Lawsuits

TikTok’s grip on our collective attention spans might be even more dangerous than we thought. According to the company’s own research, users may only need to watch 260 videos before developing addictive behaviors. The findings also link excessive use to a series of mental health issues, including impaired memory, loss of analytical skills, diminished empathy, and heightened anxiety.

Lawsuits have filed against TikTok, accusing the platform of falsely advertising its algorithm and putting children at risk. The lawsuits claim that the company prioritized user engagement over the well-being of its younger audience.

The unredacted documents suggest that TikTok struggled to balance safety with its desire to keep users engaged. While the platform implemented features like screen time alerts and usage limits, its own data shows these measures had little effect. In fact, the screen time limit feature reduced usage by only 1.5 minutes per day, raising concerns that such interventions were more about optics than actual safety.

The platform’s effect on body image also emerged as a significant issue. The documents allege that TikTok’s algorithm has a bias toward promoting content from conventionally attractive users. Meanwhile, harmful content—such as videos related to eating disorders and suicidal ideation—often slipped through moderation and became part of algorithm-driven “bubbles” that young users were frequently exposed to.

In a statement to NPR, a TikTok spokesperson responded to the allegations, saying, “We have robust safeguards in place, which include proactively removing suspected underage users, and we have voluntarily launched safety features like default screen time limits, family pairing, and privacy settings for minors under 16.”

A Colorado football fan has filed an explosive $100 million lawsuit against the National Football League, claiming league owners conspired to sabotage Shedeur Sanders' draft position after the star quarterback shockingly fell to the fifth round of the NFL draft. The federal lawsuit alleges the once consensus top-5 pick became victim of "collusive practices" that caused the fan "severe emotional distress."

"It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion," the plaintiff, filing as "John Doe," told The Independent. "Every time they passed on Shedeur for some second-rate player, I felt physically sick. This wasn't football - this was personal." The 22-page complaint details how Sanders' draft freefall allegedly violated The Sherman Antitrust Act, with owners collectively suppressing his value. Legal analysts immediately dismissed the case as frivolous, but acknowledge it taps into growing fan skepticism about draft transparency. "They think they're untouchable," the fan said of NFL owners. "Well, not this time."

League sources point to Sanders' reportedly poor combined interviews and off-field concerns as the real reason for his slide. But the lawsuit has ignited fiery debates across sports media about fairness in the draft process. With legal experts giving the case less than a 1% chance of success, the fan's nine-figure demand appears more about making a statement than expecting a payout, potentially opening the floodgates for lawsuits over similar grievances.

The NFL has yet to formally respond, but the case has already accomplished one thing: turning Sanders' disappointing draft night into one of the most talked-about football stories of the year.

Possible Preaching Angle:

While this story may not have much legal basis for a case, it does illustrate the need for believers and churches to be open and transparent in all decisions and business matters. We must be “above reproach” and “blameless” (2 Cor. 4:2; Phil. 2:15; 1 Tim. 5:7; Titus 1:7).

Huy Fong Foods’ founder and owner, David Tran, created the sauce we know as sriracha in his L.A. kitchen as a refugee from Vietnam. Starting with nothing but a recipe and condensed milk cans full of 100 ounces gold that he smuggled out of Vietnam, Tran built Huy Fong Foods over the next four decades into a behemoth that was the No. 3 hot sauce brand in America, behind only Tabasco and Frank’s Red Hot.

Sriracha hot sauce has been copied, counterfeited, and even taken into outer space. Tran didn’t spend a dime on marketing, but his product found fans across the country and was celebrated by chefs and celebrities like Miley Cyrus. The bottle could even be found on the International Space Station.

Then a catastrophic disagreement between Tran and Craig Underwood, the California pepper farmer who had grown the red jalapeños for Huy Fong’s sauce for 28 years, created a crisis for the business. The breakup of Huy Fong Foods and Underwood Ranches, stemming from a disagreement over payment that erupted in November 2016, led to shortages of Huy Fong’s “rooster sauce.” This left millions of fans often unable to get their hands on their favorite condiment. The rift decimated both men’s companies—leaving the farmer with thousands of acres of pepper fields but no customer; and the sauce-maker with a 650,000-square-foot factory but not enough chili peppers to keep it running consistently.

Since then, dozens of other srirachas have flooded the market amid the original’s scarcity, including versions from the likes of Texas Pete and Roland’s and generics from various supermarket chains. And the No. 1 hot sauce brand in America seized the opportunity created by the shortage of Huy Fong’s sauce to dominate the category that Tran created: Tabasco had the bestselling sriracha in the country for the second half of 2023, pulling ahead even of the original rooster sauce.

The sad saga of the two men who created one of America's favorite condiments feels like a kind of fable, or cautionary tale, showing how fragile one product’s dominance of a category can be, no matter how beloved it is.

Possible Preaching Angles:

Just as discord can splinter a business and erode its effectiveness, so disagreements within a church can be equally devastating. Unresolved conflicts have the potential to shatter unity, undoing the hard work, and cause harm to its reputation.

Document MS 165, also known as the ‘Shark Papers,’ is a unique manuscript found at the National Library of Jamaica. It tells the enthralling story of the American brig the ‘Nancy,’ implicated in a court case for smuggling, filed by British Commander Hugh Whylie.

Hugh Whylie's vessel, the Sparrow had captured the ‘Nancy’ in 1799 in the waters of the Caribbean (an area that was forbidden at that time for American vessels), on suspicion of smuggling contraband. However, its captain, Thomas Briggs provided documentation to show that the vessel was Dutch and not American, and therefore had authority to sail in that area. He insisted they were not doing anything illegal. Although not having concrete proof, Captain Whylie, on suspicion, nevertheless sent the crew of the ‘Nancy’ to Jamaica for a court hearing.

Since the captain of the ‘Nancy’ seemed to have his paperwork well in order, for a while it looked like the case could not be sustained due to a lack of evidence of smuggling or of the brig being of American origin.

The story took a new twist however with the arrival of another British vessel, the ‘Ferret,’ whose crew had caught a large shark off the Haitian coast around the same time. To the surprise of the crew, they found sealed documents from the ‘Nancy’ in the shark’s belly. They had apparently been thrown overboard to avoid being convicted for smuggling.

The documents taken from the shark’s belly contained receipts, letters, notary documents, and bills from the ‘Nancy,’ and eventually proved vital in convicting Captain Briggs of smuggling and perjury.

Possible Preaching Angle:

In Luke 12:2, Jesus, speaking about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees said, “There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.” Numbers 32:23 further warns us, “...be sure, your sin will find you out.”

More than a century ago, 110 Black soldiers were convicted of murder, mutiny, and other crimes at three military trials held at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Nineteen were hanged, including 13 on a single day, December 11, 1917, in the largest mass execution of American soldiers by the Army.

The soldiers’ families spent decades fighting to show that the men had been betrayed by the military. In November of 2023, they won a measure of justice when the Army secretary, Christine E. Wormuth, overturned the convictions and acknowledged that the soldiers “were wrongly treated because of their race and were not given fair trials.”

In January 2024, several descendants of the soldiers gathered at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery as the Department of Veterans Affairs dedicated new headstones for 17 of the executed servicemen.

The new headstones acknowledge each soldier’s rank, unit, and home state—a simple honor accorded to every other veteran buried in the cemetery. They replaced the previous headstones that noted only their name and date of death.

Jason Holt, whose uncle, Pfc. Thomas C. Hawkins, was among the first 13 soldiers hanged in 1917, said at the ceremony, “Can you balance the scales by what we’re doing? I don’t know. But it’s an attempt. It’s an attempt to make things right.”

Possible Preaching Angles:

We all long for justice, for the day when things will finally be made right. In this life, justice happens slowly, haphazardly, and sometimes not at all. But when Jesus returns, all things will be made right.

The Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) program is a federally funded law enforcement initiative that trains officers to recognize symptoms of drivers under the influence of illegal substances. It’s like a field sobriety test, but for harder drugs instead of alcohol. Proponents of the program argue that it's the best available tool to detect drugged drivers.

But various industry experts are criticizing the program for its questionable scientific basis and lack of consistent testing protocols. They are calling it a process that can be easily manipulated by officers seeking to make drug-related arrests.

Haley Butler-Moore, a nurse, experienced the controversial nature of DRE firsthand when she was pulled over in Colorado for speeding. Despite denying any recreational drug use, the officer insisted her eyes suggested otherwise. At the officer’s suggestion, Butler-Moore agreed to undergo a DRE evaluation, unaware of its implications.

After observing her behavior and vital signs, the DRE officer concluded she was impaired by a double dose of her prescribed depressants. Butler-Moore insisted on her sobriety, which was later confirmed by a blood test revealing no traces of drugs or alcohol. She said, “I just felt like I was another test subject for them, and that felt really unfair.” The attorney representing her in a suit against the arresting officers said, “It's such utter nonsense. A cop can use it to manufacture whatever conclusion of impairment they want.”

In 2012, a group of Maryland defense attorneys sued creators of the DRE program, presenting to the judge a group of cases that they felt was police misconduct under the guise of DRE. They called a number of expert witnesses. Judge Micheal Galloway ultimately ruled in their favor, saying that “the DRE protocol fails to produce an accurate and reliable determination of whether a suspect is impaired by drugs and by what specific drug he is impaired.”

Despite this ruling, the DRE program has continued to expand, training more than a thousand new officers every year.

Possible Preaching Angle:

God cares about justice for people; leaders who abuse their position dishonor the authority they have been given.

The U.S. Supreme Court weighs in on a small number of cases, and most of the cases have national implications—except in the strange case of Stuart Harrow.

The Department of Defense employee is before the Court to find out whether a missed email spells an end to his 11-year quest to get $3,000 of pay (and interest) he says was wrongly withheld during 2013 budget cuts that briefly forced him out of work.

His case would feel right at home in small-claims court. But in March of 2024, the nine justices of the highest court in the land heard oral arguments about whether the government should let him continue his fight for six days of back pay.

With the nine justices lined up on the bench, Justice Neil Gorsuch wondered how the issue had come to this. “Here we are in the Supreme Court of the United States over a $3,000 claim,” said Gorsuch. “I’m— I’m just wondering why the government’s making us do this.”

The legal answer trudges a decadelong path including a three-person federal board that couldn’t make a quorum for five years. There was a missed email to an abandoned account.

The human answer is that Harrow, 73, hasn’t given up. Largely representing himself, Harrow has seen his appeal be rejected by the Defense Department, an administrative law judge, and a federal board.

The case writing Harrow’s name in the annals of jurisprudence considers only whether that deadline is so inflexible that it would prevent his claim from ever getting its day in court. So, the Supreme Court will render a decision on something that might seem beneath it.

Possible Preaching Angles:

As Jesus would say, “Will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?” (Luke 18:7)

A Florida mother has sued artificial intelligence chatbot startup Character.AI accusing it of causing her 14-year-old son's suicide in February of 2024. She said he became addicted to the company's service and deeply attached to a chatbot it created.

Megan Garcia is on a mission to raise awareness about the dangers of AI. Garcia maintains that the site’s protocols to protect children are woefully inadequate, and wants to spare other parents from the pain she’s had to endure.

In an interview, Garcia said, “I want them to understand that this is a platform that the designers chose to put out without proper guardrails, safety measures or testing, and it is a product that is designed to keep our kids addicted and to manipulate them.”

Garcia maintains that her son, Sewell Setzer III, had been chatting with an AI chatbot on the platform for months, and that as a result, he’d become more withdrawn and sullen. Sewell eventually quit the JV basketball team during this time.

It was only after confiscating his phone as punishment for misbehavior that Garcia discovered that many of the chatbot’s conversations with her son were sexually explicit. “I don’t think any parent would approve of that,” said Garcia, adding that the discovery was “gut wrenching.”

In the lawsuit, Garcia says that her son had been specifically chatting with it in the moments before he died. In the exchange, Sewell had mentioned considering self-harm, and the chatbot seemed to encourage that desire. Sewell then shot himself with his stepfather's pistol "seconds" later, the lawsuit said.

Garcia said, “There were no suicide pop-up boxes that said, ‘If you need help, please call the suicide crisis hotline.’ None of that. I don’t understand how a product could allow that, where a bot is not only continuing a conversation about self-harm but also prompting it and kind of directing it.”

After the lawsuit was announced, Character.AI announced a sweeping set of changes designed to protect its younger users, a move that Garcia derided as “too little, too late.”

After a public outcry and a round of bad press against the entertainment behemoth, Jeffrey Piccolo’s lawsuit against Disney will proceed as planned.

Piccolo and his wife, Kanokporn Tangsuan, were dining in a restaurant called Raglan Road, which is of part of the Disney Springs shopping center adjacent to the Disney World entertainment complex. Despite making her food allergies clear and being reassured that her meal would be allergen free, Tangsuan suffered an allergic reaction after her meal, and died of anaphylaxis.

Piccolo subsequently sued Raglan Road, and included Disney in its list of defendants, despite the fact that Disney didn’t own the restaurant but merely leased it the space to operate. As part of Disney’s defense, it cited some fine print in the Disney+ end user license agreement (EULA), in which the user agrees to resolve any future disputes in arbitration rather than court. Similar legal language is included any time a customer books a ticket to any of its theme parks.

Corporations like Disney often prefer arbitration over litigation because it’s faster, more cost efficient, and its rulings are binding. Also, because arbitration proceedings are private, there’s no risk of dirty laundry being exposed in court.

But a firestorm of controversy erupted because of all the public attention on Disney. It appeared the company was using a legal technicality to avoid any measure of legal culpability in Tangsuan’s death. As a result, the company reversed course. Disney Experiences chairman Josh D’Amaro released a statement, which included the following:

At Disney, we strive to put humanity above all other considerations. With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss. As such, we've decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Though there are advantages to avoiding the formality of court to settle informal disputes, the court is society’s official means of securing a measure of justice and accountability. Businesses which use loopholes to shortcut justice will fall under God’s condemnation (Prov. 11:1; Deut. 25:16).

For years, Jalon Hall was touted as a bright spot for Google’s reputation for diversity. Hall is an African American deaf woman, and had been highlighted on the company’s official social media channels. On LinkedIn, Google praised Hall and said she was “helping expand opportunities for black deaf professionals,” and on Instagram she was hailed as “making life at Google more inclusive.”

But for Hall, those platitudes were only words, and were not backed up with actions. Hall recently filed a lawsuit against Google for failing to provide the accommodations they promised her, and for creating a hostile work environment by characterizing her complaints according to racialized stereotypes.

In an interview Hall said, “Google is using me to make them look inclusive for the deaf community and the overall disability community. In reality, they need to do better. I’m standing in the gap for those often pushed aside.”

Hall says when she was hired as a content moderator in 2020, the company promised to provide interpreters to help her review content as part of YouTube’s child safety regulations, but the company refused. And a manager in another division called her an “aggressive black deaf woman” and advised her to “keep her mouth shut and take a sales role.”

Hall says she filed three HR complaints before she sued, and wants to remain at Google to help promote a better work environment for others.

In 1907, the American Thermos Bottle Company launched a marketing campaign to popularize its vacuum-insulated bottles. They succeeded so spectacularly that “thermos” became a household word. The problem was, by the early 1920s, competitors were using the term “thermos” to describe their vacuum-insulated bottles as well. And so began the battle for the trademark, which included multiple lawsuits, changing the name of the business to the American Thermos Products Company, and launching Thermos-branded tents and stoves in an effort to prove that “thermos” was not a generic word for vacuum bottles. But it was too late. In 1963 a court deemed that the term “had entered the public domain beyond recall.”

Thermos is not the only corporate brand to fall victim to its own success. “Escalator,” “laundromat,” and “zipper” all used to be trademarks. Believe it or not, a company called Sealed Air Corporation still holds the rights to “Bubble Wrap,” Wham-O Inc. owns “Hula Hoop,” and Sony is hanging on to “Memory Stick.” Velcro went as far as producing a music video urging us to refer to generic versions of their product as “hook and loop,” but that’s not going to catch on.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Positive spin: Many words in Christianity have also taken on a “life of their own.” We commonly hear phrases like “it’s the gospel truth,” “it is the company’s mission statement,” and it is “their cross to bear.” This can be an aid to preaching, if we are careful to define what the Bible means by these now familiar words.

Negative spin: We must be careful that the gospel, the cross, and our mission not be watered down by the world hijacking biblical words, redefining them, and robbing them of their original unique spiritual meaning.

When Bernard Robins saw the three officers eyeing him from their department cruiser, it was a familiar look. He’d been stopped by police multiple times before as a teen and young adult, but previously chalked up those encounters to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was also familiar because he’d logged plenty of time in a cruiser himself, as a member of the LA Police Department.

So, he conducted himself as he always does in these scenarios – he kept things polite, kept his hands in plain view, and informed the officers that he also wore the badge. None of that mattered to these officers, who still handcuffed Robins, despite no wrongdoing on his part.

Off duty that day, Robins had been spending time in pursuit of his passion, filmmaking. Having just come from a shoot for a film he’d written, Robins was chatting with a lighting tech that he knew. Police eventually detained Robins because they suspected the tech of criminal activity, but failed to release him even after he supplied them with identification confirming his status as an officer.

Robins says that after returning to work, his supervisor and many of his colleagues were generally supportive. Nevertheless, he wondered if his fellow officers would have his back out in the field, particularly after he discovered rumors that he was gang affiliated, a charge he vehemently denies. Robins eventually sued the department, accusing members of a gang unit of racially profiling him.

Robins said the incident shook his faith in policing, causing him to reconsider whether he could still participate in the organization he’d been so excited to join just three years prior. During his mandated sessions with a police psychologist before his return, Robins had been encouraged to just put on the uniform and see how it felt. It was the same unform that he’d previously been proud to wear. Robins said, “All I did was put the uniform on, but it just felt too uncomfortable.” And after that, he told his supervisor that he was done.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Sometimes taking a stand for what is right involves relinquishing power and position. It also means telling the truth, even when it comes at a cost to one's career prospects.

Financial consultant and popular radio host Dave Ramsey is being sued by a group of former listeners over his role in promoting a company alleged to have defrauded customers of millions of dollars.

The class-action lawsuit claims that Ramsey’s Lampo Group, earned about $30 million from 2015 to 2021 endorsing Timeshare Exit Team. This Kirkland, Washington company received over $200 million in revenue by promising to relieve clients of their costly financial obligations from time share agreements.

In 2021, Timeshare Exit Team paid $2.61 million as part of a settlement with the attorney general of the state of Washington over what it claims were deceptive business practices. This included advising clients to stop paying timeshare fees and issuing fake property deeds in an attempt to convince clients they were free of their obligations. The complaint reads, “When customers finally discovered the schemes and demanded their refunds, [Timeshare Exit Team founder] Reed Hein fabricated excuses not to honor the promises or stopped returning their calls.”

The lawsuit seeks $150 million in damages, claiming that the actions of Ramsey Solutions, Timeshare Exit Team, and Happy Hour Media Group, conspired to commit “negligent malrepresentation” and “unjust enrichment” in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act.

Ramsey has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, but plaintiffs in the suit claim that Ramsey should have known better. The lawsuit reads:

Reed Hein made many claims that any competent financial advisor with Dave Ramsey’s knowledge and skill would know to be false, and it engaged in many activities Dave Ramsey would have known to be illegal. Ramsey never returned any of the tens of millions of dollars Reed Hein and Happy Hour Media Group paid him from his own listeners’ hard-earned money. Instead, Ramsey has chosen to profit from his listeners’ money.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Anyone who preaches financial accountability must be willing to submit their own behavior to that same standard. We lose credibility in the community of faith when we have standards for others that we do not adopt for ourselves.

Eleven-year-old Aderrien Murry once held aspirations of becoming a police officer, but that changed after a recent encounter with law enforcement. Murry was with his mother Nakala late one night when a domestic disturbance broke out between her and the father of one of his siblings. Nakala asked him to call 911, and he did, asking for assistance from local police.

According to attorney Carlos Moore, representing the Murry family, the first officer on the scene was Greg Capers, who arrived with his firearm drawn. Even after Nakala told Capers that no one in the apartment was armed, she says Capers yelled out a command for anyone in the apartment to come out with their hands up. And while Aderrian was complying with the officer’s command and had his hands up, the officer shot him anyway. At a news conference, she remembered the boy’s immediate response: “Why did he shoot me? What did I do?”

A representative from the Indianola Police Department eventually confirmed Capers’ identity as the shooter, and referred to the incident as “extremely tragic on both sides.” Officials have since launched a probe into the shooting, although it’s not clear whether racial animus played a role in the shooting, since Capers, Nakala, and Aderrien Murry are all African American.

Still, the family and many members of the local community are shaken, despite the fact that Aderrien is expected to make a full recovery. Attorney Moore said, “There’s no justification for what this officer did. Aderrien came within an inch of losing his life over the officer’s reckless actions.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

In a climate of hopelessness and violence, even children can become targeted by careless officials. The way of Jesus is marked by making peace, taking care, and creating safety for everyone in the community, not just the rich or powerful.

Like many parents of grown children, Sadhana and Sanjeev Prasad of India are frustrated at the lack of grandchildren in the picture. But, the Prasads resorted to a desperate tactic to force their son’s hand. They are suing him.

The couple's legal representative said, “They raised him, educated him, made him capable, made him a pilot -- which was expensive.” The Prasad’s filed a suit against their son and daughter-in-law, seeking damages in the amount of 50 million Indian rupees, or about $643,000 in US dollars. “They see people in their neighborhood playing with their grandchildren and feel like they should also have one. They said they didn't marry (their son and daughter-in-law) off so that they can live alone. So, they said, in the next year, either give us a grandchild or give us compensation.”

According to CNN, such lawsuits are rare, but they highlight the strong familial traditions in India, where carrying on the family line is of utmost importance. Lawsuits like this reflect the inevitable conflicts that arise from generational shifts in perspective that include a stronger focus on work and career over raising a family.

Possible Preaching Angle:

When we struggle with frustration, uncertainty, and anxiety, lashing out does not get us any closer to what we want. Rather, we are instructed to trust God for our needs, and remain loving and patient with those around us.

A woman from Omsk, Russia, is reportedly suing McDonald's over an advertisement featuring cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets, which she said caused her to break her fast during Lent. Ksenia Ovchinnikova, an Orthodox Christian, said she was trying to stay away from meat and other animal products during the six-week period leading up to Easter.

She said, “When I saw an advertising banner, I could not help myself. I visited McDonald's and bought a cheeseburger.” In her official complaint, she explains: “In the actions of McDonald's, I see a violation of the consumer protection law. I ask the court to investigate and, if a violation has taken place, to oblige McDonald's to compensate me for moral damage in the amount of one thousand rubles ($14 US dollars).”

Jeanne Pouchain knows she’s not dead. But she has to prove it in court. The 58-year-old French woman was declared dead by a court in 2017 during a decade long legal case. An employee Pouchain had fired years ago sued her for lost wages and told a court that Pouchain was dead after she stopped responding to the employee’s letters.

Without evidence, the French court accepted the allegation and levied a judgment against Pouchain’s estate. The court’s decision set off a chain reaction in France’s bureaucracy, which scrubbed her from official records and invalidated her identity cards and licenses.

Pouchain recently told The Guardian, “I have no identity papers, no health insurance, I cannot prove to the banks that I am alive … I’m nothing.” Pouchain’s attorney then presented an affidavit to the court from her doctor attesting to her continued existence. Her former employee says Pouchain had been pretending to be dead in order to avoid paying the court-mandated damages.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Christians can also appear to be dead if they let their spiritual life lapse. This is true in church membership (Rev. 3:1) and also in the lifestyle they choose if they fall into worldliness (Eph. 5:14-15; Rom. 13:11).

The risk of falling should be obvious. It is so obvious that it has become an established part of the legal system. In a recent civil case, an appeals court dismissed the complaint of a college student who had fallen from a bunk bed. The basis of the case was that the institution “neglected” to include a notice concerning the risk and danger of falling from the bed. The court held that the student, who had slept in the bunk for three months, had “equal knowledge that the lofted bed was raised off the ground and lacked guardrails before she fell.”

The judge’s decision concluded with the phrase: “And significantly we have repeatedly held . . . that 'no danger is more commonly realized or risk appreciated than that of falling.’”

To read the complete court decision click here.

Michael Fesser has been treated very badly by people in authority, but his greatest vindication seems to be in proving that he’s not the man he once was. Fesser made local papers after receiving sizable cash settlements resulting from discrimination lawsuits with his former employer and two local police departments.

An African American, Fesser faced racial harassment back in 2017 from coworkers at a local towing company. When his bosses did nothing to curb the harassment, he filed suit, claiming the racial harassment created a hostile working environment. In retaliation, his boss enlisted the help of friends in law enforcement to generate a pretext for Fesser to be arrested on bogus charges. One officer went along with the plan because he knew Fesser from his younger days as a drug dealer with gang ties. That officer hadn’t made contact in 20 years, but he was convinced that Fesser was still involved in criminal activity.

But by this point, Fesser had become a different person. While in prison, he began to reckon with his life up to that point. Fesser said, “In isolation, I read the Bible from front to back, and started applying it to my life. … That’s what drove me. When I get out of here, I want to do something different. I want to change men. I want to change lives.”

Since his release in 2004, Fesser had been making good on his plans. He’d dedicated his life to expressing his Christian faith, and helping others successfully transition out of prison. He’s already used part of his settlement money to help purchase a transitional home in NE Portland, his old stomping grounds. Fesser said, “I wanted the transition home to be in the same neighborhood I destroyed.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

God is constantly in the redemption business, taking us from who we used to be to whom we are called to be. Even when others don't recognize that growth, God honors the steps we take to move toward His vision for our lives.

When a bank teller accidentally deposited $120,000 in the wrong account, the account’s owners went on a shopping spree. State police said a Montoursville, Pa., couple purchased an SUV, a race car, two four-wheelers, and a camper, as well as paying bills and giving $15,000 to friends.

Do they get to keep the money? Robert and Tiffany Williams’ bank contacted them after realizing the error and told them they had to return the money. But the Williamses didn’t have the money anymore, and the bank took them to court. Now they face felony theft charges. As they arrived at court on Monday, Robert Williams told a TV reporter, “All I’m going to say is we took some bad legal advice from some people, and it probably wasn’t the best thing in the end.”

Possible Preaching Angles: 1) Advice; Counsel; Guidance – Only following wise advice from godly friends will protect us from many costly mistakes; 2) Honesty; Integrity - While most of us will not be tempted by a large financial mistake by a bank, most of us must decide about the extra change we receive at the store or the mistaken refund by the IRS.