Last year the president of the Portland Police Association (the union) was involved in two road-rage incidents, oddly with the same vehicle but in different parts of the city and on different days. Scott Westerman allegedly was the instigator of the encounters, on both occasions yelling at the driver of a smart car. I guess it was bad luck for Westerman that he targeted the same car. The driver of the smart car took down Westerman’s license plate and filed a report, but the license plate was labeled as “unable to locate.”

We’re always hearing about salmonella outbreaks and the like and the investigations to narrow down the culprit(s), but this is something new: Del Monte Fresh Produce plans to sue William Keene, Oregon Public Health’s senior epidemiologist, for, well, dissing its canteloupes. The company filed an ethics complaint and tort claim alleging Keene made misleading statements about the cantaloupes and Del Monte Fresh Produce’s Guatemalan farm, which produced the cantaloupes. Del Monte Fresh Produce is also suing the Food and Drug Administration, which issued a recall of the cantaloupes.

What is it with off-duty Portland police officers these days? It seems they are getting into trouble left and right. The latest story involves Portland police offers Sean Sothern, who was arrested in Tillamook County for allegedly driving drunk and then attempting to escape police. Oh, yes, and because his wife was in the car with him, he has also been charged with reckless endangerment.He was off duty at the time of the incident.

We recently posted about The Dalles-based anesthesiologist Frederick George Field. Field was arrested in late July for allegedly sexually molesting two female patients at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center. The number has now increased to seven, and who knows how many more women are out there?

An article in the Oregonian states that one of the women, a 66-year-old, reported the abuse to the Mid-Columbia Medical Center several months before the hospital contacted the authorities. She felt as though the hospital was not taking her allegations seriously. The hospital claims it was first notified of any alleged sexual abuse by Dr. Field in May and that it acted promptly to call in police.

A wrongful death lawsuit names not only the drunken driver who killed the victim, Tessa Elizabeth Conradi, but two bars and a used-car dealership as well. The $7.1 million civil suit was filed by our own John Coletti on behalf of the victim’s husband, Walter Marrella.

The suit holds responsible drunken driver Jesse Lee Ream as well as Darren’s Auto Sales, the used-car dealership that loaned Ream the SUV that collided with the victim’s car and killed her. The dealership is owned by Ream’s sister and brother-in-law. The suit also blames two bars that served Ream the night of the accident: Rovon Inn and Fremont Ridge Inn. The bars were negligent for continuing to serve Ream, who was visibly drunk, and for letting him drive.

Here’s a tragic story. A hiker in the Olympic National Forest was gored by an aggressive mountain goat and died. This happened in fall of 2010. Apparently Bob Boardman of Port Angeles was hiking with his wife, Susan Chadd, and a friend, when the mountain goat in question started acting aggressively toward them. The hikers resumed their hike while the mountain goat followed. The animal then attacked Boardman and stayed with him for about 30 minutes, making it impossible to approach Boardman to help him. Reports indicate Boardman probably died within five minutes of the attack.

Anesthesiologist Frederick George Field was arrested late July on suspicion of sexually abusing two female patients who were under his care at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center in The Dalles. The incidents took place in 2007 and 2011 and allegedly involved touching in the genital area. The women were under anesthesia during the incidents and were thus unable to defend themselves. When the hospital was approached by one of the victims earlier this year, the hospital launched an investigation and contacted local authorities.

Colonoscopies aren’t the most pleasant procedures to begin with, but they can get a lot more unpleasant if you end up with a chronic illness as a result. U.S. Air Force Veteran Robert Metzler filed a $30 million medical malpractice lawsuit against the Miami Veterans’ Administration hospital, claiming a colonoscopy done with improperly cleaned quipment gave him hepatitis C. The case just went to trial in Miami, FL, this week.

It is difficult to forget the horrible Metrolink commuter train crash that took place in southern California in 2008. The crash was allegedly caused by the train’s engineer, who neglected to stop at a stop sign because he was texting and thus distracted. Just this week a judge made his final decisions of how the $200 million provided by Metrolink’s owner would be distributed among 122 plaintiffs.

This story hit a little close to my follicles. Sandra Rawline of Texas filed an age discrimination and retaliation lawsuit against her former employer, Capital Title of Texas, claiming she was fired because she refused to dye her gray hair. Rawline, who is 52, went gray in her 20s, so the gray hair was nothing new to her employers at Capital Title. What was new, however, was the office’s move to a more cosmopolitan location. Rawline says her boss indicated that the new office was to have a more “upscale” image and instructed her not only to dye her gray hair but also to change her clothing to a more youthful style and to wear a lot of jewelry.