Pueblo jury awards $2.8M to paralyzed man

A Pueblo jury recently found in favor of a man who was left paralyzed after receiving medical care at Parkview Medical Center and awarded the man about $2.8 million.

The jury’s decision came after a nine-day trial regarding events at Parkview on Feb. 11, 2016, according to a news release issued by the Denver law firm of the attorneys who tried the case, David S. Woodruff and Henry Miniter.

During the trial, which concluded Friday, evidence was presented in Pueblo District Court that the emergency department team at Parkview was negligent in their treatment of Samuel Chifalo, who was 63 at the time, when he arrived there following a fall.

Chifalo suffered an injury to his spinal cord when he fell and struck his face on furniture.

Read more: https://www.chieftain.com/news/20190521/pueblo-jury-awards-28m-to-paralyzed-man

In Rural West Texas, Illegal Border Crossings Are Routine For U.S. Citizens

Along one rugged stretch of the Rio Grande, U.S. citizens routinely cross the border into the United States illegally. A shortage of basic services in rural Texas, such as health care, means U.S. citizens rely on Mexican services and rarely pass through an official port of entry on return.

Informal, unregulated crossings have been a fixture of life for generations in rural communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, however, with the unrelenting focus on border security, this kind of unfettered back-and-forth by U.S. citizens is rare.

"We're citizens. We're U.S. citizens that have to go to get help in Mexico," said Loraine Tellez, a resident of the unincorporated town of Candelaria in West Texas. She said that the help principally involves health care.

There are two towns here, hamlets really, both remote within their own countries yet a stone's throw from each other across the Rio Grande — San Antonio del Bravo in Mexico and Candelaria in Texas. Their combined population is estimated by residents to be approximately 150 people.

Read more: https://www.kanw.com/post/rural-west-texas-illegal-border-crossings-are-routine-us-citizens


U.S. citizens use ropes to cross the Rio Grande from San Antonio del Bravo, Mexico, into Candelaria, Texas. U.S. citizens depend on the free health clinic in San Antonio del Bravo.
LORNE MATALON FOR NPR

In Memoriam, Mike Tyson--Las Cruces police: Man's earlobe bitten off in fight

LAS CRUCES - A fight on South Espina Street on Friday led to a portion of a 37-year-old man's earlobe being bitten off.

Las Cruces police suspect a 30-year-old man to be the biter.

Authorities responded about 12:45 p.m. to a fight in the 1300 block of South Espina Street.

Upon arriving, they discovered a portion of a man's earlobe had been bitten off during the incident, said Las Cruces Police Department spokesman Dan Trujillo.

Read more: https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2019/05/25/las-cruces-police-mans-earlobe-bitten-off-fight/1229992001/
(Las Cruces Sun-News)

Trump Awards Trophy At Marquee Sumo Event In Tokyo (Fat Ass Warning)

MOBARA, Japan (AP) — President Donald Trump presented a special Trump trophy to the winner of a sumo tournament in Tokyo on Sunday as he got a taste of one of Japan's most treasured cultural institutions.

The honor given to Trump was part of a charm offensive Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe continued Sunday as he courted the president with three things close to his heart: wrestling matches, cheeseburgers and golf.

Call it sumo diplomacy.

The president, first lady Melania Trump, Abe and his wife, Akie, joined an estimated 11,500 fans who packed Ryogoku Kokugikan Stadium to watch oversized, muscular men battling in loin cloths.

At the end, Trump stepped into the ring and presented the eagle-topped "President's Cup" to champion wrestler Asanoyama, making him the first American president to participate. Shoes aren't permitted in the sumo ring, but Trump wore dark-colored slippers.

Read more: https://hosted.ap.org/rdrnews/article/9aa600072e11444e86b555569a34f612/trump-downplays-north-korean-missile-tests


Evan Vucci, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Grapes Expectations

Toxic plants suspected of killing cows in Four Corners

SHIPROCK — Ranchers in northwestern New Mexico suspect toxic plants used in Navajo and Hopi religious ceremonies are responsible for the recent deaths of more than a dozen cows.

At least 15 cows from different herds in the Shiprock area have died of a mysterious illness in the past three weeks, the Gallup Independent reported. And ranchers say the purple plant known as the tall mountain larkspur is the likely cause.

The plant, found in New Mexico, Arizona and Utah, is growing in abundance on the range thanks to unusually wet weather. It is used as after-birth wash.

Navajo botanist and geologist Arnold Clifford said the plant is toxic to cows because of its high concentrations of alkaloid.

Read more: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/toxic-plants-suspected-of-killing-cows-in-four-corners/article_5fc13fc7-6a63-52d3-bb63-07f41281ef55.html


Scorpion weed of purple flowers are seen blooming on the range on the west side of the Shiprock pinnacle May 15. Ranchers in northwestern New Mexico suspect toxic plants, used in Navajo and Hopi religious ceremonies, are responsible for the recent deaths of more than a dozen cows. Vida Volkert/Gallup Independent via AP

Late settlements during Martinez administration prompt review of procedures

State government payouts totaling $1.7 million in the final days of Gov. Susana Martinez’s administration to settle lawsuits and employment complaints have prompted current state officials to review policies and procedures regarding such settlements.

KRQE-TV, which first reported the payments this week, cited sources who said the settlements were made quickly and without any real investigation into the allegations.

The claims included cases involving past members of Martinez’s state police security detail that at least one lawyer for plaintiffs said contained “damaging information” that could destroy Martinez’s reputation, according to the report, which included references to Martinez’s personal life.

However, details of the deals have been kept secret because the settlements were sealed until 2023, a delay in making the information public that is drawing criticism in some quarters.

Read more: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/late-settlements-during-martinez-administration-prompt-review-of-procedures/article_10d34d05-6f3c-5c5a-b908-de5c3aa0a748.html

New Mexico commits millions to rural roads, vows to work with oil and gas industry on repairs

Partnering with private industry could be the path to repairing the crumbling roads in rural southeast New Mexico, burdened by the oil and gas industry – the same industry that generated about $2 billion in surplus funds for the State of New Mexico last year.

Michael Sandoval, cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Transportation said NMDOT’s 2nd District, comprised of Eddy, Lea, Chaves and parts of Otero and Lincoln counties in the southeast corner of the state is a top priority.

He said the State recently committed a $200 million investment to road improvements in the region.

That could offset the costs of a proposed $90 million project to upgrade and repair the 22 miles of U.S. Highway 285 from the Texas State Line to Loving, or another $90 million project to upgrade New Mexico State Road 31.

Read more: https://www.alamogordonews.com/story/news/local/2019/05/24/new-mexico-commits-millions-rural-roads-during-oil-and-gas-boom/1212499001/

Trump's Palm Beach Mansion Is Haunted by Financial Crime

In the fall of 1993, on the island of Palm Beach, future U.S. president Donald J. Trump became friends with Leslie Greyling, an illegal immigrant and accused con artist who is a fugitive from the law.

Back then, the local sections of the Palm Beach Post and Palm Beach Daily News nervously followed every zig and zag of Trump's crass galumph through island society. "Just about anything he does qualifies as news," the Post exclaimed November 3, 1993. The future president's scheme to turn the old Marjorie Post estate at Mar-a-Lago, which he had purchased eight years earlier, into a social club was gauche but exciting. Not since the Pulitzer divorce in 1982 had any island happening promised so much public tawdriness. Indeed, when the town council resisted Trump's rezoning plan, he threatened to sell Mar-a-Lago to Korean cult leader Sun Myung Moon.

Meanwhile, Greyling — a rotund white South African arriviste — purchased the mansion at 1094 South Ocean Blvd., next door to Mar-a-Lago, in October 1993. Or rather, he bought the shell company, L&V Investments, that owned the mansion. In this way, both Greyling and the sellers kept the sale price from the public record.

The property sits on the southwest corner of the intersection of South Ocean and Woodbridge Road, and though not the most opulent of the 14 properties along Woodbridge, it is the one closest to the Atlantic Ocean, to which it has access. A single-story home that takes up about 6,500 square feet, including the cabana house off the large pool, it has marble floors and an orange-beige exterior.

Read more: https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/donald-trumps-mixes-with-shady-criminals-in-palm-beach-10266479

Mural Honoring Parkland Shooting Victims Is Defaced in Miami's Wynwood Neighborhood

Photo by Naomi Feinstein