| Save the Date | TTLA Members: please mark your calendars to attend the TTLA Annual Membership Meeting & Board of Directors Meeting December 4th & 5th at the Sheraton in Austin. Details and registration information coming soon.
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| Litigation in Commercial Vehicle Crashes | The folks at Texas LawBook, (http://texaslawbook.net), a subscription-only online business litigation publication, are sharing a recent article on commercial vehicle litigation with the TTLA membership. Click on the headline to access the article.
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Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| Why Are More Latinos Dying on the Job Again? |  | Latinos still make up a much larger portion of workers in dangerous jobs like construction, and haven't benefited as much from the economy-wide changes that have made the workplace safer for for everyone else. The most glaring sign of the problem, experts say, is the worker fatality rate: The overall number of on the job-deaths reached an all-time low of 3.2 fatalities per 100,000 workers in 2013, while the Latino rate inched up again to 3.8 from 3.7. Injuries often go under-reported, especially among Latinos. Another challenge: Companies choose whether to report workplace injuries to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and often no race is included.
Lydia DePillis, The Washington Post 10/08/2014    | | Read Article: The Washington Post |
| 2 Studies Find Danger in Talking to Your Car While Driving | | Two new studies have found that voice-activated smartphones and dashboard infotainment systems may be making the distracted-driving problem worse instead of better. The systems let drivers do things such as tune the radio, send a text message or make a phone call while keeping their eyes on the road and their hands on the wheel. But many of these systems are so error-prone or complex that they require more concentration from drivers rather than less, according to studies released Tuesday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the University of Utah.
WIRE REPORTS, The Dallas Morning News 10/08/2014 | | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News |
| Michigan Couple Sue After Police Shoot Their Dog | | A couple from Flint, Michigan have filed a lawsuit after their dog was shot in the face by police officers who were pursuing a fugitive at the wrong house. According to the lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court, officers accidentally ended up in the plaintiffs' backyard, believing it to be another house. When the plaintiffs' dog came outside, one officer shot the dog in the face. According to the complaint, the dog was not barking when she was shot. The dog survived but has had three surgeries so far and has lost part of her tongue and one tooth. The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.
Tresa Baldas, USA Today 10/08/2014 | | Read Article: USA Today |
| Student Sues College After Brutal Rape | | | A lawsuit filed against Virginia Wesleyan College claims the school did not do enough to protect female students from sexual assaults on campus and fails to adequately help them after they are assaulted. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a student raped on her third day of freshman orientation in 2012 who since has left the college. A peer adviser invited the student to an on-campus party, according to the complaint. While at the party, she said was given a shot laced with drugs and then a member of the school's lacrosse team raped her.
Nick Ochsner, WVEC-TV, USA Today 10/08/2014
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| Lawsuit: Police Smashed Car Window and Used Taser on Passenger | | A lawsuit has been filed against the police department of Hammond, Illinois over an incident in which police broke the window of a vehicle and used a Taser on one of its passengers. The incident took place on Sept. 24, when police pulled over one woman for not wearing her seatbelt. The police proceeded to ask the driver, as well as her friend in the passenger seat, for their driver's licenses. When the passenger said he did not have his license because he had been ticketed for not paying his insurance, the officer told him to step out of the car. Fearing for his safety, the passenger refused to get out of the car, the lawsuit contends. According to police, the officer smashed the window and used a Taser on him only after seeing that the man was reaching into the back of the car. The lawsuit accuses the police officers of excessive force, battery and false arrest, stating that the officers' actions "were taken intentionally with malice, willfulness, and reckless indifference to the rights and safety of plaintiffs."
Quinn Ford, Chicago Tribune 10/07/2014 | | Read Article: Chicago Tribune |
| Medicare Revises Nursing Home Rating System | | The federal government on Monday announced substantial changes to the government's five-star rating program for nursing homes, a widely used consumer tool that has been criticized for its reliance on self-reported, unverified data. Nursing homes will have to begin reporting their staffing levels quarterly using an electronic system that can be verified with payroll data. And officials will initiate a nationwide auditing program aimed at checking whether the so-called quality measures rating ' which is based on information collected about every patient ' is accurate. Beginning in January, nursing homes' ratings will also be based partly on the percentage of its residents being given antipsychotic drugs.
KATIE THOMAS, The New York Times 10/08/2014 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
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