The Bothwell Letter
News & Comment from Law Offices of A.P.X. Bothwell
350 Bay Street, Suite 100PMB314, San Francisco, CA  94133-1998                Tel. (415) 370-9571
September 15, 2011       Vol. XIII / No. 1      www.apxbothwell.com        attorney@apxbothwell.com 

STATE SHOULD TAKE OVER THE MANAGEMENT OF PG&E,
SAYS LAWYER WHO SOUNDED ALARM BEFORE SAN BRUNO
On Sept. 9, 2010, Atty. Tony Bothwell received PG&E’s acknowledgement of the lawsuit he filed on behalf of a whistleblower warning of safety violations in the utility’s gas transmission system. That day, a PG&E gas transmission pipeline blew up in San Bruno, destroying many homes, injuring scores of residents, leaving eight dead. New counsel on both sides have scheduled mediation. Bothwell also represented a home- owner who lived across the street from the San Bruno blast, and he previously won remedies for PG&E gas pipeline workers in racial discrimination cases. “The State of California,” Bothwell urged today, “should take over the management of PG&E.”

FAILURE TO CORRECT HAZARDS MAY BE ILLEGAL ‘RETALIATION’
An employer’s failure to remedy environmental and safety hazards may be deemed a form of retaliation for which damages can be claimed by an employee who reported the hazards in the first place. That’s the rule handed down by a federal judge in Boston in a case filed by a former United Air Lines reservations agent. The U.S. Dept. of Labor judge in June refused to dismiss Donna Kuehu’s complaint that the airline refused to fix toxic spills and fumes at Honolulu’s airport. Atty. Tony Bothwell represents several current and former United employees who filed whistleblower retaliation claims.            

A RAINBOW COALITION IN HAWAII PLANS SUIT
African American, Asian Pacific, Hispanic, and Native American Indian past and present medical staff of the U.S. Army Garrison in Hawaii decided to join in a civil rights suit to be filed in U.S. District Court in Honolulu. Racial epithets and putdowns were rampant there at Tripler Army Medical Center, Atty. Tony Bothwell said in TV interviews on Honolulu’s KFVE, KGMB, KHNL and KHON. Newsman Tim Sakahara of Hawaii News Now reported, “Employees also claim supervisors forged documents on disciplinary forms, put hate letters in lockers and were denied training because of their race.”    

E.E.O.C. FINDS TEXAS OIL FIRM RETALIATED AGAINST ASIAN WOMAN
An oil and gas services firm in Houston illegally retaliated against an Asian American woman when it tried to use a Texas court to sidetrack the federal probe of her job bias case. That’s the finding announced by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission after Atty. Tony Bothwell asked the EEOC to step in, getting a U.S. District Court-approved stipulation to stop state court proceedings. The finding opened the door for damage claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act against Cameron Enterprises, successor of Natco Group.

FORMER F.D.A. CHIEF, AS DEAN, BLEW THE WHISTLE ON UCSF
David Kessler, the former FDA commissioner who led the fight for tobacco regulation, found financial irregularities when he became dean of UCSF medical center. Officials at UC fired Dr. Kessler when he refused to cover up his discovery of phony accounting records. His whistleblower retaliation claim is to be heard by a U.S. District Court jury in Oakland in August 2012. Dr. Kessler is represented by Whistleblower Defenders Thad Guyer and Stephani Ayers, with Tony Bothwell as San Francisco-based local counsel.   

CHARGING RACIAL BIAS, BOTHWELL WINS A MISTRIAL
A mistrial was declared in San Joaquin county court at the request of Tony Bothwell because opposing counsel asked prospective jurors about ethnic background. Jury pool members in the contract case were asked by a Sacramento lawyer whether they had any Punjabi Indian background. Bothwell protested that allowing the question implied that it would be alright for jurors to consider ethnicity in forming opinions about the parties, the legal teams, and fellow jurors. Citing the equal-protection clause of the Constitution, he said ethnic bias must not be allowed to taint the trial.    

BOTHWELL COURT VIDEO IN LAW CLASSES OVERSEAS
A video of Tony Bothwell’s oral argument for airline pilots in an age bias case has been used to train pilots and lawyers in aviation law classes as far away as Pakistan. The video shows Bothwell answering judges’ questions in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. Arguments used in that case helped persuade Congress to scrap the FAA’s age 60 retirement rule.     

AMERICAN REVOLUTION’S HEIRS KEEP TIES SOUTH OF THE BORDER
Mexico’s link to Sons of the American Legion was saved by a parliamentary retort at SAR’s world congress in July at Winston-Salem, N.C. A foe objected to the SAR Mexico Society on the ground that its trustees were also members of SAR’s California Society.  The anti-Mexico delegate demanded that the presiding officer “cite the specific provision of the bylaws” allowing a trustee to have dual membership. Tony Bothwell, defending the Mexico Society, argued, “The burden is on the objector to cite a contrary provision.” That ended the debate. Mexico trustees were elected. Bothwell is president of SAR’s oldest chapter, founded in San Francisco, Calif., July 4, 1876.

NUCLEAR EMERGENCY CORE COOLING SYSTEM WHISTLEBLOWER
REPRESENTED BY BOTHWELL WON DECISION, NOW UNDER APPEAL
The Bothwell law firm won a monetary award, pending appeal, for a British-owned firm’s safety expert who blew the whistle on hazards in Emergency Core Cooling System controlsfor utilities in Nebraska and Florida. Bothwell and associates have won settlements for a security officer and a plutonium engineer who blew the whistle on mismanagement at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab. Bothwell helped a physician win job reinstatement after being fired for complaining that the San Francisco Health Dept. allowed pharmacists to prescribe psychotropic drugs to children. The Bothwell firm also has helped clients deal with the IRS; get credit bureau reports corrected; and obtain monetary damages for claims ranging from mold to motor vehicle accidents.

OBAMA POLICY AGAINST NUKE PROLIFERATION
The American Section of the International Law Association posted on its website Tony Bothwell’s report on Obama administration nuclear arms policy, which sees proliferation as the main threat.  The report approvingly quotes Commander James Kraska of the Naval War College, who calls the 2010 Nuclear Policy Review “quite revolutionary,” a welcome departure from “the old way” of nuclear deterrence.  Bothwell formerly was a military intelligence officer and public affairs director of the Livermore weapons lab.