Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : THE SLIGHTLY MODERATED BOXING RING -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (1208)	3/4/2002 9:53:58 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 21057

Supreme Court Hears Arguments in Disability Case nytimes.com By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 1:48 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Supreme Court justices, in a case testing the reach of the Americans with Disabilities Act, questioned Wednesday whether an employer can exclude someone from a job that might jeopardize his health -- even if he wants to work. Mario Echazabal should be able to decide for himself whether to take the risk of working in an oil refinery, where chemicals might aggravate his liver ailment, his lawyer argued to the court. Instead, Echazabal's bosses at a Chevron plant in El Segundo, Calif., made that decision for him, lawyer Samuel Bagenstos said. The limits of the 1990 ADA are slowly being thrashed out in courts nationwide. The Supreme Court has decided nine cases so far, with decisions in the Echazabal case and one other workplace dispute yet to come this term. The court has not been friendly to lawsuits asserting worker rights under the ADA. In five cases involving the workplace, the court has ruled against the worker each time. The most recent decision came last month, when the court made it more difficult for employees to demand special treatment if they suffer partial disabilities such as carpal tunnel syndrome. By contrast, the court has ruled in favor of the disabled person in the other four cases, which concerned accommodations that everyone from dentists to the PGA Tour must make to include people with disabilities. ``They are not sympathetic to the ADA in the workplace,'' Georgetown University law professor Michael Gottesman said. ``They think people are asking for special treatment because they have disabilities.'' Gottesman said he is not optimistic that the Echazabal case will be any different. Indeed, the justices seemed troubled by the idea that a company's hands would be tied if a worker insisted on doing a job that might lead to serious illness or death. ``We want employers to care about their employees,'' an exasperated Justice Anthony M. Kennedy told Echazabal's lawyer. ``You want the court to take a position that's completely barbarous.'' Echazabal's condition did not prevent him from doing just about every maintenance job at the refinery for more than 20 years. He worked for contractors at the plant, not for Chevron itself. He twice applied for a regular job with Chevron, which would offer better benefits and job security. He twice was hired with the condition that he take a company physical. He was rejected the second time when a test showed he suffered from chronic, active hepatitis C, a progressive condition that can lead to cirrhosis, liver failure and death. Chevron asked the maintenance contractor to fire or reassign Echazabal in 1996. He was fired and now drives a school bus part-time. ``I feel like it's nothing wrong with me,'' Echazabal said after attending Wednesday's oral argument. ``I'm still feeling good.'' His lawyers say he has no symptoms, and remains ready and able to work at the refinery. ``I like my old job. I know the job,'' Echazabal said. Echazabal risked further liver damage the longer he worked around the chemicals and toxins at the plant, and his medical condition puts him outside the protection of the ADA, Chevron's lawyer argued. ``There are five physicians who said this individual is at imminent risk,'' lawyer Stephen Shapiro argued for the company. Employers must have the flexibility to deny a job to a worker who would be a danger to himself on the job, the company and a long list of businesses groups argue. The ADA already says that a worker can be excluded if he or she would be a threat to others. Chevron appealed to the Supreme Court after the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the health risk was not enough to disqualify Echazabal. The Bush administration is backing the company. The case is Chevron v. Echazabal, 00-1406. ^---- On the Net: Supreme Court: supremecourtus.gov

To: TimF who wrote (1208)	3/4/2002 11:26:48 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

I've been to Saudi. For work, of course. The only ways foreigners can get in there are for work and the trip to Mecca and I'm not Muslim, so they wouldn't even let me into the city. Or into the country for that reason. Let's see, how can I put this? Everything you've heard about the country is true. Women can't drive. Alcohol is illegal (although most westerners live in compounds and that's overlooked there, though still not legal.) The practice of other religions than Islam is illegal (same "exemption" for the compounds.). And Islam, of course is the official state-supported religion. The possession of materials from other religions is illegal (same "exemption" for the compounds.) And of course material "offensive" to Islam. Converting a Muslim to another religion is punishable by death. Atheism is punishable by death. (How did I get in? I lied.) Buses are divided by steel partitions; the back third is for women. Restaurants are segregated into single men and family sections. (And "family" means the husband must be present; women can't dine in public by themselves.) Women can't operate or work in businesses where they might have men as clients or customers. Women must wear chadors and veils in public. (The hotel I stayed at was regularly raided buy the religious police (they have them there) because it kept "forgetting" that requirement.) Men can have up to 4 wives. You saw about 10% of the number of women on the streets there that you would in a Western country. Mostly they stayed indoors. The main square in Riyadh, the capital, is used for public beheadings. Theft gets a hand cut off. Which way will they go? Ask me in five years. Oh. Grub. (11^2)*10