Crack Babies: A Tale from the Drug Wars on Vimeo

The narrative of the "crack epidemic" came to be a subject of frenzied media discourse in the 1980s. The pregnant crack-addicted body, in particular, became a location of acute panic — the media fixated on the idea of the "crack baby," the innocent soul born addicted to cocaine who, according to claims, was three times more likely to suffer from developmental issues as well as a slew of birth defects, including hypertension, strokes, cerebral palsy, and sudden infant death syndrome.

As shown in a recent New York Times video investigation, one newscaster described "crack babies" as a new "underclass of children unable to care for themselves, of infants born to suffer," and another labeled them as "the most expensive babies born in America," doomed to "overwhelm every social service delivery system that they come in contact with for the rest of their lives."

How accurate were these predictions? According to the NYT, not at all. The alleged "epidemic" was extrapolated from a preliminary study of just 23 infants. However, that didn't stop one reporter from alleging a 500 percent increase in damaged babies, nor did it prevent the findings from being used to charge pregnant crack users with child abuse and murder.

"It became an exciting thing to talk about," says Dr. Claire Coles of the Emory University School of Medicine and Pediatrics. "As it got out into the world, it became this phenomenon." According to Dr. Coles, typical "crack baby" symptoms (tremors, low birth weight, seizures) are more indicative of prematurity than of drug exposure. She argues that cocaine was only part of a larger problem, not its sole cause, so targeting cocaine and cocaine alone wasn't helpful. Alcohol use during pregnancy, for instance, is much more severe and damaging to the unborn — not to mention far more ubiquitous.

Coles' findings were ignored, however, because they didn't fit into cultural stereotypes and failed to feed the media narrative. Reporters railed about an estimated $5 billion annual strain on the government, and everyone got extremely worked up because the concept of the "crack baby" plays into sadly familiar ideas of race and class. Since crack was relatively inexpensive and far more prevalent in poor areas, it was convenient to use this fear to justify classist and racist rhetoric (i.e., "poor, black neighborhoods bring their problems onto themselves and cost the rest of us by doing so"). The use of any mind-altering drug while pregnant should be discouraged. We shouldn't single one substance out and demonize it simply because rich white people are less likely to be caught with it.

Here's some uplifting proof that the science doesn't necessarily prove true: Devin Stone, who was interviewed in the film, was exposed to crack in the womb. Her mantra growing up was: "I'm not going to make this an issue. Whatever I have to do to get around whatever the effects will be, I'll do that." She went on to be the first person in her family to graduate college.

Good News: 1980s 'Crack Babies' Epidemic Was Hugely Overblown

On Tuesday, demonstrations took place at IRS offices nationwide as various Tea Party groups protested being targeted by the agency. Keeping an eye on several protests, however, were armed agents of the Department of Homeland Security, The Blaze reported.

Jason Howerton reported that it remains unclear why "federal officials felt the Tea Party presence required more than the attention of local law enforcement."

Jim Hoft of the Gateway Pundit said that armed DHS guards greeted Tea Party activists in St. Louis.

"Around 300 protesters turned out anyway," he wrote.

According to an account posted by Hoft, DHS used a helicopter against Tea Party protesters in Los Angeles and told the group they were not allowed on federal property.

"Many of our 300 tea party folks were approached immediately by Homeland Security and told they could not be on federal property. My lawyer told me as long as I didnÂ’t block passage we were OK. Many Homeland Security trucks and a helicopter above us scared many patriots so most of group went to public side walk to rally," an unnamed Tea Party activist told Hoft.

A report at BizPac Review said the DHS also made an appearance at a Tea Party protest in Florida.

"Under the watchful eye of Homeland Security — yes, they were present — protestors carried signs that read 'We Do Not Consent to Tyranny,' 'Abolish the IRS' and 'Don’t Target me Bro!,' making it clear they do not condone the use of the IRS as a political weapon," Tom Tillison wrote.

A protest in Fort Wayne, Ind., actually had more police than Tea Party. Howerton said that a lone woman "was reportedly accompanied by three visible security guards in the IRS parking lot, which included a Homeland Security officer."

"The DHS appears to have finally found a use for all those bullets itÂ’s been buying," Paul Joseph Watson wrote at Prison Planet, echoing a sentiment at Fire Andrea Mitchell.

"Amazing how Obama can send out his stormtroopers for peaceful IRS protests by the tea party, yet couldn’t bother with the ‘bumps in the road’ in Benghazi," Fire Andrea Mitchell said.

According to reports, the Tea Party protests concluded without incident. (Like every other single time a Tea Party gathering happened) without incident...

Armed Homeland Security agents monitor Tea Party at IRS protests - Spokane Conservative | Examiner.com

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Can you say intimidation??

Apparently Canada Post is reaching out to Canadians who have begged out of receiving junk mail like flyers and coupons and asking them to ... receive the junk mail.

CBC's Metro Morning radio host Matt Galloway tweeted out a photograph of a letter he received that had been addressed to "occupant," but still managed to subvert his request not to receive junk mail.

"Your address is part of Canada Posts' Consumers' Choice database as a result of having a 'no flyer' notice on your mailbox," the letter reads.

"This means you are currently not receiving unaddressed mail delivered by Canada Post that your neighbours are receiving. This includes mail that can save you money and keep you connected with your local community."

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STEPHANIE FARR, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER FARRS@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-4225
POSTED: Wednesday, May 22, 2013, 6:44 AM


JUST HOURS before dawn on May 14, Jackie Underwood's three daughters held her in their arms as the cancer stole the last breath from her broken body.

For many days before, and almost every day since, her children - Makia Underwood, 32, Zakia Clark, 29, and Tasha Clark, 27 - have worn hats and shirts that read "F--- CANCER," with the "C" in "F---" replaced by a breast-cancer-awareness ribbon.

"That's how we feel. It took our mom away. It's a demon. It's the devil," Zakia Clark said. "There are no other words you can use to explain how you feel. You want cancer to get cancer and die."

Zakia and Tasha Clark were wearing their black-and-pink "F--- CANCER" hats Sunday when the three sisters went to King of Prussia Mall with a group of friends and relatives to pick out a dress for Zakia's 9-year-old daughter to wear to her grandmother's funeral today.

Was the KOP mall right to kick out family over their anti-cancer hats?
Yes, the hats were offensive
No, the word is commonly used in today's society
View results

The group shopped for 2 1/2 hours, then split up, and Zakia and Tasha, Zakia's daughter, an adult female friend and two girls younger than 5 grabbed something to eat from Master Wok at the mall's upper-level food court.

The ladies had just sat down when a security guard approached them and, without a greeting, ordered: " 'Take your hats off,' " Zakia said.

Zakia took hers off, but Tasha, who once worked at the mall, told the guard she wanted to see something in writing.

It was almost as if Tasha were channeling their mother's strong spirit, Zakia said, and it inspired her to put her own hat back on.

"He said, 'Since you don't want to take your hat off, you can leave my mall,' " Zakia recalled. "He stood there while we ate and threatened to call the cops."

Out of nowhere, Zakia said, seven more guards surrounded them.

"I was very embarrassed," she said. "My daughter was so scared she was crying."

As the group was escorted to the mall office, Makia called and met up with them.

"I couldn't believe they were acting like they were going to arrest my sisters," she said.

Once they got to the office, the women were met by an Upper Merion Township police officer, who had been called to the mall by security guards.

"The officer said, 'I find it offensive that you even have that hat that says 'F--- CANCER,' " Zakia said. "He said, 'It's their mall, they want you out, you have to get out.' "

The women were escorted out, and two security cars were waiting for them at their car just to make sure they left, Zakia said.

"I just wanted to tell them the whole story," Makia said of the guards. "I wanted to tell them a monster came into our house, got into my mother and we had to watch that until the day it took her, so don't tell me it's offensive to say, 'F--- CANCER.' "



Jackie Underwood was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. She had a breast removed, but refused chemotherapy or radiation, Makia said.

"She said, 'I'm going to be fine,' " Makia recalled.

And she was - for seven years.

But in 2011, Jackie called Makia and said her breast was hurting and she would go for chemo.

Makia, a hairdresser who owns Hair Trance boutique on 22nd Street near Allegheny Avenue in Tioga, shaved her mother's head and went to treatments with her.

On Labor Day weekend 2012, Jackie began an eerie, uncontrollable laugh. The cancer had spread to her brain.

"I took her to the emergency room and they said there were all these tumors floating around," Makia said.

In October, doctors told the women that their mother had three months to live.

Instead of spending those months in a hospital, she was cared for by her daughters in her Northeast Philadelphia home.

Makia closed her salon and had her customers come to her mother's house so she could take care of her during the day.

Zakia and Tasha would relieve her when they got out of work.

The women bathed their mother, fed her and changed her diapers, just as she had done for them many years earlier.

"It was gruesome to watch," Makia said. "When I watch monster movies, that's the image I have of cancer - the zombie movie or the movie when Will Smith was the only person left alive. That's what the clinics look like."

Toward the end, Makia watched the cancer spread over her mother like a plague. In the last two weeks, it went to her throat and lungs and she couldn't talk anymore.

About 3 a.m. May 14, Makia watched her mother's breathing slow.

"I called my sisters downstairs and said, 'Death is coming,' " she said. "And it came, and that was that."

Jackie Underwood was 51.



One of Makia's clients who went to her mother's house after she closed her shop was Tiffany Wade, a registered nurse.

Wade, 29, has watched the effects of cancer on patients for years, but was particularly moved by Jackie's plight and her daughters' anguish.

"Your hairdresser is your counselor," Wade said. "She was in so much pain."

Although Jackie had health insurance from her job at the post office, Wade wanted to do something to help offset the cost of related expenses for the family.

So Wade decided to make the "F--- CANCER" clothing. She estimates that she has sold 200 items and said the money she has raised has gone to help 11 families dealing with cancer.

"When you watch your mother turn from a super-strong woman to a woman who can't walk, can't talk, can't breathe, you get so frustrated," Wade said. "You really feel like, 'F--- CANCER.' That's how you feel in your heart."

Wade said the sisters' experience at the mall was a first.

"I felt so bad they had to be the family to get thrown out," she said. "What's the odds that the one I started it for gets thrown out of the mall?"



After the Daily News began looking into the incident, Les Morris, spokesman for Simon Property Group in Indianapolis, which owns King of Prussia Mall, called Zakia yesterday to apologize.

Zakia said Morris was sincere and even asked for her mother's name and inquired about her battle with cancer.

"Certainly this could have been handled in a much more empathic and sensitive manner," Morris told the People Paper. "We're very sorry about her loss and wanted to apologize for the way her party was treated."

Morris said it's important for the mall to be "flexible."

"I do think this is an entirely different situation than a 16-year-old kid with a swear word on his T-shirt cruising the mall," he said. "We need to be empathic, sympathetic, and listen and make sure that we're approaching each situation as it comes up."

To express their displeasure with the way they were treated, the sisters and Wade had planned a protest for 7 p.m. tomorrow at the mall entrance near Nordstrom, Zakia said.

The event will go on as scheduled, and they will wear their "F--- CANCER" hats and shirts, she said. But in light of the apology, it will be more of an awareness rally against cancer.



The sisters won't be wearing those shirts and hats today.

This morning, at their mother's funeral at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in East Mount Airy, they will wear white, as their mother did to every funeral.

Afterward, Jacqueline Denise Underwood will be laid to rest a few blocks away in Chelten Hills Cemetery.

For those who survive, only time can heal the pain.

"I'm not mad at God," Makia said yesterday. "But the picture of my mother I was left with is beyond 'F--- CANCER.' "


Source: Did cancer hats go too far?

A South Carolina computer expert defrauded Wal-Mart out of $624,000 through a sophisticated three-year DVD and pirate software scam, police said.
Robert Milton, 49, was arrested by chance in April after he accidentally left his storage unit door open and a worker found piles of fake discs, driverÂ’s licenses and pre-paid gift cards.
Arrested on charges of wire fraud, trafficking in counterfeit goods and conspiracy to traffic, he faces up to 40 years in prison and $3 million fines.
Federal authorities claim Milton, from Glover, bought American Express gift cards from Wal-Mart stores across Georgia, North and South Carolina. He would then alter the transaction codes and receipts to match counterfeits or cheaper models — and then return or exchange them.
Investigators say Milton cost Wal-Mart $115,000 in fraudulently returned software, $95,000 in DVDs and $46,000 in mispriced fishing rods. When they raided the storage locker, investigators found thousands of counterfeit DVD sets worth $95,000 and fake Microsoft software worth $325,000 in his locker.
They also discovered more than 40 Ohio driver's licenses, 31 South Carolina licenses, some receipt printers and nearly 2,000 pre-paid gift cards.
ilton, who used to run a computer shop, also allegedly had been keeping a map where he'd marked off all the Wal-Mart stores in the U.S.
Milton's daughter told the Charlotte Observer she couldn't believe the news of her dad's arrest.
"We're kind of in shock right now. I can't believe my dad would do that," she said.

Read more: South Carolina computer expert allegedly scams Wal-Mart out of $624,000Â* - NY Daily News

Violent riots continue to shake Stockholm's suburbs for the third night in a row, following a police shooting last week. Last Monday, police shot a man in the impoverished, mostly immigrant suburb of Husby, after the 69-year-old allegedly threatened the police with a machete that he was brandishing. Husby is primarily composed of immigrants from the Middle East, Turkey, and Somalia. The riots are a reaction to what was seen as "police brutality."

After the rioting in Husby, the protests spread to other suburbs around the capital of Sweden. The rioters have started fires, smashed windows of schools and businesses, torched cars (at least 100 cars were burned on Sunday night) in nine suburbs around Stockholm. The police have made eight arrests so far. The riots consist of about about 60 to 100 people, mostly younger men. The protesters have also responded violently to the police, throwing stones and kicking them.

Megafonen, the youth group responsible for organizing the protests, is demanding an independent investigation of the police as well as a public apology. Rami al-Khamisi, a law student and founder of Megafonen, said to a Swedish newspaper The Local they had been called racial slurs. He said the riots are a response to "growing marginalization and segregation in Sweden over the past 10, 20 years."

Yesterday, the Prime Minister Reinfeldt stated:

"We've had two nights with great unrest, damage, and an intimidating atmosphere in Husby and there is a risk it will continue. We have groups of young men who think that that they can and should change society with violence. Let's be clear: this is not okay. We cannot be ruled by violence."

Stockholm Riots Continue for Third Night, After Police Shooting

A mystery respiratory illness has killed two people and infected five others in Alabama. All of the victims have shown signs of fever, cough and shortness of breath, but the Alabama Department of Public Health hasn't been able to identify the disease.

Officials collected samples from all of the victims and sent them to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, but results aren't available yet. One of the test samples tested positive for H1N1 influenza A, but officials aren't sure if that's what caused the illness.

"At this point it's too early to tell," [Acting state epidemiologist for the Alabama Department of Public Health Dr. Mary] McIntyre told NBC News. "That's why we called it a respiratory illness of unknown origin."
McIntyre did note that none of the victims had travelled – or been in contact with someone who'd travelled – outside the country recently, which would have put them at risk for several unfamiliar diseases.

In recent months, a new strain of Coronavirus surfaced in several countries, including France, the UK and Saudi arabia, killing 18 and infecting another 15. And there's been recent evidence that H7N9, a strain of the bird flu has killed 17 and infected 82 in China, might spread person-to-person, though Alabama officials said there was no evidence linking the infections to H7N9.
Mystery Respiratory Illness Infects 7, Kills 2 in Alabama

Source/VIDEO


When the weather forecasters start to duck and cover, it's time to listen to their warnings.

A tornado emergency in Wichita, Kansas, on Sunday took on a new sense of immediacy when local broadcasters left the set during live coverage and announced they were taking shelter.

J.D. Rudd, a meteorologist at NBC news affiliate KSN, told viewers repeatedly the situation had become an emergency and they should take shelter. From off-camera, a man identified as the chief meteorologist, Dave Freeman, said the radar showed the tornado headed straight for downtown, where the station is located.

Before long, the broadcasters were taking their own advice. Rudd stepped off camera and Freeman's voice said it was time for them to leave as well.

In the first comment on the video uploaded to KSN, a viewer says she refused to take shelter until she saw the staff at the television station walk off set.

"Once you all took shelter some of us actually realized just how serious this storm was and decided to take shelter!" Anita Pearson wrote.

The storm did not cause serious damage to the television station's building, according to NBC, because it lifted as it arrived downtown. NBC reports that thousands of buildings lost power but no one reported any injuries or fatalities in Kansas.

Source:
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