A former Vernal resident has filed a lawsuit against the city claiming that local police officers invaded his home during an intimate time of mourning.
Ben D. Mahaffey filed the complaint saying officers made a warrantless drug search of his home moments after his wife's death.
Represented by attorney Andrew Fackrell, Mahaffey filed a federal suit in the U.S. District Court of Utah last week.
Barbara Alice Proud Mahaffey died of colon cancer on May 21, 2012, with her husband by her side in their Vernal home.
While waiting for the coroner, Mahaffey's grief was interrupted by two Vernal police officers, who "insisted that (Mahaffey) abandon his attendance to his wife's body and aid them in their search for prescription drugs," cites the complaint.
Once secured, the officers proceeded to inventory the drugs in the same room as the woman's body, further intruding upon Mahaffey's seclusion, says the suit.
Society's Child
© Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press
Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. His lawyers are seeking a new trial.
Former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. His lawyers are seeking a new trial.
Sandusky's attorney told a court hearing that the defense was overburdened by more than 10,000 pages of documents.
"We felt we didn't have nearly sufficient time to review these materials the way we needed to," Joe Amendola said, according to the Allentown Morning Call.
Sandusky's lawyers also argued that Judge John Cleland should have instructed jurors about the long lag time between the alleged abuse and when the accusers came forward, the Associated Press reported.
Sandusky, 68, was convicted in June of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. Some of the attacks took place in the showers of Penn State University's football training facility.
© The Associated Press/Steve Hanks
- Students in Los Angeles this week saw the first patrols by uniformed officers, newly assigned to every school.
- In Newtown, Conn., a few parents say the sight of uniformed officers is a comfort to children. Superintendent Janet Robinson has said she wants the police presence to continue.
But a few advocates for children aren't sold on the idea.
The Advancement Project, a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group, has long complained that armed officers in schools actually make safety worse for many kids, making it more likely that they'll end up in trouble with the law. The group on Friday will propose that schools develop long-term safety plans and invest funding that would otherwise go to more police into conflict resolution and better access to mental health services for students.
"No more money should be thrown at police," Advancement Project co-Director Judith Browne-Dianis said.
© iStockphoto
Biron, 43, was arrested by FBI agents on Nov. 16 and charged with seven counts of child exploitation, including transporting a child for illegal sexual conduct. She was also charged with manufacturing and possessing child pornography.
Biron will be held without bail until her trial, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 8.
On Tuesday, County Commissioners were made aware by County Attorney Steve DeMarsh that the county could no longer enforce the ban at public owned parks and beaches, including Siesta Beach. The ban has been in place for several years.
"We were very disappointed," said Commissioner Christine Robinson. "Health and environmental concerns continue to remain a concern. Healthwise, we do not want people smoking around children. Many smokers will agree it does not belong in playgrounds and ballfields."
The study, published in the January edition of the British Journal of Psychiatry, says spiritual but not religious people, as opposed to people who are religious, agnostic or atheist, were more likely to develop a "mental disorder," "be dependent on drugs" and "have abnormal eating attitudes," like bulimia and anorexia.
"People who have spiritual beliefs outside of the context of any organized religion are more likely to suffer from these maladies," said Michael King, a professor at University College London and the head researcher on the project.
Thirty percent of respondents who identified as spiritual said they had used drugs, a number that was nearly twice as much as the 16% of religious respondents who said they had used drugs, according to the study. Among the spiritual respondents, 5% said they were dependent on drugs, while 2% of religious respondents identified as dependent.
© Thibault Camus / AP
Young people in Paris march against same-sex marriage during a Nov. 18 protest organized by the fundamentalist Christian group Civitas Institute. French Muslims are joining the opposition.
Young people in Paris march against same-sex marriage during a Nov. 18 protest organized by the fundamentalist Christian group Civitas Institute. French Muslims are joining the opposition.
Fifty Muslim activists issued an open letter on Monday urging fellow Muslims to join a major Paris protest against the law on Sunday. That followed a similar appeal last Saturday by the influential Union of French Islamic Organisations (UOIF).
Leaders of almost all main faiths in France have spoken out against the law, but not called on their followers to march in Sunday's demonstration to avoid giving the opposition campaign an overly religious tone.
President Francois Hollande and his government clashed with the Catholic Church last weekend, telling Catholic schools not to discuss the law with their pupils and urging state education officials to report anti-gay discussions at Catholic schools.
In some ways, the announcement that is expected Wednesday morning is unsurprising for a denomination and a diocese that long ago took up the cause of marriage equality. But the cathedral's stature and the image of same-sex couples exchanging vows in the soaring Gothic structure visited by a half-million tourists each year is symbolically powerful.
Even though it is known that the Episcopal Church, a small but prominent part of American Christianity, has been supportive of equality for gay men and lesbians, "it's something for us to say we are going to do this in this very visible space where we pray for the president and where we bury leaders," said the Rev. Gary Hall, who became dean of Washington National Cathedral in the fall. "This national spiritual space is now a place where [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] people can come and get married."
It is believed a 37-year-old Pascoe Vale man entered a 7-Eleven on the corner of West and Pascoe streets about 1am to buy cigarettes.
As he left the store he was approached by a man dressed as a Smurf who asked for a cigarette.
The man offered him a cigarette, but the Smurf demanded that the victim light the smoke before handing it over.
Canadian Governor General David Johnston
The "ceremonial meeting" at Rideau Hall, the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II's representative in this former British colony, is scheduled for Friday evening after planned talks between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the chiefs.
Harper previously agreed to demands for emergency talks to discuss treaty rights and ways to raise living standards on reserves after a four-week hunger strike by one northern Ontario chief put a spotlight on their plight.
But hunger-striking Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence this week suddenly backed out of the scheduled talks with Harper.
Comment: This is just more evidence that people are being forced to conform to specific profiles or else be branded mentally disabled, or to go just a little further, a terrorist. Don't stray too far outside the box or else you'll be labelled mentally sick. The fact is that people have been running away from organized religions for decades and forming their own individual opinions on spirituality, and who can blame them with the evidence of pedophilia and corruption within organized religion. Evidently the powers that be are afraid of people abandoning this form of control. So now we have this "official study" by "experts" who claim that such thinking is evidence of mental disorder. Thought control in action.