Category: News

Scattered Thunderstorms Could Be Severe Today

WEATHER FORECAST FOR TUESDAY, MAY 15TH, 2018

 

TODAY – SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS THROUGHOUT THE
DAY. A FEW STORMS MAY BE SEVERE. HIGH – 81.

TONIGHT – CLOUDY. A STRAY SHOWER OR THUNDERSTORM
IS POSSIBLE. LOW AROUND 60.

WEDNESDAY – CLOUDY WITH OCCASIONAL SHOWERS.
HIGH – 77.

Lawsuit accuses AT&T Mobility of pregnancy discrimination

Beaver County Radio

Lawsuit accuses AT&T Mobility of pregnancy discrimination
By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Represented by high-powered lawyers, two women filed a federal court lawsuit Monday accusing AT&T’s mobile phone subsidiary of firing them for pregnancy-related absences in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.
The women allege that AT&T Mobility’s attendance policy, which assigns point-based demerits for late arrivals, early departures and absences, discriminates against pregnant women. According to the class-action lawsuit, both women were fired after accruing points for missing work because of pregnancy-related medical care, and, in one plaintiff’s case, her infant son’s emergency medical needs as well.
The plaintiffs, Katia Hills and Cynthia Allen, filed their claim on behalf of all female non-managerial employees in AT&T Mobility’s retail stores nationwide, and seek redress for all of these employees whose rights have allegedly been violated.
AT&T spokesman Marty Richter said the company was reviewing the complaint, adding, “We do not tolerate discrimination of any kind, including for an employee’s gender or pregnancy.”
The attorneys handling the lawsuit — from the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Cohen Milstein — said it could have national implications for the legal boundaries of attendance policies like the one used by AT&T Mobility.
Known as “no-fault” policies, they have become popular among some large employers as a way to decide which of their lower-echelon workers has an attendance problem. Under the policies, employees are assessed demerits for various unauthorized attendance lapses, regardless of the reason for the infraction, and those who exceed certain numbers of demerits face discipline.
“They treat employees like cogs, but employees aren’t cogs” said attorney Gillian Thomas of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project. “They’re human. They get pregnant, they get sick, they have families that need to be taken care of.”
According to the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hills worked at an AT&T Mobility store in Elkhart, Indiana, from April 2014 until July 2015. She became pregnant in October 2014, and ensuing nausea and other symptoms sometimes caused her to be late or miss work.
As alleged in the lawsuit, Hills had accrued several demerits by the time she started maternity leave, and experienced workplace hostility related to her pregnancy. She gave birth to a son in June 2015, returned from maternity leave in July, and two days later was fired because of demerits incurred for two pre-leave, pregnancy-related absences, the lawsuit contends.
“When I decided to bring a child into this world, the company asked me to choose between my job and having a safe pregnancy,” said Hills. “The attendance policies are too rigid for women whose bodies are undergoing so many changes.”
Allen worked at AT&T Mobility stores in New York starting in December 2012 before transferring to a Las Vegas store in April 2017. According to the lawsuit, when pregnancy-related illnesses required Allen to take time off before her son’s birth in December 2016, she submitted documentation from her health providers and was not told of any demerits. But when she returned from maternity leave in February 2017, the lawsuit says, Allen was told she’d been put on “final notice” due to the pre-birth absences, and she was fired the next month after missing two days to take her son for emergency medical care.
“I was shocked and a little scared,” said Allen, a single mother. “I was worrying about how I’m going to pay the rent and take care of my son and be able to find another job.”
The lawsuit says AT&T Mobility’s attendance policy exempts several types of absences — including jury duty and short-term disability — but does not mention pregnancy. The suit contends that the policy violates both the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which says companies cannot treat pregnant and non-pregnant employees differently in extending employment benefits, and the Family and Medical Leave Act, which grants up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for eligible employees to care for their own serious medical condition or that of an immediate family member.
“AT&T Mobility is essentially punishing women for being pregnant,” said Cohen Milstein attorney Kalpana Kotagal. “Employers of course have every right to discipline employees who are habitually late or absent, but the law recognizes that pregnancy … can’t and shouldn’t be penalized in the same way.”
The lawsuit seeks the nationwide revision of AT&T Mobility’s attendance policies, compensation for the plaintiffs’ loss of income, and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Supreme Court makes sports betting a possibility nationwide

Supreme Court makes sports betting a possibility nationwide
By JESSICA GRESKO, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday gave its go-ahead for states to allow gambling on sports across the nation, striking down a federal law that barred betting on football, basketball, baseball and other sports in most states.
The justices voted 6-3 to strike down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, a 1992 law that forbade state-authorized sports gambling with some exceptions. It made Nevada the only state where a person could wager on the results of a single game.
Many states have hoped their cut of legalized sports gambling could help solve budget problems. Stock prices for casino operators and equipment makers surged after the ruling was announced.
The ruling, in a case from New Jersey, creates an opening to bring an activity out of the shadows that many Americans already see as a mainstream hobby. The American Gaming Association estimates that Americans illegally wager about $150 billion on sports each year, and one research firm estimated before the ruling that if the Supreme Court were to strike down the law, 32 states would likely offer sports betting within five years.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court, “The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each state is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. PASPA is not.”
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Ginsburg wrote for the three that when a portion of a law violates the Constitution, the court “ordinarily engages in a salvage rather than a demolition operation,” preserving what it can. She said that instead of using a “scalpel to trim the statute” her colleagues used “an axe” to cut the remainder down. Breyer agreed with the majority of the court that part of the law must be struck down but said that should not have doomed the rest of the law.
The federal government and all four major U.S. professional sports leagues and the NCAA had urged the court to uphold the federal law, with the leagues saying a gambling expansion would hurt the integrity of their games. Those concerns are rooted in past gambling scandals. The leagues don’t want anyone thinking the outcome of their games could be altered by someone with money on a certain result, and they argued that with legal sports betting in the United States they’d have to spend a lot more money monitoring betting patterns and investigating suspicious activity.
Sports gambling proponents argue that the leagues already do that work and that legal sports betting will make enforcement easier than it is now, when most bets in the U.S. are made illegally. They say state regulators are capable of monitoring suspicious bets, as is done in Nevada.
On Monday, Major League Baseball issued a statement saying the Supreme Court ruling would have “profound effects” on the league and that it would “continue to seek the proper protections for our sport.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says the pro basketball league remains in favor “of a federal framework that would provide a uniform approach to sports gambling in sates that choose to permit it.” He said that “regardless of the particulars of any future sports betting law, the integrity of our game remains our highest priority.”
Representatives of the National Hockey League and National Football League had no immediate comment on the ruling, saying they were analyzing it. The NCAA’s chief legal officer said the organization is still reviewing the court’s decision but added that it “will adjust sports wagering and championship policies to align with the direction from the court.”
The court’s decision came in a case from New Jersey, which has fought for years to legalize gambling on sports at casinos and racetracks. Former Gov. Chris Christie said after arguments in the case in December that if justices sided with the state, bets could be taken “within two weeks” of a decision.
After the ruling was announced, the former Republican governor tweeted that it was a “great day for the rights of states and their people to make their own decisions.” The state’s current governor, Democrat Phil Murphy, also cheered the ruling, saying he was “thrilled” to see the high court strike down the “arbitrary ban.” He said he looked forward to working with the Legislature to “enact a law authorizing and regulating sports betting in the very near future.”
Monmouth Park, a racetrack at the Jersey Shore, has already set up a sports book operation and has previously estimated it could take bets within two weeks of a favorable ruling.
Tony Rodio, president of Tropicana Entertainment, said his Atlantic City casino will “absolutely” offer sports betting once it can get it up and running. “It’s been a long time coming,” he said.
New Jersey has spent years and millions of dollars in legal fees trying to legalize sports betting. In 2012, with voters’ support, New Jersey lawmakers passed a law allowing sports betting, directly challenging the 1992 federal law. The four major professional sports leagues and the NCAA sued, and the state lost in court.
In 2014, New Jersey tried a different tactic by repealing laws prohibiting sports gambling at casinos and racetracks. It argued that taking its laws off the books was different from authorizing sports gambling. The state lost again and then took the case to the Supreme Court.
More than a dozen states had supported New Jersey in urging the Supreme Court to overturn the law.
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Associated Press reporter Wayne Parry contributed reporting from Atlantic City, New Jersey, Ben Nuckols contributed from Washington and Steve Megargee contributed from Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Follow Jessica Gresko on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jessicagresko

First Lady hospitalized after proceedure!!! President Trump to visit her!!!

The Latest: WH official: Trump set to visit wife at hospital
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on first lady Melania Trump (all times local):
4 p.m.
President Donald Trump is expected to visit first lady Melania Trump at the hospital, where she underwent a procedure to treat a benign kidney condition.
That’s according to a White House official who was not authorized to disclose the plan and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The official says the visit to Walter Reed Medical Center is expected later Monday.
A spokeswoman for the 48-year-old first lady says the procedure was successful and there were no complications. Mrs. Trump will likely be hospitalized for the rest of the week.
The White House did not offer any additional details on Mrs. Trump’s condition.
She was last seen in public on Wednesday at a White House event to honor military mothers and spouses for Mother’s Day.
— By Associated Press writer Darlene Superville
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3:30 p.m.
The White House says Melania Trump is hospitalized after undergoing a procedure to treat a benign kidney condition.
The first lady’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, says that the procedure Monday morning was successful and that there were no complications.
Grisham says Mrs. Trump is at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center just outside Washington and will likely remain there for the rest of the week.
Last week, the first lady launched her “Be Best” initiative to help children be their best selves.