Late last month, in the hamlet of Bathani Tola, a 90-minute drive from Ara, laborers came in from the dry fields to recall the 1996 massacre there of 21 people, including 11 women, 6 children and 3 infants, by members of the Ranvir Sena who lived in settlements less than a quarter-mile away.
Localities were classified into rural and urban, with settlements less than 20,000 inhabitants classified as rural.
But even they feel the pressure for a settlement less than they did.
At the Oneida of the Thames settlement, less than an hour's drive from Medicine of the Earth, Oren Doxtator has opened "Oneida Organics," a shop featuring smokables, edibles, CBD oils and salves, and even CBD for pets with pain.
These settlements, less self-sufficient than those with thousands of residents, were already suffering from a struggling agricultural economy.
Settlements are classified into large urban areas (settlements of over 125,000 people), other urban areas (settlements of between 10,000 and 125,000 people), small towns (settlements of between 3000 and 10,000 people) and rural areas (settlements of less than 3000 people).
"If it's someone who feels they have a very compelling case, they can come in, opt out of the program and get an audit," which could produce a settlement less costly than the voluntary program would call for, he said.
Having already connected the major towns and cities, the operator is now entering the more expensive phase of its rollout, targeting settlements of less than 10,000, which will bring it within range of more than 3.5 million people.
The figure does not include payments made before 1984, outstanding claims from recent accidents, settlements of less than $100,000, the cost of repairing damaged Amtrak equipment and legal bills for defending the freight railroads in court.
Often, such patents are asserted in the hope of receiving nuisance settlements for less than the cost of litigation.
One important addition to the chart of current cases that appeared with the piece: It listed 12 cases with settlements totaling less than $200 million.
