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June 29, 2010

Keeping Track Made Simple

Now for all you techies that enjoy a libation or two, no worries about having one too many! Last Call is a free, easy way to estimate your blood-alcohol level and determine if it's safe for you to drive after drinking. If not, use it to call a cab. Last Call also provides a list of top local DUI lawyers, provided by Avvo, to call for help if you need it.

booze.jpgHow it works:
  • Log your alcohol consumption as you drink.
  • Keep an eye on your blood-alcohol level as Last Call instantly estimates it.
  • Find nearby taxi services if your blood-alcohol level is too high.
  • Contact a top local DUI attorney on Avvo if you need one.
You can find the iPhone app at: http://www.avvo.com/personal-portable-breathalyzer.html?cm_mmc=avvo-_-Newsletter-_-06_10-_-iphone

June 24, 2010

Heed Falling Rock Warnings

A 17-year-old Michigan girl died last week in Estes Park when she was hit by a falling rock. The fatality happened at about 4 p.m. in downtown Estes Park near town hall. The incident happened in a town "green space" in a grassy area with a creek running through it. A cliff, also part of the public parcel, rises above the open space. The top of the park, where the rock outcropping peaks, is an area known as Willow Knolls. The safety of the area is being assessed by the town's civil engineer.

avalanche.jpgWhile vacationers are flooding into Colorado, many are unaware of the danger posed by falling rocks in our mountain areas. Just three months ago, Interstate 70 near Glenwood Springs was closed after a rockslide smashed through a bridge and dumped boulders the size of tractor trailers on the highway just west of the Hanging Lake Tunnel. Detours of up to 200 miles lasted for days, before the 17-mile stretch of interstate re-opened.

Gov. Bill Ritter declared a disaster emergency shortly after the slide in order to ask for money from the Federal Highway Administration to help pay for repairs. A similar slide in the same area in 2004 cost $700,000 to repair.

In a cruel irony, a 55-year-old Craig woman was killed on a stretch of mountain highway when a boulder smashed through the roof of the vehicle she was riding in. A single rock, about 12- to 18-inches in diameter, struck the roof of an eastbound 2004 Buick, killing the passenger in the car. Both women in the car were heading to work, using the detour established after the Glenwood Canyon slide. U.S. 40 was one of two main detour routes established around the large rockslide that shut down Interstate 70 in Glenwood Canyon.

And in March of 2009, a 63-year-old woman from Wisconsin sustained life-threatening injuries when she was struck by a falling rock as she hiked near the Boulder Falls Trailhead. The woman was hiking with her husband near Colorado 119 in Boulder Canyon, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office.

These types of accidents are frequently described as "freak accidents'" but some precautions lessen the threat. Every rock mountain is slowly disintegrating due to erosion, the process being especially rapid above the snow-line. Avoid sitting under cliffs or at the base of a rock face - particularly where rock debris has accumulated, indicating frequent falling rock. And keep in mind that rocks fall more frequently on some days than on others, according to the recent weather. Ice formed during the night may temporarily bind rocks to the face but warmth of the day or lubricating water from melting snow or rain may easily dislodge these rocks.

When driving, pay attention to signs and radio warnings concerning falling rocks and rock slides. Never go into an area where officials have requested you not enter. And avoid areas prone to falling rocks after a heavy rain or snow storm, or when the snow begins to melt. If you encounter a stretch of highway marked with falling rock warnings, hurry through the. This is not the place to stop and take pictures or try to climb the rock wall.

June 22, 2010

Fireworks Pose Real Danger

The porch of a southwest Denver home went up in flames early yesterday morning and witnesses told investigators the fire was sparked by a Roman candle. Denver firefighters put out the fire, which was contained to an enclosed porch, in about ten minutes, and no one was injured. But the incident is an early reminder of how dangerous fireworks are.

fireworks.jpgColorado law defines a permissible firework as any device that does not explode nor leave the ground. Municipalities and counties have written ordinances that are even more restrictive than the state's description. While fireworks can be legally purchased in Wyoming and in some unincorporated areas of Colorado, they become illegal when possessed in municipalities or counties where they have been banned. Any fireworks that ignite or explode are illegal in Denver. In Denver and Boulder, a violation can result in fines of up to $999 and up to six months in jail. In Colorado Springs, it is up to $500 and 90 days in jail.

And the danger is not just a threat to by-standers; it is also the extreme danger of wildfires in arid Colorado. About 1,100 fires are started by fireworks in the state each year, according to the Colorado Springs Fire Department.

Every year the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission urges families to put safety first during the Fourth of July holiday and celebrate with caution when it comes to fireworks. The latest report from CPSC shows that there were reports of seven fireworks-related deaths and an estimated 7,000 hospital emergency room treated injuries in 2008. In 2007, CPSC had reports of eleven deaths and an estimated 9,800 injuries. The one-month period surrounding the Fourth of July is the most dangerous time, 70 percent of all fireworks-related injuries occurred between June 20th and July 20th.

CPSC continues to work to keep American families safe by educating the public about the risk of injury associated with fireworks, enforcing fireworks regulations, and prosecuting dealers and distributors who manufacture and sell illegal explosives. As a part of its fireworks enforcement program, CPSC actively works with ATF to investigate roadside stands, warehouses and retail stores that sell professional grade explosives to consumers, and homes that serve as havens for the manufacture of dangerous fireworks devices. These investigations have resulted in dozens of successful prosecutions by the Justice Department's Office of Consumer Litigation and U.S. Attorney offices across the country.

While the federal government remains committed to stopping the manufacture and sale of illegal fireworks, CPSC encourages consumers who decide to purchase legal fireworks to:

  • Never allow young children to play with or ignite fireworks.
  • Make sure fireworks are legal in your area before buying or using them.
  • Avoid buying fireworks that come in brown paper packaging, as this can often be a sign that the fireworks were made for professional displays and could pose a danger to consumers.
  • Adults should always supervise fireworks activities. Parents often don't realize that there are many injuries from sparklers to children under five. Sparklers burn at temperatures of about 2,000 degrees - hot enough to melt some metals.
  • Never have any portion of your body directly over a fireworks device when lighting the fuse. Move back a safe distance immediately after lighting.
  • Never try to re-light or pick up fireworks that have not fully functioned.
  • Never point or throw fireworks at another person.
  • Keep a bucket of water or a garden hose handy in case of fire or other mishap.
  • Light one item at a time, then move back quickly.
  • Never carry fireworks in a pocket or shoot them off in metal or glass containers.
  • After fireworks fully complete their functioning, douse the spent device with plenty of water from a bucket or hose before discarding to prevent a trash fire.

June 17, 2010

Bicyclists Banned in Black Hawk

Black Hawk is the only town in Colorado which bans bicycling through town. And this past weekend it issued the first tickets to bicyclists violating the ban. Black Hawk's new rule was actually enacted in January and prohibits bike riding on nearly every street in town, including the only paved thoroughfare in Black Hawk.

bicyclists.jpgCity Manager Mike Copp said safety is the reason for the ban. The roads in Black Hawk are narrow and do not have shoulders. Tour buses and delivery trucks crowd through to the local casinos. Forcing those large vehicles over three feet when passing cyclists, as required by a 2009 Colorado law , means trucks and buses must move into oncoming traffic, Copp said.

After a period of issuing warnings, police this month began citing cyclists. To date, the town has issued eight $68 tickets. Cyclists using the road to connect to the popular ride along the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway from Black Hawk to Estes Park are protesting the ban, which forces them to walk their bikes a half-mile through town. Another option is to ride over Berthoud Pass -- but that excludes most of the Peak to Peak Scenic Byway.

The opposition to the ban formed a Facebook page called "Bicyclists and Tourists Boycott Black Hawk Colorado," launched last week. The website dismountblackhawk.com is offering shirts protesting the ban. Bicycle Colorado, a nonprofit dedicated to all things cycling in Colorado, is working on a grassroots push to get Black Hawk to overturn the ban.

Black Hawk officials expected the uproar and have no plans to reconsider the ban.

June 14, 2010

Pay per Signature for Petitioners OK

U.S. District Court Judge Phillip Brimmer has ruled in favor of a conservative think-tank, saying that the Colorado statute which barred citizen sponsored ballot-proposal sponsors from paying petition signature gatherers per signature was an unconstitutional violation of the First Amendment.

The law forbids petition circulators from receiving more than 20 percent of their pay on a per-signature basis. Caldara, of the Independence Institute, and another plaintiff, marijuana proponent Mason Tvert, alleged that this statue was created to create barriers in the petition gathering process to eliminate ballot initiatives that were unpopular with elected officials. The prime example of such successful initiatives is the citizen-sponsored tax reform, TABOR.

The judge granted the plaintiffs' preliminary injunction request, and the plaintiffs are now free to pay petition circulators by the signature. The defendant, Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, has said that the law was created as a response to the alleged fraud in signature-gathering in 2008.

Caldara sued, contending that HB09-1326 makes signature gathering more expensive and threatens an anti- health-care-reform initiative he's trying to get on the November ballot. The complaint resulted in a three-day trial. Caldara sought an emergency suspension of the law.

The Independence Institute is sponsoring a ballot initiative against federal health-care reform in Colorado. Tvert wishes to circulate a petition calling for a general election referendum on further loosening marijuana laws in Colorado.

June 11, 2010

Colorado Hospital Employees Under Tighter Oversight

Earlier this week, Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law two measures in response to recent cases of Colorado hospital employees abusing drugs. The laws require employers to report health care workers under suspicion to the state Department of Health within two weeks and to make information about a case available to the public, including future employers.

Earlier this year, a Rose surgical technician admitted stealing fentanyl, a painkiller used during surgery, from surgical trays and refilling the syringes with saline water - thus exposing about 6,000 patients to the hepatitis C with which she is infected. Kristen Parker was sentenced in February to 30 years in prison after being convicted of stealing the painkillers.

Parker was fired from Rose Medical Center in Denver and reported to state authorities. But Parker went on to work at Audubon Surgery Center in Colorado Springs. Prior to working in Colorado, Parker worked in Mount Kisco, N.Y., and in Houston, where, she admits, to having also stolen medication. To read more about the Rose exposure, see Hep C Toll Up to 23 Patients.

Last year, a former surgery nurse who worked at Boulder Community Hospital admitted using needles, intended for patients, to steal pain medication. That nurse, Ashton Daigle, was sentenced to four and a half years in federal prison.

It is expected that the increased reporting could help stop drug-addicted medical workers from moving around to continue a drug habit without detection.
The other law sets up a statewide registry of surgical technologists and surgical assistants. Employers will have to verify those workers are in good standing before allowing them to work in Colorado.

Colorado now becomes the seventh state to regulate surgery techs. The others are Indiana, Illinois, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington. The Association of Surgical Technologists supported Colorado's new laws. The group said that surgical techs and assistants were the only unlicensed members of a surgical team.

June 9, 2010

Reasons to Avoid Stand-Alone Surgical Clinics

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association concludes that infection mistakes are common at U.S. outpatient surgical centers, where procedures such as colonoscopies take place. The research suggests that millions of patients may be at risk of contagion.

bacteria.jpgMore than half of 68 Maryland, North Carolina and Oklahoma day-surgery centers in the study were cited for inadequate procedures, such as lack of hand washing and failure to disinfect blood-glucose meters. Several million patients annually may be exposed to infection at the more than 5,000 centers in the U.S.

The study considers the risks at outpatient centers, as compared to hospitals. About 1.7 million infections occur annually at hospitals, leading to about 100,000 deaths for in-patients, according to an April report by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The most-common infections at hospitals are of the urinary tract, surgical sites or the bloodstream, the earlier research found.

But more than six million procedures are performed each year at ambulatory surgical centers, whose numbers have soared in the past decade, the researchers said. The number of outpatient-surgery facilities certified by Medicare, the federal health program for the elderly and disabled, jumped 50 percent from 2001 and to 2008, reaching more than 5,000.

The sites studied were chosen at random and the states volunteered to be part of the research. Representatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services trained state inspectors on how to assess compliance in five areas: hand hygiene, injection safety and medication handling, equipment reprocessing, environmental cleaning, and handling of blood- glucose-monitoring equipment.

The inspections occurred in 2008. The researchers found that 46, or 68 percent, of the centers had at least one lapse in infection control, and 18 percent had deficiencies in three or more of the five infection-control categories. Twelve centers had errors in hand hygiene, 18 had problems related to using single-dose medicines for more than one person, and 19 didn't follow recommendations regarding the cleaning, disinfection or repair of surgical equipment.

The percentage of inspections with problems related to infection control was more than six-fold higher than the number reported to Medicare nationally from October 2006 through September 2007, the researchers said. As of May, 2009, Medicare updated health and safety standards for the centers, requiring them to maintain infection- control programs based on national guidelines. Medicare is currently in the process of inspecting one-third of the centers.

June 7, 2010

Colorado Governor Signs New Pot Laws

Colorado's medical marijuana industry will now have to follow new statewide regulations. Gov. Bill Ritter today signed two bills passed by state lawmakers this session to rein in the growing number of marijuana dispensaries and growers. Both laws take effect immediately.

One of the new laws requires that only doctors in good standing be able to provide a medical recommendation for medical marijuana. The other law sets up a uniform set of rules for marijuana dispensaries and growers statewide.

Under the new law, cities and counties are able to ban dispensaries within their borders. In places where the dispensaries are allowed, owners will have to undergo criminal background checks. And dispensaries must grow 70 percent of their marijuana, a provision aimed at keeping tabs on where the drug is being grown.

June 3, 2010

Justice Does Not Require Judges

All nine of the current justices on the U.S. Supreme court were federal judges before their elevation, but the nominee to replace Justice John Paul Stevens has no such experience. And Justice Antonin Scalia thinks that is just fine.

In a speech sponsored by Catholic University's Columbus School of Law, Scalia said being a judge was not a requirement in the past, noting that when he came to the Supreme Court, three of the sitting justices had never been a federal judge.

William Rehnquist came to the bench from the Office of Legal Counsel. Byron White was deputy attorney general. And Lewis Powell was a private lawyer in Richmond and had been president of the American Bar Association.

Scalia voiced concern that the judicial selection has become so politicized that presidents are reluctant to nominate anyone from outside the judiciary, both for the Supreme Court and the federal appeals courts. Scalia views the promotion system as "dangerous" because it follows the "European system" of professional judges that has produced a bench of "ultimate bureaucrats."

June 1, 2010

White Water Dangers

Colorado white-water rafting is a fun and popular recreational sport in Colorado. But the drowning of two raft guide trainees last month, and the disappearance of a tourist into the Cache La Poudre River while inner-tubing on Sunday highlight the dangers of the rivers. But proper safety precautions may prevent accidents and general discomfort. Some safety preparations apply to white-water rafting in general; others are specific to Colorado's high-altitude environment.

canoe.jpgWeather Considerations Many of the safety precautions regarding white-water rafting and weather assume that Colorado has typical weather patterns. Anyone who has spent a few years living in the state would advise against using the words "typical" and "Colorado weather" in the same sentence. Mid-summer snow, which can cause sudden drops in temperature, is not unusual. Polypropylene long underwear can keep you warm, even when your body gets wet. A neoprene wet suit also offers protection from cold weather and cold water. Dehydration can compromise your body's temperature regulation, so drink plenty of water before you reach the river.

Rafting Season

The Colorado rafting season usually begins in May and ends in September. Colorado rivers are filled by the snow melt from the surrounding mountains, which means the rivers are faster from mid-May to mid-June and the water is cold. During seasons of low precipitation, water levels may drop by late summer exposing the rivers' rocky bottoms. This can present technical problems for inexperienced paddlers.

Altitude Effects

Visitors from sea level are often affected by Colorado's high-altitude environment. Local oxygen may be 40 percent less dense, and 50 to 80 percent less humid. Headache, nausea, decreased energy levels and insomnia are common symptoms of altitude sickness. Altitude sickness may be avoided or diminished by spending a few days at a lower elevation, such as Denver or Boulder, before heading to the mountains.

Sunburn Warning

Colorado's high altitude also makes outdoor recreationists more susceptible to the sun's ultraviolet rays. Even on cloudy days use waterproof SPF 30+ sunscreen on your face, and wear waterproof goggles.

Rapid Rating Identification

Colorado uses the international rapid rating scale, which corresponds to six levels of rafting proficiency. Staying within your skill level is the best safety precaution. Class I rafting is done in easy, still waters. Class I requires little or no skill. Class II rapids may have a few waves, as well as a few rocks. They require novice skills. Class III rapids are characterized by their medium-sized waves. A faster current and more regular waves occur in Class IV rapids. An even faster current and larger waves characterize Class V rapids. Class VI rapids have extremely fast currents and large waves. Class VI should only be attempted by professional rafters. Always raft with a professional guide, who can teach you the appropriate skills for the different rapid ratings.

Prevention/Solution

People usually do not get lost on Colorado white-water rafting trips, but purchasing a Colorado Outdoor Recreation Search and Rescue Card is an important investment. The card costs $3 in 2010. It is not an insurance policy, but it provides funds for local search and rescue teams. You will still be charged for their services, but your card enables them to stay in business. Without proper funding for search and rescue operations, there could be a delay in any attempt to search for a person lost in the river or in the Colorado wilderness.


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