Livery cab driver Trevor Bell has been in the hospital for over a month now after being shot in the neck and left for dead by a passenger on December 3rd. The suspected shooter, 22-year-old Shawn Peace, was caught on video fighting with Bell, and stole about $100 as he fled. But now Bell may be facing the loss of his livelihood; New York State Workers’ Compensation Board reportedly did not approve his claim for assistance with car loan payments, saying "the claimed injuries do not meet the qualifying criteria." more ›

A therapist told Officer Frank Chiafari to "politely decline" when asked to tell the awful story of the day Travis the chimp mauled Charla Nash in CT, ripping off her hands and face, but recently he made an exception. According to the officer—who's been denied Workers Comp for a PTSD claim after shooting the animal—it all started with a "humorous-sounding" call across the radio early last year. “[It] came over as ‘monkey attacking someone,’" he told the Times. But as he drove to scene he thought “Wait a minute, that’s Travis.” He'd met the "friendly" chimpanzee before: Travis's owners had a towing company and would sometimes bring him along when police called them to move vehicles. Chiafari pulled up he saw what looked like a pile of clothes. “Then I realized it’s a human being,” he said. “It was all ripped apart.” That's when Travis began bashing the window of his cruiser. more ›

Gov. Paterson continued his losing streak, appointing a 29-year-old with no managerial experience and no workers’ comp experience to oversee the $210 million budget of the Workers’ Compensation Board. Jeffrey R. Fenster, the agency’s new executive director, is a lawyer who chose the vocation in order to “help people” and worked briefly in litigation to pay off student loans. What qualifies him for the board’s highest-paying position remains unclear. more ›

Earlier this year, a Connecticut woman was severely mauled by her friend's 200-pound pet chimp Travis. Charla Nash "lost her nose, lips, eyelids, hands and bone structure in her mid-face and suffered significant brain, eye and tissue injuries in the attack," and her family sued chimp owner Sondra Herold for $50 million in damages. Now, Herold is seeking to call the suit a worker's compensation claim—because Nash worked for her and Travis the chimp was a part of the business. more ›