Main | April 2007 »

March 2007 Archives

March 13, 2007

Industry News 03.13.07

Funeral Consumers Alliance director will talk about dollars and sense


'Coffin had two bodies'

Keep the cemetery green?

Preserving history requires some heavy lifting
Teens clear historic black cemeteries...

Learn about cemetery preservation

March 14, 2007

Industry News 03.14.07

WAR -- Military funerals, through the lens

Six feet under-grads

Funerals, cemeteries topics of program

In Scarborough, going to funeral requires a procession out of town

Opposition to funeral baffling

Close call at funeral parlour

'Very disturbing news': Monuments toppled at Marion
cemetery

Four held over Luweero corpse

Undertaker loses appeal

Authorities Demolish Illegal Burial Agency

March 15, 2007

Industry News 03.15.07

Members of the Lead Cemetery Board recently celebrated a $16,500 grant from the Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission.

'Very disturbing news': Monuments toppled at Marion cemetery

Georgia Court Denies Appeal in Tri-State Crematory Case

Funeral home operator denied hearing on bail request

Thieves target Allen cemetery

Autauga jury awards $1 million in dispute over cemetery plot

African-American Cemetery To Become Historic

Vandals Leave Animal's Heart in Cemetery

March 16, 2007

Industry News 03.16.07

New urns give baseball fans everlasting hope

Msgr. Dennis Delaney named to Catholic Cemeteries post

A helping hand

Junk Bay cemetery footpath proposed

Remembering Hezekiah Easter

Lets use wood in more sustainable manner

Backlog Of Corpses Led To Probe

Avoca funeral director surrenders license

Wilde's Funeral Home honored

Preplanning funerals can save money

Welcome to the ICCFA Blog

This is a new communications vehicle for the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. It will serve a variety of purposes, the most immediate of which will be to provide a simpler format for updating the Industry News listings.

Instead of going to the News Page each day, you will be able to come here to the Blog, where you can not only read the news but discuss it if you are so inclined.

Also, the "National/International" and "Opinion" news feeds from here on out will be of the self-serve variety: Simply peruse the lists for General News, Opinion, and Blogs, on the sidebars of the page, and visit the ones that interest you.

It may take a wee bit of adjustment to reading the news in the new format, and we appreciate you bearing with us as we bring the listings up to date.

The Blog will also provide a convenient way to distribute timely information about events that fall between the publishing cycles of the ICCFA Magazine and ICCFA Wireless newsletter. Time permitting, for instance, we should be able to provide coverage of next week's ICCFA Convention in Las Vegas.

We hope the ICCFA Blog is a useful service, and we invite your comments and suggestions.

March 20, 2007

Industry News 03.21.07

Keystone North America Closes $40.3 Million Offering

Funeral home head fights lawsuit

SCI New Jersey Funeral Services Inc. filed a lawsuit earlier this month alleging that Wien, who sold his five funeral homes to the Texas-based company 10 years ago, violated a July 1996 agreement not to compete by opening Long Island-based Wien & Son Funeral Directors last year and joining the Fort Lee-based Eden Memorial Chapels earlier this year.

Crunch Announce Details of Dignity Funeral Homes 'Escape School' Program

Death with Distinction

Although artist-designed urns and other objects are still a tiny fraction of the $11 billion death-care industry, as it is known, the gallery's opening - along with novelty items such as wind chimes with built-in cavities, pencils made from cremated remains (roughly 250 pencils per person), diamonds made from ash carbon and bird feeders designed to scatter ashes - reflect the shifting demographics of death and disposition.

More of the dying are choosing a home funeral

Keeping the funeral in the home is one way to keep costs in check, Rolfstad said. But though the practice was the norm for most of human history, it's an option that is usually overlooked.

Funeral home sued for improper embalming

Gravely speaking, green is the only way to go

The bad news is there aren't any green burials going on in Canada. They're big in Britain and growing in popularity in the U.S., but so far they are not happening here.

Support Vt. legislation to allow 'green' burials

Let loved one know you funeral plans

Funeral homes losing on indigents

... funeral directors must furnish a casket, cemetery costs, funeral services and transportation for family members. With the average price of a low-cost funeral totaling more than $3,000, that means funeral homes are often losing more than $1,000 on each indigent funeral, funeral directors say.

Man accused o theft on plot sales

Ex-Rep. Hansen aims high with tombstone

Farmington Mayor Scott Harbertson said one reason marker height had been capped was to prevent interference with sprinklers.

Not a problem, wrote the former Beltway insider. He offered to pay for the relocation of the sprinkler in question.

Residents, officials balk at talk of moving cemetery

Forest Hill lawsuits move slowly

More than 13,000 holders of prepaid burial contracts that the Forest Hill funeral homes aren't honoring are waiting for resolution of their claims as several complex lawsuits grind their way through the courts.

Grandview cemetery plagued by problems

Some crypts flooded; funds alleged missing

Safety Issues Arise At Mokelumne Hill Cemetery

Snow blamed for knocking over headstones, not vandals

TOB Releases Guide to Historic Cemeteries

A lost cemetery, a lost child, a lost soldier: All found

Mount Hope cemetery holds more than past

It matters that things be taken care of at the first break of spring because this is where the stories of the tiny Palouse community of Mount Hope come to an end. The nearly 600 people buried here outnumber Mount Hope's living population roughly tenfold.

Nobody knows 'nothing at all' of cemetery statue

Church seeks money to restore historic cemetery

Owner of Jewish Graceland lets cemetery fall apart

Shorts sells funeral homes after 52 years

In our blood

Blake Sifton reflects on growing up in the shadow of his family's funeral home and corporate encroachment's threat to the integrity of the profession

Agency honors local business

Hines Funeral Service an 'SBA Success Story'

Mourning goes digital: Irish undertaker introduces funeral streaming

Disgusted with insurers, some ditching policies

Funeral homes make adjustments for obese clientele

In Scarborough, going to funeral requires a procession out of town

Scarborough, with a growing number of retirement communities and at least five housing developments that accept only people older than 55, is becoming a magnet for seniors. And the services they need.

Board Opens Hearing On Funeral Director

March 22, 2007

Industry News 03.22.07

Cemetery plagued with waterlogged graves, money dispute

Mosquitos could be used in cemetery

Elkins Funeral Home Owner Will Have to Repay Victims

Hampshire doctor ignored cremation guidelines

Parking issues stall funeral home relocation

Old Madison Cemetery holds tales of 1st residents

March 27, 2007

Industry News 03.27.07

SERVICE CORPORATION INTERNATIONAL Files SEC form 8-K, Financial Statements and Exhibits

Law allows Oregon hospitals to buy unidentified bodies

Forest Hill owners lose, Bankruptcy rejection frees up class actions

2nd arrest in cemetery scam

Former cemetery worker gets prison for stealing nearly 600 vases

March 28, 2007

Industry News 03.28.07

La Vergne wants new rules to protect cemeteries

Doctor in cremation probe suspended

Two arrested for burglarizing cemetery

Three Boys Arrested for Desecrating Graves in Crisfield Cemetery

Cemetery owes over $200,000 to families of deceased

Sheep owner in deep once flock hit cemetery

March 29, 2007

Industry News 03.29.07

Senate takes up issues of cremation, burial

Time capsule buried

This is a great way to promote your company with tools and expertise you already have.

Cost of death sometimes burdens local funeral homes

With land sky high, burials go upward

Leeds Muslim reject flood-hit cemetery

Doctor in cremations row suspended

Celebrant faces charges over fixing funeral costs

Boyne City Commission denies funeral home rezoning request

Grieving goes digital as funeral webcasts debut

Time to let funeral processions die?

Elkins funeral home owner ordered to repay $35,000 in pre-payments

Major League Baseball Themed Funerary Urns - OhGizmo!

Man has spent years restoring old cemeteries

March 30, 2007

Industry News 03.30.07

Care for our beloved deceased

Revulsion at Paupers' Burials

Military funeral picketing bill goes to Kansas governor

Painting new life into the past

200-year-old cemetery may yield historical gems

Split spouses may lose funeral decisions

Mosul: Victims Pile Up at City Morgue

Governor eases cremains identification

Funeral home closed

State fails to act against North Georgia funeral home

Funeral director pumps life into Operation Halt

Sebelius Signs Bills to Promote Energy Efficiency, Reduce CO2

Respecting funeral traditions

Green burial site set for refusal

The Elderlaw Forum: Deception in the burial insurance game

Burial tomorrow for female World War One vet