For those unfamiliar with these awards, they are named after 81-year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled hot coffee on herself and successfully sued the McDonald’s in New Mexico , where she purchased coffee. You remember, she took the lid off the coffee and put it between her knees while she was driving. Who would ever think one could get burned doing that, right? That’ s right; these are awards for the most outlandish lawsuits and verdicts in the U.S. You know, the kinds of cases that make you scratch your head. So keep your head scratcher handy.

Here are the Stellas for the past year:

*SEVENTH PLACE*

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $80,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The store owners were understandably surprised by the verdict, considering the running toddler was her own son.

Start scratching!

* SIXTH PLACE *

Carl Truman, 19, of Los Angeles , California won $74,000 plus medical expenses when his neighbour ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Truman apparently didn’t notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbour’s hubcaps.

Scratch some more…

* FIFTH PLACE *

Terrence Dickson, of Bristol , Pennsylvania , who was leaving a house he had just burgled by way of the garage. Unfortunately for Dickson, the automatic garage door opener malfunctioned and he could not get the garage door to open. Worse, he couldn’t re-enter the house because the door connecting the garage to the house locked when Dickson pulled it shut. Forced to sit for eight, count ‘em, EIGHT days and survive on a case of Pepsi and a large bag of dry dog food, he sued the homeowner’s insurance company claiming undue mental Anguish. Amazingly, the jury said the insurance company must pay Dickson $500,000 for his anguish. We should all have this kind of anguish. Keep scratching. There are more……

Double hand scratching after this one…

*FOURTH PLACE*

Jerry Williams, of Little Rock, Arkansas, garnered 4th Place in the Stella’s when he was awarded $14,500 plus medical expenses after being bitten on the butt by his next door neighbour’s beagle – even though the beagle was on a chain in its owner’s fenced yard. Williams did not get as much as he asked for because the jury believed the beagle might have been provoked at the time of the butt bite because Williams had climbed over the fence into the yard and repeatedly shot the dog with a pellet gun.

Pick a new spot to scratch, you’re getting a bald spot..

* THIRD PLACE *

Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania because a jury ordered a Philadelphia restaurant to pay her $113,500 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her tailbone. The reason the soft drink was on the floor: Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

Only two more so ease up on the scratching….

*SECOND PLACE*

Kara Walton, of Claymont , Delaware sued the owner of a night club in a nearby city because she fell from the bathroom window to the floor, knocking out her two front teeth. Even though Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the ladies room window to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge, the jury said the night club had to pay her $12,000….oh, yeah, plus dental expenses.

* FIRST PLACE *

This year’s runaway First Place Stella Award winner was: Mrs. Merv Grazinski, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, who purchased new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, from an OU football game, having driven on to the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the driver’s seat to go to the back of the Winnebago to make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the motor home left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Also not surprisingly, Mrs. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not putting in the owner’s manual that she couldn’t actually leave the driver’s seat while the cruise control was set. The Oklahoma jury awarded her, are you sitting down?
$1,750,000 PLUS a new motor home. Winnebago actually changed their manuals as a result of this suit, just in case Mrs. Grazinski has any relatives who might also buy a motor home.

Are we, as a society, getting more stupid???

Or are more members of Congress serving on juries these days?

Arthur Davis III of Lawrence was sentenced Monday for attempted first-degree murder, aggravated kidnapping and contributing to a child’s misconduct.

Prosecutors say Davis encouraged his 12-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son to kill his ex-wife last June. After the children began beating her, Davis went to her house and joined the attack.

The woman escaped and was treated for cuts to her head.

The daughter was granted immunity for testifying against her father. The son entered a plea to a reduced charge of aggravated battery and was sentenced Friday to three years in state custody. He will serve the sentence at a state youth center.

___

Information from: Lawrence Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com

SOURCE: BN9.com

LOL … Here the SPOOF!!!!! First watch the video above b4 watching the spoof … LMFAO!!!!

Every single day we oooh and aahhh over the latest design concepts, but right now, let’s focus on one of the minds behind such designs and smile in awe of her motivations and inspirations. Meet MIT designer, Neri Oxman.

Oxman
went through medical school, but abandoned that career path for a
“mishmash of design, architecture, art, and computer programming.”

She
works out of MIT’s media lab and strives to bring about her vision of
the future which consists of all objects living, breathing, and
adapting as we interact with them. She imagines organic architecture
designs, nanotube walls which change size, chairs that change shape as
you sit, DNA-encoded clothing that grows with you. She explains that
studying how human bones adjust, getting thicker when a woman is
pregnant or thinner when individuals are in outer space, inspired that
vision of hers.

As with many other designs that we see,
Oxman’s are stunning in their intricate plays with textures and
materials, but to me the dreamy vision that pushes her to create them
adds so much more to the way I view her works. I expect them to draw
breath. Maybe we should start taking closer looks at the minds behind
the eye-candy we so enjoy. Are there any objects, maybe even gadgets,
that truly made you want to know how they were inspired? [Materialecology Blog via Materialecology via Esquire]

Yes, you read that right; these little beasties are street legal. Either Kawasaki or Honda motorcycle engines for power, and retired vintage bumper car bodies – transformed into the most awesome form of mini-car we’ve ever seen.

There’s seven of these little monsters floating around California , and they’re all the creation of one man, Tom Wright, a gyro-gear loose builder on the outskirts of San Diego who figured the leftovers of the Long Beach Pike amusement park needed a more dignified end than the trash heap.

They were originally powered by Harley engines but rattled like heck and Tom replace them with Honda or Kawasaki 750’s… and a couple have been ‘measured’ [not run at] theoretically as capable of 160 MPH which is terrifyingly fast in machines with such a short wheelbase. Doesn’t mean we would totally rock one should the opportunity present itself. In fact, we now have only one burning desire, to see these things running a go kart track with a clown in the drivers seat.

Hint:

Click each picture for the FULL photo.

Suspects facing local and state criminal charges are 60 suspected pimps.

(UPI) – The FBI said Monday it worked with local and state law enforcement partners to rescue 52 children across the United States from working as child prostitutes.
The FBI said in a news release the operation aided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also resulted in nearly 700 arrests in a 72-hour period.

Among those suspects facing local and state criminal charges are 60 suspected pimps.

“There is no work more important than protecting America’s children and freeing them from the cycle of victimization. Through our strategic partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies, we are able to make a difference,” said Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division.

The operation focused on 36 U.S. cities across 30 FBI divisions. The operation took place as part of the Innocence Lost National Initiative.

The FBI said nearly 900 children have been rescued as part of the 34 Innocence Lost Task Forces and Working Groups to date. The operations have also resulted in 510 convictions and the seizure of assets worth more than $3.1 million.

Photo Copyright Getty Images

Police in the US state of Minnesota are planning to auction off a specially modified and motorised lounge chair whose owner crashed it while drunk.

The owner hit a parked car while returning from a bar.

Dennis LeRoy Anderson, 62, pleaded guilty last Monday to driving the La-Z-Boy while drunk in August last year.

The chair was impounded after he smashed into a parked car as he returned from a bar in Proctor.

The chair comes with a stereo, nitrous oxide booster, parachute and a “hell yeah it’s fast” sticker.

Local police chief Walter Wobig told Agence France-Presse news agency the chair would be posted on eBay next week with no reserve price.

Minnesota police can auction off vehicles seized in drink-drive cases or keep them for official use.

The blue and black chair’s other attractions include headlights and a steering wheel in the style of a drag-racer. It can reach up to 20mph (32km/h) with its lawnmower-powered engine.

Mr Anderson, who was not badly injured in the accident, was found to have three times the legal limit when arrested. He said he had drunk eight or nine beers.

Mr Anderson was sentenced to 180 days in jail, suspended pending two years of probation.

The Proctor Journal said the police department had received a number of calls and emails about the chair since the court case.

It quoted one interested party of “racers” as saying they lived outside Minnesota and the chair would “no longer be a menace to your town”.

Land O’ Lakes, Florida –

Kylene Nelson lost her job at Rushe Middle School in Land O’ Lakes after allegations back in March she was drinking on the job.

Students used camera phones to video tape the teacher in a language arts class as she danced with students, making them feel uncomfortable.

“We all barricaded ourselves behind the desks,” said one student who asked not to be identified over fear she’d get in trouble at school.

The state agreement would allow Nelson to reapply for a teaching job in Florida after four years of suspension if she completes a substance abuse program. If rehired, she’d then be on probation for another three years.

The agreement between Nelson and the state still requires final approval.

News Source: WTSP.com