Former Editor May Sue Wall Street Journal
Carolyn Phillips, the first African-American assistant managing editor at the Wall Street Journal, may pursue racial discrimination charges against her former employer, a federal judge ruled Monday. Phillips, who worked for the Wall Street Journal for two decades, was fired in November 2002. Having received five merit pay increases, Phillips said that she was marginalized after being shifted to the position of minority recruiter at the newspaper, which was owned by the Dow Jones Co. at the time. It is now owned by media mogul Rupert Murdock. “Plaintiff has produced sufficient circumstantial evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact as to whether intentional discrimination influenced the adverse employment decisions at issue,” possibly violating federal and state law, Judge Deborah Batts of the federal district court in Manhattan said in her 45-page order dated Monday. However, Batts’ dismissed Phillips’ separate claim alleging discrimination on the basis of disability. Phillips originally sought compensatory damages and $5 million of punitive damages. Dow Jones spokeswoman Ashley Huston said she is confident that Phillips will not win in a trial. “Dow Jones does not discriminate, period,” “We are gratified the court dismissed the disability claim, and we expect to prevail on the other claim at trial.”
Killer Dogs Put to Death in Georgia
A pack of dogs that mauled to death a University of Georgia librarian and her professor husband last week were disposed of at an Atlanta animal shelter. The 14 mongrel dogs killed Sherry Schweder, 65, and Lothar Karl Schweder, 77. The couple’s shredded bodies were found by a pair of visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses about 12 hours after they went missing, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Former neighbors of the couple, who had recently moved away because of medical problems, fed the wild dogs, and residents of this rural stretch of Oglethorpe County said the animals had never been aggressive before. “We never had a problem with them,” said Lanier Bridges, who lives a few houses down on Elberton Road in Lexington. His wife, Jeannette Bridges, said she didn’t believe the dogs were responsible for the vicious attacks.

Tenn. Blacks Want Answers in Two Police Shootings
Angry African-American residents of Chattanooga, Tenn., are demanding answers in the police-related shooting deaths of two Black residents. “We still cannot grasp that our son is gone that’s the hardest thing in the world to overcome,” said James Marine, the father of Alonzo Heyward, who was killed when six Chattanooga Police Officers fired 59 shots at the man they say was threatening suicide, and threatening officers, by not putting down his gun. On Tuesday, about 200 angry residents poured into an NAACP gathering designed to quell tensions over the shooting of Heyward and Alonzo O’Kelly, who was killed in a separate police action. “There is a problem here, and we don’t need no more of this ducking and diving and playing around with the issue, we need some real things done here,” said the Rev. James Moss, who attended the meeting. The Rev. Dwight Harrison was even more direct: “He wasn’t killed, he was murdered.” Chattanooga Police Department spokesman Jerri Weary said he was there to help answers questions and heal the hurt.  “In this situation we all lose, we all lose, the families, the officers. It is not the outcome that any of us wanted but it is the outcome we have to deal with.”

TAGS: Alonzo Heyward, Alonzo O'Kelly, Carolyn Phillips, Chattanooga Tennessee, NAACP, police shootings, racial discrimination, Wall Stret Journal

Comments (1)