By the Numbers | $22 million

– The settlement amount a general contractor must pay to a worker burned during an explosion at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison

Jeremy Rose was working for a subcontractor in the stadium’s south end zone on April 13, 2022. A supervisor used a blowtorch to dry the floor in a room beneath the stadium while Rose and another worker were applying a flammable substance to the floor.

Rose suffered burns over 70% of his body. According to Rose’s attorney, the contractor failed to take out a permit for “hot work” as required by the National Fire Protection Association.

Source: Wisconsin State Journal

On the Radar | Woman of Firsts

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers announced on April 12 that final approval has been granted to erect a statue of Vel R. Phillips on the grounds of the state capitol.

In 1951, Phillips became the first Black woman to obtain a law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She later became the first Black person elected to the Milwaukee Common Council and the first Black woman judge in Wisconsin.

In 1978, Phillips became the first woman and the first Black person elected to statewide office in Wisconsin when she was elected secretary of state.

Source: cbs58.com

Out There | No Trademark for Escobar Name

The European Union (EU) General Court ruled in April that the name of drug lord Pablo Escobar cannot be registered as a trademark in the EU.

The court based its decision on the fact that Escobar’s name is linked to “drug trafficking and narco-terrorism” and the suffering those activities cause.

Escobar Inc. filed a trademark application with the EU Intellectual Property Office in 2022. The office turned down the application.

Escobar, who led the Medellin cartel, a criminal organization, made billions smuggling drugs into the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. He was gunned down by Colombian police in 1993.

Source: Al Jazeera

Quotable | “Before I’m a chancellor, I’m a human. I’m also a mom.”

– Davidson County (Tenn.) Chancery Court Judge I’Ashea Myles

In April, a Tennessee state judge told litigants she was struggling to decide whether writings by a young man who shot and killed six people at a school in 2023 should be made public.

Police officers collected the writings as part of their investigation into the shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville in March 2023. Members of the media, a Tennessee state senator, and a gun-rights group are pressing for the writings to be released under the Tennessee public records law.

But parents of students at the school have argued that the writings are exempt from disclosure under a state privacy law and federal copyright law. They worry that releasing the writings could inspire copycat attacks.

“I have to take how I feel out of it,” Myles said. “I have to interpret the law as written by the legislature.”

Source: AOL

Out There | I’d Like to Buy a Vowel

David Gay appeared on a “Wheel of Fugitive” video posted on social media in 2021 by Brevard County (Fla.) Sheriff Wayne Ivey. Gay claims he lost his job and suffered emotional distress as a result.

In the videos, which are inspired by the TV game show Wheel of Fortune, Ivey spins a wheel that contains photos of what he calls 10 of the county’s most wanted fugitives.

Gay claims that he wasn’t a fugitive when Ivey posted the videos in which his photo appeared. Gay has filed a lawsuit against Ivey, seeking $50,000 in damages.

Source: AP