Move in L.A. to Ban the Box for Previous Convictions

Businesses that ask a job applicant about his or her criminal history during the hiring process could be fined and forced to pay the applicant up to $500 under a new law being considered by Los Angeles. A Los Angeles City Council committee backed a plan Tuesday to penalize businesses that weed out applicants based on criminal convictions. The rules are part of a law under consideration by the council aimed at giving former convicts a better shot at obtaining employment. The Ban the Box ordinance, approved in concept last year by the council, bans private employers with 10 or more workers from asking questions related to an applicant's criminal history before a conditional offer of employment has been made. Employers also have to strip criminal history questions from job applications under the proposed law. Exemptions for employers in the child care or law enforcement industry are allowed under the ordinance. Some Los Angeles business groups, including the Valley Industry and Commerce Association, oppose the proposed Los Angeles law. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ld57EWswXmo

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FOCUS ON: NY Appellate Court Judge Thomas Dickerson

Thomas A. Dickerson is a former Yonkers city councilman and city court judge is now a judge on the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department. He was designated to this Division in 2006 and his term on the Supreme Court ends on December 31, 2017. Controversy Appellate Court Judge Thomas A. Dickerson, 72, a former Green Beret paratrooper in Vietnam who made an off-color joke from the bench in October 2014. When a female attorney arguing in a motorcycle accident noted she had never ridden one, Dickerson said she would “look good in leather,” the legal-news site Above the Law reported. He later apologized. “It blew a whole career,” the court insider said. When judges turn 70, they can apply for certification to stay on the bench. They can apply for recertification at 72 and 74 but cannot serve past 76. http://abovethelaw.com/2014/10/law-school-dean-turns-judges-sexist-snafu-into-a-teachable-moment/ Education Judge Dickerson received his B.A. deg...

WELCOME TO THE POLICE STATE: ‘Retaliation for use of the Open Records Act will inhibit every citizen from using it.’

A North Georgia newspaper publisher was indicted on a felony charge and jailed overnight last week – for filing an open-records request. Fannin Focus publisher Mark Thomason, along with his attorney Russell Stookey, were arrested on Friday and charged with attempted identity fraud and identity fraud. Thomason was also accused of making a false statement in his records request. Thomason’s relentless pursuit of public records relating to the local Superior Court has incensed the court’s chief judge, Brenda Weaver, who also chairs the state Judicial Qualifications Commission. Weaver took the matter to the district attorney, who obtained the indictments. Thomason was charged June 24 with making a false statement in an open-records request in which he asked for copies of checks “cashed illegally.” Thomason and Stookey were also charged with identity fraud and attempted identity fraud because they did not get Weaver’s approval before sending subpoenas to banks where Weaver and another j...

How The Privileged Political Class Protects Its Intrests: The History of Scarsdale’s Non-Partisan Election System

In 1911, after a particularly bitter campaign and election for Town Supervisor, the leaders of the Scarsdale Town Republican Party and Democratic Party committees agreed to jointly choose a single candidate for any open town government position who would best serve the interests of the entire Village and whom both parties would endorse. This system worked fairly well until 1930, when the Party committees were unable to agree on a single candidate for an open Village Trustee position. As a result, the Party committees and the Scarsdale Town Club agreed to form a new committee, unaffiliated with either Party, “consisting of representative citizens … to select candidates,” and Scarsdale’s first nonpartisan election system was established. That fall, the Scarsdale Town Club and the Woman’s Club co-drafted the first version of the Non-Partisan Resolution (the “Resolution”), a document that outlines the consensus method to be followed in nominating Village officials. The original Resolut...

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