What do most parents do when their daughter doesn't make the cheerleading squad?  Cheer them up, right?

Samantha "Sami" Sanches' parents went a few steps further and sued.  When the former Creekview (Texas) High School cheerleader was left off the varsity squad roster, her parents sued the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District seeking Title IX relief for alleged retaliation and sex discrimination.  They lost in district court, and in a recent decision, judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit tossed the family's appeal.

"It's a petty squabble, masquerading as a civil rights matter, that has no place in federal court or any other court," the 5th Circuit opinion begins.

Allegedly, troubles for Sami began during her junior year and could be traced back to a boy who was the ex-boyfriend of a varsity cheerleader.  After a series of incidents between the two cheerleaders, including Facebook posts, classroom threats, cheerleading tryout pranks and more, Sami's lawyer fired off a six-page missive detailing a laundry list of perceived injustices.  Despite the legalese, Sami didn't make the squad and the family responded with a lawsuit.

In the formal complaint, the family claimed that a hostile school environment caused Sami not to make the varsity squad, resulting in her being diagnosed with depression.  Yet, Federal Magistrate Judge Paul D. Stickney was unmoved by the lawsuit's description of Sami's junior year as a "nightmare of gender-based bullying and harassment" and ruled for the school district.

According to news reports, Sami's attorneys lambasted Stickney with a semi-coherent rant filed before the 5th Circuit, disregarding the most elemental tenets of professionalism, spelling and subject-verb agreement.

"Usually we do not comment on technical and grammatical errors, because anyone can make a technical mistake, but here the miscues are so egregious and obvious that an average fourth grader would have avoided most of them," the opinion says in a hilarious footnote at the end.

—Source:  DallasObserver.com (Texas)

A Washington, D.C., Starbucks near the National Mall is being sued by a Norfolk, Virginia man after his 5-year-old daughter allegedly found a video camera pointed at the toilet in the bathroom of the coffeehouse. 

William Yockey is asking for $1 million in a civil suit on four counts, including breach of privacy, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligent hiring, training and supervision.  Yockey claims that after his daughter used the bathroom she discovered a digital video camera hidden in the U-shaped drain pipe under the sink, pointed at the toilet. Yockey contacted the manager, who called the police.

Yockey described the incident as a "humiliating and disgusting matter" and claimed that if Starbucks conducted timely inspections of the bathroom the camera would have been noticed.

According to news sources, this is the third incident of a hidden camera in a Starbucks; the other incidents reportedly occurred in California and Florida. 

Starbucks spokesman Alan Hilowitz said: "We take our obligation to provide a safe environment for our customers  and our employees very, very seriously."

—Source:  Reuters

A "naturally growing lawn" has led to a lawsuit by the Middleton (CT) Health Department.  Filed by Health Department Director Joseph Havlicek, the lawsuit seeks collection of nearly $120,000 in fines from local resident Jackson LaRose for allegedly violating the city's housing code. 

According to news reports, LaRose’s all-natural gardening method, also known as permaculture, has put him at odds with his next-door neighbor Joanne Faust and in June 2010 a health inspector lodged a complaint against LaRose, explaining that his lawn is a "potential harborage for vermin."

“We’re not out in the country,” she said, explaining that she has seen snakes, toads and a snapping turtle in LaRose’s lawn. “We just want to live next door to something respectable. It’s ridiculous. It’s out of control.”

Faust further complained that the ragweed in LaRose's backyard prevents her mother, who’s allergic to the plant, from visiting her home when it’s in season.

LaRose counters that his permaculture experiment improves the quality of the soil.   “I’m letting the soil grow rather than just leaching it out with chemicals,” he said.

LaRose further maintains that the city’s laws don’t require his lawn to look like other people’s, and until he gets more input from the city, he’s unsure what to do with his lawn.

“Just because something’s generally accepted doesn’t make it right,” he said. “There’s a lot of ways to do it.”

Source:  The Middleton Press (Connecticut)

White Castle claims to be the first fast-food hamburger chain, the first to sell a million hamburgers, the first to sell a billion hamburgers and the first to sell frozen fast-food. Now, it can add to its list of firsts one more:  the first to be sued by a customer because its booths aren't big enough.

Martin Kessman of New York filed a lawsuit against White Castle claiming that the fast-food chain repeatedly broke promises to make the booths in his local eatery bigger.  In his federal lawsuit, 290-pound Kessman claims the uncomfortable booths violate the civil rights of fat people.

“They’re stationary booths,” he told a reporter.  “I’m not humongous, [but] I’m a big guy. I could not wedge myself in. ...They sent me specs and everything, about how the booths were going to be enlarged and made comfortable for people with a little more weight. So two and a half years went by, and nothing was done."

Kessman is suing for bigger chairs and unspecified damages.  The Americans with Disabilities Act is "applicable -- not only to me, but to pregnant women and to handicapped people," according to Kessman. "I just want to sit down like a normal person."

According to the lawsuit, White Castle replied with three “very condescending letters” -- and an offer that added insult to injury:  Each letter contained a coupon for three free hamburgers, but the cheese was extra. 

“My wife went and picked up the burgers ... because I did not want to set foot into the store,” Kessman said. “Any subsequent trips to the store have been made by my wife -- I have been like an outcast.”

—Source:  NYPost.com