Blog Topic

Cell Phones Records & Information: Private or Public Information
February 18, 2010

Are your cell phone records and information private information or public information? As cell phones become more and more technologically advanced, and as the number of people whose only telephone number is a cell phone increases, so do the number of legal issues that have arisen regarding whether cell phone records and information is private or public information. The answer has a number of implications, not the least of which is the question about whether a law enforcement agency has the right to obtain your cell phone records and information without a search warrant or if this information is constitutionally protected under the 4^th Amendment as part of every American's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Is There a Reasonable Expectation of Privacy?
This week, in a federal case that's on appeal before the Third Circuit, the Court is considering the question of whether the government must obtain a search warrant to access this information because it is constitutionally protected private information or if the government can obtain that information without a search warrant because it is public information to which there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives claims it needed historical (meaning stored data from previous calls, not the ability to tap into calls or call records that are expected to be made in the future) phone location information because a set of suspects "use their wireless telephones to arrange meetings and transactions in furtherance of their drug trafficking activities." U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Lenihan in Pennsylvania denied the Justice Department's attempt to obtain stored location data without a search warrant. While the Court's ruling does not eliminate the ability of law enforcement agencies to obtain the information, the ruling would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a search warrant based on "probable cause" before they can obtain the cell phone records and information.

"The big picture in the case is whether the US government can circumvent the constitutional rights of the individual, and therefore avoid the need to obtain search warrants when requesting this information by claiming that the information is obtained from a third party (a cell phone provider) as opposed to obtaining the information directly from the individual because typically information obtained from a third party does not usually get constitutional protections. The government is arguing that based on precedents from the 1970s, any record held by a third party about us, no matter how invasively collected, is not protected by the Fourth Amendment.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Lenihan's ruling which was joined in by four other judges noted that cell phone location information can reveal sensitive information such as health treatments, financial difficulties, marital counseling, and even extra-marital affairs. In appealing the ruling, the Department of Justice claims a search warrant is not necessary because information that only provides the location of the cellular telephone provides "only a very general indication of a user's whereabouts at certain times in the past, and that the requested cell-site records do not implicate a Fourth Amendment privacy interest."

The Department of Justice is relying heavily upon other rulings to support its position that the information can be obtained without the necessity of a search warrant because they claim there is no expectation of privacy. For example, in 2009, U.S. District Judge William Pauley ruled that a defendant in a drug trafficking case, Jose Navas, "did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the cell phone" location because Navas only used the cell phone "on public thoroughfares en route from California to New York" and "if Navas intended to keep the cell phone's location private, he simply could have turned it off." In response to the Department of Justice, lawyers for various interests say that Americans do not "knowingly expose their location information and thereby surrender Fourth Amendment protection whenever they turn on or use their cell phones." They take the position that the calls people are making and even the information about those calls such as when and where the calls were made and to what numbers were called are intended to be private.

Law Enforcement Uses of Cell Phone Records & Information

Without a doubt cell phone records and information can be of great benefit to law enforcement agencies who are investigating and trying to stop or to prevent criminal or terroristic activites. However, if the information falls into the wrong hands, there can be grave consequences. Businesses are routinely transacting business over cell phones. If information regarding those businesses is leaked, it can costs companies millions of dollars. Plus, on a personal level, if personal information is leaked to the wrong person, the information may lead to identity theft and a host of other very harmful consequences.

A great example of how information from cell phones can be helpful to law enforcement involves the arrest and convictions of armed bank robbers in Dallas that were known as the "Scarecrow Bandits." The Scarecrow Bandits were a highly organized group that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks. In trying to catch and to identify the people involved in these crimes, FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding to what their cellular towers had recorded at the time of a dozen different bank robberies in the Dallas area. The records showed that two phones had made calls around the time of the bank robberies, and that those cellular telephones belonged to men named Tony Hewitt and Corey Duffey. A Dallas jury eventually convicted the men of multiple bank robberies and weapons charges. Corey Duffey, was sentenced in January 2010 to 354 years. Another member of the Scarecrow Bandits was sentenced to 140 years in prison.

Cell phone tracking has become a regular feature in criminal investigations. It comes in two forms: police obtaining retrospective data kept by mobile providers for their own billing purposes that may not be very detailed, or prospective data that reveals the minute-by-minute location of a handset or mobile device.

Obtaining location details is now "commonplace," says Al Gidari, a partner in the Seattle offices of Perkins Coie who represents wireless carriers. In another case, Arizona agents from the DEA tracked a tractor trailer with a drug shipment through a GPS-equipped Nextel phone owned by the suspect. This information also has other uses such as the case where information was obtained from a cellular telephone tower to help search for James Kim, who died in the Oregon wilderness in 2006 after leaving a snowbound car to seek help.

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New Rules Give Airline Customers Rights
December 22, 2009

The Department of Transportation on Monday announced new rules that give the traveling public some rights in the event of extended delays. The new rules prohibit U.S. aircraft on domestic routes from remaining on a tarmac for more than three hours with travelers aboard. In addition, once the new rule takes effect, airlines will also be required to provide adequate food and water for passengers within two hours of their plane being delayed on the tarmac, and to maintainoperable restrooms and provide medical attention if necessary.

These new Rules will take effect 120 days from the date of its publication in the Federal Register, the publication date is anticipated to be before end of the 2009 calendar year, making the Rules effective approximately June 1, 2010.

There will be some exceptions to the new three-hour rule. For example, the airline can keep passengers on the plane for more than 3 hours for safety and security reasons or if air traffic controllers advise a pilot that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations. Likewise, U.S. airlines operating international flights departing from or arriving in the United States "must specify, in advance, their own time limits for deplaning passengers, with the same exceptions applicable.".

According to the DOT, the new Rules also:

• Prohibit airlines from scheduling "chronically delayed" flights. Those who do may face enforcement action from the department for "unfair and deceptive practices."
• Require airlines to designate an employee to monitor the effects of flight delays and cancellation, respond "in a timely and substantive fashion" to consumer complaints and give consumers information on where to file complaints.
• Require airlines to display flight delay information on their Web sites for each domestic flight operated.
• Require airlines to adopt customer service plans and monitor compliance.
• Prohibit airlines from retroactively applying material changes that could negatively affect consumers who have already purchased tickets.

In addition to these passenger friendly rule changes, the DOT announced that it plans to "begin another rulemaking process designed to further strengthen protections for air travelers."

Areas under consideration include requiring airlines to:

• submit contingency plans for lengthy tarmac delays to the DOT for review and approval;
• disclose baggage fees;
• report additional tarmac delay data; and
• strengthen requirements that airline ads disclose the full fare consumers pay for tickets.

In short, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood commented that "Airline passengers have rights, and these new rules will require airlines to live up to their obligation to treat their customers fairly."

The airline industry has responded to the new Rules with mixed reviews. Robert Crandall, former chairman and chief executive of American Airlines, who spoke in September at hearings in support of the three-hour limit. Meanwhile, James May, president and CEO of the Air Transport Association, commented, "We will comply with the new rule even though we believe it will lead to unintended consequences -- more canceled flights and greater passenger inconvenience."

 Hopefully, you will never encounter a lengthy delay in your travels, but if you do, it is nice to know that in the future you will have some rights to basic needs.

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Million Dollar Red-Light Camera
December 14, 2009

While some cities have lost money on the controversial red-light cameras, others are clearly generating large sums of revenue.

The red light camera located at Danieldale Road and U.S. Highway 67 in Duncanville, Texas tops the list of money makers. The cameras at that intersection issued more than 19,000 citations and generated more than $1 million in a one-year span. Meanwhile, the cameras located at the intersection of Cooper Street and Spur 303 in Arlington, Texas generated more than $943,000 in revenue for the city of Arlington. Of the top 10 money-making cameras in North Texas, three are in Duncanville. Dallas, Richardson, Richland Hills and Irving also made an appearance on the top 10.

The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit news Web site, analyzed red-light cameras across the state from July 1, 2008 to June 20, 2009. To view those results, go to: http://www.texastribune.org/library/data/red-light-cameras/

The Controversy

In addition to the anger some people have because over the use of red light cameras to generate revenue, and that the belief that some red light cameras may contribute to the cause of accidents when drivers slam on their brakes to avoid being issued a ticket from a red light camera, the companies that operate these red light cameras have come under fire for not being operated in a legal fashion under Texas law.

Dallas attorney Lloyd Ward started the fight when he sued ACS, one of the largest red light camera companies after he received a ticket as a result of a red light camera operated by ACS. Mr. Ward discovered that ACS and two other red light camera companies, ATS and Redflex were all in violation of Texas law because they did not have an occupational license as required by the Texas Occupational Code. Judge Craig Smith (192^nd District Court of Dallas County, Texas) agreed and issued a ruling that ACS was operating without a license.

Texas Occupation Code Section 1702.101 states that "Unless the person holds a license as an investigations company, a person may not... offer to perform the services of an investigations company. A person acts as an investigations company for the purposes of this chapter if the person engages in the business of obtaining or furnishing... information related to... crime or wrongs done; or... engages in the business of securing... evidence for use before a court, board, officer, or investigating committee... furnishing information includes information obtained or furnished through the review and analysis of, and the investigation into the content of, computer-based data not available to the public."

On the heels of Ward's victory, two new cases were filed in federal court against two different vendors. The plaintiffs in Steven Bell, Alexis and Jacqueline Monrreal, individually and on behalf of others similarly situated v. American Traffic Solutions, Inc., filed suit in Dallas. They claim that American Traffic Solutions failed to obtain the appropriate license as a private investigator in Texas. The plaintiffs received notices of red light violations from Irving and Arlington, respectively. Importantly, the pleadings in the case seek to certify a class action lawsuit on behalf of everyone who has ever received a notice of violation from those cities, and seeks actual damages in the amount of the tickets each plaintiff received, attorneys' fees, plus $3 million in punitive damages. The same attorney filed an essentially identical suit in federal court in Sherman, Steven Bell, TXPS, Inc., and Mohammed Al Musa on behalf of others similarly situated v. Redflex Traffic Systems, Inc. That case involves notices of violation issued by Plano and Duncanville.

On March 26, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas dismissed a lawsuit claiming that red-light camera vendors were required to obtain a private investigator's license to operate in the State of Texas. An identical case was filed against American Traffic Solutions, Inc. (ATS) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. In dismissing the case with prejudice, United States District Judge Michael H. Schneider said the plaintiffs do not have standing to argue that a private investigator's license is required for vendors to operate camera programs or to address the Texas Legislature's authorization of the use of red-light cameras by local governments.

Future controversies of red light cameras are quickly resolving themselves as these red light camera companies are taking steps to get the required licensing to make sure that the millions of dollars being generated by these cameras is not being jeopardized.

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Substandard Medical Care At London Hospital
November 30, 2009

London, England - The Care Quality Commission, the independent NHS inspectorate published findings which said it had "lost confidence" in the management of the trust, after repeated requests to address the problems had failed to deliver results. It is the second time in six months that a foundation trust, a flagship NHS medical institution granted control of its own finances on the strength of its performance, has been found to be delivering sub-standard care suspected of causing hundreds of deaths. Analysis of the hospital board of directors' meeting minutes suggests it spent little time discussing and challenging information in relation to poor quality of care for patients.

Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, a London, England hospital was cited for poor standards of care at an accident and emergency unit in one of that country's flagship hospitals. According to an NHS investigation, those poor standards may have contributed to unnecessary deaths of over 400 patients. The investigation also found dirty equipment and an absence of leadership contributed to a death rate almost 40 per cent above the national average. Among the specific problems cited in the report were:

• The unit had blood stains on the floor,
• dirty curtains,
• stinking mattresses, some stained with blood
• soiled equipment,
• nurses who failed to monitor, feed and give drugs to patients correctly; and
• a rate of pressure sores almost twice the national average. Instead of the national four-hour maximum waiting time for A&E, the trust was operating a 10-hour waiting time,
• inadequate arrangements for children,
• breaches of infection control, and
• poor leadership.

In March, the Healthcare Commission - the CQC's predecessor - exposed a similar scandal at Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, where monitoring of mortality rates showed between 400 and 1,200 more deaths had occurred than the national average in the three years to 2007-08.

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Parents Expected to Plead Guilty to Crimes in Balloon Boy Hoax
November 12, 2009

Richard and Mayumi Heene, the couple accused of perpetrating the "balloon boy" hoax to promote a reality TV show, are expected to enter guilty pleas Friday morning. "Richard Heene will plead guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a Class 4 felony," said Richard Heene's lawyer, David Lane, in an e-mailed statement Thursday. "The stipulations carry the possibility of up to 90 days in jail for Richard and 60 days for Mayumi along with the probation," Lane said.

Mayumi Heene will plead guilty to false reporting to authorities, a Class 3 misdemeanor. Because Mayumi Heene is a citizen of Japan, any felony conviction or conviction of certain misdemeanor crimes would result in her deportation. By pleading guilty to a Class 3 misdeamor, she will avoid the risk of being deported.

Two days after the Oct. 15 flying saucer-shaped balloon chase riveted TV audiences worldwide, Mayumi Heene allegedly admitted "that she and Richard Heene had lied to authorities," Larimer County sheriff's investigator Robert Heffernan wrote in a sworn statement supporting a warrant to a recent search of the family's home.

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Trends Show More People Are Opting For Private Health Insurance Over Company Sponsored Insurance
November 09, 2009

While Congress debates on what action to take with regard to universal health care, the one fact that everyone knows is that the cost of health insurance is sky-rocketing, as are the numbers of people who simply cannot afford health insurance at all. According to an article recently published by MSNBC, another trend that is emerging is that even among those people who are employed full time, and whose employer helps to subsidize health insurance costs, more and more of those people are declining to obtain health insurance for their family members because of the cost of that insurance. The trend has been to purchase less expensive, private health insurance rather than going through a health insurance plan offered by the employer. One of the major reasons for this trend is that while employer's may help to defray the cost of health insurance for the employee, more and more companies are refusing to contribute towards the costs of health insurance for the employee's family members.

The article references that:

• Nearly 20 million people across the country choose individual health plans.
• At least 60,000 people in Texas alone have signed up for private health insurance through Aetna, one of the nation's largest health insurers.
• An employer-sponsored health insurance plan for a spouse and two children could cost as much as $900 a month, whereas in the private market you're looking at 2 or 3 hundred dollars a month" according Amanda Wray with Tailor Made Insurance in Dallas.
• "In the private market, you're more likely to be able to tailor and customize individual plans so you can get them in line with your needs and your budget.
• The choice is usually seen as either not being insured at all or selecting a private plan that may have higher deductibles and more limitations than an employer-sponsored plan.

Even if the economy makes a major turn-around, it is not expected that employers will likely return to their previous levels of contributing towards the cost of health insurance for employees or their family members. As a result, this is a trend that is likely to continue.

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New York & Texas Settle Case Against Tagged.com Identity Theft
November 09, 2009

The state of New York and the State of Texas have settled their claims against Tagged.com, a social networking site, for its use of invitation e-mails after an attorney general alleged that the Web site essentially stole the identities of some 60 million Internet users. Tagged will pay $500,000 in penalties and costs to the State of New York. Tagged.com also reached an agreement with the State of Texas, but the terms of that settlement have not been released yet.

New York's Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that Tagged.com will stop its practice of accessing user "contacts" and sending messages to "contacts" of Tagged.com's members without members' informed permission. In addition, Tagged.com has agreed that it also will provide clear and conspicuous disclosures in the future.

While this case has been resolved, it appears that the social network will continue to access contacts except that now such activity will only be done after a disclosure has been provided. All social network users need to be aware of these types of activities to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of information.

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Hospital?s Repeated Wrong Site Surgeries Lead to Fines and Preventative Measures
November 09, 2009

Rhode Island Hospital, the largest hospital in Rhode Island, was fined $150,000 and ordered to take the extraordinary step of installing video cameras in all its operating rooms after it had its fifth wrong-site surgery since 2007. The order includes a provision that the hospital must:

• assign a clinical employee who is not part of the surgical team to observe all surgeries at the hospital for at least one year;
• The person will monitor whether doctors are marking the site to be operated on;
• The surgeon must take a time out before operating to ensure they're operating on the proper body part;
• The surgeon to be involved in marking the surgical site.
• The Order gives the hospital 45 days to install video and audio recording equipment in all its operating rooms.
• Every doctor will be taped performing surgery at least twice every year, although it will be left up to the hospital whether to tell surgeons when they are being monitored.

The latest incident last month involved a patient who was to have surgery on two fingers. Instead, the surgeon performed both operations on the same finger. Under protocols adopted in the medical field, the surgery site should have been marked and the surgical team should have taken a timeout before cutting to ensure they were operating on the right patient, the right part of the patient's body and doing the correct procedure.

The state health director said the surgical team marked the wrist, rather than each finger, and the surgeon did not mark the site himself. The team did not take a timeout before the second surgery. When they discovered the error, they checked with the patient's family to see if they should perform the surgery on the correct finger. When they did the surgery on the correct finger, they also did not do a timeout, something Gifford called "amazing" given that they had just made such a serious error.

Rhode Island Hospital, the teaching hospital for Brown University's Alpert Medical School, was fined a second time for wrong-site surgeries. The hospital also was fined $50,000 after brain surgeons operated on the wrong part of the heads of three patients in 2007. Gifford said his department has issued only two fines - both to Rhode Island Hospital.

The hospital has claimed it is committed to reducing medical errors and had been taking steps to improve patient safety, but is saying it is disappointed with the sanctions from the health department.

The State Health Director said he had never heard of another state health department ordering a hospital to install video cameras in its operating rooms, something he said surgeons should welcome because, "Clearly there's a culture of making mistakes, so if they're hesitant to have someone to look over their shoulder, that says to me that we're doing the right thing."

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Teens Sue School for Punishment For Postings on Myspace
November 09, 2009

Two Indianapolis sophomore girls have sued their school district after they were punished for posting what the school is saying are sexually suggestive photos on MySpace during their summer vacation. The American Civil Liberties Union, in a federal lawsuit filed last week on behalf of the girls, argues that Churubusco High School violated the girls' free speech rights when it banned them from extracurricular activities for a joke that didn't involve the school. They say the district humiliated the girls by requiring them to apologize to an all-male coaches' board and undergo counseling.

Some child advocates argue that schools should play a role in monitoring students' behavior, especially when dealing with minors. And the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students can be disciplined for activities that happen outside of school, so long as the school can prove the activities were disruptive or posed a danger and that it was foreseeable the activities would find their way to campus.

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Texas Law on Kids Seeing Porn Challenged
November 09, 2009

After two young girls were forced by their father to watch hard core pornography, the mother of the two girls wants to have Texas law changed to make it illegal for a parent to show pornography to children. Police were notified of the incident after one of the girls told a school counselor in June that her father made them watch adults having group sex and various other acts at his home in Amarillo. The parents of the girls, and their 7-year-old sister, are divorced and share custody, and the mother of the girls is understandably upset. However, it is not illegal in Texas for a parent to show such materials to their children. A 1970s-era Texas law that allows parents to show "harmful material" to their children has come under fire after a prosecutor said he couldn't file charges against a man accused of forcing his 8- and 9-year-old daughters to watch hardcore online pornography.

The law apparently was meant to protect the privacy of parents who wanted to teach children about sex education, but it states clearly that parents can't be prosecuted for showing "harmful material" to their children.

While the father may not be prosecuted, the family law judge has ordered that future visits with the father must be supervised.

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Arlington Looks to Regulate Pedicabs Around Cowboys Stadium
November 09, 2009

After receiving numerous complaints about the conduct of some of the pedicab drivers and the condition of the pedicabs, the City of Arlington is looking to enact regulations on pedicabs. The pedicabs became popular when the parking fee at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium was announced to be $75.00 per vehicle and because there is no public transportation that takes patrons close to the entrance of the stadium. However, with complaints about reckless driving by these pedicabs, the City of Arlington is going to require permits to operate the pedicabs and rickshaws to protect everyone's safety.

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Punctured Tire Caused Bus Accident that Killed 17 People
November 09, 2009

In August of 2008 a charter bus carrying 55 passengers from Houston's Vietnamese Catholic community plunged over a highway bridge in Sherman, Texas. The National Transportation Safety Board found that a retreaded tire on the vehicle's right front axle became underinflated as a result of being punctured.

Federal regulations prohibit retreads from being affixed to the front of buses, but the board found that the retread itself wasn't at fault. The agency said that bus drivers should check pressure and that new buses should be equipped with tire-pressure monitoring devices.

Drivers of commercial vehicles such as chartered buses owe their passengers a high standard of care, and are required by law to conduct pre-trip inspections of their vehicles. Federal transportation officials recommended Tuesday that bus drivers take new steps to require the drivers check tire pressure as part of the pre-trip inspection. The NTSB also criticized federal and state agencies for lax oversight of the motorcoach industry. Sadly, the transportation industry is slow to enact procedures to protect the safety of its customers, and without strict governmental regulation, such practices are not likely to change.

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MADD Laying Off Staff Due to Reduced Funding
October 20, 2009

Notifications to 23 employees in Arkansas, California, Delaware, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma, Virginia and Washington as well as at MADD's national headquarters in Irving are expected this week. MADD started the year with 397 employees nationwide. Since then it has eliminated 55 staff positions, or nearly 14 percent of its work force.

Private donations, government grants and corporate sponsorships to MADD National dropped between 15 percent and 20 percent to $43 million last year, said MADD National Chief Operating Officer Debbie Weir. Weir said the current economy has made it especially difficult to raise money for MADD, especially in states with high unemployment rates. "Donors really have to look at their disposable income and as a result, giving is less."

Weir said that MADD will continue to serve people in all 50 states regardless of whether states have paid employees. Volunteers will pick up the slack in the affected states, helping to push an agenda that includes targeting underage drinking and stronger seat belt laws, she said.

MADD celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2005. Last year, MADD provided grief counseling, court counseling and financial counseling to more than 55,000 people and their families. With advocates in more than 300 communities, MADD lobbies against drinking and driving to save lives. It helped persuade Congress to raise the drinking age to 21 and helped reduce the number of traffic fatalities attributed to drunken driving. It also claims to have helped save more than 300,000 lives.
We would like to encourage people to donate to MADD as there is no doubt that MADD has helped to save lives and to bring attention to the problem of drinking and driving all across America.

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Quick Thinking Police Catch Purse Thief In Gas Scam
October 19, 2009

A purse thief was arrested in Fort Worth after he offered to sell gas at half-price to undercover police officers. Police say that the man had used credit cards that were stolen from an elderly woman to purchase the gas. The suspect made the half-price offer to two undercover narcotics detectives who happened to be filling up their unmarked car, police said.

The credit cards were stolen from Erma Mathis (73) of Arlington while she was shopping at her neighborhood grocery store. She believes that her purse was stolen from her grocery cart as she was shopping.

Shortly thereafter, at a gas station on East Lancaster Street, two Fort Worth narcotics officers in plain clothes were filling up their car, when Michael Hall (25) made an unusual offer: Gas for half-price. "We were like, 'What do you mean?'" the officer said. "He was like, 'Pull up behind the car. Half-priced gas!'"

Michael Hall was arrested and found to be in possession of Mrs. Mathis' credit card and driver's license, police said. He faces a charge of credit card abuse, but her purse and glasses are still missing. She said she assumes the thief threw the items away before he was arrested.

Sgt. Chad Mahaffey of the Fort Worth police department praised the undercover police officers for the arrest. The identity of the officers has not been released since they are undercover, but we hope they are recognized by the department for their quick thinking efforts.

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City of Dallas To Enforce Bicycle Helmet Law
October 12, 2009

Dallas bicyclists be warned, effective immediately, the Dallas Police Department has been advised by the City Attorney to issue tickets to bicycle riders who are not wearing a helmet. Those tickets carry a fine up to $200.00 per ticket. This directive is a reversal of a June, 2009 directive from the city attorney that had ordered officers not to enforcing the law to avoid potential lawsuits.

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Surgery Technician Pleads Guilty to Infecting 16 Patients with Deadly Hepatitis C Virus
October 06, 2009

A Denver surgery technician who infected at least 16 hospital patients with hepatitis C and may have exposed thousands more pleaded guilty to some charges Friday in an agreement that includes a 20-year prison term. Kristen Diane Parker (26) pled not guilty to the 42-count indictment but in a plea agreement Friday acknowledged guilt to five counts of tampering with a consumer product and five counts of obtaining a controlled substance by deceit or subterfuge. Prosecutors dropped the rest of the charges. Prosecutors say Parker, who has tested positive for the disease, stole syringes filled with painkillers to feed a drug habit and replaced them with syringes she used and refilled with saline solution at two hospitals where she worked, Denver's Rose Medical Center and Colorado Springs' Audubon Surgery Center.

So far, prosecutors say at least 16 cases have genetically linked to her but health officials have said they fear 6,000 other patients may have been exposed to the incurable liver disease.

Unfortunately, this is not the first case of its type. Similar cases have been reported across the United States, including some in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.

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Drug Related Deaths Close In On the Number of Car Wreck Deaths
October 06, 2009

Nationwide, death related to auto accidents still cost more lives nationwide than deaths caused by drug overdoes, but state-by-state calculations show the rate of drug-induced deaths outpaced vehicle accidents in 16 states in 2006, up from about a dozen states the year before and eight in 2003. Specifically, in 2006, death counts and death rates were higher for drugs than for vehicle accidents in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.

Based on death certificate data, CDC:

• Researchers counted more than 45,000 U.S. deaths from motor-vehicle crashes in 2006,
• Rsearchers counted approximately 39,000 from drug-induced causes;
• Drug overdoses make up the vast majority of the drug-related deaths;
• There has been a sharp increase in fatalities tied to cocaine and to drugs known as opioid analgesics - including methadone, fentanyl, sedatives and prescription painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContinFrom 1999 to 2006;
• Death rates for opioid analgesics increased for every age group; and
• Deaths from methadone alone increased sevenfold.

In comparison, the death rate for people killed in motor vehicle crashes decreased by about 6.5 percent from 1999 through 2006 - from 15.3 per 100,000 to 14.3 per 100,000, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.

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The Media?s Impact on the Public?s Perception of Health Issues
October 06, 2009

According to American College of Emergency Physicians, the publicity surrounding the death of actress Natasha Richardson, who died suddenly from a head injury after a fall has triggered a 73 percent increase in emergency room visits for head trauma. In the month following her death, the number of patients seen by doctors in 19 urban, suburban, and rural emergency rooms in New York and New Jersey in March 2009 rose dramatically. However, when the media stories regarding the actress' death began to wane, the number of emergency room visits for head trauma returned to the pre-March 2009 levels.

"The study quantified what we already knew: when the media make people more aware of a disease process, they get scared and come to the emergency room," Brian Walsh of Morristown Memorial Hospital said. In this case, "the media played up the 'sudden death syndrome' aspect - the idea that you can have a minor fall, look great afterwards, and suddenly die." Likewise, media campaigns that increase knowledge by encouraging people to go to an emergency room if, for example, they show signs of a stroke or heart attack, can be helpful. However, in the case of of patients who visited the emergency room concerned about head trauma, only 2 or 3 percent of those had a significant injury. Mr. Walsh also reflected on the current reports of the swine flu. "Every time someone dies, we get a bump in visits. But most people aren't dying from it, and everyone is paranoid. The extra knowledge is making them scared."

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