A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Indiana can’t cut off funding for Planned Parenthood just because the organization provides abortion, contrary to a 2011 law signed by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. That law was the first time a state denied Planned Parenthood Medicaid funds for general health services, including cancer screenings.

Via:

Indiana stepped between women and their physicians when it enacted a law that blocked Medicaid funds for Planned Parenthood just because the organization provides abortions, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago effectively upheld decisions by a district judge and a Medicaid review panel that found the 2011 law denied patients the right to choose their own health care provider.

"This is not about an abortion case. This is a case about Medicaid services - non-abortion-related services - and the attempt by the state of Indiana to punish Planned Parenthood and its clients from receiving non-abortion health services merely because Planned Parenthood, without any sort of state or federal money or any Medicaid funds, also provides abortions," Ken Falk, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, said at a news conference in Indianapolis following Tuesday's decision. The ACLU argued the case on behalf of Planned Parenthood.

A federal judge in Phoenix last week blocked Arizona from applying a similar law to Planned Parenthood. A similar law in Texas also is the focus of a court fight.

Indiana police say that a 17-year-old who was picked up for burglary has died after he strangled himself while handcuffed in the back seat of a police car. They say the teen managed to move his handcuffed hands from behind his back to the front of his body and then used the seat belt to strangle himself.

The local ABC news affiliate reported:

When the teen was discovered, police performed CPR and called for an ambulance, police reported.

Police said the teen was transported to St. John's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

“Our heart goes out to the family of the child that passed away while in police custody. It is a tragic situation when a death occurs with a person at such a young age," Anderson Mayor Kevin S. Smith said in a news release.

Crenshaw said he could not comment on the timeline of the events since the investigation is continuing.

He did say he's never seen a case like this before.

"It's very tragic for the family members of the young boy," Crenshaw said. "You respond to the crime, you try to do the police functions as you can and in a situation like this, it's tragic for the police department, for the officers involved and for the community."

The local news report has more details about the burglary police were investigating, but nothing more about how 17-year-old managed to kill himself in the back of a police car. Police wouldn't respond further questions citing the pending investigation into the death.

A new anti-Romney PAC ad features a man who worked at a paper plant in Marion, Indiana recalls the day all three shifts at the profitable manufacturer were ordered to stop what they were doing, and build a 30-foot stage inside the warehouse. Later, a group of men in suits walked up onto the stage to tell them that their plant was closed, and that they were all fired.

The "suits" were Mitt Romney's Bain Capital.

Romney made over $100 million by shutting down the plant. A small community was devastated.

"Turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin, and it just made me sick."