An Associated Press story notes that "in 1987, Congress enacted the Nursing Home Reform Law to address evidence of widespread abuse of nursing home patients. The states followed suit . . ." Those observations are followed by this curious passage:
But the emphasis on patient rights led some nursing homes to think they outweighed everything else.
Emory Stephens laughs a lot, easily and genuinely, as if the joke is not on him.
Is it?
At $3 per haircut, this 92-year-old barber cheats himself out of all kinds of income -- and has for years and years and years.
His is a business that is nowhere near business-like, for sure. Otherwise, it might have a sign
Today's proof of the "person who acts as his own lawyer has a fool for a client" adage:
An Evansville man who insisted on defending himself and was sentenced to three years in prison is continuing acting as his own legal counsel and has filed a complaint about the presiding judge in his trial.
Why do people who generally take care with most dangers get so stupid around the water?
Indiana authorities say two teenage boys are presumed dead after they were swept away by strong currents in Lake Michigan.
The boys ages were swimming with one teen's father and another man in an area without lifeguards near a Michigan City pier when they were pulled into the choppy water Sunday afternoon.
[. . .]
You remember the midlife crisis. I certainly remember mine, vaguely. A lot of 20-somethings today don't believe in putting things off, so they're having quarter-life crises. Well, actually, they do believe in putting things off: They're taking an awfully long time to grow up, A New York Times article informs us.
You can say the Iraq War was wrong. You can say it was expensive. You can say the money spent on it could have been better spent elsewhere or not at all. But you can't say the war helped ruin our economy:
The new Oxford Dictionary is out, which means new words and phrases, most, of them, alas, not ones to really welcome: vuvuzela, climate change, credit crunch, toxic debt. But there are a few fun ones:
To balance them out among the 2,000 or so new items there are a few more left-field choices.
A lot of people in Indianapolis seem to have trouble believing that colleagues of police officer David Bisard -- experienced DUI investigators -- would "botch" the case so badly that the most serious acolohol-related charges had to be dropped against him in the crash that killed one motorcyclist and critically injured two others. But they did, letting the blood be drawn by a technician not certified for criminal cases. So:
Rod Blagojevich looks like a political huckser, and prosecutors kept saying they had an overwhelming case, so it was "a surprise to many," as the Times says, when jurors only agreed on one measly count. But maybe it shouldn't have been:
Those lovable goofballs of the Westboro Baptist Church, who have graced Indiana with their presence a few times, have been set free to again roam the land in search of military families to counsel. A federal judge has ruled that church members have a First Amendment right to picket military funerals with signs and chants railing against homosexuals.
The latest figures from the nonpartisan agency portray a dreary picture of the U.S. economy, predicting U.S gross domestic product would only grow by 2% between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the same period next year.
[. ..]
We can resume all our usual arguments about the wisdom or folly of Iraq tomorrow, but today let's just note the milestone:
The last combat troops are out and now 50,000, er, “advisors” remain. It's not the end of the war, in other words, but as a not-so-grim milestone for a lot of guys who are no longer in harm's way, it's a moment worth celebrating.
The votes have been tabulated, so now we can give out our coveted Crime Watch Awards.
Criminal genius of the week:
On July 29, according to a probable-cause affidavit filed in Allen Superior Court, Anthony Dwight Laster and another person followed several victims into their apartments and forced them to lie on the ground at gunpoint while one of the men ransacked the dwelling.
The robbers took cash, GPS units, laptops, cameras, videogame systems and several cell phones.
"It's a strange old world" department:
It has been said there are three kinds of lies -- lies, damned lies and statistics. Maybe we should add a fourth worse than the other three -- the "stolen valor" kind, which, at least as far as an appeals court panel is concerned, are not unconstitutional.
A three-year-old federal law that makes it a crime to falsely claim to have received a medal from the U.S. military is unconstitutional, an appeals court panel in California ruled Tuesday.
No tears here for the departure of "Dr. Laura," though the controversy over the "N-word" seems to contain more than a little theatrical outrage. Actually, that only hints at the real problem:
A little quiet corruption (Shhh! We wouldn't want to upset anybody) apparently accepted as "business as usual" throughout the Indiana legal system: Civil asset forfeiture is, at best, a morally questionable practice by authorities in seizing the property of people not even convicted of a crime (who then find it almost impossible to get their property back even if they're cleared).
Those country songs just keep bubbling up from Indiana news:
A reunion between an ex-con and the woman he was jailed for beating ended with the woman's arrest this morning, on the Northeastside, police said.
Bertha Sanchez, 44, was arrested on charges of felony battery and criminal recklessness for stabbing her boyfriend after he looked at another woman.
