Wheelchairs

Renato Bernaldo Paulin, owner of a medical equipment supply company, was indicted Thursday on federal charges of seeking to defraud Medicare of more than $1 million with phony claims for motorized wheelchairs. The indictment says Paulin billed Medicare for motorized wheelchairs that were not medically needed. In some cases, the chairs were never provided.

Following an absence of more than two years to recover from injuries and illnesses, James Levine made his big return to the podium Sunday to conduct the Metropolitan Opera orchestra at Carnegie Hall. But the 69-year-old Levine didn't entirely return to form, having to lead the concert from the confines of a wheelchair. Though questions remain about Levine's long-term ability to conduct, "this was a day to celebrate his return and bask in his musical glory," wrote New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini.

The overwhelming success of a free wheelchair maintenance clinic has prompted a sequel to the event in Van Nuys on Saturday. "We just really feel like we've touched on a need that's out there," said Bryan Bishop, a spokesman for Valley Hospital Medical Center. "Last time, there were people that just drove by and saw the sign and quickly went home and got their wheelchairs." Saturday's wheelchair maintenance clinic will be held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the hospital, 14500 Sherman Circle.

A 53-year-old Glendale man pleaded not guilty this week to charges that he pulled a man out of his wheelchair and stole it so he could use it as a prop for panhandling, police said. Prosecutors charged Phillip Papineau with felony grand theft and felony petty theft with priors in connection with the theft of David Baysinger's wheelchair, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint. Papineau was arrested about 4 p.m. April 20 on suspicion of robbery at the Tropico Motel in the 400 block of West Chevy Chase Drive, where Baysinger, 57, of Glendale told officers Papineau was staying, according to Glendale police.

About 30 handicapped students who tried out a new wheelchair ramp at Ventura's Harbor Cove Beach on Wednesday found the 200-foot trek from the parking lot to the water's edge is now a breeze. Students from the Douglas Penfield School and De Anza Middle School, both in Ventura, were on hand for the official opening of the polyethylene plastic ramp, the first of its kind in Ventura County and among only a few in the state.

Movie theater chain AMC Entertainment Inc. said it would spend $21 million over five years to modify 113 stadium-style theaters after a federal court ruled that it violated regulations regarding accommodations for people in wheelchairs. In January, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that AMC violated regulations involving parking areas, signs, ramps, toilet location and other factors.

The Orange County Transit District will provide wheelchair access by next spring on all of its commuter-express buses running between Orange County and downtown Los Angeles under terms of a lawsuit settlement reached Thursday with the state attorney general's office. "We're real pleased," said Deputy Atty. Gen. Henry Torres Jr. "Basically, it opens downtown Los Angeles to the disabled community of Orange County."

At Rosemont Junior High School in La Crescenta, getting students who have sprained an ankle or are suffering an asthma attack to the health office from the hillside playing fields, three ramp levels down, is not easy. Now, thanks to the recent donation of a wheelchair from a Glendale hospital, it will be a lot easier. School health clerk Cynthia Pageler said Rosemont had a 25-year-old wheelchair, but could not afford to buy a new one, which costs about $1,500.

An elderly man out for a ride in his battery-powered wheelchair, which has a maximum speed of 6 m.p.h., trundled for 30 minutes the wrong way up the autobahn in busy afternoon traffic Monday, police said. Police who saw the 65-year-old pensioner trying to turn around in a rest area, said he told them that he had just noticed he had made a wrong turn. He said he was trying to reach the city of Giessen--which was behind him. Police said he assured them that there was no cause for alarm.

The city has purchased two all-terrain wheelchairs to allow disabled beach-goers to get closer to the water. The city will offer the wheelchairs free at two Perry's Pizza locations at 2400 Ocean Front Walk and 1200 Pacific Coast Highway, said Beach Manager Judith Meister. The lightweight chairs, which cost $2,300 each, are equipped with broad rubber tires that can go across sand without sinking, Meister said.

Redefining night life? That'd be Miami Regarding "For Creatures of the Night" [March 24] on Miami Beach: Jenn Harris needs to step away from Miami Beach, because anything done there is not redefining. Time to cross the bridge and step into the real Miami. Visit such places as Will Call, Space, Grand Central, the Garret, Wood Tavern, Shots Miami and the Electric Pickle Co. These places are a redefinition of typical Miami Beach night life. Marlon DeLeon Miami Wheelchair-friendly cruises Regarding "The Right Questions" by Catharine Hamm [On the Spot, March 24]

Question: My husband had a stroke two years ago. He can walk short distances and maneuver some stairs, but we always take a wheelchair. I have just retired and would love to do some traveling, and a riverboat cruise in Europe is at the top of my bucket list. Are there trips that could accommodate this situation? Would shore excursions be a problem, or are we restricted to drive-bys? Charlotte Lechlak Encino Answer: River cruising is the hot ticket in 2013, especially if Europe is your destination.

YOKNEAM ILLIT, Israel - The bullet that tore through Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiuf's spine during a 1988 Lebanon firefight shattered his dreams of becoming a dentist. Doctors said he'd never again walk or have a normal life. But Kaiuf, now 46, had other ideas. He decided he would not allow the injury to defeat or define him. Over the years he married and had four children. He learned to drive with a specially equipped car, exercised with a hand-powered bicycle and even went skiing in a wheelchair.

He runs with a cellphone pressed tightly against his hip, but she never calls, so for 26.2 miles he runs with his memories. In the first hour, she is walking again through the German countryside. By the middle of the race, she is dancing again to their classical favorites. At the finish line, she is strolling with their two children into the best years of her life. Then John Creel, 77, towels off, catches his breath, and returns to the marathon that is his life as a full-time caregiver for wife Ingrid, whose body has been rendered helpless by the evils of multiple sclerosis.

  North Carolina State student Will Privette refused to let the fact that he is in a wheelchair stop him from celebrating the Wolfpack's 84-76 victory over No. 1 Duke on Saturday. And he has no regrets, even after being knocked over by a swarm of students who were also celebrating the win. The moment, caught on video, was a scary situation that turned out to have a happy ending. "Two years ago when we beat Duke, I rushed the court," he told radio station WRAL . "But I waited for the first round of people to go. That was my original plan today, just to do that.

An elderly man was charged with murder in the shooting death of a 65-year-old woman after his motorized wheelchair "made contact" with her car at a Georgia gas station, authorities said. The collision, which occurred as Linda Hunnicutt was pulling in to the station about 1 p.m. Tuesday, led her to step out of her Buick Lucerne and briefly exchange words with the man, a spokeswoman for the Macon Police Department said. The man, identified as Frank Louis Reeves, then shot her in the chest,  police said.

A group of community volunteers has helped make a nature trail at Pierce College accessible to people in wheelchairs. The completion of the project, which involved smoothing out the trail's surface, was marked Thursday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony near the school's Winnetka Avenue entrance. The trail, which winds through the school's 15-acre arboretum, was opened in April.

A civil rights law firm filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the U.S. Postal Service alleging that the East Los Angeles branch lacks a ramp that would make the facility available to the disabled. Currently, people in wheelchairs sit at the bottom of the flight of stairs and ask passersby to assist them with transactions, said Daniel Juarez, an attorney with Protection & Advocacy, a nonprofit firm. At least three plaintiffs have asked the post office to add a ramp and were refused, he added.

A whirring mechanical lift raised Davien Graham's wheelchair to the witness stand in Department X on the fourth floor of the Los Angeles County courthouse in Alhambra. Pain burned at the base of his spine. His eyes met Jimmy Santana's for the first time since the shooting. He thought Santana seemed much smaller sitting at the defense table than he had with the gun in his hand. In his baggy blue jail uniform, he looked like a child. Two months earlier, on Jan. 12, 2008, Davien had been gunned down as he rode his bike in front of his church, a bystander in a gang war that had raged in Monrovia for two years.

It's not so easy for wheelchair users to flag down accessible cabs in New York City. Of the 13,000 taxis in Manhattan, just 233 are equipped to handle wheelchairs. How do you find one when you need one without making a reservation in advance? Enter Accessible Dispatch , a service that started in September and is designed to cut down on wait times when a wheelchair user needs a taxi. Here's how it works: The company uses GPS to track all the accessible taxis in the city. When a call for a taxi is made, the closest available cab is sent for the pick up. Passengers pay the metered fare only; the cost of "deadhead miles" (the time it takes for the cab to get to the passenger)