Rastafarian Rights In QuestionThe U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the rights of a Rastafarian baggage screener at Boston’s Logan International Airport were violated when he was threatened with firing unless he cut his dreadlocks. The American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday that Josue Brissot was assured when he was hired by the Transportation Security Administration in 2002 that his long dreadlocks were not a problem. By 2005 he was being told his hair was against agency policy and he would be fired unless he cut it. Brissot keeps his hair long for religious reasons. The ACLU says Brissot’s treatment violated federal discrimination law. An administrative judge issued an interim ruling for Bissot and will hold a February hearing on potential compensation. TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis said she could not comment on pending litigation.‘Geezer Bandit’ At Large in CaliforniaFBI officials say an elderly, thin, gray-haired man nicknamed the “Geezer Bandit” is responsible for holding up five San Diego-area banks since summer. Investigators say the man appears to be in his 70s. Officials say that in the most recent robbery Monday, he approached a Bank of America teller in La Jolla, displayed a handgun and asked for cash. He fled on foot. FBI spokesman Darrell Foxworth says investigators believe the man is also responsible for robbing four other San Diego County banks since August 28. Law enforcement officials are offering $16,000 in rewards for information that leads to his arrest and conviction.Jogger Wants NH Judge to Let Him RunA jogger who was banned from the streets of Portsmouth, N.H. because he allegedly yelled profanities and taunted police officers wants a judge to relax the ban. Forty-eight-year-old Craig O’Brien of Eliot, Maine, has filed a hand-written motion asking permission to jog on a few specific city streets. The Portsmouth Herald reports O’Brien’s trial on seven charges was postponed Tuesday when his attorney, Anthony Naro, did not appear. O’Brien is charged with five counts of disorderly conduct and two charges of contempt of a bail order. The allegations involve three incidents in May, one in August and one in September.Teacher Accused of Soliciting “Hit” on High School StudentA high school teacher in a suburban part of Atlanta is accused of soliciting a “hit” on one of his students. Randolphe Ford, a teacher at Mundy’s Mill High School in Clayton County in Atlanta Georgia, was arrested and charged with making terroristic threats after he supposedly pulled a student away from a bus and offered to pay him money to kill another student at the school. Tensions between the alleged victim and his teacher had been growing over the semester and were amplified after the alleged victim filed a report with the school saying that his teacher had taken him out of class one day to ask him if he is gay. Later the two got into a shouting match in class, and the matter was taken up with the principal. The school did not reprimand the teacher, and maintains that there are two sides to this story. The school board declined to comment further about the teacher’s hearing.On Campus
Psych Department Talks IllnessWednesday from 8am to 5pm students will meet on the first floor of the Campus Center to discuss stigmas and perceptions of mental illness at UMB. Arthur Stead and the UMB psychology department set up the event.Free Movie Showing, SarafenaA movie matinee will be held Wednesday from 12:30pm ñ 3:30pm on the fourth floor in the Wheatley building. The movie will be Sarafena, a South African musical that was once a Broadway play. The Graduate Sociology Student Association will host the event.