Court ruling could help clients restore disability benefits

Court ruling could help clients restore disability benefits

FRANKFORT, Ky.

A federal judge says the Social Security Administration used an unconstitutional process to revoke the disability benefits for hundreds of clients of disgraced former attorney Eric Conn.

Conn is in prison after pleading guilty to bribing doctors and judges to gain disability benefits for his clients. The Social Security Administration had hearings to review those benefits. In those hearings, judges banned evidence from those doctors and did not let the clients challenge that decision.

A panel of judges on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that not letting the clients rebut claims that the doctors’ reports were fraudulent is unconstitutional.

Officials with the Social Security Administration did not respond to an email seeking comment.

4 in NJ mansion fire killed by ‘homicidal violence’

COLTS NECK, N.J.

Authorities say a family of four in affluent horse country was slain before their mansion was set ablaze, but assured the community a killer was not on the loose, hours after the homeowner’s brother was arrested Wednesday in an arson at his own home.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni said authorities arrested Paul Caneiro, 51, and charged him with setting fire to his home in Ocean Township early Tuesday morning. Reports of a fire at his brother’s home in Colts Neck came in hours later, where the bodies of Keith Caniero, 50, and his family were found.

Mars landing comes down to final 6 minutes trip

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

It all comes down to the final six minutes of a six-month journey to Mars.

NASA’s InSight spacecraft will enter the Martian atmosphere at supersonic speed, then hit the brakes to get to a soft, safe landing on the alien red plains.

After micromanaging every step of the way, flight controllers will be powerless over what happens at the end of the road Monday, nearly 100 million miles away. The communication lag between Mars and Earth is eight minutes.

It’s a Twitter war: Doctors clash with NRA over gun deaths

The photos from doctors came quickly and in succession: blood-stained operating rooms, blood-covered scrubs and shoes, bullets piercing body parts and organs.

The pictures on Twitter were an emotional response to a smackdown by the powerful gun industry lobby, which took issue with the American College of Physicians’ call late last month for tighter gun-control laws. The recommendations included bans on “assault weapons,” large capacity magazines and 3D-printed firearms.

“Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves,” the National Rifle Association tweeted.

Physicians across the United States seized on the phrasing, taking to Twitter with 22,000 comments and the hashtags thisismylane and thisisourlane, posting photos of their encounters with gun violence and offering their own personal stories of treating such wounds.

Associated Press