Monday, October 5, 2015

Cleaning Out the Chimney in Colorado

Well, you know, winter is coming.... 

"Body of teen missing for 7 years found in chimney" AP  September 30, 2015

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. — The remains of an 18-year-old man reported missing seven years ago were found in the chimney of an abandoned cabin less than a mile from his home, and the details of his death are likely to stay mysterious, Colorado officials said Wednesday.

The remains were found last month as contractors tore down the cabin in Woodland Park that had been abandoned for more than a decade. Joshua Vernon Maddux was probably trying to shimmy down the chimney when he got stuck, Teller County coroner Al Born said.

His death was ruled accidental, and there were no signs of trauma, Born said. It’s unclear how long Maddux’s remains had been in the chimney.

‘‘There are going to be some questions out there that are unanswerable,’’ he said.

Family members say Maddux was bright and doing well in school, and they are not sure why he was at the cabin.

‘‘I got up one morning and he was there, then he just never came home,’’ said his father, Michel Maddux. ‘‘We thought he was with friends, but no one had seen him.’’

Michel Maddux said the family searched for him for years.

‘‘It’s a long-term thing where you’re grieving on hold,’’ he said....

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Oh, look at all the dust and soot:

"Federal health program for Sept. 11 responders expires" by Mary Clare Jalonick Associated Press  October 01, 2015

WASHINGTON — A law that provides medical monitoring and treatment for Sept. 11 first responders expired at midnight Wednesday due to the failure of Congress to act.

For now, first responders who rushed to the World Trade Center after the 2001 terrorist attacks, worked for weeks, and now suffer from such illnesses as pulmonary disease and cancers will still be able to get their health care. But federal officials who administer the program say it will face challenges by February and will have to start shutting down by next summer.

Letting the program expire creates ‘‘enormous anxieties and fears in the minds of very sick people,’’ said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York who has been lobbying her colleagues to make the program permanent.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said it was unacceptable for Congress to let it expire.

‘‘Congress must stop putting politics ahead of our heroes’ health,’’ he said in a statement.

The Zadroga Act, named after a responder who died after working at the World Trade Center site, first became law in 2010 after a debate over the bill’s cost. Proponents are seeking the law’s permanent extension in part because some illnesses may not manifest until years later, after the statute of limitations for worker’s compensation or certain state laws may have run out.

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