There’s some more information on the Aqua Dots recall.

Millions of Chinese-made toys have been pulled from shelves in North America and Australia after scientists found they contain a chemical that converts into a powerful “date rape” drug when ingested. Two children in the U.S. and three in Australia were hospitalized after swallowing the beads.

Isn’t that nice. When ingested, the Aqua Dots metabolize into gamma hydroxy butyrate, the date rape drug. No one knew this? No one tested the chemicals used on the Aqua Dots? No one double checked to see what the chemical interactions would be?

And this was the toy of the year in Australia last year?

The marketing for this product has been so heavy, that even we broke down and bought some for our youngest. Of course, our youngest is well above the labeled age requirement, and he knows better than to put toys in his mouth and such.

But what about the exposure through the skin? He played with those Aqua Dots a lot, and sprayed them with water, and because he’s a kid, he would re-arrange them and play with them while they were sticky. What happens when those chemicals are absorbed through the skin? I bet the so called experts don’t even know.

Needless to say, the “toy of the year” seems to be the most immediately lethal (if ingested). Maybe they should have called them Aqua Dates.

What do you call a woman who abuses children, let alone children with autism? Personally, I
would call her a bitch and slam her face on a desk to show her what it feels like.

Latasha Burse was working as a teacher’s aide in a classroom of autistic students at Reed Elementary School in March when she heard a loud bang.

Burse testified in Justice Court on Wednesday that she turned around and saw the teacher, Mamie Hubbard-Washington, with her hand on the back of a 9-year-old autistic boy’s neck. Burse surmised that the teacher had just slammed the child’s face onto the top of a table.

The boy, Matthew, was crying, which was uncharacteristic for him, Burse said.

Hubbard-Washington told the child to stop crying and left for lunch. Burse and another teacher’s aide cleaned Matthew’s mouth in the bathroom and took him to eat.

“His tooth was chipped, and his lip was bleeding,” Burse said.

It was one of several suspicious injuries Matthew suffered in Hubbard-Washington’s class that spring, prompting his mother to pull him out of the school before the end of the school year.

Hubbard-Washington, 64, is facing five felony charges of child abuse and neglect for injuries authorities allege she inflicted on her autistic students at Reed in 2006 and 2007. Wednesday was the second and final day of testimony in her preliminary hearing that will determine whether she will stand trial on the charges.

The teacher’s aides noticed the alleged abuse and another one quit because she had a nervous breakdown due to the tense environment in the classroom.

Imagine how the children felt.

Details are still a bit sketchy, but it appears we’ve had another school shooting.

Why do kids feel that the only way they can be heard is to show up at school and injure (or kill) their classmates and teachers? Why is there so much rage in our children?

There has to be a fundamental problem that is forcing children to think this is their only option. If it wasn’t a big deal, we wouldn’t have so many incidents of school shootings, would we? Shouldn’t we be looking for the cause of this?

A student gunman opened fire at a high school in Cleveland Wednesday, and one witness said he saw three people taken out in stretchers.

One local report indicates the teenage gunman is dead.

One student at SuccessTech Academy said she heard the principal say “Code Blue” over the public address system, and the students started running. Doneisha LeVert said she hid in a closet with some of her friends.

[Source: FOXNews]

I can’t believe there was a time when I actually believed Marion Jones. Heck, my wife and I didn’t miss any of her races, and we cheered for her when she won her medals.

For years, Marion Jones angrily denied using steroids. On Friday, she admitted it was all a lie.

The three-time Olympic gold medalist pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs, and announced her retirement after the hearing. Jones also pleaded guilty to a second count of lying to investigators about her association with a check-fraud scheme.

Outside the courthouse, Jones broke down in tears as she apologized for her actions, saying she fully understands she has disappointed her friends, family and supporters.

“I have let them down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down,” she said. “It is with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you I have betrayed your trust.

What a waste.

You know your recall is huge when it puts you out of business.

Topps Meat Co. LLC, the meat company responsible for the second-largest beef recall in U.S. history, said Friday it will close its plant in Elizabeth, N.J., and go out of business, effective immediately.

Topps on Sept. 25 began a recall of its frozen hamburger meat that was expanded to comprise 21.7 million pounds of the meat, which may be contaminated with E. coli after federal inspectors discovered inadequate safety measures at its plant.

[Source: AP via Yahoo! Finance]

One incident, two answers.

An Orlando McDonald’s restaurant is under fire for an alleged mistake involving milkshakes. At the restaurant in the Lake Nona area, a customer said she saw McDonald’s employees pouring milk into the milkshake machine using a bucket with the words “Soiled Towels Only” on the side of it.

…

WFTV also asked the McDonald’s Corporation about the matter. They emailed the following statement: “Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We have taken swift and immediate action to resolve this matter. Nothing is more important to us than the safety and quality of our food.”

The customer, who initially took the cell phone picture, also forwarded the photo and a complaint to McDonald’s corporate officials. She told WFTV she got a different answer by email: “The machine was cleaned that morning. They sanitized the bucket to capture milk and after the repair work was done they put the milk back in the machine. This was an isolated incident.”

How disgusting. When was the last time you saw anything “sanitized” in a fast food restaurant?

Sad news from Utah today…

The body of a Brigham Young University student missing for more than a week was found in a canyon Sunday, authorities said, and investigators were trying to determine how she fell to her death.

The body of Camille Cleverley, 22, was found at the base of a 200-foot cliff east of Bridal Veil Falls in Provo Canyon, said Utah County Sheriff James O. Tracy.

Cleverley’s father, Joel, identified her at the scene, Tracy said, and it appeared that she had been dead for several days. The Utah medical examiner’s office took the body from the canyon Sunday evening.

The woman’s body had injuries consistent with a fall, but it was too early to rule out foul play, Provo police Capt. Cliff Argyle said.

Given the items found at the scene, it sounds like she may have simply fallen. If so, my only question would be, why was she hiking alone, especially up near Bridal Veil Falls?

Mattel seems to be having a serious problem with their suppliers.

Toymaker Mattel Inc (MAT.N) on Tuesday announced a third recall of Chinese-made toys, saying it would take back more than 800,000 units globally that contain “impermissible” levels of lead.

In total, 522,000 U.S. toys and 322,000 outside the United States are being recalled. The toys were shipped between August 3, 3006, and July 31, 2007, the company said.

This is the third recall in just a few weeks. How long until they recall every toy they have ever sold?

Doesn’t it make you wonder though, why didn’t anyone test these items before they were distributed in stores? It’s not like China has a great track record and all that. What gives?

Did someone know? Why didn’t Mattel act sooner? What did they know and when did they find out? There are all questions I am sure they will be forced to answer over the coming months.

It’s about time.

Cross posted at Kooks In Suits

When I lived out west, we used to go down to Kingman, Arizona, all the time to go hiking and such. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I passed abandoned mines and thought that they needed to be sealed or at least barricaded so people couldn’t fall in. That was 20 years ago.

A 13-year-old girl who fell into a brush-covered mine shaft while riding an all-terrain vehicle was found dead at the bottom Sunday, and her 10-year old sister was rescued with serious injuries, authorities said.

The girls, 13-year-old Rikki Howard and 10-year-old Casie Hicks, were out for a holiday weekend ride around 7 p.m. Saturday when their father, who was riding ahead of them on a dirt bike, noticed the girls were missing.

…

The mine, believed to be inactive, is located in Chloride, about 17 miles north of Kingman. It was next to a dirt road, concealed by brush and had no signs or barriers.

How sad.

Today is a good Friday.

James Ford Seale, a reputed Ku Klux Klansman, was sentenced Friday to three life terms in prison for his role in the 1964 abduction and murder of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi.

Seale, 72, was convicted in June on federal charges of kidnapping and conspiracy in the deaths of Charles Moore and Henry Hezekiah Dee, two 19-year-olds who disappeared from Franklin County on May 2, 1964.

The young men’s bodies were found two months later in the Mississippi River.

Seale showed no emotion as U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate read his sentence.

It may have taken 43 years, but the families of Charles Moore and Henry Dee finally got justice today.