Doctor convicted of poisoning wife

A former Ohio emergency room doctor was convicted Friday for murdering his wife in 2005 according to CNN.com. Yazeed Essa was convicted of poisoning his wife, Rosemarie, with cyanide.

Prosecutors claim that Essa laced his wife’s calcium supplements with cyanide.  Essa faces life in prison, and will not be eligible for parole for 20 years.

Rosemarie was driving when she began to feel ill, and passed out and crashed into another car.  She died in the hospital with four times the lethal amount of cyanide in her system.

It took the jury just under four days to convict Essa.

 Local Nursing Homes Fined for Unsafe Conditions

Three local nursing homes were fined for conditions that regulators say were dangerous for residents according to syracuse.com.  The Local Term Care Community Coalition, a nonprofit organization that conducts reviews of nursing homes every quarter, levied the fines.

Rosewood nursing home was fined $12,000 for conditions found in August of 2008.  The fines were levied because nurses were not washing or changing their gloves.  The home was also fined $5,500 last year by the federal government.

Central Park Rehabilitation was fined $3,750 for exposing patients to another patient with an active case of tuberculosis. 

St. Camillus Health & Rehabilitation Center was fined $10,000 for serving a patient regular food when the patient was supposed to be served pureed food.  The patient choked and died.  The home was already fined for the same incident by the federal government.

Peppers Signs with Bears

Former Carolina Panther defensive end Julius Peppers signed with the Chicago Bears earlier this morning according to espn.com.  Peppers and the Bears agreed to a six-year deal that could be worth $40 million for the first three years.

Peppers is a five-time Pro Bowler who recorded 10.5 sacks last season.

Kyle Vanden Bosch, another Pro Bowl defensive end, also has a new home after signing a four-year deal with the Detroit Lions today.