The Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld but reduced a punitive award to a McDonald’s manager who was duped into a prank forcing a young worker into a strip search. The punitive award against McDonald’s was reduced from $1 million to $400,000. However, the court let stand the $5 million award of punitive damages for 18-year-old worker who was the subject of the search.
Category: Bizarre
Reviews can be scathing for new movies, but the producers of New Moon, a vampire film, are being accused of not just robbing viewers of their money, but potentially their souls. The critic in this case is the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture and gave the film one thumb down . . . way down.
Continue reading “One Thumb Down, Very Down: Vatican Says New Moon is a Must Miss”
Note to self: When parking a car in London, walk slowly away from the vehicle. Michael Raphel recently went on a birthday cruise on the River Thames. When he returned, police had blown up his car.
Continue reading “Walk, Don’t Run: English Police Blow Up Car After Spotting Motorist Running For Boat”
There is another fatality connected to the use of tasers. Ronald Petruney, 49, of Washington, Pa. died after he was hit by three tasers by police trying to restrain him.
Continue reading “Pennsylvania Man Dies After Hit By Multiple Tasers”
A billboard in Colorado is causing considerable controversy and gives an insight into the radical fringe of America. The billboard by car dealership owner Phil West in Wheat Ridge, Colorado combines the “birther” controversy with the suggestion that Obama is both a Muslim and a terrorist. It further makes the bizarre connection to Fort Hood — suggesting that Obama could at any time go on a shooting spree in the West Wing.
A new alleged abuse is receiving national action from the ever-expanding controversies surrounding Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. We have been following the scandals surrounding Arpaio from his crackdown on illegal aliens to use of his office for a reality show to his attack on the press to his shaming of prisoners to his defense of deputies who rifle through the files of lawyers. Now, he is accused of forcing Alma Minerva Chacon to give birth in shackles when she went into labor the night of her arrest. What is interesting is that this is not the first such case of a shackled birth.
William Woodson, 22, really wanted to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers game. So much so that, according to police, the Bridgeville, Pa. man kicked his girlfriend’s puppy to death for misbehaving.
Continue reading “Kick-Off: Man Kicks Dog To Death To Watch Steelers Game”
Over the years, we have followed hunting accidents (here and here and here) — the subject of an earlier column on “buck fever.” We have a new and tragic such case in Virginia. Ferrum College senior Jessica Goode, 23, went out hiking with friends last week when Jason D. Cloutier, 31, mistook her for a deer. He shot and killed her in the chest with his .35-caliber, high-powered rifle. The bullet went through her chest and into the hand of her friend Regis Boudinot, 20.
Continue reading “Hunter Kills College Student and Wounds Another in Hunting Accident”
It appears that Barbie has found religion. After rebelling with Harley Davidson Barbie and bikini Barbie. There is even an S & M Barbie in all leather and fishnet stockings. Now, however, there is Burka Barbie.
We previously followed a study of how leading restaurants were found to substitute cheap fish for salmon and other high-end fish without informing customers. Now, biologists have taken it upon themselves to test some of the sushi that they were served and discovered that, rather than tuna, it was often escolar — a fish that is often tied to diarrhea and other negative digestive reactions.
Continue reading “Bait and Switch: Study Shows Sushi Restaurants Substituting Tuna With Low-Grade Varieties or Even Endangered Species”
When Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari was being beaten and interrogated for 118 days as an accused spy he expected death but not the Daily Show. During his beatings, the Iranian interrogator played a segment from John Stewart’s Daily Show under the apparent belief that it is a real news program and revealed Bahari’s spy activities.
Providence Bishop Thomas Tobin has publicly asked Rep. Patrick Kennedy to stop taking communion with the Catholic Church due to his support for abortion, confirming that he asked Kennedy to refrain from communion in a private discussion in 2007. The confrontation became public after Kennedy revealed the 2007 conversation. The move could embolden other bishops in barring public officials from the sacrament, particularly in light of the health bill’s protection of abortion services.
Continue reading “Bishop Bars Kennedy From Communion Due To Votes on Abortion”
It appears “parley” is recognized by both pirates and cats.
Continue reading “And Then One Brave Mouse Stepped Forward to Parley . . .”
According to critics, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln has ended its witch hunt. It settled with an unnamed self-described witch who alleged that she was fired after coming out of the figurative broom closet.
Continue reading “Bewitched: University of Nebraska Settles Case With Witch After Preliminary Finding of Discrimination”
The tension between the Church of Scientology and Australian political leaders continued to grow last week. First, there was the allegation of the Church obstructing a criminal investigation, here. Then, there was the call for a criminal investigation of the Church by a powerful member of the legislature, here. Now, educators and parents are outraged over material distributed to elementary children heralding L. Ron Hubbard as one of history’s greatest figures and a symbol of human rights.
Continue reading “Scientology Accused of Spreading Propaganda to Elementary Students in Australia”