Despicable

This young man died in June 2022 of severe heatstroke, while his supervisor insisted it must be drugs and asked for a drug test when medics arrived. His family, of course, was devastated. A recent bill was passed in Texas and signed by Gov. Greg Abbott that nullifies any ordinances that require companies to allow a water break every four hours. Let that sink in. San Antonio did not have such an ordinance at the time of his death but was considering it when the bill was passed. He died in temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit with at least 75% humidity. His internal body temperature was 109.8 degrees F. He was only 24 and had just started working there. I am so sorry for his family, as well as Joshua Espinoza, his friend who tried to save his life. I'm sure it's been hell. I hope the company and any others who deny such basic requirements are sued till they are bankrupt.

RIP Gabriel Infante

Texas worker accused of being on drugs was actually dying of heatstroke

Sad, that's at least three suicides I've heard of due to this

Estate Of Floyd Co. Woman Files Suit Against Ky. Attorney

The family of a woman who committed suicide after her Social Security/Disability Benefits were removed, has filed suit in Floyd County Circuit Court.

The estate of Melissa Jude, with her husband John Daniel Jude acting as administrator, filed a complaint against Eric C. Conn and his law offices for claims that "legal malpractice" on the part of Conn resulted in Jude's state of mental despair.

This is the second such complaint filed against Conn. The widow of Leroy Burchett also filed a lawsuit on behalf of her late husband's estate alleging fraudulent activity on the part of attorney Eric C. Conn resulted in his wrongful death.

Over 900 eastern Kentucky residents represented by the controversial Floyd County attorney had their benefits frozen pending a review by the Social Security Administration.

The SSA sent out letters notifying recipients represented by Conn's office between 2009 and 2011, announcing a review to determine whether the individual in question was actually disabled.

Two days after Mrs Jude died, benefits were restored to those who had received the letters. My understanding is the government restored the benefits at the request of US Representative Hal Rogers, who cited the hardship it would have. Their benefits have been restored while the fraud is investigated. While I believe disability fraud should be rooted out, it should not be done in such a way that those who are legitimately disabled, many of whom have benefits as their sole income, should suffer. Such a pity this situation led to such desperate acts, and that at least three people seem to have died over this. So sad.

One bit of good news, though

Appeals court: Ky. library tax is legal

It doesn't look like libraries in Kentucky will have to close after all.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals in a 3-0 decision handed down on Friday reversed two circuit court decisions in Kenton and Campbell counties that declared the library districts in those counties had improperly raised taxes for decades.

The appeals court found the libraries can raise their tax without having to gather a petition—so long as the amount doesn't bring in four percent more revenue than the year before, just like other taxing districts. It means library budgets won't get slashed and library branches won't get closed as some had feared.

The court case garnered national attention, and library associations across the country rejoiced at the news.

"More than just a vital resource, we know that libraries are vital to democracy in the great state of Kentucky and everywhere," American Library Association President Courtney Young and Public Library Association President Larry Neal said in a joint statement on Friday.

If the Tea Party plaintiffs had had their way--

...the lawsuit would have rolled library taxes back to their rates in the 1970s and decimated library revenues, likely causing the closure of branches and other cutbacks. It would have affected more than 80 libraries around the state.

So glad that didn't happen. Technically, they can appeal to the US Supreme Court, though. But hopefully they're satisfied with the unanimous decision, and will drop the cases.

Wow. That's awful.

Grandmother wrongly declared dead, frozen alive in hospital freezer before struggling to escape

Maria de Jesus Arroyo was moved into a morgue freezer while she was still alive, court documents claim. She froze to death while trying to break free from her body bag. The family intends to sue.

But I should probably be careful about expressing opinions about anyone

(even though that is protected by US law). I give you:

Librarians Rally Behind Blogger Sued by Publisher Over Critical Comments

In 2010, Dale Askey, now a librarian at McMaster University, in Ontario, wrote a blog post about Edwin Mellen Press on his personal Web site, Bibliobrary, referring to the publisher as "dubious" and saying its books were often works of "second-class scholarship." For a few months afterward, several people chimed in in the blog's comments section, some agreeing with Mr. Askey, others arguing in support of the publisher.

In June 2012, Edwin Mellen Press's founder, Herbert Richardson, issued a notice of action to Mr. Askey, suing him for more than $1-million. That same day, the press issued a similar notice of action to Mr. Askey and McMaster University, telling them that they were being sued for $3-million. In the lawsuits, filed in a Canadian court, Mr. Richardson and the press are seeking damages for both the blog post and the comments left by the blog's readers.

So he's being sued personally by the press founder, plus being sued by the press, for comments on a PERSONAL blog. His CURRENT employer is also being sued, even though he was employed at another university, not named in the suit, at the time of publication. Additionally, some comments listed in teh suit are actually not Mr Askey's, but rather ones that were posted by readers.

In the United States, I think this would be considered spurious and thrown out. I don't know enough about Canadian law to know how they would respond. But it has some scary implications for bloggers, and also for librarians and academics who express opinions in their writings. Meanwhile, from the same article:

The Canadian Center of Science and Education is threatening to sue Jeffrey Beall, a librarian at the University of Colorado at Denver, after he included the center and three of its related companies on his blog's list of journals he considers to be "potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers," which take advantage of academics desperate to get their work published. In separate blog posts, Mr. Beall details why he believes the companies are misleading.

I've had a takedown notice sent to me regarding this blog, from someone from my past who didn't like the comments (which were true) and opinions (which were my own) on the blog. They're a little scary, but sometimes it's just a lot of smoke and no fire. I went through and reviewed what I had written, kept almost all of it here, and tweaked a few so it was clear that they were my opinions. I also do not blog at work because someone (I'm not sure who) once complained about something I wrote (unspecified) while I was on our system. This was several years ago. I never learned what it was, but I suspect it was a comment I related that a friend had said, and one in fact that I disagreed with in the blog entry. So if you ever see a blog entry during the weekday inside normal business hours, I'm apparently off from work. Then again, I only agreed not to blog on their equipment. I can technically do so on my phone and tablet, and see no reason I couldn't when on break, but I haven't anyway. I've been blogging for almost 12 years, and those are really the only two problems I've had. Have you ever encountered people who tried to bully you into silence?

On a local front

Arbitration panel says Lexington Public Library owes former director

The library fired Imhoff after the Lexington Herald-Leader detailed more than $134,000 she spent on travel, meals, gifts and other items over five years. A city audit later raised more questions about library spending and reported that 1,522 images of "adult materials" were found on a library computer assigned to Imhoff, in violation of library policy.

Kathleen Imhoff sued the library for more than $5 million in damages, citing being fired in violation of her contract, defamation, and discrimination due to being a woman. The judge dismissed the defamation and discrimination claims, but the contract violation issue was sent to arbitration. The sex discrimination aspect was interesting. Yes, despite the overwhelming percentage of female librarians, men have a disproportionate amount of administrative jobs in our profession, so I'm sure it does happen. But the majority of administrators are, indeed, women. I don't know the details of the case, but apparently the judge did not find it having merit. However, it does sound like the library may have to pay her contract completely. If there were concerns about her spending, etc., then they should have made that the cause. Of course, these days, employers don't seem to want to do that, probably due to legal concerns. Kentucky is an 'at will' state, meaning employees can be terminated without cause, so they were under no obligation to put that in the contract. But once it was in, I think you pretty much have to go with it.

Sometimes you shouldn't check your news

The following story appeared on my phone news stream widget and I was curious, so I tapped it. On the surface, it was notable because it is the biggest lawsuit damage award given in this country, albeit largely symbolic, as there is no way to collect the money. But I wondered what had prompted it, and I found myself questioning a person's humanity, and what I found there made me wonder at how any person could do such a horrible thing to another.

Jury awards record $150 billion to family of burned boy

In 1998, Robbie Middleton was turning 8 years old. Two weeks before his birthday, he was allegedly sexually assaulted by a 13-year-old who then, on his birthday, allegedly set the 8-year-old on fire. The attacker threw a cup of gasoline in his face, tied him to a tree with fishing line, and then ignited him. The boy endured many surgeries and was unable to communicate fully about the case. He died at the age of 20 from skin cancer.

The 13-year-old was detained, but later released, and was never officially pursued further in the case, although he is now 26 and is in prison on charges of molesting another 8-year-old in 2001. He is due to be released next year. The family and the lawyers in the case brought a civil suit in hopes of getting the criminal case against his alleged attacker reopened.

I can't imagine what this young boy went through, what he endured, at the hands of a young teenager who had no regard for his life or dignity. That anyone--particularly another child, could do this, sickens me. I certainly hope they get justice in this case.

One more story on germs

Growth promoters: If you can’t convince them, sue them

“The reason we’re filing suit now is because the antibiotic resistance crisis is reaching alarming proportions,” Avi Kar, NRDC’s health program attorney, told me. “In the face of the growing scientific evidence, FDA continues to focus almost exclusively on voluntary approaches such as those in the guidance currently under development. The coalition lawsuit is designed to get FDA to stop punting the issue and to finally take meaningful action.”

I can't prove it has any bearing, but when I stopped eating meat 20 years ago, I stopped getting strep throat, a condition so prevalent in my life that I went through my entire childhood with tonsils intact because they were never free from infection long enough to take them out, or so I've been told. After numerous infections into early adulthood, they suddenly stopped when I stopped eating the meat from animals routinely dosed with antibiotics to make them grow bigger and act as a prophylactic treatment to prevent illness. I also suspect that given the number of antibiotics I am allergic to, it's probably best I'm not exposed to them, although I don't know if it actually is passed on through the meat.

Trouble is, antibiotics, when used prophylactically like that, only help encourage antibiotic resistance in bacteria, because it exposes them to a variety of drugs, even when there is no active infection. This kills off the bacteria that are not resistant, leaving those that can evolve or cope with resistance. Since many of those same germs infect people, and many of those same antibiotics are used by people, it means we're reaping the rewards of these actions by having more difficulty fighting off infections in ourselves. In my mind, the practice of doping animals with antibiotics, along with our tendency to antiseptic everything (wipes in the grocery store for carts, lots of alcohol-containing gels, etc.), is doing a lot of harm. (And tangentially, studies also show that as our immune systems have less to fight off, there tends to be an increase in allergies and autoimmune disorders.)

Now I admit, I don't really know a lot about microbiology, besides a short college major in biology and some general reading, but the FDA should. And it (and Congress, which consistently quashes any attempts by the agency to flex their muscles concerning farming antibiotic use) should be doing something to prevent future issues. I don't think this lawsuit will particularly change the game, but it's an interesting approach.

How do you define 'Jew'?

Who Is a Jew? Court Ruling in Britain Raises Question

The basic test in Judaism for who is Jewish isn't what you believe, or what you practice--it's whether your mother is Jewish. This is a long-standing practice, but the different denominations of Judaism (yes, there are, for those who didn't know) approach the question differently. So then you get into the question of 'how Jewish is the mother?' At the heart of this matter is can an Orthodox school exclude a child because the mother, who is a convert to Judaism, converted in a more liberal synagogue than the school recognises, a matter that in the United States, would probably fall into the area of a private decision by a religious school, but in Britain becomes an issue because it, like many other religious schools, receive public funding. The parents who sued lost the first round, but an appellate court ruled that the child was not being excluded on religious grounds (as in practice) but rather on ethnic grounds (his mother's non-Jewish ethnicity). It will no doubt go up the chain.

It's an interesting question. Religions are entitled to their beliefs, but throw the public funding issue in and it becomes more complicated.

But here's the thing--unlike Christianity, Judaism isn't based on belief, but rather observation of laws, as well as ethnic identity. So you can't define an admissions policy based on beliefs, and ethnicity is out in this case. So it would have to be practice. There are lots of Jews, however, who would argue that eating a ham sandwich doesn't make you less Jewish. And as the article states, you have to be creative about figuring out which children went to synagogue given that Orthodox and Conservative Jews don't write on the Sabbath. So the whole thing opens a can of worms involving the British government, the school, and the various denominations and its leaders all trying to find some correct meaning for the word 'Jew'. It's making people question the very meaning of Jewishness, and who has the right to determine it. As a liberal rabbi put it, 'The Orthodox definition of Jewish excludes 40 percent of the Jewish community in this country.' Who has the right to exclude? How inclusive can you be without making the label meaningless?

I will say one thing; part of the point of education is to get people to think about these sorts of issues, so in a way the school is fulfilling its mission--but not like it expected to.

A tragedy of errors

cost Lisa Strong all four limbs, the result of a kidney stone that led to septic infection and gangrene, due to miscommunication and misunderstanding of her condition by the doctors who were supposed to care for her. She sued them, and the jury refused to award her the case despite overwhelming evidence. Since it was such a complicated case, they seemed to have difficulty determining blame. Because the evidence was so compelling, the judge threw out the jury's decision and ordered a new trial, something the defendants have appealed.

Amputee gets second chance to sue doctors: Florida judge orders new trial after jury rules against Florida woman

I had no idea that a kidney stone could lead to septic shock. One doctor who never saw her diagnosed her with a gall bladder condition, leading to useless surgery when she was already very, very sick. She had come to the hospital in pain and with a 106 degree fever. She's lucky to even be alive. But her marriage has fallen apart and she's now on disability, things that could have been avoided if the doctors had done a better job. Plus, on top of everything else, she has over $800,000 in medical bills. That's insult to injury. I hope justice prevails on this one.

Oh, my

The AARP, advocate for seniors, is being sued by a 63-year-old woman for age discrimination, alleging that she was passed over for a series of jobs because she was too old, despite an excellent record.

A victory for privacy advocates

Lawyers in YouTube lawsuit reach privacy deal

It seems to me that the plaintiffs in this case would get more out of records of people who posted videos, rather than those who watched them, but the deal makes sure that the latter information is presented without usernames or other identifiable information attached.

The rough seas of the blogosphere

Corporate employee blogs: Lawsuits waiting to happen?

I've had my own run ins because of this blog. It seems everyone wants to control your opinion these days. This article focusses on employees and policies regarding identifying their connexion to various industries or companies when discussing issues related to their field.

As an example, a quote:

If someone is a fisherman and they want to talk about fly fishing outside of work, then that's not our business, it's personal. But if someone is going to talk about notebooks...they have to say they're from Dell.
--Bob Pearson, Dell vice president

I hope, with enough lawsuits, they bankrupt them

Got problems with gays and want to be outspoken? Sure, that's your right under our Constitution. But picketing a dead soldier's funeral (especially a non-gay dead soldier's funeral) just because you're sure America needs to hear that its troops are falling in war because God is punishing it for the sins of homosexuals and the support of the homosexual agenda? That's ludicrous, wrong, illogical, tacky, disrespectful, unpatriotic, and it should be illegal in all jurisdictions. I don't think funerals are truly public in the sense of letting anyone with a placard and a lungful of hate speech in. Funerals are for the respect for the dead. Military funerals are for the respect of those who have fallen protecting our country--straight or gay. So, I was happy to see:

Fred Phelps' church ordered to pay $10.9 million for funeral protest

It's been my experience that those who hate gays the most tend to be those who secretly realise that they have homosexual urges. I'm not saying Fred Phelps is one of these people, of course. But I do wonder why such vehemence against gays? Why is he threatened by their existence? What have they really done for him? It's such a strange whacko turn for someone who started out of all things as a civil rights attorney for blacks. Now he hates gays, pickets military funerals, and runs websites saying God hates (insert country here--there's already Ireland, Sweden, and Canada). And with his church, most of whom are related to him by blood or marriage, he has others to carry on the hate speech when he dies. I guess he'll find out then if he really is part of the elect or not. I'm not Christian, of course, but I have actually read the Bible from cover to cover--something many Christians fail to do, including those who like to quote it--and it seems to me Jesus was primarily about loving others. It's not a particularly gay-friendly text, true, but at the same time, you have to wonder where someone full of that much hate really belongs in God's design, don't you?

I was a little late getting in tonight

because I helped jump a neighbour's car. Unfortunately it sounds like the starter, not the battery (the car just clicked), so that sort of sucks for them. But it was nice to help someone out, and they weren't even serial killers. :)

On to the news.

It seems to me that either Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) is in serious denial or he really believes he can snow constituents. Let's see--caught by police in a sting to stop sex in men's bathrooms at the Minneapolis airport, then keeping the whole thing to himself--not even getting a lawyer--and pleading guilty and receiving probation, then saying he's not guilty and not gay. Hmmm...I know from intimate sources of my youth just what goes on in men's rooms. I also know from my sociology studies (see, I'm using one of my majors!) that the majority of men who frequent the restrooms do not in acutality identify themselves as gay. There's a reason the CDC and others studying AIDS list it as MSM (men who have sex with men) rather than homosexual. Plus, all this is on top of a local newspaper's investigations of his sexuality given his attitudes towards gay rights. And for pete's sake, in the future, get a room.

Only in San Francisco would they have an 'Astrowizard' explaining the lunar eclipse. :) [Video from SF Gate; requires Quicktime]

I'm interested to see how this plays out in the courts:
Yahoo!: we did not assist torture in China

I think Yahoo! has the stronger case, because 1) when it operates in another country it is subject to that country's laws, 2) users of these sorts of companies are warned in their privacy statements that privacy ends when court-ordered, 3) the dissidents knew at the time that they used the e-mail that they were violating Chinese law and were subject to such a court order, and 4) the plaintiffs are foreign nationals attempting to sue under US court against a US company for actions taking place in a foreign jurisdiction. Now, that doesn't always protect you. Think of American countries sued for profiting from the slave labour of the Holocaust in Europe, for example.

I'm not saying I agree with the laws of China; I don't. Nor would I have handed over the files myself. But, legally speaking, I think Yahoo! has a better footing. It will be interesting to see what the courts decide.

This may affect my phone service

Vonage's future questioned after latest setback

Ewwwwwww

Dead rat found in senior's mouth

A lawsuit alleges that care was so bad at a facility that a rat was able to crawl into an Alzheimer's patient's mouth and then died there. The resident, who survived, is now being cared for at another facility.