In brief: Indiana high court OKs school vouchers

Indianapolis – The Indiana Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the nation’s broadest school voucher program in a ruling supporters say could set a national precedent as other states look to build or expand programs that use public money to allow students to attend private schools.

The state’s highest court unanimously upheld a 2011 law providing vouchers for low- and middle-income families and cleared the way for an expansion being debated in the Indiana Statehouse.

The Indiana voucher program, passed by the Legislature in 2011, is the most sweeping in the nation. Unlike voucher programs in other states, which are limited to poor families and failing school districts, the Indiana program is open to a much broader range of people, including parents with household incomes of up to nearly $64,000 for a family of four.

Man stuck on Disney ride gets $8,000

Los Angeles – A disabled man was awarded $8,000 by Disneyland after the “It’s A Small World” ride broke, stranding him for three hours while the theme song played continuously, his attorney said.

Jose Martinez was the only passenger not evacuated when the ride broke down in 2009, and staffers failed to call the fire department to free him, said David Geffen, his attorney. The ride’s familiar song couldn’t be turned off the entire three hours Martinez was stuck.

Martinez uses a wheelchair, suffers from panic attacks and high blood pressure, and needed to urinate for much of the time he was stranded, according to Geffen.

Half the award ordered Friday was for pain and suffering, and the other half for disability law violations, the attorney said.