STATES CHRONICLE – Matt Wilbourn, who is the founder of the Muskogee Atheist Community, made a 100 dollars donations is his organization’s name to the Murrow Indian Children’s Home. You would think there is nothing special about this event. What happened after that, surprised him. The children’s charity refused its donation because they are funded by the American  Baptist Churches Association.

He said that he was called by a lady who told him that his donation could not be accepted as it would go against everything they believe in. Matt Wilbourn did not give up. He e-mailed the director saying her that he would raise the amount to 250 dollars.  Moreover, he and his wife launched a fundraiser for the children’s charity home. They managed to raise more than 28 000 dollars from the kids. The money comes from religious people and atheists who were shocked by the response he got.

Many people supported him because they did not understand why the children’s home refused the money.  It should not matter who gives the money as long as he/she wants to help. There were a lot of online supporters who thanked him for fighting back with love. It would have been easier for him stop trying helping the kids, but it seems he understood that they have no fault and somebody should help them.

Murrow Indian Children’s Home should think again before refusing a donation. As many people said, anything matters for those kids and the fact that somebody wanted to donate money has nothing to do with what they are believing in. The children’s charity have existed for a long time because people helped them by giving money or volunteer. There are 36 children in state custody who live there and it runs more than 500 000 dollars a year.

The officials said they had nothing to comment even after they heard about the fundraiser. Moreover, they deleted their Facebook page because there were a lot of comments from people who blamed them for not taking the money.

Matt Wilburn decided he will donate 5 000 dollars to the charity’s home by using his name or a friendly church. We are glad he did not give up because those kids need help and they are not aware of what officials decided for them. The church should be open-minded and understand that people who want to help others are good people, no matter what religion they have.

Image source: Wikipedia

 

 

STATES CHRONICLE- On Aug. 16, the Delaware State Police have reported they were able to apprehend a woman who had reportedly attacked another woman and her child in a cart dispute earlier this month while she was shopping in a Target store in Wilmington.

According to the police, the 39-year-old Lataka Mason poured bleach on her victim’s head and endangered the welfare of that shopper’s child.

Mason currently faces multiple charges including first-degree and second-degree assault.

DSP’s Master Cpl. Jeffrey Hale said that the woman turned herself in Aug. 16 after the police publicized her name and name on their website and Facebook account.

Investigators have been looking for her for more than 14 days, and asked for the public’s assistance in identifying her in the surveillance camera footage.

State troopers were dispatched to the Brandywine Hundred store Aug. 4 following the report of an attack. A 24-year-old female customer told troopers that she and Mason started fighting after her shopping cart reportedly blocked the isle.

The fight escalated when Mason tried to get past the woman’s shopping cart and the two women’s carts collided. Reportedly, Mason got so angry that she felt the urge to physically attack her rival.

The woman grabbed a bottle of bleach and poured on the other Target customer’s head. The police noted that the highly corrosive substance accidentally hit the victim’s one-year-old baby too, who was sitting in his mother’s cart.

The attacker left the scene before troopers arrived. Witnesses said that they saw her driving off in a small white car alongside a man. Target parking lot cameras show the woman was dressed in a black and yellow dress and had braided hair. The police described her as being and African-American, “short in weight with a large build.”

The victims were taken to the hospital were their non-life-threatening injuries received medical attention.

Two weeks later “multiple tips from the public” led to the identification of Mason in the photos the police have posted on social media. The woman surrendered to Troop 1 in Penny Hill on Tuesday.

She is currently held at Baylor Women’s Correctional Institution. Reportedly, she was not able to pay the $25,000 secured bail.

Image Source: dspnewsroom.com

STATES CHRONICLE – When thousands of unaccompanied children are crossing the border between Mexico and the U.S. authorities are in full alert.

Last month about 5,000 immigrant children tried to illegally cross the border from Mexico to the U.S. What is more alarming is that they were doing so unaccompanied. According to U.S. Customs, the number has doubled since October 2014.

However, there were also cases when family members tried to cross together and these have also increased in number from last year. In October 2014 about 2,162 family members tried to cross the borders whereas in 2015 the number has tripled and it now reached 6,029.

The numbers have increased dramatically despite the fact that authorities were expecting a lower number of immigrants from Mexico due to efforts of better enforcement from both sides of the border and due to the announced colder winter we are expecting.

The records of illegal immigrants were started in 2009 and are registering this year the highest number of unaccompanied children caught at the border, which is exactly 4, 973. Throughout the air, more precisely from spring up until now, the flow of immigrants has been almost constant, with over 4,000 people every month.

Now, don’t think immigrants are coming only from Mexico. Most of them are actually coming from other Latin countries, usually the ones that are having political or economic problems. For example, this October most of the immigrants were from El Salvador. Authorities believe this is because of the increased violence in that country, where an average of 30 murders are said to be happening every day. Before El Salvador, Guatemala was the country most immigrants were coming from.

Most of the immigrants are trying to cross the border in Texas, through the Rio Grande Valley. However, some of them are starting to move farther west in their attempt to enter the U.S. Homeland Security Department stated that most families told Customs officials that the ones deciding on the place of crossing were the smugglers.

An illegal immigrant pays around $5,000 to a smuggler to get them on the other side of the border. This is the price for crossing in the Rio Grande Valley. However, for crossing near Ciudad Acuna the price is lower, ranging from $1,000 to $2,000.

Despite the fact that the flow of immigrants is very high and doesn’t show signs of diminishing, U.S. authorities are trying to keep them at bay. They do this through media campaigns that are meant to discourage people from starting such a dangerous journey. Besides, all of those who try to illegally come to the U.S. are going to be immediately sent back.

Image source: www.bing.com

STATES CHRONICLE – A recent survey conducted by CNN and the Kaiser Foundation shows that racism is not going away from America. The Survey of Americans on Race focused on race and ethnicity and looked at how people felt about the impact these things have in their lives. It was aimed to be a representative poll for the U.S. nation.

People who participated in the survey came from different ethnic groups and different races. The results were meant to give a better understanding of how people from different races interact, to measure discrimination, and to assess social and economic inequality as well as unfair treatment from the police.

The survey was conducted this year between August 25 and October 3 and the sample consisted of randomly selected 1,951 adults. After the survey, interviews were carried out in either English or Spanish depending on the person’s preference. In addition to this, other interviews were conducted in an “oversample”. There were 500 interviews with African Americans and 501 with Hispanic Americans. This was done in order to make sure that what these people believed was reflected well enough in the study.

When the people participating in the survey were asked if they believe that racism is a big problem in present America, 49 percent of them responded “yes”. This is 21 percent more than in 2011 when a similar survey was conducted and only 28 percent of the respondents answered affirmatively at the same question.

Of course, as expected, opinions on the matter differ based on race and party affiliation. 66 percent of the black respondents consider racism to be a big issue. Similarly, most of the Hispanics believe the same with a percentage of 64. However, when it comes to white respondents, only 28 percent of them believe racism is indeed a problem.

In the last two years, the movement Black Lives Matter has succeeded in raising public awareness about racism and inequality and has also brought attention to the fact that police might treat black people more violently regardless of them posing a threat or not.

All in all, after so much time fighting against racism, we find out that in full modern civilization, with great cultural diversity all over the world and in the U.S. especially, racism is still a big problem, one that we should hurry up and find a solution to.

Image source: www.bing.com

Since the problems in Syria all of the refugees are trying to take shelter and get help in any other place of the world except their country. But the world is becoming concerned by the fact that these people who are flooding their homes are actually terrorists disguised as refugees.

This has also become one of the main concerns of the U.S. Government, especially after two Iraqi refugees in Kentucky planned to send rifles, missiles and money back home to an al-Qaida team that was planning an insurgency against U.S. troops. They were caught, however, and are now in prison, but their case rose the question of how safe would be to welcome refugees into our country, since there is this great risk of them being terrorists.

These two Iraqi men had an existing criminal record, so to speak, being previously involved in their country in insurgent attacks. They arrived in Kentucky in 2009 as part of a U.S. program that helped Iraqi refugees. Their plan to help their fellow al-Qaida operatives came to light when an FBI informant managed to infiltrate in their team and they were arrested in 2011. Fortunately, their plan failed to complete, the weapons, ammunition and money never reached Iraq so there was no attack caused by them.

However, most of the people who are opposing the idea of allowing Syrians to come into the U.S. are using the case of these Iraqis to support their cause. For example, Senator Rand Paul pointed to the case in his attempt to stop President Obama to bring another 10,000 refugees to the U.S. as there are many concerns among both citizens and politicians that the government might not be able to vet the refugees.

On the other hand, since the two Iraqis’ case raised so many questions and uncertainties about the system being vulnerable, Homeland Security has been making improvements to the screening system and this will show in screening the Syrian refugees.

The people who will, from now on, enter the U.S. as refugees will have to pass through the screening process which includes in-person interviews, background checks in the U.S. security agencies’ databases and even biometric screening. It is obviously an extensive process that will last between 18 months and two years and it can even be longer depending on the country they come from, especially if that said country is one affected by war.

According to the Migration Policy Institute, from approximately 800,000 refugees who were cleared to come and live in the U.S. only these two Iraqi men and another one from Uzbekistan were arrested for planning criminal acts. Therefore, we might see the bright side of the affair and hope that these will remain the only violent attempts of refugees.

In the end, who is to say if terrorists come disguised as refugees or not? Even with the extensive and complex screening system developed by the national security agencies, anything is possible and we should all keep our eyes open for any things that could seem amiss.

Image source:www.bing.com

You may have noticed that everywhere you look on the world wide web these days there are photos of Barack Obama and the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel standing together. Yes, you are right. Something is going on in Germany, and this fuss is all about the G7 summit that Germany hosts this month. The G7 summit is a meeting of international leaders discussing problems regarding industry and economy in general at a global scale. So it is one of the most important and secured events of the year. However, it is also one of the most controversial. While some expect good things to happen after the G7 summit, that will indirectly better their lives, there are other who do not trust the most relevant political figures of our times. That is how Germany has seen these days a series of clashes between police and protesters with the occasion of the international G7 summit.

Most likely, the people protesting against the G7 summit fear that there faiths are being decided at the round table of the world leaders and they feel like useless agents kept alive by their governments in order to be able to work. While you can make the case that they are exaggerating a little, the reaction of the crowds is somehow legitimate, if you were to take into consideration the fact that even the most non plausible conspiracy theories have to start from somewhere, a point that can be found and exploited from reality.

There were thousands of demonstrators who have been protesting against the policies of the most relevant countries in terms of industry in the Bavarian city of Munich. What started as a peaceful march against the way in which the world leaders attending the G7 summit establish the industrial policies of the globe turned rapidly into a clas between the protesters and the police.

The protest reunited people who are against capitalism, globalization and people with interest to the problems of the environment. It was all good until their march was stopped by the police at the entrance to the Elmau Castle Hotel, the place where the G7 summit takes place. At that moment, the protesters started to throw bottles and a fire extinguisher at the officials of the German police.

The authorities response was using their teargas, pepper spray and batons, leading to a dozen of people being injured, both from the police and the protesters.

Image Source: The Hindu

The Gaza Strip is one of the most delicate and tense areas in the entire world. The people who die in the Gaza Strip because of the conflicts emerging between Israel, a country who has recently lost a considerable percentage of its credibility and Hamas, which is still considered as a terrorist group by the Western civilization, and also suspected to be responsible for war crimes, according to investigations run by Amnesty International, are mostly civilians, children, and generally speaking people who are not directly involved in the fighting and in the disputes. So the global powers of the world have to deal in a very cautious way with the Gaza Strip conflict, and it is for sure a tough duty to meet even if you have only two parties to moderate. But if you add a third party functioning as a hidden agent of chaos to the matter, then you get a seriously problematic situation. Recently, voices have claimed that ISIL might be behind tensions in the Gaza Strip area.

A senior official talking on behalf of Hamas has sent a message to Jerusalem through Egypt, claiming that a group of rebels who are known as having connections to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is behind a series of events which aim at provoking a tense relation between the two sites involved officially in the Gaza Strip conflict.

The Hamas official has claimed that the group of rebels was the behind the recent attacks on Israel in order to fuel the conflict in the area.

And the statement of the Hamas official seems plausible at some point, especially if you were to take into consideration the fact that not much longer after the Hamas declaration, an Islamist group which has a reputation of being friendly to the Islamic State has claimed responsibility over the attacks.

The Defense Minister of Israel, Moshe Ya’alon has commented on the matter. He said that it does not matter much or it does not change much the fact that some jihadi organizations claim the attacks on Israel. Israel still sees Hamas as the public enemy no. 1, regarding them as the first to be responsible for the situation in Gaza.

“Overnight, the IDF retaliated to the attacks with airstrikes. And if it is necessary, we will strike with even greater force. Last summer was proof of that.”

the Defense Minister of Israel has added.

Image Source: vosizneias

With the recent removal of Cuba from the United States Terror List, a list which includes countries that are suspected to be aiding terrorist movements or foreign insurgencies in countries where social and political tension levels are very high, Havana hopes that a new perspective for national affairs has been opened. Since the American citizens have now an easier way to visit Cuba, for the communist island is no longer featured on the US Terror List, Cubans are already thinking of new ways to better the tourism and raise the income from the United States tourists in the months to come. So take a look at how Cubans plan to attract more visitors from the most influential country in the area, so you might get a glimpse on what the next most popular holiday destination might be for the citizens of the United States.

And it is not only that the people inhabiting the communist island are day dreaming. Statistics show that the amount of the United States citizens visiting Cuba has already risen. For instance, the numbers grew with a 36 per cent rate between the first and fifth month of the current year, compared to the period between January and May 2014.

In addition to that, international visits have raised in general. The arrivals of the foreigners are now up by 14 per cent, in the same period of comparison.

And the analysts connected to the problems of tourism have reckoned that the ascending path of the Cuban tourism is likely to continue in the period to come as well. There has been a lot of talk regarding a restart of the diplomatic relations between Havana and Washington, DC, and, according to the experts, such facts seldom go along with a growth in tourism between the countries.

It is an important factor that most of the people involved in tourism in Cuba have degrees to confirm their expertise and academic preparation.

Also, most of them speak English and are open to discover more English words which are not really common through the foreigners and which represent components to the American civilization, like `hipster` or `millennial`.

Moreover, a key point in their plan to raise the American oriented tourism is represented by their restaurants. In relation to that, Cubans say that Americans are the no. 1 tippers of all the tourists.

And, since Americans also like to party, Cubans are ready to invest in improving the nightlife in the most important cities of the country.

Image Source: Travel Guides

Even if the most recent events in connection to the matter of the United States` fight against terrorism would not probably lead to a reconsideration and diminishing of the potential sponsors of the jihadi organizations, a short while ago the United States have removed a country which has been thought of supporting Islamic extremist groups. This is good news for the citizens of Cuba but also for the citizens of the United States, at least the ones who credit the authorities with their trust, since the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave might have officially lost a potential threat against their noble ideal, of offering liberty and happiness to a democratic world. And in addition to that, the political analysts have another case to investigate, probably leading to countless debates, as they by now know a Cuba pleased with its recent removal for the Terror List of the United States.

The inhabitants of the communist island Cuba are more than happy with the recent official announcement by representatives of the United States. Since the Cold War emerged, the diplomatic relations between Washington, DC and Havana have been considerably damaged. The recent removal of Cuba from the list of potential sponsors to the terrorist organizations might represent a fresh start for a beneficial relation between the two countries.

The statement assuring Cuba`s removal from the US Terror List has been released on Friday. And while the American senior officials have said that the change has an immediate effect, the citizens of Cuba feel relieved, considering that a long time unjust situation  has been redressed.

“We have always fought for peace, for solidarity.  It was an injustice to put us on this list.”

a Cuban citizen has told the press.

Her message has been partaken of by her fellow countrymen. The Cubans feel like the United States have finally opened their eyes regarding this matter and have done the right thing in connection to Cuba`s image in relation to the terrorist threat.

Cuba has been part of the US Terror List for over 30 years. In 1982, the country was introduced on the list after Havana supported rebel movements in Latin America and also in Africa. However, Cuba has said numerous times after 1982 that they have stopped aiding such insurgencies in foreign countries.

And when it comes to rebuilding the diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba, there are different opinions. While president Raul Castro sees this moment as a fresh restart, some American lawmakers are still suspicious with the communist country.

Image Source: independent.md