Sex Cult Survivors Accuse Sarah Lawrence of Negligence: ‘They Failed Us’
Recent news

Sex Cult Survivors Accuse Sarah Lawrence of Negligence: ‘They Failed Us’

Sarah Lawrence College for years has promoted itself as an experimental and progressive haven, a leafy enclave where students design curriculums and believe in what its president has called “the underlying goodness of others.”“You are different. So are we” was a slogan the school used. Some students saw it as a declaration that they would be understood and valued.Now former students are accusing the college of betraying them by allowing a 50-year-old ex-con to roam its Westchester County campus; spend nights in a dormitory where his daughter lived; and form relationships with students whom he went on to abuse.That man, Lawrence V. Ray, was convicted in 2022 of extortion, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy after a trial in Manhattan. Federal prosecutors said that he used cult-leade...
How to Protect Your Dog From the ‘Mystery’ Respiratory Disease
Health

How to Protect Your Dog From the ‘Mystery’ Respiratory Disease

As an unidentified canine respiratory illness continues to pop up in clusters around the United States — causing symptoms like cough, fever and lethargy, and in more serious cases, hospitalization or death — many dog owners are wondering what steps they should take to keep their pets safe.Despite the alarming headlines about fatalities, veterinarians are urging pet owners to be careful, but not to panic.“At this point in time, I don’t think there is reason for extreme alarm,” said Dr. Deborah Silverstein, a professor of small animal emergency and critical care medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Ryan Veterinary Hospital. “I do think it’s a time to be cautious and to stay informed.”We talked to Dr. Silverstein and other experts about the strategies they recommend (and in some cases, ...
Israel-Hamas War: Biden Condemns Rapes by Hamas on Oct. 7 and Its Refusal to Release Remaining Women
Recent news

Israel-Hamas War: Biden Condemns Rapes by Hamas on Oct. 7 and Its Refusal to Release Remaining Women

When Dr. Yael Mozer-Glassberg, a senior physician at Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, was initially asked to join the team of people who would be responsible for the intake of child hostages returning to Israel, her internal reaction was immediate.“Oh my God, no,” she recalled saying to herself. “But how could I say no? It’s a national mission.”She was selected to join a group in Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, comprising the first medical professionals to care for a group of children and their mothers returning to Israel. During the cease-fire, which lasted from Nov. 24 to Dec. 1, the hospital admitted 19 children and 6 women who were kidnapped on Oct. 7 in Israel by Hamas and other militant groups.To the initial surprise of many, the children were quick to speak freely about th...
William P. Murphy Jr., an Inventor of the Modern Blood Bag, Dies at 100
Health

William P. Murphy Jr., an Inventor of the Modern Blood Bag, Dies at 100

Dr. William P. Murphy Jr., a biomedical engineer who was an inventor of the vinyl blood bag that replaced breakable bottles in the Korean War and made transfusions safe and reliable on battlefields, in hospitals and at scenes of natural disasters and accidents, died on Thursday at his home in Coral Gables, Fla. He was 100.His death was confirmed on Monday by Mike Tomás, the president and chief executive of U.S. Stem Cell, a Florida company for which Dr. Murphy had long served as chairman. He became chairman emeritus last year.Dr. Murphy, the son of a Nobel Prize-winning Boston physician, was also widely credited with early advances in the development of pacemakers to stabilize erratic heart rhythms, of artificial kidneys to cleanse the blood of impurities, and of many sterile devices, incl...
‘Medical Freedom’ Activists Take Aim at New Target: Childhood Vaccine Mandates
Health

‘Medical Freedom’ Activists Take Aim at New Target: Childhood Vaccine Mandates

For more than 40 years, Mississippi had one of the strictest school vaccination requirements in the nation, and its high childhood immunization rates have been a source of pride. But in July, the state began excusing children from vaccination if their parents cited religious objections, after a federal judge sided with a “medical freedom” group.Today, 2,100 Mississippi schoolchildren are officially exempt from vaccination on religious grounds. Five hundred more are exempt because their health precludes vaccination. Dr. Daniel P. Edney, the state health officer, warns that if the total number of exemptions climbs above 3,000, Mississippi will once again face the risk of deadly diseases that are now just a memory.“For the last 40 years, our main goal has been to protect those children at hig...
Federal Civil Rights Investigation Opened Into Antisemitism at Harvard
Recent news

Federal Civil Rights Investigation Opened Into Antisemitism at Harvard

The Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Education Department has opened an investigation into allegations of antisemitism at Harvard University, where the campus, like many others, has been roiled by demonstrations and confrontations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students in the weeks since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.The complaint against Harvard, filed on Tuesday, joins a growing list of federal civil rights investigations into complaints of discrimination based on “shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics,” including at Columbia, Cornell, Wellesley College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Tampa and the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.The list includes a handful of school districts as well, including New York City public schools, Clar...
Israeli Forces Near Khan Younis in Southern Gaza
Recent news

Israeli Forces Near Khan Younis in Southern Gaza

Conditions in the city are grim, with little access to running water or sanitation. People are sleeping in the open, and aid workers have largely stopped distributing water and flour because of the intensity of the fighting and Israeli bombardments, U.N. officials have said.More than 20,000 people have taken refuge at a training center in the city that is designed to shelter one-tenth of that number, according to the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.Gazans are being pushed into an area that covers less than one-third of the enclave, according to the United Nations.“The level of human suffering is intolerable,” the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, who visited Gaza on Monday, said in a statement. She added: “It i...
Hunter College Reschedules Screening of Film Critical of Israel
Recent news

Hunter College Reschedules Screening of Film Critical of Israel

Hunter College has agreed to reschedule a screening of a documentary critical of Israel, following an outcry from faculty members and students who claimed that the administration’s earlier decision to cancel it violated academic freedom.A screening of the documentary, “Israelism,” had been scheduled for Nov. 14 as part of a film series organized by a professor in the New York school’s film and media department. It would have been followed by a discussion with one of the directors and one of the film’s protagonists, a young American Jew who travels to Israel and the West Bank and discovers a reality very different from the story she was raised with.But that morning, Hunter’s interim president, Ann Kirschner, announced that the screening would be canceled because of safety concerns.“In the c...
Why Anonymous Sperm Donation Is Over, and Why That Matters
Health

Why Anonymous Sperm Donation Is Over, and Why That Matters

In many states, if you are part of a couple raising a child, and you never marry or you get a divorce, and your partner wants to sever the connection, you can be deemed a legal stranger to a child you helped raise but with whom you don’t share a genetic tie. “I worry that people may be acting in good faith but don’t understand the situations of these families,” says Douglas NeJaime, a Yale law professor who is working with L.G.B.T.Q. organizations and other academics on a joint statement of principles about access to a donor’s identifying information. “There’s a real legal risk in many places. And then there’s the idea these laws express, which is that biological ties are more important than other ties.”Malina Simard-Halm, 27, the donor-conceived daughter of a pair of gay fathers, is a for...
Fate of Billions for Opioid Victims From Sacklers Rests With Supreme Court
Health

Fate of Billions for Opioid Victims From Sacklers Rests With Supreme Court

The speed with which the court scheduled the case may reflect its awareness of the opioid problem. But legal experts said its ruling would be unlikely to dwell on the public health crisis. The court, they said, will focus narrowly on the liability shield, an increasingly popular, though contentious, bankruptcy tactic.“I’m sure, though, that even if the opioid crisis doesn’t show up anywhere in the opinion, the court has to be bearing in mind that cities, states and individuals have been desperately waiting for these funds. They need to know the answer to this question so they can figure out what to do next,” said Adam Zimmerman, who teaches mass tort law at the University of Southern California’s Gould School of Law.Though numerous pharmaceutical companies have been sued for their roles in...