National Roundup

New York
Immigrant sues restaurant over ethnic slur
NEW YORK (AP) — A Korean immigrant has sued a Hooters restaurant in New York City for racial discrimination after discovering an ethnic slur on his food receipt.
According to the lawsuit filed by Kisuk Cha, the computer receipt he and his girlfriend received for a July 1 takeout order in Queens contained the slur “Chinx.”
The suit was filed Monday in Brooklyn federal court.
Cha’s attorney, Daniel Baek, says his client was shocked and threw away the food when he got home.
A lawyer for the restaurant franchise says the food server whose name appeared on the receipt was cleared after a hostess admitted she wrote the slur.
Edward McCabe says the hostess has apologized and resigned.
The suit seeks damages, and names Hooters of America, the owners of the Queens franchise and the two workers.

Kentucky
Family of dead inmate settles for $975K with feds
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The family of a federal inmate who died a year after being released from prison and the government have settled lawsuits alleging medical negligence in the man’s death for $975,000.
The agreement covers all claims brought by Mary Bell of Dearborn Heights, Mich., against the federal government related to the death of her son, 39-year-old Timothy Bell. Timothy Bell was a drug offender from Michigan serving time in prison in Inez, near the Kentucky-West Virginia state line, when a doctor ordered a biopsy of a mass in his right arm pit.
The biopsy wasn’t done for more than a year, by which time Bell had stage 3 or stage 4 cancer, which resulted in his death in December 2010.
The settlement covers two lawsuits filed in federal court in Pikeville.

West Virginia
Judge OKs music fest settlements with SC victims
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — The family of a South Carolina woman killed at the 2011 All Good Music Festival will get about $570,000 from lawsuit settlements a federal judge has approved.
U.S. District Judge Irene Kelley approved agreements Monday that also pay Kim Miller’s lawyers $233,000.
Miller’s daughter Nicole died and two friends were injured when a pickup crashed into a tent where they were sleeping. All were from Mount Pleasant, S.C.
Survivors Yen Ton and Rosie Doran are also settling several claims.
Keeley called the deals with driver Clay Lewin of Cape Charles, Va., and other parties “fair and reasonable.”
Miller also settled claims against James Tobin Productions.
The Dominion Post says Ton and Doran get $100,000 apiece under the Lewin deal and $150,000 from Tobin’s insurers.
Other settlements await court approval.

California
New child sex allegations against ex-priest
STOCKTON, Calif. (AP) — There are new child sex allegations against a former California priest.
A San Joaquin County lawsuit filed on Tuesday says Michael Kelly sexually abused a 12-year-old boy in the 1980s when he was a priest at St. Andrews Church in San Andreas.
Five months ago, a Stockton civil jury found Kelly liable for the molestation of an altar boy when he was a priest at Cathedral of Annunciation in Stockton in the 1980s.
The Catholic Diocese of Stockton paid nearly $4 million to settle that suit.
Kelly was removed from the ministry and has since gone to his native Ireland, citing health problems.
The Modesto Bee says the latest suit was filed against the diocese.
Plaintiff attorney Vince Finaldi says the diocese knew Kelly was having sex with boys.

New Mexico
Albuquerque to pay $439,000 to settle lawsuit
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — The city of Albuquerque will pay the widow of a murder victim $439,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that police could have arrested the killer before the 2008 crime.
The Albuquerque Journal reports that attorneys for the city still dispute that officers bungled an earlier murder investigation.
Katherine Pierce sued after her husband Scott was killed when serial killer Clifton Bloomfield targeted the house they had recently bought in June 2008. Pierce’s lawyers say police should have arrested Bloomfield earlier, preventing Scott Pierce’s death and the 2007 deaths of a Korean couple.
Deputy City attorney Kathryn Levy says officers did nothing wrong. The city settled to avoid the risk of a trial.
Bloomfield ultimately was sentenced to 195 years in prison for five murders.

Arizona
Attorneys for polygamous town seek venue change
COLORADO CITY, Ariz. (AP) — Attorneys defending a polygamous town on the Utah-Arizona border against allegations of civil rights violations want a change of venue.
A lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice in June claims that officials in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City have supported a campaign of intimidation against former members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and denied them services.
Residents of both communities largely are made up of members of the FLDS, run by jailed leader Warren Jeffs.
The Hildale defendants have asked a judge to move the case from Phoenix to Utah, where court proceedings could be held in Salt Lake City or St. George. They say that will cut down on travel time and expenses for parties and witnesses in the case.

Arkansas
Tony Alamo asks for new hearing on lawsuit appeal
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Attorneys for convicted evangelist Tony Alamo are asking the full U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to consider Alamo’s appeal of a lawsuit that found he ordered two children in his religious compound be beaten.
A jury found in favor of Spencer Ondrisek and Seth Calagna, who sued Alamo for allegedly ordering that they be beaten and bullied when they were children at Alamo’s compound.
The appeal contends the court’s three-judge panel wrongly found no error in jury instructions. Alamo’s attorneys wanted the jury to be instructed that corporal punishment was reasonable by school personnel and others in certain circumstances.
Alamo is serving a 175-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2009 of taking young girls across state lines for sex.