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Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Squatters took over this Georgia home after the owner died, family says — now they're throwing parties inside
A grieving Decatur family is furious at a group of strangers who showed up unannounced and took over their late father's home less than 48 hours after he died. 'It is a nightmare,' Lisa Heath, one of the siblings who now own the home, told 11 Alive News. Attempts to reclaim it have been met with threats, the family says. Thanks to Jeff Bezos, you can now become a landlord for as little as $100 — and no, you don't have to deal with tenants or fix freezers. Here's how I'm 49 years old and have nothing saved for retirement — what should I do? Don't panic. Here are 5 of the easiest ways you can catch up (and fast) Nervous about the stock market in 2025? Find out how you can access this $1B private real estate fund (with as little as $10) The half-million-dollar home, which the family says holds a lifetime of memories, is now the backdrop for flashy dance videos posted to social media. The alleged squatters have even invited more strangers to come by for pool parties. 'These videos and advertisements are so far-reaching that we received a call this morning from someone in Florida that said, 'Hey, seen your dad's property on the internet,'' Heath shared. Lisa and her siblings Kevin, Marcus and Marlene say they are enraged by the brazen move. But why has it been so hard to get their childhood home back? Once the strangers moved in, the siblings immediately called the police. But according to the incident report, the individuals inside the home provided what they claimed was a lease agreement. 'It pisses me off. Tremendously,' said Marlene Oliver-Bruce. When Kevin went to check on the property himself, he says, the situation escalated quickly. 'They started making threats against my life,' he said. 'One of them … came back with a rifle in the doorway… They made it known that I might not make it out of there.' One of the siblings, Marcus Oliver, says the entire ordeal feels surreal, especially as both a homeowner and an attorney. He says he's heard about cases like this but never thought it would happen to him. 'It's infuriating to see people in that home, destroying it, and partying and inviting other strangers into that home,' he said. Luckily for the family, Gov. Brian Kemp recently signed the Georgia Squatter Reform Act to vastly expedite the process of bringing alleged squatters to court. Squatting is now a criminal offense in the state, and offenders can be removed in days rather than months or years. Heath later received a voicemail from the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, letting them know the alleged squatters have three days to prove the legitimacy of the lease, with a court date on June 3. Read more: Want an extra $1,300,000 when you retire? Dave Ramsey says — and that 'anyone' can do it Homeowners and real estate investors face more challenges than rising interest rates and insurance premiums. Across the country, families are finding their homes taken over by unwanted occupiers using bogus leases or legal loopholes. In many jurisdictions, homeowners may need to spend weeks obtaining a court order to remove squatters through a civil case. From smart security to legal know-how, here's what you can do right now to protect your property and your peace of mind: Smart security is your first defense. Upgrade deadbolts, install security cameras and consider motion sensors or smart locks with mobile alerts. These can help keep squatters out and give you the ability to monitor your property. An empty home is a magnet for squatters. Keep your property looking occupied by taking care of the lawn regularly, having lights set on timers and asking if neighbors can park in your driveway. If you own multiple properties or live out of state, consider hiring a licensed property manager. They should take care of checking on the property regularly. Don't wait until it's happened to you. Learn your state's squatter laws and adverse possession statutes. In some areas, squatters can begin claiming legal rights after just 30 days of occupancy. Some cities allow you to register your vacant property with local law enforcement. This gives police the green light to check on it and step in faster if something seems off. If someone does move in, don't confront them alone. Call the police and consult a lawyer right away. The courts will ultimately decide, and the sooner you start, the sooner you reclaim your property. Here are 5 'must have' items that Americans (almost) always overpay for — and very quickly regret. How many are hurting you? Rich, young Americans are ditching the stormy stock market — here are the alternative assets they're banking on instead Robert Kiyosaki warns of a 'Greater Depression' coming to the US — with millions of Americans going poor. But he says these 2 'easy-money' assets will bring in 'great wealth'. How to get in now This is how American car dealers use the '4-square method' to make big profits off you — and how you can ensure you pay a fair price for all your vehicle costs Like what you read? Join 200,000+ readers and get the best of Moneywise straight to your inbox every week. This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sponsor of Georgia abortion ban spared trauma of watching brain dead loved one carry fetus
Doctors and lawyers at Emory Healthcare – but mainly the lawyers, I suspect – say that under Georgia's anti-abortion law, they are required to keep Adriana's body functioning as the fetus inside her develops. (Photo by John McCosh/Georgia Recorder) By most common measures, the life of Adriana Smith ended three months ago, when a tragic series of undiagnosed blood clots left her brain dead, with no hope of recovery. Yet today, in a hospital room in Midtown Atlanta, Adriana's body is still being kept alive by machines, without regard to her family's wishes. As someone who has been there, I know how difficult and extremely personal that decision can be, but I can only imagine what it must be like to have that choice stripped away, as it has been stripped away from Adriana's loved ones by people who don't know them, who know little of their circumstances, and deal with none of its consequences. In Adriana's case, she was nine weeks pregnant at the time the blood clots hit, which under some readings of Georgia law has meant that what remains of Adriana's body is now under government control until the fetus can be safely extracted. 'She's been breathing through machines for more than 90 days,' April Newkirk, Adriana's mother, told 11Alive News. 'It's torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there.' Doctors and lawyers at Emory Healthcare – but mainly the lawyers, I suspect – say that under Georgia's anti-abortion law, they are required to keep Adriana's body functioning as the fetus inside her develops. They are erring on the side of caution – not medical caution, but legal caution. The law in question is the 'Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act.' or the LIFE Act. The main sponsor of that law, state Sen. Ed Setzler, says it's working as intended in this case. 'I'm proud that the hospital recognizes the full value of the small human life living inside of this regrettably dying young mother,' Setzler told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 'Mindful of the agony of this young mother's family, the wisdom of modern medical science to be able to save the life of a healthy unborn child is something that I trust in future years will lead to great joy, with this child having a chance to grow into vibrant adulthood.' Proud as he might be, Setzler isn't the one who has to watch what's left of his daughter lay lifeless in that hospital room, not alive exactly, with machines performing basic life functions, week after week. He isn't the one who has to explain what's happening to his seven-year-old grandson, Adriana's son. If the fetus survives, he also isn't the one who will have to raise the child. Doctors have warned Adriana's family that the fetus has fluid on its brain, with unknown consequences. 'She's pregnant with my grandson,' Newkirk said. 'But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born,' she said. 'This decision should've been left to us.' According to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, however, Emory Healthcare and Setzler are misreading the legislation. 'There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,' his office said in a statement. 'Removing life support is not an action 'with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy'.' Carr's reading of the law seems to be correct. As his statement indicates, the law defines abortion as 'the act of using, prescribing, or administering any instrument, substance, device, or other means with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,' and the withdrawal of extraordinary life-maintenance measures on a brain-dead woman would not fall within its restrictions. But this is the problem when you try to write a law into black and white, when you try to legislate what is right and what is wrong when dealing with decisions that are so personal, so intimate. Moral certainty sounds good, it may feel good, it may play well in a political campaign, but it cannot possibly make such hard choices from a distance. The law cannot act more wisely or with more love than would those who know the situation best. This story first appeared in the Georgia Recorder, a member with the Phoenix in the nonprofit States Newsroom.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bookman: Sponsor of Georgia abortion ban spared trauma of watching brain dead loved one carry fetus
Doctors and lawyers at Emory Healthcare – but mainly the lawyers, I suspect – say that under Georgia's anti-abortion law, they are required to keep Adriana's body functioning as the fetus inside her develops. John McCosh/Georgia Recorder By most common measures, the life of Adriana Smith ended three months ago, when a tragic series of undiagnosed blood clots left her brain dead, with no hope of recovery. Yet today, in a hospital room in Midtown Atlanta, Adriana's body is still being kept alive by machines, without regard to her family's wishes. As someone who has been there, I know how difficult and extremely personal that decision can be, but I can only imagine what it must be like to have that choice stripped away, as it has been stripped away from Adriana's loved ones by people who don't know them, who know little of their circumstances and deal with none of its consequences. In Adriana's case, she was nine weeks pregnant at the time the blood clots hit, which under some readings of Georgia law has meant that what remains of Adriana's body is now under government control under the fetus can be safely extracted. 'She's been breathing through machines for more than 90 days,' April Newkirk, Adriana's mother, told 11Alive News. 'It's torture for me. I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there.' Doctors and lawyers at Emory Healthcare – but mainly the lawyers, I suspect – say that under Georgia's anti-abortion law, they are required to keep Adriana's body functioning as the fetus inside her develops. They are erring on the side of caution – not medical caution, but legal caution. The law in question is the 'Living Infants Fairness and Equality Act.' or the LIFE Act. The main sponsor of that law, state Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth, says it's working as intended in this case. 'I'm proud that the hospital recognizes the full value of the small human life living inside of this regrettably dying young mother,' Setzler told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. 'Mindful of the agony of this young mother's family, the wisdom of modern medical science to be able to save the life of a healthy unborn child is something that I trust in future years will lead to great joy, with this child having a chance to grow into vibrant adulthood.' Proud as he might be, Setzler isn't the one who has to watch what's left of his daughter lay lifeless in that hospital room, not alive exactly, with machines performing basic life functions, week after week. He isn't the one who has to explain what's happening to his seven-year-old grandson, Adriana's son. If the fetus survives, he also isn't the one who will have to raise the child. Doctors have warned Adriana's family that the fetus has fluid on its brain, with unknown consequences. 'She's pregnant with my grandson,' Newkirk said. 'But he may be blind, may not be able to walk, may not survive once he's born,' she said. 'This decision should've been left to us.' According to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, however, Emory Healthcare and Setzler are misreading the legislation. 'There is nothing in the LIFE Act that requires medical professionals to keep a woman on life support after brain death,' his office said in a statement. 'Removing life support is not an action 'with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy'.' Carr's reading of the law seems to be correct. As his statement indicates, the law defines abortion as 'the act of using, prescribing, or administering any instrument, substance, device, or other means with the purpose to terminate a pregnancy,' and the withdrawal of extraordinary life-maintenance measures on a brain-dead woman would not fall within its restrictions. But this is the problem when you try to write a law into black and white, when you try to legislate what is right and what is wrong when dealing with decisions that are so personal, so intimate. Moral certainty sounds good, it may feel good, it may play well in a political campaign, but it cannot possibly make such hard choices from a distance. The law cannot act more wisely or with more love than would those who know the situation best. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Georgia Is Using a Brain-Dead Woman as an Incubator
Georgia's LIFE Act is killing at least one family, as it keeps a brain-dead woman on life support against the wishes of her family—all because she was nine weeks pregnant at the time of her death. Atlanta mother Adriana Smith has been transformed into a human incubator due to Georgia's heartbeat law, which bans abortions once a heartbeat is detected in the fetus. That can happen as early as six weeks into pregnancy, making it one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation. One in three people discover they're pregnant at the sixth week of pregnancy or later, according to the University of California San Francisco's Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. Smith, a 30-year-old registered nurse for Emory University Hospital, was declared brain-dead more than 90 days ago. In early February, she began experiencing intense headaches and sought treatment at Northside Hospital, where she was given medication and released. 'They gave her some medication, but they didn't do any tests. No CT scan,' Smith's mother, April Newkirk, told 11AliveNews. 'If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented.' Smith woke up the following morning gasping for air. Two hospital trips later, CT scans at Emory University Hospital revealed multiple blot clots in her brain. 'They asked me if I would agree to a procedure to relieve the pressure, and I said yes,' Newkirk said. 'Then they called me back and said they couldn't do it.' Smith had been declared brain-dead, but the state is the one not letting her go—and her family is having to foot the mounting hospital bills. Smith's medical team is legally required to keep her alive until they believe the fetus can survive outside of the womb, at approximately 32 weeks' gestation. Doctors advised Smith's family that they are not legally allowed to consider alternatives, reported 11Alive. Newkirk said Smith is currently 21 weeks pregnant. 'I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision,' said Newkirk, who described seeing her daughter's still-breathing body as 'torture.' 'And if not, then their partner or their parents.' Georgia's LIFE Act bestows legal personhood on unborn fetuses. It was passed in 2019 and went into effect after Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2022. Pro-abortion activists have long warned that fetal personhood, an ideology that calls for providing equal human rights to a fetus (even if it's just a cluster of cells), will effectively strip pregnant people of their own rights. The legal language behind fetal personhood also effectively categorizes any person receiving an abortion at any stage as a murderer. 'How many different ways can they prove to us that they do not see us as human beings?' asked abortion columnist Jessica Valenti in a video reacting to the news of Smith's situation. 'You are a vessel, you are an incubator, but you are most certainly not a human being.' 'Corpses have more rights than a pregnant person in these states with abortion bans,' Valenti continued. 'How many families are they going to devastate?' The language of 'fetal personhood' has already reached the national stage by way of sneakily drafted executive orders. One of dozens of executive orders signed by Donald Trump the evening of his inauguration cemented language at the executive level to delegitimize transgender identities. But within the fold of that order, titled 'Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism And Restoring Biological Truth To The Federal Government,' the Trump administration also decided to legally brand a person's gender identity as beginning 'at conception.' ''Female' means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell,' the order read in part. ''Male' means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.'
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Family forced to keep brain-dead daughter alive due to Georgia abortion law: ‘It's torture'
Adriana Smith was declared brain-dead in February but is being kept alive because she was nine weeks pregnant at the time. The family of a 30-year-old mother and nurse in Atlanta is being forced to keep her alive even though she has been declared brain-dead for more than 90 days. She was nine weeks pregnant at the time, and the state of Georgia has a strict ban on abortion after six weeks. In early February, Adriana Smith, a registered nurse at Emory University Hospital, started experiencing excruciating headaches. While roughly nine weeks pregnant, she visited a local hospital because she knew 'enough to know something was wrong.' However, her mother, April Newkirk, told 11 Alive News the hospital just gave her some medication and sent her home without running any extended tests, like a CT scan. 'If they had done that or kept her overnight, they would have caught it. It could have been prevented,' Newkirk said. The next morning, Smith's boyfriend found her gasping for air in her sleep. He called 911, and Smith was taken to Emory Decatur Hospital before being transferred to Emory University Hospital, where she worked. Results from a CT scan came back revealing multiple blood clots in her brain. Doctors were preparing to operate on Smith when they came to the conclusion it was too late, and she was declared brain dead. In the weeks since that fateful day, Smith has been kept alive through life support, on breathing machines for over 90 days, because of the state's ban on abortion. Doctors are hoping to keep her alive until around 32 weeks of gestation when they think the fetus will be viable outside of the womb. Smith is currently at 21 weeks. 'It's torture for me,' Newkirk told the outlet. 'I see my daughter breathing, but she's not there.' The grandmother added how it's been especially heartbreaking seeing her grandson, Smith's young son, believe his mother is 'just sleeping.' After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, later that same year, Georgia enacted a ban on abortion after detection of a fetal heartbeat, which is typically around six weeks. Since it was passed, at least two of the first deaths linked to the ban have been Black women: Amber Thurman, who died after medical intervention in a legal abortion was delayed, and Candi Miller, who died after she was afraid to seek care because of the ban. There are exceptions to the law in the case of rape, incest, or if the mother's life is in danger. However, Smith's particular case lands in the law's gray area, and so her family is legally required to keep her on life support until the fetus is viable. According to Newkirk, the family was informed there was fluid on the fetus's brain and that there was a possibility the baby may not be able to see, walk, or even survive once born. 'This decision should've been left to us. Now we're left wondering what kind of life [the baby will] have—and we're going to be the ones raising him,' she said. In addition to the emotional toll, Newkirk said the family is also becoming increasingly concerned about the cost associated with Smith's care. The young mother still has weeks ahead of intensive ongoing medical care. 'They're hoping to get the baby to at least 32 weeks,' Newkirk said. 'But every day that goes by, it's more cost, more trauma, more questions.' More must-reads: Megan Thee Stallion's lawyer responds to recent claims about Tory Lanez case Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signs bill to tap unused ACA insurance funds for abortion grant program What to know about the upcoming Supreme Court arguments in the birthright citizenship case
