Ever notice how often lawyers are the heroes of novels, films or TV shows? From To Kill a Mockingbird to Erin Brockovich, from Perry Mason and L.A. Law to Boston Legal, lawyers are crusaders who fight for what’s right, often by protecting everyday folks against corporations, bureaucracies and other monolithic, faceless entities that harm or threaten them.

Ever notice how often insurance companies or their reps are the heroes of novels, films or TV shows? Never, right? They’re under the radar. They’re neither loved nor loathed. This doesn’t make them good guys. It just makes them non-targets.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Perhaps if Erin Leas had been the daughter of a phone company executive when she died in a car accident due to cell phone distractions, Texas laws might change. Instead, phone companies exert influence on your elected legislators to deny reform and maintain huge profits.

You may be saying to yourself, “I talk on my cell phone while driving, and I haven’t had a traffic accident yet, and I don’t want to quit.” But if Erin had been your daughter, you might sing a different tune.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

As many as seven million Americans suffer psoriasis, a condition causing inflammation and red scaly patches on the skin, as well as psoriatic plaques on the knees and elbows. An autoimmune disease, Psoriasis can be treated, but it can’t be cured.

Unfortunately, one such treatment may be worse than psoriasis itself. That treatment is the medication called Raptiva, an injectable drug produced by California-based biotechnology giant Genentech. The Food and Drug Administration has just issued an advisory on Raptiva after learning that three psoriasis patients using Raptiva died from neurological infections.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Americans love their dogs. But can you love your dog too much, by allowing him or her to run loose?

A leash? Too much trouble. Spot’s just going outside with me while I get the mail — big deal. Besides, he’d never hurt anyone — at least until that first time.

But that first time could put you in jail, get your dog euthanized and cost you thousands of dollars in a civil lawsuit. That’s because you are responsible for your dog’s behavior, and unless you’ve managed to get past the dog-human language barrier or to read your dog’s mind, you really don’t know if, when and how your beloved pooch might attack another person.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Jim “the Hammer” Adler is fed up with food poisoning. Even if the peanut butter salmonella outbreak doesn’t hit us all, it could kill all of our appetites. The latest queasy quotient comes from news that Peanut Corporation of America — a name which could forever live in infamy — also has had its Plainview plant in West Texas shut down after dead rodents, rodent excrement and bird feathers were found there.

Now, mixing jelly with peanut butter is one thing, but dead rodents is a bit too adventurous for most tastes — and unhealthy enough to prompt a recall of all existing products ever shipped from the Plainview plant. PCA’s now-shuttered Blakely, Ga. plant already has been branded with that distinction.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

The latest atrocities reported from the front lines of America’s salmonella food poisoning battle indicate that the responsible company, Peanut Corporation of America, shipped products to consumers even prior to learning results of lab tests which would reveal salmonella.

Peanut Corp. reportedly found salmonella in its own testing, then “lab shopped” to try to find a lab which would provide a favorable report. Meanwhile, it shipped tainted peanut products to consumers in various states. Many persons have been stricken with salmonella in Minnesota, California, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts and Virginia. Still more cases have arisen in Florida, Arizona, North Dakota, Texas, Idaho and New Hampshire.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

If the economy gets any worse, we’ll all be eating peanuts. They’re cheap and nutritious. But these days, they can be deadly.

Peanuts are under assault by manufacturers who have no respect for America’s favorite comfort food or the well being of their fellow Americans. When the FBI starts raiding peanut plants for salmonella food poisoning you know the situation is out of control at a time when peanut products need more protection than ever given the state of the economy.

In some respects, Africa is better off than we are when it comes to peanuts. What does Africa have to do with it? Read on. But first, a reprise of American values.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

In case you haven’t heard, Jack got hit by a bus. That’s Jack, the bubble-headed spokesman for fast-food chain Jack in the Box, whose current campaign to sell more artery-clogging burgers and tacos involves mock news and web coverage of Jack’s bus accident injury.

Launched during Super Bowl XLIII’s telecast — among other ads wallowing in the mirth of misery — it’s a warped yet creative campaign, and it’s likely to make even more money for the chain’s 2,100 restaurants. But we’d like to mention, for sensitivity’s sake, its utterly bad timing.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Actress Selena Gomez is a smart girl who’s onto something — something even more vital than courting the tweens who could push her past Hannah Montana’s Miley Cyrus as the Disney Channel’s next megastar. In fact, it’s something that could save Selena’s life — by preventing a car accident.

Selena has vowed to hang up and drive — at least, when she gets her license.

“Don’t do a thousand things in your car!” Selena told People magazine. “In the car, just focus on what you need to be doing.” And that means driving.

(more…)

Share on Facebook

Even in a down economy, people must have their “toys,” and one of the more costly and popular diversions is an ATV, or all terrain vehicle. When you ride and ramble roughly on a bouncy ATV trail, it can eclipse your anxieties about the world at large with excitement and thrills from the world rushing past beneath your wheels.

Among ATVs — also called an ROV or UTV — a big seller has been the Yamaha Rhino. Its popularity stems in part from the fact that its narrower design enables it to be loaded onto a pickup truck for transporting to off-road recreation tracks.

(more…)

Share on Facebook