By JIM DANKO

A worker died Dec. 20 in an accident at a business near Gainesville, Ga., following an explosion, according to the Gainesville Times. The accident happened as a result of a malfunctioning piece of equipment used to clean filters at MyCelx Technologies Corp., the newspaper reported.

A Gainesville fire official told the newspaper that a chemical solution created the explosion. He said it was similar to a gas build up on a grill that burst into flames when it is lit.

The worker’s name was not immediately released, pending notification of relatives. The man is from India and his relatives had not been notified, according to accessnorthga.com.

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If this year is anything like last, baby boomers and older Americans should be on guard this holiday season. Instances of financial abuse and fraud against the elderly increased from November 2010 to January 2011, according to a recent report from MetLife, which found overall investment fraud targeted towards older Americans is on the rise.

Americans over the age of 65 lost nearly $3 billion to financial abuse from April to June 2010, up 12% from the same period in 2008, according to the report. During that time, 51% of the fraud cases reported were perpetrated by strangers, 34% by family, friends and neighbors and 12% by businesses.

But in a separate look at the holidays, MetLife reports fraud by family and friends increased to 45%.

With the baby boomer generation reaching retirement age and comprising 25% of the U.S. population, financial investment fraud is becoming a bigger and more problematic issue facing the country.

The North American Securities Administrators Association found the number of criminal complaints and enforcement actions at the state level against investors 50 years or older more than doubled in 2010 from 2009, reports The Wall Street Journal. And state security officials expected the number of enforcements actions for fraud against that same age group to hit a record this year.

Not only are the boomers older and more vulnerable, but “they tend to have more assets that they tend to rely on to live out through retirement years,” says Raj Date, Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury and acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This combo makes them a more “attractive pray for would be scammers.”

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Fatal auto accidents in Connecticut sadly happen far too often. Some of the nation’s busiest highways, including Interstate 95, pass right through Connecticut. Just recently, three people died in auto accidents on Thanksgiving weekend in Connecticut.

What would your family do if you lost a loved one in a fatal auto accident? How would you pay your bills? What if your insurance company refused to cooperate? You need a hard-working Connecticut fatal accident attorney in your corner. You need the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone & Morelli. Serving clients throughout Connecticut, our experienced Hartford personal injury attorneys work tirelessly for people to get them the compensation they rightfully deserve. We understand how to investigate accidents. We know what information to look for to build a solid case. We believe the needs of a client should always come first. No exceptions, no excuses!

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We Asked Are Background Checking Companies Subject to Lawsuits?

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A clerical error landed Kathleen Casey on the streets.

Out of work two years, her unemployment benefits exhausted, in danger of losing her apartment, Casey applied for a job in the pharmacy of a Boston drugstore. She was offered $11 an hour. All she had to do was pass a background check.

It turned up a 14-count criminal indictment. Kathleen Casey had been charged with larceny in a scam against an elderly man and woman that involved forged checks and fake credit cards.

There was one technicality: The company that ran the background check, First Advantage, had the wrong woman. The rap sheet belonged to Kathleen A. Casey, who lived in another town nearby and was 18 years younger. Does Kathleen have a lawsuit ? We suggest reading a personal injury lawyer web site

Kathleen Ann Casey, would-be pharmacy technician, was clean.

“It knocked my legs out from under me,” she says.

The business of background checks is booming. Employers spend at least $2 billion a year to look into the pasts of their prospective employees. They want to make sure they’re not hiring a thief, or worse.

But it is a system weakened by the conversion to digital files and compromised by the welter of private companies that profit by amassing public records and selling them to employers. These flaws have devastating consequences.

It is a system in which the most sensitive information from people’s pasts is bought and sold as a commodity.

A system in which computers scrape the public files of court systems around the country to retrieve personal data. But a system in which what they retrieve isn’t checked for errors that would be obvious to human eyes.

A system that can damage reputations and, in a time of precious few job opportunities, rob honest workers of a chance at a new start. And a system that can leave the Kathleen Caseys of the world – the innocent ones – living in a car.

Those are the results of an investigation by The Associated Press that included a review of thousands of pages of court filings and interviews with dozens of court officials, data providers, lawyers, victims and regulators.

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