- Free Speech is the Only Cure for China's Next Melamine Problem
Posted November 30, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
Melamine poisoning is in the news again, this time with the official Chinese execution of two men associated with being involved in the chemical poisoning of baby formula in 2008. In that consumer product contamination case 300,000 babies suffered some form of kidney failure and disease. At least six babies died from kidney failure. The Chinese Courts controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) shut down 99.99% of all law suits filed against those involved with producing and then...
- Coal Train Coming, 19-year-old driver sits on tracks
Posted November 28, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
Was the death of Brianna Culp, the 19 year old who was hit by a coal train, a suicide? That is the question police are asking as they look into the accident that happened Sunday, October 11th 2009. Miss Culp was a sophomore at Wesleyan College in Mount Pleasant and the BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said that they crew on the 135-car train reported the woman was sitting on the tracks and didn't try to get out of the way. Police are waiting on autopsy results to help determine what caused the...
- Negligence, failing to yield, other driver and passenger deaths. Who's at fault?
Posted November 27, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
On October 8th 2009 a Ford Tempo was heading westbound on 63rd St. when the driver failed to yield at the stop sign at the intersection of 19th Avenue and collided with a Chevrolet Suburban driven by Jennifer Engler. The name of the driver of the Ford Tempo is not being released at this time however the two passengers in the vehicle, Paul Steven Lauritson and Stephanie Ann Dripps, died as a result of injuries suffered in the crash. Jennifer Engler and two other unnamed passengers in the...
- Police Chase on I-35 in Iowa
Posted November 26, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
This accidental death raises the question, are high speed chases really necessary? On Wednesday October 14th 2009 at about 2:30 in the morning an officer noticed a car driving erratically; when the officer attempted to pull the vehicle over the driver refused and a chase ensued. Troopers are reporting that the driver tried to elude officers and that the chase hit speeds of 100 miles per hour. When the driver was near Ames he cut across the median and went head-on into oncoming traffic. Shortly...
- I-35 Texas Car Accident Involves a Cyclone and a Hawkeye Football Player
Posted November 26, 2009, 2:33 am by Steve Lombardi
/**/ David Cato, 19 who plays defensive back for the Iowa Hawkeyes and Ter'ran Denton, (sic) 19 a defensive back from the Iowa State Cyclones were driving on I-35 south of Purcell at 10:00 a.m. on a Sunday when the car they were in rolled after coming in contact with a semi-truck. According to the news report the trooper has the 18-wheeler being nudged before rolling and striking the embankment on the west side of the Interstate Highway. Both Cato and Denton were wearing seatbelts. Both...
- Motorcycles Also Have the Right to Assume Car Drivers will obey the Rules
Posted November 25, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
On October 18th 2009 at around 11:50 p.m. Ryan Thomas Brooks was eastbound on Southwest Army Post Road when his motorcycle collided with the Dodge Charger driven by Ramonte Davis. Mr. Davis is said to have pulled onto Southwest Army Post Road to back into a parking spot when Mr. Brooks crashed into the front fender of the Dodge. Mr. Brooks was pronounced dead at the scene and police believe that speed was a factor in the accident and have said that Mr. Brooks was wearing a helmet. Not seeing...
- It's not the tree, but about control, speed and distractions.
Posted November 24, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
On October 17th 2009 Luke Schneiders was driving east of Sioux City when he failed to negotiate the curve around the 5900 block of Correctionville Road left the roadway and hit a tree dead on. Luke Schneider died as a result of the injuries suffered in the crash. It is still unknown what exactly caused the crash and Mr. Schneiders was not wearing a seatbelt. He was driving a 2000 Oldsmobile. No word on the reason for losing control. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNTAhSfojhc But here is what I...
- The SCARLETT Letter of Operator Liability
Posted November 23, 2009, 4:45 pm
When it rains, it pours, and right now there's a veritable typhoon of Superfund liability cases. On September 30, 2009, the federal district court in Georgia ruled on several summary judgment motions in Scarlett & Associates, Inc. v. Briarcliff Center Partners, L.L.C. The primary question was whether a property management service could be liable for remedial costs under CERCLA and/or RCRA. The Court said yes to both. The property in question was a strip mall that housed a leaking dry...
- Des Moines Woman dies on County Road due to a Failure to Stop
Posted November 23, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
According to the Des Moines Register, Jennifer Sue Peacock from Des Moines was at the intersection of County Road S31 and Iowa Highway 5 near HartfordThe 24-year-old failed to come to a complete stop and was then broadsided. Her 1997 Chevrolet Lumina was broadsided by Jarred Camden Roy, age 33., on Sunday October 18th around 7:30pm.Knoxville driving a truck. Peacock died when she was involved in this reported two-vehicle collision. You can't assume that the at-fault driver always hurts others;...
- New Tenant Eviction Requirements in Iowa
Posted November 20, 2009, 11:42 am
The eviction process (also called a "Forcible Entry and Detainer" or "FED) in Iowa is just a little more strict. A ruling from the Iowa Supreme Court today now requires that the landlord give personal service notice of the eviction hearing. Previously, under the Iowa Uniform Residential Landlord Tenant chapter of the Iowa Code (Iowa Code 562A), if a landlord was ready to evict and had followed the necessary "notice to quit" requirements, the landlord could give the tenant notice of the eviction...
- Trucker Hits Stray Cow on Highway and Dies. Is anyone at fault?
Posted November 20, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
Who's to blame when a stray cow comes in the path of a moving vehicle? I'm sure that's just what the family of the driver of a semi trailer is asking today. At about 2:15 a.m. on Tuesday October 20th 2009 a still unidentified man hit a cow in the middle of Iowa Highway 14 between Chariton and Millerton. After the truck hit the cow it went into a ditch and then into a creek. Apparently the truck driver died. In rural Iowa this isn't such a rare occurrence. With cases like this one, lawyer-talk...
- Where is defensive medicine when you need it?
Posted November 19, 2009, 6:48 am by Steve Lombardi
I wonder if I could die from defensive medicine not being practiced in Iowa. Over the weekend Barbara drove me to the local clinic because I was sick as a dog and coughing so hard my lungs and chest and upper back muscles ached. The doctor walks in looks in my ears and throat, listens to my heart and lungs and says he's putting me on antibiotics. And I thought what no x-ray or blood tests? Just drugs? No definitive diagnosis? Wait a minute. I thought about H1N1 and everything written about...
- What happens when a member of your hunting party decides he wants to take âœrandom target practiceâ?
Posted November 19, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
In this case the death of an 18-year-old from Manchester was caused by accidentally being shot by a member of his own hunting party. These men were hunting on Monday October 19th 2009 about one mile north of Dundee when a member of the hunting party decided to take some random target practice and accidentally shot and killed a fellow hunter. The member of his hunting party was unidentified according to the Delaware County Sheriff's Office. The dead man was out of sight behind some dense foliage...
- Man killed in plant explosion, sparks or static electricity?
Posted November 18, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
In Columbia County, Wisconsin a 47 year old man died Sunday October 18th, in an explosion in the American Packaging Corporation plant, according to the Wisconsin State Journal news source. Jeffrey Doxtator was from Columbus and had worked at the plant for 13 years. Fire Chief Randy Koehn said that Doxtator was using a handheld grinder which ignited sparks in an area of the plant designated hazardous. This employee error is thought to have caused the explosion and not the lack of safety...
- Financial Wrongdoing: Are you a Ponzi victim?
Posted November 17, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
If you think you may be a Ponzi victim, then ask yourself this question: Is this abnormal insecurity? In all of this security is there an overriding sense of insecurity? In college I was a psychology major at the University of Iowa. On my wall was poster with a simple statement: "Just because your paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you." Most visitors thought it was funny, I always saw profoundness in that statement. Maybe that's why I became a lawyer. But then again maybe I was just...
- Texas A&M construction site at Zarzamora St. and Loop 410 Ditch Collapse
Posted November 16, 2009, 3:01 pm by Steve Lombardi
A 45-year-old construction worker was in a construction site ditch while co-workers were removing a tree. As they pulled the tree out the ditch collapsed trapping the man in the ditch and burying him alive. Which leads to the question, why was the one worker in the unsupported ditch as the tree was pulled out of the ditch wall? It's basic safety when doing tunnel or ditch work on a construction site to support the walls. Another question is why weren't they using a trench box? Look at the...
- Top Environmental Law Blogs
Posted November 16, 2009, 2:46 pm
Many thanks to Michael Foti at Attorney.org for including this blog in the list of "Top Environmental and Land Use Law Blogs." The primary focus of Attorney.org is to raise awareness and take stands on pressing issues in an effort to fight for change. They have decided to focus some of their resources on the environment and land use and have spent what appears to be a considerable amount of time researching the available law blogs. If you like to see good writing on very current environmental...
- Did Prime-Time Broward County Sheriff's Office Miss the Boat?
Posted November 16, 2009, 4:01 am by Steve Lombardi
/**/ Remember the post I wrote about the Police Women of Broward County? TLC Goes from Jon & Kate to, "There's Always A Good Time to Use A Taser", August 20, 2009 "Making police work entertaining borders on an unconstitutional exercise of the State of Florida's police power. A basic function of state government is law enforcement not entertainment. So using government law enforcement resources to entertain the public is wasting those resources and encouraging the perception that the purpose...
- RRA Cast of Characters - Is Tony Villegas the Wrong Man?
Posted November 14, 2009, 12:25 am by Steve Lombardi
/**/ Have you ever wanted to be a lawyer or FBI investigator? With TV shows like Law & Order, LA Law, Castle and CSI's being so popular there is probably a little criminal investigation in many of us. But is legal work as easy as it's made to look in an hour television show? If you want to see how complicated the matters surrounding Scott Rothstein are take a look at this cast of characters list and alleged roles in the case. Investigators include the Broward County Sheriff's Office and the...
- Go-Carting Safety and Riding on the Public Streets
Posted November 13, 2009, 2:25 am by Steve Lombardi
On September 04th 2009 14-year-old William Beaulieau and a class mate 15-year-old Jacob Murray were go-carting when the go-cart they were riding in collided with a Ford truck driven by Chad Stange. The accident occurred at the intersection of 300th Street and Stanley Road near Fredericksburg at about 5 p.m. Mr. Beaulieau was driving the go cart and both boys were ejected on impact and both died as a result of the injuries sustained in the crash. First of all the report isn't clear but appears...