(1983) Anne Pawelek of Cicero, Illinois, acting as her own attorney, files a class-action suit on behalf of all Polish-Americans for the Polish jokes in the hit movie “Flashdance.” The suit asks, “to delete all offensive, degrading and demeaning “Pollack jokes’” from the film. The movie is about a young woman steelworker who aspires to be a professional dancer. The Polish jokes are told by a would-be comedian in the tavern where she dances. 

(1980) - An unknown number of employees in a “small unit” at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas are suspended after allegations that they made bets on how long critically ill patients would live and may have acted to hasten the deaths of some of the patients. The Las Vegas Review-Journal said the bets were made among members of the night shift in an intensive care unit.

(November 1980)  John Lennon, now out and about after a hiatus has some interesting things to say. One – that he is hurt after he was left out of the autobiography of George Harrison. He also has this interesting observation about his past songwriting partner Paul McCartney – “I thought subconsciously Paul tried to destroy my greatest songs. We would spend hours doing little, detailed cleaning up on Paul’s songs, but when it came to mine… somehow an atmosphere of looseness and experimentation would come up. I was hurt… Paul will deny it.’

(September 1980)  The Afghan government demands the extradition of Dan Rather, CBS television reporter, on charges that he took part in the killing of three Afghan workers. Rather said “this is a classic case of the propaganda technique known the world over as the big lie.” The incident was said to have taken place in March. Rather went to Naragarhar Province in March with CBS television crew to film the Afghan insurgents he was accompanied by guides and insurgent bodyguards.