Figures

494

Smarter drivers and more aggressive policing were credited with cutting traffic deaths in Minnesota last year to their lowest level in 60 years. The Department of Public Safety said 494 people were killed on Minnesota roads last year, a drop of nearly 12 percent from 2005 and the lowest number since 1945. The overall death toll included 70 motorcyclists, 38 pedestrians, eight bicyclists, three snowmobilers and two ATV riders, according to the agency’s annual report on traffic crashes.

$1.1 Million

The family of a Glen Ellyn, Ill., man who died at a dentist’s office has settled a lawsuit against the dentist and clinic for a combined $1.135 million. Robert Pauly, 73, died in the dental chair at Glen Ellyn Family Dental Care in June 2004 after going in to have his tooth pulled. Jill Webb, the Pauly family’s attorney, said in a statement that Pauly began having trouble breathing after receiving intravenous sedation. He stopped breathing, and paramedics could not revive him, she said. The lawsuit filed last year alleged that Dr. James Morrone failed to properly monitor Pauly’s vital signs and used the incorrect drug to attempt to resuscitate him.

10

British weather forecasters, making their first public attempt to predict the Atlantic hurricane season, say it may be a little quieter than their American counterparts expect. It is most likely that 10 tropical storms will form from July to November, the British government forecasters said. An expected cooling trend in Atlantic Ocean surface waters favors fewer tropical storms than in recent years, the British meteorologists said in their first-ever hurricane season forecast. There is a 70 percent chance that the number of tropical storms will be in the range of seven to 13, according to the British. In May, U.S. government forecasters predicted 13 to 17 tropical storms in the season that runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

$5 million

A former employee of Standard & Poor’s has filed a $5 million discrimination lawsuit that accuses the financial information company of allowing other employees to harass and humiliate him because of his Hispanic ancestry and then fire him because he complained. Raphael Garcia says in papers filed in Manhattan’s state Supreme Court that somebody spat on his computer keyboard while he was away from his desk and rummaged through his drawers and personal belongings. Garcia, 32, was called “dumb” along with vulgar names for people of Hispanic background, was paid less than white co-workers and was given unjustified disciplinary warnings and low performance ratings, his court papers say. Garcia, married and the father of 5- and 6-year-old boys, said the “emotional distress” and “anxiety” have had a negative impact on his well-being and marriage and have caused him to seek the care of a mental health professional. A senior quality assurance engineer who began working for S&P in December 2002, Garcia earned $97,000 a year, he says. His court papers say his job conditions were fine until September 2005, when Marjie Veselik became manager of the quality assurance team he worked on.