National news sources such as USA Today have been reporting on a new study issued by the United States Justice Department of Justice that claims that police brutality incidents have been on the rise since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Compared to the previous seven-year period, the period from 2001 to 2007 exhibited a rise of 25% of police brutality incidents, with a rise in convictions of police officers for use of excessive force of 53% (the report was obviously intended to tout its own successes in prosecution).

Nowhere is this more evident than in the nation’s arguable police brutality epicenter, Chicago.  With 40% more complaints of police brutality and misconduct than the national average, Chicago has garnered an infamous reputation for police brutality from a public that is becoming increasingly more suspicious of individuals in uniform.

Read a round-up of the most sensational Chicago Police Department police brutality stories of the year at Total Injury!

In one of the most clear-cut cases of insurance fraud possibly ever, a Los Angeles doctor has pleaded guilty to running a scam that’s being called "rent-a-patient."

Mamdouh S. Bahna of Bel Air allegedly paid patients to undergo unnecessary procedures so that he could bill insurance companies.  Examples of the surgeries that he would perform include colonoscopies and something called a "sweaty-palm" surgery.  (Surgery always makes my palms sweat, so I’m still waiting for another distinction.)

The lawyers prosecuting the case allege that Bahna defrauded his insurance companies out of $1 million.  As a result of his guilty plea, he’ll be put in jail for 58 months and have to pay a $150K fine.

Check out Total Injury for more about insurance companies and the clever and not so clever perpetrators of fraud against them.