Southside Kochanski's Concertina Bar Owner Kills Suspected Armed Robber

Andy Kochanski

Photo: Facebook

Three robbers, two of them armed walked into the Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall to hold it up, one suspect ends up dead and two escaped from the crime scene.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 16, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Thursday, three suspects, two armed walked into Kochanski's Concertina Beer Hall at 1920 S. 37th Street and attempted to rob the Polish bar around midnight. When the owner, Andy Kochanski pulled out a gun and fatally shot a 23-year-old suspect who was trying to rob the bar. The other two suspects then fled the scene without exchanging fire, according to Milwaukee Police spokesperson Lt. Mark Stanmeyer.

Kochanski claims he was protecting two patrons and himself at the bar. On Friday, he posted on his bar's Facebook (FB) page, that he had to do what he did and would do it again to protect his customers.

"I would like to state that I did what I had to do to protect my customers and myself. I have no regrets and would do it again if need be. PLEASE do not let this keep you from having a great time here. PLEASE do not let this tarnish this neighborhood. This could and has happened anywhere. You should ALWAYS feel safe here. Andy Kochanski"

His FB page generated support from followers and friends.

Kochanski confirmed that he will be open on Friday.

On December 2008, another attempted robbery at the bar resulted with one patron shot in the buttocks. He survived. 

Several masked men walked into the bar with a shotgun and a gun during a Christmas party and fired at Kochanski at the bar. Kochanski pulled out his loaded Glock .45 and began to shoot at the suspects. The suspects fired back, but fled the scene, according to the police report.

Correa Files Alleged Harassment Claim Against Perez From Esperanza Unida

Irene Agape Correa and Manuel "Manny" Perez

Perez denies sexual harassment claims by Correa, the head of a mental health clinic at Esperanza Unida.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 15, 2013

Milwaukee, WI - On Tuesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (JS) reporter Georgia Pabst wrote that a temporary restraining order was filed and granted against, Manuel "Manny" Perez, the current general manager for Esperanza Unida. Irene Agape Correa, 35, President of  United Hands Across the City, a mental health clinic run at the Esperanza Unida, 611 W. National Ave. claims that Perez on several occasions grabbed her arm and once tried to grope her while caressing her, but when another person walked in on them and Perez stopped, according to the JS article.

Perez denied Correa's claims and believes he will be exonerated in court. Correa is running the clinic rent free, according to Perez. Correa also claims, Perez threatened to get rid of her from Esperanza Unida.

An injunction hearing for Perez and Correa is scheduled for August 20, according to court records.

Perez formerly worked for Governor Scott Walker in 2011 and resigned only five months into the job citing he had accomplished what he wanted to do in that short period. Perez was previously an owner of JNA Staffing Inc. and head of the Hispanic Republican group in Wisconsin that supported Walker. He also worked for Manpower Group.

When contacted on Wednesday, Robert Miranda, the executive director of Esperanza Unida who appointed Perez in March as general manager confirmed, that the Esperanza Unida Board will release a statement soon and that former U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic has been retain by the Board. Miranda would not comment further on Correa's alleged sexual harassment claims.

Seton University Study Shows An Increase Of Illegal Medical Repatriations By U.S. Hospitals

Quelino Jiménez Ojeda

A Seton Hall Law School study on forced or coerce medical repatriation criticized the U.S. government for its lack to enforce its exclusive authority to deport individuals or sanction hospitals whether private or public that engage in illegal deportations of ill patients to cut exceeding medical costs.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 13, 2013

Washington, D.C. - The immigration reform debate, civil disobedience protests and a national push by both immigrants and supporters for reform continues in Washington, D.C. in the hope that U.S. House of Representatives, which is controlled by the Republicans can approve a bill that would allow a path to citizenship for more than 11 million of undocumented immigrants this year. One growing issue that has been in the shadows, left out from immigration reform and reported by few is the illegal medical repatriation by hospitals in the country. It's a widely exercised practice with no consequences or sanctions to hospitals that spend thousands of dollars to private removal services to deport ill patients to other countries for the purpose to cut medical treatment costs from uninsured immigrants. 

The medical repatriation practice by hospitals has been documented in 15 states and ill patients have been illegally deported to the following countries, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Lithuania, Mexico, Philippines, Poland and South Korea.

A joint study by the Center for Social Justice at Seton Hall Law School and Health Justice Program at New York Lawyers for Public Interest released on December 2012 revealed an increase of illegal medical repatriation (deportation) of uninsured ill patients to foreign medical facilities. The medical repatriation study criticized the U.S. government for its lack to enforce its exclusive authority to deport individuals or sanction hospitals whether private or public that engage in illegal deportations of ill patients to cut exceeding medical costs. The study also found that undocumented injured immigrants, permanent residents and a U.S. born child were victims of medical repatriation because they were uninsured.

The study cites the case of Quelino Jiménez Ojeda who was injured while doing a roofing job in Chicago and ended up at a local hospital on August 20, 2010. Once Ojeda was considered stabilized, the hospital executive board decided to deport Ojeda to Mexico. A hospital spokesperson first admitted that it was done by Ojeda's family consent, but later recanted when Ojeda and his mother confirmed, that the hospital had lied and deported him without approval. The hospital also got approval from the Mexican government to allow Ojeda back in the country by falsifying documents, the Ojeda family claimed. 

In Feb. 2011, Kelly Jo Golson, senior vice president and spokesperson for Advocate Christ Medical Center (ACMC) in Oak Lawn admitted to deporting quadriplegic patient Quelino Jiménez Ojeda, 23, to Mexico. Ojeda was taken out of the medical center on December 21, 2010 after the executive ACMC board decided to forcibly remove Ojeda from hospital care after five months of treatment for a spinal cord injury escalating to $650,000 in medical costs. Ojeda was taken out of the hospital by AeroCare personnel hired by ACMC and put Ojeda on a plane to Mexico, so ACMC could finally stop paying for his medical treatment. The AeroCare transfer of Ojeda to Mexico cost $60,000, according to Golson.

Community activists in Chicago also alleged both the AeroCare and Advocate might have falsified information to acquire Mexican government documents to deport Ojeda to Oaxaca, Mexico without his consent or families authorization.

In the early hours of January 1, 2012, Ojeda died at the age of 24, of an apparent heart attack while a patient at the Doctor Macedonio Benitez Fuentes General Hospital in Juchitan de Zaragoza, Oaxaca, Mexico. 

Ojeda's case is one of multiple cases mentioned in the Seton study. At least 800 cases showed attempted or involuntary deportation of ill patients in the last six years before the report was released. The patients were forced or coerced in the widely practice of medical repatriation by hospitals.
A recent medical repatriation was authorized by the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey when it decided to deport Wladyslaw Haniszewski, 69, an undocumented Polish immigrant in June who had lived in the U.S. for 30 years. Haniszewski ended up in a shelter after losing his job and apartment in Perth Amboy. He suffered a crippling heart attack that rendered him unconscious and ended up at the New Jersey hospital. While he was unconscious due to the stroke, the hospital deported him without letting anyone know or his friends who later identified him after he was deported. He later woke up in Poland.
Haniszewski suffers from a blood disease and was uninsured.
Haniszewski was transported to a Poland hospital in Boleslawiec without his consent and left there, according the NYdailynews.
Numerous other cases of medical repatriation are suspected of have taken place in the U.S., but have gone unreported due to a lack of government regulation and a mandatory requirement to report such cases.
Numerous other cases of medical repatriation are suspected of have taken place in the U.S., but have gone unreported due to a lack of government regulation and a mandatory requirement to report such cases.

The study recommended that the "U.S. Department of Health and Human Services track medical repatriation, impose sanctions on hospitals that perform involuntary medical repatriation and develop regulations that impose greater accountability for hospitals discharging patients to facilities abroad...(to push) for Congress to convene hearings and to comply with international human rights obligations."

Seton University study:

Discharge, Deportation, and Dangerous Journeys: A Study on the Practice of Medical Repatriation / Full Report (PDF) at   http://is.gd/AWQkjE

Discharge, Deportation, and Dangerous Journeys: A Study on the Practice of Medical Repatriation / Executive Summary (PDF) at   http://is.gd/DzchlX

Alta Médica, Deportación, y Viajes Peligrosos: Un Informe sobre la Práctica de Repatriación Medica / Resumen Ejecutivo (PDF)   http://is.gd/bkxImn

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Michigan Doctor Fata Allegedly Defrauded Medicare Of $35M With False Claims

Farid Fata

Dr. Fata administered unnecessary chemotherapy to patients in remission and made staff members to submit false claims to Medicare to collect up to $35 million in payments within a two year period.

By H. Nelson Goodson

August 11, 2013

Detroit, Michigan - On Tuesday, Dr. Farid Fata, 48, of Oakland Township is expected to return to the U.S. Court of the Eastern District of Michigan to face federal charges stemming from filing false claims to collect up to $35 million from Medicare.  Fata was taken in custody early last week after he was indicted for giving "unnecessary chemotherapy to patients in remission" and then filed false claims with Medicare to collect millions. 

He allegedly gave unnecessary medical treatments to patients for cancer and hematalogy who didn't need it, according to the criminal complaint.  If convicted, Fata is facing up to 20 years in a federal prison.

The U.S. Attorney's Office of Eastern Michigan reported that Fata owns and operates the Michigan Hematology Oncology (MHO) Centers, which has offices in Clarkston, Bloomfield Hills, Lapeer, Sterling Heights, Troy and Oak Park.  It was through MHO that Dr. Fata allegedly submitted fraudulent claims to Medicare for medically unnecessary services, including chemotherapy treatments, Positron Emission Tomograph (PET) scans and a variety of cancer and hematology treatments for patients who did not need them.  In the course of the scheme, Dr. Fata falsified and directed others to falsify documents.  MHO billed Medicare for approximately $35 million dollars over a two-year period, approximately $25 million of which is attributable to Dr. Fata, according to the complaint. 

The complaint further alleges that Dr. Fata directed the administration of unnecessary chemotherapy to patients in remission; deliberate misdiagnosis of patients as having cancer to justify unnecessary cancer treatment; administration of chemotherapy to end-of-life patients who will not benefit from the treatment; deliberate misdiagnosis of patients without cancer to justify expensive testing; fabrication of other diagnoses such as anemia and fatigue to justify unnecessary hematology treatments, and distribution of controlled substances to patients without medical necessity or are administered at dangerous levels.

Dr. Fata also directed that chemotherapy be administered to patients who had other serious medical conditions that required immediate treatment before he would permit them to go to the hospital.  In one instance, a male patient fell down and hit his head when he came to MHO.  Dr. Fata insisted that the patient receive his chemotherapy before he could be taken to the emergency room.  MHO administered the chemotherapy, after which the patient was taken to the emergency room.  The patient later died from his head injury.  In the second instance, a patient came to MHO with extremely low sodium levels, which can be fatal.  Dr. Fata again directed that the patient first receive chemotherapy before being taken to the emergency room.  MHO administered the chemotherapy and the patient was taken to the emergency room and hospitalized.

The MHO website says that, Dr. Fata received a Bachelor of Science from Lebanese University in 1992.  He completed his Internal Medicine Residency at Maimonides Medical Center, State University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, in 1996.  Dr. Fata attended Cornell University Medical College, NY and completed his Hematology Oncology Fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in 1999.

Goodwill Disabled Workers Get Less Than 25 Cents An Hour In 13 Franchises

Goodwill executives make more than six figures while disabled workers are paid less than 25 cents an hour, not even a cost of living wage available to disenfranchised workers with disabilities.

August 11, 2013

Milwaukee, WI (HNNUSA) - U.S. disabled workers are paid 25 cents or less an hour while executives get 6 figures in 13 Goodwill Franchises including Wisconsin under Section 14 (c) of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, NBC News reported. Disabled workers have been discriminated for years, even in modern day America. 

The vintage act should be repeal or revoked, act now! What a shame that the GOP and Democrats in Congress, including the Obama administration look the other way.