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Euless apartment owner settles discrimination lawsuit

Eric Abes on February 6, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.star-telegram.com

By Terry Evans

EULESS — An apartment manager is out of a job and the company that owns the complex where she worked is paying $317,000 to settle a federal discrimination lawsuit concerning the segregation of tenants based on race.

“The federal government took my job,” said Nancy Quandt, who left her office at Stonebridge at Bear Creek apartments in Euless last week, the day the owners agreed to the settlement. “I didn’t do anything wrong and it’s not fair.”

The U.S. Department of Justice disagreed, naming Quandt and Minnesota-based S&H Realty Management in a suit based on a January 2010 complaint by a former Stonebridge employee. The suit said that Quandt told leasing agents to segregate tenants of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent into two of the complex’s 21 residential buildings “to isolate any smells allegedly associated with ethnic cuisine that the manager disliked,” according to the Justice Department’s news release.

Officials at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil-rights group, were encouraged by the suit’s outcome, said CAIR spokeswoman Alia Salem.

“Anyone who promotes justice and works for civil rights advocacy should be elated,” Salem said. “This was a big win.”

Subject to approval by the federal court in Texas, the settlement ordered that “defendants in United States v. Stonebridge at Bear…

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Federal lawsuit filed over TRWD election

Eric Abes on February 3, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.star-telegram.com

By Elizabeth Campbell

liz@star-telegram.com

FORT WORTH — The Rev. Kyev Tatum and several family members are suing the Tarrant Regional Water District in federal court, alleging that they are being denied their right to vote because the district extended the terms of two board members to 2015.

Tatum, along with his brother Archie, and their wives Tonya and Hershey Ann, want the water district to hold an election in 2014, which is when the terms of Jim Lane and Marty Leonard should end, according to the lawsuit.

Board members Victor Henderson, Jack Stevens, Marty Leonard, Jim Lane and Mary Kelleher are also named in the suit. But the suit also says that Kelleher has said publicly that the district should hold the election in 2014.

Tatum’s suit is similar to one filed by John Basham in state district court. Basham ran unsuccessfully for the water board several times.

The suit alleges that the district is violating both the United States and Texas constitutions by extending Lane’s and Leonard’s terms and that not calling an election in May of 2014 denies voters the right to choose candidates.

The first day to file for the May election is Jan. 29, and Feb. 28 is the last day that entities can call an election, according to the suit.

“It’s really quite simple. The ending of a term requires an election and TRWD’s refusal to call a required election deprives the Plaintiffs of their constitutional right to vote, attorney Matt Rinaldi…

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Family to file lawsuit after troubled execution

Eric Abes on January 30, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.dispatch.com

By Alan JohnsonThe Columbus Dispatch• Friday January 17, 2014 11:50 AM

The family of Dennis McGuire will file a federal lawsuit against the state of Ohio over histroubled execution yesterday.

Amber and Dennis McGuire, the executed man’s children, scheduled a press conference thismorning in Dayton to announce their intention to go to court. The suit will claim McGuire’s 8thAmendment rights under the U.S. Constitution to avoid “cruel and unusual punishment” were violatedwhen he gasped for air, choked and struggled against his restraints for about 10 minutes beforebeing declared dead at 10:53 a.m.

“Shortly after the warden buttoned his jacket to signal the start of the execution, my dadbegan gasping and struggling to breathe,” Amber McGuire said in a statement. “I watched his stomachheave. I watched him try to sit up against the straps on the gurney. I watched him repeatedlyclench his fist. It appeared to me he was fighting for his life but suffocating.”

McGuire’s children were witnesses at his lethal injection at the Southern Ohio CorrectionalFacility near Dayton.

McGuire, 53, was executed for the brutal 1989 murder of Joy Stewart, 22, who was newlymarried and 30 weeks pregnant at the time of her death. McGuire raped Stewart vaginally and anally,choked her, stabbed her in the chest, and slit her throat. He dumped her body in the woods nearEaton, Ohio, where it was found the next day by two hikers.

There was no clear…

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Sex assault victim files lawsuit against city over former Pittsburgh police officer

Eric Abes on January 27, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.post-gazette.com

After Adam Skweres, then a Pittsburgh police officer, subjected her to forcible oral sex, “I just wasn’t going to tolerate it, period,” a woman said Thursday, shortly after filing a related lawsuit in federal court.

The victim, who is referred to in the lawsuit as Jane Doe to protect her privacy, became the fourth person to sue since accusations emerged that Skweres sexually assaulted women he met in the course of his work.

She deserves credit for stopping years of assaults, said her attorney, Timothy O’Brien.

“She went to the FBI and within a matter, literally, of days, criminal charges were brought and Skweres was arrested, which is what should have happened in 2008,” Mr. O’Brien said.

Skweres, in uniform, arrived at the woman’s home in February 2012, according to the lawsuit.

He offered to help get her boyfriend out of jail, according to the complaint, and then demanded sex. The Post-Gazette does not identify victims of sexual assault.

The lawsuit claims that a bureau psychologist found Skweres unsuitable for police work, but that after his successful appeal to the Civil Service Commission, the city hired him.

From 2008 through 2011, the city received at least three complaints from women about Skweres, but he remained on the beat.

The complaint names as defendants the city, Public Safety Director Michael Huss, former police chief Nate Harper and former assistant chief of operations William Bochter.

Mr. O’Brien said he did not sue Skweres because the case…

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RSI Recalls Bathroom Medicine Cabinets Due to Injury Hazard; Sold Exclusively at The Home Depot

Eric Abes on January 23, 2014

Today’s post was shared by The Workers’ Injury Law & Advocacy Group and comes from www.prnewswire.com

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1973 and charged with protecting the American public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction. To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, call the CPSC hotline at 1-800-638-2772, or visit http//:www.cpsc.gov/talk.html. Further recall information is available at http://www.cpsc.gov. (PRNewsFoto/U.S. CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION)

WASHINGTON, Jan. 16, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Consumers should stop using this product unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20030904/USCSCLOGO)

Recall Summary

Name of Product: Bathroom medicine cabinets

Hazard: The mirror or its back panel can separate and fall out, posing an injury hazard to consumers.

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using and uninstall the recalled bathroom medicine cabinet; and return it to The Home Depot for a full refund.

Consumer Contact: RSI toll-free at (888) 774-8062 from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, online at www.homedepot.com and click on Product Recalls or e-mail RSIMedCab@rsihomeproducts.com for more information.

Photos are available at http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2014/RSI-Recalls-Bathroom-Medicine-CabinetsRecall Details

Units: About 14,000

Description: This recall involves…

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