Free Republic

Retired FDNY Lt. John McLaughlin probably should be paying taxpayers for his remarkable fitness as a top long-distance runner, given his years of strenuous work as a firefighter. Instead, as The Post's Carl Campanile reported yesterday, the 55-year-old "Iron Man" triathlete is collecting an $86,000 disability pension from taxpayers. No wonder New Yorkers are increasingly fed up with public employees, as a fascinating poll last week found. Since retiring in 2001, McLaughlin has run numerous marathons and other races, often finishing near the top -- and first or second in his age group. He's "an incredibly fast runner," a fellow...

<p>Retired FDNY Lt. John McLaughlin has literally run off with a fat, tax exempted disability pension - despite being known as "Iron Man" in the Long Island hometown where he regularly trains and competes as a triathlete, The Post has learned.</p>

While Michigan abortionist Dr. Abraham Alberto Hodari has admitted that he forcibly restrained a patient in order to continue with an abortion procedure when the patient wanted him to stop, he maintained that “it was the best option given the circumstances.” “The assertion that I forced this woman to have an abortion she didn’t want is outrageous,” Hodari said. “I don’t go into the streets to kidnap women so I can abort their babies. They come to me of their own volition.” “To allow a patient to change her mind in the midst of the procedure would be too risky,”...

John Huff/Staff photographer Rochester residents Ellen Edgerly, left, and her daughter Sara. ROCHESTER — A few years back, hundreds of bikers gathered in Representatives Hall in Concord to protest a proposed helmet law. Ellen Edgerly, 51, an advocate with the state's Brain Injury Association, was sitting in the middle of the room, a lone voice in a sea of leather and wild beards, when a lawmaker asked if anyone supported the change. "She stood up, passed all of these tough guys, and testified about brain injury and what it means," says Steven Wade, the association's executive director. "It took...

After 20 years with the New York Fire Department, he’s just been awarded a $95,000-a-year lifetime disability pension — amounting to three-fourths of his annual salary, free of state and local taxes — because of a heart ailment. State law, you see, generally presumes that any police officer or firefighter who suffers heart problems must be doing so as a result of his or her work. But Neil Coplan isn’t a firefighter. He’s never fought a fire — and, by most accounts, scarcely ever visited a fire scene. Coplan is a doctor — the FDNY’s chief cardiologist, in fact. Yet,...

TRAGEDY OF THE GIRL WHO CAN ONLY MOVE HER EYES By Tony Brooks A HEALTHY, fun-loving young woman has been struck down by a rare illness that left her ­paralysed from the neck down, only able to communicate by moving her eyes. Pretty Mia Austin, 21, went to bed as normal three months ago but woke up in the night and ­collapsed with a stroke. Doctors feared she would not make it through the night but, although she survived, she has become a prisoner in her own body. She has been diagnosed with Locked-In Syndrome, which experts describe as “the...

‘Every failure’ a step to success Born without limbs KUWAIT CITY, Feb 15: “Never give up, even after repeated failures, because each failure means a step closer to success,” says a man who had every reason to give up on life. Nick Vujicic was born without limbs and once contemplated suicide during his childhood out of frustration at his seemingly helpless situation, but thought better of it after realizing the guilt, pain and suffering it would bring his parents. He has since learned to deal with those circumstances and is now a sought after motivational speaker across subjects such as...

http://www.newsleader.com/article/20100222/NEWS01/2220318

n an interview with TPM, state Del. Bob Marshall (R-VA) disputed the full accuracy and context of a local news article that quoted him as saying that an increase of disabled children was a punishment from nature for abortion. "I don't believe that disabled kids are God's punishments, period, end of discussion," said Marshall. "I have defended disabled kids. I was almost kicked out of the Republican caucus because I forced a vote on a bill, because autism parents did not get a vote in a subcommittee." Marshall insisted that his comments had been taken out of context. (Here's the...

Family Guy joke a kick in the gut: Palin Updated 1 hour 55 minutes ago Disappointed: Sarah Palin said the Family Guy spoof was "another kick in the gut" (AFP Photo: Robyn Beck, file photo) RELATED STORY: Critics see writing on the hand for Palin RELATED STORY: Palin tells Obama to 'play the war card' Sarah Palin, the former US vice-presidential candidate, is used to finding herself the brunt of jokes but her humour snapped when animated TV show Family Guy appeared to mock her son who has Down syndrome. The Palin family have called the creators of the show...

True love, hope and family surmount disability By Theresa Harrington Contra Costa Times Posted: 02/11/2010 01:38:09 PM PST WALNUT CREEK — Little girls dream of finding true love, marrying and living happily ever after. Christi Hockel was no exception. The youngest of six, she watched her older siblings find mates. She caught bouquets at their weddings and yearned for the day when she would have her own magnificent ceremony. "I kept saying, 'Boy, I wish I had a husband who loves me,'" said Christi, 31. Her family and friends were not so sure her dreams would come true because Christi...

Former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Monday called for President Obama to fire his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, because of an offensive comment he reportedly made. At an August strategy session of liberal groups and White House aides, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, Emanuel told liberals they were "F-ing retarded" for planning to air attack ads against conservative Democrats opposed to health care reform. Palin, whose youngest child has Down Syndrome, said in a Facebook note that "our president is doing himself a disservice by seeming to condone Rahm's recent sick and offensive tactic." "I would...

Its new film The Princess and The Frog features a black princess, but Disney has still been criticised for its alleged lack of diversity. Disney has been praised for breaking down barriers by featuring its first black princess in the film The Princess and The Frog. Oona King, who was Gordon Brown's senior policy adviser on equalities and diversity, is not satisfied, however. "You never see disabled people," the former Labour MP complained to Mandrake at a screening at the Mayfair Hotel in London. "When are you going to see a Disney film with a disabled character in the lead...

Given the protections of the ADA and the FMLA, there is no need to hesitate to disclose your bipolar condition to your employer. Federal Law gives you a legal right to request reasonable changes in your workplace that will enable you to perform your job duties and to request time off when you are actively suffering the symptoms of bipolar. Does this mean that you have the right to call off sick with a bad mood?

When assisted suicide is legalised most of the people who will die are disabled. And American disability advocates take a very dim view of it. This is the theme of a hard-hitting series of articles in the latest issue of the Disability and Health Journal. The editor, Suzanne McDermott, of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, writes that she changed her own mind after studying the issue. At first she believed that assisted suicide was solely a personal autonomy issue. But eventually she was persuaded that it is at the heart of the movement for disability rights: "Almost...

Facebook can be a double-edged sword, a Canadian woman learned when an insurance company cut her health benefits, claiming she was healthy after seeing pictures of her smiling in a bikini at the beach. Nathalie Blanchard, 29, took long-term sick leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, more than a year ago for severe depression. She was receiving monthly benefits from her insurance company, Manulife. When Ms. Blanchard called Manulife to inquire why the payments dried up, the insurance company said that "I'm available to work, because of Facebook," she told CBC television. She said that Manulife cited...

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California tax officials say an interior designer's false disability claim was uncovered when he was spotted on a home improvement television show. Fifty-six-year-old Ronald Hunt of Los Angeles was sentenced Tuesday to 200 hours of community service and ordered to pay more than $180,000 in restitution, unpaid taxes and fines. He pleaded guilty to two felony counts of fraud.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints needs a more systematic, comprehensive approach to understanding, supporting and spiritually feeding children with disabilities, five moms said Friday. Fellow Mormons routinely look away from the disabled, especially those with autism, the moms said during a Sunstone Symposium session in Salt Lake City. They tend to talk down to all such children, even when the disability does not involve mental capacity. They proffer religious platitudes about how parents of special needs children must have earned the assignment by good behavior. It doesn't have to be that way, the women said. -SNIP-About...

Italian authorities said a woman who collected a state disability pension by claiming she was a complete invalid was caught jogging with her dog. Police in the city of Monteforte Irpino said the 62-year-old woman was being monitored by police for some time before her arrest July 29. She had been repeatedly seen jogging with her dog and tilling land on her farm, ANSA reported Wednesday. The woman, who had received a state disability pension as well as state support for a personal caregiver, was charged with fraud.

"Something's wrong with this baby," my ultrasound technician told me. She had just scanned Mrs. Jones (a fictitious name) at 20 weeks and went on to describe her findings, findings that surely meant little chance of survival for that baby. As I later spoke with Mrs. Jones to relay the findings, she wept. I arranged an appointment with a maternal-fetal medicine (MFM) specialist. The next day I received an urgent call from my patient. Through more tears, she described her visit in which the MFM doctor confirmed the grim prognosis. The baby would die, probably within a week or two....