Maine: Former worker with bee allergy sues company
ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) — A Maine woman with a life-threatening allergy to bee stings has sued the bread company she worked for, saying she was forced to choose between her job and her safety when scheduled to work at a bee-friendly fairgrounds.
The Bangor Daily News reports Brenda Taylor of Warren was a retail clerk at Borealis Breads. She sued last month in Knox County Superior Court.
Company founder Jim Amaral says the company believes it didn’t discriminate against Taylor.
Company officials say Taylor “walked off the job site” before the Common Ground Country Fair schedule was posted and that they had no medical evidence about her bee allergy. Two other workers said her allergy was well known.
The company’s table at the fair features samples of granola and other sweet items that attract bees.
Connecticut: Family of slain Yale grad student considers suing
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A lawyer for relatives of a slain Yale University graduate student says they’re considering suing the Connecticut school over its hiring of the suspect in her killing and the way it looked into her disappearance.
Attorney Brian King said Wednesday that Annie Le’s (LAY’s) family questions whether Yale officials properly investigated suspect Raymond Clark III’s background before hiring him as a technician at a lab building where Le worked.
A spokesman says an aunt and uncle who raised Le in Placerville, Calif., aren’t part of the lawsuit.
The 24-year-old Le’s body was found behind a lab wall last September.
Clark has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in Le’s death.
A Yale spokesman says the New Haven school hasn’t been notified of any anticipated lawsuits.
California: Nursing home co. settles $677M lawsuit for $50M
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A California nursing home operator has agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit that threatened to bankrupt the company after a jury ordered it to pay $677 million for failing to provide enough nurses and staff.
Orange County-based Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. announced the settlement late Tuesday. The money will go to the roughly 32,000 patients covered by the class-action lawsuit. It will also cover attorneys’ fees.
Once a judge approves the settlement, lawyers representing the patients have agreed to dismiss the Humboldt County Superior Court jury’s verdict, thought to be the largest damages award in the country this year.
The lawsuit was filed in 2006 and the jury returned its verdict in July after a six month trial.
The jury determined that Skilled Healthcare illegally skimped on state-mandated staffing levels at its 22 nursing homes in California.
State law requires that nursing homes maintain 3.2 hours of nursing care per patient per day.
Critics of the nursing home business such as Pat McGinnis, executive director and founder of the California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, say staffing shortages are a problem throughout the industry.
After Wall Street investment firms went on a nursing home buying spree during the early years of the new century, critics charge that many companies drastically cut payroll expenses to prop up stock prices.
South Dakota: Embezzler from religion store gets 6 months
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — An Iowa man who pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $150,000 from a South Dakota religious goods store has been sentenced to six months in jail.
The Argus Leader says 42-year-old Anthony Weber, of Lansing, Iowa, will face 10 years in prison if he fails to pay $151,873 in restitution and court costs over the next five years.
Prosecutors say Weber wrote himself checks from the business account of Hurley’s Religious Goods in Sioux Falls, where he worked for his aunt and uncle for nine years.
Connecticut: Town to stop sex offender center from opening
MONTVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Officials in an eastern Connecticut town have voted to take legal action to try to stop the state from opening a sex offender treatment center at a local jail.
The Montville Town Council voted 5-1 Wednesday in favor of having the town attorney file for an injunction in state Superior Court to stop construction of the planned 24-bed sex offender facility outside the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center.
The Correction Department plans to open the secure facility in January to offer treatment programs to dangerous sex offenders who are about to be released from prison or still need supervision after being released.
Town councilors cited the safety of local residents after the vote.
Massachusetts: 3rd suspect in 2006 Cambridge slaying convicted
WOBURN, Mass. (AP) — Authorities say they have finally closed the door on a 2006 slaying in Cambridge by convicting a third suspect.
The Middlesex district attorney’s office said Wednesday that 26-year-old Sherrod Bright pleaded guilty in Superior Court to charges of manslaughter and accessory before the fact in connection with the March 2006 shooting death of Corey Davis.
Bright was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 years of probation.
Authorities say Bright ordered Remel Ahart and his younger brother, Ahmad Bright, to kill the 19-year-old Davis.
The other two have previously been convicted of murder.
