“Reddit user murder_cheese” wrote the original article.

In the Pocket of the Lumber Industry

Blatant cronyism on a massive unapologetic scale? How do you top this? Do you kiss the industry’s feet?

Well, don’t worry about Tony Abbot. We can be confident that his next campaign will be very well financed.

James Pilant

Wildlife Extra News – Australian PM outrages with anti national parks stance

March 2014: The Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared he will not support the creation of any new national parks in Australia and that the country has quite enough, despite the fact that they cover just four per cent of Australia.

Speaking at the ForestWorks dinner in Canberra Tony Abbott said he was committed to supporting the Tasmanian logging timber industry and that too many of Australia’s forests are “locked up”.

“We have quite enough national parks. We have quite enough locked up forests already. Why should we lock up as some sort of World Heritage sanctuary, country that has been logged, degraded or planted for timber?”

Abbott also reaffirmed his commitment to removing part of Tasmania’s forest from World Heritage listing, made under the forest peace deal. This is the first time a government has ever sought to delist a World Heritage area when its heritage values are still intact. The forest is home to areas, like the Weld, Styx and Upper Florentine Valleys, and the World Heritage Committee has already rigorously assessed these places as being of Outstanding Universal Value to all of us who inhabit the planet.

“Getting that 74,000 hectares out of World Heritage Listing, it’s still going to leave half of Tasmania protected forever,” said Abbott. “But that will be an important sign to you, to Tasmanians, to the world, that we support the timber industry.”

via Wildlife Extra News – Australian PM outrages with anti national parks stance.

The FBI has launched an investigation into the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) over the way it runs an Idaho prison that has such a reputation for violence that inmates dub it “Gladiator School.”

Gladiator School?

If you get lemons make lemonade? If you have an underperforming incompetent private prison, maybe you could get some fairly competent cage fighters out of the deal? After all, you’re not saving any money doing the privatization game. Why not just settle for what meager benefits there are to be had?

James Pilant

FBI investigates Idaho prison run by private corporation | Al Jazeera America

The Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA has operated Idaho’s largest prison for more than a decade, but last year, CCA officials acknowledged it had understaffed the Idaho Correctional Center by thousands of hours in violation of the state contract. CCA also said employees falsified reports to cover up the vacancies. The announcement came after an Associated Press investigation showed CCA sometimes listed guards as working 48 hours straight to meet minimum staffing requirements.

In January, Idaho officials announced the prison may be handed over to state control because of its staffing issues.

This isn’t the first time the CCA, and private prisons in general, have come under fire in Idaho and elsewhere. Rights groups have long held that private prisons are run without sufficient oversight, often leading to increased violence and prisoner maltreatment.

In Idaho, a 2008 state-run study obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union found that there were four times as many prisoner-on-prisoner assaults at the state’s CCA-run prison than at Idaho’s other seven prisons combined.

And a 2010 NPR investigation suggested that CCA won out on state contracts in Arizona because of its close connections to politicians in the state.

Officials and opponents of private prisons have also argued that privately run prisons are inefficient. A 2001 study by the Justice Department, for example, found that “the cost benefits of privatization have not materialized to the extent promised by the private sector.”

Still, despite such findings, the privatization of prisons has continued mostly unimpeded.

via FBI investigates Idaho prison run by private corporation | Al Jazeera America.

Donated Police?

So, big business will now donate police for the wealthier parts of town? In twenty years, will we all wait to see if the donations come though for our municipal services from the 1%? So, instead of paying taxes they decide what’s best for the common folk?

Sometimes charitable giving is insulting. In particular when you take a civic duty and turn it into a private employee whose loyalty is not to the public.

James Pilant

Facebook cops are a horrible idea – Salon.com

All of a sudden, Silicon Valley corporations are falling over themselves to be good civic citizens. Last week Google donated $6.5 million to pay for free Muni passes for Bay Area youth and announced a $5 million grant program for San Francisco nonprofits. The latest act of beneficience? Facebook, reports NBC News, is paying for a full-time beat cop for the city of Menlo Park.

“This is a generous gift,” Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller told NBC Bay Area before the meeting. “And it’s a way to keep the community safe.” He noted that the contract states the officer will spend most of his or her time near the schools, and not patrolling the campus of Facebook.

I am all for corporations being good citizens of their communities, but private bankrolling of public cops sets a horrible precedent. For starters, it presents obvious conflict-of-interest challenges. How will police departments treat Facebook employees who might be caught in criminal behavior, when their own budget is partially paid for by Facebook? Everyone involved is swearing up and down that nothing of the sort will ever happen, but if this model spreads, there are bound to be abuses.

But much worse is what this news item reveals about the general bankruptcy of our system of government. Menlo Park is a rich town in one of the wealthiest regions of the United States. The median household income is $103,000, which is almost twice California’s median. The median home price is $925,000, more than double California as a whole. If a community like this can’t afford to pay for an adequate police force, then just imagine what’s happening in poorer communities that lack generous tech companies?

via Facebook cops are a horrible idea – Salon.com.

Perceptions of Housework Changing?

Cleaning guru Jolie Kerr: “The legacy of housework being the domain of women continues” – Salon.com

Housework is traditionally gendered — but as someone who writes for Gawker media sites directed at men and at women, and as someone who wants a wide audience for your book, do you think that’s fading out?

I do think that there are changes — and I think that’s a very good think. I think it’d be Pollyanna-ish of me to tell you there isn’t a gender construct in cleaning. The legacy of housework being the domain of women continues. And it’s going to continue for a long time, probably well after my lifetime. I wish that wasn’t the case, but that’s reality. You’re talking about hundreds of thousands of years’ worth of socializing the perception of housework as women’s work. And women are more socialized, to this day, to think about cleaning and be aware of cleaning. They’re trained to clean. It’s less true now than it was forty years ago.

And one thing I love hearing about is women who are in their 20s and 30s saying “My mom never taught me to clean, and now I’m turning to a feminist website to teach me to clean.” That statement was made when I was working for the Hairpin. I’m hesitant to put words in the mouths of Jezebel readers, but I’m sure some Jezebel readers feel that way too. That personalization of women being the ones to clean has gone away to some extent. We like that, right? What isn’t so great is that the socialization of people to know how to clean has gone away. But cleaning is a human problem, not a male or female problem. I try always to act as if it is the case that cleaning is a human problem.

via Cleaning guru Jolie Kerr: “The legacy of housework being the domain of women continues” – Salon.com.

The riot police in the Ukraine are using armor piercing rounds strong enough to go through the engine block of a car.