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This Cemetery Worker Stole Gravestones for a Reason You Won’t Believe

We know a few things about the types of flooring surfaces that today’s homeowners prefer.

About 34% of homeowners in a recent Houzz survey reported having or planning to have hardwood flooring somewhere in their home; carpeting and linoleum are other popular flooring options. It’s pretty safe to say that none of these homeowners have ever considered stealing veterans’ gravestones to use them as a flooring surface.

Yet one Rhode Island cemetery worker recently did just that, using veterans’ headstones he’d snatched from his workplace as a flooring surface in a shed and two garages.

According to a July 2 CBS News report, Kevin Maynard, 59, recently agreed to plead guilty to stealing at least 150 granite grave markers from Rhode Island Veterans’ Cemetery, along with other cemetery property.

Investigators from the Veterans Administration and the Rhode Island State Police found Maynard’s morbid garage flooring during an April 23 investigation of Maynard’s Charleston home. The damaged gravestones were intended to be destroyed and replaced in an effort to preserve the dignity of the veterans whose graves they marked.

Jason T. Kravetz, a special agent from the Veterans Administration “observed automotive fluids and debris scattered over the gravestones,” he wrote in a federal affidavit.

Maynard will appear in federal court July 13, where he is expected to be sentenced to serve one year of probation and 500 hours of community service in exchange for his guilty plea.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs provides the headstones that mark the graves of veterans in the cemetery free of charge to the veterans’ families.

“That is a stone that someone prayed over or thought about a loved one over,” U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha said of Maynard’s morbid crime. “And to park your car on that — what could be more disrespectful or outrageous or unthinking?”

Louisiana State University Unveils New Homepage

Louisiana State University (LSU) unveiled its new LSU.edu website on Monday that accomodates mobile, tablet, and desktop devices.

The Daily Reveille reports that making the site accessible for mobile and tablet devices was the main reason for the update. It has been four years since the website underwent major changes.

“The previous version of the website wasn’t responsive to multiple devices, so with more people accessing the web with mobile devices, it was important to have a site that was dynamic and provided a custom experience,” said Ernie Ballard, LSU’s Director of Media Relations.

In order to make the website mobile-friendly, the university used Bootstrap, a framework that develops mobile versions of websites.

The new website is grid-based, meaning that it will automatically adjust its size to the device it’s accessed on. Integrated video content and social media features have been included to meet up with the latest trends. The website’s new design primarily focuses on prospective students.

The website was developed by the LSU Office of Communications and University Relations as well as by Information Technology Services. In development since 2013, the homepage started off with several proposed designs and group studies. It also used a different content management system, switching to the vendor Rhythmyx from its previous one, OmniUpdate.

“It’s just a way that a web user, so any department or the main university, that is updating the website,” Ballard said.

The LSU.edu domain contains approximately 109,000 webpages and 425 subsites. Although the site is up and running, Vice President for Strategic Communications Linda Bonnin said that it will take at least another year until all the pages from the old system are transferred to the new.

University officials hope that the new webpage will be faster in loading, particularly since 40% of Internet users will abandon a page if it take more than three seconds to load.

The End of the High School Summer Job?

In sharp contrast to past generations, few teens are now spending their summer vacations working paid jobs.

A study released June 23 by the Pew Research Center found that teen summer employment dropped to just 31.6% last summer. For younger teens, aged 16 and 17, summer employment was only 20% — less than half what it was as recently as 2000. Older teens, aged 18 and 19, fared better at 43.6%. But that’s still almost 20 percentage points below the 62.6% average of 2000.

It’s not surprising that teen employment figures have fallen during the most recent recessions, since overall employment has too. But what is surprising is that the teen job market failed to rebound after both the 1990-91 and 2007-09 recessions. Between 1948 (which is as far back as the data goes) and 1990, teen employment rose in healthy economies and fell as the economy contracted. But the most recent figures represent only a small gain compared to the lowest post-recession point of 29.6%, reached in 2010-11.

Employment isn’t equal across racial and social groups, either. White teens are far more likely to land summer jobs than their black, Hispanic or Asian peers; a rough estimate of last summer’s employment demographics indicate that about 84.2% of teen job holders were white.

Challenges for Job-Seeking Teens
Why is it that fewer teens are finding jobs? While the Pew Study didn’t attempt to give a definitive answer, it did float a few suggestions.

One is simply that fewer low-skill, entry-level jobs are now available to teens. Underemployment (referring to the phenomenon of workers taking jobs they are overqualified for) is rampant, with even many college graduates taking entry-level positions before moving on to more permanent careers. Recent figures show that by age 35, a full 25% of workers have had five or more jobs.

Longer school years, with high schools often starting up prior to Labor Day, may also make it difficult for teens to find jobs over summer vacation.

And finally, it appears that increasing numbers of teens are taking unpaid internships either to fulfill graduation requirements or round out their college graduations, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not account for such unpaid work in its employment data.

Father Sends Lookalike to Paternity Test to Avoid Paying Child Support

Thomas Kenny, a 25-year-old from Birmingham, England, not only cheated on his long-term partner — but also accidentally impregnated his mistress. He did everything he could to avoid taking responsibility and paying child support, going so far as to pressure his mistress into getting an abortion, which she decided not to do.

When the local Child Support Agency finally ordered him to take a DNA test to prove he had to pay up, Kenny hatched a scheme so absurd that it could have appeared on a late night sitcom.

He sent a lookalike to take his paternity test for him.

“You wished her to have an abortion which she declined and then in December 2012, when you knew you were the father of her forthcoming child, you decided to deny paternity. As a result of that she and the child were forced to undergo DNA testing. On 24 June 2013 you were required to provide a DNA sample to a doctor,” said Judge Philip Parker QC, according to the Birmingham Mail. “One way or another you sent someone in your place. The effect of what you did was to seek to avoid payments to the child that was genuinely yours. You are plainly the author of your own misfortunes.”

As most boneheaded schemers are, Kenny was eventually caught. The truth came out after Kenny’s girlfriend, who was the mother of his first two children, was also subjected to a DNA test.

Though zany the scheme may be, it is not totally unbelievable that someone who already supported two children with limited income would do whatever he thought possible to avoid paying child support. It is expensive, after all. In the United States, 18% of a father’s gross monthly income is allocated for child support collection if there is one child, generally speaking. The average amount of child support due in 2011 was $6,050 per year (or about $500 per month), which can be a serious amount of money, depending on one’s financial circumstances. This, however, does not excuse his actions, of course.

“He is obviously a young man who has made a big mistake,” his lawyer, Heidi Kubik, said. “He is a man who has been under enormous pressure and stress and has spent a number of months contemplating the prospect of going to custody.”

Kenny was sentenced to six months, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to pay £885 in compensation and £500 costs.

“I know you are said to be the loving father of two children by your long standing relationship but this case shows you were prepared to disown a child of your own for financial gain,” said Judge Parker. “Morally you can not sink lower than that.”

Cyberbullying Linked to Depression, New Study Finds

Depression is a bigger problem for the Latino community than many might think, and according to a new study, the Internet is making things worse for teens.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Latinos are a high-risk group for depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. NAMI reports that women and Latinos are more likely to experience a major depressive episode, while the Common Wealth Fund Survey also found that Latino girls exhibited more depressive symptoms than African American or white girls.

While there are many problems that can trigger depression, a new review published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics found that cyberbullying on social media is strongly linked to depression amongst teenagers. Michele Hamm, a researcher in pediatrics at the University of Alberta, and her team reviewed studies on cyberbullying and social media. Although each study looked at different health outcomes, and sometimes defined cyberbullying differently, there was one finding that stood out.

“There were consistent associations between exposure to cyberbullying and increased likelihood of depression,” Hamm told Live Science.

Of the 36 studies reviewed, 10 examined the link between social media victimization and depression. Each found a connection.

However, these studies didn’t prove that the bullying actually causes the depression, as it’s possible that depressed teens are just easier targets for bullies, but one study in particular found that cyberbullying preceded teens’ depression, suggesting a causal relationship. Most troubling of all, the researchers found that the more cyber bullies harassed a teen, the more severe his or her symptoms of depression.

Combating cyberbullying isn’t easy, either. More often than not, people don’t speak up. Over 80% of depressed individuals don’t seek out professional help. At the same time, 95% of teenage, social media users who’ve witnessed cruel behavior online say they’ve seen others ignoring the problem — more than half (55%) of whom say they see this frequently. Worse, 66% of teens who’ve witnessed cyber bullying say they’ve seen others join in, and 21% say they even contributed to the problem. In other words, both victims, and bystanders don’t take any form of action when the problem arises.

“Kids really are hesitant to tell anyone when cyberbullying occurs,” said Hamm. “There seems to be a common fear that if they tell their parents, for example, they’ll lose their Internet access.”

For this reason, it’s crucial that parents respond carefully if their teens are being cyberbullied.

“Parents need to address that this is happening and that the Internet and social media is here,” said Hamm. “It’s an important part of their kids’ lives. But it needs to be a whole team approach.”

How Birth Control Could Soon Be Over-the-Counter in Oregon

On Wednesday, June 24, bipartisan legislation that would allow birth control pills and hormonal patches to be sold over the counter via on-demand pharmacy prescriptions cleared the Oregon Senate, with the bill just shy of heading to Gov. Kate Brown’s desk to be signed into law.

According to OregonLive.com, House Bill 2879 passed the Senate with a 24-4 vote. As the Senate’s rules committee amended its age requirements, the bill will now head back to the House for a final vote before reaching the governor’s desk.

Under House Bill 2879, teens and women would be able to get birth control directly from a pharmacist without a doctor’s prescription. Rep. Knute Buehler, R-Bend, proposed the bill in order to make it as easy for women to obtain preventive contraception as it is to obtain emergency contraception.

“I noticed the inconsistency of the fact that pharmacists can dispense emergency contraception, but they can’t dispense preventive contraception,” Buehler said in an interview. “It just seemed like something that was just not very rational.”

In the bill’s original draft, girls younger than 18 would have been required to have at least one prior prescription from a doctor before getting a birth control prescription from a pharmacist. The Senate revised the bill so this provision will expire after four years in order to collect more data that shows birth control is safe for women of all ages.

Nearly every American woman of reproductive age has used birth control, the Guttmacher Institute reports, with 99% of sexually active women aged 15 through 44 having used at least one method of birth control. Currently, 16% of women in this age group use the birth control pill and 0.4% use a hormonal patch to prevent unwanted pregnancy. In 2010, doctors and pharmacies ordered or provided an incredible 2.6 billion prescriptions total to patients across the country for their myriad health conditions.

The revised bill is expected to pass the House and earn Brown’s signature without incident. The law will effectively give Oregonians the best access to birth control in the country, reported the Bend Bulletin.

This Fawn Fell Down a Storm Sewer — What Happened Next Will Amaze You

When one thinks of the type of wildlife inhabiting sewers, animals like rats, snakes, opossums and raccoons often come to mind. Baby deer, or fawns, in contrast, typically aren’t found lurking in these underground pipes.

In the town of Wentzville, MO, however, a fawn is running free once again after being rescued from a storm sewer by a few brave firefighters.

According to a KMCB article, residents of the eastern Missouri town reported hearing a high-pitched wail at about 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 17, and contacted the fire department.

Soon after, firefighters from the Wentzville Fire Protection District arrived at the Stone Meadow Subdivision off Highway Z, where they found the fawn trapped in the storm sewer on Jonathan Cody Drive.

After about 20 minutes, firefighters successfully freed the baby deer, who didn’t appear to be injured by its ordeal, said John Schneider, assistant chief for the Wentzville Fire Protection District. Firefighters gently brought the fawn up using a rope and their bare hands.

It’s unclear how the fawn had fallen 12 to 24 inches into the bottom of the storm sewer, Schneider said. It’s likely that the fawn could simply have fallen in accidentally, or that the area’s recent rainfall swept the animal into the hole.

Upon being freed from the storm sewer, the baby deer left the area on its own. Schneider added that the mother deer had been spotted near the area where her fawn had gotten trapped, and authorities hope the two are reunited soon.

“We are hoping they’ve been reunited,” he said.

3D Printed Homes: Why We’re Only Seeing the Beginning of What’s Possible

Across the world, 3D printing technology has slowly made its way into new housing constructions. There’s a 3D-printed home located in Amsterdam; in the Chinese city of Suzhou, plans are underway to construct a development of 3D-printed mansions.

And now, this technology has finally reached the U.S. housing market in the form of a sprawling luxury estate, constructed entirely through 3D printing.

According to CNN, the 3D-printed Upstate New York estate will consist of a 2,400 square foot mansion, as well as a swimming pool, jacuzzi and car port. New York City architect Adam Kushner, in collaboration with 3D-printing pioneer Enrico Dini and his D-Shape firm, plan to begin excavation and construction soon.

While the swimming pool and jacuzzi are set for completion by the end of this year, 3D printing of the house itself will continue through the end of 2017.

Kushner stressed that the entire project’s realization depends on whether or not he and Dini can acquire a 3D printer large enough to take on such a massive project. Currently, the only printer that can handle this workload is located in Italy, where it was designed and built for Italian military use. Kushner and Dini will require military clearance before it can be shipped to the U.S.

“If I had another printer I’d send it there tomorrow, but unfortunately we don’t have and must wait,” Dini told CNN.

But once construction does start, the results will be incredible to witness. D-Shape uses a distinctive printing process that involves collecting sand, dust and gravel on site and mixing these materials with a magnesium-based binding agent. The resulting building blocks closely resemble marble and allow D-Shape to create unique sculptural forms that other printing systems cannot, CNN reports.

In March 2015, the U.S. housing marketing saw 618,000 new single-family homes begin construction. Who knows how many of these homes will be built using 3D printing technologies someday? According to Kushner, the 3D-printed housing industry is only getting started.

“Why? Because it democratizes construction and architecture and puts it into everyone’s hands, just like the camera phone made everyone a photographer,” he said. “Not everyone is good at it, but everyone can become one.”

Lack of Sleep Can Kill You- New Sleep Recommendations for Adults

New studies on sleep come out practically every day with different recommendations for all kinds of demographics, and now there is another to add to the list. A panel from the University of Washington says that for optimal health, adults need to sleep for seven hours every night.

However, researchers say that this figure isn’t counting functioning effectively for day-to-day activity. If you habitually slam back a couple cups of coffee in the morning before you can get going, you may need even more sleep — seven hours is just the bare minimum.

The study looked at over 5,300 articles concerning links between sleep and health for people aged 18 to 60. For young adults, those recovering from a sleep deficit, or those who are sick, the number jumps up to nine hours a night. If you’re healthy, however, that may be too much. In other words, it’s all a balancing act.

Looking at current estimates from other studies, most adults sleep six hours or less each night, making this study an important but difficult message to get out. In a world where being busy means that you’re successful and driven, this may be a message some take lightly.

Not only does sleep improve your effectiveness throughout the day, but it also cuts down on health risks. Those who sleep less than the recommended amount per night can fall victim to a host of other issues, including weight gain, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and even higher risk of death. You may also get sick easier and more often due to a lower-functioning immune system. Your body needs sleep to be able to run all necessary functions.

Those who still do not believe that enough sleep is necessary can refer to another study done by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, which outlines other risks, such as heart attacks and strokes. As it is, over 42 million Americans say they are disrupted during sleep due to pain or discomfort a few times each week or more. Both of these studies concluded that a lack of sleep makes those aches and pains worse, in addition to lowering your threshold for pain.

The bottom line here is: to stay healthy, you need to strike a balance with your sleep. Sleep enough, but not too much, and remember that there is no substitute for a good night’s rest.

DOJ Charges 243 Medical Personnel with $712 Million in Medicare Fraud

The federal government has charged 243 people in what may be the largest case medical billing fraud in U.S. history, officials announced on June 18.

The 243 doctors, nurses and other medical professionals charged had participated in “Medicare fraud schemes involving approximately $712 million in false billings,” according to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

A nationwide investigation by the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services’ Medicare Fraud Strike Force in 17 districts revealed the fraudulent billing, which is the largest the task force has seen in terms of number of people charged and the amount lost.

“This action represents the largest criminal health care fraud takedown in the history of the Department of Justice and it adds to an already remarkable record of enforcement,” Lynch told reporters in a statement.

Several healthcare providers were also suspended by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services after the sweep. Although some healthcare providers outsource billing, which can speed up accounts receivable by one to three days, it was the doctors and other medical personnel who were held accountable.

Of the arrests made, 73 were from South Florida, including the Miami area. In total, the tried to take more than $262,567,878 from Medicare and Medicaid funds.

Lynch said that the defendants include “doctors, patient recruiters, home healthcare providers, pharmacy owners and others.”

Many of the healthcare providers took advantage of Medicare Part D. The program is supposed to allow the elderly and disabled to get prescription drugs through pharmacies who are later reimbursed by private insurers through Medicare.

But several pharmacies were caught submitting false prescriptions, which potentially costs the United States billions of dollars each year.

Since the strike force was initiated, the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services have charged more than 2,300 defendants guilty of billing Medicare in excess of $7 billion.

The Justice Department has also relied on the federal False Claims Act in order to recoup more than $15.2 billion in Medicare losses since 2009.