Many occupational disease are malignancies. Over the decades we are encourage to "wal and Run" as society races for a cure. Once cannot no lose track of the big picture that research will require massive funding that only governmental entities will provide. Today's post is shared from nytimes.com
ON THE CANCER FRONTIER
One Man, One Disease, and a Medical Revolution
By Paul A. Marks and James Sterngold
PublicAffairs, $26.99.
You can’t be against curing cancer, just like you can’t be against motherhood or apple pie. But while the notion of finding “the cure” is immensely appealing, it can be misleading, even misguided.
Marks, a former president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering, draws from his long career in cancer research to reveal the complex, messy and fascinating reality that regrettably does not fit neatly onto a bumper sticker.
Marks describes cancer as “the existential illness”: The group of diseases that we lump under a single name arises from the basic mechanics of life. “As long as cell division is the means by which we propagate and survive as a species,” Marks writes, “cancers will develop.” Not exactly a snappy fund-raising rallying cry, but the blunt fact.
“The truth is,” he states, “basic research has been the engine for most of the successes in the war on cancer.” And basic research is open-ended and freewheeling, full of incomparable drudgery, quirky results, frustrating dead ends and unexpected left turns. But this is how scientific knowledge advances, and indeed enormous strides have been made: The death rate for cancer patients in the 35-44 age group, for example, has dropped by half over the last half-century or so.
Marks describes other factors that have contributed to the improved outlook for patients — expanded clinical trials, the development of specialized cancer centers, more accurate diagnostics, patient empowerment, the idea of patient-centered care and more widespread screening tests.
Nevertheless, it is the research at the bench that gets the well-deserved credit. Congressional cuts to the National Institutes of Health are about the worst prescription for cancer you could possibly dream up.
Danielle Ofri, a physician at Bellevue Hospital, is the author of “What Doctors Feel: How Emotions Affect the Practice of Medicine.”
Showing posts sorted by date for query apple. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query apple. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Thursday, September 4, 2014
The Risk of Melanoma in Airline Pilots and Cabin Crew
| Airline pilots and cabin crew are occupationally exposed to higher levels of cosmic and UV radiation than the general population, but their risk of developing melanoma is not yet established. Objective To assess the risk of melanoma in pilots and airline crew. Data Sources PubMed (1966 to October 30, 2013), Web of Science (1898 to January 27, 2014), and Scopus (1823 to January 27, 2014). Study Selection All studies were included that reported a standardized incidence ratio (SIR), standardized mortality ratio (SMR), or data on expected and observed cases of melanoma or death caused by melanoma that could be used to calculate an SIR or SMR in any flight-based occupation. Data Extraction and Synthesis Primary random-effect meta-analyses were used to summarize SIR and SMR for melanoma in any flight-based occupation. Heterogeneity was assessed using the χ2 test and I2 statistic. To assess the potential bias of small studies, we used funnel plots, the Begg rank correlation test, and the Egger weighted linear regression test. Main Outcomes and Measures Summary SIR and SMR of melanoma in pilots and cabin crew. Results Of the 3527 citations retrieved, 19 studies were included, with more than 266 431 participants. The overall summary SIR of participants in any flight-based occupation was 2.21 (95% CI, 1.76-2.77; P < .001; 14 records). The summary SIR for pilots was 2.22 (95% CI, 1.67-2.93; P... |
Monday, August 11, 2014
These Two Desks Could Help You Live Longer
 Today's post is shared from yahoo.com Have you heard the latest bad news? Sitting is the new smoking. According to one study, every workday you spend sitting costs you 2.5 hours off your lifespan. Sit six hours a day, and you’ll die 4.8 years sooner. It’s true even if you exercise regularly; this article explains why. Sitting also makes you fat, reduces bone density, contributes to heart disease, and makes you less productive. Great. These statistics are heaven-sent for the makers of standing desks — tall desks where you work standing — and sit/stand desks, which move up and down so you can split your time between sitting and standing. That’s supposed to be the healthiest arrangement of all. Unfortunately, first-generation hand-cranked sit/stand desks are the modern equivalent of treadmills: health equipment you buy with the best of intentions but wind up not using (except to drape clothing on). Ironically, the lazy person’s powered sit/stand desk, which goes up and down at the touch of a button, is much more likely to be used and therefore to yield better health results. The Stir Kinetic Desk Enter the Stir Kinetic Desk, the brainchild of JP Labrosse, a former Apple designer (he worked on the iPod Shuffle, among other projects). This baby fits right in with the Tesla sports car, Nest thermostat, and MacBook Air in a special circle of exquisitely designed, ultra-high-tech everyday goods that come at nosebleed prices. In the... |
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Trucker charged with vehicular homicide after alleged cellphone use led to fatal crash in Carlstadt
Today's post is shared from northjersey.com
In what authorities say is one of the first cases of its kind, a tractor-trailer driver who caused a fatal accident in Carlstadt two months ago has been charged with vehicular homicide and lying to police about using a cellphone at the time, authorities said Friday.
Henry Flores, 55, was making phone calls and operating the touch screen on his smartphone when his 1996 Kenworth truck slammed into the back of a vehicle slowing down for traffic in the southbound lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike just before 5 p.m. on June 9, authorities said. They said the crash led to a chain collision involving several vehicles.
Motorist Jeffrey Humphrey, 43, of Harrison — a musician and an audio engineer who had two daughters — was killed in the crash, and several others were injured, authorities said.
State Police said that Flores was arrested Thursday at his residence in Union City. However, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said Flores has been living in Netcong.
A little less than three months before the accident, Flores was ticketed on March 22 for driving while using a cellphone in Union City, according to state Motor Vehicle Commission records. His record shows a total of 19 driving violations, five in New Jersey, including operating while suspended, speeding, careless driving, and unsafe operation of a motor vehicle.
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In what authorities say is one of the first cases of its kind, a tractor-trailer driver who caused a fatal accident in Carlstadt two months ago has been charged with vehicular homicide and lying to police about using a cellphone at the time, authorities said Friday.
Henry Flores, 55, was making phone calls and operating the touch screen on his smartphone when his 1996 Kenworth truck slammed into the back of a vehicle slowing down for traffic in the southbound lanes on the New Jersey Turnpike just before 5 p.m. on June 9, authorities said. They said the crash led to a chain collision involving several vehicles.
Motorist Jeffrey Humphrey, 43, of Harrison — a musician and an audio engineer who had two daughters — was killed in the crash, and several others were injured, authorities said.
State Police said that Flores was arrested Thursday at his residence in Union City. However, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said Flores has been living in Netcong.
A little less than three months before the accident, Flores was ticketed on March 22 for driving while using a cellphone in Union City, according to state Motor Vehicle Commission records. His record shows a total of 19 driving violations, five in New Jersey, including operating while suspended, speeding, careless driving, and unsafe operation of a motor vehicle.
...
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Wednesday, July 16, 2014
Electronic Gadget Dermatitis Maybe the Next Latex Allergy in the Workplace
The genesis of the next epidemic of a mass tort is often the workplace where occupational exposures frequently occur at an alarming rate for lack of adequate safety measures. Emerging research has associated an allergic reaction to metal in electronic gadgets such as cell phones, iPads (tablets) and computer laptops. These items have become an unavoidable staple of the workplace and maybe the cause of contact dermatitis and more serious and sometimes fatal systemic allergic reactions.
It has been a few of decades since US Surgeon General Everett Koop issued a warning that unless health and safety workers utilized latex gloves they would be exposed to and spread the HIV virus. The nightmare of latex allergy engulfed the workers compensation system and soon avoidance alone could not prevent total and permanent disability claims following a massive wave of litigation in courts of compensation and in the product liability arena. The residuals continue to this date.
The cycle again maybe repeating as multiple research sources are reporting allergic reactions to new technology. These conditions tend to begin as contact dermatitis issues and them bloom into life threatening systemic reactions. No wonder why Fidbit recalled its latest wearable tracking device so quickly and universally.
Allergic reactions to nickel in some gadgets have been noticed for a while. Now, a medical journal report suggests a possible link between rashes and exposure to nickel in Apple's iPads......Dermatologists have, for some time, examined a connection between the presence of nickel -- a common metal allergen -- in some gadgets and allergic reactions.
Click here to read the complete article.
It has been a few of decades since US Surgeon General Everett Koop issued a warning that unless health and safety workers utilized latex gloves they would be exposed to and spread the HIV virus. The nightmare of latex allergy engulfed the workers compensation system and soon avoidance alone could not prevent total and permanent disability claims following a massive wave of litigation in courts of compensation and in the product liability arena. The residuals continue to this date.
The cycle again maybe repeating as multiple research sources are reporting allergic reactions to new technology. These conditions tend to begin as contact dermatitis issues and them bloom into life threatening systemic reactions. No wonder why Fidbit recalled its latest wearable tracking device so quickly and universally.
Allergic reactions to nickel in some gadgets have been noticed for a while. Now, a medical journal report suggests a possible link between rashes and exposure to nickel in Apple's iPads......Dermatologists have, for some time, examined a connection between the presence of nickel -- a common metal allergen -- in some gadgets and allergic reactions.
Click here to read the complete article.
….
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne NJ is the author of NJ Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters) and co-author of the national treatise, Modern Workers’ Compensation Law (West-Thompson-Reuters). For over 4 decades the Law Offices of Jon L Gelman 1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered occupational accidents and illnesses.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Rail Workers Raise Doubts About Safety Culture As Oil Trains Roll On
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| BNSF Railway tank car 880362 in a train passing Glen Haven, Wisconsin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
| Today's post is shared from earthfix.opb.org. The rail yard in Blaine, Washington, was on heightened security that day, he remembers, because of the 2010 Winter Olympics underway just across border in Vancouver, B.C. The black, cylindrical tank cars held hazardous materials like propane, butane and carbon monoxide. The plan was to move the train just more than two miles through three public crossings and onto the main track. Rookaird and the other two crew members were convinced the train first needed a test of its air brakes to guard against a derailment. But that kind of test can take hours. A BNSF trainmaster overheard Rookaird talking over the radio about the testing. He questioned if it was necessary. The crew was already behind schedule that day. Rookaird stood firm. “If you don’t have brakes the cars roll away from you,” Rookaird would later say. “You don’t have control of the train, you can crash into things.” The trainmaster replied by saying he didn’t intend to argue. They’d talk about it later. Then he phoned their boss. Minutes later, managers had a crew ready to replace Rookaird’s. Within a month, after Rookaird got federal investigators involved, he received a letter from BNSF informing him his employment had been terminated. That account — based... |
Monday, June 23, 2014
Trucking Lobby Blocking Safety Legislation
While serious transportation work-related accidents raise public attention for increased efforts to rein in unsafe transportation issues, the strong and effective trucking lobby has created a road block for reform. Today's post is shared from northjersey.com
[Click here to see the rest of this post]
| Democrat Cory Booker is waging his first floor fight in the U.S. Senate, taking on colleagues in both parties who want to suspend regulations specifying how much rest truck drivers should get each week. The issue drew attention because of the high-profile crash involving comedian Tracy Morgan on the New Jersey Turnpike this month, but it is also so closely identified with Booker’s predecessor, Sen. Frank Lautenberg, that a safety-advocacy group named a “congressional courage” award after Lautenberg last week. Booker, who filled Lautenberg’s term after he died last year, was also assigned to Lautenberg’s spot on the subcommittee that regulates federal highways and the trucks and buses that use them. It’s natural, he said, for someone coming from such a congested state to make regulating large trucks a priority. “New Jersey sent me down to fight New Jersey’s fight, and this is a New Jersey fight,” Booker said. It’s a fight he may not win, however. The trucking industry spends an average of $5 million on contributions to members of Congress during every two-year campaign cycle — Booker himself got $2,000 — and $10 million more... |
Thursday, May 29, 2014
How Tech Companies Tricked A Generation Into Working For Free
| Last month Apple announced it would open beta testing access for its soon-to-be-revealed version of OS X to anyone with a compatible computer. Once a process reserved for a limited number of developers operating under non-disclosure agreements, the ability to have early access to new software from one of the most desirable companies in the world feels like an unexpected gift. The labor necessary to test software as complicated and widely distributed as an operating system is hard to calculate, but, like all forms of software testing, there is a point where the expense of paying workers is no longer economically feasible. But because Apple has cultivated an image of unattainable desirability for its products, this structure of uncompensated labor becomes a happy privilege, an opportunity to contribute to the ongoing evolution of a brand they love as an echo of themselves. These voluntary forms of unwaged labor have become endemic as work has increasingly shifted toward the production of digital metaphors like apps, operating systems, and analysis. As the economy has continued to create its divine mirage of growth, workers have come to seem like profit deterrents whose need for sleep, food, play, and security drag down the system. Central to this shift has been the mass distribution of computers, the uses of which have become so frictionless and pleasing they encourage the subconscious guilt of the average worker, who begins to suspect that spending her day telecommuting in... |
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Wage Theft -- Another Assault on Workers' Compensation
| As corporate American devises new methods to reduce wages it also assaults the injured workers' benefit safety net including workers' compensation insurance. It results in rate benefits to go down and premium bases to become inadequate to pay on gong claims. Today's post is shared from nytimes.com and is authored by it's Editorial Board. When labor advocates and law enforcement officials talk about wage theft, they are usually referring to situations in which low-wage service-sector employees are forced to work off the clock, paid sub minimum wages, cheated out of overtime pay or denied their tips. It is a huge and under policed problem. It is also, it turns out, not confined to low-wage workers. In the days ahead, a settlement is expected in the antitrust lawsuit pitting 64,613 software engineers against Google, Apple, Intel and Adobe. The engineers say they lost up to $3 billion in wages from 2005-9, when the companies colluded in a scheme not to solicit one another’s employees. The collusion, according to the engineers, kept their pay lower than it would have been had the companies actually competed for talent. The suit, brought after the Justice Department investigated the anti-recruiting scheme in 2010, has many riveting aspects, including emails and other documents that tarnish the reputation of Silicon Valley as competitive and of technology executives as a new breed of “don’t-be-evil” bosses, to cite Google’s informal motto. The case... [Click here to see the rest of this post]  Workers' Compensation: Would Higher Minimum Wage for ...Apr 17, 2014 Wages determine rates of workers' compensation. The lowest wage earners go unnoticed in the struggle to increase benefits. Today's post is shared from njspotlight.com . Advocates decry current $2.13 per hour as unfair, ... http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/ Payroll Data Shows a Lag in Wages, Not Just Hiring Feb 11, 2014 But the report also made plain what many Americans feel in their bones: Wages are stuck, and barely rose at all in 2013. They were up 1.9 percent last year, or a mere 0.4 percent after accounting for inflation. Not only was that ... http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/ McDonald's Accused of Stealing Wages From Already ... Mar 16, 2014 McDonald's Accused of Stealing Wages From Already Underpaid Workers. Wage are the basic factor upon which to calculate rates for workers' compensation purposes. Today's post was shared by Mother Jones and comes ... http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/ |
Monday, April 14, 2014
Distracted Driving - Time To Revisit Compensability Issues
Acting Attorney General John Hoffman today announced the staggering toll driver inattention has taken on New Jersey’s roadways in the past 10 years, declaring that the State experienced a “distracted driving decade” and that an ongoing law enforcement initiative is working to help end the crisis.
From 2004 to 2013, driver inattention was a major contributing circumstance in 1.4 million crashes in New Jersey – that is about half of the total crashes in the state in that period. Distraction was the number one contributing circumstance in total crashes. And in one decade (2003-2012), more than 1,600 people have been killed in crashes where driver inattention was a major contributing factor.
“The numbers tell the sad truth: we are in the midst of a surge in driver inattention, and crash statistics bear out that we can characterize the last 10 years simply as ‘New Jersey’s Distracted Driving Decade,’” said Hoffman. “What is perhaps most troubling about these numbers is that the issue of distracted driving seems to be getting progressively worse. Our research indicates that while crashes and fatalities are trending downward as a whole, the number and proportion of distracted crashes are rising.”
At the beginning of the “Distracted Driving Decade” in 2004, driver inattention was cited as a major contributing circumstance in 42 percent of crashes. But that number has risen in those 10 years and last year it peaked at 53 percent. And the proportion of distracted crashes has surged 26 percent in that time span.
“In recent years smartphones and other devices have become more sophisticated and it’s clear to most of us that they’re being used more by drivers,” said Acting Director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety Gary Poedubicky. “Though the overall picture of road safety is brightening, one cannot help but conclude that there is an increasing addiction to distraction for drivers. We need to put an end to the epidemic of driver inattention and close the book on the ‘Distracted Driving Decade.’”
In an effort to stop distracted driving, the Division of Highway Traffic Safety has for the first time made funds available to law enforcement agencies for a statewide crackdown on motorists who are using a handheld device while driving, which is illegal in New Jersey. Sixty police departments received $5,000 each for the campaign called U Drive. U Text. U Pay. and the funds will be used to pay for checkpoints and increased patrols. Many more enforcement agencies are also expected to participate unfunded in the initiative, which was funded and developed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).
About halfway through the three-week campaign, which runs from April 1 to 21, the funded departments have issued an estimated 3,000 summonses for cell phone and electronic device violations.
“People need to know that we are serious about stopping this deadly behavior,” said NHTSA Region 2 Administrator Thomas M. Louizou. “Using a handheld phone and texting has reached epidemic levels. When you text or talk on the phone while driving, you take your focus off the road. That puts everyone else’s lives in danger, and no one has the right to do that.”
The crackdowns are similar in scope to the Drive Sober, or Get Pulled Over and Click It or Ticket mobilizations, which have targeted impaired driving and seat belt usage, respectively. Louizou said the successes of those programs have proven that the combination of tough laws, targeted advertising, and high-visibility enforcement can change people’s risky traffic safety behaviors.
To see a list of agencies receiving funding for this initiative please visit:www.nj.gov/oag/hts/downloads/UDUTUP_2014_Grant_Recipients.pdf
This increased police presence on the roads will soon be paired with stepped up penalties for breaking the State’s primary cell phone law. Currently, motorists violating New Jersey’s primary cell phone law face a $100 fine plus court costs and fees. Because of a new law signed by Governor Chris Christie last year, penalties for that transgression will get stiffer. On July 1, those penalties will rise to a range of $200 to $400 for a first offense, $400 to $600 for a second, and up to $800 and three insurance points for subsequent violations. These changes follow the adoption in 2012 of the “Kulesh, Kubert and Bolis Law.” Under that law, proof that a defendant was operating a hand-held wireless telephone while driving a motor vehicle may give rise to the presumption that the defendant was engaged in reckless driving. Prosecutors are empowered to charge the offender with committing vehicular homicide or assault when an accident occurs from reckless driving.
Joining Acting Attorney General Hoffman’s call to end distracted driving was Gabriel Hurley. Hurley, 29, was severely injured in a 2009 crash that left him blind and with extensive damage to his face and skull. Hurley sustained his injuries when an oncoming car collided into an underpass while he was entering it. The impact caused the other car’s air-conditioning compressor to come flying into his windshield. Hurley, of Middlesex, said he believed the 17-year-old driver had been inattentive behind the wheel at the time of the crash.
After an extensive recovery period, which included more than a dozen facial reconstructive surgeries, he began a career as a safe driving advocate and has spoken to thousands of drivers, most of them in high school, about the consequences of reckless and inattentive driving.
“The course of my life was altered in that crash,” Hurley said. “I have lost my sense of sight and smell and suffered other physical and emotional damage. However, I believe what happened gave me a purpose to tell everyone that crashes like mine are preventable and we can stop them by simply focusing on the task at hand when we’re behind the wheel.”
Read more about distracted driving:
Apr 10, 2014
Stay Alert and Avoid Distracted Driving – Work zones present extra challenges and obstacles. Motorists need to pay attention to the road and their surroundings. – Schedule your trip with plenty of extra time. Expect delays and ...
Apr 18, 2011
OSHA has announced an aggressive program to combat "The Number 1 Killer of Workers," Distracted Driving. The announcement was made today by Dr. David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor of the Occupational ...
May 29, 2013
Transportation accidents rank on the top of the list for worker fatalities. Now the federal government is attempting to reduce that number by restricting distractions while driving.driving. Voluntary guidelines reduce ...
Jun 13, 2013
Transportation (DOT) have made major efforts over the last few years to target distracted driving as a major safety issue to avoid serious accidents and ultimately save lives and reduce insurance costs. The DOT reports ...
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Fire at Chinese shoe factory kills 16: Xinhua
BEIJING (Reuters) - A fire at a shoe factory in eastern China killed 16 people and injured five, state media reported, the latest disaster to highlight China's poor workplace safety record.
The fire broke out at the factory in Wenling in the wealthy coastal province of Zhejiang on Tuesday, the official Xinhua news agency said.
More than 20 people were rescued and the injured were all in stable condition in hospital, it said. The cause of the fire was being investigated.
China, the world's second-largest economy, has a bad record on workplace safety. Fire exits in factories, office buildings and shops are often locked to prevent workers taking time off or stealing, or even blocked completely.
A fire at a poultry slaughterhouse in the northeastern province of Jilin in June 2013 killed 120 people. That blaze was blamed on poor management, lack of government oversight and locked or blocked exits.
Many industrial accidents happen in the huge coal mining industry, in which hundreds die every year from explosions, mine collapses and floods.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)
A fire at a poultry slaughterhouse in the northeastern province of Jilin in June 2013 killed 120 people. That blaze was blamed on poor management, lack of government oversight and locked or blocked exits.
Many industrial accidents happen in the huge coal mining industry, in which hundreds die every year from explosions, mine collapses and floods.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Paul Tait)
Fire Kills 16 at Factory Making Shoes for Export
A fire tore through a shoe factory in eastern China, killing at least 16 people, and the state media said that the police on Wednesday took into custody the owners of the plant, which makes shoes for export around the world.
The blaze at the plant in Wenling was the latest in a series of deadly industrial accidents in China, casting attention on the poor occupational safety situation in the country. Last summer, 120 people were killed in a fire at a poultry slaughterhouse in northeastern China, in which blocked exits were cited as a cause of the high number of deaths.
Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said that the police took into custody Lin Jianfeng, the legal representative of the plant, and Lin Zhenjian, a shareholder of Taizhou Dadong Shoes Company. Taizhou Dadong exports shoes to five continents and employs 4,580 workers, who produce 50,000 pairs of shoes a day, according to a profile of the company.
Leading Western clothing retailers have come under increased scrutiny for workplace conditions at Asian plants that supply their products, particularly after the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh last year killed 1,100 workers. It could not be determined which...
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Friday, December 13, 2013
Death of Apple factory workers highlight safety, underage issues
The recent deaths of a 15-year-old and three other workers at an iPhone plant in Shanghai highlight the challenges that Apple Inc. and its suppliers face to maintain worker safety and keep underage people out of factories.
In September, 15-year-old Shi Zhaokun began work at Pegatron's Shanghai assembly plant using an identification card that said he was 20. A month later, he died of pneumonia. Labor groups said long working hours and crowded living conditions contributed to Shi's death. Taiwan-based Pegatron on Wednesday confirmed that four workers died of illnesses recently at the Shanghai factory, which employs about 100,000 people. Pegatron and Apple said their investigations indicated that the deaths weren't linked to work conditions. In response to Shi's death, Apple last month sent independent medical experts from the U.S. and China to the Pegatron factory to conduct an investigation, Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu said. "While they have found no evidence of any link to working conditions there, we realize that is of little comfort to the families who have lost their loved ones," she said. Apple declined to comment about employment of underage workers, although the company has long said it is diligent about enforcing age rules at its suppliers. It was unclear how Shi — who, his family said, was pronounced healthy at a Pegatron checkup in September — ended up dying of acute pneumonia a month later. |
Monday, November 4, 2013
Truck driver was looking at phone in deadly crash
Distracted driving continues to be a constant cause of accidents in the workplace. Workers' compensation laws and policies have not been modified to encourage the non-use of cellphones. Federal legislation on the other hand outlaws their use. Today's post is shared from azcentral.com
The semi-truck that crashed into several police and fire vehicles, killing an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer in early May, was “tossing cars around like they were toys,” according to one witness statement.
Officer Tim Huffman, 47, was killed on May 6 while investigating an earlier crash on Interstate 8, about 40 miles east of Yuma. An 18-wheeler driven by Jorge Espinoza, 33, had plowed into Huffman’s patrol car and several other vehicles at about 5 p.m.
Espinoza, who faces 20 felony charges including second-degree murder, was on his cell phone at the time of the collision, according to 600 pages of case files obtained by The Arizona Republic on Friday.
The documents and a video from an in-dash camera revealed that Espinoza was on Facebook looking at pictures of provocatively dressed women at the time of the wreck.
Espinoza, who pleaded not guilty in June, told police he was looking over his shoulder at a passing truck when suddenly he felt the violent jolt from the crash. Espinoza was not injured.
He told police he never saw the multiple DPS and fire department vehicles on the roadway, or an officer frantically waving his arms trying to get his attention before he jumped out of the way.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Foxconn admits labour violation at China factory
Foxconn, the world's biggest contract electronics maker, has admitted student interns worked shifts at a factory in China that were in violation of its company policies.
It had admitted to hiring underage interns at the same unit last year. Foxconn said actions had been taken to bring the factory "into full compliance with our code and policies". "There have been a few instances where our policies pertaining to overtime and night shift work were not enforced," the company said in a statement. The manufacturing giant is owned by Taiwanese group Hon Hai Precision and employs about 800,000 workers around the globe. Foxconn, while not a household name in itself for many consumers, is used by most of the big technology giants around the world, including Apple, Sony, Microsoft, HP, and Nokia. It first came under scrutiny for its labour practices when 13 employees committed suicide at its Chinese plants in 2010. The incidents raised concerns over working conditions at its units in China and drew attention to growing labour strikes. For its part, Foxconn responded by raising wages, shortening working hours and employing counsellors on site. It also installed suicide nets to factory living-quarters at its Shenzhen factory. Also in 2010, Foxconn temporarily shut down a unit in India after 250 workers fell sick. And in May 2011, two people were killed after... |
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