Does This Flyer Accurately Represent Derek Chauvin's Police Actions?
Rumors are surging in the wake of George Floyd's death and resulting protests against police violence and racial injustice in the United States. Stay informed. Read our special coverage, contribute to support our mission, and submit any tips or claims you see here. Read contribute here George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned him to the ground and kneeled on his neck while Floyd repeatedly said, "I can't breathe." A bystander recorded the confrontation in a video that swiftly spread across social media as a deadly example of what many viewers dubbed racism by American cops. video The footage ultimately sparked an international reckoning over racism, marked by weeks of protests that largely began peaceful during the day and then escalated to chaos at night, with many U.S. cities reporting property damage, fires, and violent clashes between law-enforcement officers and protesters. protests violent clashes At the center of the civil rights movement were four former police officers charged in Floyd's death  particularly Chauvin, 44, whom authorities arrested and charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter. A judge ruled he would stand trial on his own, separate from the other three defendants, beginning March 8, 2021, according to The Associated Press. (No, he did not commit suicide, like some rumors online claim.) The Associated Press some rumors online claim.)  Photo by Ramsey County Sheriff's Office  What follows is everything we know about Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), based on court records, news reports, and police documents  evidence that pieces together a policing record that includes complaints against him, as well as several shootings of civilians. We should note at the outset that the office of Chauvin's former attorney, Tom Kelly, did not respond to Snopes' request for comment and his current attorney, Eric Nelson, declined to be interviewed. Additionally, Sgt. John Elder, a spokesman for MPD, declined to answer questions about Chauvin's career with that department (which ended with Chauvin's termination the day after Floyd died), asserting that, "We dont comment on former employees," and "Anything we say" could affect the current investigation into Floyds death. To structure our examination into Chauvin's career with MPD, we measured the validity of each point in the below-displayed flyer titled "Who is Derek M. Chauvin?" that went viral shortly after Floyd's death.    That's a question the jury trial will legally determine. Prosecutors have charged Chauvin with second-degree murder and manslaughter after they say he kept Floyd pinned to the ground and knelt on his neck for almost eight minutes, including for nearly three minutes after Floyd became non-responsive.  almost eight minutes   Prosecutors also charged the three officers who watched the fatal confrontation between Floyd and Chauvin  Tou Thao, J Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane  with aiding and abetting second-degree murder (maximum prison sentence is 40 years) while committing a felony, and with aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter (maximum prison sentence is 10 years). As of this writing, they were scheduled to be tried together  separate from Chauvin's case  beginning Aug. 23, The Associated Press reported. reported According to the complaints, which will serve as the basis to prosecutors' arguments to try to convince jurors to convict the former police officers, Lane and Kueng responded to a 911 call reporting that someone had used a counterfeit $20 bill at a South Minneapolis convenience store. According to video evidence cited in the court documents, upon arriving at the scene the two officers approached Floyd, who was sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle also occupied by two other persons. As Lane began speaking with Floyd, the officer pulled his gun out and instructed Floyd to show his hands. Floyd complied with the order, whereupon the officer holstered his gun. Lane then ordered Floyd out of the car and "put his hands on Floyd, and pulled him out of the car," handcuffing him, the complaint stated. Minutes later, while the officers tried walking Floyd to their squad car, "Floyd stiffened up and fell to the ground," and told the officers he was claustrophobic, the court documents allege. Chauvin and Thao arrived at the scene at that point. The officers tried again to get Floyd into a squad car but were unsuccessful in doing so, according to the complaints. While the officers tried to force Floyd into the vehicle, he began asserting that he could not breathe. "Floyd did not voluntarily sit in the backseat and the officers physically struggled to try to get him into the vehicle," read the complaint outlining the charges against Chauvin. It continued: The defendant pulled Mr. Floyd out of the passenger side of the squad car at 8:19:38 p.m. and Mr. Floyd went to the ground face down and still handcuffed. ...The defendant placed his left knee in the area of Mr. Floyd's head and neck. Mr. Floyd said, "I can't breathe" multiple times and repeatedly said, "Mama" and "please," as well. At one point, Mr. Floyd said "I'm about to die." The defendant and the other two officers stayed in their positions. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office, which encompasses Minneapolis, ruled Floyd's manner of death a homicide. manner of death It is important to note here: In the county office's preliminary autopsy report, medical investigators said Floyd's underlying health conditions, such as coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease, contributed to his death in similar ways as Chauvin's restraint. But an autopsy commissioned by Floyd's family had different results; it determined he did, in fact, die of asphyxiation. (Read more about those findings here.) preliminary autopsy report similar ways here All of that said, in reference to the first claim in the flyer, attorneys representing Chauvin are likely to argue in the upcoming trial that he did not murder Floyd but rather operated within the law as an officer. Prosecutors and viewers of the viral video have said otherwise. You can read the full charges against Chauvin here; Thao here; Kueng here, and Lane here.  Chauvin here Thao here Kueng here Lane here The second claim in the flyer (that the restraint technique used was not part of MPD training) was false. At the time of Floyd's death, MPD's Policy & Procedure Manual (which governs everything from how officers should dress on the job to what tactics are OK to use during arrests) included the below-displayed section obtained by Snopes.  In other words, department policy permitted officers to use what it considered a "non-deadly force option" by kneeling on a suspect's neck if they had received lessons in how to do so without applying pressure to the suspect's airway. Officers could use "light or moderate pressure" to get someone under "control" or "adequate pressure" to make someone unconscious in situations they deemed appropriate. Policy & Procedure Manual  However, in the aftermath of Floyd's death, MPD agreed to ban officers from using chokeholds and neck restraints at the request of state authorities. As a result of that change, the police manual now reads: agreed request   The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA), which provides legal services to police by drawing from about a dozen attorneys, is providing legal representation for Chauvin. Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association And initially, yes, the association had assigned Tom Kelly to Floyd's case. Kelly was one of the defense attorneys who represented St. Anthony, Minnesota, police officer Jeronimo Yanez, who was acquitted on all charges in connection to the fatal shooting of Philando Castile, a Black man, during a traffic stop in 2017. who represented acquitted Philando Castile But on June 3, 2020, Eric Nelson of the Halberg Criminal Defense firm took over Chauvin's case, Reuters reported. Kelly told that news outlet the association had originally assigned the case to him because he was the on-call attorney at the time of Chauvin's arrest. But he gave up the case for medical-related reasons. Reuters reported In short, Kelly, a lawyer who indeed argued Yanez's case, also represented Chauvin  but only for about nine days. The flyer's claim was outdated. By and large, this assertion is true. Below, we lay out everything we know about the shooting of Leroy Martinez in 2011, which the flyer claimed was "an inappropriate police shooting" involving Chauvin and resulted in MPD placing him on administrative leave. According to news reports, on Aug. 8, 2011, Chauvin and other officers chased down Martinez, 23, in a public housing complex in South Minneapolis after they said they heard gunshots and saw Martinez running with a gun. (The Indian County-Today news outlet confirmed that Martinez is an Alaskan Native.) Indian County-Today One of the officers shot Martinez in the torso, and as he recovered in the hospital, Martinez faced second-degree assault charges in connection with a shooting that had taken place before police arrived on the scene. Here's how The Star Tribune newspaper reported the incident:  According to that newspaper's coverage, a witness who said she watched the shooting from her balcony in the housing complex maintained to journalists that police weren't telling the full story. The witness said Martinez had thrown down his gun and was holding his hands in the air when one of the officers (not Chauvin) shot him, after warning that he would open fire. reported  police All officers involved, including Chauvin, were placed on three-day administrative leave, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings, and eventually exonerated of any wrongdoing. Whether the flyer is correct in describing the shooting as "inappropriate" is a subjective issue. The police chief at the time said he believed the officers acted "appropriately and courageously," suggesting they had acted within department policy under the circumstances, The New York Times reported. The New York Times reported This claim in the flyer is largely true. Here's what we know about that incident: incident While responding to a call of domestic violence at a South Minneapolis apartment in May 2008, Chauvin opened fire on a 21-year-old Black man, Ira Latrell Toles. The Associated Press reported at the time: Ira Latrell Toles For a period of time there was an open 911 line into the residence and the 911 operator could hear a woman yelling for someone to stop hitting her, police said. Officers were refused entry when they arrived at the residence but could hear the assault continuing so they forced their way in. Police say Toles tried to run from officers, and when they tried to subdue him he tried to take an officer's gun. They say the officer shot him to prevent that from happening. The two officers on the scene are on paid administrative leave, which is standard in shootings. Police have not released their names. Toles, who survived the shooting and later faced criminal charges, recalled the incident differently. Following Floyd's death, he told The Daily Beast that yes, the mother of his child had called police on him that night, and that he had locked himself in the bathroom with an unlit cigarette after officers broke down the apartment door. Then, Toles alleged, Chauvin busted in the bathroom door and started hitting the 21-year-old without warning. Daily Beast Chauvin later told investigators that, because Toles supposedly failed to comply with officers' commands, he attempted to hit the young man in the head with the butt of his handgun and then opened fire when he thought Toles reached for his gun, The Star Tribune reported. Toles ex-girlfriend reported that Chauvin fired his firearm about two seconds after he entered the bathroom after Toles. The Star Tribune reported In summary, the flyer's point is accurate, with the caveat that only Toles' account suggested that he was unarmed at the time of the confrontation. This claim is true. In 2006, Chauvin and five other officers opened fire on a truck in South Minneapolis while investigating a reported stabbing, killing 42-year-old Wayne Reyes. According to MPD's account of the incident, Reyes pulled out a shotgun when police pulled him over to ask him questions about the reported assault; the officers believed Reyes had stabbed his girlfriend and another friend in a domestic dispute, according to news reports. In total, the six officers fired 42 rounds in four seconds, according to the The Washington Post. Reyes (who the Canadian national news outlet, APTN News, reported was a member of the Leech Lake Ojibwe Band in Minnesota) was struck multiple times and died. However, it was unclear if Chauvin fired any of the fatal shots. The Washington Post reported In the end, a grand jury ruled the officers' actions appropriate, and Chauvin was recommended for a Medal of Valor following the shooting, according to The Star Tribune. The Star Tribune    In reference to the flyer accusing Chauvin and the other officers of striking Reyes with 16 bullets, exactly, no reports corroborated that number. Otherwise, however, the claim about Reyes circulating after Floyd's death was accurate. This accusation is largely unproven based upon the available evidence. Here's what we can confirm: Roughly four years into Chauvin's MPD career, in 2005, he and another officer used a squad car on duty to chase a car that ended up crashing into another vehicle, killing three people, according to news reports. news reports But we have not yet uncovered further details on why the officers were chasing the car, or whether the other drivers (and their conditions) were major factors in the collision. So in reference to the flyer, while it was true Chauvin and another officer were involved in a deadly car chase, no trusted evidence showed the officers' actions indeed caused the three fatalities. Although MPD has not fulfilled requests for records to determine why, or under what circumstances, conduct complaints were filed against Chauvin prior to Floyd's death, this claim was somewhat true.  Snopes obtained Chauvin's Employee Complaint Profile Card, which provided few details other than a tally of 17 complaints against him throughout his MPD career.  Employee Complaint Profile Card, The only allegation that resulted in disciplinary action (two letters of reprimand) was filed in 2007, when Chauvin allegedly pulled over a woman for going 10 mph over the speed limit, frisked her, and put her in his squad car, according to news reports. The woman's baby and dog were reportedly inside the vehicle during the traffic stop. news reports reportedly Another complaint was filed by a 48-year-old man who said officers (one of whom was later identified as Chauvin) banged on his car window with a flashlight and attempted to force him to the pavement during a traffic stop in 2013, The Star Tribune reported. The man, a mental health worker, said he was driving home from working a double shift at Hennepin County Medical Center and believed officers had mistaken him for someone who had been using his name. In other words, it was undetermined based on verifiable evidence whether all the complaints against Chauvin accused him of using excessive use of force, or whether they included allegations that he had violated other aspects of MPD policy. Anyone can file a complaint against a police officer for any reason. Also unclear was whether, or to what extent, the complaints were connected to the incidents described above that resulted in civilian deaths or injuries. After graduating high school in 1994, Chauvin worked restaurant jobs as a prep cook, joined the U.S. Army, and eventually attended St. Paul's Metropolitan State University, The Star Tribune reported. There, his focus shifted to police work -- he eventually earned a degree in law enforcement -- and he joined MPD's ranks in 2001, at age 25.  The Star Tribune reported We also know that Chauvin and Floyd both worked at the same Minneapolis nightclub, El Nuevo Rodeo. Maya Santamaria, who owned the building that housed the club, confirmed with Snopes that both men worked at the business during periods that overlapped (Chauvin worked as an off-duty police officer), but it was unknown whether they ever ran into each other or were introduced. confirmed MPD leaders commended Chauvin's work at various points throughout his career, according to the news archives. For example, they awarded him a Medal of Commendation in 2008 after he apparently disarmed a man during one of his nightclub security shifts. news archives In 2010, Chauvin married his wife, Kellie Chauvin. The two had met at Hennepin County Medical Center, where she worked as a radiologic technician and he brought someone one night for a health check before an arrest, she told The Pioneer Press for a story about her preparation to compete in Mrs. Minnesota America. story Additionally, the couple owned and rented two homes in Woodbury, a suburb east of St. Paul, before they bought a home in Oakdale, Washington County, according to property records compiled by The Star Tribune. In 2011, they also bought a townhouse near Orlando, Florida, where voting records showed Derek Chauvin is registered to vote. Woodbury Just weeks after Floyd's death, Kellie Chauvin filed for divorce and sought to change her last name. As of this writing, the court sealed access to records in the case, citing privacy and safety concerns. Nonetheless, the couple's financial situation emerged in international news headlines in July, when authorities accused them of failing to report income from various jobs. international news headlines Washington County prosecutors charged Derek and Kellie Chauvin with aiding and abetting tax evasion and tax fraud. According to the criminal complaint, they failed to report more than $460,000 in Minnesota income over five years and failed to pay almost $38,000 in taxes owed during that time frame, according news reports. news reports Lastra, Ana and Eric. Rasmussen.  "George Floyd, Fired Officer Overlapped Security Shifts at South Minneapolis Club."   KSTP-TV.  28 May 2020. Richmond, Todd.  "Officer Accused in Floyds Death Opened Fire on 2 People."   The Associated Press.  29 May 2020. Evelyn, Kenya.  "George Floyd Killing: Two Officers Involved Previously Reviewed for Use of Force."   The Guardian.  28 May 2020. Van Berkel, Jessie.  George Floyds Death Returns Spotlight to Sen. Amy Klobuchar Prosecutor Past."   [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.  29 May 2020. Bierschbach, Briana.  "Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin in Custody After Death of George Floyd."   [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.  29 May 2020. [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.  "Buildings Damaged in Minneapolis, St. Paul after Protests."   29 May 2020. Xiong, Chao and Paul Walsh.  "Ex-Police Officer Derek Chauvin Charged with Murder, Manslaughter in George Floyd Death."   [Minneapolis] Star Tribune.  29 May 2020. Furber, Matt et. al.  "Minneapolis Police, Long Accused of Racism, Face Wrath of Wounded City.   The New York Times.  27 May 2020. Scher, Isaac.  "The Police Officer Who Knelt on George Floyds Neck Has Been Involved in Shootings and Was the Subject of 10 Complaints."   Business Insider.  28 May 2020. Melendez, Pilar.  "Minneapolis Man: Cop Who Kneeled on George Floyd Tried to Kill Me in 2008."   The Daily Beast.  29 May 2020. Pioneer Press.  "Minneapolis Police Officer Involved in Weekend Shooting ID'd."   26 May 2008. Minneapolismn.gov.  MPD Frequently Requested Public Information.   Accessed 29 May 2020. WCCO-TV.  "Lawyer: Wife of Charged Ex-MPD Officer Derek Chauvin Files for Divorce".   29 May 2020. This report was updated to include information about Chauvin and his jury trial set to begin in spring 2021 that emerged after the initial publication of this report.
In May 2021, an old and false claim was resurrected about Facebook friends. It claimed that copying and pasting a message with the code "OO5251839" would show a Facebook user's posts to old friends. It would also purportedly allow users to see posts from friends that maybe hadn't appeared in their News Feeds for years. old and false claim message The purported Facebook code began with two letters: "OO5251839." Some variations may have started with zeroes: "005251839."   Posts that soared in popularity in mid-2021 began with: "Thanks for the tip to circumvent Facebook  OO5251839 Works!!" Thanks for the tip to circumvent Facebook...OO5251839 Works!! I have a whole new profile. I see posts from people I didn't see anymore. Facebook's new algorithm picks the same people - around 25-who will see your posts. Hold your finger anywhere in this post and click " copy ". Go to your page where it says " what's on your mind". Tap your finger anywhere in the empty field. Click paste. This is going to circumvent the system. Hello new and old friends! Hello Drop a single hello, thanks! PLEASE SAY HELLO IF YOU SEE THIS. Hello to all! However, this "OO5251839" message had no impact on the Facebook algorithm. Some Facebook users might have thought that the "OO5251839" message worked if they received comments under their posts. However, if this was the case, the explanation is simple. might have thought worked received comments The copy-and-paste message asked friends to say "hello." It would not be a huge surprise that some of the poster's friends saw the message and responded "hello." It's also likely that the more comments a post received, the better it might rank in the News Feeds of friends. As more "hello" comments racked up, it's probably going to show to more friends. Copy-and-paste Facebook rumors have been circulating about as long as Facebook has been around. The "OO5251839" message was not the first time that Facebook users copied and pasted posts that were said to avoid or protect against unwanted aspects of the Facebook platform. For example, in the past we covered a false claim about "copy and paste" and "don't share" messages. We also reported about a dubious warning in regards to Facebook and Instagram purportedly making all posts public. copy and paste" and "don't share making all posts public In sum, the "OO5251839" Facebook message did not circumvent Facebook's algorithm or change anything about a user's Facebook friends. Following the 94th Academy Awards ceremony on March 27, 2022, a false tweet from Twitter user @fondasbian was posted with a decades-old video of actor Jane Fonda with the caption, "The Oscars only started providing closed captions in 2021." false tweet Twitter Jane Fonda Oscars While this misleading message was somewhat overshadowed by an incident involving comedian Chris Rock and actor Will Smith, that didn't stop the tweet from receiving tens of thousands of combined retweets and likes. Those shares only served to boost the false claim. an incident Chris Rock Will Smith The tweet in question claimed: "Jane Fonda signed her best actress speech in 1979 because the Oscars wouldn't offer closed captions. The Oscars only started providing closed captions in 2021." Jane Fonda Oscars Oscars   In the brief 30-second video from the 51st Academy Awards in 1979, Fonda did sign part of her acceptance speech for the hearing-impaired. She was accepting an award for best actress for her role in the 1978 film, "Coming Home." One of the main characters in the film is a disabled veteran. He was portrayed by actor Jon Voight. Fonda disabled veteran Jon Voight The full speech was uploaded to the official Oscars YouTube channel: the official Oscars YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vL_73XeE8fo&t=157sThe portion included in the tweet is bolded below: I'm so happy. I wanted to win very much because I'm so proud of "Coming Home," and I want many people to see the movie. I'm signing part of what I'm saying tonight because while we were making the movie we all became more aware of the problems of the handicapped. Over 14 million people are deaf. They are the invisible handicapped and can't share this evening. So this is my way of acknowledging them. The tweet in question claimed that the Oscars first started providing closed captions in 2021. In truth, the Oscars had been providing closed captioning for decades. Oscars Oscars On March 27, 1982, Wisconsin's Leader-Telegram newspaper published that a brand new way of providing captions during live television would be debuting at that year's Oscars: Leader-Telegram published Oscars A new method for providing closed captioning for hearing-impaired viewers will be unveiled by the National Captioning Institute during ABC-TV coverage of the 54th annual Academy Awards presentations March 29. Called Real Time, the method is a form of electronic computerized shorthand which will allow hearing-impaired viewers to receive closed captions throughout the entire telecast, including acceptance speeches the moment they are spoken. NCI spokesman John E. D. Ball said Real Time involves a courtroom style stenotype machine and a computer capable of transmitting phonetic symbols into words. Twitter user @bubbaprog pointed out that the March 27 tweet from @fondasbian was misleading. "This tweet has 5,000 retweets and it's completely false," @bubbaprog tweeted. "The Academy Awards were literally the first live program to utilize closed-captioning in 1982 and have been captioned ever since." pointed out tweeted It's true that the Oscars had featured closed captions during every ceremony since 1982. However, while the Academy Awards were the first program to utilize closed captions during a live broadcast, similar technology for prerecorded programs (not live) had already been partially implemented two years before. Oscars On March 16, 1980, the Chicago Tribune newspaper published that NBC, ABC, and PBS announced they would begin to "inaugurate a new service designed to enlarge the world of prime-time TV for Americans with impaired hearing." Chicago Tribune published According to the article, programs that received the first closed captions on American television were the "Wonderful World of Disney," ABC's "Sunday Night Movie," "Eight Is Enough," "Barney Miller," "Masterpiece Theater," "Once Upon a Classic," and "Mystery Theater." In sum, no, the Oscars did not wait until 2021 to start providing closed captions. The Academy Award ceremonies had been broadcast with closed captions since 1982 and were the first live program to utilize the technology. Oscars In February 2022, Russian propagandists went into overdrive in an attempt to justify their unprovoked attack on Ukraine. They claimed that Ukraine was run by Nazis (false), that Ukraine was committing genocide on its own people (false), and that Russia was attacking biolabs to prevent "COVID-2" (false). false false false Another line of disinformation attempted to downplay violence in Ukraine. This was largely done when people posted photographs and videos that supposedly showed "crisis actors," or people pretending to be in crisis there. A video of a camera crew filming people running through the street, for example, was posted to Bitchute (a video platform known for hosting far-right, conspiratorial, and hate content) along with the title "How to Make a Propaganda Video?" and the hashtags #UKRAINE #RUSSIA and #PROPAGANDA. posted photographs and videos that supposedly showed "crisis actors a video platform known for hosting far-right, conspiratorial, and hate content   Rumble, another video platform known for hosting far-right content, posted this video under the caption "completely choreographed Fake News In Ukraine - Still Believe Mockingbird Media?" On "TheGreatAwakening," a conspiratorial website dedicated to the debunked QAnon conspiracy theory, this video was shared with the caption "Lights, Camera, Action!" and on Twitter it was shared as if it showed "crisis actors" filmed "in the middle of the 'massive and scary' Russian invasion."   This video was not filmed in the Ukraine, and it was not filmed in 2022. This video was originally posted in 2013 and shows a behind-the-scenes look at the making of "Invasion Planet Earth" (originally titled "Kaleidoscope Man"), a sci-fi adventure movie about an alien invasion. The above-displayed scene was filmed in Birmingham, England, not Ukraine. Invasion Planet Earth Kaleidoscope Man  Another version of this rumor hinged on the claim that the news media was sharing an abbreviated version of this video that only showed people running (with no hints of a camera crew) in order to exaggerate the state of affairs in Ukraine. By claiming that a miscaptioned version of this footage was being shared by the news media, social media users could claim that this was an example of "globalist propaganda."   But we have not found a single post from a genuine news outlet that presented this footage as if it were real. The "news outlet" included the above-displayed screenshot is a weeks-old Twitter account, @mightyfarooz200, that has no apparent connections to any credible news outlet. This video was not filmed in Ukraine during Russia's invasion of the country. It does not show crisis actors and it was not shared as if it were genuine footage of Russia's invasion as reported by credible media news outlets. However, this is still a good example of propaganda, just not in the way that it's being presented online. This footage was widely circulated on social media with one of two claims: First, that it showed Ukrainian "crisis actors" filming a propaganda video, and second that the news media was using miscaptioned footage to misrepresent the situation in Ukraine. Neither of these claims were true. Our search for postings of this video turned up dozens of far-right accounts sharing this video as if it showed crisis actors, and practically zero postings of people sharing this video as if it showed a genuine attack. In other words, this video was widely shared by those attempting to downplay the violence by Russians in Ukraine, not by those attempting to exaggerate it. British Council Film: Kaleidoscope Man. https://film-directory.britishcouncil.org/kaleidoscope-man. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022. Hinton, Alexander. Putins Claims That Ukraine Is Committing Genocide Are Baseless, but Not Unprecedented. The Conversation, https://theconversation.com/putins-claims-that-ukraine-is-committing-genocide-are-baseless-but-not-unprecedented-177511. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022. Putin Using False Nazi Narrative to Justify Russias Attack on Ukraine, Experts Say. NBC News, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/putin-claims-denazification-justify-russias-attack-ukraine-experts-say-rcna17537. Accessed 28 Feb. 2022. Ukraine Invasion: Misleading Claims Continue to Go Viral. BBC News, 28 Feb. 2022. www.bbc.com, https://www.bbc.com/news/60554910. The morning after the Atlanta area overwhelmingly said no to a 1 percent sales tax to fund more than 150 transportation projects across the region, one prominent leader said that her fellow state lawmakers now needed to take the lead on the issue.Georgia has under-invested in our transportation network for years, and we rank near the bottom in per capita transportation spending, House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, an Atlanta Democrat, said in a press release.PolitiFact Georgia wondered if the state representative was correct. Or do we need to put a stop sign in front of Abrams before she repeats this claim again?As we began our research, PolitiFact Georgia found several officials making similar claims, including the states Transportation Department.Georgia is the 6th fastest growing state in the nation, yet 49th in per capita spending on transportation, said a May 16 press release from the state agency about bridge replacements over Lake Lanier.A spokeswoman for the states House Democratic Caucus, which sent out Abrams press release, initially forwarded us a link to the Atlanta Regional Commissions top 10 facts about the recent transportation referendum. The ARC, which works on growth and development issues for the 10-county metro area, said that Georgia was 48th in per capita spending on transportation. The ARC report did not have any charts or graphics showing how Georgia compares to other states.The caucus later sent us a report by the fiscally conservative Georgia Public Policy Foundation that said Georgia ranks 49th in per capita transportation spending. The report did not have a chart showing Georgia in comparison to the other states.We decided to do the math for ourselves as well.As part of our research, we noticed that several groups used data compiled by the Federal Highway Administration to calculate how much money each state spends on transportation. One chart we saw on its website had revenues used for highways. The most recent year was 2010. PolitiFact Georgia calculated the totals for each state and excluded federal funds since we are examining a claim about state spending on transportation. We then divided the total for each state by the number of its residents. Only two states had lower per capita highway spending, South Carolina and Tennessee. Georgia spent about $298 per person on highways.How did that compare to other reports on per capita highway spending that we reviewed? Georgia ranked similarly low.The Washington, D.C.-based Tax Policy Center found in 2009 that Georgia ranked ahead of just Rhode Island and South Carolina in per capita highway spending. The Tax Policy Center, a partnership between the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, examines federal and state tax policies and those of this years presidential candidates.Another report we found that examined transportation spending in Pennsylvania, based on data compiled in 2010, ranked Georgia 50th in per capita highway spending, using data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Highway Administration. The report on Pennsylvania shows Georgia has more miles of highway than 40 states. Most of the states with more miles of highway also ranked low in per capita highway spending.The National Conference of State Legislatures ranked Georgia second to last in per capita revenue on highways in a report it released in 2006. The report examined highway spending from 1999 to 2004. Georgia spent about $220 per person annually, the report found. Only California was lower. Delaware was first, spending more than $900 per person, according to the research.The NCSL report also included data on spending for public transportation. Georgia ranked 38th of the 45 states that had data that could be examined. Georgia spent 55 cents per person in 2004, according to a chart in the report. Massachusetts was first, spending approximately $376 per person. Northeastern states dominated the top of the rankings and had more sources of transportation funding. We did not see any other reports on public transportation spending by state.The charts we reviewed and our own research all showed the same thing: Georgia was among the five lowest states in terms of per capita spending on highways. The most recent NCSL report on public transportation showed a similar conclusion. Therefore, we rate the statement by Abrams as True. The House of Representatives passed a 2.6 percent pay raise for all civilian federal employees in response to a government shutdown that left hundreds of thousands of federal workers either furloughed or working without pay. Some Republican lawmakers decried the move. U.S. Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., sent out atweetsaying, Where I come from you dont get a pay raise just for showing up to work. Today Dem leaders pushed a $5B pay raise for federal workers who are paid well above the HOUSEHOLD income in southern Missouri. Retweet if you think that money would be better spent to #SecureOurBorder. Where I come from you don't get a pay raise just for showing up to work. Today Dem leaders pushed a $5B pay raise for federal workers who are paid well above the HOUSEHOLD income in southern Missouri. Retweet if you think that money would be better spent to#SecureOurBorder On Feb. 1, Smith repeated the claim in hisWeekly Capitol Report. The raise in question matches an increase in pay for military personnel that was passed in 2019. If passed by the Senate, the bill would undo a pay freeze instituted by President Donald Trump on Dec. 28. We decided to take a closer look to see if federal workers really do make that much more than southern Missourians and if so, why. Smiths claim focuses on two different metrics  the income of an individual federal civilian employee and the income of households in southern Missouri. This distinction is important, because household income can include the wages and salaries of multiple people. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis supports Smiths claim that individual federal employees bring in more pay than southern Missouri households. The mean household income in Missouri is $70,144, a figure already lower than the mean income of a federal civilian worker, which is $90,811. When asked for data supporting the claim, Smiths communications director Joey Brown pointed to census data compiled by congressional district. To determine the average household income in southern Missouri, we looked at the two congressional districts that cover the states southernmost counties  districts 7 and 8. Smiths district, Congressional District 8, encompasses the southeast corner of the state, stretching from Ozark County to Jefferson County and extending into the Bootheel region. There, the mean household income is $54,393. In neighboring Congressional District 7, which covers the southwest corner of the state, the mean household income is $62,145. There are many explanations for why federal employees are paid more than the average southern Missourian household. Experts told us that any comparison should also take into account education, training, skills and experience that increase worker productivity and typically result in higher incomes. The federal governments 2.2 million civilian workers tend to be older, more educated and more concentrated in professional occupations than private-sector workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the nonpartisan research arm of Congress. About 51 percent of federal workers have attained at least a bachelors degree. In Smiths district, about 16 percent of constituents 25 and older have a bachelors degree, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Office of Personnel Management. A report by the Congressional Budget Office that accounted for these differences found that there is a disparity between how federal and private workers are paid. But this disparity depends on levels of education. Theres very little question that the top people in government are being paid quite a bit less usually than the top people with those kinds of skills in the private sector, said University of Missouri economics professor Peter Mueser. Federal workers with a professional or doctorate degree earned roughly 24 percent less than their privately-employed counterparts. But federal workers with no more than a high school education earned 34 percent more than similar workers employed outside the federal government. Federal employees whose highest level of education was a bachelors degree earned 5 percent more. Another factor worth considering is benefits, said Iowa State University economics professor John Winters by email. In addition to salaries and wages, workers are compensated with benefits such as health insurance, retirement plans and job security. However, benefits are more difficult to quantify, because they are in part based on future predictions and less-detailed data is available on benefits than wages. The CBO study found that for federal employees whose highest level of education was a bachelors degree, benefits were 52 percent higher. Average benefits were 93 percent higher for federal employees with no more than a high school education. For employees with a doctorate or professional degree, average benefits were about the same in the two sectors. The bare bones of Smiths claim hold up to scrutiny. Federal workers do take home more in income than the average household in southern Missouri. But Smiths statement doesnt take into account differences between southern Missourians and the average federal employee that help explain income disparity, such as education. We rate this statement Mostly True. The notion of counting the number of green jobs in America made us think, oddly enough, of a middle-age guy trying for cool by pairing a sport coat with blue jeans. Not easy. Yet quite matter-of-factly, while touting a clean energy jobs bill she introduced, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin made the following statement Jan. 22, 2014: Over 3 million Americans are employed in the growing green-collar workforce, including in clean energy and sustainability, which is more than the amount of people working in the fossil fuel industry. When we put the Wisconsin Democrats claim to Daniel Kish at the Institute for Energy Research, he told us that both green and fossil fuel industry job numbers are sometimes thrown around with abandon. This gets really dicey real quick, he said. Everybodys got their dueling banjos. Thats PolitiFact Wisconsins kind of music. Baldwins evidence To back his boss claim, Baldwin spokesman John Kraus cited two reports. Both are from solid sources, though they mix sports coats and -- er, apples and oranges -- a bit. 1.Federal report In 2012, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics embarked on an annual tally of green jobs. The agency had the advantage of considering a definition of green jobs proffered a year earlier by the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. think tank, which produced its own green jobs count. The Bureau of Labor Statistics surveyed 120,000 business and government establishments within 325 industries that were identified as potentially producing green goods or providing green services. Those surveyed said whether they produced green goods and services and the percentage of their revenue or employment associated with that output. Green goods and services were defined as those that benefit the environment or conserve natural resources. They fall into one or more of the following five groups: 1) Production   of  energy  from  renewable  sources; 2) energy efficiency; 3) pollution reduction and removal, greenhouse  gas reduction,  and  recycling  and  reuse;  4) natural   resources conservation;  and  5) environmental compliance,  education  and training, and public awareness. So, the list of green jobs is quite varied, including jobs in areas such as farming; home construction; electric, solar and other types of power generation; petroleum and coal products manufacturing; urban mass transit; newspaper publishing; advertising and public relations services; waste treatment and disposal; museums and zoos; and social advocacy organizations.The Bureau of Labor Statistics produced its second -- and, it turns out, final -- green jobs report in March 2013. It estimated that employment associated with the production of green goods and services -- full- and part-time jobs -- exceeded 3.4 million in 2011. Manufacturing, with 507,000 green jobs, was the largest sector. Goods produced by those jobs included air conditioning and refrigeration equipment meeting selected standards, hybrid cars and parts, and pollution mitigation equipment. Kish, who is senior vice president for policy at the industry-backed Institute for Energy Research, pointed out that 886,000 of the 3.4 million were government jobs -- not jobs, he said, in which people are making or installing windmills and solar panels. Green, Kish said, is a political word, used by politicians and advocates, that is truly elusive. Nevertheless, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is well-established as the official jobs counter for the federal government. The 2013 report, for the number of green jobs in 2011, remains the latest available. That report said that because of budget cuts, no more green counts would be done. 2.Think tank study The Brookings Institution report we noted above was produced in 2011, so its a little dated. Brookings estimated that in 2010, there were 2.7 million green jobs -- that is, jobs that directly contributed to the production of goods and services that had an environmental benet. Brookings didnt do a count of fossil fuel industry jobs, but it did make a comparison using federal government tallies. Its report said that in 2010, there were 1.3 million jobs that directly supported the production of fossil fuel-based energy, derivative manufactured products and machinery. If all wholesale and retail distributors, transporters and other workers -- such as gas station employees -- were included, the fossil fuel tally would be 2.4 million jobs, Brookings said. Brookings scholar Jonathan Rothwell told us some critics view the think tanks definition of green jobs as too expansive. For example, some 350,000 public transportation jobs in the green tally include not only bus drivers but secretaries, janitors, executives and all other employees who work for bus companies, he said. Brookings' definition of green jobs was very broad and included any economic activity that has an environmental benefit -- from public transportation to waste management, Rothwell acknowledged, adding that because only a small portion of energy comes from green sources, fossil fuel employees are a much larger share of the energy sector's workforce. But Rothwell noted that the Bureau of Labor Statistics adopted a similar definition when it did green jobs counts. And we note that BLS arrived at a roughly similar green jobs estimate. So, the most recent federal report backs the first part of Baldwins statement, that there are more than 3 million green jobs. The older think tank report she cites doesnt say there were more than 3 million green jobs, but does say that green jobs outnumbered fossil fuel industry jobs as of 2010. Otherviews One thing to underline here is that counting green jobs is a different sort of animal. As CNN/Money observed when the first Bureau of Labor Statistics green jobs report came out in 2012, comparing green jobs to another singular sector isn't really fair. The green jobs survey took into account a wide variety of jobs in over 300 different industries. As for the oil and gas industry itself, a July 2013 report was done by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the American Petroleum Institute, a trade association for the oil and natural gas industry, that was an update of a report done two years earlier. The later report said there were 2.59 million jobs in the oil and natural gas industry in 2011. PricewaterhouseCoopers said it utilized data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and the U.S. Census Bureau for its study. The study noted that the oil and natural gas industry encompasses a number of activities that span separate industry classifications in government economic data. For example, oil and natural gas exploration and production is included in the mining sector; and oil refining is part of the manufacturing sector. The study defined the oil and gas industry to include all such activities. The petroleum institute noted to us criticism of how the federal government defines green jobs, including an editorial in Investors Business Daily that called the annual count phony. A final note: In November 2012, U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, made a claim similar to but more broad than Baldwins, saying there were more people working in clean and green energy than in oil and gas in this country. That was before the latest reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and American Petroleum Institute that estimated green and fossil fuel jobs for 2011. PolitiFact Rhode Island rated the statement True. Our colleagues noted that at the time, the number of green jobs as estimated by BLS exceeded the number of oil and gas jobs estimated by the petroleum institute. Our rating Baldwin said: Over 3 million Americans are employed in the growing green-collar workforce, which is more than the number of people working in the fossil fuel industry. The latest estimates are for 2011. The federal government says there were 3.4 million green jobs, while a national oil and gas trade group says there were 2.59 million oil and gas jobs. We rate Baldwins statement True. Follow us onTwitterandFacebook. Images reflecting an old rumor about the Rothschild Family's unimaginable accumulated global wealth hold that the Rothschilds are worth $500 trillion and hold more than 80% of the world's total wealth:   While the Rothschilds are indeed very wealthy, claims about their net worth such as the ones displayed above are grossly exaggerated. Conspiracy theories concerning the Rothschild family date back to the 18th century, and the family's wealth was largely responsible for the anti-semitic belief that "Jews control the world's money supply." The Rothschilds are frequently associated with theories about the Illuminati, the New World Order, and other dark money groups that supposedly pull the strings of world governments, and the Rothschilds have been blamed for everything from starting wars for personal gain to funding the Holocaust to assassinating U.S. presidents. Skeptoid delved into the Rothschild family history in 2012, noting that: history The greatest of these financial adepts was Mayer Amschel Rothschild, born in 1744 in a Jewish slum of Frankfurt. Not much is known about his early life, as his was one of tens of thousands of marginalized, outcast families. But once he came of age he became an apprentice at a small bank in Hamburg, where he learned the trade. Returning to Frankfurt at the age of 19, he offered his own banking services in a modest way, beginning with trading of rare coins and related investments. He was energetic, clever, and most of all he was charismatic. And he was smart, seeking out wealthy clientele, and associating with nobility whenever he could. By the age of 40, he had consolidated his most important business contact: the Landgrave William, the Elector of Hesse, one of only a tiny number of nobles empowered to elect the Holy Roman Emperor. When William was younger, he had engaged in the trading of rare coins with Mayer's father, and so the two had always known one another. When William inherited his own father's massive fortune, his friendship with Mayer Rothschild gave Mayer the ability to begin conducting larger international transactions. This was the point at which the Rothschild name became first involved with the manipulation of money behind the scenes of wars. Mayer was a firm believer in family business, and insisted on using his own sons  by then he had five  as his business partners. What he did next became the model for many powerful Jewish financiers who followed: He installed each of his five sons as his agents in the five major financial centers of Europe: the eldest Amschel Mayer Rothschild in Frankfurt, Salomon Mayer Rothschild in Vienna, Nathan Mayer Rothschild in London, Calmann Mayer Rothschild in Naples, and the youngest Jakob Mayer Rothschild in Paris. Although the Rothschild family has amassed great wealth since the 1700s, claims that they have a net worth of $500 trillion or that they own 80% of the world's wealth are problematic. For one, the world's total wealth was estimated as of 2015 to be only $250 trillion, half of what the Rothchilds alone are claimed to possess: wealth Global wealth reached 250 trillion US dollars in 2015, slightly less than a year earlier, due to adverse exchange rate movements. The underlying wealth trends do, however, generally remain positive, according to the Credit Suisse Research Institute's annual "Global Wealth Report." Also, the Rothschilds began acquiring their wealth in the 1700s, and since then the family has spawned hundreds of descendants, so there is no longer any centralized Rothschild family wealth.  The closest thing to a "Rothschild Family" business in 2016 is the Rothschild Group, a multinational investment banking company, but that firm does not in itself generate nearly enough income to back up claims about the family's wealth. In 2015, the Rothschild Group's annual revenue was approximately $500 million. In comparison, the world's largest company, Walmart, has an annual revenue of nearly $500 billion. annual Walmart It should also be noted that only one member of the Rothschild family is included among Forbes' 2015 list of the world's billionaires: Benjamin de Rothschild, who was ranked at number #1121 with a net worth of $1.61 billion.  list While the Rothschild family certainly was one of the world's most significant financial powers in centuries past, they no longer wield the same sort of influence over global affairs. Dunning, B.  "The Rothschild Conspiracy." 
  Skeptoid Media.  22 May 2012.  Kersley, Richard.  "Global Wealth in 2015: Underlying Trends Remain Positive."
  Credit Suisse.  13 October 2013. Claim:  The Boy Scouts of America has lost some funding over its refusal to accept homosexuals within its ranks. Status:  True. Example:  [Collected on the Internet, 2000] Good Morning,As near as I can tell the following is a real concern and not a hoax.  The Boy Scouts need all the support they can get.  The request is to sign a petition in their support in response to the many funding sources that have withdrawn support due to the issue that was ruled on by the Supreme Court. Also many Federal Parks that now will not permit them to use that facility. You can access this issue at the following address. https://www.grassfire.net/index1.asp?CID=2&PID=70471 https://www.grassfire.net/index1.asp?CID=2&PID=70471 They also provide a series of statements of what has happened concerning the removal of support. Thanks for your interest Origins:  The petition quoted above began circulating on the Internet in October 2000.  It calls upon folks to electronically sign a petition in support of the Boy Scouts. (The Boy Scouts of America are not sponsoring this petition; an unrelated entity is housing and administering it.)  The petition (found at the Grassfire site) reads as follows: PETITION TO SUPPORT THE BOY SCOUTS!!As a concerned citizen, I am deeply troubled by the recent attacks which have come against the Boy Scouts simply because the Scouts have taken a stand for faith and moral values. As a private organization, the Boy Scouts has every right to set standards for leadership and morality. The U.S. Supreme Court made this clear! I urge you to cease these hostile attacks against one of America's great institutions. Should you sign it? The answer to that depends on two things: What your views on the underlying issues are,  as well as what you think of the validity of online petitions.  We think it's not at all likely any Internet petition (no matter what issue it addresses) will have an appreciable impact on anyone in a position to affect policy. It's too easy to cook up lists of fake names and phony e-mail addresses and festoon a petition with them for anyone charged with gauging public reaction to be tempted to give such documents much weight when it comes time to make a decision. Petitions signed in ink in a variety of different handwritings aren't given all that much consideration in this world; how valid will a computer printout appear? A decision to support this petition should probably be based on what one thinks of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold the Boy Scouts of America's right to exclude homosexuals from its ranks. The Grassfire petition glosses the question of why support is being sought by saying nothing other than "the Scouts have taken a stand for faith and moral values." This wording leaves those who weren't aware of the core issue in the dark as to what prompted folks to withdraw support from the BSA. We don't find that a fair way to write a petition. In a 5-to-4 opinion handed down on 28 June 2000, the Supreme Court decided that the Boy Scouts of America held the right as a private group to expel scoutmaster James Dale on the basis of his sexual orientation. The court ruled: Having determined that the Boy Scouts is an expressive association and that the forced inclusion of Dale would significantly affect its expression, we inquire whether the application of New Jersey's public accommodations law [the statute contended in a New Jersey suit involving Dale] to require that the Boy Scouts accept Dale as an assistant scoutmaster runs afoul of the Scouts' freedom of expressive association. We conclude that it does. Grassfire expresses its view of the issues at stake as: This summer, the Scouts won a hard-fought case before the U.S. Supreme Court called Dale v. Scouts. The Supreme Court affirmed the Scouts right to set standards for leadership within their organization. This apparently infuriated the politically correct cultural elites. Almost immediately, the anti-Scout campaign was launched, with the Scouts being branded as intolerant. The standard affirmed by the Supreme Court in Dale vs. Scouts, which recognized the BSA's right to determine how to run its organization, also applies to the groups who would now withhold funding from the Scouts: they too possess the right of association. Some local chapters of the United Way are guided by policies that expressly forbid them from financially supporting groups that practice discrimination. They have discontinued funding of the Boy Scouts of America because their entrenched principles  rule out this association in much the same way the BSA's principles rule out an association with homosexuals. It's the same issue, just the other side of the coin. At this point, only a few chapters of the United Way have withdrawn financial support from the Boy Scouts of America. Some municipalities are also now refusing to allow Scout troops to use municipal sites for camping and rallies. United Way funding to the BSA has not yet been substantially affected, however. A rough estimate of loss of beneficence over this issue places the figure at $500,000 a year out of budget hundreds of times that. (In 1996, for example, United Way funding of the BSA amounted to $83,743,000.)  As to what to make of the core issue behind the petition, it comes down to this: The Boy Scouts uphold their deeply-held beliefs by barring homosexuals from becoming scouts or scoutmasters. That stand, however, impels organizations who have sworn to refuse aid to those who practice discrimination to now recognize the Boy Scouts of America as one of the groups they must turn away. Barbara "one good turn deserves another" Mikkelson Last updated:  15 December 2007    Sources:   Parker, Laura and Guillermo Garcia.  "Boy Scout Troops Lose Funds, Meeting Places."   USA Today.  10 October 2000  (p. A1).     Zernike, Kate.  "Scouts' Successful Ban on Gays is Followed by Loss in Support."   The New York Times.  29 August 2000  (p. A1). As often happens, an item about a tiger's nursing piglets appears to be a case in which someone came across some unusual photographs with no explanatory context and decided to make up his own background story. The pictures are real, but the accompanying explanation about a mother tiger in California being given piglets to ease her through a depression stemming from the loss of her own cubs is nothing but fiction: In a zoo in California, a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth. The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve. After checking with many other zoos across the country, The depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only "orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of wiener pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops? Take a look ...   These pictures were actually taken in 2004 not in California, but at the Sriracha Tiger Zoo in Chonburi, Thailand. Although the Sriracha Tiger Zoo hosted one of the world's most successful tiger breeding programs, unlike most western zoos it also offered circus- and carnival-like shows, exhibits, and interactions, including (as evidenced here) the mixture of adults and young of quite different species in the same enclosures, as described by the AWI Quarterly, a publication of the Animal Welfare Institute: Sriracha Tiger Zoo AWI Quarterly The Sriracha Tiger Zoo, an hour outside of Bangkok, Thailand, is truly an amazing place. Boasting more than 400 tigers, a handful of Asian elephants, piles of crocodiles, camels, snakes and other exotic animals, the zoo has some intriguing, yet troubling exhibits. In one glass room, a farrowing crate entombed a pig who, lying on her side, nourished both her piglets and tiger cubs. Across the hall, another glass room housed a female tiger, who fed piglets adorned in tiger-print costumes. This incongruous display was replicated elsewhere, where enclosures housed tigers, pigs, and dogs together. In another area, a visitor could feed milk to a young tiger resting on his or her lap  a young tiger still in possession of his claws ... There was a tiger circus, not dissimilar from a circus anywhere else: tigers leaping through rings of fire, walking across a double tightrope, parading around the ring on hind legs, and riding around on the back of the horse. The mixture of tiger and piglets depicted in these images therefore was not something undertaken for functional reasons, but rather as a common form of visual entertainment provided by the zoo for the amusement of its visitors. According to the Pattaya Mail, these tiger-pig nursing relationships have also been reciprocated to the extent that the mother tiger shown suckling piglets was herself nursed by a sow: Pattaya Mail Visitors recently witnessed some bizarre feeding habits of the zoo's most famous inhabitants. A two-year-old female pig named Benjamaj is a blended pedigree of parents, Land-Less and Las-White, that were imported from Norway. Benjamaj is a kind and maternal porky. She has taken 4 baby tigers under her care and along with 3 tiny piglets is nursing the tigers as though she were their mum. She loves those cats and they love her back. Unbelieving, wide-eyed tourists pressed their noses up to the cage to get a better look. As they moved on to the next cage they were in for another surprise, as there, a great Royal Bengal tigress was lolling on her side and suckling 6 tiny piglets. 'Momma' tiger Saimai is two years old and as a baby was suckled by a pig until she was 4 months old. This democratic start in life allowed her to form a loving relationship with other pigs and even a dog. Food in the wild, maybe  but at the zoo, tourists who witness these amazing scenes come away with food for thought. Although these pictures might appear charming and innocent, the AWI noted back in 2004 that there may be a darker side to the Sriracha Tiger Zoo, as press reports stated that Sriracha was under investigation for illegally breeding protected wildlife for commercial export and had been implicated in the sale of a hundred tigers to China (where there is strong demand for tiger body parts for use in traditional Chinese medicines). The AWI also noted that in late 2004 the zoo was closed for a month when between 80 and 100 tigers died or were euthanized due to an avian influenza (probably spread via the raw chicken carcasses fed to the tigers) that swept through the facility. Roberts, Adam M.  "Too Close for Comfort."
  AWI Quarterly.  Winter 2005. Battaya Mail.  "Unseen Thailand  Amazing Sites at Sriracha Tiger Zoo."
  9 May 2003. In his latestTV ad, released on the first anniversary of hisinauguration, Wisconsin Gov.Scott Walkermakes a case for why he should not beonly the thirdU.S. governor ever recalled from office.The Republican takes credit for erasing Wisconsins $3.6 billion budget deficit and for saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars by making government employees pay more for pension and health benefits.Walker closes the ad, released Jan. 3, 2012, by drawing a contrast with his Democratic predecessor.In the three years before I took office, he says, without namingJim Doyle, Wisconsin lost 150,000 jobs. But now, well, employer confidence is up, and since the start of the year, Wisconsin has added thousands of new jobs. Instead of going back to the days of billion-dollar budget deficits, double-digit tax increases and record job loss, lets keep moving Wisconsin forward.Thats some broad language.So broad, some would think the double-digit increases were a fact of life for most residents. While widespread jobs losses in therecessionand the deficit Walker inherited are well known, we wondered what Walker meant by double-digit tax increases.Walkerrepeatedthe double-digit tax increases claim on Rush Limbaughs national radio talk show on Jan. 17, 2012, the day before petitions seeking the recall election weresubmitted. And he did it again the next day,claimingDemocratic recall candidateKathleenFalkintends to take Wisconsin back to the days of double-digit tax increases.Lets see if thats what state Democrats did.Democrats did boost taxes with the 2009-2011 state budget and a 2009 budget adjustment bill. We found, when rating a $5 billion claim by Walker running mateRebecca KleefischasFalse, that the two measures raised taxes and fees by just over $3 billion over the two-year period.Ben Sparks, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said Walkers double-digit claim refers to the same two budget measures. In adocumentSparks provided, Walker cites three sets of tax changes to back his claim.School property taxesWalker said that, because of the Democrats 2009-2011 budget, school property tax levies would have increased an estimated17.3percentin 2011 had he not taken the steps he did with his 2011-2013 budget.Hmmm.In the ad, Walker flatly claimed that Democrats raised taxes by double-digits. Now hes talking about a hypothetical -- indeed, one that didnt occur.Like any governor, Walker had the opportunity to fashion his own budget. And with a Republican-controlled Legislature, he cut state aid to schools and school districts ability to raise property tax revenues. The result: 2011 school levies dropped1 percent.What about the other two tax changes Walker cites?Business taxesWalker contends Democrats raised business taxes by $456 million, or 28 percent, over two years.Among other things, he cited the Democratic adoption of combined reporting, which taxes a relatively small number of Wisconsin-based businesses on income from subsidiaries outside the state, rather than only those within Wisconsin. That tax is estimated to raise $187 million over two years. He also cited elimination of a tax deduction fordomestic production, which is estimated to increase corporate income tax payments by nearly $72 million.Dale Knapp, research director of the nonprofitWisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, said there isnt a good base on which to calculate the $450 million increase. But roughly $350 million of that increase is to be paid in corporate income taxes, which is roughly an increase of 21 percent, he said.So, that material is generally on point.Whats left?Miscellaneous taxesWalker cites a number of double-digit tax increases the Democrats made, including a 42 percent hike in the tax oncigarettesto $2.52 per pack; more than doubling the $75 per-bed per-month assessment paid bynursing homes; and more than doubling thetipping feecharged to landfills, which is ultimately passed on to garbage generators such as families.Our own research turned up one Walker didnt cite.The Democrats raised the top income tax rate from 6.75 percent to 7.75 percent. That 1-percentage-point increase amounts to a 15 percent boost in the rate itself. The change caused a 13.5 percent increase in the actual tax paid by people with an adjusted gross income of $1 million or more,accordingto the taxpayers alliance.Our ratingIn a TV ad, Walker said the Democratic administration and Legislature that preceded him approved double-digit tax increases. There certainly were not widespread double-digit increases in the taxes most people directly pay -- income taxes and the sales tax. But there are a variety of other tax increases that rose by double digits.We rate Walkers statement Mostly True.