Proposal to drug-test welfare recipients proves unpopular
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Welfare recipients would be tested for drugs, and those found positive would lose their benefits under a proposal that is encountering strong opposition in Kentucky.
State Rep. Melvin Henley, R-Murray, said he filed legislation to require the drug tests in response to concerns raised by working-class constituents in his western Kentucky district.
“It makes sense to a person who has to work for a living and has to undergo drug testing and who sees people on welfare who don’t have to abide by any rules,” Henley said.
Critics contend the legislation is unconstitutional and that it would have unintended victims — children.
“Welfare is for the children, and so if you’re doing such a thing, you’re punishing the children,” said John Rosenberg, former head of the Appalachian Research and Defense Fund in Prestonsburg. “I don’t think that’s what we really want to do.”
Michigan briefly required drug tests for welfare recipients in 1999, but was ordered by a federal judge to stop just weeks into the program when the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit.
Federal agent wins discrimination suit against U.S. Marshals in Virgin Islands
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — A federal marshal who hosted a television show about fugitives in the U.S. Virgin Islands has won a discrimination suit against the U.S. Marshals Service.
A federal jury in St. Croix ruled last Thursday that the service discriminated against Deputy U.S. Marshal Linda Valerino — known for her local TV program about fugitives in the Caribbean territory — and found it had retaliated against her when she filed a complaint.
The jury awarded Valerino $500,000 in damages, although federal discrimination law caps the amount she will receive at $300,000. She also will get about $92,000 in back pay, her attorney Andy Simpson said.
In her suit, Valerino alleged that male colleagues worked to block her from receiving a promotion in 2002 because they did not want to be supervised by a woman, and then retaliated when she complained by filing false claims of misconduct against her.
Back pay pact reached in decades-old metal workers’ discrimination case
NEW YORK — More than 150 black and Hispanic sheet metal workers have been awarded a total of $6.2 million in a settlement in a nearly 40-year-old discrimination lawsuit against their union.
The workers said they were underpaid for years because of their race or national origin.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced the settlement last Tuesday. A federal judge in Manhattan recently approved the agreement, which includes a pledge that Local 28 of the Sheet Metal Workers’ International Association will change its job-referral system and monitor members’ access to work opportunities.
“This is a historic moment for the union,” said its lawyer, Riccardo Iaccarino.
Iaccarino, a lawyer for the workers and an EEOC official all said a 2006 change in union leadership had led to the settlement.
“For a very long time, the union’s old guard resisted change,” despite court orders compelling Local 28 to stop discriminating, said Jyotin Hamid, a partner with Debevoise & Plimpton. The New York-based firm and the Washington-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law represented the minority workers; the city and state governments also were involved.
The EEOC filed the original litigation in 1971. The settlement compensates the workers for lost wages from 1984 to 1991; litigation over similar claims for pay after 1991 continues.
Spencer Lewis, the district director of the EEOC’s New York office, said in a statement that the agency hoped the settlement signaled the union’s willingness to address the outstanding claims.
Local 28 represents about 3,000 sheet metal workers in New York City and some surrounding areas.
Office of Hispanic Affairs proposed in N.M. Legislature
SANTA FE, N.M. — A coalition of organizations is urging the Legislature to establish a state Office of Hispanic Affairs.
Hispanics account for about 43 percent of New Mexico’s population — the largest percentage of any state — and advocates say New Mexico needs a freestanding governmental agency focusing on issues of concern to the Hispanic community.
The proposed office would provide “a focal point to recognize Hispanics and the contributions made to our beautiful state,” Sen. Linda Lopez, D-Albuquerque, said last Friday at a news conference. “There will be a point of reference where our community can look to for information, guidance, communication and support.”
Several other states have such offices or commissions. There’s been a state Division of Latino Affairs in Iowa since 1990 and a Spanish-Speaking People’s Commission for more than a decade before that. Ohio has a Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs; Idaho has a state Commission on Hispanic Affairs.
Currently, New Mexico has a cabinet-level Indian Affairs Department in state government as well as an Office of African American Affairs.
Supporters said Hispanics face a number of economic challenges. For example, a larger share of Hispanic families live in poverty than non-Hispanics.
Loretta Armenta, president of Qwest in New Mexico and a former president of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce, said the proposed office “would be a nonpartisan state department working toward economic, education and social equality, including promoting cooperation and understanding.”
