NEWARK — A nearly 30-year member of the Newark Fire Department claims in a new lawsuit that he suffered racial discrimination as well as retaliation for reporting alleged misconduct by the city’s fire director.

As part of that harassment, Ramon Irizarry, currently an arson investigator, alleges city officials created a public safety risk by denying him a service weapon.

“It’s not only discriminatory. It’s downright dangerous,” said Edward Nolan, an attorney representing Irizarry in the lawsuit he filed on Aug. 25 in New Jersey Superior Court against Newark and Fire Director James Stewart.

“If he’s in a situation where he needs his gun, it could not only jeopardize his own health, but his co-workers and members of the public,” Nolan said.

The lawsuit suggests the harassment was in retaliation for Irizarry reporting to authorities that Stewart “sought to provide a firearm to a former arson investigator who was not allowed to be armed and sent unqualified and politically-connected candidates to the Newark Fire Academy.”

Newark officials declined to comment, and Stewart could not be reached for comment. Stewart has previously been ensnared in separate state and county investigations.

A Fair Lawn…

Attorneys for the authority and for University of Pittsburgh research specialist Debra J. Stemmler filed a stipulation of dismissal, indicating that the lawsuit had been settled. U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer then closed the case.

Terms of the settlement were not indicated in the court filings. According to the stipulation for dismissal, Judge Fischer retains jurisdiction to interpret and enforce the settlement.

Authority attorney Brian H. Simmons wrote in an email response to questions that the authority would not incur any costs related to lowering the meters, and that the work would be done by the end of July 2015.

Authority Executive Director David Onorato would not further detail the settlement.

Jeff Nethery, director of business development for Cale America, the company that was awarded a $7 million contract in 2012 to install and maintain hundreds of the multi-space pay stations, said last week that his firm would adjust the meters. He could not be reached for details Tuesday.

Ms. Stemmler, who works for Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health, claimed in the lawsuit that she was ticketed a year ago despite leaving a note on her dashboard indicating that she could not reach the buttons on the new meters. She…

The Los Angeles Times reported that one claimant, Dewayne Matthews Jr., said he was standing with his hands in the air, in surrender mode, when police officers wearing riot gear riddled him with rubber bullets and slammed him into the concrete. He alleged police also sprayed him with some sort of chemical spray, despite the fact he wasn’t engaging in any aggressive or violent manner.

Another plaintiff, Tracey White, says she and her son, 13, were waiting to exit McDonald’s at the time police stormed into the restaurants and arrested them without cause, she alleged, the Los Angeles Times reported.

A couple of other plaintiffs say they were simply joining in the chant of “hands up, don’t shoot,” when riot police shot rubber bullets at them and fired tear gas and stun grenades. The men, Damon Coleman and Theophilus Green, also allege police used racial slurs, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The six say the police humiliated them and abused their civil rights, and their lawsuit seeks millions in damages.

The protests in Ferguson kicked off when Darren Wilson, a local police officer, shot and killed Michael Brown, 18….

Parents of a toddler who was allegedly duct-taped to his nap mat by a Willow Park day-care center co-owner filed suit Tuesday against the Heart2Heart Montessori Academy.

Kristi and Brad Galbraith allege in a lawsuit filed in Parker County that Heart2Heart was negligent in properly carrying out its responsibilities and supervising employees, resulting in injury and pain to their 21/2-year-old son.

The allegations surfaced June 17 after an employee, Hannah Tidwell, called Kristi Galbraith advising her that her son and another boy had been forcefully secured by duct tape to their napping mats by one of the facility’s owners, Pamela Decker.

“When she contacted me, the first thing she said was, ‘I wanted you to know we called CPS today.’ Of course, I felt sick to my stomach, probably wailed out loud in the car,” Kristi Galbraith said in a phone interview Tuesday. “I asked her ‘What do you mean? What happened?’ Then she proceeded to tell me what actually happened to our son that day.”

Tidwell then sent Kristi Galbraith three photographs that she’d snapped of the boy, secured to the mat with the thick, silver tape.

She told the Galbraiths that when she confronted Decker about her actions, Decker responded: “Do not say anything about this. I know this [is] illegal but felt it was necessary.”

The allegations sparked investigations by the state’s Child Care Licensing and Willow Park police. Both…

BRUCE OMORI / SPECIAL TO THE STAR-ADVERTISER

Nico Verissimo of Puna, foreground, voted as a line snaked through the cafeteria of Keonepoko Elementary School on Aug. 15.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii on Thursday filed a legal challenge to the primary election on behalf of voters in Puna on Hawaii island who were unable to vote because of the damage left by Tropical Storm Iselle.

In a news release, the ACLU says the lawsuit concerns the fundamental right to vote and the disenfranchisement of hundreds and potentially thousands of affected voters. It asks the court to give any voter effected by Iselle the opportunity to vote in person or by absentee ballot by Sept. 20, the constitutional deadline for tabulating primary results.

The lawsuit also urges the court to invalidate a state law that gives Scott Nago, the state’s chief election officer, the discretion over how to conduct a postponed vote after a natural disaster. The ACLU argues that the state Legislature should prescribe how such elections are conducted.

“Although the votes in question may not change the outcome of any of the various races, the ACLU filed this suit because the right to vote is a cornerstone of our democracy,” Daniel Gluck, ACLU senior staff attorney, said in a statement. “Every vote counts equally – this is about an individual exercising a fundamental right and not about the results of any single race.”

The ACLU’s suit challenges the…