Who’s paying for Gabrielle Giffords’ rehabilitation?
As the Associated Press reported this morning, Giffords has spent the past five months in a rehabilitation facility and has regained some of her speaking ability. Now she’ll move to the suburban Houston home of her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, and continue daily intensive therapy on an outpatient basis. While at home, she’ll have round-the-clock help from a home care assistant. On hearing about the 24-hour-assistance Giffords will receive, Celeste and I both had the same questions: Is her insurance paying for this? It turns out that Representative Giffords’ office has addressed this question – while noting that many other traumatic brain injury patients wouldn’t get the same extensive rehabilitative services.
http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2011/06/whos_paying_for_gabrielle_giff.php
NY legislators want risk reports at group homes
The New York Legislature has voted to require group homes for juvenile delinquents to record incidents of violence and aggressive behavior, assess workplace safety risks and take steps to prevent incidents.
http://online.wsj.com/article/AP3400b7acd93840b3a4af93e2ffcdff0b.html
Lawmakers irked by OSHA’s no-show at hearing
Lawmakers on Thursday criticized the Department of Labor for not appearing at a subcommittee hearing on workplace safety and health. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Mich.), chairman of the Education and the Workforce subcommittee on workforce protections, criticized the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for not appearing at his hearing. Walberg said he was open to OSHA’s attendance, but admonished the agency, which is housed in the Labor Department, for requiring a 14-day notice to prepare for hearings.
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/worker-safety/166953-lawmakers-irked-by-oshas-no-show-at-hearing
OSHA should track musculoskeletal disorders; addition of checkbox on forms does not burden small business
Many small business owners agree: Tracking workers’ repetitive-motion injuries is not overly burdensome. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) commonsense plan to track work-related musculoskeletal disorders has been subject to more than a year of costly reviews and delays. Most recently, OSHA solicited feedback on the proposal from small business leaders in a series of teleconferences. These calls only confirmed what the agency already knew: Adding a single checkbox to employer injury and illness logs will not burden small businesses.
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/pressroomredirect.cfm?ID=3362
OSHA: We have no authority to shut down dangerous drilling rigs
It’s the agency charged with keeping you safe while you are on the job and punishing employers that fail to do so. But OSHA may have less power than you’d imagine.
http://www.cbs7kosa.com/news/details.asp?ID=26536
IG: OSHA doesn’t know if enforcement plan works
The Republican leadership in the House Education and Workforce Committee held an interesting hearing today called, “Is OSHA Undermining State Efforts to Promote Workplace Safety?” I didn’t get to watch the hearing, but I gathered from the leadership’s statements that their goal was to argue that those troublesome federal bureaucrats were again getting in the way of those wonderful state officials in making their local workplaces safer.
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2011/06/16/ig-osha-doesnt-know-if-plan-enforcement-works/
Did OSHA fail the workers at AL Solutions?
There was a little something in the U.S. Department of Labor press release about its citations issued to AL Solutions in New Cumberland, W.Va., that jumped out at me. It was this: “The violations place this company in OSHA’s Severe Violators Enforcement Program.” … Sounds good, right? It is … unless you read more about this OSHA program, in a Pump Handle blog post by my friend Dr. Celeste Monforton. For example: It depends on whether you agree with OSHA’s narrow definition of a “severe violator.” I don’t, because OSHA doesn’t go far enough.
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2011/06/17/did-osha-fail-the-workers-at-al-solutions/
Facebook firings and the Labor Relations Board: What nonprofits need to know
Employers have begun to question this new kind of water-cooler complaining. But is it illegal to trash-talk your boss on a social media platform? The law is still under construction and with the help of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), employees are pushing back and hoping to set legal precedent.
http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=13201:facebook-firings-and-the-labor-relations-board-what-nonprofits-need-to-know&catid=153:features&Itemid=336
A schizophrenic, a slain worker, troubling questions
For over a year, Mr. Chappell, a schizophrenic with a violent criminal record, had seemed relatively stable in a state-financed group home in Charlestown. But after a fight with another resident, Mr. Chappell was shuttled from home to home, and his mother believed that he had fallen off his medication along the way. In mid-January, Chappell’s counselor, Stephanie Moulton, a petite, street-smart 25-year-old, was dead, and Mr. Chappell was accused of murdering her. They had been alone at the Revere home, where, her family said, Ms. Moulton generally worked a solo shift. Mr. Chappell beat her, stabbed her repeatedly and then dumped her partially nude body in a church parking lot, prosecutors said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/us/17MENTAL.html?_r=1&ref=health
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