Free Republic

Cable TV made a West Bend man addicted to TV, caused his wife to be overweight and his kids to be lazy, he says. And he’s threatening to sue the cable company. Timothy Dumouchel of West Bend wants $5,000 or three computers, and a lifetime supply of free Internet service from Charter Communications to settle what he says will be a small claims suit. Dumouchel blames Charter for his TV addiction, his wife’s 50-pound weight gain and his children’s being “lazy channel surfers,” according to a Fond du Lac police report. Charter employees called police to the local office at...

TALLAHASSEE -- The quality of the smiles Friday told who won Florida's months-long political standoff over medical malpractice lawsuits. Gov. Jeb Bush approached the podium set up in the center of the Capitol rotunda with a tight grin as he praised legislative leaders for the deal that let him announce that he was calling the House and Senate back to Tallahassee Tuesday to begin the third special session of the year devoted to medical malpractice insurance reform. Behind him, top GOP senators could scarcely contain their glee: Finally, five and a half years into Bush's tenure, they had stared down...

Senate Majority Whip Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, said, "The political pressures being put on this body are most unfortunate" and suggested the one-time count of 14 senators for Bush's malpractice positions was eroding. Dockery voted against the Senate's bill Friday because she favors a lower cap on "pain and suffering" damages in medical malpractice lawsuits than the Senate's $1.5 million limit, which grows to $6 million in instances of catastrophic injury. Yet she thanked King for "never applying pressure to me." "If anyone is wasting the taxpayers' money, it's because we're being called back," said Dockery, referring to Bush's call for...

Asthmatics win state air-pollution suit Seven asthmatics won almost 80 million yen from the national government, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Metropolitan Expressway Public Corp. on Tuesday as compensation for suffering caused by air pollution.The Tokyo District Court ordered the three bodies to pay out a total of 79.2 million yen to the plaintiffs, who all live within 50 meters of trunk roads and expressways in the nation's capital.The legal action was brought by 99 plaintiffs who had sought 2.2 billion yen in damages from the governmental bodies, the highway authority and seven automobile manufacturers, as well as a court...

SALT LAKE CITY -- A Wyoming federal judge has refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a Utah teenager who was severely burned when he and two others jumped into a thermal pool in Yellowstone National Park. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Roberts had asked the U.S. District Court in Cheyenne to reject Lance Buchi's (pictured, above) complaint, which alleges that the federal government failed to adequately warn of dangers posed by thermal pools in the park. Roberts had argued that the decision to provide no warning signs in the area of Cavern Springs -- where water temperatures can reach 170...

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