SUMMARY: A new study by University of Washington researchers of students at UW and the University of Wisconsin finds that Internet addiction among college students may be as common as asthma among children. The study found that 4 in every 100 college students may have an Internet addiction, resulting in sleep loss, poor grades, and decreased home involvement. Moreover, the study found that students with depression were about 24 times more likely than their peers to exhibit problematic Internet usage. This makes Internet addiction a cause for alarm that could require intervention and treatment in some cases. As a result, the authors recommend that pediatricians begin to assess children for signs of Internet addiction more frequently and beginning at a younger age.

SUMMARY: According to a recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report, the cholera outbreak in Haiti in October 2010 was caused by contaminated river water downstream from a United Nations military camp for Nepalese soldiers. The study was conducted by  researchers in France and Haiti, and found that Nepalese soldiers in a United Nations camp near the Artibonite River likely imported the cholera accidentally. According to the researchers’ conclusions, determining the origins of the cholera outbreak reduces suspicion that the strains were deliberately imported.

SUMMARY: A whistleblower report investigation by the Washington State Auditor’s Office found that the State Department of Social and Health Services paid the University of Washington more than $24,000 for contracted work never performed, to develop recommendations for a health plan for violent sex offenders who have been civilly committed at DSHS’s Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island following the completion of their prison terms. The contractor delivered only a set of PowerPoint handouts made for another agency, relabeled for DSHS. The department is providing professional counseling to the employee who authorized the unwarranted payments, and is seeking reimbursement from the university.

SUMMARY: A Public Data Ferret interactive mapped data project below shows the full country-by-country assessments in the U.S. Department of State’s recently-released 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report. Of 184 counties evaluated in the report, the State Department ranked 23 in the “Tier 3″ or worst category. Countries with a Tier 3 ranking are governments who do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards of human trafficking prevention and are not making significant efforts to do so. Roughly 70 percent of the Tier 3 countries are located in Northern Africa and the Middle East. The State Department identified 33,113 victims of human trafficking in 2010, a third less than the amount reported the previous year. However, since human trafficking crimes are underreported, the numbers provided by the department may not reflect the full extent of actual occurrences.

The U.S. State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report globally assessed forced labor, sex slavery, forced conscription of child soldiers and related concerns. (View complete list of human trafficking categories). Public Data Ferret created an interactive map below with information for each ranked country (view spreadsheet of compiled data). Countries are ranked in one of four categories.

Tier 1: Countries whose governments fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act minimum standards.

Tier 2: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 2 watch list: Countries where trafficking is significant or significantly increasing and governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making serious efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 3: Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.

Special cases: the worst three countries – Somalia, Sierra Leone and Haiti, each of which has been subject to either extreme natural disaster or severe conflict. (Details here in a recent Public Data Ferret synopsis).

DATA MAP INSTRUCTIONS: Red indicates Tier 3 countries and special cases; Yellow is Tier 2; and Green are Tier 1. Use the navigation arrows and zoom in or zoom out (plus or minus signs) as desired, and click on any country. A pop-up box will confirm the country’s name and ranking, and provide a link to the section of the State Department 2011 report detailing human trafficking findings for that nation.

RELATED: U.S. State Department 2010 Trafficking In Persons Report, Public Data Ferret, June 14, 2010.

Public Data Ferret is a news knowledge base program of the Seattle-based 501c3 public charity, Public Eye Northwest. Ferret In The News; Donate.

SUMMARY: The city of Enumclaw passed an ordinance last week to accept a $300,000 state grant that completes a public-private funding package for a $900,000 project at the Enumclaw Expo Center complex, where a poorly-draining and deteriorated natural turf football field at Pete’s Pool will be replaced with a multi-purpose artificial turf surface. The Recreation and Conservation Office of Washington State awarded the grant conditioned on a double-match amount being raised from other sources. Your Enumclaw Area Stadium (YEAS), the non-profit group in charge of fundraising for the project, has secured the necessary matching funds for the RCO grant, city public works director Chris Searcy said. Slightly more than half, or $325,000 of the $600,000 match required for the RCO grant came via previous grants from the National Football League and King County. The remaining $275,000 of the double-match funding comes from cash donations ($175,000) and in-kind donations of labor, construction equipment and materials ($100,000) Searcy said. The majority of the project’s construction started July 6 and is expected to be finished by August.

SUMMARY: The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Seattle Field Office has charged Fred Meyer Stores, Inc., with failing to address blatant sexual harassment of female employees by a customer at one of its stores in a Portland suburb who over a two-month period in 2009 grabbed the breasts of three female employees; touched the buttocks and tried to pull onto his lap another worker; and groped the knee and rubbed against the body of a third. According to the EEOC’s July 12 complaint, Fred Meyer “subjected … female employees to a sexually hostile work environment” at the Oak Grove store in Milwaukie, Ore., in 2009. Failure to correct instances of sexual harassment on the basis of gender in the workplace constitutes unlawful employment practices, violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title I of the Civil Rights Act of 1991. The case will be heard in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and will seek monetary reparations for damages to the employees. Company spokesperson Melinda Merrill said Fred Meyer stores is examining the complaint and will soon file a response with the EEOC.

SUMMARY: The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has found a Kent School District teacher to be not responsible for one developmentally disabled student’s sexual misconduct during the school day. Madhuri Patel, the mother of a developmentally disabled high school student, identified as A.H., alleged that Francine Wilhelm, a Kentridge High School special education teacher, failed to adequately supervise A.H. during trips to the bathroom, where she had multiple sexual encounters. Patel alleged that Wilhelm deprived A.H. of her right to bodily integrity, a federally protected due process right under the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Court ruled against Patel, stating, “The Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause generally does not require government actors to protect individuals from third parties.” The case could still proceed based on negligence claims, in the state’s court system.

About the Public Data Ferret project

BACKGROUND:

• According to the Court’s ruling, A.H. is a former Kentridge High School student who is classified as “mildly mentally retarded” and has difficulty determining how to behave in social situations. After a 2006 investigation revealed A.H. was being coerced by three of her peers, the school placed A.H. on an Individualized Education Plan (IEP), which included enrollment in a self-contained classroom led by Francine Wilhelm. The IEP included a “no contact” order between A.H. and other students, as well as complete adult supervision of A.H. throughout the school day, especially during passing periods, lunch, and bathroom times. In 2007, Wilhelm began to allow A.H. to go to the bathroom unsupervised.
• According to the court document, Wilhelm said she believed she was allowing A.H. to grow toward independence. Patel filed suit against Wilhelm and the school district in 2007 when Wilhelm interfered with a potential sexual encounter between A.H. and Matt, and both students admitted to having sex in the bathroom at least five times. Patel pressed not only state and tort law claims, but also a federal civil rights claim. A district court dismissed Patel’s federal claim, finding that Wilhelm had not deprived A.H. of her federal rights. Patel appealed the ruling, and her federal claim forms the basis of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision.

KEY LINK: Madhuri Patel v. Kent School District, United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit, July 11, 2011

KEY FINDINGS:

• The United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit ruled that Francine Wilhelm, a special education teacher at Kentridge High School, did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment due process rights of A.H., a minor and “mildly mentally retarded” student enrolled in Wilhelm’s classes during 2006 and 2007.
• In the federal case, Madhuri Patel, A.H.’s mother, alleged that Wilhelm failed to uphold A.H.’s Constitutional due process rights to bodily integrity. According to the ruling, the sole issue at hand for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was to determine whether Wilhelm had deprived the student of these federally protected Fourteenth Amendment rights.
• The Court of Appeals affirmed the district judge’s ruling, stating that Patel’s federal claim “fails as a matter of law,” because it failed to “show that (1) the conduct complained of was committed by a person acting under color of state law; and (2) the conduct deprived the plaintiff of a federal constitutional or statutory right.”
• As legal precedent for its decision, the Court of Appeals cited Cf. DeShaney v. Winnebago Cnty. Dep’t of Social Services. However, Patel argued that her case could be distinguished from DeShaney on the basis of the school’s “custody” of A.H. during the day. The Court found no such evidence for custody and declined to distinguish the two cases.
• The DeShaney ruling found that the state is not responsible to protect individuals from third-party actors. Two exceptions to this rule, the “special relationship” exception or the “state-created danger” exception, do not apply to the facts of Patel’s case, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled.
• The Court found that Wilhelm did not knowingly place A.H. in immediate danger. As a result, Patel’s claim against the teacher failed to bear the burden of proof against her. “At worst, Wilhelm committed a lapse in judgment by allowing A.H. to quickly use the next-door bathroom on her own. Whether these circumstances rose to the level of negligence is a question that will be resolved by a jury in Washington state court,” the Court stated.
• Although her federal civil rights case has failed, some of Madhuri Patel’s claims against KSD and Wilhelm may still be viable under state law.

Donate to our tax-exempt parent non-profit, Public Eye Northwest.

SUMMARY: Yakima-based practitioner Gary Martinkus was found by the Washington State Department of Health’s Board of Optometry to be unfit to practice and to be posing a risk to patients after he involved them and office staff in buying money orders or loaning money to spend in foreign lottery scams. The Board also found Martinkus was becoming negligent in caring for patients and harassing them at home or work. Martinkus’ license was suspended July 5, and he has 20 days to initiate an administrative appeal.