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Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper signed a bill into law last week that provides recourse against discrimination to workers at companies that employ fewer than 15 people. The legislation amends state law so that employees who bring harassment and discrimination suits against their employer can receive punitive and compensatory damages, as well as attorney fees. Previously, workers who brought successful claims through the state could only get their job back, along with back pay. Employees could receive damages by suing under …

Now that Jodi Arias has been found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury of her peers, she faces the penalty phase of her trial. Because she is eligible for the death penalty as the result of killing her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander, Arias must now make her way through another round of legal processes designed to weigh both the “aggravating” and “mitigating” circumstances of the killing.   The Medical Examiner Returns A capital case in Arizona, as in many states, …

A jury has ordered a nursing home to pay $3.7 million to the daughter of an elderly woman who died during a five-day stint at a nursing home. Janet Smith was a patient at Belmont Lodge Health Care Center in Pueblo, Colo. in May 2011. She planned to stay for only five days while she recovered after breaking her ankle. Smith knew the place well; she had worked there 30 years ago. But according to Smith’s daughter, Margaret, the nursing …

  U.S. Supreme Court To Decide if Companies Can Patent DNA Myriad Genetics has isolated a human DNA sequence used for tests to detect whether women are at a higher risk for breast or ovarian cancer. The Salt Lake City, Utah, company holds patents on two isolated genes, which gives it a monopoly on these tests. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Patent Protection Foundation assert companies should not be able to patent human genes, which occur in …

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on Thursday vetoed a law passed by the legislature that would ban employers from asking for the social media passwords of workers and applicants. Christie said that he would sign the bill if it were amended to exclude some of its more restrictive components. New Jersey would have been the eighth state to stop businesses from snooping into their current or prospective employees’ Facebook and Twitter accounts, although the Jersey law would have gone several …

  Editorial Director Betsy Kim provides a video Newsbreak, focusing on employment rights.  A Nashville, Tennessee, T-Mobile call center employee experiencing a difficult pregnancy, frequently needed to use the bathroom. She had to provide a doctor’s note, clock out and use vacation time for her restroom breaks. T-mobile fired the employee shortly after her return from maternity leave, for a 12-cent error. Astonishingly, she never filed a lawsuit. Only eight states require employee rest periods. There’s no legal requirement for …

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on May 3 that the state must recognize children born to lesbian couples as having two parents on their birth certificate, ensuring full parental rights for both parents and equal treatment for gay and heterosexual couples.   ‘Biology’ Cited by State Heather and Melissa Gartner, a lesbian couple, were legally married in Iowa in 2009 after the state’s “Defense of Marriage Act” was held unconstitutional. They had already wed via a civil commitment ceremony and …

Jodi Arias, the California woman accused of brutally murdering her ex-boyfriend Travis Alexander in Mesa, Ariz. in 2008, was found guilty of first-degree murder on May 8. The jury will next consider whether to impose the death penalty on Arias, who has publicly insisted she prefers it over life in prison.   Parade of Crazy Arias told three different stories about Alexander’s death – from insisting she was not at his home in Mesa on the day he died, to …

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the chemical ingredient in marijuana that gets users high. Although federal and state laws conflict on the legality of pot, including medical marijuana, drug testing in schools and the workplace continues. The www.HomeHealthTesting.com infographic below provides some estimates on the time frames when different types of tests can detect THC. California NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) emphasizes there are no simple guidelines for cannabis detection tests. For NORML’s more comprehensive information on marijuana …

The days of putting convicted criminals to death in the United States could be on the wane. Six states have gotten rid of capital punishment in the last six years, while more could be on the way. Most recently, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley last week signed a law abolishing the death penalty in the state, while Delaware’s House of Representatives considered but put aside for now a bill that would do the same after it was passed by the state …