Contemporary Term Offends Prospective Juror

Law Offices of Louis D. Stober, Jr., L.L.C.

350 Old Country Road, Suite 205, Garden City, NY 11530

877-791-8076 / StoberLaw.com 

A 25-year old teacher from New York City, Raeana Roberson, has gained national recognition after reporting for jury duty on Monday, where she noticed the juror information card included a race category featuring a "Black, African-American, or Negro." choice. 

Enraged by the discriminatory term "Negro", Roberson crossed out the word and wrote next to it, "offensive! It's 2014!"  She was expecting a reaction from the court employee when she returned the form, but received none. 

Race categories from the New York courts are created by the U.S. Census Bureau.  Judicial Statue Section 528 requires the courts to obtain prospective juror demographic information.  In the late 1990's, some 56,000 people wrote the word "Negro" under "some other race" category.  As a result, "negro" was added to the 2000 census.

The intention is to present people with words that match their self-identities; not to offend.  The use of the word "negro" has been discontinued by the Census Bureau in 2014, a movement New York courts will soon be following. 

To read the full story, click here. 

The attorneys at the Law Offices of Louis D. Stober Jr. are skilled in representing clients who have been victims of discrimination.  Contact Stober Law to speak to a representative about your legal options. 

Tax Break For Drivers Can Lead To Mass Transit Chaos

Law Offices of Louis D. Stober, Jr., L.L.C.

350 Old Country Road, Suite 205, Garden City, NY 11530

877-791-8076 / StoberLaw.com 

Image Source: Flickr/ Ben Sutherland

The capital program for MTA, or the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, is recently running out of time to devise a new plan for ways to allocate funds to maintain and expand the transit system. However, the main issue is regarding how exactly the state plans on funding it. One way to decrease transit usage is to increase driving. Because of the increase dependence on debts for financial costs, a state senator plans on providing a tax incentive to drive. The capital program is solely relying on debts and is resulting in higher prices for transit users.

Although the need for a funding plan is necessary, a hearing on January 10^th backfired on that plan. During the hearing, many people supported the Move NY fair tolling plan which aims to reduce tolls and ultimately results in a uniform toll to drive into Manhattan below 60^th street. This proposed idea would help finance the MTA capital program, but the estimated $1.5 billion isn’t enough. Additional costs are necessary for the MTA capital program due to the deadly Metro-North derailment and post-Sandy repair initiatives.

Furthermore, for areas that aren’t served by the subway frequently, initiatives to enforce Bus Rapid Transit projects are being heavily focused on. The primary argument against this is that the roads are already highly congested and removing lanes from highly populated streets would only result in chaos. Even though this argument has brought up a good point, a more popular suggestion derived from a proposed law offers pre-tax transit benefits to employees. Hopefully, this will result in increased funds specifically for MTA so New Yorkers could continue using their transit system.

To read the full article, click here.

The attornies at the Law Offices of Louis D. Stober Jr. are skilled in representing in comprehensive legal matters.  Contact our office to find out how we can help you!