Willowbrook, IL (WorkersCompensation.com) – The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited Allied Waterproofing Inc. in Willowbrook with five health violations¬, including four repeat violations of OSHA’s respiratory protection and hearing conservation standards, found during an inspection of a Chicago parking structure under repair. Proposed penalties total $56,700. The April inspection […]
CHICAGO—Workers compensation is the exclusive remedy for the widow of an auto dealership employee killed on the job while working as a “borrowed employee” at an affiliated business, according to an Illinois appellate court. Milovan Prodanic was a maintenance worker and driver for Grossinger Chevrolet in Palatine, Ill., court records show. In 2008, Mr. Prodanic […]
BY MARLON A. WALKER and DENISE HOLLINSHED LITCHFIELD, Ill. • Megabus officials said Friday they are working with investigators to determine whether all safety protocols were followed on a bus bound for St. Louis that was involved in a crash on Interstate 55 that killed a woman and left more than four dozen injured. The […]
August 02, 2012|Janet Portman | Rent It Right Q: I just bought an electric car, which needs to be charged every night. I have an assigned place in the garage in my apartment building, which is conveniently next to an outlet. I’ve been using an extension cord to plug the car in at night, but […]
By Associated Press, Published: August 1 CHICAGO — Seeking to guard the privacy rights of the social networking generation, Illinois is making it illegal for employers to ask job applicants for passwords to their online profiles. Gov. Pat Quinn signed the law Wednesday at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where several students lamented that online […]
Posted by: Christopher Scholl Those who attack the civil justice system in the name of so-called “tort reform” frequently don’t bother with facts. That has been proven again by the Wall Street Journal in an editorial on gas can litigation. Had the Journal’s editorial writers done a little bit of homework before making their argument […]
By: ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS COLUMBUS, Ohio – Attorney General Mike DeWine on Tuesday announced a plan to combat the theft of prescription drugs in nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The initiative is one of several state efforts aimed at reducing the abuse of prescription painkillers, which has led to record numbers of accidental overdose deaths. […]
by Judy Greenwald Published: July 27, 2012 Pejorative terms do not automatically establish sexual harassment, but they do need to be viewed in context, says a U.S. appellate court. However, in Kimberly Passananti vs. Cook County, there was sufficient evidence to establish harassment based on the intended use of the word “bitch,” the 7th U.S. […]
July 26, 2012 By: Joe Newby Although the ACLU strongly supports same-sex marriage, a senior attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois warned that if Chicago bans Chick-fil-A over the religious views of its management, it will be engaging in “viewpoint discrimination,” Fox News reported Thursday. “The government can regulate discrimination in employment […]
Chicago schoolteacher died after sliding down railing at Palmer House Hilton July 26, 2012 The parents of a Chicago schoolteacher who fell four stories to her death at the Palmer House Hilton have filed a wrongful-death lawsuit, alleging the hotel and promoters of a Halloween party did not take enough security measures during the event […]
SUN-TIMES MEDIA WIRE July 13, 2012 8:44AM A bicyclist died Thursday night after she collided with an ice cream truck a few blocks away from her home in the South Side Chatham neighborhood. The 23-year-old woman was riding a bike in the 8700 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue when she collided with a truck […]
June 25, 2012|By Naomi Nix | Tribune reporter The mother of a motorcyclist who died in an accident last June filed a lawsuit Monday alleging the city was negligent in its placement of a traffic-control device. The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court says a sign gave motorists inadequate notice that the southbound lane […]
Photo: Ace Work Gear Job foremen across the country fear running afoul of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, but the federal regulatory agency’s power is more image than reality. A Gannett Wisconsin Media review of 240 workplace fatalities in Wisconsin over 11 years shows OSHA imposes tiny fines on companies whose employees are killed […]
3:48 am July 20, 2012, by Maureen Downey Carolyn Garfein of Alpharetta is national president of the American Association of University Women. By Carolyn Garfein From our nation’s top college campuses to small towns in Florida, Texas, Minnesota, and, yes, Georgia, the painful stories of children and teens experiencing bullying and sexual harassment have filled […]
Kim Lamoreaux, Times-Press The Reedsburg McDonald’s will pay $1 million to three former employees who sued for sexual harassment. Ten women will split $1 million in a settlement reached this week over sexual harassment of employees at the McDonald’s in Reedsburg. Poynette-based Missoula Mac Inc., the owner and franchisee of 25 McDonald’s, was ordered to […]
July 19, 2012|By Naomi Nix | Tribune reporter The family of a 16-year-old boy who died after falling from the second floor onto the concrete floor of the former Ravenswood Hospital building has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the building’s owners. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that the building’s […]
July 17, 2012|By Naomi Nix | Tribune reporter A family filed a wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday against an Illinois construction company after one of its drivers was involved in a car crash in Lee County in western Illinois last year that killed three of their relatives. The lawsuit filed in Cook County Circuit Court alleges […]
BY RUMMANA HUSSAIN Criminal Courts Reporter/rhussain@suntimes.com July 20, 2012 6:28PM A veteran Cook County Circuit Court employee was ordered held in lieu of $750,000 bail Saturday for allegedly taking court files from work and then shredding them at her kitchen table. Authorities didn’t know the quantity of the data that Jeannette Neibauer allegedly destroyed nor […]
Chicago IL (WorkersCompensation.com) – The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered two railroad companies to pay three workers a total of $650,729.14 in back wages and damages for retaliating against them for reporting workplace injuries and safety concerns. The orders resulted from investigations conducted by the Chicago office of the department’s Occupational Safety and Health […]
Teamster union officials obstruct worker from getting work Chicago, IL (July 19, 2012) – With the help of National Right to Work Foundation staff attorneys, a nonunion Chicago-area construction worker has filed a federal charge against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and two of its local affiliate unions for discriminating against him on account of […]
By Andrew Chow, JD at FindLaw.com Tue Jul 17, 2012 9:10pm EDT Two suburban Chicago trampoline centers are being sued for injuries to children after employees allegedly failed to follow safety rules. In both cases, the children ended up with broken legs, Chicago’s WLS-TV reports. Separate lawsuits by the injured kids’ parents blame workers at […]
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS Published: July 15, 2012 264 Comments Every hospital makes mistakes. But some New York City hospitals may not have enough money to pay for them. Several of the city’s most troubled hospitals are partially or completely uninsured for malpractice, state records show, forgoing what is considered a standard safeguard across the country. […]
Posted by: Katie Gommel Today the New York Times calls out the shadowy corporate front group known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on its tax-exempt status as a nonpartisan charity despite ALEC’s clear pro-corporate, anti-consumer mission. ALEC has been working behind the scenes for decades to push legislation with one clear purpose—provide immunity […]
By TIM NOVAK AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters tnovak@suntimes.com cfusco@suntimes.com July 16, 2012 12:46AM Weeks after she leveled sexual harassment charges against some co-workers 19 years ago, Chicago Police Officer Kimberly Miller-Shemash suffered what turned out to be a career-ending injury when someone didn’t replace the lug nuts on her squad car. Challenged over the […]
By Andrew L. Wang The top doctor at Northwest Community Hospital wasn’t licensed to practice medicine, an embarrassing setback for a medical center that has struggled after missing out on the health care merger boom. Dr. Leighton Smith left his position this month as chief medical officer and vice president of medical affairs at the […]
July 12, 2012|Jonathan Stempel | Reuters (Reuters) – Wet Seal Inc has been sued by three former employees who accused it of discriminating against black store managers because they did not fit the image the U.S. retailer, which sells clothes for young women, wanted to convey. According to a complaint filed Thursday in a federal […]
By Ylan Q. Mui, Published: July 12 In one of the largest fair- lending payouts in history, Wells Fargo agreed on Thursday to spend at least $175 million to settle federal accusations that it steered black and Latino borrowers into high-cost loans and charged them excessive fees. The settlement with the nation’s largest home mortgage […]
CHICAGO (CBS) – A woman who was a secretary for the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police has filed a federal sexual harassment suit against the union. The lawsuit goes into some salacious detail, using words we cannot use. It accuses FOP attorney Paul Geiger of asking then-secretary Marie Marrero, “How do you like this” as […]
July 10, 2012|By Naomi Nix | Tribune reporter A relative of an 86-year-old pedestrian who was fatally struck by taxi last year in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood filed a wrongful-death lawsuit Tuesday against the driver and cab company. Brian Kier says Mohammed Ahmed was negligent last August when he failed to yield to Coral Kier while […]
In the lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Champion’s parents alleged that FAMU leaders tolerated hazing that had hospitalized three other band members and was implicated at least 107 other incidents since 1983. They also alleged that the university failed to act three days before Champion’s death on a proposal by the school’s dean of students to […]