National Roundup

California
Executive to pay $1.8M to settle harassment suit

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A former Northern California business executive and his companies will pay $1.8 million to settle a lawsuit by the state accusing him of sexually harassing a female employee, according to a newspaper report.

California officials announced the settlement last week with Lee William “Bill” McNutt and the firms Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate and International Direct Mail Consultants, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Saturday.

The state Department of Fair Employment and Housing alleged in its lawsuit that McNutt took the woman, the companies’ vice president for operations and communications, on a number of trips in 2017 where he touched her under her clothes without her consent.

The woman’s lawyer sent McNutt a complaint alleging violations of California laws and suggesting she be put on paid leave. Instead she was dismissed in June 2018, according to court papers.

David Oates, a spokesman for McNutt, told the Chronicle that McNutt and his companies consider the California lawsuit “baseless.”

“However, in light of the current gender discrimination environment, they ultimately opted to spare their family and friends from the ongoing stress that defending the suit brought and agreed to this settlement,” Oates said.

In addition to the $1.8 million, the settlement prohibits McNutt from hiring students from Southern Methodist University, where the alleged victim had been a student. McNutt also attended SMU, and the Dallas
Morning News has reported that the university barred him from campus in 2009 after complaints from female students.

McNutt lives in Dallas, and the Silicon Valley Growth Syndicate, formerly based in San Francisco, is now located in Little Rock, Arkansas, where it invests in startup businesses.

Hawaii
Court rules agencies must follow air tour rules for parks

HILO, Hawaii (AP) — A federal court ordered two government agencies to comply with existing regulations in response to a lawsuit seeking air tour management plans for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C., ordered the Federal Aviation Administration and National Park Service to produce a schedule for bringing 23 national parks into compliance with the Air Tour Management Act of 2000, The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported  Saturday.

The federal legislation requires vendors conducting commercial air tours over national parks and certain tribal lands to obtain a permit from the FAA.

The legislation mandated the FAA and park service establish air tour management plans that can prohibit or place conditions on the aerial tours.

The Hawaii Island Coalition Malama Pono and the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed the lawsuit seeking an injunction.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park reported the highest and fourth-highest, respectively, number of commercial air tours in the nation in 2018, a park service report said.

“This case arises out of the underwhelming — and ultimately unsuccessful — efforts of the (FAA) and National Park Service to regulate commercial sightseeing flights over national parks,” Circuit Judge Thomas Griffith wrote in the ruling.

The agencies argued the legislation’s timeline to establish management plans is “aspirational.”

Griffith wrote that a lack of a specific deadline does not enable officials to ignore legal obligations.

“Left to their own devices, the agencies have failed to comply with their statutory mandate for the past 19 years,” Griffith wrote.

Bob Ernst, founding board member of Hawaii Island Coalition Malama Pono, said “a little nonprofit” should not have been needed to bring about regulation of flying tours over the state’s parks.

“Our congressional delegation should have done it. Our governor should have done it. Our mayor should have done it,” Ernst said.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Ed Case of Hawaii praised the ruling, saying the agencies had not complied with the legislation for decades.

“In that period, the destruction of our national parks from virtually unregulated air tours has worsened exponentially,” Case said.

Virginia
DOJ sides with church over virus restrictions

CHINCOTEAUGUE. Va. (AP) — The Justice Department has filed a statement of interest siding with a Virginia church suing the state’s governor over restrictions because of the coronavirus.

The filing was made Sunday in support of the Lighthouse Fellowship Church, which is in Chincoteague on the state’s Eastern Shore.

The lawsuit alleges the church’s pastor, Kevin Wilson, was issued a criminal citation because he held a service with 16 people on April 5.

Authorities allege the church violated the state’s ban on gatherings of more than 10 people.

The Justice Department’s filing, citing the lawsuit, says the church had maintained social distancing and had extensive sanitizing of common surfaces. The church said attendees had to stay 6 feet apart and use hand sanitizer before entering the building.

The Justice Department says Virginia “cannot treat religious gatherings less favorably than other similar, secular gatherings.”

A judge had denied the church’s motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction on Friday.

Arkansas
Federal judge: No ruling on inmates’ virus suit

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday declined to rule immediately in a lawsuit filed by Arkansas inmates who accused the prison system of not doing enough to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker rejected the inmates’ motion to immediately require the prison system to take additional steps to prevent the virus from spreading. Baker’s ruling, however, still keeps the inmates’ lawsuit  alive, and the judge has a hearing scheduled Thursday in her court on the complaint.

The lawsuit was filed after an outbreak at the Cummins Unit, where officials said over the weekend four inmates had died from the illness caused by the coronavirus. At least 860 inmates have tested positive for the virus at the facility south of Pine Bluff.