UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appoints Mr. Stevie Wonder, an internationally celebrated musician, as the new UN Messenger of Peace at UN Headquarters. |
Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities |
I’m not kidding, folks. Even as a plaintiff’s attorney representing the disabled, I still find this frivolous.  This just in from The Huffington Post, and it may be hard to believe. Santa Fe resident, Arthur Firstenberg, claims to suffer from an “allergy” known as Electromagnetic Sensitivity, or EMS. Firstenberg further claims that his neighbor, Raphaela Monribot’s cell phone, wireless network, computer, compact fluorescent lightbulbs and even dimmer switches are causing him such physical and emotional distress that he is forced to sleep in his car or at friends’ houses to avoid the electro-magnetic waves Monribot is producing.
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Firstenberg’s solution? Why sue the Hell out of her, of course. For how much? $530,000. |
| Initially, Monribot made concessions |
| when she moved into her own place next door – a home he told her was available – she refused to continue with the concessions. She “flatly refused without explanation,” Firstenberg claims. |
And, the Supreme Court (or at least the right-wing of it) strikes a blow for non-transparency in governmental proceedings…This decision may have far-reaching and chilling effects on the televising of important judicial disputes of our lifetime. | After an initial ban of two days (vote = 8-1 [J. Breyer, dissenting], the U.S. Supreme Court voted Wednesday to permanently ban any public broadcast of the Prop. 8, same-sex marriage trial. In an unsigned, 17-page ruling – in which the Court spends considerable time chiding both District Court Judge Vaughn Walker and the 9th Circuit for issuing their orders to televise the Prop. 8 trial – the Supreme Court banned any televised broadcast of the trial “around the country.” |
The vote was 5-4 along ideological lines, as follows:
Majority: Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas
Dissent: Breyer, Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Stevens |
The order televising the Prop. 8 trial was to be part of a pilot program instituted by the 9th Circuit. The goal of this program is, or perhaps was, to increase public awareness of the federal court system and federal proceedings by bringing video cameras into the courtroom. Read more at cyberesq.wordpress.com |
The Supreme Court ruled – the Prop. 8 trial must go forward without cameras in the courtroom. Without explaining their reasoning, the Court simply said that Judge Walker’s order allowing videotaping for delayed released on the Internet would compromise the fairness of the trial. |
There is a startling new report just released by the Pan American Development Foundation, reporting that almost 225,000 Haitian children have been forced into child slavery in Haiti as a result of poverty. Most of the children – nearly 2/3 in fact – are young girls, and are subjected to extreme physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. |
Although the plight of these children is apparently commonly known, and is a source of great shame in the Caribbean country founded by a slave revolt, the practice of enslaving children has become widespread. According to the report, nearly half of the children interviewed in just one village (257 total ) were living as slaves. |
I will be providing continuing coverage today on this issue, as a ruling is expected shortly from the Supreme Court.
Graphically Speaking: Gay Marriage v. Marriage To First Cousins |
Other LGBT News: Portugal Approves Same-Sex Marriage; Obama Appoints Trans Female; First HIV+ Man To Visit U.S. |
While states like California and New Jersey grapple clumsily with the issue of same-sex marriage and equality, Portugal apparently had little difficulty in approving legislation to allow such unions. On Friday, Portugal’s Parliament voted by a sizeable majority – 125 to 99 – to permit same-sex marriages. The nation’s President is not expected to veto the measure, and ceremonies are anticipated to begin as early as April 2010. |
President Obama Appoints Transgender Female To Commerce Dept. |
First HIV+ Traveler To Visit U.S. From The Netherlands |
Monetary recovery by plaintiffs in those cases totaled over $376 million. The data released by the Commission shows that private sector bias hit an all-time high in 2009, not surprising considering the sluggish U.S. economy. |
For further information about the data release by the EEOC, you can link to the EEOC’s information here. |
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