David Golub, attorney for Barbara Izzarelli of Norwich, said Thursday a federal jury in Bridgeport made the award late Wednesday against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. after a two-week trial. He said a judge will decide additional punitive damages next month, which could bring the award to $24 million.
Izzarelli, who is 49 and smoked Salem cigarettes for more than 25 years, underwent surgery at 36 that resulted in the removal of her larynx. She must breath through a hole in her throat and has no sense of smell, and can only eat soft foods, Golub said.
"I'm ecstatic," Izzarelli said. "Now maybe I can go to any doctor I wish."
In February, a judge in Florida reduced $300 million in damages awarded to a smoker against Philip Morris USA to nearly $39 million, concluding a jury was moved by emotion rather than hard evidence. The $300 million had been the highest damage award among thousands of lawsuits filed by Florida smokers against tobacco companies.
The lawsuits were filed after the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a $145 billion class-action jury award for all Florida smokers, by far the highest punitive damage award in U.S. history. The court said each smoker's case had to be decided individually, but smoker's don't have to individually prove key findings of the original jury, that tobacco companies knowingly sold dangerous products and hid smoking risks from the public.
"Barbara Izzarelli was targeted by Reynolds when she was 12 years old with a product specifically designed to addict her," Golub said.
Howard denied the company targets youths. He said cigarettes have come with warnings since the 1960s.
The jury found Izzarelli's damages totaled nearly $14 million, but ruled that both Reynolds and Izzarelli bore responsibility for her smoking injuries. The jury allocated responsibility 58 percent to Reynolds and 42 percent to Izzarelli, reducing her award from $13.9 million to $8.0765 million.
Another bill Crist signed Thursday would give a tax break to out-of-state aircraft owners who bring planes to Florida for training or maintenance.
The sale of bongs, water pipes and other devices that can be used with illegal drugs as well as tobacco will be banned except at stores that mostly sell tobacco products.
New regulations will make it easier for the state to pursue consumer complaints against abusive debt collectors.
The spring training bill will expand a state incentive program for Florida communities trying to lure teams from Arizona.
The U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration has awarded Jacksonville $1.32 million in federal funding to repair Lake Fretwell.
The investment will fund repairs and expansion of Lake Fretwell, an existing storm water retention facility located at the former Cecil Field Naval Air Station. The storm water retention lake was damaged by flooding from Tropical Storm Fay in 2008.
The improvements to the lake will allow a major expansion of Cecil Commercial Park to create future jobs and attract private investment. The project will also protect residential neighborhoods downstream, prevent roadway and property flooding damage such as occurred in 2008, and stop further erosion of the lake’s levy.
The law also says those offenders cannot dress up like Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny - both costumes that could allow easy access to children.
The former law addressed only nighttime residency for offenders, not where they could spend their days.
After losing the battle for the presidency, Joost was challenged by Bill Bishop for the vice president position. Joost won on an 11-8 vote.
The following council members voted for Webb and Bishop: Webb, Bishop, John Crescimbeni, Ronnie Fussell, Daniel Davis, Clay Yarborough, Glorious Johnson and E. Denise Lee.
Voting for Joost both times were Joost, Clark, Art Graham, Art Shad, Kevin Hyde, Michael Corrigan, Reggie Brown, Johnny Gaffney and Warren Jones.
Don Redman and Ray Holt voted Webb for president and Joost for vice president.
For the first time ever, the number of U.S. forces in Afghanistan is larger than the number of American forces in Iraq. Pentagon figures show that there are now 94,000 U.S. forces serving in Afghanistan and 92,000 serving in Iraq.
The crossover point for American force levels in both countries was expected to take place this Summer as the Obama administration surges 30,000 more troops into Afghanistan this year and draws down the number of forces in Iraq.
The drawdown plan in Iraq calls for reducing the number of American forces to 50,000 by September 1, a move that will require a major logistical effort over the next three months.
The Duval Teachers United collective bargaining agreement with the school district is available online at the web site of Teachers Rules, Roles and Rights. So are contracts for more than 100 teachers' unions for various large districts throughout the country.
Here's the link for Duval's contract: http://www.nctq.org/contracts/15-07.pdf
Or you can visit http://www.nctq.org/tr3/home.jsp to search for other contracts.
Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton received the City Council’s blessing to use $5.6 million in reserves to balance the current fiscal year’s budget.
The city faces a $22 million deficit, mainly because of lower-than-projected revenue from the state and because unions haven’t approved salary cuts. Roughly $9.5 million in reserves was already built into the budget but that still leaves a $12.5 million gap.
Mickey Miller, the city’s director of finance, told council members Thursday that the deficit will be addressed through a three-pronged approach: about $2 million in budget cuts, $5 million that will be recovered from excess risk management premiums the city paid, and the rest from reserves.
Council President Richard Clark said he approves of tapping into the operating reserves account, which has about a $37 million balance.
A separate emergency reserve fund has roughly $44 million. That fund is not being touched.
Peyton already has announced he will cut library hours, let nearly an entire firefighter recruit class go, and cut 14 more jobs from various departments.
He also wants to remove fire engines from two stations. However, to avoid another union fight, he will ask the council to sign off on that plan before it is implemented.
Clark said he will support the mayor’s fire department cuts. He said reserves should be tapped as a last resort and encouraged the mayor to seek additional cuts in expenses, including more layoffs if possible.
Councilwoman E. Denise Lee had a much different stance. She said she would rather see the city use more reserves if it could keep people from losing work during this recession.By numbers alone, the border region appears, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary and former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano put it, is as "secure now as it has ever been."
The court's 5-4 decision — which says that an automatic life sentence for a young offender who has not committed murder violates the Constitution's ban on "cruel and unusual" punishment — wipes out laws in 37 states.
It means that the 129 juveniles now serving time under such laws will, at some point, have an opportunity to make a case for parole.
Most significantly, the decision — signed by the nine-member court's four more liberal justices and Anthony Kennedy, the conservative who votes with the liberals the most — emphasizes that young criminals are different from adults. And not just when it comes to the death penalty, which the court made off-limits for juveniles in 2005.
"A life without parole sentence improperly denies the juvenile offender a chance to demonstrate growth and maturity," Kennedy wrote for the majority in the decision that found life without parole disproportionally harsh.
The law, a provision of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, was passed in 2006. A lower court had ruled that Congress overstepped its boundaries in passing the law.
But Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, found that the Constitution grants Congress the authority to enact the law.
"The statute is a necessary and proper means of exercising the federal authority that permits Congress to create federal criminal laws, to punish their violation, to imprison violators, to provide appropriately for those imprisoned, and to maintain the security of those who are not imprisoned but who may be affected by the federal imprisonment of others," he wrote.
The EB program is for job seekers who have exhausted all other benefits and qualify for the extension.
"As Florida's economy continues to recover, these federally-funded benefits will provide critical financial assistance to job seekers and their families," said Crist. "These funds will also provide a significant impact to Florida's economy, infusing millions of dollars to our local communities."
The new law provides for payment to individuals through June 5, and was funded through the federal stimulus package. It's value is estimated at $128 million.
"These Extended Benefits will provide financial support to more than 100,000 Floridians in need," said Agency for Workforce Innovation Director Cynthia Lorenzo. "This new law will also strengthen the reemployment focus of Florida's workforce system by allowing our agency to better link unemployment compensation beneficiaries with job opportunities."
Last fiscal year, 241 people were ultimately approved for the program and became indigents of the city. That included 213 adults and 28 infants.
Once indigents are cremated, their names are held for at least four months to allow family members to claim them.
Gov. Charlie Crist signed a red light camera bill into law on Thursday that will allow Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford to install red light cameras at some of the most dangerous intersections in the city.
Crist's decision to sign the law was never really in doubt. Groups like AAA Auto Club South opposed the bill, arguing that it was more of a revenue grab than a safety issue. The state will get at least 50 percent of the revenue from people fined, it's more on a state road, even though the local governments will actually be installing the cameras and enforcing the law.
Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., on Wednesday introduced a bill to the U.S. House of Representatives to "permanently prohibit the conduct of offshore drilling on the outer Continental Shelf of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico."
The "East Coast and Gulf Coast Ocean Protection Act of 2010" comes on the heels of a massive oil spill spewing hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf near Louisiana each day.
Guns are the most commonly used weapons in both murders and suicides, according to the analysis of data from 2007 released on Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The pattern that stands out the most is we see a lot of intimate partner violence, mental health problems and substance abuse," said the CDC's Debra Karch, who led the study.
Some of the findings from the report:
* Firearms were used in more than 50 percent of suicides, with hanging or suffocation accounting for 23 percent and poisoning 18 percent.
* Firearms were used in 66 percent of homicides and 80 percent of murder-suicides.
* Suicide rates were higher among people aged 45 to 54 -- a shift from previous years when the highest rates of suicide were among those over 80.
* Murder rates were more than three times higher among males than females. One third of women who were murdered were killed by a current or former spouse or partner, compared to five percent of men killed by intimate partners.
* Blacks made up the majority of homicide deaths and had the highest rate of homicide of any racial or ethnic group.
* Military suicides were frequently linked to a physical health problem.
The Wal-Mart Corporation announced plans Wednesday to contribute $2 billion in cash and food to the nation’s food banks, one of the largest corporate gifts on record.
Over the next five years, the giant retail company will distribute some 1.1 billion pounds of food to food banks and provide $250 million to help them buy refrigerated trucks, improve storage and develop better logistics.
Owners of more than 32,000 Duval County properties fell into delinquency when they missed the April 1 deadline to pay a combined $64.8 million in property taxes.
The delinquent bills ranged between $17 and $516,000, according to records obtained by the Times-Union.
The top 10 in delinquent Duval County property taxes owes $2.9 million for the 2009 tax year. Of the 10, six are apartment complexes.
Ranked by who owes most, developer Jay McGarvey's Old San Jose on the River project is No. 1, with $561,109 in overdue property tax.
About 85 Jacksonville building inspectors could be the next group of city employees replaced by private contractors.
A city committee will decide Thursday whether to send out proposals to see if any businesses could provide the same service at a lower cost to taxpayers.
The proposal is part of a sweeping look at city services that Chief Administrative Officer Kerri Stewart has said could result in hundreds of city jobs being outsourced.
The building inspection division has about 100 employees and a budget of just more than $10 million, Skipper said.Damages from the spill, Kotok said, could run between tens of billions to hundreds of billions of dollars.
At least some of the cleanup costs should be covered by the $1.6 billion Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, a fund created in 1986 and funded through a tax on oil companies since 1990, following the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster.
Only two were in the US.
Legislation that passed during the 2010 session of the Florida Legislature, which ended Friday, would:
ABORTION
- Require women seeking an abortion in the first trimester to pay for an ultrasound exam and view the live image unless they can prove they are victims of rape, incest or domestic abuse.
BALLOT ISSUES
- Place on the ballot a state constitutional amendment to loosen class size limits by requiring them on a school average basis.
- Place on the ballot a state constitutional amendment sponsors say will clarify, but opponents argue would undermine, a pair of citizen initiatives that would curtail gerrymandering of legislative and congressional districts.
- Place on the ballot a state constitutional amendment that would bar Floridians from being forced to obtain insurance coverage, a measure inspired by the new federal health care overhaul although legal experts say it cannot override federal law.
- Place on the ballot a nonbinding straw poll asking if the federal government should balance its budget without raising taxes.
BUSINESS & CONSUMERS
- Exempt from sales tax books, clothing, shoes, wallets and bags costing less than $50 and school supplies costing less than $10 during a three-day back-to-school sales tax "holiday" Aug. 13-15.
- Roll back an increase in the unemployment compensation tax paid by employers, though that will mean borrowing millions from the federal government to cover jobless workers - money that will have to be paid back in the future.
- Give financial aid to the ailing space industry and tax breaks to the film and entertainment industry and buyers of yachts, aircraft and machinery; offer a tax credit to businesses for hiring jobless workers.
- Reinstate parental waivers that exempt theme parks, go-cart tracks and other businesses from liability if their children are inured after the Florida Supreme Court had prohibited the waivers because there was no law allowing them.
- Make it harder to win slip-and-fall lawsuits by requiring a victim to prove a business knew or should have known a dangerous condition had existed for a sufficient time to have it fixed or removed - or that it was a foreseeable hazard.
- Crack down on rogue debt collectors by making it easier to regulate the industry and increasing punishments.
CRIME
- Bar sex offenders from coming within 300 feet of schools, day care centers, parks and playgrounds and prohibit them from wearing Santa Claus suits or other costumes attractive to children while preventing the state from labeling someone a sex offenders for having consensual sex with a minor if there was less than a four-year age difference between perpetrator and victim.
- Tighten screening of caregivers who work with children, the elderly and disabled to weed out convicted criminals.
- Add homeless people to the list of victims covered by Florida's hate crimes law that can result in increased penalties for attacks.
- Require youth sports coaches to undergo criminal background checks.
DRUGS
- Require retailers to track over-the-counter sales of ephedrine, which can be used to make methamphetamine.
- Require commercial pain management clinics to register with the state and let only doctors with special training dispense controlled substances.
- Ban the sale of smoking pipes, bongs and other paraphernalia commonly used for smoking illegal drugs as well as tobacco except at stores that mostly sell tobacco products.
EDUCATION
- Expand a private school voucher program for low-income students supported through business tax credits by increasing its annual spending cap, adding more revenue sources and increasing the value of each scholarship.
- Expand eligibility for private school vouchers for disabled students.
- Require middle school students to take a civics class and pass an end-of-course test.
- Increase high school graduation standards by requiring more math and science and replacing the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, for those subjects with end-of-course exams.
- Encourage, but not require, school districts to hold ceremonies, assemblies or other academic scholarship signing day events to match the hoopla that surrounds the signing of college scholarships by football players and other athletes
- Bar schools from infringing on religious freedoms of teachers, staff and students.
- Prohibit schools from using mechanical or manual restraints on disabled students that restrict their breathing or secluding them in rooms that don't meet fire marshal's rules.
ELECTIONS
- Revive and repair a law ruled unconstitutional last year that required certain nonpolitical organizations to register with the state and comply with financial reporting requirements if they simply mentioned a candidate or an issue.
ENVIRONMENT
- Ban the personal ownership of Burmese pythons and six other species of nonnative giant reptiles.
FIREARMS
- Prevent adoption agencies from asking prospective parents if they have firearms in the house.
- Prohibit lawmakers from raiding a trust fund for the state's concealed weapons permitting program.
GAMBLING
- Endorse a 20-year compact with the Seminole Tribe of Florida that guarantees the state about $1.3 billion over the first five years and more later in exchange for the expansion of gaming at the tribe's casinos.
GOVERNMENT
- Enact a state budget of $70.4 billion for the fiscal year beginning July 1.
- Ask Congress to call a constitutional convention to pass a federal balanced budget amendment.
- Raise liability limits for the state and local governments from $100,000 to $200,000 per person and from $200,000 to $300,000 per incident on claims that can be paid without legislative approval.
- Cap fees of outside lawyers hired by the attorney general's office at $50 million.
MOTOR VEHICLES
- Authorize the use of cameras to ticket red light runners.
- Create new specialty tags that support surfing ("Endless Summer"), fishing ("Catch Me, Release Me") and horse enthusiasts ("Florida Horse Park"), as well as the Fraternal Order of Police and the Florida Diversity Foundation.
To help pay for health care reform, tanners will be taxed 10 percent of the total cost of any indoor tanning service - whether it be in a tanning bed or booth - that uses one or more UV lamps to induce skin tanning.
A late addition to the federal health care bill, the "tan tax" is estimated to collect $2.7 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
For regular tanners such as Cheryl Robinson, who visits Four Seasons Tan a few times a week, the tax means the monthly package she purchases, which runs about $40 and allows her unlimited access to the salon's beds, will cost about $4 more.
Gov. Charlie Crist will leave it to the Obama administration to run the federally subsidized high-risk health insurance plan that is to cover people unable to buy such insurance in the private market due to preexisting conditions such as cancer or diabetes.
In a letter late Friday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Crist said he agreed that states and the federal government must cooperate in expanding healthcare for Americans but said ``unfortunately Florida is not in a position to authorize new financial obligations.''
``We are in the process of balancing our budget on the final day of the 2010 legislative session,'' he wrote. ``As governor of Florida, I cannot commit any state resources to participate in the federal temporary high-risk health insurance program.''
``However, I understand you can . . . create a new high-risk pool at the federal level, where eligible Floridians can participate. We stand ready to assist you,'' he added.
Regardless of who runs the pools, the Obama administration has promised a $5 billion one-time subsidy to help make the insurance affordable. Each state's share would be based on population and need, not on who would run the pools, an HHS spokeswoman said Friday.
Florida's share of the $5 billion is $351 million.
Colleges, universities and other academic organizations received just shy of $2 billion in grants directed to them by individual members of Congress in the 2010 fiscal year, an Inside Higher Ed analysis shows.
A review of appropriations bills, Congressionally mandated disclosure forms and lawmakers' news releases revealed grants to 875 institutions, totaling $1,982,532,150. (That total may be incomplete; while required disclosure of earmarks has been strengthened under federal law, and many lawmakers like to boast about the money they bring home to their local colleges and other constituents, it is still difficult to follow the flow of money with perfect precision.) That's roughly one-eighth of the overall amount of $16.5 billion earmarked by Congress in 2010, according to an estimate by Citizens Against Government Waste.
Americans spend more time researching which car to buy than they do researching options for a home loan, according to a survey released Thursday by Zillow.
The Seattle-based online mortgage marketplace found that borrowers who obtained a home loan in the past five years spent just five hours reviewing their options and got just three quotes. Thirty-one percent spent two hours or less, despite the fact that a home is one of the largest investments people make in a lifetime, Zillow pointed out.
Four days a week at Duval County Traffic Court on Beach Boulevard, offenders step before a judge to enter a plea for driving with a suspended or revoked license.
They are people from all walks of life who authorities pulled over for one reason or another only to find the drivers had no valid license.
For three days, First Coast News observed traffic court proceedings and witnessed 49 people go before two different judges:
An unemployed woman who did not have car insurance and could not pay for a citation; an undocumented worker caught speeding who never could obtain a license to begin with; a man with a number of past of traffic violations which led to his driver's license being taken away.
Each sentencing carried a message from the judge:
"No driving means no driving!" said Circuit Court Judge James Ruth. "If you have a bad record, you could face jail time."
The penalties for driving with a suspended or revoked license range from a $200 to $300 fine to jail time and felony conviction.
Many of the offenders were accompanied by drivers and others stopped to call for a ride. Others never left court: the judges sentenced several to serve jail time.
Despite the potential consequences, of the 49 drivers First Coast News saw go before the judges, three walked out of the courtroom and into their cars and drove away.
In 2008, Florida law enforcement agencies cited 226,560 people for driving with a suspended or revoked license. More than 25,000 of those people were cited on the First Coast.The cramped quarters and scant privacy aboard submarines, combined with long tours of up to 90 days at sea, kept them off-limits to female sailors for 16 years after the Navy began allowing women to serve on all its surface ships in 1994.
By doing so, he will bypass the Republican primary, where polls have shown he trails Marco Rubio by a large margin.
"It's the right thing for America; it's the right thing for Florida," said Crist, defending his decision in a speech in his hometown of St. Petersburg.
Sheriff John Rutherford released the following statement this afternoon in response to the bill that awaits Gov. Charlie Crist's signature after being passed by the senate overwhelmingly Tuesday:
"I am very pleased about the Legislature's passage of the bill allowing red light cameras to be installed in Florida, and look forward to the Governor signing it into law.
"I've stated publicly that my support for red light cameras includes the use of 'crash avoidance' technology. It gauges or detects when a driver is coming into an intersection at a high rate of speed (when the light is changing to red) and
then delays the other traffic signal(s) from changing to green, for just a few seconds, thereby preventing a crash.
"We will support the Department of Transportation as they develop the specifications for the approved traffic control systems and camera devices, and hope that this life saving technology is allowed for or incorporated into their rules.
"Once the Department of Transportation has developed these rules, we will review our most current crash data and other factors and determine exactly which intersections will be outfitted with the devices. These intersections will be
identified publicly and we will educate the public.
"Regardless of where the cameras are installed in Jacksonville, it is my hope that drivers will treat all intersections as if they are outfitted with a camera, and drive defensively and carefully. We'd like to see the number of traffic fatalities continue to decline."
Sheriff John H. Rutherford
A psychologist believes there could be several reasons why people didn't offer to help Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, 31 -- whose fate was captured on a grainy surveillance video -- perhaps including our culture's desensitization to violence from so much exposure in movies, video games and music.
"We love violence in this culture," said the psychologist, Michael Bradley. "We have this kind of 24/7 pounding of violence. We now know that that pounding of violence actually causes brain changes where people start to not distinguish between real violence and cyberviolence. We're actually rewiring our brains to not react to violence and pain the way we should."
Bradley said there are several explanations for why passersby may not have taken action.
For one thing, he said, people tend to copy the behavior of others, so if one person ignored the injured man, then others were likely to do the same thing.
People also think it's someone else's responsibility to intervene, so they won't do anything because they assume another person will call for help.
The jury on Friday ordered the Scouts to make the payment to Kerry Lewis, the victim of sex abuse by a former assistant Scoutmaster in Portland in the early 1980s.
The case was the first of six filed against the Boy Scouts in the same court in Oregon, with at least one other separate case pending. If mediation fails to settle the other cases, they also could go to trial.
The federal stimulus package created or saved roughly 33,200 Florida jobs in the first quarter of 2010, Governor Charlie Crist’s office reported.
Aside from the full-time jobs saved and created, the federal program also helped nearly 74,700 people who didn’t work the full three months or were paid partly through other sources, according to state statistics.
The state said about 153,000 jobs were created or saved in Florida since February 2009 through stimulus spending. Of the $19.5 billion Florida expects to receive in stimulus funding, about $13.5 billion has awarded, About $8.8 billion has been spent of that.
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