Monthly Archives: November 2021

In the Market to Settle

Risky business

As customers peruse the endless gift options available on Amazon for the upcoming Holiday season, they may come across items that should not be purchased by the average shopper. For example, industrial-grade pesticides have remained the topic of a dispute with Amazon and the Attorney General’s Office in Washington State. According to a lawsuit filed in 2018, Amazon granted thousands of transactions of agricultural and industrial-use pesticides to customers, without presenting a clear representation that the pesticides should not be used for average home garden use. In fact, these higher-grade pesticides differed considerably from widely available products that might be found at Home Depot or Lowe’s. Continue reading →

Lawsuit Not Landing in Court

Fight to the moon

Following a protest initiated by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin space organization, a lawsuit was filed. In the protest, Blue Origin sought to draw awareness to the apparently biased decision of NASA to afford a $2.9 billion contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The subsequent lawsuit, which was filed two weeks after the protest in August 2021, aimed to allow a space in the contract for Blue Origin to participate in the opportunity to return to the moon. If the lawsuit resulted in the favor of Blue Origin, NASA would be obligated to fund the operation of a second spacecraft, commanded by astronauts, to and from the moon. In November, however, a judge ruled against the lawsuit. Continue reading →

A Rusty Situation

Incident in the West

A famous Hollywood actor is the subject of recent lawsuits tied to the unfortunate shooting that took place on the “Rust” movie set in New Mexico. On October 21, Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger to a gun that he was told and believed to be cold. The devastating conclusion to Baldwin’s firing resulted in the death of cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins and the injury of director, Joel Souza. According to the script supervisor, Mamie Mitchell, who has filed the most recent “Rust” lawsuit, this incident was not the first weapons-related accident on set. Reportedly, one of Baldwin’s stunt doubles accidentally misfired a weapon and a prop master mistakenly shot herself in the foot.   Continue reading →

Breaching a Natural Contract

Save the salmon

As the war on climate change continues to heat up, some conservationists are perpetuating their opposition against the presence of dams and the seemingly negative effects these structures impose on natural wildlife and food sources. Those who are in favor of dams, however, are adamant that external factors serve as the likely causes of natural species shifts and value the important benefits offered by dams, including hydropower, river navigation, and irrigation. As part of a battle that has spanned the course of over 20 years, conservationists in the North West are now seeking to stay, or pause litigation, which would allow time for parties to develop adequate solutions to protect the local salmon. Continue reading →