| Justice Undone: Is It Time to Reform Tort Reform? | Article explores the real consequences of so-called "tort reform" in medical malpractice cases in Texas. Click on the headline to access the article by John Nova Lomax in the October 2014 edition of the Houstonia Magazine.
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Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| Dallas Hospital Knew Man Had Been to West Africa but Didnâ??t Isolate Him for Ebola Testing |  | Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital officials apparently failed to follow federal guidelines in their initial handling of the man now known to have the deadly Ebola virus by sending him home after he told a nurse he had recently traveled from West Africa. Thomas Eric Duncan of Liberia showed up at the Dallas emergency room about 10 p.m. Sept. 25 with what hospital officials said was fever and abdominal pain. A nurse questioned him about travel and Duncan acknowledged he had been in Liberia just seven days earlier, hospital officials said. But key members of the medical team were not alerted to his travel history. And instead of being placed in an isolation unit and tested for Ebola, as the guidelines issued two months ago suggest, he was given antibiotics and sent home, they said.
DIANNA HUNT, The Dallas Morning News 10/02/2014    | | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News |
| Open Pits Offer Cheap Disposal for Fracking Sludge, but Health Worries Mount | | | In Nordheim, TX a commercial waste facility that will receive millions of barrels of toxic sludge from oil and gas production for disposal in enormous open-air pits is taking shape there, and School Superintendent Kevin Wilson worries that the ever-present Texas wind will carry traces of dangerous chemicals, including benzene, to the school. Along with Nordheimâ??s mayor and other angry residents, Wilson is trying to stop the 204-acre facility, but he faces an uphill battle. In Texas, as in most states, air emissions from oil and gas waste are among the least regulated, least monitored and least understood components in the extraction and production cycle. Although the wastewater and sludge can contain the same chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing and other processes â?? chemicals known to affect human health â??little has been done to measure waste emissions or determine their possible impact on nearby residents.
David Hasemyer & Zahra Hirji, The Center for Public Integrity 10/02/2014
| | Read Article: The Center for Public Integrity |
| Lawsuit Filed Over 911 Dispatch Error Results in Fatal Shooting | | The families of two people who were shot and killed in July after a 911 dispatcher sent police to the wrong address have filed a lawsuit. A 25-year-old woman and a 32-year-old man from St. Louis were shot by the woman's boyfriend before police arrived at the scene. The woman had called 911 half an hour before she and the man with her were shot. The lawsuit names the city police department, each of the former St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners and the 911 dispatcher as defendants.
Joel Currier, St. Louis Post Dispatch 10/01/2014 | | Read Article: St. Louis Post Dispatch |
| Judge Dismisses Lauren Spierer Lawsuit | | A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the parents of Lauren Spierer, a young woman who disappeared three years ago. The civil negligence lawsuit was filed against the two men who were last seen with the girl on the night she disappeared. In the ruling on Tuesday, the U.S. District judge ruled that the parents did not provide sufficient evidence to prove that the men were at fault for the girl's disappearance. The ruling came about a year after the lawsuit was filed and alleged that the men gave the girl alcohol despite her already being intoxicated.
Kristine Guerra, Indianapolis Star 10/01/2014 | | Read Article: Indianapolis Star |
| Lawsuit Alleges Church Official Molested Girl | | A Vermont woman and her sister have filed a lawsuit alleging that they were sexually abused by a Jehovah's Witness official in the mid-90s. The lawsuit alleges that the man, who was an official at a Bellows Falls, Vermont church, fondled the girls on several occasions when they were very young. The defendant, a ministerial servant for the church, was alleged to have molested the girls at the church and at his barn in Bellows Falls. The girls were 4 and 5 years old at the time of the alleged abuse.
Sam Hemingway, Burlington Free Press 09/30/2014 | | Read Article: Burlington Free Press |
| Judge Allows Investor Suits Over Gulf Spill to Proceed | | BP failed to persuade U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison in Houston to dismiss several lawsuits brought by American and British institutional investors claiming the oil company misled them about the impact of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. In a series of rulings unsealed Wednesday the judge disagreed with many of BP's arguments for killing the securities lawsuits brought by foreign investors and U.S. public pension funds. Ellison allowed 85 plaintiffs' cases to move forward. Fifteen others survived BP's efforts to dismiss them last year, and 20 more are still pending.
Collin Eaton, Houston Chronicle 10/02/2014 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle |
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