A Brookfield, Wis., woman was killed in crash with a semi-trailer truck early Saturday morning in southeast Minnesota. See http://www.startribune.com/local/83722872.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUI
Jessica Lin, 34, was driving a 2001 Honda Accord at 5 a.m. on Interstate 90 when her car crossed a median and was hit by the oncoming truck.
The truck drive, Max Sharp, 54, of Preston, Ida., wasn’t hurt.
As we have said repeatedly, fully understanding what happened in this accident requires an inspection and investigation of the relative tread on the tires on Lin’s vehicle. If the tires on the front were newer than those on the back, this might be what caused the skid. For more information on potential liability of non-drivers in skidding accidents, see http://car-accident-rain.com
Former ‘Boston Legal’ Actor Killed in Rural Wisconsin Jeep Accident
Actor Justin Mentell, who co-starred in the ABC series “Boston Legal,” was thrown from his Jeep and killed in an accident in rural Iowa County, Wis., The Madison State Journal reported earlier this week.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_986b91e8-0f87-11df-a5d0-001cc4c002e0.html
The body of Mentell, 27, of Waukegan, Ill., was found near his wrecked 2005 Jeep Monday morning. The vehicle had fallen down an embankment off Highway 39 near Moscow Road north of Blanchardville, the paper reported.
Mentell, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, was thrown out of his Jeep after it went off the highway, went down the embankment and hit two trees, authorities said.
Mentell had acquaintances in Madison, Wis. He was originally from Texas, later moved and went to high school in Waukegan, where he was a talented speed skater. Mentell graduated from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The school recently gave him an award as a distinguished graduate of its fine arts program.
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/article_986b91e8-0f87-11df-a5d0-001cc4c002e0.html
The body of Mentell, 27, of Waukegan, Ill., was found near his wrecked 2005 Jeep Monday morning. The vehicle had fallen down an embankment off Highway 39 near Moscow Road north of Blanchardville, the paper reported.
Mentell, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, was thrown out of his Jeep after it went off the highway, went down the embankment and hit two trees, authorities said.
Mentell had acquaintances in Madison, Wis. He was originally from Texas, later moved and went to high school in Waukegan, where he was a talented speed skater. Mentell graduated from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. The school recently gave him an award as a distinguished graduate of its fine arts program.
Reduce partisan fight over judges, lawyers urge
Wisconsin got its name in the national news for our Supreme Court race this spring, as one where a good judge got beat by a little known county judge with right wing rhetoric, see the below story. For the local story of the defeat of Justice Louis Butler,Jr. by Michael Gableman click here.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
http://wis-law.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 8/10/2008 12:17 PM
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) _ The American Bar Association is calling on the next president and Senate to reduce partisan tensions in federal judicial nominations.
The incoming president of the lawyers’ group, H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Birmingham, Ala., said Sunday that he also is enlisting the help of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to study threats to fair and impartial state courts.
At the federal level, the White House should create a commission of Democrats and Republicans to recommend nominees for federal appeals courts and the two senators from each state should establish similar panels to evaluate and recommend federal trial judges, the ABA says in a resolution inspired by Wells. The proposal is certain to be adopted at the group’s annual meeting in New York.
The bipartisan panels would help “avoid the times when there have been really rancorous debates in the confirmation process,” Wells said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Nominations from Florida and other states that now use such commissions, Wells said, “almost never have bitter confirmation fights.”
Wells said that by acting ahead of this year’s election, the ABA — often criticized by Republicans for tilting toward the Democrats — will avoid being seen as favoring one party. He said he plans to write to Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain and members of the Senate to urge them to adopt the commission approach.
In recent years, individual senators in both parties have blocked judicial nominees from a vote by the full Senate. Democrats filibustered several of President Bush’s nominees when they controlled the Senate during his first term.
Bush also has failed to consult senators on some of his choices. In one instance, his nominee for an appeals court slot from Virginia was not among the recommendations of the state’s senators, Republican John Warner and Democrat Jim Webb.
The nomination has since been withdrawn and Bush has nominated two other Virginians to fill vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who were among those recommended by the senators. One, former state Supreme Court Justice G. Steven Agee, was unanimously confirmed. The nomination of U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad is pending.
At the state level, Wells said his concern was sparked by recent expensive, and in some cases ugly, campaigns and some state legislatures’ refusal to provide enough money for state courts.
O’Connor has spoken out frequently in defense of judicial independence and said judges who must run in partisan elections risk being compromised by the growing amount of campaign cash they must raise.
She will head up a May 2009 summit in Charlotte, N.C., that will explore these issues, Wells said.
In April, a little-known county judge narrowly defeated a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice with a law-and-order message and a barrage of third-party ads in a race that will go down as one of the state’s nastiest.
Liberal and conservative interest groups spent millions of dollars on negative attack ads that blanketed the state’s airwaves for weeks.
The ABA also is part of a push to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case from West Virginia, in which a state high court justice refused to step aside from ruling on a $76.3 million dispute involving a key booster of his 2004 election campaign.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
http://wis-law.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 8/10/2008 12:17 PM
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) _ The American Bar Association is calling on the next president and Senate to reduce partisan tensions in federal judicial nominations.
The incoming president of the lawyers’ group, H. Thomas Wells Jr. of Birmingham, Ala., said Sunday that he also is enlisting the help of retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to study threats to fair and impartial state courts.
At the federal level, the White House should create a commission of Democrats and Republicans to recommend nominees for federal appeals courts and the two senators from each state should establish similar panels to evaluate and recommend federal trial judges, the ABA says in a resolution inspired by Wells. The proposal is certain to be adopted at the group’s annual meeting in New York.
The bipartisan panels would help “avoid the times when there have been really rancorous debates in the confirmation process,” Wells said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Nominations from Florida and other states that now use such commissions, Wells said, “almost never have bitter confirmation fights.”
Wells said that by acting ahead of this year’s election, the ABA — often criticized by Republicans for tilting toward the Democrats — will avoid being seen as favoring one party. He said he plans to write to Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain and members of the Senate to urge them to adopt the commission approach.
In recent years, individual senators in both parties have blocked judicial nominees from a vote by the full Senate. Democrats filibustered several of President Bush’s nominees when they controlled the Senate during his first term.
Bush also has failed to consult senators on some of his choices. In one instance, his nominee for an appeals court slot from Virginia was not among the recommendations of the state’s senators, Republican John Warner and Democrat Jim Webb.
The nomination has since been withdrawn and Bush has nominated two other Virginians to fill vacancies on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who were among those recommended by the senators. One, former state Supreme Court Justice G. Steven Agee, was unanimously confirmed. The nomination of U.S. District Court Judge Glen Conrad is pending.
At the state level, Wells said his concern was sparked by recent expensive, and in some cases ugly, campaigns and some state legislatures’ refusal to provide enough money for state courts.
O’Connor has spoken out frequently in defense of judicial independence and said judges who must run in partisan elections risk being compromised by the growing amount of campaign cash they must raise.
She will head up a May 2009 summit in Charlotte, N.C., that will explore these issues, Wells said.
In April, a little-known county judge narrowly defeated a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice with a law-and-order message and a barrage of third-party ads in a race that will go down as one of the state’s nastiest.
Liberal and conservative interest groups spent millions of dollars on negative attack ads that blanketed the state’s airwaves for weeks.
The ABA also is part of a push to get the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case from West Virginia, in which a state high court justice refused to step aside from ruling on a $76.3 million dispute involving a key booster of his 2004 election campaign.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Plea deal reached in Wis. homicide-torture case
Date: 8/6/2008 10:17 PM
By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press Writer
PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) _ A man charged with killing a woman and torturing her young son as he led a gang of violent identity thieves entered into a plea agreement Wednesday that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
Michael Sisk, 26, faces up to 136 years and three months in prison, but will be sentenced to less than the maximum with extended supervision under a state sentencing provision. To a count of second-degree reckless homicide he entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit guilt but said the prosecution has enough evidence to obtain a conviction. He pleaded guilty or no contest to nine other counts.
Sisk’s attorney, Ronald Benavides, said the plea deal arose after a Wednesday afternoon hearing on a series of motions filed in advance of Sisk’s trial, which was to have started Monday.
Prosecutors say Sisk killed Tammie Garlin, 36, who was found buried outside the house Sisk and others rented in Portage, a sleepy town of about 9,700 in south-central Wisconsin.
A message left after office hours with Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey was not immediately returned.
Investigators believe Sisk and his gang, including Garlin, crisscrossed the country with their young children, stealing people’s identities and running small-time scams.
Police looking for the 2-year-old daughter of gang member Candace Clarke, kidnapped from her Florida foster parents, tracked the gang to the rental house where Garlin’s body was found in a shallow backyard grave in June 2007.
They found the kidnapped girl, and found Garlin’s son — then 11 — in the closet streaked with blood.
According to a criminal complaint, the boy told detectives that everyone in the gang, including his sister and mother, burned him with hot water and whipped him with an extension cord as punishment. Sisk beat him with a board with a nail in it, he said.
The case spurred an outpouring of sympathy for the boy across the country and forced the Florida Department of Children and Families to reform its system and assign specific workers to track missing children.
Sisk, Clarke, 24, gang member Michaela Clerc, 22, and Garlin’s now-16-year-old daughter were charged with a host of counts, including being a party to child abuse and first-degree intentional homicide. Clarke and Clerc struck plea deals over the past year, and the teen’s case has been moved into juvenile court.
Patti Seger, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, called the case sad.
“You just don’t hear about this combination of folks all traveling together with kids where everybody is sort of participating in abusing each other,” Seger said. “Somebody killed that woman and somebody hurt that little boy.”
___
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this story.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press Writer
PORTAGE, Wis. (AP) _ A man charged with killing a woman and torturing her young son as he led a gang of violent identity thieves entered into a plea agreement Wednesday that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.
Michael Sisk, 26, faces up to 136 years and three months in prison, but will be sentenced to less than the maximum with extended supervision under a state sentencing provision. To a count of second-degree reckless homicide he entered an Alford plea, which means he did not admit guilt but said the prosecution has enough evidence to obtain a conviction. He pleaded guilty or no contest to nine other counts.
Sisk’s attorney, Ronald Benavides, said the plea deal arose after a Wednesday afternoon hearing on a series of motions filed in advance of Sisk’s trial, which was to have started Monday.
Prosecutors say Sisk killed Tammie Garlin, 36, who was found buried outside the house Sisk and others rented in Portage, a sleepy town of about 9,700 in south-central Wisconsin.
A message left after office hours with Columbia County District Attorney Jane Kohlwey was not immediately returned.
Investigators believe Sisk and his gang, including Garlin, crisscrossed the country with their young children, stealing people’s identities and running small-time scams.
Police looking for the 2-year-old daughter of gang member Candace Clarke, kidnapped from her Florida foster parents, tracked the gang to the rental house where Garlin’s body was found in a shallow backyard grave in June 2007.
They found the kidnapped girl, and found Garlin’s son — then 11 — in the closet streaked with blood.
According to a criminal complaint, the boy told detectives that everyone in the gang, including his sister and mother, burned him with hot water and whipped him with an extension cord as punishment. Sisk beat him with a board with a nail in it, he said.
The case spurred an outpouring of sympathy for the boy across the country and forced the Florida Department of Children and Families to reform its system and assign specific workers to track missing children.
Sisk, Clarke, 24, gang member Michaela Clerc, 22, and Garlin’s now-16-year-old daughter were charged with a host of counts, including being a party to child abuse and first-degree intentional homicide. Clarke and Clerc struck plea deals over the past year, and the teen’s case has been moved into juvenile court.
Patti Seger, executive director of the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, called the case sad.
“You just don’t hear about this combination of folks all traveling together with kids where everybody is sort of participating in abusing each other,” Seger said. “Somebody killed that woman and somebody hurt that little boy.”
___
Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this story.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Study: To sleep better, perchance to live longer
The below story with respect to sleep and fatigue is an ongoing issue in our practice. Fatigue can be as significant of a contributor to motor vehicle wrecks as alcohol, with its symptoms being comparable and overlapping. See our treatment of fatigue and sleep at http://semi-accident.com/fatigue.html
In a case we settled in Milwaukee County for $2.9 million, the defendant driver had not only been working for 15 hours prior to the wreck, he was also someone who suffered from a sleep disorder. Clearly, even in situations where the Federal trucker regulations don’t apply, sleep can contribute to an accident and employers must monitor such hours of service of their employees carefully.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://wis-injury.com
http://semi-accident.com
http://wis-law.com
http://gordonjohnson.com
Date: 8/1/2008 5:50 PM
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Shakespeare once called sleep the “balm of hurt minds.” Bodies, too, apparently. People with the severe form of apnea, which interferes with sleep, are several times more likely to die from any cause than are folks without the disorder, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Sleep.
The findings in the 18-year study confirm smaller studies that have indicated an increased risk of death for people with apnea, also known as sleep-disordered breathing.
“This is not a condition that kills you acutely. It is a condition that erodes your health over time,” Dr. Michael J. Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said in a telephone interview.
People with such disorders “have been sleep deprived for perhaps very long periods of time, they are struggling to sleep. If this is happening night after night, week after week, on top of all our other schedules, this is a dangerous recipe,” said Twery, whose center is part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The institute estimates that 12 million to 18 million people in the U.S. have moderate to severe apnea. The condition is not always detected because the sufferer is asleep when the problem occurs and it cannot be diagnosed during a routine office visit with a doctor. Researchers tested the patients for sleep-disordered breathing in the laboratory and then followed them over several years.
For people with apnea, their upper airway becomes narrowed or blocked periodically during sleep. That keeps air from reaching the lungs. In some cases, breathing stops for seconds to a minute or so; the pauses in breathing disrupt sleep and prevent adequate amounts of oxygen from entering the bloodstream.
“When you stop breathing in your sleep you don’t know it, it doesn’t typically wake you up,” Twery said. Instead, it can move a person from deep sleep to light sleep, when breathing resumes. But the overall sleep pattern is disturbed, and it can happen hundreds of times a night.
He said that a person typically will have four or five cycles per night of light sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when most dreams occur. More deep sleep comes early in the night with more REM sleep closer to waking up. This pattern helps control hormones, metabolism and levels of stress.
The institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, says apnea has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and excessive daytime sleepiness.
In the new report, the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort followed 1,522 men and women, ages 30 to 60. The annual death rate was 2.85 per 1,000 people per year for people without sleep apnea.
People with mild and moderate apnea had death rates of 5.54 and 5.42 per 1,000, respectively, and people with severe apnea had a rate of 14.6, researchers said.
Cardiovascular mortality accounted for 26 percent of all deaths among people without apnea and 42 percent of the deaths among people with severe apnea, according to the researchers led by Terry Young of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
In the same issue of the journal Sleep, a separate study of 380 adults between 40 and 65 in Australia came to a similar conclusion. This study found that after 14 years, about 33 percent of participants with moderate to severe sleep apnea had died, compared with 6.5 percent of people with mild apnea and 7.7 percent of people without apnea.
“Our findings, along with those from the Wisconsin Cohort, remove any reasonable doubt that sleep apnea is a fatal disease,” said lead author Dr. Nathaniel Marshall of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia.
Apnea often is treated with a device that delivers continuous positive airway pressure through a mask over the nose and/or mouth. The U.S. study found that patients using this device had reduced death rates.
There has been debate over whether to use airway pressure to treat patients who are not sleepy in the daytime, the report noted.
The U.S. researchers noted that while theirs was a large study, 95 percent of the participants were white and most had adequate income and access to health care.
“It is likely that our findings may underestimate the mortality risk of SDB in other ethnic groups or the lowest socio-economic strata where there is poor awareness and access to health care,” they said.
The U.S. research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. The Australian study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
___
On the Net:
Sleep: http://www.journalsleep.org
NIH: http://www.nih.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
In a case we settled in Milwaukee County for $2.9 million, the defendant driver had not only been working for 15 hours prior to the wreck, he was also someone who suffered from a sleep disorder. Clearly, even in situations where the Federal trucker regulations don’t apply, sleep can contribute to an accident and employers must monitor such hours of service of their employees carefully.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://wis-injury.com
http://semi-accident.com
http://wis-law.com
http://gordonjohnson.com
Date: 8/1/2008 5:50 PM
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Shakespeare once called sleep the “balm of hurt minds.” Bodies, too, apparently. People with the severe form of apnea, which interferes with sleep, are several times more likely to die from any cause than are folks without the disorder, researchers report in Friday’s edition of the journal Sleep.
The findings in the 18-year study confirm smaller studies that have indicated an increased risk of death for people with apnea, also known as sleep-disordered breathing.
“This is not a condition that kills you acutely. It is a condition that erodes your health over time,” Dr. Michael J. Twery, director of the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research, said in a telephone interview.
People with such disorders “have been sleep deprived for perhaps very long periods of time, they are struggling to sleep. If this is happening night after night, week after week, on top of all our other schedules, this is a dangerous recipe,” said Twery, whose center is part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
The institute estimates that 12 million to 18 million people in the U.S. have moderate to severe apnea. The condition is not always detected because the sufferer is asleep when the problem occurs and it cannot be diagnosed during a routine office visit with a doctor. Researchers tested the patients for sleep-disordered breathing in the laboratory and then followed them over several years.
For people with apnea, their upper airway becomes narrowed or blocked periodically during sleep. That keeps air from reaching the lungs. In some cases, breathing stops for seconds to a minute or so; the pauses in breathing disrupt sleep and prevent adequate amounts of oxygen from entering the bloodstream.
“When you stop breathing in your sleep you don’t know it, it doesn’t typically wake you up,” Twery said. Instead, it can move a person from deep sleep to light sleep, when breathing resumes. But the overall sleep pattern is disturbed, and it can happen hundreds of times a night.
He said that a person typically will have four or five cycles per night of light sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when most dreams occur. More deep sleep comes early in the night with more REM sleep closer to waking up. This pattern helps control hormones, metabolism and levels of stress.
The institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, says apnea has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes and excessive daytime sleepiness.
In the new report, the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort followed 1,522 men and women, ages 30 to 60. The annual death rate was 2.85 per 1,000 people per year for people without sleep apnea.
People with mild and moderate apnea had death rates of 5.54 and 5.42 per 1,000, respectively, and people with severe apnea had a rate of 14.6, researchers said.
Cardiovascular mortality accounted for 26 percent of all deaths among people without apnea and 42 percent of the deaths among people with severe apnea, according to the researchers led by Terry Young of the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
In the same issue of the journal Sleep, a separate study of 380 adults between 40 and 65 in Australia came to a similar conclusion. This study found that after 14 years, about 33 percent of participants with moderate to severe sleep apnea had died, compared with 6.5 percent of people with mild apnea and 7.7 percent of people without apnea.
“Our findings, along with those from the Wisconsin Cohort, remove any reasonable doubt that sleep apnea is a fatal disease,” said lead author Dr. Nathaniel Marshall of the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia.
Apnea often is treated with a device that delivers continuous positive airway pressure through a mask over the nose and/or mouth. The U.S. study found that patients using this device had reduced death rates.
There has been debate over whether to use airway pressure to treat patients who are not sleepy in the daytime, the report noted.
The U.S. researchers noted that while theirs was a large study, 95 percent of the participants were white and most had adequate income and access to health care.
“It is likely that our findings may underestimate the mortality risk of SDB in other ethnic groups or the lowest socio-economic strata where there is poor awareness and access to health care,” they said.
The U.S. research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. The Australian study was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council.
___
On the Net:
Sleep: http://www.journalsleep.org
NIH: http://www.nih.gov
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Report says 1 in 4 US bridges needs upgrading
As we discussed last week in followup to the Wisconsin Dells flooding issues, Wisconsin and the United States infrastructure is in bad need of updating. The below AP story details just how much, $140 billion of how much. This must be a priority. We can’t afford more levee breaches, bridge collapses or Lake Delton disasters.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 07/28/2008 05:32 PM
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ At least $140 billion is needed to make major repairs or upgrades to one of every four U.S. bridges, transportation officials from states across the country said in a report released Monday.
State officials said bridge repairs are just one element of a pressing need for more federal funding to improve the country’s deteriorating transportation infrastructure.
“We need federal intervention, and federal intervention at a big level,” Gov. Ed Rendell said after details were released of the report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
The report cited Federal Highway Administration statistics that 152,000 out of the nation’s 600,000 bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The $140 billion price tag was derived by multiplying the total number of square meters of the problem bridges by the average cost per square meter — in 2006 dollars — to do the work.
“States are doing their best to improve them, but construction costs are skyrocketing … forcing states to delay needed repairs,” said Pete K. Rahn, head of the Missouri Department of Transportation and the group’s president.
“Without a national commitment to increasing bridge investment, we will see a continuing spiral towards deterioration and, ultimately, bridge closures in order to protect the traveling public,” he said.
The news conference announcing the report was held in North Philadelphia near the spot where a 6-foot crack in a concrete support pillar beneath Interstate 95 forced three days of emergency repairs in March, shutting down the busy highway and choking secondary roads with 185,000 vehicles that were detoured daily.
The “Bridging the Gap” report was released just days before the first anniversary of the Aug. 1 bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed 13 people.
Rendell said a congressional study committee found state and local sources account for 75 percent of the $80 billion spent annually on transportation infrastructure.
“No matter how hard a state applies its efforts and its resources to this problem, it’s never going to make enough of a dent without significantly and radically increased federal help,” Rendell said.
Typically built to last 50 years, the average U.S. bridge is 43 years old and approaching the age for replacement, according to the report.
The report’s suggestions include increasing gasoline taxes and new taxes on alternative fuels, turning free highways into toll roads and increasing private investment in public works.
___
On the Net:
Bridging the Gap report: http://www.transportation1.org/BridgeReport/
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Attorney Gordon Johnson
http://gordonjohnson.com
http://wis-injury.com
©2008 Gordon S. Johnson, Jr.
Date: 07/28/2008 05:32 PM
By JOANN LOVIGLIO
Associated Press Writer
PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ At least $140 billion is needed to make major repairs or upgrades to one of every four U.S. bridges, transportation officials from states across the country said in a report released Monday.
State officials said bridge repairs are just one element of a pressing need for more federal funding to improve the country’s deteriorating transportation infrastructure.
“We need federal intervention, and federal intervention at a big level,” Gov. Ed Rendell said after details were released of the report by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
The report cited Federal Highway Administration statistics that 152,000 out of the nation’s 600,000 bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The $140 billion price tag was derived by multiplying the total number of square meters of the problem bridges by the average cost per square meter — in 2006 dollars — to do the work.
“States are doing their best to improve them, but construction costs are skyrocketing … forcing states to delay needed repairs,” said Pete K. Rahn, head of the Missouri Department of Transportation and the group’s president.
“Without a national commitment to increasing bridge investment, we will see a continuing spiral towards deterioration and, ultimately, bridge closures in order to protect the traveling public,” he said.
The news conference announcing the report was held in North Philadelphia near the spot where a 6-foot crack in a concrete support pillar beneath Interstate 95 forced three days of emergency repairs in March, shutting down the busy highway and choking secondary roads with 185,000 vehicles that were detoured daily.
The “Bridging the Gap” report was released just days before the first anniversary of the Aug. 1 bridge collapse in Minneapolis that killed 13 people.
Rendell said a congressional study committee found state and local sources account for 75 percent of the $80 billion spent annually on transportation infrastructure.
“No matter how hard a state applies its efforts and its resources to this problem, it’s never going to make enough of a dent without significantly and radically increased federal help,” Rendell said.
Typically built to last 50 years, the average U.S. bridge is 43 years old and approaching the age for replacement, according to the report.
The report’s suggestions include increasing gasoline taxes and new taxes on alternative fuels, turning free highways into toll roads and increasing private investment in public works.
___
On the Net:
Bridging the Gap report: http://www.transportation1.org/BridgeReport/
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
Religious freedom group files brief for Wis. Amish
Date: 07/25/2008 12:01 AM
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) _ A national group dedicated to religious freedom is joining a fight between Amish farmers and some Wisconsin towns.
The National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom has filed a brief asking for permission to intervene in a Jackson County court case involving Albion farmer Samuel Stolzfus.
Stolzfus and other Amish have been fined thousands of dollars for failing to get building permits.
New York attorney Robert Greene, who is helping the religious freedom group with the case, said the Amish won’t sign applications for building permits because it is against their religion to lie and they might not be able to keep a promise to comply with building codes.
Attorney Paul Millis, who represents the town of Albion, said failure to comply with building codes creates safety problems.
___
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
LA CROSSE, Wis. (AP) _ A national group dedicated to religious freedom is joining a fight between Amish farmers and some Wisconsin towns.
The National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom has filed a brief asking for permission to intervene in a Jackson County court case involving Albion farmer Samuel Stolzfus.
Stolzfus and other Amish have been fined thousands of dollars for failing to get building permits.
New York attorney Robert Greene, who is helping the religious freedom group with the case, said the Amish won’t sign applications for building permits because it is against their religion to lie and they might not be able to keep a promise to comply with building codes.
Attorney Paul Millis, who represents the town of Albion, said failure to comply with building codes creates safety problems.
___
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.