News and Developments in the Legal Field

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.

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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.

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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.

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The March shooting death of 55-year old Thomas Hickman had been investigated as a homicide when Hickman was found dead near a remote New Mexico highway with his mouth covered with duct tape and a fatal gunshot wound to the back of his head. However, when investigators discovered the weapon used in the shooting tied to a bundle of balloons tangled in a nearby cactus, they began looking into the possibility that Hickman had killed himself in such a way as to make his death appear to be a murder following a carjacking.

After being alerted to a fourth-season episode of the CBS television series CSI titled “Homebodies,” which depicts balloons being used to make a gun float away following a suicide, police rented the show and found significant similarities between the fictional scenario and the Hickman case. An examination of Hickman’s Dallas home turned up metal shavings matching the gun used in Hickman’s death; police spokesmen said Hickman had shaved down the gun’s trigger guard in an attempt to lighten the weight of the weapon.

Hickman had taken out an insurance policy on himself which paid his wife nearly $800,000 if his death was found to have been accidental.

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The rule requires air carriers to use equipment designed to clear dangerous, potentially explosive vapors from the fuel tanks of all aircraft built after 1991, as well as all newly-manufactured aircraft. Around 55 percent of the nation’s current airliner fleet is expected to be affected by the ruling — over 2700 aircraft. Air carriers will have nine years to retrofit existing aircraft, while manufacturers must be in full compliance by 2010.

The FAA’s decision was hailed by air safety advocates, although many criticized the long delay in passing the rule. Although the National Transportation Safety Board suggested within five months of the airliner’s crash that a similar regulation be implemented to address the type of fuel tank explosion that downed TWA Flight 800, opposition from airline industry lobbyists and trade associations concerned about potential costs had kept the rule at bay. In the 12 years since TWA Flight 800 exploded 12 minutes after takeoff on July 17, 1996, the crashes of one airliner in Thailand and one in India have been attributed to fuel tank explosions.

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters estimated the newly required fuel tank upgrades would cost air carriers between $92,000 and $311,000 per aircraft.

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The Phase III trial study, which included 1,400 men with non-metastatic prostate cancer undergoing androgen deprivation therapy, was conducted over a three-year period and was said by Amgen to show that patients receiving denosumab demonstrated greater increase in bone mineral density and less than half the number of new vertebral fractures than patients who received a placebo.

A previous denosumab study showed that the drug successfully increased bone mineral density in women with breast cancer receiving aromatase inhibitor therapy. A Phase III trial of denosumab in women with post-menopausal osteoporosis is expected later this year.

Denosumab is a bioengineered antibody, administered twice yearly via injection, that targets proteins involved with cells called osteoclasts which erode bone material. The experimental drug is said to be seen as key to the future of Amgen, which has struggled in the wake of safety concerns over the company’s anemia drugs Aranesp and Epogen which led many doctors to cease prescribing the medications; previously, sales of Aranesp and Epogen had accounted for nearly half of Amgen’s revenue in 2006.

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One child who received the accidental overdose has since died; an autopsy will be performed to determine whether heparin was a factor in the baby’s death. Hospital spokesmen indicated the child was already seriously ill and the overdose may not have played any role in the death. One infant remains in critical condition, while three have been discharged and the remaining 12 are listed as stable.

The problem was discovered by the hospital’s nursing staff Sunday, two days after the first heparin overdoses were administered. Hospital spokesmen stated that corrective action was taken immediately after the problem was discovered to prevent further heparin overdoses and that a preliminary investigation showed the error occurred in the hospital’s pharmacy during the heparin mixing and preparation process. Two members of the pharmacy staff have taken voluntary leave pending the results of the hospital’s investigation.

Heparin is routinely used to clean patients’ intravenous lines and prevent formation of blood clots. The blood thinner leaped into the headlines last year when actor Dennis Quaid’s then-12-day-old twins nearly died after they were accidentally administered massive overdoses of the anticoagulant. In 2006, three infants died after receiving similar overdoses at Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.

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Fluoroquinolones are a group of potent broad-spectrum antibiotics approved for the treatment and prevention of certain bacterial infections. Bayer’s Cipro (ciprofloxacin) and Ortho-McNeil’s Levaquin (levofloxacin) are the two most prominent examples of fluoroquinolone antibacterials, though fluoroquinolones are marketed under various other brand and generic names including Factive (gemifloxacin), Avelox (moxifloxacin), Noroxin (norfloxacin), Floxin, and generic ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin.

The new ‘black box’ warning labels follow in the wake of a lawsuit filed by consumer group Public Citizen against the FDA to force the agency to warn consumers and doctors of potential tendonitis and tendon rupture risks accompanying use of the drugs. Manufacturers of fluoroquinolone drugs will also be required to provide medication guides for patients and doctors detailing the drugs’ possible side effects.

While current fluoroquinolone warning labels do mention the elevated risk of tendon rupture, continued reports of tendon injuries led FDA officials to believe those warnings were not being heeded by enough doctors or patients.

Although the connections between fluoroquinolone use and tendon problems are not clearly understood right now, the FDA’s Dr. Renata Albrecht stated that studies have shown that fluoroquinolones can increase the risk of tendonitis and tendon rupture by as much as 400 percent.

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According to California Highway Patrol spokesmen, Bill Mesa, 57, and Roberts-Mesa, 29, had been at a family gathering Saturday afternoon before leaving on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and crashing into a utility pole on Lyons Valley Road approximately a quarter-mile east of Skyline Truck Trail.

Alcohol is suspected as a factor in the crash, though Cheryl Mesa, Mesa’s wife of 31 years, denied the two were intoxicated at the time of the fatal wreck. Toxicology reports regarding the incident are expected in four to six weeks from the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Mesa, a retired police officer boasting a 20-year record of service, had been involved for years with efforts to build a casino on his tribe’s six-acre reservation. San Diego County Second District Supervisor Dianne Jacob stated that while her position often brought her into conflict with him, Mesa worked tirelessly to accomplish what he believed to be the best for his fellow tribe members.

Roberts-Mesa was a lifelong East County resident who married Mesa’s son, Robert Mesa, less than a year ago. Roberts-Mesa had recently completed her master’s degree in public health at San Diego State University.

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The proposed warnings would be ‘black box’ warnings, which indicate that medical studies have shown that the labeled drug carries a risk of serious adverse side effects. ‘Black box’ warnings are the most serious warnings issued by the FDA.

An FDA analysis of epilepsy drugs released earlier this year showed that patients taking anti-seizure medications were around twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Although three of the 11 drugs studied did not indicate an increased risk of suicidal problems, the proposed warning label would apply to all epilepsy drugs.

Among the drugs which would be newly labeled under the proposal are Lyrica, Gabitril, Trileptal, Lamictal, Topamax, Depakote, Tegretol, Felbatol, Neurontin, Keppra, and Zonegran; the affected drugs sold a combined total of over $8 billion last year. While around 2.7 million Americans have epilepsy, anti-seizure drugs are widely used to treat a variety of conditions including chronic pain, migraine headaches, and bipolar disorder.

A panel of outside medical experts is expected to discuss and comment on the proposed warnings at an FDA-sponsored public meeting on Thursday. Drug manufacturers including GlaxoSmithKline Plc, manufacturer of Lamictal, are also expected to comment upon the proposal at that time.

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