August 13, 2012 The AP (8/23, Parry) reports, “A New Jersey teenager left brain-damaged after being struck by a line drive off a metal bat while he was playing in a youth baseball game will receive $14.5 million to settle his lawsuit against the bat manufacturer, Little League Baseball and a sporting goods chain.” According …
July 6, 2012 Bloomberg News (7/3, Keane) reported that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has fined Volvo $1.5 million for not disclosing “six defects that led to recalls in 2010 and one this year within five business days of determining that a safety flaw exists.” Bloomberg News reported the “recalls included tires that weren’t …
April 19, 2012 The New York Times (4/19, B1, Meier, Thomas, Subscription Publication) reports, “As doctors scramble to understand the risks posed by a flawed heart device component made by St. Jude Medical, the episode is raising a bigger question — whether the $10 billion heart device industry has fully embraced promised safety reforms.” In …
April 17, 2012 Truckinginfo (4/13) reported the Department of Transportation “wants to better understand the safety performance of overweight vehicles — both permitted and illegally overloaded — so it is looking for state agencies to work with in a study of the issue.” In a Federal Register notice, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration seeks …
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing that cars and light trucks sold in the US should have so-called brake override features to stop a vehicle when drivers press both the brake and accelerator.
The AP (7/8) reported that at least 10 members of the House of Representatives “are asking the Food and Drug Administration to look into” whether women using keratin-based hair straighteners, including the popular Brazilian Blowout, are exposed to high levels of formaldehyde. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said she had heard that users of such products …
Seinfeld mocked it. Letterman ranked it in his top ten list. And more than fifteen years later, its infamy continues. Everyone knows the McDonald’s coffee case. It has been routinely cited as an example of how citizens have taken advantage of America’s legal system, but is that a fair rendition of the facts? Hot Coffee reveals what really happened to Stella Liebeck, the Albuquerque woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s, while exploring how and why the case garnered so much media attention, who funded the effort and to what end. After seeing this film, you will decide who really profited from spilling hot coffee.
“Eye-opening indictment of the way big business spins the media.” —Variety
“Stunning debut … Sends audiences out of the theater thinking in a brand new way.” —Washington Post
“Entertaining, informative … vivdly illuminating.”
—Hollywood Reporter
The AP /New York Times reported, “Eight manufacturers have voluntarily recalled about one million pool and in-ground spa drain covers because of incorrect water flow ratings.” The Consumer Product Safety Commission said “the recalled covers could pose a possible entrapment hazard to swimmers and bathers.” Manufacturers include “Arizona-based A&A Manufacturing and Color Match Pool Fittings, California-based …
USA Today (5/18, Szabo) reports, “Since 1992, rates of melanoma — once considered an old person’s disease — have risen 3% a year in white women ages 15 to 39, according to the American Cancer Society.” Alarmingly, many young women who are developing melanoma have spent time tanning indoors at salons. According to a study …
Here is some disturbing information on infant deaths due to accidents. Many of these are caused by falls from cribs. USA Today (2/17, Szabo) reports, “More than 9,500 babies and toddlers” go to the emergency department (ED) each year because of injuries related to “cribs, playpens and bassinets,” according to a “19-year” study in …
