Clear It with Sidney | Hillman Foundation

Clear It With Sidney

The best of the week’s news by Lindsay Beyerstein

Clear It with Sidney

#Sidney's Picks: Twilight of the Vulture Funds?, IRE Awards, and More

  • Hobby Lobby claims to have a sincere religious belief that IUDs and emergency contraception are wrong, but the company’s retirement plan invests in the makers of those products.
  • 13 people die because of faulty G.M. parts, and G.M. gives the cold shoulder to their families.

 

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

Judge Dismisses Murder Charge in Stillbirth Case

A judge dismissed a “depraved heart” murder charge against a Mississippi woman who delivered a stillborn baby and positive for a metabolite of cocaine. Rennie Gibbs was 16 years old when she delivered her stillborn child in 2006. There was never any evidence that drugs caused the demise of the fetus, which was born with the cord wrapped around its neck. 

The judge dismissed the case on a legal technicality:

[Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Jim] Kitchens dismissed the charge against Gibbs Wednesday. Citing Mississippi Supreme Court case Buckhalter v. State, he said the law was unclear on the appropriate charge for Gibbs.

“Gibbs was indicted prior to Buckhalter and the law was unclear in Mississippi as to the appropriate charge, if any, to be levied when a pregnant woman allegedly consumed illegal drugs and allegedly caused the death of her unborn child,” Kitchens ruling stated.

He added, “Accordingly, pursuant to the Mississippi Supreme Court’s ruling this case for depraved heart murder is dismissed without prejudice.” [CD]

Nina Martin of ProPublica and the other reporters who kept this case in the spotlight probably had a lot to do with justice finally being served, at least for the time being. 

The prosecutor has pledged to send the case back to a grand jury in August. 

Hobby Lobby Invested in the Manufacturers of Contraceptives it Claims to Oppose

A great scoop from Molly Reden of Mother Jones:

When Obamacare compelled businesses to include emergency contraception in employee health care plans, Hobby Lobby, a national chain of craft stores, fought the law all the way to the Supreme Court. The Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate, the company’s owners argued, forced them to violate their religious beliefs. But while it was suing the government, Hobby Lobby spent millions of dollars on an employee retirement plan that invested in the manufacturers of the same contraceptive products the firm’s owners cite in their lawsuit.

Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012—three months after the company’s owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k).

So much for Hobby Lobby’s sincerely held religious belief that IUDs and emergency contraception are forms of abortion and therefore contrary to its religion. 

 

[Image Credit: “Copper IUD, Mechanisms of Action,” MIT Open Courseware, Creative Commons.]

#Sidney's Picks: Sports, violence, hunger & Hobby Lobby

  • Hobby Lobby claims it just wants to be left to discriminate against its women, but a new expose shows one of the chain’s owners is spending big to spread his religious agenda nationwide.

 

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

Northwestern Football Players One Step Closer to a Union

A ruling by the director of the NLRB’s Chicago office puts the football team at Northwestern one step closer to unionization, Dave Jamieson reports. The regional director of the Chicago office ruled that the players are employees and are therefore eligible to vote on whether to have a union. 

 

 

[Photo Credit: Pennstatenews, Creative Commons.]

Video: 103rd Commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire

As part of the 103rd Commemoration of the Triangle Factory Fire in Manhattan, yesterday, a fire truck demonstrated how a ladder couldn’t reach the upper floors of the burning factory, forcing workers to jump to their deaths. One hundred and forty-six workers died that day. The outrage over the Triangle Fire helped usher in a new era of workers’ rights and occupational health and safety.

Video by Alexandra Lescaze.  

Events Today in NYC: Triangle Fire Commemoration & Panel Discussion

Today: Tuesday, March 25, Noon-1pm. 

Ceremony to mark the 103rd Anniversary of the Triangle Fire 

Washington Place & Greene St. in Manhattan (the site of the Triangle Fire)

 

This evening: 5:30pm 

Panel Discussion: From Triangle Shirtwaist to Bangladesh: The Garment Industry, Tragedy, and Workplace Safety Reform

Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College

47-49 East 65th Street, New York, NY 10065

Please RSVP to rhrsvp@hunter.cuny.edu. if you’d like to attend!

Monday at 10pm Eastern on PBS: "All of Me"

Tune in tonight at 10pm Eastern to see Hillman Executive Director Alexandra Lescaze’s new documentary, “All of Me,” a revealing look at how weight-loss surgery is changing the lives of women in a fat acceptance group in Austin, Texas. “The Girls,” as they call themselves, have been supporting each other as fat women for decades. One by one, longtime members are peeling off to have surgery, with very mixed results.

The spate of surgeries forces The Girls to reassess their friendships, their priorities, and even their marriages. “All of Me” uses these women’s stories of weight-loss surgery to examine universal themes like friendship, sexuality, and the nature of self-acceptance.

Whether you think weight-loss-surgery is mutilation or liberation, “All of Me” will make you reconsider your position. 

“All of Me” premieres Monday, March 24 at 10pm Eastern on PBS’s Independent Lens, TV’s leading showcase of independent documentary film.

#Sidney's Picks: Life In Prison for a Stillbirth?

The Best of the Week’s News 

  • A teenager is facing life in prison because she tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine after her baby was born dead from an obstetrical complication.

 

[Photo credit: Wander Mule, Creative Commons.]

Utah Hold 'Em: No Limit

Fun fact: Utah has no campaign contribution limits. None. That’s one reason it was so easy for a payday loan tycoon to capture the Attorney General and turn Utah’s top law enforcement officer into a rubber stamp for the usury industry. 

[Photo credit: robad0b, Creative Commons.]

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