Judge flays California fire agency for lawsuit conduct

“In a blistering ruling against Cal Fire, a judge in Plumas County has found the agency guilty of ‘egregious and reprehensible conduct’ in its response to the 2007 Moonlight fire and ordered it to pay more than $30 million in penalties, legal fees and costs to Sierra Pacific Industries and others accused in a Cal Fire lawsuit of causing the fire. … Sierra Pacific, the largest private landowner in California, was blamed by state and federal officials for the blaze, with a key report finding it was started by a spark from the blade of a bulldozer belonging to a company working under contract for Sierra Pacific.” The company has contended that the cause determination was reached in haste and pursued with an eye to extracting legal proceeds for an agency-run settlement fund later found to be illegal. [Sacramento Bee; Robert Hilson, Association of Certified E-Discovery Specialists]

“New car smell” blamed for fatal accident

Police in Santa Cruz, Calif. say the driver of a new Tesla had fallen asleep at the wheel last November when his car struck and killed a bicyclist. 63-year-old retired tech executive Navindra Kumar Jain told police that “new car smell” had caused him to nod off and that there were no other mechanical problems with the vehicle. A lawsuit filed by the victim’s family names both Tesla and Jain as defendants. [Santa Cruz Sentinel, San Jose Mercury-News, San Francisco Chronicle]

Medical roundup

U.K.: “Policeman who smashed up pensioner’s car receives £400,000 compensation”

“A police officer branded a ‘laughing stock’ for using a truncheon to smash a pensioner’s car window was awarded more than £400,000 compensation from his former force on Wednesday.” Mike Baillon, 42, says colleagues at Gwent Police teased and hazed him after a YouTube video went viral showing him battering a 74-year-old driver’s Range Rover, amounting to “constructive dismissal.” [Telegraph]

FTC flexes its data-privacy powers

And goodbye to an Atlanta-based lab services business [Ed Hudgins, Atlas Business Rights Center] Law-enforcement-for-profit sidelight: according to owner Michael Daugherty, allegations of data insecurity at LabMD emanated from a private firm that held a Homeland Security contract to roam the web sniffing out data privacy gaps at businesses, even as it simultaneously offered those same businesses high-priced services to plug the complained-of gaps.

Maryland roundup

  • Hearing set for February 26 on bill to ban knives and other weapons from private school parking lots and other property [Maryland Legislative Watch]
  • Bill would join Ohio in banning hidden compartments in cars, but one legislative sponsor withdraws it following public outcry [MLW]
  • Minimum wage a poor way to support working families [Todd Eberly]
  • Italian-based gunmaker Beretta: “Maryland disrespects us and gun owners, so we expand in Tennessee” [Ugo Gussalli Beretta, Washington Times]
  • Would a per-bird environmental tax, as proposed by two Montgomery County lawmakers, drive chicken farming out of the state? [DelmarvaNow, followup (governor pledges veto)]
  • “The Parallel Failures of the Oregon and Maryland Health Exchanges” [Peter Suderman, Reason]
  • State has resisted general tide toward dramshop (alcohol server) liability for misdeeds of drunken patrons; bill in Annapolis would change that [MLW, earlier]

Can a nanny state improve on personal choices?

Stephanie Francis Ward at the ABA Journal covers the panel discussion I participated in yesterday on local paternalism at the ABA Midyear in Chicago. The other panelists were Prof. Sarah Conly of Bowdoin College, author of Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism, and Chicago Alderman George Cardenas, sponsor of a proposal to tax soft drink sales in the city. It was hosted by the ABA’s Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division and moderated by Hawaii land use lawyer Robert Thomas, who has much more at his Inverse Condemnation blog.