samhexum

A NEW TEXAS LAW I AGREE WITH: A new Texas law requires drunken drivers who kill parents or guardians to pay child support to the victims’ children until the youths turn 18 . Bipartisan House Bill 393 went into effect Friday. Children will receive payments until they turn 18 or graduate from high school, whichever comes later. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott June 2. “Any time a parent passes is tragic, but a death at the hands of a drunk driver is especially heinous,” Abbott tweeted on July 25th. The court will determine the monthly payment depending on a number of factors, including the financial needs of the child and the surviving parent or guardian, if there is one, as well as the financial resources of the defendant. The payments are to be paid to a surviving parent or guardian, or the Department of Family and Protective Services, if the child is placed in their care. If the defendant isn’t able to make the necessary payments because of imprisonment, they should begin payments no later than one year after being released. “The defendant must pay all arrearages regardless of whether the restitution payments were scheduled to terminate while the defendant was confined or imprisoned in the correctional facility,” the law states. HB 393 applies to incidents committed on or after it became a law. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/texas-law-drunk-drivers-child-support-rcna103034 As I emphasized above, this was a bipartisan bill, so please don't drag politics into any comment you post. This seems like a common-sense (and just) measure to me, but maybe I'm not seeing some angle. I know it can leave the killer with years of financial obligation after they 'pay their debt to society', but the killers leave the kids with a lifetime of emotional loss. And just like if you can't do the time, don't commit the crime, if you can't pay the price, it's not gonna be nice.

No matter what, always strive to look professional and serious at all times.

Well, the resemblance is uncanny...

When 'Brick and mortar' stores were just stores. https://apple.news/A4gLZVwAuSUmBCaWmS8c4MA Radio Shack went through multiple bankruptcies and, while the brand shuttered thousands of locations, it never fully went away. In the U.S. a few hundred franchisees continued to operate as did franchise owners around the world. The biggest franchise operator of the brand, El Salvador-based Unicomer Group, has now acquired the company. It has big plans to not only revamp its website but also to build back its brick-and-mortar presence in the U.S. Radio Shack's new owner plans to add more merchandise for its current franchisees to be able to stock and it plans an Amazon storefront as well as new physical locations for the once ubiquitous chain. At its peak, Radio Shack was pretty much everywhere, operating 7,000 stores globally with most of those in the U.S. The new owners plan to lean into the offerings that differentiate the brand from Best Buy and chains like Target and Walmart that sell a lot of electronics. "Private label offerings, including drones, headphones, radios, and adapters, were strongly emphasized pre-bankruptcy to offset the margin pressures, a push expected to be continued under the new owners," RetailWire reported. Does the market need Radio Shack? Radio Shack went out of business because Amazon (and to a lesser extent Best Buy) made its selection less unique. As smartphones became common, chargers and accessories basically became commodities, which squeezed margins, and forced Radio Shack into bankruptcy. That competition has only gotten more intense and it does leave questions as to whether there's a need for the chain to grow its brick-and-mortar presence. "A major comeback in the US will be extremely challenging. The electronics market has thin margins, loads of competition, and because the products are very similar from retailer to retailer it can be hard to differentiate," GlobalData retail division Managing Director Neil Saunders commented on Retailwire. "As such, I struggle to see a new pathway to success – especially in the current market where electronics sales remain firmly in the doldrums." Gary Sankary, who has 50 years in the retail business, was less kind in his comments. "I can’t see any scenario where this works in the United States," he wrote. "...The market for private-label electronics is small. The market for electronics components (which I do miss) is even smaller these days, no one fixes anything anymore."

Somebody would probably pay good money to do and/or watch that.

Went to the doctor on Monday. This was (I believe) the third time I got my blood pressure taken by Jeff Stryker's and my long-lost triplet sister. Same exact birthdate. (We chuckle every time.) Sis is black.

Mookie Betts had an August for the ages. The Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar finished the month with an absurd .455 batting average, 11 home runs and 51 hits, leading the franchise to its first 24-win month since moving to the West Coast. Betts’ red-hot month not only inserted him into the National League MVP conversation, it also helped Los Angeles all but put away the NL West. But Thursday night, during a thrilling 8-7 loss to the Braves at Dodger Stadium, Betts elevated his month of August from excellent to historic, going 2-for-4 with two home runs, a walk and three runs scored. The performance helped Betts become just the third player since 1900 — and first in nearly a century — to have a .450+ batting average with 50-plus hits and 10-plus home runs in a single month, joining all-time greats Babe Ruth (July 1923 and 1924) and Lou Gehrig (June 1930), according to ESPN Stats & Info. It was just the 12th time in MLB history that a player hit .450-plus and hit 10-plus home runs in a calendar month (min. 90 PAs) and the first time since Barry Bonds did it in April 2004. And Acuna us right there with Freeman.

Brightline, the nation’s only privately owned train company, will introduce high-speed service from Miami to Orlando in the coming weeks that will cut the commute in half. The Brightline Florida link will reach speeds of more than 125 mph in some areas — the fastest train outside of the Acela-service Northeast corridor stretching from Washington, DC, and Boston. The 170-mile rail link will run 16 daily round trips between downtown Miami and Orlando International Airport beginning later this year. Tickets start at $79 and go up to $149 for first-class seats. Amtrak currently offers two daily train trips between Miami and Orlando — ranging in price between $39 and $49 — that usually takes six hours and 19 minutes. A faster Amtrak Silver Service train can make the trip in just over five hours. Brightline first began operations five years ago, when it launched a 67-mile Miami-to-West Palm Beach route — the first privately funded passenger rail built in the US in more than a century. Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm co-founded by billionaire Milwaukee Bucks owner Wes Edens and Randal Nardone, owns the Brightline service. Edens told The Washington Post that Florida’s intercity expansion will serve as a kind of blueprint for the company’s ambitions to replicate similar rail-building out West. Rail construction for a rapid train route connecting Los Angeles and Las Vegas is scheduled to begin later this year after the federal funding for the $12 billion project, known as Brightline West, was given approval by regulators. The funding was part of the $66 billion allocated for rail in the $1 trillion infrastructure deal signed by Biden in 2021. The all-electric bullet train will ferry passengers along the 218-mile route at a speeds of almost 200 mph — completing the trip from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga in two hours and 10 minutes. The line, which is scheduled to begin service in late 2027 or early 2028, will include stops at Hesperia, Calif., and Victor Valley, Calif. “Florida is Version 1.0, and we think it’s a great 1.0,” Edens told The Washington Post. “Version 2.0, the high-speed rail from Vegas to L.A., we think is the real embodiment of what high-speed rail can and should look like,” Edens said. “And that’s the system that people will look at and emulate when they look at building systems around the country.” Brightline’s Florida service has had its share of hiccups. At least 88 people have died due to collisions with Brightline trains since it started operating in 2017, though none of the deaths were blamed on the company. Investigators said the deaths could be attributed to either suicides or pedestrians and drivers violating traffic laws by circumventing crossing barriers in an attempt to beat the oncoming train rather than wait for it to pass. The trains travel up to 79 mph through densely populated urban and suburban areas along 70 miles of track between Miami and West Palm Beach that it shares with the Florida East Coast freight line. An AP analysis found that Brightline averages about one death for every 35,000 miles its trains travel, three times worse than the next mid-size or major railroad. In response to the accidents, Brightline has installed infrared detectors to warn engineers if anyone is lurking near the tracks so they can slow down or stop. The company also has added more fencing and landscaping to make track access more difficult.

Zac Efron posts pics showing off abs w/ brother Dylan The “High School Musical” star, 35, and his younger brother, 31, flashed big smiles as they showed off their six-packs while vacationing in Idaho.

The cost of Pledge alone would be prohibitive!

I guess that's one of life's great mysteries...

NOT ENOUGH WOOD IN THE DECOR... Step Inside a Vintage Electric Light-Bath Cabinet in a Bronxville Tudor, Yours for $1.995 Million Wrapped in old world style, this Bronxville stone Tudor still has some of the amenities that would have attracted a 1920s house hunter, including a bathroom in the latest Art Deco style complete with a contraption that promised therapeutic benefits. Perhaps modern home buyers aren’t on the lookout for an electric light-bath cabinet, but the house on the market at 9 Rittenhouse Road is also awash in details like half timbering, beamed ceilings, paneling, and mantels. Completed in 1928, it was constructed as part of the Corwood development abutting the Siwanoy Country Club and west of the downtown core of Bronxville. Corwood was a project of the Corlando Corporation, which had S. Wilbur Corman as its president. The project included 24 house sites in a woodland setting, with Bronxville resident Lewis Bowman as the consulting architect and A.F. Brinckerhoff as the landscape architect. A full page ad for the project in 1927 promised it was “a highly restricted development” for families that wished to “develop the right type of home.” Corman was an advertising man who turned to development and moved into the new neighborhood he was promoting. In 1928 he and wife Anna M. Corman moved into the newly completed house at 9 Rittenhouse Road. The Tudor style of their home was a popular choice of the era, with the largest homes earning the nickname Stockbroker Tudor. While the 1920s evoke visions of skyscrapers and streamlined design, it was also a time that saw a bit of Old England translated into a housing style fit for the tycoons of the modern era. With their asymmetrical massing, picturesque half timbering, and peaked roofs, Tudor-style homes began dotting the emerging U.S. suburbs in the late 19th century and continued to be popular until the start of the Depression. Architect Lewis Bowman was proficient in the revival styles that were the rage at the time, including Mediterranean and Dutch Colonial, with a particular emphasis on English-inspired designs like Tudor Revival. While his work pops up in Pelham Manor and Scarsdale, it is Bronxville with which he is most associated and where he headquartered his architectural practice. It is estimated that he designed more than 50 houses in Bronxville alone, and a 1930 monograph credits him with the design of the Corman house. In 1930 the census records the Cormans occupying the house, along with a live-in maid. Local papers reported on the many garden parties, teas, and bridge parties the couple hosted in their spacious abode. S. Wilbur Corman had only a decade of living in the home, passing away in 1938 at age 61. An obituary noted his health had been failing for three years before his death from heart disease. Back in 1915 he had also experienced a health setback, resigning from an advertising position after undergoing what a trade publication called a “severe operation” that necessitated a long break from work. Perhaps Corman’s health issues explain the electric light-bath cabinet still in place in the house. The wooden cabinet is outfitted with a stool, mirrors, and bulbs and set in a niche in the Art Deco bathroom. To partake in the therapy, a person would step inside, close the doors while leaving their head outside the box, and turn on a switch for a dose of heat from the incandescent bulbs. A patent for a radiant-heat bath was issued in 1896 to Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, wellness promoter and head of the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Kellogg, who advocated a number of health cures, believed in the therapeutic benefits of light for a long list of ailments. In his 1910 book “Light Therapeutics” he predicted that in time his invention would become a “necessary part of a complete bathroom outfit in private homes.” The list of ailments he suggested might benefit from the therapy included cardiac disease, diabetes, syphilis, and migraines. Kellogg said short stints of three to six minutes per treatment were typically sufficient, although longer sessions might be needed to address some conditions like rheumatism and gout. A 1925 ad for a Battle Creek electric-light bath. Image via Modern Hospital Curious Brooklynites in December of 1928 could stop by Loeser’s on Fulton Street for a “Battle Creek Health Week” to see a variety of Kellogg inventions on display, including the cabinet. There were also demonstrations led by a “prize winning beauty” on how to “safely reduce weight and build a firm body.” If the quirky cabinet isn’t a draw, the house also has more than 7,000 square feet of living space that includes eight bedrooms and 6.5 baths. Owners over the decades have left much of the original detail intact so it is easy to imagine the Cormans’ guests entering through the atmospheric entry hall with its beamed ceiling, half timbering on the walls, and stone mantel. There is also a paneled parlor and a window-filled dining room. The kitchen has been updated, and while a few style tweaks could bring it more in stylistic sympathy with the rest of the house, it has a dishwasher, an island, and plenty of cabinet space. There is a tantalizing glimpse of a pantry kitted out with a vintage sink, deep red elephant-adorned wallpaper, and shelves for bar necessities. Upstairs, in addition to all the bedroom space is a library with built-in shelves and another mantel. There is also another Art Deco bathroom, this one with violet fixtures and tiles. A shot of a dressing room with built-ins also shows a view of some vintage green floor tiles and violet wall tiles in an en suite bath. There is more entertaining space in a basement room with a beamed ceiling and cabinets on either side of a fireplace. One of those cabinets opens to reveal a vintage bar sink with more shelving space for a liquor stash. The house sits on just under an acre of land and is approached via a gently curved stone driveway. There is a stone patio at the rear of the house and an attached three-car garage. Listed with Susan Kelty Law of Houlihan Lawrence, the house is asking $1.995 million. The listing notes that a decision is expected in September on a tax grievance that was filed for the property. If you want to view an electric light-bath cabinet in splendid surroundings, one can be seen at Coe Hall, the Tudor Revival mansion at Planting Fields in Oyster Bay. The 65-room house, designed by Walker & Gillette, includes the dressing room of W. R. Coe fitted out with a restored cabinet. The house is open for guided and self-guided tours and is also set within an Olmsted Brothers-designed landscape well worth roaming. https://www.brownstoner.com/upstate/bronxville-tudor-house-for-sale-9-rittenhouse-road-electric-light-bath/

Did you know Bob's grandmother was a famous gangster? He called her Ma, though.

Star outfielder becomes MLB's first 30-60 man on his wedding night Congratulations, Mr. Acuna (Jr.), and yet... NL MVP race is shifting now Mookie is having a spectacular year as well, so... AND... who'd a-thunk it when he was chasing .400, but Luis Arraez leads Freddie Freeman by only .011 in the batting race with a month to go, so the chase is on...

NASA's lunar orbiter locates Russian spacecraft crash site NASA's lunar orbiter has photographed what's believed to be the crash site of Russia's failed Luna-25 mission

Agnetha Fältskog has relaunched her solo career with a new single. Speaking with BBC Radio 2 host Zoe Ball before the track was played on Thursday, Fältskog said the single was made with “a good feeling.” The single is from a reimagined version of her 2013 album “A.” Talking about how the idea to launch the new album “A+” came about, Fältskog said: “It came as an idea suddenly.” Fältskog, 73, said she talked with songwriter and producer Jörgen Elofsson, who also appeared on the BBC Radio 2 show, adding they wanted to make the 2013 album sound “totally new.” The “Where Do We Go From Here?” single is a new addition to the album. “I love music. Music is in my heart and in my brain all the time. I live and I sleep with music,” Fältskog said. Asked how it felt to hear the single on the radio, Fältskog said: “It feels good. You never get tired of it, to hear yourself on the radio. That’s really something. It’s always a tense feeling, you can say, about what are people going to think about this. But as long as you have your heart in it and you have done the best you can, because I’m not so young anymore and I’m very grateful that I still have my voice and a good composer beside me (Elofsson).” Next year will mark 50 years since ABBA won the Eurovision song contest, and the upcoming edition will be held in the band’s home country Sweden. Ball asked Fältskog whether the group were planning to do anything to mark the occasion, to which she responded: “You never know anything about ABBA … I don’t say anything about that.”

Dear Abby: I had my daughter later in life. I was almost 41. I am no beauty queen, but now, 12 years later, I have been asked by two different people if I am my daughter’s grandmother. It was so upsetting, I cried for weeks. I have always been self-conscious about my looks. My daughter is now going to be a teenager. I don’t want her future high school friends thinking I am her grandma, so I’ve been contemplating plastic surgery. My family insists I don’t need it. They’re calling me vain, foolish, selfish, etc. My husband is discouraging me because of the cost. (He’s pretty frugal.) Would it be selfish if it will make me feel better about myself? In the meantime, how do I handle any more “grandma” comments without punching someone in the nose? — Not That Old in Florida Dear Not That Old OLD BIDDY: In case you haven’t noticed, an increasing number of women are having children in their 40s (and a few even older). If you are contemplating cosmetic surgery only because you have a young child, a cheaper and more effective way to deal with it would be to simply tell the truth, which is that she’s your daughter. While cosmetic surgery can make someone more confident about their looks, it is not the case for everyone. Your family should not be ridiculing you for wanting to explore the option. A licensed mental health professional can help you decide whether you need a surgical procedure or an attitude adjustment. If it’s the former, schedule an appointment with a qualified surgeon to discuss your options. Blanche : You know, Sophia… This birthday thing kinda has me depressed as well. You think you could help me, too? Sophia Petrillo : Sure. No matter how bad things get, remember these sage words: you’re old, you sag, get over it! Blanche : [angrily] Sophia? Sophia Petrillo : So what if you knew Jesus personally? Wake up and smell the coffee, ya fossil! Blanche : My mistake; I thought since you look like Yoda, you were also wise. [walks off]

Why seniors should be having more sex — even at 90, scientists say raise the social security benefit so they can afford to hire (or, you know, pay their bills)

@ICTJOCK said: A beagle lover here. "Scout-Scout" gives good wishes. BELLAIRE, Mich. − He’d had enough of being at the animal shelter, so Scout the dog climbed over one tall fence and then another, crossed a busy highway in the darkness, entered the automatic doors of a nursing home down the road, walked unnoticed into the lobby, hopped onto a couch, curled into a ball and quietly went to sleep for the night. An astonished nurse there found him the next morning. She called Antrim County Animal Control, whose shelter happens to be just down the road. And they discovered that he'd escaped from there the night before. Scout was a stray mutt. He had no identity, no history. The shelter staff gave him his new name, but otherwise they knew nothing about him, though they noticed he had the distinct demeanor of an abused dog. Somebody apparently once shot him too, with BBs or birdshot, because his jowl still had some kind of round pellets embedded in it. You couldn’t see them, but you could feel them if he let you touch him. The sheriff came and took him back to the shelter. Scout the dog sits on the couch in the lobby of Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility on Thursday, July 13, 2023. It's the spot where staff found him after he escaped from a nearby animal shelter. But a few nights later there was Scout, back on that same couch in the nursing home lobby. Somehow he again scaled a 10-foot chain-link fence, then a 6-foot solid privacy fence, crossed a highway without getting run over, entered the front door unnoticed, jumped onto the same couch as before and made himself at home for the night. A call was placed again. He was brought back to the shelter again. Just a couple of nights after that, Scout was back on the couch for the third time. And the staff had a decision to make. Lost and found Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility is a long-term medical care residence about an hour northeast of Traverse City. It cares mostly for seniors, some of whom have terminal illnesses, or dementia, or simply nowhere else to go or nobody to look after them. There are 82 beds split between several smaller households. For some reason, this is the place Scout the dog decided to make his home. “I’m a person who looks at outward signs, and if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” said Marna Robertson, 57, the nursing home’s administrator. “He did that one time, two times, three times, and obviously that’s something that you should pay attention to. And I asked the staff, ‘Well, he wants to be here. Would anybody like to have a dog?’” Scout walks past residents of Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility in Bellaire on Thursday, July 13, 2023. The staff formally adopted him. Suddenly the nursing home had its own pet. And the residents were delighted. “I think it reminds them of being home,” said Rhonda Thomczak, 49, the administrative assistant at Glacier Hill, the household where Scout was first discovered. “When you’re home you have your pets, and you don’t get to have that here. Having a dog around makes it feel like home.” Scout has free rein here at Glacier Hill, which houses about 20 seniors. He wanders the halls at will, lies down wherever he wishes and visits residents whenever the mood strikes him. He learned how to get into their rooms by jumping up and using his paw to pull down on door handles. And he knows which residents keep dog biscuits in their walkers to give to him. “To each and every one of them, it’s their dog,” said Jenni Martinek, 49, the nursing home’s household coordinator, in whose office Scout has his bed and his toys. 'We woof you!' Earlier this year, the nurses held a fundraiser in Scout’s honor. They put his photo on social media and asked for donations to the animal shelter that brought him in off the street, and thus to them. Hundreds of dollars came in from strangers who heard how he got there. Someone even came by just to meet this dog they saw online. And in February, he was named Resident of the Month. “We woof you!” said the poster announcing the honor, written by the staff. “Thank you for adopting us!” Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility resident Butch Craig, 80, gives a bone to Scout after shaking his paw on Thursday, July 13, 2023. It was just after lunch on a summer weekday, and Scout was making his rounds to see his favorite residents. He visited Butch Craig’s room, where the 80-year-old creates arts and crafts that are displayed along his windowsill. Scout comes here for biscuits, which he then buries in Craig’s chair for later use. The dog then walked down the hall to see Bob Shumaker, whose room he enters in the middle of the night to wake the sleeping 84-year-old by pressing his wet snout against Shumaker’s sleeping face. It was startling at first, but now Shumaker likes it, so he pretends to be asleep while Scout repeats the snout press until Shumaker gives him a biscuit. Scout made his way to the living room, just outside the dining area, where he found Shumaker’s sister, Shirley Sawyer, 82, who now lives under the same roof as her brother, just like they did as kids. And like the others he visited before, her face lit up when she saw him. “He’ll always let you pet him and lets you talk to him if you need someone to talk to,” she said, petting the dog. “It’s very nice.” Scout found his forever home at Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility in Bellaire. Where ever did you come from, pup? But Scout is still a mystery. Nobody knows where he came from, what his original name was, how he wound up a stray that was picked up and brought to the county shelter. And nobody knows what bad things happened to him. “All they knew is he was abused,” Martinek said. “He was just very scared.” Even now, his walk still has the slight hint of a cower, and his tail stays a little lowered even when it’s wagging. He’s frightened by loud noises. He’s leery in general of men who don’t live there. Even jangling keys get him nervous for some reason. And his expression is softly somber. But most of all, nobody knows why he wanted to be here so badly. “You know, it’s really hard to say,” Robertson said. “Maybe he felt like it was a safe environment. He certainly has a penchant for the elders. He’s very in tune with what they need, especially our very vulnerable population. If they have dementia or if they’re dying he knows that, and he will go and be with them and comfort them. He must’ve just felt like he needed to be here.” Self-appointed protector Indeed, as soon as he was given a home, he appointed himself its protector. “He’s always watching, making sure everybody’s OK,” Martinek said. “If somebody is in the passing process, he’s in and out of the room, checking on them. He’ll even want to climb in bed with them.” “He can sense that,” added Stephanie Elsey, 42, the facility’s clinical care coordinator. “We’ve had a few in the past whose room he won’t leave. We had a resident that when he was passing away, Scout wouldn’t leave his room. He makes a good nursing home dog. He knows his job and he’s good at what he does.” Cheryl Patton, director of nursing at Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility, pets Scout as he makes his way around the facility in Bellaire with clinical care coordinator Stephanie Elsey on Thursday, July 13, 2023. "He makes a good nursing home dog," Elsey said. "He knows his job and hes good at what he does." Scout came home with Martinek one time, the night the facility held a loud disaster drill that they knew would scare him. “I thought he’d climb in bed with me and sleep, but he laid in front of my bedroom door, one eye open, watching to make sure I was safe all night long, ‘cause he was protecting,” she said. “He was so exhausted by the time he came back here.” A visitor rang the doorbell. Scout headed to the door, barked a few times and sat there waiting to see what who was trying to enter. He’s not big and he’s not menacing, but he goes through the motions anyway. “He just kind of knows who belongs or doesn’t,” Martinek said. "So if the doorbell rings he barks to let them know he’s guarding.” 'He knows his job and he’s good at what he does' Later that day, Craig inched his walker down the hallway until he reached Martinek’s office. She was out, and he looked concerned. “I’m supposed to have pizza,” he said to nobody. Last fall, a friend he’s known since childhood told him that she’d come by on July 13 this year to have a pizza dinner with him. They could go outside, she said, and sit in the sunny courtyard and enjoy pizza together in the fresh air of summer. Scouts lays in the shade and remains on the lookout as Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility resident Bob Shumaker talks with household coordinator Jenny Martinek during an outdoor pizza party for another resident on Thursday, July 13, 2023. “He’s always watching, making sure everybody’s OK,” Martinek said. On July 13, Craig waited for the doorbell to announce her arrival. The dinner hour came and went, but the friend never showed up. He called her at her downstate home. It turned out she simply forgot her offhand promise to him. “But he didn’t forget,” said Martinek. “And so he has looked forward to this for months. Months and months. Since before Christmas. And he was devastated.” The sight of him sitting in his room, alone and downhearted, was too much. “When you spend five days with them you become close with them and they become part of your extended family,” Martinek said of the residents. “And you don’t want to see them hurt.” Guarding the people he adopted The very next day, she threw him a pizza party of her own to show him he has friends who don’t forget about him. In fact, she was out getting pizzas when Craig came looking for her. But he didn’t know that. “I’m supposed to have pizza,” he said again, roaming the halls, leaning on his walker. It started looking to him like a repeat of the day before. This time, though, he wasn’t stood up. Here came Martinek, his favorite nurse, with the pizzas she promised. Here came Shumaker and Sawyer, the brother and sister, who sit with Craig every day in the dining room at lunch, now summoned for the special party. And here came Scout, the dog that knows when someone isn’t feeling great, as if sensing yet again where he was needed the most. Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility household coordinator Jenny Martinek checks on resident Butch Craig, 80, as Scout lurks behind her during a pizza party for Craig and a couple of his friends on Thursday, July 13, 2023. They all gathered at a table under the shade of a wide umbrella. Scout sat at their feet. Someone offered him a bite of pizza, but he didn’t eat it. Maybe he had too many treats from the residents that day and wasn't hungry, they speculated. Or maybe he was just content to be included in the party with his favorites. Instead, he laid his head down between his paws, resumed his somber expression and went back to guarding the people he adopted. “I think he knows that this is his home and he is all of ours, so that gives him a sense of security,” Thomczak said. “And I think he just wants to protect that.” Scout sits in a hallway next to Jenny Martinek, household coordinator at Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility in Bellaire, on Thursday, July 13, 2023. After finding the stray dog sleeping on a couch in their lobby, nurses at the facility had to decide what to do with him. This article originally appeared in Detroit Free Press: Dog repeatedly escapes Michigan shelter, sneaks into nursing home

New Jersey funeral home left dead dad's ashes in unlocked, running car that was stolen by teens A New Jersey funeral home left a dead man’s ashes in an unlocked — and running — car that was then stolen from outside the building, a new lawsuit filed by the deceased’s family alleges. After 62-year-old Walter Garcia, 62, (let me make sure I've got this right-- he was 65 [NOT elderly!], right?) died his wife and daughter paid the Macagna-Diffily Funeral Home in Cliffside Park to host a memorial service and then cremate his body. The service and cremation were held two days later. Afterward, the funeral home told the family they’d be contacted to pick up Garcia’s ashes in three days. But a week later they still had not heard from Macagna-Diffily. Garcia’s daughter decided to go to the funeral home to inquire about her father’s remains. “At that time, she was advised that decedent’s ashes had been left in an unlocked and running car which had been stolen,” the suit claims. The car had been parked in the driveway of the funeral home’s property. The next day, the funeral home called Garcia’s daughter and said the car had been recovered but did not know about the ashes, according to the suit. The family soon heard from police that although the car had been located, there were no ashes found inside. “Leaving a running, open luxury vehicle is an invitation for something like this to happen,” the family’s Jersey-City-based attorney John Nulty told NJ.com. “The family feels like they lost their father twice.” (once, literally) Video allegedly shows the funeral home vehicle unlocked when it was stolen by teenagers, according to the suit. The key fob had also been left inside of the vehicle, the family says it learned. The Garcia family alleges in the suit that funeral home owner Anthony Macagna was “in possession of and/or transporting” the ashes when the vehicle was stolen. They are suing Macagna and the funeral home for intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, and breach of duty for failure to return the ashes to the family. Nulty said the teenagers who jacked the car likely dumped Garcia’s ashes out of the vehicle.