December 2008 Archives

Colorado Avalanche captain Joe Sakic will be sidelined at least three months after he suffered three broken fingers and tendon damage following an accident at his home involving a snowblower. Sakic underwent surgery with a local hand specialist Tuesday night, the team said. Sakic suffered the injury last week at his home.

The Avalanche said Sakic will not discuss the accident with the media until later today, after the team returns from a four-game road trip. But the incident illustrates a danger that is often overlooked when folks are eager to clear driveways and sidewalks.

Toy season is upon us - every child's dreams filled with dancing Wii, American Girls and Matchbox cars along with sugar plums. But one in three toys tested was found to contain toxic chemicals such as lead, flame retardants and arsenic, according to a report issued Wednesday by an Ecology Center, a Michigan-based environmental group. The group tested more than 1,500 popular toys for lead, cadmium, arsenic, PVC and other harmful chemicals. They said they found that one-third of the toys contain "medium" or "high" levels of chemicals of concern. Results of the study are presented at www.HealthyToys.org, a project of the Ecology Center to encourage retailers to be responsible in what kinds of products they sell.

A student who was suspended for three days by her former high school for criticizing an advanced-placement English teacher on her Facebook page is now suing her principal with the help of the ACLU. The student, now in college, filed
a federal lawsuit over her First Amendment rights with hopes to clear her disciplinary record. In addition to the three-day suspension, she was also removed from AP classes.

She was punished for what the principal called "bullying and cyberbullying harassment towards a staff member," after describing the teacher, in a post that she removed after a few days, as "the worst teacher I've ever met'' and inviting others to join her in expressing "hatred" toward the teacher.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) estimates, nearly 11,000 people were treated in hospitals last year for injuries involving escalators, mostly falls. Escalators carry about 90 billion riders a year, the agency estimates.

Some safety advocates say escalators are inherently dangerous and question the blame recently heaped on Crocs-type shoes, which several children were wearing in highly publicized accidents across the country.

A judge in Washington state ruled Thursday that a man dying from mesothelioma will not have to be autopsied as a condition of his estate being paid a settlement.

The Superior Court judge ruled that James Ross, 71, could avoid the autopsy based on the "personal moral belief" he claimed without declaring any "religious or ethical considerations." The Washington courts previouslt had a standing order which mandated autopsies as a condition of receiving settlements for mesothelioma, a cancer known to be caused by asbestos.

Ross had argued the rule unconstitutionally required a religious test. Ross v. Saberhagen Holdings Ins., No. 08-2-02434-2 SEA (King Co., Wa.sh, Super. Ct.).

The judge did not invalidate the rule but, as a practical matter, the ruling will probably apply to any mesothelioma claimant.

Ross is dying from mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that is invariably fatal and is known to be caused only by asbestos. The defendants didn't dispute that Ross has mesothelioma, but insisted on the autopsy as a condition of paying the settlement. For further background on this case, see Man fights his own impending autopsy.

For many, Grinch and Who-ville are old holiday traditions, but officials in Louisville, Kentucky found that lawyers can ruin even the best of well-intentioned holiday plans.

The city of Louisville had hoped to include a recreation of the iconic Dr. Seuss village and characters as part of its annual holiday celebration, Light Up Louisville. The plans called for an area called "LouWhoVille," complete with costumed characters from the Dr. Seuss classic such as Cindy Lou Who and the Grinch.