(1) The NRA just elected a brand new president, name of Jim Porter. Hurrah and let’s have a 24-Uzi salute!
He’s a lawyer which is my excuse for linking you to this story: Nutty new NRA president Jim Porter still fighting war against ‘Northern Aggression’ – NY Daily News. We who do not live in the South better take a hard look at this guy and deny him entry up here in the North. He’s one character who should be subject to NYPD’s otherwise bad stop-and-frisk policy.
(2) And then there’s:
Gym’s wheel-y off chain: suit
A trendy cycling gym frequented by fitness-freak celebrities like Jake Gyllenhaal is “spinning out of control” with wage and labor violations, a class-action lawsuit claims.
The SoulCycle exercise bike chain, which charges top dollar at gyms in Manhattan and the Hamptons, cheats its instructors out of wages for the extra work they do on marketing, planning classes and communicating with clients, said Douglas Wigdor, lawyer for ex-instructor Nick Oram.
A source with knowledge of the situation said Oram was recently fired and called the suit “sour grapes.” — Daniel Beekman
I have never grasped the concept of needing an instructor and a class and lots of bucks to teach me how to ride a stationary exercise bike. I thought I learned how to ride a (mobile) bike on Trent Street, Woonsocket, RI, when I was 7 or 8 and my Aunt Thel ran up and down the street holding onto the back of the bike until I balanced it by myself.
Thanks, Aunt Thel.
And (3):
MTA must pay cops $5.8M in 2002 beating
The MTA has been ordered to pay $5.8 million to two female cops who were beaten by a man in drag in a Times Square subway station in 2002 while the token booth clerk didn’t lift a finger to help.
The unanimous ruling by a panel of Manhattan appellate judges Tuesday was vindication for former Officers Jannet Velez and Camille San Filippo.
The cops’ lawyer Brian O’Connor said the ruling shows that transit workers have an obligation to protect anyone in the system. They won the case in 2010 but a judge overturned the jury verdict, saying clerk Sean Corbin and the MTA were obligated only to help passengers under attack, not cops.
Velez, 35, was severely injured when the man landed on her after they tumbled down a set of subway stairs, earning her $5.6 million of the settlement. San Filippo, 47, sustained minor ankle and shoulder injuries. — Barabara Ross, Edgar Sandoval and Corky Siemaszko
An interesting sequence of decisions in this utterly New York story (the man in drag, Times Square Station, female cops, lawsuit, immobile token booth clerk, a lawsuit, a jury, a judge, some other judges, etc). First, the jury’s verdict was in favor of the officers. Next, a judge overturned the jury verdict and then was him/herself overturned by the Appellate Division panel, and unanimously.
Plaintiff Nick Oram’s lawyer: Douglas Wigdor
Plaintiffs Jannet Velez and Camille San Filippo’s lawyer: Brian O’Connor