Medical Clinic pushing Ketamine for depression

University of Melbourne Professor Graham Barrett told the ABC he felt there was a conflict of interest between his research work and Aura Medical's push for profits.

Aura Medical Corporation has set up shop in Sydney and Melbourne selling unapproved prescription drugs to severely depressed and needy people.  They are offering take home packages of up to 10 doses of Ketamine.

From the Aura website

Aura Medical Corporation Pty Ltd is an Australian Medical Group specializing in treating patients with treatment resistant depression.  Our doctors have expertise in helping patients through a process of assessment, counselling and introducing effective strategies for treatment.

Aura Medical can help when a patient has not responded to conventional antidepressant treatments.

This is a breakthrough first in Australia with Aura Medical Corporation bringing the new strategies for patients with “treatment resistant depression”.

Doctors at Aura Medical Corporation use a pharmacological approach to treatment-resistant depression which is widely, and successfully, used in USA and some European countries.

Of course our doctors adhere to the strictest privacy provisions of the National Health Act.

If you, a loved one or someone you know is suffering from this level of pain and depression........

So what is Ketamine?

Ketamine is used by medical practitioners and vets as an anaesthetic. It's also used illegally by drug addicts.  It can produce hallucinogenic effects and cause a person to see, hear, smell, feel or taste things that aren't there.

It's sold illegally as a white crystalline powder but can also be made into tablets and pills or dissolved in liquid.

It can be swallowed, snorted or injected and sometimes smoked with cannabis or tobacco.  The effects can be felt within 30 seconds if injected, 5-10 minutes if snorted and 20 minutes if swallowed and effects last for approximately 45 to 90 minutes.

Whistle blowers and former patients report that "client liaison officers" and managers are pressuring patients to sign up to the treatment which costs up to $1,200 for a four week course of 8 injections.

Although several clinical depression trials have shown a dramatic short-term improvement in mood, as yet, ketamine has not been approved for the treatment of depression.

Jennette Jenkin was told the company was running a "medical trial" when she visited Aura Medical Clinic in Sydney this year. 

"When they told me how much the injections were - they would have cost me $300 a week - which I could not afford, they said they would give me a discount and only cost $260." 

Desperate for help, she signed up for 8 injections and was taught how to draw the liquid into the syringes.  The doctor was not interested in getting information about her condition from her GP nor did anyone call her to follow up on her progress at home.

When she finished the course, the doctor said it would be dangerous to stop the drug suddenly and she would need a further 6 injections, but she couldn't afford any more.

"She (the doctor) seemed to be pushing it, even my husband felt the same way, I guess because when she mentioned The Black Dog Institute were doing trials as well, I thought it was legit" Ms Jenkin said.  

But the Black Dog Institute issued the following statement.

Last month, the company's Medical Director Professor Graham Barrett, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, told the ABC he had resigned from the position, citing a conflict of interest between his work as a medical researcher and the company's profit-driven approach.

Farmer's wild dog trees

Trees near the towns of Benambra and Myrtleford in Victoria are displaying an usual sight in recent weeks - dead wild dogs.  They decimate livestock, particularly sheep, and kill native animals.

Robert Belcher from Bonang near the Snowy Mountains National Park, said hanging the wild dogs in trees and on fences where they can be easily seen, is a tradition and lets farmers know that one more predator has been caught.

The displays also help city tourists realize just how bad the problem is. Because they don't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there.  Mr Belcher said there are "thousands" in bushland near his home. Some of the dogs are huge.  "You've got no hope against a dog like that" he said.

But come 30th June 2015, the Victorian state government will cease to pay a bounty for wild dogs and all the good work will stall. 

Words fail me. 

Robert Belcher

Gina Rinehart loses family trust battle

I guess we'll never know why Gina Rinehart didn't want her children to receive the money their grandfather Lang Hancock set up for them when they reached a certain age.  That time has come and gone yet their mother fought tooth and nail to deny them his wishes and we are left wondering why.

Gina and Lang

During the trial, Gina resigned as trustee of the trust and today, 28th May 2015, the NSW Supreme Court Justice Paul Brereton appointed Bianca 38, trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust, worth around $4 billion.

Justice Brereton said Bianca was "better suited than any of the alternatives to administer this trust in the prevailing circumstances" and that she had "demonstrated the ability robustly to assert the rights of the trust" against her mother and the flagship family company Hancock Prospecting.

The judge also said that Gina Rinehart had gone to extraordinary lengths to maintain control of the trust and had exerted "enormous pressure and great influence to do so."

Bianca Hancock

Before he died, Lang Hancock drew up a trust for his four grandchildren and ordered it to be made available in September 2011 on the day the youngest Ginia, turned 25.  But their mother changed the date to 2068 without their consent.

For three and a half years, Gina Rinehart and her youngest daughter Ginia fought to deny John and Biance their inheritance.  A fourth grandchild Hope Welker settled with her mother in 2013 for $45 million because she couldn't handle the stress involved with the litigation.

The trust's main asset is a 24 per cent share in Hancock Prospecting and their mother owns the rest.

John Hancock

Because Gina resigned voluntarily as trustee during the trial, the judge could not rule on John and Bianca's assertion that their mother was guilty of serious misconduct.  But the world now knows that she was.

Terrorist's wife and children want to come home

Khaled Sharrouf

Australian Khaled Sharrouf proudly posted a picture of his young son holding a bloody severed head with the caption 'that's my boy.'

Everyone was shocked except his relatives back in Sydney.  His brother said we should simply forget about it. "He's gone, forget about it, he's forgotten youse."

Now his Australian wife Tara Nettleton, a Muslim convert, who took her five children to Syria to join her husband, has decided she wants to come home.  She converted to Islam and had the first of her five children with Sharrouf when she was seventeen.

Sharrouf knows he's burnt his bridges, if he sets one foot on Australian soil, he'll be arrested and given a lengthy jail term and the same should apply to his wife and children.  But political correctness won't allow that to happen.  

Karen Nettleton

And Sharrouf's wife has an ally - her mother, Karen Nettleton - and with her help, she successfully smuggled her three young boys and two teenage daughters out of Australia to Syria via Malaysia. Her mother went out of her way to deceive authorities and make the move possible.

The government want to strip citizenship from Australian-born children of immigrants who go to fight with ISIS and force them to take up citizenship in the birth country of their parents.  But it's easier said than done. Yesterday when the federal cabinet agreed to introduce laws to strip sole Australian citizens of their rights, there was a revolt and the proposal failed. 

Tara Nettleton's father Peter pleaded with authorities to bring his grandchildren home months ago when he saw a picture of his grandson holding a severed head in the paper. But it's too late for that, they have already been indoctrinated into the brutal world of ISIL and you can't undo the damage already done.

Tara Nettleton made her bed and now she must lie in it and pleading ignorance won't wash. 

We don't want you or your children back. Ever.

Crystal meth now out of control in Sydney

The Central Coast is the third largest urban area in New South Wales and only an hour and a half away from Sydney.  The population varies from retirees to working-age couples who longed to live near the beach but couldn't afford Sydney prices. But unfortunately, there are never enough jobs to go around and hundreds battle the long commute every day to Sydney for work.

There was an Ice Summit on the Central Coast this week and Dobell Federal Liberal MP Karen McNamara opened the meeting with a horror story.  An ice addict in an Emergency Department gouged out his own eyeballs and ate them.  She used this story to demonstrate that ice is not a recreational drug and somehow we must get this message across to our young. She said the incident occurred at John Hunter Hospital at Newcastle.

Last week in Sydney, the Organised Crime Squad seized another 170 kg of ice worth $110 million, but it's nothing new.  The cops are on the news every week, proudly displaying another find but it happens so often, it's hardly newsworthy anymore.  And it's not only local cooks they have to find, it's because Australia pays more for ice than any other country in the world, so it's pouring in from overseas hidden in almost anything you can think of.  

Head of Emergency Department at Gosford and Wyong Hospitals, Dr Kate Porges said that "killer doses" were needed to calm the addict down.  "The doses are six times what we'd give the average person, if I gave you this sort of dosage, you'd be dead" she said.

Doctors and nurses were regularly assaulted but rarely reported because they were too busy to deal with the paperwork.

Paramedics are also risking their lives.  The drug-induced psychosis gives ice users super-human strength.  Toukley ambulance manager Dave Morris said it took 12 men, including large police officers, to subdue one addict who weighed around 60 kg.

Meanwhile, as we hold more seminars and summits and keep talking about crystal meth, the cops keep looking for it, the crooks keep cooking it, and the kids keep buying it.  

And so it goes.

http://www.crystalmeth.org.au/meetings/sydney/

Sydney teacher Alexander Gollan arrested

Alex Gollan was arrested on Wednesday night, seven months after police searched his Condell Park home.  A teacher and deputy principal of Homebush Public School, he was charged with allegedly grooming a 9 year old girl for sex on Facebook and 14 counts of possessing child pornography.

He was released on strict bail conditions and will face court on 30 June 2015.

The girl's family were diligent enough to discover what was happening on their daughter's computer and reported it to police in September 2014.

The Education Department said he was removed from school and assigned alternative non-teaching duties as soon as the department were aware of concerns and he complied with the necessary Working With Children check.

But Alexander Gollan swears he is innocent.  He claims he was framed by right-wing extremists who planned to set him up and that the child pornography was sent to him by his enemies.

So who are these enemies?  Mr Gollan devotes his spare time to writing anti-bogan, anti-discrimination and anti-racist material and once sold stickers and Tshirts promoting his cause. He says the haters sent him the child porn with a note that said "we know you love this shit" hoping to ruin his career and brand him as a paedophile.

Asked about his alleged online conversation with the young girl he said investigators misunderstood the meaning of what he said.  "I said things that I say verbatim to adults, I said 'stop being cute' but I say stuff like that to adults, obviously it's triggered warning bells, I was here alone, I wasn't grooming."

Mr Gollan said he wanted to return to his role as assistant principal as soon as possible.  "I've been in the same industry for a long time.  It's an absolutely awful feeling, I've been throwing up."

None of his alleged victims were linked to the Homebush Primary School.

Uber drivers must pay GST

Yesterday the Australian government announced that Uber drivers must apply for an ABN (Australian Business Number) and charge 10 per cent GST (Goods & Services Tax).

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) has given Uber drivers two and a half months to start paying GST.

In response, the company released a statement.

.......................We were therefore disappointed that the ATO has taken it upon itself to dictate government policy for the sharing economy by imposing a flawed interpretation of the law that was introduced in the 1990s upon participants of a new business model that is only one year old.

Today's decision by the ATO is not a tax on Uber but rather impacts the over 9,000 ordinary Australians who drive on the uberX platform.

These are 9,000 individuals who will now be caught up in red tape before they even accept their first ride and will then be hit with a tax on their very first dollar earned, unlike the truck drivers, painters, online sellers, gardeners, other sharing economy participants, and every other small business who do not have to collect GST until their business reaches $75,000 p.a. in turnover.

The typical uberX partner in Australia works for around 20 hours a week and takes home around $30,000 p.a. - well under the government's threshold for GST.....................

The current penalties are $220 for non-lodgement of a BAS and fines apply for non-payment of outstanding GST on supplies already made.

Yesterday, the company's head of policy Brad Kitschke threatened to challenge the government's decision in the courts.  "It's something we are considering" he said.

ISIS fighters want to come home

Tony Abbott announced that young Muslim men who chose to go to Syria to fight with ISIS will be arrested, prosecuted and jailed if they return to Australia.  At least three men have been in negotiations with government officials.

Approaches have been made by intermediaries or family members over the past six months - one to the Australian Embassy in Ankara Turkey, another to the Dept of Foreign Affairs in Canberra and the third to the Federal Police.

"There are tens, if not hundreds of thousands of innocent people who have been killed by the Da'ish death cult and the other terrorist groups in that part of the world" Mr Abbott said.

"We have seen with our own eyes on the TV the mass executions, the beheadings, the crucifixions, the sexual slavery.  This is a gruesome, ghastly, medieval barbarism which has erupted in the modern world. The last thing any Australian should do, is join it."

The lawyer for an Australian man who wants to come home said the trained medic would be a valuable resource for authorities as they try to steer young Australians away from radical ideas but the Prime Minister is adamant.  "A crime is a crime is a crime" he said.

More than 30 Australians have been killed fighting in Syria and Iraq so far.

Jan Marshall gives away life savings for love

Jan Marshall

Loneliness is a terrible thing, it makes sensible women do stupid things and 61 year old Jan Marshall gave every cent she had saved over her lifetime to Nigerian scammers.  

She joined a dating site Plenty of Fish and released her personal details to the world and it wasn't long before Eamon Donegal Dubhlainn responded to her profile, complete with his photo.

Eamon Donegal Dubhlainn 

Jan was hooked and before long the pair graduated to personal email and then instant messenger and after a suitable time frame had elapsed, he proposed marriage.  Even though they had never met, she said yes.

'He'd returned to England and then supposedly took a short-term contract in Dubai and promised he'd come to Australia six to eight weeks after that.

Once he said he was in Dubai, the money requests started. Initially, he said he had some taxes he hadn't allowed for. It all happened over six weeks and what I paid out to him, I expected to get back.

Then it was money for business materials and it got worse, he told me he got robbed on the way to pay those taxes.

It was always amounts of $40,000 which I gave to him twice, then he said he was in trouble with those he'd contracted work to and had to buy out the contract for $77,000.

The larger amounts went to bank accounts, those of $40,000 and $30,000 went through Western Union, even though there is a limit of $10,000 and I was doing it in multiples of 10.

Then when he was apparently on his way to the airport to come to Australia, he had a car crash and was in hospital, they had other people like nurses and doctors contact you, a document showing the expenses and others playing different roles.

I didn't realize it was a scam until he got on a plane to England and he said "I'm on my way now, thanks for everything."

He always told me 'I am a wealthy man, but I can't access my funds.'

I paid over $270,000 to them which included savings, additional credit and money taken out of my self-managed super fund which I wasn't supposed to do.  I now have a $76,000 tax bill on the super which is at 46 per cent interest.

Now Jan is fighting the Australian Tax Office who is pursuing her for $76,000 after she accessed her super fund.

"The only follow-up I received is that the money was collected in Nigeria, although it was sent to Dubai."

It's a tragic tale and one that men and women the world over need to learn from.  Thirty three percent of women who have never been on a dating site have also been scammed.  Once you release your details to the world, you are fair game.

And always remember, the photo you receive is most likely just some innocent person's picture taken off the net.

Irfaan Hussein killed in Syria

Irfaan Hussein

Melbourne teenager Irfaan Hussein who went to fight with ISIS in Syria has been killed.  There are unconfirmed reports that he was either beheaded trying to return to Australia, or killed in a bomb blast.  His death has been confirmed by his family.

Hussein, who called himself Abu Sufyan Australi, went to the same school as his friend Numan Haider who was shot dead last year after stabbing two policemen outside the Endeavour Hills Police Station in Melbourne and threatening to kill the Prime Minister. Hussein left the country around the same time.

Hussein's phone number was found on another Australian Jihadi suspect, Harun Causevic who, together with Ramden Besim, planned to run down a police officer, cut off his head and then die in a blaze of glory after killing as many people as possible.

Because both men were denied a passport and couldn't travel to Syria, they chose to go on a killing spree on Anzac Day instead.

Vehid Causevic

But it wasn't even their idea, the plot was the brainchild of a 14 year old boy from Blackburn in north-west England.  British police arrested him on the same day that Australian police raided and arrested 5 suspected terrorists in Melbourne.

Causevic's parents are Bosnian refugees.  In court, his mother wept and his father held his head in his hands.  Outside court he launched a scathing attack on the federal government.

"This is political.....this is clear message from Prime Minister to young Muslim who go five times a day to mosque, be charged like terrorist."

Meanwhile, Australia's top Islamic State recruiter, Neil Prakash is still hunting disillusioned Muslim boys aged 15 to 19 in the same way paedophiles hunt and groom teenagers for sex.  Boys over 20 are considered too old.

Hizb ut-Tahrir speaks to Muslim Uni students

Last night at the University of Western Sydney's Parramatta campus, radical Muslim group Hizb ut-Tahrir gave a lecture to students, reminding them once again, why their host country is evil. The event was booked by the University's Muslim Students Association.

Mohammad Hoblos (left) and Wassim Doureihi

In his talk, Mr Dourehi said social problems facing Muslims were the result of Western ideology.  "Next time we come across brothers or sisters battling addiction, who are constantly harassed by police, who are held up at the airport and sisters who are victims of domestic violence, understand the problems are systemic in nature" he said.

Wassim Doureihi

And the point was made that Muslim culture continues to separate themselves from the Australian way of life because the women were told to sit up the back while the men sat in the front rows.

So why don't the men and women sit together like everyone else? The explanation given was "so the men can't see the women."

The question must be asked - in 2015, in multicultural Sydney, in an enlightened institution of learning, why is this happening?

Johnny Depp's Australian quarantine problems

Johnny Depp and wife Amber Heard

Hollywood star Johnny Depp isn't going to remember his latest trip down under as a happy experience.  He was either unaware of our quarantine laws for bringing his two Yorkshire Terriers into the country, or he knew about them and decided they didn't apply to him.

Boo and Pistol arrived in Depp's private plane last month so he could resume filming the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie on the Gold Coast.

Agriculture Minister, Barnaby Joyce

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce is not a happy man.  He was made aware of the situation when they were spotted being taken to a dog groomer on the Gold Coast.

"If dogs come in and they have rabies...the whole life in Brisbane changes.  Think how close it is, it's in Bali, just next door, it's not fanciful stuff.  Therefore, we are very diligent about what comes into our nation."

"If he really can't live without Pistol and Boo, he has to get them to go through the appropriate quarantine process like all the other dogs."

The minimum quarantine period for all animals entering Australia is ten days.

Pistol and Boo 

Minister Jones said it wasn't fair that movie stars get preferential treatment.  "Why don't we just break the laws for everybody?" he said. "It's time that Pistol and Boo buggered off back to the United States."

Edit 16 May 2015:   Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce told ABC radio today "I'm informed that Pistol and Boo are preparing to fly out on a private jet back to the United States, which is the best news that I've got."  He said the fact the dogs were not declared to Customs was a concern for Australia because the dogs come from a country that has rabies. “Pistol and Boo have had their lives threatened by the actions of Mr Depp” he said.

John Singleton gets violent over lunch

Fairfax Media Director Jack Cowin knows how it goes when old men get drunk over a long lunch. He seemed philosophical about the incident in which John Singleton lunged at him with a broken bottle.

"You know how these things go...... a long lunch......we were just like bear cubs playing around in a cage."

Jack Cowin

It happened yesterday at Kingsleys Steak and Crabhouse at Woolloomooloo when Singleton got angry at something Cowin said or did.

Singleton obviously forgot his age, now 73, and made a complete fool of himself when staff rushed in to restrain him.

But he's not sorry.  Later, when he was leaving, he was asked about his view on violence, he said "I f...... love it!  I f......love it!

Sigh, some things never change.

Fermented black garlic

Article taken from ABC Rural 9 April 2015

While rain in southern New South Wales has delayed planting of this year's crop, it has not stopped one farmer near Bredbo, just south of Canberra, working hard on his previous harvest.

It may look like a jellybean, but black garlic is fermenting the minds of chefs and consumers.

John Pye once ran a health food shop in the nation's capital and previous generations of his family operated pharmacies.

So it is not surprising that he is value-adding to his crop by applying science to his biodynamic-grown bulbs.

He is one of the few in Australia who, through fermentation, turn the bulb into black garlic, which resembles a "black jellybean" after a process that goes for around 40 days.

The determination to value-add to his garlic came while reading an in-flight magazine while on a plane with his wife.

The article described the processed garlic as the "new black" which spurred Mr Pye.

John Pye

He is extremely protective of just how it is achieved.

"It took me a long time to perfect because the parameters are so exact," he said.

"Self-fermentation is quite complicated.

"The controlled conditions are the key to success.

"It is a self fermenting process; nothing at all is added to make that happen, it just happens in the enclosed environment that exists."
That "enclosed environment" is a shed housing a series of, what could be mistaken for industrial refrigerators, a temperature gauge at the top of each door, which has plywood screwed on.

After the garlic is harvested, its foliage is still attached.

It is then left to "cure" for at least a month and then the dried foliage is cut off.

This is the garlic that consumers are used to finding in shops.

The black garlic that Mr Pye is aiming for is extremely popular in South Korea where it first gained prominence, and is also popular in other parts of Asia such as Japan.

For shoppers at the Canberra farmers' markets, curiosity plays a major part in trying it.

"I hadn't heard of it before," said Wagga dentist Thomas Schumack who was visiting.

"It is a whole lot sweeter than I was expecting. It's beautiful,"

Although he was unsure of exactly how he would use it.

His friend Casey Hobill had also bought some after tasting.

"It was quite a peculiar taste," he said.

"I do like it. It is quite sweet but also sour."

Mr Hobill had even been inspired to buy a cookbook to help with ideas.

For Mr Pye, he likes eating it with cracker biscuits and a slab of cheese or tossing it through a salad.

If it grows in popularity, he is hoping that the weather conditions improve and planting of this year's crop gets underway.

British doctor keeps slave for 24 years

A Nigerian doctor and his wife are facing court under modern anti-slavery legislation accused of keeping a slave in their home for 24 years.  

It's alleged that Dr Emmanuel Edet and his wife Antan, enslaved Ofonmbuk Sunday Inuk against his will from the age of 13 and that he lived a life of misery under their control.

Inuk's parents died when he was 12 and as the eldest of eight children, he jumped at the chance to live with the Edets in Lagos, Nigeria, who paid him a meagre wage and promised him an education.

The family moved to Israel and then to the UK when Inuk was 13.  The doctor and his wife smuggled him into the country by changing his name to Edet and adding him to their passports.

But once in the UK, the doctor stole his passport, insisted on being called 'master' and beat him until he was completely cowed and compliant.

Ealing Hospital in west London, where the accused couple worked

Prosecutor Roger Smart said Inuk slept on the kitchen floor on a dirty foam mattress thrown out by the hospital and had to sweep the house clean because the vacuum cleaner was too noisy.  He had to wash the clothes by hand because the Edets claimed it was too expensive to use the washing machine.

He always ate by himself, kept his few possessions in a single bag and was not allowed to sit in the front room or go upstairs.

The Prosecutor said "The couple, to all intents and purposes owned him, controlling nearly every aspect of his life down to his very name. Over a period in excess of 20 years, they have deprived him of his identity, his rights to education and freedom of movement and the money he should have received.  He has no means of returning to Nigeria and was entirely dependent on them.  At one stage, he tried to undertake a college course in computer skills but the Edets stopped him."

When he did not meet their exact standards, they hit him and punched him, he recalls this particularly clearly in relation to his trying to apply for college.

"It's hard to believe this can be true, everyone assumed the man was their grown-up son who simply never left home" a neighbour said.  "I would often say hello to him outside the house, he certainly never said anything to me about being held against his will."

When the couple went back to Nigeria in 2014 for Christmas, Inuk heard about a similar case of someone being held against their will on the radio and decided to go to Scotland Yard.

He told them he was a 'house boy' - he cooked, cleaned, washed, ironed and looked after the garden. "My role is to stay in the house, I do everything in the house" he said.

Dr Edet 60 is an obstetrician and gynaecologist and his wife is an NHS senior nurse.

The trial continues.

Mount Druitt is Struggle Street

Helen Kellie

Helen Kellie, the person responsible for last night's Struggle Street on SBS, has a chemistry degree from Oxford University and used to work for the BBC.  So we can assume that she's not very familiar with the western suburbs of Sydney like Mount Druitt and after making the documentary, it's very unlikely she will ever venture there again.

Ms Kellie saw a similar program in the UK called "Skint" which featured the unemployed living in Britain's poorest suburbs.  It was controversial and rated very well so Ms Kellie suggested it would also rate well here in Australia and because of the publicity, it did.

SBS don't have a large advertising budget because they don't attract the large audience of the commercial channels or the ABC and better ratings will allow them to increase advertising minutes. And this programme was probably made with this in mind.

Struggle Street was made in the Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt and the Mayor of Blacktown is furious that the programme is not a true picture of the people who live there.  He went to the SBS offices in Sydney yesterday, even before the show went to air, and arranged for council garbage trucks to form a blockade.  He said the programme contained "engineered" and "completely false" scenes.

So did they cherry pick certain people to get a sensational reaction like Billie Joe Wilkie?  Billie was born addicted to methadone and her parents are both drug addicts.  She already has three children and narrowly escaped jail time yesterday when she appeared in Blacktown Court charged with theft and driving while disqualified.

The central couple featured, Ashley and his wife Peta support their 10 children and 18 grandkids. Ashley was a truck driver  until a head injury and health problems stopped him from working.

Ashley and Peta's sense of hopelessness has rendered them incapable of taking control of their lives and they allow their drug-addicted son to come and go, stealing the family's meagre possessions to maintain his ice habit.

Unless a miracle happens, these 18 grandchildren born into this family have no hope, they will be trapped in the welfare cycle of poverty for the rest of their lives.  I will never understand how some people still think that welfare is a preferred way of life.

Struggle Street will undoubtedly boost ratings for SBS but I have sympathy for the Blacktown Mayor because he knows that this programme is not a true representation of the people who live in Mt Druitt.  And it's just not fair to them.

Simon Gittany's girlfriend sues Daily Telegraph

More than a year after Simon Gittany was convicted of murdering Lisa Harnum by throwing her off a 15th storey balcony in Sydney, his former girlfriend Rachelle Louise told the court she still believes he is innocent. She said that CCTV evidence conflicted with the eyewitness Joshua Rathmell's evidence given at Gittany's trial.

Rachelle Louise is suing Nationwide News over three articles that appeared in the Daily Telegraph in 2013 in which they wrongly reported that she was a stripper, a prostitute and a bimbo.

One article written by police reporter Clementine Cuneo, wrongly reported that Ms Louise had worked as a stripper at a club called Peppermint Rhino in Las Vegas and as a masseuse in London and accepted diamond necklaces from strangers as she travelled the world.

Her barrister Clive Evatt said "add them all up and they are saying she's a prostitute and a woman of loose morals."  He went on to say that instead, she is a "modern day Joan of Arc" who gave Gittany $90,000 of her life savings to help fund his defence. 

Yesterday was the first day of the civil trial with a four-person jury of two men and two women.

The trial continues.

Edit 9 May 2015:  Halfway through a jury trial, the parties announced that the case would not be proceeding.

The terms of the settlement are confidential and each party will pay their own costs.

Speaking outside court, Ms Louise said: "I am ecstatic with the result."

The murder of Freddy Gray

Marilyn Mosby

Nobody can accuse Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby of being anti-black.  And nobody can accuse her of being anti-cop either because her father, mother and grandfather were all police officers.

She grew up in Baltimore and her African American husband is a city councilman.

When she was 14, her teenage cousin was shot dead in a robbery right in front of her house.  Diron Spencer 17 was an honour student who had just come back from lifeguard duty and was still wearing his swimsuit.  That tragic incident set Marilyn Mosby on the road to achieving her goal of one day becoming a prosecutor.

Mosby is new to the job, just six months yesterday.

Her husband Councilman Nick Mosby was quick to point out the real reasons behind the anger in the community - poverty, little or no education, no jobs and no hope for the future.

Freddy Gray

The six police officers are now in custory and one has been charged with "second-degree depraved heart murder."  So what does it mean?

In United States law, depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is an action where a defendant acts with "depraved indifference" to human life and where such act results in a death.  In a depraved-heart murder, a defendant commits an act even though they know their act runs an unusually high risk of causing death or serious bodily harm to someone else.  If the risk of death or bodily harm is great enough, ignoring it demonstrates a "depraved indifference" to human life and the resulting death is considered to have been committed with malice aforethought aka premeditation.  In most states, depraved-heart killings constitute second-degree murder.

Another example given would be a teen throwing concrete blocks off an overpass onto passing traffic below.  He would have "depraved indifference" to someone being killed.

Relatives of Freddy Gray and the people of Baltimore are pinning their hopes on Marilyn Mosby to bring these men to justice.  Let's hope she can deliver.

Chinese healer's "slapping therapy"

Police are investigating Chinese healer Hongchi Xiao after the death of a young diabetic boy who attended his "slapping therapy" workshops in Sydney.

His therapy involves slapping the patient until bruises appear which he says rids the body of poisons.  His week-long therapy cost $1800.00.

"The greater the pain and bruises while slapping means there is more poison inside the body" he told a seminar in South Africa last year. "You can be your own doctor.  We were all born with a self-healing power but we simply ignore it and spend millions of dollars paying for medications.  Nature heals, doctors are only assistants."

Sadly the parents of Aidan Fenton 7, believed it.

Lily and Geoff Fenton with Aidan

Aidan was receiving treatment at the alternative Chinese medicine workshops at the Tasly Healthpac Centre in Hurstville when he died. Detectives are investigating if the boy was taken off insulin before his death.

Participants in the seminar were asked to fast for three days before the slapping and stretching exercises began which prompted vomiting and dizzy spells, known as the "healing crisis" and  Aidan was among those who vomited.

The child looked well during the seminar but became ill on Monday night and was found unconscious around 9pm at the Hurstville Ritz Hotel where the family were staying.  After hearing screams coming from their room, staff rushed to help but he died on the way to hospital.

So police want to know if Mr Ziao advised the parents to take Aidan off insulin and encouraged them to give him alternative Chinese remedies which included massages and slapping.  He was in Sydney after a tour of New Zealand to promote his "Paida-Lajin" therapy and has written several books on Chinese medicine.

In 2011, Taiwanese authorities deported Xiao and fined him for violating medical regulations and Chinese media reported a liver cancer patient paid him $40,000 for treatment and died three months later.

A post mortem will determine whether there is any evidence of medical malpractice.

I notice Chinese medicine outlets are appearing more and more in our shopping centres these days and it's easy to see why.  It's tempting to prefer a so-called "natural" remedy but I've never been game enough to go in and after reading this story, I probably never will.