Not Dead Yet Attends Bazelon’s 2025 Annual Awards Reception

By Kelly Israel on October 7, 2025   

On September 17, 2025, I was pleased to attend on behalf of Not D[ea]d Yet the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law’s 2025 Annual Awards Reception at the National Press Club. The event was larger than normal. I was surrounded by countless people,  disability rights movement members both well-known and obscure. We had come to celebrate our past and usher in the next chapter of our history.

A recording of the awards ceremony is available at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pV9yDclCuK0 

The event honored first Congressman Steny Hoyer, [pictured above] one of the pioneers who worked to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act - our very own bill of rights in the United States. Hoyer spoke on the circumstances of the ADA’s passage and his debt of gratitude to his mentor. He also spoke of his gratitude towards the thousands of disabled Americans who advocated tirelessly for the bill in the late 1980s and early 90s. 

California National Guard

President Trump on Sunday deployed 300 California National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon defying a federal order blocking the move – as Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to sue in response.

“After a federal court blocked his attempt to federalize the Oregon National Guard, Donald Trump is deploying 300 California National Guard personnel into Oregon,” Newson said in a post on X, later calling the order “un-American.”“They are on their way there now. We are taking this fight back to court. The public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the President of the United States.”

Newsom’s fiery threat comes hours after a federal judge temporarily halted the Trump administration from sending 200 Oregon National Guard troops to the “war ravaged” city that has been under siege by anti-ICE agitators for more than 100 straight days. – New York Post

Our Take: A federal judge in Oregon said President Trump can’t deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland, so the President is sending California National Guard instead.

Winsome Sears Closing the Gap

With less than five weeks before Virginia’s statewide elections, a new poll finds the Republican gubernatorial nominee, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, [pictured right] trending upward and closing the gap with her opponent, Democrat Abigail Spanberger.

The poll conducted by A2 Insights found Earle-Sears trailing Spanberger, a former three-term member of Congress, by 3.1 points—marking the closest margin Virginians have seen in the race to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

When asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, 44.6% said Earle-Sears, while 47.7% said Spanberger. Some 6.4% said they were undecided, and 1.3% said they would vote for another candidate.

A2 Insights, a nonpartisan public opinion polling firm, surveyed 771 likely voters through an online panel between Sept. 26 and Sept. 28. It didn’t give a margin of error.

Polls continue to show Earle-Sears gaining ground. In less than a month, she has gained 9 points.

Hospital Starves to Death a Man With Down Syndrome, Didn’t Feed Him for 9 Days

International  |  Steven Ertelt  |   Oct 3, 2025   |   2:33PM   |  London, England

A 56-year-old man with Down syndrome suffered a preventable death after medical staff at an NHS hospital denied him food for nine days, his family said, highlighting what advocates decry as a devaluation of vulnerable lives in a system that too often fails those with disabilities.

Adrian Poulton was admitted to Poole Hospital in September 2021 following a fall at his care home that broke his hip. His condition initially improved, but doctors mistakenly marked him as “nil by mouth,” leaving him without nutrition during his stay.

By the time his relatives discovered the error, he was too weak to recover and died on Sept. 28, 2021, two weeks after admission. An internal hospital investigation confirmed that the lack of nutrition contributed to his death.

Poulton’s father, Derek, expressed shock at the oversight. “Not being medical, we just naturally thought he was having nutrition, a feed. But as it turns out, they were starving him.”

His sister, Lesley Bungay, recounted the heartbreaking final moments: “We were just so worried. He was really poorly. He did look at me and dad… He said to me, ‘Lesley, I don’t want to die.’ He knew he was going to die. It was just awful.”

Trump to Deploy 300 National Guard Members in Illinois

Tom Ozimek, Reporter, 10/4/2025|Updated: 10/5/2025

President Donald Trump has authorized the deployment of 300 members of the Illinois National Guard to protect federal assets amid “violent riots and lawlessness,” according to a White House spokesperson.

Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson confirmed the deployment in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“Amid ongoing violent riots and lawlessness, that local leaders like [Illinois Gov. JB] Pritzker have refused to step in to quell, President [Donald] Trump has authorized 300 national guardsmen to protect federal officers and assets,” she said. “President Trump will not turn a blind eye to the lawlessness plaguing American cities.”

Pakistani Cousin Marriage has no Place in the UK

By Noel Yaxley

The social and medical costs of this imported practice can no longer be ignored. Inbreeding is bad, actually.

You’d think that would go without saying. Not in the United Kingdom, where the Genomics Education Programme of NHS England recently published guidance touting the supposed “social advantages” of cousin marriages.

In Redbridge, East London, one in five child deaths was linked to consanguineous parents.

This is what happens when a subject becomes so controversial that no one dares to speak plainly. For years, journalists avoided discussing rampant cousin marriage for fear of alienating the Pakistani population. Even right-leaning newspapers mostly looked the other way.

Llamas Have a Reputation for Being Ornery and Spitting on People, but They’re also Perfectly Suited to Wyoming’s Remote Mountains

Mark Heinz, 10/03/25

Wyoming’s rugged backcountry is teeming with big game, but the farther into the wild hunters go to shoot deer and elk, the longer and more brutal packing their game out will be.

Some hunters rely on their own strength and use backpacks to haul out meat and antlers. Others get help from pack horses, mules, or pack goats.  

A pair of Wyoming hunters, Anthony Natale and Austin Griffith, think llamas are the perfect wilderness pack animals.   Llamas may not be native to Wyoming, but they’re perfectly suited for Wyoming’s high country terrain and the wilderness.  The pair started out a few years ago with just a couple of the gangly critters, which are native to the perilous mountains of South America.

Montana has Money for a Parenting Program at the Prison, but it’s not Operating Yet

After losing federal funding, the Department of Corrections hasn’t restarted a parenting program that state lawmakers put $120,000 toward earlier this year. The program had served roughly 160 fathers and 400 children during the program’s four-year tenure. By Zeke Lloyd

Frederick Maw VI was 14 months old when his father, Freddie J, received a 20-year sentence to Montana State Prison in 2018. Caterina Maw, Little Freddie’s grandmother, remembers driving alongside a “trembling and scared” child on a bus to a small red cabin in 2022 during her grandson’s first trip to meet his father. 

“He saw the swing set and he saw all the dads standing there with smiles on their faces — then he just got this huge smile and ran to his dad to give him a hug,” Caterina Maw said in a recent interview.

The pair reunited through a Montana Department of Corrections initiative called Connecting Adults and Minors through Positive Parenting, a multi-part program that included a three-month parenting course for incarcerated parents. Parents also were able to see their children in person and have dedicated video calls.

Mexico City Uses Reagan-Era Policy to Ban Taxpayer-Funded Gender-Transition Surgeries

President Donald Trump’s State Department will soon expand the scope of the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars for abortions.

“The department will soon take additional steps to close loopholes that allowed taxpayer funding for promotion of abortion in previous iterations of the Mexico City Policy and expand the scope of the policy to ensure every penny of U.S. foreign assistance prioritizes American values, not the woke agenda,” a senior State Department official told The Daily Signal.

The expanded policy will prohibit U.S. funding for gender ideology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. For example, the State Department is ending a $2 million grant to fund gender-affirming operations in Guatemala.