(Source: Albany Times Union)
(Source: Bloomberg Burinessweek)
The agency that enforces the federal job discrimination laws has for the first time ruled that transgender people are protected from bias in the workplace.
In a groundbreaking decision late last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said a refusal to hire or otherwise discriminate on the basis of gender identity is by definition sex discrimination under federal law.
While some federal courts have reached the same conclusion in recent years, employment law experts say the EEOC decision sets a national standard of enforcement that offers employers clear guidance on the issue. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: Bloomberg Businessweek)
Advocates for employees with disabilities said new guidelines on discrimination in the workplace from the U.S. Equal Employment Commission are being delayed by political opposition from business.
The agency abruptly deleted the proposal today from the agenda for a meeting, a week after business groups led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce pressed the Obama administration to block the guidelines. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: Times Union)
Twenty years have passed since the verdict in the Rodney King beating case, and yet the problems of police brutality and racial profiling remain with us.
On April 29, 1992, a mostly white jury found four Los Angeles Police Department officers not guilty of assault with a deadly weapon and excessive force against 25-year-old Rodney King following a high-speed chase on March 3, 1991. Police struck King more than 50 times with their batons, tasered him and kicked him in the head. Unlike most such incidents, this one was captured on videotape. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: Bloomberg Businessweek)
Religious colonies of Hutterites in rural Montana are fighting the state’s attempts to impose a labor law backed by businesses that complain they can’t outbid the low cost of the communal workers.
The Hutterites are Protestants similar to the Amish and Mennonites who live a life centered on their religion, but unlike the others, Hutterites live in German-speaking communes scattered across northern U.S. states and Canada.
They don’t pay wages, don’t vote and don’t enlist in the military. They make their own clothes, produce their own food and construct their own buildings.
“Their core belief is that they have no property. All the property and labor they have, they contribute to the colony,” Ron Nelson, an attorney for the Big Sky Colony, told the Montana Supreme Court. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: Chicago Tribune)
It is no secret that it is difficult for new small businesses to succeed.
Imagine the extra challenges faced by business owners with disabilities.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, people with disabilities are almost twice as likely as the general population to be self-employed. They are also much more likely to be unemployed or underemployed. When they plan to establish a business, people with disabilities confront extra challenges, such as arranging for insurance and special furniture. They often lack the assets they need to start a business, as well as mentors and business contacts who understand the particular challenges they face. Read the rest of this entry »
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Border Patrol seeking to bar agents from making traffic stops, saying people are being pulled over and questioned for the way they look and without reasonable suspicion.
The lawsuit stems from tensions between immigrants and the expanded presence of Border Patrol agents on Washington state’s Olympic Peninsula, which shares no land border with Canada. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: CNN)
The U.S. Department of Labor recently announced that the unemployment rate fell to 8.2%. That should have been a signal that jobs are coming back and that the economy is about to rebound. But, as many economists say, the numbers fell primarily because unemployed Americans have become so discouraged with trying to find a job that they’ve simply quit looking. Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: US News)
As the general election approaches, President Obama and Mitt Romney are working to win over every voting bloc they can. Most recently, the two candidates have been ardently courting the women’s vote and those still carrying student loans. It might be worth the candidates’ worthwhile to lump the two voting blocs together.
Women receive a majority of the bachelor’s degrees granted in the U.S., attending largely the same institutions and paying the same tuition rates for their undergraduate degrees as men. Given the pay gap between genders, there is a question worth asking: Since women are both concentrated in lower-paying jobs and almost universally earn less than their male co-workers, will they have a tougher time paying down their student loan debt? Read the rest of this entry »
(Source: The Tennessean)
Summit High School sophomore Jeff Shott has been awarded a $1,000 scholarship for dressing like Jesus Christ on fictional character day.
The Spring Hill student was not disciplined for his action back in January, but Summit High Principal Charles Farmer did advise him that if the costume caused distraction during the day that he would have to remove it, school officials say.
Shott voluntarily removed his robes and sash, a costume that included a hammer and nail.
“Both principals said they were worried my costume would spark religious debates in every class and take up large amounts of time. I was sternly warned that if even one teacher reported the slightest disruption, I would have to take off my costume. Then and there, I decided to take it off,” Shott wrote in a letter to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national organization devoted to promoting the separation of state and church. The group ended up awarding him a scholarship. Read the rest of this entry »
So. Ill. Activist 