These thought provoking topics technically can’t find a home in other categories. This runs the gamut. Americas Watchdog is always looking, listening and speaking for you…consider us the pit bull for an ethical world.

A Florida jury has awarded a $114 million settlement to the family of a 76-year-old woman in a nursing home abuse case. The verdict is thought to be the biggest awarded by a Polk County jury, reported The Ledger.

A resident at Integrated Health Services at Auburndale, Juanita Jackson died on July 6, 2003, allegedly from injuries involving a fall, “pressure sores, overmedication, malnourishment, and dehydration,” said The Ledger.

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Many costly olive oils gracing U.S. store shelves are not the top-grade extra virgin olive oils their labels profess, according to researchers from the University of California, Davis. They analyzed well-known brands such as Bertolli, Carapelli, Mezzetta, Mazola, Pompeian and others, and discovered that 69 percent of imported oils and 10 percent of domestic ones sampled did not meet the international standards that define pure, cold-pressed, olive oils that warrant the extra-virgin designation.

The United States is the world’s third-largest consumer of olive oil with 99 percent imported from foreign producers.

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A Sacramento Superior Court judge has upheld a $29 million verdict in a nursing home abuse case. The “strongly worded ruling” was against the company associated with the 2005 death of 79-year-old Frances Tanner, wrote the Sacramento Bee.

Difficult to comprehend, but Baltimore’s Ravenwood Nursing and Rehabilitation Center had no air conditioning for three days during sweltering temperatures that reached105 yesterday. It took a 911 call made by a resident Tuesday to alert someone of the residents plight.

No one knows exactly when the cooling system stopped working–maybe sometime Friday or Saturday. Regardless, authorities said the inside temperature at the 190-bed nursing home was 91 degrees by Tuesday morning.

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Is it fair to compare BP to Toyota? Maybe. In some respects they’re becoming rather similar. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEM) has fined BP PLC’s U.S. unit $5.2 million for filing “false, inaccurate, or misleading” reports for energy production on Southern Ute Indian Tribal lands in southwestern Colorado, wrote the Wall Street Journal.

In a written statement, the Interior Department said the case is not related to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced Thursday that the American Red Cross has been fined $16 million for prior negligence to comply with Federal laws and regulations regarding the collection and manufacture of blood products.

Despite the compliance failures, FDA found no evidence that the Red Cross endangered patients and the blood supply is believed to be uncontaminated. Multiple layers of safeguards are in place to protect and enhance the safety of blood products. However, these types of violations decrease the assurance that blood products manufactured by American Red Cross will continue to remain safe and have the potential to compromise the safety of the blood supply.

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The Deepwater Horizon is not the only well spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a federal document. Since at least April 30, a nearby drilling rig, Ocean Saratoga, appears to be leaking oil. A 10-mile-long slick close to the Ocean Saratoga is visible from space in images provided by Skytruth.org, which monitors environmental issues using satellites, reports Mobile Press-Register.

However, according to site owner, Taylor Energy Co. LLC, the sheen depicted in the photographs is the result of government-approved on-going work, not a second leak.

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The New York Times is reporting that a new settlement of $712.5 million has been reached in World Trade Center emergency responder lawsuits. Prior terms called for payouts totaling $575 million to $657.5 million.

“This settlement ensures guaranteed, immediate and just compensation to the heroic men and women who performed their duties without consideration of the health implications,” said Marc J. Bern, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers. “Our commitment to our clients has never wavered in the seven years since we took on this litigation and we have done everything within our power, including reducing the fees we agreed to with each of our clients, to achieve the best possible outcome,” quoted the Times.

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Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has denied any systematic discrimination, but lawyers warned the firm 15 years ago that pay and promotion disparities were leaving them vulnerable to a gender discrimination suit, wrote The New York Times. Six years later, the company was named in the largest lawsuit of its kind in history.

In 2001, the suit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, was filed by seven women on behalf of all women working at the company. In April, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco voted 6-5 to affirm a federal judge’s decision to award class-action status to potentially one million or more women.

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