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miscreants as the boston globe reports judge who sued over lost pants loses bid to keep job a federal judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by roy l pearson jr the former district of columbia judge whose previous 54 million lawsuit against a dry cleaning business generated international headlines pearson filed the later suit in may 2008 alleging that the district of columbia government broke the law in refusing to reappoint him to a 10 year term as an administrative law judge the decision came after news reports about pearson s lawsuit against custom cleaners which he said had misplaced a pair of his pants the district s commission on selection and tenure of administrative law judges cited pearson s temperament and prudence on the bench in not giving him the job once again pearson was left holding his pants the court rejected his retaliation claim in a 37 page opinion issued last thursday us district judge ellen s huvelle rejected all of pearson s arguments she called pearson s lawsuit against custom cleaners a personal vendetta no wrongful termination here said the judge the pants lawsuit still not over but the federal court was not buying it retaliation claims are only viable where an employee has been disciplined or fired for so called protected speech to succeed in his case pearson would have to show that his speech the pants lawsuit involved a matter of public concern the fact that he sued in part to compel enforcement of d c s consumer protection laws going so far as to characterize himself as a private attorney general for doing so did not impress the judge looks like we won t have pearson around to mock for much longer but there s always someone new to fill the spot speaking of lawyers behaving badly a receptionist has sued her former law firm an employment law firm claiming that they wouldn t let her take a potty break her revenge she wants to relieve the firm of some money for not letting her relieve herself claiming that she was fired for complaining about the lack of breaks she s asking for 1 59m in damages no less as the washington business journal reports former receptionist sues littler mendelson over bathroom breaks enter rebecca landrith the now former receptionist in the mclean office of employment law giant littler mendelson pc according to the july 27 lawsuit the receptionist filed with no help from a lawyer littler provided no substitute receptionist and had no consistent policy or procedure as to when or how landrith could take a restroom break need we go on oh if we must impromptu requests for cover by employees like attorneys elicited mostly resentment and condescension she alleges on two separate occasions landrith claims she had to wet her pants at the desk because nobody would well relieve her the incidents caused landrith depression stress anxiety and helplessness ergo her claim for 1 59 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress i think the best comment about the case came from above the law littler is one of the leading employment law defense firms in the country it s really not surprising that a firm well known for defend ing many of the world s leading corporations told this lady to leave before she dripped anything on the stationery i think this one may be known as the case of the potty potty at 9 05 2009 06 45 00 am 12 comments labels discrimination humor law life thursday september 03 2009 as the world turns once again my continual refrain that scranton is the center of the universe proves true as i noted before during the recent presidential election almost all of the candidates visited the electric city or touted their ties to scranton from hillary clinton to joe biden even obama enlisted hometown boy senator bob casey to his side early in the campaign and made several stops there with casey by his side now that the election has receded scranton has still managed to stay in the news for one thing or another the latest newsworthy item is former bishop joseph martino who recently resigned after an 8 year reign of terror in the town as i noted the other day see exit stage right one of the llwl gang returned today from a cape cod vacation and mentioned that she heard the news of martino s giving up his throne while she was at the cape the news traveled far and wide likewise time magazine has also featured the story of martino s sudden departure from the diocese of scranton in its latest issue they have an interesting take on what caused martino to suddenly step down bishop martino too outspoken on abortion for vatican for suddenly departing politicians and ceos the standard line is to spend time with family now the catholic church may have its own version of this unconvincing stock answer on aug 31 joseph martino the controversial bishop from scranton pa stunned longtime church watchers by announcing that he was resigning his post because of problems with insomnia and fatigue the catholic leader who has gained national prominence for his outspoken pro life advocacy and aggressive criticism of pro choice democratic politicians is still more than a decade away from reaching the church s automatic retirement age of 75 martino s abrupt resignation along with the fact that he was not reassigned to another position within the church has some church insiders suggesting that the highly unusual move was far from voluntary and quite possibly the work of a vatican that has been decidedly less openly critical of the obama administration whether martino is leaving willingly or not his departure means that one very vocal critic of the administration has lost his bully pulpit time suggests that martino s constant castigation of pro life scrantonian senator casey may have been the deciding factor in the vatican ditching martino particularly since the jabs were related to casey s support of president obama as the piece observes building bridges has also been the public posture of the vatican when it comes to the obama administration the vatican remained silent on notre dame s decision to invite obama to speak and although pope benedict xvi expressed his disappointment with obama s support for abortion rights when the two met in july a vatican spokesman went out of his way to state that the holy father was very impressed by the democratic president with the substantial shortage of priests in the church these days it has to be pretty extreme for the vatican to permit a priest to step aside for other than a very good reason of course i m glad he s gone whatever the reason friends family have long reported that the bishop was deeply dividing the membership within the diocese at least now the parishioners in scranton can now begin the healing process at 9 03 2009 09 03 00 pm 0 comments labels news religion scranton cartoon of the day david fitzsimmons arizona daily star at 9 03 2009 06 41 00 pm 0 comments labels political cartoons wednesday september 02 2009 quote of the day it doesn t surprise me that a recent poll showed that the majority of americans are confused when it comes to what s actually in health care reform legislation who can blame them the mainstream media is spending their time glorifying political he said she said and shining a spotlight on the organized efforts by a lobbyist firm to disrupt townhalls maybe if they d educate the public about what is actually in health care reform legislation the poll would yield different results that said i do believe most americans would agree on one thing our health care system does not work well unless you re rich and healthy until the day you die from sardine at eschaton at 9 02 2009 07 17 00 am 1 comments labels politics quote of the day monday august 31 2009 cartoon of the day pat bagley the salt lake tribune at 8 31 2009 09 17 00 pm 1 comments labels political cartoons exit stage right shrouded by the same mystery that has surrounded his tenure bishop joseph martino has resigned as bishop of the diocese of scranton after a 6 year reign of terror see scranton s bishop martino stepping down rumors of his departure have been rampant for some time but the official word from rome came this morning vatican accepts bishop martino s resignation as the scranton times reported over the week end bishop martino s resignation at the age of 63 is unusual it comes more than a decade before the age 75 at which bishops must submit their resignations under canon law and caps six years of a tumultuous tenure as head of the 11 county diocese sources in the diocese say the bishop stepped down because of health reasons today martino cited his reasons for his early retirement by quoting from the lyrics of kenny rogers song the gambler you have to know when to hold them know when to fold them he then aptly added and i think it s time to move on in other words as noted by whispers in the loggia calming the waves bishop joseph martino admitted to the assembled media that there has not been a clear consensus regarding his pastoral initiatives or way of governance of the 350 000 member diocese following parish and school closings which however necessary due to changing demographics caused considerable controversy in the 11 county church the 63 year old prelate said that the difficulties led to bouts of insomnia and a weakened immune system which having taken a toll on his physical vigor led him to submit his resignation to pope benedict in june nearly a year after he first mentioned to his metropolitan that moving on might be the best plan for himself and the diocese of course his critics and there are legions of those believe that health reasons is just a cover for the fact that he got the boot by the pontiff for his heavy handed administration of the diocese with the reign of martino who knows what the truth is and with the closed world of the catholic church who knows if we ll ever find out turns out that he tendered his resignation in june which was accepted by the pope in july however it was only disclosed after the rumors started when martino was seen moving out of the scranton rectory that is the home to the bishop of scranton yet one thing is for sure the resignation is very unusual in fact according to clerical whispers the vatican statement it noted that the pope had accepted the resignation under a provision of church law in which a bishop due to illness or some other grave reason has become unsuited to carry out his duties so much so that as rocco palmo of whispers in the loggia notes sede vacante today s move is just the third time this decade that a stateside red hat has been called in to oversee a local church amid emergency circumstances i ve written about martino many times observing his antagonistic combative hostile style some of the highlights are chronicled in in scranton the curtain falls at the helm of one of the nation s most staunch reliable bastions of catholicism while the kind bookish cleric s fierce advocacy for the pro life cause has won him fervent admiration from church conservatives nationwide the quarter million member scranton church has been roiled since martino s 2003 arrival by swaths of contentious parish and school closings strained relations with the presbyterate a perceived indifference to the media clashes over the diocese s de recognition of the local union for catholic high school teachers a move upheld by the vatican and most famously a steady stream of statements on politics parades and public officials which served to draw lines in the sand in the socially conservative heavily democratic area home to both the revered casey clan and in his boyhood vice president joe biden no doubt martino was brought to scranton to handle a difficult job to oversee the consolidation and closure of various schools and churches in this diocese with a dwindling number of parishioners and priests no one would have been loved after implementing those difficult changes especially in a city as traditional as scranton and its surrounding towns while martino was brought to town to be the henchman to chop the excess he just didn t need to be such an aloof dictatorial in his carrying out his mandate a bit of compassion need i say empathy would have perhaps made parishioners feel that the church understood their pain instead of looking like they frankly didn t give a damn in an excellent essay on the reign departure of martino david gibson of politics daily observes scranton bishop joseph martino biden s nemesis resigns under cloud but church insiders say martino had also worn out his welcome with his brother bishops and the vatican so his resignation may be further evidence that the u s hierarchy is divided between moderate voices and a more strident conservative minority that is struggling in the wake of obama s success with catholic voters the chief cause of martino s local problems was his controversial plan in 2007 to close and consolidate catholic schools in the diocese which have been struggling with declining attendance and declining donations closing schools is never popular yet the need to do something is a harsh fact of life for many bishops especially in the northeast but martino s peremptory style did not help matters and growing protests were followed by still steeper declines in church attendance and donations a dropoff clearly exacerbated by the recession which has ravaged the scranton area then in february of this year martino announced that he was closing 91 of the diocese s 209 parishes cutting the number of catholic churches in this storied catholic community by almost half but it was the presidential campaign last year that brought martino to national prominence and seemed to bring out the more volatile aspects of his personality in september as biden was barnstorming pennsylvania the vice president was born and baptized catholic in scranton before moving to delaware later in life martino declared that biden would be denied communion if he tried to receive at a church in the scranton diocese i will be truly vigilant on this point martino said it was a step not even biden s own bishop in delaware would take then in october martino had priests read a letter during all sunday masses in the diocese telling catholics that voting for a pro choice politician was equivalent to endorsing homicide but it was an event in late october last year on the eve of the presidential vote as religious rhetoric was growing white hot that may have pushed martino over the line in the eyes of many a parish was holding a regular voter education forum on the election featuring discussion of a document faithful citizenship the election guide endorsed almost unanimously by the united states conference of catholic bishops or usccb martino showed up at the parish hall unannounced causing a stir then he took the microphone and proceeded to critique the organizers for not using his own letter on abortion as the basis of the discussion when a nun at the forum reminded martino about the document of the enitre bishops conference martino responded no u...