Welcome to Totally Tortelicious—a review of some of the more bizarre legal stories making news—and there’s certainly no shortage of them.
Is ToysRUs Next? Ok—I think someone’s been watching a little too much bad TV. A stuffed toy horse that had been abandoned in the school yard of Waterbridge Elementary in Orlando, Florida was blown up by the local bomb squad last week, as no one, apparently, could see any good reason for it being there. (I wonder if they could apply that same logic to Disneyworld…)
The toy had a saddle and ribbons for reins, which may contributed to its being labeled a ‘suspicious device’. Who knows. But the toy’s appearance prompted a fully kitted-out bomb squad to descend on the school, sending the students home, and the school into ‘lockdown’. It even made the local TV station’s evening news. Thank god no one tried to take the horse through security at an airport…
Don’t believe me? You can watch it the whole sorry affair in the video above…
Bongo Jesus goes Beserk. It must be something in the water…but Bongo Jesus was clearly not feeling the love, or anything close from the sounds of it, when a ‘friend’—now former friend—shared some criticism over BJ’s guitar playing.
Brandin Hochstrasser, the 31-year old Wisconsin street musician also known as “Bongo Jesus” apparently went a bit mad when an unarmed, 54-year old man decided to offer Read the rest of this entry »
The recent spate of incidents where employees have been unjustly fired for health issues through no control of their own leaves an unsavory aftertaste, and paints employers guilty of such conduct as mean-spirited. A case in point is the former employee of a Michael’s store who felt pressured to return to work early after a double mastectomy, only to be fired soon after while continuing to undergo chemotherapy.
As inconvenient as it might be to have a vital employee sidelined for health issues, basic human rights suggest that the employer has a moral obligation to stand behind an employee who is suffering. There are also legal requirements to that end.
Nor should an employee who has health issues through no fault of his own—but still capable of working—find himself shut out by an employer, and from a job he needs and is quite capable of doing, just because he is not the pristine specimen that may fit the company profile.
Employees who suffer health discrimination in the workplace can, and do fight back. Recently a breast cancer patient sued her former employer for what she claimed to be an unjust firing and was awarded millions in compensation.
But there are two sides to every issue—and it can go both ways.
To wit, employees have to take some responsibility for their own health. When they fail to do so, who can blame an employer for feeling angry and betrayed?
How long have we known that smoking kills? And yet there are those who smoke like a Read the rest of this entry »
The capacity for a police department to surreptitiously affix a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) unit under a suspect’s car and track the hapless individual for weeks at a time without his knowledge (and without a warrant) is not only raising the hackles of human rights activists—it’s also fostering disagreements amongst judges.
Either way, the Fourth Amendment needs an overhaul in this day of high-tech, advanced technology.
I suppose there were complaints about this same thing in a bygone era, when telephones were all the rage (land phones, not cell phones) and police figured out that if they tapped into someone’s phone line, they could recover secrets and private conversations (read: evidence) they would otherwise not have access to.
But they needed a warrant for that. And a warrant for searching someone’s premises. Approaching the court and seeking permission to invade the privacy of a suspect for the purpose of an investigation—assuming the police could provide adequate grounds for the request—added a welcome buffer into the mix.
But should the police require a warrant to put a GPS tracking device under someone’s car?
The courts are divided on the differences between long-term, and short-term surveillance.
Traditionally, the Fourth Amendment is held by the courts as not covering the trailing of a Read the rest of this entry »
As I read the accounts of those living in the area affected by the San Bruno gas fire, one phrase keeps coming back to me: “I didn’t know…” While the specifics of each “I didn’t know” or “had I known” vary, they all stem from one thing—we—homeowners and residential gas consumers—don’t really know what the heck we’re sitting on top of when it comes to underground gas lines.
In an odd way, the BP oil spill has been our wake-call—albeit at a terrible price. But, thanks to BP, we now question how gas is obtained and distributed. Sure, the folks living in the heart of the Marcellus Shale region have long been sitting on pins and needles wondering what hydraulic fracking means to their water supply, for example, but that type of regional concern wouldn’t have gotten some of the more national press coverage it has recently received had it not been for BP.
Ditto the San Bruno gas fire. Sure, it would’ve made the headlines, but, as with other localized gas pipe explosions of years gone by, it would’ve been reported as a tragic explosion affecting a very small area in the scheme of things. There may have been a few localized investigative reports—but that would’ve been about it. Now, however, people are starting to question a few things about the US natural gas industry. Things like, just how safe is it? And things like, what happens to San Bruno in the aftermath of the gas line rupture—did any gas leak into the ground? are the remaining pipes in the area safe? what about those reports of a gas smell? and on and on…
I’ve posted about hydraulic fracturing—you can read more about that and the concerns folks have about it from upstate New York to West Virginia here on LawyersAndSettlements.com. It only took a few reports about livestock becoming sick from leaks coming out of nearby fracking operations to make me raise an eyebrow and join the anti-fracking side. Of course, the gas companies continue to tout its safety—and, I suppose when you look at aggregate numbers, it is relatively “safe”—but would you want your kids drinking water that potentially contained chemicals (or gas?) involved with the fracking process? Didn’t think so…
So, back to the “I didn’t know”.
A report the other day in the PressDemocrat.com talks about how we really don’t know Read the rest of this entry »
A roundup of recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of.
Jefferson County, TX: Surviving family members of four deceased refinery workers in Texas, have filed a wrongful death suit that names 78 defendant companies. Family members of Betty Laverne, Jimmie Ray Sonnier, William Harold Tinney and Perkins Young allege that the defendants exposed the workers to asbestos through their work, and that exposure led to their deaths from asbestos-related diseases.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs worked as craftsmen and construction tradesmen at the refineries, chemical plants and other industrial facilities in Jefferson, Orange and Harris counties. The suit alleges that the workers were exposed to asbestos through thermal and electrical insulation products, flooring materials, textiles, gaskets, wicking and packing, mastics, cement products, coatings and other uses of asbestos. Further, the family members contend that “Even after defendants knew the truth about the propensity of asbestos they remained mute when by reasonable effort they could have prevented the risk of cancer and asbestosis from afflicting the Plaintiffs.”
The suit claims that the defendants’ negligent acts include failure to exercise reasonable care to protect the plaintiffs from dangers and unreasonable risks of harm known to exist.
The 78 defendants are divided into “premises defendants” which are the refineries, chemical plants and shipyards; “product defendants” that make the asbestos containing products; and “distributor defendants” that sold or supplied the products.
The defendants named in the suit are 4520 Corp., A.W. Chesterton Co., Air Liquide America, American Petroleum Institute, American Standard, Ametek, AMF Inc., Aqua-Chem, Babcock Read the rest of this entry »