Latest news with #lawdegree
BBC News
17 hours ago
- Health
- BBC News
Wolverhampton single mum graduates despite two chronic illnesses
A single mother determined to give her son a better future has graduated with a law degree despite living with two chronic medical Brown, a student at University of Wolverhampton, said she never considered giving up on her dream while suffering from the debilitating symptoms of Ankylosing Spondylitis and 29-year-old said she was the first person in her family to go to university and that it was the support from her tutors and family that helped her pass her LLP (Hons) Law course."There were days I couldn't get out of bed, times I lost my sight and even a cancer scare during my final exams but I never gave up," she said. "My mum has been my biggest cheerleader and I owe so much to her love and strength."According to the NHS, Ankylosing Spondylitis is a long-term condition in which the spine and other areas of the body become inflamed, causing back pain, stiffness, swelling and extreme also causes pain all over the body, with increased pain sensitivity, stiffness, fatigue, headaches and problem with mental processes among the Brown said she wanted to continue her studies by pursuing a master's degree, with the aim of qualifying as a solicitor in mental health law."I want to sit in an office with my son's photo on the desk and know that I made it, not just for me but for him," she added."To anyone facing challenges - don't let anything stop you." Follow BBC Wolverhampton & Black Country on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
The Sun
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I lost custody of my kids & I'm thrilled – people say I should be ashamed but I now get to pursue my career
A MUM has been slammed for saying she's glad she lost custody of her three children. Clerichena, from the US, took to socia media to explain that her ex had won custody of their children and she was happy about it. 2 In the clip, the mum said: "This is going to sound crazy but I don't want my children back. It's not because I don't love them. "I love them so much. I love them wholeheartedly." "I don't want those children back. And it's not because I don't want to take care of them or anything like that," she continued. The mum who has two sons and a daughter said the reason she was happy she would not have custody full-time was because she had no support system to help raise them. "When I take them to the doctor, I don't have an emergency contact. I don't have friends. I don't have family," she explained. She also says she wants to focus on going back to school to get a law degree, something she wasn't able to do while raising her children alone. In another clip, Clerichena said she refused to see herself as a victim in this situation and was making the most of it. She added: "God is fair. That is what I remind myself of when I start to feel like a victim of life's circumstances. "My situation may not be ideal, but it is not special. I am not the only person that has ever gone through this, and I won't be the only person who has ever gone through this. " I know this is all working out so that I can be the best version of myself possible. I lost 'everything' when UC stopped my £4.3k-month payment... now I've been sacked from my new job "I gave up so much to have my children. I put all of my goals and aspirations on hold in order to be the mom that I wanted to be, in order to devote myself to my children. "And now I'm taking this as a sign from the universe, a sign from God, in support for me to continue to follow my dreams." The mum's video quickly went viral on her TikTok account @ clerichena with over 2.4 million views. Many mums were quick to judge her for not fighting for custody. One person wrote: "This is insane to me! You are a mom!!!! Shame on you!" Another commented: "Imagine seeing your mum post about not wanting you to the whole internet." Single Parent Facts and Figures Single parent charity Gingerbread is fighting to create a society where all single parents and their children thrive. These are the organisation's latest figures on single parenthood... There are two million single parents with dependent children in the UK, 89% of which are headed up by single mums A depressing 44% of children in single parent families are in poverty compared to 26% in couple families Around 13% of single parent households with dependent children used a food bank in the last 12 months compared to 3% of couple households with dependent children Less than 1% of single parents are teenagers, and this continues to decline - with the average age of a single parent in the UK being 39-years-old Research found that 36% of single parent families with dependent children have no savings, compared to 17% of couple families with dependent children "I raised three with no support system …. Not a good excuse love," penned a third. Meanwhile a fourth said: "I get that you're tired, rightfully so, but they are your children. It's not their fault that they are in this world." "A mother's instinct is natural- this scares me,' claimed a fifth
Irish Times
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Austin Taylor: ‘I found it so fascinating and poignant how we portray women in the media, especially powerful women who make mistakes'
Austin Taylor is speaking to me from her parents' attic in the farmhouse where she grew up in rural Maine. The 26-year-old is the picture of vibrant youth – glowing skin, a long mane of thick blonde hair and an easy-going demeanour. She is about to begin a law degree at Stanford University and has already completed a double degree in chemistry and English at Harvard – they call it a double concentrator. She has also just published her debut novel, Notes On Infinity , which she sold in the US for a seven-figure sum. You could call her an over-achiever, but I'm not sure she'd agree. In fact, not too long ago, she felt like a failure. 'I certainly felt intense pressure at Harvard. You're surrounded by people doing incredible cutting-edge work, especially in the sciences. You're surrounded by the legacy of people who have come through the institution before you who have done incredible things. You're surrounded by professors who are doing amazing research and teaching, and your peers who have amazing ideas and are working on really cool stuff in addition to taking five classes a semester and doing really well. There's a sense that if you're not doing something absolutely incredible, you're falling short or failing. I certainly felt that way.' It's something she wanted to explore in Notes On Infinity, particularly around the 'move fast and break things' culture that exists at the nexus of scientific research and venture capital-funded biotech start-ups. The book tells the story of Zoe and Jack, two brilliant Harvard students whose breakthrough scientific discoveries prompt them to drop out and set up a biotech company that claims to have found the cure for ageing. It's a classic Icarus tale of young idealism warped by greed and ambition. 'The dollar amounts are just unimaginable,' she says of biotech VC funding, 'especially for really young people. I think the incentive structures that that amount of money creates are often problematic and scary, especially in science, because science is fundamentally such a slow, iterative, uncertain process and business, especially in pitching a start-up, is all about positive spin. And that's a fundamental tension. And sometimes that creates awesome innovation and other times it creates fire and broken glass and damage.' You can probably guess which of these paths her book follows. READ MORE [ Rethink needed on meeting the demand for Stem graduates Opens in new window ] The novel was somewhat inspired by the scandal surrounding Elizabeth Holmes and her blood-diagnostic start-up, Theranos. Holmes, a brilliant and beautiful scientist, was the face of the company but was eventually jailed for defrauding investors in a spectacular fall from grace. In Notes On Infinity, Taylor's protagonist Zoe is a beautiful, brilliant young woman who also becomes the face of her and Jack's start-up. 'One of the things I was interested in exploring was the obsession with women in [ Stem ] spaces and the tokenisation of women in these spaces. Elizabeth Holmes was lauded for her gender during Theranos's rise, then after its fall she was demonised for her gender. I heard a disturbing number of comments about how she must have used her sexuality to manipulate male funders. That fixation on gender and self-presentation and hair and clothes and make-up, I do think it's heightened by the fact that women are such a minority in science. Former Theranos chief executive Elizabeth Holmes leaving court in San Jose, California, in March 2023. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP/PA 'I did consume a lot of the reporting on the Holmes case because I found it so fascinating and poignant, particularly on issues of gender, how we portray women in the media, especially powerful women who make mistakes.' Taylor's path from growing up as the only child of a dairy farmer in rural Maine to taking a double degree at Harvard to becoming a sought-after debut author about to embark on a legal career is remarkably grounded. 'I had a pretty idyllic, rural childhood. I rode horses and worked on the farm in the summers, milking cows. But I was also very invested in school and I played a lot of sports and I had access to lots of great opportunities.' Her decision to go to Harvard was motivated by the pursuit of academic excellence, but when she arrived on campus, she felt out of place. 'That transition was pretty jarring, which is something that comes out in the novel. I didn't realise the extent to which most people at Harvard would have already been embedded in that sort of community of people who will go to Harvard. There are lots of ways that you can be in that pipeline, so I'm not talking about legacy or family connections, but people had gone to the same summer camps, or done the same competitive academic things like debate or math olympiad, or they had played sports together, and I truly had no connection to the institution at all, so when I showed up on campus for the admitted students weekend it was like everyone else already had friends and they knew how to act and they knew where things were and what parties were going on, and I was like how am I already not a part of this? " Her choice of degree – chemistry – reinforced that feeling of being an outsider. 'I was convinced I needed to do something practical with my college time. There were lots of people questioning my decision to even go to Harvard. I think this is really common in rural areas actually. You can go for free to your state university so people are like, why would you choose to go to this elite university that feels very other to our community, particularly when you're going to be paying an amount of money, that seems silly? That divide and that perception is only worse now, given all of the things that are going on in America. I think that and coming from a farming family gave me this fixation that I needed to do a hard science, be practical and have a skill.' When she took some English classes, it reignited her childhood love of writing. 'If you had asked me when I was 10, 'what do you want to be when you grow up?', I would have said 'writer'…but I came to realise that was a not a particularly stable or likely career path. In fact, I think it seemed like a total pipe dream, so I turned away." After college, she worked for a non-profit in New York for a year before returning to her family home to take a year out in an attempt to recover from debilitating migraines. 'I had some time and I thought, what I've actually always wanted to do was to be a writer, so let me try.' But it wasn't all smooth sailing. She wrote a novel, and submitted it to publishers but couldn't find a home for it. 'Which was very upsetting,' she says. But even as that first novel was dying on submission, she had already moved on to Notes On Infinity . Where did she find the determination to push on with another book in the face of that early rejection? 'I think it was mostly that I was really compelled by the idea for Notes. And I was really convinced that it could be special. Then there was a degree of stubbornness, which is part of my personality for better or for worse, and also a degree of naivety, which was necessary for me to do the whole thing. I think if I had thought too hard about how likely any of this was to work out, I simply wouldn't have done it because the odds are so low.' [ Pat O'Connor: 'Why would girls study Stem if they have no career path afterwards?' Opens in new window ] The book deals – in addition to the American deal, the book has sold for six figures in the UK, and at auction in Germany – have changed her life, she says. They've given her the time and space to get better at writing, although she says she has not yet touched any of the money. 'I don't think I've ever had a phone call where there was a 'you-should-sit-down' moment. Even the first payments are more money than I've ever seen in one place, ever.' She is planning on working as an attorney with an interest in the interface between AI and media and arts. 'I recognise we must make space for AI's vast potential but, as a firm believer in the power and importance of good storytelling, I am concerned that existing legal frameworks provide inadequate protection for writers and the publishing ecosystem.' She has no plans to stop writing – a double concentrator in life too, it seems. In fact she has already finished a draft of her second novel, which will centre around a similar subculture of very powerful young male tech founders and a young woman's relationship with an older, more professionally powerful man. But she is very excited to be going to Stanford – to study law, and for the weather too, which is balmier than the northerly climes she is used to, but also for another reason … 'I've started drafting my third novel…" she says. 'And it's going to be set in Silicon Valley.' Notes on Infinity by Austin Taylor is published by Michael Joseph.
Yahoo
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Arthur Joseph Ahr Albuquerque native, Arthur Joseph Ahr, age
Jul. 12—Arthur Joseph Ahr Albuquerque native, Arthur Joseph Ahr, age 93, our loving father and family rock passed away peacefully at home on Monday, July 7, 2025. Arthur was known for his intellect, polite manner, generosity, and willingness to help others with tax and legal matters. After graduating from St. Mary's High School in Albuquerque, he served in the U.S. Air Force and then earned his business degree from UNM. Arthur then spent most of his career as a computer programmer in various departments at Sandia National Labs (SNL). While at SNL, Arthur also earned a MBA degree from NM Highlands University. After he retired from SNL at age 59, Arthur achieved his life-long dream of earning his Law degree from UNM. He introduced his children to hiking and camping during their early years as a cub scout den leader and taking his children and their friends on backpacking trips in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Later in Arthur's life, at age 75, he achieved another of his life-long goals, that of reaching the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Whenever possible, Arthur also loved visiting the family cabin located near Taos, NM. Arthur was the second of three boys born to Amos Ahr and Elizabeth Ann Simon Ahr. His siblings were Theodore (Ted) Paul Ahr (eldest) and Edward August Ahr (youngest). As young boys, during the Depression, the three brothers would come up with ingenious ways to make money. Arthur and his brothers would sell cards, magazines, and glued alphabet pasta letters onto wood depicting pleasant sayings or quotes and sold these things to people in downtown Albuquerque. He was a creative and industrious individual. He consistently offered his support and assistance to his family and friends. Arthur loved reading novels, working in his yard, and he loved animals, especially cats, and always had a pet by his side. He had an adventurous spirit and explored numerous countries across six continents alongside his wife, Patricia. Arthur is survived by his wife of 44 years, Patricia J. Ahr; his children, Cynthia Greenberg (Jack), Andrew Ahr, John Joseph Ahr; and his grandchildren, Joseph Greenberg (Lesley) and Jacob Greenberg (Cash), and great-grandchildren. He is also survived by his step-children, Michele Apodaca, Marty Apodaca, and Lisa Apodaca. On Wednesday, July 16, 2025, a rosary prayer at 9:30 AM will precede the funeral mass at 10 AM at the Risen Savior Catholic Church located at 7701 Wyoming Blvd NE. Internment at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery will follow the funeral mass.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Opinion: A smarter, fairer way to fund Medicaid for people like me
In 2004, I broke my neck and became a quadriplegic. I was 24 years old and completely paralyzed below my shoulders. Without Medicaid, I wouldn't have survived those early years — let alone gone on to earn a law degree. But I also wouldn't have stayed poor as long as I did. That's the problem with how Medicaid currently works for people with disabilities. To keep Medicaid, you often have to stay below poverty-level income and asset thresholds. Want to work? You risk losing your coverage. Want to save for a car? Not so fast. We need a Medicaid model that guarantees coverage for vulnerable populations and recognizes both the dignity of independence and the value of work. Here's my proposal: shift the primary responsibility for funding Medicaid to the states, while the federal government reimburses the states for Medicaid spending on: • Children in low-income families • Low-income elderly adults • People with disabilities ages 16-64 who are either progressing students (full reimbursement) or working (reimbursement up to the amount of their taxable income) The states would be required to provide Medicaid coverage for all people with disabilities regardless of income, assets, and work or student status, but both the states and federal government could require people with significant income to obtain private supplemental insurance — relieving states of some Medicaid costs. This plan does three essential things. First, it aligns financial incentives. Under current rules, the states have little reason to invest in helping disabled adults live meaningful lives, including pursuing education or working. Under this model, the more someone earns or pursues valuable education, the more their state receives in federal reimbursements. Helping disabled adults enter and remain in the workforce becomes not just morally right but also financially sound. Second, this plan unleashes human potential. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 2024 labor force participation rate for people with disabilities ages 16-64 was a tragically low 40%, compared to 78% for those without disabilities. The unemployment rate among people with disabilities was 8%, more than double the less than 4% rate of those without disabilities. These disparities aren't simply the result of individual limitations — they reflect a system that undermines work for people with disabilities, trapping them in poverty and limiting their potential. My plan removes that disincentive. Third, this plan brings fiscal discipline to Medicaid. In 2024, total Medicaid spending was over $900 billion, with about two-thirds covered by the federal government and one-third by the states, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. We can target those funds better. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation's 2021 data, adults with disabilities ages 18-64 account for about one-third of Medicaid spending. My proposal would incentivize states to use Medicaid to help people with disabilities to pursue education, employment and independence, while encouraging state-led innovation to deliver those services more efficiently. States are better equipped to tailor care programs. They are 'laboratories of democracy.' With clearer authority and direct financial incentives rewarding their success, states will be free to pursue innovative care models: consumer-directed services, telehealth, supported employment or customized in-home care, whatever works best for the people of their state. Critically, this approach also elevates education as a path out of dependency. If a student with disabilities is making 'substantial academic progress' — a term that could be precisely defined in federal regulation — their state would qualify for full reimbursement of their Medicaid costs. This rewards long-term investment in human potential and acknowledges the added effort it takes to pursue education while managing a serious disability. For someone like me, this is more than policy — it's personal. Medicaid made my education possible. But the rules also penalized me for every financial step forward. That's not just inefficient — it's inhumane. We can do better. We can fund Medicaid in a way that values work, education and independence — while targeting federal dollars more precisely and empowering states to find better ways of delivering care. Let's stop trapping people with disabilities in poverty and start treating them as full participants in our economy. Let's build a Medicaid system that sees us not as burdens, but as investments.
