Deadline nears to apply for FEMA tornado aid

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RALEIGH -- Victims of the April 16 tornadoes that tore through North Carolina have until midnight

Monday to apply for federal disaster aid.
To receive grants and assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration, storm victims must apply by calling 800-621-3362 or visiting fema.gov.
Since the storms, 9,128 North Carolina victims have registered with FEMA, and the agency has doled out $15 million.

In Wake County, 2,195 people have registered, and they’ve received $1.45 million in aid. In Johnston County, 460 victims have registered and received $1.01 million.
FEMA spokesman Gene Kauffman worries that some victims are still hesitant to register. “They feel like they haven’t had much damage and they’ve got insurance,” Kauffman said. “If they’re reluctant to come forward, they should not be.”
Kauffman said victims with insurance can qualify if their policy didn’t cover all their losses. Also, registering with FEMA doesn’t affect one’s eligibility for other federal aid programs.

Coalition Issues Warning on Kids and Hot Cars

On average, 35 to 40 children across the country die from heat exposure in vehicles each year.
According to Safe Kids North Carolina, 2010 turned out to be one of the deadliest years on record for children 2 months to 6 years old with 49 hyperthermia deaths.
In the past five years, at least 10 children in North Carolina have died from hyperthermia after being trapped in hot vehicles.
Some of these deaths occur when a parent accidentally forgets a child in a car. Some occur when a parent intentionally leaves a child in a vehicle. In other cases, a child was playing in an unattended vehicle when overtaken by heat.
"Sadly, these deaths are preventable," said state Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, state chairman of Safe Kids North Carolina. "Leaving a child unattended in a car, even for a minute, is more dangerous than many people realize."
That's why Safe Kids North Carolina has launched a new safety campaign, with the slogan "S'more dangerous than you think... Never leave your child alone in a car." Safety experts show parents, caregivers and children how easy it is to bake a s'more in a vehicle to demonstrate how quickly the inside of a car can become dangerously hot.
With its soaring temperatures, July is historically the deadliest month for cases of vehicular hyperthermia in children in the state, a news release said. However, the danger spreads from March through November due to the subtropical North Carolina climate.
Hyperthermia can occur even on days with mild 70-degree temperatures. The temperature in a closed vehicle can rise about 20 degrees in 10 minutes and nearly 30 degrees in 20 minutes. Cracking a window has little effect.
Safe Kids North Carolina offers the following safety tips:
n Never leave a child alone in a vehicle. Check to make sure all children exit the vehicle when you reach your destination.
n Lock the doors when your vehicle is parked, and store keys in a secure location. Teach children that cars are not places to play.
n Busy parents have a lot on their minds, so give yourself a reminder.
Place your purse, briefcase or other important items in the backseat next to your child's car seat so you have to look in the back before leaving the car. Also, set a reminder on your cell phone or other mobile device to remind you to drop off children when routines change.
n Make an arrangement with your child's school or day care that you will be notified if your child is not dropped off at the normal time.
n If you see a child or pet left unattended in a vehicle, call 911 immediately.
n Check vehicles and trunks first if a child goes missing.
Safe Kids North Carolina reaches out to parents, caregivers and children to prevent childhood injuries through 36 Safe Kids Coalitions working in 64 counties.

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Divorce insurance: New casualty insurance pays out on the unhappily hitched

BY PAULA BURKES pburkes@opubco.com    7

Published: June 12, 2011

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Introduced in August by Kernersville, N.C.,-based SafeGuard Guaranty Corp., “WedLock” is a new type of casualty insurance that gives the unhappily married a payout after he or she is divorced.
Monthly premiums run from $15.99 for a payout of $1,250 to $3,198 ($15.99 times a maximum of 200 units) for $250,000 coverage.
To discourage people from signing up just before their divorce, policyholders must pay premiums on insured spouses for four years before the policy will pay out.
SafeGuard Chairman and CEO John Logan said the number of WedLock policyholders is growing monthly. “We don't share the numbers,” Logan said, “but it's more than a handful.”
Logan conceived the idea for Wedlock following his divorce 10 years ago.
“My finances went to hell in a handbag,” he said. “I thought I can't be the only schmuck this is happening to. That was my ‘aha' moment.”
Logan realizes most people, unless they've been divorced before, won't buy policies before they wed, because they don't anticipate divorcing. But policies, he said, may be bought discreetly by family, friends or an individual spouse after he or she weds and senses infidelity, substance abuse or other potential marriage-wrecking behaviors.
Edmond divorce attorney George Freedman is more than skeptical.
“They're playing on the fears of potentially getting a divorce,” said Freedman of Lester, Loving & Davies. “You'd be better off,” Freedman said, “contributing to a mutual fund for your child's education or a second honeymoon.”
With this insurance, he said, policyholders may “pay a whole lot of money on an investment that may never pay.”
Is it worth it?If the insured on a standard WedLock policy divorces after four years, a holder who pays $159.90 monthly for 10 units would have paid $7,675.20 in premiums and receive a claim payout out of $12,500. If the insured divorces after 10 years, the policyholder would have handed over $19,188 and would receive a payout of $27,500; insurers throw in $250 per unit for every year the marriage survives beyond four.
If policyholders desire a premium refund, including in divorces that occur sooner than four years, they can add a rider to their policies about $1 per unit, Logan said.
Though policies have no accrued value and only pay out after divorces are final, settlements under Oklahoma family law would be considered marital assets because marital money was used to pay the premiums, Freedman said.
Meanwhile, Patricia Goodman, Edmond certified financial planner and one of a few certified divorce financial analysts in the state, can see the need for divorce insurance.
“I've seen many divorcing spouses who aren't wage earners beg and plead for enough money to pay for divorces while they're pending,” Goodman said. “Divorce insurance could inspire the legal teams of such spouses to fully put in the effort needed versus wonder ‘Am I going to get stiffed?'”
“Why do we buy insurance for anything, if it's not to protect against devastating financial loss?”
Locally, divorces cost $5,000 to $10,000 per each divorcing spouse, Freedman said. They easily can be $20,000, $30,000 and more apiece for contested divorces involving child custody, he said.

Read more: http://newsok.com/divorce-insurance-new-casualty-insurance-pays-out-on-the-unhappily-hitched/article/3576463#ixzz1PDUUfyAk

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NC General Assembly Strips Patients' Rights, Leaves All North Carolinians at Risk,

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RALEIGH, N.C., June 10, 2011 -- /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The NC General Assembly on

Thursday approved rules that strip away patients' rights, said the NC Advocates for Justice, and leave everyone less safe.
Among its provisions, SB33 imposes a one-size-fits-all cap on damages in malpractice cases resulting in mutilation, loss of limbs, blindness and other preventable injuries.
The bill - sponsored by Sens. Tom Apodaca, Harry Brown and Bob Rucho - passed after a conference report diluted measures inserted by the NC House to somewhat protect patients' rights.  The House had moved to exempt disfigurement, death, permanent injury and loss of use of the body from the arbitrary $500,000 cap.  
The conference report kept the exemption in name only -- requiring the injured person to prove the party in the wrong acted with gross negligence, reckless indifference, malice, fraud, or intentional conduct.  For all practical purposes, most patients could not prove those things and would not fall under a cap exception.
"The bottom line is that a person who is disfigured or has lost the use of limb will not be able to recover more than an arbitrary amount for those injuries except in extremely unlikely circumstances," said Dick Taylor of the NCAJ.  "The GOP-led vote is a boon to insurance companies, an injustice to injured patients and a danger to everyone who seeks care."
The one-size-fits-all cap will benefit corporations such as insurance companies, Taylor added, some of which are openly boasting of record profits.
Unconstitutional Cap
Two conservative former NC Supreme Court justices have said the arbitrary cap would violate the sacred rights of North Carolinians. Former Chief Justice I. Beverly Lake Jr., a conservative icon, called the proposed cap "unnecessary as well as unconstitutional."
Doctors, too, are troubled by the bill's lack of fairness.  In a letter to lawmakers, Dr. John Faulkner, a physician who's wife was burned in a preventable operating room fire, wrote, "No one can put a 'cap' on my wife's pain and disfigurement - so how can the legislature put a cap on what it's worth? … Why do you think it's fairer for legislators to decide, rather than juries?"
Dr. Martin Brooks, an award-winning physician with a career spanning 50 years, has advised legislators that an arbitrary cap on damages for severely injured patients "will reduce the quality of medical care given to the people of North Carolina."
For more information, please visit www.LetJuriesDecide.com.  Follow our news on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/NCLawandPolitics.
SOURCE NC Advocates for Justice

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/10/3691040/nc-general-assembly-strips-patients.html#ixzz1OyVdaOLe