Tagged: investigations

State investigators say one client of the Lafayette Association for Retarded Citizens developed a bowel obstruction and another developed an antibiotic-resistant staph infection because association employees did not administer medicine properly.

The Advertiser reports that the association had a Feb. 19 deadline for correcting problems found in December by the health standards section of the Department of Health and Hospitals.

It says neither DHH nor association Director Glenn Weber would comment on whether LARC met that deadline.

Officials at the Lafayette Parish Coroner's office say the body believed to be Mickey Shunick is in such an advanced stage of decay they had to send it to face identification expert at Louisiana State University.

Keith Talamo, chief medicolegal investigator at the coroner's office, said Wednesday Mary Manhein at the LSU FACES Laboratory will be handling the investigation of the body. Police found it buried at a cemetery about 100 yards off of La. Highway 10.

Talamo said it will be 24-48 hours before they will be able to identify the remains.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor says a second review of financial records at Jefferson Community Healthcare Centers has uncovered illegal use of public money and transactions involving former Jefferson Parish Councilman Byron Lee and his family.

The auditor found that more than $200,000 in clinic funds was transferred the personal bank account of former chief financial officer Ebony Williams and that $135,000 in public money was used for unearned benefits as well as political donations, a for-profit business investment and a Christmas party.

NPR and the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) have learned that the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the Labor Department are putting together a team of agency experts and lawyers to specifically consider how to bolster coal mine dust enforcement given the statutory and regulatory weaknesses detailed by NPR and CPI this week in stories about the resurgence of black lung.