A lawyer for two of the 9/11 sickness cases believes he has a smoking gun to prove that firefighters were improperly equipped at Ground Zero, and should have been given respirators. Lawyer Andrew Carboy, whose firm represents more than 600 firefighters, found the city documents on respirator requirements buried among nearly 3 million other FDNY documents that were only released this past summer. Carboy told the News, "They provide everyone with helmets, with bunker gear, with [air] packs. They could have done the same with respirators, and they withheld the documents saying they had a program to do it." more ›

Facing some 9,000 lawsuits from ground zero responders who say they became ill after working at the 9/11 site, the city wants a judge to toss 17 "baseless" suits. According to 1010WINS, city attorneys urged a judge to dismiss cases involving a firefighter who blames breathing problems on 9/11 dust despite being put on disability for the same ailments in 1999, and a Staten Island construction worker who blames 9/11 for a medical condition despite filing a malpractice suit linking some of the ailments to a gastrointestinal disease in the 1990s. Prosecutors—who insist the cases are valid—and city attorneys are expected to take several cases to court, and use those verdicts to determine settlements for the rest of the suits. more ›

With the May 16 trial date approaching, lawyers for the city and attorneys for thousands of 9/11 responders who say they got sick or injured after working at Ground Zero are apparently hurrying to reach a settlement. Though attorneys from both sides declined to comment on negotiations, Judge Alvin Hellerstein told the Times that "[t]here have been intensive discussions going on looking to settlements of individual cases and globally of all cases...The parties have been working very hard...The settlement is complicated." more ›

Residents of the Upper East Side are wondering if their respiratory problems are connected to subway work. Our Town reports on the recent complaints, pointing to one woman who says in the past two years her asthma has gotten worse — she's blaming the Second Avenue subway construction. more ›

NY1 reports that Upper East Side private school Ramaz was shut down yesterday when many students and some faculty came down with a mystery illness." The school characterized it as "a highly contagious but not dangerous virus spread through contact from hand-to-surface and person-to-person" (nearly 60 people have had "symptoms like vomiting, diarrhea and low grade fever")—probably a form of viral gastroenteritis—but is still awaiting results from testing. In the mean time, the school, which is being cleaned, says, "The New York City Department Department of Health, Division of Environmental Investigations, indicated that there were no toxins in the food served in the Lower School and they are now checking to determine if there was transmission of a virus from any of the food workers." more ›

Rudolph Giuliani's apparent health scare that caused his campaign jet to turn around and land back in St. Louis, Missouri was allegedly not as serious as it was made out to be. The Presidential candidate and former Mayor of New York is begging ignorance as to why his staff members said he had flu-like symptoms, when he says he just had a bad headache. Someone told the press that Giuliani blacked out at some point, which he denies ever happened.

“You’re going to have to ask them,” he said, when asked about their statement. “I’m telling you what actually happened. I had a very, very bad headache. It got worse on the plane. I then got checked out. Went through a lot of tests. All the tests came back 100 percent normal. That’s the bottom line.”