Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalSouth Carolina murder mystery deepens with body to be exhumed
It is more than a year since the murders of Maggie and Paul Murdaugh, the wife and son of Alex Murdaugh, the jailed South Carolina lawyer making headlines via a complex embezzlement case as hard to navigate as the state’s low country swamp.
The story has captured the imagination of much of America as a true crime murder mystery that appears to mix violent shootings and other deaths with financial shenanigans – all served up with a hefty dose of southern Gothic drama.
No arrests have resulted yet from the double murder investigation. But Alex Murdaugh faces 700 years in prison on fraud charges totaling $8.5m in losses.
Yet there have been incremental, and some say important, advances, including the release this week of 911 tapes from the day Murdaugh claimed he was ambushed by a gunman in the wake of the murders, and plans to unearth the body of housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, whose family were swindled out of millions of dollars in a $4.3m insurance settlement.
All told, the sprawling saga around the prominent South Carolina family involves five deaths, at least seven state and federal investigations, the loss of millions of dollars, and five indictments totaling 71 charges, including money-laundering, computer crimes and forgery.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/19/south-carolina-alex-murdaugh-murder-deaths-police
Blood test shows woman charged with DUI/felony child neglect was sober at time of arrest
After working 41 hours in three days caring for COVID patients, Katie Slayton had the day off on Sept. 22, 2021.
A single mother of a five-year-old son, the Williamson County nurse had dropped him off at daycare that evening so she could run to the mall.
A few hours later, she picked him up and prepared to pull out of the parking spot when she saw police lights directly behind her.
What would happen next would result in devastating consequences: charges of DUI and felony child neglect, separation from her son for nine weeks, and an agonizing six months of waiting for blood test results.
A test that would ultimately show she was sober the entire time.
https://www.wvlt.tv/2022/06/20/blood-test-shows-woman-charged-with-duifelony-child-neglect-was-sober-time-arrest/
Please read the WHOLE article before commenting! Yes this happened in Tennessee, but it could happen anywhere. This is appalling.
VA-06 Query
Are the Democrats even RUNNING anyone against the spineless and stupid Ben Cline? If they are, I sure haven't heard anything. It's like we just roll over and die in this district, FFS. I know he has a GQP primary opponent but it's probably someone to the right of him.
Largest freshwater fish ever caught hooked in Cambodia
A fisherman in northern Cambodia hooked what researchers say is the world’s largest freshwater fish — a giant stingray that scientists know relatively little about.
The fisherman, 42, caught the 661-pound fish — which measured about 13 feet in length — near a remote island on the Mekong River in the Stung Treng area. A team of scientists from the Wonders of Mekong research project helped tag, measure and weigh the ray before it was released back into the river. The research group believes it was healthy when released and expects it to survive.
The tag — which emits an acoustic signal — will allow researchers to track the fish’s movements and, they hope, learn more about its species’ behavior in the Mekong.
The catch “highlights how little we know about a lot of these giant freshwater fish,” said Zeb Hogan, a fish biologist at the University of Nevada. “You have a fish that’s now the record holder for the world’s largest freshwater fish, and we know little about it.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/largest-freshwater-fish-ever-caught-hooked-cambodia-rcna34152
Far right groups shift focus to LBGTQ events. Their hateful aim hasn't changed
Two incidents in which far-right extremists targeted LGBTQ events earlier this month marked what appeared to be a shift in focus for white supremacist activists.
A group of men with ties to the white nationalist Patriot Front was arrested outside a Pride event in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho. The same day, alleged members of the far-right Proud Boys crashed a children's drag queen storytelling event and shouted homophobic and transphobic slurs, in what Alameda, Calif., sheriffs are now investigating as a possible hate crime.
Earlier iterations of Patriot Front and the Proud Boys were among the neo-Nazi factions who sought to intimidate the Charlottesville, Va., community at the "Unite the Right" rally in 2017.
So, why would members of a white supremacist group — many of whom, in the case of the Idaho event, had traveled from other states — choose to target a local Pride event?
Extremism researchers say the far-right activists are seizing on an opportunity of heightened attention around cultures that they have always seen as a threat to their hateful interests. And the particular events the extremists chose to target that Saturday had in recent weeks drawn negative attention among the far-right online networks that fuel their hate activism.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106112160/patriot-front-extremists-lbgtq-pride
I think they're just going after what they think are "soft targets" with no one to defend them. Wait till they find out some of these folks are also armed.
A French city approved burkinis in its pools. Then the backlash came
Grenoble Mayor Éric Piolle was the first environmentalist to lead a major French city, and this year his Alpine town has been named a European green capital. By the end of the year Grenoble will meet all its electricity needs with renewable energy.
But no one's talking about that, he says. Rather, Piolle is being assailed for allowing the burkini in his town's public pools.
"It touched some very intense emotions for people," he says during an interview in his office.
Piolle grew up Roman Catholic and he says 30 years ago, there were more signs of Catholicism in public. He says the religion that's more visible today in France is Islam, and that makes some people nervous.
"I understand that they struggle with religious expression in the public space," he says.
But the mayor says people are confusing things. While France bans outward religious symbols in public schools or in government offices to ensure neutrality, people are allowed to wear what they want in public.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/19/1105962389/france-burkini-swimsuit-islamic-women
Oxford High School students sue for changes after deadly mass shooting last year
A group of students who attend a Michigan high school where a deadly mass shooting took place late last year are suing the district to force policy changes ahead of the new academic year.
About 20 students have filed a federal lawsuit against the Oxford Community School District and several school officials in a bid for "transparency and a sense of security" as they recover from the shooting and get ready for the upcoming semester.
"Although Plaintiffs survived the shooting, they have suffered irreparable harm," the lawsuit reads.
"Every day since the tragedy that took place on November 30, 2021, students at Oxford High School, including Plaintiffs, have entered through the school doors assuming they will have to defend themselves should another violent attack ensue," the suit adds.
(snip)
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Michigan, requests a "fully transparent and independent third-party investigation" into what led to the shooting.
The students also want the district to promise "complete transparency" in communicating with Oxford High School students and their parents, secure proper training for administrators and take other protective measures, such as not releasing suicidal students back into the classroom.
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/19/1106139811/oxford-high-school-students-sue-for-changes-after-deadly-mass-shooting-last-year
How the US got so dependent on baby formula
One of the more crass responses to the ongoing formula shortage has been that mothers worried about empty shelves where their infant’s formula used to be should just breastfeed instead.
Breastfeeding alone would never be enough. The reality is there are families for whom breastfeeding is not an option, for medical or lifestyle reasons, and many more for whom it is not enough on its own.
But it’s also true that the US doesn’t do all that it could to support mothers who want to breastfeed their children. Instead, the patchwork of the US health system, the pernicious influence of special interests, and a failure especially to support marginalized families have put the country at a disadvantage compared to other wealthy nations, feeding a national dependence on formula that left the country more vulnerable in the most recent shortage and would make another factory failure equally damaging.
America has long been an outlier among its economic peers in breastfeeding rates: One 2005 OECD report placed the US 24th out of 28 countries in the percentage of its children who have ever breastfed. Breastfeeding rates in the United States and worldwide have been growing since then, part of a concerted global public health campaign, but the US still lags behind much of the rest of the industrialized world.
In particular, while the country has done a better job of getting new moms to attempt breastfeeding when their child is first born, some of those parents struggle to maintain the practice. About 80 percent of American children have breastfed at least once, but the percentages still doing so exclusively at three months (about 45 percent) and the American Academy of Pediatrics-recommended six months (less than 30 percent) are substantially lower.
The dramatic dropoff reflects the failures of the US health system to support women who are trying to breastfeed their children. It’s can be easy to get started. It’s harder to sustain.
(snip)
Some of the problems that contribute to low breastfeeding rates are familiar American health care woes. Too many Americans don’t have health insurance or regular access to a doctor or lactation consultant who could help them work through rough patches. They might not have paid family leave, which the US does not guarantee. Their employer may not provide them time and space to pump breast milk once they go back to work; federal law mandating such time and space has plenty of loopholes. US women with lower incomes and Black women in general regardless of income have lower breastfeeding rates than women with higher incomes and white women.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23159688/baby-formula-shortage-us-breastfeeding-rates
In many cultures, the "skilled lactation consultant" could be your mother, auntie, or even your best friend. Here, because of high mobility rates and problems cited in the article, women often don't even have that.
How the US got so dependent on baby formula
One of the more crass responses to the ongoing formula shortage has been that mothers worried about empty shelves where their infant’s formula used to be should just breastfeed instead.
Breastfeeding alone would never be enough. The reality is there are families for whom breastfeeding is not an option, for medical or lifestyle reasons, and many more for whom it is not enough on its own.
But it’s also true that the US doesn’t do all that it could to support mothers who want to breastfeed their children. Instead, the patchwork of the US health system, the pernicious influence of special interests, and a failure especially to support marginalized families have put the country at a disadvantage compared to other wealthy nations, feeding a national dependence on formula that left the country more vulnerable in the most recent shortage and would make another factory failure equally damaging.
America has long been an outlier among its economic peers in breastfeeding rates: One 2005 OECD report placed the US 24th out of 28 countries in the percentage of its children who have ever breastfed. Breastfeeding rates in the United States and worldwide have been growing since then, part of a concerted global public health campaign, but the US still lags behind much of the rest of the industrialized world.
In particular, while the country has done a better job of getting new moms to attempt breastfeeding when their child is first born, some of those parents struggle to maintain the practice. About 80 percent of American children have breastfed at least once, but the percentages still doing so exclusively at three months (about 45 percent) and the American Academy of Pediatrics-recommended six months (less than 30 percent) are substantially lower.
The dramatic dropoff reflects the failures of the US health system to support women who are trying to breastfeed their children. It’s can be easy to get started. It’s harder to sustain.
(snip)
Some of the problems that contribute to low breastfeeding rates are familiar American health care woes. Too many Americans don’t have health insurance or regular access to a doctor or lactation consultant who could help them work through rough patches. They might not have paid family leave, which the US does not guarantee. Their employer may not provide them time and space to pump breast milk once they go back to work; federal law mandating such time and space has plenty of loopholes. US women with lower incomes and Black women in general regardless of income have lower breastfeeding rates than women with higher incomes and white women.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23159688/baby-formula-shortage-us-breastfeeding-rates
In many cultures, the "skilled lactation consultant" could be your mother, auntie, or even your best friend. Here, because of high mobility rates and problems cited in the article, women often don't even have that.
Trans kids' treatment can start younger, new guidelines say
A leading transgender health association has lowered its recommended minimum age for starting gender transition treatment, including sex hormones and surgeries.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health said hormones could be started at age 14, two years earlier than the group’s previous advice, and some surgeries done at age 15 or 17, a year or so earlier than previous guidance. The group acknowledged potential risks but said it is unethical and harmful to withhold early treatment.
The association provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of its update ahead of publication in a medical journal, expected later this year. The international group promotes evidence-based standards of care and includes more than 3,000 doctors, social scientists and others involved in transgender health issues.
The update is based on expert opinion and a review of scientific evidence on the benefits and harms of transgender medical treatment in teens whose gender identity doesn’t match the sex they were assigned at birth, the group said. Such evidence is limited but has grown in the last decade, the group said, with studies suggesting the treatments can improve psychological well-being and reduce suicidal behavior.
https://apnews.com/article/gender-transition-treatment-guidelines-9dbe54f670a3a0f5f2831c2bf14f9bbb
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