My brother-in-law’s test results found he had swine flu. Suddenly, the airline, the hotel in Hawaii, the hospitals, and the local health department were very interested in them. By the time they knew, it was already mostly done. Can we afford to make a joke out of it and write it off as another fear tactic? No. It is not nearly that harmless.

Wal-Mart has agreed to a settlement amount of nearly $2 million dollars in the “Black Friday” incident that resulted in one death and injury to eleven others in their Nassau, New York store. By doing so they will not face criminal charges that were being sought, and could have only resulted in a $10,000 fine. What does this mean to the survivor’s family and others’ who were injured?

I know that our government wants to avoid panic. On the other hand, I don’t expect people in positions of authority to sit there and pretend that everything is fine. That is not crisis management. That is avoidance.

A Denver man pushes three people out of the path of a speeding pickup truck only to get struck and injured himself. To add insult to injury (literally), the man, suffering from bleeding in the brain, ruptured spleen, broken bones, and a dislocated shoulder, was issued a jaywalking ticket by a nearby state trooper. Uh… thanks?

Superheroes of the world, take notice! Forget about the baterang or spiderwebs. Yes, the newest tool in the vigilante’s utility belt is the wedgie- in Salt Lake City, at least.

Some airlines are safer than others. Based on data gathered from the FAA, MTSM, and the Dept. of Transportation, the following list shows the five safest airlines based on number of accidents per 1 million takeoffs. These numbers are the yearly average from Jan. 1, 2002 to Jan. 1, 2007…

I’ve never liked restroom stalls. Everything about them is uncomfortable. They are claustrophobic. Well, add another unpleasant feature to the restroom stall. A man in St. Petersburg, Florida is suing Lowes Home Center for injuries sustained while using their toilet.