A trio of Valley stories this morning from Courthouse News Service:
* The failed deal to build a fancier spring-training ballpark in Goodyear has blossomed into a lawsuit. The moneybag behind the deal, M&I Marshall Ilsley Bank, wants Goodyear to get the ballpark up and runnning, pay $10 million in reimbursements for construction costs and dole out another $5 million in tax breaks. The suit targets the city and the developing companies, MPK Enterprises, Swansea Properties, and Eagletail Bighorn.
Oh, well -- whatever gets us in a warm seat with a hot dog and a beer the fastest. The Cleveland Indians played at the existing facility earlier this year, and the Cincinnati Reds are expected to come out in 2010.
* A trial program to use Amazon.com's Kindle digital reader drew a lawsuit from a blind student and blind peoples' groups who say its use is discriminatory.
http://www.ci.goodyear.az.us/Archive.aspx?ADID=2936
Although 10 schools signed up for the program, the groups are suing only one of them, Arizona State University. This could be a good example of how technology can leave behind certain groups if we're not careful. The groups want the program halted. Clever software ought to solve the problem, in the long run.
* Philadelphia Phillies player Gary Matthews Jr. thought he was getting off cheap, getting ordered to pay just $1,561 a month in child support to a former girlfriend. Jamie Lee East, thinks the couple's 5-year-old daughter ought to get a bigger slice of the ballplayer's $10.4 million-a-year salary. [Duh]. She pressed her case in the Arizona Court of Appeals and won. The family court should have taken into consideration what the kid's lifestyle would be if the parents had lived together, says the opinion.
