Reversal of Injustice

Newly minted President Barack Obama signed his first bill into law on thursday, approving an equal pay legislation act that he said will, "send a message that making our economy work means making sure it works for everybody."

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act singed by the president effectively cancels the Supreme Court ruling last year that declared plaintiffs had to file wage claims within 180 days of a company's decision to pay a worker less than a counterpart doing the same work.

The person whose name appears on the bill, Lilly Ledbetter, was a worker at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber plant in Gadsden, Ala., discovered when she was nearing retirement that her male counterparts were earning more than she was.

"I'm so excited I can barely stand it," She said after the bill passed the Senate.

Last year a jury found her employer guilty of pay discrimination, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In a May 29, 2007 decision the Supreme Court threw out the case, ruling 5-4 against Ms. Ledbetter. The Supreme Court ruled that she was obligated to file her suit within 180 days of the date that she was first paid by Goodyear Tire and Rubber.

The Ledbetter legislation is aimed at expanding workers rights to sue in this kind of case restarting the six-month clock every time the worker receives a paycheck.

Ms. Ledbetter will not see any money as a result of the legislation that President Obama singed into law today.

Time for Change!

Winning Coach Fired, Losing Team Rewarded

For the past week news sites have been all over this story out of Dallas, Texas...and it keeps getting legs.

On January 13th the Covenant School ladies basketball team defeated Dallas Academy.

Normally, a story involving a girls high school basketball game would barely make regional headlines.

The reason for all the attention?

The Covenant School was up 59-0 at halftime, the game ended with a score of 100 for Covenant and 0 for Dallas Academy. The one-sided result has sparked nation-wide outrage and response.

Yesterday, Coach Micah Grimes of The Covenant School was fired for his unapologetic stance on the result and his team now has blowout remorse and wants to forfeit the game.

"We played the game as it was meant to be played and would not intentionally run up the score on any opponent. Although a wide-margin victory is never evidence of compassion, my girls played with honor and integrity and showed respect to Dallas Academy." Said Grimes.

Perhaps one of the reasons the story is drawing so much attention is because Dallas Academy only has 20 girls in their entire High school, only 8 of which play hoops. The Academy is geared to girls with learning disabilities, like ADD and dyslexia.

The Dallas Academy Lady Bulldogs are void of a win in the last four seasons, and what do they get for their lack of W's?

The Bulldog's appeared on ABC's World News, the team also appeared Saturday on ABC's Good Morning America Weekend and CBS' Saturday Early Show.

Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, has invited the team to be his guests at a Mavericks game and even Nike has called about sponsoring a team trip to the Feb. 15 NBA All-Star Game in Phoenix.

On the Dallas News Web site a story about the game attracted 665,000 page views. The most page views attracted by any Dallas Cowboys story at the Web site this season was 300,000 -- in November when Dallas Cowboys pro-bowl QB Tony Romo took a homeless man to the movies.

The Covenant School released a statement about the game in which they regret the incident.

Members of the Dallas Academy team have expressed no hard feelings toward the team that beat them.