Human Relations Commission

A Maryland-based arm of the Saudi health ministry that buys supplies for that country's royal hospital may not claim sovereign immunity in fighting a sex discrimination complaint, an administrative law judge has ruled.Royspec Purchasing Services, an agency of the Saudi government based near Baltimore-Washington International Airport, argued in a March hearing that it was immune from the complaint brought by the Maryland Human Relations Commission.A former Royspec purchasing agent, Marian Heymann of Pasadena, charged in 1987 that sex bias by her employer forced her to quit a $40,000-a-year job after six years with the agency.

When someone complains to the Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission about housing or employment discrimination, commissioners are powerless to do much about it. That's the impression the commissioners themselves have, and they say it affects how people perceive their ability to help. "Our complaints are probably low because people know that we don't have any enforcement powers," said Yevola Peters, a special assistant to the county executive who serves as the county government's human relations officer.

When someone complains to the Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission about housing or employment discrimination, commissioners are powerless to do much about it. That's the impression the commissioners themselves have, and they say it affects how people perceive their ability to help. "Our complaints are probably low because people know that we don't have any enforcement powers," said Yevola Peters, a special assistant to the county executive who serves as the county government's human relations officer.

Risselle "Rikki" Fleisher, a former general counsel to the Maryland Commission on Human Relations who was a legal advocate in civil rights cases, died Tuesday of breast cancer at Stella Maris Hospice. The Bethany Beach, Del., resident was 77. "She wanted to right any wrong," said former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. "She was a caring person who grew up at a time when things were happening that never should have. She worked to change that. " Born Risselle Rosenthal in Baltimore and raised on Mohawk Avenue, she was a 1953 graduate of Forest Park High School, where she was a three-letter athlete, her yearbook's features editor and homeroom class president.

Iris E. Manning, a neighborhood activist and former member of the Baltimore County Human Relations Commission, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 20 at her Turners Station home. She was 86. Iris Elizabeth Dodd, the daughter of a Norfolk & Western Railway worker and a homemaker, was born and raised in Roanoke, Va. After graduating from Lucy Addison High School in Roanoke in 1939, she moved to Baltimore and went to work as an assembly line worker at the old Glenn Martin Co. plant in Middle River, where she worked until the 1960s.

The Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission is accepting nominations for the Dallas G. Pace Sr. Human Relations Award.The award is presented annually at the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast on Jan. 14 at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold. Deadline for nominations is Friday.The award recognizes the achievements and contributions of a person who has significantly enhanced human relations goals and objectives in Anne Arundel County.To obtain information or nomination forms, write the Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission, P.O. Box 2700, Annapolis 21404, or call 410-222-1821.

The Anne Arundel County Human Relations Commission is accepting nominations for the Dallas G. Pace Sr. Human Relations Award. The award will be presented at the Martin Luther King Memorial Breakfast on Jan.20 at the Ramada Inn in Annapolis. The nominations deadline is Dec. 31.The award recognizes the achievements and contributions made by a person who has significantly enhanced the realization of human relations goals and objectives for the betterment of people in Anne Arundel County. It isnamed after the late Dallas G. Pace Sr., a former chairman of the Human Relations Commission.

Three people will be honored for their efforts to improve human relations in the county at the 16th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast at 8 a.m. Monday at Anne Arundel Community College.De Lorma Goodwyn of Annapolis will receive the Anne Arundel Coalition of Tenants Inc. award, which is given to an individual who keeps King's dream alive.Goodwyn, a member of the breakfast's organizing committee, is a member of the Annapolis Human Relations Commission and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Awards Dinner committee.

The city of Annapolis this week became the first jurisdiction in the state to adopt its own sexual harassment law. Under the law passed by the City Council, sexual harassment now is a crime punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail. Without a local law, employees subjected to possible sexual harassment must file complaints with the Maryland Human Relations Commission.The Evening Sun would like to know what you think. Are sexual harassment laws needed in cities and counties in Maryland?

The state Human Relations Commission has charged the Rising Sun volunteer fire department with sex discrimination in suspending a female ambulance aide who complained of sexual assault by a co-worker.The commission said yesterday that it has been unable to informally resolve the issue with the Cecil County fire company, which suspended Paula J. Haavistola in March 1990 after she complained of the alleged incident and threatened to file criminal charges.The volunteer firefighter accused by Ms. Haavistola was acquitted of fourth-degree sexual assault in March by the Cecil County Circuit Court, reversing a District Court judge's finding.

Solomon S. "Sol" Goldberg, a retired lawyer who had been deputy chief judge advocate of the Army's Test and Evaluation Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground, died Jan. 31 of undetermined causes at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. He was 89. Mr. Goldberg, the son of a grocer and a homemaker, was born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was a graduate of city public schools. He had completed his pre-law training and his first year of law school at St. John's University in New York City when he was drafted into the Army in 1942.

Thomas Dickerson Dawes, a retired civil engineer and former chairman of the Baltimore County Human Relations Commission who touched off a controversy in 1970 when he investigated several incidents of racial unrest in southeastern Baltimore County, died Nov. 5 of pancreatic cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. Mr. Dawes died three days shy of his 85th birthday. Mr. Dawes was born in Baltimore and raised on a Falls Road farm that was purchased by his great-grandfather in 1859 and has remained in his family since that time.

Iris E. Manning, a neighborhood activist and former member of the Baltimore County Human Relations Commission, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 20 at her Turners Station home. She was 86. Iris Elizabeth Dodd, the daughter of a Norfolk & Western Railway worker and a homemaker, was born and raised in Roanoke, Va. After graduating from Lucy Addison High School in Roanoke in 1939, she moved to Baltimore and went to work as an assembly line worker at the old Glenn Martin Co. plant in Middle River, where she worked until the 1960s.

Candidates running to be Annapolis' next mayor spoke Wednesday night about their views on equal opportunity and human relations - the first time the candidates have gathered in a public forum this race. All but one of the seven candidates who have announced their candidacies made brief statements at the Annapolis Human Relations Commission's open house, held at City Hall. Josh Cohen, an Anne Arundel County councilman, was unable to attend the meeting, but offered a written statement in his absence.

TODAY Board of Education -- The Board of Education will meet at 10 a.m. to consider the fiscal 2007 operating and capital budget. The meeting will be in the board meeting room of the Dr. Carol S. Parham Administration Building at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis. 410-222-5311. Human Relations Commission -- The Human Relations Commission of Anne Arundel County will meet at 6 p.m. to discuss discrimination in the public and private sectors. The commission meets on the first Wednesday each month at the Arundel Center, 44 Calvert St., Annapolis.

Michael G. Holofcener, a retired sporting goods merchant who in 1963 briefly served as chairman of Baltimore County's Human Relations Commission and openly clashed with County Executive Spiro T. Agnew over his lack of support for the commission's civil rights initiatives, died of cancer Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Sparks resident was 74. Mr. Holofcener was born in Flushing, N.Y., and as an infant moved with his family to Baltimore's Forest Park section. He was a 1948 graduate of City College and earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland in 1952.

When Prabhjot S. Kohli came to the United States from India 12 years ago, he believed that acceptance of his race and religion "would be no problem because it's the most democratic, multicultural society."Ten years and $20,000 in legal bills later, he has discovered it can be costly to win acceptance on his terms.Kohli, 59, has spent a decade fighting Domino's Pizza over its corporate policy banning beards on employees, and the fight is not over. An appeals court has told a Baltimore County judge to decide whether a Human Relations Commission appeals board was correct in finding that Domino's illegally discriminated.

It is a slim book, bound in the rich crimson fabric of an Indian sari and published in India 25 years ago in homage to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. A limited number of copies of Drum Major for a Dream: Poetic Tributes to Martin Luther King, Jr., edited by Ira G. Zepp Jr. and Melvin D. Palmer, were printed. Today, those copies aren't easy to find. But the words in the book - written by professional poets such as Lucille Clifton and Gwendolyn Brooks as well as students and other amateur poets - resonate.