Threeyearold Macie Opperman loved playing at parkside preschool in newark, but on october 19 last year, according to a newly filed wrongful death lawsuit, a play structure toppled onto macie and pinned her, barely missing two other children who were also on the tire swing. Connor she suffered tragically very, very serious head injuries. Vicky connor kelly is the attorney representing macies family. He says park side was negligent and reckless for installing the play structure improperly and failing to have it inspected. Connor this tragedy couldve been prevented had park side preschool done what it was supposed to do. Vicky reports we obtained shows state inspectors issued two violations against park side, noting the play structure was not anchored to the ground, which allowed it to tip over, and that there was no cushioning to absorb falls, both violations posing an Immediate Health and safety risk to children. Lucas eckels i think theyve been really deceptive. I think theyve been trying to downplay everything. Vicky lucas eckels is the father of two children who attended park side. He launched this website after macies death. Why did you feel it information out there . Lucas because the school wasnt doing a good job of explaining. Theres no permanent record of what had happened. Yeah, i cant imagine what it would be like to have your child die like this. Its hard for me to imagine what my son experienced on the playground that day. Vicky in a facebook video, School DirectorHeather Mitchell speaks to parents after macies death. Heather mitchell its important for kids to see that this might be emotionally difficult. Its important for kids to see us cry. Its important that they know that this is a sad thing. Vicky an attorney for the preschool said, we are unable to comment due to the ongoing litigation. However, we continue to work actively with the family and their counsel, and our Church Community continues to offer prayers for all concerned. The school has not yet filed a response to the lawsuit. Connor the family wants people to know that this was preventable, that park side preschool did not do its job and protect the health and safety of the children who are going to school there. Vicky a key takeaway here, parents should not hesitate to ask for inspection records or ask questions if they see new playground equipment at their Childrens School to make sure it was installed correctly and that it was inspected. Announcer they say toxic chemicals from their battlefield bases is killing them. Up next, the fight some veterans are waging against their own military to get help. Tto harrison, the wine tcollection. To craig, this rock. The redwoods to the redheads. The rainbows to the proud. I leave these things to my heirs, all 39 million of you, on one condition. That you do everything in your power to preserve and protect them. With love, california. As military burn pits. For soldiers stationed in iraq and afghanistan, these around the clock trash fires were the preferred method of getting rid of garbage for years. But thousands of veterans say exposure to these pits have left them with breathing problems and chronic lung diseases. Theyre now waging a battle with their own military to get help in whats become a fight for their lives. In the fog of war, soldiers cant always spot every threat, that is unless its billowing from their own military base. Male it was just so huge and it was just so, so black. Bigad this veteran asked us to protect his identity because of the sensitive nature of his work as an intelligence officer. Male yeah, were under a mortar attack again. Bigad he spent a year stationed at the balad military base in central iraq. He recorded hours of home video to help him remember life in the army. Male thats smoke from our lovely trash pile here on anaconda. Bigad but now, theres so much he wishes he could forget. Male the fire just keeps you dont really see the fire, but you see the smoke. Because you know the fires there because all you do is you see these black this black plume of smoke, and you see it for miles. Bigad when something, anything needed to be discarded, it was tossed into the flames. Male refrigerators, plastics, body parts. They just threw jet fuel on top of it and they just burn it, just burn it all day long, all night long. Bigad what was the smell like . Male you could just taste it. It was like this sickeningit was like this sickening thing that kind of burnt the back of your throat like all the time. Bigad you would actually cough up blood at times . Male oh yeah, yeah. Bigad at just 39, he recently had a pacemaker put in because of a slow heart rate. He also suffers from chest pains and an incurable lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe. Male kind of feels like somebodys reaching into my lungs and squeezing them. Bigad is there any chance that the Health Problems youre experiencing now might be the result of Something Else . Male i doubt it. I mean, i was healthy when i came in the army, and for some reason i have a plethora of medical issues now. Male burn pits date back to the gulf war and were largely used on us military bases in iraq and afghanistan beginning around 2003. Veterans returning from those wars showed increased signs of respiratory problems, including asthma, chronic bronchitis, and other lung diseases. Female announcer pollution from burn pits can affect your health. Bigad while the vas own website and research raised the possibility of Health Problems, the agency says there is no definitive evidence linking burn pits to longterm illnesses. As a result, veterans seeking medical care for exposure to burn pits often have their claims denied by the va. Raul ruiz theyre either becoming 100 disabled or theyre dying. Bigad california congressman raul ruiz spoke to us from dc. Raul we need to make sure that our veterans have access to the va, that theyre not treated like theyre making symptoms up, like theyre like theyre crazy. Bigad hes a doctor of 18 years, and hes pushing legislation that would guarantee medical care for veterans exposed to burn pits. That kind of automatic approval is how the va treats Vietnam Veterans exposed to the dangerous chemical known as agent orange. Male this is our agent orange, but they dont care. Bigad its unclear just how many veterans have been exposed. But over the past decade, the va received more than 11,000 medical claims relating to burn pits. Only 2,300 were approved. The va says air pollution in iraq and afghanistan may actually post a greater danger than exposure to burn pits. Announcer during your service, you may have been exposed to airborne hazards. Bigad and while the va admits there are toxins in burn pit smoke, the agency says most Health Effects are temporary. Announcer and goes away once you are away from the cause. Bigad dr. Drew helmer is with the va. Drew helmer in some people, it might be making them sick. I think who is it making sick, how many people is it making sick, and what is the sick, what is the sickness, those are still questions that we dont have good answers for. Bigad the department of defense never answered our repeated request for an interview, and still has not released a comprehensive list of what the military burned and when. Raul if we dont know what was burned, then we wont be able to identify the health risks in order to outreach to our veterans. Bigad what does that lack of information from the department of defense tell you . Raul well, it tells me that they dont want to be forthcoming. It tells me that theyre trying to skirt away from accountability and responsibility. Bigad more than a decade after returning home from iraq, this veteran says hes still suffering. His tattoo tells the story. Male so this is, you know, me dying in the burn pits. And then you got the flames from the burn pit, and then the smoke from the burn pit thats coming up. Bigad what is it about the burn pits that you wanted to sort of memorialize . Male i honestly feel like that is what led to everything thats wrong with me. Bigad congress heavily restricted the use of military burn pits about a decade ago. Back then, there were more than 270 burn pits at us bases in the middle east. Today, only 16 are burning. Incinerators have largely replaced them, but the military still uses burn pits whenever it determines other options cant be used. Announcer coming up next, jump at your own risk, the surprise we uncovered about safety at Trampoline Parks. So, you went online and got so confused. That your brain went offline. Next time, ask your helpful cvs pharmacist. We created a proprietary search tool that analyzes ways to help lower your prescription costs. Just drop in. Before you conk out. See what you might save at cvs pharmacy. So do the number of people getting hurt. The industry says injuries are on par with or lower than other young sports, but many parents are now warning these facilities arent as safe as you might think. We dug through ambulance calls to local Trampoline Parks and found the injuries, mostly among kids, can be pretty serious. Male for an eightyearold female with a knee injury. Liz. Female a little boy was jumping, and his arm is either okated liz to local Trampoline Parks. Was jumping, female he was jumping and he fell. And we rolled him over, he wasnt able to talk and or move or anything. Liz this dispatcher even weighs in with a personal observation. Female you know, i dont really think its a great idea to put a bunch of trampolines in one area and play sports on them, but thats just me. Liz donavan seguerra was having a blast at the rockin jump in dublin back in 2015 until his mom says a bigger kid bounced him into the air. Donavan i flew, and then i hit the ground on my left knee. Liz he broke his leg. Donavan i couldnt walk, i had to use my wheelchair to go everywhere. Jennifer seguerra in a lot of pain. Liz jennifer seguerra says it took her son a year of rehab to get back to normal. When you took your son to this Trampoline Park, did you have any idea you would be taking him out with a broken leg . Jennifer no, no way, no way. I did not expect that my fiveyearold son, still in preschool, simply jumping that he could get so seriously injured. I had no idea. Liz in your opinion, are Trampoline Parks dangerous . Jennifer well, this one is. Liz we checked ambulance logs for bay area counties and found 20 calls to seven rockin jump locations last year alone. They involved injuries to the head, and snapped legs and ankles. A 2016 study by dr. Stephen rogers, a pediatric emergency physician and Research Scientist at connecticut childrens medical center, found an alarming rise in Trampoline Park injuries. Stephen rogers youre jumping higher than you normally would and youre landing on an uneven surface. So, its already a high risk activity. Liz Rogers Research showed a near 1100 spike in er visits from 2010 to 2014. The sharp jump makes sense when you consider the skyrocketing popularity of trampolines, but rogers found compared to home trampolines, Trampoline Parks are producing more serious injuries. Stephen i think Trampoline Parks are super fun for kids. I think we c for them to use. Liz part of the problem, some experts say, is that the trampolines are interconnected. Take a look at this Surveillance Video provided by an attorney representing injured jumpers. He says this woman hurt her leg bouncing from one trampoline to another. And this young girl fractured her ankle when she landed on a harder area near the trampolines edge. Rockin jump, like most parks, warns trampolines pose risks, and the Company Requires jumpers to sign liability waivers. Injury attorney bill smith believes these releases can encourage companies to cut corners. Bill smith theyre not as careful as they would be if they didnt have a release, which means youve got to be careful as a parent. Announcer if you are a larger person liz rockin jumps safety video outlines the rules, like do not jump near smaller people. Remember, thats how donavan seguerras mom says he got hurt. But our camera saw big kids jumping by small children again and again with four monitors failing to stop it. And listen to what this employee told us. Male i kind of dont see anybody watch the video either. Liz you dont see anyone watch the video . Male i mean, not that i not that i liz rockin jump declined to talk to us on camera, but told us in a statement, since its inception, safety has been the number one focus of rockin jump, both for our guests and staff. The company also says it will be addressing the concerns we exposed and pointed us to its website, which States Rockin jump regularly maintains its equipment. Now eight years old, donavan is back on his feet. While his mom says shed never take him back to a Trampoline Park, hed jump at the chance to do it again. You would . Why do you say that . Donavan cause it was fun. Liz Trampoline Parks are unregulated in much of the country. Legislation in california failed a few years back. Next year, the iatp, the industrys trade association, will require members to pass Third Party Safety inspections. For now, members are encouraged to follow trampoline operation guidelines set by an International Standards organization. Announcer up next, an emerging threat from a new type of spy. We examine who is stealing Silicon Valley secrets. Listen to your mom, knuckleheads. Hand em over. Whatever you got. R . Vio gam, lets go. You can watch videos of people playing video games in the morning. Is that everything . I can see whos online. Im gonna sweep the sofa fort. Well, look what lets roll now thats simple, easy, awesome. Xfinity xfi gives you the speed, coverage and control you need. Manage your wifi network from anywhere when you download the xfi app today. Federal authorities have charged two chinese nationals with stealing secrets from apple. And a Chinese Telecom giant is now facing a 13count criminal indictment in another case. These are just two examples of the increased effort to infate usompanies and to steal their secrets. And Silicon Valley is right in the crosshairs. One Justice Department official told me these threats are, quote, more serious and devastating than a terrorist attack against a building or an airplane because these kinds of attacks could bring down entire portions of this nations economy. On this quiet, treelined street near downtown oakland sits this mail package store, where us Counter Intelligence agents say a spy ring for the peoples republic of china, or the prc, used a po box inside as a front for its operations. According to court records, the lead spy, a man name walter liew, lived in this nondescript house in the hills of orinda nearby, and stashed his stolen secrets in a safety deposit box located in this bank of china branch. Kevin phelan they said to him, heres a list of items that we need to help grow the prc to make the country stronger, and we need your help to get them. Stephen in this case, says fbi Counter Intelligence agent kevin phelan, the secret belonged to du pont chemical. The company spent decades and millions of its dollars developing a powder called titanium dioxide, the secret for the pure color white. Its added to everything from oreo cookies to twinkies, from paper to iphone cases, from home siding to buckets of paint. Kevin they make the white things the whitest and the highest quality. Stephen du pont isnt the first and certainly not the last major us company to have its secrets stolen by foreign agents. We dug through millions of Us Court Records covering the last 20 years and found hundreds of economic espionage or intellectual property theft cases, including a spike in those cases in the last two years, especially here in Silicon Valley. Craig fair it is an overt effort on the part of the chinese government. Stephen craig fair is assistant special agent in charge of the Counter Intelligence unit for the fbi San Francisco field division. He oversees this secret Office Located on the peninsula,omics. Craig its an exceptional problem, one that is getting more notoriety these days, and comes at an exceptional cost to the american economy. Stephen among the victims, dozens of Silicon Valley tech companies, including powerhouses like apple, cisco, intel, and genentech. Mark adams the next world war wont be on the ground, itll be a cybertype activity. Stephen mark adams is ceo of lumileds, a Silicon Valley hightech Lighting Company with 1. 9 billion in revenue worldwide. Last year, lumileds won a 66 million civil lawsuit against a former chinese employee who stole their secrets. Mark were going to defend ourselves, and i think theres a process that allows us to defend ourselves and position ourselves to be able to invest in Technology Without worrying about it getting stolen. Stephen but our investigation found not every Company Cooperates with Counter Intelligence efforts here in the us because theyre afraid of angering china, wheof potential customers. Ing plants and millions sources confirm that dozens of economic espionage cases involving other stolen secrets over the years have quietly john demers its a threat to the viability of the us as the leading World Economic power. Stephen to get a better idea about this threat, we sat down with the man who oversees National Security for the us Justice Department in washington dc, john demers. John what weve seen is the chinese taking the same intelligence organizations, the same techniques, the same tools that they and other countries have developed over the centuries to spy on one another, and applying them to commercial espionage. Stephen demers says 90 of these cases are based out of china and no company, no matter how large, is immune from the threat. How many get through the cracks . How many do you not catch . John theres some aspect of that you dont know. And theres some, investigations continue. But this is going on on a very wide scale. Stephen which brings us back to the color white. Kevin we approach these cases as a National Security case. Stephen Counter Intelligence agent phelan now works out of paris. He says theft of these secrets by foreign spies threatens entire portions of the us economy. Kevin its being able to protect these jobs that people have in Silicon Valley. In this case, it means entire towns in places like delaware and mississippi, you know, in tennessee. Stephen we found just such a town, new johnsonville, tennessee, population 1951, where chemours, formally du pont, employs about 1,000 people, the largest plant in the World Manufacturing titanium dioxide or the color white. Male what would happen if that plant shut down . Female it would probably shut everybody down around here. Stephen new johnsonvilles mayor, who once worked at the plant, worries that the secret formula stolen by china could make this plant obsolete and threaten his towns very existence. Male today, its the largest employer we have, and they pay good, and people have been working there forever, and its real essential. Stephen the du pont stolen secret case is still ongoing. The Us Government last fall charged four chinese and during a hearing in federal court in oakland in october, their attorneys told us their clients did not want to talk about the case. As for walter liew, he was convicted and is now serving time in a federal prison. An Appeals Court upheld his conviction. Neither he nor his lawyers returned multiple requests for comment. Now, if you have a story for us, just send us a tip to, theunit nbcbayarea. Com. Or you can call the tip line, 888996tips. Thats our show for tonight, thank you for joining us. You can watch us every night right here on nbc bay area, where we investigate. You need to place yourself whilin the moment. Sears, you need confidence in the appliances you select to build a home and life you love. 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