Scotus...

In 2012, Harris Funeral Homes decided to part ways with an employee. That employee, a male who had been issued the male funeral director uniform and consistently worn it to that point, announced his intent to begin dressing and presenting as a woman while interacting with grieving families.

That would violate the company’s dress policy, and Harris Funeral Homes decided the employee’s proposal would not be in the best interest of the grieving families it serves.

In response, the EEOC sued the Detroit business, claiming it had discriminated on the basis of sex. For this, the EEOC seeks punitive damages.

On April 22, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Harris Funeral Homes’ case. That case will decide whether federal agencies can rewrite federal law.

Modifiable...

Ischemic strokes occur when either a blood clot or a plaque obstructs a vessel carrying blood to the brain, preventing the delivery of oxygen. Strokes can also be hemorrhagic, when a blood vessel has ruptured and the blood that spills into or around the brain creates swelling and pressure, damaging the brain tissue.

Risk factors fall into two categories: modifiable, or those that can be treated and improved; and non-modifiable, or those that are outside a patient's control.

Among modifiable risk factors, high blood pressure poses the biggest threat for stroke. Other modifiable factors are smoking, diabetes, a diet high in saturated fats, high cholesterol, physical inactivity and obesity.

The non-modifiable risk factors include age, gender and race. Women are known to be at greater risk than men, and African Americans are known to be at greater risk than Caucasians, in part because of higher rates of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. 

If you see Face drooping, Arm weakness or Speech difficulty, it's Time to call 911. Other symptoms include sudden numbness in the legs, sudden confusion or trouble seeing, sudden dizziness or loss of balance, or a sudden severe headache.

ICE...

MASSACHUSETTS prosecutors filed a lawsuit against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeking to block the agency from making courthouse arrests of people suspected to be in the country illegally.

The lawsuit represents a growing resistance to courthouse arrests – a practice some lawyers, judges and advocates have harshly criticized – and is the latest tussle between state and federal entities.

The lawsuit seeks to block ICE agents from arresting people for civil immigration violations while they are at courthouses for official business, but it does not seek to bar immigration authorities from arresting criminal defendants in state custody who are brought to court. Just a thought.

TAC...

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was testing a new body scanner system to screen passengers at U.S. airports, but it seems the system was too revealing.

The machine which is called TAC, is a “people-screening camera that sees any type of item hidden in peoples’ clothing at distances of  10 to 32 feet.

This isn’t the first time that the TSA has had privacy issues with their screening equipment. From 2007 to 2013, it was discovered that the TSA scanners were a “virtual strip search” that shared pictures of passengers' genitalia, breasts, and buttocks with TSA employees. ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the TSA over these machines, and thanks to public outcry, the machines were replaced with less-intrusive scanners.

Unintentionally...

According to amnesty international, the US- led coalition, indiscriminately, killed 1600 civilians in the offensive push against ISIS in Raquaa.
Amnesty produced names of more than 1,000 people reported killed from June to October 2017 in the northern Syrian city.
Amnesty says that its conservative estimate of the number of civilians killed is at least 1,600.

In what it calls the "most comprehensive investigation into civilian deaths in a modern conflict," the rights group accuses the U.S.-led coalition of indiscriminate use of artillery force in densely populated areas.

The U.S. military says its coalition has determined at least 180 civilians were unintentionally killed during that period in Raqqa and that there are still open investigations. 

Stone...

A 400-year-old Bible -- one of 321 rare items stolen from the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in the 1990s -- has been returned after a transoceanic journey.

This Bible is more than a piece of evidence in a case. It is a priceless artifact of religious significance to people of many faiths.

The rare Geneva Bible was discovered in the Netherlands in the possession of Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, the director of the Leiden American Pilgrim Museum, who had acquired the book for the museum. Bangs told CNN he bought the 1615 book from what he thought was a "reputable dealer in antiquarian books." 

For the last several years, Bangs has been collecting books that are listed as belonging to people who lived in the colony of Plymouth from 1620 to 1691. His intention was to have the collection displayed in an exhibition celebrating the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower.

Last year, Bangs said he was contacted by Pittsburgh's district attorney informing him that the book may be a stolen artifact.

After several months of back and forth to prove the request for the book's return was legitimate, Bangs contacted his local law enforcement -- and an expert in stolen art returned the book to the American embassy in The Hague. 

The boy...

A North Carolina detective called Rae-Venter and asked her to help investigate the “Boy Under the Billboard” mystery.

The remains of the boy had been discovered in 1998, but investigators couldn’t identify him, let alone his murderer. Rae-Venter ran the boy’s DNA profile through GEDmatch an online repository for genetic profiles uploaded by millions of curious people searching for relatives and determined he was half Caucasian and half Asian. She found a relatively close paternal relative and told detectives to ask that person if any family member had married an Asian woman.

A man in the family had married a Korean woman while stationed with the military in South Korea and they had a son. The family had lost touch with the mother and boy, but hadn’t reported them as missing, figuring they returned to South Korea.

Authorities identified the boy as Robert “Bobby” Adam Whitt and his mother as Myoung Hwa Cho. Investigators soon realized that Cho’s body had been found shortly before Bobby’s in 1998 along the same freeway.

The father was already in custody for armed robbery reportedly confessed to the killings. He has not yet been charged.

Pizza...

Favro (who visits the hospital every two weeks to receive treatment) penned a note in large block lettering on his hospital room window: “SEND PIZZA 8 SOUTH RM 14.”

Within an hour of drawing the message, the first pizza arrived. By Saturday, Favro had received nearly a dozen pizzas. And if you're thinking that seems like a lot of pizza for one person ... you would be right.

However, the sweetest part of this savory ask was that Favro didn't just request the pies for himself — he is about to be transferred to a different hospital, having almost aged out of the children’s ward when after turning 18 in December. Any donated pizzas were meant to be a big thank you gift for the nurses and hospital staff who have helped care for him every two weeks for many, many years.

Deed...

Stabbing a teenage prisoner to death, picking off a young girl and an old man with a sniper rifle and firing a heavy machinegun into a residential area: these are some of the charges facing an elite US Navy SEAL on trial for war crimes while deployed in Iraq.

Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a decorated 39-year-old veteran of combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, is still a hero in the eyes of many Americans.

Around 40 Republican members of Congress have written an open letter demanding Gallagher who denies the charges against him -- be set free until he stands trial. One has even called on President Donald Trump to step in and have the case dismissed.

Gallagher was arrested after men under his command in the elite Navy unit were so horrified by his actions that they complained to their superiors, but were warned that their accusations could damage their careers, according to reports in The Navy Times and The New York Times this week.

Gallagher now faces charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder and obstruction of justice. He could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty.[AFP.com]

Fraud...

A French court has slapped a fraud sentence on the Church of Scientology, saying it targets vulnerable people for commercial gain.

The ruling is a major setback for Scientologists in France, and it marks the first time that the Church of Scientology has been convicted of organized fraud.

The development puts its famous recruitment methods under a spotlight.

Scientologists vehemently reject the conviction, saying that they are the victims of anti-cult organizations trying to destroy them.

An appeals court upheld a conviction against the Scientology organization for organized fraud, assessing a $530,000 fine to the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Paris and a $265,000 fine to its bookstore.