A former Atlantic City firefighter pleaded guilty Friday to health care fraud in connection with a large-scale prescription-drug fraud ring.
It was the fifth guilty plea in the past two days and the first to involve a public employee. Federal authorities have been investigating health-benefits fraud in three Absecon Island municipalities, including Atlantic City, over the past few months. - PUB DATE: 8/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press of Atlantic City
Researchers found that a household product can effectively clean fentanyl spills.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Bowling Green State University President Mary Ellen Mazey announced that OxiClean Versatile Stain Remover has been proven effective in cleaning up fentanyl spills. Sodium percarbonate is an ingredient in the product, which has been shown to break down fentanyl. - PUB DATE: 8/21/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: FireRescue1
Two off-duty Oakland firefighters were shot, one fatally, in San Jose's Japantown on Thursday night, and one person has been detained in connection with the crime, police say.
The shooting was reported at 9:37 p.m. near 8th and Taylor streets, across the street from Gordon Biersch Brewery, according to police. - PUB DATE: 8/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NBC Bay Area
A rule requiring fire sprinkler systems be put in new apartment buildings has been deemed unenforceable by the state. This comes just six months after the Department of Safety and Professional Services decided to keep the rule.
It said new apartment buildings with three to 20 units have to have fire sprinkler systems installed. - PUB DATE: 8/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Channel3000.com
The city put embattled Fire Chief Thomas Ronalter on leave Thursday and appointed an acting leader for the department, but Ronalter publicly declared he won't quit over accusations of mismanagement and racial insensitivity.
"I detest racism and all of the harm it causes. While I have made mistakes, I have never treated people — firefighters or otherwise — differently based on the color of their skin," Ronalter said in a statement emailed to reporters Thursday afternoon. - PUB DATE: 8/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant
U.S. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth met with local fire service members Wednesday to discuss a bill aimed at tackling increased cancer rates among firefighters.
The Firefighter Cancer Registry Act, co-sponsored by Indiana's 9th Congressional District representative, would provide the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with the funding and capability to collect and analyze data related to cancer incidents within the profession. - PUB DATE: 8/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: News and Tribune
The Spokane Fire Department said Thursday that two people are alive thanks to a program called Automatic Aid.
On Wednesday afternoon, a mother and daughter were hit by a car in the North Spokane Costco parking lot. Officials said at one point, the mother was pinned under the car and crews had to lift the car to pull her out safely. - PUB DATE: 8/18/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: KREM-TV CBS 2
Firefighter Robert Alexander always followed in his father’s footsteps — even in death.
The 43-year-old — who worked on FDNY fire boats — died Monday of a brain tumor stemming from his time at Ground Zero.
For Alexander, succumbing to a 9/11 illness is a heartbreaking family affair — a year earlier, his father Lt. - PUB DATE: 8/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: New York Daily News
An independent investigator has determined that the fire department suffers from a fractured leadership team and perceptions of racism and favoritism that are worsened by the "racial insensitivity" of Chief Thomas Ronalter.
The monthslong review did not document racism in hiring or discipline, but concluded "it is not unreasonable that a minority firefighter could perceive the existence of racial bias. - PUB DATE: 8/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hartford Courant
After more than 30 hours, the massive air and sea search continues for five missing soldiers who were on board an Army chopper that crashed late Tuesday off Oahu. Rescuers are focusing their efforts on a debris field that's three to five miles offshore.
"This is still a search and rescue mission. We are here to bring our soldiers home," said Lt Col. - PUB DATE: 8/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Hawaii News Now
Charlotte City Manager Marcus Jones chose someone many feel can unite the fire department which has been engulfed in controversy for years.
Deputy Chief Pete Key Key joined the Charlotte Fire Department as a firefighter in 1977 and now 40 years later, he’s in charge of its more than 1,200 employees and protecting more than 840,000 citizens. - PUB DATE: 8/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wsoctv.com
Firefighters at Engine Company 27 in Northeast D.C.'s Deanwood neighborhood are sounding the alarm about what they are calling dirty and deplorable conditions at their fire station.
In the District, fire personnel work in 24-hour shifts and then have 72 hours off. During their work shift, these firefighters live, eat and sleep at the firehouse, and these conditions are nothing new to them and have been going on for years, they say. - PUB DATE: 8/17/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: foxdc.com
Property owners may see a break in insurance premiums because Augusta Fire Department has achieved an Insurance Services Office rating of 1-1X, the highest possible, Fire Chief Chris James announced Tuesday. “Augusta becomes one of only 18 communities across Georgia to achieve this top rating,” James said. - PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: The Augusta Chronicle
Firefighter union leaders on Monday accused Anne Arundel County of creating "dangerous situations" for firefighters and county residents because of staffing shortages in the fire department.
In a press conference outside the Arundel Center in Annapolis, International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1563 president Joe Addivinola said firefighters arriving on the scene of blazes in Shady Side on Thursday and Deale on Saturday had to rely on help from bystanders to start fighting the fires before backup crews showed up. - PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Capital Gazette - Metered Site
This week marks 10 years since the devastating fire in Lower Manhattan that killed two of New York's Bravest.
A decade ago, a fire sparked by a worker's cigarette turned the condemned former Deutsche Bank building into an inferno of toxic smoke and flames that killed two firefighters and injured more than 100. - PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: wabc-tv
The two men who took down the boy who allegedly vandalized the Boston Holocaust memorial on Monday evening were an off-duty Boston firefighter and a US Drug Enforcement Administration agent, said the Boston Fire Department.
According to the department’s spokesperson, Steve MacDonald, the pair was eating at the Union Oyster House when they heard the ordeal going on outside. - PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: CBS Boston
A woman walking with her three young children in Central Park Tuesday morning was struck and pinned by a large tree. All four were taken to the hospital after the woman was freed around 10:10 a.m., the FDNY said.
The family was treated at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries, the NYPD said. - PUB DATE: 8/16/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Newsday
The city fire department Monday denied a petition to posthumously promote a Bronx EMT who was killed in the line of duty in March.
An FDNY spokesperson said Yadira Arroyo was not on a civil service promotional list at the time she died, and no other "legal or administrative process" exists for her posthumous promotion. - PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: NY1.com
Firefighters responding to the Lufthansa hangar at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport on Monday morning walked into a wall of foam over their heads after a malfunction in the fire suppression system filled the building with foam and briefly trapped four people inside. "Apparently, they were working on the system when there was an error," Fire Chief Geoff Low said. - PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Sun Journal
A DC firefighter who was allegedly assaulted while responding to a call has been accused of being intoxicated while on the job, according to officials.
DC Fire and EMS officials said the firefighter was responding to a call Sunday afternoon for a 3-year-old girl who suffered an injury after falling from her bed in the 200 block of 37th Street, SE. - PUB DATE: 8/15/2017 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Foxdc.com
