All Topics

• Banquet Pot Pies and Salmonella

  Paul Jacquart | October 11, 2007 9:45 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  The Associated Press has reported that Con Agra, maker of Banquet pot pies, has voluntarily stopped production due to reports of consumers contracting salmonella. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have reportedly investigated numerous cases in Wisconsin, Missouri and Pennsylvania. The Banquet pot pies under investigation are of the chicken and turkey varieties and have a "P-9" code...

• Problems Persist For Brain Injury Victim

  David Lowe | October 02, 2007 7:07 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  Brain injury can result in physical limitations, such as quadraplegia or paraplegia, as well as mental limitations, such as loss of memory and other cognitive functions. An interesting and tragic account of one man's traumatic brain injury appears in today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Elliot Lubar, a well known executive of a social services agency that provides counseling services to...

• Insurance Companies Accused of Fraud in Katrina Claims

  Paul Jacquart | August 08, 2007 9:57 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  The Associated Press has reported that the U.S. Department of Justice is contemplating intervening in a New Orleans lawsuit accusing several major insurance companies of fraud for paying off engineers in order to falsify claims. The "whistleblower" suit filed in the name of two sisters who worked for a company that contracted with State Farm, names State Farm, Nationwide Insurance Co.,...

• California Jury Awards $2.5 Million For Surgical Malpractice

  David Lowe | August 01, 2007 12:00 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  A story in the Merced Sun-Star reports that a California jury has awarded $2.5 million to a patient who lost control of his bowels due to medical malpractice during routine surgery to remove a cyst from his buttocks. The patient alleged that his surgeon negligently cut a nearby muscle while attempting to remove the cyst. But this medical malpractice victim will likely face another painful cut...

• That's Not My Mortgage!

  Paul Jacquart | July 31, 2007 12:33 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  The Washington Post reports that a man in Arlington County Virginia was surprised to receive notice that he had overpaid his second mortgage http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20044213/ because . . . he did not have a second mortgage. It turns out that a thief had stolen his wallet a year earlier and had used his identity to buy a $419,000 house with no money down! Fortunately, this identity thief...

• Criminal Charges Unlikely in Amusement Ride Accident

  David Lowe | July 22, 2007 1:29 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  Last weekend I wrote about an amusement ride accident in which a 16 year old girl from Menasha, Wisconsin died when she fell more than 40 feet from a ride called Air Glory while attending a Christian music festival in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.The Wisconsin Journal Sentinel website reports this afternoon that the local district attorney is saying that criminal charges against the amusement ride...

• Bush Nominates Fox to Head Consumer Safety Henhouse

  David Lowe | May 09, 2007 10:32 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  The Bush administration's nomination of Michael Baroody to head the Consumer Products Safety Commission is up for hearing before the U.S. Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, Insurance and Automotive Safety.Baroody's nomination is being opposed by a coalition of eight consumer groups,including Consumers Union and Public Citizen. Public Citzen President Joan Claybrook explains the...

• Jury Service-- Seeing It From The Other Side

  David Lowe | April 16, 2007 11:35 AM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  Here I am, Monday morning in the Milwaukee County Courthouse-- a familiar time and location. But this time I am sitting in the jury assembly room with a jury summons in my hand. This is my first opportunity for jury service, and one that I am looking forward to. We are sitting in auditorium type seating, unacquainted with one another, no one talking, all somewhat uncomfortable in these strange...

• Nail Gun Injuries On the Increase

  David Lowe | April 13, 2007 4:33 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  Nail guns are easy to use, but not necessarily easy to use safely. Today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report issued by the Center for Disease Control reveals that over the five year period between 2001 - 2005, emergency departments saw 37,000 patients annually for nail gun injuries. This represents a remarkable surge in the occurrence of nail gun injuries, particularly in the consumer...

• Death of Nursing Home Resident Leads to Huge Fine

  David Lowe | March 27, 2007 7:57 PM | 0 CommentsMilwaukee, WI

  A San Francisco skilled nursing facility has been cited and fined $100,000, the largest ever imposed in California, after the California Department of Health Services determined that the poor care of an 82-year-old resident with dementia led to her death. The nursing home resident who had a history of falling and wandering, was found unresponsive on the ground outside the nursing home facility....