Watchdog Bytes

Don't take food cleanliness for granted

From Star-Telegram Watchdog Dave Lieber

If you're like me, you take food cleanliness in the United States for granted.

On a recent trip to Mexico, I got a case of Montezuma's Revenge, and it made me appreciate home all the more.

But not so fast. The United States has serious food problems, too.

 

(These imported olives above were recalled by the FDA several years from supermarkets for botulism.)

That's why I want to share with you the latest Food and Drug Administration tips on food safety.

“Protecting your family against foodborne illnesses begins not at home but at the supermarket, grocery store or any other place where you buy food that you plan to store and serve,” Doriliz De Leon, a consumer safety officer in the Division of Enforcement in the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s Office of Compliance, tells consumers.

Consumers should:

1. Check for store cleanliness.

2. Separate raw meat, poultry, and seafood from other foods.

3.Inspect cans and jars for irregularities.

4. Inspect frozen food packaging for signs of damage or defrosting.

5. Add frozen foods and perishables very last to your cart when shopping.

6. Choose fresh eggs carefully, looking for cracks and cleanliness.

7. Be mindful of transport time back to your home and changing food temperatures.

The FDA's blog can be accessed by clicking here and going to FoodSafety.gov -- the federal government’s gateway to food safety information.

Fort Worth Roman Catholic Diocese settles lawsuit with women raped by priest

FORT WORTH - Two women raped and sodomized by a Roman Catholic priest at Federal Medical Center Carswell have reached an out-of-court settlement with the Diocese of Fort Worth, according to a statement from attorneys for the women.

In 2007, Vincent Bassie Inametti, 51, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of the women and the next year was sentenced to four years in prison.

Terms of the settlement, reached this week, were not disclosed at the women's request, said Tahira Khan Merritt, a Dallas attorney for one of them.

"They are both afraid of Inametti," she said. "He said he would kill them."

Inametti, described as a "predatory wolf" in the women's 2008 lawsuit, was a member of a religious order called the Missionary Society of St. Paul, based in Nigeria. It is unclear whether the process to defrock him is under way. Before 2000, Inametti served in parishes in Eastland County as well as at Our Mother of Mercy Catholic Church in Fort Worth.

"Under the terms of the arbitration agreement, we're restricted on commenting," said Jeff Hensley, diocese spokesman.

In court filings, the diocese had argued that no evidence showed it employed Inametti during the time he was accused of sexually assaulting the women. Both women were serving long sentences for drug distribution offenses.

" Inametti was employed by [the] Federal Bureau of Prisons at the time" of the assaults, according to the diocese's filings.

Attorneys for the former inmates, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe I and Jane Doe II, responded that Inametti counseled, heard confessions, converted inmates and conducted Mass for them.

"As a priest, he was granted faculties to minister by the Fort Worth bishop and thus assigned by the diocese," according to the lawsuit.

According to a joint statement by Merritt and Robert L. Greening of Dallas, who represented Jane Doe I, the diocese knew that Inametti had fathered a child and that other reports described his behavior with women as aggressive and inappropriate.

"The diocese dumped a dangerous priest off on the federal prison system when they knew or should have known he had problems, including prior reports of physical and emotional misconduct against vulnerable women," they said. "He was too risky to work as a priest in a parish, but the church had no qualms about representing to the government that he was 'suitable' as a prison chaplain."

Jerry Murad Jr., a Fort Worth attorney for Jane Doe II, challenged the diocese to release the names of all priests who have been accused of sexually abusing vulnerable adults.

The diocese posts on its website a list of priests who have allegations "with a semblance of truth" against them involving sexual misconduct with minors.

Inametti was sentenced far above federal guidelines by U.S. District Judge Terry Means. The judge called Inametti's conduct "grossly predatory, threatening, traitorous and abusive."

Inametti, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, is set for release in October 2011.

-- Darren Barbee

T-shirt idea: I swindled $50 million and all I got was this lousy orange jumpsuit

Tricky Jeffrey Bruteyn -- liar, thief and con man -- took some of the $50 million he swindled from the elderly and used it to buy two Ferraris, an Aston Martin and a $150,000 airplane.

And you’ve got to wonder what he was going to do with that $2.1 million 58-acre tract on the Island of Roatan, Honduras.

Well, Bruteyn has been voted off the island now that he is technically what is known as cold busted.  A federal jury this month convicted Bruteyn of ripping off 500 Texas and Florida investors using his now-defunct AmeriFirst Funding Corp. in Dallas. 

He faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, $5 million fines for each of the nine counts he was convicted on, and may get a good talking to, as well.
As part of his scheme, Bruteyn told swindlees that he had an MBA (he didn’t). It also slipped his mind that he had been expelled from the securities brokerage industry by the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Among other NASD penalties, Bruteyn was ordered to pay $287,000 to a former client after he had engaged in misconduct.
According to a receiver appointed in the case, Bruteyn received part of $2.7 million in consulting fees, spent $144,000 to purchase and lease luxury cars, and emptied a safety deposit box at a bank after a court order was supposed to bar him from doing so.
A Picasso painting at Bruteyn’s home was also sold, reportedly for $431,000, in defiance of a restraining order.

-- Darren Barbee

Fraudster gets 8 years for ripping off government for $587,000

A Sugarland man who owned Galaxy Medical Supplies fraudulently over-billed the government for $587,000 by obtaining the names of Medicare and Medicaid recipients and then submitting bills for wheelchairs people didn’t need.  

Enitan Osagie Isiwele, 44, was sentenced this month to about 8 years in federal prison following his conviction on 16 counts of health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to pay kickbacks. He must pay $201,000 in restitution.

From 2005 to 2008, Isiwele, who had customers throughout the state, purchased Medicaid and Medicare patient information from door-to-door solicitors who walk neighborhoods in search of beneficiaries.
Isiwele used the names to bill Medicaid and Medicare for motorized wheelchairs.

The replacement wheelchairs were supposed to be provided to recipients who lost their

wheelchairs due to the Hurricane Rita disaster.

In one case, Isiwele contacted a Medicare recipient in Crockett and told him he had won a free power wheelchair and that he would deliver it.  That man and others testified at his trial that they weren’t prescribed wheelchairs by a physician.

The company was based in Houston.

-- Darren Barbee

 

Hospital's failure to stitch up cuts on man's face costs it a $650 fine (yes, really)

Man walks into a hospital emergency department with a cut up face after falling from a vehicle. Same day, a woman walks into a hospital and says “my back is hurting.”
The punchline? Lake Whitney Medical Center didn’t do anything for them, ha ha ha.

OK, OK, and the state? Ha ha ha -- they fined the hospital $3,900. This hospital is killing us. And who knew the state was this funny?

The woman and the man showed up at the for-profit hospital last June.

Here’s what happened, according to Texas Department of State Health Services documents:

The man came to the emergency department with multiple cuts on his face. He was told by hospital staff that he needed stitches.
So they gave him a bag of ice, didn’t examine him and never let him through the emergency department door.
That cost the hospital – wait for it -- $650, according to the state health department documents. (He he he he.)

In addition to her aching back, the woman complained that she was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and a migraine headache.  She “wasn’t provided immediate or continuing hospital services or continuing care,” according to state documents.

BA-BOOM: $650 fine.

And not only did the hospital not maintain a medical record for her, but someone actually shredded all of her emergency department paperwork, according to state documents.

The remainder of the fine came from administrative penalties related to paperwork.

Officials at Lake Whitney Medical Center didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. They cut a check in January to the health department and moved on.
The medical center has 28 beds and eight registered nurses, according to Consumer Reports. Based in Whitney, it’s about 25 miles west of Hillsboro.

You know what they say, laughter is the best medicine.

-- Darren Barbee

Smoke 'em if you got 'em cancer seekers: tobacco sales are lowering our taxes

Let's hope cigarette smokers keep smoking; the state is doing its part by helping just a smidgen of them to quit the death sticks.
Texas ranks 47th in the nation in using tobacco taxes to educate smokers to quit, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In fiscal 2009, Texas cigarette and tobacco tax collections totaled $1.5 billion, according to the state comptroller’s office.
The CDC says Texas should use about 25 percent of its tax revenue and settlement payments to fund a tobacco control program at its “best practices” recommended amount. 

But in 2007, Texas spent just 2.3 percent of the revenue to tobacco control programs.

 Evidence-based research has shown that control programs that are comprehensive, sustained, and accountable have been shown to reduce smoking rates, tobacco-related deaths, and diseases caused by smoking. Research also shows that the more states spend on comprehensive tobacco control programs, the greater the reductions in smoking

 But most of the money apparently goes to fund the state’s property tax relief fund and general revenue for state operations. (Non-smokers may applaud.)
Also, the CDC’s best practices program estimates 8 percent of smokers could access quitlines each year. In Texas, 1.4% of smokers called their quitline.
Other fun facts:
* In Texas,18.5 percent of the adult population (ages 18 and older) — about 3.3 million people — are current cigarette smokers.  Nationally, the percent of adults smoking ranges from 9.3 percent to 26.5 percent. Texas ranks 27th.

* Among youththose younger than 18, about 9.5 percent smoke. Texas ranks 11th among the states.

* Among adults 35and older, more than 24,600 died as a result of tobacco use per year, on average from 2000-2004. This represents a smoking-attributable mortality rate of 273.1 per 100,000. Texas' smoking-attributable mortality rate ranks 31st among the states.

-- Darren Barbee

"Osama" and "terrorist" remarks cost construction company $122,000

An employee of a Houston construction company will pay $122,500 to 14 employees for making racist remarks, including calling a Muslim man “Osama.”

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that Pace Services, L.P., discriminated against Mohammad Kaleemuddin, who practices the Islamic faith and is of East Indian descent, when a supervisor called him “terrorist,” “Taliban,”  “Al-Qaeda” and other names. 

Kaleemuddin made complaints about the harassment, but Pace did nothing up until the day Kaleemuddin was fired.

The EEOC also said the same supervisor, as well as others in Pace management, regularly referred to African Americans as “n----s” and to Hispanics as “f-----g Mexicans.”
Pace Services will pay $61,250 to Kaleemuddin and $61,250 to the other employees, according to the EEOC. Pace’s owner will also give Kaleemuddin a letter of apology and bar the manager from working at Pace again.

The company could not be reached for comment.

-- Darren Barbee

Information on super secret Air Force craft tightly controlled; scale model costs about $60

The Air Force’s mysterious X-37B unmanned reentry spacecraft is set to launch Thursday (April 22) from Cape Canaveral, Fla, the Pentagon said.
The exact cost for the project is hidden somewhere in the Air Force’s classified budget, according to Space.com.

Yep, information about the X-37B sure has been tightly controlled since the orbital test vehicle was taken over from NASA in 2004.
So with all the security precautions, you’d think you couldn’t buy a scale model of the supersonic ship on the Internet for about $60. (Not recommended for children or spies under 14.)
Oh well. Whatever the ship does up in space is supposed to be applied to Air Force aircraft, according to the Pentagon

Ok,let's get some specs:

Built primarily by Boeing Phantom Works, the space craft is about 9-feet tall, 29-feet long and has a 14-foot wingspan. The 14,000 pound ship is powered by Gallium Arsenide Solar Cells with lithium-ion batteries. (We don’t know what that means, but it sounds really cool.)
It will blast off atop to a Lockheed-Martin Atlas V (501) rocket.
The Air Forces says the X-37B is the U.S.'s newest and most advanced unmanned re-entry spacecraft.

-- Darren Barbee

Hospital emergency department to pregnant women: Get lost, we're not examining you

A Terrell hospital was fined a staggering $1,000 for turning away two pregnant women without bothering to check them out first.
Renaissance Hospital Terrell, a for-profit licensed for 102 beds, “did not ensure that services for (the) patients ... were provided in a safe and effective manner,” according to documents obtained by Watchdog through the Texas Open Records Act.
The Department of State Health Services gave this account of why Renaissance treatment got all medieval:
Case No. 1: On March 17, 2009, a pregnant woman came to the emergency department complaining of pain. She was told that the “hospital couldn’t take a pregnant lady” and would have to go to another hospital. No one examined the woman.
Case No. 2: About 10 days later, another pregnant woman came to the emergency department complaining of pain and pre-term labor. She was told that she was not about to deliver and would have to go to another hospital — even though no one examined her, either.
WHAM: Crushing $500 fines for each incident sent a message to hospitals throughout Texas: It’s way more expensive to let your barber shop license renewal slide than to turn away two pregnant women in pain.
That’s right, at least three barbers were each fined $1,500 last year for minor licensing violations. No word on whether the barbers failed to cut the hair of pregnant women.
Renaissance, by the way, paid the $1,000 fine and waived the right to a hearing or appeal. Officials there didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

-- Darren Barbee

Suicide among soliders remains high but dips slightly in the first quarter of the year

Slightly fewer soldiers died from suspected suicide in the first quarter of the year compared to the same time last year but remained at high levels, according to the Defense Department.
The DOD said 71 soldiers died of suspected suicide from Jan. 1 to March 31, down from 76 in 2009.
Suspected suicides were the cause of death for 39 active duty soldiers, down from 53 last year. But the number of suspected suicides among soldiers not on active duty was up to 32, from 23 over the first three months 2009.
Suicide rates among soliders have hit historic highs since at least 2007.
This year, with 128 confirmed and 15 pending suicides, an estimated 20.2 suicides occurred per 100,000 soldiers, the highest since the Army began recording the figure in 1980, the American Forces Press Service reported. The figure is higher than the national suicide rate, which is less than 20 victims per 100,000 people. 
Soldiers and families in need of crisis assistance can contact Military OneSource or the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury Outreach Center. Trained consultants are available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, every day of the year.

-- Darren Barbee