A Stella Awards Nominee.

The Stella Awards are named for Stella Liebeck, who sued McDonalds in 1992 after being burned by a cup of coffee. A jury awarded her $2.9 million, but exactly how much she collected was part of a confidential agreement. If you get an email listing Stella Award winners, don't take it for gospel. A lot of bogus awards have been "given".

That being said, this is a legitimate lawsuit filed against Wal-Mart by a lady from Louisiana. She was shopping in the Abbeville Wal-Mart when she claims a nutria came at her from behind the Coke rack. A nutria is a South American rodent that was imported for its fur. They were accidentally released into the wild and have become a nuisance in the south. According to this lady, when the nutria came at her she pulled her fully loaded cart back to defend herself and broke two bones in her foot. She claims that the store knew about the nutria and had even named it. I find that hard to believe. It is not hard to believe that it came into the store. A couple of days ago a dog wandered into the store where I work and made it halfway to the back before it was caught. These things do happen. But to claim it was basically a store pet is way off base. For one thing, if it was true health inspectors would either fine the store or shut it down. The stores also get constantly checked by their district manager and every quarter they have what amounts to a peer review, where a group of other store managers come in and grade a store. The final amount of this suit has not yet been determined. Her starting amount is $2000 to cover her medical bills. It will be interesting to see how this comes out.

The Cubs lost again to the Brewers yesterday 12-6. The game was delayed for 20 minutes in the eighth inning when half of the lights at Miller Park went out. The final game of the series is today.