Illinois Deserves the Truth

Illinois News Roundup

The New York Times reports that 94% of nursing homes violated federal health and safety standards last year.  The rates were high for all types of facilities, but it's no surprise that for-profit homes were the worst offenders.

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Chicago-based Walgreen must pay $10 million for submitting false claims to Medicaid programs in four states.

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The editorial writers at the Southern urge the Department of Justice to investigate the Marion VA hospital deaths for criminal actions.

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The Urbana school district and negligent employees agreed to settle a lawsuit with a girl sexually abused by her former teacher, Jon White.

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A jury recently sided against the Belleville Diocese in a sex abuse trial.  With the diocese trying to wiggle its way out of taking responsibility for its actions, victim advocates want an audit conducted to prove it has the ability to pay.

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Memo to meat-eaters: beginning today, the new 'Country of Origin Label' rule will tell you the nationality of your every entree.

There's Something in the Air

I know Chicago isn’t the cleanest city in America, but it has never exactly struck me as Pollution Central, either.  This morning, the Tribune gave me cause to rethink.  It turns out Cook County has the most dangerous air in the country, according to data from the EPA.

People living in Chicago and nearby suburbs face some of the highest risks in the nation for cancer, lung disease and other health problems linked to toxic chemicals pouring from industry smokestacks, according to a Tribune analysis of federal data.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent millions of dollars to assess the dangers that air pollution poses but has failed to fulfill promises to make the research more accessible to the public. So the Tribune is posting the information on its Web site, where users can easily find nearby polluters and the chemicals going into their air.

Those who look up Cook County will see it ranked worst in the nation for dangerous air pollution, based on 2005 data. The Tribune also found Chicago was among the 10 worst cities in the U.S.

The factory with the highest risk score in Chicago is a steel mill on the edge of upscale Lincoln Park, a neighborhood where it isn't uncommon to find people buying organic dog food.

Hats off to the Tribune’s hired watchdogs for bringing the findings to light.  Shame on the EPA for keeping us in the dark.

More Comes Out About Woodstock 'Angel Of Death'

You might remember the horrific story of elderly abuse that broke in Woodstock, where two nursing home employees were arrested in connection with as many as six patient deaths.  The Illinois Department of Public Health finally released its report, which suggests the deaths may have been intentionally caused, and far from the "mercy killings" that some made them out to be. 

A 130-page report from the Illinois Department of Public Health claims the nurse told co-workers she gave restless patients drug cocktails to keep them calm and flatly stated that "she made sure" one patient would not make it through the day.

The same nurse, when speaking about a 56-year-old patient with Down syndrome, told a co-worker "Those people aren't meant to live that long. They are meant to die in their teens and I'm going to help him along," the report states.

Reacting to the report, the IDPH fined the facility $360,000.  My first reaction was, how about compensation for the families of these poor victims?  Two have so far filed lawsuits.  My other thought brought me back to earlier this year, when our General Assembly missed a chance to strengthen the rights nursing home abuse victims to seek redress.  Remember the Nursing Home Liability Insurance bill?  It's scary to think that tragedies like this happen in Illinois, yet our nursing homes still are not required to carry liability insurance.

Special Supreme Court Sneak Peak

Cross Post from The Pop Tort by Andy Hoffman

Attention civil justice fans!  The U.S. Supreme Court is about to start a new term, so we thought we’d give you the heads up on some interesting cases coming your way…

Wyeth v. Levine:  We’ve already mentioned that this case was front-page news in the New York Times last week.  Expect to hear a lot more about it in the days ahead.  At stake are tens of thousands of product-liability suits by consumers against drug companies for causing injuries or death, and whether the pharmaceutical industry should have complete immunity when they put unsafe, sometimes lethal drugs on the market.  (Not to mention, Levine’s compensation for her amputated arm!)

Van de Kamp v. Goldstein:  Thomas Goldstein, imprisoned for 24 years on a wrongful murder conviction, says that prosecutors failed to share crucial information about a jailhouse informant’s testimony during his trial, leading to his wrongful conviction.  The justices must decide whether someone in Goldstein’s position may sue prosecutors for damages, or whether the prosecutors are entitled to absolute immunity. 

Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee: This case involves a kindergarten student in Hyannis, Mass., who was sexually harassed on the school bus by an 8-year-old boy. The parents sued the school district over their daughter’s treatment.  The suit was based on several different laws, one of which was federal Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in federally funded schools. Title IX doesn’t allow individual lawsuits, so the issue is whether a suit can still be brought under other laws, including the U.S. Constitution.

Ashcroft v. Iqbal: the court will consider whether Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller can be “sued damages by the Muslim men who were rounded up and imprisoned under harsh conditions in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”  The government settled with one victim, but another, “a 33-year-old cable television installer on Long Island at the time of his arrest” who was tortured in a Brooklyn prison, is pursuing his case.

AIG: From Bad to Worse?

Cross post from The Pop Tort by Andy Hoffman

Last week, in response to the big AIG bailout, we reminded you that this industry, and especially this company, has a history of mismanagement and greed, the same qualities that trigger liability insurance “crises,” which periodically hit policyholders.  Now it seems we may have understated our case.  Check out this Reuters story that suggests the FBI is now investigating AIG (among others) on suspicion of corporate fraud…   

Fish Poisoners Beware

Lisa Madigan announced last week that the U of Illinois, the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District, and private contractor CEDA will pay $65,000 to cover the costs of releasing toxic wastewater into a stretch of the Vermilion River in central Illinois.  Their accident killed scores of aquatic life.  I don’t know about you, but I love that our Attorney General’s office fights water pollution in the name of all fishes. 

I only wish our federal government worked that hard to keep water clean.  Note to the EPA: we know you don't think it's necessary, but please, take the rocket fuel out of our drinking water.

King Paulson and the Courts

Cross posted from The Pop Tort by Joe Consumer.

Among the mind-boggling provisions in the government’s zillion-dollar-completely-unaccountable Wall St. bailout plan is one to eliminate judicial review.  Members of the Senate, like Banking Committee chair Chris Dodd, are appropriately balking:

`I think that may be illegal, not to be able to challenge things,'' Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told reporters. ``I'm not sure that would hold up anyway.'' …

``You can't give all this power to any one person, particularly a non-elected person, as much as we respect the secretary, without making sure that conflicts of interest are dealt with, that people are treated fairly,'' Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York told reporters.

The Real Cost of Medical Malpractice

Last week, a mother in suburban Chicago agreed to a $5.5 million settlement with the doctors and hospital responsible for leaving her son permanently disabled at birth.  Their mistake means a lifetime of harm for Angel Liberato.  Now six, he is unable to walk, talk or feed himself.

What makes stories like this especially scary is the chance that the state Supreme Court will uphold our brutal caps law this fall, which could end up affecting many cases like this.  Angel is exactly the type of victim caps hurt the most—children who suffer life-altering tragedies (look at how similar this story is to the case currently challenging caps in the Supreme Court).  Fortunately, Angel's accident happened in 2002, three years before caps passed.  But just imagine what would've happened if it had been law in 2002.  He and his mother probably wouldn't have been awarded what they were.

Judges, juries and others involved in a suit—who actually listen to the details and are aware of the special care that victims like Angel will require for the rest of their lives—clearly have a better idea of what is appropriate compensation than politicians in Springfield.  Yet, it's the politicians who passed a law that puts a one-size-fits-all label on victims' tragedies, essentially saying Angel's case is no different than any others.

Poverty and Law

Check out this great letter to the editor by Lawrence Wood and Richard Wheelock from the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago.  It appeared this morning on the Sun-Times op-ed page.

It’s not all Doom and Gloom in Washington

The economy may be tanking, but not everything is so bleak in the capital.  Two important consumer bills recently passed out of their respective Senate committees.  Each would go a long way in protecting the health and rights of seniors:

• The Fairness in Nursing Home Arbitration Act (S.2838), which we’ve written about before, would end the unfair, mandatory binding arbitration agreements that many nursing home corporations use to escape accountability for negligent care.  It passed through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• The other bill, which moved through the Senate Finance Committee, is the Herb Kohl sponsored (and Hillary Clinton cosponsored) Patient Safety and Abuse Prevention Act (S.1577).  This bill would establish a nationwide system of criminal background checks for people who want to work in nursing homes.