Lawsuits: Sexy dancing and severed finger

Lawsuit over sexy dancing

A 64-year-old North Carolina woman has been awarded $275,000 after her town banned her from its weekly community dances. Rebecca Willis danced in short skirts, “simulating sexual intercourse with her partner, who hunched on the floor,” lawyers for the town of Marshall had alleged. But this week, the town decided to settle her lawsuit, a tacit admission—says Willis—that it had infringed upon her freedom of expression. “I won,’’ she said. “There’s really not much else I can say.”

Man severs fingertip on Martha Stewart chair

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An Iowa man who injured his finger moving a Martha Stewart–branded chair is suing the homemaking titan. Patrick Albanese’s fingertip was severed in the incident, and though it was later reattached, he claims he’s lost “earning capacity” in both his careers as a hand model and magician. He’s no longer able, he says, to perform sleight-of-hand tricks while playing the banjo at the same time.