Police problem
Recently, a decision has been made about an incident involving two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers suing the department for discrimination because they are Latino. Officers Allan Corrales and George Diego were awarded near $4 million combined in their discrimination suit against the department. Both officers are Latino and were involved in a fatal shooting in 2010 killing an unarmed, autistic African American man, Eugene Washington.
Bodybuilders beware
Several companies have been on the receiving end of lawsuits claiming lack of protein in their supplements. A large number of the companies in this $7 billion industry are being accused of selling products with less protein content than what they advertise on the label. “Arnold Schwarzenegger Series Iron Mass, for instance, contains half the protein stated on its label, according to third party testing in one lawsuit”. FDA regulations require that content labels on all dietary supplements be accurate and not misleading to the consumers. In this case the expectation is that protein content be evaluated based on actual protein sources, not fillers such as amino acids.
Speeding to the courtroom
While many people love the convenience of having a car appear at your doorstep at the tap of a button, it appears that those days may be numbered. The popular transportation services Uber and Lyft are headed to the courtroom, thanks to unhappy drivers. The main issue seems to center around a debate on whether or not the drivers of these services are employees or simply independent contractors. We’ve talked in the past about Uber’s problems with the law, however this series of lawsuits may force the companies to alter their business model. The lawsuits were filed in the San Francisco Federal Court and are only relevant to California-based drivers, although the results of each class-action will be closely monitored by drivers across the United States. Read more
Blood on the leaves?
There is an old philosophical argument that goes as follows: If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound? A recent lawsuit in Michigan is finally providing an answer: Yes. Residents of Bloomfield Hills, MI have taken up a class-action against tree removal by the power company DTE Energy. Reports say they hired a tree-trimming company to take trees down in a short period of time without giving notice to the community. The power company was worried about the trees interfering with cables they had been running in the area, and had petitioned to remove them. Clearly upset by the secretive manner in which DTE went about this deforestation, the people living in Bloomfield Hills are now seeking $54 million in restitution. Read more
Vanilla extract
Those that are bound and determined to drink and drive can almost always find a way. Though most people think of trips to the local liquor store as a place to pick up supplies, the reality is that even a quick trip to the grocery outlet will suffice, if the intention is to find something with enough alcohol to get wasted.
As proof that there are lots of surprising things that can get a person drunk, a 46-year-old woman from Seneca Falls, New York was arrested last week and has since been charged with drunk driving after consuming, of all things, vanilla extract. According to police reports, the woman was spotted by officers driving erratically in a Walmart parking lot.
An officer then approached the car and began questioning the woman who admitted, almost immediately, that she had been drinking vanilla prior to getting behind the wheel. Officers say the woman explained how she had consumed two regular-sized bottles of pure vanilla extract not long before getting in her car. She soon became disoriented and was unable to navigate her way out of the Walmart parking lot. Read more
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