Free Republic

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.,- A Michigan university settled a lawsuit filed by a student who was barred from keeping her guinea pig, a service animal, in her dorm room. Grand Valley State University agreed to pay $40,000 to be divided by Kendra Velzen, the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan and the plaintiffs' attorney nearly a year after the suit was filed in March 2012, WOOD-TV, Grand Rapids, Mich., reported Tuesday. The lawsuit said Velzen was denied a service animal exception to the housing rule in the "pet free" Calder Residents dorm, despite having a letter outlining her need for a...

A class action lawsuit was filed in California this week alleging that the popular In-N-Out burger chain discriminates against people of color.

A California jury has awarded a rider $8.6 million dollars for a motorcycle accident caused by wild pigs. Dating back to an accident which took place in December 2003 when Adam Rogers, a 45-year-old former karate teacher and champion kickboxer was thrown from his motorcycle after colliding with wild pigs on Highway 1 south of the Carmel River in Monterey County. A Monterey County jury ordered the state’s Department of Transport to pay $8.6 million to Rogers ruling the state was responsible because officials knew that wild pigs regularly crossed that particular stretch of highway but did nothing to address...

A woman who ran away as a teenager and lived for a decade with a school security guard sued the city and school district Thursday, claiming that they failed to fully investigate her disappearance. Tanya Nicole Kach, 24, came forward March 21 and told police that she had been living in Thomas Hose's house for 10 years. Kach told police that Hose, 48, kept her in a bedroom in the small, two-story home where he lived with his parents. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, claims police and city officials involved in the case were incompetent. It...

Some Question Unusual Side Effects Of Dopamine Agonists (CBS) CHICAGO A new group of drugs called dopamine agonists are offering help to some people with Parkinson's disease and restless leg syndrome. But as CBS 2 Medical Editor Mary Ann Childers reports, complaints of unusual side effects have some questioning if this is a risky remedy. Barbara Hermansen suffered from chronic insomnia caused by restless leg syndrome until her doctor prescribed a drug called Permax. It helped her sleep like a baby, but she says five years later, it turned her life into a nightmare. "Gambling was always in my brain,"...

A 9/11 family group added a new allegation to its lawsuit against the city yesterday, claiming that hundreds of human body parts - not just tiny fragments - are buried at Fresh Kills landfill. The parts are mingled in some 414,000 tons of debris that weren't properly sifted after they were transported from Ground Zero, the suit says. The new charge, based on the recollections of an unnamed former supervisor at the Staten Island dump, is contained in an amended complaint against the city. In one gruesome passage based on the supervisor's account, the amended complaint claims the city "should...

SALISBURY, Md. - A 20-year-old was found by a Wal-Mart employee in the bathroom Sunday night after he sat down and was glued to the toilet seat. The man, whose name was not released by police, was taken to the hospital late Sunday night, said Lt. Cheryl Rantz of the Salisbury Police Department. "The man had gone into the bathroom and sat down," she said. "He was banging on the wall when the employee came in." Rantz said the man was treated and released.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. A Mescalero Apache family in southern New Mexico has sued the producers of Steven Spielberg's television miniseries, "Into the West," claiming a set stylist cut an 8-year-old girl's hair without regard for tribal customs. "It's part of our culture not to cut a girl's hair until her Coming of Age ceremony," the girl's father, Danny Ponce, said Friday in a telephone interview. "The only ones allowed to do that are the parents. Nobody asked for permission." Ponce filed suit in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on March 6, naming Turner Films Inc. and the unknown stylist as defendants....

Nano fans sore over scratches New lawsuit asks Apple to replace all affected iPod units Matthew Yi, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, February 11, 2006 Apple Computer Inc. is facing yet another lawsuit that alleges that the colorful screen on the popular iPod Nano music player is prone to scratches that make the display unreadable. "This is marketed as a beautiful, sleek device, which it is, but that feature is completely gone after a few weeks of using it," said Harvey Rosenfield, an attorney who filed the latest complaint late Thursday in San Mateo County Superior Court. "If (Apple chief executive)...

An African-American woman claims Southwest Airlines unfairly subjected her to its policy requiring large passengers to buy two seats because of her race, her lawyer said at the start of her federal trial against the airline.

Two Fox News employees have filed a lawsuit claiming they were sickened by air contaminated with toxic molds and pesticides while working in the building where "The O'Reilly Factor" and "At Large with Geraldo Rivera" are produced. Laurette DeRosairo and Madronicia Clarke, both Fox employees for about nine years, say in court papers that the molds and the "inappropriate" use of cleaning agents and pesticides has caused them headaches, dizziness, weakness, anxiety and blurred vision. DeRosairo, a control booth graphics technician, and Clarke, a makeup artist, said they were made ill while working within the broadcasting complex that produces shows...

AP) - BISBEE, Arizona-Two Salvadoran immigrants are now the legal owners of an Arizona ranch near the Mexican border that was seized from an anti-immigrant activist accused of pistol-whipping them. Documents granting the 70-acre ( 28-hectare) ranch once owned by Casey Nethercott to Fatima del Socorro Leiva Medina and Edwin Alfredo Mancia Gonzales were signed by a Cochise County judge on Monday. Nethercott is serving a five-year prison term in Texas stemming from a 2003 incident on a Texas ranch where he confronted Leiva and Mancia and was accused of pistol-whipping them. He was acquitted of assault but convicted of...