A San Antonio man profiled in a recent WOAI-TV segment has experienced a bizarre path to the foreclosure process. Roque De Leon claims that his original $35,000 mortgage, secured in 2002, multiplied tenfold when Chase purchased the mortgage from Washington Mutual in 2008 and somehow tacked a zero on the end of his account balance. "Chase started rejecting my $350/month payments, and demanded $2,000 per month," De Leon explained through a translating friend. Before the confusion had been cleared up, the bank initiated foreclosure proceedings and he was at risk of losing ...

In 2008, there were approximately 90,066 drunk driving arrests in Texas. Like many states, this only accounts for individuals with an illegal .08 or higher blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) level. However, some lawmakers and police officers indicate that this hard and fast rule doesn't always indicate the driver's correct intoxication level and that regulations should focus more on impairment rather than the uniform .08 blood concentration. A woman weighing 140 pounds may reach a blood-alcohol content of .07 with two drinks in one hour; a man weighing 200 pounds may ...

We have heard of the schoolyard bully, the neighborhood bully, of bullies stealing lunch money. But workplace bullies? Doesn't bullying only happen to children? Adults outgrow such behavior and deal with each other in a rational and reasonable fashion, don't we? Maybe not. A recent blog article dealing with healthcare raises the topic of workplace bullying. The author, a former bureau chief for the New York Times, points to a study that found "35 percent of the American workforce had been bullied at work, and another 15 percent had witnessed it." The health concern ...

New Jersey Transportation Commissioner James Simpson announced recently that construction of median barriers in 14 high-priority locations is finished and that crossover accidents have dramatically decreased because of the effort. "This department has worked steadily to install barriers along narrow highway medians because safety is our top priority and these barriers save lives," Commissioner Simpson said. "New Jersey highways are congested, and accidents do happen," Simpson said. "We will continue to invest in median barriers because they help prevent accidents from ...

The results of an investigation of a horrific trucking accident have spurred the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to recommend numerous truck safety rules. The accident, which occurred last year in Oklahoma, claimed the lives of 10 people and injured five others. The NTSB cited driver fatigue resulting from sleep loss as the root cause of the tragedy. The truck driver, who also suffers from mild sleep apnea, likely had only five hours of sleep before beginning his workday at three in the morning. At the time of the accident he had been on the road for 10 hours. Breakdown ...

Generally, after taking certain over-the-counter medications or receiving hospital treatment a patient is told not to drive or operate heavy machinery. Most patients abide by this, but for a commercial bus driver who failed to heed the warning, coupled with a lack of medical oversight by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the consequences proved to be deadly. On an early morning in May 1999 near New Orleans, a casino-bound tour bus veered off a highway, struck a guardrail, plowed through a chain-link fence, flew over a golf cart path and crashed into an embankment, ...

AAA recently conducted a study showing that 92 percent of the people it surveyed viewed texting while driving as "unacceptable." Surprisingly, however, 25 percent of those same people admitted to doing it. Phoenix is Arizona's only city that bans texting while driving. Does Phoenix have the right idea, or do bans on texting while driving fail to satisfy their purpose? Travel experts at AAA think that Phoenix is on the right track. Troubling Studies Federal data recently published in the American Journal of Public Health show that, between 2001 and 2007, 16,000 ...

Atlanta carpet and flooring company, Glover's Flooring America, was invited in August to appear on TrustDale, a consumer advocate program hosted by investigative reporter Dale Cardwell. Glover's Flooring America participated in a segment examining a customer complaint regarding a defective laminate floor purchased from large home improvement retailer Home Depot. The homeowner filing the complaint noticed that the floor was cracking and separating soon after it was purchased from Home Depot. Although customer had a 25 year manufacturer's warranty on her Atlanta flooring ...

Atlanta shredding company Shred-Green partnered with Embry Hills United Methodist Church to hold a free shredding event on Saturday, October 9, for the church's senior members. Senior citizens are especially vulnerable to identity theft; the free Atlanta paper shredding event was arranged as a precaution to help the church's senior members protect their personal information. Senior citizens are often targets for identity theft, as many do not have the means to dispose of their documents in a secure way. They may also lack access to information helping them to protect ...

Superbreak, the short break tour operator, has launched a range of hotel and ticket packages for the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead exhibition ahead of its opening at the British Museum in November. The British Museum's newest exhibition follows the journey of the ancient Egyptians from death to the afterlife using digital media to interactively interpret the Book of the Dead. The York-based tour operator has secured a number of timed afternoon entry tickets to the exhibition and has partnered with over 250 central London hotels to offer affordable breaks whatever ...

redleaf Water, North America's Ultra-Premium Bottled Water, today announced Nancy Tassin of Austin, Texas as the grand prize winner of its first "Ski on it This Year, Drink it Next Year" Sweepstakes. The sweepstakes, which ran from June 15 to September 21, received more than 41,200 entries. As the grand prize winner, Tassin will receive a five-day, four-night trip for two in world-renowned Whistler, British Columbia, including round-trip airfare, deluxe hotel accommodations, three-day ski passes, spa treatments and a redleaf prize pack, valued at $5,000. Tassin will ...

The '85 Bears team will reunite this Friday for a memorable party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Chicago's Super Bowl XX win. Coach Mike Ditka and the boys will swap the hallowed turf of Soldier Field for the Arie Crown Theater and come together to entertain their fans and re-live that historic year. The official reunion, the Allstate GLORY DAYS Legends of the Chicago Bears 25th Anniversary, begins with a breakfast club meeting Friday morning between Coach Mike Ditka and Coach Buddy Ryan. It is the first time the two will be side-by-side in years and gives a ...

Online history is being made as 6 million people around the world rush to their computers to join the race to claim their share of the most incredible promotion in online history - the $10 Million Giveaway. Celebrating 10 years of success in the most competitive industry online, CasinoRewards.com is giving out a colossal $10 million over 10 weeks of nail biting action starting November 1, 2010. "Our 10 year anniversary is a great opportunity to say a huge thank you to all our players... and what better way to do that than by sharing out $10 million!" - C.L., CasinoRewards.com CasinoRewards.com ...

Bottom line, despite the economic downturn employees are still getting injured everyday and employers are still struggling to get them back to work successfully. When treating physicians issue light duty restrictions employers must have a Return to Work Plan that can be implemented immediately. The biggest challenge for employers is navigating the workers' compensation system, accessing the right information and creating proactive policies that link human resources with workers' compensation best practices. http://www.ReturntoWorkResources.com guides employers from ...

The August 2010 DePuy ASR recall affects over 90,000 hip implant patients - of which approximately 12,000 will likely have to undergo additional, painful and expensive hip replacement surgeries - not to mention medical monitoring for heavy metal toxicity issues due to metal debris entering the blood stream. DePuy ASR Hip Recall Announced After 13% Failure Rate Released The August 2010 DePuy ASR recall of the ASR XL Acetabular System and the ASR Hip Resurfacing System will affect over 90,000 hip implant patients around the world. DePuy only recalled these metal-on-metal ...

A recent article on the Men's Health website told a cautionary tale of a man named Tom Zehmisch. He died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 46. Only four months earlier, he had participated in a national swim meet and he died while participating in a triathlon. To look at Tom, you would not have thought him to be at risk of obstructive sleep apnea. The stereotypical obstructive sleep apnea patient is more like Don Dillard who, in 2007 had reached a staggering 401 pounds on the scale. He had been hospitalized four times for serious health problems including congestive ...

Madison Who's Who has officially launched the bulletin board feature on their website, www.madisonwhoswho.com. This impressive new feature is another added benefit to the members of Madison Who's Who business networking directory. The Madison Who's Who bulletin board feature is secure and easy to use with password entry and available exclusively to Madison Who's Who members only. It offers a powerful search facility along with multiple forums and categories. Madison Who's Who offers the best in business networking; this new feature is an extension of the Madison Who's ...

Noonan syndrome is a relatively common genetic disorder characterized by short stature, unique facial features, and heart defects. About 10%-15% of affected individuals have mutations in their SOS1 gene. A team of researchers, led by Raju Kucherlapati, at Harvard Medical School, Boston, has now generated mice expressing a Sos1 mutation associated with Noonan syndrome and used them to identify potential therapeutic targets for the treatment of individuals with Noonan syndrome. Specifically, the team found that the Ras/MAPK signaling pathway as well as the Rac and Stat3 proteins ...

EDITOR'S PICK: New potential drug combination for most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Although 60% of patients can be cured with a currently available combination therapy, this leaves a substantial number of patients without a cure. However, a team of researchers, led by Ari Melnick, at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, has now identified a potential new combinatorial therapy for DLBCL. Specifically, the team found that combining an inhibitor of the protein BCL6 with either ...

Editor's note: Images to accompany this story are available at http://www.news.wisc.edu/newsphotos/carbon-cycle.html END ...

Reston, Va.— Results from a study published in the November issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine (JNM) show that powerful imaging techniques––positron emission tomography (PET) fused with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)––are helping researchers better understand the long-term functional and structural changes that take place after traumatic brain injury (TBI). "The results provide new insights into the progressive nature of the brain changes occurring following TBI, demonstrating that changes in brain structure and function after TBI are dynamic and continue to progress ...

ST. PAUL, Minn. – The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) is calling for any athlete who is suspected of having a concussion to be removed from play until the athlete is evaluated by a physician with training in the evaluation and management of sports concussion. The request is one of five recommendations from a new position statement approved by the AAN's Board of Directors that targets policymakers with authority over determining the policy procedures for when an athlete suffers from concussion while participating in a sporting activity. "While the majority of ...

SALT LAKE CITY—University of Utah (U of U) medical researchers have uncovered a wiring diagram that shows how the brain pays attention to visual, cognitive, sensory, and motor cues. The research provides a critical foundation for the study of abnormalities in attention that can be seen in many brain disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and attention deficit disorder. The study appears Nov. 1, 2010, online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). "This study is the first of its kind to show how the brain switches attention from one feature to ...

In many areas of the world, including California's Mojave Desert, rain is a precious and rare resource. To encourage rainfall, scientists use "cloud seeding," a weather modification process designed to increase precipitation amounts by dispersing chemicals into the clouds. But research now reveals that the common practice of cloud seeding with materials such as silver iodide and frozen carbon dioxide may not be as effective as it had been hoped. In the most comprehensive reassessment of the effects of cloud seeding over the past fifty years, new findings from Prof. Pinhas ...

STANFORD, Calif. — A newly approved drug may be a cost-effective way to prevent stroke in patients with an irregular heart rhythm — and may also offer patients better health outcomes than the commonly prescribed, but potentially risky, blood thinner warfarin. That's according to a new analysis from researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. "Dabigatran is the first new drug in 20 years to be approved for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation, and we wanted to see if it could be cost-effective even ...