Latest news with #Daniel'sLaw
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Baby boy safely surrendered at Murrells Inlet hospital under South Carolina's Daniel's Law
MURRELLS INLET, S.C. (WBTW) — A newborn baby was safely turned over to authorities on Monday at Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital in Murrells Inlet under South Carolina's Daniel's Law, which allows infants to be surrendered at designated locations. The Safe Haven for Abandoned Babies Act, known as Daniel's Law, was enacted in 2001 to prevent the dangerous abandonment of babies up to 60 days old. The baby boy born on Sunday weighed 7 pounds, 4.4 ounces, and was 20.1 inches long, the state Department of Social Services said Thursday in a news release. Georgetown County DSS took custody of the child and placed him in a licensed foster home. Under Daniel's Law, a person who abandons a newborn cannot be prosecuted for abandonment if he or she takes the baby to staff or an employee of a Safe Haven as defined in state law. Safe Havens are defined as a hospital or hospital outpatient facility, law enforcement agencies, fire stations, emergency medical services stations, or a house of worship during the time the church or synagogue is staffed. A hearing to determine the long-term placement of the child is scheduled for 9 a.m. June 25 at the Georgetown County Family Court, the state DSS said. For more information about the Safe Haven Act, please click here. For a listing of crisis pregnancy organizations, please see this brochure. * * * Dennis Bright is the Digital Executive Producer at News13. He joined the team in May 2021. Dennis is a West Virginia native and a graduate of Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Follow Dennis on Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BBC News
28-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Isle of Man faith groups canvassed on new organ donation law
Faith groups on the Isle of Man are being asked to provide feedback on laws that would make organ donation an "opt-out" system. A focus group will discuss the Human Tissue and Organ Donation Act, which gained Royal Assent in 2021. Secondary legislation will be required to introduce the law on the Isle of meeting, co-hosted by Public Health and the Bishop of Sodor and Man, will be held on 2 May from 10:00 until 11:30 BST at the Bishop's Office in Douglas. The Right Reverend Patricia Hillas said the meeting would provide a "crucial platform" and ensure the "diverse perspectives" of faith communities will be "reflected" in how the law is implemented. Feedback sought Organ donation was a "profound act of generosity and compassion, deeply rooted in the moral and ethical teachings of many faiths", she well as shifting from an "opt-in" system to an "opt-out" one, the Act would align the Isle of Man with UK standards regarding the use, storage, and disposal of human tissue. The legislation is also known as Daniel's Law after 15-year-old Daniel Boyde, who suffered head injuries in a 2007 car crash near was taken to a UK hospital for brain surgery, but died two days teenager's organs were used to help three other young Isle of Man's public health director, Matt Tyrer, said it was important that the "opt-out" system would be "as inclusive as possible".He said the 2 May meeting would give faith leaders and people of different religions the chance to provide feedback and raise any said the new organ donation plans would be presented to Tynwald in wanting to attend the meeting have been urged to confirm their participation by 30 April. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Business groups, police union spar over data privacy law
A law intended to protect law enforcement by shielding their home addresses and phone numbers from disclosure has sparked several legal challenges, but police are defending the law. (Photo by New Jersey Monitor) A coalition of businesses and the state's biggest police union are sparring over a New Jersey law meant to protect prosecutors, judges, and cops by shielding their home addresses and phone numbers from disclosure. Businesses that use data for things like real estate, lending, fraud detection, background checks, and credit reporting say changes legislators made in 2023 to strengthen the law instead allowed data privacy companies to profit by suing and seeking damages from companies that don't remove personal information from the internet. The businesses recently formed the Public Safety Information Protection Coalition to fight the state statute, known as Daniel's Law. The businesses asked a federal judge last June to declare Daniel's Law an unconstitutional, impermissibly broad violation of the First Amendment. The judge rejected that challenge, and last month the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to review the judge's ruling. John Molinelli, a former Bergen County prosecutor, is the coalition's spokesman. 'Daniel's Law serves a noble purpose, but the law is broken,' Molinelli said in a statement last week. The New Jersey State Policemen's Benevolent Association wrote an open letter Wednesday to Molinelli, accusing him of falling prey to 'the data industry's latest ploy to avoid accountability for putting public servants in harm's way.' The letter, signed by state PBA President Peter Andreyev and 43 leaders of other PBA chapters statewide, said members of the data business coalition 'pretend to be advocates for Daniel's Law while secretly seeking to undermine and weaken it.' 'They would rather spend millions of dollars spreading misinformation and lies than simply comply with a law meant to keep us and our families safe,' the letter says. New Jersey enacted Daniel's Law in 2020. It's named after federal Judge Esther Salas' son, Daniel Anderl, who was slain at the judge's home that year by a gunman who wanted to harm Salas. Since state legislators passed the law soon after Anderl's death, they have expanded it several times to protect additional public workers, including child welfare investigators. Lawmakers amended it in 2023 to establish mandatory monetary damages for violations, among other things. The following year, Atlas Data Privacy Corp. filed 118 class-action lawsuits on behalf of law enforcement officers against data brokers accused of ignoring requests to remove the officers' data from various websites. Molinelli had called such lawsuits predatory, accusing Atlas of 'engineering' the 2023 legislative amendments so that it could sue violators and reap the profits. The PBA officials defended the lawsuits, saying the data brokers and businesses Molinelli represents continue to violate Daniel's Law by selling law enforcement officers' private information despite the ongoing litigation and officers' pleas to them to stop. 'What you call 'predatory lawsuits' we call a fight to protect ourselves and our families from predators who seek to cause us harm,' the PBA officials wrote. PBA officials have cited a leaked conference call, first reported by Politico earlier this month, during which data brokers and industry groups plotted how to weaken the law. Molinelli, in a statement from a spokesman, said the PBA's letter fails to address how best to protect public officials who do not want their personal information published. 'Many of those who signed this letter are friends of mine and I respect them greatly for what they do. Their misplaced efforts to attack me for wanting Daniel's Law to work as intended are regrettably shrouded by the financial plans of Atlas Data Privacy Corporation,' he said. Daniel's Law has inspired similar legislation in other states, even though it has prompted several legal challenges here. Still, legislators aim to expand it further. One bill now in the Statehouse pipeline would extend privacy protections under Daniel's Law to court administrators and deputy court administrators, while another would allow people protected under the law to use a post office box or address other than their home address on their driver's license or other official identification cards. Salas has recently said judges and their families have received unsolicited pizza deliveries from unknown persons — a signal, she says, that the people know where the judges live — and some of them are sent using her late son's name. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Senator aims to deter attacks on judges by upping penalties for threats
Legislation proposed by Sen. Raj Mukherji intends to crack down on people who threaten judges at a time when judges say attacks on them are growing. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor) A state senator wants to toughen penalties against people who threaten judges and prosecutors in New Jersey, with attacks on judges escalating as the Trump administration feuds with courts from coast to coast. Sen. Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson) said he was driven to act after U.S. District Judge Esther Salas revealed recently that judges around the U.S. have received unsolicited pizza deliveries sent in the name of her son Daniel Anderl, who was gunned down in 2020 at the family's home by an angry litigant. 'These are unprecedented attacks on judicial officers,' Salas told MSNBC in several weekend appearances on the news network. Under a bill Mukherji plans to introduce, it would become a second-degree crime — with a presumption of incarceration — to threaten, harass, intimidate, or dox local, county, state and federal judges and prosecutors over their work performance. The offense would be upgraded to a first-degree crime if it occurs at or within 500 feet of the home of a prosecutor, judge, or their immediate family members. That includes sending items or messages to a home protected under Daniel's Law, which legislators passed after Anderl's murder to prohibit the disclosure of public officials' home addresses and phone numbers. 'In a democracy, disagreement is fair game, but intimidation and violence are not. They must be confronted swiftly and without hesitation with the full weight of the law,' Mukherji said in a statement. 'Judges and prosecutors must be free to perform their public duties without looking over their shoulders or worrying about the safety of their families. At a time when the independence of the judiciary is under attack and violence is on the rise, we must draw a hard line to protect those who serve justice.' President Donald Trump, administration officials, and some members of Congress have personally attacked judges they disagree with in recent weeks on social media and in personal appearances. That has resulted in a sharp uptick in threats to judges, including pizza deliveries to jurists' homes by people who have 'weaponized' Anderl's name, Salas said. The ominous deliveries send a clear message, she added: 'Do you want to end up like Judge Salas? Do you want to end up like her son?' She urged other states to shield judges' personally identifiable information, as New Jersey legislators did with Daniel's Law, and officials at all levels to condemn attacks on the judiciary. 'Whether it be attacks that come in the form of some of our members of Congress calling for our impeachment because we're doing our jobs, members of this administration calling us rogue, calling us crazy, leftist, unconstitutional judges, or coming in the forms of these acts of intimidation, these are unprecedented times that really call for us to speak up for the judiciary, to speak up for justice,' Salas said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
BBC News
02-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Drop-in sessions highlight new organ donation law
Proposed updates to regulations on organ donation, including how an opt-out system would work, will be highlighted at a series of information Human Tissue and Organ Donation Act was given Royal Assent in July 2021 and a consultation is now asking for views on the secondary legislation needed to bring it by the Cabinet Office, the survey asks for feedback on proposed codes of practice outlining how certain activities related to the act should be have also been invited to find out more at a series of public information events in Douglas, Ramsey, Castletown and Peel later this month. Cabinet Office Minister David Ashford said moving to an opt-out system for organ donation was "an important step" that would bring the island "in line with other jurisdictions". He said it was "vital we get it right" and "ensure transparency, ethical oversight, and public confidence in the system".The legislation is also known as Daniel's Law in memory of 15-year-old Daniel Boyde whose organs were donated following his death in a car crash in law change would see adults over the age of 18 who have not opted out presumed to have given consent for organ donation. However, families would be consulted before any decision was confirmed. 'Safeguards and choices' The consultation gives respondents the opportunity to review and consider eight detailed codes of practice, prepared by Public Health, on areas such as living and deceased organ donation, and the principle of asks for thoughts on whether the consent process is clear and if it respects the wishes of individuals, including those from different faiths and survey also looks at proposed procedures for storing and disposing of tissue and organs after post-mortem examinations, and how families might receive clear, compassionate, and timely information about said: "Death is not an easy subject to talk about, but it affects everyone.""These discussions matter because they help ensure the right safeguards and choices are in place for our loved ones," he said."We want to hear from as many people as possible to make sure the final framework reflects the needs and expectations of our community."To highlight the consultation, two drop-in sessions will be held in each of four locations, starting at 16:00 and 18:00 first takes place at Loch Promenade Church in Douglas on 7 April, followed by Ramsey Town Hall on 8 April, the Morton Hall in Castletown on 15 April, and the Western Wellbeing Centre in Peel on 24 consultation itself is available online until 28 from the public will help inform the legal framework before it is presented to Tynwald in July 2025, the Cabinet Office said. Read more stories from the Isle of Man on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC Isle of Man on Facebook and X.
