In their zest to do everything they can to promote business interests, Missouri's legislators are proposing laws that will trample on everyone's rights.
Fresh from their victories on workmen's compensation and medical malpractice lawsuits, Missouri Republicans are taking aim at discrimination lawsuits. According to today's Kansas City Star, HB 628, sponsored by Rep. Richard Byrd, R-St. Louis County, would change the definition of an employer in racial and sexual discrimination lawsuits and would set a limit on damages.
Supervisors would no longer be considered employers under Byrd's bill, allowing company owners to evade responsibility for the acts committed by the people whom they have placed in charge.
Only the company itself could be sued, which according to the article, would move nearly all cases to federal courts since so many companies are incorporated out of state.
As they have with every bit of pro-business legislation they have proposed this session, Byrd and other House Republicans claim this bill is necessary to keep businesses and jobs in Missouri and to make Missouri more attractive to new businesses.
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Michael Orr, the first of the Newell Rubbermaid expatriates to leave O'Sullivan Industries, has a new position, but the brief biography published on his new company's website makes no mention of his time with O'Sullivan.
Orr is the new senior vice president, logistics/operations for S. P.. Richards Company, a subsidiary of the Genuine Parts Company. According to S. P. Richards' website, Orr will "oversee the company's warehouse, distribution and quality control initiatives."
The company news release announcing Orr's position mentions his background at Newell Rubbermaid and Allied Signal.
As noted in the Feb. 25 Turner Report, Orr resigned his position at O'Sullivan effective March 4. The company's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said he was leaving to take a position with another company.