OUTRAGE HAS POWER

The power of public criticism does work. Two examples just today; The Mayor's "press release" has disappeared from the city "site".

The other was of great interest to me since it concerned my alma mater; University of Virginia: About three weeks ago the Board of Visitors (Governors) appointed by the Governor since it is a State University abruptly and without explanation "fired" the University President who had only be in office a little over two years.

There was an immediate unanimous expression of outrage from the faculty as well as from the student body as well as the alumni. That included emails from Faculty leaders to alumni as well as from former members of the Board of Visitors condemning the lack of openness and the following of Due Process before the Board had taken its action. There was a belated email and press release from the University Rector (the Chairperson of the Board of Visitors) leading to the Boards action explaining her reasoning .

As the public expression of disapproval increased, the Governor threatend to remove the Board if it did not come up with a definitive action with explanation by this Thursday.

The result, last night ,Tuesday, the Board of Visitors met and unanimously rescinded its action restoring President Sullivan into her office. It is noteworthy that in the interim the Vice Rector and another member of the Board had resigned.

INFORMATION SITE

Despite the fact that the 4th Ward Town Hall Council meeting Tuesday the 26th did not merit any mention on the City Site this appeared Tuesday.

UNION COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT SAYS PLAINFIELD CITY COUNCIL VIOLATED MAYOR’S RIGHTS

PLAINFIELD - On May 25, 2012, Union County Superior Court Judge, Karen M. Cassidy, A.J.S.C., ruled in favor of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and denied the Plainfield City Council’s Motion to Dismiss Mayor Robinson-Briggs’ lawsuit.

“I am pleased that The Honorable Judge Cassidy recognized the fact that the City Council violated my rights. I hope in the future, the City Council will afford me the opportunity to be heard on matters of public importance,” said Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs. ( link to this press release)

PRESS RELEASE
June 25, 2012
For Immediate Release
UNION COUNTY SUPERIOR COURT SAYS PLAINFIELD CITY COUNCIL VIOLATED MAYOR’S RIGHTS
PLAINFIELD - On May 25, 2012, Union County Superior Court Judge, Karen M. Cassidy, A.J.S.C., ruled in favor of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs and denied the Plainfield City Council’s Motion to Dismiss Mayor Robinson-Briggs’ lawsuit.
“I am pleased that The Honorable Judge Cassidy recognized the fact that the City Council violated my rights. I hope in the future, the City Council will afford me the opportunity to be heard on matters of public importance,” said Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs.
In denying the Motion, Judge Cassidy ruled that the imposition of the $200.00 fine was a violation of the Mayor’s right to Due Process under the law.
Mayor Robinson-Briggs added, “The governing body took my good intentions and used them for their political gain.”
Robinson-Briggs added, “The Union County Prosecutors Office found nothing criminal in my effort to establish a gang truce that ultimately saved lives.”

I fault the Administration for using the municipal information Internet site for its own propaganda use.

I will hope that the Council will post the Judge's ruling since I am not sure that which has been posted has not been taken out of context and the decision was not entirely something else. My blog is open.

Another question; Although when the budget was passed I did not remember any funding for a Public Information position. There was additional funding for IT for needed part time specialists.

"Media" was given its own lines in the budget and I thought that would be for the video and cable purposes. I did not think there was enough funding for filling a vacant position. Obviously I must be in error, although I hate to admit that.

The heading on the press release reads:
CITY OF PLAINFIELD
PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER
DIVISION OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS
(address stuff)
Terry West

Where in the TO is this Division?
Addendum 9:30: Check this link Mayor Misuses City Resources Once Again to read Councilor Williams' take on the press release.

I regret that I had other commitments and did not attend last night's Town Hall Meeting.

THE SUPREME COURT & MY BLOG

A reader asked why I had not opined on immigration.

I did reply that I had, but since as of Jun. 25,12 I have made 2323 postings in this blog since Feb. 2008 that even though I can isolate most that mentioned immigrants it would be too time consuming to review all.

Likewise over the years I have posted many times on the subject of Health Care. This included a review in 2008-9 of the systems in many other countries.

In June 2009 I made at least 3 posts on the subject; one was on June 19 “HEALTH CARE #1 If the link works try it. The sidebar should list others that month.

On Feb. 19 this year I ended a post as follows: “health care has become a business and must be treated as one.” That is the difference between the practice of medicine in the Golden Age of the 60s and today.

I will wait until after the Supreme Court releases its decision on Thursday and perhaps have time to absorb the various Justice’s opinions. There will without doubt be more than one affirmative and dissenting opinion on this monumental act.

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THIS AND THAT

I have two hanging flower baskets on my front porch. Up to a week ago both were in full bloom, but suddenly the one near the door lost all of its flowers. Yet the foliage remained verdant and full.

When I went to look at the plant a Robin suddenly flew out of it. It had just built a nest. I guess home is where you nest.

The Supreme Court’s session will end Thursday; then is when it expected to release its decision on Obama Care. It is my bet that except for the mandatory health insurance requirement tha5t it will uphold almost all provisions of that law.

Monday the Court threw out most of the Arizona immigrant’s law. “By a vote of 6-2, the court voided a provision making it a state crime for an immigrant to fail to carry federal registration papers. By 5-3 votes, it invalidated sections that authorized jail time for illegal immigrants who seek work in Arizona and that gave state and local police more power to arrest immigrants suspected of offenses.

Arizona's one victory came in the court's decision to uphold the status-check provision. Federal law already requires immigration authorities to respond to checks from state and local officers, indicating that Congress saw nothing wrong with such "consultation" between arms of government, the court said” Wall Street Journal story.

Locally; tonight at 7PM is the Council’s 4^th Ward Town Hall meeting at the Jefferson School. There is no mention of the meeting on the City site except on the Calendar where it notes that the location is the old Jefferson School on Myrtle Ave. 

However at the Council meeting the location was announced as at the “new” Jefferson School on West Front Street. Take your choice. 

You will note that there is a difference in type size in parts of this blog which I cannot explain. I write it in Word 7 using Veranda 14. 

When I copy it to post in the blog the "article" is all the one font and one size, yet when posted there is the variations you see. Who has a good explanation? 

0.09

The ball game ended at 11:30. Once again the Mets' bullpen blew it. That noted at this late hour I thought to give some info regarding the breathalyzer testing without going into detail about the different types.

In New Jersey if you get arrested for a DUI, you must take a Breathalyzer test. When you get your license in New Jersey, you give consent for this test, known as "implied consent." If you refuse to take a Breathalyzer test, you will be detained and brought to a hospital where hospital staff may draw blood. Without that "implied consent" the procedure of having blood drawn at the hospital would be a violation of the 5th Amendment;" nor shall be compelled to be a witness against himself".

If you refuse a Breathalyzer test, you will face the same loss of driving privileges as a DUI offense. But, I am not sure what the charge is. Unless there is obvious impairment DUI can not be proven.

I have no knowledge how the decision about impaired judgment and/or function at certain blood levels were established. Whether the 0.08 level represented a mean above which all individuals exhibited symptoms or it picked as the upper limit of normalcy because no one exhibited difficulty at that level.

However the American Medical Association says that a person can become impaired when the blood alcohol level hits 0.05

For many years, the legal standard for drunkenness across the United States was 0.10, but many states have now adopted the 0.08 standard. The federal government has pushed states to lower the legal limit. If a person's BAC measures 0.08, it means that there are 0.08 grams of alcohol per 100 ml of blood.

Research indicates that breath tests can vary at least 15% from actual blood alcohol concentration. An estimated 23% of individuals tested will have a BAC reading higher than their true BAC. Police in Victoria, Australia, use breathalyzers that give a recognized 20% tolerance on readings. Noel Ashby, former Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner (Traffic & Transport), claims that this tolerance is to allow for different body types.

None the less; the law is definitive and does not provide for cognitive and motor testing for those that just are above the 0.08 level although there may be some abnormalities in the actual level.

The Chief, if there cannot be proven to be any improprieties in the testing, and ambient temperatures have been known to affect readings as well as the training of the test administrator, is guilty by the law. It is sad but it matters not if the reading is 0.09 or 0.16.

The other question that cannot be answered is; was the Chief a subject of profiling? At 1 am it would be hard to determine by a patrolman if the driver of a car was a young adult or an older black woman; groups that surrounding forces are notorious for stopping for various moving vehicle offenses.

As I wrote before the fact that at an early morning hour if there was no traffic at a green light in the left turn lane and no cars being passed on the right the driving through on the left turn lane was just nit-picking

Since there was plenty of time between New York Ave and New Market Road for the officer to stop the violating vehicle, that action must have precipitated the stop.

I am sure that the news media which jumped on this “criminal” event can supply us with further details which led to the Chief’s arrest.

NOTE: In these two blogs I do not intend to judge or condemn Chief Tidwell; I consider him to be a most competent sincere professional and an invaluable asset to the community. I only wish that I could feel the same about others in various levels of authority and responsibility of all segments of our city governance.

I urge all not to adjudge him until all facts are known, and consider if it could under some possible not propable circumstance be you.
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BAD LUCK

The weekend is not the time for a blogger to write serious stuff unless it is an urgency/emergency since most have better things to do than read a blog. This weekend will be no exception.

None the less the news Friday of Fire Chief's Tidwell being stopped for DUI in South Plainfield early Wednesday morning about 1am can not escape comment.

Like everyone else, my knowledge of the circumstances is only 3rd person from reading the Courier. My first impression was that he was just plain unlucky. The breath analyzer gave a reading of 0.09 when 0.08 is the legal upper limit for operating a vehicle.

That is just like a running backs heel hitting the edge of the sideline chalk briefly while running 80 yards for a touchdown, only to have the ball placed back on the 10yard line.

Don't misunderstand; the law is the law and 0.9 means legally under the influence.That is a statistical level set to provide a legal guide line.

However there are many whose metabolism makes them more susceptible than others. Someone whose reading would be 0.07 may have less control of his operational facilities than one with the 0.09 reading.

If at 1 am in the morning with no oncoming traffic one might be tempted to ride in the middle of the street or even be close to the double line that it would be easy to stray over. In Tidwell's case what is not noted is how great was the distance between the two violations that suggested lack of control of the car.

South Plainfield Lt. Kevin Murtagh said in a statement."The vehicle then traveled straight in a marked left-turn lane" near New Market Avenue.”

I wonder under the same circumstances with no cars on the road at an intersection where there is a left turn lane at 1 am how many of us have not moved into the through lane?

Yes the Chief was unlucky to have caught the attention of a vigilant Police Officer, but if the Breath Analyzer was accurate and the test administered properly that even though the result was only 0.01% over the limit, by law the charge of DUI must stand.

Ahead are two interesting actions. The first is of course the legal process; the second is how the City handles the possible violation.

PLEASANT MEMORY DAY

As a relief from the turmoil of Plainfield politics and the heat wave, I have decided to recall some vignettes from my years of medical practice starting in 1946.

First, to set the stage; I had taken over my Fathers practice which he started in 1911 and was using his office and home.

The self-contained medical building or offices are a post war innovation. As was common in those days, the office occupied a portion of our house, on the corner of Fourth and Grant. A porch had been enclosed and was the waiting room. A new entrance had been built on 4^th St. and there was a small entryway between the waiting room and the consultation room, which you entered from the upper left. A door at the far end of this room led to a hall, which was closed off, from the living quarters by two doors. You turned right down the short hall and entered the examination room, which had formerly been a kitchen. An old outside pantry and rear entry had been converted in the toilet etc. facility. In essence, this was like a “railroad flat”.

Most of my practice consisted mostly of blue-collar families. Many were of Italian, Polish, or Irish extraction. In those days, my practice as with almost every doctor in those days was not specialized and included pediatrics, obstetrics, minor surgery as well as medicine. Even those who called themselves Surgeons treated patients for medical conditions.

In the 40s and 50s, there were a large number of area residents who were commuting to New York from the station on Grant Avenue. Many were patients and all too frequently, someone would ring the office bell before 7 o'clock in the morning. They wanted to see the doctor before catching their train. It did not matter whether I was asleep or not, they were awake.

Before the war, it was not customary for doctors to have female help, but I soon felt I should have a nurse. I put her small desk and filing cabinet for the patient’s records in the entry hall by the door. I hired a delightful young RN from the Hospital for $48.00 a week! (gasoline was 17 cents a gallon-so that would be about $950.00 in today’s dollars).

One day a young girl and her mother came rushing into the office. The girl while using the slicing machine in the family deli on Grant Ave. between 2^nd and third had cut off the extreme tip of a finger. The mother stayed in the waiting room while I, assisted by the nurse, repaired the wound. When I went to tell the mother that everything would be okay, I found her lying on the floor. She had fainted. She was a greater problem then her daughter.

One of my patients was a young black man, who with his wife later became very active in city political life. In the late 40s he had pneumonia which I treated with antibiotics. After examining in the office, I had discharged him as cured. When he left, there were no other patients in the waiting room; I remained sitting at my desk with the door to the reception area ajar. The outside door opened and this young man reentered, and knowing that I could hear said to my nurse. "I forgot to ask the doctor if I could play the clarinet now.” I called out "of course you can". "That's funny", he said,” I never could before". I had fallen for an old saw and started laughing. Fifty years later, and Clem and I were still laughing at this joke.

Once I told the patient, who was not following my advice or taking his medication, that unless he did as I recommended he was wasting his money and my time. He never came back Twenty years later when he reappeared in my office with a serious illness. He told me that he had been afraid to come back since he was not complying with his treatment, and had seen other doctors. Because he felt that I was a superior physician, he had swallowed his pride and sought my help. He continued under my care for several years.

Among my patients was a family with two young boys. The older one had developed ileitis. I had referred the family to a GI specialist at Mt Sinai in NYC; however, his case had not only been missed diagnosed by them as ulcerative colitis but the treatment had resulted in a demanding invalid. The younger boy was uncontrollable, probably because his brother was receiving so much attention. One day he and his mother were in my consultation room, when I looked up and noticed that he had not only opened the door to the entry area, but had tied the window drapes pull cords to the to the door knob. He was getting ready to slam the door closed when I stopped him. I do not think mother even scolded him.

One Italian family had several daughters. The eldest had severe mitral regurgitation a complication of Rheumatic Fever itself a complication of Scarlet Fever. Ultimately the heart failure from that after many years proved fatal. Fortunately due to antibiotics Scarlet Fever as not seen anymore and that dangerous complication of Rheumatic Fever would probably never seen or be recognized by today’s doctors.

One of the other daughters was very obnoxious and nosey. Her younger naive sister, who 50 years later still sends me a Christmas card, was able to conceal her several months pregnancy when married.

I was her obstetrician. A little over five months after the wedding towards the end of her 7^th month, she phoned me hysterically complaining of severe pains in her stomach. I immediately made a house call and had her transported to the hospital in active labor. The baby boy weighed about 3 pounds and ultimately suffered from a hearing loss. He, himself, is now a grandfather. Her older sister questioned me whether I thought that the baby had come too soon after marriage, i.e.: questioning if her sister had been pregnant before the wedding. I pointed out that the baby’s size showed he was premature which satisfied her curiosity.

Incidently my wife and were honored to be invited to her wedding.

Then there was Irish foundry worker who developed severs urinary retention as the result of an enlarged prostate. Although in sever pain he walked about six miles from Hoes in Dunellen to my office. I had the Hospital ambulance transport him to the hospital for the Urologist to treat. That particular surgery was crude and brutal in those days. There was a prolonged period of recovery often complicated by urinary tract infection.

These are just a few funny and pleasant memories of years gone by. By the way that office had no AC until in the 50s when I bought one Carrier winow unit that kept the whole office comfortable.