Woman Loses Thousands of Dollars in Lawsuit for Downloading Music

A woman in Minnesota, named Jammie Thomas, was court ordered to pay $222,000 for downloading and sharing copyrighted music online. The record industry wants to make an example out of her and send the message that downloading and sharing music is not okay or legal.

Thomas is ordered to pay the six record companies that sued her for $9,250 for each of the 24 songs that they are focusing on in this case. They say she shared a total of 1,702 songs. This is the first time that one of the music industry's lawsuits went to trial. Most people settle and pay the companies a few thousand dollars. Thomas thought that she didn't do anything wrong and proceeded with the lawsuit against her. Thomas claimed she didn't own a file sharing account with Kazaa but evidence showed that the Internet address belonged to her.

Jammie Thomas is 30 years old and lives paycheck to paycheck and now she could get a fourth of her paycheck garnished for the rest of her life. Including the attorney fees, she could owe nearly half a million dollars.

A Woman Finds A Black Window Spider in her Grapes

An article that says that a woman named Judy Reardon in Andover, Minn bought a four pound box of grapes from Costco and as she washed off the grapes and placed them in plastic bags she noticed the spider.

She and her husband took the spider to University of Minnesota's insect museum and they confirmed that it was a black widow spider based on the red markings on its abdomen. Judy contacted the supplier of the grapes in California and was told that this usually happens once a year with their grapes. Judy returned the grapes to Costco with no interest in suing them. She warns that everyone should check, look over their grapes carefully, and wash them as soon as they bring them home.

The black widow got its name because the females eat the males right after they mate. A black widow bite can cause people severe pain, cramping, and illness, but deaths are rare.