WIRTW #424 (the “parking lot” edition)

If you are looking for a fun Sunday afternoon of music and food truck, look no further than the Strongsville School of Rock.

On Sunday, August 21, it will hold it’s annual parking lot show, aka, Rock the Lot. It will feature a preview of the school’s upcoming fall shows, including Norah Hyman singing and strumming her way through The Many Faces of Jack White, and Donovan Hyman keyboarding, dancing, and making his singing debut (god help us) with Rock 101. It will also have the Smokin’ Rock n’ Roll Food Truck on hand. There’s no better way to spend an otherwise lazy late-summer Sunday afternoon than watching some cool kids make great music.

The event runs 4 – 6 pm on Sunday, August 21, at 16888 Pearl Rd, Strongsville, Ohio.

Details are here.

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I’m taking a much needed long weekend. New content Wednesday.

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Here’s the rest of what I read this week.

A humane approach of layoffs

In addition to this blog, I also pen a monthly column for Workforce magazine. Today, I thought I’d share my most recent column, entitled A Humane Approach to Layoffs. Enjoy.

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A Humane Approach to Layoffs

I thought we were beyond blaming the victim for sexual harassment

This post will be apolitical. I’d hold the same opinion whether the speaker of the comments I intend to discuss was a D, an R, or a something-else. As it stands, however, the speaker happens to be Donald Trump. So, if you don’t want to read something negative about the Republican nominee for President, click over to something else.

Hey, look, it’s me on the Channel 5 news!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of an interview with Megan Hickey of Cleveland’s Channel 5. We talked about OSHA’s new fines that took effect yesterday.

 

Employers, ignore 7th Circuit’s rejection of Title VII LGBT protections

In Hivley v. Ivy Tech Community College (7th Cir. 7/28/16) [pdf], the 7th Circuit ruled that Title VII does not prohibit sexual-orientation discrimination. In doing so, this appellate court has taken a position directly contrary to that of the EEOC, which has concluded that Title VII expressly prohibits LGBT discrimination under the rubric of gender non-conformity-as-sex-discrimination.

The entire 42-page opinion is worth your time to read. It is a thorough analysis and summary of the state of the law (pro and con) of LGBT employment discrimination. Do not, however, dismiss this Court’s dismissal of Hivley’s claim as anti-LGBT. Instead of anti-LGBT rights, consider the 7th Circuit as pro-precedent. Indeed, even though the plaintiff loses her case, the Court has a lot to say on whether the result, which the Court believes Title VII mandates, is morally justified:

WIRTW #423 (the “final frontier” edition)

The Icarus Craft (with gold record)

As you can tell from reading this weekly column, I’m a bit of a music fan. I’ve also always been fascinated by outer space. In another life (one in which I’m actually good at science) I’d like to think I was an astrophysicist instead of a lawyer.

Thus, this bit of news, c/o Jack White’s Third Man Records, is particularly cool:

On July 30th, in celebration of our 7th anniversary, Third Man Records will reveal our attempt to play the first phonographic record in space — a gold-plated 12” master of Carl Sagan’s “A Glorious Dawn” (a moving arrangement of Sagan’s sagacious words culled from his magnificent Cosmos series, previously pressed and distributed as a 7” in their first year of operation, 2009). This record marks our 3 MILLIONTH RECORD PRESSED! The vessel tasked with the mission —The ICARUS CRAFT — is a custom-built “space-proof” turntable attached to a high-altitude balloon.

Here’s the rest of what I read this week:

OSHA says “negative” to post-accident testing

Buried in OSHA’s impending final rule on electronic reporting of workplace injuries and illnesses is this little nugget. OSHA believes that you violate the law if you require an employee to take a post-accident drug test. Let me repeat. According to OSHA, you violate the law if you automatically drug test any employee after an on-the-job accident.

Allow me to pause while this sinks in.