2 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 22, 1996 NATION/WORLD Former director slaps NAACP .flti $1M lawsuit ; U Regional director laid off because of the Baltimore-based A accuses organization civil rights group's financial crisis and a "without consideration of gender and of sex discrimination age. The NAACP believes that in the The Bat Sn end the facts will vindicate its position." a more un He said laid-off employees have :aALTIMORE - A former NAACP been made aware of newly available egonal director, laid off by President positions. .1weisi Mfume in March, has filed a $1 Washington grew up in the NAACP, billion sex and age discrimination suit desegregating Dallas lunch counters as against the civil rights group in U.S. a teen-age member of the group's youth District Court. council and founding a chapter at North Janice Washington, 48, of Texas State University as a student. Randallstown contends in the suit that She joined the NAACP staff right the National Association for the out of college and worked with the Advancement of Colored People paid organization for 27 years, rising to women a quarter to a third less on aver- become national membership director, age than men in comparable jobs. Men mid-Atlantic regional director and filled "by far the best-paying jobs" assistant director of branches and field while women generally carried out the services. "exceptionally demanding day-to-day Last year she organized a fund- work of maintaining the flow of dona- raising gala that netted the NAACP tions and running the programs, the and its District of Columbia branch suit charges. $125,000 each. The suit is the first filed by a former Washington's career suddenly ended -employee since Mfume became March 1, one of 15 staff members dis- NAACP president in February. missed two weeks after Mfume took A similar class-action suit filed in charge. March 1995 on behalf of female Two days after her firing, her hus- NAACP employees is pending in band, Moses Arthur Washington, died Washington. at 55 of lung cancer in a hospice. She Washington's charges of unequal pay was left to raise their two children, 'afe largely directed at the pre-Mfume Moses Anthony, 11, and Candice era, but she also contends that Mfume Marie, 8. She has not found a job, and has favored younger people in hiring her unemployment insurance recently and failed to give dismissed employees ran out. a chance to apply for new positions. "I really feel lonely at this point," Mfume, who announced Saturday that said Washington, drying tears. "I lost the NAACP had erased a $3.2 million two of the dearest things to me at the debt, plans to hire more than 20 same time. I lost my husband, and I lost employees by the end of 1997. my NAACP family." She said Mfume, who was sidelined Hayes called the timing "an unfortu- for five weeks in the spring with a back nate convergence of realities." He said ailment, put off dealing with her. Mfume "probably was not aware" that When he called in July, she referred Washington's husband was terminally ill. him to her lawyer. Washington contends that her dis- "I do this not to harn, the NAACP" missal was retaliatory. Beginning in Washington said in an interview. "I September 1994, she wrote a series of ope I'm doing this to help the letters to NAACP officials complain- NAACP. If we're supposed to be the ing of unequal pay. At the time she held conscience of America and tell others two jobs - assistant director of they can't discriminate based on age, branches and regional director - at a sex, religion and race, we have to set salary of $48,000 a year. She said two our own example." male regional directors, each with less Dennis Courtland Hayes, NAACP than five years' tenure, were paid general counsel, said Washington was $65,000 and $56,000 respectively. Gays in military policy survives Court WASH INGTON - President Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays in the military survived its first Supreme Court test yesterday as the court rejected the appeal of a former Navy officer dismissed for declaring his homosexuality The justices rejected former Lt. Paul Thomasson's argument that the policy* unlawful discrimination and a violation of homosexual service members' free- speech rights. Thomasson was forced to leave the Navy last year after writing a letter to his commander that said, "I am gay." He had served for nearly 10 years. The court's action was not a ruling on the issue's merits and does not preclude the justices from fully reviewing the policy in a future case. But the court let stand a lower court's decision that upheld the rule barring openly homosexual people from serving in the military. The Clinton administration said the government has a legitimate interest in pro- hibiting homosexual acts in the military to avoid a "risk to military effectiveness" and to protect service members' privacy. "I'm tremendously disappointed," said Thomasson, who now manages a resta rant in Washington, D.C. But he added, "I know this injustice will someday be set right." AP PHO' U.S. envoy Dennis Ross speaks at a press conference after a series of meetings with Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem yesterday. U.S. envoy leaves Mieat wthout Hebron agreement FDA recommends new contc ie device for women ROCKVILLE, Md. - Food and Drug Administration advisers recom- mended yesterday against approval of a new contraceptive device similar to the cervical cap, saying it is unclear how well it prevents pregnancy. Women's advocates had pushed the FDA to approve Lea's Shield quickly, arguing that the millions of unplanned pregnancies every year show how des- perate women are for better contracep- tive options. "The appropriate response to the public health needs of women in the '90s is to expedite barrier controls," said Lisa .Cox of the National Women's Health Network. But manufacturer Yama Inc. man- aged to get only 55 women to com- plete a six-month study of the device. The study found a 9-percent pregnan- cy rate. The company argued that was acceptable quality, indicating that had the women used Lea's Shield for a year, the maximum pregnancy would have been 18 percent, equivalent to most diaphragms. But the FDA's scientific advisers said no other contraceptive has ever b approved on the basis of such a sma study. A test involving 55 women was not enough to determine the pregnancy rate reliably. Firestorm destroys luxury homes TUSTIN, Calif. - Homeowners scooped water from swimming pools and used garden hoses to wet do* their wood-shingle roof yesterday as a wind-driven wildfire destroyed or damaged 13 luxury homes in an exclu- sive Southern California neighbor- hood. Gusts of up to 71 mph from the sea- son's first Santa Ana windstorm fanned flames that leaped 50 feet high through the hilly Lemon Heights neighborhood about 35 miles southeast of L Angeles. Los Angeles Times JERUSALEM - After two weeks of intensive diplomacy aimed at forg- ing an agreement on the pullout of Israeli troops from the West Bank city of Hebron, Dennis Ross, the U.S. Middle East peace envoy, left for Washington yesterday - without an accord. Ross, sent to the region by President Clinton to try to revitalize the faltering convened an emergency White House summit aimed at jump-start- ing the peace process and ending outbreaks of violence such as the clashes last month that left more than 75 people dead and more than 1,000 injured in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Each side blamed the other for the latest delays. "The Palestinians just decided to peace process, sought to put a positive face on his departure, telling reporters that an Israeli- Palestinian agreement could be reached "rela- tively soon." He said the two sides were m a k i n g progress on the main sticking point, the long- delayed Israeli Hebron, the last "It doesn't mean we can't pres ahead and reach agreement as soon as possible - Dennis Ross U.S. Middle East peace envoy shift into neu- tral," said Moshe Fogel, spokesperson for the Israeli negotiators. "It looks like we're all waiting for a political deci- sion on Arafat's part." Israeli offi- cials have said they believe the Palest in i a n Women do well in Japan's election TOKYO - Japan's election nearly doubled the number of women in its overwhelmingly male-dominated lower house of Parliament. The leap was just a tiny step forward for women exasper- ated with life in a country that still expects them to stay home. "It's a good thing," 71-year-old Chie4o Shingyoji said of the election as she waited in line with two friends out- side a Tokyo kabuki theater. "But we're still not equal with men." Women won 23 seats in the 500- member lower house in Sunday's elec- tion, which returned Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto's conservative Liberal Democratic Party to dominance after a series of scandals brought it down in 1993. The number of woman winners was a healthy increase over the 14 seats they won in the last election, and the highest female tally since they won 39 in 1946. The surge only brings the women's block in the powerful lower house to 4.6 percent. :t 5- '' The low status of women in Parliament is a reflection of their place in society, which often pushes them to become housewives. Working wor usually are limited to low-paying, part- time jobs. American soldier killed in Croatia SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - An American soldier serving in the NATO-led peace force was killed yes- terday when his truck slid into a rive Croatia. The non-commissioned officer, who was not identified pending notification of his next of kin, died near the town of Slavonski Brod, said Maj. Brett Boudreau, a peace force spokesperson. The town is near the Bosnian border. The five-ton truck the soldier was dri- ving overturned and landed in the river. The cause of the crash was not known. The body was recovered, Boudrea- said. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. withdrawal from major West Bank The Healing Force of Meditation Free public lecture by Dr. Matthew Raider, M.D. community to be turned over to Palestinian control. "We made progress this week," Ross said. "I think there were hopes that we could finalize (an agreement) in some areas. "That didn't materialize. It does- n't mean we can't press ahead and reach agreement as soon as possi- ble." Israeli and Palestinian officials stopped short of calling the situa- tion a crisis, but said the discus- sions had reached at least a tempo- rary impasse, raising concern that frustration about the lack of progress could lead once again to violence. Ross was dispatched after Clinton leader wants to delay the agreement until after the U.S. presidential election in hopes that a new administration - Democrat or Republican - will be willing to exert more pressure on Israel. "These are tiny, minute differences that can be tied up in three minutes flat if the Palestinians wished to do so," said David Bar-Illan, media adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Marwan Kanafani, a political advis- er to Arafat, said the slow negotiating resulted from Israeli intransigence on issues relating to planning and zoning in Hebron once Israel's troop redeploy- ment occurs. Arafat was not to blame, he said: "He wants an agreement. I promise you he wants an agreement." I Ur. Matthew Raider. M.U). Wednesday 23 Oct. 7 PM at the Michigan Union 2nd Flr. Pendleton room. Dr. Raider practices Surat Shabd yoga and is a member of the Science of Spirituality under the direction of Sant Rajinder Singh. Dr. Raider is a graduate of the U. of M. Medical School. In addition to maintaining a private practice in geriatric and family medicine he holds a faculty position at the University of Connecticut Medical School. Dr. Raider has lectured extensively in the United States and Canada on the subjects of meditation and health and meditation and the near death experience. Need a Ri de? It's easier than . you think'. Check out the Classified Ride Board! JOIN THE MOST PROMISING PROFESSION OF THE 21 ST CENTURY Prospective Teacher Education Meeting Thursday, November 7, 1996 6:00 p.m. Whitney Auditorium Room 1309 School of Education Building Call 764-7563 for more information. The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $85. Winter term (January through April) is $95, yearlong (September through April) is $165. On-campus s scriptions for fall term are $35, Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of the Associated Press and the Associated Collegiate Press. 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