NYC Schools Prohibit Sale of Home-Made Food and Allow Junk for Fundraising?!?
From NYC Green Schools:
Regulation A-812 prohibits home-baked foods from being sold at school fundraisers, while permitting Doritos and Pop-Tarts instead! Yes, this regulation mandates that if we want to raise money for our schools, we have to buy and sell junk food to our children!
VOICE YOUR OPPOSITION TO REGULATION A-812!
— Our schools cannot become venues for big food corporations, like Pepsi Cola and Kellogg’s to advertise and sell their processed foods to our children!
— Our children must not receive the message that junk food is healthier for them than foods cooked at home!
— We, as parents, must be allowed to participate in the discussion about our children’s health and nutrition!
Birth Defects on the Rise in Fallujah
Via the Daily Mail:
A Fallujah mother holds her little girl, who was born without a left forearm and hand.
A high number of children are being born with birth defects in an Iraqi city where U.S. forces may have used chemical weapons during a fierce battle in 2004.
Children in Fallujah are being born with limb, head, heart and nervous system defects.
There is even a claim that a baby was born with three heads. The number of heart defects among newborn babies is said to be 13 times higher than the rate in Europe.
The city, 40 miles west of Baghdad, was the scene of some of the fiercest fighting of the Iraq war in late 2004. U.S. Marines led Operation Phantom Fury to recapture it from insurgents.
British troops were involved in manning…
One Child Dies Every Two Minutes in Afghanistan
Tom Parry writes on uruknet.info:
Children in Afghanistan are more likely to die before the age of five than children anywhere else in the world, according to Save the Children.
At the current appalling rate, one child dies every two minutes in the violence-wracked nation. The study shows that last year was also the deadliest for Afghan children since the fall of the Taliban.
More than 1,050 were killed in suicide attacks, air strikes, explosions and crossfire, according to latest figures. Save the Children insists the true scale of the humanitarian crisis facing the country remains hidden because of the focus on the conflict.
It says: “The international community needs to ensure families across the country — not just those living in the conflict zones — are able to access the clean water, nutritious…
90 Percent of High School Kids Lack Sufficient Intake of Fruits, Veggies
From Natural News:
Less than 10 percent of high school students in the United States meet the federally recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables, according to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“A diet high in fruits and vegetables is important for optimal child growth, maintaining a healthy weight, and prevention of chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and some cancers, ” said William H. Dietz, director of the Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Division of the CDC. “This report will help states determine what is taking place in their communities and schools and come up with ways to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables.”
In 2007, the CDC surveyed both adults and high school students on their daily consumption of fruits or…
‘Baby Einstein’ DVDs Do More Harm Than Good
Fiona Macrae writes in the Daily Mail:
Parents who buy educational DVDs to give their toddlers a head start may be doing more harm than good. A study of almost 100 boys and girls aged between one and two found that regularly watching a DVD from the Baby Einstein range did nothing to boost their vocabulary.
In fact, the younger the children were when they began to watch the programmes, the worse their word power. Researchers tested the children over six weeks. Half were given a Baby Wordsworth DVD, which their parents were told to play 15 times over six weeks.
The 35-minute disc, costing around £18, is part of the Baby Einstein range – popular with parents keen to boost toddlers’ IQs before starting school. It uses puppets and people to introduce…
Childhood Obesity Linked To Heart Disease
One more reason not to let your kids eat junk food, drink soda and so forth (see the disinformation® documentary Killer At Large for more on that), reported by the BBC:
Obese children as young as three years old show signs of future heart disease, say US researchers.
A study of 16,000 children and teenagers showed the most obese had signs of an inflammatory marker which can predict future heart disease.
In all, 40% of obese three-to-five-year olds had raised levels of C-reactive protein compared with 17% of healthy weight children, Pediatrics reported. But more work is needed to prove the link with heart disease in later life. The study, carried out by a team at the University of North Carolina (UNC), looked at children aged one to 17.
Overall, nearly 70% were a healthy…
Baby ‘Starved to Death’ Because He Did Not Say Amen
On the AP via the Sydney Morning Herald:
(Left) Ria Ramkissoon and her son Javon Thompson, (top right) Queen Antoinette and (bottom right) Trevia Williams.
For more than a week, Ria Ramkissoon watched passively as her one-year-old son wasted away, denied food and water because the older woman she lived with said it was God’s will. Javon Thompson was possessed by an evil spirit, Ramkissoon was told, because he didn’t say “Amen” during a mealtime prayer. Javon didn’t talk much, given his age, but he had said “Amen” before, Ramkissoon testified in a US court in Baltimore.
On the day Javon died, Ramkissoon was told to “nurture him back to life”. She mashed up some carrots and tried to feed the boy, but he was no longer able to swallow. Ramkissoon put her…
Kidnapping and Trading in Iraqi Children
Layla Anwar writes on uruknet.info:
While quite a bit of a fuss was raised regarding the kidnapping, smuggling and trafficking in Haitian children and rightly so, the same can’t be said about the fate of Iraqi children.
I have already written several posts about this new lucrative business in Iraq, that of the kidnapping, trafficking and trading of children, and I am always aghast to see that no media or organization for the protection of children, like the famous UNICEF or Save the Child or OXFAM or anyone else, has given enough attention and dedicated effort to denounce and stop this tragedy…
Of course, before our “liberation” such criminality involving the selling, buying, trading, kidnapping, killing of children was unheard of…am I to deduce that Freedom and Democracy are baby killers? Am afraid…
FDA Says It’s Unable to Regulate BPA, Considered Hazardous Since the 1930s
Meg Kissinger reports in the Journal Sentinel:
U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials say they are powerless to regulate BPA, although they have declared the chemical to be a safety concern for fetuses, babies and young children.
A quirk in the rules allows BPA makers to skirt federal regulation.
“We may have to go after legislation to change it,” Joshua Sharfstein, the FDA’s principal deputy director, told the Journal Sentinel. The newspaper has been investigating the government’s lack of regulation regarding BPA for three years.
FDA officials announced Friday that they had reversed their position that bisphenol A is safe. The chemical, used to line most food and beverage cans, has been found in the urine of 93% of Americans tested.
The agency now considers BPA to be of some concern for effects on the…
Detroit Schools Offer Class in How to Work at Wal-Mart
Muriel Kane writes on RAW Story:
Wal-Mart has been widely condemned for offering its employees only low-paying, dead end jobs. Even President Obama criticized Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign for having served on Wal-Mart’s board and stated that the firm ought to pay “a living wage.”
In inner-city Detroit, however, where the unemployment rate is estimated at an astonishing 50%, the prospect of a Wal-Mart job may appear far more attractive.
Four inner-city Detroit high schools have decided that employment with Wal-Mart is an opportunity worth training their students to pursue. The schools have teamed up with the giant merchandiser to offer a for-credit class in job-readiness training that also includes entry-level after-school jobs.
Read More: RAW Story
Saudi Child Bride Drops Fight to Divorce 80-Year-Old
Via AFP via Google News:
RIYADH — A 12-year-old Saudi girl unexpectedly gave up her petition for divorce from an 80-year-old man her father forced her to marry in exchange for a dowry, Saudi media reported Tuesday.
Despite support from human rights lawyers and child welfare advocates, the girl and her mother, who originally sought the divorce, withdrew the case Monday in a court in Buraidah, in Al-Qasim province, newspapers said.
The girl told the court that her marriage to the man was done with her agreement, according to Okaz newspaper. “I agree to the marriage. I have no objection. This is in filial respect to my father and obedience to his wish,” she said.
Saleh al-Dabibi, a lawyer supplied by a charity group to help the girl, said her mother did not inform…
Screener At LAX Accused Of Possessing Child Porn Was Also Catholic School Teacher
Thanks to Martin for sending us this story from CBS:
They are in charge of checking you and your luggage at the airport; making sure the skies are safe and sometimes coming close to you or your kids in the process.
But now a TSA screener at LAX has been arrested for possessing kiddie porn — pictures of girls as young as six.
Billy Alfaro was caught with more than 1,500 video files seized on his home computer, according to documents obtained by CBS 2 News. Alfaro lived with his parents in South L.A.
On Alfaro’s computer, a task force comprised of secret service agents allegedly found video files, such as one named “toddler girl.” According to a federal complaint, the video showed a young girl under the age of seven performing a sex…
Famed Medical Journal Retracts ‘Utterly False’ Vaccination-Scare Paper
Sarah Boseley writes in the Guardian:
The Lancet today finally retracted the paper that sparked a crisis in MMR vaccination across the UK, following the General Medical Council’s decision that its lead author, Andrew Wakefield, had been dishonest.
The medical journal’s editor, Richard Horton, told the Guardian today that he realised as soon as he read the GMC findings that the paper, published in February 1998, had to be retracted. “It was utterly clear, without any ambiguity at all, that the statements in the paper were utterly false,” he said. “I feel I was deceived.”
Many in the scientific and medical community have been pressing for the paper, linking the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) jab to bowel disease and autism, to be quashed. But Horton said he did not have the evidence to do…
Scientists Identify The Brain’s Emotional IQ Centers – And Prove It With A Marshmallow
People with high emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life than those with a lower score – even without a higher IQ! (I love how Stanford proved this – using a marshmallow with children!) And now scientists have also pinpointed the brain locations responsible for two kinds of emotional intelligence: experiential and strategic.
Haiti Earthquake: Orphans For Sale For $50
By Nick Allen in Haiti for the Telegraph:
Orphans in Haiti are being offered for sale to foreigners for as little as £30 amid warnings that up to one million children in the country have been left vulnerable to abuse and trafficking in the wake of the earthquake.
In a remote area north of Port-au-Prince, a man was reported to have offered to sell a young boy to a Canadian man for just $50.
The first confirmed case of a child being offered for sale since Haiti was devastated by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan 12 took place near Gonaives, 150km north of Port-au-Prince.
It was reported by Noel Ismonin, a Canadian pastor who rescues orphans in the area. A man offered to sell him the boy but the pastor refused.
Meanwhile, in camps…
Florida Residents Near Super Bowl Stadium Told to Watch Out for The Who’s Pete Townshend
Jose Lambiet writes in the Palm Beach Post:
The homes and schools close to Dolphins Stadium are receiving “sex offender advisory” postcards this week warning residents to watch out for The Who’s Pete Townshend, who’ll be performing at halftime of Super Bowl XLIV.
By next week, 1,500 homes will have received the postcard, sent by the Brevard County-based Protect Our Children. The non-profit acts as a community watchdog when it comes to sex offenders and sends similar cards to Melbourne residents where known pedophiles live.
Townshend, 63, was arrested in England in a 2003 roundup of alleged pedophiles accused of cruising online sites for photos of child sex. Townshend said he was just doing research for a book at the time. He wasn’t convicted of anything but was placed on that country’s list…
Mom Defends Soldier Accused of Having Child Porn
Via Chicago Breaking News Center:
An Illinois National Guard soldier in Afghanistan has been charged by the U.S. Army with possessing child pornography over pictures of a young relative his mother says she sent him.
Terri Miller of Galesburg says she sent her son, Specialist Billy Miller, pictures of the little girl to help him get over his homesickness.
The pictures show the child in a swimsuit playing a wading pool and sitting on a truck. In one, the girl is wearing a swim suit and part of her buttocks are exposed.
The Army says Miller will stay in Afghanistan until his court martial. His unit came home last August. Miller faces jail time, if convicted.
Terri Miller says the pictures are innocent.
Children Need More Dirt to be Healthy
E. Huff for Natural News:
Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have found that children who are too clean are at a higher risk of developing inflammation and disease. Normal skin bacteria that act to balance immune response protect the body from overreacting to cuts and other injuries. Excessive cleanliness is actually impairing children’s natural healing function and putting them at an increased risk for disease.
Published in the online edition of Nature Medicine, findings are confirming that germ exposure is beneficial to young children who need it in order to build immunity and prevent the onset of allergies. Being too clean is now implicated in causing increased allergies in developed countries around the world.
Staphylococci, the bacterial species studied by researchers, was found to play a vital role in blocking…
Backlash Over UK Plan to Extend TV Advertising
Denis Campbell and Polly Curtis write in the Guardian:
Ministers are facing fierce opposition from medical groups, teaching unions and children’s charities over plans to allow products to be used in television programmes for marketing purposes for the first time.
Critics claim the move, which broadcasters say will give them up to £140m a year in extra revenue, will fuel childhood obesity, exacerbate the problems caused by alcohol and gambling, and distort storylines by rewarding programme makers for deliberately giving certain items high visibility.
The British Medical Association has written to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) strongly opposing the plan. “The BMA is deeply concerned about the decision to allow any form of product placement in relation to alcohol, gambling and foods high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) as…
