skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Lawmakers to Seek Answers as Fla. Nursing-Home Death Toll Rises

play audio
Play

Tuesday, October 10, 2017   

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida lawmakers will hold a special hearing this week to look at lessons learned from Hurricane Irma. This comes as two women who lived at a Florida nursing home that lost air conditioning during the storm have died.

Ninety-year-old Cecilia Franco and 95-year-old Francesca Andrade were the latest casualties after suffering health complications from being left in the facility's sweltering heat.

Albert Levin, the family attorney for Cecilia Franco, says the loss is another devastating blow since Cecilia's husband, Miguel, died three days after the storm.

"We will amend the pleadings we've already filed accordingly to ensure that this family receives justice for having lost their mother, their father, their grandmother and their grandfather as a result of this horrific tragedy," he says.

Hollywood police are treating the deaths as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Republican Rep. Shawn Harrison recently filed legislation to make nursing homes and hospitals priorities for power restoration after a storm.

In 2005 a bill that would have required nursing homes to have backup generators to protect residents failed to pass after resistance from the nursing-home industry. Levin says he would welcome a new bill.

"Well, the family wants justice for their loved ones and they also want to make sure that this never happens to another family again," he explains. "And if that requires legislation to ensure that this doesn't happen again, they are all in favor of it."

The state has suspended the home's license. Last week, the facility laid off 245 workers, including doctors, nurses, occupational and physical therapists and others.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021