Discrimination

More than two years after the Los Angeles Police Commission voted to establish an independent unit to investigate complaints of discrimination and harassment, the City Council on Friday appropriated the funds to get it up and running. Voting unanimously, the council approved a contract for $472,000 with Golden State Management Services to run the unit for one year. The investigators will operate outside the LAPD and report to the Police Commission.

A federal judge Monday extended a temporary order barring enforcement of Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action measure passed by voters in November. After hearing several hours of arguments over the constitutionality of the measure, Chief U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson extended the temporary restraining order he granted last month until next Monday.

Decrying Japan's "cult of exclusivity," civil rights activist Jesse Jackson declared Wednesday that he aims to expand a U.S. boycott against Mitsubishi Motors Corp. after he failed to win commitments from the firm to settle charges of sexual harassment and racial discrimination involving its American subsidiaries. Jackson, visibly frustrated after a day of meetings with Japanese auto firms, also announced that Honda Motor Co. will be the next boycott target.

A federal judge has ruled that a Corona del Mar apartment manager and owner discriminated against a young couple that were evicted because they were expecting their first child. Kimberly and David Delgado were handed a three-day eviction notice in July 1994, shortly after telling manager Tim Mang they were interested in a two-bedroom apartment to accommodate their growing family, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana.

A federal judge ruled Friday that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy violates the Constitution by discriminating against homosexuals, the second such ruling in the nation. The discharge of a California Army National Guard officer, who disclosed his sexual orientation in a letter to his commanding officer, was ordered under a policy that "impermissibly relies on irrational prejudices against homosexuals as a group," said U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong.

In a case involving police use of decoys aimed at arresting homosexuals, the California Supreme Court on Monday made it easier to prove discriminatory prosecution. The unanimous ruling will allow gays to challenge arrests in which police use decoys to go after homosexual targets, but do not arrest heterosexuals for similar activities, lawyers in the case said. "This will sound the death knell of cop sting operations everywhere that are focused on gays," said Bruce W.

The question haunts Russia's disabled. Arkady Murashuv heard it years ago, when he applied to journalism school. An industrial accident had crushed his career in a metal factory. He thought he might learn a new trade, work from his bed editing copy or checking facts. The admissions committee turned him down. "You're sick," they told him. "You can't study. That's that." Behind the gruff rejection, Murashuv sensed the disbelief: Why bother working when you can collect a comfortable pension?

The state Department of Motor Vehicles has been hit with a $5-million discrimination lawsuit for refusing to give a man with AIDS a license plate reading "HIV POS." "I expected to encounter some bigotry, but I didn't expect it at the state DMV," said Kevin Dimmick, 40, of Kensington, who filed his suit in federal court here.

The lopsided passage of Proposition 209 ended a campaign, but not this year's bitter debate about fairness and opportunity in California. On Wednesday, combatants on both sides of the landmark ballot measure on affirmative action moved swiftly to the courts, where they predicted that the fate of such programs in government hiring, contracting and public education ultimately would be decided by judges. Despite the measure's 54.3% to 45.

Despite protests from a dozen desperate neighbors, the city Planning Commission complied Wednesday with a federal agency's orders to lift restrictions on the soon-to-open Eli Home for abused children and their mothers. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials said last year that four of the shelter's 30 operating regulations violated the Federal Fair Housing Law because they discriminated against children and would violate the residents' civil rights.