An American landlord has demanded fees from a former tenant, because he ended his lease early when he died.

Danelle Eckert received a letter addressed to her and to the estate of her son, Colin Byars, from CCRT Properties. It demanded March and April rent, late fees and an "early termination fee" because he had left his apartment before the end of his lease. Byars, a 24-year-old teacher, was killed in February.

"I thought they must not understand that Colin was killed. But no, they understood completely" Eckert said. The management company had been advised by their legal representative that they should go after the rent and fees.

(Source: Kenosha News [US])

 

Bouncers, ex-soldiers and former police officers with no teaching qualifications are being brought into British schools to provide "crowd control" and cover absent teachers' lessons, a teacher has revealed.

One school, thought to be in London, employed two permanent cover teachers through an agency for professional doormen, the National Union of Teachers annual conference in Cardiff heard.

Bouncers, who more usually work nights keeping order in pubs and clubs, are being employed in schools because they are "stern and loud", said Andrew Baisley, a teacher at Haverstock school in Camden, north London.

"I know of bouncers being employed specifically because they are bouncers to cover lessons," he told the conference.

The school Baisley knew of, which he refused to name, had recruited the pair last year. One was subsequently dismissed over "disciplinary offences" which Baisley did not disclose, while the other is still in post.

Recruitment agencies are advertising for people with "ex-marine, prison officer, bouncer, policeman, fireman" backgrounds to become supervisors, who do not need to have any teaching qualifications to oversee lessons.

Baisley said some schools seemed to believe the job of supervising a lesson was about "crowd control and childminding; if you're stern and loud, that's what's necessary to do the job", he said.

"The problem is, we need someone who's trained with children, to be able to interact with children. If someone is away, you don't want any teacher, you want a teacher from that particular subject so they can help the children with their work, so that the whole hour isn't a complete waste of time."

(Source: The Guardian)

 

Employers in New South Wales have been caught underpaying their employees a total of than $3 million in only nine months, according to workplace inspectors.

The Office of Industrial Relations has found 1191 workplaces, more than 10% of those investigated, breaching industrial relations laws.

The investigation found a catering worker in the Central West was owed $11,388 in annual leave and an Illawarra taxi driver was short-changed $10,892 in holiday and sick payments.

Figures for lost wages have increased dramatically in the nine months and are already $400,000 more than last year's total.

Only 25 of the employers were prosecuted.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

A body investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption has appointed one of its own senior executives as an "external expert" to fight corruption in the organisation.

New South Wales government-owned corporation RailCorp was investigated by ICAC in 2007 and 2008. The investigation uncovered more than $21 million in improper contracts and deals.

The acting chief executive of RailCorp, Rob Mason, announced that RailCorp had implemented one of the commission's central reforms, to appoint an external expert to ensure greater probity in the organisation.

The appointee is Aidan Hughes, a senior RailCorp executive on a $260,000 salary.

Mr Hughes was previously repsonsible for some procurement, the main area investigated by ICAC.

(Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

 

European members of NATO have pledged an extra 5,000 troops and trainers to help enforce security in the lead up to the Afghan elections.

President Obama called the troop committment "a strong down payment on [the] future of our mission in Afghanistan."

There are more than 70,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, mostly from the United States. About 1,000 of the troops are Australian.

(Source: ABC News website)

 

A survey of people looking after a relative with dementia has found more than half have mistreated them.

The University College London research revealed that a third admitted "significant abuse."

In total 115 carers reported at least some abusive behaviour, and 74 reported more serious levels of mistreatment.

More than a quarter of the carers admitted screaming or yelling at their relative.

Other abuse recorded included threats to send the relative to a home, or to stop caring for them.

A far smaller number admitted hitting, slapping, shaking or rough handling of the person with dementia.

(Source: BBC News website)

 

Two terminally ill patients were refused government assistance for their cancer - but were told that the state would pay for their assisted suicide.

Two cancer patients in Oregon, Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup, were denied free treatment, but offered free euthanasia, by state health insurer Medicaid.

(Source: Telegraph [UK])

 

American police have been accused of forcing citizens - mostly non-white - to sign over their belongings or be charged with invented crimes.

In Tenaha, Texas, a town of just over 1000 people, more than 140 motorists signed over belongings to the town from June 2006 to June 2008, according to court records. Among them were a black grandmother who surrendered $4,000 in cash after Tenaha police pulled her over, and an interracial couple from Houston, who gave up more than $6,000 after police threatened to seize their children and put them into foster care. Neither the grandmother nor the couple were charged with any crime.

In southern parts of Texas near the Mexican border, Hispanics allege that they are being singled out.

The practice is possible under the state's asset-forfeiture law. It permits local police agencies to keep drug money and other property used in the commission of a crime and add the proceeds to their budgets.

David Guillory, an attorney who has filed a lawsuit against the practice, said he combed through Shelby County court records from 2006 to 2008 and discovered nearly 200 cases in which Tenaha police seized cash and property from motorists. In about 50 of the cases, suspects were charged with drug possession.

But in 147 others, Guillory said the court records showed, police seized cash, jewelry, cell phones and sometimes even automobiles from motorists but never found any contraband or charged them with any crime. Of those, Guillory said he managed to contact 40 of the motorists directly, and discovered all but one of them were black.

"The whole thing is disproportionately targeted toward minorities, particularly African-Americans," Guillory said. "None of these people have been charged with a crime, none were engaged in anything that looked criminal. The sole factor is that they had something that looked valuable."

(Source: Chicago Tribune)

 

Warnings of future devastation sparked by global warming were over-optimistic, according to climate scientists.

Just over a year ago the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report warning of rising sea levels, expanding deserts, more intense storms and extinction of up to 30 per cent of plant and animal species.

But recent studies suggested the report significantly underestimated the potential severity of global warming over the next 100 years, a senior member of the panel warned yesterday.

"We are basically looking now at a future climate that is beyond anything that we've considered seriously in climate policy," said Chris Field, a co-ordinating lead author of the report.

Fresh data showed that greenhouse gas emissions had grown by an average of 3.5 per cent a year from 2000 to 2007, Professor Field said at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

That was "far more rapid than we expected" and more than three times the 0.9 per cent growth rate in the 1990s, he said.

Professor Field, of Stanford University, said it appeared that most the growth was "because developing countries like China and India saw a huge upsurge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal".

Complicating the problem was that higher temperatures could thaw the Arctic tundra, releasing nitrous oxide, which was 300 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Recent studies have shown that global warming is reducing the ocean's ability to absorb carbon by altering wind patterns in the Southern Ocean. Faster winds blow surface water away, causing water with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide to rise to the surface.

(Source: The Australian)

 

Religious belief does not appear to give people greater acceptance of death, as a new study shows that people with strong religious beliefs are more likely to tell doctors to do everything they can to keep them alive as death approaches.

Researchers rom the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute followed 345 patients with terminal cancer up until their deaths.

Those who regularly prayed were more than three times more likely to receive intensive life-prolonging care than those who relied least on religion.

Just over 30% of those asked agreed with the statement that religion was "the most important thing that keeps you going". These patients were the least likely to have filled in a 'do not resuscitate' order. As well as receiving resuscitation, they were much more likely to be placed on mechanical ventilation in the last few days of life.

The team's report was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Work has been done which suggests that intensive intervention in the last few weeks and days before death may reduce a patient's quality of life.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that treatments such as ventilator support, resuscitation, having a feeding tube and non-palliative chemotherapy were associated with more psychological and physical distress.

The patients' chances of dying in their preferred place were also reduced.

(Source: BBC News website)