An Iowa man threatened by city officials with legal action for saying on a website that his hometown smelled like “rancid dog food” has won a free-speech lawsuit, the AP reports.
City officials said they’d sue if he didn’t stop criticizing the odor problem from an animal food processing plant and talking with reporters about it.
On Thursday a judge approved a permanent injunction prohibiting city threats. The city agrees to pay Harms $6,500 in damages and $20,000 in legal fees. The city promises to hold First Amendment training and will not prevent Harms from launching a website under the address www.sibleystinks.com.
!snip!
I’m not sure the gubmint thought this through. Now from coast to coast Sibley is going to be known as being stinky.
And as long as people are given lessons on free speech, maybe they can bring along left-wing college students for a little refresher.
The clowns at the factory ever hear of air scrubbers?
Hmmmm, maybe this guy should move to Ft. Morgan Colorado. They have a trifecta.
Dog food plant.
Sugar beet processing plant.
Cheese plant.
I’ll tell you one thing, you don’t want to live on the east side of town.
Kinda like airports, they’re located out in more remote areas of cities then the town grows around them and bitch about the noise. Likely the same sort of thing went on in Sibly.
Loudon, TN. There’s a Wampler’s Farm Sausage factory.
The smell is bad enough to make everyone consider becoming a vegan.
Proximity to concentrated animal feeding operations out in flyover is not for the weak of heart, or olfactory senses. Yuk.
My family is from Sibley…………it smells like soybeans and pig crap……has for decades. My grandfather said it smelled like money. PBUH
Hah! That damn first amendment!
Ever drive through downtown Newark, NJ?
The enticing aroma of a sausage plant next door to a paint factory makes you want to take a shower as soon as possible after leaving.
Especially nice on a hot summer night.
I can still remember the stink from the rendering plant right next to the cattle yards in the industrial section of Spokane next to the railroad tracks back in the 60’s and 70’s. On warm summer nights it was enough a gag a maggot. And there was a potato processing plant years next to I-90 in Moses Lake that we used to joke when we passed by it who farted, it was that bad.
Worst smelling town I’ve been in had a Staley plant there. I think it was Decatur, Illinois. Everything smelled bad right down to every fabric in the motel – sheets, towels. You couldn’t get away from it, it hung in the air like skunk perfume. I couldn’t live there. Don’t know how they do.
“I’m not sure the gubmint thought this through. Now from coast to coast Sibley is going to be known as being stinky.”
Obviously not aware of the Streisand effect.
Basic rule of life a 3 year old learns on his/her own: shut up if you don’t want to be noticed. Throw a hissy fir if you do want to be noticed.
It ain’t rocket surgery.
Dead, wet moldy misty which is a filler used in floral arrangements smells like cat pee to the nth degree. It is nasty enough to make me want to puke the few times I’ve had some in the van.
In America’s dairy land (WI) we used to have clever bumper stickers that said “smell our dairy air” and those were mostly directed at ILL-o-neesians!!!
Ha! Try the pulp mill beside I-40 in Canton, NC. The whole town smells like a billion tree FARTS – 24/7/365! :puke:
Worst place I ever smelled was Staten Island when crossing the Verrazano Bridge. I think they’ve since closed the landfill responsible. The place stank from miles away for many years.
Yep, Decatur Illinois is right up there, especially when you drive on the viaduct next to the processing plant. You have to drive 15 miles before the stench leaves your vehicle.
Wonder how many illegals are employed at the stink factory. The meat-packing industry is riddled with illegal workers. Might explain why there is a carniceria in every two horse town along the railroads.
“bring along left-wing college students for a little refresher.”
A refresher.
Ha!
Camas, WA paper mill. Horrendous.
On the flip side, though, they say that when the big chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania was operating at its peak, it added a whole new dimension to the term
“air pollution”.
🙂
@ Phil Swill
Illa.. Illie.. illil.. You mean flatlanders?
That’s what they looked like from Lake Geneva Wisconsin. Wore T-shirts with “go home flatlanders” on them while walking around downtown on Friday or Saturday night.
Of course, the town would not exist without them. But the majority of the visitors were assholes if they were from Illinois.
The pulp mill in Tacoma, WA made the “aroma of Tacoma” infamous. Bruce Springsteen played a concert close by and got sick then badmouthed the city for its smell. Poor Brucy!
Guess Sibley overreaching olfactory officials never heard of the Streisand effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect
Anonymous; I was thinking Tacoma had a big name brewery that stunk to high heaven back in the ’60’s when I passed thru. I think it’s a tie between sawmills, feedlots and hog farms. And we can’t forget chicken farms and dairies. And anywhere politicians congregate. So much stink.