All posts for Aaron Kase - 404 posts found

The Boy Scouts of America voted today to lift its ban on openly gay members. The Scouts’ National Council, comprising of around 1,400 members, cast the hotly contested ballot at a conference in Texas today. Up until the moment the results were released this evening it was unclear whether the organization would retain or drop its discriminatory policy. Ultimately, about 60 percent of members voted to drop it. The result is that “no youth may be denied membership in the …

In times of strained budgets, states are trying creative ways to prepare people with mental illness to stand trial. A recent Associated Press story reviews methods that officials use to restore defendants’ capacity and help them understand what is going on during criminal proceedings, such as mock trials. With money tight, some states are resorting to treating people in prison or even out-patient programs instead of in hospitals. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in the 1960 case Dusky vs. United …

The U.S. Supreme Court this week decided to take up a case that could change the rules for when prayer is allowed in public meetings, and even have broader implications for government prayer in general. In Greece v. Galloway, the court will hear arguments next term on whether the Town Board of Greece, N.Y., should be permitted to open its public meetings with a prayer. Two residents filed a lawsuit, arguing that the prayers are in effect an endorsement of …

All too often, families have to bring lawsuits against hospitals that let their loved ones die through malpractice or neglect. In Florida, the equation has been turned on its head by a woman suing a hospital and nursing home after medics performed traumatic and invasive lifesaving procedures on her mother in specific violation of a do not resuscitate order. Alzheimer’s sufferer Marjorie Mangiaruca, 91, was given CPR, subjected to other interventions and put on a ventilator after she had a heart attack …

Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin today signed into a law a death with dignity bill that will allow physicians to prescribe medication for terminally sick patients who wish to end their lives. Shumlin, who promised to push the legislation during his 2010 campaign, said in a statement that he knows “how important it is for those who face terminal illness and tremendous pain to have this choice, in conjunction with their physicians and loved ones, in the final days of their …