Iowa will soon charge you if you have solar panels

Deeming solar owners to be leeching off of existing utility infrastructure, the Iowa Senate has passed a bill which would allow utilities to establish a monthly charge on PV system owners.

That's ridiculous. Nothing a PV system uses is owned by the utility company. All wiring inside the house is owned by the homeowner and the homeowner must do repairs to wiring inside the house.

Source
PV Magazine. March 2019.

Monsanto defrauding consumers since at least 1969.

As a plaintiff, in 1969, Monsanto sued Rohm and Haas for infringement of Monsanto's patent for the herbicide propanil. In Monsanto Co. v. Rohm and Haas Co., the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Monsanto on the basis that the company had fraudulently procured the patent it sought to enforce.

Monsanto argues, the principle behind a farmer’s seed contract is simple: a business must be paid for its product., but that a very small percentage of farmers do not honor this agreement. While many lawsuits involve breach of Monsanto's Technology Agreement, farmers who have not signed this type of contract, but do use the patented seed, can also be found liable for violating Monsanto's patent. Monsanto has stated it will not "exercise its patent rights where trace amounts of our patented seed or traits are present in farmer's fields as a result of inadvertent means." However, history shows this is not true as Monsanto has sued farmers, and won, when pollen from nearby GMO seed mixed with the farmer's plants, the seed of which had some patented genes. These farmers had to sell their whole farm to pay fines, and court costs.

Monsanto has also been sued for effects from Agent Orange, pollution from dioxin, polychlorinate biphenyls (PCBs), alachlor (a common pesticide), and dicamba.

Source
Wikipedia.

700+ cases in US federal court alone over glyphosate

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup weed kill.

FEDERAL COURT – More than 760 lawsuits are pending in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. The cases have been combined for handling as multidistrict litigation (MDL) under Judge Vince Chhabria. The lead case is 3:16-md-02741-VC and the first trial, the case of Edwin Hardeman V. Monsanto, began Feb. 25, 2019. The judge approved a motion by Monsanto to bifurcate the trial, limiting evidence jurors will hear during a first phase to causation only. Update March 19: a unanimous jury decision handed a first-round victory to plaintiff Edwin Hardeman, as the six jury members found that Hardeman’s exposure to Roundup was a “substantial factor” in causing his non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

STATE COURT – Thousands of plaintiffs have made similar claims against Monsanto in state courts. The first trial in the Roundup litigation concluded on Aug. 10 with the jury ruling that Monsanto’s weedkiller was a substantial contributing factor in causing DeWayne “Lee” Johnson’s cancer, and ordering Monsanto to pay $289.25 million in damages, including $250 million in punitive damages. The judge reduced the punitive damages to $39 million in an order dated Oct. 22, 2018 which put the total verdict at approximately $78 million. Monsanto declared it would appeal and Johnson has cross appealed, seeking to reinstate the jury award.The appeal is filed in the California State Court of Appeals, case number A155940. Appellant’s opening brief due April 22, 2019.


Sources
US Right To Know, Monsanto Papers.
DDG search for more lawsuits against Monstanto.

Monsanto lawsuit update, $289 million payment

Monsanto ordered to pay $289 million in cancer lawsuit. A recent Monsanto lawsuit outcome feels like a win for the people. Finally. More than two years after the World Health Organization labeled the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” the court system ruled the billion-dollar company is liable for its product’s potentially cancer-causing effects.

On August 9, 2018, a San Francisco jury found Monsanto liable in the first of more than 800 cancer-patient cases against the agricultural giant. Dewayne Johnson, 46, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a term that’s used to describe a group of cancers that develop in the lymphocytes, or white blood cells that make up the immune system. His case was the first to go to court because of his terminal condition, which granted him an expedited trial.