The fatal medical chopper accident was the eighth nationwide in the past 12-month period, prompting comment from the National Transportation Safety Board noting that the accident rate for such flights is far too high and that the incidence of such accidents has been increasing in recent years.

The NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration are currently investigating the cause of the crash. However, it was noted that the pilot radioed for help twice due to foggy weather before crashing about 1:15 a.m. Sunday, about three miles from Andrews Air Force Base, where the craft had been diverted due to inclement weather. Killed in the accident were pilot Stephen Bunker, 59; emergency medical technician Tanya Mallard, 39; flight paramedic Mickey Lippy, 34; and 18-year-old Ashley Younger, who was one of the auto accident victims picked up by the chopper.

In a 2006 report on EMS crashes between January 2002 and January 2005, NTSB researchers found that 54 fatalities resulted from 55 EMS crashes, 29 of which could have been prevented via implementation of standard safety recommendations. Since the publication of the 2006 study, 52 people have died in EMS crashes -- about 30 in the last 12 months alone.

The study, co-authored by Dr. Donald Redelmeier of the University of Toronto and Robert Tibshirani of Stanford University, examined statistics for U.S. traffic-related deaths ranging from the 1976 election of Jimmy Carter to the 2004 re-election of George W. Bush -- a total of eight election Tuesdays. The researchers' analysis showed that Americans were approximately 18 percent more likely to suffer a fatal traffic accident during polling hours on presidential election days than on other Tuesdays -- a greater increase than that of either New Year's Eve or Super Bowl Sunday, traditionally thought of as high-risk traffic days.

The scientists theorized that the increased incidence of traffic fatalities could be attributed to drivers who are distracted by consideration of the candidates or their vote, traveling unfamiliar routes, or rushing to reach polling places either before or after work.

Redelmeier suggested that in order to minimize chances of being involved in a fatal traffic accident this Election Day, drivers should adhere to all traffic laws and avoid distractions by not speeding, properly wearing a seat belt, and avoiding use of alcohol.

The report authored by Daniel Levinson, inspector general of the Department, additionally stated that approximately 17 percent of nursing homes had violations that placed patients at risk of harm or in jeopardy. By category, 94 percent of for-profit nursing homes surveyed were cited for violations of federal standards, while 88 percent of not-for- profit nursing homes and 91 percent of government nursing homes were cited. Approximately two-thirds of American nursing homes are operated for profit, while just over one quarter are run by nonprofit organizations and 6 percent are operated by U.S. government organizations.

Among the common violations cited were improper storage and distribution of food, poor nutrition, medication mix-ups and errors, accident hazards, infected bedsores, lack of services necessary for residents' well-being, and abuse and neglect of patients. Additionally, many cases were identified in which homes billed Medicare and Medicaid for services that were not actually provided, or were provided in such a manner as to effectively amount to no care at all.

In response, American Health Care Association president Bruce A. Yarwood acknowledged that many nursing homes need to do a better job caring for their patients and specifically identified the inspection system as being unreliable and ineffective.

Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate supplements are often taken by people suffering from osteoarthritis of the knee, particularly in combined form: glucosamine chondroitin is currently the sixth-highest-selling dietary supplement in the United States, with sales in 2007 topping $831 million.

However, the study of 572 volunteers suffering from knee arthritis demonstrated that those given the supplements had about the same amount of cartilage loss as those taking a sugar pill placebo over a 24 month period. In the study, funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and published in the October issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, volunteers were administered glucosamine, chondroitin sulfate, a combination of both supplements, celecoxib (a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug marketed under the name Celebrex) or a placebo. None of the options demonstrated any significant advantage in cartilage retention.

Nearly 21 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis; factors which play a role in the development include age, gender, genetics, obesity, and joint injuries.

The analysis showed that out of approximately 64,000 patients who were prescribed statins, only nine were diagnosed with ALS during the time period of the studies, compared with 10 of approximately 56,000 patients given placebos. Based on the findings of the analysis, FDA officials recommended no change in prescription or use of statin drugs.

The analysis was begun when FDA officials noted that the agency's Adverse Event Reporting System received a higher than expected number of reports of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, appearing in patients who received with cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. Statins are a class of medications which are frequently prescribed to lower cholesterol and reduce risks of heart disease, and are considered among the most effective in reducing elevated levels of LDL cholesterol. Among the most common statin drugs are Pfizer's Lipitor, AstraZeneca's Crestor, Merck & Company's Zocor, and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company's Pravachol. In terms of overall sales, statins were the top-selling class of drugs in 2007.

About two per 100,000 people are diagnosed each year with ALS, a generally fatal neurodegenerative disease that attacks motor neurons which control voluntary movement, leading to muscle weakness, atrophy, and degeneration of the brain and spinal cord.

The new study, which combines data from available studies on inhaled anticholinergic drugs used for the treatment of COPD, appears in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association and found a combined 58 percent higher risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, or stroke in participants receiving inhaled anticholinergics for a period of 30 days or more. Broken down by category, the risk of heart attack was 53 percent higher, cardiovascular death was 80 percent higher, and stroke was 46 percent higher.

Inhaled anticholinergic drugs, such as Spiriva, co-marketed by Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer Inc., and Boehringer Ingelheim's Atrovent, are the most commonly prescribed once-daily treatment for COPD. Spiriva is the most widely prescribed COPD drug with more than $2 billion in sales last year to more than 8 million patients worldwide.

COPD is a progressive lung condition usually connected to smoking in which lung passages become increasingly constricted, causing breathing difficulties. COPD is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. and the sixth leading cause worldwide.

In a statement, Boehringer Ingelheim and Pfizer said that they disagree with the findings of the study.

The horrific incident was discovered Monday when neighbors near Dannie Marchan's Southwest Side Chicago house reported a series of gunshots coming from inside the house. Police arriving on the scene heard the sounds of an injured person within the one-story home and forced their way inside, where they found Marchan lying dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head and his two children in another room, both also suffering from gunshot wounds to the head. Marchan was officially pronounced dead at the scene at 12:22 p.m., while the children were transported to Chicago's Mt. Sinai Hospital, where 7-year-old Alizay Marchan was pronounced dead at 11:52 a.m. Monday and where the son (whose name has not been released) remains in critical condition.

Police stated they believed the incident was related to upheavals in Marchan's domestic life; people who knew Marchan said he was depressed over his 2005 divorce from the children's mother. Marchard and the mother shared custody of his two childen, according to court records; while Marchard's former spouse was not at the house at the time of the shootings she later arrived at Mt. Sinai Hospital to be with the children.

The three firms named by OSHA for citations were Reliance Contractors Group, Rapetti Rigging Services, Inc., and Joy Contractors Inc. General contractor Reliance Construction Group was charged with 11 serious citations and fined a total of $19,500. Rapetti Rigging Services, the crane erector on the project, was issued three willful citations with penalties totaling $210,000. Joy Contractors, the concrete subcontractor for the project, was issued one repeat and 14 serious citations penalties totaling $74,000. The three companies were variously charged with failing to comply with the crane's manufacturer's specifications and limitations when erecting the crane, failing to provide adequate training for employees working in dangerous conditions, and failure to properly deploy rigging slings at the construction site.

The March 15 Manhattan collapse of a 19-story tower crane led to the deaths of seven people when it broke away from the building under construction and fell, striking other buildings up to a full city block away. Richard Mendelson, OSHA area director, characterized the crane collapse as a tragedy which resulted from failure to follow basic safety precautions and regulations.

Ranbaxy's Dewas and Paonta Sahib plants in India, which produce more than 30 different generic drug products, have been identified as having deficiencies in their drug manufacturing process, though no evidence that Ranbaxy has shipped defective products has surfaced to date. Among the specific FDA complaints regarding the facilities were inadequate batch production and control records, inadequate failure investigations, and inadequate procedures to prevent the potential for cross-contamination of pharmaceuticals.

Today's FDA Import Alert covers more than 30 different generic drug products produced at these two Ranbaxy locations and allows U.S. officials to detain said products at the U.S. border. However, drugs produced at Ranbaxy's other facilities are not covered by the Alert, no currently-available products will be removed from the market, and FDA officials urged consumers taking Ranbaxy-produced medications to continue and not disrupt their therapy.

Ranbaxy is among the largest of foreign suppliers of generic drugs to the United States. In 2006, the FDA issued a Warning Letter to Ranbaxy over violations of U.S. current Good Manufacturing Practice requirements at the Paonta Sahib facility.

The study of health history and blood and urine samples gathered from 1,455 U.S. adults by British and the University of Iowa researchers was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. While researchers indicated that more research is necessary before their findings are confirmed, they asserted that the study calls into question Food and Drug Administration assertions that BPA is safe. Previous studies have shown that BPA can mimic the hormone estrogen in the body.

FDA head of food additive safety Laura Tarantino said at a meeting Tuesday that an adequate margin of safety exists regarding BPA use at the current level of exposure and that studies with rats and mice which were relied upon for FDA assessment may have been more extensive than human research studies calling BPA safety into question.

BPA is commonly used in the manufacturing of polycarbonate plastic, a clear material often used in a wide range of products including safety equipment, medical devices, eyeglass lenses, compact discs, baby and water bottles, plastic eating utensils, coatings for food and beverage cans, and dental fillings.

Metrolink Board Chair Ron Roberts was quoted on Sunday as saying spokeswoman Denise Tyrrell's statements that a Metrolink engineer's failure to heed a red warning signal caused Friday's collision in Los Angeles's Chatsworth neighborhood between a Metrolink commuter train and a Union Pacific freight train had not been authorized by the Board, saying the Board intended to defer to the judgment of the National Transportation Safety Board as to the causes of the accident.

Ms. Tyrell said that she resigned in response to the Board's statements and that her statements taking responsibility for the crash upon Metrolink had been authorized in advance by Metrolink's chief executive, David Solow. She also affirmed that she believed her statements were completely accurate and that she believed that by taking responsibility for the crash she did the right thing, regardless of the political fallout.

The September 12 collision between Metrolink 111 and a Union Pacific freight train killed 26 and injured 138. NTSB experts say they have confirmed that the Metrolink engineer failed to heed the red warning light but also want to review cellphone records to determine if he may have been text messaging at the time of the crash.

The four drugs affected by the order -- Amgen Inc.'s Enbrel, Johnson & Johnson's Remicade, Abbott Laboratories' Humira, and UCB SA's Cimzia -- have been tied to over 240 cases of a fungal infection called histoplasmosis reported to the FDA. In the reported cases, nearly 20 percent of the infected patients died.

The four affected drugs are part of a class of medications known as tumor necrosis factor alpha blockers, which act to suppress the immune system and are used in the treatment of several conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Crohn's disease, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and plaque psoriasis.

According to an FDA spokesman, the new warnings must be upgraded to highlight existing warnings of fungal infections and strongly warn doctors to take occurrence of histoplasmosis and other fungal infections into account when prescribing these medications. The drug manufacturers are required to submit labeling changes within 30 days.

Histoplasmosis is caused by the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, which is endemic to the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys. The condition generally causes flu-like symptoms, but can spread beyond the respiratory system to cause potentially fatal problems in other organs of the body.

The accident at 15th Street and Imperial Avenue occurred around noon at a three-story building currently undergoing construction and surrounded by scaffolding intended to protect passersby from construction debris. Witnesses said the scaffolding began moving back and forth in an unstable fashion before collapsing to the sidewalk. No construction workers were injured in the incident, though two minors are reportedly listed among the injured along with several residents of a nearby homeless shelter.

A spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department stated that the victims were transported to two area hospitals, Mercy Hospital and UCSD Medical Center, by nine ambulances. The 16 victims range in age from 16 to 64, though most are in their mid-40s and mid-50s. The critically injured victims of the accident include two women, ages 57 and 60, as well as a 50-year-old man.

The general contractor for the site was given as Carlsbad-based Allgire General Contractors. Causes for the accident are still unknown; the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will investigate the incident to determine what factors led to the scaffold's collapse.

The U.S. District Court jury found that the demolition of an unoccupied two-story wooden building he owned at 27794 Mission Blvd. in Hayward was illegal due to Azizi's failure to comply with several provisions of the Clean Air Act, including failing to properly notify the Air District, failing to wet the asbestos-containing material, failing to keep the material in leak-tight containers, and failing to dispose of the asbestos-containing material at a properly authorized location.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Maxine M. Chesney sentenced Azizi to serve 10 months in prison, to be followed by a two-year period of supervised release. Azizi faced a maximum possible federal prison sentence of fifteen years, along with potential fines of up to $750,000 plus restitution. Each felony violation of the Clean Air Act carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine, plus restitution.

Azizi is scheduled to begin serving his sentence on December 1, 2008. He is currently free on his own recognizance.

In a statement, the Board said the suit will be filed under the federal Clean Water Act and will reinforce a suit brought in 2007 by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Arc Ecology, and San Francisco Baykeeper to halt the discharge of toxic heavy metals into Suisun Bay by a fleet of 57 obsolete vessels anchored there. Spokesmen for the three organizations hailed the Board's decision to file suit and expressed hope that the additional pressure brought by the Board's action would speed the resolution of the issue.

According to a 2007 federal report, 40 vessels within the mothballed fleet have discharged approximately 19 tons of the heavy metals into Suisun Bay waters in violation of the Clean Air Act. A Board spokesman said the decision to file the suit came after over eighteen months of collaborating with the Maritime Administration to assess the fleet's polluting effects and to dispose of the fleet without further contamination.

According to a press release issued by Morristown, New Jersey-based Actavis Totowa, the pharmacy/retail level recall which includes wholesalers and hospitals was issued due to operations at their Little Falls manufacturing facility failing to meet either the FDA's or Actavis Totowa's own standards for good manufacturing practices. Because the recall does not extend to the consumer level, patients who are currently taking any of the recalled drugs are encouraged to consult with their doctors about their options before discontinuing use of their medications.

The recall covers about 65 different prescription drugs manufactured by the company, including various painkillers, antidepressant drugs, diet medications, and drugs for treatment of blood pressure and hypertension. The company emphasized in its released statement that the recall was not issued as the result of any product complaints or health hazards related to any of the recalled products.

A major recall of Actavis Totowa's Digitek brand of digoxin tablets was issued in April of this year after it was discovered that tablets were being produced at twice the dosage listed on product packaging.

The University of Aberdeen study published last week collected data on 580 women with unexplained infertility problems who were randomly selected to receive the fertility pill clomifene citrate, intrauterine insemination treatment (IUI), or no treatment at all save counseling on the need to have regular sexual intercourse. After the study's conclusion, researchers concluded that the differences between the numbers of live births resulting from each method were not statistically significant and that neither the clomifene nor IUI treatments demonstrated any notable advantage.

Prof Siladitya Bhattacharya, who led the research, was quoted as saying that money spent on clomifene, IUI, and other ineffective fertility treatments should be redirected towards in vitro fertilization (IVF) and similar treatments which have demonstrated quantifiable advantages. The five centers around Scotland where the study was conducted have already stopped offering clomifene and IUI to couples with unexplained fertility issues.

Clomifene causes side effects in 10 to 20 percent of women who take the drug, including abdominal pain, nausea, bloating, hot flashes, and headaches, and increases chances of multiple births.

Infertility affects about one in seven couple trying to reproduce.

Truck driver Stanley P. Chesney, 47, suffered abrasions to his left arm and leg in the accident and was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) workers were called in to round up the escaped birds and clear the road. While eyewitnesses reported many chickens were killed in the wreck, an exact number has not been released; the surviving birds were taken to the Erie County SPCA in the town of Tonawanda for medical evaluations. An SPCA spokesman reported that says the trucking company, Ontario Inc. of Walkerton, Ontario, Canada will be liable for the costs of the checkups.

The ramp to the 190 northbound was closed to traffic for nearly two hours during cleanup of the accident. The cause of the wreck has not yet been determined, though officials on the scene noted that early indications pointed to unsafe speed or lane change as likely factors, as Chesney reportedly said he was distracted while attempting to change lanes before losing control.

The study of traffic statistics and gas prices during the period ranging from 1985 to 2006 theorized that as fuel costs rise, more people drive slowly in order to converse fuel consumption and choose not to drive unless it is necessary, resulting in fewer drivers on American roadways and fewer motor vehicle accidents. Morrisey and Grabowski's data analysis found that for each 10% increase in average U.S. gas prices, the number of traffic fatalities among all drivers fell by 2.5% and the number of auto accident deaths among drives aged 15-17 fell by 6%.

Morrisey also noted that as fuel costs are now over 60% higher on average than in 2006, the most expensive year covered by the study, he expects that the number of deaths resulting from auto accidents may fall by as much as 1000 per month from 2006 numbers.

Morrisey and Grabowski's study was presented at a meeting of the American Society of Health Economists in Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Automobile accidents in the United States result in over 40,000 deaths annually.

The board panelists, selected by Maryland Labor and Industry Commissioner Ron DeJuliis, were charged with examining state rules governing crane operator certification and making recommendations to enhance crane safety for both workers and the public. Among the new proposals unanimously recommended by the advisory board are requirements specifying that crane operators, riggers, and signalers obtain training equivalent to a nationally recognized certification program; that crane in use must be inspected daily; that a master rigger be on site during assembly or dismantling of any crane; and that drug and alcohol testing be administered to crane employees within 24 hours of serious or fatal accidents.

The Maryland General Assembly's Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee must sign off on the proposed rules before they take effect; House of Delegates Speaker Michael E. Busch was quoted as saying he expects the Committee will likely approve the proposals.

Assuming a speedy approval process, the new regulations could take effect within three months. If all recommendations are adopted, Maryland would be the first U.S. state to set training standards for riggers and signalers.

The 510 O'Brien Academy students will instead spend the 2008-2009 school year attending Philip Schuyler Elementary School, which is being used as "swing space" for students whose schools are undergoing renovation.

The problem at the Albany, New York school was first found July 9 when workers renovating the magnet school removed a window and uncovered a previously unknown asbestos ceiling. Superintendent Dr. Eva Joseph stated that no students or faculty members were ever exposed to the asbestos, and that maintaining safety at the school was the first priority. Air samples taken at the school reportedly showed no signs of elevated asbestos levels.

Absestos was formerly used in construction materials of many types before the ill effects of asbestos exposure became widely known. Aging school buildings can be particularly problematic, as aging facilities may expose and release degrading asbestos materials and children are especially susceptible to contracting asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma.

According to federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) guidelines, all schools must create and maintain asbestos management plans which include the locations of any asbestos within a structure, along with details of measures taken to prevent exposure.

Childs, 43, formerly managed the network as an IT administrator for San Francisco's Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS) before it was discovered that he allegedly changed the system to give himself exclusive access to the system. Childs refused to divulge the passwords to police or other authorities following his arrest; a court filing indicates that Childs felt Mayor Newsom was the only individual he could trust. According to Mayor Newsom, DTIS has now regained full administrative control of the network.

According to a motion filed by Childs, he intends to "expose the utter mismanagement, negligence, and corruption at DTIS, which if left unchecked, will in fact place the City of San Francisco in danger."

The city's multimillion-dollar FiberWAN (Wide Area Network) carries about 60 percent of the municipal government's network traffic and stores records including city officials' e-mail, municipal payroll files, confidential law enforcement records, jail bookings, and other sensitive data. Had Childs not handed over the passwords, a reconfiguration of the FiberWAN could have cost the city hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars and taken weeks or months to complete.

Childs remains imprisoned on $5 million bail; a motion to reduce the amount was denied Wednesday.

The 30-page study detailed several cases in which individuals who suffer from serious health conditions including sleep apnea, multiple sclerosis, heart problems, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder were improperly granted commercial driver's licenses (CDLs), enabling them to operate heavy trucks and buses. The report also went on to indicate that over 1,000 currently licensed commercial drivers have been diagnosed with vision, hearing, or seizure disorders, adding that such medical conditions generally preclude the granting of a CDL, and named several cases in which medically unfit truck and bus drivers caused fatal accidents.

While US safety regulators have recommended eight separate proposals to increase bus and trucking safety since 2001, including a proposal to establish minimum medical health standards for commercial vehicle operators, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has not executed any of the recommendations.

In 2006, the U.S. Transportation Department recorded around 7.3 million commercial driver violations, including truckers violating current federal medical rules in all 50 states, though Texas, Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Alabama, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Ohio accounted for half of all such violations. During the same year, approximately 5,300 people died and 126,000 people were injured in commercial bus and trucking accidents.

The crane, owned by Houston's Crane Rental Division Inc., reportedly fell over when the sign twisted due to strong winds and pulled the crane after it. No injuries were reported to have resulted from the incident.

The crane collapse follows closely on the heels of a disaster Friday in which the nation's largest mobile crane collapsed at a Houston oil refinery, striking a second, smaller crane and killing four contract workers.

In 2005 and 2006 Texas led the nation in crane-related fatalities, with a total of 26. Crane regulation in the United States varies widely depending on city and state; in Texas, cranes are unregulated by state or local laws and are only subject to federal guidelines.

Crane safety has been in the public eye this year due to fatal crane collapses in locations such as New York City, Miami, and Las Vegas. Also Monday, New York City crane inspector Michael Carbone resigned from the city's Buildings Department. Carbone had been suspended without pay in June after inspectors identified him as having neglected his duty and failing to take action on complaints of corruption related to crane operations.

The new state law, which went into effect July 1, entitles workers to keep firearms in their vehicles for self-defense while driving to and from work or for hunting purposes, but contains several exceptions, including schools, nuclear plants, correctional facilities, national defense and aerospace contractors, homeland security installations, and locations where combustible materials or explosives are manufactured, used, stored, or transported.

Within the first week of July, Orlando's Walt Disney World claimed exemption from the law because explosives are routinely used in the park's fireworks show, and first suspended and then fired an employee who brought a gun to work in protest of the company's decision. Spokesmen for Universal Studios, also in Orlando, cited the fact that there is a public school on the park's property as their reason for disallowing firearms, while Georgia-Pacific's Palatka mill claimed exemption due to homeland security issues relating to the plant's consumption of large amounts of barge-delivered oil which make the plant subject to the Maritime Security Act.

Gun rights activist groups including the NRA have vigorously protested the companies' claimed exemptions, saying workers' rights are being violated. However, an injunction to temporarily suspend the new law has already been filed in Federal court.