Brianna Smith is a freelance writer and editor in Southwest Michigan. A graduate of Grand Valley State University, Brianna has a passion for politics, social issues, education, science, and more. When she’s not writing, she enjoys the simple life with her husband, daughter, and son.
A lawsuit settlement was recently reached between the Cambridge Central School District and retired employees over “changes made to their prescription drug benefits.” According to the suit, which was filed back in January 2016 in the State Supreme Court of Washington County, there were a total of 24 retired workers included in the complaint. The retired workers filed the lawsuit after “the district’s health insurance provider, the Washington-Saratoga-Warren-Hamilton-Essex BOCES Health Consortium Trust, dropped the more expensive Empire Blue Cross Matrix Plan” and switched “active employees to a less expensive plan.”
AC Transit is at the center of a class-action lawsuit over allegations that it discriminated against pregnant and breastfeeding employees. The suit also alleges that women are often “laughed at when requesting accommodations for their pregnancies.” The lawsuit was officially filed in Alameda County Superior Court and argues the “public transit agency, which serves Alameda and Contra Costa counties, fails to meet the needs of pregnant or breastfeeding employees.”
Last month, Rock Island County agreed to settle a lawsuit for $630,000, bring an end to a legal battle that has lasted more than five years. The suit was originally filed by three former employees of Partners in Job Training and Placement/Workforce Development (PJTP) after they were fired for “reporting alleged financial fraud conducted by Mark Lohman, who was then interim director.” The three former employees were Jeanette Dawson, Carol Slavish and Michelle Holmes.
The city of San Diego recently agreed to pay $5.3 million to settle a lawsuit filed against it in 2017 over the “rights to develop the land adjacent to San Diego’s Convention Center.”
Magan Michelle McDermott was recently criminally accused of “doping her 5-month-old baby with methadone, reportedly in an effort to get him to sleep.” As a result, she is now facing a $900,000 lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of her deceased son. The suit itself was filed last week and also seeks to stop McDermott from collecting a “$130,000 pending payment from the state for the death of her 15-year-old daughter, Gloria Joya.”
A settlement was recently reached between Concord Hospital and the family of Molly Banzhoff, ending a wrongful death suit the family had filed against the medical center. According to court records, the suit was settled back in mid-October. It was originally filed after the child, who was 13-years-old at the time of her death in the spring of 2016, “died of complications from an undetected brain tumor.”
If you’re planning on serving a platter of shrimp cocktail at your New Years Eve party, you might want to double check where your shrimp is coming from. Earlier this week, Kroger Co. issued a recall of “nine different kinds of cooked shrimp that actually is raw or under-cooked, raising the risk of food-borne illness.” The
A pregnancy discrimination charge was recently filed against the Port of Seattle after a female longshore worker claimed she was “discriminated against while pregnant.” The woman, who has remained anonymous so far, “is the latest dockworker to claim pregnancy discrimination.” At the time the most recent charge was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, “six other female workers at various West Coast ports” had also filed pregnancy discrimination charges. The women are being represented by “the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Southern California, the private law firm Outten & Golden and Los Angeles attorney Brenda Feigen.”
Earlier this month, the South Dakota Supreme Court rejected a wild horse sanctuary’s attempt to “rid itself of a conservation easement.” The horse sanctuary, known as the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, is located in southern Black Hills near Hot Springs. According to an opinion filed on Wednesday and written by Chief Justice David Gilbertson, the court “affirmed an earlier circuit court dismissal of a lawsuit from the Institute of Range and the American Mustang, which operates the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary.”
Monterey Mushrooms Inc. is at the center of a $67 million lawsuit over allegations that it “polluted a South Bay creek with manure.” The suit was filed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office earlier this week. According to the suit, the mushroom grower “intentionally dumped wastewater at its Morgan Hill facility containing toxic levels of ammonia into Fisher Creek, a 14-mile long ephemeral stream that flows into Coyote Creek, through the Coyote Valley of southern Santa Clara County, then into the San Francisco Bay.”
