Wisconsin Supreme Court May Rule On Paid-Sick-Day Ordinance

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Posted on 18th March 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be considering whether to rule on an appeal of Milwaukee’s paid-sick-day ordinance. http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/84754612.html

The District 4 Court of Appeals Thursday requested that the state’s highest court to handle the appeal, because of its importance. The Supreme Court will have to decide whether it wants to look at the case.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce has challenged a city ordinance that mandates that workers receive paid sick days. The MMAC maintains that will make the city less competitive and stifle jobs.

Laws on paid sick days are also being considered in New York City and Tacoma, Wash.

The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign both both support of the Milwaukee ordinance.

Family Blames Target For Selling Toy Box That Pinned Down Their Daughter, Causing Brain Damage

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Posted on 9th March 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Sometimes the most seemingly harmless objects can inflict tragic damage. In the case of a family in Pennsylvania, the object was a wicker toy box.

The couple in Cranberry, Pa., has filed suit against the retailer Target over the toy box, which they alleged did traumatic brain damage to their daughter, Camryn Surman, 18 months old. http://kdka.com/consumer/Camryn.Surman.Target.2.1546545.html

The lid of the toy box closed on the toddler’s neck last July, pinning her down and choking her. Camryn’s mother has medical training, and tried to resuscitate the child. But the young girl had already sustained brain damage.

The family doesn’t know how long Camryn was trapped by the toy box lid, which cut off the supply of oxygen to her brain.

In their lawsuit, the Surmans charge that Target failed to want consumers about the potential danger of the toy box.

In the past 20 years toy-box-lid accidents have killed 45, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which now mandates supports to prevent the lids from doing what they did to Camryn. It’s unclear whether the Target toy box had the supports, and they didn’t work, of if it didn’t have them, and if so, why not.

Camryn is in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, can’t move her limbs, is on a feeding tube and can’t speak, according to the attorney for the Surmans.

Two Drivers Killed In Separate Alcohol-Related Car Crashes in Wisconsin

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Posted on 1st March 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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An Illinois man was killed Sunday in a car accident not far from the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/85774507.html

Darrell Pantazes, 51, of Skokie, Ill., died when his car crashed into another vehicle, mowed down a light pole and then hit a building on University Avenue.

In a second accident this past weekend, Brandon Cooper, 21, of Stroughton, Wis., was killed when he went off the road and hit a tree in Dunn.

Cooper was dead at the scene of his accident, while Pantazes was pronounced dead at the University of Wisconsin Emergency Room.

Authorities blamed alcohol for playing a part in the two unrelated fatal crashes.

In a press release, the University of Wisconsin-Madison police department said that it tried to stop Pantazes’s car at just after midnight Sunday when they spotted him driving the wrong way on W. Johnson Street.

But Pantazes kept going, still moving in the wrong direction, when it hit a light pole and then flew up, crashing into a building.

Teen Pleads Guilty To Homicide Charges For Deaths Of Two Of His Passengers in Crash

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Posted on 26th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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A youth who killed two of his passengers in a Wisconsin car crash Monday plead guilty to charges of negligent homicide.

Austin Pederson, 18, of Stillwater, Minn., entered the plea in St. Croix County Circuit Court to two charges of homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle.

Pederson crashed his Volkswagen Jetta last June, and two of his passengers were thrown from his car and killed. The victims were Daishonna Payne, 17, and Alan Alwin, 26, both of Somerset, Wis.

The fatal crash took place in St. Croix County. Pederson and another passenger were injured in the accident.

I have very mixed feelings about this type of justice. Yes, something profound must be done to send a statement, yet here we have a teenager, who is just learning to drive, being convicted of a serious felony, for a mistake that any of us could make, any day. The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that the criminal complaint says Pederson had a detectable amount of marijuana in his system when tests were done two hours after the crash.

If I had been his criminal defense attorney, I think I would have defended. Nothing can bring back the two dead young people, but marijuana in your urine does not convert a tragic motor vehicle accident into a homicide. Marijuana can stay in urine for 30 days. That doesn’t prove that Pederson was intoxicated or that his intoxication caused the wreck. Now, he is a convicted “murderer.” That is just a prosecutor overcharging. Had it been a routine car wreck, no criminal charges would have been filed.

Criminal sanctions should be imposed when the conduct is truly criminal, not when the result of negligent conduct is truly bad. Justice should have been left for the civil justice system.

A Punch To The Head Kills Two in Separate Wisconsin Incidents

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Posted on 23rd February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Here we have two cases of Wisconsin men involved in incidents where they each punched someone, killing the men they assaulted. Fists can be deadly weapons even for those who aren’t professional boxers.

A Milwaukee man was convicted Monday for killing another man that he punched in the head outside a bar. The victim, a father of five daughters, fell and struck his head on the ground, later dying.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/85012457.html

Daniel Curry, 22, was found guilty of felony murder charges by a jury in the death of Michael Ward, 40. The crime took place in July at the Ugly Mug Pub & Grill.

Two other defendants still face charges stemming from the incident, namely Robert Kochanski, 23, of Menomonee Falls and Paul Kaiser, 24, of Milwaukee.

Ward was an innocent bystander to a fight when he was struck by Curry. At the bar’s closing time, Kochanski was leaving the establishment when he, without provocation, allegedly hit a man in the head twice.

Then Kochanski and his group allegedly started harassing Ward, his wife, and two of their friends were also leaving the Ugly Mug.

One of Ward’s friends, David Mathe, walked over to Kochanski’s group and told it to stop making remarks. As Mathe left, Kochanski allegedly punched him in the head twice and knocked him unconscious.

Kochanski and Curry’s group then allegedly beat a man who was trying to call 911 for help. About this time, Curry hit Ward in the head. Ward fell and hit his head on the street. He died the next day at Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa.

Both Kochanski and Kaiser are scheduled to plead guilty to second-degree reckless injury charges in the case.

In a second case that’s similar to Ward’s death, on Monday a Racine man got seven years in prison for punching a teacher in the head who – like Ward — also fell and hit his head and died.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/84998787.html

Martin Walker, 21, was sentenced for felony murder in the death of Colin Byars, 24, a year ago.

Authorities said that Walker punched Byars, a middle school teacher, in the face. Byars fell and hi this head.

Wisconsin Supreme Court May Rule On Paid-Sick-Day Ordinance

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Posted on 20th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be considering whether to rule on an appeal of Milwaukee’s paid-sick-day ordinance.
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/84754612.html

The District 4 Court of Appeals Thursday requested that the state’s highest court to handle the appeal, because of its importance. The Supreme Court will have to decide whether it wants to look at the case.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce has challenged a city ordinance that mandates that workers receive paid sick days. The MMAC maintains that will make the city less competitive and stifle jobs.

Laws on paid sick days are also being considered in New York City and Tacoma, Wash.

The Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign both both support of the Milwaukee ordinance.

The obvious issue in this case is whether a local common counsel has the power to make such a broad reaching economic rule. Local governments can only make laws which they are “enabled” to make by state legislature. I am guessing that Wisconsin laws do not give the Milwaukee Common Council this power. This kind of rule must come from the State Legislature, and even then, it might be subject to a claim that as it effects Interstate Commerce, it must come from the United States Congress.

Wisconsin Lawmaker, With Three DUI Arrests Under His Belt, Mounts Legal Challenge of Legislature’s Bid To Oust Him

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Posted on 17th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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We’d like to think that three arrests for driving while under the influence would perhaps not be the best credentials for an elected official. But Wisconsin Rep. Jeff Wood, (I-Chippewa Falls), begs to differ.

Woods, who faces expulsion from the Wisconsin Legislature, is not going away quietly. He is raising legal issues, “detailed procedural questions,” as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put it, about his possible ouster.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/84362307.html

Wood’s attorney is arguing that the Assembly’s guidelines on how such expulsions should be handled are shaky at best. The lawyer seem to be hanging his hat on this argument: that Wood shouldn’t be punished by his fellow legislators for actions he took outside the Capitol that has nothing to do with his post as a lawmaker.

Under that reasoning, we suppose if Wood could have committed any crime and still be entitled to his seat in the Assembly.

Wood’s rap sheet is pretty long. Last year he was charged with: drunken driving, and marijuana and drug paraphernalia possession in Columbia Country; driving under the influence of drugs in Marathon County; and driving under the influence of drug and jumping bail in Monroe County.

Wood has resolved one of those cases, according to the Journal Sentinel. In a plea-bargain deal in Columbia County, Wood will plead no-contest to third-offense drunken driving charges. The marijuana and paraphernalia charges will be dismissed.

Under the plea, Wood could get 30 days to a year in jail, and be fined $600 to $2,000.

Those incidents were not Wood’s first run-ins with the law. In the early 1990s, Wood had two drunken driving convictions.

A special ethics committee will discuss Wood’s case at a hearing Wednesday.

From our perspective, drunk driving is a terribly serious offense. The first step towards injury prevention is to avoid accidents. Little increases the risk of an accident more than mixing alcohol and driving. Enough said.

Plane Makes Emergency Landing in South Wisconsin, Pilot Walks Away From Crash

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Posted on 16th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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A plane had to make an emergency landing in a corn field in southern Wisconsin Saturday when its engine cut out.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/84354752.html

The pilot made the landing in Bloomfield in Walworth County after his engine plane’s engine conked out. He was flying to Aurora, Ill.

The pilot was taken to a Burlington hospital, but he reportedly didn’t suffer any major injuries. But the plane is a loss, sustaining major damage.

Investigators were set to visit the crash site Sunday night.

Missouri Considers Concussion-Sports Law – What About Wisconsin?

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Posted on 12th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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Missouri is the latest state to be considering legislation regarding concussions and young athletes. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6859080.html

The proposed Missouri law, which targets high school players, mandates that athletes remain benched from practice or games until they get approval to return from a licensed health care worker trained in evaluating concussions.

The Missouri law is modeled after Washington state’s concussion legislation, which is named after Zackery Lystedt, a teen who sustained brain trauma after returning to a football game right after getting a concussion.

The Missouri State High School Activities Association says athletes shouldn’t get back on the field the same day they suffer a concussion. The group also recommends that players who sustain three concussions in a season should be barred from playing the rest of the season, and not be allowed to return to play until having a medical check-up.

The Missouri state association also mandates that athletes who lose consciousness can’t come back to play the same day without written permission from a doctor.

There are 3.8 million sports and recreation-related concussion each year, according to the Brain Injury Association of America.

Wisconsin hopefully won’t be far behind. For an excellent local resource on sports concussion, see http://wisportsconcussion.org/

Research Finds That Exercise Can Alleviate Post-Concussion Syndrome

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Posted on 11th February 2010 by Gordon Johnson in Uncategorized

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The problem with all of the research on concussion being focused on young athletes is that it creates the illusion that concussion is always a transient injury. It is not. That young athletes show improvement with programs like discussed below doesn’t either tell us that they suffered no permanent damage, nor that someone older, in poorer physical shape might have significant disability. Keep that in mind when you read about the below study.

Special exercise and rest help young athletes recover according to research conducted at the University at Buffalo. http://www.ubspectrum.com/article/41203

Having a player rest three weeks after sustaining a concussion and developing a custom exercise routine for him or her that reduces the symptoms of post-concussion syndrome, according to the report published in the January Clinical Journal of Sports Research. http://journals.lww.com/cjsportsmed/Abstract/2010/01000/A_Preliminary_Study_of_Subsymptom_Threshold.4.aspx

It may take one or two weeks before symptoms of a concussion lessen, and during that period the patient would rest and perhaps take pain killers. But about 10 percent of those who have suffered a concussion have symptoms that can last more than three weeks or lead to permanent brain damage, conditions which are called post-concussion syndrome.

The UB researchers tested its subjects by having them do a standard exercise program on a treadmill, to determine what level of activity exacerbated concussion symptoms.

With this program, post-concussion symptoms lessened and in some cases even disappeared, according to the UB study. The exercise helped improve the auto regulation of cerebral blood flow, researcher believe, which is impacted by the post-concussion syndrome.
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