Brianna Smith is a freelance writer and editor in Southwest Michigan. A graduate of Grand Valley State University, Brianna has a passion for politics, social issues, education, science, and more. When she’s not writing, she enjoys the simple life with her husband, daughter, and son.
Two years have passed since 16-year-old Naomi Larsen was “fatally struck by a taxicab near Dockweiler State Beach” while “crossing Vista Del Mar with her friends,” but now her family has been granted some closure. Just last Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council agreed to pay $9.5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the teenager’s parents, Stacey Larsen and Steven Potovsky, who “argued that the death of their daughter was a “foreseeable tragedy” because the city had failed to ensure safe ways for pedestrians to cross from the beach to their parked vehicles on the street.” According to the lawsuit, the highway was “hazardous to pedestrians, but the city did nothing to fix the problem.”
The racial discrimination lawsuit against Fox News is growing. It started when two African American women spoke out against the discrimination at the network, and now, just last week, seven other African American Fox News employees intend to join in on the lawsuit, according to New York Magazine’s Gabriel Sherman. But what happened to warrant such a lawsuit?
A settlement has been reached between the Florida Keys Children’s Shelter, two other Monroe County nonprofits, and a 17-year-old girl who was sold into sex trafficking after the agencies failed to protect her, according to the lawsuit. Additionally, Our Kids of Miami/Monroe and Wesley House Family Services was also “named in the suit” that was filed by the girl back in March of 2016 in U.S. District Court in Miami.
At long last, a settlement has been reached between Dartmouth College and the family of Richard and Debbie Higgins who claim, according to a lawsuit, that they “suffered health problems from drinking well water contaminated by runoff from a site where the college once dumped animals used in scientific experiments.” According to a statement issued by the college, Dartmouth and the family “have reached a negotiated settlement of all claims related to contamination of the drinking water well at 9 Rennie Road.” The settlement, according to the college, will allow the Higgins family to “move on with their lives in a new location.”
A class-action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court in Chicago against Bose, a high-end headphone company, on claims that it “has been tracking and distributing customers’ data without telling them.” According to the lawsuit, the Bose Connect app has been connecting user’s “listening history with third-party data mining companies.”
A House committee has approved a bill that will pay out part of a settlement involved in a high-profile case that resulted in the death of a 10-year-old girl and near death of her twin brother. With the approval of the bill, known as HB 6523, $3.75 million of the $5 million that the Florida Department of Children and Families agreed to pay “to the estate of Nubia Barahona and to Victor Barahona” will be paid out. The other $1.25 million has already been paid.
iRobot has decided to sue Hoover, Black & Decker and other popular vacuum manufacturers on charges that they all “used its intellectual property without permission.” Additionally, the company also sued China-based Shenzhen Silver Star Intelligent Technology Co, a company that “manufactures Hoover and Black & Decker vacuums.”
After being accused of fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the owner and president of Jay Peak ski resort has finally agreed to a $150 million settlement with Raymond James Financial Inc. However, the agreement is still pending approval.
Spending years behind bars for a crime you didn’t commit would be a nightmare for anyone. Unfortunately for Deon Patrick, this is exactly what happened to him. Fortunately for him, after spending “21 years in prison after signing a murder confession allegedly manufactured by Chicago police and Cook County prosecutors,” a federal jury awarded him $13 million on Wednesday as a result of a lawsuit he filed against the city of Chicago.
Car accidents are never fun for anyone, especially when they result in injuries. For Karen Del Re, 53, of New Jersey, that’s exactly what happened when “she was injured in a crash with an agency pickup truck in 2013.” Fortunately, however, Del Re received $3.6 million from a settlement agreement “with the New Jersey Turnpike Authority.”
