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.
Can you imagine being sentenced to prison for a crime you didn’t commit? Unfortunately, wrongful convictions happen from time to time, subjecting normal, every day people to long prison sentences for crimes like theft, arson, and even murder. For example, Joseph Sledge spent “37 years in prison for crimes he did not commit.” Now he’s set to receive $4 million after Bladen County and insurance companies agreed to settle a lawsuit that Sledge filed against the Bladen County Sheriff’s Office. But what happened? How was he found guilty and imprisoned for nearly four decades?
Do you remember the “Fearless Girl” statue staring down the Charging Bull on Wall Street? Since it’s installment, “Fearless Girl” has stood as a symbol of female equality and empowerment, which is why some find it a bit ironic that the firm behind it, State Street, is set to “pay millions of dollars to women employees who say it treated them unfairly.” Some of the allegations, in particular, came from female employees who claim they were paid “less than their male counterparts.”
After being accused of discriminating against a pregnant employee, Polaris Guam, otherwise known as Verona Resort and Spa, has responded to a “lawsuit filed against them for pregnancy discrimination, denying the allegations and claiming the pregnant employee wasn’t fired but that she quit on her own.” The lawsuit against the resort was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in District Court earlier this year on behalf of the “former employee who was allegedly fired because she was pregnant.” So what happened?
Anyone who has been following the story about the Equifax breach already knows it was a massive data breach that compromised sensitive information belonging to millions upon millions of Americans. Unfortunately, the number of people affected just keeps growing. In an announcement yesterday Bill Schuette, Michigan’s attorney general, revealed that “another 80,000 Michigan residents have been added to the more than 4 million people affected in the state by the enormous Equifax data breach.”
President Trump has been busy these last few days. Between traveling to hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico and Las Vegas to meet with victims of the deadly shooting that occurred earlier this week, he’s managed to squeeze in an important decision concerning the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Yesterday afternoon the White House announced that President Trump “is picking Andrew Wheeler, a former lobbyist, and senior Republican congressional staffer, to be the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) deputy administrator.” But who is Mr. Wheeler, exactly, and what will he bring to the table?
Ground turkey fans beware. Prestage Foods recently issued a recall for an estimated 38,475 pounds of ground turkey over concerns that the lean meat might “contain metal shavings from processing equipment.” That being said, if you have any ground turkey in your refrigerator or freezer, it might be time to take a peek at the label to see if your turkey is included in the recall.
A recall was recently issued for a popular infant toy amid concerns that it can pose a choking hazard. The recall itself was issued by Toys R Us after the company received “six reports of pieces breaking off, four of which reported they found the broken pieces in children’s mouths.”
When most people go to the hospital for a surgery, the last thing they plan on is something bad happening. Most people trust their doctors to make the best decisions regarding their health and certainly trust them not to make any life-changing mistakes. Unfortunately for one Bluefield woman, a thyroidectomy performed in February 2014 resulted in an injury that prompted the woman to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against her doctor, Michael Covelli.
When Hurricane Harvey tore through Texas, it turned many people’s lives upside down. The Houston area, in particular, was a dangerous place to be, which is why some passengers of a Royal Caribbean cruise have decided to file a class-action lawsuit. It turns out that while everyone else was fleeing the area or hunkering down in their homes for safety, passengers of a Liberty of the Seas cruise scheduled to leave August 27th were essentially told there was nothing to worry about. According to the lawsuit, “by failing to cancel the August 27th sailing of Liberty of the Seas out of storm-ravaged Galveston, Royal Caribbean put passengers in danger.”
A lawsuit was recently filed against Cummins Inc. for “allegedly violating a gender discrimination law stemming from the pay of a woman who worked at a company call center in Tennessee.” The lawsuit itself was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of Krista Clements. According to the lawsuit, Clements was “unfairly paid less than a male counterpart, Scott Olivio, even though they performed equal work at the call center in Nashville.”
