Jury awards $6 million in lead paint case, finds three firms responsible for lead poisoning of three kids in Milwaukee


In the first verdict of its kind, a federal jury Friday awarded $2 million each to three young Milwaukee men who suffered lead poisoning as toddlers from the residue of paint they ingested in their homes and found three major paint and pigment companies liable.

Under Wisconsin's unique and controversial "risk contribution theory," established by the state Supreme Court in 2005, the plaintiffs did not have to prove which specific product poisoned them.

All four defendant companies had to convince the jury they were not marketing or providing their products in Milwaukee at the pertinent times in order to escape responsibility.

Only Atlantic Richfield Co., the successor to Anaconda Copper Mining Co. which used to make white lead carbonate used in paint in the 20th century, was able to do so.

Read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2019/05/30/lead-paint-jury-gets-lead-paint-poisoning-case-milwaukee/1284444001/

The state Senate still plans to move forward with a bill that would ban abortions on the basis of race, sex or disability despite the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday declining to review a federal appeals court decision striking down a similar law in Indiana.

The Indiana law would prohibit doctors from performing an abortion if a woman is choosing the procedure because of the fetus’ sex or race, or because of a diagnosis of Down syndrome or “any other disability.” That language tracks closely with Wisconsin’s AB 182, which passed the Assembly roughly two weeks ago.

But the U.S. Supreme Court left in place a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision striking down the Indiana law. In an unsigned opinion, the court said it intended to “follow our ordinary practice of denying petitions insofar as they raise legal issues that have not been considered by additional courts of appeals.”

The 7th Circuit is the only appeals court to consider the issue so far.

Read more: https://www.wispolitics.com/2019/despite-u-s-supreme-court-action-fitzgerald-plans-to-proceed-with-bill-barring-selective-abortions/

The Republican-controlled state budget-writing committee extended a tuition freeze for undergraduate residents attending University of Wisconsin campuses over the next two academic years.

But the Joint Finance Committee again declined to “fund the freeze” and provide the UW System with state money to offset what campuses would have received from inflation-level tuition hikes.

The committee, in a 12-4 party-line vote Tuesday, approved a roughly $58 million increase to the System’s total budget over the next two fiscal years, about a fourth of which will go toward standard budget adjustments or debt service. The $45 million that campuses may gain is less than half of what Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and System officials requested.

“I feel like I’ve been kicked in the shins,” UW System President Ray Cross told reporters after the vote. “We didn’t even get inflation in this request.”

Read more: https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/education/university/republicans-ok-two-more-years-of-uw-tuition-freeze-reduce/article_ac6c67e8-efb9-5874-a5ec-ae7ae04fa8c0.html

Wisconsin utility regulators have scheduled hearings on a complaint against a contractor involved in last summer’s fatal Sun Prairie gas explosion.

The Public Service Commission will hold back-to-back sessions on June 14 to gather evidence on whether drilling company VC Tech violated state law when it failed to notify the state utility call center, known as Diggers Hotline, before starting work on July 10.

VC Tech workers struck an underground gas line while boring a hole for fiber-optic communications cable being installed by Verizon. The blast killed Cory Barr, a captain with the Sun Prairie Volunteer Fire Department, and injured two other firefighters.

The investigation stems from a complaint filed by USIC Locating Services, the company that was contracted to mark the locations of underground pipes.

Read more: https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime-and-courts/hearings-set-for-complaint-against-contractor-in-sun-prairie-explosion/article_c8c04ace-0de2-5f93-a987-5eae705ac1aa.html

Florida Lawmaker Laughs When Constituents Ask if He Can Introduce a Bible-Based Bill to Put Gay People to Death


Florida Tea Party Republican state Representative Mike Hill thinks putting gay people to death because the Bible says to is funny.

At a local meeting last week of the Women for Responsible Legislation, held in the Pensacola City Hall, constituents asked Rep. Hill about a Democrat's legislation to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.

One constituent chimed in, saying, "In 1 Corinthians, it says that a man who has an affair with another man will be put to death."

Rep. Hill did not miss a beat.

"It says that in the Old Testament, too," Hill noted, as an opinion piece in the Pensacola News Journal notes.

Read more: https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2019/05/florida-lawmaker-laughs-when-constituents-ask-if-he-can-introduce-a-bible-based-bill-to-put-gay-people-to-death/

May 30 (UPI) -- Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak on Thursday vetoed legislation that would have given all the state's electoral votes to the presidential candidate wins won the national popular vote.

It was Sisolak's first veto since taking office in January.

He said the bill could "diminish the role of smaller states like Nevada in national electoral contests and force Nevada's electors to side with whoever wins the nationwide popular vote, rather than the candidate Nevadans chose."

Fourteen states have similar laws on the books as part of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. The compact has a combined 189 electoral votes and 270 are needed to win the presidency. Maine is considering a similar bill.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/05/30/Nevada-governor-vetoes-bill-giving-electors-to-presidential-popular-vote-winner/6231559245653/?lh=32

May 31 (UPI) -- A group of North Korean defectors tossed 500 copies of anti-Pyongyang flyers into the North Korean Embassy in London, a major diplomatic outpost in Europe for the regime.

Fighters for Free North Korea, a South Korea-based group of activists, said Friday in statement they had distributed the flyers while protesting the Kim Jong Un regime early last week, Yonhap reported.

Three activists threw the flyers into the embassy compound on May 21, after arriving on the premises around noon.

The group initially requested to be let in to deliver a message to the North Korean leader.

Read more: https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2019/05/31/North-Korea-defectors-send-anti-Kim-flyers-into-London-embassy-compound/2271559310093/

WASHINGTON -- In South Carolina, where the Democratic electorate is heavily made up of black women, one African American female candidate has a long history of being snubbed by state and national party leaders.

Even now, heading into a presidential election year on the wings of a midterm cycle that catapulted a record number of women into political positions, it’s not looking like that’s going to change.

Gloria Bromell Tinubu is currently in the midst of her fourth campaign in seven years for elected office in South Carolina — this time a bid to win the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2020.

To win that right, she has to beat Jaime Harrison, a former state party chairman who officially entered the race on Wednesday.

Read more: https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article230940268.html

EDNA -- Pen and paper have made a resurgence in Jackson County offices as hackers continue to hold their computers and digital records hostage in lieu of a ransom.

“We are still working even if it’s with pen and paper,” said County Judge Jill Sklar.

Tuesday morning, county officials discovered hackers had successfully penetrated their computers and internal network belonging to the county sheriff, district attorney, district clerk and other offices after a Jackson County dispatcher found she could not access some data on her computer.

When county officials sent an email to an address provided by the malicious program to ask that access be returned, the hackers refused and instead demanded a ransom payment for the hostage computers and their data, Sklar said. Access to the county’s computers was probably gained, she said, through phishing, a method in which hackers gain access by sending seemingly legitimate emails.

Read more: https://www.victoriaadvocate.com/counties/jackson/hackers-hold-jackson-county-computers-ransom-for-undisclosed-amount-of/article_046e6d1e-8316-11e9-97be-b70449000d28.html

BLOOMBERG: Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has done everything by the book to avoid confronting Donald Trump. The U.S. president’s new threat of tariffs throws that policy into question.

In his first response to the challenge, Lopez Obrador maintained the strategy he has followed with Trump in his first six months in power: He spoke about the need to avoid confrontation, deepen dialogue and find a long-term solution to the problem of migration with the U.S. He even addressed himself to Trump as “your friend” in the two-page letter he posted on the Mexican president Twitter account.

The problem is that approach faces clear limitations with an increasingly belligerent neighbor to the north. Mexico sends near 80 percent of its exports to the U.S. and even a five percent tariff on all its goods as Trump is proposing would have devastating consequences on its economy.

“It would be naive to think that Trump will not continue threatening bilateral trade and bilateral relations, as he gets closer to his re-election campaign,” said Alejandro Schtulmann, who heads Mexico City-based consultancy Empra. Mexico will “drastically need to increase funding for immigration authorities and detention centers.”

Read more: https://riograndeguardian.com/trump-pours-cold-water-on-amlos-peace-love-policy-with-u-s/