I had a nice chat with Mike Keefe-Feldman of the Missoula Independent about John Munsell, the owner of Montana Quality Foods meat packing plant, who is suing the USDA. As the Independent puts it, it’s a lawsuit which “if successful, could bring about the most significant changes to America’s meat-inspection system since the Federal Meat […]
I-884, the Education Trust Fund Initiative, raises the sales tax from 6.5 to 7.5%. Sure, no one likes taxes, but there are times when we really need to invest in our kids’ future, and that time is now. The Trust Fund creates 10,000 high-quality preschool places, so poor kids get a good start. In kindergarten […]
Supporters of so-called tort ‘reform’ bills in Congress claim that too many lawsuits have led to excessive costs and delays. They also charge that juries can no longer be trusted to render fair verdicts. But the truth belies these assertions. Tort ‘reform’ — really ‘deform’ — would gut our system’s ability to force wrongdoers to […]
The Wall Street Journal article “McDonald’s Callousness Was Real Issue, Jurors Say, In Case of Burned Woman” sheds some much-needed light on the McDonald’s coffee case. When a law firm here found itself defending McDonald’s Corp. in a suit last year that claimed the company served dangerously hot coffee, it hired a law student to […]
The Center for Justice & Democracy has published a story called MYTHBUSTER! THE MCDONALD’S COFFEE CASE” AND OTHER FICTIONS to tell the true story of the often misunderstood and misrepresented case of the 79-year-old woman who sued McDonalds after she received third-degree burns over 16 percent of her body from spilled coffee. The “McDonald’s coffee” […]
In a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story Tomato supplier for Sheetz ceases operations, blames bad publicity, Joe Fahy and Jerome Sherman reported today that Coronet Foods, tomato distributer for sandwiches sold at Sheetz convenience stores, was ceasing operations today at its plant in Wheeling, West Virginia, leaving 220 workers without jobs. The company blames its going out […]
In a tragic story of how our food system fails families, Madeline Drexler’s article “What She Ate Almost Killed Her” for Good Housekeeping paints the painful tale of one little girl’s battle with death, all because she ate a hamburger. On June 30, 2002, ConAgra recalled 354,200 pounds of ground beef. On July 16, Kristi […]
Going to a BBQ? Bring your meat thermometer, The Essential Summer BBQ Accessory. “The only safe hamburger is one cooked to 160 degrees,” says Nancy Donley, president of the nonprofit Safe Tables Our Priority, a food-safety advocacy group. “Research has shown color is not a reliable indicator.” Donley learned about food safety the hard way […]
Here at Marler Clark, we like to take swinging from the chandeliers to a whole new level, especially when the swinging is for a good cause like the BRIBE committee. Like Tennessean Andrew Jackson’s drunken supporters swinging from chandeliers at the rowdy 1829 White House inauguration bash that signaled the defeat of the snobbish East […]
In the article “A New Day In Court” published in CFO Magazine, Steven L. Mintz writes: Awards often seem mysterious to Chris Campos, whose Teaneck, New Jersey based CPA firm, Campos & Stratis, investigates product- liability claims on behalf of insurance companies. He finds even favorable outcomes puzzling, when emotions in the jury room overwhelm, […]
Kevin Kelton, a political and humor columnist, wrote an interesting article called The RNC’s Latest Political Target: Frivolous Lawsuits for the Washington Dispatch. It begins: “First thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” Of course, after Shakespeare wrote that populist sound bite, Sir Francis Bacon took credit for his plays and Hollywood screenwriters took […]
Stephanie Banchero of the Chicago Tribune reported on October 9 that, in an unusual move, federal authorities have indicted a Downstate man on felony charges of conspiracy, transporting uninspected poultry and lying to federal authorities in a 2002 food poisoning incident that sickened more than 100 children and teachers at a Joliet school. Edward L. […]
As Ann Strosnider, reporter for the Kitsap Sun, said in her story Attorney says higher education needs citizen leadership, I told a luncheon gathering of Olympic College supporters Monday that higher education faces a crisis in Washington state, and the state Legislature refuses to show any leadership. “The stakes are enormous,” the Bainbridge Island resident […]
As Kitsap Sun Staff Writer Ann Strosnider has reported, I will be the featured speaker at the college’s annual community luncheon Monday at Bremer Student Center. The luncheon is the kickoff event to the annual fund-raising campaign for the Olympic College Foundation, which raises money for student scholarships and grants, program grants, and faculty development […]