ACLU files lawsuit against Louisiana's Ten Commandments law


Civil rights groups on Monday filed a lawsuit against Louisiana's House Bill 71, which mandates that all public schools display the Ten Commandments. 

File Photo by Michael Kleinfeld/UPI | License Photo

June 24 (UPI) -- Civil liberties groups are suing Louisiana over its controversial rule mandating the Ten Commandments be displayed in public schools, arguing it is unconstitutional.

Gov. Jeff Landry signed House Bill 71 into law last week, requiring the Ten Commandments to be displaced in large, easily readable font inside all public elementary and high schools as well as state-funded universities by the start of 2025.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which had vowed to sue the state over H.B. 71, on Monday filed a lawsuit along with its Louisiana branch on behalf of a multi-faith group of nine families with children in the state's public schools.

In the lawsuit, they allege the rule violates longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent concerning the separation of church and state as well as the parents' First Amendment right to direct their children's religious education and upbringing.

"Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public-school classroom -- rendering them unavoidable -- unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration and adoption of the state's favored religious scripture," the lawsuit states.

It continues that displaying the Ten Commandments communicates to students who do not follow that specific doctrine "the harmful and religiously divisive message" that they "do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state's religious preferences."

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit -- who allege that Louisiana's main interest in passing the law was to impose religious beliefs on public school children -- include a Unitarian Universalist minister, a Presbyterian reverend, nonreligious parents, a Jewish parent and an atheist.

They are asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana to declare H.B. 71 is in violation of the First Amendment and prevent the Ten Commandments from being displayed in schools.

"This law sends a contrary message of religious intolerance that one denomination or faith system is officially preferable to others, and that those who don't adhere to it are lesser in worth and status," plaintiff Rev. Jeff Sims said in a statement.

"As a pastor and father, I cannot, in good conscience, sit by silently while our political representatives usurp God's authority for themselves and trample our fundamental religious-freedom rights."

Similar laws have been proposed in conservative states, such as Texas, where Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick late last week vowed to pass such a bill.

In 1980, a similar law in Kentucky was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled it violated the First Amendment of the Constitution as the Ten Commandments is not secular.

Container ship Dali, crew leave Baltimore for first time since bridge collapse


Salvors with the Unified Command prepare the section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge sitting on the port side bow of the M/V Dali for controlled demolition, and precision cutting, on May 13. The ship left the Port of Baltimore on Monday. 

File Photo by Christopher Rosario/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/UPI | License Photo

June 24 (UPI) -- The Dali container ship left Baltimore for the first time Monday since it crashed into the iconic Francis Scott Key bridge in March.

With the help of four tugboats along with its own power, the Dali left the port's Seagirt Marine Terminal before 8:30 a.m. EDT. It will eventually end up in Norfolk, Va., where it will unload its remaining cargo and undergo extensive repairs.

Traffic was stopped on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as the ship approached at 11 a.m.

After arriving in Virginia eight crew members from the Dali were finally set to leave the United States after attorneys from the City of Baltimore squabbled with attorneys representing the crew in last-minute deal-making.

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City attorneys continued to express concern about the eight crew members who were scheduled to leave would be available to them if they left the United States. It was thought that a deal was reached in the middle of last week before the additional legal wrangling.

In last week's agreement crew members who still need to be deposed will be interrogated in London or another agreed-upon location. The filed court document said that the Justice Department had already interviewed those crew members planning to leave and the department did not object to their departure.

The ship, as long as three football fields, lost power before it slammed into a pillar of the bridge on March 26, sending most of its span tumbling into the river below and killing several workers who were doing maintenance on it.

It had remained in Baltimore along with its crew since then as legal details were ironed out.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators have completed in-person interviews of the vessel's crew.

On Monday, the NTSB published an investigative update for its ongoing investigation of the incident. Onboard examination of engineering systems and testing of electrical systems has been completed.

Documentation of the damage to the vessel structure continues.

The update does not contain analysis and has no probable cause stated.

In the preliminary report released in May,​ electrical breakers HR1 and LR1 unexpectedly opened when the vessel was three ship lengths from the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the first blackout to all shipboard lighting and most equipment. NTSB investigators noted an interruption in the control circuit for HR1's undervoltage release.

​​NTSB investigators then removed an electrical component from the control circuit for HR1's undervoltage release. Two portions of control wiring associated with the terminal block were also removed.

"We continue to examine the removed components at the NTSB Materials Laboratory," the update says. "We will continue to evaluate the design and operation of the vessel's electrical power distribution system, and investigate all aspects of the accident to determine the probable cause and identify potential safety recommendations"

Having kidney transplant while awake a "pretty cool experience"

By Dennis Thompson, HealhDay News


Surgeons at Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center carry out the kidney transplant procedure as John Nicolas lies awake. 

Photo courtesy of Northwestern Medicine

John Nicolas was deep into kidney transplant surgery when he decided to ask his doctors if they'd started yet.

"At one point during surgery, I recall asking, 'Should I be expecting the spinal anesthesia to kick in?'" Nicolas, 28, recalled in a news release.

"They had already been doing a lot of work and I had been completely oblivious to that fact. Truly, no sensation whatsoever."

Nicolas lives in Chicago resident and is the first person at his hospital, Northwestern Medicine, to receive a kidney transplant while awake.

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Instead of using the normal general anesthesia, doctors used a single spinal anesthesia injection to numb Nicolas while allowing him to remain alert.

This new option could make transplantation available to patients whose health makes them a high risk for general anesthesia, doctors say.

It also could substantially decrease the length of a transplant patient's hospital stay.

Nicolas walked out of the hospital the day after his successful surgery, which occurred May 24. Typically, kidney transplant patients spend two to three days in the hospital, doctors said.

"Inside the operating room, it was an incredible experience being able to show a patient what their new kidney looked like before placing it inside the body," Dr. Satish Nadig, a transplant surgeon and director of the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center, said in a news release.

"The other exciting element is that the patient was able to be discharged home in less than 24 hours, basically making this an outpatient procedure," Nadig added in a Northwestern news release.

"Our hope is that awake kidney transplantation can decrease some of the risks of general anesthesia while also shortening a patient's hospital stay."

Nicolas' surgical team performed his kidney transplant in less than two hours, using a type of anesthesia similar to that employed during a cesarean section.

"Doing anesthesia for the awake kidney transplant was easier than a C-section," Dr. Vicente Garcia Tomas, chief of regional anesthesiology and acute pain medication at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, said in a news release.

"For John's case, we placed a single-spinal anesthesia shot in the operating room with a little bit of sedation for comfort. It was incredibly simple and uneventful, but allowed John to be awake for the procedure, improving the patient experience."

Nicolas didn't have any health risks that would have prohibited general anesthesia, nor did he have any phobia about it.

In fact, his age and limited risk factors made him an ideal candidate to participate in a medical first, and Nicolas leapt at the opportunity.

"It was a pretty cool experience to know what was happening in real time and be aware of the magnitude of what they were doing," Nicholas said.

"I had been given some sedation for my own comfort, but I was still aware of what they were doing, especially when they called out my name and told me about certain milestones they had reached," Nicolas added.

Nicolas began having kidney problems at age 16. His kidney function declined, and testing showed inflammation in his kidneys was damaging them, although the root cause was never found.

He was able to avoid dialysis through medication until recently, when his kidneys failed further and it became clear he would need a kidney transplant.

Nicolas' mom originally planned to be his donor, but that fell through following a breast cancer diagnosis.

Next he turned to a group of friends he's known since elementary school, growing up in the Indianapolis suburb of Zionsville.

His best friend now lives in Alexandria, Va., and works for a public health agency. Pat Wise, 29, remembers getting the text.

"I was in my kitchen cooking dinner and John sent a message that read, 'my doctor says it's time for me to start looking for kidney donors.' I stared at my phone and without hesitating, filled out the form that night," Wise said. "John is a good friend. He needed a kidney, and I had an extra one. I had to at least explore the potential of being his donor."

Wise was declared a match and traveled to Chicago, where surgeons removed one of his kidneys and transplanted it into Nicolas.

"I have been blessed with a friend group that has stayed together from such a young age," Nicholas said. "We always called ourselves 'ride or die' friends, and this example shows that we have each other's backs. It meant the world to me. It's truly been life-changing."

To keep his kidneys healthy, Nicholas had to limit his salt intake. Now he's looking forward to enjoying more pizza and having the energy to ride his bicycle around Chicago.

"He is an extremely compliant patient who was in tune with his body and willing to push the envelope," said Dr. Vinayak Rohan, a transplant surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "He had the upmost faith in us, and we had the upmost faith in him."

Northwestern Medicine plans to make this sort of surgery available to patients who can't have general anesthesia or might otherwise benefit from it.

"It really opens up a whole new door and is another tool in our toolbelt for the field of transplantation," Nadig said.

More information

The National Institutes of Health has more on kidney transplants.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.




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Study: Medication abortion without ultrasound safe

By Dennis Thompson, HealhDay News

Mifepristone is used in a regimen together with misoprostol to end a pregnancy less than 70 days in duration.

 Adobe Stock/HealthDay

Women don't need an ultrasound to have a safe medication abortion, a new study says.

Women who received abortion pills by mail without getting an ultrasound first did just as well as those who were examined and given the drugs in person, researchers found.

"This study adds to a growing and robust body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness and safety of medication abortion with telehealth and mailing medications," said lead researcher Lauren Ralph, an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California-San Francisco.

"Patient history-based models of medication abortion care without ultrasound and via telehealth offer a safe, effective and urgently needed way to overcome logistical and geographic obstacles to accessing abortion today," Ralph added in a UCSF news release.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines that permit remote prescribing and delivery of medication abortion recently survived a Supreme Court challenge, but researchers said the availability of abortion pills remains under attack.

The Supreme Court upheld the guidelines in a narrow ruling, based on the plaintiffs not having the standing to sue.

In addition, a growing number of states have enacted abortion bans or severe restrictions after the court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, making medication abortion many women's only option.

Medication abortion now accounts for about two-thirds of all abortions in the United States, researchers said in background notes. It's approved for use in women up to 10 weeks of pregnancy.

For the new study, researchers tracked the experience of 585 women who underwent medication abortions between May 2021 and March 2023. The women were treated by clinics in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Virginia and Washington.

One group of 288 women were screened via telehealth and mailed the abortion pills without undergoing an ultrasound.

A second group of 119 also were screened using telehealth but got their medication in person. A third group of 238 underwent ultrasound in a clinic and then picked up their medication in person.

About 95% of the participants had a complete abortion without having to repeat the regimen, results show.

Further, the telehealth patients did as well as those who received in-person care. Serious adverse events were rare in all groups.

The results show patients can report enough information about their medical history to assess how far along they are in pregnancy without an ultrasound, Ralph said.

"These models of care that rely on no-test telehealth screening and mailing medications are as effective as in-person care with ultrasound and should be offered to all pregnant people," Ralph said. 

The new study was published June 24 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

This is the latest in a series of studies on medication abortion produced by UCSF's Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health program.

In February, researchers there showed that medication abortion can be delivered safely and effectively through telehealth. Another study in May found that dispensing abortion pills through the mail works as well as requiring patients to pick them up in person.

"The science is clear that telehealth evaluation and pharmacy dispensing of abortion pills is safe and effective," said ANSIRH Director Dr. Daniel Grossman, a UCSF professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences and senior author of the latest study.  "Any attempt to restrict it is not based on science."

More information

Planned Parenthood has more about the abortion pill.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Authorities remove mysterious monolith north of Las Vegas

June 24 (UPI) -- Authorities in the Las Vegas area removed a mysterious monolith from the desert north of the city out of concerns of the damage tourists could do to the natural landscape.

The 77-inch tall structure, constructed out of sheet metal and secured with rebar and concrete, was spotted earlier this month about 20 miles north of Las Vegas in the Gass Peak region.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department revealed on social media that the monolith was removed late last week "due to public safety and environmental concerns."

The unusual object "is being stored at an undisclosed location while public authorities determine the most appropriate way to dispose of or store the item," the department said.

Police said "it remains unknown how the item got to its location or who might be responsible."

The column evoked memories of similar monoliths discovered in 2020 in locations including Utah, California, Las Vegas, Texas, Florida, Wisconsin, Romania and England's Isle of Wight. An anonymous art collective called The Most Famous Artist later took credit for several of the U.S.-based monoliths.

Another monolith was found earlier this year on Hay Bluff, near Hay-on-Wye, Wales. The origins of that structure remain unknown.

Mysterious object with tadpole-shaped smoke trail identified as rocket 

June 24 (UPI) -- A mysterious object that streaked across the Las Vegas-area sky, leaving a tadpole-shaped smoke trail in its wake, was identified as a SpaceX rocket.

Numerous residets of southern Nevada reported seeing the object streaking across the sky Sunday evening and questioned what it could be.

"I have a video I took tonight of an unknown object flying across the sky with what appears to be smoke of some sort trailing behind it," a resident said in an email to KLAS-TV.

The National Weather Service's Las Vegas office said on social media that the object was a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying Starlink satellites into orbit.

The rocket was launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Some viewers said a second object seen in a video shared by NWS appeared to be interacting with the rocket, but the NWS said in a follow-up tweet that the second light was an aircraft that took off from Runway 26 at Harry Reid International Airport and turned north.

The rocket launched 20 Starlink satellites into orbit -- sparking further UFO reports in Malta, where residents could see lights in the sky from the satellites that were heading toward orbit.

PROFIT OVER ALL!

Kings Island roller coaster open again after man's recent death

A man was struck by the ride five days earlier and died.

Police say park guest had entered restricted area of ride to retrieve keys lost while on coaster

The Benshee roller coaster opeened in 2014 at Kings Island. 

Photo courtesy Kings Island

June 24 (UPI) -- A roller coaster at Kings Island near Cincinnati has reopened after a man was struck by the ride five days earlier and died.

In Mason, Ohio, the Banshee was closed during an investigation by Kings Island, Mason police and the Ohio Department of Agriculture's Division of Amusement Ride Safety and Fairs. It reopened Saturday after passing an inspection.

Arntanaro Nelson, 38, of Wilmington, Ohio, was pronounced dead Friday at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. He was flown there for treatment after being found with a serious injury inside a restricted area near the roller coaster Wednesday.

The death was announced Monday.

Mason police told The Cincinnati Enquirer that Nelson was in the restricted area to retrieve keys he had dropped while riding the Banshee at about 8 p.m.

The Hamilton County Coroner's Office listed his death as a "suspected accident" but it remains under investigation.

The Banshee, the world's longest inverted roller coaster, opened in 2014 at the former location of Son of Beast. It has seven inversions.

Kings Island has 16 roller coasters.

The amusement park opened in 1972 and is owned by Cedar Fair, which merged with Six Flags in November 2023. In 2021, there were 3.18 million guests.

LockBit claims Federal Reserve breach, threatens release of 'Americans' banking secrets'

By Sheri Walsh

JUNE 24, 2024 

The U.S. Federal Reserve has not responded to claims by Russian ransomware group LockBit that it has breached the central banking system of the United States and is threatening to release "33 terabytes of juicy banking information containing Americans' banking secrets."


June 24 (UPI) -- Russian ransomware group LockBit claims it has breached the U.S. Federal Reserve and is threatening to release 33 terabytes of sensitive data, including "Americans' banking secrets," on Tuesday.

"33 terabytes of juicy banking information containing Americans' banking secrets," LockBit wrote Sunday on its data leak site.

"You better hire another negotiator within 48 hours, and fire this clinical idiot who values Americans' bank secrecy at $50,000," the group added.

While the Federal Reserve has not confirmed the hack, a number of cybersecurity experts are discounting LockBit's claims, saying there are no published samples of the stolen data.

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"No proof so prolly just blowing off steam," said security researcher Dominic Alvieri.

"LockBit's claim is likely complete and utter bollo ... erm, nonsense, and a tactic designed to get its ailing RaaS (Ransomware-as-a-Service) back into the limelight," Brett Callow, threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emisisoft, told the Daily Dot.

LockBit has conducted numerous high-profile ransomware attacks on companies, banks and government departments around the world since 2019, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Port of Nagoya in Japan, British Royal Mail, Fulton County in Georgia and Boeing.

Earlier this year, the U.S. State Department announced a $15 million reward for information leading to the arrest of anyone involved in LockBit.

Last month, the United States, Britain and Australia sanctioned and indicted Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, a Russian national accused of leading LockBit and extorting some $120 million in ransom payments from victims worldwide in more than 2,000 known attacks.

In a separate attack earlier this month, the FBI informed victims of LockBit ransomware that it had obtained more than 7,000 LockBit decryption keys that could allow them to recover their encrypted data for free.

"Additionally, from our ongoing disruption of LockBit, we now have over 7,000 decryption keys and can help victims reclaim their data and get back online," said Bryan Vorndran, the assistant director at the FBI Cyber Division.

Texas' abortion ban tied to more infant deaths, study indicates

By Ernie Mundell, 

HealthDay Reporter
JUNE 24, 2024

Protesters argue over abortion rights in front of the Supreme Court on the first anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs v Women's Health Organization case which overturned Roe v. Wade in Washington, D.C. on June 24, 2023. File Photo by Annabelle Gordon/UPI | License Photo

Following state legislation passed in 2021 that essentially banned abortion in Texas, the rate of infant deaths rose by almost 13%, compared to a much smaller 1.8% rise nationwide, a new study finds.

The number of Texan babies whose deaths were specifically linked to birth defects also jumped by 22.9% in 2022, the year after the ban was put in place. In the rest of the United States, such deaths declined by 3.1% over the same time period, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The findings may have relevance beyond Texas following the July 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

"The [study] results suggest that restrictive abortion policies may have important unintended consequences in terms of trauma to families and medical cost as a result of increases in infant mortality," said researchers led by Alison Gemmill. She's an assistant professor of population, family and reproductive health at Hopkins.

The findings were published June 24 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

In their study, Gemmill's group look at data on all recorded infant deaths from the state of Texas and 28 comparison states for the years 2018 through 2022. They zeroed in on the period between March through December of 2022, because it was during this period when fetuses and newborns would first have been subject to the 2021 Texas abortion ban.

Overall, "an excess of 216 infant deaths" were recorded in Texas between March and December of 2022, Gemmill's team reported.

The sharp rise in deaths linked to birth defects was particularly troubling, the researchers said.

"Deaths involving congenital malformations, which are the leading cause of infant mortality in the U.S. and account for more than 1 in 5 infant deaths, may increase due to forced continuation of pregnancies involving defects or other anomalies," they wrote.

Forcing women to carry through with an unwanted pregnancy may also raise financial and emotional stressors, especially among poorer, less advantaged groups, "all of which may increase exposure to known risk factors for infant mortality," Gemmill and colleagues wrote.

In a linked journal editorial, three experts in reproductive and child health said the Texas study "adds to the growing body of literature documenting the direct harms inflicted on our communities by abortion bans."

Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi and Aketch Osamb, of Pegasus Health Justice Center in Dallas, and Dr. Atsuko Koyama, of the University of Arizona in Phoenix, say other data shows the 2021 ban in Texas is harming women and their babies.

"Researchers from two Dallas hospitals, including one of the busiest labor and delivery units in the country, illustrate a significant increase in maternal morbidity [illness] with subsequent poor fetal outcomes" soon after the ban was enacted, they wrote.

And they believe the new study is just a harbinger of things to come nationally.

"In the coming years, as more people continue to be harmed by abortion bans across the country, we anticipate that more research will illuminate what Texans already know to be true: abortion bans harm everyone," the experts said.

More information

To find out more about neonatal birth defects, head to the Cleveland Clinic.

Copyright © 2024 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Distress, depression rates double among transgender Americans in 10 years

By Ernie Mendell,

 HealthDay News

JUNE 24, 2024

The rate of self-reported mental distress and depression among American adults who identify as transgender or gender-diverse has more than doubled between 2014 and 2022, an analysis of federal health data reveals.

 Photo by Astrobobo/Pixabay

The rate of self-reported mental distress and depression among American adults who identify as transgender or gender-diverse has more than doubled between 2014 and 2022, an analysis of federal health data reveals.

During that time, "a record number of enacted laws has threatened the rights and protections of TGD people, including restricting access to gender-affirming care and permitting discrimination in public accommodations," noted a team of researchers led by health care policy investigator Michael Liu, of Harvard Medical School.

The findings are published Monday in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

Liu's team tracked survey data from the federal government's ongoing Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, which follows the self-reported physical and mental health of U.S. adults over time.

The analysis started in 2014, the first year in which gender identity was added to the survey, and tracked data through 2022.

Liu's team found that the "prevalence of frequent mental distress increased from 18.8% in 2014 to 38.9% in 2022" among transgender or gender-diverse people.

In contrast, the rise in mental distress was less steep among cisgender people -- from 11.2% to 15.5%.

Depression rates among transgender and gender-diverse adults also rose sharply between 2014 and 2022 -- more than doubling from 19.7% to 51.3%, Liu's group found. Over the same time period, depression rates among cisgender adults rose only slightly, from 18.6% to 21.1%.

Even physical health was affected: During the study period, the percentage of transgender/gender-diverse adults who rated their health as just "fair" or "poor" went from 26.6% to 35.1%, while that number remained stable at just over 17% among cisgender people.

In a linked journal editorial, three experts in health policy say the Harvard findings are not unexpected.

Dr. Carl Streed of Boston University, Kellan Baker of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Baltimore and Arjee Javellana Restar of the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle, point to hundreds of state bills "explicitly targeting transgender and nonbinary populations" proposed in 2023 and 2024.

"These efforts to exclude transgender and nonbinary people from civic life threaten the well-being of the more than 1.6 million transgender and nonbinary people in the U.S.," the experts said.

Increasing stigma means transgender and gender-diverse Americans are dealing with daily assaults to mental health, including deliberate misuse of pronouns, issues around restroom access, discrimination on the job and even acts of violence, the editorialists said.

It's probably not going to get better anytime soon.

"Given the sociopolitical trajectory of the U.S. regarding increasing discrimination and political attacks on transgender and nonbinary people, we can expect to see worsening mental health in these populations for the foreseeable future," the experts said.