Tag Archives: california

Cancer Misdiagnosis Leads to $3.5 Million Settlement

Not today…

Yesterday, the law firm of Corsiglia, McMahon & Allard announced that they’d settled a medical malpractice suit on behalf of a client for $3.5 million dollars.  Led by founding partner Bradley Corsiglia, the case detailed the story of a young engineer whose persistent complaints of a cough were dismissed and misdiagnosed by a doctor.  Time after time, as the cough became more serious — first percussive, then bloody, then life-threatening — the doctor based diagnosis on the engineer’s first, misread x-ray and did not order any new x-rays or tests based on new and (to my layman’s eyes) pretty startling developments.  Nearly a year and a half after the doctor’s first diagnosis of post-nasal drip, the engineer was rushed to the hospital with a collapsed lung, where it was determined that the man has stage four terminal lung cancer and but two short years to live.

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Two Settlements for Families of Mentally Ill Killed by Police Errors

Justice

 

Yesterday, a couple of similar settlements were reached concerning cases where undue police violence against innocent mentally ill citizens led to death.  Read on to find out the details.

 

 

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Mojave Cross Will Rise Again

Cross to bear

There was something about the Mojave Desert for the Lost Generation.  Maybe it was the cool sand-crested wind, the emptiness, an unspoken communion with a greater peace.  Those disillusioned soldiers of World War I, still shellshocked, went out there to find quiet — to forget, maybe, or to remember in silence only the stars overhead could provide.  In 1934, perhaps because of these troubled men, the Veterans of Foreign Wars built a wooden cross and raised it on a quiet parcel of land there.  It was both memorial to the soldiers lost and a reminder to those still living of the enormous cost of the war.  The veterans gathered at the cross for barbecues and dances, to come together and share their burdens in the cross’s shadow.  It stood there for 67 years, rebuilt with steel at one point, becoming a defining monument for veterans everywhere — separate, in a way, from the religious connotations inherent in the cross’s image.  Henry and Wanda Sandoz looked after it, on a promise to the previous caretaker on his deathbed.  The cross remained, stoic and silent, until 2001 when a church-and-state lawsuit threatened to take it down.

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A jar of Nutella with a spoon covered in chocolate hazelnut spread rests inside. The lid is off and placed nearby. The background is slightly blurred, showing a mix of red and yellow colors.

Nutella Settles Class Action About Healthiness

Anyone who scoops Nutella with a spoon has no intention of using it as a “spread.”

Nutella, the hazelnut spread considered by some to be the immortality-inducing ambrosia of myth, was alleged in a class action lawsuit to not be as healthy as advertised.  How anyone can believe that a product akin to a peanut-butter-chocolate lovechild is healthy is beyond me, but nevertheless, the company that makes it, Ferrero, now must pay out $4 per container in trust to anyone who bought their product over a four-year period.  If you bought a jar of Nutella between Jan. 1, 2008 and Feb. 3, 2012, you’re entitled to recompense for up to five jars, or $20.  A fund of $2.5 million will be set up by Ferrero to pay out these claims.

In addition to the monetary penalty, Ferrero agreed to change its advertising to remove any suggestions that Nutella is healthy.  What used to say “An example of a tasty yet balanced breakfast” will now say “Turn a balanced breakfast into a tasty one.”  Astute readers will note that these two phrases are not very different at all.  The key distinction, though, is that the former slogan implied that Nutella is both tasty and balanced, while the new one only implies that Nutella adds some taste to an otherwise bland albeit healthy breakfast.  Ignoring the fact that many Nutella aficionados eat it by the spoon as meal in itself, this new advertising will actually make little impact on the perception of Nutella as healthy.  I don’t think Ferrero was actually fooling anybody with their previous slogan for the 100 calorie-per-tablespoon spread.

To find out how to file a claim on your own jar of fraudulently-advertised hazelnut butter, visit the official Nutella class action settlement website.

 

California Workers Given a Break or Two

Can almost taste it

The California State Supreme Court issued a decision today to define employers’ obligations concerning their employees’ mealtime.  Some confusion was inherent in California’s meal break laws, which state that employers must give employees a 30-minute meal break per every 10-hour-or-fewer shift.  Employers weren’t sure, however, whether employees must abstain from all work during the 30-minutes and whether it was the employers’ problem to ensure that they do.  Today’s ruling makes it clear: employers must provide employees with the ability to take a 30-minute lunch break, but if an employee decides to work straight through anyway, well, that’s their prerogative.

So, employers are let off the hook and employees must be the ones to make sure they don’t overwork themselves.  The pressure to meet deadlines and maximize performance won’t influence low-level employees’ “decisions” to skip lunch at all.  Sounds like a step in the right direction.  Full disclosure: I usually eat lunch and do a little work at my desk, so I might be biased.  The whipping is a little much, but motivation is motivation!