Family billed $4,233 after daughter sent to hospital by school counselor
PARK COUNTY, Colo. (KDVR) — A Colorado family is planning to fight a medical bill they say was never authorized.
Ashley Gray, 16, of Park County, said she was sent to the hospital in January for a mental health evaluation after talking to the counselor at Platte Canyon High School.
“I was just having a bad day and I needed someone to talk to in the heat of the moment, so I went to our counselor,” Gray said.
An hour later, Gray was in the back seat of a squad car headed to the Children’s Hospital South Campus in Highlands Ranch — more than 45 minutes away.
Her father, Maverick Gray, said they weren’t notified until Ashley was nearly at the hospital. This week, they received the bill for that visit: $4,233.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Maverick. “They took it upon themselves to send my daughter to the hospital without my acknowledgement or permission, and then I get a $4,000 bill.”
District Superintendent Mike Schmidt declined to comment on the bill Thursday, instead referring us to a previous statement released by the district:
“As in most public schools, our mental health team uses a risk assessment process that is relatively common. Included in that process is the use of a risk assessment screening tool, by the team, to try to determine the level of risk. We will only request transport to a mental health facility if our team determines that there exists an imminent risk of self-harm or harm to others based on the best information we have. ‘Imminent risk’ typically involves an unusual amount of specificity. Parents are always contacted at some point during the process and are instrumental in supporting the student moving forward.”
Ashley said she spoke with a nurse and with a counselor over Skype before being released a few hours later. Children’s Hospital declined to release a breakdown on how that equates to a $4,233 bill.
“They don’t give breakdowns,” said Maverick. “It’s just an emergency room visit, and that’s the price.”
Children’s Hospital released the following to KDVR regarding the cost of the visit:
- At Children’s Hospital Colorado, we take youth mental health very seriously.
- Suicide is the number one cause of death for youth ages 10 – 24 in Colorado.
- When patients present to the emergency department with verbal or behavioral indications that they’re a danger to themselves or others, we by law, must provide a comprehensive, safety-focused mental health assessment.
- These assessments, which are provided by mental health providers with special training in emergency pediatric psychiatry, are important to determine if the youth is in acute danger.
- The hospital’s Financial Counseling department works closely with families to offer assistance in paying bills.
Maverick is hoping to pursue legal action against the district and says he has no plans to pay the bill.
“Platte Canyon School District needs to pay this bill,” he said. “That’s obvious.”
Photo Credit: fox2now.com
2-year-old girl Charleigh Nicole Nelson drowns in septic tank at Texas RV park
A 2-year-old girl has died after she fell into a septic tank at a Texas RV park — drowning as rescuers scrambled to save her, according to officials and reports.
Little Charleigh Nicole Nelson was walking on the lid of the wastewater tank at Paradise Lagoons RV Resort in Aransas Pass Wednesday when she plunged nearly 15 feet, according to KRIS-TV.
Her horrified family tried to rescue the girl with rope and shovels to no avail — as cops and firefighters raced to the scene, the local station reported.
Rescuers clambered to pull the child out through a 2-foot-wide hole in the tank — which was filled with 3 nearly feet of water — at around 5:30 p.m., the Rockport Volunteer Fire Department said in a press release.
They removed the child’s lifeless body from the tank after about an hour.
“This is a terrible tragedy for the family of this child, her neighbors who witnessed the event, and all of the 1st responders who assisted in the recovery,” the press release states.
The child’s heartbroken mother Brittney Nelson said she was in “disbelief” after the fatal fall.
“We are clinging to each other tonight…Please, please keep praying,” she wrote on Facebook. “Pray for our family members that are traveling to us as well. I love each and every person who has messaged us. We are definitely going to need yall.”
It wasn’t immediately clear Friday how the child fell into the septic tank but park residents told KRIS-TV the girl that the lid of the tank buckled underneath her.
Photo Credit: Facebook
Florida bill calls for minors to get written consent for abortion
Florida lawmakers have passed a bill that would require minors to have written parental consent to obtain an abortion.
Right now, parents or legal guardians must be notified — but don’t have to provide their consent.
If Gov. Ron DeSantis signs the bill, a doctor who performs an abortion without notarized written consent and proof of a government-issued ID from parents could be charged with a third-degree felony and face up to five years in prison.
The bill provides exceptions for medical emergencies and if the minor petitions a court for a judicial waiver.
But “the physician must make reasonable attempts, whenever possible, and without endangering the minor, to contact the parent or legal guardian of the minor,” the bill reads.
DeSantis, a Republican, previously expressed his support for the bill in his Jan. 14 “State of the State” address.
“I also hope that the parental consent bill will make its way to my desk during this session!” DeSantis said.
The bill passed Thursday 75 to 43. Five Democrats supported the measure; two female Republicans cast no votes, records show.
Planned Parenthood of Southwest & Central Florida slammed the bill as “unconstitutional.”
“We need to call our legislators to hold them accountable for passing this unconstitutional bill!” the abortion-rights group tweeted.
via: https://nypost.com/2020/02/22/florida-bill-calls-for-minors-to-get-written-consent-for-abortion/
Photo Credit: AP
Kobe Bryant’s pilot had been disciplined by FAA over weather-related flight violation
The pilot of the helicopter that crashed into a Calabasas hillside last month, killing NBA star Kobe Bryant and eight others, violated federal flight rules in 2015 when he flew into busy airspace near Los Angeles International Airport despite being ordered not to by air traffic control, according to records from the Federal Aviation Administration obtained by The Times.
Ara Zobayan was flying northbound in an AS350 chopper when he was denied clearance to traverse the airspace because weather conditions had reduced visibility below what is known as visual flight rules (VFR), according to the enforcement action records obtained through a freedom of information act request.
The FAA said Zobayan took responsibility for the violation and underwent counseling, but faulted him for his lack of preparation. “Had Mr. Zobayan properly planned and reviewed current weather at LAX, he would have been able to anticipate the required action to transit … resulting in proper coordination,” the report says.
Federal authorities are investigating Zobayan’s actions during last month’s flight when he veered out of control after flying into heavy clouds. Zobayan also died in the flight.
On the May 2015 flight, Zobayan was flying for Island Express Helicopters, the same charter company where he worked for years leading up to the crash. It is not clear where Zobayan was traveling that day or whether he had any passengers.
Near the Hawthorne Airport and the 105 Freeway, he contacted a tower at LAX to gain clearance to fly through the airspace. The tower told Zobayan that the airfield was reporting less than three miles of visibility and a cloud ceiling at least 1,000 feet above the ground.
Zobayan, who was relying on his sight to guide him, responded with a request to continue under special VFR, which would grant him clearance to fly in weather conditions with less than the minimum visibility for regular visual flying. When the tower denied that request and told him to navigate around the airspace, Zobayan backtracked and said that he could actually maintain VFR.
During the conversation, Zobayan continued flying northbound and entered the airspace without approval, violating FAA rules, according to the enforcement report.
An FAA investigator, who was not named in the document, did not recommend remedial training and instead opted to counsel Zobayan in several areas including operating in airspace around large airports, special VFR weather minimums, proper planning and reviewing weather.
“There are no indications that this is a repeated incident and there are no signs that this incident is a trend with Mr. Zobayan or any other [Island Express Helicopter] personnel,” the investigator wrote.
Opinions among pilots and experts are split on the severity of the violation.
Shawn Coyle, a longtime helicopter pilot, said the violation is considered relatively minor.
“I don’t know a single pilot out there who hasn’t violated a rule,” he said. “If that’s the only violation he’s ever had then I would say he’s pretty safe.”
The report comes as investigators continue to try to determine the cause of the deadly chopper crash on Jan. 26, a process that will likely take months. However, investigators have said Zobayan was struggling with poor visibility in the moments before the aircraft slammed into the hillside.
But Zoey Tur, a veteran Los Angeles news chopper pilot, noted that both the Hawthorne incident and the Bryant flight involved a case when the pilot found himself struggling with poor weather conditions.
“As a pilot you’re supposed to check the weather conditions along the route of flight,” Tur said.
A representative for Island Express Helicopters could not be reached for comment. An attorney representing the company did not respond to a phone call from a reporter on Friday.
Kurt Deetz, a former pilot for Island Express Helicopters, said navigating around the controlled airspace near LAX would have added only five to ten minutes to the flight.
He contends the pilot also should have known that LAX rarely allows helicopters to fly under special flight rules in the airspace around the airport. Entering the airspace without approval, he added, can be dangerous because of potential conflicts with commercial jets.
“You can’t request special VFR and then they deny you and you say, ‘Oh wait a minute, actually I’m VFR’,” he said. “That’s not how it works. It shows that perhaps his understanding of special VFR as opposed to VFR was cloudy.”
Zobayan reported the incident to his employer and the FAA. Island Express Helicopters told federal investigators that they conducted additional ground and flight training with Zobayan in response to the situation.
Helicopter pilots and aviation experts say less-than-ideal weather is not uncommon for experienced pilots, but flying when visibility is decreasing poses an extreme danger.
Article via LATimes
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New Jersey just raised its threat level for white supremacists to ‘high,’ well above ISIS and al Qaeda
)White supremacists are officially more of a threat to New Jersey than both ISIS and al Qaeda, according to state security officials. In New Jersey’s annual Terrorism Threat Assessment report, released Friday, the state raised the threat level for white supremacist extremists to “high” — the topmost category for threat levels for any extremist group there.The only other threat listed as high as white supremacist extremists are homegrown violent extremists, who also held the top place in 2019’s report. White supremacists were previously listed as a moderate threat, along with ISIS. But in 2020’s report, white supremacists moved up while ISIS receded one level, to “low.” White supremacists outrank Boko Haram, black separatist extremists and more than a dozen other extremist groups in the report.
What changed from 2019 to 2020
The report specifically discusses a rising threat from white supremacist extremists over the last year, referencing the El Paso Walmart shooting as an example. The shooter in that incident wrote a racist, anti-immigrant four-page document.
The report also mentions local incidents, like the arrest of a man who admitted to instructing members of a neo-Nazi network to vandalize synagogues and was accused of expressing interest in attacking black people with a machete at a New Jersey mall. “The ever-changing threat landscape in New Jersey and around the country requires us to adjust our strategies to anticipate new threats while remaining ready to combat those already existing,” said Jared Maples, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, in a news release.ISIS, on the other hand, was reduced to “low” because of the group’s focus on a global presence, rather than attacks on the US. Black separatist extremists went from “low” in 2019 to “moderate” in 2020’s report, after two people associated with the ideology killed four at a kosher supermarket in Jersey City late last year.
The report outlines the ways white supremacist organizations in the state have actively attempted to spread their beliefs and recruit new members. According to the report, since January 2019, there have been 168 reported instances of white supremacist propaganda distribution, compared to 46 reports in 2018.
And it’s not just discourse — the report also states that white supremacist groups can turn to violence to create the social change they desire.”Some white supremacist extremists argue that participating in mass attacks or creating other forms of chaos will accelerate the imminent and necessary collapse of society in order to build a racially pure nation,” the report states.New Jersey’s report comes just over a week after the Anti-Defamation League found increased white supremacist propaganda efforts across the country. The number of times hate groups left flyers, stickers, posters and other handouts more than doubled between 2018 and 2019 — growing from 1,214 to 2,713 incidents, according to the ADL.
Article via CNN
An Amber Alert was issued for Evelyn Mae Boswell who was reported missing this week, but she was last seen on December 26
Tennessee authorities are looking for a 15-month-old who was last seen two months ago and the reward for her safe return has reached $33,000.
The TBI believed people who were traveling in a gray 2007 BMW had information about the girl’s whereabouts, the agency said.
Authorities located the car and the people in Wilkes County, North Carolina, late Friday. It’s unclear how the people were connected to the missing girl.
Evelyn remains missing and no one has been charged in connection with her disappearance, the agency told CNN.
“The day before yesterday, a family member of this missing child reported in a department of children’s services referral about the child being missing,” Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Capt. Andy Seabolt told CNN affiliate WCYB.
He told the news station that investigators are trying to understand why there was a “lapse in time in the child being reported missing.”
“Right now we’re not sure of her exact location,” Seabolt said. “It could be anywhere from what we know. We’re conducting the investigation and obviously we’re talking to as many people as we’ve come in contact with that knew about the child.”
“We want to know why the child was not reported missing earlier,” he added, according to the news station.
The toddler has blonde hair and blue eyes, police said, and was last seen wearing a pink tracksuit, pink shoes and a pink bow.
“If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Evelyn, please contact the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office at 423-279-7330 or the TBI at 1-800-TBIFIND,” a news release from TBI reads.
Photo Credit: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation
Whitney Houston hologram tour is already creeping people out
There was outcry last year when it was announced that a hologram of Whitney Houston was set to go on tour years after she died. That hasn’t changed now that folks are getting a sneak peek at the show. “An Evening With Whitney : The Whitney Houston Hologram Tour” is set to kick off February 25 in the UK and footage of it making the rounds on British TV is eliciting quite the response. “I’m not saying the Whitney Houston hologram tour will be a hot mess, but they are suggesting she had as much grace as a malfunctioning The Sims character wafting away a fart on #ThisMorning,” one person tweeted. The singer, who died in 2012 at the age of 48 after an accidental drowning, is the latest celeb to get the hologram treatment.
Holograms of Tupac and Roy Orbison have also made headlines. In 2018, Amy Winehouse’s estate announced plans to produce a hologram concert tour to celebrate the singer’s legacy.The Grammy-winning singer died of accidental alcohol poisoning in 2011. She was 27.
Pat Houston, the pop star’s sister-in-law, former manager and now president and chief executive officer of her estate said in a statement last year, “Whitney prided herself on her family and that included her fans.”
“She adored her audiences and that’s why we know she would have loved this holographic theatrical concept,” Pat Houston said. “An event at this level is something special and Base Hologram’s track record to be fully authentic and respectful made them the perfect partner. This upcoming tour will allow audiences to experience Whitney’s amazing voice and passion for music for a long time to come and help them share that magic with future generations.
“Base is the company behind the hologram tour.
Article via CNN
Pigeons with ‘Make America Great Again’ hats glued to their head released in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS — Pigeons with tiny Make American Great Again hats glued to their heads were released in downtown Las Vegas this week, in what appears to be a sarcastic statement of loyalty to Trump and mock protest of Nevada’s upcoming Democratic presidential caucus.
A group calling itself P.U.T.I.N., Pigeons United To Interfere Now, claimed responsibility for the stunt. The pigeons were set loose on Tuesday, according to the group.
NBC affiliate KSNV spotted at least one of the pigeons still in a hat on a downtown street on Wednesday afternoon.
“P.U.T.I.N. have used their pigeons to launch a one of a kind aerial protest piece in response to the arrival of the 2020 Democratic Presidential hopefuls,” according to a group statement. “The release date was also coordinated to serve as a gesture of support and loyalty to President Trump.”
Twenty-five pigeons were released, with 24 of them wearing hats and one donning a Trump-style wig, the group said in an email to NBC News on Thursday.
“Most have returned. We expect to see the rest tonight or tomorrow,” the group said.
While the stunt has drawn some laughs, Mariah Hillman, who runs Lofty Hopes, a Las Vegas pigeon rescue organization, called the MAGA stunt “animal cruelty.”
In December, videos of three pigeons wearing miniature red cowboy hats went viral after they were seen on Las Vegas streets.
“It started here with the press making fun of it, the police didn’t do anything about it and now it’s grown into this, so when is it going to stop and who’s going to do something about it?” Hillman told NBC News on Thursday.
Hillman and her volunteers are setting traps in hopes of removing the pigeons’ hats before rehabilitating and releasing the birds.
Photo Credit: reviewjournal.com
New ‘skull breaker’ viral challenge could be fatal, doctors say
(Meredith) — Another new viral trend is picking up steam across TikTok, and doctors say this one can be fatal.
The “Skull Breaker Challenge” involves three people. One person stands in the middle of the other two and jumps while the two people on the side kick the feet out from the person jumping, causing them to smash their head onto the ground.
The original video went viral and has prompted many, many copycats, according to Fox News.
Doctors and parents alike are warning teens that doing this challenge could result in serious injuries or even death, depending on the severity of the injury.
One mother posted online about her son who attempted the challenge and was left with stitches in his face, a head injury and severe cuts in his mouth.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Airbnb host finds drugs, knives, and blood stains after two-day room rental
OLATHE, Kan. (WDAF) – An Airbnb host said his home was trashed after a couple rented a room from him for two days.
Chris Sayegh said he began using the popular site to make extra money, partnering with Airbnb to list a private room in his home on the site, according to WDAF.
“I’ve had people come hungover after a party and needed a hotel,” Sayegh said. “New Years, that was crazy, but other than that, this is the first of the first.”
He says his experience renting out a portion of his house changed last week, when a couple left behind drugs, knives in the walls, blood stains around the room and trash.
Sayegh estimated the damage to be upwards of $4,000.
“It was bad. I mean, I had a manic episode, and I was basically cleaning really, really good, and I just cleaned everything, and I just did not stop,” Sayegh said.
Police came and confiscated the drug paraphernalia. That led to the arrest of 29-year-old Rebecca Singh and 23-year-old Joseph Crane.
The pair both face drug possession charges with individual bonds set at $10,000.
“I will continue Airbnbing if they will help me get the proper security systems to be comfortable, help me get a ring doorbell, the proper locks for everyone room, and compensate me for my emotional pain,” Sayegh said.
He said he contacted Airbnb, and the claims department assured him the matter would be handled.
FOX4 also reached out to Airbnb. In a statement, a spokesperson says:
“The reported behavior has no place on Airbnb. We’ve removed the booking guest from our community and are in communication with the host to initiate a claim through Airbnb’s $1 million Host Guarantee.”
A rep with Airbnb also said it runs background checks on all renters for felonies and significant misdemeanors using name and dates of birth.
Sayegh said he hopes his experience is a cautionary tale to others interested in renting out their homes.
Photo Credit: fox2now.com