Originally published on March 5, 2014, at WeAreChange.org
On February 25 at 5:59 a.m., the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department, Salinas Police Department, and the FBI orchestrated the simultaneous arrests of 6 King City police officers. Included in the apprehensions for corruption charges were former Police Chief Nick Baldiviez, acting Police Chief Bruce Miller, and his civilian brother Brian Miller.
Originally published on February 24, 2014, at WeAreChange.org
Last weekend, thousands of demonstrators across multiple continents protested against the state-sponsored violence in Venezuela. Attending the protest in front of the Federal Building in West Los Angeles, I tried not to recall how much blood had been spilled here in recent years.
Originally published on February 20, 2014, at WeAreChange.org
With seemingly no explanation, 8 corporate executives have died within weeks of one another. Ruling out homicide in each case, local police believe the deaths were either suicidal or accidental in nature.
On the morning of January 26, 2014, Tata Motors Managing Director Karl Slym jumped out of his window on the 22nd floor of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. His wife claims she was asleep in the room with him at the time. Hotel staff awoke her shortly after her husband’s body was discovered on the 4th floor.
Originally published on February 10, 2014, at WeAreChange.org
On May 3, 1998, the Cincinnati Enquirer published an expose titled “Chiquita Secrets Revealed” by Mike Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter. The articles detailed Chiquita’s complicity in international drug trafficking, bribing foreign government officials, suppressing the unionization of workers and poisoning employees with hazardous pesticides.
The investigation included a wide range a sources including over 2,000 copies of voicemail messages between Chiquita executives admitting to their crimes. Mike Gallagher, the lead investigative reporter on the story, claimed he had acquired the voicemails from a former legal counsel for Chiquita who wished to remain anonymous.
Originally published on February 4, 2014, at TravelersToday.com
Millions of starfish are mysteriously mutilating themselves along the Pacific Coast. Dubbed sea star wasting syndrome, this idiopathic disorder causes the arms of a starfish to writhe and contort until finally ripping themselves apart from their body spilling their innards. Although starfish can usually regenerate lost limbs, infected starfish are too sick to grow their arms back.
From Anchorage to San Diego, starfish carcasses litter the ocean floor in an unprecedented epidemic. Scientists from Cornell, the University of Washington and UC Santa Cruz are researching possible origins of the syndrome that has spread across at least 12 species of starfish.
Originally published on February 4, 2014, at TravelersToday.com
Sick of the same old tourist traps? Tempted to indulge in guilty pleasures and morbid curiosities?
In Rome on the Via Veneto, the church of Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini sits atop Capuchin Crypt. Although the Capuchin friars maintain a quaint cathedral above, the stairs lead down to macabre constructions of human femurs and jawbones nailed to the ceiling in elaborate patterns.
Originally published on February 4, 2014, at TravelersToday.com
According to a recent report in the American Journal of Public Health, marijuana does reduce suicide.
3 university professors reached the conclusion that the suicide rate of men aged 20-39 years old dropped in states that had legalized medical marijuana versus states that criminalized pot.
Originally published on January 20, 2014, at WeAreChange.org
On April 4, 1968, on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, an assassin’s bullet stole the life of civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Before arriving in Memphis, Tennessee, Dr. King was organizing the Poor People’s Campaign. The Campaign sought economic and civil rights while demanding anti-poverty legislation. Thousands of people would eventually camp out on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in an effort that would later inspire movements like Occupy Wall Street.
Originally published on January 8, 2014, at WeAreChange.org
In an effort to expose police corruption, 18 Los Angeles Sheriff’s Deputies have been charged with various reports of inmate abuse, assaulting visitors, obstructing an FBI investigation, and threatening an FBI agent.
While investigating claims of Sheriff’s Deputies using excessive force on inmates and smuggling contraband into jail in exchange for bribes, an FBI informant allegedly paid Deputy Gilbert Michel to smuggle a cell phone into the jail.
Originally published on December 13, 2013, at WeAreChange.org
Continued from CIA Exposed Part 2: Convicts, Assassins, and Defectors
13. Kermit Roosevelt, Jr.
Grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt and distant cousin of FDR, Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. entered the Office of Strategic Service during World War II. After the dissolution of the OSS, Roosevelt became a political action officer of the CIA’s Directorate of Plans. In 1953, he orchestrated the coup d’etat against Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, codenamed TP-AJAX. After returning to the US, Roosevelt worked in Washington as a lobbyist for foreign governments, including Iran.
“We were all smiles now… Warmth and friendship filled the room.”
andrewemett 