By David Brown and Robin Shulman

May 20, 2009 – A survey of people hospitalized because of swine flu in California has raised the possibility that obesity is as much of a risk factor for serious complications from the flu as diabetes, heart disease and pregnancy, all known to raise a person’s risk.

In all, about two-thirds of the California patients had some underlying medical condition, according to a report yesterday in the weekly bulletin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Nationwide, 47 states and the District have reported 5,469 cases and six deaths since the start of the outbreak in late April, according to the CDC’s count. Yesterday, officials in Missouri reported a seventh U.S. death — that of a 44-year-old man who had no underlying medical problems, wire services reported.

“We were surprised by the frequency of obesity among the severe cases that we’ve been tracking,” said Anne Schuchat, one of the CDC epidemiologists managing the outbreak. She said scientists are “looking into” the possibility that obese people should be at the head of the line along with other high-risk groups if a swine flu vaccine becomes available.

Other studies have shown that pregnant women are also at higher risk for serious influenza infection, especially in the third trimester, when the fetus and womb compress the lower parts of the lungs. This makes it harder to breathe deeply and cough forcefully; it may also alter blood flow in the chest. A similar thing may be occurring in severely overweight people, some experts speculated.

The average age of the 30 Californians hospitalized for swine flu was 27.5 years. Nearly three-quarters were women, and 65 percent were Hispanic. Half lived in two counties bordering Mexico.

Of the 30 people, 11 had a lung ailment such as asthma or emphysema, six had an immune disorder, five had heart disease, five were pregnant, four had diabetes and four were obese.

In New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) said officials were investigating whether 16-month-old Jonathan Castillo, who died with a high fever Monday night at a Queens hospital, had contracted the H1N1 virus. The toddler’s 3-year-old sibling was treated for flulike symptoms and released.

The mayor said lack of health insurance or immigration status should not deter people who feel sick from seeking attention.

“Whether you have health insurance coverage or your immigration status is in question, it doesn’t matter,” Bloomberg said. “We will not ask about that.”

The mayor also said four inmates at a Rikers Island jail had been confirmed to have the H1N1 virus and four more are likely to have it.

The union representing the city’s correctional officers criticized the response to the swine flu outbreak among inmates and filed a letter of protest with the state Labor Department.

“If I had to design a place where you could put people who were sick and get as many people sick as possible, it’s the New York City jail,” said Richard J. Koehler, a lawyer for the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

By: Josh Barbanel

May 8, 2009 — Jerry Francesco and his wife, Lucille, have experienced the ups and downs of ordinary human life in the rarefied spaces designed by celebrity architects during the late lamented condominium construction boom in Manhattan.

Late last month, Mr. Francesco, who built and sold a business providing support services to dialysis patients, and his wife paid $7.9 million for a sprawling penthouse at the 22-story Brompton, a new red brick and limestone condominium designed by Robert A. M. Stern at East 85th Street and Third Avenue.

The apartment has five bedrooms, a maid’s room and 3,300 square feet of space in a building with an arched entrance way and a lobby with a marble floor and two landscaped interior courtyards. And to the delight of the Francescos and their lawyer, the condo comes without a private cobblestone sidewalk and driveway.

In 2005, when the real estate boom was young, the couple, who have a home in southeastern Pennsylvania, bought a condo at One Beacon Court, a new building on 58th Street and Third Avenue designed by Cesar Pelli.

The central feature of Mr. Pelli’s design was an elliptical wall of glass that wraps around an intimate cobblestone courtyard beneath a soaring 58-story skyscraper. Condos in the building sold fast, with the sponsor sometimes increasing the prices overnight. The Francescos paid $2.9 million for a two-bedroom apartment on the 42nd floor.

But less than a year later, Ms. Francesco was walking in the courtyard when she tripped over a wheelchair ramp leading from the sidewalk to a driveway. The sidewalk and the roadway were both paved with the same granite stone, and were the same color, except for a thin accent line of darker stone along the curb.

Ms. Francesco, who is in her 60s, fractured her wrist and required surgery to install a plate and screws to help the fracture heal.

The day after she fell, Mr. Francesco said, the building managers put warning signs on both sides of the curb cuts; they eventually installed large planters to prevent others from falling.

In a case that has been wending its way through federal and state court, Ms. Francesco’s lawyer, Mathew Paulose Jr. of Isaacs, Devasia, Castro & Wien LLP, has been assembling evidence in an effort to show that the developer, Steven Roth, the chairman of Vornado Realty Trust, personally selected the paving stones and intentionally put the architect’s vision and aesthetics ahead of safety. The Francescos are seeking up to $1 million in damages.

“These individuals who were trying to be masters of the universe in New York City, they don’t care about the little people,” Mr. Paulose said.

A Vornado spokesman said this version of events was “totally incorrect,” and in court papers the building blames Ms. Francesco’s own negligence for her fall.

But in a deposition, Mr. Francesco said that after his wife fell, a doorman told him he had seen people trip and stumble over the sidewalk ramp “at least once a day.” Mr. Francesco said that when he asked the building manager, Sean O’Sullivan, why nothing had been done about the ramp, he was told that “they did not want to spoil the architectural appearance of the building.”

Mr. O’Sullivan did not return a phone message left at his office.

The court record includes several memos from an engineering firm that were sent to Vornado and the Pelli firm, warning that at least several designs for the courtyard paving created a “trip hazard” and “potential liability issues relating to pedestrian safety” as long as “the sidewalk and street are the same color and material.

The case had an unusual twist that might be of interest to condominiums. After many hours of depositions and several years in federal court, the case was thrown out by Judge Lawrence M. McKenna in January. It had been brought in federal court because the primary residence of the Francescos is in Pennsylvania. But the judge found that the “citizenship” of the condominium association was in question, since the members lived in many places, including Pennsylvania.

The case was refiled in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

The Francescos sold their Beacon Court apartment last summer, before the falloff in prices, benefiting perhaps from the architectural stature of the building. They received $5.95 million for it, nearly doubling their investment.

Mr. Palouse said the couple sold because they wanted an apartment on a quieter street outside of the central business district.

Class Action Suit Says TLC’s Plan to Place GPS Tracking Software on all Taxi Meters is an Invasion of Privacy and a Violation of Taxi Drivers’ Constitutional Right to their Property

New York, September 19, 2007— The New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), which represents over 10,000 taxi drivers, held a press conference today at the office of their General Counsel, Isaacs, Devasia, Castro & Wien LLP, to announce their filing of a federal class action lawsuit against the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which seeks both a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction to block the TLC from installing a technology software program that includes GPS tracking on all New York City taxi meters. The lawsuit was filed in United States Southern District Court on behalf of NYTWA and all drivers, particularly those drivers who own their own medallions and who are most at risk to incur penalties if they refuse to comply with the TLC’s mandate. Drivers are facing a suspension of their medallions and additional fines if they refuse to sign contracts with the TLC’s chosen GPS vendors.

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Judge Orders County to Repay More Than $3 Million That Was Illegally
Withheld From Officers’ Paychecks

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East Meadow, New York, September 25, 2006 — Members of the Sheriff Officers Association (ShOA) of Nassau County, the union that represents the correction officers at the Nassau County Correctional Facility, have won a federal lawsuit brought against County Executive Thomas Suozzi for illegally and unilaterally imposing a payroll lag on correction officers in September of 2003. Union officials stated that their victory will result in the county being forced to pay back more than $3 million that was illegally withheld from their members’ paychecks.

United States District Court Judge Arthur D. Spatt found that Suozzi’s actions deprived the correction officers of their property in violation of the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and ordered the county to repay the monies withheld, which amounted to a total of 10 days of pay for each correction officer employed, taken over the course of 10 pay periods.

“We are pleased that the court agreed with our argument that the county violated our client’s rights when it unconstitutionally withheld money from their paychecks,” said Malcolm Goldstein, the union’s attorney. “Moving forward, we will continue to protect our client’s rights.”

“In an attempt to balance his budget, Suozzi knowingly made a decision to deprive us of our pay and constitutional rights,” stated ShOA President John Duer. “His actions were irresponsible and callous and clearly narrow-minded. We had every confidence the court would rule in our favor.

“It’s a shame that hard-earned taxpayer money has been spent by Nassau County on a court case to defend the illegal actions of Tom Suozzi who, as a high ranking county official, knew exactly what he was doing,” Duer added. “Someone needs to remind Suozzi that he was elected by the good people of Nassau to lead this county, not to hurt those in law enforcement who put themselves in danger everyday to protect the community. He owes us all an apology.”

The county has been directed by the court to repay the monies withheld from the members of the Sheriff Officers Association, due to the unconstitutional payroll lag policy instituted by County Executive Tom Suozzi, within 60 days of the decision, which was handed down on September 15, 2006.

The Sheriff Officers Association (ShOA) of Nassau County is the union that formed in 1999 as a result of the Nassau County correction officers’ separation from the Civil Service Employees Association. The union represents approximately 1,100 correction officers who serve at the Nassau County Correctional Facility in East Meadow to protect the safety of the public and over 1,600 inmates housed in the facility.