Black man shot at least 60 times by Ohio police as he ran away: lawyer

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

A Black man in Akron, Ohio, was killed on Monday when police shot him at least 60 times as he was running away following a traffic stop, according to his family’s lawyer, who cited police body-camera video that he viewed.

Akron Police Department officers attempted to stop 25-year-old Jayland Walker at 12:30 am for a traffic violation and conducted a pursuit after he refused to stop, the police department said in a Tuesday statement on its Facebook page. After a few minutes, Walker slowed down and left his car while it was still in motion and ran away from police, according to the statement.

The statement says Walker ran into a parking lot, and “actions by the suspect caused the officers to perceive he posed a deadly threat to them.” Officers shot him and called for medical services, but Walker was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the statement.

Bobby DiCello, the attorney for Walker’s family, told the Akron Beacon Journal in an interview published Friday evening that Walker does not appear to have gestured toward the officers in a threatening way, based on the body-cam video he viewed. He said officers appear to have fired dozens of shots at Walker while he was fleeing with nothing in his hands.

The police department said in its statement that the officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave in accordance with departmental procedure. It did not name them.

DiCello did not immediately return a request from The Hill for comment.

DiCello said the video shows an officer calmly telling dispatchers about chasing Walker at 12:30 am after police attempted to stop him.

The police department’s statement says that officers reported a firearm being discharged from Walker’s car while they pursued it. But DiCello questioned that, telling the Journal that

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Ethics Consult: Cut Health Insurance for Risky Activities? MD/JD Weights In

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

Welcome to Ethics Consult — an opportunity to discuss, debate (respectfully), and learn together. We select an ethical dilemma from a true, but anonymized, patient care case, and then we provide an expert’s commentary.

Last week, you voted on whether it’s ethical for the government to cut health insurance for risky activities.

Cut health insurance for risky activities?

Yes: 63%

No: 37%

And now, bioethicist Jacob M. Appel, MD, JD, weighs in.

Life insurers generally charge a premium for high-risk behaviors. According to a 2013 article in US News & World Report, hunters pay an additional $500 annual premium, and rock climbers pay $1,500 extra; scuba diving and skydiving can add $2,500 to one’s rates. Health insurers do not always dig as deeply into the personal behavior of policyholders, but some refuse to cover individuals engaged in dangerous activities. In 2006, one major Illinois corporation reportedly sent letters to its employees informing them that any motorcycle-related injuries would result in immediate termination of their health insurance. In contrast, Medicare and Medicaid usually cover all injuries of their clients, regardless of the origins of those injuries.

The primary reason that public health-insurance entities do not exclude these risk-takers is that health insurance no longer functions as insurance — at least, not in the traditional sense. As political historian Edward N. Beiser observed in the article “The Emperor’s New Scrubs” (1994), “health insurance” is a misnomer. The underlying principle behind traditional insurance is the distribution or “pooling” of risk. Although the odds of my house burning down are quite low, the odds of somebody’s home catching fire are reasonably high, and fire insurance evenly distributes the cost of this burden. Everyone pays in; a few unfortunate victims receive compensation. In contrast, the vast majority of Americans will eventually experience

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Sa’ar denies Likud talks, but says vote to renew civil law for settlers must pass

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Wednesday dismissed “fake news” reports that his New Hope party is in talks with the opposition Likud to form an alternative coalition within the current Knesset.

“There were no negotiations, there are no negotiations and if I was thinking of changing my position, which I am not, then I would openly go before the public and explain why I changed my mind,” said Sa’ar, a longtime Likud -MK who left the party and started his own faction over his opposition to the continued leadership of chairman Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sa’ar made the assertion in an interview with Channel 12, but he pushed the same message in interviews with the other major news broadcasters — the Kan public broadcaster and Channe 13 — and all three aired during primetime.

The media blitz came hours after the Ynet news site reported that Sa’ar was in contact with an associate of Netanyahu, Yaakov Atrakchi. The report said that amid the talks, Likud has ordered a reduction in public attacks on Sa’ar.

Unnamed sources, who were said to have knowledge of the matter, said Sa’ar would be offered a senior portfolio in a potential Netanyahu-led government, such as the Foreign Ministry.

Reminded that before previous elections he said he wouldn’t join a government with Netanyahu, and asked to explicitly repeat that pledge, Sa’ar told Channel 12, “my stance hasn’t changed.”

Benjamin Netanyahu and Gideon Sa’ar at a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset, on November 21, 2005. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

He refused three times to explicitly repeat that he wouldn’t sit with Netanyahu but then criticized the opposition leader for refusing to support legislation extending Israeli civil

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Legal services, rezoning for housing on Tuesday’s City Council agenda | Latest Headlines

Posted on by Judith E. Ashton

The North Platte City Council Tuesday will consider changing law firms and take a final vote on rezoning the site of a 51-lot “shovel-ready” housing project it approved a month ago.

Ratification of a new two-year contract with the city’s firefighters union will also be considered at the meeting. It starts at 5:30 pm in the City Hall council chamber, 211 W. Third St.

City officials put out “requests for proposals” for providing legal services in November, Interim City Administrator Layne Groseth said in a council memorandum. North Platte’s Waite & McWha firm has been the city’s legal counsel since January 2020, when longtime full-time City Attorney Doug Stack retired.

A “tabulation sheet” of four applications attached to Groseth’s memo ranked the Brouillette, Dugan & Troshynski firm first. Waite & McWha came in second, followed by former private-practice lawyer Patrick Heng — since appointed a district judge — and the firm of Kelley, Scritsmeier & Byrne.

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Council members will be asked to authorize Mayor Brandon Kelliher to negotiate “for a City Attorney agreement with the agreed-upon firm,” according to Groseth’s memo.

The council advanced a zoning ordinance both June 7 and June 21 for the North Platte Area Chamber & Development Corp.’s planned housing subdivision.

The city would sell the chamber the northern 13.5 acres of some 23 acres it owns at North 17th Street and Adams Avenue, between the North Platte Cemetery and Educational Service Unit 16.

The chamber plans to install streets and utilities, then sell individual lots to developers to install modular homes or build other types of permanent housing. Council members voted 6-2 June 7 to approve $1.87 million in tax increment financing to help offset those infrastructure costs.

If they favor the zoning ordinance once more Tuesday, the housing site’s zoning

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