A group of Italian Americans are suing an Illinois school over its refusal to cancel a production of what the group claims is a racist play about the Mafia. A production by pupils at Rotolo Middle School of
Fuggedaboudit: A Little Mobster Comedy, planned for this weekend, may be on the rocks after Order of the Sons of Italy in America filed the suit demanding a temporary restraining order and injunction to stop the play. In its court papers the Order claims the play is "racially and ethnically offensive and inappropriate for middle school children" but the school has refused to back down. (
Chicago Sun Times)
A nurse who was fined $100 (£52) fine for displaying an anti-Bush car sticker is suing for damages claiming the incident caused her emotional distress. Denise Grier, from Georgia, where rude car stickers are illegal, was hit with the fine after a police officer spotted the "I'm Tired Of All The BUSHIT" slogan on her bumper. A judge later overturned the fine but now Ms Grier, 47, whose case is backed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, wants compensation. (AP)
Two police officers in New Mexico are suing Burger King after discovering marijuana in their lunch. Mark Landavazo and Henry Gabaldon, who were on duty and in uniform when they bought burgers from a Burger King in Los Lunas, filed a lawsuit last week claiming unspecified damages and legal costs. According to the suit, they ate around half of the burgers before discovering the extra ingredient, which they verified as marijuana with a testing kit. Three Burger King employees – including the branch manager - have been arrested and charged with drug possession and aggravated battery on a police officer. "It gives a whole new meaning to the word Whopper," said Sam Bregman, the police offers’ attorney.
A prisoner wrapped himself in a large parcel and posted himself to freedom from a jail in Austria. Muradif Hasanbegovic, a 36 year-old Bosnian, was serving a seven-year sentence for robbery in the Karlau prison, near Graz. He escaped from the prison workshop after packing himself up in a parcel and being loaded onto a lorry by his fellow convicts. Once clear of the prison he broke out of the parcel, jumped off the back of the lorry and fled. Franz Hochstrasser, the prison warden, said: "This sort of thing was not supposed to happen." Mr Hasanbegovic is still on the run. (Ananova.com)
An Oregon man is pressing his claim that he wrote not one but all of the songs on punk rockers Green Day's American Idiot album. Paul McPike, 32, filed a lawsuit in federal court last week alleging that he composed the lyrics and the music for the Grammy-winning album in 1992 - more than 10 years before it became a best-seller. A federal magistrate recommended dismissing the case. (UPI)
An art broker has filed a lawsuit against Axl Rose, claiming the rocker backed out of a deal to pay US $2.36 million for an Andy Warhol portrait of John Lennon. Acquire d'Arte filed the lawsuit on September 11 in Los Angeles Superior Court, saying it had negotiated with a New York art gallery on Rose's behalf. But after agreeing to buy the portrait, the Guns N' Roses front man paid only $1.21 million, according to the suit. Rose's manager and lawyer told the broker that the rocker would not pay the remaining balance because he didn't have enough money and "the painting was not worth the price he had agreed to pay," the lawsuit stated. Rose's lawyer, Howard Weitzman, said some of the deal's terms and conditions may have been misrepresented to his client. Acquire d'Arte is seeking $1.15 million in damages. (AP)
In what could be the first in a bumper crop of class-action lawsuits, a restaurant has sued a California food company over spinach possibly tainted with E. coli. G&G Restaurant Corp., owner of Hamilton's Restaurant in Glenview, filed the suit in Cook County Circuit Court on Monday. Unlike other actions filed in the latest outbreak, the lawsuit does not allege physical harm but seeks only compensation for money spent on spinach that had to be discarded. "We want to ensure that this will not happen again. We're a restaurant, and we're well-known for our fresh products," said George Gregousis, who owns Hamilton's. The suit's defendant is Natural Selection Foods, a California-based company that sells prepackaged spinach under the Earthbound Farm brand. Federal authorities have identified Natural Selection as a possible source of the E. coli outbreak. The strain of E. coli linked to the tainted spinach can cause diarrhoea, and in some cases kidney failure. In the latest outbreak, 114 cases have been reported nationwide, with one death in Wisconsin. (Chicago Sun Times)
Russian customs officers say they have discovered a mile long pipeline used to pump vodka to Latvia. Border police in Buholovo, on the border between the two countries, said criminal laid the pipeline six feet underground to pump homemade vodka across the border which was then sold in Latvia. The pipeline was discovered when local council workers started digging holes to plant trees. (Ananova.com)
Three families who live near a Missouri pig farm have won $4.5 million in damages after complaining about their neighbour’s smell. The families also won the right to claim further punitive damages but agreed to drop the case in return for Premium Standard Farms saying it would not appeal the initial award. (AP)
Teachers are not obliged to stand up before the Hinomaru flag or sing the national anthem during entrance and graduation ceremonies, the Tokyo District Court ruled on Thursday. About 400 teachers and workers at Tokyo metropolitan high schools had filed a lawsuit in a bid to confirm they were not obliged to sing the anthem or rise to their feet for the national flag during ceremonies. The Tokyo District Court ruled in their favor, saying that forcing teachers and staff members of schools to do so was unconstitutional. The court ordered the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education to pay 30,000 yen in damages to each plaintiff. (Mainichi Daily News)
Two ex-waitresses have filed a multimillion-dollar sex-harassment lawsuit, accusing their former bosses of ordering female employees to be weighed as part of a scheme to keep track of their weight. Alexandria Lipton, 25, and Kristen McRedmond, 27, filed the suit in New York Supreme Court against the Sutton Place Bar and Restaurant. They are seeking $15 million for each of 11 counts. Lipton said she didn't work on the day of the alleged incident, but when she came back and refused to tell the manager her weight, he guessed it. "He looked me up and down, looked at the bouncer standing next to him and goes, '135,' and he looks at the bouncer and they nod to each other, and he writes my weight down on a pad of paper," Lipton said. The women's attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, said no men were subjected to being weighed. (CBS)
