AUSTIN, Texas — Discovering that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott violated the rights of transgender adolescents and their mother and father, a state choose issued an order Friday blocking gender-affirming medical care from being handled as “baby abuse.”
State District Decide Amy Clark Meachum stated Abbott exceeded his authority when he issued a Feb. 22 directive requiring the state child-welfare company to analyze such medical therapy as abuse.
Meachum issued a brief injunction that blocked Abbott’s directive statewide and ordered the Division of Household and Protecting Companies to stop any investigation based mostly solely on the supply of gender-affirming care.
The company has 9 such investigations underway, a spokeswoman stated Friday.
“We’re thrilled. And what a aid for Texas households,” stated Camilla Taylor, litigation director for Lambda Authorized, an LGBTQ authorized advocacy group.
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WILL PARENTS OF TRANSGENDER KIDS BE INVESTIGATED IN TEXAS? Gov. Greg Abbott’s order sparks worry, uncertainty
Taylor stated Meachum’s fast ruling underscored “how very dangerous and terrifying this directive is … for households and younger individuals specifically who’re in worry of being faraway from their mother and father.”
Texas Lawyer Common Ken Paxton filed discover of enchantment inside an hour of the ruling.
“Democrat choose tries to halt authorized and essential investigations into these attempting to abuse our youngsters via ‘trans’ surgical procedures and prescribed drugs,” Paxton stated on Twitter. “I’m interesting. I’ll win this combat to guard our Texas youngsters.”
The injunction was sought by mother and father, recognized solely as Jane and John Doe in court docket paperwork, who’re being investigated for baby abuse for offering gender-affirming care to their 16-year-old.
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A lawyer for Texas defended the governor’s motion and objected to Friday’s listening to, arguing that it mustn’t have been held as a result of Meachum had but to rule on pending motions, together with the state’s rivalry that the choose lacked jurisdiction to listen to the case.
Assistant Lawyer Common Courtney Corbello additionally argued that the Doe household didn’t have standing to sue to halt Abbott’s directive as a result of their criticism relies on potential, relatively than precise, hurt.
“All Jane Doe has been topic to is one investigation, one assembly with an investigator and nothing additional. She just isn’t within the central registry of kid abuse; she hasn’t had her baby taken from her; her baby just isn’t off of any medicines or missing any kind of medical therapy,” Corbello advised the choose.
It’s too early within the course of, Corbello stated, to situation a statewide injunction towards Abbott’s directive.
“There will likely be nothing heard by the court docket immediately proving that there’s a statewide dilemma, a statewide violation of legislation occurring that impacts households aside from plaintiffs and their baby,” she stated.
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The primary witness referred to as by attorneys for the Doe household was Randa Mulanax, an investigatory supervisor for Baby Protecting Companies who resigned this week in response to the gender care investigations.
OPINION:Texas’ transgender order is not a political ‘winner.’ It’s cruelty writ giant.
“It is a very hectic job total … (however) I’ve all the time felt that on the finish of the day the division has the kids’s greatest curiosity at coronary heart, and the household’s greatest curiosity at coronary heart – however I now not really feel that manner with this order,” Mulanax stated.
“It feels unethical. It seems like we’re entering into harmful territory. interfering with mother and father and medical suppliers on care for his or her youngsters,” she added.
Because the court docket listening to was going down, advocates for transgender Texans and their households turned a often scheduled assembly of the Texas Household and Protecting Companies Council right into a standing-room-only alternative to voice objections to the coverage of obligatory investigations into stories of minors receiving gender-affirming care.
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Some stated they have been talking on behalf of households who feared being investigated for baby abuse in the event that they confirmed as much as converse.
In Friday’s listening to in Meachum’s court docket, the mom recognized as Jane Doe additionally testified, however the court docket’s livestream on YouTube was interrupted to protect her anonymity.
Additionally referred to as to testify was Megan Mooney, a Houston psychologist who joined the lawsuit towards Abbott’s directive as a result of it required her, as a state-licensed skilled, to report gender-affirming medical care as baby abuse.
Mooney stated she believes reporting her transgender sufferers would hurt her shoppers and violate her moral obligations.
Households with transgender youngsters have been in a state of “outright panic” after Abbott’s directive, she added.
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“Mother and father are terrified CPS will come and query their youngsters or take them away. Psychological well being professionals worry violating legislation, and it places medical professionals within the horrible place of not having the ability present care to youngsters,” Mooney testified.
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A rescue bid for French IT services group Atos led by its largest shareholder has collapsed, casting the future of the troubled group into doubt once again.
Atos said on Wednesday that the consortium led by Onepoint, an IT consultancy founded by David Layani, had withdrawn a proposal that would have converted €2.9bn of Atos debt into equity and injected €250mn of fresh funds into the struggling company.
“The conditions were not met to conclude an agreement paving the way for a lasting solution for financial restructuring,” Onepoint said in a statement on Wednesday.
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The decision by Onepoint comes less than a month after Atos had picked its restructuring proposal over a competing plan from Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínsky. Atos said on Wednesday that Křetínsky had already indicated he wanted to restart talks.
Once a star of France’s tech scene, Atos is racing to strike a restructuring deal by next month as it struggles under its €4.8bn debt burden. It has cycled through multiple chief executives over the past three years and its shares have collapsed. They were down 12 per cent in early trading on Wednesday.
Atos also said it had received a revised restructuring proposal from a group of its bondholders.
“Discussions are continuing with the representative committee of creditors and certain banks on the basis of this proposal with a view to reaching an agreement as soon as possible,” the company said.
Jean-Pierre Mustier, former chief executive of Italian lender UniCredit, was installed as chair in October 2023 and given the task of putting Atos on a stable footing for the future. Since his appointment, several efforts to stabilise Atos through asset sales have fallen apart.
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If talks with Křetínsky do restart, it will mark the Czech businessman’s third attempt to do a deal with Atos after an earlier plan to buy its lossmaking legacy business unravelled.
One of the people close to the talks said creditors had not necessarily become more receptive to Kretinsky’s plan given it cutting a larger chunk of the group’s debt.
The crisis at Atos has prompted the French government to intervene. It is currently seeking to acquire three parts of Atos that are deemed of importance to national security for up to €1bn.
Atos said on Wednesday it had concluded a deal with the French state that would give it so-called “golden shares” in a key Atos subsidiary, Bull SA. The agreement also gives the government the right to acquire “sensitive sovereign activities” in the event a third party acquired 10 per cent of the shares — or a multiple thereof — in either Atos or Bull.
An online gamer from New Jersey recently flew to Florida, broke into the home of a fellow player with whom he had feuded digitally but never met in person, and tried to beat him to death with a hammer, according to authorities.
The allegations leveled by the Nassau county, Florida, sheriff’s office against 20-year-old Edward Kang constitute an extreme example of a phenomenon that academics call “internet banging” – which involves online arguments, often between young people, that escalate into physical violence.
As Bill Leeper, the local sheriff, told it, Kang and the man he is suspected of attacking became familiar with each other playing the massively multiplayer online role-playing game ArcheAge.
The Korean game is supposed to no longer be available beginning Thursday, its publisher announced in April, citing a “declining number of active players”, as ABC News reported. But prior to the cancellation, Kang and the other player became locked in some sort of “online altercation”, Leeper said at a news briefing Monday.
Kang then informed his family that he was headed out of town to meet a friend he had made through gaming, Leeper recounted. The sheriff said Kang flew from Newark, New Jersey, to Jacksonville, Florida, and booked himself into a hotel near his fellow gamer’s home early Friday morning.
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He had allegedly bought a hammer and a flashlight at a local hardware store, receipts for which deputies later found in Kang’s hotel room.
By early Sunday, Kang purportedly had put on black clothes, gloves and a mask, and he went into his target’s home through an unlocked door. He waited for the victim to get up to take a bathroom break from gaming – and then battered him with the hammer, Leeper said.
The alleged victim managed to wrestle Kang to the ground while screaming for help. The victim’s stepfather woke up after hearing the screams, rushed to his stepson’s side, helped take Kang’s hammer away and restrained him until deputies were called and they arrived, according to Leeper.
Deputies found blood at the home’s entrance and in the bedroom of the victim, Leeper added. The sheriff said the victim was brought to a hospital to be treated for “severe” head wounds while deputies jailed Kang on counts of attempted second-degree murder and armed burglary.
Leeper accused Kang of telling deputies that he carried out the violent home invasion because he believed the target to be “a bad person online”. Kang also allegedly asked investigators how much prison time was associated with breaking and entering as well as assault.
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Attempted second-degree murder alone can carry up to 15 years. Leeper quipped that his only answer to Kang was: “It will be a long time before you play video games.”
Striking a more serious tone, Leeper urged people to be vigilant about and report to authorities any suspicious online behavior aimed at them. He also mentioned the importance of locking one’s home.
“This … serves as a stark reminder of the potential real-world consequences of online interaction,” Leeper said.