Parents in an upstate New York public school district are furious that a judge is keeping secret letters from at least 22 teachers who were supporting a colleague that sexually assaulted an 8-year-old boy.
Some of the letters in support of convicted pedophile Matthew LoMaglio during his sentencing phase were even written by the teachers on school stationary. The parents say that because the letters were written on school stationary, they were on taxpayer provided items and thus should be available as public record.
Prosecutors say their case was hampered by the fact teachers in the same school as the defendant refused to help in his prosecution.
A petition by parents in the district says, “we believe that children in the Rochester City School District are in danger.”
“It’s upsetting, but more than that, it’s fearful,” parent Karen Bryant told Fox News. “We have 22 teachers who still support this man and sent the letters after he was convicted and admitted he was guilty.”
The school district told Fox News they did not authorize any teachers to write letters in support of LoMaglio.
Mark Hulbert, Editor of the Hulbert Financial Digest, warns that another Great Depression could happen soon.
According to Hulbert, the stock market parallels the behavior of the stock market before the 1929 crash. A chart comparing today’s market to the market of 1928-29 is making its rounds around Wall Street, and experts are frightened by what they see.
“…the market over the past two months has continued to more or less closely follow the 1928-29 pattern outlined in that two-months-ago chart. If this correlation continues, the market faces a particularly rough period later this month and in early March,” Hulbert wrote in his analysis of the stock market.
Although the markets’ correlation is uncanny, Tom McClellan of the McClellan Market Report, mentioned “…there is no guarantee that the market has to continue following through with every step of the 1929 pattern…” However, McClellan does believe there is reason for caution between now and May 2014.
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul announced that he has filed one of the largest class-action lawsuits in history in response to spying operations by the National Security Agency against American citizens.
The suit was joined by the conservative advocacy group FreedomWorks and filed in the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia.
The suit claims the NSA’s program that collects the metadata of American’s phone calls violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. The lawsuit wants the court to rule the program unconstitutional and order the government to immediately stop the program.
“There’s a huge and growing swell of protest in this country of people who are outraged that their records would be taken without suspicion, without a judge’s warrant and without individualization,” Sen. Paul told reporters.
A Justice Departments spokesman said that they expect to win the case because at least 15 other judges have ruled the program legal.
The United States fell 13 spots in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index from 32nd to 46th, one of the biggest declines in the survey for a country that didn’t feature murders of reporters.
The U.S. was the featured country in the report’s section on information sacrificed to national security and surveillance. The conviction of Bradley Manning and the situation with fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden were described as “warnings to all those thinking of assisting in the disclosure of sensitive information that would clearly be in the public interest.”
The report also cited the Department of Justice targeting the Associated Press and taking their phone records without warning because they wanted to know who leaked CIA information to a reporter. Also the cases of James Risen of the New York Times and Barrett Brown, a freelance journalist, who are facing jail time for publishing classified information without revealing sources or testifying against them.
Finland topped the list for the fourth straight year followed by Netherlands and Norway who held their same positions from last year. The bottom three are Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea.
It’s been over 20 years since the biggest of the Great Lakes completely froze. Now, experts watching Lake Superior say it’s likely that the current cold freeze will bring a total freezing of the lake after closing in on a 20-year record.
The ice cover on the lake reached 91 percent coverage on February 5, 1994, the record during the last 20 years. Jay Austin of the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minnesota, says it won’t be long until that record falls.
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration says the average depth of ice on the lake is 10 inches. On February 10th, all the Great Lakes were 80.4 percent covered in ice compared to 38.4 percent last year.
Austin says that the extraordinary cold winter, that included Duluth breaking an all-time record with 23 straight days below zero, will have a strong influence on the region’s weather this year.
“Typically, the lake will start warming up in late June,” Austin told CNS News. “It will be August before we see that this year.”
Austin said the “air conditioning (lake) effect” would be stronger than usual, keeping temperatures down well into the summer.
With propane prices rising and temperatures falling, thousands of people in South Dakota are worried that they won’t be able to heat their homes.
“If you think about 57,000 households in South Dakota or about 70 percent of people in the state who use propane for heating, that’s a real impact on our state,” said Senator John Thune.
Senator Thune has been working hard for relief aid from the federal government, including sending a personal letter to President Obama.
Until federal aid arrives, the Red Cross has stepped in, providing residents in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe with warm places to stay, hot meals, and extra supplies.
“…our concern was making sure they had a warm, safe place to be and that they had safe food to eat while they were waiting for the cold to break or to get propane resupplied at their homes,” said Dan Kuecker, the Disaster Program Manager for Western South Dakota for the American Red Cross.
The second major winter storm to roar through the south in less than two weeks is shutting down schools, airports and highways.
The National Weather Service described the storm as potentially being a “catastrophic event” that could bring record weather events. Schools across Georgia called off classes for Tuesday before any show fell and likely will continue the postponements as forecasts call for sleet and freezing rain through Wednesday.
Atlanta, which was paralyzed by the previous storm, took to the roads to pre-treat them ahead of potential icing. The National Guard has 1,400 four-wheel drive vehicles on stand by to help any stranded motorists in the area.
Governor Nathan Deal declared a state of emergency for part of the state Monday.
Over 1,100 flights were canceled by Tuesday morning and another 2,600 were delayed because of the weather. The number is expected to jump significantly over the next 48 hours.
Political observers say the storm could be a potential catastrophe for the Republican governor who is up for re-election and saw a hit to his approval ratings after the botched snow removal efforts during the last storm.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office says that drug shortages are continuing to hamper doctors nationwide.
The GAO report is mandated by a 2012 law that gives the Food and Drug Administration the power to manage drug shortages. The GAO was to determine if the FDA has improved responses to the problems.
The report concludes the FDA is preventing more shortages than in the past but that the total number of shortages is increasing. In 2012, the FDA managed 154 potential shortages compared to 35 in 2010. However, the number of drugs in shortage in 2012 was 456 compared to 154 in 2007.
Some of the drugs in the “shortage” category include nitroglycerine for heart issues and cisatracurium, the drug used to paralyze muscles for surgery.
A report released in the wake of the heroin overdose of Oscar winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman shows that over 70 million Americans are addicted to some kind of mind altering drugs.
While the vast number of addictions is initially to prescription painkillers such as Oxycontin, many of the addicts find their way to illegal drugs such as heroin because they are cheaper and provide many of the same effects.
The study says that if you include the 60 million Americans who are alcoholics, 130 total Americans daily are under the influence of some kind of mind-altering drug.
The study did not take into account people who are now using marijuana in the wake of legalization in Colorado and Washington. Several other states are also considering legalization of the drug including California. Stock prices for companies that grow cannabis have soared since the beginning of the year.
The Department of Health and Human Services reports that in the average year, 30 million Americans drive drunk and an additional 10 million drive while under the influence of drugs.
Temperatures were stuck in the teens. Snow and ice were on the ground. Residents in many parts of Jacksboro, Texas were stuck in their homes.
So Texas Gas Service shut off the gas supply to the entire town.
The company blames liquid that somehow made its way into the gas lines from their natural gas supplier.
City manager Mike Smith said the gas service was repeatedly turning on and off early Thursday morning meaning the pilot lights in various homes and businesses were shutting off, potentially filling the homes with gas.
The city set up emergency shelters at the Jack City Fair Barn and activity center. Electric heaters in the city are sold out and some people are using their ovens to heat their homes.
The city’s fire department is preparing for home fires and possible explosions from built up gas.