New York Mayor extends rent-control laws

April 18th, 2012 by admin No comments »

The Mayor of New York has stated that the rent-control laws will be extended for another three years after he recently signed off on the plan.

The rent-control laws in the state put a limit on how much rent that a tenant can charge for rent. In the city, there are nearly one million units that are currently rent-controlled. Those who are in favor of this law have stated that it allows the city to maintain some type of affordable housing.

Nicole Gelinas, Mahattan Institute, said in a recent interview,”The rent regulation itself causes the shortage because landlords know they’re not going to get a good return for massively investing in upgrading their housing, so a lot of the existing housing deteriorates.”

This law is very controversial and some state that it creates many more issues than it solves. If  a person is planning to move at some point, it is important to keep the apartment in its best condition.

One important way to make sure that your apartment home  looks its best is to make sure that the floor is clean. For carpet and rugs, the Austin carpet cleaners suggest to get your carpet professionally vacuumed. For wood floors, it may be a good idea to get them polished before your lease is over.

Grief counselors on campus at Chardon High School to support students, teachers

March 1st, 2012 by admin No comments »

Although classes do not resume until Friday,  grief counselors will be on campus at Chardon High School so that student and teachers can walk back in to the building where tragedy struck on Monday morning.

The incident began just after 7:30 a.m. when the 17-year-old gunman opened fire on students eating breakfast in the cafeteria with no warning. A teacher was somehow able to chase the teen away from the area, but five students were shot.

Three of them died of injuries sustained. Neighbors of the teen, who lived with his maternal grandparents, stated that they did not see this violent act coming from him. It is thought that the gun may have belonged to a relative.

The teen will face criminal charges, but will most likely also face civil lawsuits from the parents of victims for their pain and suffering, wrongful death, and medical expenses.

Bobby Jenks discussing medical error and recovery

February 24th, 2012 by admin No comments »

A Boston Red Sox pitcher, Bobby Jenks, has now discussed a medical error that may cause him to sit out this season.

According to Jenks, he went into Massachusetts General Hospital in order to remove bone spurts from his spine. The two bone spurts at the top of the spine were removed and the third one was partially removed leaving an incision in the spine.

Jenks went back to Arizona after the surgery and it was not until two weeks later that he noticed that he was getting severe headaches and was advised to go back into the hospital.

“It kind of blew up on me,’’ he said. “It caused an infection to climb up that incision wound. So now I had an infection in my spine. It was a combination of everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.’’

Jenks then had to have emergency surgery in order to correct the infection. He is discussing with his representatives whether or not he will be taking legal action or not.

Arsenic levels higher in organic sweeteners

February 17th, 2012 by admin No comments »

Researchers have recently done a study on organic brown rice syrup because it is now used in so many products as an alternative to other sweeteners.

Organic brown rice sweetener is used in many baby formulas, energy bars and cereal bars and researchers decided to conduct the study in order to see the affect that the sweetener has on those who consume it.

The study looked into 17 different baby formulas, 15 of which that did not use the organic sweetener and two that did. The results of the study showed that the two that did use the organic brown rice sweetener had a concentration of arsenic which is 20 times higher than the other 15.

Although the Food and Drug Administration does not have a federal regulation on the level of arsenic in food products, the Environmental Protection Agency does have a limit for what is considered safe in drinking water. The food products that have organic brown rice sugar in them have six times a higher level then what is considered ‘safe’ for drinking water.

News anchor injured after bitten by dog during news segment

February 10th, 2012 by admin No comments »

A television news anchor is currently recovering from a dog bite that occurred while filming a news segment about a rescued dog.

The incident occurred as the woman was filming a news segment about how the dog was rescued from an icy pond after falling into the water. The dog’s owner, also a local firefighter, rescued the 85-pound Argentine Mastiff from the water.

The dog and his owner were being interviewed when the dog bit the news anchor’s face. The was then rushed to Denver Medical Center where she underwent a lip reconstructive surgery and was released on Thursday.

The dog will spend 10 days quarantined at the Denver Medical Center and then will most likely be returned to his owner. The man stated that the dog is normally very loving and that he is praying for the woman’s quick recovery.  Whether or not she will be filing a personal injury lawsuit still remains to be seen.

Many still in hospital as a result of car pileup in Florida

February 3rd, 2012 by admin No comments »

Eight are still recovering in local hospitals after a car pileup occurred on Interstate 75 over the weekend Florida.

The string of collisions that occurred on the Florida interstate killed 11 people. Interstate 75 was previously closed due to fog and heavy smoke that caused a lack of visibility.

The accident occurred once the road reopened because the fog and smoke were still causing very poor visibility. Rescue crews stated that they could not even navigate their way around the smoke to find victims and had to be led be their screaming voices.

The cars driving on the interstate were unable to see collisions occurring on the road until it was too late too stop. Many vehicles, including a tractor trailer, burst into flames as a result of the crash.

One of the eight people that remains hospitalized at this time is a 15-year-old girl who lost most of her family in the accident. She is said to be in fair condition.

Lunar New Year kick off celebration takes place in Flushing Town Hall

January 26th, 2012 by admin No comments »

The Lunar New Year celebration will kick off at the Flushing Town Hall with an opening celebration this Friday at 5 p.m.

Flushing Town Hall will offer multiple events and exhibits in order to celebrate the Year of the Dragon. On Feb. 5, there will be a dragon making workshop as well as a lucky money bag workshop.

Throughout the month of February, many Asian singers will perform. On Feb. 11, there will be an herbal tonic soup workshop and festival. On Saturday, the Sky View Center mall will also host a singing, dance and martial arts performance in order to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Distracted driving injures 1,200 people a day

January 19th, 2012 by admin No comments »

In the U.S., 1,200 people are injured each day in  accidents that involve a distracted driver and 15 people each day are injured fatally.

These accidents are caused when people are doing other activities while driving that take away from their attention on the road. The three main types of distraction are categorized as visual, manual and cognitive.  Visual distraction includes any event where you take you eyes off of the road. For example, using technology in the vehicle.

A manual distraction is when you remove your hands from the wheel. Eating is an example of this type of distraction. The last type of distraction is cognitive and this occurs when your mind is taken off what you are doing.

The Center of Disease Control website on distracted driving cites texting while driving as particularly dangerous because it uses a combination of all three types of distraction.

S.C. rules that workplace discrimination laws do not cover certain religious organizations

January 13th, 2012 by admin No comments »

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court made a ruling about federal discrimination and how it affects those who work for churches or other religious employees. The Supreme Court decided that the federal discrimination laws do not apply to these employees because of the  church and state laws in the country.

This decision means that religious groups now have constitutional rights to choose their leaders. The court ruled that because of the First Amendment that states that the country has religious freedom, the laws that ban any workplace discrimination do not apply here because they are lead the groups in their own way.

This ruling came about after a teacher at the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School claimed that she was fired after being diagnosed wit narcolepsy and that the school violated the Americans with Disability Act.

Some think that this was the right decision because the government should not interfere with how religious organizations are run, but others think it will make discrimination more difficult to fight.

Woman killed in NYC elevator accident

December 16th, 2011 by admin No comments »

A woman was killed earlier this week in a freak elevator accident in a 26-story building in Midtown. It has recently been discovered that the elevator was being worked on before is malfunctioned.

According to the New York Times, The 41-year-old woman was heading to work at an advertising company located in the building when the elevator jerked upward after his foot got caught and she was pulled up with it.

The company that serviced the elevator at this building,  Transel Elevator, Inc., will be looking at all of the elevators they operate across the city to make sure they are structurally sound. The company performs maintenance on elevators in nearly a dozen buildings in the city.