On Nov. 25, 2008, a jury determined that dogs were not to blame for an accident that injured a motorcyclist. In 2002, Ronald Ashley was riding his motorcycle in Midlothian when he claimed two dogs ran into his path and caused him to fall. He sustained five fractured ribs and…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed a link between peanut butter and a salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 400 people in 43 states. Health officials are telling nursing homes, hospitals, schools and restaurants to throw away containers of peanut butter that have been linked to the…
CA lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would offer greater legal protections to Good Samaritans in light of a recent California Supreme Court decision. Legislators have introduced three bills to address Van Horn v. Watson, 08 C.D.O.S. 15199, which held that a state statute only shields rescuers from liability…
On Dec. 4, 2008, a jury ordered a computer parts distributor to pay $247,000 in damages after one of its laptop batteries short-circuited, resulting in a house fire. In 2006, Rodger Hill was using his Hewlett-Packard laptop computer, which contained a battery distributed by Kahlon Inc., at his home in…
Hospital companies in Texas, many of which collect millions in state and federal funds, operate with minimal public disclosure of deficiencies. The state keeps information on complaints and inspections largely private because influential health care corporations want it that way, and Texas legislators have obliged. As a result, it is…
According to city officials the parents of a teenager who was killed in a confrontation with Huntington Beach police in 2006 will receive $125,000 from the city in a settlement of their wrongful-death lawsuit. The victim aged 18, was shot by two Huntington Beach police officers after they responded to…
Harris County is the most dangerous county in Texas for railway accidents, according to a recently released report. There were 1,376 reported incidents including derailments, collisions, pedestrian trespassing and hazardous material releases from 1998 through 2007 in the county, according to the Texas Rail Relocation and Improvement Association. The accidents…
The Dallas VA medical center’s psychiatric wing, where two patients committed suicide last year, reopened fully after a nine-month closure. The wing has been renovated, with new technologies to help safeguard patients and alert hospital personnel about potential problems. Among the renovations, said hospital spokeswoman Penny Kerby, are pressure-sensitive door…
Six veterans who allege they were exposed to dangerous chemicals, germs and mind-altering drugs during Cold War experiments sued the CIA, Department of Defense and other agencies, in San Francisco Federal Court. The vets volunteered for military experiments they say were part of a wide-ranging program started in the 1950s…
A class action suit against the maker of a blood thinning Heparin drug claims the company is substituting safer ingredients – cooked, dried pig intestines – with more dangerous ones. Joyce Ann Osteen of Illinois is suing Baxter over its anticoagulant drug Heparin in St. Clair County Circuit Court. She…