TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalState investigating 11 Bellingham Fire staffers who practiced on dead patient's body
The Washington State Department of Health’s Office of Investigation and Inspection has opened a complaint to see if an investigation is warranted in response to a story by The Bellingham Herald about officers of the Bellingham Fire Department leading an intubation training session on a deceased patient who was taken to Fire Station 1 in July.
“It will now be assessed by case management to see if it warrants investigation,” Washington State Department of Health Center for Public Affairs Communications Consultant Sharon Moysiuk said Tuesday in an email to The Herald. “That’s all part of the process. The individuals will be identified that were involved as part of being a credentialed health care provider.”
Though Moysiuk said everything is allegations at this point, if the investigation finds sufficient evidence of wrongdoing, the individuals may be charged with unprofessional conduct. They would then have 20 days to respond in writing or to request a hearing with the Health Law Judge.
“There can be a range of consequences such as suspension, fines and/or require additional education and, in the worst possible case, a revoked credential,” Moysiuk said.
Read more: https://www.thenewstribune.com/news/state/washington/article219018280.html
Disasters declared for salmon fisheries along West Coast
SEATTLE – Federal officials have determined that commercial fishery failures occurred for salmon in Washington, Oregon and California, making those fisheries eligible for federal disaster assistance.
U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Tuesday also announced a commercial fishery failure for the sardine fishery in California but not for the state’s red sea urchin fishery.
The governors from Washington, Oregon and California and multiple Native American tribes had requested the determinations between July 2016 and March 2018. Their requests noted unusually warm and poor ocean conditions that affected fish.
The disaster determinations make salmon and sardine fisheries eligible for some portion of $20 million in NOAA Fisheries fishery disaster assistance. The Commerce Department is figuring out how to allocate that money to eligible fisheries.
http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/sep/25/disasters-declared-for-salmon-fisheries-along-west/
(brief article)
U.S.: Stoppage of U.S., Korea exercises cause readiness loss
WASHINGTON — The general nominated to take command of U.S. and allied forces in South Korea says the decision to cancel several major military exercises on the Korean peninsula this year caused a slight degradation in the readiness of American forces.
Gen. Robert Abrams tells the Senate Armed Services Committee that commanders are planning a number of smaller staff exercises to rebuild the ability of U.S. and allied forces to work together. He says planning is ongoing for large exercises next year, but alliance leaders will decide if they are canceled or not.
Abrams says America must remain clear-eyed about the military and nuclear threats from North Korea, while allowing diplomacy to move forward.
Navy Vice Adm. Craig Faller, nominated to take over U.S. Southern Command, is also testifying before the panel.
https://www.columbian.com/news/2018/sep/25/u-s-stoppage-of-u-s-korea-exercises-cause-readiness-loss/
(brief article)
Kim Davis' opponent fends off attacks -- from primary rival
MOREHEAD, Ky. — Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who went to jail in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, wants a second term in office.
Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr. is running against her, and the campaign has predictably turned to allegations of bigotry. But it’s Caudill, not Davis, who has been forced to play defense.
Caudill won the Democratic nomination in May to face Davis, a Republican, in November. He defeated David Ermold, a gay man who was denied a marriage license by Davis in 2015.
Ermold was the sentimental favorite in the primary, raising more than $300,000 from thousands of donors across the country. But Caudill, a 21-year veteran of local government who ran on a pledge of better service at the clerk’s office, trounced him in the primary.
Read more: https://www.columbian.com/news/2018/sep/25/kim-davis-opponent-fends-off-attacks-_-from-primary-rival/
They came to him to settle with the IRS, but this disbarred Tri-City lawyer stole their money
KENNEWICK, WA -- A disbarred Tri-City lawyer could go to jail after admitting he pocketed clients’ money instead of paying their owed back taxes or returning refunds.
Christopher Lee Neal, 45, lost his law license for good this past February following a lengthy investigation by the Washington State Bar Association.
Last week, he pleaded guilty in Benton County Superior Court to two counts of first-degree theft, which include the aggravating circumstance of being a major economic offense.
Neal was in a wheelchair for the brief hearing.
Read more: https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/crime/article218822675.html
It's Official: Safeco Field Will Get $135 Million in Taxpayer Funds
The King County Council has voted 5-4 to approve a controversial plan to invest $135 million in taxpayer funds into Safeco Field, despite criticisms that the move was effectively subsidizing the Mariners—a for-profit sports team.
After another contentious four-hour meeting on Sept. 17, Councilmembers Claudia Balducci, Reagan Dunn, Kathy Lambert, Joe McDermott, and Pete von Reichbauer voted for the stadium spending plan, while Rod Dembowski, Dave Upthegrove, Larrry Gossett, and Jeanne Kohl-Welles voted against it.
King County taxpayer funds have long been intertwined with Safeco Field. After county voters rejected a public financing plan to build the stadium back in 1995, the state Legislature and the King County Council approved a tax package that didn’t require a public vote. Taxpayer funds ended up covering over $300 million of the stadium’s $517 million total cost.
The debate over public financing of the baseball stadium has played out since May, when King County Executive Dow Constantine rolled out a proposal to spend $180 million over two decades in revenues from the lodging tax (a tax on hotel and motel stays) on Safeco Field maintenance. The plan drew opposition from Councilmember Upthegrove and housing advocates, who argued that the money should be invested in affordable housing given the region’s homelessness crisis. Meanwhile, the Seattle Mariners claimed that they wouldn’t sign their new 25-year-lease at the stadium if the county didn’t spend the $180 million on upkeep, such as repairing the retractable roof. The ballclub argued that the stadium is publicly owned, and therefore warrants public investment.
Read more: http://www.seattleweekly.com/news/its-official-safeco-field-will-get-135-million-in-taxpayer-funds/
Smith vs. Smith: Two Democrats Clash in 9th Congressional District Forum
Going into the November general election, 22-year Democratic incumbent Rep. Adam Smith of Washington’s 9th Congressional District — which spans from Bellevue and south Seattle down through Renton, Tukwila, Kent, Federal Way and Tacoma — is facing a challenge from the contemporary left: Sarah Smith, a 30-year-old self-described Democratic socialist.
And at a debate forum hosted Sept. 19 by the Federal Way Mirror at Twin Lakes Golf and Country Club, the two candidates made their pitch to voters on why they were best suited for the job.
Republican Doug Basler also ran in the Aug. 7 primary election, but he was eventually edged out by Sarah Smith by more than 3,000 votes, putting her in second place with 26 percent of the vote and advancing her to the general election. Rep. Smith, meanwhile, took the lion’s share of the district, with just under 50 percent of the vote in the August primary.
Sarah Smith, a former volunteer for the 2016 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, has backing from left-leaning organizations like the Seattle chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Washington State Progressive Caucus — as well as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, another under-30 Democratic socialist who bested a longtime Democratic incumbent congressman in New York City earlier this year. Sarah Smith has run on a platform consisting of a wealth of progressive policy planks: a $15-per-hour federal minimum wage, abolishing the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, and universal medicare.
Read more: https://www.seattleweekly.com/news/smith-vs-smith-two-democrats-clash-in-9th-congressional-district-forum/
Cody Wilson resigns from 3-D printed gun company after sexual assault charge
AUSTIN — Cody Wilson, the owner of a company selling blueprints to make untraceable 3-D printed guns, has resigned amid charges of sex with underage girl.
Wilson made national headlines last month after a federal court barred him from posting blueprints to his 3D-printed gun online for free.
Now, he’s accused of having sex with a minor.
Wilson posted bond and was released from the Harris County Jail over the weekend after being arrested in Taiwan.
Read more: https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/texas/cody-wilson-resigns-from-3-d-printed-gun-company-after-sexual-assault-charge/285-597951168
Cosby is declared a 'sexually violent predator'
Source: AP
NORRISTOWN, PA. -- A judge declared Bill Cosby a "sexually violent predator" on Tuesday as a first step toward sentencing the 81-year-old comedian for drugging and sexually assaulting a woman over a decade ago.
The classification means that Cosby must undergo monthly counseling for the rest of his life and report quarterly to authorities. His name will appear on a sex-offender registry sent to neighbors, schools and victims.
Montgomery County Judge Steven O'Neill made the decision as he prepared to sentence Cosby for violating Temple University women's basketball administrator Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia estate in 2004.
The comic once known as America's Dad faced anywhere from probation to 10 years in prison after being convicted in April in the first celebrity trial of the #MeToo era.
Read more: https://www.idahostatesman.com/entertainment/article218977805.html
Idaho has only 2 independent psychiatric hospitals. Now 1 is headed for bankruptcy.
A local psychiatric hospital is in trouble, as its parent company heads toward bankruptcy.
Safe Haven Healthcare is continuing to operate its Boise hospital and three assisted-living and skilled-nursing facilities in Bellevue and Wendell. But some employees have quit, and those who remain are relying on a judge’s orders to get their paychecks.
The CEO and owner, Scott Burpee, and his attorney blame Safe Haven Healthcare’s financial crisis on a fire last fall that gutted its Pocatello hospital. Burpee also suggested in court that a failed buyout by an employee contributed to the bankruptcy. The company got buried under an avalanche of debt, they said.
The company filed for bankruptcy last month.
“I would say it stems from the fire in Pocatello,” said Safe Haven’s bankruptcy attorney, Matthew Christensen of Angstman Johnson in Boise. “The hospital in Pocatello was probably 50 or 60 percent of the total income to the companies at the time.”
Read more: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article218765310.html
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