July 13, 2014

Manassas, VA police won't serve warrant seeking photo of teen's penis

Manassas police on Thursday afternoon said they will not serve a search warrant that would have ordered a photo of a city teen's aroused penis as part of a “sexting” investigation.

City police Lt. Brian Larkin said the warrant, which garnered national news coverage, won't go forward.

NBC 4 first reported the story last week, quoting a 17-year-old boy’s aunt as saying a magistrate signed off on a warrant and ordered photographs of the boy’s penis as evidence.

The teen, whom InsideNoVa.com is not naming because he is a juvenile, had been charged on Jan. 28 with manufacturing and distributing child pornography.

The charges stemmed from a complaint from a 15-year-old girl’s parents, who told police that the boy sent their daughter pornographic videos after “repeatedly being told to stop,” city police said in a news release.


http://www.insidenova.com/headlines/updated-manassas-police-won-t-serve-warrant-seeking-photo-of/article_cb7c487e-07bd-11e4-bcd3-0019bb2963f4.html

July 10, 2014

Laura's Law passes easily in S.F. supervisors' vote

NOTE: I would like to ask Supervisor Mar what could be more "stigmatizing" than wandering the sidewalk half naked or rolling on the ground in one's own filth.



After years of debate, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors overwhelmingly voted in favor Tuesday of implementing Laura's Law, the state measure that allows mentally ill people to be compelled into treatment by a court.

The 9-2 vote wasn't a surprise, however: In May, Supervisor Mark Farrell announced he would move forward with implementing the law here, either by taking it to the ballot or, if he could get the votes, at the Board of Supervisors.

Last month, Farrell all but guaranteed a legislative win when he secured the support of progressive Supervisor David Campos by agreeing to amend the law to include creation of an oversight team that will try to get mentally ill people to accept voluntary treatment first....

Still, Supervisor Eric Mar, who voted against the measure along with Supervisor John Avalos, said he is worried the law could further stigmatize the mentally ill and may not offer people of different ethnic backgrounds "culturally competent" care.


http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-supervisors-pass-Laura-s-Law-to-treat-5607612.php

July 10, 2014

Facebook interns earn 6k a month.

The race for talent is so insane in Silicon Valley that companies like Facebook are now hiring high school students for their summer internships. Even before they can shave on a consistent basis, interns in Silicon Valley can make $6,000 a month, according to job-search site Glassdoor.

For perspective, Bloomberg notes that the average U.S. households pulled down $4,280 a month in 2012, to census figures.

Now, not everybody in the Valley is canvassing the prom-shopping crowd. Google requires that interns be at least a college freshman.

But the pay disparity remains.

An intern can’t make that much working at The White House. You know how much interns at the White House make? Bupkis. Or as the application says “This is an unpaid internship. Students selected to be White House Initiative interns will be required to secure their own housing while in Washington, D.C. ”

http://blog.sfgate.com/techchron/2014/07/09/high-school-interns-at-facebook-make-more-than-average-american/#21092101=0

July 10, 2014

Prosecutors Ask Judge To Force Teen To Create Child Pornography In Order To Prosecute Him.

A Manassas City teenager accused of “sexting” a video to his girlfriend is now facing a search warrant in which Manassas City police and Prince William County prosecutors want to take a photo of his erect penis, possibly forcing the teen to become erect by taking him to a hospital and giving him an injection, the teen’s lawyers said. A Prince William County judge allowed the 17-year-old to leave the area without the warrant being served or the pictures being taken — yet.

The teen is facing two felony charges, for possession of child pornography and manufacturing child pornography, which could lead not only to incarceration until he’s 21, but inclusion on the state sex offender data base for, possibly, the rest of his life. David Culver of NBC Washington first reported the story and interviewed the teen’s guardian, his aunt, who was shocked at the lengths Prince William authorities were willing to go to make a sexting case in juvenile court.

“The prosecutor’s job is to seek justice,” said the teen’s defense lawyer, Jessica Harbeson Foster. “What is just about this? How does this advance the interest of the Commonwealth? This is a 17-year-old who goes to school every day, plays football, has never been in trouble with the law before. Now he’s saddled with two felonies and the implication that he’s a sexual predator. I don’t mind trying the case. My goal is to stop the search warrant. I don’t want him to go through that. Taking him down to the hospital so he can get an erection in front of all those cops, that’s traumatizing.”

Manassas City Police spokeswoman Adrienne Helms said the department would not comment, and Detective David E. Abbott, the lead investigator on the case, did not return a call seeking comment. And no one except a Prince William magistrate has seen the affidavit and search warrant for the photos — they aren’t made public until after they are served and then returned to the courthouse. The Post is not naming the teen defendant.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/local/wp/2014/07/09/in-sexting-case-manassas-city-police-want-to-photograph-teen-in-sexually-explicit-manner-lawyers-say/

July 10, 2014

The day has arrived: I'm no longer "Daddy".

It's just Dad now. I knew this day was coming, but it's still a little sad.

July 6, 2014

Racist anti-Obama float featured at Nebraska parade.

Norfolk, NE - It's a controversial parade float that passed hundreds of people in Norfolk on the fourth of July, including children.

A pickup with a flatbed attached, carried an outhouse with a dummy. On the side of the float, writing that said "Obama's presidential library."

Glory Kathurima said she instantly knew what that meant. Her tone of happiness quickly changed to disgust and fear for her nine year old daughter. Many are calling it racist, including Kathurima, "I'm ashamed, I'm appalled."

The Norfolk mother is outraged, she calls the image, cruel, disrespectful and uncalled for. "You see people laughing, pointing at it, smiling, looking positive about it. I immediately felt sick to my stomach," said Kathurima who is from Kenya. "I knew what that meant and I knew there was no sort of political statement being made by an image like that."

http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/Independence-Day-Parade-Float-Stirs-Major-Controversy--265921391.html

July 6, 2014

Chuck Todd Explains Why Republicans Shouldn't Be Celebrating Hobby Lobby Decision

NBC Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd had words of caution on Sunday for Republicans cheering the Supreme Court's controversial decision on birth control in the Hobby Lobby case.

Many conservatives were celebrating when the court recently ruled that Hobby Lobby and other "closely held" corporations cannot be required to cover contraception for employees under the Affordable Care Act. Speaking on Sunday's "Meet the Press," however, Todd warned that the decision could potentially backfire for Republicans.

The ruling gives Democrats an issue to campaign on, he said.

"Normally ... the social conservative movement used to quietly hope for losses on the Supreme Court because it gave them a political reason for existing, it gave them something to campaign for, it gave them somebody to beat up on the courts. What was fascinating post-Hobby Lobby is how frankly excited Democratic campaigns are acting, where it's like 'We have something to run on here on the left,'" Todd said.

Todd suggested the backlash is already apparent among white women ages 40 to 55, who will be crucial swing voters in this year's midterm elections. "These are the women that in 2010, they were leaning Republican at this time," he said. "This time, they haven't been."


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/06/chuck-todd-hobby-lobby-republicans_n_5561488.html

July 6, 2014

I wish Bill Cassidy's daughter well, but I have a question for Mr. Cassidy.

Will the news of his daughter's unplanned pregnancy soften his heart towards those current and future single moms who do not have the same network of support that his daughter will have?

July 6, 2014

GOP Rep.: Hobby Lobby Ruling Keeps Liberals From Reinstating 'Stone Age Tribalism'

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), who launched a strange, unsuccessful primary bid to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) this year, warned this week that the Hobby Lobby ruling shows that "liberals seek to drag us back to Stone Age tribalism."

"Today is a great victory for religious freedom in America, which has been severely under attack by the anti-freedom Left and its special interest groups," Stockman said in a Monday statement. "It is ironic for the Left to scream no interference in a woman’s decision to obtain contraceptives, but then to argue the government should interfere in that decision to fulfill a supposed ‘inherent’ right to contraceptives."

Stockman then argued that the health care law's contraception mandate goes against what it means to live in a civilization.

"Civilization is a society in which the rights of the individual trump the whims of the majority. This ruling is a reminder liberals seek to drag us back to Stone Age tribalism in which one can be subjugated to the tribe as a whole," he said. "The belief people can be forced to buy you something that violates their beliefs is the height of arrogance, greed, selfishness and brute force. The Court rejected that tribal belief and upheld the ideas upon which this nation was founded. You are an individual and no one owns your mind or conscience."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/stockman-hobby-lobby-stone-age-tribalism

July 6, 2014

San Francisco School District set to change its school assignment process AGAIN.

And this time, a Board member acknowledges there are "winners and losers".

Currently, if too many families request a school to allow everybody to get in, the first preference goes to siblings of current students, the second to residents of census tracts where students do the worst on standardized tests, and the third to students living nearby.

But the strategy isn't working. Data from the past three years show that a quarter of all schools still have a student body in which one race makes up at least 60 percent of enrollment. African American families and Latino families are less likely to participate in the crucial first round of the student assignment lottery than their white and Asian counterparts, meaning they're more likely to get the less popular schools.

School board members Rachel Norton and Sandra Fewer have proposed giving neighborhood kids priority over those living in low-performing census tracts, and expect to have a full board vote next month. They'd like the new scheme to be in place for the 2015-16 school year.

"We've tried 100 different ways to solve this problem, and we haven't cracked it yet," she said. "The trick is to minimize the unfairness so that the winners and losers at least feel they were treated fairly."

If the district had its act together, there would be no losers, period.