MORE DOMA FALLOUT: VIRGINIA AG CANCELS KING & SPALDING WORK FOR THE STATE: Beltway Confidential

reports:

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has terminated his office's relationship with King & Spalding, the Atlanta law firm that abrubtly dropped the U.S. House of Representatives as a client for purposes of defending the Defense of Marriage Act.

"King & Spalding's willingness to drop a client, the U.S. House of Representatives, in connection with the lawsuit challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was such an obsequious act of weakness that I feel compelled to end your legal association with Virginia so that there is no chance that one of my legal clients will be put in the embarrassing and difficult situation like the client you walked away from, the House of Representatives," Cuccinelli said in a letter to Joseph Lynch in the firm's Washington, D.C. office.

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Labels: culture, DOMA, gay marriage, Virginia

posted by Eve at 3:29 PM VOTE

VA. LAUNCHING PORTABLE HOUSING FOR AGING RELATIVES: Washington Post

on the "granny pod":

SALEM, VA. The Rev. Kenneth Dupin, who leads a small Methodist church here, has a vision: As America grows older, its aging adults could avoid a jarring move to the nursing home by living in small, specially equipped, temporary shelters close to relatives.

So he invented the MEDcottage, a portable high-tech dwelling that could be trucked to a family's back yard and used to shelter a loved one in need of special care.

Skeptics, however, have a different name for Dupin's product: the granny pod.

Protective of zoning laws, some local officials warn that Dupin's dwellings -- which have been authorized by Virginia's state government -- will spring up in subdivisions all over the state, creating not-in-my-back-yard tensions with neighbors and perhaps being misused. ...

The enterprise has received backing from the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, a collaborative effort between the university and 140 companies to develop commercial technologies. The university is helping with high-tech applications, such as computer technology to create a "virtual companion" -- named Sydney, after Dupin's granddaughter -- who would appear on a screen and remind the occupant to take medications.

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Labels: culture, grandparents, Virginia

posted by Eve at 1:53 PM VOTE

DC MARRIAGE APPLICATIONS SOAR THANKS TO GAY COUPLES: DC Examiner

reports (Washington, DC has, unsurprisingly, a lower marriage rate [pdf] than any of the 50 states, and also the highest concentration of gay couples--I wish this article had included numbers on both of those stats, since I know the links I just gave you probably aren't the best available):

Marriage applications have skyrocketed since the District started issuing licenses for same-sex couples this month, with droves of gay partners expected to relocate to the city from states where they can't tie the knot.

About 1,100 marriage applications have been filed in the District since March 3, according to courthouse spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz, nearly six times the average monthly count.

Though the numbers are expected to fade in coming months, lawyers, politicians and gay activists say same-sex couples will continue to migrate to the District, leaving behind states where they aren't recognized.

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Labels: DC, gay marriage, Maryland, Virginia

posted by Eve at 8:58 PM VOTE

IVF DOCTORS TO RAFFLE HUMAN EGG: The Times of London

reports:

A fertility clinic is raffling a human egg in London to promote its new “baby profiling” service, which circumvents British IVF (in vitro fertilisation) laws.

The winner will be able to pick the egg donor by racial background, upbringing and education. Payment for profit is illegal in Britain, but the £13,000 of free IVF treatment will be provided in America.

The raffle, to be held on Wednesday, is to promote a tie-up between the Bridge Centre, a fertility clinic in London, and the Genetics and IVF Institute (GIVF) in Fairfax, Virginia. ...

In Britain, donors have to agree to be identified and contacted by any resulting offspring when they reach the age of 18.

Payments are restricted to a maximum fee of £250 for expenses, and as a result donors are in extremely short supply.

One of the first Britons to use the US service is Celia, a 38-year-old married businesswoman from the Midlands, who received two donor eggs in America at Christmas. Last week the prospective mother underwent a three-month scan that confirmed the twin pregnancy, which has cost her a total of £13,000, is progressing normally.

Her donor was a 27-year-old, whose eggs have produced four babies and three pregnancies, including Celia’s twins.

“I wanted someone who looked a bit like me as an adult, but the main consideration was the quality of her eggs,” said Celia. “This woman produces 30 at a time, and they were split between me and another woman, otherwise the cost of donation would have been double the £9,000 we actually paid.”

“I don’t want anyone to know these babies are not mine. Not my family or any of my friends. We don’t intend to tell the children, either.”

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Labels: Artificial Reproductive Technology, culture, donor conception, United Kingdom, Virginia

posted by Eve at 4:00 PM VOTE