skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Saturday, April 27, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Louisiana teachers' union concerned about educators' future; Supreme Court hears arguments in Trump immunity case; court issues restraining order against fracking waste-storage facility; landmark NE agreement takes a proactive approach to CO2 pipeline risks.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Speaker Johnson accuses demonstrating students of getting support from Hamas. TikTok says it'll challenge the ban. And the Supreme Court dives into the gray area between abortion and pregnancy healthcare, and into former President Trump's broad immunity claims.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The urban-rural death divide is widening for working-age Americans, many home internet connections established for rural students during COVID have been broken, and a new federal rule aims to put the "public" back in public lands.

ACLU Files Lawsuit After Woman Shackled During Labor

play audio
Play

Tuesday, April 19, 2016   

MISSISSIPPI COUNTY, Mo. - The ACLU of Missouri has filed suit on behalf of an inmate who lost her baby. In December 2014, Tara Rhodes told jail staff at the Mississippi County jail that she was having labor pains and losing fluids.

She says she was accused of lying and ignored.

Five days later when she could no longer walk, she was dragged across the floor on a mat, shackled on the wrists, ankles and across the abdomen, and driven 243 miles to another correctional center.

From there she was taken to a hospital and gave birth to a stillborn baby.

ACLU legal director Tony Rothert of Missouri says it's the second case like this they've taken to court in Missouri in the last six months.

"The indifference shown to the medical needs of people in jail across the state and across the country is epidemic," says Rothert. "No matter what you've done, no matter what crime you've committed, no one deserves to go through this kind of torture."

The ACLU sued Mississippi County and seven correctional officers for the death of Rhode's baby.

Late last year another woman filed suit against Jackson County after she was shackled, chained and transported nearly 200 miles while in active labor.

Rothert calls the treatment of these women cruel and unusual.

"Any person on the street would realize that's someone in need of medical care and certainly would hope that someone at that jail would have called for help," he says.

This month several jailers walked off the job in Mississippi County and left sheriff's deputies to guard the inmates.

Rothert says that and the fact that the ACLU has to repeatedly take action against jails and prisons across the state is proof that there's a serious problem in Missouri.




get more stories like this via email

more stories
The United Nations experts also expressed concern over a Chemours application to expand PFAS production in North Carolina. (Adobe Stock)

play sound

United Nations experts are raising concerns about chemical giants DuPont and Chemours, saying they've violated human rights in North Carolina…


Social Issues

play sound

The long-delayed Farm Bill could benefit Virginia farmers by renewing funding for climate-smart investments, but it's been held up for months in …

Environment

play sound

Conservation groups say the Hawaiian Islands are on the leading edge of the fight to preserve endangered birds, since climate change and habitat loss …


Jane Kleeb is director and founder of Bold Alliance, an umbrella organization of Bold Nebraska, which was instrumental in stopping the Keystone Pipeline. Kleeb is also one of two 2023 Climate Breakthrough Awardees. (Bold Alliance)

Environment

play sound

CO2 pipelines are on the increase in the United States, and like all pipelines, they come with risks. Preparing for those risks is a major focus of …

Environment

play sound

April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the …

Legislation to curtail the union membership rights of about 50,000 public school educators in Lousiana has the backing of some business and national conservative groups. (wavebreak3/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Leaders of a teachers' union in Louisiana are voicing concerns about a package of bills they say would have the effect of dissolving labor unions in t…

Health and Wellness

play sound

The 2024 Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Public Conference kicks off Saturday, where industry experts and researchers will share the latest scientific …

Environment

play sound

Environmental groups say more should be done to protect people's health from what they call toxic, radioactive sludge. A court granted a temporary …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021