Sep 11, 2024

Can you believe it’s been 23 years since 9/11? We’re going to keep that in our minds today.

Also we’ll be keeping Hurricane Francine in our minds. On the podcast weather reporter Leigh Morgan talk about effects Alabama could see from the storm. Click here for updates through the day.

Today’s report follows. Thanks for reading,

Ike

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A jury has awarded a former UAB research scientist $3.8 million over her discrimination claims while UAB disputed the verdict, reports AL.com's Howard Koplowitz.

The plaintiff in the case was an Iranian, Fariba Moeinpour, who was employed by UAB to work in a lab for nine years until she was fired in 2020. She claims she was harassed by a co-worker on a daily basis over her race and national origin, being called racial slurs, being told to go back to Iran and even having a gun pointed at her and a car driven at her. She also claims she complained to her supervisor but was told nothing could be done because he would be fired or killed or would kill himself.

She claims that to keep her from talking the supervisor grabbed her by the chin, knocked her down and drew blood with his fingernails. She said an officer showed up to arrest her, causing her to faint, and she woke to find herself handcuffed by the wrists and ankles on a gurney in the ER before she was taken to jail overnight.

The jury ordered UAB to pay $3 million in damages and the co-worker to pay $500,000 in compensatory damages and $325,000 in punitive damages.

In a statement UAB says it doesn't tolerate discrimination and it considering its next legal steps: "We respectfully disagree with the verdict in this case."

During last night's presidential debate the candidates waded into this past spring's controversial in vitro fertilization ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court.

Every since that decision, we've heard people make references to how Alabama has banned IVF treatment. Of course, what actually happened was the state's high court interpreted the language in Alabama abortion law to mean that embryos have the same rights as children and applied that to a court case involving frozen embryos that had been accidentally destroyed at a clinic, possibly making clinics liable for such incidents in civil and even criminal cases.

During Tuesday's debate, Vice President Kamala Harris made reference to couples being denied IVF treatment. Former President Donald Trump responded with his support for the availability of IVF treatments and also that Alabama had responded to the court decision with legislation in two days to keep the clinics open.

To clarify all that, Trump was right that the Republicans in the Legislature and governor's office acted to neutralize the immediate effects of the court decision, although, as AL.com's Howard Koplowitz reported last night, it took 18 days rather than two.

The issue likely isn't yet dead in our state, however. The measure that was passed gave IVF clinics a level of immunity when handling human embryos. Some have called that a Band-Aid, and some have said granting immunity from recourse is rather strong. Also, there still exists the language in statute that led to the court decision in the first place.

It probably would cut down dramatically on the number of decisions you have to make if you just had lunch at the same place every day.

Some people do that. Dillon Wareham of Mobile, however, is way more consistent than most.

AL.com's Lawrence Specker reports that Wareham recently won a family trip to Hawaii and a year's worth of free lunches after eating at Chipotle for 1,000 consecutive days. That's going on three years of eating at one place day after day.

He celebrated the milestone Monday with the company at the Airport Boulevard location, ordering his go-to burrito bowl with double chicken, white rice, salsa, cheese, lettuce and a side of guacamole, and then announcing on his social-media accounts that he and his family were heading to Hawaii the next morning.

It raises the question: How does one make it to Chipotle every single day for 1,000 days? Or even, how does one go 1,000 days without having to skip lunch? Wareham did say he did have to sneak a few burrito bowls into his luggage for a cruise he took a couple years ago.

In 1913, college football coaching legend Bear Bryant of Morro Bottom, Arkansas.

In 1932, former Congressman Sonny Callahan of Mobile.

In 1953, rock guitarist and singer Tommy Shaw of Montgomery.

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Weather reporter Leigh Morgan joins us to talk about the possible effects of Hurricane Francine.

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