Calais Weber and Cecilia Chen, both 17, are now college students studying in Massachusetts. Calais is a Wellesley College undergraduate, while Chen studies at Harvard. The two students are also burn injury survivors of a chemistry experiment gone bad when they were high school students at Western Reserve Academy, a private boarding school in Ohio.

This month, the two students and their families settled their personal injury lawsuit with the school for $18.9 million. Weber and her family received $13.1 million, and Chen and her family received $5.8 million.

46% of Weber’s body sustained burn injuries. She became very depressed after the accident and considered committing suicide. She has had at least 16 surgeries to treat her injuries so far and says she was unrecognizable to herself after the accident.

Read more at
http://www.ohio.com/news/break_news/13878632.html

Proposed plan for distributing $176 million in settlement offers. Judge David L. Martin has approved a proposed plan for distributing $176 million in settlement offers that have been made to more than 300 people who lost loved ones or suffered injuries in the Station nightclub fire in 2003.

In a brief order, Martin also approved the appointment of Jeffrey Dahl, of Faribault, Minn., to be a neutral verification expert in the case. Dahl has developed the claim forms that will have to be completed by the fire victims before they receive any money from the settlements.

The $176 million in settlement offers comes from every defendant still being sued by the fire victims.

Read more at
http://www.projo.com/news/content/STATION_FIRE_ORDERS_03-07-09_4EDINQM_v8.36aad90.html

U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Martin has approved a proposed plan for distributing $176 million in settlement offers that have been made to more than 300 people who lost loved ones or suffered injuries in The Station nightclub fire in 2003.

In a brief order, Martin also approved the appointment of Jeffrey Dahl, of Faribault, Minn., to be a neutral verification expert in the case. Dahl has developed claim forms that will have to be completed by the fire victims before they receive any money from the settlements.

Martin also granted a motion to establish a special trust fund that needs to be created as a repository for the settlement proceeds and to appoint Massachusetts lawyer Paul A. Finn as administrator for the trust fund.

Read more on this at
http://newsblog.projo.com/2009/03/court-approves.html

Despite all the abuses attributed to bankers and Wall Street power brokers in the news as of late - bad judgment and big bonuses - relatively little illegal activity has been revealed.

Pharmaceutical-industry bigwigs largely have been spared public scrutiny, despite decisions that have been unethical at best and in many cases downright illegal. What's worse, despite stiff fines, many drug companies are repeat offenders.

Recently, drug giant Pfizer agreed to pay a record-breaking settlement of $2.3 billion. The federal government has been investigating whether Pfizer marketed its painkiller Bextra for purposes the Food and Drug Administration had not approved.

Read more at
http://www.cleveland.com/health/plaindealer/
index.ssf?/base/news/123546788399830.xml&coll=2