Lead poisoning of school-aged children is unfortunately back in the spotlight, this time in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina area. Last year, 58 schools voluntarily tested the drinking water in local schools, and nearly half showed high lead levels. Results started posting earlier this week, reporting at least 27 schools had lead levels at the action-level 15 parts per billion (ppb) or greater. Some had lead levels as high as 100 ppb.

In March 2015, a division director in the Colorado Department of Health and Human Services ordered 60 residents of the Pueblo Regional Center to be strip searched. The residents were developmentally disabled patients of the center, and DHA officials never sought consent from the patients, their families, or legal guardians. According to a lawsuit filed later, the aggressive strip searches included hands-on genital manipulation of the patients, many of whom had histories of physical and sexual abuse.

The state settled those claims this week, agreeing to pay $1 million to the families of the victims, and institute other reforms.

Uber is the target of yet another sex crime lawsuit, this time concerning a driver who purportedly is a repeat offender. The driver, John Kyle Lane, sexually exposed himself to a rider just days after he had sexually assaulted another rider in a nearby town. 

In this suit, the two women claim the company was negligent in its retention of Lane after the first incident, and are seeking at least $25,000 in damages yet to be determined.

"Natalie started to eat hers and as she cut the chicken the chicken oozed red blood to which point I commented it looked bloody." Not the start you want to a meal while on vacation.

That was widower Stewart Rawnsley, describing food from a restaurant buffet in Corfu, Greece. His late wife, Natalie, immediately returned the chicken for another piece, but not before consuming a bite. That bite would turn out to be deadly, as Natalie's condition deteriorated from food poisoning to fatal over the course of that night. Natalie Rawnsley passed away less than 48 hours after consuming the uncooked chicken -- so what happened?

Once our medical devices became "smart," or even just dependent on embedded computer or radio components for communication, the possibility of hacking those devices became a reality. While much of the focus has been on hacking pacemakers, doctors writing in the Chicago Sun-Times point out that those aren't the only vulnerable medical devices. "Defibrillators, neurostimulators and implantable drug pumps, like insulin pumps, rely on the same embedded computers and software radios for their two-way communication, they noted, adding, "weak security features have left these devices potentially vulnerable to outside manipulation."

And if a medical implant is tampered with, what can you do about it? Here's what you can do if your medical device is hacked.

For three months in 2015 and 2016, 109,000 metric tons of methane spewed into the atmosphere over the Aliso Canyon north of Los Angeles. Thousands were evacuated from the Porter Ranch suburb. California declared a state of emergency.

The state charged the Southern California Gas Company, or SoCalGas, with violating state health and safety laws by failing to promptly report the leak, and creating a public nuisance, and several other entities -- the city attorney's office, the county, and the California Air Resources Board -- filed lawsuits against the company. SoCalGas settled those claims yesterday, agreeing to pay $119.5 million in damages.

If one were to pay attention to such things, they would know that drinking Coca-Cola (or any high-fructose corn syrup soda for that matter) is not good for you, even under the best of circumstances. And we're not sure if you've heard, but McDonald's doesn't have the greatest rep when it comes to its coffee.

But when the Diet Coke is laced with an opioid, and the latte is more cleaning solution than steamed milk, things get even worse. Just ask two McDonald's customers who got a lot more than they bargained for in their beverages.

Some of us celebrate campfires every day. For the rest of us that live a little further from the wilderness, we might need an annual reminder or excuse to get out, gather around a fire under the stars, and share our best scary stories. That's what this Saturday's National Campfire Day is for.

But, as experienced campers know, fires can be dangerous, even in the best of conditions. So here are some of our best answers to questions about camping, campfire, and wildfire injuries from our archives: how to prevent them, and what to do if they occur.

Summer is the perfect time to be out on the water. The weather is great for swimming, skiing, fishing, or just cruising around. But the weather doesn't always stay great, some of those activities can be dangerous, and a few adult beverages can ruin everyone's day. So, how do you stay safe on the water this summer, and what do you do if there's an accident?

Here are three posts from our archives to help you learn about maritime law, prevent boating accidents, and figure out legal liability.

Lael Feldman, a singer who performed under the name Lael Summer, leapt to her death from New York City's George Washington Bridge last August. In September, the Port Authority of New York began installing the suicide barriers on the bridge. But those measures should've been taken earlier, according to a $100 million lawsuit filed by Feldman's parents.

The bridge is a "suicide magnet" according to the lawsuit, so will the Port Authority be liable for Feldman's suicide?