March 1, 2015

Free of Ebola but not fear: Nurse Nina Pham to file lawsuit against Presby parent

Photo by Smiley Pool

Experimental drugs and special care helped make Nina Pham Ebola free. But today she fears she may never escape the deadly disease.

The 26-year-old nurse says she has nightmares, body aches and insomnia as a result of contracting the disease from a patient she cared for last fall at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

She says the hospital and its parent company, Texas Health Resources, failed her and her colleagues who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola.

“I wanted to believe that they would have my back and take care of me, but they just haven’t risen to the occasion,” Pham told The Dallas Morning News last week in an exclusive interview.

Read more: http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/nina-pham/

Cross-posted in General Discussion.

March 1, 2015

Free of Ebola but not fear: Nurse Nina Pham to file lawsuit against Presby parent

Photo: Smiley Pool

Experimental drugs and special care helped make Nina Pham Ebola free. But today she fears she may never escape the deadly disease.

The 26-year-old nurse says she has nightmares, body aches and insomnia as a result of contracting the disease from a patient she cared for last fall at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.

She says the hospital and its parent company, Texas Health Resources, failed her and her colleagues who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the United States diagnosed with Ebola.

“I wanted to believe that they would have my back and take care of me, but they just haven’t risen to the occasion,” Pham told The Dallas Morning News last week in an exclusive interview.

Read more: http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/nina-pham/

Cross-posted in the Texas Group.

March 1, 2015

Texas School Persecutes Female Assistant Principal Because Her IUD Caused Her To Bleed

Another Texas school has joined the race to be the most outrageously ignorant education facility in the state after administrators placed a female assistant principal on leave because they don’t believe her IUD caused her to bleed during a training session, and it just gets more outrageous from there.

Kourtney Glaser has worked hard to become a respected assistant principal at Comanche Springs Elementary School. She’s also a wife and a new mother. That’s why she uses an IUD, a intrauterine birth control device that prevents pregnancy.

Unfortunately, Glaser experienced a medical emergency during a district training session when she began bleeding heavily after the IUD became lodged in her uterine wall. At the hospital, doctors removed the device and stopped the bleeding.

Glaser expected to return to work and her normal routine, but the district decided to put her on leave instead. Why? Because her bosses don’t believe her bleeding was caused by the IUD. They think her lady bleeding was caused by “severe anxiety,” accused her of being afraid of public speaking, and demanded she show them her private medical records despite the fact that she had already provided district officials the necessary documentation to back up her story.

But the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District refuses to believe that the IUD caused the medical emergency. You know, because Texas is full of morons who know nothing about female anatomy and are in denial that women actually use birth control.

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2015/02/27/texas-school-persecutes-female-assistant-principal-because-her-iud-caused-her-to-bleed-video/

March 1, 2015

Stunning emails paint Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard as desperate for money, favors

A filing today {Friday} by special prosecutors cites evidence and emails that portray Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard as a man who, despite wearing the fine cloth of one of the state's most powerful men, teetered on the brink of financial collapse and desperately pleaded with friends, lobbyists and principals for money and jobs in a way that put him on the wrong side of the law.

Hubbard was indicted last year on 23 felony counts of using his office for personal gain. The revelations today come in response to a motion by Hubbard's defense team to more specifically describe the charges against the Speaker.

The filing and the cited evidence indicate Hubbard was facing tremendous financial pressure. After being elected Speaker in 2010, he was laid off by his primary employer, Auburn's IMG Sports Network. His own company, Craftmaster, failed to pay employee withholding taxes to the federal government in 2011, which led to the company defaulting on a $600,000 loan from Regions Bank personally guaranteed by Hubbard.

Hubbard went to Will Brooke, a financial advisor at Harbert Management Corporation and a board member at the Business Council of Alabama (and a former candidate for the U.S. House in the 6th District) to develop a plan.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/02/stunning_emails_paint_ala_hous.html

March 1, 2015

Boy, 3, who accidentally shot himself in Northwest Harris County has died

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- A three-year-old boy who accidentally shot himself inside a home in northwest Harris County Friday has died, according to the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office.

The shooting happened in the 7400 block of Bentanna Drive at Elmont in the Hearthstone subdivision around 12:30pm. A Cy-Fair Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesperson says the boy was found by his mother, who frantically called 911 for help.

Harris County Precinct 5 Captain Romeo Chapa tells us they believe the child's parents have a concealed handgun permit and that the child may have found the gun and accidentally shot himself.

The child was airlifted to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where he died.

Read more: http://abc13.com/news/3-year-old-boy-shot-in-the-head-cyfair-vfd-says/537322/

March 1, 2015

Pastor James Manning: Stoning Is Still The Law, ‘Jesus Would Stone Homos’

Flickr via EveryStockPhoto

Our favorite [font color=green](???)[/font] crazy pastor is BACK! Harlem Pastor James Manning is now calling for the return of stoning (as in, throwing rocks at people) and is specifically suggesting that we stone “the homos.” After all, he claims, “stoning is still the law.” See the image below from his church’s billboard.


Joe My God

From Joe My God:



Pastor Manning loves to use his church’s billboard for shocking people. He did this one last month:


Joe My God

Read more: http://www.liberalamerica.org/2015/02/27/pastor-james-manning-stoning-is-still-the-law-jesus-would-stone-homos/

March 1, 2015

Signs of Neglect, Wear and Tear in State Government

Dilapidated parks. Walls patched with toilet paper. Rodent urine leaking into the ceiling at a state school for deaf and disabled kids. Decades-old computer and technology systems. A backlog of pipeline safety inspections. Consumers getting “screwed” at the gas pump for lack of fraud investigators.

The signs of wear and tear in state government seem to be cropping up everywhere.

It didn’t happen overnight. The deterioration in state parks, hit by a series of budget cuts and outright raids on its supposedly dedicated funding by lawmakers, has been a running plot line in the papers for several years.

Likewise, the deferred maintenance at state buildings, which could cost almost $1 billion assuming the work begins now, dates backs a generation in some cases.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/28/rats-bats-and-bureaucratic-woe-state-government/

February 28, 2015

High Court Ruling Protects Insurers from Lawsuits

The Texas Supreme Court has dramatically expanded the rights of insurance companies to duck lawsuits from injured workers, even when they are accused of intentionally misrepresenting policies or using the criminal justice system to maliciously punish the worker.

In a unanimous, unsigned decision handed down Friday, the high court ruled that the Texas Department of Insurance has exclusive jurisdiction over such complaints within the workers' compensation system. Translation: State regulators can use their administrative powers to sanction insurers who inflict such harm, but the workers can't sue for damages.

The decision arose from a lawsuit filed by Glenn Johnson and his wife, Natalie. Both were arrested and accused of committing insurance fraud based on a complaint by the insurance company, according to court records. The charges were later dropped after the evidence fell apart.

Johnson, horribly burned in a smelter explosion in Amarillo in 1998, said in a statement to The Texas Tribune that he was appalled by the Supreme Court’s ruling, which overturned lower court rulings.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/02/27/insurance-companies-score-new-victory-supreme-cour/

February 28, 2015

Texas mom pulls gun on 14-year-old daughter's rival during playground girlfight

http://static1.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.2131263.1425014391!/img/httpImage/image.jpg

Mommy brought a gun to a fistfight.

Texas-style justice went too far when a mom tried to sway a playground fight between her 14-year-old daughter and a rival by pointing a handgun at the head of the other girl, video from the incident shows.

Hours after the Tuesday girlfight at a park next to Pasadena High School in suburban Houston — broken up by campus police — Viridiana Alvarez, 33, was arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after photos and video emerged of the gun-toting mom, Click2Houston reported.

The teen confrontation was reportedly a grudge match over a boy where one girl challenged the other to a fight after school. Both showed up — along with the pistol-packing Alvarez.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/texas-mom-pulls-gun-daughter-rival-girlfight-article-1.2131269

February 28, 2015

42 Statements Made By Ted Cruz Were Fact-Checked – The Only One That Was True Was About Toilets

In case you haven’t heard, the annual CPAC conference is currently taking place. That means the Internet is sure to be inundated with some of the most ridiculous nonsense you’ve ever heard spewing from the mouths of those who are speaking at this event. Nothing brings out true idiocy quite like a bunch of Republicans getting together at a right-wing conference to give speeches aimed at pandering to some of the most ultra-conservative Americans in this country.

When some of the featured speakers at an event are Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Donald Trump – you can rest assured that stupidity will be flowing in abundance.

Well, one of my favorite fact-checking sites, Politifact, decided to promote the files they’ve put together for every speaker featured at this CPAC event, including the aforementioned Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

As most people are well aware, Cruz is possibly the most absurd member of our Congress. It has been clear since the very beginning that Cruz has had no intention of actually governing while serving as a U.S. Senator. He has essentially used his time as a senator to set up his glaringly obvious intention to run for president in 2016. Nearly everything that comes out of his mouth is nothing more than some sort of drivel he believes that ultra right-wing conservative voters want to hear, because he’s well aware that those are the most consistent voters during primary season.

Read more: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/42-statements-made-by-ted-cruz-were-fact-checked-the-only-one-that-was-true-was-about-toilets/