Breach in reactor suspected at Japanese nuke plant

TOKYO – A suspected breach in the reactor at the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant could mean more serious radioactive contamination, Japanese officials revealed Friday, as the prime minister called the country's ongoing fight to stabilize the plant "very grave and serious."

A somber Prime Minister Naoto Kan sounded a pessimistic note at a briefing hours after nuclear safety officials announced what could be a major setback in the urgent mission to stop the plant from leaking radiation, two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami disabled it.

"The situation today at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant is still very grave and serious. We must remain vigilant," Kan said. "We are not in a position where we can be optimistic. We must treat every development with the utmost care."

The uncertain situation halted work at the nuclear complex, where dozens had been trying feverishly to stop the overheated plant from leaking dangerous radiation. The plant has leaked some low levels of radiation, but a breach could mean a much larger release of contaminants.

The government has already ordered people living 12 miles (20 kilometers) from the plant to evacuate because of radiation leaks. On Friday, government spokesman Yukio Edano reaffirmed that people farther away from that limit were safe, but that those within 20 miles (30 kilometers) of the plant should stay indoors.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake

NBA referee files defamation suit in Twitter case

Below is a case where an NBA referee has filed a defamation case against a reporter for a tweet. Apparently the reporter said in his tweet that he heard the referee telling the Minnesota T-Wolves coach that he will make up a bad call. The referee claims this is defaming because it makes it seem as if he fixes games. I don't believe this case will go in the favor of the referee at all because I see the referee as a public figure and I don't think the reporters tweet can be proven to be actual malice. Below are two links that talk about the case.

http://www.employmentattorneyoh.com/2011/03/nba-referee-files-defamation-suit-in-twitter-case.shtml

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6218678

South Carolina Hospital Negligence Case

Below is a case in South Carolina where a hospital was sued for its negligence during the birth of a baby girl in 2003. She suffered a lack of oxygen and therefore experienced severe brain injury. A nurse trainee was the one in charge of reading the heart monitoring data and misread the baby's signals and it didn't get the attention it needed. She died within a few months from cerebral palsy and the blame is on the hospital for negligence during the birth of the baby.

The hospital has a duty to provide patients with able employees who read data correctly in order to keep their patients safe and cared for. The hospital also had a breach of duty because a reasonable person would have read the data correctly and gotten the baby needed assistance so it could have lived fine. But, for the misreading of the data by the nurse trainee, the baby would have been okay and lived and therefore the negligence of the hospital has causation. The obvious damage of the baby dying can not be given back to the couple. With the evidence of the trainee misreading the data, the hospital is definitely subject to a negligence case and will most likely fail, as they did in this case.



Posted On: April 8, 2009 by New York Personal Injury Attorney

South Carolina Hospital Negligence Case Awards Parents

The Piedmont Medical Center has been instructed recently by a York County jury to pay damages due to hospital negligence amounting to over $4 million to a South Carolina couple, The Charlotte Observer reported in an article. The couple, Robin and Brice Wilson, had lost their infant daughter during her birth due to a brain injury.

Sierra Wilson had been born in 2003 at the hospital but lack of oxygen caused her to suffer a critical brain injury and she died of complications from cerebral palsy within a few months, the article said. The Wilsons had stated in their lawsuit that the hospital failed to note the child needed emergency intervention because a nurse trainee assigned to the expectant mother misread fetal heart monitoring data. Hospital officials reportedly defended their actions in the care that had been provided to the Wilsons and are now evaluating their legal options.

Unfortunately birth injuries caused by medical negligence are extremely common in the United States. Medical facilities of all types, small, large and well established are all, for a variety of reasons, prone to causing injury accidents and fatalities due to misdiagnoses, failure to diagnose or not taking immediate and corrective measures. It is estimated that in New York alone more than 3% of those admitted to hospitals will be seriously injured because of negligence of some type.

The New York Hospital Negligence Lawyers at Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro, L.L.P specialize in assisting victims who believe they have been seriously injured or families who have lost a loved one because of negligence on the part of a medical facility. Our New York Medical Malpractice attorneys are assigned only a specific number of cases so they can focus on best serving our clients. If you’d like to better understand your legal rights and options in your hospital negligence or birth injury case, please contact our office and we’ll be happy to set up a comprehensive initial consultation for you, at no charge.

Posted by Wingate, Russotti & Shapiro

Oregon Ruling: Homeowner negligence claims for construction defect

Below is a recent case that deals with negligence and negligence per se. It's just a brief application of what we were discussing in class on Monday regarding negligence torts.

March 22, 2011
Homeowner may pursue negligence claim for construction defect, Oregon Supreme Court holds
By Ater Wynne LLP,
Oregon law firm

Last week the Oregon Supreme Court held that a homeowner seeking to recover against a builder for damages caused by construction defects may sue for common law negligence, absent a contractual provision that forecloses such a claim. In Abraham v. T. Henry Construction, Inc., plaintiff homeowners hired defendant contractors to build a house. When plaintiffs discovered defects in the construction years later, they sued for negligence.

The Court of Appeals held that the parties’ contractual relationship did not prevent a negligence claim, and that plaintiffs were entitled to pursue a negligence per se claim based on a violation of the Oregon Building Code.

The Supreme Court affirmed, but on a somewhat different basis. First, according to the Court, a construction defect claim concerns damage to property — and not mere economic losses — and thus is not barred by the economic loss doctrine. Second, the existence of a contract between plaintiff and defendant does not preclude a common law negligence claim for personal injury or property damage, unless the contract defines the parties’ obligations and remedies in such a way as to limit or foreclose such a claim. As a result, plaintiff is entitled to pursue a tort claim as long as the property damage at issue was a reasonably foreseeable result of defendant’s conduct. Plaintiff is not limited to a negligence per se claim.

http://oregonbusinessreport.com/2011/03/oregon-ruling-homeowner-negligence-claims-for-construction-defect/

MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin Senate voted Wednesday night to strip nearly all collective bargaining rights from public workers, approving an explosive proposal that had rocked the state and unions nationwide after Republicans discovered a way to bypass the chamber's missing Democrats.

All 14 Senate Democrats fled to Illinois nearly three weeks ago, preventing the chamber from having enough members present to consider Gov. Scott Walker's "budget-repair bill" — a proposal introduced to plug a $137 million budget shortfall.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_wisconsin_budget_unions

A new, proposed law in Tennessee could now get any followers of the Islamic Law known as Shariah up to 15 years in prison. Parts of this law include simple and almost universal rules and morals, such as the abstaining of theft or stealing. This law, which is being considered by about a dozen other states, also has practices of prayer, diets, and feet washing. This new law relates to the class in which we discussed discrimination, and spoke about the Japanese being taken into camps in the United States (such as Manzanar) during the World War II. Although we are not setting up camps for Shariah followers, the circumstances are similar. Back then, we were at war with the Japanese, and the government would not let them live among the other citizens of the U.S., and today, in the midst of the war for terror taking place in the Islamic world of the Middle East, a Tennessee bill may be passed that would punish followers of the Shariah Law. This idea, fear, or even paranoia still live on; I guess we aren't really saying farewell to Manzanar. This bill definitely needs reconsideration, not only because the Shariah Law conflicts with the U.S. Constitution, but also because we need to re-evaluate the fact that the U.S. is a melting pot of several cultures. Plus, if one were to argue that national security and protection are the roots of this bill, wouldn't this Tennessee bill infuriate these people and further destroy a positive image they have of the U.S? Just a thought.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-23-tennessee-law-shariah_N.htm

Vampire forecloses on bank

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https://officialguide.lsac.org/release/OfficialGuide_Default.aspx

Fox News' Lies Keep Them Out of Canada

Canadian regulators announced last week that they would reject Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news. Canada's Radio Act requires that, "a licenser may not broadcast...any false, misleading news." When Stephen Harper went to abolish the anti-lying provision of the Radio Act, Canadians rose up against him fearing that the news there are used to getting would be replaced by biased, dishonest, and toxic news coverage familiar to American citizens who listen to Fox News and talk radio. Harper's proposal was to launch "Sun Tv News" which Canadians call "Fox News North."Harper is known to be a wizard of the tools of false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness, and belligerent religiosity.

SOURCE: http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/276-74/5123-fox-news-lies-keep-them-out-of-canada

Posted by: Mohammad AlBader

Westboro Baptist Church

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the First Amendment protects a fringe religious group that protested at the funeral of a U.S. Marine killed in Iraq.

The court, on an 8-1 vote, ruled that the soldier's father couldn't sue Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., for celebrating his son's death with vulgar funeral pickets and an online attack.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576176323629295598.html?mod=djemalertNEWS