These Stories Didn't Make Most News Cycles - What With Celebrity, Scandals, Political Corruption, Obstructionism, Etc.
(The Fun Stuff Is At The End)
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume I
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| Photo by Shutterstock |
The Tea Party Became A Major Supporter of Solar Energy
The fight to bring cheaper, clean energy to Georgia is uniting some
unlikely allies. Renewable energy advocates and leaders of the Atlanta
Tea Party are taking on utility giant Southern Co., and its subsidiary
Georgia Power, over resisting the call to expand its development of
solar energy. Read More at:
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume II
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| Photo by Shutterstock |
Did you know there are cites in America that have CRIMINALIZED HOMELESSNESS?
In South Carolina, Columbia City passed an ordinance “to remove homeless people from the downtown business district.” Police officers are now specially assigned to patrol the downtown area and a hotline was set up “so local businesses and residents can report the presence of a homeless person to police.” In Los Angeles, Harrisburg, and Raleigh authorities cracked down on good Samaritans providing food to the homeless in public. New York, Palo Alto, Tampa and Miami have focused on criminalizing sleeping in public. Overall, these efforts make it next to impossible for the homeless — a population of about 600,000 in America — to get back on their feet. |
| Homeless people need not enter downtown Columbia, SC - from ThinkProgress.org |
In order to accommodate all the homeless people who will now be
banned from downtown, the city will partner with a local charity to keep
an emergency shelter on the outskirts of town open 24 hours a day.
However, it’s unlikely the shelter, which can handle 240 guests, will be
enough to handle the local homeless population, which numbers more than
six times the available beds.
Homeless people can stay at the shelter, but they’re not permitted to walk off the premises. In fact, Columbia will even post a police officer on the road leading to the shelter to ensure that homeless people don’t walk towards downtown. If they want to leave, they need to set up an appointment and be shuttled by a van. In other words, the 1,518 homeless people in the Columbia-area now have a choice: get arrested downtown or be confined to a far-away shelter that you can’t readily leave. Jail or pseudo-jail.
Homeless people can stay at the shelter, but they’re not permitted to walk off the premises. In fact, Columbia will even post a police officer on the road leading to the shelter to ensure that homeless people don’t walk towards downtown. If they want to leave, they need to set up an appointment and be shuttled by a van. In other words, the 1,518 homeless people in the Columbia-area now have a choice: get arrested downtown or be confined to a far-away shelter that you can’t readily leave. Jail or pseudo-jail.
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume III
Thousands of people who worked their entire lives had their pensions stolen.
In Illinois and Michigan, thousands of working Americans had their
promised pensions stolen from them, despite guarantees in their states’
constitutions that protected their benefits. Those impacted include
“retirees who worked their careers as sanitation engineers and teachers,
firefighters and police officers, public defenders and city clerks” —
many of whom will now be thrown into poverty. As these two Midwest
states appear to be getting away with it, many other localities may follow suit. Read More from The American Prospect - Robbing Illinois Public Employees
In the span of a few hours on December 3, two Midwestern states changed
America’s relationship to its public employees, perhaps irrevocably. If
courts approve plans for bankruptcy in Detroit and a new law in
Illinois, retirees who worked their careers as sanitation engineers and
teachers, firefighters and police officers, public defenders and city
clerks, under a promise of pension benefits protected by state
constitutions, will not receive their promised share. “This is a
bipartisan collection of politicians who essentially don’t respect
democracy,” says Steve Kreisberg, director of Research and Collective
Bargaining for the public-employee union AFSCME. “They authorized a
violation of their own state constitutions.”
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume IV
Photo by Shutterstock
More People Died in America from Suicide Than Car Accidents.
While mass shootings frequently land on the front page, many more people
die of suicide each year. Data released in this year, covering 2010,
found that for the first time more people died from suicide (38,364) than car crashes (33,687).
While suicide is frequently associated with teenagers and the elderly,
the growth has been fueled by “middle-aged Americans.” Experts
speculate the rise might be attributable to middle-aged people “coping
with the stress of caring for aging parents while still providing
financial and emotional support to adult children.”
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume V
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume V
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| AP Photo |
The Supreme Court Green-lighted the Execution of People with Severe Mental Disabilities.
In August, the State of Florida executed John Errol Ferguson, “a paranoid schizophrenic man who believes that he is the ‘Prince of God’
and that his execution is preparing him for ‘ascension.’” The Supreme
Court has ruled that people with extreme mental disabilities are not
constitutionally eligible for execution, but declined to intervene in
Ferguson’s case and other cases like his. Last year, Texas executed
Marvin Wilson, a man with an IQ of 61.
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume VI
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume VI
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| AP Photo |
Cities and Counties Sought to Boost Their Economy by Attracting Undocumented Immigrants.
Much recent coverage has focused on states like Arizona and Alabama that
have sought to make their states as inhospitable as possible to
undocumented immigrants — with disastrous consequences. But other cities
and counties have taken the opposite approach in an effort to boost
their local economies, bucking federal guidelines and welcoming the
undocumented. In Dayton, Ohio officials “make no effort to pursue residents without legal status, if they are otherwise law-abiding.” In Philadelphia, members of the city council are encouraging Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to stop detaining undocumented immigrants who aren’t dangerous. Meanwhile, Newark Police announced they would “decline immigration detainers issued to the department” by ICE.
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume VII
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume VII
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume VII
Stories You May Have Missed in 2013 - Volume VII
And Some Odd, Weird, Fun Stuff You May Have Missed
>>> Check out this funny video of a Christmas tree scaring people on youtube Christmas Tree Prank
>>> A man looking for art for his new home has won a $1 million Picasso painting with a $138 raffle ticket.
>>> A Women's Secret Santa Turns Out To Be Bill Gates
>>> HOLLIS, N.H., Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Police in New Hampshire said a Santa Claus whose presence at a
school prompted recesses to be canceled in the district was trying to spread "holiday cheer."
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