The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana may have violated the civil rights of a 16-year-old autistic boy when deputies pinned him to the pavement, handcuffed and shackled, as officers sat on his back for more than nine minutes, according to a “statement of interest” filed this month by the Department of Justice as part of a civil rights lawsuit against JPSO.

The teen, Eric Parsa, died on the scene in January 2020. The sheriff’s office has also recently faced a number of other lawsuits alleging wrongful death, excessive force and racial discrimination by deputies. The sheriff’s office was the subject of a yearlong investigation by ProPublica and WRKF and WWNO starting in 2021, which disclosed evidence of racial discrimination and violence by deputies; after the first story ran, the American Civil Liberties Union called on federal prosecutors to investigate the department.

Regarding the DOJ filing, the sheriff’s office maintains that its deputies did not discriminate against Parsa based on his disability — and thus did not violate the Americans with Disabilities Act — because Parsa posed a threat to himself, the public and law enforcement officers.

But the DOJ said that evidence submitted in the case appears to show that Parsa posed no danger, and that deputies were aware of the teenager’s disability and did nothing to modify their procedures or actions to ensure his safety, as required by law.

https://www.propublica.org/article/feds-say-jefferson-parish-deputies-may-have-violated-law-eric-parsa-death

Another Elijah McClain. First of all, there is no such thing as "excited delirium"-- its not in the DSM-whatever number we're up to. Its a made-up "diagnosis". Second, these cops should all be charged with murder.

With three anticipated indictments, two ongoing court cases, and an ever-expanding cadre of lawyers, former President Donald Trump is at a critical juncture—and yet his legal advisers are starting to turn on each other.

According to five sources with direct knowledge of the situation, clashing personalities and the increasing outside threat of law enforcement has sown deep divisions that have only worsened in recent months. The internal bickering has already sparked one departure in recent weeks—and that could be just the beginning.

As Trump’s legal troubles keep growing—with criminal and civil investigations in New York City, Washington, and Atlanta—so too does the unwieldy band of attorneys who simply can’t get along.

The cast of characters includes an accused meddler who has Trump’s ear, a young attorney who lawyers on the team suggested is only there because the former president likes the way she looks, and a celebrity lawyer who’s increasingly viewed with disdain. Worst of all, now that federal investigators have turned the interrogation spotlight on some of Trump’s lawyers themselves, defense attorneys on the team seem to be questioning whether their colleagues may actually turn into snitches.

“There’s a lot of lawyers and a lot of jealousy,” said one person on Trump’s legal team, explaining that the sheer number of lawyers protecting a single man accused of so many crimes is without parallel.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-lawyers-start-to-wonder-if-one-could-be-a-snitch?ref=home

I think all righties are paranoid.

The family of a man fatally shot by a security guard in a San Francisco Walgreens last month during an apparent shoplifting altercation has filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit.

Banko Brown, 24, died on April 27 following an altercation with the guard, police said. The guard, 33-year-old Michael Earl-Wayne Anthony, has not been charged in the shooting.

Attorneys for Banko's parents announced Friday they have filed a civil lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court against Walgreens, Anthony and Kingdom Group Protective Services, which provides security for Walgreens and employs Anthony.

"Deadly force was not the way to handle this," civil rights attorney John Burris told reporters during a Friday press briefing, calling it a "petty theft situation."

"You're talking about taking a person's life in connection with $15, $14," Burris said.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/family-man-fatally-shot-walgreens-security-guard-files/story?id=99637736

Last I heard, shoplifting was not a capital offense.

Texas’s use of ‘invasion’ clause against immigrants is racist and dangerous, rights groups say
Republican governor Greg Abbott invoked state clause after likening migrants to a public foreign enemy, but legal experts say it’s ‘unprecedented and extreme’

Texas is challenging federal control of policy on the US-Mexico border by exploiting what it sees as a constitutional loophole around the definition of an “invasion” but that migrants rights activists see as dangerously ramping up fears with racist language.

Immigration policy has long been under the purview of the US federal government – not individual states – since the US supreme court ruled so in a landmark United States v Arizona case in 2012.

But in November of 2022, rightwing Republican governor Greg Abbott invoked the “invasion” clauses found in the Texas and US constitutions, likening migrants at the border to a public foreign enemy that therefore gave him the power to enact his own border policies.

The Texas Civil Rights Project called the move a “political ploy”.

“Calling immigrants an invasion is extremely dangerous,” said Roberto Lopez, senior advocacy manager for the organization’s “Beyond the Border” program.

Lopez added: “We have seen so many shootings and more rise in hate crimes [against migrants.] This is all connected to this rhetoric of associating people who are trying to seek safety with being like a literal attack on the United States. That is just giving a lot of fire and energy to militia groups and people who are filled with hate.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/29/texas-invasion-clause-migrants-racist-dangerous

What else can you expect out of Abbutt, or as my grandfather used to say, what can you expect from a pig but a grunt?

"Nurse refuses to perform CPR," read the caption on an ABC newscast in California. "911 dispatcher's pleas ignored." Several days earlier, an elderly woman at a senior living facility had gone into cardiac arrest. The dispatcher instructed an employee to perform CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation. But the employee refused.

"Is there anybody there that's willing to help this lady and not let her die?" the dispatcher said. It made the local news, which elicited a national outcry and prompted a police investigation. But the woman was already dead — her heart had stopped. And according to family, the woman had wished to "die naturally and without any kind of life-prolonging intervention."

So why the controversy? It comes down to a widespread misconception of what CPR can, and can't, do. CPR can sometimes save lives, but it also has a dark side.

The discovery that chest compression could circulate blood during cardiac arrest was first reported in 1878, from experiments on cats. It wasn't until 1959 that researchers at Johns Hopkins applied the method to humans. Their excitement at its simplicity was clear: "Anyone, anywhere, can now initiate cardiac resuscitative procedures," they wrote. "All that is needed is two hands."

In the 1970s, CPR classes were developed for the public, and CPR became the default treatment for cardiac arrest. Flight attendants, coaches, and babysitters are now often required to be certified. The allure of CPR is that "death, instead of a final and irrevocable passage, becomes a process manipulable by humans," writes Stefan Timmermans, a sociologist who has studied CPR.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/05/29/1177914622/a-natural-death-may-be-preferable-for-many-than-enduring-cpr

I will be 80 next month and I am a DNR. Have been since 2012. My husband knows it and accepts it but doesn't love it.

TN woman missing on cross-country trip with boyfriend

CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Cheatham County family is desperately trying to find their loved one after she disappeared while traveling across the country with her boyfriend, who is currently wanted out of Middle Tennessee.

It’s been nearly three weeks since Toni Alcaraz last spoke with her 33-year-old sister, Nikki Alcaraz, also known as Nikki Cunningham.

“I talk to her almost every day, so I am scared something happened to them,” said Toni.

Nikki had set out in her black Jeep with her boyfriend, Tyler Stratton, and a dog to visit family in Orange County, California.

“It’s a trip she’s done hundreds of times,” Toni explained. “Our uncle is still in Southern California, and she goes to see him often.”

https://www.wate.com/news/tennessee/tennessee-woman-goes-missing-during-cross-country-trip-with-boyfriend/

Read the rest. It'll give you chill bumps.

Seven children were removed from a home in Pennsylvania and their parents were arrested after police allegedly discovered them malnourished and living in a home in deplorable condition.

Officers with the Pennridge Regional Police Department responded to the 600 block of Roseann Lane on the afternoon of Apr. 23 for a report of two minors entering an abandoned trailer, according to a police report filed on May 19. Police found two girls, 12 and 14, who appeared unkempt and lived in a trailer next door.

Out of concern for the girls, the officers requested from their parents, Shawn and Crystal Robertson, to see their living arrangements.

The home was "in obvious disrepair and disarray," the report says. There was also a bicycle lock on the fridge at the home that Crystal said was because they had little food and referred to the children as "garbage disposals with legs."

Police also found another child, a 16-year-old girl, at the residence. Bucks County Children and Youth responded to the home to investigate.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pa-parents-charged-seven-children-found-living-deplorable-conditions-r-rcna86609

This is not to mention the animals, pet and otherwise. I can understand poverty, and to some extent, that affects people's housekeeping, but this is outrageous. What is wrong with people?

One of the most vocal Democratic critics of the Supreme Court claimed Sunday that the justices are operating in a "fact free zone" and said Congress "absolutely" has the power to impose ethical standards on the judicial branch, a response to Chief Justice John Roberts raising concerns about the separation of powers.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., slammed Justice Clarence Thomas for declining to recuse himself from cases dealing with the investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection. The justice's wife, Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative political activist, advocated to keep Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election. Whitehouse said he doubted Justice Thomas was unaware of his wife's political activities.

"That is a question of fact," Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. "The problem with the Supreme Court is that they're in a fact-free zone as well as an ethics-free zone."

Ginni Thomas has said she doesn't discuss her political activities with her husband.

Roberts has suggested the justices themselves should police ethics and has flagged "separation of powers concerns" to suggest Congress' role in imposing policies on the court is limited. Whitehouse rejected that argument Sunday and many legal experts note Congress has always had a hand in establishing court procedures.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/05/28/supreme-court-sheldon-whitehouse-clarence-thomas-ethics/70264904007/

My daughter's friend loves cats. She works as a rental agent at a large apartment complex in Sevierville, TN. The other day a guy working on one of the buildings alerted her to a (probably feral) mama cat with kittens under one of the buildings. She was able to get four of the babies out but the mama ran off into the woods with the fifth. She immediately called me and sent pictures of the kittens, who appear to be about 2 1/2 to 3 weeks old (eyes are open, they're getting around, and teeth are erupting, but they won't eat food yet) so I told her what to do with them and she is bottle feeding then and knows how to help them pee and poop and all that. They even had a Dawn She is now feeding the mom (Royal Canin Mother and Baby yet!) morning and evening but hasn't yet been able to get hands on her. Babies have a vet appointment Tuesday but look wonderful. She thinks two girls (the gray and the tabby) and two boys. They go to work with her every day and are doing well on Tailspring Milk Replacer.

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Pride Month hasn’t officially begun but corporate brands from Bud Light to Target are already taking fire over marketing and merchandise celebrating the LGBTQ community.

Called “BudLighting,” the strategy is to crush so-called rainbow capitalism by branding companies as “woke” and calling for boycotts over everything from Adidas’ gender-inclusive swimwear to a North Face marketing campaign featuring drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia.

After critics posted videos of attacking LGBTQ Pride displays and confronting employees in Target stores, the company held an emergency meeting and decided to remove or relocate some Pride merchandise so it’s less visible in stores.

Emboldened by Target’s decision, conservatives are piling on. In some cases, they are unearthing marketing campaigns that are years old, such as a Jack Daniels’ campaign featuring drag performers from RuPaul’s Drag Race, with the goal of stopping rainbow capitalism.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2023/05/24/budlighted-campaign-hits-target-over-trans-lgbtq-support/70254454007/

This reminds me of the 1950s-early 60s, when TV networks were afraid of anything even mildly "controversial"