Harassment

YANGON, Myanmar - When Mizzima moved its headquarters to Yangon last year from India, media watchers saw it as a sign that political reform in Myanmar was real. For more than a decade, the media group has published hard-hitting coverage of military corruption and Myanmar's dismal human rights record, and many saw its arrival as a bellwether of the regime's tolerance. Recent days, however, have brought growing industry concern about backsliding after the government sent a draft press law to the parliament March 4: It bears an unsettling resemblance to the draconian 1962 media law still in effect, which has long been used to jail, torture and harass journalists.

About a quarter of the African Americans who participated in a human relations study reported experiencing discrimination or harassment from law enforcement, in schools or from others in Orange County. The survey was conducted after an incident in upscale Yorba Linda, in which an African American family said they had been forced to flee the county after enduring months of racial attacks and acts of vandalism that seemed racially charged. In response, the Orange County Human Relations commission held a series of public "listening sessions" at churches across Orange County, urging African American families to share their stories of life in a county that - at one time - had a reputation as a place of intolerance.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled against a midlevel manager who had sued former L.A. schools Supt. Ramon Cortines, alleging sexual harassment. Judge William F. Fahey ruled that real estate manager Scot Graham failed to file his claim within the six-month time limit allowed in such cases, said Sean Rossall, a spokesman for the L.A. Unified School District. The ruling is dated last Wednesday but was issued late Friday, according to the district. The judge did not rule on the merits of the allegations.

Last July, dozens of theatergoers in Aurora, Colo., survived a massacre. Now they have to survive the people who think they're liars. In a court filing this week, Arapahoe County prosecutors said the conspiracy theorists have been such a problem they think releasing more victims' names publicly could hurt the prosecution of James Holmes in the killings. "Since the time this case was filed, unforeseen events continue to adversely affect the daily lives of the victims and witnesses in this case," the filing stated, which opposes a move to unseal more court records.

Square Inc.'s chief operating officer Keith Rabois abruptly resigned from the mobile payments company on Thursday after accusations were made that he sexually harassed an employee. The mobile payments company said the allegations first came to light two weeks ago when a New York attorney representing the male employee contacted Square. In a blog post , Rabois vigorously denied the allegations and said the relationship was consensual. He said he resigned to avoid causing a distraction at the company.

In the documentary "Anita," which premieres at the Sundance Film Festival in four sold-out screenings beginning Saturday, Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Mock focuses her lens on law professor Anita Hill (who hadn't yet seen the film at press time). More than 20 years after Hill accused then-Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment in turbulent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, Hill is an author, professor of social policy, law and women's studies at Brandeis University's Heller School of Social Policy and Management and a frequent speaker on sexual discrimination and civil rights.

Burger King's biggest franchise holder, Carrols Restaurant Group,   reportedly has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle claims of sexual harassment. The settlement, Reuters reported, brings to an end a 14-year lawsuit involving 88 women who formerly worked for Carrols and one current female employee . The company, which owns and operates more than 520 Burger King locations, denies guilt, citing legal costs as the reason for settling.  The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleged that employees harassed women by making obscene comments, exposing their genitalia and subjecting the women to strip searches, unwanted touching and even rape, The Examiner reported.

A cadet who said she was sexually harassed and later forced to quit has sued the Irwindale Police Department, the second lawsuit in six months to question the behavior of a high-ranking police lieutenant Both lawsuits filed against the agency name Lt. Mario Camacho. In July, Officer Rudy Campos filed a federal lawsuit alleging that he didn't get overtime and received negative performance evaluations after he voted against a contract provision Camacho favored. That case is pending.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court justices struggled with the issue of who qualifies as a supervisor in the workplace, an important question when employees sue and claim that they were victims of harassment based on their race or sex. Is a supervisor a high-level boss with the power to hire and fire workers, or can a supervisor also be a mid-level employee who oversees the daily work of several others? Federal civil rights law makes it illegal for employers, acting through their agents - essentially, supervisors - to discriminate against employees because of their race, religion, sex or age. But judges have been split on whether mid-level employees count as supervisors if they subject other workers to on-the-job harassment.

The last straw for the African American police officer living in an upscale Orange County community was the acid pellets someone shot into his garage in October, the corrosive capsules damaging his car. It had been an ugly, racially tinged pattern since the Inglewood police officer, his wife - a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy - and their two children had moved into the Yorba Linda neighborhood in 2011. Rocks were thrown through their windows, car tires were slashed, and racial taunts were shouted by passing motorists.