These tough economic times have resulted in countless foreclosures and evictions, but one this past weekend in Pontiac, Michigan posed some unusual problems for authorities responsible for emptying the premises – what to do with the bodies. The business was a funeral home, and among the items that had to be removed were five bodies and the cremated remains of 22 others.
The Food and Drug Administration has earned well-deserved criticism for negligent oversight of the safety of drugs on the U.S. market. Last week, the federal agency launched a new section of its website to try and remedy some of the lapse in information available to the public.
Information on drug safety has been consolidated on the FDA’s website at http://www.fda.gov/cder/drugSafety.htm. Consumers and health professionals can now find information about the FDA's drug safety efforts on the Web.
HealthGrades, a Colorado group which leads in the field of health-care quality measurement, has just published new rankings for hospitals across the country. Much like the rating of hotels, under the HealthGrades system, medical centers get one, three or five stars based on how many patients develop complications and die after receiving treatment.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a new rule this past week known as the "designated seating position" rule. It revises the definition of "designated seating position" to determine the number of seat belts that are required in a particular vehicle, and it eliminates the exclusion of auxiliary seats from the definition so that all seating locations intended to be used while a vehicle is in motion would provide the appropriate levels of crash protection.
But once again the NHTSA has included a bar against state personal injury suits by inserting a pre-emption provision in a new rule governing seat belt safety, according to consumer and trial lawyer groups. The new rule also contains language that would specifically pre-empt state tort claims related to seat belt injuries.
A poor Colorado man is killed while purchasing firewood for his home, as the result of negligence on the part of business. The business is sued, and when preparing for trial the business asks the trial judge to allow the business to argue that even if it owes the widow for the loss of her husband’s income, the business should receive credit for taxes the poor guy would have had to pay had he lived.
Over the past decade, the prepaid calling card business has exploded into a $4 billion industry that introduces new competition into the market for international phone calls and provided many immigrants the only means with which to connect with family and friends back home. The cards are everywhere - sold in gas stations, newsstands, convenience stores, bodegas and groceries across the country.
But consumer advocates and government officials warn that certain segments of the market are plagued by fraud and deceptive practices that give consumers fewer minutes than they pay for and tack on all sorts of hidden and unfair "junk fees." Some offer cards that simply do not work.
A new government report indicates that over 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were far more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes. And in 17 percent of nursing homes the deficiencies caused “actual harm or immediate jeopardy” to patients according to the Department of Health and Human Services report.
