Free Republic

The federal government on Friday extended its deadline for hotel and guesthouse owners to make pools accessible to people with disabilities. It was good news for Florida Keys lodging owners, many of them still scratching their heads over how to interpret the new rules. The previous deadline for compliance was Monday, but it has been postponed until Jan. 31, according to documents published Friday by the U.S. Department of Justice, which administers the 1991 Americans with Disabilities Act. The extension was granted as a result of questions, confusion and concerns about the requirements of the pool accessibility rules that require...

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - Owners and managers of swimming pools at hotels, city recreation centers and public parks are scrambling to install mechanical chair lifts to comply with new federal requirements that all public pools be accessible to disabled swimmers. Some hotels fear the cost of the equipment or fines for noncompliance could put them out of business, and an industry lobbyist says others may close their pools this summer if they can't upgrade in time, though the government can offer more time to those having trouble paying for it. Swimmers with disabilities say the changes are overdue. "I couldn't...

<p>The Justice Department on Thursday issued a 60-day stay of execution for hundreds of thousands of public pools which had been required to install ramps and wheelchair lifts by today or else face lawsuits over violating disability laws.</p>

Many hotels are faced with making improvements to pools by Thursday or falling out of compliance with the latest accessibility laws for disabled people. Hoteliers must have pool lifts to provide disabled people equal access to pools and whirlpools, or at least have a plan in place to acquire a lift. If they don't, they face possible civil penalties of as much as $55,000. There are about 51,000 hotels, according to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and most have pools. The lifts are required by regulations made in 2010 stemming from the Americans With Disabilities Act, a civil rights...

President Obama's Department of Justice -- led by Attorney General Eric Holder -- has found a new way to make the Americans with Disabilities Act pay off for Democratic trial lawyer campaign donors. Since the ADA first became law in 1990, the DOJ has been issuing "guidelines" that businesses must follow to comply with a multitude of the nation's civil rights laws. For example, if a restaurant bathroom has a light switch that is 52 inches above the floor, then that business is in compliance. But if the light switch is 53 inches above the floor, than the restaurant owner...

President Obama's Department of Justice -- led by Attorney General Eric Holder -- has found a new way to make the Americans with Disabilities Act pay off for Democratic trial lawyer campaign donors...The DOJ has been issuing a growing wave of such guidelines over the years, reaching an ever larger portion of business activities. In September 2010, the DOJ issued guidelines for "recreational facilities," including a new rule that all public access swimming pools must provide a lift capable of moving disabled patrons from their wheelchairs into the water... On Jan. 31 of this year, DOJ granted the industry's call...

Employers are facing more uncertainty in the wake of a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning them that requiring a high school diploma from a job applicant might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. The development also has some wondering if the agency’s advice will result in an educational backlash by creating less of an incentive for some high-school students to graduate. The “informal discussion letter” from the EEOC said an employer’s requirement of a high school diploma, long a standard criteria for screening potential employees, must be “job-related for the position in question and consistent with business...

Two grandparents were kicked out of the University Park Mall Tuesday after they took a picture of their visiting grandson in the Food Court. "We were going to take our grandson, he's five and visiting from California, to see Santa and we were just sitting around the table having something to drink, talking about what we were planning and that's when my husband took the picture," said Grandmother Debbie Cassella. Cassella said immediately a mall employee instructed them to stop taking pictures or they would be thrown out of the mall. "I believe she said you can't take pictures at...

A private boarding school connected with the Hershey chocolate company says it was trying to protect other students when it denied admission to a Philadelphia-area teenager because he is HIV-positive. The AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit on behalf of the unidentified boy in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on Wednesday, claiming the Milton Hershey School for disadvantaged students violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. School officials acknowledged that the 13-year-old boy was denied admission because of his medical condition. They said they believed it was necessary to protect the health and safety of the 1,850 others enrolled...

A West Hartford woman confined to a wheelchair plans to file a complaint with the Department of Justice and the town, claiming the town's emergency shelter could not accommodate her wheelchair during the storm. Sharon Denson says she couldn't get her wheelchair up to the shelter and the elevator didn't have power. Denson, who has been in a wheelchair for about 8 years due to muscular dystrophy, met with a member of the fire department who said some firefighters could carry her up. But she says that was not a reasonable solution given what could have gone wrong. "I was...

One of the recurring scourges facing small-business owners in the Bay Area is the often frivolous lawsuits filed under provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Chronicle has done a number of stories about the problem, relating the travails of bookstore, restaurant and retail store owners in San Francisco who have either been put out of business or essentially extorted to cough up thousands of dollars - which go into the plaintiffs' and lawyers' pockets - to settle the complaints out of court. Now, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is getting into the act, initially on behalf of Latino...

One devoted White Castle customer is suing the restaurant chain because he can't fit into the restaurant's booths. Martin Kessman, who weighs 290 pounds, complained to management for more than two years after repeatedly knocking his knee into the tables' metal supports. After the 64-year-old New York stockbroker sent a series of letters of complaint to the chain, he received what he called condescending responses. White Castle sent him free hamburger coupons and promised that it would expand its booth sizes. But the booths were never changed and Kessman is now taking his case to federal court. He is suing...

A man who has filed well over a hundred lawsuits against local small-business owners says he's an advocate for the disabled. His critics say what he does is harassment and extortion. James Farkus Cohan says he's disabled with end-stage emphysema. He sues small businesses, claiming those businesses are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Cohan has filed at least 161 lawsuits... Eyewitness News caught up with Cohan after his daily hike up a steep hill near his Sun Valley home. He was hiking without a wheelchair, walker or oxygen tank.

The federal government has sued a major trucking company for its refusal to hire as drivers individuals with admitted alcohol abuse problems. Alcoholism is classified as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the suit maintains, and therefore emploees cannot be prohibited even from driving 18 wheelers due to their histories of abuse. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the suit against the Old Dominion Freight Line trucking company on August 16, noted that while “an employer’s concern regarding safety on our highways is a legitimate issue, an employer can both ensure safety and comply with the ADA.”

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sued the employer, asserting a retaliation claim under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The trial court dismissed the claim, based on the "ministerial exception" to the ADA. The 6th Circuit vacated the trial court's dismissal. The ministerial exception is codified in the ADA (42 USC Section 12113(d)), but it is rooted in the 1st Amendment and has been applied to Title VII and other employment discrimination statutes. The EEOC's claim arose from the discharge of a teacher from a sectarian school, and the primary issue on appeal was whether the teacher was a...

SNIPPET: "Note: PWP stands for PassWord-Protected, meaning that a login is required to view - let alone participate in - discussions. Since some in the audience don't understand the significance of this, allow me to spell it out: if only members can read the forum, then anyone observed reading the forum is a member. They have zero deniability (they couldn't have accidentally "wandered into" the site), and they had to make the effort to join (an expression of intent). While the goal here is to present a range of sites, the fact is that the jihadis themselves have largely coalesced...

From Corsica, French Jets Roar Into Action Over Libya by Eleanor Beardsley March 30, 2011 The French air force was the first to go into action over Libya. And since then, French aircraft have flown more missions enforcing the United Nations resolution than any other country except the United States. Most of those missions have been launched from an air base on the French island of Corsica. From a runway wedged between snowcapped mountains and the Mediterranean Sea, Rafale and Mirage jets roar into the sky, one after the other, their metallic skins flashing in the morning sun. It takes...

"Before, perhaps 40 million people were covered by the ADA. That number will increase significantly," McGlothlen told Fox News. "Some people might even say that a majority of Americans are covered as disabled under the law." Overall, lawyers for employers say the regulations shift the burden of proof in disability claims. They say that employers will now have to show why a worker doesn't require special accommodations, rather than employees proving that the measures are merited. ... Barring congressional intervention, the new regulations will take effect May 24.

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) – Some public school parents in Edgewater, Florida, want a first-grade girl with life-threatening peanut allergies removed from the classroom and home-schooled, rather than deal with special rules to protect her health, a school official said. "That was one of the suggestions that kept coming forward from parents, to have her home-schooled. But we're required by federal law to provide accommodations. That's just not even an option for us," said Nancy Wait, spokeswoman for the Volusia County School District. Wait said the 6-year-old's peanut allergy is so severe it is considered a disability under the Americans with...

March 7, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) -- Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-El Cajon) recently introduced legislation aimed at curtailing what he views as frivolous lawsuits against small businesses that are allegedly in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The bill, entitled the ADA Notification Act, would provide businesses accused of an ADA violation with a 90-day grace period to make necessary modifications. “It’s bad enough that small businesses are facing enormous challenges due to the current economic downturn,” Rep. Hunter said in a press release. “What they don’t need to contend with are any other unnecessary obstacles that...

Several years ago the City of Hutchinson, Kansas, told a federal judge that the city shouldn't be forced to install the sidewalk ramps for wheelchairs required by federal law because it couldn't afford to do so. Since that time the city has given money to a large corporation and spent money on a hiking trail among other things. The city could find money for a hiking trail for the able-bodied but not sidewalks so those with mobility problems could get to the store. Now the hypocritical city staff is trying to convince the city council that people would be required...

San Francisco merchants, concerned about being sued for failing to provide access to disabled customers, met Tuesday with city officials who soon will embark on a campaign to educate business owners about accessibility requirements and help forestall lawsuits that might put them out of business. Since November, several Noe Valley shop owners have received letters from people with disabilities suggesting that their stores may be violating state laws or federal access standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Those notices coincided with a rash of civil rights lawsuits in the Richmond District in late November that led some businesses to...

Crack dealer, car thief, Social Security fraudster, ILLEGAL ALIEN. Yet he is 'making a living' suing hundreds of small business owners under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Alfredo Garcia, who became paralyzed after getting drunk and falling out of an avocado tree, goes around all day - every day - looking for the most minor violations of ADA (or just filing false claims) in order to extort cash. How does an illegal alien felon even have standing to sue American citizens? Why was he never deported? Why is he not deported now? God only knows. It is just another story...

Why did feds claim Kindle violates civil rights? By: Byron York Chief Political Correspondent August 3, 2010 _________________________________________________________ The Justice Department threatened several universities with legal action because they took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks. (AP) Did you know the Justice Department threatened several universities with legal action because they took part in an experimental program to allow students to use the Amazon Kindle for textbooks? Last year, the schools -- among them Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve -- wanted to know if e-book readers would be more...

Snip:...press coverage nowadays treats the ADA as if it were uncontroversial, with at best a nod to libertarian commentators who see it as a coercive and fabulously expensive government venture into what ought to be private decision-making....

The Washington Examiner reports today on a promising new education program that provides Amazon (AMZN) Kindles to students to reduce paper use in universities — and how the the Department of Justice stepped in to squash it. The DOJ actually sued the schools, including Princeton, Arizona State and Case Western Reserve, to halt the programs because it decided the e-book reader does not comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Overregulation: Leave it to California's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to mark the 20th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) with another of its goofy, ripe-for-recision rulings. This one involves the counter height at a couple of Chipotle Mexican Grills in San Diego. Seems the 45-inch walls between customers and the food-preparation areas prevent people in wheelchairs from "fully participating in the selection and preparation of their order," as Judge Daniel Friedman put it. In short, Friedman wrote for the court, the wall "significantly reduced" the "ability to enjoy the Chipotle experience." We won't argue that "the Chipotle...

The U.S. Justice Department has struck deals with three universities not to promote Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle or other electronic-book readers unless the devices are fully accessible to blind students. The legal settlements were made with Pace University in New York; Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland; and Reed College in Portland, Ore. Two organizations representing the blind had sued after universities announced pilot classroom projects using the Kindle. ... The Justice Department's civil rights division began examining the issue of whether the use of Kindles and other e-readers violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. In June, the National Federation of...

A Denver-based conservative legal foundation says a federal policy that barred development of about 58 million acres of forests nationwide illegally created de facto wilderness areas. The Mountain States Legal Foundation makes that argument in a brief filed Tuesday in support of the state of Wyoming's fight to overturn the so-called "roadless rule" approved by President Bill Clinton in 2001. Conflicting federal court rulings have upheld and overturned the road-building ban on the national forest land. The California-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in August threw out a Bush administration policy that opened some of the roadless areas to...

It is not your imagination. There really are more dogs strolling through public spaces with their owners. Animals are going where they have never gone before. "In San Francisco, it is just so much more in your face," says Emily Simone, a senior field manager for Guide Dogs for the Blind. "In the '80s and especially in the '90s, I've just seen an explosion. We've become animal obsessed. The East Coast and San Francisco are particular hotbeds for advocacy." San Francisco has become a city filled with "service animals," meaning the owner has a permit that allows him or her...

Nearly all Contra Costa County cities have agreed to dedicate 5 percent of their gas-tax revenues for the next 30 years to make sidewalks more accessible to people in wheelchairs or who cannot see well, as part of a lawsuit settlement. The settlement has not yet received final approval; a Sept. 16 hearing will determine whether the judge will accept the class-action settlement terms. Under the proposed settlement, wheelchair users and other people with vision or mobility disabilities would not be permitted to file additional lawsuits against the cities for the issues covered in the settlement, such as missing curb...

The owner of a tiny but famous Sacramento burger joint said a lawsuit about handicapped access could shut him down. The Squeeze Inn, known for huge mounds of melted cheese on its burgers, violates the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the lawsuit alleges. Kimberly Block, who says she has severly limited use of her legs, argues she suffered "embarrassment and humiliation" and that her civil rights were violated because of inadequate access inside the Fruitridge Road restaurant.

Fat can be disabling. A person 180 pounds over a healthy weight is susceptible to arthritis, has increased blood pressure, a weakened heart and could soon need a walker just to get around. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, such a person could legally be labeled as disabled. But should obesity be considered a disability? On Tuesday the American Medical Association voted a resounding no at its annual meeting. But in a country where nearly one in three people is obese but where laws do not always cover size discrimination, and many health insurance policies do not cover obesity treatments...

Over at Opposing Views, bioethicist Jacob Appel argues that pre-implantation genetic screening for severe disease mutations should be compulsory for parents undergoing IVF. Appell dodges one obvious criticism of this suggestion - that it unacceptably limits parental autonomy - by pointing out that "Western societies have long acknowledged that parental authority cannot undermine the medical interests of a child". As examples, Appell cites the facts that Jehovah's Witnesses cannot deny their own children blood transfusions, however strong their religious opposition, and that "American courts consistently compel pediatric cancer therapy, even when parents object". Given these precedents, Appell argues that allowing...

State lawmakers will cut $8.4 billion from the $58.1 billion budget for public education, lowering per-pupil spending from $8,784 to $8,404 over the next two years. That's $11,400 less for a typical K-12 classroom of 30 kids.

I looked up the ratings of all of the US House and Senate members and did a mini-analysis on them;I used ACU (American Conservative Union - conservative) ratings, and ADA (Americans for Democratic Action - liberal)ACU ratings by party: Percentage of Republicans with 100 percent ACU ratings in 2007 -- 26.40 Percentage of Republicans with 90 percent or more ACU in 2007 -- 56.29 Percentage of Democrats with 0 percent ACU ratings in 2007 -- 52.80 Percentage of Democrats with 10 percent or less ACU in 2007 - 81.82 ADA rating by party: Percentage of Republicans with 0 percent ADA...

Marilynn Phillips is sick and tired of waiting for people to take her seriously. The disability-rights activist has long said Gettysburg lags far behind many other towns when it comes to compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. For years, Phillips has filed complaints with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. But those cases take months, sometimes years, to resolve. In the meantime, Phillips said the businesses and other facilities she files against have largely ignored her concerns. Now with the help of an attorney, Phillips has decided for the first time to file some Gettysburg cases in federal court in...

The good news — you've been offered the perfect job. The not-so-good news — it's contingent on a medical exam. For the disabled, people with diseases like HIV, or those who are simply mega-stressed at the thought of a doctor's waiting room, undergoing a medical exam to qualify for a job can be daunting. For them, new research from Tel Aviv University brings excellent news.

Disability regulations are likely to get “tougher” in Gettysburg, according to town administrators, to help the borough government avoid court time as it battles American with Disabilities Act (ADA) complaints. The municipality is currently mired in 26 disabled rights suits filed with the state’s Human Relations Commission in Harrisburg.(snip) Property owners in Gettysburg, according to town officials, are responsible for sidewalks. Some driveway and sidewalk ADA upgrades, Lawver has predicted, could cost as little as $2,500 and as much as $10,000. (snip) President George H.W. Bush signed the American with Disabilities Act in 1990, making accessibility for disabled persons a...

Congress gave final approval yesterday to legislation that will bring more Americans under the umbrella of “disabled” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). President Bush said he’d sign the bill (S. 3406). The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 reverses several court rulings from recent years that had limited the scope of ADA protections. It directs U.S. courts to apply a broader definition when deciding what truly qualifies as an ADA-covered disability. The biggest change: The bill makes clear that courts (and employers) should not take into consideration any “mitigating measures” that reduce the impact of an impairment—such as medication,...

Wondering No More [Jonah Goldberg] Yep. The day after 9/11, as part of its "get tough" makeover, the Obama campaign is mocking John McCain for not using a computer, without caring why he doesn't use a computer. From the AP story about the computer illiterate ad: "Our economy wouldn't survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats," [Obama spokesman Dan] Pfeiffer said. "It's extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn't know how to send an e-mail." Well, I guess it depends on what you...

Little Trig Palin prompted more than delegate coos when he joined his mother on stage at the Republican convention. He also raised new questions among parents whose children have disabilities. Was Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin simply including her 5-month-old son, who has Down syndrome, in a big family moment, or was she exploiting him in a tight presidential campaign? Would he help break down social barriers facing children with Down syndrome, or would those children now be drawn into the right-to-life debate? Getty Images Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's son Trig joined her on stage with her husband, Todd, at the...

Amid the barbs and hockey banter Wednesday night, Gov. Sarah Palin directed an emotional appeal to the hearts of millions of parents with children who have special needs, promising they would “have a friend and advocate in the White House” in a McCain-Palin administration. Palin’s offer of friendship sparked hope in many parents, advocates and lawyers as the often-marginalized subject of disabilities rights took center stage. ****** Ms. Palin’s effort to rally parents of children with disabilities has also prompted reaction among those who fear that her idea of advocacy might really mean preventing abortions of fetuses with Down syndrome,...

The VP pick's decision to raise a Down Syndrome baby should spark a debate on the value of "imperfect" human beings. When Adolf Hitler set about his plans to craft the perfect, master Aryan race, his first task was to eliminate the handicapped and mentally disabled; as the first step in this goal, midwives and physicians were ordered to register children born with severe birth defects, and “experts” reviewing the cases ordered the deaths of about 5,000 such children from 1939 to 1945. The vulnerable in our society are the canary in the coal mine: When society decides that any...

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2008) — Terminally ill rodents with type 1 diabetes have been restored to full health with a single injection of a substance other than insulin by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Since the discovery of insulin in 1922, type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent diabetes) in humans has been treated by injecting insulin to lower high blood sugar levels and prevent diabetic coma. New findings by UT Southwestern researchers, which appear online and in a future issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that insulin isn't the only agent that is effective. Leptin, a...

You might have thought the demented Americans with Disabilities Act — a bonanza for lawyers that requires any public facility to be designed with handicappers in mind or be sued out of existence — would be the last word in otherly-abled totalitarianism. Not so. Visitability is a concept that makes the ADA downright libertarian by comparison. The initial objective of Visitability proponents is to impose on every home a zero-step entrance, interior doors at least 32" wide, and at least one wheelchair-accessible bathroom on the ground floor. Once they've managed to have this mandated, we'll see where they go from...

BETHESDA, Maryland, July 26, 2008 (Reuters) — Researchers working on an artificial pancreas believe they are just a few years away from a nearly carefree way for people with diabetes to monitor blood and inject insulin as needed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Topics Health and Fitness Internal Medicine Medical Specializations Medicine Science and Technology Ads by GoogleAdvertise here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blood Sugar Levels guide Looking to find Blood Sugar Levels? See our Blood Sugar Levels guide. Friendsofanimals.ComDiabetes Treatment Order Products to Lower your Blood Sugar Without Having to use Drugs. believe they can link two current technologies -- continuous glucose monitoring and insulin...

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released the following remarks by John McCain as prepared for delivery via satellite to the Americans with Disabilities conference: In a few months' time, Americans will choose their next president, and the course that our country will follow in the years to come. Many thousands of those votes would never be cast at all, were it not for this organization and its Disability Vote Project. Like so many other rights and privileges in our country, the right to vote always belonged to Americans with disabilities. But exercising that right could...

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH WorldNetDaily Exclusive Father: 'System' killing my disabled daughter 'If they treated a dog this way, they would be doing jail time' Posted: July 19, 2008 11:10 pm Eastern The father of a disabled Delaware woman who recently earned the support of state lawmakers says the system – of courts, lawyers, hospitals and disability agencies – literally is combining to bring about the death of his daughter. "The court system should not have the right to impose this kind of treatment on a mentally disabled person," Randy Richardson told WND today. His daughter, Lauren Richardson, has...

Omaha, NE (KFAB-AM) - McDonald's is all ears after a lawsuit from a customer hard of hearing. Karen Tumeh recently visited a McDonald's in Omaha and tried to place an order at the pick up window at the drive thru. Tumeh is hearing impaired and she states that she could not understand the speaker at the order menu board. The restaurant told her that she had to go back to the menu board to place her order or come inside. The lawsuit would force McDonald's to make special accommodations for those hearing impaired so they too could use the drive-thru....