WHITEVILLE, Tenn. — An officer from the Whiteville Police Department responded Tuesday to the Hardeman County Correctional Facility on reference to a service dog found dead in a hot vehicle.
An affidavit says a service dog for the Corrections Corporation of America, named Kilo, was found dead in K9-Officer Robert Strickland's vehicle kennel. The responding officer noticed the engine was turned off, windows were rolled up and there was no water left for Kilo, according to officials.
Strickland stated he arrived to a training site at about 8:30 a.m. and did not check on Kilo until about 1 p.m., according to the affidavit. Officials say when Strickland noticed Kilo was unresponsive and not breathing, he performed CPR on the dog but his efforts were unsuccessful. Strickland admits this was accidental, according to the affidavit.
Officials say according to the National Weather Service, the temperatures reached around 86 to 88 degrees on Tuesday.
Due to K9-Officer Robert Strickland's failure to provide a safe environment for K9 Kilo that resulted in his death, he has been charged with animal cruelty.
Warden of the Hardeman County CCA Correctional Facility, Grady Perry, says the estimated cost of K9 Kilo was $5,000 and restitution would be to the Correctional Corporation of America Hardeman Facility.
Steve Owen, Private Investigating Officer of CCA, says, "CCA is heartbroken over the loss of Kilo, as is his handler. He was a treasured member of our team, and we are all saddened by this tragic accident."
"To honor Kilo's memory, we are donating $5,000 to the Hardeman County Humane Society," says Owen. "We are also conducting a company-wide refresher with all of our K9 officers to review protocols for dog care and safety, especially as we enter into the summer months."
Owen says Robert Strickland is at this time on paid administrative leave. He says they are working to gather more information on this incident.
One in five licensed lawyers having a drinking problem, while almost one in three experienced symptoms of depression, according to a new study published in the February issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine.
Men and young lawyers were found to be particularly at-risk for drinking problems. For instance, 25% of male lawyers tested positively for hazardous, potentially dependent drinking. And over 30% of lawyers 30 years old or younger had similarly alarming scores on the alcohol use test. Only about 11.8% of the highly-educated workforce has a drinking problem, according to the study, which was conducted by the American Bar Association in tandem with the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation.
The more than 12,000 lawyers surveyed didn't fare so well on the mental health questions either. While 28% reported at least mild symptoms of depression at the time of the survey, 46% self-reported experiencing depression of the course of their legal careers.
"This long-overdue study clearly validates the widely held but empirically undersupported view that our profession faces truly significant challenges related to attorney well-being," the study's lead author, Patrick Krill, said in a press release. "Any way you look at it, this data is very alarming, and paints the picture of an unsustainable professional culture that's harming too many people."
The concern over lawyers' well-being reflects a similar dialogue in the medical field, after a recent study found that one-third of young doctors suffered from depression during their residencies.
http://ift.tt/eA8V8J One in five licensed lawyers having a drinking problem, while almost one in three experienced symptoms of depression, according to a new study via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1TOfPFq
DETROIT, MI -- Three months after Detroit paid $100,000 to settle a lawsuit filed because Detroit Police Officer Daryl Dawson fatally shot a chained-up dog named Babycakes, the Department is being sued for another dog massacre.
Nikita Smith and Kevin Thomas of Detroit say police raided their home during the service of a narcotics warrant and unnecessarily killed their three dogs, Debo, Mama and Smoke.
Photos submitted with the complaint show the bathroom, where one of the dogs was locked inside, drenched in blood.
The three carcasses were placed in plastic bags and taken from the home.
The lawsuit says Smith, who was the only one home, heard police knock and told them, "Let me put my dogs down in the basement."
Police wrote in their report there was no response.
She "sequestered" Debo and Mama in the basement and "blocked the entryway," the lawsuit says. Smoke was locked in a bathroom.
When police entered, Debo got through "obstruction" keeping the dogs in the basement.
As Smith "reached down to her dog ... officers shot Debo multiple times" not far from Smith, the lawsuit claims.
The officers then "stormed down into the basement where the officers shot to death plaintiff's dog Mama, a pregnant female dog," the lawsuit says. "Mama was not barking or attacking" and "died in a pool of blood in the corner of the basement."
"Should we shoot that one too?" an officer allegedly said after cracking the bathroom door to verify the third dog was inside.
Officers listed in the lawsuit as John Gaines and John Paul then fired repeatedly through the door.
"Officer Gaines laughed and said ... 'Did you see that? I got that one good,'" says the complaint. "A police officer next said to (Smith), 'I should have killed you, too.'
" ... Police officers acted as (a) dog death squad and stormed through the plaintiffs' house executing dogs as they went."
A police report obtained by Christopher S. Olson, who is representing the couple, through a Freedom of Information Act request claims an officer shot a "vicious gray pit bull" seven times after it charged upon police entering the home.
"Simultaneously, a vicious black dog charged ... " from the bathroom. Police shot that dog three times with a shotgun, the police report claims.
The lawsuit includes photos of bullet holes in the bathroom door.
The report says officers then shot a "vicious white pit bull" in the basement.
Police arrested Smith and seized her 2007 Grand Prix, a scale and multiple baggies containing a total of 25.8 grams, just less than an ounce, of marijuana.
According to the search warrant affidavit, a credible informant previously purchased marijuana from a man in the house.
The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office charged Smith with violation of the city's marijuana code. She pleaded not guilty and the case was dismissed May 11 when Detroit police failed to appear for a court hearing.
The Detroit Police Department had not filed a response to the lawsuit.
Deep sea scientists exploring the remote waters between Hawaii and Midway atoll have found a gigantic sea sponge "about the size of a minivan" that could be the oldest animal on earth.
"It's probably on the order of centuries to millennia old," lead researcher Daniel Wagner told the Guardian. The sponge, the largest on record, is "about 12ft wide and 7ft long" he said, "so about the size of a minivan".
The creature was discovered about 2,100m (7,000ft) down, in a marine conservation area between north-western Hawaii and Midway. The area is largely unexplored, Wagner said, and "over 98% of the area of this monument is below 100m, so below something that we would ever be able to dive through with scuba diving".
A remote-operated submersible found the sponge while exploring the depths of the Papahānaumokuākea marine park. Cast into the sub's lights, the sponge's brain-like folds appear in a pale, nearly white shade of blue.
Scientists described the animal this week, in the journal Marine Biodiversity.
Wagner said they could not be sure of the sponge's age, since the animals lack growth rings found in corals that are similar to terrestrial trees.
A team of scientists on a deep-sea expedition discovered the sponge. Photograph: AP
"Corals in similar environments have made it for 4,000 years," he said. Through measuring the rate of growth in sponges over decades, he added, "we also know that giant sponges in shallow waters can make it more than 2,000 years."
Wagner also noted that most of the planet "lies in deep waters, the vast majority of which has never been explored", and that "7,000 marine species, a quarter of which are found nowhere else on the planet" are known to live in Papahānaumokuākea marine park alone.
"This one expedition itself came back with over 100 new species," he said, speaking of completely new species and life previously unknown to the region. "So there's probably many, many other things down there."
The "pristine" depths, Wagner said, included large communities of sponges and corals along with "a whole bunch of things that are associated with them: fish hiding in their crevasses, you got crinoids , barnacles, all kinds of things that grow on top of these sponges and corals. It's really a very diverse community."
Like the coral reefs they often grow alongside, sponges are "habitat forming" species, providing shelter, filtering sea water and removing material in the water that other animals do not eat. Sponges are ancient but primitive: they lack nervous or digestives system and rely on water flowing through their bodies to provide sustenance and clean them of waste.
Christopher Kelley, a biologist at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Hawaii undersea research lab, said the researchers used laser points to measure the dimensions of the bulbous animal, then compared them with the size of the submersible.
Sponges are similar to coral reefs in that they provide critical habitat for other sea life. Photograph: AP
He added that sponge experts have so far been unable to identify the animal's genus.
"Here's this animal that has presumably never been encountered before and it's enormous and that kind of brings up a little intrigue for deep water and what else exists down there," he said.
At more than 140,000 square miles, the Papahānaumokuākea marine park is the largest conservation area in the US, and larger than every other US national park combined.
Joseph Pawlik, a marine biologist at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, said measuring the size of sponges can be difficult, given their serpentine shape and peculiar structures. By studying large barrel sponges, Pawlik has devised a method to estimate age and size based on volume.
"Largest implies volume," he said. "We have some pretty substantial sponges that are barrel sponges that have huge volume."
The city of Los Angeles has approved a deal for nonprofit and private developers to convert "nuisance" motels into 500 permanent supportive apartments for homeless veterans.
Officials called it a major step forward toward developing large-scale housing for hundreds of homeless veterans. Advocates say about 2,700 homeless veterans remain in the county, despite an intensive drive by local and federal officials..
Under the deal, developers will purchase underutilized, often run-down motels from private owners and convert them to efficiency apartments. The city's housing authority will issue vouchers funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which will cover residents' rent and provide supportive services, including case management and counseling.
Further financing is expected to come from Proposition 41, which directed $600 million in bond money to fund housing for poor and homeless veterans.
The novel scheme is expected to short-circuit the years of red tape and financing issues that often delay homeless housing developments and have the apartments ready to open by January, officials said. The vouchers are good for 15 years, and the deal is expected to enable landlords to turn a profit.
"Instead of allowing blighted properties to decay, let's use them to make powerful change in our communities by giving our veterans the access to services and housing that they need and deserve," Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a written statement.
The city's housing authority on Thursday awarded 400 rent vouchers to Shangri-La Construction, a unit of Shangri-La Industries, founded by Hollywood producer Steve Bing, and Step Up on Second, a nonprofit homeless housing agency. The team has 60 days to secure sites.
Volunteers of America, a nonprofit affordable housing group, will develop 100 units at a motel near its existing project in North Hollywood,
Philip Mangano, the federal homelessness czar under President George W. Bush, called the project a national model and said it demonstrated how private capital and social service agencies can team to produce large-scale homeless housing.
"Nobody else is doing this around the country," said Mangano, who participated in discussions with Veteran Affairs Secretary Robert A. McDonald that led to the deal. "There are business people involved [in homeless housing] but not to this scale."
"What I like about the project is it's immediate," said Volunteers of America President Bob Pratt. "Making these homes available for vets right now, that makes it unique."
Tod Lipka, president of Step Up, said his agency teamed with Shangri-La on a smaller motel conversion that created 34 units of homeless housing in Hollywood, but nothing of this caliber.
"New permanent supportive housing can take four or five years, and produce 30, 40 or 50 units at a time," said Lipka. "Four hundred is exciting."
Lipka said his group is looking at building at several different sites so homeless veterans can stay in their own communities, ideally close to medical facilities.
Housing Authority President and Chief Executive Douglas Guthrie said residents are less likely to oppose the housing in their neighborhoods because it will replace motels that "are not of the highest order." Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer has sued a handful of so-called nuisance motel owners for allegedly tolerating rampant drug activity and prostitution.
Heidi Marston, special assistant to McDonald, said the VA is hoping the county will approve a similar plan. The county housing authority has discussed the idea with developers but has no specific proposal before it, spokeswoman Elisa Vasquez said.
A special zoo response team shot and killed a 17-year-old gorilla Saturday that grabbed and dragged a 4-year-old boy who fell into the gorilla exhibit moat, the Cincinnati Zoo's director said.
Authorities said the boy, who fell 10 to 12 feet, is expected to recover after being picked up out of the moat and dragged by the gorilla for about 10 minutes. He was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Zoo officials said he was alert when he was transported there.
Director Thane Maynard said the zoo's dangerous animal response team that practices for such incidents decided the boy was in "a life-threatening situation" and that they needed to put down the 400-pound-plus male gorilla named Harambe.
"They made a tough choice and they made the right choice because they saved that little boy's life," Maynard said. "It could have been very bad."
Maynard said he hadn't talked with the boy's parents yet. Authorities initially said the child was 3 years old, but the zoo said in a press release Saturday night that he was 4 years old.
He said the gorilla didn't appear to be attacking the child, but he said it was "an extremely strong" animal in an agitated situation. He said tranquilizing the gorilla wouldn't have knocked it out immediately, leaving the boy in danger.
Maynard said it was the first time that the team had killed a zoo animal in such an emergency situation, and he called it "a very sad day" at the zoo. The lowland gorilla is an endangered species.
The incident was reported at around 4 p.m. The area around the gorilla exhibit was closed off Saturday afternoon as zoo visitors reported hearing screaming.
Harambe came to Cincinnati in 2015 from the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas.
Hospital officials said they couldn't release any information on the child. Authorities hadn't released the child's name.
The zoo said Saturday night the Gorilla World area would remain closed until further notice after earlier saying it would be open on Sunday. Maynard said the zoo believed the exhibit remains safe. They are still investigating, but zoo officials believe the boy crawled through a railing barrier, then fell into the moat.
The zoo prides itself for its work in protecting endangered species, and has been part of successful captive breeding efforts in recent years in the effort to save the endangered Sumatran rhino.
This story has been corrected to show that the boy who fell into the gorilla exhibit moat was 4 years old, not 3 years old.
A Chinese detergent commercial showing a black man stuffed into a washing machine and transformed into a fair-skinned Asian has provoked outrage this week, but the company behind the clip says foreign critics are "too sensitive".
The commercial for the Qiaobi brand — which has gone viral in the West —shows a black man whistling and winking at a young Chinese woman, who calls him over, puts a detergent packet into his mouth, and forces him head-first into a washing machine.
She sits on the lid while the man shrieks.
This ad is blatantly racist... it's also a reminder that attitudes over race and skin colour in China can be very bad.
Moments later an Asian man emerges in clean clothes, and the woman grins.
"We meant nothing but to promote the product, and we had never thought about the issue of racism," a spokesman for the Leishang cosmetics company, which produces the detergent, told China's Global Times.
"The foreign media might be too sensitive about the ad," he added.
The spokesman said a shorter version was broadcast in China, which did not feature the black actor, and he had no idea how the full-length clip ended up online.
The advertisement has provoked an uproar on US news websites, which cited it as an example of racist attitudes towards black people in China.
"This ad is blatantly racist … it's also a reminder that attitudes over race and skin colour in China can be very bad," said Vox.com.
But it has attracted little attention in its home country, with few comments on social media, and fewer than 2,000 views of the same ad on popular video-sharing site Youku.
China has historically experienced almost no migration by people of African descent, although the population has grown in recent years as China has risen to become the continent's biggest trading partner.
Traditional attitudes prizing white skin in women have contributed to bias against dark-skinned people.
http://ift.tt/1TLhiiY Chinese firm behind 'racist' detergent ad says foreign critics are 'too sensitive' via top scoring links : news http://ift.tt/1XEr5Xv
