Discrimination

The Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Office has concluded that there is no basis for a racial discrimination claim in Morrisville that the office had been investigating since April. Isabell Carter, who is black, accused Morrisville Borough of discrimination when it sought to evict her and her three daughters from a rented house, citing borough codes requiring more space for four people. On Monday, Carter said she was no longer worrying about whether discrimination was key to the problems with her house, which she and her daughters moved into on March 9. "I'm just content that I'm here, that we have a house," Carter said during a telephone interview.

I have no doubts about whether Sonia Sotomayor will be confirmed for the Supreme Court by the Senate. I do have doubts about her judgment, particularly on the Ricci v. DeStefano firefighter case. In short, New Haven, Conn., offered a test for promotions to lieutenant and captain. Some firefighters passed the written test, and some didn't - whites, blacks, and Hispanics in both groups. Per city charter and union rules, promotions were to go to those with the highest test scores, combined with results of oral interviews.

When Haverford College astronomy professor Bruce Partridge thinks about cultural diversity in the natural sciences, he recalls the contributions of the ancient Mayan Indians to the study of the stars. Those early astronomers built elaborate observatories out of stone, developed a table to count the days of the year, and plotted solar eclipses. Partridge believes that such cultural information should be built into any liberal arts education. He is hoping that under a new curricular policy adopted by the college's faculty last month, the Quaker institution will do just that.

Audubon Borough officials say they are just enforcing the town zoning rules. But residents of a group home on Vassar Avenue say the 18 zoning violations filed against them last summer are a form of discrimination. The eight women are all recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. They say they feel the borough wants them to move because of their past addictions and that Audubon is using an underhanded way to get them out of town by contending that their home does not comply with residential zoning standards.

Philadelphia Police Inspector Joseph O'Connor said he was flabbergasted when he saw a former friend and officer on national television, claiming that O'Connor was an anti-semitic bigot who threatened his life and career. The ex-buddy, Mark Goldberg, a retired police officer, sued O'Connor, the city and three other supervisors, alleging ethnic intimidation and religious discrimination. He sought more than $500,000 in lost pay and damages. Yesterday, a federal court judge threw out Goldberg's claim and vindicated O'Connor and his fellow officers.

It was another day of discord in the seventh-floor courtroom, and the lawyers were once again huddled with the judge and arguing about testimony in the sex-discrimination case brought by the city's first female homicide detective. Attorney Richard A. Sprague, who represents the detective and four male colleagues, wanted U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop 3d to hold the city's attorney, Richard G. Freeman, in contempt of court. And the judge came close to doing so. "You have debased this tribunal by your injection of often misleading views to this jury.

Call it proof that progress is sometimes perverse. Meaning Eddie Jordan, district attorney for Orleans Parish in Louisiana. First black D.A. in New Orleans' history. That's the progress. Here's the perverse: Soon after he took office in January 2003, Jordan fired 53 white employees en masse and replaced them all with blacks. Last week, a federal court ruled that he committed racial discrimination against 43 of those workers. A jury of eight whites and two blacks ordered the D.A. to pay $1.9 million in back pay and damages.

A federal appeals court yesterday rejected a sex-discrimination claim by former Southern Cal women's basketball coach Marianne Stanley, saying the coach of the men's team had a more demanding job and could be paid more. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate Stanley to the job she had held for four years. Her replacement is former USC all-American Cheryl Miller and the Trojans are ranked 10th in the nation. Stanley, a native of Upper Darby, a graduate of Immaculata and a former coach at Penn and Old Dominion - which won three national titles with her - made $70,000 in salary and housing allowances last season and sought a contract equal to that of men's coach George Raveling, whose won-lost record at Southern Cal was below hers.

This could be phrased more delicately, but the fact of the matter is that Lauren R. Januz has a real big butt. But that's his business. Or it should be his business, since it is his oversized butt. However, he has chosen to make the size of his hind end a public issue. Januz recently sent a stern letter to the chief executive officer of McDonald's Corp. He sent copies to me and the Minority Rights Division of the U.S. attorney's office. He wrote: "I represent a minority group that is just as visible as blacks, Mexicans, Latins, Asians or women.

Declining enrollments, "white flight," fiscal austerity and a "search for excellence" have sparked much debate about federally funded education. This debate includes such radical concepts as mandatory teacher evaluation and vouchers. But one simple reform that started two decades ago, a prohibition against discrimination, could die before a hostile and indifferent Congress unless there is a strong show of public support. The Civil Rights Restoration Act, now under consideration by both Houses of Congress, would restore protections against discrimination for women, minorities, the disabled and the elderly in federally funded educational institutions.

As Memorial Day approaches, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D., Pa.) has introduced legislation designed to toughen penalties against employers who discriminate against veterans when they return from their tours of duty. "These are brave men and women who should not have to worry about their jobs when they are defending our country," Casey said Wednesday. "The least we can do is make sure when they get home they are not discriminated against. " Federal law already requires companies to reemploy armed-services members promptly, and bans discrimination against them because of their past, present, or future service.

Footballers Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson are spearheading a class-action racial discrimination suit in federal court against ABC and producers of the network's megahits, The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, says the Hollywood Reporter. The suit says The Bachelor, which has been on for 16 seasons, and its sister show, which premieres its eighth season in May, have never once featured a person of color. ABC has declined comment. Bachelor exec producer Mike Fleiss last year told Entertainment Weekly, "We always want to cast for ethnic diversity, it's just that for whatever reason, they don't come forward.

It's a shame that some employers are making it harder for the jobless to find work. In a disturbing trend, a growing number of employers are telling the unemployed not to apply. Being either currently or recently employed has become an eligibility requirement. With 12.8 million Americans out of work and a national unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, employers should openly embrace those seeking to return to the workforce. Instead, they are punishing them for gaps in their resume due to no fault of their own. Eliminating applicants based on their employment status unfairly screens out millions of people, based not on their skill set but on their misfortunes.

LET'S SAY you teach religion at one of the schools on the archdiocesan chopping block. Let's say you're so depressed about the mass closures that you slam your hand through a wall, right beneath the crucifix. Let's say you break all five of your metacarpals, and can't manage to hold an eraser, correct homework or thwack someone over the knuckles with a ruler for a good six months. Let's say that the Archdiocese not only sends you a bill for the hole in the wall and the dented crucifix, but tells you you're no longer welcome at St. Soon-To-Be-History.

THE ARCHDIOCESE of Philadelphia's announcement last week that it was closing 49 schools sparked intense emotion. Much of it was from the anguished students, parents and teachers of the parochial system, but certainly much from the community at large. Given the events of the last few years, such public sympathy for the Catholic Church is no small thing. In fact, it seemed we had, for a moment, general public recognition that educating kids was a task we all need to tackle together, whether public or private.

SAVANNAH STATE University's ex-football coach received a $240,000 settlement to dismiss a federal discrimination lawsuit he filed last year claiming the historically black college fired him because he's white. A copy of the settlement obtained by the Associated Press yesterday shows Robby Wells' attorneys were paid $110,000 in addition to the money paid to the former coach. Wells became Savannah State's first white football coach when he was hired in 2007. He led the Tigers for two seasons, with records of 5-7 in 2008 and 2-8 in 2009.

By now, researcher Cynthia Calvert says, most employers know enough about the law and gender discrimination to at least avoid the appearance of bias against women. But, she said, the same cautionary discretion just doesn't seem to apply to mothers, or pregnant mothers-to-be. Note: Mothers are women. "People don't understand that you can't discriminate against mothers," said Calvert, who, as senior adviser at the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California, has testified on the topic before Congress and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A consultant's report made public this morning takes issue with a Lower Merion police officer's complaint that the department failed to promote him to sergeant because he is black, and that its hiring and promotion practices are biased against minorities. The 21-page report by a Malvern firm concluded that in general there was no evidence of discrimination at any stage of the department's recruitment, testing and appointment process. "The facts show that the department has made an effort to include minority representation on the oral examination panels for the sergeant and lieutenant exams," the report said.

PHILADELPHIA - Federal officials say an Alcoa subsidiary in central Pennsylvania will pay more than $540,000 to settle claims that it discriminated against minorities and women. Alcoa Mill Products Inc. will pay about $485,000 in back wages to 37 Hispanics and African-American men who were denied jobs at the plant in Lancaster. Two women will split about $35,000. The settlement announced Tuesday by the Labor Department resolves a finding that the company discriminated against minority and female applicants for material handler positions.

Two years after Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey shut down Domelights.com, an online police forum that often sunk to racist slurs, its chief critics yesterday claimed victory in the settlement of their federal anti-discrimination lawsuit against the city. The settlement - approved Thursday - requires the city to pay $102,000 to the three civil-rights groups who sued: the Guardian Civic League, which represents Philadelphia's black officers; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Philadelphia chapter, and the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Officers.