Teenager Wins $70,000 Settlement After School Viewed Her Facebook Profile

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnewaska School District and a girl represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota have settled a lawsuit that claimed school officials violated the student's constitutional rights by viewing her Facebook and email accounts without permission.

The school district has agreed to pay $70,000 to settle the 2012 case involving former Minnewaska Area Middle School sixth-grader, Riley Stratton, now 15 years old.
According to the lawsuit, Stratton was given detention after posting disparaging comments about a teacher's aide on her Facebook page, even though she was at home and not using school computers. The ACLU also said administrators viewed her online conversations with a boy because of a complaint the two were using computers to talk about sex.
"It was believed the parent had given permission to look at her cellphone," Minnewaska Superintendent Greg Schmidt said Tuesday. But Schmidt said the district lacked did not have a signed consent from the parent. That is now a policy requirement, he said.
Stratton said she is happy the case is over and that the school has changed its rules. She said the experience was embarrassing and hard to go through, but that schools elsewhere will hear about the case and will not punish other students the way she was disciplined.
Stratton fell behind on schoolwork because she was too distraught and embarrassed to attend school, according to the lawsuit, which sought unspecified damages and an order that would stop school officials from attempts to regulate or discipline students based on speech made outside of school hours and off school property.
Schmidt said the fact that the posting occurred at home was a factor in settling the case.
"There's lots of questions about whether schools should discipline kids for things that happen out of school," he said.
The $70,000 settlement will be divided between the Strattons, for damages, and the ACLU of Minnesota.

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Heart Attack: How Your Body Warns You Days Before

These 4 Things Happen Right Before a Heart Attack
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Despite what you may believe, heart attacks rarely happen “out of the blue.”

In fact, your body may be trying to warn you of an impending heart attack for days, weeks, perhaps even a month or two before it occurs. Unfortunately, by the time you actually recognize you’re suffering a heart attack; it could be too late to prevent death or debilitating heart damage.

So-called silent heart attacks, with signs and symptoms that are mild or seem unrelated to the heart, have long concerned cardiovascular expert Dr. Chauncey Crandall. So Dr. Crandall recently created a special free video presentation about the four most sinister warning signs to watch for.

Statistics show

2014: The Best Airports In The World

Changi Airport in Singapore.

Skytrax has just released the results of its annual WorldAirport Awards, and once again, Singapore's Changi Airport has taken the top spot.

It's no surprise that Changi took the number one spot. The international transit hub has incredible amenities, like a butterfly garden, rooftop pool, movie theaters, hotels, spas, and showers, and even a four-story slide.
Skytrax bases its rankings on 12.85 million customer nominations across 110 nationalities, and includes 410 airports worldwide. It incorporates passenger satisfaction across nearly 40 categories, from service and shopping to security and immigration.
All of the airports that were commended last year made the 2014 list, but in a slightly different order.

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Here's A Photo Of Obama Meeting Pope Francis For The First Time

 

President Barack Obama held a historic first meeting Thursday morning with Pope Francis at the Vatican, on the fourth day of his week-long trip through Europe.

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The two world leaders smiled and greeted each other with a handshake, according to a White House pool report of the meeting.

Wonderful meeting you," Obama said, according to the pool report. "Thank you sir, thank you."

"It is a great honor. I'm a great admirer," he added. "Thank you so much for receiving me."

In many ways, Pope Francis' still-rising popularity on the world stage mirrors the standing of Obama in 2008, when he was first campaigning for president. In its preview of Obama's trip, the White House said Obama looked forward to discussing their "shared commitment to fighting poverty and growing inequality," issues that have been embraced by the Pope in his first year.

The admiration for Pope Francis runs wide in Washington. Earlier this month, House Speaker John Boehner invited the pope to address a joint session of Congress sometime in the near future. The pope has a 76 percent approval rating with Americans, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.

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Our Presidential System Of Government Breeds Corrupt Leaders — Soyinka

Nobel Laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka, yesterday took a swipe at the presidential system of government being practiced in Nigeria, describing it as a model that breeds corrupt leaders.

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He also regretted that those who were not elected bulldoze their ways into public offices under the present structure of governance.
Soyinka, who was among the panelists at the inaugural Public Service Debate convened by the Saint John’s Forum, titled: Will Nigeria Be Better Served By A Parliamentary System of Government?,  spoke in Lagos.
The event, which also had former Minister of External Affairs, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia, Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who was represented by Prof Okechukwu Okoh, Dr. Abduraufu Mustapha as panelists, was moderated by former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku.
Soyinka further stressed the need for a public discourse on the structure of government that can guarantee fair representation of Nigerians, adding that the public became critiques of the  presidential system of government because it is close to kleptomania.
In addition, he argued that  unlike parliamentary democracy,  the current system of government in Nigeria, is prone to manipulation.
According to Soyinka: ‘’Parliament reminds me of the organization that I belong to, the international parliament of writers. The organization does not make law and does not belong to any constituency. Whatever system of government you operate, is determined by so many factors. There is a straight line between dishonourable members and what Nigeria is going through.  Yerima is one of those that make laws but he defiles the law. We need a public discourse on a structure that guarantees representation of the people. Those who were never elected bulldoze their ways to the hallowed House.
‘’You can’t say that after the civil war, people can’t examine the protocol that bind them. The cost of democracy in the two systems, which is cheaper and less open to manipulation? Which one encourages corruption? The public became critiques of the presidential system because it is close to kleptomania. Presidential system breeds corrupt leaders.’’

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Ex-Ukraine Leader Tymoshenko Faces Heat For Comments About Nuking Russians

Ukraine's former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko was plunged into fresh controversy on Tuesday after Russian television broadcast a tape where she is heard urging the "wiping out" of Russians over Moscow's seizure of Crimea.
Tymoshenko, a hugely controversial figure both in Ukraine and Russia who was released from jail last month, confirmed the voice was hers but said some of the comments had been manipulated.
"This really crosses all the boundaries," Tymoshenko is heard to say in the leaked phone call posted on YouTube and broadcast extensively on Russian television Monday.
"One has to take up arms and go wipe out these damn 'katsaps' together with their leader," the voice said in Russian, without mentioning Putin by name.
The word "katsap" is a derogatory Ukrainian term for Russians.
During the conversation, Tymoshenko is said to discuss Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Russian-speaking peninsula of Crimea with Ukrainian MP and former government official Nestor Shufrych.
Tymoshenko, who spent three years in jail on what her supporters say were politically motivated charges of abuse of power before being freed last month, said if she were in power Moscow would not be able to take the peninsula.
"I am sorry that I am not able to be there and am not in charge of these processes, they wouldn't have had a fucking chance of getting Crimea off me."
"I would have found a way to finish off these bastards," the 53-year-old leader of the 2004 pro-democracy Orange revolution was heard as saying.
"I am hoping that I will use all my connections and will get the whole world to rise up so that not even scorched earth would be left of Russia."
Discussing the fate of Ukraine's eight million ethnic Russians with Shufrych, Tymoshenko was also heard as saying that they should be "nuked".

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Obama Just Gave His Most Direct Public Rebuke Of Vladimir Putin

President Barack Obama delivered his most direct, public rebuke of Russia and President Vladimir Putin in Belgium on Wednesday, during the most high-profile address of his weeklong European trip.
Obama's speech in Brussels served as a direct plea to Europe for a unified response to Russian aggression in Ukraine, in addition to the sanctions that have already been laid out. He said the West was not entering into another Cold War with Russia, but he described some of Putin's recent actions as having stirred up the "darker forces of the past."
"Make no mistake, neither the United States nor Europe has any interest in controlling Ukraine," Obama said during the speech. "Understand as well, this is not another Cold War that we're entering into. After all, unlike the Soviet Union, Russia leads no bloc of nations, no global ideology. The United States and NATO do not seek any conflict with Russia."
During the nearly 40-minute long speech, Obama made the case to Europe that tough sanctions — perhaps even some inflicting potential harm on their own economies — are the best way to respond to Russian aggression.
Obama's speech looked at the implications of the Ukrainian crisis in a broader context. He said Ukrainians had been determined to get their country back from what was a "corrupt" government, and he made a veiled comparison of Russia's actions to the events that sparked previous World Wars.
"To be honest, if we defined our interests narrowly, with a cold-hearted calculus, we might decide to look the other way," he said. "Our economy is not deeply integrated with Ukraine’s. Our people and our homeland face no direct threat from the invasion of Crimea. Our own borders are not threatened by Russia’s annexation. But that kind of casual indifference would ignore the lessons that are written in the cemeteries of this continent."
Obama concluded by providing a defense of U.S. intervention in Iraq a decade ago. Obama opposed the war as a U.S. senator, loudly campaigned against it in 2008, and immediately developed plans to draw down troop presence from Iraq as president. However, he said it was foolish to compare U.S. actions in Iraq to Russia's actions in Ukraine.
"Russia has pointed to America’s decision to go into Iraq as an example of Western hypocrisy. It is true that the Iraq War was a subject of vigorous debate — not just around the world, but in the United States as well. I happened to oppose our military intervention there," Obama said. "But even in Iraq, America sought to work within the international system. We did not claim or annex Iraq’s territory, nor did we grab its resources for our own gain. Instead, we ended our war and left Iraq to its people and a fully sovereign Iraqi state could make decisions about its own future.

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