Category Archives: Settlements

National Guard and Defense Contractor Have Bad Chemistry

Wait, Water Plants Could Be Unsafe?

Cancel your vacation plans to any water plants in the Middle East.  American defense contractor KBR was recently ordered to settle with the United States National Guard in response to a toxic chemical issue.  About a dozen soldiers took up the lawsuit, claiming KBR knew all along that they were being exposed to a drug called “carcinogen hexavalent chromium” at an Iraqi water facility.  A judge in Portland, Oregon ordered the settlement of $85 million with each individual member of the National Guard receiving around $7 million.  The soldiers are currently suffering from respiratory issues, trouble breathing, and skin conditions that will require extensive health care for the immediate future.

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Chris Brown Avoids Punishment Yet Again

Not Chris Breezy

In 2009, the singer Chris Brown, was sentenced to serve over 1,400 hours in a “labor oriented service, and was ordered to complete a 52-week domestic violence program.  This was the result of the domestic violence charge he received after assaulting his girlfriend at the time, Rihanna.  Since then, previous to his most recent trial on November 1st, he has tested positive for marijuana use while in Virginia.  He somehow got away with it in court due to the fact that the marijuana was consumed in California, as allowed by his medical marijuana license.

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Stormpocalypse

Also affecting sea creatures

Just more than a year after Hurricane Irene mangled the eastern seaboard, Hurricane Sandy has reared her ugly head threatening to repeat the devastation.  The entire east coast of the United States is scrambling for shelter as the monster hybrid storm moves it’s way north faster than expected.  This “Frankenstorm” is over 1,000 miles wide with maximum sustained winds of 90mph.  Millions of people have evacuated their homes to move farther inland. Even NYC is experiencing mandatory evacuations, leaving the city looking like a scene from I Am Legend.

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Mardi Gras And Superbowl Put The Law On Hold

She will be at the Superbowl

The U.S. District Court Judge, Carl Barbier, has been appointed to a trial regarding BP’s 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  He has moved its start date from Jan. 14th to Feb. 25th in an effort to  decrease distraction from Mardi Gras and the Superbowl.  The trial’s main purpose is to uncover why the tragedy happened and to determine who is at fault.  New Orleans, which has taken the brunt of the BP spill’s effects, has been invested in restoring the average citizen’s quality of life since 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.  Though BP is expected to pay close to $8 billion in resolving the claims filed in this case, it is not hard to imagine that the tone of the trial itself could bring down the community. Read more

Murderer Resurfaced As Teacher’s Aide

Can’t trust anybody

As Halloween approaches children become frightened of urban legends and old murder stories.  Kids could never imagine that an old murder story could have involved their teacher’s aide, but in a school in Conrad, Iowa, that is exactly the case.  Paula Pace, formerly known as Paula Baniszewski, has been fired from her teacher’s aide position after the school discovered she was directly involved in the beating and killing of Sylvia Likens, 47 years ago.  The death of Sylvia Likens is recognized as, “the most terrible crime committed in the state of Indiana,” and her story was also made a movie in 2007, “An American Crime.” Paula, her mother, her brother, and neighborhood children had beaten and tortured Sylvia, taking turns burning her and throwing her down the stairs.  Even going so far as to stick Coke bottles in her privates.  She was found dead in the basement of the Baniszewski home.  Paula was arrested alongside her mother, brother, and neighbor.  She was sentenced to only 7 years in prison and was released in 1972.  She eventually moved to Iowa and changed her last name to Pace where she started a new life working in a school.

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