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Two families suing after disfigured patient is mis-ID'd, taken off life support

Danielle Wallace
Fox News
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 09:34 UTC
Elisha Brittman
Two Chicago families filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Police Department and Mercy Hospital on Wednesday after an unconscious, facially disfigured man was misidentified by the agencies and eventually taken off life support by a family that was not his own, reports said.

Police found an unresponsive, badly beaten, naked man underneath a car on the West side of Chicago on the morning of April 29. Officers brought the man to Mercy Hospital where he was listed as a John Doe for six weeks, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

Police and hospital staff eventually identified the John Doe by using mugshots. The man was thought to be Alfonso Bennett, and his family was told their loved one was in the intensive care unit.

But after his death, officials discovered the man was really 66-year-old Elisha Brittman — whose family said had been missing for weeks.
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Heart - Black

Indian man, 20, wakes up at his own funeral after being pronounced dead by doctors

Lukas Mikelionis
Fox News
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 14:40 UTC
Funeral
An Indian man who had been declared dead woke up just before he was set to be buried during a funeral ceremony, according to reports.

Mourners at Mohammad Furqan, 20, was declared dead by Indian medical professionals, but his surprise awakening at the funeral in the Northern Indian city of Lucknow shocked mourners.

He was immediately brought to the hospital and put on a ventilator to support him, according to the Independent.

Furqan had been unconscious since June 21 when he got into an accident. Doctors declared him dead on Monday but coincidentally only after the man's family told the hospital that looked after him they no longer had the funds to pay for his care.

The family told the Hindustan Times that the situation left them traumatized because they not only had to come to terms with Furqan's passing, but then see him move during the funeral.
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Wine n Glass

Hard Rock's Dominican Republic resort, where two US tourists died, pulls minibar dispensers from all rooms

Elizabeth Llorente
Fox News
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 12:19 UTC
Robert Bell Wallace

Robert Bell Wallace, 67, died in April after suddenly falling ill at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Punta Cana.
The Hard Rock resort in the Dominican Republic, where two U.S. tourists died in the past year, says it is removing minibar dispensers from all its guest rooms.

The resort said in a statement that it is also contracting with a U.S. health care facility to ensure that the clinic at the resort "is complying with all international and U.S. standards of care."

The move comes on the heels of the news that celebrity Steve Harvey has dropped plans to hold his third annual Sand and Soul Festival at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which is in Punta Cana. The event, planned for October, is being canceled because of concerns about tourist safety in the Dominican Republic, where at least 11 U.S. tourists are known to have died in the past year after suddenly falling critically ill at all-inclusive resorts. Another U.S. tourist died in a luxury resort on the popular Caribbean vacation spot in 2016.

Dominican authorities have insisted from the time the first deaths were reported in May - when news broke that a Maryland couple were found dead in their room -- that they were triggered by natural causes. But because the families of the tourists have raised doubts, saying that their loved ones had been generally healthy and showed no signs of illness prior to suddenly getting sick and dying in the Dominican Republic, Dominican authorities and the FBI are conducting tests of the minibars.

Comment: See also: What in the world is going on in the Dominican Republic? (Updates)

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Stop

US federal judge blocks Ohio abortion law, clinics to remain open

Julie Carr Smyth and Kantele Franko
Associated Press
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 13:14 UTC
Judge blocks abortion law
A federal judge temporarily blocked an Ohio law banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected on Wednesday, siding with abortion clinics that had argued the law would effectively end the procedure in the state.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael Barrett halts the July 11 enforcement of the so-called heartbeat bill law that opponents argued would effectively ban the procedure. That's because a fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as six weeks into pregnancy, before many women know they're pregnant.

Ohio is among a dozen states that have considered similar legislation this year, as abortion opponents have pursued a national anti-abortion strategy to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision fueled by a conservative swing on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Courts have already blocked substantially similar laws in Kentucky and Mississippi. Abortion providers also have sued in Alabama and Georgia.
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Alarm Clock

Violent protests erupt in Israel after police murder Ethiopian-Jewish teen


RT
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 13:00 UTC
Solomon Teka's funeral
© Reuters/Ronen Zvulun
Relatives and friends of Solomon Teka attend his funeral in Haifa, Israel July 2, 2019.
Some 47 police officers were injured and 60 people arrested after a spate of protests across Israel over the shooting dead of 18-year-old Ethiopian-descendant Solomon Teka.

Protesters erected burning barricades and clashed with police in the northern city of Haifa on Monday and Tuesday following Teka's death in Kiryat Haim late on Sunday.


Crowds of Ethiopian Israelis blocked junctions across the country after an off-duty police officer reportedly shot the teenager dead.

The officer involved in Sunday's shooting says he feared for his life as a group of youths, allegedly including Teka, pelted him with stones after he tried to intervene in a fight. The cop has been placed under house arrest and an investigation into the shooting is underway.
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Airplane

Atlanta City Council approves smoking ban at Hartsfield - Jackson Int'l Airport

Evie Carrick
Yahoo! News
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 12:33 UTC
Smoking banned in ATL airport
© Flickr/peace6x
Travelers who smoke might typically land at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and head to one of the airport's designated smoking rooms, but those days may soon be over. The Atlanta City Council approved an ordinance this week that would entirely ban smoking and vaping at the airport, as well as at several of the city's public areas, including restaurants, bars, and hotel rooms.

The council voted 13-2 in favor of the smoking ban, which includes cigarettes, cigars, and electronic cigarettes. If the ordinance is approved and signed by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, it will go into effect Jan. 2, 2020. (A Georgia law passed in 2005 already prohibits smoking in restaurants and bars where people under 18 are permitted and requires a smoking area to be enclosed and private or outdoors

Atlanta's airport is one of the last major U.S. hubs to still offer travelers designated smoking areas. According to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, all but five of the 35 busiest U.S. airports were smoke-free as of Jan. 2, 2019. O'Hare International Airport in Chicago; Los Angeles International Airport; Dallas Fort Worth International Airport; Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina; and recently, Denver International Airport have closed smoking lounges and gone completely smoke-free indoors.

Comment: See also:

Smoke, Lies and the Nanny State

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Newspaper

Trump's decision to display a few tanks in July 4th celebration triggers meltdown among his critics


RT
Tue, 02 Jul 2019 00:00 UTC
Abrams tanks and Bradley vehicle july 4
© REUTERS/Leah Millis
Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles spotted at a rail yard outside of Washington, DC, July 2, 2019
US President Donald Trump's decision to display tanks on the National Mall during the Independence Day festivities is causing a meltdown among his critics, who claim it's an 'authoritarian' move worthy of North Korea - or Russia.

As part of the "Salute to America" celebrations this July 4, the US Navy 'Blue Angels' acrobatic group will fly over the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC and there will be tanks "stationed outside" on the grounds. The event will culminate with the customary fireworks display.

All of this is intended to show off the "strongest and most advanced military anywhere in the world," according to the US president.
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HAL9000

Amazon confirms keeping Alexa voice recordings indefinitely

Stephanie Mlot
geek.com
Wed, 03 Jul 2019 03:29 UTC
Amazon keeps Alexa transcripts
© Piotr Cichosz/Unsplash
Echo Dot
Amazon last week confirmed that it keeps transcripts of interactions with Alexa, even after users have deleted the voice recordings.

Based on reports that Amazon retains text records of what users ask Alexa, Sen. Chris Coons in May sent a letter to CEO Jeff Bezos, demanding answers.

The Democrat from Delaware asked Amazon to provide answers on how long it stores transcripts, whether users can delete them, why it collects them and how they are used, and whether the company anonymizes customer identity.

"While I am encouraged that Amazon allows users to delete audio recordings linked to their accounts," Coons, a member of the judiciary committee, wrote in his letter, "I am very concerned by reports that suggest that text transcriptions of these audio records are preserved indefinitely on Amazon's servers, and users are not given the option to delete these text transcripts."

In response, Amazon Vice President of Public Policy Brian Huseman revealed that the tech titan keeps transcripts and voice recordings indefinitely, removing them only when "the customer chooses to delete them."
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Megaphone

Border patrol agents made light of migrant deaths & posted 'sexist' memes of AOC in Facebook group

A.C. Thompson
Pro Publica
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:53 UTC
customs border patrol logo
© Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse/Getty
Members of a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents joked about the deaths of migrants, discussed throwing burritos at Latino members of Congress visiting a detention facility in Texas on Monday and posted a vulgar illustration depicting Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez engaged in oral sex with a detained migrant, according to screenshots of their postings.

In one exchange, group members responded with indifference and wisecracks to the post of a news story about a 16-year-old Guatemalan migrant who died in May while in custody at a Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas. One member posted a GIF of Elmo with the quote, "Oh well." Another responded with an image and the words "If he dies, he dies."

Created in August 2016, the Facebook group is called "I'm 10-15" and boasts roughly 9,500 members from across the country. (10-15 is Border Patrol code for "aliens in custody.") The group described itself, in an online introduction, as a forum for "funny" and "serious" discussion about work with the patrol. "Remember you are never alone in this family," the introduction said.
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Arrow Down

Report: US tops list of countries fuelling the waste crisis

Will Nichols
Maplecroft
Thu, 04 Jul 2019 11:53 UTC
waste dump
America's thirst for consumption is not matched by an appetite for recycling, reveals new data identifying the country is the world's top producer of waste and one of the worst of any industrialised nation for managing its trash.

In two new indices, we've measured the waste generation and recycling performance of 194 countries to uncover a global picture of how countries are dealing with the waste they produce at a time where the world is facing a mounting crisis, primarily driven by plastics.

The research calculates that over 2.1 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated globally each year - enough to fill 822,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, which would stretch 41,000 kms if laid out end-to-end. However, only 16% (323 million tonnes) of this is recycled each year, while 46% (950 million tonnes) is disposed of unsustainably.

Comment: Also see: Global recycling crisis shows West can't use poorer countries as dumping grounds

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