[DAWN] A US judge convicted an elderly Pak immigrant Thursday of murdering his wife in their New York home, savagely beating her over the head after she refused to cook the food he wanted.
Noor Hussain, 75, who believed it was his right to "discipline" his wife, faces up to 25 years to life when he is sentenced next month. Frail and with medical problems, he will likely die behind bars.
He subjected Nazar, 66, his third wife, to at least 15 years of abuse and on the night of April 2, 2011 battered her 20 times around the head and body in their Brooklyn apartment.
Hussain admitted he struck her with a wooden stick after she made lentils rather than the goat dinner he wanted, and "disrespected" him by swearing at him.
His lawyer Julie Clark had argued for manslaughter in the second degree, saying he did not intend to kill her and thought it acceptable to discipline his wife of 21 years.
But Judge Matthew D'Emic handed down a second degree murder conviction, reaching a swift decision after the court saw gruesome evidence and heard harrowing testimony.
Hussain, who has been held since his arrest the day after his wife's death, will be sentenced on June 16, Clark told AFP.
He was "teary" when the verdict was announced, she said.
Clark conceded her client had battered his wife for 15-16 years, but denied he had a motive for murder.
"Culturally he was raised to believe that he had a right to discipline his wife," she said.
"I was not trying to indict the entire Pak culture."
During the trial, the court saw photographs of Nazar Hussain's swollen, bruised face, and of her body lying on a blood-stained bed next to a blood-soaked bedroom wall.
Police found blood in the bedroom, kitchen, bathroom sink and on a mop in the bath tub in the couple's apartment.
Hussain initially told officers that his wife died after waking up in the middle of the night, vomiting blood and having breathing problems, but later admitted beating her.
His son telephoned emergency services after arriving at his father's home to find his stepmother unconscious.
Vincent Maneri, an emergency medic, said he found Nazar Hussain with bruises on her head, a large laceration to her face and upper lip, as well as swollen and bruised arms.
Paramedics spent 25-35 minutes trying to resuscitate her, but she never exhibited any sign of life, he said.
Neighbor Safida Khan told the court she heard the Hussains argue at least once or twice a week for years, and that she twice intervened.
She testified hearing Nazar "crying and yelling" and her husband "cursing and shouting" on the day she died.
According to a relative, Hussain moved to the United States more than 30 years ago in search of a better life and used to work at a gas station.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
His lawyer Julie Clark had argued for manslaughter in the second degree, saying he did not intend to kill her and thought it acceptable to discipline his wife of 21 years.
Amusing that a girl person lawyer would make this argument, what with all the war on women nonsense going around. Or does Hussain get a pass on wife beating because he is simply practicing his native custom.
[Ynet] Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's Health Ministry says 13 people have died over the last two weeks from the Middle Eastern respiratory virus.
The ministry says 186 people in total have died from the virus since it was discovered in 2012. The ministry said late Wednesday another 565 people had contracted the virus in Saudi Arabia.
The recent figures indicate that the rate of infections and deaths may have slightly dipped in the last two weeks after a sharp rise in infections and deaths in April and the first half of May.
Iran has suffered its first fatality from the Middle Eastern respiratory virus, its official news agency reported Thursday, a day after the first cases in Islamic Theocratic Republic were publicized.
The IRNA news agency quoted Health Ministry official Mohammad Mahdi Gouya as saying the virus killed a 53-year-old woman in Kerman, a city in southeastern Iran. On Wednesday, the daily newspaper Hamshahri quoted Gouya as saying two sisters in Kerman contracted the virus.
"The women's immune system had with the disease due to chronic illness. (They were) unable to fight the virus." Gouya told IRNA.
#1
Ukraine only had SARS before now they have SAND! Saudi's, Al Qaeda Russians, Nazi's and the D is for DUMB PEOPLE or DARPA! IT"S A TRAP! NICE KILL BOX SET UP!
#2
Don't forget, folks, for every identified case, there are dozens - or hundreds - of milder cases that are not noticed or identified. But those mild cases can carry the disease. MERS is all around you!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2014 7:50 Comments ||
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#3
Halliburton?
Bush?
Global Warming?
'Income Inequality'?
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/30/2014 11:22 Comments ||
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#4
Thanks, Bobbie. I'll be considering that information all day long.
#5
Sorry, EU, I was aiming my remarks at camel kissers and Mad Mullahs. But I guess there is some risk to the rest of us!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2014 13:24 Comments ||
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#6
Our government lets them visit this country, you know. They kiss the camels, and who knows what else (we don't really wanna know, do we?), and then they come here.
[Dhaka Tribune] A schoolgirl was raped allegedly by her private tutor in Rupbaburhat village under Janjira upazila of Shariatpur on Wednesday morning.
Family members of the victim, who is a class IV student at a local kindergarten school, said when she was being tutored by her teacher, Shahidul Islam, son of Hamed Madbar of village Kalai Moral Kandi upazila, at the school after school hours, he took her to a secluded room and raped her.
Mother of the victim told the Dhaka Tribune that they had gone to Janjira cop shoppe to file a case against Shahidul, but the officer-in-charge of the cop shoppe did not register any case, but advised them to settle the issue mutually.
Md Shaheen Alam, founder of Sab Kindergarten, said, "Hearing of the incident, we have already removed Shahidul Islam from his service and we want his punishment."
The rapist Shahidul Islam remained absconding since the incident.
When contacted, Akram Ali Miah, officer-in-charge of Janjira cop shoppe, said: "I have been informed about the matter, but no one came to me to file any case."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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IN A landmark decision on genetically modified (GM) canola and property rights, the much-anticipated verdict in the Marsh v Baxter case has found in favor of GM canola grower Michael Baxter. The Luddites, including Greenpeace, have have been checked. GM crops will be what keeps the world from starving in the future.
#1
The problem was the neighbor lost his "organic" certification because some of the GM seeds blew into his fields and sprouted. He pulled out the offending GM plants, but still lost his certification. Looks to me like his real complaint lies with the certification agency, not his neighbor!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2014 7:45 Comments ||
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#2
The GM crops were probably easy to spot - - they were likely 30% taller and more healthy looking.
[An Nahar] The fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... fight is apparently over between the makers of a popular hot sauce and a small Southern Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, city that said its factory's smells were unbearable, after the Irwindale City Council voted to drop a public nuisance declaration and lawsuit against the makers of Sriracha hot sauce.
Well, thank goodness for that! I know we all were worried, all except Deacon Blues, anyway. He makes his own.
The dual moves Wednesday night brought an effective end to the spicy-air dispute that had Sriracha devotees worried about future sauce shortages and had suitors including the state of Texas offering its producer, Huy Fong Foods, a friendlier home.
The closed-session council vote was unanimous with one councilman abstaining due to a conflict of interest, the San Gabriel Valley Tribune (http://bit.ly/1tSfP9Z) reported.
Residents and business leaders praised the vote that some called overdue.
"Thank you so much for saving Irwindale because we were headed in the wrong direction," Irwindale Fred Barbosa, who lives in Irwindale, told the Tribune after the vote.
Bob Machuca of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. said the resolution showed Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, is "open for business" and is "what we needed to do a long time ago."
The city of about 1,400 people had been at odds with the company, which recently moved its main operations there, after residents complained last year of spicy odors burned their throats and eyes.
It wasn't immediately clear what prompted the council change its position, but the company had been asking the city for more time as it worked with regional air-quality officials on a plan to make the smell go away.
But city officials met behind closed doors Tuesday with company CEO David Tran and representatives of Gov. Jerry Governor Moonbeam Brown ... those who ignore history are bound to repeat it ... 's Business and Economic Development Office. Afterward Mayor Mark Breceda said he would ask the council to end the fight.
Tran, an immigrant from Vietnam whose company produces several chili sauces based on the flavors of his native country, said Tuesday that he installed stronger filters at the plant, and he's confident they will block fumes when the chili-grinding season begins in August.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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Once a year my father canned his own hot relish for himself and a few of his friends and neighbors. The fumes were so strong I thought the paint on the kitchen walls would curl up and fall off. He was proud of his hot relish from hell.
#2
Irwindale is an industrial city (1400 residents) home to a quarry and a big ol stinky brewery next to the 210. This is a smart move as the asshats that complained and got in a tizzy were about to lose a large employer and tax source. Idiots
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/30/2014 7:17 Comments ||
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#3
Some body explained to the Council that even if they won this debate, they were going to lose, as taxes come from taxpayers, and were likely to come up short. It, however, doesn't mean end of story, just end of round one.
Stupid will get loose; it always does.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/30/2014 7:22 Comments ||
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#4
That the idea was even entertained would have me quietly packing.
Hey everyone excited about the leaving California taxes?!
[An Nahar] Thousands of students rallied across La Belle France Thursday to protest against the anti-immigration National Front party, whose historic success in EU polls they said threatened democracy.
Waving banners that read "No to the National Front", and "Wake up, La Belle France," demonstrators rallied in Lyon, in the east of the country, as well as in Gay Paree, Toulouse ...lies on the banks of the River Garonne, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The Toulouse metropolitan area is the fourth-largest in La Belle France... , Rouen, Amiens, Nantes, Marseille and Bordeaux.
"We respect the result of the European elections, of democracy, but we do not accept the values of the National Front (FN)," said Silvio Philippe, one of the organizers of the Lyon rally. "French democracy is in danger."
The FN won a nationwide election for the first time on Sunday, topping mainstream political parties to clinch 24 of La Belle France's 74 seats in the new European parliament.
The result, which was echoed by similar gains for far-right parties in other countries such as the United Kingdom, sent shock waves through the political establishment.
The party led by Marine Le Pen wants La Belle France to quit the euro, reinstate national border controls and repatriate the bulk of Brussels' powers to national parliaments.
After the vote, Le Pen said that voters had demanded "only one type of politics - a politics of the French, for the French and with the French," comments that sparked concern among the country's large immigrant population.
On Thursday -- a national holiday in La Belle France -- young people met in cities across the country to protest against the party.
One organizer said the rallies had been organized after a call to action by a secondary school student in the multi-cultural southern port city of Marseille.
In Gay Paree, thousands of students met at the Bastille shouting anti-right wing slogans. Police said the crowds topped 4,000, although organizers said it was double that.
A large group of students rallied outside the European Parliament in Strasbourg, some carrying banners reading "We will not let fascism ...a political system developed in Italy symbolized by the Roman fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... happen".
AFP news hounds estimated the crowd at 2,000-strong, the police put the number at 800.
In Lyon, between 700 and a thousand students and school children met to protest against the party, according to police and organizers, some carrying posters that read "Lyon, capital of the resistance".
"We are all the children of immigrants," shouted demonstrators as they marched in Toulouse, where police said 800 young people had gathered. Posters being carried by the young people taking part said they are "fed up of the FN".
Organizers said there had been 2,000 at the rally.
"It is a lot for a protest organized in three days, purely on social media," the leader of one student union said.
The rallies were organized by student unions as well as Socialist, Communist and Green youth groups.
"It's the first time I have been to an anti-FN march," Tom, one 18-year old at the rally in Toulouse said, adding that he "regretted" not going to vote last Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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Ever notice how student demonstrations almost always coincide with exam week?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
05/30/2014 7:24 Comments ||
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I only hope we are lucky enough, in the US, to have similar leftist protests after the mid-term elections this fall.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2014 7:38 Comments ||
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#3
"We will not let fascism happen"
Ah, fascism is rooted from socialism, just like national socialism (ie NAZI, as in National Socialist Workers Party).
#6
It might be fairly typical for college kids to think socialism is cool. One can only hope that if and when they get jobs and have to pay taxes they'll be smart enough to reconsider.
[FOXNEWS] A Ukrainian military general and 14 soldiers were killed when their helicopter was shot down in eastern Ukraine Thursday, the country's acting president said.
Oleksandr Turchynov said rebels used a portable air defense missile to down the helicopter over the city of Slovyansk.
He told parliament that Gen. Serhiy Kulchytskiy was among those who died, according to the Interfax news agency.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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They got caught in the trillion dollar sand trap who cares!
[An Nahar] A Turkish court on Thursday handed a 15-month jail term to a teacher over Twitter posts deemed religiously offensive, local media reported on Thursday.
The court in the eastern city of Mus ruled that the man, identified as Ertan P., insulted Islamic values with his Twitter handle -- @allah (cc) -- and a series of tweets he posted, Hurriyet newspaper reported on its website.
The defendant claimed his account had been hacked and appealed against the sentence, Hurriyet said.
Pretending to tweet as God, he wrote: "In my present state of mind, I would not have created the little finger of human beings".
"Here (heaven) is very safe because there is no police," he tweeted in reference to police crackdown on protesters during mass anti-government demonstrations in June last year.
The Islamic-rooted government banned Twitter in March after the micro-blogging site was used to spread corruption allegations against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... and his inner circle.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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[The Peninsula] Turkey's top court ruled on Thursday that a blanket ban on the popular video-sharing site YouTube violated individual rights and freedoms, the prime minister's office said.
YouTube has been banned in Turkey since March 27 after the site was used to spread audio recordings in which the voices of senior government, military and intelligence officials can be heard weighing possible military action inside war-torn Syria.
The decision was in response to individual complaints to the constitutional court on the grounds of a breach of rights, the PM's office said.
The court decision is "binding" and access to YouTube could be granted in the coming hours, the private NTV television channel reported.
Last month, the government said it would keep its block on YouTube in place despite two separate courts ordering the ban be lifted.
In March, Turkey also blocked Twitter after it was used to spread a spate of anonymous leaks implicating Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi only they haven't dumped him yet... and his inner circle in corruption allegations.
But the government had to comply with a Constitutional Court ruling that found the ban on the microblogging site violated free speech.
The Internet bans ahead of March 30 local elections -- in which Erdogan's ruling party scored a stunning victory -- earned Turkey strong rebuke from rights groups deploring the curbs as a setback to freedom of expression in the country that hopes to join the EU.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Aabpara police have placed in durance vile Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! a painter along with his two workers for preparing and displaying banners inscribed with slogans against the judiciary and the Supreme Court, police said on Wednesday.
The banners were displayed at different areas of the city including Aabpara.
The police picked up the painters from different markets of the city and identified them from their handwriting.
The police said during interrogation the painter disclosed that he was given an order to paint 15 banners for which he took Rs9,000 and displayed them at the desired location of his client.
He also told the police that he painted the banners while the other two displayed them, the police said, adding that he also gave the address of the man who gave him the order.
But when the police raided his house, it was found locked.
The accused were produced in the court of law which gave them into police custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] The husband of a pregnant Pak woman bludgeoned to death outside Lahore High Court (LHC) murdered his first wife, he told AFP on Thursday, in a twist to a story that has shocked rights activists. Is it true that you can't throw a rock in Pakistain without it hitting somebody who's killed somebody else?
Farzana Parveen was murdered on Tuesday outside the LHC by more than two dozen attackers, including her brother and father, for marrying against her family's wishes.
The brazen, brutal nature of the killing, in broad daylight in the centre of Pakistain's second largest city, has fired up the rubes around the world.
Now Parveen's husband Mohammad Iqbal, 45, has admitted killing his first wife.
"I was in love with Farzana and killed my first wife because of this love," adding that he had strangled her.
Iqbal said he was spared a prison term because his son -- who alerted police to the murder -- later forgave him under Pakistain's controversial blood-money laws.
After admitting to the murder he switched off his phone and did not respond to further calls.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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[IRISHTIMES] Police in northern India have arrested three men, including two police officers, and are searching for at least four more after two teenage girls were found hanged from the branches of a mango tree after being gang-raped.
A postmortem indicated that the cousins, aged 14 and 15, hanged themselves after being repeatedly assaulted by a group of men in their village, in the Budaun district of the huge, poverty-stricken state of Uttar Pradesh.
The social stigma attached to being a rape victim in conservative India frequently leads to suicides. Earlier reports suggested the victims were strangled.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2014 00:00 ||
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[BBC] Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... has described the stoning to death of a woman by her family in front of a Lahore court as "totally unacceptable". "Who's responsible for this outrage?"
Farzana Parveen, who was three months pregnant, was pelted with bricks and bludgeoned by relatives furious because she married against their wishes.
Her husband told the BBC that police simply stood by during the attack.
Lahore's police chief has denied this and said Ms Parveen had been killed by the time police arrived at the scene.
There are hundreds of so-called "honour killings" in Pakistain each year.
This incident has prompted particular outrage as it took place in daylight while police and members of the public reportedly stood by and did nothing to save her.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has ordered the chief minister of Punjab province to take "immediate action" and submit a report by Thursday evening.
'Inhuman'
"They watched Farzana being killed and did nothing," her husband, Muhammad Iqbal, told the BBC.
Mr Iqbal described the police as "shameful" and "inhuman" for their failure to stop the attack.
Police questioned witnesses as Ms Parveen's bloodied body lay on the pavement
"We were shouting for help, but nobody listened. One of my relatives took off his clothes to capture police attention but they didn't intervene," he added.
Another witness told Rooters news agency that police ignored the attack.
"Policemen were standing outside the High Court, but no policeman came forward. In spite of the noise, no policeman took the trouble of coming forward to save her," the witness, who was not named, said.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... Lahore police chief Shafique Ahmad questioned Mr Iqbal's credibility, and told the BBC that police did not stand by while the attack occurred.
Police were a distance away, and were told by a member of the public that a scuffle was taking place outside the court, Mr Ahmad said.
By the time police arrived, Ms Parveen had been killed after being hit on the head with a brick, he added.
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#4
This preposterous phony old fogey
Is revered as a disciplined yogi,
But his body is chilly
Cuz he got shot in Philly
When he snuck out one night for a hoagie.
#5
They need it too badly right now Besoeker. The government will happily support it, encourage it and once it is up and running well they'll raid it and seize it.
#6
Elon Musk is a big contributor to the Democrats, I doubt that he has anything to worry about. I'm sure the 'right' people have board seats and stock options.
#9
OldSpook: I went looking and found the following:
quote: I don't think spacex has ever said they "passed" NASA's human rating, but they talk all the time that they are designing to do so.
quote: Basicly the fact that there are no proposed F9 changes for it to meet the CC requirements means that its design was to Human flight or better safety standards. But these standards are saftey not mission assurance.
Note is that Atlas V does not meet these safety requirements and the avionics had to be upgraded including new additional engine monitoring, engine controllers, and software to meet the safety requirements. The F9 already had the monitoring, redundant engine controller (single failure operate dual failure safe), and software to implement the engine out capability. All of which is needed for a human flight. Only some possible software additions for performing abort notifications or additional engine status info to the spacecraft.
#10
What exactly is "Man Rating" it seems kinda vague. I assume the shuttles were Man Rated, but I am not certain if that is helpful. I think, Very Dependable Launch System might be a better verbage.
Shinsski resigns. Thrown under bus? A necessary but not sufficient response to a long-standing but worsening problem. I'm just surprised they announced it Friday morning. They usually wait to the afternoon...
#1
If this were to happen in a civilian non-government hospital, there would be criminal negligence charges filed against the hospital, director, managers and staff involved. The local DA and law enforcement would be crawling all over the hospital's records.
Obama sits, Holder doesn't act at all.
This is not done, not by a long shot. We need a real AG. And a real President - the buck stops there, whether you like it or not you piece os shit Obama.
#2
Once he leaves office, Holder should be (figuratively) hung up and beaten like a pnata, until the criminal activity he has allowed is knocked out into public view for all to see just how corrupt and incompetent he is.
#3
I work at a civilian, non-government hospital. There's no law preventing us from rearranging patient appointments, delaying return appointments, and lying to people about appointments.
There are, however, plenty of malpractice lawyers.
One of the many problems with the VA is that there is little, if any, external pressure for accountability. The VFW and Legion have proven that they can't provide that kind of pressure. Congress is marginal in that regard. Our current Attorney General is worse than John Mitchell.
And vets can't sue for malpractice.
So of course the VA system does what it does. It's done this since the end of World War II (at least). I've worked at three different VAs. I'm not surprised in the least.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2014 12:04 Comments ||
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#4
One of the many problems with the VA government bureaucracy is that there is little, if any, external pressure for accountability.
FIFY
As a modest start, give the person in the hot seat the authority to capriciously and arbitrarily fire 12 people a year without challenge. Pour l'encouragement de autres! Go ahead and provide a 'due process' after the fact to claw back any retirement with the proviso that they prove they're as 'clean as Caesar's wife'.
#5
Steve, as a civilian, you may think you are not under criminal law but civil (tort) law when it comes to this kind of action, but you may want to reconsider that thought. You may not be under specific legal requirement to not play scheduling games, et. But there is the concept of Negligence which does apply, even in a civilian situation. Criminal negligence is a 'misfeasance or 'nonfeasance' where the fault lies in the failure to foresee and so allow otherwise avoidable dangers to manifest. . As an MD or a nurse, your license is at risk with the state board if you delay care that results in the death or harm of the patient. And if it can be shown that you did so willfully and used deception with your patient, without regard to negative consequences, and it resulted in preventable and foreseeable harm, then you can be charged CRIMINALLY for criminal negligence in addition to any actions by the state BOM or BON (for nurses). There is also consideration for conspiracy in the coverup of the wrongdoing, as well as obstruction of justice if they are actively destroying or hiding documentation of the criminally negligent conduct. I have a feeling that as usual, the coverup may produce more criminal charges than the crime.
In a nutshell I think you are mistaken. Would you bet your license and imprisonment? Because even at a private hospital in private practice, if you systematically delay care to patients in contravention to hospital/practice policy, deceive the patients about it, lie to others about such practices (ex: Joint Commission [JCAHO], or the state licensing people), attempt to cover it up, then the action or inaction from you results in harm or death to the patients -- well, I don't see how you can avoid criminal prosecution if you have an honest DA, and this is especially so given the scope and magnitude of the harm done.
I am betting that criminal negligence is what will be charged in order to investigate this as a criminal, not civil, matter which it should be, but the biggest part of the investigation will be in criminal conspiracy to cover up the intentional negligence by the administrators and staff who concocted this crime against the nation's veterans.
#6
As for the VFW, it has been especially useless on this. At least the Legion (disclosure: Im PUFL), called for resignation and investigation from the start - and if you go back and look, for quite some time the Legion has been calling attention to the long wait times, delays in care, and other problems at the VA. The Legion has been very vocal. The problem isn't the legion, its the Obama administration has shown zero interest in the issue, and has ignored everyone that has been bringing this up.
As for the VFW? Useless. The VFW president was playing Obama kiss-ass, as were a large number of other veteran's organizations. I doubt the VFW will see dues from me when it comes time to renew next year.
I and others have said all along: the problem isn't money, nor is it professionalism on the part of the doctors, nurses and techs (the medical care, when available, is solid) - its accountability for the managers and directors. All the money in the world will not change a thing if you cannot hold people accountable for the results of their actions (or inactions).
Accountability and responsibility are the twin cures to this - the problem is, they are an anethema to government collectivist organizations, so the only way to fix this is to somehow get the government to become civil SERVANTs again, respecting individuals. But I know of no good way to do that, without basically tearing apart the VA's administrative structure and reworking it from the ground up.
#7
To me, it is a simple equation- If you play "hide the weenie" to improve the metrics that relate to your bonus potential, that should be a firing offense.
Before he resigned, "Rick" as his good buddy Champ calls him, said he was locking down the 2014 bonus program. I would rather audit everyone who ever got a bonus in the past 5 years to and state that if they participated in gaming the system needs to have the bonus amounts backed out over the next 6 months as a condition of continued employment. Come clean now and you get to continue as a probationary employee. Don't make us find you or you will be fired...
That's how it would be handled in most F1000 companies.
#10
Put yourself in the next guy's shoes. It is your first day and you ask for a briefing. The data from that briefing is ultimately generated and controlled by middle management. They lie and "shape" the data to make themselves look better.
You know that you are being told lies so what do you do? I say undercover FBI sting operations across the board. If you don't remove the middle management and the bad apple leaf employees nothing will change. Bad apples are bad apples. Throw them in jail or at least out of the VA.
#13
OS - you missed this little tidbit - Obamas war on government watchdogs. In this case, the top guy should be fired since his cabal has little time for IGs. "I didn't want to know" is closer to the real truth.
#15
What do you do? You have an IG for a reason, just like the military. Use it!
It has been my experience that the IG is there to identify the trouble makers and silence them. Someone should sic an independent counsel on the IGs. Or are you still wondering why corruption of this scale was allowed to continue?
Sterling takes the 5th, laughs all the way to the bank. Thnx to a 20-something bimbeaux...
The frenzied battle to get the team from Sterling drove the franchise's price sky high for a team that Forbes estimated was worth at $575 million back in January.
The franchise has been in turmoil since owner Donald Sterling was recorded on tape by an associate making racist comments about Magic Johnson, among others.
In short order, NBA commissioner Adam Silver slammed Sterling with an unprecedented lifetime ban for his remarks, imposed a $2.5 million fine, and began the process to force a sale of the Clippers.
#1
$575m before the race scandal. $2b after the race scandal. I smell a PR and business development advert firm with a 'reverse hustle' marketing plan.
#3
I am pretty certain Mrs Capsu would still whack me with the frying pan even if my mistress was considered my associate... She assures me I will feel the pan before I ever see it.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[DAWN] A US judge convicted an elderly Pak immigrant Thursday of murdering his wife in their New York home, savagely beating her over the head after she refused to cook the food he wanted.
"Culturally he was raised to believe that he had a right to discipline his wife," she said.
IN A landmark decision on genetically modified (GM) canola and property rights, the much-anticipated verdict in the Marsh v Baxter case has found in favor of GM canola grower Michael Baxter. 
Jerry 
[An Nahar] Thousands of students rallied across 
[DAWN] The husband of a pregnant Pak woman bludgeoned to death outside Lahore High Court (LHC) murdered his first wife, he told AFP on Thursday, in a twist to a story that has shocked rights activists.
