Page 29 of 67 FirstFirst ... 19272829303139 ... LastLast
Results 281 to 290 of 663

Thread: A Fallen Hero - Video Inside

  1. #281
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Sick 9/11 Recovery Workers Take Lawsuit To State Supreme Court

    http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index...=203&aid=71761

    July 17, 2007

    Workers who say the toxic air at the World Trade Center site made them sick took their claims to State Supreme Court Tuesday.

    The lawsuit asks for money from a billion dollar federal fund to cover the workers' medical expenses.

    The fund was set up four years ago and more than 10,000 workers attempted to collect money for their medical bills, but not one person has been reimbursed.

    Lawyers representing the workers call the city's actions shameful.

    "Mayor [Michael] Bloomberg knows that these men and women, thousands and thousands of them are suffering today from all kinds of respiratory problems, from cancers,” said Marc Burn, who is representing the Trade Center workers. “Many do not have the means to get medical treatment. Many people are looking and begging for medical treatment. With more than a billion dollars there Mayor Bloomberg has said, ‘no.’"

    The mayor says that even though he supports the idea of coverage for 9/11 workers, the funds in question were set aside by Congress only to pay legal fees as a result of lawsuits against the city.

    The money is controlled by the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company.

    The group is already part of a class action suit claiming the toxic environment is linked to a variety of disease and ailments.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  2. #282
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Health cost for ill 9-11 workers expected to soar: report

    http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/84291.html

    7/18/2007

    New York - The number of rescuers claiming illness from the 2001 collapse of the World Trade Centre towers is expected to increase to 65,000 in the next two years and deplete funds set aside for their medical care, the National Institute for Occupational Safety said Wednesday. The institute said health costs for the workers could soar to 20 million dollars a month by the end of 2007, up from the current 6 million dollars a month.

    Currently the government provides health care to 37,000 ill workers, including firefighters and police officers, all of them involved in the frantic rescue operations when the 110-storey twin towers collapsed from the terrorist attacks nearly six years ago.

    The institute said nearly 500 workers have been signing up each month since 2004 for programmes to monitor and treat their illnesses, mostly respiratory conditions, asthma and stress-related mental problems.

    Documents from the institute show that the average annual health cost for each ill worker is expected to increase from 8,000 dollars today to 10,500 dollars in two years. The total health cost for 65,000 projected ill workers would be more than 700 million dollars a year.

    The increasing health cost related to the September 11, 2001 destruction of the World Trade Centre has brought lawsuits against New York, which had received a 1-billion-dollar WTC Captive Insurance programme from Washington, under the control of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

    News reports said this week that a law firm, which is already representing nearly 10,000 rescue workers, filed a lawsuit against Bloomberg, alleging that he failed to provide healthcare services to those who fell ill.

    The law firm Worby Groner & Napoli Bern filed the lawsuit on behalf of two New York police officers and a hospital worker. One officer developed leukemia, the other has severe lung disease and the hospital worker has cancer, lung and digestive diseases.

    The suit claims Bloomberg and the insurance company "unethically profited" from the federal fund and withheld money for ill workers.

    New York's medical examiner last month admitted for the first time since 2001 that at least two police officers had died of respiratory problems after guarding ground zero in the months after the terrorist attacks.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  3. #283
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    First 9/11 Heal Figures Released

    http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/82433

    WNYC Newsroom

    NEW YORK, NY July 18, 2007 —The federal office in charge of 9/11 health problems has released its first-ever figures on how many people are ill, how much their treatments are costing -- and what that might mean in the future.

    REPORTER: The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health says some 37000 rescue and cleanup workers are being monitored and treated, for $200 million a year. But it warned those numbers could balloon over time. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney says NIOSH is overlooking the health problems of residents.

    MALONEY: Who you were on 9/11, what hat you were wearing, shouldn't matter, if you were exposed to the toxins you should get the care you need.

    REPORTER: While NIOSH says current treatment costs are 200 million dollars a year, Congress has appropriated about 100 million dollars for this fiscal year.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  4. #284
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    9/11 Health Programs Faulted

    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4994815.html

    By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer
    © 2007 The Associated Press
    7/24/2007

    WASHINGTON — Federal efforts to coordinate health care programs for sick ground zero workers have been hampered by shaky cost estimates and unsteady spending to keep the programs running, a new report has found.

    The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, on Tuesday released the results of its fifth study of 9/11 health programs, concluding that five years after the attacks the government still doesn't have a consistent set of programs _ or a good sense of what ground zero illnesses will cost.

    The agency overseeing 9/11 health issues, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, "does not have a reliable cost estimate of serving responders," the 40-page GAO report found.

    NIOSH's estimate of $230 million to $283 million a year "included potential costs for certain program changes that may not be implemented, and in the absence of actual treatment cost data, they relied on questionable assumptions," the investigators said, adding that it is unclear if the true cost will be higher or lower.

    Others, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have put the figure at around $400 million a year.

    The estimates vary widely based on assumptions about how many workers will join or remain in the program, and how often they receive check-ups or treatment for their exposure to the toxic rubble of the fallen World Trade Center.

    GAO also determined "NIOSH has not ensured the availability of screening and monitoring services for nonfederal responders" who live outside the New York City area.

    While the government has worked with a national network of occupational health clinics, such work has proceeded in fits and starts as congressional funding dried up, or the work was given to a new private contractor.

    The GAO review was requested by New York Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Vito Fossella as well as Connecticut Rep. Christopher Shays. The lawmakers have been pushing for a greater federal commitment to treating sick 9/11 workers.

    The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which includes NIOSH, responded to the findings in writing, saying that they are working to improve cost estimates but that such figures are "unquestionably imprecise."

    The agency also asserted that roughly 60 percent of nationwide, non-federal workers who were at ground zero have been screened, though the GAO investigators said there is no way to verify such a figure.

    According to New York City officials, some 400,000 were exposed to ground zero dust, and 71,000 have enrolled in a long-term health monitoring program for people with and without health problems. Most experts believe the number of people still sick years after ground zero exposure is in the thousands.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  5. #285
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    $$ JUMBLE PLAGUING 9/11 AID

    http://www.nypost.com/seven/07252007...ionalnews_.htm

    July 25, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Federal efforts to coordinate health-care programs for sick Ground Zero workers have been hampered by shaky cost estimates and unsteady spending to keep the programs running, a new report has found.

    The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, yesterday released the results of its fifth study of 9/11 health programs, concluding that nearly six years after the attacks, the government still doesn't have a consistent set of programs - or a good sense of what Ground Zero illnesses will cost.

    The agency overseeing 9/11 health issues, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, "does not have a reliable cost estimate of serving responders," the 40-page GAO report found.

    NIOSH's estimate of $230 million to $283 million a year "included potential costs for certain program changes that may not be implemented, and in the absence of actual treatment-cost data, they relied on questionable assumptions," the investigators said, adding that it is unclear if the true cost will be higher or lower.

    The estimates vary widely based on assumptions about how many workers will join or remain in the program, and how often they receive checkups or treatment for their exposure to the toxic rubble of the fallen World Trade Center.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  6. #286
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Dog Who Searched For WTC Survivors Dies



    http://wjz.com/topstories/topstories...207010324.html

    7/26/2007

    (AP) NEW YORK A black Labrador who became a national canine hero after burrowing through white-hot, smoking debris in search of survivors at the World Trade Center site died Wednesday after a battle with cancer.

    Owner Mary Flood had Jake put to sleep Wednesday after a last stroll through the fields and a dip in the creek near their home in Oakley, Utah. He was in too much pain at the end, shaking with a 105-degree fever as he lay on the lawn.

    No one can say whether the dog would have gotten sick if he hadn't been exposed to the smoky air at ground zero, but cancer in dogs Jake's age — he was 12 — is quite common.

    Some rescue dog owners who worked at the World Trade Center site claim their animals have died because of their work at ground zero. But scientists who have spent years studying the health of Sept. 11 search-and-rescue have found no sign of major illness in the animals.

    The results of an autopsy on Jake's cancer-riddled body will be part of a University of Pennsylvania medical study of Sept. 11 search-and-rescue dogs.

    Flood had adopted Jake as a 10-month-old disabled puppy — abandoned on a street with a broken leg and a dislocated hip.

    "But against all odds he became a world-class rescue dog," said Flood, a member of Utah Task Force 1, one of eight federal search-and-rescue teams that desperately looked for human remains at ground zero.

    Anguished New Yorkers honored the dogs.

    On the evening of his team's arrival, Jake walked into a fancy Manhattan restaurant wearing his search-and-rescue vest and was promptly treated to a free steak dinner under a table.

    Flood eventually trained Jake to become one of fewer than 200 U.S. government-certified rescue dogs — a muscular animal on 24-hour call to tackle disasters such as building collapses, earthquakes, hurricanes and avalanches.

    After Hurricane Katrina, Flood and Jake drove 30 hours from Utah to Mississippi, where they searched through the rubble of flooded homes in search of survivors.

    In recent years, Jake helped train younger dogs and their handlers across the country. Jake showed other dogs how to track scents, even in the snow, and how to look up if the scent was in a tree.

    He also did therapy work with children at a Utah camp for burn victims and at senior homes and hospitals.

    "He was a great morale booster wherever he went," says Flood. "He believed that his cup was always full, never half-full. He was always ready to work, eager to play — and a master at helping himself to any unattended food items."

    Cynthia Otto of the University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, who is researching the health of Sept. 11 dogs, expects Jake and the other animals being analyzed will serve as sentinels on possible long-term consequences stemming from 9/11.

    Jake's ashes will be scattered "in places that were important to him," says Flood, like his Utah training grounds, the rivers and hills near home where he swam and roamed.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  7. #287
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Ground Zero Photojournalists Confront Health Concerns

    http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/newswir...03617398&imw=Y

    By Daryl Lang
    July 26, 2007

    The New York Press Photographers Association is asking members of the media to come forward if they are suffering from long-term health effects of covering the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

    David Handschuh, the NYPPA intergovernmental affairs chair and a photographer for the New York Daily News, says he has heard from about a dozen 9/11 media workers who are experiencing health problems. Handschuh, who was hit by debris and suffered a broken leg while covering the attack, said he is among those now experiencing breathing problems.

    Much attention has been devoted to public safety workers who suffer from breathing problems and other health issues years after inhaling dust while working near Ground Zero. The plight of these rescuers features prominently in the Michael Moore film "Sicko."

    New York state recently extended the deadline for rescue and recovery workers, including volunteers, to apply for workers compensation benefits. The new deadline is August 14, 2008.

    The NYPPA supports the benefits for public safety workers and is lobbying the state to extend the same benefits to media personnel, including freelancers.

    "As journalists every day we go out and fight for the underdog. In this case we're the underdog and need to go out and fight for ourselves," Handschuh says.

    As part of the effort, Handschuh invites those effected to contact him at H2Photo@Optonline.net or by phone at 212-210-2344. Handschuh also encourages media personnel to file a WTC-12 form with the state seeking benefits, even though it is likely to be rejected. Additional information is available on the NYPPA Web site.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  8. #288
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    Specter, Leahy question use of 9/11 fund money, consider hearing

    http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wi...,7658657.story

    By KIMBERLY HEFLING | Associated Press Writer
    6:35 PM EDT, August 3, 2007

    WASHINGTON - Two senators want to know why a $1 billion Sept. 11 insurance fund appropriated by Congress to help ailing ground zero workers has not been used to compensate those exposed to harmful substances.

    Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the committee's ranking Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said in a letter to the company overseeing federal money appropriated for Sept. 11 health-related claims, that they are considering convening a hearing in September.

    "Reports that the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Co. has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on salaries on administrators and over $45 million to private law firms are troubling," the letter said.

    The two also said they have concerns about the $74 million that reportedly has been spent on overhead costs and legal bills. The letter, dated Wednesday, was addressed to Christine LaSala, CEO of WTC Captive Insurance Co.

    Michael A. Cardozo, New York City's corporation counsel, said in a statement that Captive Insurance Company is an insurance company, not a compensation fund. He said the city has urged Congress to create a compensation fund for injured workers.

    "Instead, Congress created an insurance company, and the Captive Insurance Company is obligated to defend all claims that have a reasonable and valid defense," Cardozo said. "We would strongly welcome Congress, as we have repeatedly urged, to allocate funds for compensation without the need for litigation."

    WTC Captive issued a statement saying it would respond to the letter once it is received. It says it has fulfilled its mandate, which is to insure the ground zero workers against claims arising from their work.

    Last month, attorneys representing thousands who became ill after working to clean up the site while breathing toxic trade center dust went to court to demand the insurance company spend money on their health care.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  9. #289
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    RUDY'S 9/11 TOXIC SHOCK

    http://www.nypost.com/seven/08102007..._campanile.htm

    By CARL CAMPANILE

    August 10, 2007 -- Rudy Giuliani claimed yesterday he was at Ground Zero "as often, if not more" as rescue and recovery workers - and exposed to the same health risks.

    "This is not a mayor or a governor or a president who's sitting in an ivory tower. I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers," he said while campaigning in Cincinnati.

    "So, in that sense, I'm one of them," he added.

    The statements enraged victims' families and responders who became ill after being exposes to toxins at Ground Zero.

    "That's insulting and disgraceful. He's a liar," said Fire Capt. James Riches, whose firefighter son, James Jr., died on 9/11.

    "I was down there on my hands and knees looking for my son. [Giuliani is] living in a dreamland," said Riches, part of a fire officers association opposing Giuliani.
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


  10. #290
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    America
    Posts
    30,749
    9/11 workers outraged by new Rudy claim

    http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007...udy_claim.html

    BY CELESTE KATZ
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
    Friday, August 10th 2007, 4:00 AM

    Rudy Giuliani drew outrage and indignation from Sept. 11 first-responders yesterday by saying he spent as much time - or more - exposed to the site's dangers as workers who dug through the debris for the missing and the dead.

    Speaking to reporters at a Cincinnati Reds ballgame he caught between fund-raisers, the GOP front-runner said he helped 9/11 families and defended himself against critics of how he managed the attack's aftermath.

    "This is not a mayor or a governor or a President who's sitting in an ivory tower," Giuliani said. "I was at Ground Zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them."

    His statement rang false to Queens paramedic Marvin Bethea, who said he suffered a stroke, posttraumatic stress disorder and breathing problems after responding to the attacks.

    "I personally find that very, very insulting," he said.

    "Standing there doing a photo-op and telling the men, 'You're doing a good job,' I don't consider that to be working," said Bethea, 47.

    Ironworker Jonathan Sferazo, 52, who said he spent a month at the site and is now disabled, runs a worker advocacy group with Bethea and called Giuliani's comments "severely" out of line.

    "He's not one of us. He never has been and he never will be. He never served in a capacity where he was a responder," Sferazo said.

    In the aftermath of the attacks, admirers dubbed Giuliani "America's Mayor," praising his leadership in the face of an unprecedented disaster. Detractors, including the International Association of Fire Fighters, which put out a scathing 13-minute video on his performance, suggested he profited politically and financially from the attacks.

    "[Giuliani] is self-absorbed, arrogant and deluded," said IAFF spokesman Jeff Zack.

    Responded Giuliani spokesman Michael McKeon, "Americans saw Rudy's performance for themselves during the aftermath of 9/11 and will dismiss this as the ridiculous and partisan rantings of a Democratic front group, because that's what they are."

    Giuliani backer Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter who lost his son, said no one's saying Giuliani dug through the rubble personally, but that doesn't mean he wasn't exposed to toxins.

    "For me to say I saw him every day [would] not be fair," said Ielpi, who participated in the recovery effort for nine months. "But I can say I did see the mayor there a large number of times, [trying] to be as helpful and supportive as possible."
    No One Knows Everything. Only Together May We Find The Truth JG


Similar Threads

  1. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 02-25-2008, 08:20 PM
  2. Replies: 0
    Last Post: 12-04-2006, 07:26 PM
  3. A Fallen Hero - Video Inside
    By Gold9472 in forum The New News
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 01-09-2006, 08:13 PM
  4. Honoring The Fallen - Video Inside
    By Gold9472 in forum The New News
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 11-01-2005, 10:47 PM
  5. Replies: 1
    Last Post: 08-21-2005, 01:59 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •