Why power-of-attorney abuse against seniors is soaring - and so easy to get away with

Léony de Graaf, a Burlington, Ont.-based financial adviser, witnessed first hand how lives can be ruined by the unscrupulous use of power of attorney. She received a call from an 82-year-old client who had been forcefully incarcerated in a Hamilton psychiatric ward. "Rose was still capable of handling her affairs, including her own banking," says de Graaf. "I had a very strong suspicion that her son, who had a power of attorney [POA] for his mother, was trying to have her deemed incompetent so he could take full control of her assets." She suspected Rose's son misled the psychiatrist whom he himself had arranged to evaluate his mother, whose family doctor had recently retired.

De Graaf fought to have Rose (not her client's real name) released from the facility, advocating for her capacities and a reassessment. The medical team relented and allowed Rose to move into a retirement residence. Unfortunately, even after Rose's release, de Graaf was powerless to stop the son from redirecting his mother's investment statements to himself, putting her house up for sale, and eventually moving her west, where he lived. "One of the fastest growing crimes against seniors is POA abuse," says De Graaf, who chairs the local chapter of a group called Seniors and Law Enforcement Together chapter.

Having a senior declared incompetent is a commonly used legal manoeuvre by POA abusers to nullify the senior's ability to make choices for themselves, including revoking the POA, says Ann Soden, a Montreal lawyer who specializes in elder law and heads the National Institute of Law, Policy and Aging. Sadly, perpetrators of many types of abuse against seniors are often their own children and others they trust. According to the Canadian Centre for Elder Law, the most conservative statistics suggest one in 12 older Canadians are abused or neglected, with the most commonly reported type of abuse being financial.

There is an awakening right now. People from all over the world are trying to stop the corrupted government and elite that want to enslave us.

Tokyo - A Japanese power firm said it would halt operations at a nuclear reactor because of a technical failure, placing further strain on the country's power supply.

Kansai Electric Power Co. said it would manually shut down reactor No. 1 at its Ooi plant in central Japan because of a temporary pressure drop in a standby tank.

The tank contains boric acid solution that can be pumped in to slow nuclear fission in case of emergency.

Pressure in the tank had already returned to the correct level, but the company decided to shut down the reactor "to give the top priority to safety and find out the cause," a company spokesman said on Saturday.

"Please help us save the children, the children of Fukushima"

The company that is seeking permission to build a new crude oil pipeline between Canada and the U.S. Gulf Coast has wildly underestimated the damage that could occur in a worst case spill scenario, a University of Nebraska researcher warned this week.

Even a small, undetected leak from an underground rupture of the pipeline in the Nebraska Sandhills could pollute almost 5 billion gallons of groundwater with benzene at concentrations exceeding safe drinking water levels," University of Nebraska researcher John Stansbury said.

TransCanada's proposed Keystone XL pipeline would would carry 700,000 gallons of Canadian crude per day from the tar sands area of Western Alberta to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Along the way, the 36 inch diameter pipe would cross important waterways, including the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers in Montana, the Platte River in Nebraska and the Sandhills, where highly permeable soil covers the enormous Ogallala aquifer.

La Salle County authorities believe the deaths of a mother and her two sons in a house fire Thursday in rural Streator were a murder-suicide.

Jennifer Shepard, 36, and her sons, Jordan, 11, and Jake, 9, were found dead by firefighters in an upstairs bedroom of their home Thursday afternoon following a fire that was believed to be intentionally set by the mother.

Preliminary autopsy results Friday revealed the boys were stabbed and the mother had cuts on her arms. A knife was found at the scene and is believed to be involved in the incident.

Authorities found evidence of an accelerant in the house, located four miles east of Route 23 on 18th Road.

Bernard said information from her office's forensic investigation and evidence recovered from the fire affirmed the deaths of the two boys were the result of homicide and the death of Jennifer to be suicide.

Coroner Jody Bernard said the actual cause of death awaits further forensic testing and toxicology results.

Mexican authorities say at least 12 state police officers and a bystander have been killed in an ambush on a highway in Mexico's western state of Sinaloa.

Sinaloa state security officials say the attack happened around 6 p.m. Friday at a fake checkpoint set up by gunmen on the highway near the town of Guasave.

The police convoy was traveling from Los Mochis, a Pacific coastal city where the officers helped launch a "Safe Commerce" program aimed at averting attacks on merchants.

Officials say the slain bystander was driving from a nearby tortilla stand where he works and got caught in the crossfire.

An attack on police earlier in the day in Los Mochis wounded two police officers.

Source: The Associated Press

Dunfermline has been reacting to the news that a man's body was found in the High Street on Thursday.

Police are treating the death as "unexplained." It was the third sudden death in the west Fife town in only five days. It follows the deaths of local men James Drysdale (36) and Derek Neilson (32) on Sunday.

Early-morning shoppers and retail workers in the town centre were shocked to find a huge police presence as Fife Constabulary carried out their investigation work. It is believed the body was found in a close off the High Street at about 6.45am.

The man's remains were found in the alley at 100 High Street, between the Nationwide Building Society and a Mountain Warehouse outlet. Both remained closed for some time as the police inquiry swung into action.

Police are investigating the unexplained deaths of a man and woman in County Durham after post-mortem examinations drew a blank.

James McAndrew, 51, and Helen Swan, 36, were discovered in the living room of a terraced house in John Street, Blackhill, Consett, early on Monday.

They were found fully-clothed on a sofa as if they had fallen asleep while watching television.

Relatives reported that the two looked peaceful and that there was no sign of a struggle having taken place.

The latest draft of guidelines for hydraulic fracturing in New York could open the door to drilling within 1,000 feet of aging underground tunnels that carry water to New York City - a far cry from the seven-mile buffer once sought by city officials.

The draft environmental impact statement, released last week by state officials, is a crucial step toward allowing high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in New York. The gas drilling technique was put on hold three years ago so the state could assess any environmental effects of the practice.

If the proposal is adopted in coming months, the state would allow drilling near aqueducts but would require a site-specific environmental review for any application to drill within 1,000 feet of the water supply infrastructure.

That's not enough to protect New York City's water, said Kate Sinding, a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which is based in the city.