Lead Story
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The Associated Press reported in May on the ongoing battle between the family of the late Sergeant Patrick Stewart and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Stewart, who was killed last year while serving with the Nevada National Guard in Afghanistan, was a Wiccan, and his family wants a Wiccan symbol–a pentagram inscribed in a circle–to appear on Stewart’s plaque at a veterans’ cemetery in Fernsley, Nevada. But despite pressure from Nevada officials, Veterans Affairs has so far refused permission; it allows only approved religious emblems to be used on gravestones and other markers, and though more than 30 such emblems have been recognized by the department, the Wiccan symbol isn’t one of them.
Bright Ideas
The Guardian reported in March that Israel’s justice ministry was considering prosecution against the Moqassed hospital in East Jerusalem: after an unnamed Arab woman gave birth to triplets there in January but was unable to pay the bill, the hospital let her and her husband take two of the babies home but allegedly held the third as collateral for two months until the government intervened. And in April the UK paper the Telegraph reported on unemployed Darren Wheeler, 30, of Whiston, England, who’d had six front teeth extracted in anticipation of receiving dentures but then was informed by the clinic that because of difficulties with controversial new National Health Service dental contracts he’d have to pay roughly $5,500 out of pocket to get his replacement teeth installed. (According to later reports, the clinic finally agreed to finish the job for free.)
Beware of Person
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Chuck Shepherd.
