Page 24 - Florida Sentinel 10-26-18

National
Cancer Patient Won’t Receive $289 Million Awarded In Weed Killer Lawsuit, Judge Rules
Father Approaches Son’s Bully
With Compassion, Discovers
His Family Is Homeless
A Houston father decided to get to the root of a child’s deci- sion to bully his son.
According to ABC13, Aubrey Fontenot was ini- tially angry when he learned that his 8-year-old son Jordan was being taunted by a class- mate named Tamarian. In- stead of trying to turn two wrongs into a right, Fontenot decided to handle the situation on his own unique terms.
The tattoo artist obtained permission from Tamarian’s family to take the young boy shopping. During this time, he talked to the youngster to find out why he was mistreating his son. Fontenot then discov- ered that Tamarian’s family is currently battling homeless- ness and can’t afford to give the young student new clothes or supplies.
“I came with the energy that he was ready to receive,” Fontenot told ABC13. “Be- cause a lot of times, just be- cause you want to talk to me
Aubrey Fontenot and his son, Jordan.
doesn’t mean I want to talk to you. But I think he just wanted; he was ready to talk to me. He knew that I cared. He saw it in my eyes.”
Not only are the two boys friends now, but Fontenot also started a GoFundMe for the boy’s family to find ade- quate shelter. Since the ini- tial posting on Oct. 18, Fontenot has raised over $24,310.
A Northern California man will receive substantially less than the $289 million that he won in a lawsuit against Mon- santo chemicals after the judge decided that the jury gave him too much money. In a ruling handed down Monday (Oct. 22), San Francisco Superior Court Judge Suzanne Bolanos left DeWayne Johnson with less than half of the amount that he was origi- nally awarded over the sum- mer.
According to CNN, Judge Bolanos “constitutionally re- duced to the maximum al- lowed by due process” on grounds that there was “no clear and convincing evidence” to prove malicious intent on Monsanto’s part. Bolano’s lowered the punitive damages from more than $200 million to just over $39 million, bring- ing Johnson’s total amount to around $80 million (which in- cludes $39 million for lost wages). The judge also denied the company’s request to have the case tossed.
DEWAYNE JOHNSON
Johnson, who worked as a school groundskeeper in San Francisco, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after repeatedly using Roundup weed killer at work. He is one of the thousands of other users who has lodged similar claims against the company, which has been ac- cused of “bullying scientist” and manipulating data to hide the herbicide’s carcinogenic properties.
Monsanto, which is owned by German pharma- ceuticals giant Bayer, denies
that Roundup causes cancer. “When we are faced with these kind of questions we only have really one solution, and that is to rely on expert inter- pretation of the existing scien- tific data,”
Harvey Glick from the company’s Singapore office said in a statement of the Roundup product. “That has been done by many ex- perts in many countries and they’ve all come to the same conclusion — that it’s safe.”
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2018 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 13-A