Discrimination against people who suffer from Gender Identity Disorder (GID), that is, transgendered people, is a hot legal topic these days. Title VII does not expressly protect them and expressly prohibits protecting homosexuals. As a result, the courts and the legal theories are all over the place when it comes to dealing with transgender discrimination. The basic legal conflict comes down to a question whether discrimination based on transgender status is discrimination "on the basis of sex" - something that is illegal under Title VII - or whether, since Congress has not spoken by adding protections based on gender identity while amending Title VII to make other changes, means it does not intend to protect GID.

A June 26 congressional hearing covered many of these issues.

A new case from the 4th Circuit is full of surprises for unions. Good ones! Believe it or not! Here's the scoop and more on why this is so unexpected and what it can mean for union and worker rights.

It's an uneven battle for the truth, given Monsanto's money and its stable of people like who will promote Monsanto's profits over our health. Link. One thing working in Monsanto's favor is that, when things seem complicated, most people will tune out or take the position that the truth likes somewhere between. Another is that Monsanto is well funded, while those who work to publicize the truth are not.

But you can help by being informed and telling others about these shenanigans. And there are other things you can do to support the truth tellers.

David Biello's July 2, 2008 Scientific American on-line article takes on Monsanto's claim, er the claim of some totally unbiased scientists - who just happen to be directly on Monsanto's payroll and indirectly on Monsanto's payroll through its funding - that rBST / rBGH / Posilac will save the planet from global warming. The article is pasted below and may be found, complete with cow pictures, here.

It's been a tough - but exciting - year for workers at the Bay Area News Group-East Bay (BANG-EB) papers. Last August, the company began its anti-union campaign, withdrawing recognition of the union at some locations and using a consolidation to withdraw recognition from all unions.

That was August 2007, but after an NLRB election victory, the workers are gearing up to fight for their rights under a new collective bargaining agreement. It won't be easy. When an employer wants to be anti-union, they can be ruthless, defying the law and even destroying their own companies in the process.

Let me see. How many ways has Monsanto used front groups, fake "astroturf" groups, and fake science to get people to (a) stop worrying about the effects of using rBST / rBGH / Posilac / recombinant bovine growth hormone to produce milk and (b) buy more milk produced? And now there's a new one that is a real hoot!

Did you know that injecting dairy cows with Monsanto's recombinant hormones will save the planet for global warming?

Well, if Monsanto says so and uses one of its bought and paid for "scientists" and a Monsanto chemist to do the "study", well, it must be true!

In today's Washington Post, two stories highlight problems in the U.S. justice system that deserve the attention of every American. On the frontpage, we read about a black man, arrested for allegedly killing a white police officer, who died of strangulation at a Prince Georges County (Maryland) correction facility, and while isolated from other inmates. According to an anonymous jail employee, "any officer can enter the unit where White was held," reported the Post.

[Prince Georges County Executive Jack B. Johnson] expressed anger not only at the "horrid" death of a police officer but also at the apparent killing of the suspect in the case. "If we have vigilante justice, our society will fall apart," he said. "If we tolerate these kinds of acts, the courts are superfluous." (Washington Post)

A story on NPR's Morning Edition today held an interesting nugget of information on Colorado's possible role in how a President Barack Obama would respond to the growing humanitarian and legal crisis at the controversial U.S. detention camp on Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

Say you were a blogger and had written, oh, say, 20 or more stories on issues related to the use of Monsanto's rBST in milk. And say each time you wrote about the issue, for example, that the Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture had created a fake consumer committee to assess milk labeling, you were asked: "So what's the story with rBST / rBGH?"

How do you explain why rBST in milk is a problem? Now there is an easy way to explain it all.

Not just pretty good! Absolutely great! God's gift! According to Citi / Abertis Infraestructuras - the two companies who have formed a partnership to lease the PA Turnpike. And I am assuming that, given all the press releases and the hyper-aggressive marketing by these two, the benefit goes to Citi / Abertis.

It is just amazing what these guys are doing to sell the public on this lease!

Only a true chickenhawk president and his chickenhawk advisors could have brought the US military so low. The story is just pouring out from GAO this week in report after report. Yep! It's the shame ol' shame'ol!

It is all to easy to bash government agencies reflexively. So I want to make it clear that, in my view, all federal agencies are struggling now as a result of Bush administration mismanagement and malmanagement. But well before Bush was elected, these agencies that regulate the workplace have all been underfunded, year after year, and subject to attacks by judges who refused to enforce the law, a subject I discussed in a multi-part series last year. link to part I

That said,

What a change in oversight hearings when you have a Democratic majority. Pre-2007, all was well in workplace safety - or at least given the dearth of legislative notice you would think that. But now?

It seems as if there is a hearing every week or two, or even less. Just a couple days ago, I reported on a hearing on Under-Reporting Workplace Injuries and Illnesses.

Which are worse, the provisions included in the new FISA Amendments Act or the ones that aren't there but should be?

An investigative report by Naomi Zeveloff at The Colorado Independent:

Two months after a mass raid of a polygamist Mormon compound in Texas piqued the nation's interest, a similar sect in southern Colorado is flourishing — and in fact some speculate that the tiny town of Westcliffe in southwest Colorado may become the next polygamist nerve center in the United States. A compound there already hosts an estimated 30 members of the breakaway Mormon sect, and an aide to jailed polygamist leader Warren Jeffs has already shelled out more than $1 million for nearly 200 acres of land nearby.