Love is major
July 29, 2008
Just finished reading Adams v. Rice, the D.C. Circuit’s pronouncement that sex is, indeed, a “major life activity” under federal disability law. A story in this week’s Legal Times says Adams, and another case that bestowed the same status on sleeping, could lead to a lot more litigation.
If that’s true, we should be almost nine years into the surge already. The 9th Circuit decided that sex was a major life activity back in December 1999, in McAlindin v. County of San Diego. (Stop smirking, it was not a Kozinski opinion. It was authored by Judge Dorothy W. Nelson, former dean of USC Law - my alma mater - where her image smiled kindly from the wall of the main lecture hall. With her prim blue suit, her tilted head and her neatly folded hands, Dean Dottie looked like she was about to offer us all a nice cup of tea. What better person to declare that sex is a major life activity?)
But, back to the D.C. Circuit. Kathy Adams says she was turned down for a Foreign Service post because she’s a breast-cancer survivor. The lower court threw out her case because being a cancer survivor is not a disability.
Adams, while she’s “fit as a fiddle” otherwise, said she’s still disabled because “the prospect of dating and developing an intimate relationship is just too painful and frightening. While I have overcome the physical disease,” she said, “my ability to enter into romantic relationships has been crippled indefinitely and perhaps permanently.”
That, combined with Adams’ history of cancer, was good enough for the D.C. Circuit, which remanded the case. No matter that the government insisted it didn’t know Adams wasn’t interested in sex.
Curious, isn’t it? If it hadn’t been for her lack of a love life, the State Department would have been free to discriminate against her based on her prior battle with cancer.
I think I will have that cup of tea now.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Sphere: Related ContentPrinceton Review gives top grades to Loyola, UMD
July 29, 2008
The Princeton Review released its annual college rankings yesterday and two Maryland schools topped two of the categories—Loyola College for best dorms and University of Maryland at College Park for best athletic facilities.
As a recent college grad, I vividly remember sitting on a couch in a library for hours going through the books of college ratings. After all, I wanted to make the most informed decision possible.
Nevertheless, what it boiled down to was actually visiting the schools I was interested in. I was certain that I wanted to attend a huge university until I began visiting schools and ended up liking a very small, private college.
I attended Goucher College in nearby Towson, and even though I had read that it was ranked the “Happiest School” in Newsweek (2004), it took an actual visit to legitimize my pre-conceived notions.
I’ve set foot in several of the Loyola dorms (pictured at left) and never considered them to be outside the norm, but maybe I was in the wrong building.
Do you think any other Maryland schools deserve recognition (i.e. best classroom experience, most diverse student body)?
RICHARD SIMON, Multimedia Reporter
(image courtesy of Loyola Web site)
Sphere: Related ContentGore proposes new energy goals
July 29, 2008
Ever since Al Gore’s green opus “An Inconvenient Truth” hit theaters a few years ago, the former presidential candidate has been seen as one of the most reliable voices in the movement to stop global warming.
Lately, Gore has suggested that switching the nation’s electricity production to wind, solar and other carbon-free sources in the next 10 years is a reachable goal.
A new Rasmussen Reports telephone poll found that only a third of American voters agreed with him.
According to the poll, 62 percent of Republicans think Gore’s energy proposals would exacerbate the expensive energy problem by making it more costly. Republicans aren’t alone – 52 percent of independents and 26 percent of Democrats polled said they believed that Gore’s plans would drive up energy prices.
Rasmussen noted that the divide among Republicans and Democrats here is pretty evident: More than two-thirds of supporters of Barack Obama for president agreed with Gore’s environmental views, while 65 percent of those surveyed who support John McCain for president disagreed with Gore.
Coal is the leading source of energy nationwide, making up more than half of the supply. Alternative energy accounts for less than 10 percent of electricity provided in the country.
DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Reporter
Sphere: Related ContentThis week in Maryland Lawyer
July 28, 2008
* With “pain pump” cases burgeoning across the country, Robert Jenner of Pikesville is heading to San Francisco this week for a hearing that will determine how and where the actions will be tried.
* Chief Judge Bell is in Anchorage, Judge Murphy’s taking a day off to venture deep into enemy territory — read what they and other Court of Appeals judges are doing this summer.
* A Howard County homebuilder is being sued, twice, by lawyers who claim they are owed a total of almost $60,000.
* A disbarred lawyer has been ordered to pay nearly $1 million for failing to handle his client’s appeal of a consumer protection lawsuit. Also, an advertising agency wins $300,000 in its suit against two former executives who started a competing firm and took a prominent client with them; and a med-mal case settles on the fifth day of trial.
* In Unbillable Hours, Ober|Kaler’s E. Scott Johnson shows off his collection of vinyl albums and vintage hi-fi turntables and equipment to play them on.
* Our columns this week include a call from the Editorial Advisory Board to shut down the Health Claims Alternative Dispute Resolution Office, and Jack L.B. Gohn’s take on the New Yorker’s Politics of Fear cover. Judge Dennis Sweeney’s “Judge on the Jury” series continues with tips on dealing with juror questions.
Plus:
Legal briefs; On the Move; Letters to the Editor; and our weekly law digest, this week with 27 cases: four from the Court of Special Appeals, 14 from the 4th Circuit and nine from U.S. District Court.
BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor/Law
Sphere: Related ContentLaw blog round-up
July 28, 2008
Happy Monday! Here are a few law-related links to start your week:
– A Maryland firm involved in some of the last remaining 9-11 lawsuits got a dressing-down from a federal judge in New York last week. The judge said Azrael, Franz & Gann’s “request for 25 percent of $28.5 million it had recovered ‘would reflect a very large windfall,’ and that its ‘entire strategy seems to have been to coast on the work of others.’”
– Collegiality between prosecutors and defense lawyers is overrated, says Jon Katz.
– A Prince George’s County mother is suing the school district, claiming a bus driver failed to protect her daughter from fellow students angry that she had turned them into for smoking marijuana on the bus.
– More from the “court appearance” files: a New York lawyer muses on adjusting one’s appearance to please a judge of the opposite sex. Hat tip: Feminist Law Professors.
– The Westboro Baptist Church crew’s pickup truck is taxable because it’s not used solely for religious purposes, says the Kansas Court of Appeals.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentTapped out of energy grants
July 28, 2008
If you thought that affixing solar panels to your roof would reward you with cheaper electricity bills as well as a kickback from the state government, think again.
Those solar panels will eventually pay for themselves with energy savings, but it might take a little bit longer, now that the state’s solar and geothermal program well of grants has run dry.
The Maryland Energy Administration announced Thursday that it awarded a record $591,000 in grants to residents who installed solar water heaters, solar panels and geothermal systems, but now it’s out of money. Residents snapped up the grant money after it became available on July 1.
The state is looking for more ways to pay you back for going green, but until then, you’ll have to sit on the waiting list.
Grants still exist for the administration’s Windswept program, which gives up to $10,000 to residents who put up small scale turbines on their property.
If you’re looking for an immediate way to show off your green side and get some money in return, you can always be like eco-centric Ed Begley Jr. and install a wind turbine on your house.
DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Writer
In the market for a (used) car?
July 25, 2008
Consumers seem pretty tired of watching money flow endlessly out of their wallets and into their gas tanks.
I’ve read plenty of articles that say the sky-high cost of fuel has prompted some people to change their habits – that means more walking, taking public transportation, carpooling and downgrading from gas-guzzling SUVs to more eco-friendly options. (Check out this smartmoney.com article on why it actually may be smarter to hold onto that SUV).
Now reports are surfacing that the trend has spread to used economy cars, which makes great sense, but has had an unintended and expensive impact.
I’m all for buying a used car, but the increased interest in the market has made buying a fuel-efficient used car nearly as expensive as purchasing a new one, which seems to me like it’s really defeating the purpose.
DANIELLE ULMAN, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentDNA: What are the odds?
July 25, 2008
My story in today’s paper, “Raising Doubt on DNA,” deals with the practice of using DNA databases and DNA found at a crime scene to identify the perpetrator. It was sparked by an ongoing series in the Los Angeles Times, especially last Sunday’s piece.
It’s an eye-opener. Last Sunday’s story begins like this:
State crime lab analyst Kathryn Troyer was running tests on Arizona’s DNA database when she stumbled across two felons with remarkably similar genetic profiles.
The men matched at nine of the 13 locations on chromosomes, or loci, commonly used to distinguish people.
The FBI estimated the odds of unrelated people sharing those genetic markers to be as remote as 1 in 113 billion. But the mug shots of the two felons suggested that they were not related: One was black, the other white.
According to the Times, “Arizona searches” in that state, Illinois and Maryland have yielded more than a thousand instances in which at least two samples match at nine or more loci. The FBI says the way the searches are conducted skews the result, and points out that it now looks for matches at 13 loci.
To read last Sunday’s story, click here; for other stories in the Times’ series, click here.
CARYN TAMBER, Legal Affairs Writer
Sphere: Related ContentThree Restaurant Weeks ahead
July 25, 2008
With my tummy rumbling and my pockets bare, Baltimore Restaurant Week — which kicks off Saturday — comes not a moment too soon. For just $20.08 a lunch and $30.08 a dinner (side note: what’s the significance of the $.08, besides, you know, the year?), diners can indulge in a three-course meal at almost 100 of the area’s top eateries.
In Baltimore, the event runs from July 26 to August 3. If you’re closer to the other beltway, the abbreviated Bethesda Chevy Chase Restaurant Week goes from July 28 to August 3. And if you miss both of those, D.C.’s mega-event, which trumps Baltimore’s by almost 100 restaurants, runs from August 11 to 17. If you like eating out in style — without overdrawing your bank account — as much as I do, the best news of all is that there’s nothing stopping you from going to all three. Multiple times.
And the good news doesn’t stop there. David Derewicz, manager of The Prime Rib, likes Restaurant Week so much that he’s extended it into Restaurant Month, an August-long (minus Saturdays) low-price promotion. This way, customers don’t have to compete for spots at the 120-seat landmark during one week, and can enjoy “a more relaxed atmosphere,” alongside a more relaxed dress code, Derewicz said.
“We found it to be a great way to welcome new guests and more importantly, it’s a way to thank established relationships that we’ve had with people over many years,” he said.
Restaurant Week/Month sounds to me like a great way for customers on a tight budget to have their steak and eat it too. Anyone not planning to partake?
ANNE RILEY, Business Writer
Sphere: Related ContentCan the city support an NBA or NHL team?
July 24, 2008
After today’s announcement that Baltimore officials want a downtown arena big enough accommodate a professional franchise, the next obvious question is: Who could fill that order, and can Baltimore really support an NBA or NHL team?
It’s been 35 years since the Bullets headed down I-95 to play in the Washington area (where they became the Wizards in 1997) and Baltimore hasn’t even had a whiff of getting a pro basketball team since. Sure, the Seattle Sonics were available earlier this year, but Baltimore was never a legitimate contender to get them. (The Sonics’ new home, Oklahoma City, was announced this month).
And the idea of Baltimore supporting a professional hockey team, especially when the area’s handful of hockey fans can go to D.C. or Philadelphia to watch a game, seems even more unrealistic (see comments here).
Even the city’s professional baseball team has been struggling to draw crowds for the past few years as excitement over the new ballpark has faded and the reality of a mediocre ball club has set in. The Orioles are a perfect case in point: when teams do well, more people come to their games. A few weeks before the All-Star break, the team was playing above-.500 ball and Camden Yards was attracting more people than it had in recent years.
Today the team is 10.5 games out of first place in the American League East, sits three games below .500 and is 7-11 in the month of July. In the last four weeks, attendance at Oriole Park has dropped by an average of 2,000 per night.
So while a new franchise might draw sellout crowds the first few years, after the excitement wears off where will Baltimore stand? If the team isn’t any good, evidence so far points to all but the hardcore fans in this city being pretty indifferent about watching a lousy team in person. (The Ravens, of course, are the grand exception to that — despite a 5-11 season last year M&T Bank Stadium was packed for every game.)
And while it should be noted that an 18,500-seat arena might be easier to fill up than a ballpark that seats more than 48,000, do you think Baltimore could really support a professional hockey or basketball team?
LIZ FARMER, Business Writer
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