The five were among 16 employees dismissed July 9.

The firings violated the state Workers’ Compensation Act and Open Meeting Act, the five former employees claim in the lawsuit filed Friday in Oklahoma County District Court.

The five former employees also claim age discrimination — stating that 13 of the 16 terminated workers were older than 40 years old.

They are asking a judge to void their terminations and reinstate them with back pay and benefits. They also are seeking damages for emotional distress, attorney fees and a judicial prohibition against retaliation.

Rick Farmer, the commission’s executive director, said Tuesday he could not comment on the lawsuit because it involves pending litigation.

The lawsuit was filed by former employees Katral McKnight, Rewa Lynn Carrier, Debbie Gray, Kara Anderson and Kevin Idleman. Jim Priest is their attorney.

A sixth former employee, Angela Sanders, previously filed a claim with the Workers’ Compensation Commission in which she alleged wrongful termination, discrimination and retaliation. Among other things, Sanders alleged the commission fired her in retaliation for her having filed a workers’ compensation claim for an on-the-job injury.

Farmer said no hearing date has been scheduled on that claim.

Friday’s lawsuit was filed on the same day that the state attorney…

The state agreed to create a $420 million fund to pay claims to employers — many of them small businesses — that had sued over the premiums. The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation and a group called Pay Us Back Ohio BWC announced the agreement.

The $420 million is about half of the $860 million that a Cleveland judge had ordered the bureau to pay in March 2013.

An appeals court upheld the bulk of that ruling this spring but ordered a recalculation of the damages that reduced the award to $651 million. The bureau also had been pursuing an appeal with the Ohio Supreme Court.

Both sides praised the settlement last night.

“Ohio has made major changes to its workers’ compensation system over the past several years,” Steve Buehrer, the bureau’s administrator and CEO, said in a statement. “The policies that were at issue in this litigation in 2007 are not the same ones in place today, and we’re pleased that we have reached a settlement so we can move forward. Improvements have been made to how premiums and discounts are calculated, as well as to billing practices, and premiums are continuing to go down as a result.

“Sound management of the trust fund made it possible to return $1 billion in rebates to customers last year, and major…

But a lawsuit claims the sumo fun went horribly wrong, leaving the teen with severe brain damage after her head repeatedly struck the floor.

The girl, 15-year-old freshman Celaida Lissabet, and her mother late last week sued charter school Mater Academy and Mega Party Events, the company that supplied the inflatable suits, which the lawsuit contends are designed for use in “violent recreational sumo wrestling games.”

Adrian De La Rosa, owner of Mega Party Events, said the girl was outfitted according to instructions from the suit’s manufacturer.

“The suit is fairly safe. We’ve never had an injury like this,” De La Rosa said. “I really hope she is doing OK.”

The Lissabets allege the school and company failed to ensure her helmet fit properly during the event last October. She was later rushed to the hospital after complaining of “blurred vision, dizziness, nausea and headaches,” according to to the negligence lawsuit filed by Davie attorney Lance Rudzinski.

The…

OAKLAND — A Santa Clara county man is suing a Bay Area stem cell research and development company on allegations he was fired from a senior management job for voicing concerns about a manufacturing practices he says puts stem cell therapy patients’ lives at risk.

Rob Williams’ wrongful termination and retaliation lawsuit against StemCells was filed in Alameda County Superior Court this week and seeks punitive damages against the Newark-based, publicly traded company that receives millions in government and private grants.

StemCells hired Williams in December to oversee the facility where stem cells cultures are cultivated for clinical trials. The lawsuit alleges he was fired in May in retaliation for making complaints about “dangers/defective products that the company was releasing into the commerce stream for human clinical trials.”

StemCells, Inc. spokeswoman Andrea Flynn said the allegations are without merit and Williams was terminated for performance deficiencies.

“The elements of manufacturing practices that concerned Mr. Williams were immediately and carefully reviewed by the company,” Flynn wrote in an email. “The company’s primary concern has always been, and will continue to be, the safety and tolerability of stem cell transplantation in its clinical trials.

“To date, no patients participating in the clinical studies have experienced any product related safety concerns,” Flynn wrote.

Daniel…

Direct Action for Rights and Equality, or DARE, announced it was filing the suit Tuesday in Superior Court, Providence.

DARE said in a news release that “any entity with more than four employees that receives $25,000 or more in public investment” is supposed to follow procedures “to ensure that Providence residents have the first opportunity to access any and all job openings.”

But DARE contends that just 41 out of 1,110 new job openings reported by companies covered under the law were filled by using “First Source” job referrals, the name for the law, citing what DARE said is the city’s own reports.

The lawsuit seeks a court-appointed monitor to ensure that Providence notifies employers of the law and starts sanctioning employers who don’t comply.

It also asks for a temporary restraining order to prevent the city from issuing any new tax-stabilization agreements, Providence Economic Development Partnership loans or other financing covered by the ordinance until it has “improved its compliance with the ordinance.”

The ordinance covers “tax concessions, and/or abatements,…grants-in-aid, grants from the office of community development, office of…

The lawsuit filed recently in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque says Michael Faziani, 57, was thrown in a Sierra County solitary confinement jail cell for days after getting arrested on misdemeanor charges for a minor accident in a McDonald’s parking pot.

Guards ignored his request for a shower and his cell got so squalid another inmate had to clean it, according to court papers filed last month.

“Due to the toxic effects of solitary confinement (Faziani) lost the ability to care of his own hygiene,” the lawsuit said.

Documents also said the Columbia, Tennessee man lost 22 pounds in 18 days and often begged for help. He was also denied medication for his chronic back pain, court papers said.

Sierra County officials did not immediately return emails from The Associated Press.

Faziani is seeking an unspecified amount for punitive and compensatory damages.

Matthew Coyte, Faziani’s lawyer and an Albuquerque attorney involved in the New Mexico cases, said the state’s county jails continue to be where most egregious solitary confinement cases are found.

“The practice of placing someone in solitary is done so professionally in the prisons they got it down to a science or an art,” said Coyte….