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This is what a scam phone call sounds like

The year 2014 could go down as The Year of the Stupid Phone Call.

More and more, stupid people are calling with stupid scams. Everyone is complaining. You should see my mail. I’m hearing about it every day.

One reader taped a call from a scammer. Listen to the recording and hear how the caller tries to scare her into thinking she’s accused of a crime.

Here’s the phone call:

If you do a quick Google search on the number given in the phone call, you find that other recipients of similar calls began posting their experiences on 800notes.com here. That’s where you can find out if other people are also getting similar calls.

Remember to always be suspicious. If you owe money for something, you’ll get a letter about it. But, uh-oh, the letters are fake, too.

Bottom line: Don’t send money just because someone asks you to. It sounds simple. But millions of dollars have been lost this way.

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Read more from The Watchdog here. He’s all about saving you time, money and aggravation.

Golf commentator David Feherty turns to Kickstarter to raise money for documentary series about veterans

David Feherty stands in front of what he calls "Victor's Gallery" in his Dallas home. Artist Victor Juhasz’s work with Feherty has extended beyond magazine pages to collaborations involving Feherty-initiated charities including raising funds for wounded veterans and youth in need. (David Woo/Staff photographer)

Everyone loves David Feherty — The Broguish Voice of CBS Golf, Best Ticket Guest Ever, teller of difficult truths and, possibly, the world’s luckiest unluckiest cyclist. And, as our Barry Horn noted in May, there’s his work with the Troops First Foundation, which provides assistance to military personnel wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. So what have you done today?

Anyway. While browsing through the latest local Kickstarters today, I found this one with but a week left: Feherty’s plea for a small fortune ($635,000), which he needs for a film series aimed at documenting the lives of 10 soldiers. (Each film, he notes, will cost around $65,000; hence, the big ask.) The series will be called Portraits of War.

“Each feature-length film will tell the story of one soldier from his or her own account,” Feherty writes. “Filmed using a technique made famous by legendary filmmaker Errol Morris, the interviews with each soldier will make it feel like they are personally telling you their story one on one. The idea for this project came from hours and hours of listening to different soldiers tell stories from their time in combat or in training. The stories of their lives and what made them want to put their life on the line for this country are amazing, and every single one deserves to have their story captured. That’s obviously impossible, but we want to start with this series of ten and hopefully keep it going.”

The project was posted a few weeks ago and wraps a week from tomorrow. So far, he’s raised $16,250 — not even enough for one film, the first of which will about a Marine who “stepped on an IED in Afghanistan and suffered catastrophic wounds that only he can describe properly.” He’s hoping to get this done by the end of next year. But first, he’ll need your pocket change.

His pitch is below, along with an excerpt from the work-in-progress. The man makes a compelling case, because, after all, he’s David Feherty.

West African travelers to be monitored for 21 days in U.S.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (AP/Photo)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Wednesday that all travelers will be monitored for 21 days after arriving in the U.S. from the three West Africans countries where Ebola is spreading.

Starting Monday, each traveler from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea will be given a “care kit” that includes a thermometer and instructions for how to use it as well as a description of possible Ebola symptoms and what to do if any of them develop.

Such travelers, who most likely will include health-care workers assisting in the Ebola fight and journalists, will be required to take their temperatures twice daily for 21 days and report the result to the state health department where they reside.

“These new measure will give an additional level of safety,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director in a national media briefing. “We have to keep our guard up.”

About 150 people are believed to travel to the U.S. daily from the three West African countries. The travelers already are having their temperatures taken when they leave Africa and when they arrive at certain U.S. airports.

Nina Pham’s dog Bentley has tested negative for Ebola; still in quarantine at Hensley Field

Bentley's days at the former Naval Air Station are nearing an end.

Bentley, Nina Pham’s year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, is Ebola-free.

That’s the breaking news from Dallas Animal Services, which on Monday began collecting his urine and stool samples to check for the disease his owner contracted while treating Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas. But Dallas Animal Services wants to make it clear: He’s not yet completely out of the woods.

“Bentley will be monitored for a full 21-day period, similar to people exposed to the Ebola virus,” says a release from Dallas City Hall this morning.

A specimen collection will be conducted again before the end of that 21-day quarantine period at the Hensley Field Services Center on W. Jefferson Boulevard. His quarantine period should come to an end around November 1.

Today’s news follows yesterday’s note from the National Institutes of Health that upgraded Pham’s condition from fair to good. Sana Syed, the city of Dallas spokesperson, says city officials are providing Pham with daily updates about her dog’s condition. The two have been separated since Pham was put into isolation at Presbyterian on October 10, which is the last day she saw Bentley.

Dallas Animal Services is overseeing Bentley’s care, but it’s doing so with considerable guidance from copious other interested parties, among them the Texas Animal Health Commission, Texas A&M University and the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, the Texas Department of State Health Services, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Centers for Disease Control.

Early on, Dallas officials made the decision not to euthanize Bentley — a far cry from what happened in Spain, where 44-year-old nurse Teresa Romero’s 12-year-old mixed-breed rescue dog Excalibur was put down to the backdrop of violent protests. Romero has since tested Ebola-free.

1 person killed in overnight fire that damaged two McKinney houses

One person was killed overnight in a fire that damaged two McKinney homes.

One person was killed in an overnight house fire in McKinney. (NBC 5 (KXAS-TX))

Firefighters responded around 1:20 a.m. to a fire in the 1000 block of Scenic Hills Drive near Lake Forest Drive, according to NBC 5 (KXAS-TV). The fire spread from one house into another.

When firefighters were able to get inside one of the homes, they found a body inside, according to NBC 5. That person has not been identified.

Read more here.

Klyde Warren Park wins prestigious Urban Land Institute’s Open Space Award

Three-year old CJ Reynolds enjoys a day in the park (Louis DeLuca/Dallas Morning News)

Klyde Warren Park received a big national award Tuesday — as far as park officials are concerned, the biggest.

“This is a very big deal,” said Tara Green, the park’s president. “We call it the Oscar of the Park World, and we’re honored that Klyde Warren Park was selected.”

The 2014 Urban Open Space Award was announced at the Urban Land Institute’s annual meeting in New York City. The institute awards the $10,000 annual prize on the basis of a park’s impact on the surrounding city, especially its adjacent neighborhood.

“Klyde Warren is not only successful in fixing an urban fracture that isolated development and challenged the existing potential for the area; it also demonstrates that a long-term vision and commitment are critical to foster a sense of place and community,” said M. Leanne Lachman, who chaired the award jury.

Wednesday marks the second anniversary of the 5.2-acre park built over Woodall Rodgers Freeway. The park has proved wildly popular and is credited with reviving the northern edge of downtown and serving as a bridge to Uptown.

Klyde Warren Park beat out four other finalists. They are Columbus Commons and Scioto Mile in Columbus, Ohio; Guthrie Green in Tulsa, Okla.; the Railyard Park and Plaza in Santa Fe. N.M., and Washington Park in Cincinnati.

Gov. Rick Perry announces two new Ebola treatment facilities to be led by UT Southwestern in Dallas and UTMB in Galveston

Gov. Rick Perry held a press conference to announce the plan Tuesday at UT Southwestern Medical Center. (Michael Ainsworth/Staff Photographer)

Staff writers Naheed Rajwani and Matthew Watkins report:

Gov. Rick Perry announced Tuesday that UT Southwestern Medical Center will head up one of two designated treatment centers for Ebola patients in Texas.

“The goal of these facilities is to rival the most advanced facilities in the world,” the governor said at a news conference at the Dallas hospital. “I don’t think there is a better institution in the world” than UT Southwestern.

The state’s other treatment facility will be at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

UT Southwestern will staff and provide other expertise for the treatment facility, but it won’t be on the hospital’s campus in Dallas’ Medical District. Instead it will be housed in a building at Methodist Health System’s continuing care facility at 401 Campbell Road in Richardson.

The facility has 10 empty beds and special areas for health care staff to don and doff protective gear. It could take in two new Ebola patients within the next 24 hours, said Dr. Sam Bagchi, chief medical information officer for Methodist Health System.

“This is a fully contained facility, just like Nebraska and Emory,” he said.

The state’s plan will provide relief for Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, which has been at the epicenter of the Ebola scare for weeks.

“That hospital has been on the front line,” Perry said. “They have paid a heavy price.”

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, who also appeared with Perry at UT Southwestern, agreed that the doctors and nurses at Presbyterian deserve a break.

“These are our hometown healthcare heroes,” he said. “They are tired. … It would be inhumane if … they were forced into continuing.”

Presbyterian officials, meanwhile, said they would still be involved in the Ebola response by sharing their knowledge with other health-care providers.

“A coordinated response is in all our best interests, and we remain active participants in discussions to advance the shared goal of defeating this insidious disease,” according to a written statement from the hospital.

Dr. Daniel K. Podolsky president of UT Southwestern, said physicians and nurses at the hospital are well-prepared because of their expertise in biocontainment. Parkland Health and Hospital System officials also plans to dispatch nurses and support staff, including lab and pharmacy technicians, to the facility — if North Texas sees another Ebola case.

But Parkland, Methodist and UT Southwestern representatives said they hope no new Ebola cases will emerge in Texas.

“We all hope that the steps we are taking today will be precautionary and that this time we won’t need to be called to treat Ebola,” Podolsky said.

Richardson officials shared that sentiment and noted that Methodist Campus for Continuing Care was named as a “backup location for treatment.”

“No family or community ever wants to have to face a challenge like this,” Richardson Mayor Laura Maczka said in a written statement. “But, standing up and facing challenges together is what makes families and communities strong.”

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that 60 people who were being monitored for Ebola symptoms have been cleared. That’s nine more people with a clean bill of health.

Earlier in the day, Jenkins said North Texas gets safer from Ebola with every passing day, even though the county is still carefully watching more than 100 people who were potentially exposed to the virus.

“I believe we are winning the fight against Ebola now,” he said during a briefing at the regular meeting of the Dallas County Commissioners Court.

Dr. Christopher Perkins, the county medical director, provided the commissioners with a more detailed update on the people who are being monitored. There are 116 people still on the watch list, he said. Of those, only three had contact with an Ebola patient or a patient’s bodily fluids. The rest are listed as “possible contacts.”

If no one else contracts the virus, monitoring will end Nov. 7, health officials have said.

Meanwhile, county officials said they have already begun looking toward ways to be prepared for a future public health emergency.

Zachary Thompson, the county health director, recommended to the court that the county request that the Texas Legislature update state health code to help with its response. Updates include rules that would allow school officials, police chiefs and other law enforcement agencies to be notified if a person in their jurisdiction has been placed in quarantine or monitoring for an infectious disease.

Thompson also said the state will need to come up with a procedure that would allow people who are under quarantine to vote if their time in isolation corresponds with an election.

That won’t be a problem in this November’s election for people currently being monitored for Ebola, officials said, but could be an issue if new cases arise.

Switch problem near DART’s Pearl Street station causes rail delays downtown

Commuters get off a DART train at the Pearl Street station. (DMN file photo)

Updated at 9:30 a.m.: The switches are operating now and DART is working to get the rail lines on their normal schedules, Lyons said.

Original post at 9:10 a.m.: Expect delays in the downtown DART rail lines this morning because of a switch problem near the Pearl/Arts District station, according to DART officials.

The switches are not working properly in the southeast downtown junction, which means DART workers will have to operate them manually, said DART spokesman Morgan Lyons.

The longest train delay was 15 minutes as of 9 a.m. A handful of cars were delayed 5 to 10 minutes, Lyons said.

“If you’re operating outside of downtown, you probably aren’t experiencing much, if any, delays,” he said. “But as you get into downtown, you’re going to have some delays.”

He said he wasn’t sure when the rail lines would go back to their usual operations.

 

Fire causes minor damage inside Mesquite nursing home

A one-alarm fire in a Mesquite nursing home was quite the wake up call for some residents early this morning.

Around 5 a.m., a chair caught fire in one of the double occupancy rooms at the Edgewood Rehabilitation Center, setting off the sprinkler system and forcing staff to evacuate residents in nearby rooms.

Only two people reported minor injuries, fire officials said.

One person slipped and fell, and the other reported being in pain. Neither of those, however, appear to be fire-related, said Mesquite fire chief Kelly Turner.

The sprinkler system quickly extinguished the fire, but left behind a lot of water.

“They’re going to be cleaning up water for a while,” Turner said.

He said the nursing home staff planned to move the two impacted residents to another room.

The nursing home, which is located at 1101 Windbell Drive, could not be reached for comment. Mesquite fire officials were still investigating what caused the fire.

CDC issues new guidelines to protect caregivers treating Ebola patients

Workers at Bellvue Hospital in New York wear protective gear during a demonstration of Ebola procedures on Oct. 8. Medical records indicate that workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan without hazardous materials gear for two days until tests confirmed his diagnosis.

Workers at Bellvue Hospital in New York wear protective gear during a demonstration of Ebola procedures on Oct. 8. Medical records indicate that workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan without hazardous materials gear for two days until tests confirmed his diagnosis. (File 2014/The Associated Press)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines late Monday for how health care workers will use personal protective equipment while caring for Ebola patients.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the federal agency, said the changes provide “an increased margin of safety” by limiting the opportunity for Ebola caregivers to contract the deadly virus from their patients.

The changes are a direct response to the accidental Ebola infections of two nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. Registered nurses Nina Pham and Amber Vinson were treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the nation’s first patient diagnosed with the deadly virus. Both women are undergoing treatment at specialized facilities.

“This is unacceptable,” Frieden said of their infections. “Even a single health care infection is one too many.”

Most Ebola cases have occurred in Africa, particularly the current outbreak, which is focused in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. Duncan came to Dallas in mid-September from Liberia.

During a national media briefing, Frieden said caring for Ebola patients in a modern hospital can be more hands-on than the care provided in a Third World setting. Nurses here, for example, suction patients or insert breathing tubes, which increase their exposure to the patient’s body fluids, which increases transmission .

The changes focus first on Dallas hospitals, which are preparing for the possibility of more Ebola-infected patients. Although more than 40 people have been cleared of possible Ebola infections, at least 75 others continued to be watched for Ebola symptoms. Most are Presbyterian employees, who treated Duncan during his 10-day hospitalization.

“Dallas showed that taking care of Ebola is risky,” Frieden said.

The changes will require nurses and doctors to train themselves in how to wear hazmat suits, cover every inch of their skin and rely on the help of a trained observer, who will guide the process of putting on and removing the gear.

“Every step putting on and taking off must be supervised by a trained observer,” Frieden stressed. “The greatest risk of Ebola care is taking off the equipment.”

In other countries, most of the infections of health care workers occur when they are not “thinking Ebola,” meaning caregivers do not realize the virus is causing a patient’s illness and fail to take adequate precautions.

Other rules also will come into play when dealing with Ebola patients, he said. They include:

– Limit the number of caregivers treating an Ebola patient, reducing infection possibilities.

– Limit the number of procedures performed on such patients.

– Appoint site managers to guide health care workers through each step of dining and doffing their protective gear.

– Increase the training of front-line workers on all aspects of Ebola treatment and personal safety.

– Wear respirators when working with patients who require suctioning or intubation, which could increase contact with bodily fluids.

The new guidelines represent a consensus of the CDC, World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders, which developed similar rules for Ebola caregivers operating in African countries, where the disease has appeared periodically over the past four decades.

“It’s hard to translate what’s done in a field hospital in Africa to a modern American hospital,” Frieden said.

For example, after treating Ebola patients, fully garbed caretakers in African are sprayed down with bleach while standing in gravel pits. In a U.S. hospital, cleanup will rely on wiping down a caregiver with a chemical pad that kills the virus.