Law

A student in Virginia was handcuffed and charged with stealing a 65-cent carton of milk, which he already had the right to take as he was on the school’s free lunch program. Police have charged the teen with larceny charges anyway, because he had allegedly “concealed” the milk. RT reports: After the May 10 incident, the student named Ryan was also suspended from Graham Park Middle School in Triangle, Virginia. That day Ryan, who is entitled to the school’s free lunch program, went back to the lunch line to get his milk, according to his mother Shamise Turk.

While the US coal industry has had its share of bad news in the past year, following extensive plant shutdowns and numerous bankruptcies including that of the largest US coal producer Peabody Energy, there was some even more tragic news last night when as AP reported, West Virginia State Police say longtime coal company executive and recent Patriot Coal CEO Bennett K. Hatfield has been murdered.

Last night, the local press reported that Hatfield, 59, was shot to death Monday at Mountain View Memory Gardens, a cemetery in southern West Virginia's Mingo County.

The US Supreme Court has ruled in favour of Monsanto, allowing the agricultural giant to relentlessly pursue and sue farmers whose fields are inadvertently contaminated with Monsanto’s GM seeds.  The ruling left in tact a federal appeals court decision to throw out a 2011 lawsuit from the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association that sought to prevent Monsanto from claiming patents on genetically-modified seeds. The suit would have prevented Monsanto from destroying the lives of thousands of farmers.

Japan has formally asked the U.S. to end all military-related rapes, deaths and other violence in their country.  The Japanese Prime Minister said that he has “no words to express” his horror at an incident involving the disappearance of a Japanese woman, and the involvement of an American working on a U.S. military base who was arrested in connection with her disappearance. Pressfortruth.ca reports: The Japanese leader told the public that he urged the U.S. to “take thorough measures to prevent the recurrence” of any similar events in the future.