It Figures

238

Number of people charged with driving under the influence since July by Delaware’s Office of Highway Safety, which instituted a number of statewide checkpoints this summer. The anti-drunk driving campaign – nicknamed Checkpoint Strikeforce – is scheduled to end after New Year’s Eve.

$313,500

Total penalties issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration against three construction firms in New York, stemming from the March collapse of a tower crane that killed seven people. Charges range from failure to properly train employees about job site hazards to allowing fire, falling and other hazards to exist. The 19-story tower crane broke away from a luxury apartment building under construction and fell like a tree across other buildings as far as a block away.

70

Years since the infamous hurricane of Sept. 21, 1938 — among the most catastrophic in New England history — the anniversary of which was marked last month by Rhode Island officials. Elevated blue ribbons were placed on street signs and telephone poles outside the Biltmore hotel in Providence and elsewhere in Rhode Island to mark the height of flood waters during the Category 3 hurricane which destroyed downtown Providence and killed hundreds.

$7 Million

Estimated loss to insurance companies from an under-the-table payroll scheme perpetrated by a Dartmouth, Mass. woman for nearly seven years. Federal prosecutors said the woman, Aimee King McElroy, paid more than $40 million in cash wages through temporary employment agencies she ran with her husband as part of an effort to avoid paying taxes and workers’ compensation insurance premiums. It was the largest such scheme ever prosecuted in the Bay State. King McElroy was sentenced last month to three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $9 million in restitution.

$140,000

Annual salary for retired Queens Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette, who was recently named a deputy superintendent of the New York Insurance Department. The 78-year-old Democrat served 32 years in the Assembly before retiring this summer. The hiring comes despite the governor’s own orders putting a freeze on hiring.