There are days when the news leaves you wondering why you bothered to get out of bed in the morning
First, a terrible Workers' Comp tale…In March 2006, Taneka Talley of Fairfield, CA, a full time employee at a store called the “Dollar Tree” was stabbed to death while on the job. The killer was a guy named Tommy Joe Thompson, a stranger to Talley, who has since admitted that the only reason he stabbed her was because she was African American.
Talley left behind an 11-year-old son who is now being cared for by Talley’s surviving mother, Carol Frazier, who is also the child’s grandmother. To support her grandchild, Frazier desperately needs the $250,000 death benefit her daughter is owed through Workers’ Comp, given that she was killed while on the job. Unfortunately, the Dollar Tree and its insurer, Specialty Risk Services, are denying payment of the benefit.
Why? Because California’s Workers' Compensation law “doesn’t consider an on-the-job injury to be work-related if the motives were entirely personal—for example, if an estranged lover or spouse comes to the workplace and attacks an employee because of a private grudge.” According to the attorney for the insurance company, Kelly Hamilton, denial of the death benefit is proper because Thompson’s motivation in killing Talley was “purely race motivated,” and therefore, purely "personal."
Reportedly, the matter is currently being debated before a state appeals board that hears workers’ compensation disputes, but may eventually be headed to court. “This case is important not only because of the injustice to the survivors of Taneka Talley. All Californians should be concerned about the precedent this case would create for workplace deaths and injuries.” Stay tuned.
On to an awful story about toxic toys…A wave of toxic-toy recalls last year gave rise to federal legislation which was signed into law this past summer (“The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008”). Among other things, the law “permanently bans the sale, after February 10, 2009, of toys and child care products that contain certain phthalates and lead.”
Nevertheless, according to the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, “In a letter dated November 13, 2008, the law firm Arent Fox, on behalf of unidentified [“wholesale and resale”] clients, asked the CPSC to only apply the U.S. ban to the production - and not sale - of toys with phthalates. In a legal opinion published only two business days later, on November 17, 2008, the CPSC General Counsel agreed. As a result, manufacturers can stockpile toys and child care products with the banned phthalates right up to the date of the ban, and then sell them to consumers long after the ban was supposed to go into effect.”
Thankfully, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Public Citizen are challenging the CPSC’s reckless decision in federal court, alleging the CPSC “is failing to carry out its role in implementing the phthalates ban” which will result in “harm to consumers exposed to the chemicals.”
"Selling millions of toxic toys to kids is not the way to dispose of them, as the law clearly states," said David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division which, along with NRDC, was heavily involved in lobbying Congress for stronger product safety rules. "It’s not only immoral - it’s illegal. It is horrifying that the federal agency charged with protecting consumers is telling the industry it can dump chemical waste on toy-store shelves."
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