Rape victim might be expelled from university for speaking out against attacker

Rape victim might be expelled from university for speaking out against attacker:
Landen Gambill, a sophomore at the University of North Carolina,said the university sent her an e-mail informing her that she wasbeing charged with an Honor Code violation for “intimidating” heralleged rapist by speaking about her assault and the school’streatment of the case. Such a violation could lead to her expulsionfrom the university – even though she never revealed her allegedrapist’s name publicly.
“Obviously, I’m afraid. I never meant to make anyone mad atme [by speaking out],” Gambill told the Huffington Post.“I’m mostly surprised at just how crazy it is, that they’rewilling to charge me with something just because my rapist isfeeling uncomfortable.”
Gambill claims she was raped and stalked by her ex-boyfriend,who is a fellow UNC student. She claims to be traumatized from thesexual assault and that reporting it to the university only madethings worse.
“If I had known what would happen to me through this system,I don’t know if I would have made the same decision again,” shetold the Daily Tar Heel in late 2012. Gambill claims the universityhandled her case inappropriately and that school officials blamedher for the assault.
“They were not only offensive and inappropriate, but theywere so victim-blaming,” she said. During her Honor Courttrial, in which Gambill attempted to press charges against herattacker, she was asked why she didn’t simply break up with herboyfriend when she noticed him being abusive. The court also usedher past suicide attempt against her, allegedly implying that shewas “emotionally unstable”.
In the end, the alleged rapist was never charged or punished,and still attends UNC.
“It’s incredibly clear that those people had no idea whatsexual assault is, what consent is,” Gambill told the Daily TarHeel.
Distraught about the school’s handling of the case, Gambilljoined 64 other students and teachers and filed a legal complaintwith the US Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights,claiming that UNC administrators underreported cases of sexualassault on campus and handled such cases inappropriately.
Gambill has also spoken up about the school’s handling of hercase, which she considers a grave injustice against her. Speakingin front of media representatives and at rallies, the young womanhas brought the issue into the national spotlight.
Days after news about the federal complaint against UNC brokeout, Gambill received the e-mail that threatened to expel her. Thee-mail said that her attacker filed a complaint against the youngwoman for creating an intimidating environment for him -- eventhough his identity remains publicly unknown.
If charged, Gambill could be expelled while her alleged rapistremains at UNC.
“This type of gross injustice is the reason why UNC studentsare speaking out and demanding answers,” Gambill told Jezebel.“The reason why I’m so vocal about this isn’t because I justwant justice for my case. I want to make sure no one else has to gothrough this if they want to report an assault to theuniversity.”

DHS official to resign after hundreds of illegal immigrants released from jails

DHS official to resign after hundreds of illegal immigrants released from jails:
Gary Mead, the executive associate director for the HomelandSecurity Department’s immigration enforcement and removaloperations, told colleagues this week that he will resign at theend of April. An email circulated to his co-workers was obtained bythe AP, who broke the story on Wednesday.
According to the AP, Mead sent the email to his Immigration andCustoms Enforcement (ICE) coworkers on Tuesday evening, only hoursafter news first broke that hundreds of detainees held in DHSimmigration jails were being released in advance of looming budget cuts all butcertain to impact a number of federal departments.
Within an hour of the AP's story, ICE spokesperson GillianChristensen called reports of Mead's resignation "inaccurate and misleading." Mead'sretirement, she said, has been long planned for the end ofApril.
When the story first broke, Christensen told the AssociatedPress that immigrants in jails across the US were being"placed on an appropriate, morecost-effective form of supervised release” due in part tothe sequester budget cuts expected to save the country over $1trillion during the next decade. The detainees in question, shesaid, would not be those “whopose a significant threat to public safety."
Following news of the decision, House Homeland SecurityCommittee Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said the decision“reflects the lack of resourceprioritization," and personally wrote to ICE Director JohnMorton to call the maneuver "indicative of the Department [of HomelandSecurity]’s weak stance on national security."
“All I can say is look, we’redoing our very best to minimize the impacts of sequester,”Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a pressbriefing Monday. “But there’sonly so much I can do. I’m supposed to have 34,000 detention bedsfor immigration. How do I pay for those?” Under budget cuts,Napolitano said her department “would not be able to maintain the 34,000detention beds as required by Congress."
The announcement of Mead’s resignation comes only two days afterword of the scandal first got wind. He didn’t act fast enough tothwart attacks from critics, however, who took two differentarguments in assaulting the decision to put hundreds of non-violentoffenders back on the street. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio)said to CBS News that the decision was “outrageous,” adding, “I can’t believe that they can’t find thekind of savings they need out of that department short of lettingcriminals go free.” Others took the opposite stance,attacking DHS for detaining hundreds of illegal immigrants forreasons that now suddenly don’t matter.
“The people being releasedtoday are people ICE could have released months – or in some cases,years – ago,” Mohammad Abdollahi, member of the Dreamer-ledNational Immigrant Youth Alliance, said to the Huffington Post.
“It shouldn’t take amanufactured crisis in Washington to prompt our immigrationagencies to actually take steps towards using government resourceswisely or keeping families together,” Carolina Canizales ofUnited We Dream added to the New York Times.
As the scandal intensified, even the White House tried todistance itself from ICE’s policies. "This was a decision made by career officialsat ICE without any input from the White House, as a result offiscal uncertainty over the continuing resolution, as well aspossible sequestration," White House press secretary JayCarney said Wednesday.

‘Medical stocks are down by 90 percent’: Greece accuses pharma giants of slashing imports

‘Medical stocks are down by 90 percent’: Greece accuses pharma giants of slashing imports:
Pfizer, Roche, GSK and AstraZeneca are among the producers thegovernment says have either stopped providing certain medicines tothe debt-stricken country, or plan to do so, according to the UK’sGuardian newspaper. Pfizer and Roche admit that they have done so,but GSK and AstraZeneca deny that they have reduced supplies sofar.
"It's a disgrace. The government is panic-stricken and themultinationals only think about themselves,” said DimitrisKarageorgiou, secretary of the Panhellenic PharmaceuticalAssociation.
As the news has spread, patients with prescriptions forantibiotics, statins and other medicines totalling over 200 brandnames, began queuing outside pharmacies.
“I would say supplies are down by 90%,” saidKarageorgiou.
“The companies are ensuring that they come in dribs and drabsto avoid prosecution. Everyone is really frightened. Customers tellme they are afraid of losing access to medicationaltogether.”
But the multinationals say the government’s own lack ofregulation has created this crisis, which has been more than twoyears in the making.
Under the current system, individuals in Greece buy medicinesfrom pharmacies, and are later reimbursed by the state, with thestate setting the prices the drug stores can charge. In the wake ofthe country’s financial crisis, the government ordered itspharmacies to sell drugs at much lower prices, to cut down its ownbudget expenditure.
But as Greek prices are now 20 percent below the next-cheapestcountry in Europe, this has created an incentive for pharmacists tosimply re-sell drugs to other countries in the EU, creating a“parallel trade”. The health ministry estimates that over 25percent of all drugs entering Greece are then re-exported.
Pharmaceutical companies have already lowered their prices forthe Greek market, but are now saying that the re-export is startingto eat into their profits in other European countries.
They also point out that as well as paying less, Greek insurancefunds and hospitals owe €1.9 billion to drug manufacturers.
"We are insisting that the public hospitals fulfil theircontracts and this is something we do in any country … We arewithholding medicines until they meet their obligations," saidDaniel Grotsky, a Roche spokesman.
The Swiss company is owed €200 million. Grotsky said Roche isstill supplying individual pharmacies, and only drugs wherealternatives are available have been held back.
Frouzis Konstantinos, of Novartis, another drug giant, says thegovernment needs to pay up its existing debt, and stop squeezingthe profit margins of pharmacies.
"The government needs to correct these wrong prices to avoida surge of exportation,” he told the Guardian.
But this is unlikely.
Under the austerity budget the state’s allocation for medicineshas fallen from €3.7 billion in 2011 to €2.44 last year, and thenumber for 2013 is likely to be even lower.
Instead, the government has banned exports of more than 60 drugsaltogether, and says it will levy fines of between €2,000 and€20,000 on those pharmacies that re-export illegally.

New York man dies in police custody, family suspects he was killed

New York man dies in police custody, family suspects he was killed:
The estate of Richard Metcalf tells WIVB News that they havefiled a notice of claim against Erie County and the Depew, New YorkPolice Department. Metcalf, 35, died in November after suffering amassive heart attack while in the custody of the Erie CountySheriff's jail division.
"I want to get to the bottom of it. I want to know the truth.I want to know what happened. I think his mother and I deserve toknow what happened,” the victim’s father, Richard Metcalf, Sr.,tells WIVB.
The younger Metcalf was in police custody at the time of hisdeath because he had been arrested days earlier by a Depew policeofficer called to respond to a burglary in progress. He was shotwith a Taser during the ordeal and taken to the Erie County MedicalCenter shortly after due to an elevated heart rate, but was thentransported to a holding center. Once back in a cell, police say hestarted acting erratically.
"He was spitting blood at the officers as they were trying tode-escalate the situation,” Holding Center SuperintendentThomas Diina told WIVB. “It was reported that he was pokinghimself with a fork, raking his face across the bars in front ofhis cell in order to get his mouth bloody so that he could spit atthe officers.”
Metcalf’s family disputes that claim, though, and suspects foulplay.
"My personal opinion is that he was severely beaten. There'sno other explanation. There's no other logical explanation forthat. If you can imagine your child like that after you just sawhim,” his father told the network last year while holding backtears.
After officers in the holding cell composed Metcalf, he wastaken once again to the medical center where he died shortlyafter.

Vatican policies ‘catastrophic in their implications’

Vatican policies ‘catastrophic in their implications’:
Failure to deal with these issues, as well as other“symptomatic” failures, is partly the reason why Pope Benedict XVIis stepping down, Porteous Wood argues.

RT: One of the growing allegations right now is thatthere is some sort of influential gay network operating within theVatican. What do you think? If there is anything behind that? Isthat why the pope is leaving, or is there no mileage in that atall?
Keith Porteous Wood: I think, it is symptomatic of thefact that he has lost control, which that whole episode over hisbutler showed that very strongly. But, I think there are severalother important factors playing as well. I’m certainly aware of twomajor issues over child abuses that are going to come up and aregoing to be very, very hard for the Vatican to swallow. Because itis not like it is the child abuse, bad though that is, is the issue- it is actually that the finger of blame is going to be pointed atthe Vatican for having obstructed justice and all the secret filesthat it won’t release.
So, that is going to look very, very bad, and I think peoplewill get less and less tolerant about that. And the Vatican hasshown no real sign of actually coming to terms with this, ofputting its hands up and really atoning for its past sins, andbeing much more open and dealing more properly with victims andactually getting the people who perpetrated these crimes turnedover to the police.

RT: It begs the question: why not? Why have they notdone that?
KPW: The Vatican has forever been an organizationthat is only interested in its own power and preserving its ownreputation and its own finances - it has always been thus. But withthe kind off communications we have today, they can’t get away withthat any longer. And the stronger regulatory powers as well - thatis also coming around to hit them quite big time on moneylaundering. I mean, there have been rumors for ages about the waythe internal banking of the Vatican works. In fact, they could noteven get the credit cards working in their museums. It's sohumiliating, and so symbolic of the complete breakdown of thesystem.
They just can’t get away with that any longer either. And it isvery interesting that his grace, even though he was right at theend, that Cardinal O’Brien from the UK said that he thought it wasabout time that priests should be allowed to marry, which may alsobe behind some of the child abuse problems. I think the time hascome: the church has to make up its own mind, it is not for me totell it, but I think an awful lot of people are thinking it is timethey ought to be much more open to modern thinking over issues likethese, and also their obsession with contraception is so damagingin the third world to women, to women’s health, to overpopulation.That is something that is so quiet and not talked about, but it iscatastrophic in its implications.

RT: What does the Church need to do now, to change allthe negative things you’re talking about?
KPW: The outgoing pope has to pad the college ofcardinals with people who are not more conservative then he is, soit is going to be pretty hard. But if they’ve got any sense theyshould look and see that the vast majority of Catholics don’tactually agree with all the positions of the sensitive socialissues. And I think, they actually need to look at their owncongregation, and start taking some signs from that, and be muchmore sensible over issues like contraception, homosexuality,abortion - all those kinds off things - and actually be open tosecular justice on matters such as child abuse and moneylaundering.

Fracking lobbyists try to 'withdraw' fraudulent, failed petition

Fracking lobbyists try to 'withdraw' fraudulent, failed petition:
The petition was filed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association(COGA) and signed by 55 local business owner in the Fort Collinsarea. Or at least that’s what the lobbyists claimed.
After the city's lawmakers voted 5-2 to ban hydraulic fracturinginside city limits on February 19, three businesses listed amongthe signatories voiced their curiosity about how their names, insome cases misspelled, ended up on a petition they neversupported.
Further investigation revealed that almost half of thesignatures were fabricated or signed on behalf of business ownersand not their businesses. Some signatories claimed they neverendorsed fracking, knew nothing about the petition, or were misledand didn’t know they were signing it as an individual.
The signatures were collected by EIS Solutions, an energyconsulting firm based hundreds of miles away in Grand Junction.
An EIS Solutions spokesman said the company “went topains” to ask the people if they could speak on behalf of theirrespective business, while the COGA spokesperson said people“obviously knew” what they were doing when they signed the‘Vote NO on the Fort Collins Fracking Ban’ petition.
The owner of Anders’ Auto Glass business, Tamara Olivett,obviously didn’t.
“I don’t even know what fracking is,” Olivett toldcoloradoan.com.
COGA was quick to announce that they acknowledged some“mistakes in the collection of signatures.” In several casesCOGA was even unable to identify signatories in order to contactthem to verify their intentions.
Citing these mistakes in an email to the Fort Collins citycouncil, COGA's president and CEO said the lobby group wanted to“withdraw that petition from the record.”
But once a petition is part of the public record, it can’t bewithdrawn or removed.
“We’re not giving it back,” said Rita Harris, FortCollins' deputy city clerk.

P5+1 eases nuclear demands on Iran, offers sanctions relief

P5+1 eases nuclear demands on Iran, offers sanctions relief:
A new proposal finalized during the Wednesday meeting in Almaty,Kazakhstan would require Iran to suspend - but not completely closedown - operations at its underground uranium enrichment facility inFordo. It would also create a set amount of 20-per-cent-enricheduranium for Iran to stockpile.
The offer marks a new turn in the long term of negotiationsbetween world powers and Iran, which previously had made starkdemands on the Islamic Republic. The P5+1 - the United States,Russia, France, Britain, China and Germany - are now only askingfor scaled down operations in Iran's nuclear program, which somegovernments allege is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb.
Iran would also now be able to keep enough enriched uranium toproduce medical isotopes at a research facility in Tehran.
The group asked Iran to allow International Atomic Energy Agencymonitors to visit its facilities more often in exchange for thesuspension of selected current sanctions and a moratorium on newones.
However, Hillary Mann Leverett, CEO of Strategic Energy andGlobal Analysis, a Washington-based political risk consultancy,told RT this part may be only an empty gesture.
"Everyone knows the United States has very little that it cangive on sanctions," she said. "President Obama essentiallyceded his foreign policy on this issue to the US Congress; almostall of those sanctions are written into US law. They are notsomething President Obama can give away."
In any case, the European Union's embargo on Iranian oil was notbrought up for negotiation at the meeting, though the P5+1 wouldreportedly consider easing restrictions on Iran's gold andpetrochemicals trades, as well as those on its banks.
But, after all, it may not matter in the long run, Mann Leveretttold RT. "There's not much the US can give on sanctions, and inthe meantime Iran is becoming more and more self-sufficient in arange of issues so that it's not vulnerable to suchsanctions."
Said Jalili, Iran's chief negotiator at the meetings, called thetalks "positive" in comments to the press in Almaty. Headded that some of the offers coming from Western governmentslooked “more realistic than those presented in the past and madean effort to approach the positions of Iran.”
Mann Leverett explained what Jalili might have been getting at:"The critical issue for the Iranians, and I think this is wherethey perceived a slight - and I stress slight - movement on the USside, is in the recognition of their rights: their sovereign andtheir treaty-based rights to enrich uranium."
Jalili stressed that Tehran saw "no justification" forshutting down the Fordo facility.
Next, Iranian and EU officials are set to meet in Istanbul onMarch 18 for negotations that will include experts on nucleartechnology.