“Skechers’ unfounded claims went beyond stronger and more toned muscles,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The company even made claims about weight loss and cardiovascular health. The FTC’s message, for Skechers and other national advertisers, is to shape up your substantiation or tone down your claims.”

This week, a federal judge approved the $40 million class-action settlement between Skechers and “Shape-Ups” customers. According to an Associated Press report on the lawsuit, more than 520,000 people can claim up to $80 for a pair of “Shape-Ups,” $84 for a pair of “Resistance Runner” shoes, $54 for a pair of “Podded Sole” shoes, and $40 for a pair of “Tone-Ups.” $5 million of the settlement was awarded to the lawyers in the case.

Skechers has denied that its ads are misleading and stated that it settled to avoid a drawn-out lawsuit. The company’s “Shape-Ups” ads featured celebrity endorsements from the likes of Brooke Burke and Kim Kardashian.

Phil says that Deadspin–under the umbrella of Gawker Media–totally screwed him over when they posted the clip, because he was going to use it in the second half of his interview with Tuiasosopo after a “cliffhanger” in part one. The clip was posted before the second part aired to the majority of his viewers, he says, and that ain’t cool. Claiming that they stole the clip, he’s now suing the company for an unspecified amount.

Tuiasosopo made major headlines last year when it came out that he’d been posing as a woman for over a year in phone conversations and online with former Notre Dame player Manti Te’o. Te’o claims he never realized he’d been talking to a man and had been calling Tuiasosopo’s character–Lennay Kekua–his girlfriend. Tuiasosopo eventually killed Lennay off in an elaborate story involving her having cancer, and, in a recent interview, claims he was molested as a child and that the experience changed him profoundly.

“I felt that I couldn’t do things, accomplish things, pursue things, live out as Ronaiah,” Tuiasosopo said. “And I felt the need to create this. It has everything to do with what I went through as a child.”

Image: CBS

According to a Washington Post report on the case, 13-year-old Ashley Davis died in 2009 while crossing the street to reach a school bus stop. A car traveling down the road hit her, a minivan, and a 17-year-old boy on Brinkley Road in Temple Hills, Maryland. Davis died from her injuries weeks later.

The six-member jury handed down the $90 million wrongful-death verdict after determining that the school board did not provide a safe bus stop for Davis. Davis’ family had accused her bus driver of not stopping at his designated stop, forcing Davis and other children to catch another school bus further down the road, where they would have to cross the street. According to the Post report, complaints of late school buses and “unsafe” routes to bus stops are nothing new for parents in the area.

The school board is expected to appeal the decision.

E! News is reporting that Christina Pagliarolo is suing the show for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress during her appearance on the show. Pagliarolo, who weighed over 270 pounds at the time, appeared on the show in a series of segments in which she attempted to lose 70 pounds before going to her high school prom. She was put on a diet and a personal trainer was brought in to help her exercise.

According to the report, Pagliarolo is claiming that a trainer, who was not the one depicted on the show, verbally abused her and pushed her too hard. She also claims that the trainer increased the speed of a Stairmaster until she fell off.

As seen in the Rachael Ray show clips below, Pagliarolo’s weight loss began when a trainer woke her before dawn and made her run, toss a medicine ball, and do jumping jacks. The trainer, Jennifer Giamo, is depicted checking to make sure Pagliarolo’s heart rate doesn’t rise too high and providing water breaks. Giamo is not the trainer named in the lawsuit.

Though Pagliarolo’s training began to make a difference, she soon began canceling her training sessions:

Now, it seems that even the places at which Humphries shops are making his life difficult.

TMZ is reporting that Humphries has been sued by a L.A. suit shop over a deal the shop claims Humphries didn’t follow through with. The suit shop owner claims that Humphries received a 30% discount at the store, and in exchange promised to bring the shop to the attention of at least two of his NBA friends. The shop is asking for $52,000 from Humphries for “damages” and unpaid bills.

Humphries has not responded publicly to the lawsuit, though the NBA star did tweet out a cryptic message late Thursday night:

Follow @KrisHumphries

Kris Humphries
@KrisHumphries

I’ve heard it all!

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
11 hours ago via UberSocial for iPhone · powered by @socialditto

TMZ is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed over West’s 2005 hit ‘Gold Digger’. The lawsuit claims that West sampled a small portion of a 1974 Thunder & Lightning song titled ‘Bumpin’ Bus Stop’. Thunder & Lightning singer David Pryor wrote and sang the song, and now his children are suing West for his use of the sample. Trena Steward and Lorenzo Pryor are suing for money and an injunction on sales of ‘Gold Digger’.

The sample in question comes from the beginning of ‘Gold Digger’. As West is saying “Get down girl, go ‘head, get down,” a voice in the background can be heard saying “get down” repeatedly. Steward and Pryor claim this is sampled from ‘Bumpin’ Bus Stop.’ The sample comes in at around the 33-second mark in the ‘Gold Digger’ video below:

(Image courtesy Matthew Field/Wikimedia Commons)

According to a report from the Associated Press, the WWE has settled a lawsuit with Owen Hart’s widow, Martha. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2010, alleged that Owen Hart’s estate is owed royalties for the WWE’s use of the wrestler’s image in the years since his death. It also claimed that the WWE had violated a contract restricting the use of Hart’s image, including his name. The details of the settlement have not yet been made public.

Owen Hart died on May 23, 1999 during a WWE (WWF at the time) pay-per-view event billed as Over the Edge. The 34-year-old wrestler was to have entered the ring by being lowered from rafters of the Kansas City, Missouri arena where the event was taking place. During the stunt, Hart’s harness malfunctioned and the wrestler fell over 70 feet to the ring below. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Hart family has already sued the WWE for negligence over Owen’s death, and received an $18 million settlement in 2000.

(Image courtesy Mandy Coombes/Wikimedia Commons)

The New York Daily News is reporting that a New Jersey man is suing Oz over an insomnia cure the doctor described on his show.

The remedy that caused the man such trouble was one described by Dr. Oz on a show in April 2012. The “knapsack heated rice footsie” cure for insomnia involved placing uncooked rice into a pair of socks, heating them in a microwave, and placing them on the feet for 20 minutes to help with sleep.

The man suing Dr. Oz, 76-year-old Frank Dietl, ended up with third degree burns on his feet after attempting the remedy. Dietl reportedly has neuropathy in his feet due to diabetes, meaning he could not feel the rice burning his feet.

The Daily News report states that Dr. Oz did warn his viewers not to heat the rice sock too hot, though no specific warnings were issued for people with neuropathy.

The Associated Press is reporting that a Los Angeles judge has found that the jury in Cochran’s discrimination trial was not properly instructed. Specifically, the judge determined that the jury should have been instructed to consider, when The Price is Right producers declined to have Cochran returning as a model, whether pregnancy discrimination was a “substantial factor.” The $8.5 million verdict awarded to her has now been wiped away and a retrial has been called for.

While performing as a model on The Price is Right, the 41-year-old Cochran became pregnant and took maternity leave. When she tried to return to the show in 2010, she was turned down by producers, who told her they needed no more models. Cochran sued for pregnancy discrimination, alleging that her pregnancy was the reason the producers to let her go.

Gaye Jones says that such information was shared with key investors.

“The defendants were unjustly enriched because they realized enormous profits and financial benefits from the IPO, despite knowing that reduced revenue and earnings forecasts for the company had not been publicly disclosed to investors,” says the lawsuit.

This is definitely not the first time that a lawsuit has been filed with a nearly identical claim.

Soon after Facebook’s stock price began to plummet, a flood of lawsuits poured in accusing Facebook of concealing severe reductions in revenue growth due to the increase in mobile users and Facebook’s perceived inability to monetize mobile.

So, new lawsuit, similar complaint.

Jones’ new lawsuit is a derivative suit, which means that the investor “seeks to step into the shoes of the company and any money recovered from Zuckerberg and others would be paid to Facebook, not shareholders.”

Four previous derivative suits have been dismissed after a U.S. District Judge ruled that the shareholders did not own stock when Facebook allegedly deceived them before the IPO. Plus, he said that Facebook indeed “repeatedly made express and extensive warnings” about the trend toward mobile. In this case, Jones did in fact own Facebook stock since February 2012, months before the IPO filing in May.

Back in January, Facebook stock rode an upward trend and topped $30 for the first time in nearly six months. As of right now, the price sits at just over $27.50.

[Reuters]