SEATTLE – A federal appeals court has upheld a judge’s finding that two seafood companies did not discriminate against Filipino and Alaska Native salmon-cannery workers in Alaska.
The ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may mark the end of the 27-year-old case, which prompted Congress to rewrite civil rights laws.
Ten workers filed the original lawsuit in March 1974 against Seattle-based Wards Cove Packing Co. and Dole Food Co. The workers contended they were paid less than white counterparts, given lesser living quarters and meals, and generally were victims of race-based job discrimination.
Stolen car driver dies in wreck: A man died after fleeing from police and crashing a stolen car on Capitol Hill, officers said. Officer Clem Benton said the crash late Wednesday night left the 38-year-old man pinned beneath the 1996 Chrysler Concord, which had been reported stolen a day earlier. The man, driving with a suspended license and sought on a warrant accusing him of drunken driving, died at a hospital. Two other men were taken into custody for questioning, Benton said.
Seafood magnate died: Robert Resoff, who rose from childhood poverty in Alaska to become a seafood magnate, part owner of Emerald Downs race track and owner of a winning longshot thoroughbred, is dead at 85. Resoff died of complications from liver cancer Sunday at Virginia Mason Medical Center. Among his claims to fame was converting the art deco ferry Kalakala into a crab processor and mooring it in Kodiak, Alaska. The historic boat was towed back to Seattle after a fund-raising campaign by sculptor Peter Bevis in 1998, but efforts to raise more money to restore the Kalakala to its former glory have languished.
Fox Island
Former governor’s sister dies: Marion Reid, who served as “first lady” of Washington while her younger sister, Dixy Lee Ray, was governor, is dead at 88. Reid died of cancer Dec. 20 at her home on Fox Island, west of Tacoma, where she had lived since 1972 except for her four years in Olympia. Her father bought the 90-acre spread during the depression. Reid was chief of protocol for Ray, who was governor in 1977-81. Ray died in 1994.
From Herald news services
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