The designer of the troubled fix for the sinking and tilting Millennium Tower recently briefed city officials about an especially unpleasant potential byproduct of the building’s settlement – sewer backups, NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit has learned.

“Sewer lines must slope (minimum of 1/8” per foot) to enable efficient flow of material,” Ron Hamburger stated in an email to city officials in late August. He identified at-risk drains that currently slope south and east – going against the current northwest tilt – saying those lines “will experience decreased slope and may become a problem.”

The sewer system alert was part of an assessment of the building’s “functionality” since the building tilted another five inches during work that began in May on the so-called fix. That project is currently on hold pending testing and analysis of what triggered the unexpected, accelerated settlement.

Hamburger told city officials that experts are assessing the strain on vertical pipes due to the tilting, while engineers have found no signs of “distress” in the elevator system.

With the building now tilting 22 inches to the west, experts predict the sewer problem will get worse, as the tilting has flattened the angle of some drain lines by as much as 25 percent.

Already, drains in the third floor owner’s lounge kitchen are experiencing “some plugging,” Hamburger said in his email summary to city officials, and now must be “maintained with periodic chemical flushing.”

“It may be necessary to adjust this and other lines to re-establish slope” Hamburger noted in a presentation he gave to city officials.

“There’s an issue of not having enough slope or too much slope, you can have problems either way,” says Mark Savel, an architect and contractor with three decades’ experience of analyzing building failures, like the 2015 Berkeley balcony collapse.

“You can expect a clog or the system to back up — that’s why the existing system should be inspected and monitored,” Savel says.

In the meantime, residents risk losing entire wood floors and walls given the health hazard associated with any massive backups, Savel says. He adds, the risk is especially high when people use the system at once.

“Those days when you have the house full of people, celebrate a holiday or have a special occasion,” he says, “that’s the day you end up calling Roto-Rooter. Because the system you have is being put to the ultimate test.”

Savel says building managers should first order a video inspection of all the lines with an eye to identify immediate risks and long-term problems.

Any final fix, he says, which would mean adjusting the level of hundreds of pipes to allow for proper flow, should await a full stabilization of the sinking and tilting structure.

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California regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license.

The potential penalty facing GM’s Cruise service could be around $1.5 million, based on documents filed late last week by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The notice orders Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 evidentiary hearing to determine whether the robotaxi service misled regulators about what happened after one of its driverless cars ran into a pedestrian who had already been struck by another vehicle driven by a human on the evening of Oct. 2 in San Francisco.

The February hearing comes just six months after the commission authorized Cruise’s robotaxi service to begin charging passengers for around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco despite strident objections from city officials who warned the driverless cars malfunctioned.

Three weeks after Cruise’s Oct. 2 accident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down the robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.

The suspension was a major blow for Cruise and its corporate parent GM, which absorbed huge losses during the development of the driverless service that was supposed to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expanded beyond San Francisco.

After losing nearly $6 billion since the end of 2019, Cruise has shifted into reverse as it scrambles to control the fallout from the Oct. 2 accident that critically injured the run-over pedestrian and led to the recent resignation of CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt.

Without directly addressing the potential fine, GM CEO Mary Barra said Monday that the October crash has helped the automaker learn more about the need for transparency and a better relationship with regulators.

“We’re very focused on righting the ship here because this is technology that can make the way we move from point A to point B safer,” Barra told a gathering of automotive media.

Barra also pointed to the overhaul of Cruise’s management that included a reorganization of its government-relations and legal teams as signs of progress. “We think we can do things more effectively,” she said.

Cruise issued its own statement pledging to respond “in a timely manner” to the Public Utilities Commission’s concerns. The company has already hired an outside law firm to scrutinize its response to the Oct. 2 accident.

The most serious questions about the incident concern Cruise’s handling of a video showing a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian 20 feet (6 meters) at a speed of seven miles per hour before coming to the stop.

In a Dec. 1 filing recounting how Cruise handled disclosures about the accident, the Public Utilities Commission asserted the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi reacted to the accident for more than two weeks.

The documents allege Cruise’s concealment started with an Oct. 3 phone call to a regulatory analyst who was told the robotaxi had come to an immediate stop upon impact with the pedestrian without mentioning the vehicle actually drove another 20 feet with the injured person still pinned down.

Cruise didn’t provide the video footage until Oct. 19, according to the regulatory filing. The cover-up spanned 15 days, according to the PUC, exposing Cruise and GM to potential fines of $100,000 per day, or $1.5 million.

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MICHAEL LIEDTKE, Associated Press

42 mins ago

FILE – Associated Press reporter Michael Liedtke sits in the back of a Cruise driverless taxi that picked him up in San Francisco’s Mission District, Feb. 15, 2023. The California regulator that approved the expansion of the Cruise robotaxi fleet owned by automaker General Motors is now threatening to fine the driverless service for covering up the severity of an accident that triggered the suspension of its California license. The potential penalty could be in the range of $1.5 million, based on documents filed Friday, Dec. 1, by the California Public Utilities Commission. (AP Photo/Terry Chea, File)

California regulators say a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent the suspension of its California license.

The potential penalty facing GM’s Cruise service could be around $1.5 million, based on documents filed late last week by the California Public Utilities Commission.

The notice orders Cruise to appear at a Feb. 6 evidentiary hearing to determine whether the robotaxi service misled regulators about what happened after one of its driverless cars ran into a pedestrian who had already been struck by another vehicle driven by a human on the evening of Oct. 2 in San Francisco.

The February hearing comes just six months after the Public Utilities Commission authorized Cruise’s robotaxi service to begin charging passengers for around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco despite strident objections from city officials who warned the driverless cars malfunctioned.

Three weeks after Cruise’s Oct. 2 accident, the California Department of Motor Vehicles effectively shut down robotaxi service by suspending its license to operate in the state.

The suspension was a major blow for Cruise and its corporate parent GM, which absorbed huge losses during the development of the driverless service that was supposed to generate $1 billion in revenue by 2025 as it expanded beyond San Francisco.

After losing nearly $6 billion since the end of 2019, Cruise has shifted into reverse as it scrambles to control the fallout from the Oct. 2 accident that critically injured the run-over pedestrian and led to the recent resignation of CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt.

“Cruise is committed to rebuilding trust with our regulators and will respond in a timely manner” to the Public Utilities Commission, the company said in a Monday statement. The San Francisco-based company has already hired an outside law firm to scrutinize its response to the Oct. 2 accident.

The most serious questions about the incident concern Cruise’s handling of a video showing a robotaxi named “Panini” dragging the pedestrian 20 feet before coming to the stop.

In a Dec. 1 filing recounting how Cruise handled disclosures about the accident, the Public Utilities Commission asserted the company tried to conceal how its robotaxi reacted to the accident for more than two weeks.

Cruise didn’t provide the video footage until Oct. 19, according to the regulatory filing. The cover-up spanned 15 days, according to the PUC, exposing Cruise and GM to potential fines of $100,000 per day, or $1.5 million.

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DECATUR — A massive systemwide computer and internet systems failure is severely disrupting operations within the Hospital Sisters Health System.

All attempts to contact the hospital system via the internet Thursday were being referred to an update page which said HSHS “became aware of a system outage” on Aug. 27 that has “temporarily taken offline virtually all operating systems.”

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HSHS, which runs St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur, St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital in Effingham, Good Shepherd Hospital in Shelbyville and HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, said it was following emergency procedures to continue to provide in-patient and out-patient care.

“We are following existing protocols for system outages and nearly all HSHS hospital and clinic locations remain open and are caring for patients,” the update page said.

“We recognize how challenging this situation has been for everyone and how hard our colleagues and providers are working to continue caring for our patients … Patient safety and quality remain our top priorities.”

St. Mary’s Hospital spokesman Andrew Dilbeck told the Herald & Review that the update page information was accurate and he could not comment further.

HSHS runs 12 hospitals and care systems in Illinois and six hospitals in Wisconsin and it’s understood the system outage affects all of them.

HSHS has not commented on the source of the disruption.

Rebecca Cramblit, a spokeswoman at the FBI office in Springfield, told the Herald & Review: “The only thing I can tell you is that, per FBI policy, we don’t confirm or deny whether or not we’re involved in an investigation. That is just to protect the integrity of the investigation, the victims, everything around it. So I cannot speak as to whether or not we’re involved.”

The exterior of HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur is shown in this June 2023 file photo. 

JOSEPH RESSLER, HERALD & REVIEW

A section of the HSHS update page, headed “What We Are Doing,” says: “As soon as we became aware of the outage, we mobilized our incident command protocols and downtime procedures and engaged outside experts to support our response and determine what happened.

“We are continuing to follow existing protocols for system outages, including taking steps to minimize disruptions and ensure high quality, safe patient care. Our investigation into this incident is ongoing. We will provide updates on this webpage (https://www.hshsupdates.org/) and at our hospitals and clinics as appropriate.”

As to whether confidential patient information had been breached, HSHS said that aspect of the disruption was still being investigated.

“We are continuing to look into this issue and will provide updates as we are able,” the update page said.

“Our top priority is continuing to provide consistent, quality care to our patients and restoring our systems and applications for our colleagues as quickly as possible.”

But HSHS also says it doesn’t yet know when that is going to happen. “It is unclear at this time when systems will be fully restored,” the update page said.

Photos: Rare blue supermoon dazzles stargazers around the globe

A peacock sits on a chimney as a nearly full moon rises behind it, in Hyderabad, India, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 will see the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)

Mahesh Kumar A.

The supermoon rises near the equestrian statue of Damdin Sukhbaatar on Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 sees the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Ng Han Guan

A Supermoon is seen on the sky as a woman walks on the street, in Vosloorus, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 sees the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Themba Hadebe

The supermoon rises behind the ancient temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) south of Athens, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Thanassis Stavrakis

The supermoon rises over the Mediterranean sea as a boat passes at Konnos bay near Ayia Napa and Protaras on the eastern part of the island of Cyprus, on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Petros Karadjias

The supermoon rises behind Ayioi Anargiroi Orthodox church near Ayia Napa and Protaras in the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It is dubbed a supermoon because it is closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

Petros Karadjias

The full moon rises behind the Galata tower in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It is dubbed a supermoon because it is closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Khalil Hamra

The supermoon rises in the sky of Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Adel Hana

The supermoon rises in the sky over the houses of Gaza City, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Adel Hana)

Adel Hana

The August Super Blue Moon sets behind a historical building and the St. Basil’s Cathedral, right, as people walk in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rises Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It is dubbed a supermoon because it is closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Alexander Zemlianichenko

The moon known as blue moon rises behind the small village of Ujue, northern Spain, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)

Alvaro Barrientos

A supermoon rises over the Colosseum in Rome, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Gregorio Borgia

The supermoon rises behind the Chlemoutsi medival castle in Kyllini, Peloponnese, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Petros Giannakouris

The full moon rises beyond the Martyrs statue, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. August 30 will see the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Hussein Malla

Akıncı unmanned aerial craft passing in front of the Supermoon during a demonstration flight on the first day of Teknofest technology and aerospace festival in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)

Emrah Gurel

A supermoon rises over Montevideo, Uruguay, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, also known as a blue moon. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Matilde Campodonico

People watch a supermoon rise above Lisbon, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. It’s the month’s second supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position to Earth. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Armando Franca

A rare Blue Supermoon rises over Lake Michigan as spectators watch from Chicago’s 31st Street beach Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Charles Rex Arbogast

The supermoon, blue moon, rises behind a thick layer of clouds near a statue of the angel Moroni perched atop The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Kensington, Md. The cosmic curtain rose Wednesday night with the second full moon of the month, the reason it is considered blue. It’s dubbed a supermoon because it’s closer to Earth than usual, appearing especially big and bright. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Julio Cortez

A super moon rises behind Arthur Ashe Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center during the second round of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in New York. A rare blue supermoon — the closest full moon of the year — dazzled stargazers Wednesday night. It was the second full moon of August, thus the blue label. And it was unusually close to Earth, therefore a supermoon. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Manu Fernandez

A man watches from the upper deck of a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Pittsburgh Pirates as the moon rises in the distance Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. The moon was a rare blue supermoon, named so because it was the second full moon in August, thus the blue label, and it was unusually close to Earth, therefore a supermoon. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Charlie Riedel

The full moon rises beyond a sign in the outfield during a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023, in Kansas City, Mo. The moon was a rare blue supermoon, named so because it was the second full moon in August, thus the blue label, and it was unusually close to Earth, therefore a supermoon. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Charlie Riedel

A blue supermoon rises between the Salesforce Tower and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

Eric Risberg

Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid

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The post Hospital Sisters Well being System faces pc system failure appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Texas colleges 
• It comes after the police department had funding cut, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime 
• San Francisco is currently experiencing high numbers of homelessness and open drug use 

San Francisco is trying to recruit cops from Texas as it faces a shortage of officers, after businessman Marc Benioff slammed the city’s homeless and drug problems.

The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is visiting four Texas university campuses throughout the month as part of a new recruitment drive. 

Candidates from outside of the state of California will take a written test, a physical ability test and an interview to see if they make they cut.

A police spokesperson told the San Francisco Standard that the number of estimated applications this year is 2,104, nearly a 20 percent increase from 1,756 last year.  

The recruitment push comes as the department faces staffing issues, causing them to pay out high amounts of overtime. 

Representatives for the California force are currently on a recruitment drive, visiting four Universities in Texas As part of the move, the SFPD are visiting four Universities, with the poster for Sam Houston State seen here The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi

The Standard reported that between 2017 and 2022, cops spent $88.9 million more on its employees, despite working fewer hours. 

The four Texan universities are Texas Southern University, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi. 

Following widespread calls for reforms that swept the national following the murder of George Floyd, the department in the California city had their funding cut. 

Mayor London Breed was one of the first to openly speak out in support of defunding the police.

During a July 2020 press conference, Breed said: ‘We chose to change how this city and how this country treats our young Black men.’

Breed announced $120 million would be cut from the police and sheriff’s departments to reinvest in programs that help black and brown communities.

The following year, Breed u-turned on the decision and increased the police budget as the city faced a rampant rise in property crime and looting. 

At the time, she said: ‘More aggressive with the changes in our policies and less tolerant with all the bulls*** that has destroyed our city.’

Mayor London Breed speaks during the celebration of the 9th Annual Chinatown Night Out in San Francisco, California, United States on September 6, 2023 Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year, than the whole of last year

Last year the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a $50 million increase in SFPD’s budget.

Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year than the whole of last year. 

So far, there have been 40 murders in the city in 2023, while there was just 36 last year. 

Likewise, the number of robberies in the city is also higher now than for the whole of last year, with 1,989 reported incidents this year, compared to just 1,704 last year.  

The number of total crimes this year is also closely catching up with last years full total, with 36,573 crimes committed this year, compared to 37,674 in 2022.

It comes after Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff said that he had pushed officials in the city to clean the place up before the company’s annual conference. 

AI convention Dreamforce, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city last week. 

During a press event on Wednesday, Benioff said: ‘We put a lot of pressure on the city this year. It looks great. It’s very safe right now. We’re moving in the right direction.’

Benioff, 58, held the event at the Moscone Center, which is in an area that is currently facing issues including homelessness, crime and open air drug markets, according to Kron4.

Benioff also posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, saying: ‘San Francisco has been incredibly clean, beautiful, and safe for the last 3 days of Dreamforce.

‘It is great that the city is able to put its best foot forward for this major event that brings in 40K people from around the world, and $80M to the economy.

‘It is important to ask why the city cannot be this clean and safe every single day?’

Salesforce Inc. CEO Marc Benioff, pictured here, said he had pushed officials in the beleaguered California city to clean the place up The AI convention, which draws 40,000 people from around the world according to the company, was held in the city over the past few days

Benioff had previously warned that the company could pull the large scale convention from the city due to the ongoing problems it is facing.

He told The San Francisco Chronicle: ‘If this Dreamforce is impacted by the current situation with homelessness and drug use it may be the last Dreamforce.’

Mayor London Breed responded to Benioff’s claim that Dreamforce made the city’s transformation possible.

She told ABC7 News: ‘It’s not just because of Dreamforce. There are other conventions. This is what we do for every convention that comes to SF.

‘My pushback is San Francisco changing. Things are getting better.’

Despite this, Mayor Breed did concede that some areas of the city, particularly the Tenderloin and South of Market, did still present challenges. 

The city has struggled for years with rampant fentanyl use and fatal overdoses, and is on pace for its deadliest year yet.

More than 849 people are expected to die of drug overdoses in 2023, on pace to exceed the current record of 720 deaths in 2020

In the first five months of 2023, preliminary reports show there were 346 overdose deaths in the city – an increase of more than 40 percent from the same period in 2022.

Latest figures show that overdose deaths are continuing to rise, soaring in August with an additional 84 deaths, 66 involving fentanyl.  

Economists have warned the city is spiraling into an ‘urban doom loop’ – a vicious circle of interconnected trends and forces that send cities into economic and social ruin.

Over the past few months, dozens of retailers announced they would be vacating the downtown area of the city.

Drug addicts and the homeless congregate in the Tenderloin District of the California city Open drug use is now common in the city, something which the police are cracking down on San Francisco Police have attempted to shut down open-air drugs markets in the hard-hit Tenderloin and SoMa areas of the city. Pictured: 64-year-old Deliada Valdez who has been homeless for four years is seen in Tenderloin District of San Francisco, California, United States on August 28, 2023

Retail stalwart Old Navy announced they would be shuttering their flagship store in the area last month, becoming the latest chain to exit the city.

Nordstrom also announced they would be closing all of their locations in the city.

The company said that due to the ‘changing dynamics’ of San Francisco it would be shuttering all remaining stores in the next few months.

In April, Whole Foods announced it was closing all their locations, with Anthropologie and Office Depot having also made the same decisions.

High theft has proved a problem in the area recently, with a Walgreens in the city center resolving to chaining their freezers to stop shoplifters.

A map reveals the major businesses which have left, or plan to leave, San Francisco in recent months

A disturbing recent report showed 95 retailers in downtown San Francisco have closed since the start of the COVID pandemic, a decline of more than 50 percent.

Out of 203 retailers open in 2019 in the city’s Union Square area, just 107 are still operating, a drop of 47 percent in just a few pandemic-ravaged years.

One Target store in the city has been forced to lock up more of its products to stave off thieves.

An employee at the location previously said it was being robbed as often as ‘every ten minutes.’

Video footage of another Target has been shared on social media and shows large quantities of their stock now behind barriers.

The post San Francisco tries to recruit cops from TEXAS because it faces scarcity of a whole lot of officers and enterprise leaders like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff slam town’s widespread homelessness and drug use appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Dr. Carl Wigren could stand in for just about any medical examiner as seen on TV. He’s witty, a fast talker who knows a lot about investigating deaths.

In fact, Wigren has been on TV, after testifying as an expert witness in high-profile criminal cases. He’s the guy you call when a death investigation furnishes more questions than answers. 

And, Wigren says, that happens a lot more than you think. 

“It’s the image that’s popularized on television crime shows,” Wigren told KNKX Public Radio, “that whoever is doing that autopsy really knows what they’re doing.” 

But reality is a lot more complicated.  

In Washington state and many states like it nationwide, the system of death investigation is a patchwork led by professionals with wide-ranging experience. 

Only six counties in the state’s most populous areas rely on the work of medical examiners, doctors who specialize in forensic pathology. That means they are highly trained — even more than the average primary care provider.

Medical examiners manage a staff of investigators, perform autopsies and interpret toxicology results, among other medical duties necessary to determine causes of sudden, unnatural or suspicious deaths. 

This story is the first in a three-part series examining the system of death investigation in Washington state. Read and listen to Part 2 and Part 3.

The remaining 33 counties, covering a population of about 2.5 million people, depend on elected coroners. In 17 counties, candidates only have to check two boxes to make it onto the ballot: they must be 18 years old and have a clean criminal record. 

And in the state’s 16 least populated counties, prosecuting attorneys investigate deaths when they aren’t trying cases. In other words, they split their time between courtrooms and death scenes. 

In all coroner offices, those elected officials are administrators who manage the death investigation process with little or no support staff, minus medical duties — because they often don’t have the training. 

Credit Adrian Florez / KNKX

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KNKX

Kitsap County’s coroner, who was elected in 2018, is taking steps to transition the county from a coroner to a medical examiner system. Kittitas County transitioned to an elected coroner system in 2015, after its population surpassed 40,000.

While some coroners in Washington have prior experience related to death and medicine, such as mortuary work and nursing, others don’t have any relevant experience at all. Wigren says at one point, Eastern Washington’s roster of coroners included a former chimney sweep and a farmer. 

That mixed bag can result in shoddy work, he says, which has consequences.

Death determinations inform what we know about rates of suicide and murder. They affect decisions on public policy and life insurance claims. They help public health officials identify clusters of deadly disease, or trends in drug overdoses.

On a more personal level, though, this work provides closure to families who are left with questions about the sudden death of a loved one. It helps children learn about previously unknown medical conditions in their parents, potentially preventing similar deaths for other family members. It even helps prosecutors determine whether police killings are justified.  

And any mistakes or substandard work by untrained professionals has potential to disrupt that important public service. Missteps could interfere with homicide investigations or insurance payouts. Right now, it can affect data used to inform our response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  

More simply, though, this work seals the final chapter of someone’s life.

“These are the individuals who are responding to your family’s death,” Wigren said, often under traumatic circumstances. 

So, where you die determines a lot, including who responds and where they take your body for an autopsy. If you live in Pierce County and die unexpectedly more than 120 miles away in Wahkiakum County, your body and death certificate will be handled by an elected official you didn’t vote for.

Credit Parker Miles Blohm / KNKX

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KNKX

Dr. Carl Wigren owns a Renton-based private practice, Wigren Forensic. He has consulted on cases here and across the country, including one case featured on an episode of NBC’s “Dateline” in 2016.

MOBILE MORGUES

Hayley Thompson, the coroner in Skagit County, doesn’t sugarcoat the problems facing her industry. She understands the weight of the job — a public service to the voters who elected her. 

“As much as we don’t like to talk about death, it allows us to understand more about what we can do about the people who are living,” Thompson said during an interview at her office in Mount Vernon. 

Thompson is among the more experienced coroners. She’s a trained death investigator with a background in forensic anthropology. She’s worked under medical examiners in Snohomish County and in Arizona’s largest county. 

In both offices, she assisted with autopsies. But she can’t perform those exams in the office she holds now.

Credit Parker Miles Blohm / KNKX

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KNKX

Hayley Thompson sits at her desk inside the Skagit County Coroner’s Office in Mount Vernon.

So, Thompson and 32 of her fellow coroners scattered across Washington have to rely on outside help. A small cohort of traveling forensic pathologists — highly trained, contracted doctors — crisscross the state year-round, performing hundreds of autopsies that elected officials can’t do themselves. 

Wigren, who now owns a Renton-based private practice that consults on cases here and across the country, used to be one those travelers. 

“I would pack up the back of my Toyota 4-Runner with a bunch of cases,” Wigren said. “And then bring that to the funeral home, and create a morgue that I could literally work out of.”  

Right now, only a few of these pathologists are actively traveling in Washington. Each county has its go-to doctors, and many of them overlap. 

“Our pathologists that contract for us, they also work for two or three other coroner offices,” Thompson said. “So, when we call them to ask for their assistance on a case, sometimes they already have plans to help another office out with a case.”

Thompson’s not kidding when she says they get around. State records show the most active traveling pathologist in 2019 was Dr. Emmanuel Lacsina of Tacoma. He performed more than 600 autopsies over a two-year period, billing more than $520,000 in fees.  

Performance standards set by the National Association of Medical Examiners recommend forensic pathologists perform no more than 250 autopsies in a year, to minimize mistakes. Between the summers of 2017 and 2019, records show Lacsina’s average exceeded that standard. In that time, the work had him traveling between six counties spanning the length of the Olympic Peninsula: from Jefferson County to the north, down to Lewis County, and west to Grays Harbor County.

Credit Parker Miles Blohm / KNKX

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KNKX

The most active traveling pathologist in 2019 was Dr. Emmanuel Lacsina of Tacoma, according to state records. He performed more than 600 autopsies between the summers of 2017 and 2019, billing more than $520,000 in fees. The work had him traveling between six counties spanning the length of the Olympic Peninsula: from Jefferson County to the north, down to Lewis County, and west to Grays Harbor County.

It’s not a glamorous gig. Burnout is common. In any given year, the most active travelers in Washington spend more time driving from county to county than they do performing autopsies.

And their workload is increasing. As of 2019, roughly a half dozen pathologists were doing all of the autopsies in a majority of Washington’s 39 counties. In the past year, more than half have retired or scaled way back, including Lacsina.

Dr. Eric Kiesel is among the few who remain active. In that two-year period ending in 2019, Kiesel performed more than 230 autopsies in 13 counties. The work had him traveling as far west as Clallam County and as far east as Adams County, roughly 400 miles apart. Now, Kiesel’s distance traveled and volume of autopsies is likely to increase, as he and few others pick up the slack left behind by their retired colleagues.  

Credit Parker Miles Blohm / KNKX

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KNKX

Dr. Eric Kiesel is one of only a few remaining forensic pathologists actively traveling across Washington state. Between the summers of 2017 and 2019 — when the pool of travelers was double what it is today — Kiesel performed more than 230 autopsies in 13 counties. He billed more than $300,000.

Attracting people to replace outgoing travelers isn’t easy. The country’s pipeline of forensic pathologists is drying up. Only about 500 practice nationwide, and recruiting efforts are stagnant. 

Becoming a forensic pathologist requires additional education beyond what’s standard for other medical specialties, which often pay at least double the average medical examiner salary. Additionally, only some counties — like King and Pierce — hire forensic pathologists to work in well-equipped facilities with a full staff.  

Those who choose to take their work on the road, like the handful of doctors in Washington, can make a lot of money. But they must cover their own malpractice insurance and benefits. And they have to haul their own equipment to substandard or makeshift facilities, sometimes hours away from where they live. 

That’s a hard sell for newbies coming into the business, says Wigren, who stopped traveling for this kind of work about five years ago. 

“When I was really actively doing this, I would get a call from Benton County, which is the Tri-Cities,” Wigren said. “I would drive three and a half hours out, perform the autopsy, and then drive three and half hours back to Seattle.” 

And sometimes, after walking in the door from that seven-hour road trip, Wigren would get another call from Benton County — looking for him to perform yet another autopsy.

“So then I would hop back in the car and drive all the way back, do the single autopsy, and then drive back to Seattle,” he said. “It’s a challenging way to practice medicine.” 

A BREAKING POINT

So, elected officials and prosecutors are not cutting open dead bodies. But they are struggling to find people who can. 

Wigren says that means some coroners, who lack medical training, sometimes draw blood and attempt to interpret toxicology results using textbooks and supplies they buy online. 

“There are literally, in Washington state, people who are elected officials who are drawing blood on decedents,” Wigren said. “Some of them have some training or they’ve watched that happen. But I would say that most of them don’t have any understanding of the anatomy of the body and where certain organs are.”

Wigren has firsthand experience with coroners playing doctor. He cites one case in Central Washington in 2012, in which a coroner incorrectly interpreted toxicology results for the sudden death of an elderly woman. The coroner determined the woman died by accidental drug intoxication. Wigren, who worked with the family to review the case, determined the woman likely died from natural causes. 

There are literally, in Washington state, people who are elected officials who are drawing blood on decedents.

But examining a body is only half the job. If the death scene isn’t properly investigated, Wigren says, a traveling pathologist is at a disadvantage even before performing an autopsy. 

“I would argue that the scene investigation of where that person died is critical in understanding how the death came to be,” Wigren said. 

Often, he says, a traveling pathologist is forced to perform an autopsy in a vacuum of information, because a coroner didn’t take photographs or collect medical records. “So there is no context to understand the death scene,” Wigren said. In that 2012 case in Central Washington, the records Wigren used to reach his determination were never reviewed by the coroner he says got it wrong.   

Experts say these gaps are bad news for public health data, which begins with forensic work and passes through state, national and even international health organizations.

A key function of death investigation is learning from the dead to help the living. That’s especially important now — in the middle of a pandemic. These frontline workers provide some of the most timely data to help public health officials better understand and respond to COVID-19. Gaps in coroner training and experience limit what we can learn. 

“I’ve spent a lot of time, I’ve had my boots on the ground,” Wigren said. “I just don’t think the system that we have now works.”

With fewer boots on the ground, fanning across the state to assist coroners and prosecutors, the industry is at a breaking point. 

That worries coroners, too, like Thompson in Skagit County. Despite its flaws, Thompson believes the system works. It just needs reforming to make it work better, she says.   

“One of the hard parts of my job is trying to find people that are going to do a good job, care about what they do, and provide us the information that we need for the family, community and also to make the death certificate as accurate as possible.”

This story is the first in a three-part series examining the patchwork system of death investigation in Washington state. In Part 2, we’ll visit coroners in Skagit, Grays Harbor, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties, and get an up-close look at the challenges the elected officials there are facing. 

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According to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, a disabled San Francisco police officer has been accused of opening a fake daycare center in his south San Francisco apartment to obtain a COVID PPP loan.

Adam Eatia, 39, pleaded not guilty to two counts on Wednesday, June 14, prosecutors said.

Eatia was investigated for unrelated insurance fraud, and investigators allegedly discovered that the South City address alleged to be “Adam’s Daycare” was an apartment and not a business. Eatia allegedly did not own a child care business but used it fraudulently to obtain a $20,832 loan from the San Mateo County Small Business Administration in 2021, according to the prosecutor’s office.

He remains on administrative leave from the San Francisco Police Department. He was released from prison at his own request. If convicted, Eatia faces three years in prison for two crimes: lying to get a loan and false information to get money, according to the prosecutor’s office.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Tanya Tilghman moved to the Bay Area as a teenager to live with her mother. She later married, had two sons, and made a home in San Francisco’s historic Italian neighborhood of North Beach, above the tourist and financial centers.

Even when her marriage fell apart, she never considered leaving. This was her city, her people. Liberal like her, with a mix of income levels and an overall sense of community. She wasn’t worried about her growing boys taking to the streets, where she herself always felt safe.

But those streets have changed, she says. She believes actions by city hall and even groups helping the homeless have exacerbated some of the problems and the community she once felt a part of has disappeared, she says. And her son got caught up in a scene that’s hard to ignore in the city: the drug scene.

Tilghman said Roman Vardanega first tried illegal drugs early in high school when he took a prescription drug at a friend’s house.

He quickly became addicted, his mother said, and then switched to cocaine, heroin, and later fentanyl, all of which were available in the city’s seedy Tenderloin area.

Tilghman admits she was uninformed, even naïve, about the proliferation of hard drugs. But it wasn’t something she encountered every day. Then “I think it’s a lot worse now than it was when I was growing up here,” she said. “When I was a teenager we always came to the Tenderloin because we thought it was just fun and quirky and I never felt insecure as a teenager. But I also don’t remember people coming up to me and asking if I wanted to buy drugs.

One of her first clues that her son was deeply involved was when she accompanied him on a tour of City Hall while he was at school. It was a few blocks from the Tenderloin, and some of the homeless people on the street knew him by name, like he’d been out there hanging out with them a lot — and that’s exactly what he did by collecting his drugs.

She tried to help. Vardanega spent 11th grade in rehab but persuaded his mother to let him return. She welcomed him home, but so did the streets.

By this time, their neighborhood had changed, and drugs seemed freely available even when they rode the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system home.

“The first thing I got asked when I walked out of the BART station was if I wanted to buy drugs,” Tilghman said. The ease of getting and using drugs made the city a dangerous and sometimes deadly playground for people like her son.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Vardanega began living on the streets full-time. The city was shut down, residents left or stayed indoors, and at the height of the pandemic, more people died from drug overdoses than from Covid-19.

“Everyone in town started putting up tents,” Tilghman said. “The outdoor drug market got a lot worse. And so it became easier for him to buy drugs and use them outdoors.”

And what Tilghman found puzzling was that the city just seemed to be looking the other way.

“The city’s policies absolutely harmed my son, it harmed us, and it caused him, I would say, to fall into his addiction a lot more,” she said.

“If you get caught for drugs, you most likely won’t go to jail, the cops would just let you go,” she said. “That made things worse, especially for my son because he’s very young and he’s still in that party mood.”

Tilghman’s state of mind was focused on one goal: finding her son. She knew he was addicted. She knew she loved him so much it hurt. And she knew that she wouldn’t stop looking until she found him, even if it put her in danger.

She walked the streets looking at things that most people tried to avoid and looked straight into the eyes of the people who lived on the streets. Sometimes she got blank looks back. Sometimes a sympathetic ear or a hopeful hint as to where her son might be.

She didn’t find him, but so many people were like him. “What makes me sad is seeing my son’s face on everyone’s faces … out on the street,” Tilghman said.

When Covid broke out, many residents started disappearing and the tent cities exploded on the sidewalks along with the drugs, the addictions and the signs of mental illness.

Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the city to set up a “liaison center” at the Tenderloin, touted as a place for addicts to seek services that can help them.

When it opened in January 2022, Tilghman hoped it might be a place her son would find himself in, and one day she went to have a look. When she got there, she heard blaring music and tried to peek inside.

“I saw people doing drugs. I could not believe it. I think this is a place where people should get help. And they actually do drugs?” Tilghman said.

A little later she pretended to be an addict and went to the center to take a closer look.

“I told them I wanted to quit drugs and that I needed help,” she said. “And they laughed at me. And the guy at the door said, ‘We can help you use drugs. But if you need help with drug recovery, you have to come back tomorrow,'” Tilghman said.

The center had an area intended to treat overdoses, but it became known as a place for taking drugs and not for other services.

“The most disturbing thing… was that the damage reduction area was more like a party scene,” Tilghman said. “If my son went there for services because he’s a drug addict, if he saw a party scene where people were dancing and singing and taking drugs and most likely selling drugs there, there just wouldn’t be an option for him to access it.” Because he was so distracted and excited that he went and used it.”

In her opinion, the city’s laissez-faire philosophy had simply gone too far.

“If you walk into a store and steal less than $1,000 worth of merchandise and get away with it, that’s going way too far,” she said. “It’s going too far when you could smoke crack in front of a cop and the cop just looks at you and doesn’t even arrest you.”

The struggle to save her son was wearing her down. Not once, but three times, Tilghman says she was so depressed and so hopeless that she attempted suicide.

The situation is beginning to change, both for Tilghman personally and perhaps for her town.

The Tenderloin Linkage Center, later renamed the Tenderloin Center, closed last December. Tilghman has found new support and a mission working with Mothers Against Drug Addiction and Deaths. A new district attorney took office after the previous one was removed by constituents who perceived him as soft-spoken about crime. Tilghman’s son Vardanega got into trouble with the law, served a prison sentence and was sent to a court-ordered rehab program.

For Tilghman, incarceration is a good thing for him — it keeps him alive, off the streets, and gives him a chance in a treatment program.

For them, San Francisco is still beautiful – with the Golden Gate Bridge, the Presidio and Fisherman’s Wharf, the Italian enclave of North Beach. But it’s gotten even scarier, and she thinks part of the blame lies with the politicians whose job it is to clean up the streets.

“I’m liberal,” Tilghman said. “My politics have stayed the same and things have gone crazy around me.”

The post ‘I see my son’s face in everyone’s faces; Heartbroken mom believes San Francisco’s decline claimed her son appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

By Miles Dilworth, Senior Reporter for Dailymail.Com

15:30 08 May 2023, updated 15:45 08 May 2023

• Telecom giant becomes the latest victim in a corporate bloodbath in a California city
• Comes after the retail hub blamed “rampant criminal activity” for the exodus last week
• Businesses have closed stores over employee safety concerns, while crime rises

T-Mobile is the latest major retailer to close a flagship store in San Francisco as the city faces a business exodus due to “rampant criminal activity.”

The telecom giant’s decision to close its Union Square premises follows similar announcements by Saks Off 5th and Nordstrom last week.

T-Mobile said the closure of its two-story, 17,000-square-foot building in the heart of San Francisco is part of its “nationwide retail strategy to better serve customers.”

It’s the latest in a string of closures damaging the tech haven, which has been hit by rising crime and an epidemic of homelessness.

Billionaire Elon Musk last week called downtown San Francisco “post-apocalyptic.”

T-Mobile is the latest major retailer to close a flagship store in San Francisco as the city faces a business exodus due to “rampant criminal activity.”

The T-Mobile building previously housed Apple’s flagship store before the tech giant moved to its current Post Street location.

The Union Square store was sold to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation for $50 million in 2013, records show.

It comes after luxury department store Nordstrom announced it will close both units in downtown San Francisco in the coming months after serving the area for 35 years.

Its 40,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack store on Market Street will close on July 1, while one of its flagship stores — the 312,000-square-foot Nordstrom at Westfield San Francisco Center — will close by the end of August.

Jamie Nordstrom, Chief Stores Officer, explained the decision: “The dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically over the past few years, impacting the footfall in our stores and our ability to operate successfully.”

A Westfield spokesman said the move underscores “the deteriorating situation” in the district.

“A growing number of retailers and businesses are fleeing the area due to the unsafe conditions for customers, retailers and employees, and the fact that these significant issues are preventing the area from recovering economically,” read the statement from Westfield and its owner, Unibail- Rodamco-Westfield [URW]called.

“URW has been actively working with city leaders for many years to express our serious concerns, which are shared by our customers and retailers.

“We have called on the city to find solutions to key issues and a lack of enforcement against rampant criminal activity.

“The current environment is unsustainable for either the community or business, and we hope the city will implement the changes that are so desperately needed.”

The Nordstrom Rack in downtown San Francisco, which will close on July 1, Nordstrom Chief Stores Officer Jamie Nordstrom said, “The dynamics of the downtown San Francisco market have changed dramatically in recent years, which is impacting traffic to our stores and our ability to operate successfully’ Whole Foods previously closed a flagship store in downtown San Francisco A Whole Foods spokesperson said the store was closed due to safety concerns for its employees, as area rampant drug use, theft and aggressive behavior occurs (homeless people use drugs in downtown SF street camps) “zombie-like” drug addicts are pictured with drug use and intoxication in downtown San Francisco last month

It came just a day after Saks Off 5th announced it would close its downtown store in the fall after eight years in the city.

Whole Foods temporarily closed a flagship location in the city last month, citing safety concerns for staff — just a year after the unit opened.

The organic food giant opened a new “flagship” location on Trinity Place in the city’s Tenderloin area in March 2022, hoping to revive visitor numbers after two years of draconian COVID restrictions severely impacted businesses in the area.

However, a Whole Foods spokesperson said the store would close “for now” and only reopen “when we feel we can keep our team members safe.”

A City Hall source said the business cited deteriorating street conditions related to drug use and crime near the store as driving factors for the closure, The San Francisco Standard reported.

The Trinity Place Whole Foods store has struggled since it opened in March 2022, as managers cut operating hours in October due to “grand theft” and hostile visitors.

Billionaire Elon Musk has branded downtown San Francisco “post-apocalyptic” as retailers continue to flee the city over security concerns

A month later, the store announced customers could only enter the toilets with a valid QR code after syringes and tubes were found strewn on the bathroom floor.

Meanwhile, San Francisco supervisor Matt Dorsey claimed a Whole Foods employee told him there were no more baskets available for shoppers because all 250 had been stolen.

Last month, it emerged that a Target store in San Francisco had locked down its entire line of products, citing concerns about “organized retail crime.”

A video posted to TikTok on April 20 shows all of the items secured behind glass.

According to geotagged images, some products at the Folsom Street store had been locked and keyed since at least October last year, WNCT reported.

California’s Proposition 47, which downgraded crimes like drug possession and theft of goods under $950 from felonies to misdemeanors, was previously blamed for a breakdown in law and order in cities across the state and forcing businesses out.

Figures show the number of homeless people in San Francisco reached 8,000 last year, the second-highest since 2005 and only topped in 2019, when the pandemic was peaking.|

A Target San Francisco location was forced to put its inventory behind glass to combat shoplifting A former prosecutor suggested that San Francisco’s crime statistics are even worse than the numbers suggest San Francisco is experiencing a staggering rise in the number of Number of drug-related deaths recorded by 41 percent in the first quarter of 2023

Devastating images captured last summer showed rows of tents lined up outside shops and homeless people sitting on people’s doorsteps, openly smoking illicit drugs and passing out on the tarmac in the middle of the day.

Small businesses trying to recover from the pandemic have reached out to city officials for failing to address the issue, which they say is hurting revenue.

The Castro Merchants Association said some of the homeless people on the streets outside their stores were harassing customers and needing help.

About 50 percent of small businesses in San Francisco remained closed last year, according to Forbes.

Meanwhile, San Francisco had the highest overall crime rate of the 20 largest cities in the United States, recording 6,917 crimes per 100,000 people in 2019, according to the latest available FBI Unified Crime Report.

That was more than double the crime rate in New York and Los Angeles, and well above the rate in the next largest US cities: Chicago, Houston and Phoenix.

The post San Francisco sees T-Cell exit as metropolis faces enterprise exodus appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Catalent has begun construction on a $20 million expansion of its clinical care facility in Schorndorf, Germany.

The manufacturer is expanding the site by 32,000 square feet and plans to add capacity to store clinical trial materials and make room for a new bottling facility. The work is expected to be completed by June next year.

“With additional temperature-controlled handling, storage and distribution, the facility is well-equipped to respond to the region’s growing demand for clinical supply capacity and services, including for products that require cold-chain support,” said Ricky Hopson, President and Division in a press release for Clinical Development & Supply at Catalent.

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