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In early July, Betsy Davis emailed her closest friends and relatives to invite them to a two-day party, telling them: "These circumstances are unlike any party you have attended before, requiring emotional stamina, centeredness and openness." And just one rule: No crying in front of her. The 41-year-old artist with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, held the gathering to say farewell before becoming one of the first Californians to take a take a lethal dose of drugs under the state's new doctor-assisted suicide law for the terminally ill.

The husband of an Ohio schoolteacher, who was severely injured when four men dropped a rock on her car from a highway overpass, killed himself late Saturday night – and the prosecutor who jailed the rock-throwers blames them for Randy Budd’s suicide. Budd, 55, was pronounced dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Ohio residence, Harry Campbell, chief investigator for Ohio’s Stark County Coroner’s office, told the AP on Sunday. “Randy Budd did not die from a gunshot,” Union County District Attorney D. Peter Johnson told pennlive.com. “He died when those kids threw a rock through his windshield.”

Aug. 5, 2016 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homosexuals who “marry” each other are almost three times more likely to commit suicide than their heterosexual counterparts, even in very gay-friendly Sweden, according to a study published in the May issue of the European Journal of Epidemiology. The authors of the study noted that social intolerance of homosexual behavior could not so easily be blamed for increased suicide risk, given that Sweden is known for its accepting attitude towards same-sex relationships. “Even in a country with a comparatively tolerant climate regarding homosexuality such as Sweden, same-sex married individuals evidence a higher risk for suicide...

MH370 pilot Zaharie Ahmad Shah. New York has obtained a confidential document from the Malaysian police investigation into the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 that shows that the plane’s captain, Zaharie Ahmad Shah, conducted a simulated flight deep into the remote southern Indian Ocean less than a month before the plane vanished under uncannily similar circumstances. The revelation, which Malaysia withheld from a lengthy public report on the investigation, is the strongest evidence yet that Zaharie made off with the plane in a premeditated act of mass murder-suicide. The document presents the findings of the Malaysian police’s investigation into...

Cannot excerpt as a USAToday originated story. Today there is a story that 1000 attended her prom. Not certain if posting a link is even acceptable. But I could not find the story elsewhere.

Vermont doctors and health care professionals are pushing back against an interpretation of state law that they say requires them to help kill patients who wish to die. Members of two medical groups, the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare and Christian Medical & Dental Associations, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against officials in two state medical agencies responsible for the interpretation. The lawsuit says these agencies have interpreted a 2013 physician-assisted suicide law, Act 39, in a way that would require health care professionals to counsel terminally ill patients about the option to commit suicide. Additionally, under such an interpretation...

Charles Krauthammer said that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) "blew it" at the Republican National Convention with his address in which he did not endorse Donald Trump. "What Cruz delivered was the longest suicide note in American political history and this morning he added an addendum," said Krauthammer. Krauthammer weighed in on America's Newsroom this morning after Cruz spoke to Texas delegates (some of them angry), doubling down on his message from last night and going even further.

A federal lawsuit filed by the parent of a Lincoln Park Middle School student alleges his son's 2015 suicide was the result of "severe and pervasive harassment" — and the Duluth school district's failure to stop it. Todd Seehus is suing the Duluth school district, its school board and former and current administrators at the school because of their alleged disregard of complaints about students bullying Tristan Seehus, 13, who killed himself in February 2015. Tristan was harassed verbally and physically because of his perceived sexual orientation or gender expression, according to the complaint, filed Friday in U.S. District Court....

During the last 60 years, the number of guns in private hands in the United States has risen sharply.  During the last two decades, the number of murders and non-negligent homicides have fallen sharply.  More guns do not equal more crime.  In response, opponents of an armed population have shifted their focus and changed the terminology that they use. Instead of gun control, they call restrictive policies "gun safety". Instead of focusing on violent crime, they have created the term "gun violence".  Most people consider gun violence to be "gun crime". The opponents of gun ownership use the term...

(CNN)U.S. Army soldier Chelsea Manning, imprisoned for leaking classified documents, has tweeted a message confirming her health and safety following a suicide attempt. "I am okay. I'm glad to be alive. Thank you all for your love. I will get through this," she wrote on the social media site, adding the hashtag, #standwithchelsea

DEVELOPING: Chelsea Manning, who has been serving a 35-year prison sentence for her role in leaking U.S. government secrets, was being treated in a prison hospital Wednesday after she tried to hang herself, according to media reports. ADVERTISEMENT The transgender soldier, formerly known as Bradley Manning, was convicted in 2013 of espionage and other offenses for sending WikiLeaks more than 700,000 digital files including battlefield logs, diplomatic cables and video clips. Both CNN and TMZ reported that the incident occurred at Fort Leavenworth, an all-male facility in Kansas. Few other details about the reported incident were immediately known. TMZ, citing...

Against a grim backdrop of rising suicide rates among American women, new research has revealed a blinding shaft of light: One group of women — practicing Catholics — appears to have bucked the national trend toward despair and self-harm. Compared with women who never participated in religious services, women who attended any religious service once a week or more were five times less likely to commit suicide between 1996 and 2010, says a study published Wednesday by JAMA Psychiatry. It’s not clear how widely the findings can be applied to a diverse population of American women. In a study population...

Istanbul governor: 28 killed and 60 wounded We have just received an update on the casualties from the attack from Istanbul's governor. At least 28 people have died, with approximately 60 more wounded.

Chicago Police are tonight confirming that they are on the lookout for singer Sinead O’Connor, who famously went missing for a 24-hour period in May while staying at a home in Wilmette, and was later found safe, and may now be threatening suicide. Chicago police received a call from police in Dublin, Ireland, stating that the singer had apparently threatened to jump off a bridge in Chicago. Concerns prompted Chicago Police Department to issue an “All Call” alert Thursday advising officers to be on alert for the 49-year-old singer.

Antidepressants in young people may do more harm than good, warn scientists. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/06/08/antidepressants-in-young-people-may-do-more-harm-than-good-warn/ *"researchers at Oxford University who carried out the review said effectiveness and safety of antidepressants taken by children and teenagers remained unclear because of the poor design and selective reporting of trials, which were mostly funded by drug companies."

It's maddening to watch a movie trailer resplendent with engrossing and alluring screenshots projecting a terrific flick, only to learn after paying the price of admission that you'd watched the totality of the movie's value. That's not misleading; it's good advertising. But sometimes movie studios are just plain guilty of false advertising. The new movie "Me Before You" looks to be an inspirational love story. A lower-class woman in England is hired to take care of a young man who recently became a quadriplegic after being hit by a car. He inspires her to live a fuller life; she inspires...

http://www.scpr.org/news/2016/03/10/58421/assisted-suicide-new-calif-law-to-take-effect-june/ Assisted suicide:New California law to take effect June 9. Fourth state in the US with such a law.

Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the New York Times bestselling author of The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents and The Secrets of the FBI. FBI agents investigating the death of Bill Clinton's Deputy White House Counsel found that Hillary Clinton 'triggered' his suicide when she attacked and humiliated her mentor from their former Rose Law Firm in front of other White House aides a week before he took his own life. Vince Foster's suicide has been the focus of much speculation since he shot...

In the latest tragic news from the world of finance, earlier today Zurich Insurance, the largest Swiss insurer which employs 55,000 people and provides general insurance and life insurance products in more than 170 countries, reported that Martin Senn, the company's former chief executive officer who stepped down in a December reshuffle, has committed suicide. He was 59. Senn had been a long-time employee of the insurer, serving as its chief executive for six years before stepping down in December. The family informed Zurich Insurance that Senn had taken his own life on Friday, according to the statement. "We are...

On the afternoon of March 12, 2014, Jennifer Collins checked her phone and found a message from her husband, Dave Collins, a retired Navy SEAL. He’d texted to say that she should pick up their son from kindergarten, and then this: “So sorry baby. I love you all.” Hours later, two police officers showed up at their house in Virginia Beach with news that Dave, 45, had shot himself in his truck a few miles away. Although Jennifer had held out hope for any other explanation, she also knew the moment she read it what the text meant. For months,...