Arrested last week by Clark County (Nev.) police and charged with criminal neglect of their 86-year-old grandmother, the pair faces a court date May 12.

Their case comes just as the State of Nevada?s Attorney General?s Office has mandated punishing elder abusers a priority. The Elder Abuse Unit or EAU was created in the fall of 2007. The Clark County District Attorney?s 4-person team seeks to apprehend and prosecute those charged with abuse or negligence of the elderly and demented, reports KVBC, the NBC affiliate in Las Vegas.

In the Burt?s case, their grandmother was found with pressure sores and living in squalor.

?If you add the number of unreported of elder abuse it could be staggering," said John Kelleher of the EAU. "Many times, perpetrators use a position of trust as caretakers and then they fail to give care,? he added. ?That results in extreme abuse and neglect."

Sugar Vogel with the Las Vegas Senior Citizens Law Project trumpets EAU?s creation. ?Those of us who have been working with seniors, seem to have been waiting forever for some type of enforcement," she said. ?Many don't think elder abuse or exploitation is even against the law. But it's a crime to abuse your parents and people need to go to jail."

But it?s too late. The man died last weekend after spending two months in a hospital intensive care unit. He was admitted February 20 with a body temperature of 87 degrees. He had pressure sores on his back, legs and groin and suffered from dehydration and hypothermia.

Jailed at the Women?s Correctional Institute is 46-year-old Louanna Gary, after she failed to post a $5,000 secured bail.

New Castle County Health Officials and the Attorney General's Office said Gary was responsible for taking care of the victim the last two years. Authorities said the victim?s home fell far below health standards.

As disturbing as this case is, it?s rare. The National Center on Elder Abuse has long-determined 47 percent of elder abusers are the adult children, 19 percent are spouses, and 17 percent are grandchildren or other relatives. The revealing fact is just 16 percent of elder abusers are unrelated to their victims.

Christopher Canzona, brother of Clifford Canzona, is suing the city for $30M for his sibling?s wrongful death, according to the Associated Press. Canzona was employed by Rapetti Rigging Service.

Attorney Alan B. Leibowitz filed a request in Manhattan's state Supreme Court for an order requesting access to documents relevant to the fatal accident.

Clifford Canzona was working on the site of a 46-story condominium when the crane toppled and caused Canzona and other construction workers to fall 18 stories to the ground. Canzona was found dead three days later under rubble and debris, his brother?s official notice of claim stipulates. The notice also said the accident was "caused, in part, by the negligence of the city" and its Department of Buildings for failing to inspect the construction site properly and in "ignoring obvious defects" in how the tower was erected,? according to Newsday.com.

Last week, a city construction site inspector was arrested after it was found he lied about inspecting the crane in question 11 days before the accident.

New York City Buildings Commissioner Patricia Lancaster said the city "will rely upon the findings of our forensic investigation to explore ways in which tragedies like this can be prevented," according to the New York Daily News.

Newsday reported the city made an immediate change in protocol involving crane operation. From now on, a buildings inspector has to be on site before a crane can be lowered or raised during construction.

A student was on her way to a violin lesson when she was struck by an SUV in her school?s parking lot in Colonie, just outside Albany, N.Y.

Audrey Saccone, a student at Colonie High School, was struck and dragged by a motorist who hit two parked cars before hitting Saccone. The student suffered multiple fractured bones and a collapsed lung and is in serious condition at Albany Medical Center Hospital.

?She has early dismissal from school so she was on her way to her car,? a friend, Jade Brewer told Capital News Nine, the Time-Warner Cable Television Station in Albany.

Colonie police said alcohol and speed were not factors in the accident and think the motorist, Linda Brennan, might have blacked out. Brennan, 57, is a biology teacher at another school in Colonie. She was exiting the school?s parking lot at the time of the accident.  Police have not issued a traffic citation to Brennan, according to the Albany Times-Union newspaper.

<p>The 32-year-old man was working at the university?s art museum when the accident occurred. The museum is closed to the public while a $35 million wing is under construction.</p>

<p>University officials did not release his name, but Pinckney Village President Rebecca Foster identified the deceased as Leo Felty, the husband of Pinckney Village Clerk Amy Felty. University police and staff from its environmental health and safety office responded to the scene, where the death was ruled an accident.</p>

Jerome Police Officer Patrick Wilson said Lahn, of Kimberly, Idaho, was guiding cables of a crane operated by a co-worker when he swung the cables into a live power line. The electrical current traveled through the cables and crane before it was grounded through one of the legs that stabilized the crane, reported the AP.

The man who was operating the crane was not injured. Police ruled Lahn's death an accident.

According to Wikipedia, an electric shock can occur upon contact of a human's body with ?any source of voltage high enough to cause sufficient current flow through muscles or hair.? The minimum current a human can feel is 1 milliampere. The current can cause tissue damage or fibrillation (rapid, irregular contraction of the heart?s muscle fibers) if high enough. The web site www.wrongdiagnosis.com reports death from electric current passing through the body can result from effects on the heart, severe external and/or internal burns or from other organ damage.

Noe Tapia, owner of the concrete firm which employed the deceased, said ?"We don't know what happened," he said. The man had worked for Tapia for six months. Tapia had been subcontracted by the general contractor, C.F. Jordan, which issued this statement: "We are currently conducting our own investigation.  Our thoughts and prayers are with the family at this time."

The fire department?s Hernandez added, "He was involved in some kind of industrial accident." Firefighters performed CPR on the man who later was pronounced dead at Thomason Hospital.

Police Department spokesman Officer Chris Mears said no charges were yet filed. "We're still looking into how he died," he said.

Two cleaning ladies in Niles, Illinois, a Chicago suburb were stuck in a malfunctioned elevator and might have been there until after the holidays had it not been for one resourceful employee, according to the Associated Press.

Without cell phones and helpless after an emergency alarm went unanswered, Beata Bartoszewicz and her mother, Roma Borowski?s hopes were revived when they heard someone on the first floor talking. They began screaming. The employee heard the calls, rushed to the elevator and pushed the button. But the doors didn?t open. He called 911 and responding fire crews opened the door to free the women on Christmas Eve.

The pair entered the elevator on Dec. 22 and stayed there when the car became stuck on the first floor of the 2-story building They became dizzy from hunger. "I was close to thinking I was going to die," Bartoszewicz said.

The women slept on their coats and used a corner of the elevator as a bathroom. Bartoszewicz said her mother kept her spirits up. "She kept saying, `We're going to be OK, and we're going to spend Christmas Eve at home,'" the 25-year-old said.

Bartoszewicz said there was a simple moral to this story: "Always take your cell phone with you."

The Japanese vehicle maker tested prototypes on a sedan with radar sensors to measure the distance between two vehicles. For instance, when one vehicle gets too close to one in front, its accelerator pedal applies pressure to the driver's foot to alert the operator to slow down. There is also a computerized braking system that is applied if it is determined that a driver can?t control a vehicle to avoid an accident.

Other Japanese auto makers are conducting similar tests.

Fuji plans to install two cameras on the windshield of a sedan. The car automatically stops if the cameras sense pedestrians or bikers are too close to avoid contact. The sedan has a pre-programmed acceleration system that speeds the car if the operator fails to do so. The same system automatically slows the vehicle if an obstacle ahead is detected to be too close to avoid contact.

Toyota currently is using a driving simulator in its laboratory that simulates driving on a virtual road. Engineers can measure what is seen by an operator and the operator?s physical reaction if the vehicle is determined to be moving too fast or too slowly for certain road conditions.

The deceased, Ron Zwart, leaves behind a wife and four children. Zwart, who worked for EBW International, was installing a water line at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Salt Lake City when he was totally covered by rushing soil. Co-workers rushed to dig him free, reaching his hard hat by the time an emergency crew arrived. When rescuers uncovered Zwart?s head and chest, they discovered he was dead. Recovery crews on two vacuum trucks eventually freed Zwart?s body.

Representatives from BML Construction Services, which sub-contracted for portions of the water line project, declined to comment about the accident.

]]> http://www.klemickandgampel.com/blog/index.cfm?id=1503 http://www.klemickandgampel.com/blog/index.cfm?id=1503 tom@fosterwebmarketing.com Wed, 12 Dec 2007 08:00:00 EST When a man began to chew on his Burger King Whopper in Montpelier, Vt., last June, something didn?t feel or taste right. What Van Hartless pulled from the inside of his mouth was an open condom.

This month, Hartless filed suit in Rutland Superior Court against store owner Carrols Corp., of Syracuse, N.Y. Hartless claims he?s suffered from vomiting, nightmares and emotional distress. He has seen a doctor and had tests performed, since he isn?t sure if the condom had been used.

Hartless, 24, is a student at Green Mountain College. In wake of other instances across the country where restaurant patrons planted evidence in hopes of winning a claim in court, Hartless took a lie-detector test. His attorney, Devin McLaughlin, said his client ?passed with flying colors.?

The Fair Haven, Vt. resident discovered the foreign object in his sandwich June 18, when he arrived home, unwrapped the sandwich and began to eat it. "It was a very sour, bitter sort of taste. It almost had a numbing sensation,? Hartless said. "As I went to bite down a little harder, I felt a rubber grind in between my teeth. I saw it half in my mouth, half hanging out. It was an immediate sick-to-my-stomach type of thing."

The Times said the Progressive Group of Insurance Companies offers a $500 payout if a policyholder's dog or cat is hurt or killed in a car accident. Progressive pet expert Andrea Arden, says motorists generally can be careless when taking their pets for a ride in the car. She says owners allow a dog to sit in their lap, move unrestrained or allow a dog to stick its head out the window. There are dog harnesses sold to restrain the animal inside the car, somewhat like a seat belt holds a human in a safe position.

Even though a dog would choose to poke its head out a window, a dog could be injured by flying debris or an insect or bee that flies into its eyes, nostrils or windpipe. Forced cold air into their lungs is also be problematic. Edmunds.com reports in some cases, dogs have strangulated themselves stepping on the electric window control on the door armrest.

There are also sedatives. Just as Dramamine aids humans against motion sickness, ?Rescue Remedy? calms a dog?s temperament just as Feliway calms a cat?s nerves.