Injuries to the spinal cord are often catastrophic and life-changing, as they affect just about every system in the body. Depending where the initial trauma occurs, a spinal cord injury can cause partial or full paralysis. The full extent of spinal cord damage may not be immediately known during the first hours or days after injury, but as the patient or a loved one of the patient, you are likely greatly concerned. After spinal cord trauma, [...]
The post-holiday period is a chaotic time in its own right. The flurry of taking down decorations, going back to school, getting back in the swing of work, and winding down from holiday parties takes some getting used to. After two years of muted celebrations due to the pandemic, people may have let loose a little more this year. For some, that may have included some misguided drinking and driving. It’s a fact that driving [...]
When you think of dangerous blood clots, like deep vein thrombosis (DVT), you usually frame it as a medical issue – something caused by being immobile for too long, like after surgery or maybe a long plane ride. And that’s true, both of those things can put a person at risk for blood clots. However, one thing a lot of people don’t know is that even a minor car accident can cause a possibly fatal blood [...]
Being arrested can be humiliating and harm your reputation. It doesn’t even matter if you’re innocent or guilty of the crime of which you’re accused – if friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers find out about your arrest, the damage is already done. Even if authorities got the wrong person, it can take a lot of time and a lot of headaches to get your name, community standing, and job back. If this unfortunate and frustrating [...]
Each day, trucks crisscross America’s highways, carrying goods from one location to the next. The drivers behind the wheel provide a crucial service and are often under a tremendous amount of pressure to reach their destination as quickly as possible. This pressure can lead to irresponsible, even reckless, driving that puts everyone on our nation’s roads at increased danger of being involved in an accident. Tennessee’s roads are no exception. In fact, according to a recent [...]
Prison is intended to be rehabilitative as well as punitive – especially for non-violent and first-time offenders. A prison sentence that is too long may only serve one of these goals. The United States has an overincarceration problem. We put a lot of people in prison – according to the World Prison Brief, the U.S. ranks among the top countries for total prison population, second only to China – and we keep them there too long. [...]
It’s no secret that driving — or even riding on — a motorcycle comes with its fair share of risks. That is part of the thrill, after all. Those who choose to ride motorcycles accept those risks gladly because the joy of the experience makes it all worth it. Besides, there are safe ways to operate motorcycle; classes and licenses exist for that very reason. However, due to the popularity of “cool” figures riding motorcycles in [...]
In today’s day and age, law enforcement have a wide variety of advanced technology to assist them in determining whether a person is under the influence of drugs or alcohol while driving. One might assume that with such tools at their fingertips, any guesswork would be out of the running in deciding the guilt of the accused. However, despite these advancements, law enforcement still uses the unscientific approach of drug recognition experts, or DREs. These [...]
When we are in a car, there is some protection offered by the vehicle itself. Unlike a pedestrian, bicyclist, or motorcyclist, drivers of (and passengers in) sedans or trucks are surrounded by thick, hard metal that may offer some shielding against an object or other vehicle that it crashes into. While it can provide that protection during minor crashes, in more severe accidents, the car itself can become a dangerous weapon surrounding you. The steering wheel [...]
As of 2019, Tennessee prisons housed over 25,000 prisoners spread across 11 different facilities. The offenders vary in degree, but almost all of them work different jobs within those facilities at some point during their sentences. While helping convicts prepare for working after their release is undoubtedly a positive, poor conditions and an overall lack of choice lends to a far less savory idea — specifically, the idea that offender labor is nothing more than a [...]
