November 2008 Archives

The San Clemente Neighborhood Association (CA) has filed an appeal in district court asking that a zone change allowing for the construction of a bulk fuel terminal be set aside.  Residents oppose the zoning change from Outland District to Heavy Industrial on three 10-acre parcels. Association president James Maag voiced concerns relating to traffic, emergency response time and pollution.  NewBulletin.com also reports:

The appeal goes on to say that legal counsel for the San Clemente Neighborhood Association was not notified of Plains' planned use of paid expert witnesses or the scope of their testimonies, thus the appellant was not aware of the potential need to hire its own  to provide counter-testimony nor did it have opportunity to prepare for rebuttal argument or cross-examination.

The final report put forward by the National Transportation Safety Board on the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis has concluded that: (1) the steel gusset plates originally designed in the mid-1960s to reinforce the bridge's joints were half an inch too thin; (2) the probable causes for the collapse were additional modifications to the original design, which added substantial weight to the bridge, and the weight added by construction materials placed on the bridge by a contractor just prior to the collapse. But construction expert Barry B. LePatner says there is more to it than that.

"The NTSB is severely neglecting its duty to protect Americans," says LePatner, coauthor of Structural & Foundation Failures (McGraw-Hill, 1982, coauthored with Sidney M. Johnson, P.E.) and author of Broken Buildings, Busted Budgets: How to Fix America's Trillion-Dollar Construction Industry (The University of Chicago Press, October 2007, ISBN-13: 978-0-226-47267-6, ISBN-10: 0-226-47267-1, $25.00). "By placing the sole blame for the bridge collapse on the gusset plates and the added weight factor, the Board has ignored the inefficiency and irresponsibility among the government agencies responsible for the bridge, which also contributed to the disaster."

For more, see AmericanSurveyor.com.

A Suffolk woman's lawsuit over the removal of her deceased husband's brain is among a growing number of legal actions nationwide that raise ethical and legal questions about how scientists acquire body parts for research.  Newsday.com writes:

In Manhattan, Mount Sinai Medical Center - named as a defendant in the Suffolk case - maintains a brain bank that has obtained at least 675 specimens from the brains of patients who died at Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in Brentwood.... Arthur Caplan, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Center for Bioethics, served as an expert witness in some of the Maine cases. He said that the issue of what constitutes consent is sometimes poorly defined in the law. "No state, including New York, is particularly aggressive in giving oversight to tissue collection," Caplan said.

Chrysler Motors prevailed Friday in a Washington County, Arkansas, product liability lawsuit.  Jurors heard from seven experts and found driver Linda Childers Knapp liable for $342,000 in damages.  She was talking on her cell phone while driving a 2004 Jeep Cherokee when she caused the accident. Victims one-year-old Silas and 4-year-old Eve Adams suffered fractured skulls caused by the skulls of their parents going backward and smashing into the front of the children's heads.  Knapp had tried to blame the injuries on faulty seat design of the Adam's 1994 Dodge Caravan during the accident on Sept. 25, 2005. According to witnesses, the Adams were all wearing seat belts.

A second Kaua'i grand jury is looking into potential criminal charges against retired car dealer Jimmy Pflueger over the collapse of the Kaloko Reservoir dam which killed seven people in March 2006.  Pflueger has denied that he altered the century-old earthen dam, causing the deadly breach.  The grand jury heard testimony from several experts, including a former Kaua'i County engineer and a worker from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.  HonoluluAdvertiser.com writes:

Relatives of the seven victims and several Kaua'i residents, including entertainer Bette Midler, have sued Pflueger for damages they allege were caused by the Kaloko dam breach.  Pflueger, in turn, has sued the state and C. Brewer & Co., the former owner of Kaloko Reservoir, alleging they knew about possible problems with the dam.

A plan for a new residential development in Silverthorne, CO, won initial approval from the Silverthorne Town Council despite its location in a 100-year floodplain.  “We’ve hired a flood-engineering expert...,” said Silver Trout Estates project manager Jeff Volkert. He pointed out that the construction would need approval not only from the Town but also from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.  SummitDailyNews also writes:

Silver Trout Estates, which would be located on a 12-acre parcel between the Blue River and a private fishing pond in Eagle’s Nest, would require developers to use fill dirt to raise the buildings and road by at least one foot.  “If a 100-year storm event occurs, this property would have water in it, on it and across it ... If this were to be developed, they’d need the residential units above the 100-year floodplain,” said Michael Johnson, planning manager for the town.

Get your Silver Trout Estates duplex modeled after rustic fishing camps for approximately $900,000.

A medical malpractice case that awarded $5.3 million to a London teenager and her family may be heading to the Supreme Court of Canada after Ontario's highest court ordered a new trial this week. The Ontario Court of Appeal sent back a civil case that took eight months to try in London and included testimony from experts who came from as far away as California. The original case ended with a decision against Victoria Hospital in February 2007 that $5.3 million be awarded to the London teen and her family but the appeal court said last week that none of the expert witnesses testified the injuries were caused in the way Superior Court Justice Helen Rady concluded.

Rady held that the nursing staff had breached protocol by not checking the fetal heart beat for ninety minutes when Alecia Fisher was born.  If they had followed protocol, the asphyxia that caused Alecia's cerebral palsy may have been detected.

For more, see LondonFreePress.

Lafayette, LA, cardiologist Mehmood Patel faces 91 counts of health-care fraud after a 2003 federal investigation and February 2006 indictment accuses him of performing what prosecutors and their witnesses have called "medically unnecessary procedures."  The Advertiser reports:

The investigation stemmed from allegations that Patel was placing stents and performing unnecessary coronary intervention procedures for money... Throughout the case, prosecutors have accused Patel of putting information on patient charts despite what patients told him during initial doctor's visits.

Prosecution expert witnesses testified earlier that a female patient had little blockage in her arteries, thus eliminating the need for a stent and angioplasty procedures he performed.

Government construction engineering expert witnesses told the National Transportation Safety Board last week that the underlying cause of the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis on Aug. 1, 2007, was the gusset plates that were supposed to hold together the bridge's steel beams. The disaster that killed 13 people and injured 145 appears to have been caused by an unusual load of construction equipment stockpiled for a repaving project and errors in the original design of the joints called gussett plates. 

Bruce Magladry, the NTSB's director of the Office of Highway Safety stated that "Had the gusset plates been properly sized, this bridge would still be there."
For more see StarTribune.com.

Opponents of Beeland Group, LLC (a subsidiary of CMS Energy), have filed a lawsuit in Michigan 13th Circuit Court to halt the injection well project in Alba.  Although the EPA and MDEQ approved a permit for Beeland to move forward with a test injection well at this site, Star Township, Antrim County, Friends of the Jordan River Watershed and mineral owners believe the project will "pollute, impair or destroy natural resources, including, but not limited to surface water and groundwater, oil, gas or other minerals and natural habitat.” In his affidavit, geology expert Dr. James McClurg states that the Bell Shale Formation is immediately above Dundee.  

“Not all shale formations are impermeable, and the permeability of the Bell Shale in the area of the injection site has not been definitely determined, therefore, it cannot be considered a ‘cap’ rock or seal. If the Bell Shale does not provide a tight ‘cap’ on the Dundee Formation, the CKD leachate will move up and escape into the Traverse Group, which is a porous and permeable formation, and possibly also the Antrim Shale.”

McClurg describes the Antrim Shale in his affidavit as a “highly fractured, porous and permeable gas producing shale.”

For more, see Petroskey News.

During a recent hearing before the Public Utilities Commission an expert witness questioned the need for the significant power line upgrade between Saco and Old Orchard Beach requested by Central Maine Power.  KeepMeCurrent writes:

According to Saco Development Director Peter Morelli, a utility construction expert hired by the Public Utilities Commission to review the power company’s proposal testified that staff had overestimated the base electricity load demand, the peak load demand and the amount of growth in demand when looking at the upgrade from 45-kilovolt lines to 115-kilovolt lines

The project has been controversial in Saco because of the proposed route for the high-powered transmission lines. In fact, residents of the Jenkins Road-Chelsea Circle-Saco Middle School neighborhoods – with help from city officials – have been fighting the proposal since 2006.

Opponents of Beeland Group, LLC (a subsidiary of CMS Energy), have filed a lawsuit in Michigan 13th Circuit Court to halt the injection well project in Alba.  Although the EPA and MDEQ approved a permit for Beeland to move forward with a test injection well at this site, Star Township, Antrim County, Friends of the Jordan River Watershed and mineral owners believe the project will "pollute, impair or destroy natural resources, including, but not limited to surface water and groundwater, oil, gas or other minerals and natural habitat.”  Beeland proposes to truck 135,000 gallons of leachate seepage a day (about 1 million gallons of seepage a week) for 10 years to a well located five miles east of Alba, treat it to reduce its pH from highly caustic levels and inject it to total depth of 2,450 feet beneath the ground.  Petroskey News reports:

According to the affidavit of Dr. James McClurg, a professor of geology and geophysics at the University of Wyoming — one of three expert witnesses for the plaintiffs’ case — it states that leachate seepage will be injected into the Lucas/Dundee Formation, which developed 354-391 million years ago, which he says is “both porous and permeable and filled with saline water which contains oil and natural gas in places.”

Martin Marietta Materials has applied for a conditional-use permit for an underground limestone mine and variances for storage of explosive materials on 480 acres of property in Anderson Township, Ohio.  A mining expert witness for Martin Marietta Materials said the company will take various measures to reduce noise and dust pollution created by the proposed mine.  Bob Rysinski, production manager for the Ohio district of Martin Marietta Materials, explained the process of extracting limestone from the mine.

By coating sorting screens and material transfer chutes in urethane, Rysinski said there would be a significant reduction in noise.  He said the plant would use a water spray during the crushing and sorting to control dust, as well as a wheel washing system to prevent trucks from transferring dust to public roads.

Tim Mara, a Cincinnati attorney who represents residents near the proposed mine site, challenged the validity of Rysinski's assessment because he could not provide empirical data.

For more see Cincinnati.com.

The study shows that heart valve problems linked to the banned obesity drugs fenfluramine and/or dexfenfluramine typically last years after stopping those drugs... Three of the four researchers who worked on the study... have served as expert witnesses for plaintiffs in lawsuits related to fen-phen but say that since those lawsuits are over, they don't have any current financial conflicts of interest.

The FDA ordered fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine off the market in September 1997 after those drugs were linked to heart valve problems. Fenfluramine was one of the ingredients in "fen-phen," and dexfenfluramine is closely related to fenfluramine. The "phen" in fen-phen refers to a drug called phentermine, which wasn't banned.

The new study, published online today in BMC Medicine, shows what happened to the hearts of 5,743 former users of fenfluramine and/or dexfenfluramine.

For more, see WedMD Health News.

Global warming fears have influenced builders in Palm Beach County to turn to green building.  PalmBeachPost.com reports that West Palm Beach-based Hedrick Brothers has hired a sustainable construction expert at its 125-employee company. Dale Hedrick acknowledges that building green isn't always as efficient as he'd like.

Finding responsibly harvested wood paneling for one project took two months longer than he'd hoped.  Still, Hedrick says, green building boosts the cost of a structure such as EcoPlex by only 2 percent to 5 percent, and that outlay is quickly recovered from lower operating costs.

"To me, it's a stewardship issue, and it's the right thing to do," Hedrick says. "If it pays for itself, why wouldn't people want to do that?"

In Surveys Note Americans’ Medical Debt Grows as Economy Worsens, Workforce.com writes on how the economic downturn is leading to an increase in unpaid medical bills.  Large employers may end up subsidizing bills in the coming months through premium increases and spikes in medical costs. The healthcare expert CFO of Fletcher Allen Health Care, Roger Deshaies, says charity care has increased 10 percent in the year ended September 30 because many patients with high-deductible plans are unable to pay the deductible. “If they have a deductible of $1,500, their chances of meeting that is limited at a time when heat and fuel are going up considerably,” he said.

The hospital system, which projects charity care costs will double next year if the economic downturn deepens, is already approaching health insurance companies seeking increases in the amount they are reimbursed for care provided to people with employer-sponsored health plans.

The Denver Post reports:

Denver Water has hired a forensic auditing firm and independent construction expert to review the $48 million in contracts and construction for three major projects.

Former utility employees have said that contract payments for work at the Foothills Water Treatment Plant and the Roxborough and Capitol Hill pump stations were improperly handled.

Denver Water officials said there were issues with some of the invoices filed, such as a $16,000 bill for a contractor's Christmas party and $525 for a golf tournament fee. In another case, utility managers negotiated a $238,000 reduction in a concrete bill.

"Denver Water reviewed every issue that arose and we made changes when problems were identified," said Denver Water manager Chips Barry.

In Surveys Note Americans’ Medical Debt Grows as Economy Worsens, Workforce.com writes: The economic downturn is leading to an increase in unpaid medical bills that large employers may end up subsidizing in the coming months through premium increases and spikes in medical costs.

Saying they are forced to choose between food, housing, transportation and other necessities, Americans are increasingly unable to pay their medical bills, leading many into deep medical debt, according to several surveys released recently. Medical experts at the The Kaiser Family Foundation reported in October that one in three Americans report trouble paying medical bills, while 18 percent of Americans say their medical bills have totaled more than $1,000 in the past year.

The weakening economy isn’t affecting only the uninsured. Medical debt is particularly common among Americans with high-deductible plans, the Commonwealth Fund reported. The New York-based health policy research organization said 53 percent of adults whose deductible equaled or exceeded 5 percent of their income “incurred medical bill burdens and debt.”

An Oakland pilot program lets clients, attorneys, expert witnesses use phones and video to reduce travel expenses reports Detroit News.

The second phase will focus on video court appearances that would allow, for example, a prisoner to sit in a cell in the Upper Peninsula and be examined and cross examined by a prosecutor and defense lawyer in real time via video before a jury. Such a move would eliminate the expense of transporting the prisoner and providing security for that prisoner in the courthouse, among other costs.

"Video is the future of 21st century trials," Andrews said. "We are a pioneer in the area. Oakland County will be one of the first counties to move ahead in this area."

On Thursday, Andrews gathered a group of prominent trial and defense attorneys to his courtroom to demonstrate a telephonic conference call in which two attorneys role-played arguing a motion. The case took less than three minutes, Andrews said, and no participants had to leave their offices. All court proceedings done via phone or video would be part of the official court record, and the program is voluntary...To make the program work, attorneys and other parties would need to have high-quality Internet connections and a video conferencing room.