| | TTLA Annual Meeting: REGISTER ONLINE BY DEC 3 & SAVE $279 | | Formerly the TTLA Annual Conference, our December event is now the Annual Meeting & Advanced PI CLE! We've streamlined this event and we're now offering a one-day Advanced PI CLE, along with the Annual Membership & Board Meeting, President's Luncheon, and a spectacular Holiday Party with dinner and dancing with the famous Lee Roy Parnell. Click on the headline to learn more! | | Woman who Lost her Face Awarded $4 Million | |  | | A Connecticut woman who had her face and hands ripped off by a friend's chimpanzee in 2009 has been awarded $4 million in a lawsuit against the animal's owner. The award, however, will not come close to covering a lifetime of medical care the woman will need. The plaintiff also hopes to sue the state of Connecticut, alleging the state was aware the animal was a danger but did nothing to protect citizens, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Tina Susman, LA Times 11/30/2012    | | Read Article: LA Times | | Parents File Suit Jailed Teen's Alleged Rape | | | | For months, no one stopped or questioned Robert Emerson Robinson for leaving his post as a jailer on the boys unit at the Harris County Juvenile Justice Center and going to the girls' floor. Instead, many of the jailer's co-workers covered for him when he did leave. These allegations are outlined in a civil lawsuit by the parents of the 15-year-old girl, who was housed at the juvenile detention center and allegedly sexually assaulted by Robinson in May.
Anita Hassan , Houston Chronicle 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | | Landowner Takes Different Tack in Suit Against N. TX Pipeline | | | | Acting as his own lawyer, Michael Bishop, 64, filed a lawsuit against the state’s oil and gas regulator to try to stop a Canadian company’s pipeline from running across his property. The suit is a new legal approach to keep TransCanada’s pipeline off his 20-acre plot of land in Nacogdoches County. Bishop isn’t suing TransCanada over its use of eminent domain laws, as has been tried previously by others in Ok and Tx. Instead, Bishop is suing the Texas Railroad Commission, which regulates the oil and gas industry in the state.
Tim Eaton, Austin American Statesman 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: Austin American Statesman | | Medical Technician Accused in Hepatitis C Infections Is Indicted on New Charges | | | | A traveling medical technician who is believed to have infected at least 39 people with hepatitis C through his use of stolen hospital drugs and syringes was indicted late Wednesday in New Hampshire on 14 new charges. The technician, David Kwiatkowski, known as the “serial infector,” was arrested in July and charged with tampering with a consumer product and illegally obtaining drugs, primarily fentanyl, a powerful anesthetic that is about 80 times more potent than morphine.
KATHARINE Q. SEELYE, The New York Times 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | Boy Scouts Defy S.A. Judge on ‘Perversion Files' | | | | The Boy Scouts of America will not obey a San Antonio judge's order instructing the agency to release more than 20 years of confidential files it uses to keep suspected pedophiles from becoming troop leaders or volunteers. In an order in August, State District Judge Martha Tanner ordered the files released by today, which would have given the public a glimpse at hundreds of pages of internal BSA documents from the mid-1980s through 2011. But earlier this week, the BSA instead filed in the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio a request for an expedited stay of Tanner's order and arguing that the BSA should not have to release the files, because keeping them confidential would encourage victims to come forward.
Guillermo Contreras, San Antonio Express News 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: San Antonio Express News | | Suit Filed Against Nonprofit Chicago Hospital | | | | Two low-income, uninsured Illinois residents have filed a lawsuit against nonprofit hospital Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago over failure to provide care. One of the plaintiffs claims the hospital "repeatedly" lost her financial assistance application and threatened to send her bill to a collection agency. The lawsuit is seeking $50,000 in punitive damages.
Wire Report, San Francisco Chronicle 11/29/2012 | | Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle | | FDA Orders Peanut Butter Production Halted | | | | The FDA has shut down a Sunland, Inc. peanut butter factory after the company's product was linked to a widespread salmonella outbreak. The outbreak sickened 41 people in 20 states across the country. In 2010, President Obama granted the FDA power to show down food producers over health concerns, and this was the first time the administration has exercised those powers.
Schuyler Velasco, Christian Science Monitor 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: Christian Science Monitor | | Consumer Agency Finds Most Adult Bedrail Deaths Are Among Those 60 and Older | | | | The Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday released a review of bedrail deaths and injuries of adults as it considered how to address potential hazards associated with the products. Sixty-one percent of the bedrail deaths occurred at home. About a quarter occurred at a nursing home or an assisted living facility, the report said. It also found that nearly half of those who died in bedrail accidents had medical problems — dementia, heart disease and Parkinson’s disease among them. Most of the 155 deaths occurred when a person became stuck in the bedrails, mainly with his or her head or neck getting caught. Almost 37,000 people were injured in bedrail accidents and treated at hospital emergency rooms from 2003 through 2011, the agency said. Data for 2012 was not yet available.
RON NIXON, The New York Times 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | Simple Measures Cut Infections Caught in Hospitals | | | | Preventing surgery-linked infections is a major concern for hospitals and it turns out some simple measures can make a big difference. A project at seven big hospitals reduced infections after colorectal surgeries by nearly one-third. It prevented an estimated 135 infections, saving almost $4 million, the Joint Commission hospital regulating group and the American College of Surgeons announced Wednesday. The two groups directed the 2 1/2-year project. Solutions included having patients shower with special germ-fighting soap before surgery, and having surgery teams change gowns, gloves and instruments during operations to prevent spreading germs picked up during the procedures.
Associated Press, Yahoo News 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: Yahoo News | | Utah DOT Named in Fatal Car Crash Lawsuit | | | | The Utah Department of Transportation has been hit with a wrongful death lawsuit over a fatal accident on Interstate 215 in January 2011 that killed one woman. The suit accuses the department of failing to safely remove snow from an on-ramp where the woman crashed her vehicle. Snow packed against barricades and guard rails on the on-ramp "propelled [the victim's] car up and over the guard rail," the family says in the lawsuit. The woman's family is seeking unspecified damages.
Jessica Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune 11/30/2012 | | Read Article: The Salt Lake Tribune | | |
