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Hissyspit's JournalUC Pepper-Spray Settlement About $1 Million
Source: Reuters / Sacto 9-1-1
September 26, 2012
UC pepper-spray settlement about $1 million
By Sam Stanton, Denny Walsh and Andrea Gallo
The University of California regents have agreed to pay out roughly $1 million to end a lawsuit over last November's pepper spraying of UC-Davis students, part of a deal that also calls for a personal written apology from Chancellor Linda Katehi to each person hit with the spray.
The details of the settlement, approved in secret earlier this month by the regents, are contained in documents filed in federal court in Sacramento this morning.
The deal, hammered out in mediation sessions after 21 students and former students sued last February, still must be approved by a federal judge.
It calls for each of the 21 plaintiffs to receive $30,000 for a total payout of $630,000. The agreement also transforms the suit into a class action, which will allow others who were hit with pepper spray during the Nov. 18 protest to submit claims for payments of up to $20,000.
Read more: http://blogs.sacbee.com/crime/archives/2012/09/pepper-spray-settlement-about-1-million.html
100 Million Will Die by 2030 If World Fails to Act on Climate: Report
Source: Reuters
100 million will die by 2030 if world fails to act on climate: report
LONDON | Tue Sep 25, 2012 7:01pm EDT
By Nina Chestney
LONDON (Reuters) - More than 100 million people will die and global economic growth will be cut by 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030 if the world fails to tackle climate change, a report commissioned by 20 governments said on Wednesday.
As global average temperatures rise due to greenhouse gas emissions, the effects on the planet, such as melting ice caps, extreme weather, drought and rising sea levels, will threaten populations and livelihoods, said the report conducted by humanitarian organization DARA.
It calculated that five million deaths occur each year from air pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and carbon-intensive economies, and that toll would likely rise to six million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue.
More than 90 percent of those deaths will occur in developing countries, said the report that calculated the human and economic impact of climate change on 184 countries in 2010 and 2030. It was commissioned by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, a partnership of 20 developing countries threatened by climate change.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE88O1HG20120925
I Must Say... I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY
[font size="4"]REALLY [/font][font size="4"]REALLY [/font]
[font size="4"]REALLY [/font]
[font size="4"]with each and every passing day
more and more
[font size="4"]REALLY [/font]
[font size="4"]REALLY [/font]
[font size="4"]FUCK*NG[/font]
[font size="5"]DO NOT WANT[/font][font size="4"]
that ignorant, arrogant, opportunistic,
over-privileged[/font]
[font size="12"]BULLY[/font]
[font size="4"]
Mitt [font size="3"]
"If You Can't Assault and Cut the Hair of Irresponsible 47% Moochers - Sending Them to The ER Overworking The Emergency Medical Staff - Then You Can at Least Ignore Them"[/font]
Romney
to become President of the United States.[/font]
Tom Tomorrow: Further Gaffes From the Romney Video ('The Thrill of Hunting Human Beings for Sport')
DAILY KOS LINK: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/24/1134459/-Further-gaffes?detail=hide
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Voting Laws May Disenfranchise 10 Million Hispanic U.S. Citizens: Study
Source: Reuters
Voting laws may disenfranchise 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens: study
By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON | Sun Sep 23, 2012 10:23pm EDT
(Reuters) - New voting laws in 23 of the 50 states could keep more than 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens from registering and voting, a new study said on Sunday, a number so large it could affect the outcome of the November 6 election.
The Latino community accounts for more than 10 percent of eligible voters nationally. But the share in some states is high enough that keeping Hispanic voters away from the polls could shift some hard-fought states from support for Democratic President Barack Obama and help his Republican rival, Mitt Romney.
The new laws include purges of people suspected of not being citizens in 16 states that unfairly target Latinos, the civil rights group Advancement Project said in the study to be formally released on Monday.
Laws in effect in one state and pending in two others require proof of citizenship for voter registration. That imposes onerous and sometimes expensive documentation requirements on voters, especially targeting naturalized American citizens, many of whom are Latino, the liberal group said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/us-usa-campaign-hispanics-idUSBRE88N01I20120924
World Health Organisation Says Has Found New SARS-Like Virus
Source: Reuters
World Health Organisation says has found new SARS-like virus
Sun Sep 23, 2012 6:13pm EDT
By Kate Kelland
LONDON (Reuters) - A new virus belonging to the same family as the SARS virus that killed 800 people in 2002 has been identified in Britain in a man who had recently been in Saudi Arabia, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Sunday.
The United Nations health body, which issued a statement through its "global alert and response" system, said tests on the patient, a 49-year-old Qatari man, confirmed the presence of a new, or novel, coronavirus.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which includes the common cold and SARS.
"Given that this is a novel coronavirus, WHO is currently in the process of obtaining further information to determine the public health implications," the statement said.
Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE88M0FV20120923
Chris Hedges: Candidates "Forced to Spend Majority of Time With ONE Group - The Wealthy"
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/09/23/chris-hayes-romney-tapes-reveal-plutocracy-just-whining-about-everythingChris Hayes: Romney tapes reveal ‘plutocracy’ just ‘whining’ about everything
By Megan Carpentier
Sunday, September 23, 2012 17:41 EDT
“This is what plutocracy looks like,” Chris Hayes told his audience on Sunday after viewing the now-infamous Romney 47% tapes. “The first thing that jumps out is that a lot of the question (asked of Romney) are really inane.”
“The folks in the room all but advise Romney to tour around the country reading passages from Ayn Rand novels out loud as his campaign rallies and hectoring the idiotic masses to bow before their obvious superior,” Hayes said by way of characterizing the advice Romney got from his $50,000-a-plate donors. “Romney, who is many things but not a total fool, gently explains that probably is not the best way to go about attempting to win over the Obama voters he needs to be elected,” Hayes added.
“Almost none of the advice Romney gets during the tape is very good. Some of it is terrible,” Hayes said, but that’s not the interesting part. The interesting part, he explained, is that “Unlike the millions of other political junkies and backseat drivers, this small coterie of folks by sole virtue of their wealth, gets to impose their invaluable insights on the actual candidate.”
- snip -
“And yet despite the fact that Obama has managed a recovery that has been exceptionally good to them,” Hayes said, “Wall Street is incensed that anyone would call them ‘fatcats’ or assign new financial regulations.” He added, “In almost every way conceivable, they inhabit an alternate universe. And everyone’s pretty frank about that.”
Hayes said that the tape reveals one of the biggest problem with the amount of money that’s required to be in politics in this day and age: “It’s not that lots of money can buy elections, though sometime’s that’s true. It’s not that campaign contributions function as a quid pro quo, chits to be cashed in when legislation is being considered — though that’s also often true. It’s that every single person running for high office in America is forced to spend the vast majority of their time around one group of people, and one group only: wealthy people. That’s who they talk to and listen to all day long, day in and day out, every day for months and years and decades. It has an incredible warping effect.”
MORE AT LINK[p]
Paul Ryan Tells Florida Seniors That Obamacare Includes Death Panels
Source: Think Progress
Paul Ryan Tells Florida Seniors That Obamacare Includes Death Panels
By Igor Volsky on Sep 22, 2012 at 4:19 pm
Paul Ryan likened a mechanism to control health care spending to “death panels,” during a town hall at the University of Central Florida in Orlando on Saturday.
After listening to Ryan repeatedly call for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, an elderly man asked the Republican vice presidential nominee about “the death panels.” Rather than dissuading the man from what PolitiFact named 2009?s Lie of the Year, Ryan laughed and responded, “that’s not the word I’d choose to use to describe it. It’s actually called….the Independent Payment Advisory Board”:
QUESTION: We love you Paul. But I’m getting long in years. Will you address the death panels that we’re going to have?
RYAN: The death panels, well! That’s not the word I’d choose to use to describe it. It’s actually called. It’s actually called, so in Medicare, what I refer to as this board of 15 bureaucrats. It’s called the Independent Payment Advisory Board. It sounds fairly innocuous.
Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2012/09/22/893761/paul-ryan-tells-florida-seniors-that-obamacare-includes-death-panels
In Quebec It's Official: Mass Movement Leads to Victory for Students
https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/21-1#.UF4Ytb92Vxw.twitterPublished on Friday, September 21, 2012 by Common Dreams
In Quebec It's Official: Mass Movement Leads to Victory for Students
Naomi Klein: 'This is why radical movements are mercilessly mocked. They can win.'
- Common Dreams staff
After a year of revolt which became known as the "Maple Spring"—including massive street protests that received global attention—university students across Quebec were celebrating victory on Thursday night following the announcement from newly elected Premier Pauline Marois that the government was cancelling the proposed tuition hike that led to the student uprising and nullifying the contentious Bill 78 law which was introduced to curb the powerful protests.
“It’s a total victory!” said Martine Desjardins, president of the Fédération étudiante universitaire du Québec, which is the largest student association with about 125,000 students. “It’s a new era of collaboration instead of confrontation.”
“Together we’ve written a chapter in the history of Quebec,” she added. “It’s a triumph of justice and equity.”
MORE AT LINK[p]
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