| A West Hills man was sentenced Thursday to 29 days in county jail and three years’ probation after pleading guilty to one count of insurance fraud for failing to report employee income in order to pay lower premiums on his air-conditioning company’s workers’ compensation policy. Officials with the California Department of Insurance said Douglas Lambert, 48, did not report or under-reported employee income to Clarendon National Insurance Co. from 2006 to 2009 for Lambert Air Conditioning, a company he owned and operated in Visalia, near Fresno in Northern California. “Fraud is a multimillion-dollar enterprise, which costs consumers over $210 million annually,” said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones in a statement. “Lambert cheated both Clarendon National and the State of California out of over $110,000, and by doing so passed the cost of his fraud onto consumers across the state,” Lambert was living and working in Tulare County at the time the initial complaint was filed with the Department of Insurance and was prosecuted in Northern California. Authorities said he filed at least one workers’ compensation claim for an employee’s injury during the time frame of the investigation even though he was not paying insurance on the employee’s wages. He was ordered to pay $110,381 in restitution and will serve his sentence in Los Angeles County jail. While he was living up north, a spokesman for the department said he... |
The National Football League’s increasingly visible injury legacy has become a topic of national debate, one that threatens to cast a lasting shadow over the country’s most popular, and profitable, sport.
Far less attention has been paid to the physical woes of other athletes, but a review of injury filings in California suggests that professional athletes of all stripes walk away from their sports with nagging and often permanent injuries.
Over the past two decades, more than 2,500 claims have been filed by former baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer players against their former teams in California’s workers’ compensation system. In the past six years, more than 940 of them -- among them stars such as two-time baseball most valuable player Juan Gonzalez and basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar -- have made filings alleging serious brain and head injuries. The claims were isolated as part of a Los Angeles Times analysis of more than 3 million filings made to the California Division of Workers’ Compensation. Last month, The Times published a searchable database of claims by football players, and now it's being updated will all other major team sports. Database: workers' comp claims by baseball players Database: workers' comp claims by basketball players Database: workers' comp claims by hockey players Database: workers' comp claims by soccer players Database: workers' comp claims by women's basketball players Although the total... |
Viewing the deadly siege at a shopping mall in Kenya as a direct threat to its security, the United States is deploying dozens of F.B.I. agents to investigate the wreckage, hoping to glean every piece of information possible to help prevent such a devastating attack from happening again, possibly even on American soil.
For years, the F.B.I. has been closely watching the Shabab, the Somali Islamist group that has claimed responsibility for the Nairobi massacre and recruited numerous Americans to fight and die — sometimes as suicide bombers — for its cause.
The Shabab has already attacked most of the major actors trying to end the chaos in Somalia — the United Nations, Uganda, aid groups, the Somali government and now Kenya. The United States has spent hundreds of millions of dollars bankrolling anti-Shabab operations for years, and there is growing fear that the group could turn its sights on American interests more directly, one of the reasons the Obama administration is committing so many resources to the investigation in Kenya.
“We are in this fight together,” said Robert F. Godec, the American ambassador to Kenya. “The more we know about the planning that went into this, the way it was conducted, what was used, the people involved, the better we can protect America, too.”
Less than a day after the bloody standoff ended, more than 20 F.B.I. agents wearing flak jackets and helmets were combing through the...
|
Gov. Chris Christie, shown here in Asbury Park at an unrelated event today, announced that the state's health benefits plan for public workers will cover alcoholism and drug addiction the same as other mental illnesses starting next year.Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger
More than 200,000 public workers in New Jersey will get enhanced insurance coverage for mental illnesses such as alcoholism and drug addiction beginning next year, Gov. Chris Christie announced today. A committee of state and union officials approved "mental health parity" on Friday for the state's second-largest health benefits plan. It means the same level of coverage now provided for a biologically-based mental illness — such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder — will apply to other types of illnesses such as alcoholism, drug addiction and eating disorders. The expansion is expected to cost "less than $5.1 million a year" and will affect more than 217,000 current and retired workers enrolled in the State Health Benefits Program, Christie's office said in a news release today. The insurance plan covers state, county and local government workers as well as employees of New Jersey's public colleges and universities, and their dependent family members. Along with that change, the committee approved "four new lower-cost health plan options" and a new "wellness program" that seeks to encourage healthier lifestyles by offering workers gift cards worth $100 to $250 per person every... |
Consumers should stop using this product unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product. Recall DetailsUnitsAbout 7,900DescriptionThis recall involves candle holders designed to resemble a large ant. The black metal candle holders are 6 ½-inches tall and were sold as either a male or female. The male ant has a polka dot bow tie and the female has a white pearl necklace. Both ants hold up a clear glass votive cup. The words “Backyard BBQ” and “Glass Votive Holder” are printed on the front of the packaging. SKU number 426154 can be found on the underside of the packaging.RemedyConsumers should immediately stop using the recalled votive candle holders and return them to any Cracker Barrel Old Country Store location or mail to Mercuries Asia USA, Ltd., 1501 Gary Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018 for a full refund, including shipping.Sold exclusively atCracker Barrel Old Country Store locations nationwide from May 2013 through June 2013 for about $6ImporterCracker Barrel Old Country Store® of Lebanon, Tenn.ManufacturerMercuries Asia Ltd., of Taipei, TaiwanManufactured inChinaThe U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is still interested in receiving incident or injury reports that are either directly related to this product recall or involve a different hazard with the same product. Please tell us about your experience with the product on SaferProducts.gov... |
