Monday, August 18, 2014


News Clips For The Day


National Guard called out in Ferguson, Missouri
CBS/AP August 18, 2014, 3:23 AM

FERGUSON, Mo. -- Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has called out the National Guard after another night of trouble in Ferguson, Missouri.

Police used tear gas to clear protesters off the streets late Sunday, a week after demonstrations over the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer filled the St. Louis suburb with angry, defiant crowds.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, whose agency was put in charge of security in Ferguson by Nixon, told reporters early Monday that police had to respond after shots were fired at them and others and several locations were looted or vandalized, including a McDonald's where employees felt the need to lock themselves in a storage room for their safety.

Johnson said Molotov cocktails, bottles and other objects were thrown at police.

At least two injuries resulted from the gunshots, Johnson said, but no officers were hurt. Several people were arrested.

Johnson blamed the latest trouble on a small group of people intent on causing it.

The latest clashes in Ferguson saw another peaceful protest quickly deteriorate.

Three hours before a midnight curfew imposed by Nixon, officers in riot gear ordered all the demonstrators to disperse. Many of the marchers retreated, but a group of about 100 stood defiantly about two blocks away until getting hit by tear gas.

Protesters laid a line of cinder blocks across the street near the QuikTrip convenience store that was burned down last week. It was an apparent attempt to block police vehicles, but the vehicles easily plowed through. Someone set a nearby trash bin on fire, and gunshots rang out several blocks away.

Within two hours, most people had been cleared off West Florissant Avenue, one of the community's main thoroughfares. The streets remained empty as the curfew began. It was to remain in effect until 5 a.m.

CBS St. Louis affiliate KMOV-TV reports police also used sound-blasting technology to disperse the crowds.

Nixon's office announced early Monday that, "A day of hope, prayers, and peaceful protests was marred by the violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many from outside the community and state, whose actions are putting the residents and businesses of Ferguson at risk. ... Given these deliberate, coordinated and intensifying violent attacks on lives and property in Ferguson, I am directing the highly capable men and women of the Missouri National Guard to assist ... in restoring peace and order to this community."

There was no immediate indication of how many guard personnel would be involved.

The local school district announced early Monday that the opening of the school year, already postponed several times, was again being put off. The latest opening date had been Monday but, the district said, schools would remain shut "due to continuing unrest in some areas of Ferguson, and in the interest of the safety of students and families." No new opening date was announced.

The latest confrontations came hours after US Attorney General Eric Holder ordered a federal medical examiner to perform another autopsy on Brown, 18.

A preliminary private autopsy found that Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, The New York Times reports.

The "extraordinary circumstances" surrounding Brown's death and a request by Brown's family members prompted the Justice Department's decision to conduct a third autopsy, agency spokesman Brian Fallon said in a statement.

The examination was to take place as soon as possible, Fallon said.

The results of a state-performed autopsy would be taken into account along with the federal examination in the Justice Department investigation, Fallon said.

Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York City chief medical examiner, told the Times that one of the bullets entered the top of Brown's skull, suggesting that his head was bent forward when he suffered a fatal injury.

Brown was also shot four times in the right arm, and all the bullets were fired into his front, the newspaper quotes Baden as saying.

The Justice Department already had deepened its civil rights investigation into the shooting. A day earlier, officials said 40 FBI agents were going door-to-door gathering information in the Ferguson neighborhood where Brown was shot to death Aug. 9.

A federally conducted autopsy "more closely focused on entry point of projectiles, defensive wounds and bruises" might help that investigation, said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who supervised the criminal civil rights section of Miami's U.S. attorney's office. The move is "not that unusual," he added.

Federal authorities also want to calm any public fears that no action will be taken on the case, Weinstein said.

Earlier on Sunday, Johnson said he had met with members of Brown's family and the experience "brought tears to my eyes and shame to my heart."

"When this is over," he told the crowd, "I'm going to go in my son's room. My black son, who wears his pants sagging, who wears his hat cocked to the side, got tattoos on his arms, but that's my baby."

Johnson added: "We all need to thank the Browns for Michael. Because Michael's going to make it better for our sons to be better black men."

The Rev. Al Sharpton told the rally Brown's death was a "defining moment for this country."

Sharpton said he wants Congress to stop programs that provide military-style weaponry to police departments. He said he expects police to "smear" the slain teenager, his family and his attorneys. He also condemned the recent violence and looting in Ferguson.

The protests have been going on since Brown's death heightened racial tensions between the predominantly black community and the mostly white Ferguson Police Department, leading to several run-ins between police and protesters and prompting the governor's move to put the state highway patrol in charge of security.

Ferguson police waited six days to publicly reveal the name of the officer and documents and a video alleging Brown robbed a convenience store shortly before he was killed. Police Chief Thomas Jackson said the officer did not know Brown was a robbery suspect when he encountered him walking in the street with a friend.

Nixon said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" that he was not aware the police were going to release the surveillance video from the store where Brown is alleged to have stolen a $49 box of cigars.

"It's appeared to cast aspersions on a young man that was gunned down in the street. It made emotions raw," Nixon said.

Police have said little about the encounter between Brown and the officer, except to say that it involved a scuffle in which the officer was injured and Brown was shot. Witnesses say the teenager had his hands in the air as the officer fired multiple rounds.

"When you're exhausted, when you're out of resources, when you're out of ammunition, you surrender," Brown's uncle, pastor Charles Ewing, told worshipers during a Sunday sermon at Jennings Mason Temple in Ferguson. "He surrendered and yet he died."

The officer who shot Brown has been identified as Darren Wilson, a six-year police veteran who had no previous complaints against him. Wilson has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting, and the department has refused to say anything about his whereabouts. Associated Press reporters have been unable to contact him at any addresses or phone numbers listed under that name in the St. Louis area.

Also Sunday, about 150 people gathered in St. Louis to show support for Wilson. The crowd protested outside a TV station because it had broadcast from in front of the officer's home.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the station, KSDK, later apologized. Others in the group, composed mostly of police and relatives of officers, carried signs urging people to wait for all the facts.



Long Range Acoustic Device
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) is an acoustic hailing device andsonic weapon developed by LRAD Corporation to send messages, warnings, and harmful, pain inducing tones over longer distances than normalloudspeakers. LRAD systems have been used to counter piracy, as non-lethal crowd control weapons, and as communication devices.

According to the manufacturer's specifications, the systems weigh from 15 to 320 pounds (6.8 to 145.1 kg) and can emit sound in a 30° beam at 2.5 kHz.[1]

LRAD systems are used by maritime, law enforcement, military and commercial security companies to send instructions and warnings over distances, and to force compliance. LRAD is also used to deter wildlife from airport runways, wind and solar farms, nuclear power facilities, mining and agricultural operations and other industrial facilities.

LRAD Corporation was formerly named American Technology Corporation. In 2004, Carl Gruenler, a former vice president of military and government operations for American Technology Corporation said that being within 100 metres (330 ft) of the LRAD is extremely painful, and that it was designed for use in short bursts at 300 metres (980 ft), to give targeted people a headache. He said that "you definitely don't want to be" within 100 m; and, that the device will cause permanent auditory damage.[4] LRAD officials deny such common uses, claiming that the device is not a weapon, rather it is a "directed-sound communications system", and that it can damage hearing at 15 metres (49 ft).[5]




“Also Sunday, about 150 people gathered in St. Louis to show support for Wilson. The crowd protested outside a TV station because it had broadcast from in front of the officer's home.... The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said the station, KSDK, later apologized. Others in the group, composed mostly of police and relatives of officers, carried signs urging people to wait for all the facts.”

The presence of organized and inflammatory members of the crowd has been mentioned. It is possible that the local people would return to calm and peaceful demonstrations without their influence. One other point of interest from this article points to a confirmation of Johnson's story in which he said that Brown was trying to get down on the ground when the officer shot him a number of times – an autopsy showed one bullet entering Brown's skull from the top of his head, showing that his head was down at the time. The key fact in this article is that the National Guard has been called out. Each day as it unfolds will show whether that move pacifies the crowd.

I think the best things the police could do is fire that officer, hire a number of black officers and institute intensive sensitivity training, thus hopefully stopping the police bullying. Even if Wilson was frightened he shouldn't have shot the man six times, especially when he had his hand up and was in the act of getting down on the ground. I don't care if that officer has never had a charge against him before, this time was police brutality.

The problem in Ferguson, according to a member of the community quoted yesterday, is that there have been other police overreactions and brutality before this case and the residents' anger has reached a tipping point. The police there need to be retrained. I also think single officers shouldn't be patrolling alone so that they wouldn't find themselves in danger, tempting them to use their pistols.

Also, one statement on the TV news yesterday spoke of cameras with sound recorders which are to be attached to officers uniforms, so that there will be film and audio of any other such interactions that occur, rather than just the officer's word against that of the suspected perpetrators. A number of city police departments have already started using such cameras, and they have been found very helpful. According to the news reporter, the use of cameras tends also to tamp down on violence, because both the officer and the criminal are aware that their actions are being taped, which tends to improve people's behavior. Hopefully the city police were watching that news coverage so that they will take heed and invest in cameras.





Iraq says ISIS no longer in control of key dam
CBS NEWS August 18, 2014, 4:57 AM

Iraqi state television reported Monday that Iraqi national and Kurdish "peshmerga" forces had retaken the key Mosul dam from Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but the fighting didn't appear to be over.

If confirmed, reclamation of the nation's largest dam would be a hugely symbolic and strategic victory in the months-long battle against ISIS, which has wrested control of a vast swath of north and west Iraq and eastern Syria.

The reports on State TV quoted a spokesman for the Iraqi military, but peshmerga fighters told CBS News they were advancing on the dam complex slowly and cautiously amid concerns that ISIS fighters might have left behind IEDs or mines, and possibly rigged parts of the dam itself with explosives.

ISIS militants were still firing on peshmerga fighters from parts of the dam compound.

U.S. fighter jets carried out at least 16 airstrikes on ISIS targets around the dam over the weekend, hoping to give the Iraqi and Kurdish troops an upper hand in the fight.

ISIS, which unilaterally attempted to re-brand itself the "Islamic State" weeks ago, continues to claim new territory in Syria. But the long-sought U.S. military intervention in Iraq -- sparked by ISIS' worrying advance a week ago on the Kurdish region's capital city of Erbil -- has largely arrested the group's advance in the country.

President Obama notified Congress on Sunday that the expansion of the U.S. military role in Iraq would remain limited.

In a letter to Congress, the White House said "the mission is consistent with the president's directive that the U.S. military protect U.S. personnel and facilities in Iraq, since the failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians and threaten U.S. personnel and facilities -- including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad."

Hundreds of U.S. diplomats and other officials have established offices in Erbil as other cities in the region fell to ISIS or were threatened by the fighting.




Iraqi state television reported Monday that Iraqi national and Kurdish "peshmerga" forces had retaken the key Mosul dam from Sunni militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), but the fighting didn't appear to be over.... The reports on State TV quoted a spokesman for the Iraqi military, but peshmerga fighters told CBS News they were advancing on the dam complex slowly and cautiously amid concerns that ISIS fighters might have left behind IEDs or mines, and possibly rigged parts of the dam itself with explosives. ISIS militants were still firing on peshmerga fighters from parts of the dam compound.... the long-sought U.S. military intervention in Iraq -- sparked by ISIS' worrying advance a week ago on the Kurdish region's capital city of Erbil -- has largely arrested the group's advance in the country.”

This Kurdish success is not quite a “done deal,” but it probably will be soon. The control of dams, bridges and roads are crucial in protecting the nation, especially this large source of water and electricity. I hope the US hurries to supply the Kurds with some significant weapons and ammunition as Obama said we would. Otherwise a twelve year war will be without purpose. Also, the US needs to stand behind the countries in the Middle East who are NOT threatening to come onto US territory and bomb us. I was furious at Bush when he went into Iraq, and at the numerous cowardly legislators who supported his move when Iraq wasn't even threatening us; but now that we went in and destroyed their government structure, we do owe it to them to protect them as much as possible, and this particular set of Islamists are genuinely dangerous to the whole globe. Their goals are expansionist and destructive of other cultures than their own brand of Sunni Muslim radicalism, and they won't just give up. They will have to be stopped forcibly. Congratulations to the peshmerga for their courage and persistence. I will continue to watch their progress against ISIS.






Russia says humanitarian convoy for Ukraine cleared
CBS/AP August 18, 2014, 6:26 AM

MOSCOW -- Russia's foreign minister said Monday he expected the extensive humanitarian aid mission for eastern Ukraine to enter the country in the near future, as Ukrainian officials accused pro-Russian rebels of hitting a bus carrying refugees near the city of Luhansk with a missile.

Speaking at news conference in Berlin, where he met a day earlier with his counterparts from Ukraine, France and Germany, Sergey Lavrov said "all questions" regarding the mission had been removed and that agreement had been reached with Ukraine and the international Red Cross.

It was not clear if Lavrov was referring to security guarantees, which the Red Cross wants to receive from all sides, including eastern Ukraine's separatist fighters, before accompanying the more than 200 trucks into Ukraine.

A Red Cross spokeswoman in the region where the trucks are parked told The Associated Press earlier Monday that they were still waiting for the security guarantees.

The apparent breakthrough on the humanitarian convoy came as fighting in east Ukraine remained intense.

Separatists shoot down Ukraine fighter jet

The Reuters news agency quoted a spokesman for the Ukrainian military as saying rebels had "fired Grad missiles at a convoy of refugees from Luhansk."

The unnamed military official said he was "waiting to hear how many died."

A senior official from the separatist's self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic -- the group ostensibly in charge of the rebel forces in the region -- staunchly denied that rebels could have carried out the attack..

"The Ukrainians themselves have bombed the road constantly with airplanes and Grads. It seems they've now killed more civilians like they've been doing for months now," Reuters quoted Andrei Purgin as saying. "We don't have the ability to send Grads into that territory," he said.

Ukraine's national security council said over the weekend that government forces had captured a district police station in Luhansk after bitter clashes in the Velika Vergunka neighborhood.

Weeks of fighting have taken their toll on Luhansk, which city authorities say has reached the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. The siege mounted by government forces has ground delivery of basic provisions to a halt and cut off power and running water.



Ukraine: Reports Of Attack On Civilian Convoy Near Luhansk – NPR
by BILL CHAPPELL
August 18, 2014 

Ukraine's government and pro-Russian separatists are blaming one another for an attack that reportedly hit at least one bus carrying people who were fleeing the fighting near the eastern city of Luhansk. Ukraine made gains in that area over the weekend; it's not known how many people might have died in Monday's attack.

The attack used both mortars and missiles, Ukraine says. The government held a news conference about the strike Monday; NPR's Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson says that so far, it's unknown how many casualties might have been caused. She also notes that a lack of corroborating evidence, such as video, is leading some to doubt the official account.

Reuters quotes military spokesman Anatoly Proshin:

"A powerful artillery strike hit a refugee convoy near the area of Khryashchuvatye and Novosvitlivka. The force of the blow on the convoy was so strong that people were burned alive in the vehicles - they weren't able to get themselves out."

The agency also quotes Andrei Purgin, deputy prime minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic:

"The Ukrainians themselves have bombed the road constantly with airplanes and Grads [missile launchers]. It seems they've now killed more civilians like they've been doing for months now. We don't have the ability to send Grads into that territory."

International observers say a humanitarian crisis is brewing in Luhansk, where around 250,000 people have been without power and water for weeks, Soraya says. The conditions have prompted thousands to leave the city.

More updates from Ukraine:

A Russian convoy of more than 200 trucks carrying humanitarian aid remains halted outside of Ukraine's border.

The government says its forces moved deep into rebel-held Luhansk, but separatist fighters there also shot down a Ukrainian MiG 29 fighter jet this weekend.

In Donetsk, the other large city controlled by separatists, heavy fighting has cut off the water supply.

In Berlin, diplomatic talks between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by Germany and France, ended without a breakthrough.

In a report for Morning Edition today, Soraya spoke with a separatist military commander in Donetsk who goes by the nom de guerre Vargan, a bearded man who's 41 years old.
'Vargan says he was a conscript in the Soviet Air Force back in 1991' Soraya reports. 'He has a Ukrainian ID, but calls himself a 'simple Russian soldier.' Nevertheless, killing Ukrainian soldiers makes him unhappy.'

'I don't want to fight against my brothers, and it is politicians who are making us do this,' Vargan said of the violence.




It was not clear if Lavrov was referring to security guarantees, which the Red Cross wants to receive from all sides, including eastern Ukraine's separatist fighters, before accompanying the more than 200 trucks into Ukraine. A Red Cross spokeswoman in the region where the trucks are parked told The Associated Press earlier Monday that they were still waiting for the security guarantees.... The Reuters news agency quoted a spokesman for the Ukrainian military as saying rebels had 'fired Grad missiles at a convoy of refugees from Luhansk.'” The rebels deny hitting the refugees and say that the Ukrainians did it. The same thing has happened on at least three other occasions. Apparently no European observers were on hand to verify either story. … In Berlin, diplomatic talks between Ukraine and Russia, brokered by Germany and France, ended without a breakthrough.... In a report for Morning Edition today, Soraya spoke with a separatist military commander in Donetsk who goes by the nom de guerre Vargan, a bearded man who's 41 years old. 'Vargan says he was a conscript in the Soviet Air Force back in 1991' Soraya reports. 'He has a Ukrainian ID, but calls himself a 'simple Russian soldier.' Nevertheless, killing Ukrainian soldiers makes him unhappy.' 'I don't want to fight against my brothers, and it is politicians who are making us do this,' Vargan said of the violence.

I am pleased to see the Russian Vargan is not happy with the war for the control of Ukraine, which is how the whole thing started. The Ukrainians tried to establish a relationship with the West, the pro-Russian president objected and the Ukrainians began to demonstrate, finally ousting him. Russia was happy when he was in office, because he was under Putin's control, and immediately started arousing the Russian speaking people in Eastern Ukraine against the new government. They boldly marched in and took Crimea, without being stopped. Now they are still trying to control Ukraine by the proxy of their supporters in the East. Vargan's is the first statement from a Russian that expresses his regret at the current situation.

Another interesting article appeared in the news a month or so ago in which the reporter went into Russia and interviewed people there. Some were openly against Russia's role, some approve of Putin's power grab, some just wanted peace, and several were afraid to make a statement. It is clear from that article that Putin does not enjoy the support of all the Russian people, but I doubt that many will be demonstrating against him within Russia either, for fear of being arrested or killed.

All in all, I am happy to see that the government in Kiev is continuing the fight and slowly making headway. Perhaps they will win. Perhaps they are responsible for this recent mistaken attack on a convoy of refugees, perhaps not. Mistakes do happen in war. The rebels mistakenly shot down a passenger jet rather than a war plane. I am also happy to see that Ukraine did meet with Russia in the presence of German and French representatives. It failed this time, but hopefully it will succeed soon, after Kiev establishes control over the whole of Ukraine. Then they can take the ethical path and give fair representation to the Russian speakers in the East, which should satisfy them and bring peace. So I hope at any rate.




Nigerian Woman Suspected of Ebola Dies in UAE ABC
By Adam Schreck
Associated Press
August 18, 2014

A Nigerian woman who arrived on a flight to the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi and later died in the city may have been infected with the Ebola virus, said health officials.

The health authority in the emirate said in a statement carried by the Emirati state news agency WAM on Sunday evening that the 35-year-old woman was traveling from Nigeria to India for treatment of advanced metastatic cancer.

Her health deteriorated while in transit at Abu Dhabi International Airport and as medics were trying to resuscitate her, they found signs that suggested a possible Ebola virus infection.

Medical staff treating the woman followed safety and precautionary measures in line with World Health Organization guidelines, the statement added.

The woman's husband, who was the only person sitting next to her on the plane, as well as five medics who treated her are being isolated pending test results on the deceased woman. All are in good health and show no symptoms of the illness, according to health officials.

An Ebola outbreak has killed more than 1,100 people, mostly in the three West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, according to WHO figures. Four people have died after contracting the disease in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

The Ebola virus is typically transmitted through direct person-to-person contact or through contact with bodily secretions from an infected person. The WHO considers the risk to passengers traveling on a flight with an infected person to be "very low."

Abu Dhabi is the capital and largest of seven sheikdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates. The country has grown into a major long-haul aviation hub. It is home to Dubai-based Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline, and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways.

Emirates earlier this month became the first carrier to halt flights to Guinea because of concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus there.




“The health authority in the emirate said in a statement carried by the Emirati state news agency WAM on Sunday evening that the 35-year-old woman was traveling from Nigeria to India for treatment of advanced metastatic cancer..... Her health deteriorated while in transit at Abu Dhabi International Airport and as medics were trying to resuscitate her, they found signs that suggested a possible Ebola virus infection. Medical staff treating the woman followed safety and precautionary measures in line with World Health Organization guidelines, the statement added..... The WHO considers the risk to passengers traveling on a flight with an infected person to be "very low.".... Emirates earlier this month became the first carrier to halt flights to Guinea because of concerns about the spread of the Ebola virus there.”

This is an alarming story. It is possible that West Africa should be isolated completely. One or two nations in Africa have already closed their borders with the heavily infected nations. It is deeply saddening to me that I have come to think such things, but as long as so many of the Africans in those countries are not cooperating with their own governments by turning their sick over to hospitals and stopping the cultural practice of handling and washing the dead, the disease will continue to spread, and eventually it will spill out into other areas, especially if airlines continue to fly in and out of the areas.

If only the US and all other developed countries with modern laboratories would turn their efforts toward making sera and other known treatments (the most recent one involving the tobacco plant) so that a sufficient volume could be stockpiled to treat those who fall ill immediately, giving them a fighting chance at recovering, I think we could stop most of the deaths. If not, I do consider the US and all other nations to be at risk, in the spread of this terrible virus outside Western Africa. This is the stuff of sci-fi stories, only it's not fiction.




More Military Families Are Relying On Food Banks And Pantries -- NPR
by PAM FESSLER
August 18, 2014

Despite the economic recovery, more than 46 million Americans — or 1 in 7 — used a food pantry last year. And a surprisingly high number of those seeking help were households with military members, according to a new survey by Feeding America, which is a network of U.S. food banks.

The survey — conducted in 2013 — found that almost 620,000 of the households using Feeding America services have at least one member currently in the military. That's one-quarter of all U.S. military households.

Deborah Flateman, president and CEO of the Maryland Food Bank in Baltimore, says she isn't surprised. Last year, her food bank started working with groups like the USO to provide food aid to families affiliated with nearby military bases like Fort Meade.

She says, so far, they've used their mobile food pantry to distribute more than 200,000 pounds of food to military families.

"They're not unlike any of the other families that we serve," says Flateman. "They meet hardship and they need assistance with food."

And other food banks and pantries say they're seeing a similar increase.

Margaret Young is with the Calvary Assembly of God Church in Dover, Del., about a mile from Dover Air Force Base. She says she noticed about four years ago that more military families were showing up at the church food pantry for help. She says they're usually young, junior-level service members with kids.

"And then of course they have younger spouses," says Young. "And the spouses, you know, when you have to relocate every couple of months or every couple of years, however that works, it makes it harder for them to find jobs. I think that's the primary reason."

Maura Daly of Feeding America says that's what they found in their survey: Both military and nonmilitary families are having a difficult time making ends meet. She says even though most of their clients work, they often have to make difficult choices.

"Between things like food and paying for their utilities, food and paying for transportation, food and paying for medicine or housing," she says. "So these are literally choices that people have to make between eating, putting a roof over their head, keeping the lights on."

In a written statement, Pentagon spokesman Nate Christensen told NPR that the Defense Department is reviewing the survey results. But he also said that military pay and benefits compare favorably with the private sector, and if a service member has financial troubles, counseling is available.

But Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit group that supports military families, says service members are often reluctant to seek such help. That's especially the case now that the military is downsizing, she says.

"People are afraid to call attention to themselves. They don't know who's getting picked to be asked to leave and who's going to get to stay and what the criteria are. And so a lot of these families are just laying low," says Raezer.

Also, it can be embarrassing to admit you need help with food. Raezer wasn't at all surprised that we were unable to get any military families to go on record for this story.

"The reason they go to the food bank is it's anonymous," she says.

But Raezer has no doubt the need is there, even if the Feeding America numbers seem high to her. She says some families have trouble managing their finances, with all the disruptions of military life, and especially if there's an unexpected bill for something like a car repair.

"Which may mean at the end of the month, things are a little tighter than they should be," she says.

And free food at the pantry might be just what they need to get by.




More Americans than we like to think about are in danger of starving. Worse still, many of them have active military members. I thought people got paid pretty will in the military, but not well enough it turns out. The article says “The survey — conducted in 2013 — found that almost 620,000 of the households using Feeding America services have at least one member currently in the military. That's one-quarter of all U.S. military households.” …. Margaret Young is with the Calvary Assembly of God Church in Dover, Del., about a mile from Dover Air Force Base. She says she noticed about four years ago that more military families were showing up at the church food pantry for help. She says they're usually young, junior-level service members with kids.” Young states that the enforced mobility of military families tends to give the spouses a greater problem getting new jobs when they have quit so many. It is definitely true that employers are very nervous about seeing a lot of short term jobs on a resume. They suspect a drinking problem or some other personal foible.

Maura Daly of Feeding America says that more families, both military and civilian, are having more financial troubles now due to insufficient income. “In a written statement, Pentagon spokesman Nate Christensen told NPR that the Defense Department is reviewing the survey results. But he also said that military pay and benefits compare favorably with the private sector, and if a service member has financial troubles, counseling is available.” It seems to me that in a land with a minimum wage of $7.75 or so an hour, having the military pay “on a par” with that is not much help, because the cost of living has long since gone beyond that income.

Joyce Raezer, executive director of the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit group, says that military people are often reluctant to see help on personal problems. I've heard that before about the prevalent mental health issues that are cropping up in alarming numbers among modern day soldiers. People on jobs of all kind tend not to want their boss to find out about mental health problems, because some employers will fire them if they find out.

“Also, it can be embarrassing to admit you need help with food. Raezer wasn't at all surprised that we were unable to get any military families to go on record for this story. 'The reason they go to the food bank is it's anonymous,' she says.”





The Power Of The Peer Group In Preventing Campus Rape – NPR
by LAURA STARECHESKI
August 18, 2014

Many forces can drive a male college student to commit sexual assault. But one of the most important may be the company he keeps.

A number of studies, on college campuses and elsewhere, have shown that having friends who support violence against women is a big risk factor for committing sexual assault. Now prevention efforts are exploring the idea that having male friends who object to violence against women can be a powerful antidote to rape on college campuses.

"One of the things that matters most to boys and emerging adult men is the opinion of other men," says John Foubert, a researcher at Oklahoma State University who studies rape prevention among young men.

One of the most well-known studies on perpetrators of campus sexual assault is psychologist David Lisak's 2002 "undetected rapists" study. Because few campus rapes are ever reported, much less prosecuted, Lisak looked for sex offenders hiding in plain sight at University of Massachusetts in Boston.

He surveyed about 1,800 men, asking them a wide range of questions about their sexual experiences. To learn about sexual assault he asked things like, "have you ever had sex with an adult when they didn't want to because you used physical force?" When the results came back he was stunned.

All told, 120 men in the sample, or about 6 percent of the total, had raped women they knew. Two-thirds of those men were serial rapists, who had done this, on average, six times. Many of the serial rapists began offending before college, back in high school.

Other studies at colleges and in the military have since found similar numbers—usually somewhere around 10 percent of men admitting to either an attempted rape or a rape, with a significant proportion of them reporting a history of repeated offenses.

"I was forced, really, to accept that these are college students, but there is this small percentage of college students who are sex offenders," says Lisak. "They are behaving like sex offenders. They are sex offenders."

Together, the 120 men in Lisak's study were responsible for 439 rapes. None were ever reported.

But Lisak had no problem getting details about how the men carefully planned and executed their assaults. They'd often ask a girl to come to a party, saying it was invite-only, a big deal to a nervous freshman. Then they'd get her drunk to the point of incapacitation so they could have sex with her.

In an excerpt from one of Lisak's interview transcripts, a college student using the pseudonym Frank talks about how his friends would help him prep for an assault:

"We always had some kind of punch, you know, like our own home brew. We'd make it with a real sweet juice, and just pour in all kinds of alcohol. It was really powerful stuff. The girls wouldn't know what hit them."

Alcohol was the weapon of choice for these men, who typically saw themselves as college guys hooking up. They didn't think what they had done was a crime.

"Most of these men have an image or a myth about rape, that it's some guy in a ski mask wielding a knife," says Lisak. "They don't wear ski masks, they don't wield knives, so they don't see themselves as rapists."

In fact they'd brag about what they had done afterwards to their friends. That implied endorsement from male friends – or at the very least, a lack of vocal objection — is a powerful force, perpetuating the idea that what these guys are doing is normal rather than criminal.

But in a group of guy friends, Oklahoma State's Foubert says, the opinions that can end up influencing behavior are actually often just what a guy thinks his friends think.

"Let's say you have a peer group of 10 guys," says Foubert. "One or two are constantly talking about, 'Oh, I bagged this b——h.' Many of the men listening to that are uncomfortable, but they think that the other men support it through their silence."

What if that silence could be broken before college — as early as high school?

At a few high schools in Sioux City, Iowa, students are starting to find out what that might look like.

MVP, or Mentors in Violence Prevention, matches upperclassmen with groups of incoming freshman. Throughout the school year, the older kids facilitate discussions about relationships, drinking, sexual assault and rape.

Xavier Scarlett, a rising senior and captain of the football, basketball and track teams, says he tries to get inside the heads of the freshman guys he mentors. They talk through various scenarios. What does it mean to hook up with a drunk girl when you're sober? Would you be letting down your guy friends if you don't hook up in that situation?

And they spend a lot of time on that scenario Lisak heard about over and over in his U-Mass Boston study. You're at a big party. You see a guy you know with an extremely drunk girl, and he's trying to leave with her.

Xavier says he talks through all the options with the freshmen in his group. "Do I let them just leave? Or, do I grab him, or do I grab her? Or do I get some friends? If I say something, then will my friend judge me?"

These conversations are tough, often awkward, in high school. A lot of the mentors still haven't confronted this kind of situation in real life by the time they graduate. But once they get to college, says Iowa State University junior Tucker Carrell, a former MVP mentor, the scenarios come to life.

Tucker says that he's not afraid to confront his Delta Tau Delta fraternity brothers when they talk about women in a way that makes him uncomfortable. He'll sit down with them, sometimes even bringing a woman they've hit on into the conversation.

The day we talked, Tucker said he'd used his MVP training to intervene in a situation just the night before.

This was at a going-away party at a bar in Ames, Iowa. Tucker noticed that a friend's female cousin was pretty drunk. She was over by the jukebox with two guys who weren't part of the party. They were strangers. Tucker says he was paying attention to her body language, and something didn't look right. She looked almost cornered.

So Tucker grabbed a buddy and they went over to the jukebox together.

"We were like, 'Hey, let's pick a song.' So we picked a song. And then we were like, 'Do you want to go to the table and see your cousin?'"

They steered her back toward their group of friends.

And that was it. The night went on as if nothing had happened.

Lisak says by the time 18-year-olds leave for college they need to be hearing this kind of challenge from their guy friends.

"This idea that getting somebody intoxicated, plastered, so that you can have sex with them is an idea we just simply are going to have to confront and erode," he says. "Just like we have eroded the idea that it's fine to get drunk and get in your car."

There are only a few dozen high schools around the country that offer the MVP program. It's been used in high schools around Sioux City, Iowa for over a decade now. Surveys of participating students suggest their attitudes about sexual assault, and intervening in dangerous situations, shift after they go through the program, but researchers have yet to evaluate how effective it is in reducing incidence of sexual violence

John Foubert, the psychologist in Oklahoma, says it's important to remember that 90 percent of men have never committed a rape. The key is opening their eyes to what's going on with the other 10 percent, so they can see it and intervene.




“A number of studies, on college campuses and elsewhere, have shown that having friends who support violence against women is a big risk factor for committing sexual assault. Now prevention efforts are exploring the idea that having male friends who object to violence against women can be a powerful antidote to rape on college campuses. 'One of the things that matters most to boys and emerging adult men is the opinion of other men,' says John Foubert, a researcher at Oklahoma State University who studies rape prevention among young men...”

He studied the answers some 1800 young men gave to questions like “have you ever forcibly had sex” or whether they had gotten a woman drunk in order to take advantage of her. He found about 6% of them admitted that they had, but they didn't think that was “rape” because they didn't use a knife and a ski mask. They often then bragged to their male friends about the experience and if the others didn't voice an objection to what they had done, they took that to be approval. This tacit approval encouraged the men to continue the pattern.

Peer group pressure is a powerful influence on teenagers and young people in general. Nonetheless, there is always the 90% who have never assaulted a woman. Perhaps they had a better class of friends, better moral training at home and church, or perhaps they had been brought up simply to have empathy with others, so that their inner soul will balk at such an abuse. Most people don't have a basic sexual drive so strong that they absolutely can't curb it when they need to. I think there is a basic flaw in the psychology of a person who physically or verbally assaults anyone just for the selfish reason of “getting the rocks off” or worse still, to humiliate them, and I think that lack of humane impulses starts early in life, perhaps when the parents allow one child to do anything he wants to because it's too much trouble to stop him, or perhaps because he is their favorite.

The young abuser has to start somewhere. The first abused person is likely to be a family member. Big kids beat up on their weaker brothers or sisters and many times the parents don't punish them for it. Some kids in families end up being “the garbage can child” because parents don't enforce good rules, so that an older child habitually abuses them. I've actually heard several parents say “He's all boy!” proudly as the child misbehaves badly. I would like to jump in and correct their parenting. Actually if that could be done gently enough, it might be effective. I think most parents of wildly undisciplined children are ashamed of their ineffectiveness as parents, but don't know what to do to correct the situation.

After acknowledging the results of peer pressure, it seems to me that if a child is really well brought up he or she will not have a desire to physically or sexually assault someone when they come of age. That means parents do have to educate them about the real interactions that adults experience, which includes moral teaching, gentleness training, and simply talking “to” children rather than “at” them. Instead of lots of physical punishment, use lots of talk that is gentle but honest and clear-cut. They definitely need adult guidance and they need a certain amount of “discipline,” but most or all of it can be done verbally and, even more importantly, by the power of example. A man who does not beat his wife will not be teaching his son to beat his sexual partner. Likewise for rape.

I think boys at 18 who think forcibly taking a woman is okay, in addition to having friends who are “a bad influence,” they also have often seen their own father or uncle speak or act abusively toward women. There are men who will “grope” women that they don't even know if they think they can get away with it, and if a boy's father ever does such a thing he will give the child the impression that grotesque and abusive behavior toward women is okay for a man to do. I basically do believe that if you bring up a child to do good things they will not depart from it as an adult, or so the Bible says. I think sexual experimentation probably will happen before marriage, but it doesn't have to include getting a woman drunk and taking her by force. It should be a mutual experience for both the young man and woman.

Notice I don't say teenaged kids. I think they are too young to be involved in sex beyond some kissing and cuddling – not “petting,” which is actually nothing other than foreplay and is likely to lead to the kids having sex. They are at least six years away from a time that they should mate exclusively and have children of their own. Parents need to limit who their kids go out with and when they come home from a date, as they did when I was young. About the college years, parents might well consider preventing their kids from joining fraternities and sororities, which tend to give drunken parties where all kinds of naughties go on. As long as parents are paying for their kids education they have a right to make that rule. Besides, the college kids who don't join those groups will probably make better grades and spend more time studying. It's a win-win!