Regulations

Colorado Funeral Home owner banned from Funeral Business

By Funeral Director Daily / August 20, 2018 /

We’ve kept you up to date on the happenings with the Sunset Mesa Funeral Home in Montrose, Colorado and its owner Megan Hess since last winter when the company was alleged to have sold body parts without permission from bodies entrusted to it for funeral or memorial services.  According to an article you can read…

An update on the Brock’s Funeral Home closure of 2016

By Funeral Director Daily / August 17, 2018 /

Panhandle.com reports on an update of what is happening with the Panama City, Florida case of 2016 which resulted in the closure of the Brock’s Hometown Funeral Home in that city.  The update includes legal action that has taken place against the owners and reports on a scheduled jury trial scheduled for October 1, 2018,…

Mount Ida Students Find a Home

By Funeral Director Daily / August 10, 2018 /

Last April Mount Ida College decided to close its doors for good.  Most students from the college were able to find continuing studies when the University of Massachusetts – Amherst acquired the campus.  However, that school does not have a mortuary science program and those students from Mount Ida College with partially completed degrees, in…

Zoning, Zoning!!!

By Funeral Director Daily / July 18, 2018 /

In looking for material for a column today I came across articles on funeral home/cemetery zoning issues.  What peaked my interest was the idea that death care businesses could be on differing sides of zoning debates.  I find that somewhat interesting. The first article that you can read here is an issue that we have…

Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Combo Ban

By Funeral Director Daily / June 29, 2018 /

On Wednesday the Supreme Court of the State of Wisconsin issued its ruling on whether combination units consisting of a funeral home and cemetery can be under single ownership interests.  The Supreme Court, in a 5-2 vote, upheld the ban against single ownership.  You can read an article on the decision here. The court ruled…

The Colorado Conundrum

By Funeral Director Daily / June 12, 2018 /

There is sometimes a reckoning point when an issue in an industry becomes so clear that everybody recognizes it and a high profile newspaper investigates it to make the public aware.  That happened this weekend when the Denver Post published this article on what has been going on in Colorado in the last year. We…

Illinois County Coroner Holding Remains for Fees

By Funeral Director Daily / May 8, 2018 /

Adams County Coroner James Keller has came up with a controversial policy concerning the payments for indigent services in his county.  You can read about the situation from NBCChicago.com here. The story relates how Coroner Keller has the family sign over the rights for the deceased to his office.  He then cremates the deceased and…

Crematory Approved in Maryville City Limits

By Funeral Director Daily / April 20, 2018 /

An article in the Daily Times of Maryville, Tennessee, that you can read here announced that the Smith Funeral and Cremation Service has successfully applied for, and been approved, to add a crematory in their existing funeral home inside the city limits of Maryville.  Owners Jason Chambers and C. Lynn Gibson indicated that the cremation…

Discrimination Trial Continues in Mississippi

By Funeral Director Daily / April 20, 2018 /

Testimony continued in the Gulfport, Mississippi, trial where six black-owned funeral homes have contended that Harrison County and its coroner, Gary Hargraves, have discriminated against them by sending deceased bodies in greater numbers to the white-owned funeral homes in the county.  In testimony yesterday, which is summed up by the Associated Press here, Harrison County…

Cities Cutting Back Funeral Escorts

By Funeral Director Daily / March 23, 2018 /

An article appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune that you can read here that pertained specifically to the city of Rosemount, Minnesota, but dealt with the Minneapolis-St. Paul metroplex in general and the practice of local police departments of escorting funeral corteges from the place of service to the cemetery for interment. The article explained that…