People

Lawsuit Raises Doubts About Colorado Springs’ Commitment to Comply With Access Laws

The Gazette reported in 2015 that the city and El Paso County had fallen well short of the spirit and the letter of the ADA, leaving buildings and pathways inaccessible to the then-estimated 66,000 people with disabilities in the county. Many of those shortcomings fell into an unquantified backlog of noncompliance. More than two years later, many of those shortcomings remain unquantified.


Federal Judge Denies Injunction, Class-Action Status on Sweeps Suit

A federal judge ruled Oct. 4 that sweeps of homeless people and their belongings may continue as a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the city of Seattle’s rules regarding the practice moves through the court. Judge Ricardo Martinez denied motions filed by attorneys representing the plaintiffs — four homeless individuals impacted by sweeps, the Real Change Homeless Empowerment …



Las Vegas Shooting: Lawsuit Filed as New Questions Raised Over Timeline

A California college student injured in the Las Vegas music festival massacre filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the hotel owners, the concert promoter and bump stock manufacturers, claiming they were all liable in the mass shooting. The claims against MGM Resorts International, which owns both Mandalay Bay and the concert venue that hosted the festival, raise more questions about a timeline that has changed numerous times — and, according to Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo, could change again. …


McDonald’s Woefully Underestimates How Much Rick and Morty Fans Want Their Goddamn Dipping Sauce

We have to give it up to the McDonald’s marketing team: When Rick And Morty creator Justin Roiland’s food-based obsessions gave them an opening into the fervent fanbase of one of TV’s hottest shows, they grabbed that greasy, breaded football and ran with it, as far and as fast as it could take them. Those efforts included coy Twitter campaigns and actual deliveries of Rick’s coveted Szechuan …


Ohio Sues Big Pharma Over Increase in Opioid-Related Deaths

CHRIS BURY: In Ohio, the climbing costs of the opioid epidemic are reflected in the shattered lives of people like Ashley Taylor. For the 26-year-old single mother of three, the road to addiction began in high school with pain pills often stolen from parents of friends. By 16, she was snorting, then shooting, heroin, because it was cheaper and easy to buy in the small southern Ohio town of …


Lawsuit Says Jacksonville Can’t Jail Defendants for Being Too Poor to Pay Bail

A new lawsuit could upend Jacksonville’s system of detaining poor defendants charged with minor crimes. The lawsuit filed Thursday says Jacksonville’s system of money bail — that is, someone charged with a crime must pay a set amount to be released without regard to the defendant’s ability to pay — violates poor defendants’ rights to equal protection under the law. The current system allows the …


Judge in Class-Action Suit Has Held One Hearing in a Year

Justice may be slow, but this is ridiculous. The Manhattan federal judge who is overseeing a class-action lawsuit against 26 financial firms for allegedly rigging US Treasury auctions last held a hearing for the case on Aug. 22, 2016, court records show. At that time, Judge Paul Gardephe questioned whether the plaintiffs, a group of pension funds and other investors, had made a “plausible case …



Louisiana Facing a Class Action Lawsuit for Not Providing Defendants Adequate Defense

A collection of civil rights attorneys and a New York City law firm filed a class action lawsuit in February, hoping to change the racist and unconstitutional legal system in Louisiana. The Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and Section 13 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1974 guarantee the right to meaningful and effective assistance of counsel to every person …