Star Tribune
‘Wrongful conception’ lawsuit weighs joy of unplanned child vs. liability from botched vasectomy
“We leave it to the jury,” Thomas said.
The Szlachtowskis have retained Felix Friedt, an economics professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, who calculated that the cost of raising the child is somewhere between $300,000 and $600,000.
If the jury decides the joy of raising a child is worth less than that, the differences would be part of any potential damages awarded to the Szlachtowskis.
Those aren’t the only damages they can win, though. In a pretrial order for this case, Judge Bridget Sullivan ruled childrearing expenses and costs are the only things that can be weighed against any “aid, comfort and society” that the child’s birth provides. That means if a jury awards other damages — for instance physical pain, medical damages, loss of economic opportunity or emotional distress — those will not have to be weighed against anything.
The Szlachtowskis were also seeking more than $6 million related to “loss of earning capacity” and filed a motion seeking punitive damages ahead of the trial.
The lawsuit claimed the earning potential of both parents was hampered due to the unplanned pregnancy. The Szlachtowskis argued they both had been waiting for their other children to all reach kindergarten age before pursuing additional employment opportunities. Megan indicated she was going to apply for a job in Chicago that could have included a substantial pay raise, but could not due so because the family needed to stay in Minnesota to have support raising their newborn. Steven said his pursuit of career advancement and increased salary has also been stalled.
Star Tribune
Richfield nursing home staff suspected of slow response to resident dying, forging DNR form
Staff members at a Richfield nursing home are accused of forging a do-not-resuscitate directive after responding slowly to a patient dying, according to police.
In a search warrant affidavit filed Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court, police asked for a judge’s permission to seize from The Villas at Richfield all relevant medical records, video surveillance and identities of any medical staff involved in the care of 55-year-old Candace Columbus, who died on Oct. 2.
The affidavit said police began investigating Columbus’ death on Oct. 7, when they received a state Department of Human Services (DHS) report detailing various suspicions of first responders who were called to the nursing home to aid Columbus.
According to the affidavit:
A report from the DHS’s Minnesota Adult Abuse Reporting Center said paramedics were called to The Villas after nursing home staff “suspected [Columbus] was dying but did not check on her or call 911 promptly.”
The Villas staff claimed that Columbus had a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) directive on file, but they did not provide it when asked by police officers, firefighters and paramedics on scene.
First responders then saw staff “filling out a DNR form, and they are suspected of forging documents. No physician was present to sign the form.”
Police reviewed officer body-worn camera video, which showed staff on the phone “with someone who claims to be the facility manager, who appears to be giving the staff instructions on how to fill out the DNR form.”
Footage from Voyageurs National Park recently caught a large cougar on camera.
The male cougar was seen on Oct. 25 in the Marion/Franklin Lake area of the national park, according to a post on the Voyageurs Wolf Project’s social media pages.
“Most cougars traveling through Minnesota and the Great Lakes region are thought to be young dispersing males. This one appears to be a hunk,” the caption read.
There have been just six observations of cougars within the national park in the past 3 years, all seemingly solitary individuals not spotted again, the park said. They have yet to see evidence that there is a breeding population of cougars in the area.
Q: What was your business experience before buying the coffee shop?
A: I wanted to [be a chef]. But I did theater. I trained at the Guthrie. Then I went to L.A. I moved to L.A. on a Thursday, auditioned on a Friday. I got in on a Monday, I did a bunch of indie films. I made a little money. You know when a movie isn’t so great, it goes to video? Yeah [laughs], but I still got paid. Then I realized, after five years, I hated it. Halle Berry’s manager, Vincent [Cirrincione], goes, “I’ll take you on.” But they want me to take these classes. Helen Hunt’s mother, I would wait on her. She said, “Oh, you’re gonna be famous.” I said, “Oh, everyone always says that.” But then I put on my clothes and go home and nothing happens. Everyone had this angle. It was exhausting. And [points to himself] this personality works great in the Midwest. It didn’t really work in Los Angeles.
A: I think you need that in L.A., where you don’t care about anybody. And the sad thing is, I’ve got this golden retriever personality. It did really well at work, and I would meet people. But it didn’t do really well in that acting thing. Then I got hit by a car at a crosswalk, and I couldn’t work for about three, four weeks. So I was gonna go back to school … do the 4+1 program at the U of M in architecture. I took the classes, and I realized the program was too theoretical. So I switched to engineering and construction management. So I have a B.S. in construction management, and then I threw in a B.A. in Spanish language and literature. And then I have a minor in East Asian studies with Chinese lingual emphasis.
Q: None of which is a prerequisite for opening a coffee shop.
A: No. But the whole thing is, I was in construction, and I worked for two companies that had a habit of not paying me. God bless them. And I was always teaching and making desserts and doing wedding cakes. And then eight years ago, I had $37 in the bank, and I was working 80 hours a week. But I had a paid-for house, and a paid-for car. So, I just kind of went full force into catering, and then wedding cakes happened. And then I got a good reputation, did a lot of charity work, events, home shows.
