…and we’ve got some pretty stiff competition. According to the rules at WeblogAwards.org, brought to us by WizBang, readers can vote a maximum of once a day in a given category. The “vote” link seems to work better in IE than in Firefox, for what it’s worth. [originally posted 12/6; bumped for purposes of continued prominence]
Compiling a list of annoying people
That was apparently all it took to get an eighth-grader thrown out of East Central Junior High in Stronghurst, Ill. Naturally, it’s a zero-tolerance case: “In the post–Columbine massacre environment, [superintendent Ralph] Grimm said it is appropriate to err on the side of caution in these circumstances.” The student also faces possible criminal charges of disorderly conduct. (Craig T. Neises, “Student faces discipline over ‘list”, Burlington (Ia.) Hawk Eye, Nov. 30)(via Taranto)(more zero tolerance).
Roger Scruton interview
An excerpt from the interview (pt. II) with the British philosopher at Right Reason:
My advice to President Bush would be to look at the ways in which the power of the state might be needed in order to support the autonomous associations and ‘little platoons’ of American civil society. There are two evils in particular which need to be addressed: the litigation explosion, which has vastly increased the risk of small businesses, and also sown discord among neighbours; and the disaster of the inner cities, which have suffered from the worst effects of American zoning laws and laissez-faire aesthetics, with the result that the middle class has fled from the city centres, causing social decay at the heart, and an unsustainable growth in transportation and suburban infrastructure all around. I believe that federal policies could be initiated that would address both these evils, without increasing the role of the state in the conduct of litigation or in the planning of city streets.
Cerebral palsy verdict of the day: Memorial Hospital in St. Clair County, $7.1M
Rex Carr (Nov. 6 and links therein) was the plaintiffs’ attorney. Memorial Hospital released a statement:
Memorial Hospital and its over 600 nursing professionals and 300 Medical Staff physicians are obviously disappointed with the jury’s decision in this case.
As in many local court proceedings, Memorial has identified a significant number of important legal issues in this case and will appeal the decision.
Memorial is confident that either the Appellate Court or Supreme Court will agree that a substantial number of serious errors justify a retrial or directed defense verdict.
Expert testimony in this case conclusively determined that Brandon Bauer suffered a rare genetic disorder, hyperinsulinemia. This genetic disorder, despite any form of treatment, is many times fatal and very often results in severe brain damage.
Memorial also concurs with the expert testimony presented that nursing professionals and the physician from Belleville Emergency Physicians, PC did their best to care for their patient under clinically-difficult circumstances and rendered only the high-quality care for which they are so well known.
The medical and scientific evidence and expert testimony in this case clearly do not support this verdict. Memorial has no choice but to appeal this decision because of the serious implications it has for Memorial and all other hospitals and physicians in this area.
If such verdicts are left unchallenged, several hundred healthcare jobs will ultimately be lost from the community.
In addition, it will be more difficult, if not impossible, to recruit replacements for the large number of physicians who have fled this area during the last three years because of high malpractice premiums and fear of unfair treatment in some local courts.
(William Lamb, “Jury awards $7.1 million to parents of boy who developed cerebral palsy”, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 5 (via ICJL News)).
“Captain of ferry that crashed sues NYC”
“The captain of the Staten Island ferry that crashed in October 2003, killing 11 people, is suing the city. Michael Gansas wants his job back, with back pay, or he wants the city to arbitrate his grievances in front of a labor panel.” (AP/WJLA, Dec. 4). According to an AP story last month, Gansas’s “silence following the crash infuriated survivors, victims’ relatives and city officials, who accused him of handicapping the investigation” and he “was fired soon after the crash for failing to co-operate with the investigation”. When he did talk, he evidently didn’t deliver the gospel truth, either, it seems:
Gansas initially was accused of making false statements for telling United States coast guard investigators that he was in the pilot house when Smith passed out and had tried in vain to right the ferry. He later struck a deal with prosecutors to co-operate in their case against ferry supervisor Patrick Ryan in exchange for dropping the charge.
Ryan pleaded guilty to manslaughter, admitting he chose not to implement or enforce a rule requiring that ferries be operated by two pilots.
In a WCBS-TV interview last month, however, Gansas “says he initially lied about where he was during the crash because he wanted to share the blame. ‘I felt I had a responsibility as a captain to shoulder some of the blame for the actions of (assistant pilot) Richard Smith'”, he said. (“Captain lied to shoulder blame”, APNews24, Nov. 5). For more of Gansas’s side of the story, see Hasani Gittens and Brad Hamilton, “Crash-Ferry Capt. Suing for His Job”, New York Post, Dec. 4 (alleging that he “cooperated with investigators” after the crash).
Riding on lawyer money into Congress?
Yes, it’s fairly common for trial lawyers to be a candidate’s major backers, but sometimes it gets ridiculous. In the race among seven candidates to succeed retiring Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle in Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, the contender who leads by a healthy margin in fundraising is 48-year-old Waterloo lawyer Bruce Braley, a Democrat who is a former president of the Iowa Trial Lawyers Association and currently sits on the board of ATLA. He’s raised $305,629 through September:
Braley’s fundraising prowess has turned heads already. And so has the source of his money. Of the $253,000 in individual donations itemized on campaign finance reports, $227,000, or 90 percent, comes from lawyers. It’s a wide base, too. Donors from more than three dozen states have given money.
Of the $23,250 in political action committee money he’s received, half came from attorney-related committees, including $10,000 from the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, or ATLA….
“People who know me think I would make a very good representative,” he says….
One law firm that has been a prime target for conservatives also is a generous donor to Braley. Fifteen lawyers associated with the Baron & Budd firm in Dallas, one of the leaders in litigating asbestos and other toxic substance claims, gave $15,000 to the campaign.
In all, 85 percent of Braley’s donations have come from outside the district. (Ed Tibbetts, “In a seven-horse race, it’s all about the purse”, Quad City Times, Nov. 14).
Credit institutions’ liability for identity theft
Kevin Drum has an article on the subject in the new Washington Monthly, and quotes me by way of balance (“You own you”, December).
Lawyers preparing soft-drink suit
“Richard Daynard, a Massachusetts law professor who made his name working as a consultant on class actions against tobacco companies, is part of a broad effort by both private attorneys and nonprofit groups to sue Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies for selling high-calorie drinks in schools.” (Caroline Wilbert, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Nov. 29; Caroline E. Mayer, “Lawyer coalition targets soft drink manufacturers”, Washington Post/Detroit News, Dec. 4; Todd Zywicki and vast comment section; Colossus of Rhodey). In the Boston Globe magazine, contributor Michael Blanding writes supportively of “a national legal movement to make soft drinks the next tobacco” (Oct. 30).
For more on the search for ways to blame business for our collective struggle with the waistline, see many entries in our Eat, Drink and Be Merry section. More on caffeine “addiction” theories: Aug. 18-20, 2000, Jun. 1, 2004. More on vending machine suits: Jul. 3, 2003. And as regular readers know, we’ve been covering Prof. Daynard’s activities for a long time; see Apr. 21-23, 2000 and many others.
“Peru eyes lawsuit against Yale over relics”
“Peru is preparing a lawsuit against Yale University to retrieve artifacts taken nearly a century ago from the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu, a Peruvian cultural official said Wednesday.” Explorer Hiram Bingham dug up the artifacts during three expeditions to the site in in 1911, 1912 and 1914. (AP/CNN, Nov. 30)(via Dave Zincavage). For a critique of the movement to prescribe “repatriation” of cultural treasures to the countries on whose territory they were originally found, see the article linked here Apr. 28.
Boston mayor vows to seize t-shirts from stores
…because he doesn’t like the message printed on them, as Reason “Hit and Run” reports:
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has ordered the city to seize T-shirts that say “Stop Snitchin.” “‘It’s wrong,’ Menino said. ‘We are going into every retail store that sells the shirts and remove them.'”
(Boston Herald; Boston Globe; KipEsquire; Eugene Volokh; ACLU of Mass. press release, PDF). More: Gunner at No Quarters Blog has an update.