Decisions and verdicts

After four days of jury deliberation, popular heritage bean company Rancho Gordo has been ordered to pay a former employee $252,000 in damages. The civil case was filed against the Napa company two years ago. At the beginning of March 2023, Martha Martinez’s lawsuit against the heirloom bean company went to trial. Martinez accused Rancho Gordo of wrongful termination and retaliation, and she sought damages for lost wages and benefits and emotional distress. She also sought “punitive damages in an amount sufficient to punish and deter [Rancho Gordo’s] conduct, and to set an example for others,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle . (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms.) Martinez also accused Rancho Gordo of discrimination based on national origin, sex and, a key factor in the case, pregnancy. The company is known for selling dried specialty items such as heirloom beans, grains, seeds, chiles, herbs and spices. It has a reputation … [Read more...] about Rancho Gordo heirloom bean company loses $250,000 lawsuit to ex-employee

The French, not known for their historic love of monarchs, have postponed the state visit of King Charles III after riots gripped the country. The new king had been due to arrive in the French capital on Sunday, from where he was to undertake a three-day program of engagements designed to soothe relations between the two countries, which have been strained by Brexit and rows over immigration in recent years. It was to have been his first overseas state visit. On Wednesday, in the face of violent protests at a raising of the retirement age being forced through parliament by President Emmanuel Macron, palace sources told The Daily Beast they were “keeping a close eye” on developments in the country. Both sides publicly insisted the visit would go ahead, but on Friday morning, Macron said they were postponing the trip, after a nationwide “day of action” on Thursday saw barricaded streets, buildings set alight, refineries and ports blockaded, gas stations running out of fuel, … [Read more...] about Charles Cancels State Visit to France Amid Violent Protests

Thousands of people furious with the French government’s plan to raise the retirement age by two years gathered to stage a protest on Thursday, with the demonstrations escalating into clashes with the police and fire-setting after reports emerged that President Emmanuel Macron would ram the reform through without a parliamentary vote. Inside the National Assembly chamber, where lawmakers had just learned they’d been denied a vote on the measure, equally livid representatives from both sides of the aisle banged on their desks and belted out La Marseillaise , the French national anthem, trying to drown out Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne as she attempted to explain what had just happened—and why. “We cannot bet on the future of our pensions,” she said from the speaker’s dais, according to CNN . Macron’s deeply unpopular pension bill would raise the legal retirement age from 62 to 64 and tighten restrictions around granting full pensions before age 67. “This reform is … [Read more...] about Fiery Protests Erupt Across Paris as Macron Tries to Force Pension Changes

HOSTOMEL, Ukraine — The gigantic twin tail fins, once stretching as high as a six-story building, are gone. So are the tailplane, flaps, hydraulic systems, fuel pumps and three of six engines of the plane, which was destroyed in fighting in the first days of the war. Piece by piece, workers are now dismantling the wreckage of t he gigantic Mriya cargo plane , the heaviest airplane ever flown, with plans to rebuild a new one with salvaged parts. The restoration of the plane, whose name in Ukrainian means The Dream, has begun. With the war still raging, the immense job of rebuilding Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands of homes, hospitals, schools and bridges are blown up, still seems a distant prospect. Measured against those daunting challenges, the work on the plane is hardly a top priority from a humanitarian point of view. But it is meant in part as an inspiration, according to executives at the aircraft company that owns it, Antonov. If something as … [Read more...] about Restoring a Giant Plane: Ukrainian Resilience or Folly?

Once there was a man who wore the finest silks in Italy, but traded them all for sackcloth. His father was a wealthy cloth merchant, and in his youth he gamboled about Umbria in colorful, dandyish outfits. But when he had his calling he stripped off his fine clothes, pledged his body to God, and spent the rest of his life in a mendicant’s robe. He was Saint Francis of Assisi , and when the archbishop of Buenos Aires was proclaimed pope in 2013, he gave himself a new name, in honor of a man unembroidered. I wonder what both Francises, saint and pontiff, might make of “Heavenly Bodies,” the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s colossal, hotly debated and richly anointed exhibition on the interweaving of fashion and Roman Catholicism. Years in the making, it includes exceptional loans of vestments from the Vatican — some of which have never before left Rome — and more than 150 ensembles of secular clothing from the last century. Here is papal regalia of unsurpassed intricacy, but also … [Read more...] about ‘Heavenly Bodies’ Brings the Fabric of Faith to the Met

See the article in its original context from September 20, 1987 Section Page Buy Reprints View on timesmachine TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. KIRSTIE ALLEY SAT IN A COR-ner of Stage 25 Pararamount -the stage where ''Cheers'' has been filmed for the last five years. There were 10 cigarette butts standing on end, like a row of primitive soldiers, in front of her. ''When I'm nervous, I don't eat and I smoke cigarettes and line them up,'' she said. ''Walking around this set, I shake. For the first few days I was out of my … [Read more...] about TELEVISION; Can Kirstie Alley Keep the ‘Cheers’ Bar Open?