Officials: 10 Tornadoes Hit Wisconsin
| April 13, 2011 By Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The storm system that hit northern and central Wisconsin on Sunday now has a place in the record book, with the 10 tornadoes tying the April record set in 1984, the National Weather Service reported Tuesday.
Eight of the 10 tornadoes were the weakest category, EF1. However, an EF2 tornado with a maximum wind speed of 125 mph hit Adams County and an EF3 tornado with a max wind speed of 140 mph hit Lincoln County, according to the weather service.
There also were many reports by trained weather spotters of large hail and thunderstorms across most parts of the state, including a report of hail stones nearly 3 inches in diameter and straight-line wind gusts up to 80 mph.
Incredible as it may seem, results from an online survey show an alarming number of drivers who use the Web while driving-this despite a national campaign to curb distracted driving.
In the November survey, more than 19 percent reported accessing the Internet on a cell phone at least once a week while driving. That compares with 74 percent who reported making or receiving calls at least once weekly while driving and 35 percent who reported sending or receiving text messages at least that frequently.
Most respondents who said they use the Internet while driving reported that they engage in these activities when stopped at a stop light or stopped in heavy traffic. They also commonly said they access the Internet when driving alone, during daylight hours, or on long drives on the interstate.
In 2009, 5,474 people were killed and 448,000 injured in distracted driving crashes; 18% of the fatalities involved cell phones as a distraction, and the under-20 age group was the most heavily involved, federal data show. Last year, 11 states enacted bans on texting while driving; 30 states prohibit it for all drivers, and eight more have banned it for novice drivers.
(Source: PIA Connection 03-2011)
Sales of automobiles are booming among the growing middle class of China. Car registration in Beijing has increased to 4.8 million from 2.8 million since 2005, with 700,000 new cars being registered in the last year along. General Motors sold more cars and trucks in China last year than it did in the United States.
This new boom has created massive traffic problems in China’s capital. The Chinese government now limits the number of new license plates in Beijing to 240,000 awarded annually through the lottery system. And, as a result of this, some conclude that China’s adoption of electric cars is three to five years away rather than 10 years away.
(Source:American Funds Newsline-03-2011)
NFL Teams Can’t Collect All Of Players’ Workers’ Comp Awards
Share | March 30, 2011
By Chad Hemenway, PropertyCasualty360.com
NU Online News Service, March 30, 12:13 p.m. EDT
A U.S. District Court judge has granted the National Football League Players Association a permanent injunction against the league, resolving a workers’ compensation-related dispute that has gone on for decades.
Judge Paul A. Crotty ruled that a paragraph in the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)—a matter of contention since 1977—provides only for a time offset that NFL teams can take from injured players’ state workers’ comp awards. In other words, teams are only permitted to collect an offset, or reimbursement, based on a formula that calculates when players received salary and workers’ comp payments at the same time.
Teams had argued they were entitled to a dollar-for-dollar offset—reimbursement of all of the workers’ comp awarded to a player—to offset the salary benefits paid by teams to players.
Adam J. Kaiser, an attorney who represents the players, said the ruling was “incredibly important.” The contracts of current players are not guaranteed, meaning teams can drop them if they are hurt and can no longer play. Additionally, former players receive no post-employment health insurance.
“The NFL talks a good game when it comes to taking care of its players but they despise them,” Kaiser says. “Injured players just cost them money.”
The issue has gone to arbitration multiple times. Crotty basically upheld a previous arbitration decision on the matter, as Kaiser says he has been fighting with teams for about 7 years and won on every level. But during the final year of the CBA teams attempted to find a way around previous rulings, saying they only applied to specific players on specific teams involved in past litigation, and were more aggressive in going after full reimbursement.
“The only way to deal with them was to go back to Judge Crotty and have him confirm the arbitral award the players won and grant a permanent injunction,” Kaiser says. With the ruling from a federal judge, the players now have an enforceable federal court judgement, he adds.
“The case here involves an attempt to continuously re-arbitrate the interpretation of the same contractual provision,” Crotty writes. “The court considered and rejected all of [the teams’] other arguments in opposition to this motion.”
The players asked the judge to hold the teams in contempt, but Crotty stopped short of doing so. At least, not “at this juncture,” he writes.
The collective bargaining agreement expired on March 11, and the owners have locked out the players.
