America's serious crime rate is plunging, but why?

Editors note: Maybe "street" crime has fallen because the "framers" of society, Corporations; Big Pharma, Mainstream Media, etc, have succeeded in their plan through media, meds, mis-education & mass incarceration to socially control the masses. These same mass DON'T protest the blatant corporate crimes and government corruption.
So, it is not only that violent crime has fallen, activism has also fallen, while Corporate and Government crimes have risen. White-collar crime is up, pays more and affects more people. Maybe new laws of punishment should be minted for corporate & government crime, but that will never happen since the criminals are controlling the farm.
Then again, maybe it is the lull before the storm?

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"If you look at the homicide statistics from major cities in 1990 they're absolutely appalling. I think the reaction of the legislatures at the time was to say three strikes and you're out, mandatory minimums, you have to actually serve the time. They were responding to what was in front of them which was an epidemic of violence and I think to some extent they were right," he said.
"You can make the case that mass incarceration hastened the end of the crime wave. You would have a much more difficult time making the case that a continuation of that mass incarceration is necessary. The benefit from preventing crime, since crime rates are so much lower, is a lot smaller than it used to be and the costs continue to go up. We're investing more and more in prison and getting a smaller and smaller return."
But the public may not share that view. A recent poll showed most Americans feel crime is still getting worse.  | The Guardian

Nigerian Pfizer victims' compensation fears (unbelievable)

Trovan, a Pfizer drug tested on 200 children and intended to treat a deadly regional outbreak of meningitis, killed 11 children and left several more permanently injured in 1996.

In 2009, the US pharmaceutical company agreed to pay $75m to the claimants in compensation.

However, Pfizer introduced DNA testing as part of the process to qualify for the payment.

Many of the victims do not understand what DNA testing is and, fearing it is an attempt by the company to use them in another drug trial, have abandoned their compensation claims.

Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from Kano State, northern Nigeria.

The New Politics of Food Scarcity, Soaring food prices and political unrest

Richard Ferguson, global head of agriculture at Renaissance Capital, an investment bank specializing in emerging markets, told The Guardian newspaper in the UK [1] that the problems were likely to spread. “Food prices are absolutely core to a lot of these disturbances. If you are 25 years old, with no access to education, no income and live in a politically repressed environment, you are going to be pretty angry when the price of food goes up the way it is.” It acted “as a catalyst” for political unrest, when added to other ills such as a lack of democracy.  | Food Freedom