Free Republic

A New Jersey jury has assessed $105 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Aramark Corp., the nation's leading arena concessionaire, in the case of a girl paralyzed in a crash with a driver drunk on beer served at a Giants football game. The father of the victim says the award will make liquor vendors and arenas do a better job of enforcing their rules against selling alcohol to fans who appear to be intoxicated. The evidence in the case against Aramark showed the driver had consumed the equivalent of 16 12-ounce beers, mostly at Giants Stadium in the Hackensack...

Woman Paralyzed From Fainting Spell In Hospital Awarded $2.5 Million POSTED: 6:22 pm EST December 10, 2004 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The woman who went for a breast exam and ended up paralyzed won her lawsuit on Friday. The jury awarded Cynthia Taylor $2.5 million and her husband $500,000. Four years ago, Taylor went for a mammography at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in Fayetteville. She fainted and fell, hitting her head. As a result of that head injury, she lost permanent control of half her body. The jury determined that the hospital was at fault, but not the mammographer who...

Democrat Kerry to mine California gold SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When John Kerry kicks off his multistate fund-raising tour in California next week, stars including Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio will add a celebrity buzz to a crowd already passionately committed to ousting President Bush in November. Home to some of the Democratic Party's deepest pockets, California has always been a mother lode for candidates pursuing national office. This time, though, the anybody-but-Bush intensity among Democrats has motivated activists to seek money like never before. "I've never seen a time when Democrats and many independents are more galvanized and interested...

<p>SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota (AP) -- Bill Janklow was on duty as South Dakota's congressman when his speeding car collided with a motorcycle last summer, meaning federal taxpayers would pay any civil damages arising from the fatal crash, a prosecutor has concluded.</p>

Some Georgia legislators are trying to stop the "McLawsuit" before it happens. Speaker Pro Tem Rep. DuBose Porter (D-Dublin) is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit people from suing restaurants and food and beverage manufacturers for obesity-related health problems. Porter said he was not aware of any such lawsuits in Georgia. But the food industry has been targeted in other states, including a highly publicized lawsuit against McDonald's filed on behalf of obese children in New York City. The "McLawsuit," as critics derided it, was dismissed by a federal judge last year. Lawyers had sought to hold McDonald's liable for...

Georgians are paying more in state taxes on cigarettes and cigars, and the state is planning to spend less to get them to stop smoking. The Department of Human Resources, which has cut funding for its tobacco use prevention programs in the past year, is calling for an additional 25 percent reduction next year to comply with Gov. Sonny Perdue's call for leaner state agencies. The budget cutbacks would mean some smokers who want help quitting may not be able to get through to counselors from the state's telephone "quit line," and that local anti-smoking programs will get less money....

<p>Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, introduced a bill last week that would require fast-food and chain restaurants to display nutrition information for food choices on their menus. But experience with food labeling and a new study suggest the bill's rationale may be based more in wishful thinking than fact.</p>

<p>By Tommy J. Payne, Tommy J. Payne is executive vice president for external relations for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc.</p> <p>Surgeon General Richard Carmona uncorked a genie's bottle of political hypocrisy with his recent comment before Congress that he would support banning tobacco products.</p> <p>Why didn't such a bold, sincerely delivered statement, coming from the nation's top physician, win him any measurable praise from the anti-smoking lobby and politicians who have long decried smoking? Leaving aside issues of individual freedom, adult responsibility, social engineering and political correctness, the answer may lie in that famous piece of advice: "Follow the money."</p>

Posted on Tue, Mar. 18, 2003 LOS ANGELES (AP) - Major record labels have targeted about 300 companies whose computers were allegedly used by employees to feed file-swapping networks in the latest attempt to crack down on Internet music piracy.Letters sent out in the last week by the Recording Industry Association of America informed the companies of the alleged piracy and warned that employees and employers might be subjected to ``significant legal damages.'' However, the letters made no explicit threat to sue.The recording association declined to name the companies that received the letters, but said some of them are...