All the News That Fits

Eight Victorian police officers have been caught drink-driving in the last two months.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Ken Lay also said that 198 officers had been caught drink-driving since 2000.

The highest reading was 0.3, Deputy Commissoner Lay said.

Deputy Commissioner Lay was himself caught speeding (though not under the influence) in October last year. He kept the offense from the public for two months, because he was the front man in a heavily promoted Christmas campaign to keep the state’s road toll down.

(Source: MX, The Age)

Quote of the Moment:

“What’s funny is that both mainstream parties are now suggesting ideas that only Pauline Hanson suggested 15 years ago! I think she can clearly be vindicated by recent political turns of events and take her place as [a] no nonsense prophetic hero in Australian politics…Gillard’s recent comments of her desire to be able to talk about the issue of immigration and boat people without the ‘racist’ or ‘bigot’ tag is an indication of what needed to be said years ago, and the societal tidal change on this issue.”

Self-described ‘transcendental fascist’ Richard Wolstonecroft.

Lawyers for the Catholic Church accused a man who was abused by a priest when he was in grade 6 of ‘contributory negligence’ in relation to his own abuse.

In 1995 Father Kevin O’Donnell became, at 78, the oldest man to be jailed in Victorian history after he admitted abusing 10 boys and two girls over a 31-year period. He is believed to have abused hundreds of children all over Victoria between 1942 and 1992.

In the same year lawyers for the Catholic Church accused a man who was attacked by Father O’Donnell in 1972 of being guilty of ‘contributory negligence’.

Their reasons included that he failed “to take care of his safety”, and did not make any complaint at the time of the abuse.

(Source: Herald-Sun)

Global temperatures in the first half of the year were the hottest since records began more than a century ago, according to two of the world’s leading climate research centres.

NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) and the US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) both calculate that the first six months of 2010 were the hottest on record. According to GISS, four of the six months also individually showed record highs.

(Source: The Guardian [UK])

An American Christian group has described anti-bullying efforts in schools as covertly promoting gay activism.

Focus on the Family spokeswoman Candi Cushman said that “activists are being deceptive in using anti-bullying rhetoric to introduce their viewpoints.”

Ms Cushman said that “politicized bullying policies are being used as tools to undermine parental rights, and censor or marginalize students and parents with differing viewpoints.”

A 2007 survey found that almost nine out of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students in the US experienced harassment. Approximately 6 out 10 felt unsafe in school, and 22 percent reported being physically assaulted in schools.

(Source: Denver Post, TPM Muckraker)

Another Australian soldier has been killed in Afghanistan.

28-year-old Jared MacKinney died in a firefight in Afghanistan on Tuesday.

He is the 21st Australian soldier to die in Afghanistan, and the fourth death in a fortnight.

Lance Corporal MacKinney’s wife Beckie, pregnant with the couple’s second child, said he had been looking forward to meeting “his little man”. He was also the father of a three-year-old girl.

(Source: Courier-Mail)

Four Victorian police officers have been sacked, two demoted, and four fined and placed on good behaviour bonds for circulating emails including racist material.

The dismissals follow Operation Barrot, which found several officers distributed emails containing sexual, violent, homophobic and racist content on the Victoria Police email system prior to December last year.

Ten officers reappeared before a disciplinary officer to be told of their sackings and demotions, while two officers resigned before the hearing.

The four sacked officers include a sergeant, two leading senior constables and one senior constable.

Four other senior constables were fined up to $3,000 each and placed on 12-month good behaviour bonds.

(Source: ABC News website)

Australian parents of children at public schools paid a total of $53 million in a year for their children’s supposedly free education.

Sharryn Brownlee from the Federation of Parents and Citizens’ Associations of NSW said that many parents felt pressure to pay the ‘voluntary’ frees, because schools’ ability to provide classroom resources and equipment depended on contributions from parents.

(Source: Daily Telegraph)

A group of American soldiers say they were punished by their commanding officers for refusing to attend an evangelical Christian concert.

Private Anthony Smith says that he and his fellow soldiers at Fort Eustis, Virginia were made to march in formation to the Commanding General’s Spiritual Fitness Concert.

There, he says, they were pressured to attend.

The 80 soldiers who chose not to were put on “lockdown”, being confined to barracks and put on restrictions including not being allowed to use their own electronic devices.

The US Department of Defense has awarded multi-million dollar contracts to consultants who organised the concerts.

(Source: truth-out.org)

An American high school student who told a teacher that she had been raped was used as ‘bait’ by school officials, leading to a second sexual assault, according to lawyers.

According to the brief by the student’s attorney, on Feb. 4, 2008, the girl went to one of her teachers, Esther von Waldow, and told her that a boy, with whom she’d had previous problems, had forced her to have sex with him after school.

The student in question has pleaded guilty in juvenile court to sexual assault.

The girl told Ms. von Waldow that he forced another student to have sex, as well.

Ms. von Waldow, according to the brief, immediately went to school administrators with concerns and offered several options to make sure the girls in question got home safely. They included offering herself to walk the girls to their school bus.

However school Principal Michael Ghilani “wanted to keep Jane Doe on school property and not let her leave. Ghilani’s plan, known as the ‘sting operation,’ was to use Jane Doe as ‘bait’ to lead the school administrators to [the boy] and perhaps other girls.”

According to a court filing submitted by the school district, Dr. Ghilani didn’t believe that the students were in danger or that any safety concerns were present. Instead, despite the girl’s statement, he believed students were having consensual sex in school after hours.

The officers followed the students and believed that they had gone home for the day.

However, an officer working night duty later saw on a school surveillance camera that the boy and another girl were back on the premises.

Though the officer then did rounds to find them, he never did.

The girl’s attorneys contend that two girls were raped in the stairwell that afternoon, including their client.

Among the claims by the girl and her parents are that school officials failed to act when they knew the boy was a threat.

They claim that several school administrators knew by mid-January that the boy was sexually harassing several girls and had sexually assaulted more than one.

Even so, the brief said, no one contacted the police.

(Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)