John P. Schmitt, Cosby's lawyer, said his client would not respond to the claims against him.

"Over the last several weeks, decade-old, discredited allegations against Mr. Cosby have resurfaced. The fact that they are being repeated does not make them true," Schmitt said in a statement.

It was not clear if Schmitt's statement was also referring to the accusation made by Tarshis.

Cosby's scheduled Nov. 19 appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" was canceled after the Washington Post essay was published. A representative for CBS declined to comment when contacted by The Huffington Post.

Cosby has never been charged with any of the alleged crimes. He settled a civil suit with another alleged victim in 2006.

Another rape allegation has surfaced against famed comedian and actor, Bill Cosby. This time it is from a familiar face which speculates that there may be some truth to Cosby's sketchy past.

Actress and singer Raven-Symone, who rose to fame with Cosby in the hit television sitcom "The Cosby Show", revealed to the TMZ offices that she too had been raped and drugged years ago following the shows last episode.

There are whispers that Cosby wouldn't allow Raven-Symone in the production of the last season of his show, but abruptly changed his mind. It was never revealed what changed his original intentions.

Her lawyer gave an announcement to the press, here is an excerpt:

"...we among so many others are tired of the media worshipping and praising a man that has a past so terrible that it is unbelievable. My client (Raven-Symone) is also ready to tell her side of the story. A side that was kept quiet because of threats from being blackballed. There was no monetary compensation that made my client keep quiet, but more so the respect for Mr. Cosby. Well that respect has come to an end. And what we thought was a mistake or anomaly has surfaced to become a lifestyle. We will be pursuing damages that are not going to be disclosed at this time."

On Sunday, Cosby’s attorney issued a statement saying the accusers are rehashing “decade-old, discredited” allegations.

Lawyer John Schmitt said the fact that the allegations are being repeated “does not make them true.” But this particular accusation is interesting. We have a very successful star in Raven-Symone who doesn't look to need any press or financial reward. Which makes us think that Cosby has a really shady past.

Cosby went silent when asked about the new allegations in an interview on NPR on Saturday In the interview, reporter Scott Simon asked Cosby about the claims, but the legendary comic just silently shook his head. To emphasize Cosby’s silence, Simon said, “You’re shaking your head no.”

Cosby has never been criminally charged with sexual assault, but he did settle a civil case in 2006 brought by Temple University employee Andrea Constand who claimed he drugged and groped her at his suburban Philadelphia mansion.

Differences between the two were "resolved to the mutual satisfaction" of both Cosby and Constand, according to a new statement issued Monday by their lawyers.

The media has since found some interesting clips from Cosby's past. Now, the Village Voice unearthed audio clips from the comedian’s ninth comedy album, “It’s True! It’s True,” which was released in 1969. An unfortunately titled compilation given the current headlines, the album includes a disturbing track of Cosby describing his long-standing desire to drug women and take advantage of them.

 In the routine, Cosby describes his childhood fascination with a drug, “Spanish fly,” that supposedly makes women go crazy (or renders them incapacitated) if slipped into a drink. He says his fascination continued into adulthood, when he and “I Spy” co-star Robert Culp had the opportunity to go to Spain — and he became hopeful he might finally get his hands on some Spanish fly. Cosby describes how Culp, too, wanted to get his hands on the drug.

The latest round of bad press for Cosby started in October when comedian Hannibal Buress called him a “rapist” while performing a standup routine in Philadelphia.

Modern day slavery

  What is Human Trafficking?

Trafficking in Persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

    Elements Of Human Trafficking

On the basis of the definition given in the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, it is evident that trafficking in persons has three constituent elements;

The Act (What is done)

Recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons.

The Means (How it is done)

Threat or use of force, coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or vulnerability, or giving payments or benefits to a person in control of the victim.

The Purpose (Why it is done)

For the purpose of exploitation, which includes exploiting the prostitution of others, sexual exploitation, forced labour, slavery or similar practices and the removal of organs.

To ascertain whether a particular circumstance constitutes trafficking in persons, consider the definition of trafficking in the Trafficking in Persons Protocol and the constituent elements of the offense, as defined by relevant domestic legislation.

    Types of Human Trafficking

There are four broad categories of exploitation linked to human trafficking:

Sexual exploitation

Sexual exploitation involves any non-consensual or abusive sexual acts performed without a victim’s permission. This includes prostitution, escort work and pornography. Women, men and children of both sexes can be victims. Many will have been deceived with promises of a better life and then controlled through violence and abuse.

Forced labour

Forced labour involves victims being compelled to work very long hours, often in hard conditions, and to hand over the majority if not all of their wages to their traffickers. Forced labour crucially implies the use of coercion and lack of freedom or choice for the victim. In many cases victims are subjected to verbal threats or violence to achieve compliance.

Manufacturing, entertainment, travel, farming and construction industries have been found to use forced labour by victims of human trafficking to some extent. There has been a marked increase in reported numbers in recent years. Often large numbers of people are housed in single dwellings and there is evidence of ‘hot bunking’, where a returning shift takes up the sleeping accommodation of those starting the next shift.

The International Labour Organisation [ILO] has identified six elements which individually or collectively can indicate forced labour. These are:

Threats or actual physical harm

  Restriction of movement and confinement to the workplace or to a limited area.

  Debt-bondage

Withholding of wages or excessive wage reductions that violate previously made agreements.

  Retention of passports and identity documents (the workers can neither leave nor prove their identity status).

 

Threat of denunciation to the authorities where the worker is of illegal status.

Domestic servitude

Domestic servitude involves the victim being forced to work in private households. Their movement will often be restricted and they will be forced to perform household tasks such as child care and house-keeping over long hours and for little if any pay. Victims will lead very isolated lives and have little or no unsupervised freedom. Their own privacy and comfort will be minimal, often sleeping on a mattress on the floor in an open part of the house.

In rare circumstances where victims receive a wage it will be heavily reduced, as they are charged for food and accommodation.

Organ harvesting

Organ harvesting involves trafficking people in order to use their internal organs for transplant. The illegal trade is dominated by kidneys, which are in the greatest demand. These are the only major organs that can be wholly transplanted with relatively few risks to the life of the donor.

Child trafficking

Children are particularly vulnerable to exploitation by individual traffickers and organised crime groups. They can be deliberately targeted by crime groups, or ruthlessly exploited by the people  who should protect them. About a quarter of the victims referred to the UKHTC are children.

Common countries of origin include Vietnam, Nigeria, Romania, Slovakia and the UK.

   Common myths

Human trafficking and people smuggling is the same thing.

There are important differences between human trafficking and people smuggling. The main difference is the element of exploitation. People being smuggled as illegal migrants have usually consented to being smuggled. Trafficking victims have not consented, or have been tricked into consent.

What happens to each of them at the end of their journey will also be very different. The relationship between an illegal migrant and a people smuggler is a commercial transaction which ends on completion of the journey. However for people who are trafficked, the purpose of the journey is to put them somewhere where they can be exploited for the sake of the traffickers’ profits. The journey is only the beginning.

It can nevertheless be difficult to distinguish between trafficking and smuggling scenarios for many reasons, including:

  People who begin as smuggled migrants may become victims of trafficking, ie there is a change of circumstances at some point during the process.

  The same people acting as traffickers may also act as smugglers and use the same routes for both trafficking and smuggling.

  Conditions for smuggled persons may be so bad that it is difficult to believe that they consented to it.

  You cannot be a victim of trafficking if you gave your consent to be moved.

  Someone becomes a victim of trafficking not because of the journey they make but because of the exploitation they experience at the end of that journey.

Any consent they give to make the journey in the first place is likely to have been gained fraudulently, for example with the promise of a job or a better standard of living.

This is why the Palermo Protocol makes clear that human trafficking is about the three elements of movement, control and exploitation.

Trafficking only affects people from other countries

Whilst people smuggling always involves illegal border crossing and entry into another country, human trafficking for exploitation can happen within someone’s own country, including Britain.

Many trafficked women are already prostitutes

This is a common misconception. The majority of trafficking victims working as prostitutes will have been forced into it against their will. They have often been trafficked without their consent, deceived into consenting to the journey, or deceived about the kind of work they would be doing at the end of the journey.

11 Facts About Human Trafficking

1. Globally, the average cost of a slave is $90.

2. Trafficking primarily involves exploitation which comes in many forms, including: forcing victims into prostitution, subjecting victims to slavery or involuntary servitude and compelling victims to commit sex acts for the purpose of creating pornography.

3. According to some estimates, approximately 80% of trafficking involves sexual exploitation, and 19% involves labor exploitation.

4. There are approximately 20 to 30 million slaves in the world today.

5. According to the U.S. State Department, 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. More than 70% are female and half are children.

6. The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-year-old. Many victims are runaway girls who were sexually abused as children.

7. California harbors 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas on the nation: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.

8. The National Human Trafficking Hotline receives more calls from Texas than any other state in the US. 15% of those calls are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

9. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year.

10. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime industry (behind illegal drugs and arms trafficking). It reportedly generates a profit of $32 billion every year. Of that number, $15.5 billion is made in industrialized countries.

11. The International Labour Organization estimates that women and girls represent the largest share of forced labor victims with 11.4 million trafficked victims (55%) compared to 9.5 million (45%) men.

  20 ways you can  fight human trafficking

After first learning about human trafficking, many people want to help in some way but do not know how. Here are just a few ideas for your consideration.

1. Learn the red flags that may indicate human trafficking and ask follow up questions so that you can help identify a potential trafficking victim. Human trafficking awareness training is available for individuals, businesses, first responders, law enforcement, and federal employees.

2. In the United States, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888 (24/7) to get help and connect with a service provider in your area, report a tip with information on potential human trafficking activity; or learn more by requesting training, technical assistance, or resources. Call federal law enforcement directly to report suspicious activity and get help from the Department of Homeland Security at 1-866-347-2423 (24/7), or submit a tip online at www.ice.gov/tips, or from the U.S. Department of Justice at 1-888-428-7581 from 9:00am to 5:00pm (EST). Victims, including undocumented individuals, are eligible for services and immigration assistance.

3. Be a conscientious consumer. Discover your Slavery Footprint, and check out the Department of Labor’s List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor. Encourage companies, including your own, to take steps to investigate and eliminate slavery and human trafficking in their supply chains and to publish the information for consumer awareness.

4. Incorporate human trafficking information into your professional associations’ conferences, trainings, manuals, and other materials as relevant [example].

5. Join or start a grassroots anti-trafficking coalition.

6. Meet with and/or write to your local, state, and federal government representatives to let them know that you care about combating human trafficking in your community, and ask what they are doing to address human trafficking in your area.

7. Distribute public awareness materials available from the Department of Health and Human Services or Department of Homeland Security.

8. Volunteer to do victim outreach or offer your professional services to a local anti-trafficking organization.

9. Donate funds or needed items to an anti-trafficking organization in your area.

10. Organize a fundraiser and donate the proceeds to an anti-trafficking organization.

11. Host an awareness event to watch and discuss a recent human trafficking documentary. On a larger scale, host a human trafficking film festival.

12. Encourage your local schools to partner with students and include the issue of modern day slavery in their curriculum. As a parent, educator, or school administrator, be aware of how traffickers target school-aged children.

13. Set up a Google alert to receive current human trafficking news.

14. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper about human trafficking in your community.

15. Start or sign a human trafficking petition.

16. Businesses: Provide internships, job skills training, and/or jobs to trafficking survivors. Consumers: Purchase items made by trafficking survivors such as from Jewel Girls or Made by Survivors.

17. Students: Take action on your campus. Join or establish a university or secondary school club to raise awareness about human trafficking and initiate action throughout your local community. Consider doing one of your research papers on a topic concerning human trafficking. Professors: Request that human trafficking be an issue included in university curriculum. Increase scholarship about human trafficking by publishing an article, teaching a class, or hosting a symposium.

18. Law Enforcement Officials: Join or start a local human trafficking task force.

19. Mental Health or Medical Providers: Extend low-cost or free services to human trafficking victims assisted by nearby anti-trafficking organizations. Train your staff on how to identify the indicators of human trafficking and assist victims.

20. Attorneys: Look for signs of human trafficking among your clients. Offer pro-bono services to trafficking victims or anti-trafficking organizations. Learn about and offer to human trafficking victims the legal benefits for which they are eligible. Assist anti-trafficking NGOs with capacity building and legal work.