Hrc

The state Human Relations Commission is ready to schedule a fact-finding conference in the age discrimination complaint filed by Lower Merion School Superintendent James Pugh against the school board. The legal hurdle to holding the conference was cleared last week when a three-judge panel of the Commonwealth Court tossed out an attempt by the school board to bar the HRC from hearing the complaint. Board attorney Thomas Masterson had argued in court last month that the state constitution gives the board the absolute authority to hire and fire the superintendent.

Latino leaders have wrestled for months with the Human Relations Commission over the depth and breadth of coming public hearings that will investigate whether city services are delivered to the Hispanic community in a discriminatory manner. The wrestling match is finally over. Yesterday, the same Latino leaders who weeks ago threatened to boycott the hearings issued their formal support for the investigatory sessions. "We did the most we could," said Luis Sanabria, one of the 13 members of the Latino steering committee that jointly planned the hearings with the commission.

When racial tensions boil over - as they did in Kensington on Saturday - the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is called on to turn down the heat. But a main function of the HRC, according to Executive Director Leah Gaskin-White, is to douse the flame of racism before it flares. "For every one incident reported, there are numerous incidents that never get reported because of the intervention of this staff," she said in an interview yesterday. "If there were not a Commission on Human Relations . . . There would be a significant increase in the incidents and probably (in)

Asian-American leaders say there is a growing pattern of violence against Asians that has been largely ignored by city agencies and unnoticed by the media. The group Asian Americans United says some statistics in a January report by the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations tell a striking story that the commission overlooked: that Asians are more likely to be victims of ethnic intimidation or violence than other ethnic groups. "You've got a situation where Asians are being victimized, but they're also being victimized by the people who are supposed to help them," said Debbie Wei, president of Asian Americans United.

Whether you think Joey Vento's "speak English" sign was racist, silly or long overdue, it shouldn't take 18 months for Philadelphia's Human Relations Commission to decide. Vento, owner of Geno's cheesesteaks, was hit with a civil-rights complaint in June 2006. But the HRC didn't hold a hearing on the case until Friday. The show lasted more than six hours. And it's still not over. The commission took the matter "under advisement. " Lawyers have another 60 days to file briefs.

Attorneys for the Lower Merion school board have asked Commonwealth Court to stop the age-discrimination complaint filed against the board with the state Human Relations Commission by Superintendent James Pugh. "Our position is that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission simply does not have jurisdiction over this issue,' said Francis Milone who, with Thomas Masterson, is representing the school board. The petition, filed Tuesday afternoon in Philadelphia, says that the school board has "exclusive . . . authority to make all decisions regarding the appointment, reappointment and removal of a superintendent.

The state Human Relations Commission plans to fight an attempt by the Lower Merion school board to prevent the commission from hearing an age discrimination complaint by Superintendent James Pugh, according to the HRC's regional director. In a petition for review filed with Commonwealth Court on Tuesday, attorneys for the school board argue that the HRC suit filed against the board by Pugh represents an unconstitutional attempt to restrict the board's "exclusive . . . authority to make all decisions regarding the appointment, reappointment and removal of a superintendent.

Councilman James J. Powers said he would urge the borough to reject a state Human Relations Commission request that officials cease AIDS testing of police applicants. "They are absolutely wrong," Powers said Tuesday. "I'm going to recommend that we not (comply). " Powers' comments followed a letter he received from the commission last month warning the borough to drop its policy of AIDS testing of prospective officers. The letter also asks officials to comply with several other requests, among them not to inquire about or discuss an applicant's AIDS status and to include a nondiscrimination clause in its police employment advertisements.

FORM NO. 90210-DAS/HE SUBJECT: Adoption Fitness Home Evaluation, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. CASEWORKER: Amelia Thicke. SUBMITTED TO: Eleanor Wise, regional deputy sub-director for adoption services. OVERVIEW: Caucasian couple, married, heterosexual, seek to adopt infant. Have one biological child, female, 16. The husband, BC, is 49. The wife, HRC, is 47. They report no contagious diseases, but have law degrees. Home visit conducted over seven days in May. OBSERVATIONS: Couple lives in large, white single-family dwelling, with ample grounds surrounded by gated fence.

DIVERSITY is like Weight Watchers: You pick one dish from each category for a well-balanced diet. But while that might be fine for the waistline and nutrition, force-feeding can be dangerous to our civic health. I'm not talking about the magnificent melting-pot stew created by immigrants who, through the generations, layered their own rich experiences over the bedrock of American principles. That's an undisputable source of our strength. I'm referring to something newer and more insidious, something that values tolerance over unity and gives inordinate importance to color, creed, gender and sexual orientation.

DIVERSITY is like Weight Watchers: You pick one dish from each category for a well-balanced diet. But while that might be fine for the waistline and nutrition, force-feeding can be dangerous to our civic health. I'm not talking about the magnificent melting-pot stew created by immigrants who, through the generations, layered their own rich experiences over the bedrock of American principles. That's an undisputable source of our strength. I'm referring to something newer and more insidious, something that values tolerance over unity and gives inordinate importance to color, creed, gender and sexual orientation.

DIVERSITY is like Weight Watchers: You pick one dish from each category for a well-balanced diet. But while that might be fine for the waistline and nutrition, force-feeding can be dangerous to our civic health. I'm not talking about the magnificent melting-pot stew created by immigrants who, through the generations, layered their own rich experiences over the bedrock of American principles. That's an undisputable source of our strength. I'm referring to something newer and more insidious, something that values tolerance over unity and gives inordinate importance to color, creed, gender and sexual orientation.

Whether you think Joey Vento's "speak English" sign was racist, silly or long overdue, it shouldn't take 18 months for Philadelphia's Human Relations Commission to decide. Vento, owner of Geno's cheesesteaks, was hit with a civil-rights complaint in June 2006. But the HRC didn't hold a hearing on the case until Friday. The show lasted more than six hours. And it's still not over. The commission took the matter "under advisement. " Lawyers have another 60 days to file briefs.

Philosophers dedicate their lives studying the "Is vs. Ought" dichotomy. But we don't have time for all of that. Instead let's just look at the United Nations. According to its worshippers, the United Nations ought to be a moral authority. It ought to set an international norm for decency in international affairs. It ought to be a champion for human rights. It ought to confer legitimacy on everything from humanitarian missions to wars to peace treaties. It ought to do all of these things and maybe even more.

The unthinkable has happened. Mrs. Clinton (the future Ms. Rodham) has been elected to the United States Senate. Backtrack to just a few months ago. Wasn't the very idea preposterous? Did the country not scoff at the notion of the First Lady even running for a senatorial seat from New York? Did the state of New York not laugh and dismiss the possibility? Somewhere, as with all things Clintonian, joke morphed into reality. Alec Baldwin and Barbra Streisand promised they'd move to another country if George W. Bush were to win the election.

'I love my job. It's the best job I'll ever have. " But Kevin Vaughan, executive director of Philadelphia's Human Relations Commission since 1992, announced late last month that he was taking another job - as five-state regional director of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His first day was Monday. Why did he leave? Money could be a reason. He's climbing in salary from $79,500 to $116,000, and he acknowledges the additional cash was a reason. But not the reason.

FORM NO. 90210-DAS/HE SUBJECT: Adoption Fitness Home Evaluation, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. CASEWORKER: Amelia Thicke. SUBMITTED TO: Eleanor Wise, regional deputy sub-director for adoption services. OVERVIEW: Caucasian couple, married, heterosexual, seek to adopt infant. Have one biological child, female, 16. The husband, BC, is 49. The wife, HRC, is 47. They report no contagious diseases, but have law degrees. Home visit conducted over seven days in May. OBSERVATIONS: Couple lives in large, white single-family dwelling, with ample grounds surrounded by gated fence.

A former teacher's assistant at Temple Adath Israel in Merion has sued the synagogue, claiming she was fired four years ago because she had been romantically involved with its cantor. Carol Ann Miller, 40, of Havertown, who is not Jewish, claims that synagogue officials told her to leave in June 1991 because she owed money to its school, where her daughter had attended kindergarten. In 1994, she says, she learned the real reason for her dismissal was her relationship with the cantor.

Steven Anderson and Flip Benson don't know each other, but both are steamed about the movies United Artists shows. Both say the local multiplex should also be a multicultureplex - and they don't find something for everyone at their neighborhood theaters. Anderson, 44, an African American who lives in the Pennsport section of South Philadelphia, says the United Artists RiverView theater on Christopher Columbus Boulevard is giving him Batman Forever when he wants the black college drama Higher Learning.

QUOTE "Diana - We'll leave her alone. See pages 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 24 and 25. " - The London Daily Mirror on Saturday, after the princess announced her retreat from public life JINGLE BILL, JINGLE HILL . . . Imagine Christmas in the White House. Now forget simplicity and privacy. Already, there are 19 Christmas trees in the Georgian mansion on Pennsylvania Avenue. Somewhere, 50 decorators, florists and volunteers have collapsed with exhaustion into the eggnog after trimming all those trees and hanging all the garlands and placing the poinsettias just so. There is a green velvet tree skirt with a quilt panel from each of the 50 states.