U-turn driver’s car struck; five killed
Prunedale, Calif. A car attempting a U-turn on a California highway was struck broadside early Saturday, killing all five people inside, including the unlicensed 17-year-old driver. Four others in the second vehicle were injured.
According to police, the northbound car crossed a double yellow line and began to turn when it was struck by a sport utility vehicle heading south on Highway 101.
The force of the collision crushed the occupants of the northbound car. The victims, four males and the female driver, included the son of the car’s registered owner, police said.
Builder claims deviate killed his subdivision
Sprindale, Ark. A developer who claims sales in a subdivision stopped after a sex offender and his wife bought a home has sued the couple and the real estate company that arranged the purchase.
NGI Rental filed the $2 million lawsuit Friday against Randall Dee Collins and his wife, as well as the real estate company that arranged their new home purchase.
Randall Collins, 39, was convicted of molesting young girls and is listed on the Arkansas Crime Information Center Web site. According to the lawsuit, his wife hired a real estate company to sell her home, saying she had married a sex offender and that her home was too close to a school.
A day after the couple bought a home in a new subdivision, police distributed fliers detailing Collins’ case.
The lawsuit claims residents indicated they would move if Collins did not leave the neighborhood – and that sales came to a standstill because the developer was required to tell potential buyers about Collins.
The lawsuit also alleged Collins called the developer and offered to move for $250,000, “or he would stay there and kill their subdivision.”
Student says B-minus linked to conservatism
Las Vegas Bob Whitney isn’t willing to accept a B-minus. He’s suing the University of Nevada, Las Vegas after losing an appeal over the grade.
Bob Whitney, 52, alleges in the lawsuit that a history professor discriminated against him because of his conservative values. He seeks at least $10,000 for emotional duress, tuition, books and living expenses
University officials say the complaint filed Jan. 12 in Clark County District Court has no merit.
Whitney said the grade he got in Eugene Moehring’s class in spring 2004 damaged his grade-point average and made him ineligible for student loans. He claimed Moehring’s fast-paced lectures prevented him from taking complete notes, and Moehring criticized his conservatism in written assignments.
Whitney accused Andrew Bell, then a graduate coordinator, of refusing to change the grade and humiliating him by yelling at him in front of his wife.
Recording companies target dead 83-year-old
Charleston, W.Va. The recording industry sued Gertrude Walton, accusing her of illegally trading music over the Internet as “smittenedkitten.”
But the lawsuit was filed more than a month after the 83-year-old woman died in December, and her daughter says Walton hated computers, anyway.
A group of record companies named Walton as the sole defendant in a federal lawsuit, claiming she made more than 700 songs available for free on the Internet.
Walton’s daughter, Robin Chianumba, lived with her mother for the last 17 years and said her mother objected to a computer in the house.
“My mother wouldn’t know how to turn on a computer,” Chianumba said.
She said she faxed a copy of her mother’s death certificate to record company officials several days before the lawsuit was filed, in response to a letter from the company regarding the upcoming legal filing.
“I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park (where she is buried) to attend the hearing,” Chianumba said.
A Recording Industry Association of America spokesman said Thursday that Walton was likely not the smittenedkitten it’s searching for.
“Our evidence gathering and our subsequent legal actions all were initiated weeks and even months ago,” said RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy. “We will now, of course, obviously dismiss this case.”