Tuesday, July 9, 2013

California Prisons Illegally Sterilized Hundreds of Female Inmates

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A report by the Center For Investigative Reporting (CIR) uncovered the shocking details, ?Doctors under contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation sterilized nearly 150 female inmates from 2006 to 2010 without required state approvals, The Center for Investigative Reporting has found. At least 148 women received tubal ligations in violation of prison rules during those five years ? and there are perhaps 100 more dating back to the late 1990s, according to state documents and interviews. From 1997 to 2010, the state paid doctors $147,460 to perform the procedure, according to a database of contracted medical services for state prisoners. The women were signed up for the surgery while they were pregnant and housed at either the California Institution for Women in Corona or Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla, which is now a men?s prison.?

In the 21st Century, in one of the most liberal states in the country, women were coerced into being sterilized like animals if prison officials thought they were at high risk of returning to prison in the future.

One of the doctors who did the surgeries called them a smart economic decision for the state, and defended the amount he was paid to do them. ?Over a 10-year period, that isn?t a huge amount of money,? Dr. James Heinrich said, ?compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children ? as they procreated more.?

The problem is that women should not be treated like they are animals. We all think of eugenics as something that was associated with the Nazis, but America also has a dark history of selective sterilization. At one time, 33 states had programs that sterilized 65,000 Americans into the 1980s. Forced or coerced sterilizations aren?t something that just happens in other countries. They are happening in the United States of America.

The defenders of the secret sterilization program that was going on in California describe it as empowering the female inmates. This is the same kind of language that Republicans use to promote legislation that takes away a woman?s right to choose. People have never been empowered by the loss of a choice or a right. It goes against all logic that less self determination makes an individual more free.

In the greatest country in the world, women are/were being sterilized without the required state approval.

And they say that there?s no such thing as a war on women and the poor.

Source: http://www.politicususa.com/2013/07/07/california-prisons-illegally-sterilized-hundreds-female-inmates.html

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Saturday, July 6, 2013

28 injured at California fireworks show

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LAST UPDATED: 11:00 p.m. HST, Jul 04, 2013

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. >> More than two dozen people were injured Thursday when fireworks malfunctioned at an annual 4th of July show northwest of Los Angeles.

An accidental detonation occurred about 9:20 p.m. at an event called the Fireworks Extravaganza located in a large community park in Simi Valley, said police Cmdr. John Parks.

It wasn't clear how many people were in attendance but Parks said the event usually attracts several thousand revelers.

Twenty people were taken to area hospitals with minor to moderate injuries, authorities said. Another eight were treated at the park where emergency crews set up a triage area. A bomb squad was at the park to deactivate the remainder of the fireworks.

A video clip show on KCAL-TV shows a pair of firework blasts at or near the ground. It wasn't known how close people were to the blast's origin. Another clip posted on YouTube shot from a distance shows three ground-level bursts. The fireworks continue for almost another minute before stopping.

"There was a big boom, everybody started running down the street, people were screaming," Justice Allen, 17, of Simi Valley told the Los Angeles Times (http://lat.ms/12pQlBz). "Everybody was just terrified. People hid in bushes."

The annual July Fourth celebration has been sponsored by the city and the local Rotary Club for the past 43 years.

Simi Valley is about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Source: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20130704_14_injured_at_California_fireworks_show.html

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