A bad idea: Here’s why the laws in Pa. shouldn’t be changed to allow beer sales on every corner

There's yet another effort underway in the state Legislature to try to change the decades-old laws that forbid beer sales in convenience stores and grocery stores across the Commonwealth. Right now, you also can't buy a six-pack of beer in a beer distributor in Pennsylvania -- you can only buy a full case by law. You are, however, able to buy individual six-packs of beer from bars and restaurants that have liquor licenses which permit...

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Outrageous: A death at the Olympics and a rush to judgment in blaming the victim of a deadly luge practice run

At the Olympic Winter Games, no one is supposed to die. Certainly not a 21-year-old luge competitor from the Republic of Georgia, who was in Canada for his first Olympic games. But the athlete, Nodar Kumaritashvili,  died last Friday on a practice run on the luge track as he and his sled flew down the luge run at almost 90 mph.  At the bottom of the track, his sled climbed an inside track wall and...

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Insurance fraud: let the insurers who go after “fraud” first take a closer look at themselves

Have you seen those ads on television lately where some downtrodden fellow is so desperate that he arranges for his own car to be "stolen" so he can later file a claim for damages and gain a windfall? The guy ends up getting caught, of course, and is sent to jail. And the intended message from the huge, scary insurance companies: "insurance fraud is against the law, you will get caught and you will go...

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Outrage in Chester County: Five African-American voters allege Voting Rights Act violations when they tried to cast ballots in 2008

Five African-American voters in Chester County are suing the county and its Board of Elections, alleging that their rights were violated under the federal Voting Rights Act as they stood in seven-hour-long lines to vote in their polling place in November 2008. But the legal claims involve more than just long lines, according to the lawsuit, which was detailed in a story last week in The Legal Intelligencer. "The suit says the precinct, which includes...

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Update: FCC rules that Comcast can’t keep SportsNet to itself, but it’s not over yet — an appeal is likely

Hold on to your Phillies, Flyers and Sixers hats, Philadelphia sports fans -- the U.S. Federal Communications Commission ruled last week that Comcast Corp. now has to start making its Comcast-only SportsNet programming available to satellite TV providers. The FCC ruling came in a 4-1 decision to close a "terrestrial loophole" that had allowed Comcast to keep SportsNet all to itself and its customers for years, according to a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. In...

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‘Sexting’ prosecution of three teens in Pennsylvania goes way over the line

What do you get when you mix an overzealous county prosecutor, cellphone pranks and a group of teen-aged girls and boys together? Well, in Wyoming County, Pa., in the Tunkhannock School District, you apparently get a huge controversy that brings in the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania to take on a county prosecutor who wants to try to set an example and prosecute the teens on trumped up child pornography charges involving "sexting." What...

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UPDATE: Another recall for Toyota owners — be informed about recent ‘sudden acceleration’ cases

Jan. 26, 2010 UPDATE:  Toyota announced that it will immediately suspend production and sales of eight vehicle models bound for the U.S. market to further investigate and repair the cause of sudden acceleration that has been plaguing some Toyota vehicles since last year, according to The New York Times. For the second time in less than four months, Toyota is recalling millions of their cars and trucks in response to incidents of sudden acceleration being...

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Is plastic food packaging safe or dangerous? Will the federal government ever decide and act to protect us properly?

It's not enough that we have to worry about the safety of the vehicles we drive in, the airplanes we fly in and even the toys our children play with. Now, in a story in The New York Times last week, we are reminded to always be concerned about the packaging used for the food and drinks that we consume each day. Less than two years ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declared that...

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Court rules that hormone replacement therapy plaintiff should not suffer due to statute of limitations

Patients who have sued in connection with serious injuries from hormone replacement therapies in the last decade just received a potentially promising ruling from the Pennsylvania Superior Court. In a decision handed down on Dec. 31, 2009 in the case Simon v. Wyeth, the court said that a two-year  statute of limitations that forced the reversal of an earlier $1.5 million damage award for the injured plaintiff should not have been applied, according to a...

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