Such a rapid decline is certainly indicative of Verticillium wilt but not necessarily conclusive. The pathogens that generate VW are often present in most soils but can remain dormant indefinitely until 'triggered' by the plant itself. Plants that are stressed or wounded or injured in some fashion will emit root exudates that activate certain pathogens, allowing invasion into the root or other plant tissues. Chances are your shrub was experiencing some sort of stressor - rapid temperature fluctations or even extremes in weather (eg. extended droughts followed by long rainy periods), poor drainage, improper fertilization or wounding of the roots via construction or excessive cultivation can all contribute to plant stress. Yes, other susceptible plants in the immediate area can be at risk, especially if removal of the cotinus unnecessarily disturbs the root systems. Because of the close proximity of VW-susceptible plants in my garden, I chose not to dig out the root systems of the few I've lost to this disease - so far I've not had any problem with the other plants. It is also not recommended to replant in the same location with another VW susceptible species, as the pathogen can remain viable/active for as long as 20 years. IME, despite what the attached link indicates, it is not very common for a plant to "outgrow" VW - I've only seen it occur a few times on older and well-established, mature trees. Younger trees and with most shrubs, the disease can spread pretty rapidly throughout the vascular system and death is pretty much a given. Here is a link that might be useful: a very good VW link....

Well it died. =[ The tinyyyy spear that was inside of it pulled. Along with two of the fronds at the same time. Almost the entire inside of the palm was rotted out. I lost a lot of my palms this winter, and all I have left right now is a queen palm. Shes holding on strong though. I did read on here that pam cooking spray could be used to get rid of mites in multiple posts when I typed spider mites into the search bar. I thought it sounded crazy too, but it killed them, so I subscribed to the idea. I guess I know to just rinse rinse rinse next time. I'll also improve my soil mix for all my future palms. No more miracle grow for me! I think my other mistake was trying to imitate their environment in the summer too much. I should have been trying to keep them cool and dormant instead of warm and wet with limited light. Sorry it took so long for me to respond. I left this post when it seemed relatively dead, but then I come back and there's 29 responses! hahaha

Funny, I had something similar happen to me this morning ... right before I read your post. The pepper was an Hawaiian Sweet Hot, so it wasn't anything super hot, but on the very first bite, I instantly had the hiccups. I've never had a pepper do that to me before. The last bite had a lot of placenta on it, and got me towards the back of the throat, and eventually I felt the burn in my chest and stomach. I wouldn't say I had trouble breathing, but the burn in the chest area had me a bit anxious for a moment. For a second, I wondered if I was going to through up, but I think it was more from the hiccups than anything. I've never eaten anything hotter than a habanero, so this experience has me even more afraid to try a super hot than I was before!

I'm pretty sure it's GW, not google. It's another in the long list of glitches that GW/iVillage is apparently aware of and supposedly is working on. But there has been zero improvement since this started two weeks or so back. It does render the site pretty useless from an archive standpoint... all that valuable information lost. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. All I can figure is that the current 67 pages are available, but everything else is gone unless they get it fixed. I had bookmarked a number of pages for reference and can't access half or more of them. At least we all still have each other to answer questions, but it means starting over again every time a question is asked.