NHL concussion lawsuits consolidated in Minnesota

Concussions “R” Us. The AP reports, “Three lawsuits filed by retired NHL players over concussion-related injuries have been consolidated and will be heard by a federal judge in Minnesota. … The order says Minnesota provides a central location for parties and witnesses, including those from Canada. It consolidates lawsuits filed by over 200 former players in Minnesota, New York and Washington. It notes that [Judge Susan] Nelson is already presiding over one of the cases. The order says two similar cases pending in Minnesota and New York may be added later.”

Are they really going to spend time and money on this? The KMSP-TV story by Bill Keller says, “After years of watching her son suffer with the symptoms of a traumatic brain injury, Angela Brown turned to medical marijuana as a last resort. It worked, but the decision has left her facing criminal charges. … Prosecutors in Lac qui Parle County don’t want people getting a head start. When the law goes into effect next year in July, it’s likely that Brown’s 15-year-old son would qualify to access the cannabis oil he was already taking; however, the mother from Madison, Minn., is now facing two gross misdemeanor charges, including child endangerment. Each charge carries a penalty of one year imprisonment and a $3,000 fine.”

Urp. Says Jess Fleming in the PiPress, “Say you’re a beer drinker enjoying this week’s Minnesota State Fair beneath a beating August sun. How are you going to keep that brew cold? Charlie Burrows, owner of LuLu’s Public House in the new West End Market, has a solution: Top it with frozen foam. Burrows, who owns Lucky 13 pubs and operates the new Fair restaurant and official Schell’s Brewing counter, will serve blueberry beer foam chilled to 23 degrees atop Schell’s Oktoberfest and new Grain Belt Blu beers.”

Clearly our borders are too porous. An AP story says, “A Wisconsin sheriff’s deputy has been arrested in Minnesota on suspicion of drunken driving. The Milwaukee County sheriff’s office identified her Tuesday as 41-year-old Capt. Catherine Trimboli. … The sheriff’s office says Trimboli asked the officer to let her go as a ‘professional courtesy.’ She registered 0.14 percent on a breath test, almost twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent. She was booked for first-offense drunken driving and released.” What we need is a fence and boots on the ground!

That couple with the eleven kids, nine of whom have been taken away from them and another that has them facing murder charges? Brandon Stahl and Alejandra Matos of the Strib report, “Mary Ann Harris, Cardie [Jackson’s] cousin who adopted two of the Jacksons’ children, says Hennepin County child protection should be held accountable. ‘They should be sitting right there with her on the stand,’ Harris said Tuesday. “They knew she had issues with alcohol and they still let her keep her kids. That newborn’s life was dependent on Hennepin County taking action,’ she said. That baby, Imani, was found not breathing at her parents’ Minneapolis home on March 2.”

Deephaven’s Scottish nobility are back in the news. Says Dave Chanen in the Strib, “Deephaven resident Andrea Chisholm, who with her husband was charged with illegally receiving welfare and other benefits while living in a mansion and owning a yacht, pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced to a year behind bars. The sentence was part of a plea agreement that guaranteed jail time for Chisholm because the fraud was considered a major economic offense.”

She walked. Chao Xiong’s Strib story on Paula Zumberge the woman accused of egging on her husband to kill a neighbor over deer feeding says, “Paula Zumberge walked out of the Ramsey County jail Tuesday a free woman after being acquitted of all charges in the murder of one New Brighton neighbor and the wounding of another in a long-running feud about feeding deer. Ramsey County District Judge Lezlie Ott Marek said in her decision that inconsistencies in the surviving victim’s testimony factored into her findings.”

Medtronic had a good quarter. Michael Calia of the Dow Jones News Service says, “Medtronic Inc. said Tuesday that it is ‘fully committed’ to completing its deal to buy Covidien PLC, which has come under scrutiny over a controversial tax tactic that has drawn criticism from U.S. government officials. The Fridley-based company also posted fiscal first-quarter results that exceeded analysts’ expectations as the medical-devices maker reaped strong revenue from its U.S. operations. ‘Our growth was broad-based across businesses and geographies,’ chairman and chief executive Omar Ishrak said in a news release.”

Finally, if you’ve become a junkie for “tax inversion” stories. This one, via Kevin Drum at Mother Jones, is particularly good. “Firms that are entirely (or almost entirely) domestic do indeed pay high corporate taxes. But multinationals don’t. Thanks to the ‘feast of tax planning opportunities laid out before them on the groaning board of corporate tax expenditures,’ they mostly pay effective tax rates that aren’t much different from French or German companies. They are, in fact, perfectly competitive.”