Free Republic

{snip}...The report said a substitute administrator, Marie So, was in charge the night of the fire and wasn't familiar with the facility's evacuation plan. "She did not utilize Villa Capri's emergency binder during the evacuation, did not know where keys for facility vehicles were kept, where flashlights were kept, or where batteries for flashlights were kept, nor did she know how to direct the staff she was supervising during the emergency," the report said. At the nearby Varenna facility, touted on its website as a "luxury retirement community," 228 residents were being cared for the night of the fire. The...

The oldest and greatest rock band in the world - Lead singer Alf is 90 - it's quite something when he sings "I hope I die before I get old". And he's not the oldest - there are 99 and 100-year-olds in the band! The Zimmers will feature in a BBC TV documentary being aired in May 2007. Documentary-maker Tim Samuels has been all over Britain recruiting isolated and lonely old people - those who can't leave their flats or who are stuck in rubbish care homes. The finale of the show is this group of lonely old people coming...

Chasing the death dividend Viatical agreements match those who want to cash in on life insurance policies with investors willing to buy the rights to those policies. But a lack of regulation leaves the system open to fraud. July 4, 2004 When the U.S. Coast Guard raided a Russian fishing vessel on the Pacific Ocean in 2001, investigators hit a jackpot: more than 12 tons of chalky powder hidden beneath a mountain of frozen squid, the largest haul of cocaine ever intercepted at sea. At the time, they had no idea they also had tapped in to what federal authorities...