Latest news with #bath
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Grandfather, 75, who died after becoming trapped in a scalding hot hotel room bath may have lived if old taps had been replaced, inquiry finds
A grandfather who died after getting trapped in a scalding hot hotel room bath may have lived had the old taps been replaced, an inquiry has found. Wallace Hunter, 75, was staying at the Pitlochry Hydro in Perthshire, Scotland when he became stuck in the tub. Guests and emergency services desperately tried to smash in the door but were unable to open it in time as it was bolted from the inside and opened outwards. The pensioner was eventually found lying unresponsive in the bath with water running that was so hot firefighters and police had to wear gloves to get him out. He died from third degree burns to 83 per cent of his body. Now Sheriff John MacRitchie has told a fatal accident inquiry at Alloa Sheriff Court that Mr Hunter's death in December 2019 could have been avoided had the annual tap checks been carried out. He added that a 'full analysis' should have been conducted by the hotel after other guests complained about the water temperature. A Health and Safety Executive (HSE) investigation found the mixer tap was more than 30 years old, the probe heard. Its temperature control was 'very sensitive' and did not satisfactorily isolate the hot water when the cold water shut off. In a written judgment, Sheriff MacRitchie said: 'At the time when it was first realised that Mr Hunter was having difficulty in operating the tap, he was conscious and able to describe to Mrs Hunter that he was having these difficulties. 'He was still conscious and making sounds after Ms Cespedes had come from reception and gone up to the second floor and into Room 211. 'In those circumstances, there remains a real and lively possibility that Mr Hunter had not, by the time his difficulties in shutting off the tap had become known to Mrs Hunter, reached the stage yet of his having been subjected to the excessive water temperatures that resulted in his being fatally scalded. 'It is correct to state that it is not possible to definitively state whether earlier rescue would have resulted in Mr Hunter's survival. 'However, because it is known that Mr Hunter remained conscious for a significant period of time without any indication that he was being scalded, after he stated that he was having difficulty turning off the tap, there remains the real and lively possibility that had Mrs Hunter or others been able to enter the bathroom and assist Mr Hunter from the bath and/or turn off the tap at an earlier time Mr Hunter may have survived.' The sheriff added: 'The lessons learned from the death of Mr Hunter should now be utilised to prevent such events from happening again elsewhere, and the findings of this inquiry should alert all hotels or other establishments to recognise the real potential for such a fatal scalding to take place, and to analyse relative risk accordingly.' He also concluded that Mr Hunter's death could have been prevented by doors which opened from the outside. The sheriff said: 'The lessons learned from the death of Mr Hunter should now be utilised to prevent such events from happening again elsewhere, and the findings of this inquiry should alert all hotels or other establishments to recognise the real potential for such a fatal scalding to take place, and to analyse relative risk accordingly.' The inquiry heard Mr Hunter, who had a mild cognitive impairment, was very independent but suffered a lack of confidence around technology. It's not known why he became trapped in the bath, as scalding water gushed from the tap but he had been able to communicate with his wife. A guest in the bedroom below spotted water pouring down their bathroom mirror and contacted reception. The former manager of the Pitlochry Hydro hotel told the inquiry that replacement locks with a safety release would have only cost an estimated £80 a room. The Daily Mail has approached Pitlochry Hydro for comment.
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Five-year-old 'runs away' from home to avoid bath
This is the hilarious moment a five-year-old tried to run away from home to avoid taking yet another bath. London Bird, from Utah, had endured daily baths to tame her coarse, curly hair during a busy school week. On day five, she silently packed essentials and marched out—only to return minutes later, claiming her mum had said they were off to the park. Mom Shannon, who filmed the drama, said London was 'completely resolute' until she changed her mind.
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
What to know as the Senate tries to pass Trump's agenda bill next week
It's go time in the Senate for President Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill.' After months of negotiations, Senate Republicans are gearing up for a potential vote next week on Trump's sweeping domestic policy bill. It will be a major test for Republican Leader John Thune and Trump's own hold on the upper chamber that aides say will be cast as a binary choice for the rank-and-file: you either are with the president or you aren't. Thune has predicted the Senate could begin consideration on the bill as early as the middle of next week. That would mean a massive sprint starting this weekend to draft final text, whip votes and iron out a series of major sticking points that will satisfy holdouts – without pushing the bill in such a different direction that it stalls out in the House of Representatives where it passed by a single vote. The bottom line is next week is crunch time and all the hard decisions that have been punted will need to be made in the next several days. Aides and members say that if everything goes according to plan (and that's far from certain), the 20-hour clock to debate the bill could start as soon as Wednesday. Republicans would yield a big part of their time back and vote-a-rama – an hours-long voting marathon – could begin Thursday evening into Friday. That could always get pushed into Friday evening, but right now the goal is to have this finished by the end of next week. Over the next several days, a myriad of technical work and hard-fought negotiations have to unfold in order to get the bill to a place where it is even ready for the floor. Some of these negotiations will be substantial, others will be a way to give members an off-ramp to vote 'yes' because members really do want to back the president here. One of those tasks is already underway and will continue this weekend: the Byrd Bath. Simply put, the Byrd bath is a critical process led by the Senate parliamentarian that ensures all the provisions of the bill comply with special Senate rules that allow Republicans to move this bill with a simple majority rather than being subject to the normal 60-vote threshold. Those rules are specific and nuanced, but the Budget Control Act set parameters that required provisions within a bill that is going to pass with a simple majority to have more than just an 'incidental' budget impact. The parliamentarian traditionally makes a call on whether a provision qualifies. It's named after the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who came up with the rule to stop either side from abusing the reconciliation process and trying to use it to just pass legislation that bypassed a filibuster. The way it works is Democrats and Republican staffers of each committee with jurisdiction in the bill privately meet with the parliamentarian and make their arguments for whether provisions meet the confines of the process. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to undertake this process Sunday evening, a critical step in moving forward because so many of the tax and health care provisions that are the heart of this bill are in Finance's purview. Several other committees have already begun, including the Senate Banking Committee, which Democrats say led to some of the provisions in that committee's jurisdiction from being ruled out of compliance with reconciliation. 'The Parliamentarian agreed that the funding cap for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), elimination of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), gutting of the Office of Financial Research and Financial Stability Oversight Council, and slashing Federal Reserve staff salaries violate the Senate's Byrd Rule,' Sen. Elizabeth Warren's office announced in a statement. State and local tax deductions: This may be the biggest hurdle right now. Unlike in the House, where a number of swing district members hail from high-tax states, there is absolutely no interest in the Senate in investing hundreds of billions of dollars to raise the cap on how much constituents in New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois can deduct in state and local taxes on their federal taxes. The Senate bill currently keeps the cap frozen at $10,000, a placeholder that Senate leaders have indicated they may be willing to negotiate on. But the coalition of House Republicans who raised the cap to $40,000 for certain income thresholds under $500,000 aren't interested in renegotiating the hard-fought deal they cemented in the House. Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma and former House member, has been leading the talks over the issue, but so far there is no deal. There is some discussion, two sources say, over dialing back the income threshold for who qualifies for the $40,000 deduction but so far that's been a nonstarter for the group of House Republicans who got this concession in the House bill a few weeks ago. To say there is palpable frustration in the Senate with a handful of House members dictating the future of a provision in the Senate bill that no one in that chamber cares much about is putting it mildly. Medicaid: A number of Senate Republicans have made clear they could vote against the Senate bill if there aren't protections to ensure rural hospitals are protected from some of the changes to Medicaid in the bill, like the slash to how much hospitals can be held harmless when it comes to the provider tax. Led by Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a group of these Republicans are pushing leadership to create a kind of stabilization fund that states could use. Aides close to the process say that it could go a long way to win over some skeptical Republicans, including people like Sen. Jim Justice of West Virginia and Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley. The particulars of how the fund would be structured and how much it would cost are still being considered and it's important to note that the fund helps hospital but wouldn't do much for others who could lose coverage because of other changes to Medicaid, including new work requirements. Green energy tax credits: While the Senate bill takes a slower approach to phasing out some of the clean energy tax credits that were a key part of the Biden administration's environmental legacy, there are still some Republicans who have warned that some of the phaseouts may happen too quickly. Other conservatives have warned that they need to be eradicated more expeditiously, setting up a massive clash and one that could rear its head again if the Senate passes a bill that ultimately doesn't go as far as the House did. A last-minute negotiation is ultimately what got House conservatives to vote for the bill so any changes to the timeline could be an issue when the bill goes back to the House. Once the Senate passes its version of Trump's bill, it will go over to the House. There, Speaker Mike Johnson and his GOP conference will have to decide whether to back the new bill – or begin the drawn-out process of trying to negotiate. Do they swallow the Senate's big changes and allow the bill to move quickly to Trump's desk for a huge policy win? Or do they fight for their own version and begin the rigorous, and time-consuming, process of a conference committee, where both chambers will formally iron out their differences? Johnson and Trump are both hoping to avoid the latter option – but will the fractious House GOP conference agree?
NHK
17-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- NHK
Lifestyle changes prompt some to go tub-less in Japan
Relaxing in the bath is a Japanese tradition. But some apartment operators are touting showers as cheaper, space-saving options. Care centers have joined the trend.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
House Republicans tee up tweaks to Trump megabill
House Republican leaders on Tuesday teed up changes to the 'big, beautiful bill' of President Trump's tax cut and spending priorities that are slated to come up for a vote of the full chamber this week. The tweaks come after the Senate parliamentarian reviewed the sprawling package and identified provisions that do not comply with the upper chamber's procedural requirements for using the budget reconciliation process, which allows Republicans to circumvent a Democratic filibuster and approve the legislation by simple majority. Leaving the language in the bill risks losing the ability to pass the bill under budget reconciliation. The parliamentarian's process is known as the 'Byrd bath.' The adjustments impacted a number of policy areas including defense funding, energy policy and changes to Medicaid. On the defense front, House GOP leaders are nixing $2 billion for the enhancement of military intelligence programs; $500 million for the development, procurement and integration of maritime mines; and $62 million to convert Ohio-class submarine tubes to accept additional missiles. The changes also removed a provision that would have reinstated leases for a proposed copper and nickel mine that had been renewed under the first Trump administration but revoked under Biden. The mine would have been located near an area known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a nature preserve that contains canoe routes and species including black bears, moose and foxes. One House Republican described the lower chamber's tweaks as preventing 'fatalities' from remaining in the bill when it hits the Senate. 'There are a small number, I mean, could count them on one hand, of fatalities that have been identified by the parliamentarian,' the GOP lawmaker said. 'Of course we can't transmit the bill with fatalities so those fatalities will be cured through a rule this week.' While the lower chamber is planning to strip those terms from the bill, party leaders are not giving up on the policy: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said Senate Republicans will fight for the provisions when the bill hits the floor. 'We disagree; ultimately we're going to try it again on the Senate floor,' Scalise told reporters. 'We disagree with the parliamentarian. … But you can't take the risk on any of them. You cannot take the risk because if any one of them is ruled on the Senate floor to be fatal, it's a 60-vote bill. The whole bill is a 60-vote bill — you can't take that risk.' The full House will vote on approving those changes this week, with the adjustments tacked on to a 'rule' resolution — a procedural measure that governs debate for legislation. The rule making the fixes to the megabill will also tee up the terms of debate for unrelated legislation to claw back $9.4 billion in funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting. It advanced out of the Rules Committee on a party-line, 8-4 vote Tuesday evening. Rule resolutions are typically passed along party lines and are tests of party loyalty, but Republicans sometimes buck leadership and vote against the procedural rules in protest of process or policy. Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) — one of two House Republicans who voted 'no' on the bill when it passed the House last month — voiced his disapproval of making the changes to the bill via a rule in a post on the social platform X. 'Nancy Pelosi once said the House needed to vote for a bill to find out what was in it. Today @SpeakerJohnson said 'hold my beer.' He just announced he's using the Rules Committee to change the text of the Big Beautiful Bill a week after we voted on it!' Massie said. While House Republicans have already passed the bill in the lower chamber, they have not officially transmitted it to the Senate — enabling them to make the fixes via the rule mechanism. Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to push the megabill through Congress while avoiding the Senate's 60-vote cloture rule, enabling them to pass the bill on party lines without support from Democrats. The tweaks in the House come as party leaders are holding out hope that they can enact the package by July 4, which was their self-imposed deadline. Trump, however, opened the door to the process blowing past that timeline, saying if it 'takes a little longer, that's OK.' Updated at 8:33 p.m. EDT. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
