National Roundup

Illinois
Cubs sued for better wheelchair access at Wrigley
CHICAGO (AP) — A 20-year-old Chicago Cubs fan is suing team owners to force them to provide better wheelchair access at Wrigley Field.

The Chicago Tribune reports the lawsuit was filed last month in federal court on behalf of David F. Cerda. His lawyer is his father, David A. Cerda.

The lawsuit says the owners are violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing better wheelchair access. It contends a $750 million renovation to the stadium built in 1914 eliminated wheelchair-accessible sections behind home plate and in right-field bleachers.

A Cubs spokesman declined to comment to the Tribune on the pending civil case.

The plaintiff has muscular dystrophy. His father told the Tribune that his son has had to watch games from a standing-room-only section from where obstructions partially block the view.

New Jersey
Judge won’t open hearing for teen charged in deadly shooting
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) — A judge has ruled that media organizations will not be allowed to attend the initial court appearance of a teenage boy accused of fatally shooting his parents, his sister and a family friend in New Jersey on New Year’s Eve.

The 16-year-old boy was due to make the appearance Tuesday in Family Court, where hearings are normally closed to the public. But that was postponed when media organizations sought to attend.

Judge Lisa Thornton rejected the request Tuesday. The hearing is now planned for Wednesday.

Authorities haven’t disclosed a motive but said they will seek to move the case to adult court. They say the victims were shot multiple times at close range.

The boy’s grandfather, his brother and a family friend escaped the house in Long Branch uninjured.

South Carolina
Firefighter fired for posts about protesters sues
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A white fire department captain in South Carolina who was fired for posting on social media that he would run over protesters if they were still blocking traffic when his shift ended has filed a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination.

The State reported Tuesday that in a lawsuit pending in federal court, former Columbia Fire Department Capt. Jimmy Morris contends Columbia fired him because of his race and violated his free speech rights.

Morris wrote two Facebook posts in July 2016 saying he would run over protesters if they were blocking traffic when his shift ended.

He said he supports racial equality but thought demonstrating on a public roadway raised safety concerns. His lawyer, Paul Porter, say non-white employees who wrote similar posts weren’t fired.

The city said Morris’ dismissal was justified.

Alabama
Newspaper exec accused of assaulting female workers
ANNISTON, Ala. (AP) — The chairman of a company that publishes six newspapers in Alabama has been accused of assaulting female employees by spanking them while he was a newsroom executive decades ago.

In reports published in Alabama news outlets, at least three women say H. Brandt Ayers, who became a nationally known voice of Southern liberalism during his tenure as editor and publisher at The Anniston Star, assaulted them in the mid-1970s, once using a metal ruler. The women and other former newsroom employees say Ayers had a reputation for spanking other women.

Ayers — now 82 and chairman of Consolidated Publishing Co., which operates six papers including The Star — issued a statement saying he “did some things I regret” when he was a “very young man with more authority than judgment.”

An online publication, Alabama Political Reporter, first reported the allegations of former Star employee Veronica Pike Kennedy. The Star later published its own account quoting Kennedy and two other women who declined to have their names published; the Montgomery Advertiser also interviewed Kennedy and cited one woman who asked to remain anonymous.

Kennedy told the Advertiser she was working as a part-time clerk in a nearly deserted newsroom on a Saturday morning more than 40 years ago when Ayers after he asked her to read one of his columns and she jokingly asked who had written it.

“And he said, ‘Oh, you are being a bad girl,’” Kennedy said. “‘You know what I do to bad girls? I spank them.”

Ayers forcibly pulled her out of a chair and whipped her with a metal ruler, Kennedy said. Kennedy said the episode led her to seek counseling years later.

“It was hard to trust anybody in authority for a long time after that,” she said. “I had anger I didn’t realize I had.”

Mike Stamler told the Advertiser he was in the newsroom that day, working on a story. He said he remembered seeing Ayers and Kennedy disagreed about something, then saw the assault.

“I was stunned,” he said.

Trisha O’Connor, a journalism professor who worked at the Star as a reporter and editor during the period, told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday that although she didn’t witness or experience assaults, stories of Ayers’ behavior were so numerous that she and other women at the paper would tell new female workers to avoid Ayers and stay away from his office unless accompanied by a supervisor.

“We took it to upper management and said, ‘We need assistance. This is terrible.’ Basically, from what we were able to see, nothing happened,” said O’Connor, who teaches at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina.

Ayers did not return an email seeking comment. He addressed the accusations in a statement published by The Star on Monday:

“As a very young man with more authority than judgment, I did some things I regret,” Ayers said. “At my advanced age I wish I could relive those days again, knowing the seriousness of my position and with the accumulated judgment that goes with age.”

The incidents described are too old for any criminal charges to be filed.

Ayers stepped down last year as publisher of the Anniston newspaper. His successor, Bob Davis, did not return an email seeking comment on Ayers’ position at Consolidated Publishing.

Ayers is a member of the Alabama Academy of Honor, which recognizes living Alabamians for their achievements. His syndicated column has been carried in papers statewide.

A longtime advocate of progressive policies in a deeply conservative state, Ayers has written articles for publications including The New York Times and was once a regular contributor to “Morning Edition” on National Public Radio.