Quote of the day
"The longest time I saw him down there was when President Bush came to the site. He doesn't care about the first responders, he did nothing to help them when he was in office or after. He didn't give us respirators until November."
Jimmy Riches, a deputy fire chief who volunteered at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and who dismisses the idea that presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was at the site long enough to risk his health
Roseville Market Managers Charged with Workers’ Comp Fraud
Two store managers from a Roseville supermarket are arraigned after state and Amador County investigators allege they committed multiple felony counts of workers’ compensation insurance fraud by discouraging injured employees from filing workers’ comp claims, instead instructing them to seek treatment through individual health insurance policies. Sacramento Business Journal
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New Director Calls Ohio Workers’ Comp System ‘Broken’
Ohio’s $21 billion workers’ comp system is “pretty broken,” and it may take years of work to restore public trust, according to Marsha Ryan, the new director of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation. According to Ryan, the BWC’s past practice of awarding discounts to employers when the agency’s investments were good did not allow for long-term planning to keep premiums stable. By Julie Carr Smyth and Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Houston Chronicle
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New York: Winners and Losers in Looming Workers’ Comp Changes
In New York, workers’ compensation rates are slated to drop by an average 20 percent October 1. However, while some employers will enjoy even bigger discounts, the rates for auto dealerships, some construction companies, machine shops and paving firms will rise. By Jay Gallagher, Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, N.Y.)
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Health Effects of Giuliani’s Presence at Ground Zero Debated
Former New York City mayor and current presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani’s experience on Sept. 11 and at Ground Zero may have weakened his health: A major 2006 study by Mount Sinai Medical Center found 70 percent of Ground Zero workers suffered some form of lung problems, and experts there predicted thousands will either remain sick or get sick in coming years. Two deputy mayors have become ill due to Ground Zero exposure, one so severely he now receives workers’ comp. By Devlin Barrett, AP via Miami Herald
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P.E.I. WCB Warns About Grain Bin Ladders
The Prince Edward Island Workers Compensation Board warns farmers about ladders attached to grain bins, following an investigation of an accident last fall, in which a farm worker fell 20 feet from the side of a relatively new bin. CBC News
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Q&A: Workers’ Comp for Effects of Company-Recommended Vaccine
A veteran of a pharmaceutical company asks whether he can receive workers’ compensation for an autoimmune disease that may be related a company-recommended vaccine he has been taking. What would the worker have to prove? By Harry Wessel, Orlando Sentinel
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Judge Recuses Self from Mine Blast Case
After hearing arguments as recently as last month, a Harlan County, Ky., circuit judge recuses himself from a wrongful death case stemming from a deadly mine explosion over concerns of impartiality. Kentucky Darby, where five coalminers were killed in a 2006 methane blast, was dismissed from the case in June under the state’s workers’ compensation laws. By Deanna Lee-Sherman, Harlan Daily
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