| | Jury Finds Iraq War Contractor Negligent for Soldiers’ Illnesses | |  | | An Oregon jury on Friday ordered Kellogg Brown and Root to pay $85 million after finding it guilty of negligence for illnesses suffered by a dozen Oregon soldiers who guarded an oilfield water plant during the Iraq war. The suit was the first concerning soldiers’ exposure to a toxin at a water plant in southern Iraq. The soldiers said they suffer from respiratory ailments after their exposure to sodium dichromate, and they fear that a carcinogen the toxin contains, hexavalent chromium, could cause cancer later in life.
Associated Press, The Washington Post 11/05/2012    | | Read Article: The Washington Post | | $3.1 Million Settlement Reached for Man Falsely Imprisoned | | | | A Houston man who successfully sued the city of Houston in 2009 after he spent 17 years in prison wrongfully convicted of kidnapping and rape will receive $3.1 million, Mayor Annise Parker announced Friday. George Rodriguez, who was freed in 2004 after an appeals court ruled he was convicted on faulty scientific evidence, won a $5 million verdict after showing chronic problems at HPD's long-troubled crime lab. The city appealed the jury's decision, but officials Friday announced a settlement.
Lisa Falkenberg, Houston Chronicle 11/05/2012 | | Read Article: Houston Chronicle | | Neb. Crash Lawsuit Invokes Fetal Death Law | | | | A Nebraska law that extends legal protections to fetuses at any stage of development is being invoked for the first time in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the parents of a family killed in a fiery September car wreck, according to lawyers involved in the case.The federal lawsuit on behalf of a Maryland couple, their two children and unborn son is the first civil claim to cite the 2003 Nebraska state law, and the latest in a series of court battles in Utah, Alabama and other states. Though still in district court, similar laws have led to appeals-court battles in other states and could bring the debate into Nebraska.
GRANT SCHULTE, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle 11/05/2012 | | Read Article: San Francisco Chronicle | | Navy Chaplains Discrimination Suit Revived | | | | A federal appeals court has reinstated a discrimination lawsuit against the U.S. Navy filed by a group of former and current military chaplains. In the suit, the group claims clergy of their religious orders "were recommended for promotion by naval selection boards at a significantly lower level than Catholic or liturgical Protestants." The chaplains say that existing procedures regarding promotions pave the way for the discriminatory practices.
Chad Bray, WSJ Blogs 11/02/2012 | | Read Article: WSJ Blogs | | Suit: Amarillo Police Savagely Beat Man | | | | An Amarillo man has filed a lawsuit against the Amarillo Police Department and four officers who severely beat him during an October 2010 incident. The lawsuit claims officers tackled the man on a sidewalk, struck him in the face and tased him multiple times during an unlawful arrest. The suit is seeking damages for medical expenses, lost wages, physical pain and more.
Aziza Musa, Lubbock Avalanche Journal 11/05/2012 | | Read Article: Lubbock Avalanche Journal | | Convicted Priest Accused of Sex Abuse in Suit | | | | A sexual abuse lawsuit has been filed against a Kansas City priest who has already been convicted of child pornography charges. The lawsuit accuses the priest of sexually abusing a young girl from 2009 to 2011, when she was 10 years old. The priest allegedly took sexually explicit pictures of the girl; the photos were discovered on the man's computer during a police investigation last year.
Judy L. Thomas, Kansas City Star 11/02/2012 | | Read Article: Kansas City Star | | Pennsylvania Report Left Out Data on Poisons in Water Near Gas Site | | | | Pennsylvania officials reported incomplete test results that omitted data on some toxic metals that were found in drinking water taken from a private well near a natural gas drilling site, according to legal documents released this week. The documents were part of a lawsuit claiming that natural gas extraction through a method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, and storage of the resulting wastewater at a site in southwestern Pennsylvania has contaminated drinking water and sickened seven plaintiffs who live nearby.
JON HURDLE, The New York Times 11/05/2012 | | Read Article: The New York Times | | TDI Won’t Fight Farmers Insurance as it Raises Homeowner Rates | | | | State Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman has decided not to oppose an average 15 percent rate hike that Farmers Insurance imposed on its homeowners customers this fall, the second time this year that the company has increased premiums in Texas. The higher rates affect 520,000 Farmers customers who have either a Texas Family Home policy or a Next Generation Homeowners policy. The rates went into effect for new policies and renewals beginning in September. Consumer advocates argued that the premium hike is excessive and that Kitzman’s decision continues a pattern of favoring insurers’ decisions to increase rates.
TERRENCE STUTZ, The Dallas Morning News 11/05/2012 | | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News | | |
