Category Archives: Settlements

2 Year Old Child Found Dead in Closet

Justice

On July 17th, both Taylor Cournoyer and Laurie Cournoyer were arrested and charged with 5 counts of child abuse, as well as failing to notify police of the death of a child. The couple, who were taking care of a 2 year old girl and a few other children, were allegedly “binging on drugs” for 14 hours before calling 911. They are the first to be charged under a new law passed in South Dakota.  The law states that a parent, caretaker, or guardian, who knowingly fails to report a death of a child within six hours of the occurrence may face felony charges. This is a charge punishable up to five years in prison. This new law is modeled after “Caylee’s Law,” which was passed in 2008 after little Caylee Anthony went missing and was not reported for 31 days.

 

Read more

Lawsuit Settled Between Creative Steps Day Camp And Huntingdon Valley Swim Club

Pool

Huntingdon Valley Swim Club located in Philadelphia has just settled a lawsuit with Creative Steps day camp and 50 of its campers for racial discrimination.  In 2009, Creative Steps paid a member fee to allow the campers and counselors to use the pool for the summer.  When the camp arrived on the first day they were baffled by the racist comments they had heard.  Members of the club had name called and discriminated against the campers, most of whom are minorities.  The Swim Club revoked their membership to the pool and refunded their membership fees.  The U.S. Justice Department involved themselves after Creative Steps Inc. and the parents of the campers filed a lawsuit against the Huntingdon Valley Swim Club.  Shortly after, Valley Swim Club filed for bankruptcy and sold the pool for $1.46 million.  When bankruptcy case is finished the remaining funds will go to the 50 campers and Creative Steps for emotional damage done by the club.

 

Read more

University of Michigan Newspaper Receives Minor Penalty For Lawsuit

Your turn in the penalty box

The Michigan Daily and The Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League (O.H.L.) have settled out of court for a libel lawsuit that began earlier this summer.  A July 2nd article reported from an anonymous source that Jacob Trouba,  who committed to play at Michigan, was offered $200,000 from the Rangers to forgo his college career and instead play for the Major Junior team. Such an offer, if true, would have violated the O.H.L.’s rules regarding impermissible benefits.

Read more

Keeping Americans in a Fog

Farming

The food industry is in cahoots with the pesticide industry to keep Californians in the dark about what is really in their food.  American consumer products are owned by only a few corporate giants known as “Big Food”.  These corporations in addition to the “Big 6” companies in the pesticide industry are doing everything in their power to ensure that California’s Proposition 37 does not get passed.  Prop 37 is a bill that will allow companies to label food made with genetically engineered crops, which have previously been under the guise of “all natural”.  This will allow people to know if the food they are consuming has been genetically altered in any way.  The reason for this epic tag team of the food and pesticide industries is due to the fact that 99% of all genetically modified foods have been engineered to either contain pesticides or to withstand the application of these chemicals.  Since their fates are intertwined, they teamed up to contribute a whopping $25 million to ensure the failure of Prop 37.

Read more

Students Subjected To School Lunch On The Floor

Food disaster

The Camden Board of Education has agreed to settle for $500,000 after a teacher forced 15 students to eat lunch off of tray liners on the floor.  This was done as a punishment for the 15 predominately hispanic students.  Even the students who were not present on the day were subject to the abuse as well. The punishment was administered after one of her students spilled some water while attempting to change the water jug in the cooler. In this community, there is high population of both African-American students, as well as Hispanic students. This punishment prompted the African-American students to taunt and poke-fun at the students sitting on the ground, further aggravating the tension between the African American and Hispanic populations in the community.

Read more