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Criminal and Civil are two totally separate areas of law, penalties, and enforcement. Criminal activities and consequences are not decided in lawsuits with private attorneys. They are solely in the scope of governmental authorities to bring and prosecute, i.e., police & states/district attorney offices. No contract can protect against criminality. In criminal cases, the burden of the Plaintiff against the Defendant is to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt". This case and the subject matter is not a criminal matter. The case is a civil matter that is compensatory at heart, an attempt to "make the Plaintiff whole" (which can never happen of course, but that's the theory). The burden of proof is not as strict as criminal cases but still tough, Plaintiff has to prove based on a "preponderance of the evidence that it is more likely than not" that SoA or DCI was negligent. When it comes to civil liability and negligence, you CAN contract your way out of civil penalties. Example: go Bungie jumping. I guarantee you have to sign forms that basically say if something terrible happens you waive any right to come after them for civil compensation. That's what I'm referring to here and that's the sort of thing they are referring to in their filed Answer.

Music City shows have improved so much over the years. However, I don't think they will ever be able to top "phantom of the grand ole opry"...

This sounds like a great show! Love the rep...

Followed some of her posts and responses here and on Reddit (when I could get it to work). Agree haven’t seen anything from her in quite a while. Hope she’s letting the lawyers handle the load and she is living her life as best as possible

They’ll need it. The activity has a way of turning survivors into pariahs. Tricia Nadolny wrote about it at length.

It’s not good optics in any case.

Duffy told me that. That was before Norman passed on. I never met him in person. Jim knew him well because he was in Kilties. He was always very kind to me and he’d often ask what it was like being the one distaff brass player in the Kilties. I said I’d done it before in Norwood Park but it was a little “different” as a forty something woman. He was a classic.

Hey all, Mike here. Been learning about and processing what has transpired at Walmart Health. Basically Walmart has decided to close the entire Walmart Health division. This includes telehealth, on which I was the principal designer. I will be working on the details of this today. I don’t know about timelines yet.

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You are correct about posting on social media. The plaintiff’s quote (cited previously) is from last fall. She now understands the importance of letting her legal counsel do the communications. Concerning the dates of the various filings etc, I have a gut feeling that we are looking at a fall 24 court date.

From the internets: NDAs cannot legally prevent reporting of criminal activities. So if Ms. Hales was reporting such activity, I’m not sure what SOA’s point is here.

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Time to pack it up if there is a need for NDA's in a youth activity. I hope this young lady finds peace, resolution, and stops commenting on social media about it until the case is over. Only her attorney should be speaking at this point.

I hope they do one day. Such an agreement, if it exists, would be best described as nauseating, mortifying and despicable... and those who created it should be ashamed of themselves and publicly known. Looks like the Hales-SOA/DCI case might give us a first glimpse of what such a challenge might look like. I wish McKenzee and her support circle strength.

or Ritual Fire Dance. We won because of him (Duf) and he taught our alumni corps. He was a genius, kind, and humble man. Big loss! Ken Norman, Float, now Mike. Too many, too soon 😢

Rumor has a person or and organization. The worst kept secret in drum corps has few people talking

From his World Drum Corps Hall of Fame induction a few years ago:

Depends on if one wants to challenge it

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Hey fellow Regiment Phans! Haven't seen activity here regarding the announcement of the new "Phancon" event taking place in June, just thought I'd share: https://www.classy.org/event/phancon-2024/e584527 Seems like this is their 2024 refresh on the Phan-a-Thon fundraiser event, where we will also get the show/rep announcements and uniform reveals.

I didn't know that, but it makes total sense that these two giants were born under the same star. The old saying among drum corps veterans of a certain era was that if you never got to play Kenny's "Auld Lang Syne" or Duffy's "Battle Hymn" you got cheated. Mike wrote for all the heavies in the early DCI days: Anaheim ('72 Champs), Blue Stars ('72 runner up), Troopers (perennial contenders), and dozens of the rest. He just about invented the "Sound of DCI". He's been in my personal Hall of Fame for 50+ years. Rest his remarkable soul. Mike Duffy is irreplaceable.

I don’t know how many people know this but Duffy and Norman shared a birthday. Same year, too. Both gone now.

That’s so sad. Such a great guy. 🙁

All corps were in the same boat in 2022 though. SCV has an added wrinkle coming out of pandemic then taking another year where they lost recruits and maybe even some of their top talent transferred to other corps, unsure if they return (probably a mixed bag). That said, SCV is a very talented corp. They could have an incredible program and hit a home run. Or they could take a step back. We’ve seen both situations happen to them before, and they e always managed to fight their way back to the top. Im very excited they are back. So many incredible musical moments from them over the years. I hope they surprise us all this season.