Safety:


Boaters must take safety seriously
Drayton Valley Western Review Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:53 AM PDT
With the amount of rain we've had over the summer, boating and water safety become a concern for emergency services and Transport Canada to ensure that users are utilizing the proper safety measures.

Man warned over 'sailing blind' yacht off Dorset
BBC News
A sailor has been warned by coastguards after he left his yacht to "sail blind" while he worked below deck. Another yacht had to alter course to avoid ...

Boise man pleads guilty in Payette Lake boating deaths
NorthWest Cable News Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:10 AM PDT
CASCADE, Idaho -- A Boise man has pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors after the boat he was piloting struck rocks in Payette Lake last August leading to the deaths of two of his passengers. Ronald Stevens was at the helm of a ski boat carrying eight adults and four children when it hit rocks, capsized and sank. Stevens had been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of ... 

Former Mason City mayor charged with drunken boating
Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:31 AM PDT
CLEAR LAKE -- Former Mason City Mayor Roger Bang was chargedwith boating while intoxicated Tuesday night. 

Boat's safety under scrutiny after novice goes missing in Long Island Sound
The Journal News | LoHud.com
It listed sharply and Curran and the instructor were thrown from the boat. The instructor managed to get back on board and threw a flotation cushion into ...
Education:
 
Boaters have class
Big Bear Grizzly
It's boating season on Big Bear Lake and the Coast Guard Auxiliary wants boaters to be safe. The Auxiliary offers another boating safety course Aug. 7. ...

Fatalities:


Coast Guard searches for NY boater after squall
WCAX
AP - July 26, 2010 9:25 AM ET LARCHMONT, NY (AP) - A boat and helicopter search is continuting for a man who fell off his sailboat in the Long Island Sound ...

FWC testing Carlson's blood alcohol level in connection with boating fatality
Highlands Today Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:26 AM PDT
Highlands County commissioner Jeff Carlson, his wife, Julie, his brother-in-law and Sebring City Manager Scott Noethlich, and sister-in-law, Annie, had been boating and consuming alcohol all day before the boating accident Saturday night that killed Julie Carlson, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report. 

Lightning strike kills boater near Sarnia
CBC.ca
An Ohio man is dead after his boat was struck by lightning near Lake St. Clair. Benn Strong, 41, of Ravenna, Ohio, was boating with family and friends in ...

Lightning strikes boater during Sunday storms
Inside NoVA
Fire crews were called to help another boater in distress on the river during Sunday's storms, this one off the shores of Charles County, Md., ...

Boater charged in friend's death
St. Tammany News Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:40 PM PDT
The boater who was at the helm in May when his good friend fell overboard and died has been charged with negligent homicide. 

Boater Killed by Propeller
NBC 15 Mobile Mon, 26 Jul 2010 22:00 PM PDT
A man is dead after authorities say he fell from his ski boat near Ono Island and was then struck by its propeller when the vessel was accidentally backed over...

Baton Rouge man dies in boating accident in Alabama
WAFB Baton Rouge Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:43 AM PDT
A Baton Rouge man was killed in a boating accident Monday while vacationing with his family in Alabama. He died after getting sucked under the boat while on the water near Orange Beach. 

Charges filed after teen drowns in Lake St. Louis
Belleville News Democrat
KMOX Radio reports that the boat's operator, 23-year-old David Wells of Wentzville, is charged with boating while intoxicated. It wasn't immediately clear ...

Edmonton man lost to B.C. lake
The Edmonton Sun via Yahoo! Canada News Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:19 PM PDT
A day and a half search for a missing Edmonton man who fell off a houseboat in the Shuswap Lake region of B.C. has yielded nothing, according to Sicamous RCMP. 




Fires:


Houseboat catches fire and sinks in lake
Palladium-Item Tue, 27 Jul 2010 05:00 AM PDT
Two people escaped injury Saturday when the 1970 houseboat they were riding in caught fire and burned in the Brookville Lake.

Other Accidents:


Two rescued from overturned sailboat in Ocean View
The Virginian-Pilot
Two people were rescued from an overturned sailboat in Norfolk on Sunday at about 8:30 pm near the intersection of Ocean View and Cape View avenues. .

Boat capsizes, US men rescued
Windsor Star
The Canadian Coast Guard said a private sailboat was also on the scene, its operators being the first to spot the to men.
  
Yacht sinks off Haulover Beach
7Online WSVN-TV
(WSVN) -- A captain who went out to sea on a yacht returned to dock in a dingy after getting a "sinking feeling." Late Monday afternoon, it still remained a ...

Jet Ski hits house boat
The Daily Advance Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:00 PM PDT
State Wildlife officials are investigating a weekend accident in which a Jet Ski struck an anchored houseboat on Tulls Bay in Currituck County.


Boat crashes into U.S. 321 bridge support
Lenoir News-Topic Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:34 AM PDT
A boating accident on the Catawba River at the U.S. 321 bridge seriously injured two people. 

North Fork Man Charged With BWI After Boat Crash
Long Island Press Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:18 AM PDT
A 26-year-old Mattituck man was arrested for drunken boating after he crashed his vessel in Southold Bay on Sunday night, Shelter Island Town Police said. James Pape was driving his boat with one friend onboard when the vessel crashed into a beach south of Jennings Point on the northwest tip of the island and landed [...] 

Police: Drunken boater hits luxury yacht in Marina Bay
The Patriot Ledger Tue, 27 Jul 2010 06:25 AM PDT
Environmental Police arrested Michael Gill, 56, of Leicester, Friday night after he allegedly skippered his 30-foot cruiser into an 80-foot yacht docked at Marina Bay. Gill is charged with drunken boating. 

Man runs boat aground at yacht club; arrested for boating while intoxicated
WRGB Albany Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:43 AM PDT
COEYMANS -- Police arrested a Feura Bush man Sunday night while responding to an accident in which a boat ran aground at the Tri-City Yacht Club

19-Year-Old Charged with Leaving the Scene of a Boating Accident
WGRZ-TV
Bemus Point, NY - 19 year old, Peter J. Saunders was charged with leaving the scene of a boat accident after a lengthy investigation by the Chautauqua ...


Naples man injured in Bonita Springs boat explosion arrested
Naples Daily News
By www.naplesnews.com A Naples man who was the passenger on a boat that exploded early Tuesday in Bonita Springs was arrested after fish and wildlife ...

 Sailor rescued in Saugatuck near death
HollandSentinel.com
Joe Brockington stands next to his sailboat. He was found unconscious in the boat on Saturday, July 10. By JIM HAYDEN Joe Brockington remembers putting the ...

And so it begins…

Justice Department declares war on doctors

In a landmark Idaho case, the Justice Department forced a group of doctors to accept government price controls. 

Today the Antitrust Division, joined by Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, forced a a group of Boise orthopedists to accept price controls for worker’s compensation and HMO contracts as part of a settlement accusing the doctors of “price fixing”:

According to the complaint, the conspiring orthopedists engaged in two antitrust conspiracies, which took place from 2006 to 2008. In the first conspiracy, through a series of meetings and other communications, the orthopedists agreed not to treat most patients covered by workers’ compensation insurance.

They entered into a group boycott in order to force the Idaho Industrial Commission to increase the rates at which orthopedists were paid for treating injured workers. The Idaho Industrial Commission sets the fee schedule that determines the amount that orthopedists and other healthcare providers usually receive for treating patients covered by workers’ compensation insurance. The boycott resulted in a shortage of orthopedists willing to treat workers’ compensation patients, causing higher rates for orthopedic services.

and these following examples of evidence the Obama/Holder administration lives in a perpetual and frightening Orwellian echo chamber:

First, until now the Federal Trade Commission, not the Justice Department, has taken the lead in prosecuting physicians. Since 2000, the FTC has brought about three dozen cases against physicians (all but one of which settled without any trial). But the FTC only has civil and administrative jurisdiction; the Antitrust Division has civil and criminal jurisdiction. The Sherman Act makes no distinction between civil and criminal “price fixing,” so in a case like this, it’s entirely a matter of prosecutorial discretion whether to charge the doctors with a civil or criminal offense.

Based on the descriptions in the Antitrust Division’s press release, there’s certainly no reason they couldn’t have prosecuted the doctors criminally and insisted upon prison sentences — and there’s little doubt such threats were made or implied to obtain the physicians’ agreement to the proposed “settlement.”

The second reason this is a landmark case is that the Justice Department has unambiguously stated that refusal to accept government price controls is a form of illegal “price fixing.”

The FTC has hinted at this when it’s said physicians must accept Medicare-based reimbursement schedules from insurance companies. But the DOJ has gone the final step and said, “Government prices are market prices,” in the form of the Idaho Industrial Commission’s fee schedule. The IIC administers the state’s worker compensation system and is composed of three commissioners appointed by the governor. This isn’t a quasi-private or semi-private entity. It’s a purely government operation.

From the Doc Is In blog:

To say this action is chilling is a profound understatement: the implications of this settlement are nothing less than the erosion and ultimate destruction of our current system of providing health care in this country.

At first glance, this appears to be a legitimate attack on a price-fixing scheme by physicians to increase their income. The reality is far more sinister.

The Justice Department, in cooperation with the Idaho State Attorney General, brought suit against the physicians under the Sherman Antitrust Act. Passed in 1890, it was designed to prevent collusion by Standard Oil and other oil companies to raise prices by creating monopolies or cartels. The Act and its application has been controversial since day one, and it has morphed over the years to address real or perceived commercial malfeasance far removed from its original intent.

The case against the physicians in Idaho represents a tectonic shift in the way government deals with the physicians they pay.

Hat Tip: American Digest