Staff Blog
What We’ve Found: Sex-discrimination settlement, Semenya’s gender verified, Colbert sponsors speedskaters, third Iraqi oil deal struck, UN workers leave Afghanistan and Northeast High enforces dress code… by isolating rule-breakers in auditorium
Julia Harte with your morning fix.
Four female employees of the Pennsylvania-based Danella Construction Corp. won a $200,000 settlement from the company after alleging that the corporation did not provide workers with on-site portable toilets, forcing them to wear adult diapers to work or drive to find a restroom.
The president of the South African athletic governing body was suspended for lying to cover up the fact that Caster Semenya, the South African sprinter who set a record at the 800-meter event of the 2009 Olympics, had been tested to verify her gender.
To raise awareness and money for the underfunded U.S. Speedskating Team, which just lost its biggest sponsor, Stephen Colbert offered to become the team's new primary sponsor and has already posted a fundraising link for the team on his Web site.
The Iraqi oil ministry struck its third major deal with a consortium of oil companies including Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. If approved by the cabinet, Exxon and Royal will begin production soon in the Qurna oil field, where oil will be extracted starting at a rate of 280,000 barrels per day.
Following last week's deadly Taliban attack against United Nations workers, the UN pulled some 600 personnel from Afghanistan: a discouraging sign for the national forces still trying to defeat the militant group.
Northeast High School in Philadelphia took several students out of class yesterday and confined them in the school auditorium for failing to follow the school's dress code, on the first day the school had enforced the nine-year-old policy. Some students were sent to the auditorium simply for wearing brown shoes instead of black ones.
