PLYMOUTH, MASS. (WHDH) - Students imitating a viral trend involving people who record themselves using an iPhone charger and a penny to spark a fire scorched a Plymouth high school classroom on Tuesday, fire officials said.

Firefighters responding to reports of an arcing electrical outlet at Plymouth North High School around 12:15 p.m. found the pronged part of an iPhone charger had been blackened and scorched, and a penny fused to the charger, officials said. Another outlet was similarly scorched.

A teacher said two students plugged chargers into two outlets and dropped a penny between the outlet and charger, causing the outlets to spark and smoke, officials said. No one was injured.

“It’s almost like an explosion. The electricity propels the charger and the coin — the coin is molten metal at this point — outwards.” Plymouth Fire Chief Edward Bradley said. “It can easily get you in the face, get you in the eye, it could cause blindness and it can cause your clothing to catch fire.”

“It does not take much to be electrocuted fatally,” Bradley said. “Just by an outlet in a wall socket.”

Plymouth Schools Superintendent Dr. Gary E. Maestas issued a statement Tuesday night reading in part:

“I am happy to report that there were no injuries or significant damage to Plymouth North High School as a result of their irresponsible act of shorting out an electrical outlet.”

This is not just happening in Plymouth.

State Fire Marshal Peter Otroskey issued an advisory earlier Tuesday after a similar incident, which he said was based on videos shown on TikTok.
https://whdh.com/news/fire-officials-students-imitating-viral-trend-used-iphone-charger-penny-to-scorch-plymouth-classroom/

https://americanindependent.com/this-week-in-wins-virginia-equal-rights-amendment-new-jersey-wisconsin-texas/

Virginia became the 38th state to approve the Equal Rights Amendment the same week New Jersey's governor signed legislation to protect health care and three states saw voting rights victories.

The Virginia legislature made history this week by becoming the 38th state to approve the Equal Rights Amendment, but that was not the only news progressives celebrated. There were voting rights victories in Missouri, Texas, and Wisconsin, and New Jersey's governor signed laws protecting residents with preexisting conditions.

Read on to catch up on this week's wins.

>Virginia ratifies Equal Rights Amendment

The Virginia House of Delegates and Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment on Wednesday, making Virginia the 38th state to do so.

"For the women of Virginia and the women of America, the resolution has finally passed," Speaker of the House Eileen Filler-Corn said just before she announced the result of the House vote. Those gathered in the chamber erupted in applause.

The amendment, which would ban discrimination based on sex, has not been ratified by three-fourths of the states, the threshold necessary for amending the U.S. Constitution. However, when Congress passed the ERA in 1972, it set a deadline of 1979 for state ratification. Opponents of the ERA maintain the deadline has passed, but proponents argue the deadline itself is unconstitutional, according to the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/2020/01/15/0475d51a-36f1-11ea-9541-9107303481a4_story.html

>New Jersey governor signs bills to protect people with preexisting conditions

On Thursday, New Jersey's Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy signed into law a package of health care legislation protecting state residents should federal courts side with Republicans and overturn the Affordable Care Act.

He burned a gay flag

https://www.westernjournal.com/iowa-man-gets-16-years-burning-lgbt-flag/

By Norman Miller
Daily News Staff
@Norman_MillerMW
Posted Jan 22, 2020 at 6:33 PM Updated Jan 22, 2020 at 9:18 PM

“At first, they thought it was an animal but then they noticed toilet paper and other wipes – items animals would not have access to,” police said.

NATICK – At least eight times since early December, the owner of the Natick Outdoor Store made an unpleasant discovery when he arrived at work - a pile of human feces.

On Wednesday, Natick Police arrested Andrea F. Grocer, 51, of Ashland, in the parking lot of the store at 38 North Ave. where they found her getting ready to use it as a toilet once again, authorities said.

“I’m so happy they arrested her,” said Natick Outdoor Store owner Henry Kanner. “I have no idea who she is. This has been ongoing. She has defecated quite often over here. There’s nothing more disgusting coming into your parking lot in the morning and seeing a pile of human excrement.”

Grocer’s lawyer described her as a “pillar of the community” and said she works full time, during her arraignment in Natick District Court on Wednesday.

Police spokeswoman Lt. Cara Rossi said police began investigating the incidents last month after Kanner reported repeatedly finding the feces in his parking lot.

“At first, they thought it was an animal but then they noticed toilet paper and other wipes – items animals would not have access to,” Rossi said.


https://www.metrowestdailynews.com/news/20200122/natick-police-arrest-parking-lot-pooper-suspect-is-accused-of-eight-incidents

>Open defecation, insanitary condition defile Tema Awudum beach
https://ghananewsagency.org/science/open-defecation-insanitary-condition-defile-tema-awudum-beach-162006
By Laudia Sawer

Tema, Dec. 31, GNA - Some residents of Awudum, a coastal community in Tema Newtown have turned their beach into an open defecation site to perpetuate the unsightly tradition.

In spite of a number of public toilet facilities in the area, the recalcitrant residents made up of the old, youth, men, women and children prefer empting their bowels at the shore and its immediate environs.

One had to take calculated steps when descending from the town to the seashore as the least mistake could land your feet into a mould of human excreta.

When the Ghana News Agency visited the shores at about 11:00 hours on a Friday, the scenery of a beautiful rocky beach with fine sand had been tainted with faeces and refuse.

The GNA spotted a number of the residents happily defecating at the place and not even the presence of the reporter taking pictures deterred them from the act as one of them rather jerked his buttocks up to wipe his bum.

As if defecating was not enough to degrade the beauty of the shore, the residents had created a heap of refuse at the place and animals especially, goats and houseflies fed and played on it.

Not too far from these unsightly packages, were women either smoking fish or processing fermented fish (momoni) to be consumed by the unsuspecting public.

https://www.france24.com/en/20200113-six-tourists-arrested-after-feces-found-in-sacred-machu-picchu-area

Six tourists arrested after feces found in sacred Machu Picchu area

14/01/2020

Lima (AFP)

Six tourists, including a French woman, have been arrested over accusations that they damaged Peru's cultural heritage by defecating in a sacred temple at the iconic Machu Picchu sanctuary.

"The six tourists are being detained and investigated by the public ministry for the alleged crime against cultural heritage," Cusco regional police chief Wilbert Leyva said on Monday, quoted by the local Andina news agency.

The tourists were arrested on Sunday after park rangers and police found them in a restricted area of the Temple of the Sun, an important site at the Inca citadel.

Leyva said authorities had come across a "fracture" in a piece of stone that had "broken off a wall and caused a crack in the floor."

Cultural authorities from Cusco, the region where Machu Picchu is located, said feces were found in the Temple of the Sun.

The group was made up of one French, two Brazilians, two Argentines and a Chilean, according to police.

They face at least four years in prison if found guilty of damaging Peru's heritage.

Several parts of the semicircular Temple of the Sun are off limits to tourists for preservation reasons.

Worshipers at the temple would make offerings to the sun, which was considered the most important deity in the Inca empire as well as other pre-Inca civilizations in the Andean region.

The Machu Picchu estate -- which includes three distinct areas for agriculture, housing and religious ceremonies -- is the most iconic site from the Inca empire that ruled a large swathe of western South America for 100 years before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century.

Machu Picchu, which means "old mountain" in the Quechua language indigenous to the area, is at the top of a lush mountain and was built during the reign of the Inca emperor Pachacuti (1438-1471).