Parent Sues School District, Claims Board President Got Her Fired over Reopening Push
Elena Dinverno, a parent of two children in Rochester Community Schools, has sued the school district, claiming the board president contacted her employer and got her fired for posting content on social media urging school reopening. Dinverno filed a civil lawsuit Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit against board president Kristin Bull, the Oakland County district, and superintendent Robert Shaner, arguing they violated her first amendment right to free speech, The Detroit News reported. According to the lawsuit, Dinverno was an active member of two Facebook groups, “RCS Parents for In-Person Education” and “Conservative Parents for Rochester,” that regularly criticized the school district’s conduct and leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. In one of the groups, Dinverno requested video testimonials from parents and students struggling with the challenges of virtual learning and remote instruction. The suit alleges that a board member called her place of work, Blake’s Hard Cider Co. in Armada, and accused Dinverno of threatening the school district by engaging in her online Facebook forums. The company subsequently terminated Dinverno’s employment on December 18, the lawsuit said. Dinverno said the district issued her a cease-and-desist letter on Jan. 14 stating that the input she offered to the board and messaging she wrote in the Facebook groups were “false and are injurious to the Board, and threaten further injury if left uncorrected.” The parent alleges that Bull threatened to rescind a “40 under 40” award for Andrew Blake, the hard cider company president, if he did not address Dinverno’s activity online relating to advocating for school reopening. Dinverno says that Blake’s human resources manager instructed her to “…watch what she was saying in the online forums.” Her lawyer, Deborah Gordon, said, “This is a government entity for which you are entitled to your First Amendment rights, unless someone is using threatening language. But over offering up an opinion? There have zero business policing her speech.” Dinverno’s attorneys argue that her speech was constitutionally protected and that the defendants infringed upon her liberties by pressuring and threatening her employer “with adverse professional ramifications.” Lawyers for Dinverno have claimed that the school district often contacts the occupations of parents who object to school board decisions “in an attempt to coerce, threaten, or manipulate said employers to dissociate themselves with the parents and encouraging employers to take adverse employment actions against the parents.”
news.yahoo.comAl Sharpton delivers passionate eulogy at Andrew Brown's funeral
The Rev. Al Sharpton delivered a "passionate" eulogy at Andrew Brown Jr.'s invitation-only funeral on Monday at Fountain of Life Church in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, The Washington Post reports. Brown, a 42-year-old Black man, was killed by police who were executing search and arrest warrants on felony drug charges at his home in Elizabeth City last month. An investigation into Brown's death is ongoing, but authorities have not yet released body camera footage of the incident to the public (it would require a court order to do so). "Release the whole tape and let folks see what happened to Andrew Brown," Sharpton said, the Post reports. "If nothing is on tape, won't be nothing on it in 45 days. Let the world see what it is to see. If you've got nothing to hide then what are you hiding? All we want is justice." In addition to calling for the release of the footage, Sharpton lamented the numerous incidents of police violence that caused the death of Black Americans in the last year. "Before we could get through one 24-hour cycle after the conviction of Derek Chauvin for the lynching by knee of George Floyd, a policeman killed Andrew Brown Jr. — a day that we were getting ready to go the wake of Daunte Wright," he said. "From Daunte Wright to Andrew Brown to Breonna Taylor to Ahmaud Arbery to Rayshard Brooks to George Floyd ... All within a year. And you want to talk about everything other than what the times demand we talk about." Read more at The Washington Post. More stories from theweek.com5 brutally funny cartoons about Giuliani's legal woesWoman launches company to help military spouses find stable workCarter Library releases endearingly odd photo of the Bidens visiting Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
news.yahoo.comCoronavirus in Illinois updates: 110,211 vaccine doses, 2,250 COVID-19 cases, 23 deaths reported Sunday
The U.S. vaccination campaign is accelerating rapidly, with more than 91 million people — roughly one-third of the adult population — having received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccination by Saturday. And nearly every state has announced that it will meet President Joe Biden’s directive to make all adults eligible by May 1.
chicagotribune.comHistoric St. Augustine church bell to ring again after decades of silence
ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The Trinity Parish Episcopal Church will soon hear the ring of its prized 1942 bell again. Some parishioners attended a pre-dawn ceremony to bless the bell before dawn Friday before a crane lifted it three stories to its home in the church steeple. “One day I went to ring the bell and it went ‘kkkkh’ and then bits of bell came down.”It was brought down and shipped to Cincinnati for repairs. It was lifted back into placePrior to its demise and removal, the bell would ring before services at Trinity, resounding through the Plaza de la Constitucion and knitting together the St. Augustine community with a common reference point, The St. Augustine record reported. “There are a group of men in the parish who grew up here and they would ring the bell as children when they were acolytes.
Trust Index: Is there a link between Bell’s palsy & vaccine?
He’s reminding the public that not everything posted on social media is true. In Pfizer’s trial, all four participants who experienced Bell’s palsy received the vaccine. In Moderna’s trial, three participants who experienced Bell’s palsy got the vaccine, one got the placebo. “These things will occur naturally.”The FDA recognized these cases of Bell’s palsy before approving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine but says there is no evidence to link the two. The FDA is now recommending surveillance of cases of Bell’s palsy as more people get the vaccine.
FDA staff recommends watching for Bell's palsy in Moderna and Pfizer vaccine recipients
A 54-page staff report released Tuesday said there were four reported cases of Bell's palsy among Moderna 's more than 30,000 clinical trial participants. All four Bell's palsy cases in Pfizer's trial got the vaccine and not the placebo. Two of the cases of Bell's palsy among Moderna's vaccine group have since "resolved" while one was still ongoing at the time of the report, the FDA staff said. Bell's palsy causes a sudden freezing or weakness in a person's facial muscles that's temporary for most people, according to the Mayo Clinic. The FDA's guidance for Moderna's vaccine issued Tuesday was similar to its recommendations for Pfizer's vaccine last week.
cnbc.comCDC will monitor for Bell’s palsy among Pfizer vaccine recipients, but sees no causal relationship
Specifically, surveillance for Bell's palsy could help determine any possible causal relationship," Oliver said. Dr. Sara Oliver, an officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during the agency's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Friday that there is "no known or expected causal relationship between the vaccine and Bell's palsy." Bell's palsy is a sudden freezing or weakness in a person's facial muscles, and for most people it's temporary, according to the Mayo Clinic. During the meeting on Thursday, FDA vaccine reviewer Dr. Susan Wollersheim noted the trial data showed a "numerical imbalance" in cases of Bell's palsy. Wollersheim said there were four cases in the vaccine group and none in the placebo group.
cnbc.comBullish trend may dominate market risks: Ally Invest's Lindsey Bell
According to Bell, the S&P 500 typically sees an average gain of 3.9% in the fourth quarter — making it the best three months of the year. "We can still have a good fourth quarter once we get past some of these uncertainties that are in the marketplace," she said. However, with just 12 trading days in the books in the fourth quarter, the S&P 500 is already up 3.6%. "Volatility is going to continue to be a key component in through the next couple months," she added. Despite the risks, Bell does not think it's a bad time to enter the market.
cnbc.comDax Shepard Mocks Tabloid's Request for Comment on Marriage 'Problems' and '
Its hard to accuse Dax Shepard of being anything other than an open book. So when he received an email from a tabloid requesting he comment on a story about his marriage to Kristen Bell and his addiction issues, he decided to have some fun with it on Instagram. Sources tell Life & Style that Kristen and Dax have had problems in their marriage, including Daxs addiction issues, but that theyre very happy now and are determined to make their marriage work, the email read, asking Shepard to comment on the story by Thursday. My addiction issues are between me, my sponsor, and the 3-4 folks listening to me speak about it for four hours a week on my podcast!!! "Our kids will hopefully land in the middle of us.For more from Shepard, watch the clip below:RELATED CONTENT:Kristen Bell Shares Dax Shepards' Awkward Reaction When Meeting Beyonc and JAY-ZDax Shepard Jokes That 'Game of Thrones' Was the Foundation of His and Kristen Bell's MarriageHow Dax Shepard and Wife Kristen Bell Are Teaching Their Kids Balance (Exclusive)
Reservations for Taco Bell's hotel sell out in 2 minutes
If you're a Taco Bell super fan looking to stay at the Mexican fast food chain's limited-time hotel, you're already too late. And with that, the Yum Brands unit proved once again how much its customers love Taco Bell. ET Thursday for the roughly 70 rooms at its Palm Springs hotel. "Taco Bell fans are truly one of a kind and today was one of the best expressions of that fandom yet," Taco Bell's Chief Global Brand Officer Marisa Thalberg said in a statement. The Bell, which is taking over the V Palm Springs Hotel, will open its doors August 8 and close August 12.
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