Updated: January 26, 2009, 4:25 PM ET

Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The widow of Minnesota Vikings lineman Korey Stringer reached a settlement with the NFL over his heatstroke death during training camp in 2001.

Under an agreement with Kelci Stringer, the NFL will support her efforts to create a heat illness prevention program.

No other terms of the settlement announced Monday by a family spokesman were released.

Kelci Stringer had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the league, claiming the NFL hadn’t done enough to ensure that equipment used by players protected them from injuries or deaths caused by heat-related illnesses.

“We were able to find what we feel is a very fair settlement that helped us move to the next step,” said James Gould, a spokesman for the family who also was Korey Stringer’s agent.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the heat illness prevention program will be for children and older athletes.

A separate lawsuit against equipment maker Riddell Inc. remains pending in federal court in Columbus, Gould said. The lawsuit alleges Riddell fails to warn players and coaches that wearing its helmets and shoulder pads in hot temperatures can be dangerous. It seeks a jury trial.

Korey Stringer was a 27-year-old, 335-pound lineman. He died from heatstroke July 31, 2001, during the second day of training camp in preparation for the 2001 season. He practiced in the sweltering heat and humidity, which pushed his body temperature to 108.8 degrees.

Stringer and his wife both attended college at Ohio State, where Stringer left for the NFL in 1995 after his junior season.

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Murder-suicide prompted policy change

Created On: Tuesday, 27 Jan 2009, 1:46 PM EST

·         Reporter: Kim Holland

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The city of Albuquerque has agreed to pay the family of a woman who was killed by her ex-boyfriend $685,000 after the family said the city didn’t respond to her friends’ calls for help.

The city has also changed the policy for dispatching calls.

Randi Regensberg was inside her ex-boyfriend’s house on July 7, 2006, to collect some belongings when a neighbor said she saw Cory Kotrba pull Regensberg by her hair into the house.

Her friends waiting outside the house called 911 four times for help, but officers didn’t respond. An hour and 36 minutes later, they heard gunshots.

Albuquerque police arrived and found Regensberg and her unborn baby dead. She had been shot three times. Kotrba was also dead of a self-inflicted gunshot.

Regensberg’s family filed a lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque, Police Chief Ray Schultz, several 911 dispatchers and Kotrba’s estate.

The parties finalized a settlement in the lawsuit on Monday.

With the settlement, the city does not admit guilt. An attorney for the city says the settlement is fair.

The city also changed its dispatching policy soon after the shooting. It now prioritizes calls as urgent even when the caller has second hand information of a potentially serious crime.

By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News

Published January 12, 2009 at 7:07 p.m.
Updated January 13, 2009 at 6:51 a.m.

…Two Texas women filed what appears to be the first lawsuit in connection with the crash of a Continental Airlines jetliner at Denver International Airport.

Melissa Craft and Emily Pellegrini alleged in their suit that the pilot “negligently aborted” the flight shortly after it took off on Dec. 20.

The plane veered off the runway and into a ravine, where it caught fire after fuel from a ruptured right wing tank leaked and ignited.

There were 110 passengers and a five-member crew on board Flight 1404 to Houston. No one was killed, but 38 people were injured. The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the accident.

Craft, 25, was on her way home with friends from her first ever ski trip to Colorado. She suffered a back injury and emotional trauma in the crash, according to the lawsuit filed in Harris County, Texas.

Pellegrini, 21, was returning home for the holidays from Colorado, where she is a student at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Pellegrini was stuck when she couldn’t open her seatbelt as the plane caught fire, according to the lawsuit. Later she slipped and fell on leaking jet fuel and oil that soaked her clothing, the lawsuit said.

The eight-page complaint named Continental and pilots David Butler and Chad Levang as co-defendants. The suit does not specify how the aborted takeoff was negligent.

A spokeswoman for Continental called the allegations in the lawsuit “premature.”

“Continental is continuing to focus on providing assistance to the passengers and crew of Flight 1404,” spokeswoman Julie King said in a written statement.

“We are also continuing to participate in the NTSB investigation, and this process is likely to continue for months,” King added. “Since the facts of the accident are still being investigated, the allegations are premature. We’re prepared to defend the company’s actions and those of our crew.”

Jason A. Gibson, lawyer for the two women, alleged that airline officials have been trying to hint that wind shear might be responsible for the crash when pilot error was the more likely cause.

“Continental knows what happened. They have access to all the records. They have access to the pilots,” Gibson said.

“Continental’s already putting a spin on things. … I want to protect (his clients’) rights now,” he added.

NTSB officials could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit. In a preliminary report, investigators have said the flight crew’s first sign of trouble was when the plane veered to the left of the runway.

Witnesses reported “bumping and rattling sounds” might have preceded that. But investigators have matched noises on the cockpit voice recorder with the information on the flight data recorder to determine that the noises came after the plane went off the runway.

The NTSB also found that the flight crew called for the aborted takeoff seven seconds after the plane had begun to slide across the snow.

In addition to the negligence claim, Gibson contends the airline is “putting passengers through hoops,” as they try to get reimbursement for personal property destroyed in the crash.

For example, he said the airline required that a “personal shopper” accompany the women as they try to buy replacement items. He also said the airline has set a $3,000 limit on reimbursement and has required receipts.

King declined to comment on those allegations…

By Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
In Print: Friday, January 16, 2009

TALLAHASSEE — Facing a $3.5-billion deficit next year, Florida desperately needs all the money it can get. But millions more will disappear because the state has settled a lawsuit that affects millions of motorists.

The Legislature will spend $10.4-million to settle a class action lawsuit over allegations that the state illegally sold drivers’ personal information to marketing firms over a four-year period in violation of a federal law barring the practice. The state made $27-million each year on the deal, according to the lawsuit.

The settlement to drivers?

$1.

Drivers who held a license, car registration or state-issued ID from June 1, 2000, through Sept. 30, 2004, will get a one-time credit of $1 when they register or renew a registration between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010.

“Just one dollar?” Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, asked in a committee hearing on the settlement.

The four South Florida motorists who sued will get $3,000 each, and five law firms that pursued the case for more than six years will divide $2.85-million in legal fees, which is separate from credits paid to consumers.

Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet approved the agreement in August, but the Legislature has to appropriate the money. The Senate Transportation Committee was briefed on the settlement Wednesday.

The personal information that was sold includes a driver’s photo, Social Security number, driver ID number, name, address, phone number and medical condition.

The preliminary settlement requires the state motor vehicle agency to post on its Web site a system to obtain names of the mass marketers that bought the personal information, as well as a reference on license and registration forms on state and federal disclosure laws.

The state formally denied any wrongdoing.

“No one’s hurt, no one’s injured, and we’re paying $10-million?” asked Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami.

“It’s $10-million or the potential is in the billions,” replied Steven Fielder, a lobbyist for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

The state’s maximum liability was estimated at $39-million, based on a $2,500 penalty for each violation of the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act.

Congress in 1999 amended the law to prohibit states from providing drivers’ personal information unless the state had drivers’ permission to do so.

But Florida, the lawsuit alleged, continued to market the data anyway. The Legislature passed a law in 2004 ending the practice.

Anyone affected by the settlement has until March 16 to file an objection with the court in Miami. The case is before U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez

Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, said it looks to him as though consumers should have gotten more.

“The victim really doesn’t benefit very much, and the attorneys make out on attorneys’ fees.”

MyCentralJersey.com

MIDDLESEX COUNTY —A 53-year-old Parlin man was awarded $750,000 by a jury in Superior Court, New Brunswick for injuries from a fall he contended happened after he tripped on an arcade game at Funtime America in Cliffwood Beach.

Bruce Salem said he was at the indoor amusement park in June 2004 for the birthday of a neighbor’s child when his own child had to use the restroom. As he was walking with him, he turned around a blind corner and tripped over a game called Spyromania, said his attorney, Richard Galex of North Brunswick.

Salem suffered a broken nose and severely injured his neck, Galex said. The injury required the removal of two discs in his neck and the fusing together of vertebrae, Galex said.

But Funtime America contended that it was Salem’s pre-existing health condition, a mild form of muscular dystrophy, that caused his problem, Galex said.

Dennis Marconi, a Trenton attorney who represented Funtime America, declined comment other than to say he has already filed papers for an appeal.

The jury assigned Salem 25 percent of the liability in the incident. The award was for $1,048,500: $81,000 for medical expenses, $960,000 for pain and suffering and $7,500 for his wife for the impact on her life.

Galex said Salem now uses a walker and at times uses a four-pronged cane to get around. He was on disability at the time of the accident, but now works as an employee recruiter, Galex said.

The jury verdict came last month after a four-day trial before Judge Phillip Paley and a day of deliberations.

January 3, 2009

By James D. Wolf Jr.

Post-Tribune correspondent

VALPARAISO — A former Chesterton High School football player alleges that a faulty helmet he was told to use has caused almost daily headaches and other complications.

Daniel Pinkus, 18, filed a lawsuit against both Chesterton High School and its school district, the Duneland School Corp., in Porter County Superior Court.

As is customary in Indiana, the lawsuit gives no specified damage amount that he’s seeking.

However, the suit states that he has suffered dizziness and cognitive impairment from a closed head injury received in the August 2005 football practice sessions.

Pinkus, who graduated from Chesterton, also needed to leave school for extended periods on advice of a doctor he saw in December 2005.

The suit said he reported to coaching officials that the helmet’s air-filled protector had broken Aug. 8, 2005. They told him to continue blocking drills, where he experienced head impacts.

Those resulted in headache, dizziness and cognitive impairment, the suits says.

At the next practice, Aug., 15, 2005, the headache reoccurred, and Pinkus also experienced nausea, photophobia and phonophobia, attorney Clark W. Holesinger wrote in the suit documents.

Duneland and Chesterton High School officials have been served with papers, according to court documents.

Holesinger declined to comment on the suit Friday.