ORLANDO, Fla.

Band member sentenced in fatal hazing incident

An Orange County judge Monday ordered two years of probation and 200 hours of community service for Brian Jones, the first of a dozen former members of Florida A&M’s famous marching band to be sentenced in the fatal hazing of drum major Robert Champion.

Jones, 23, a percussionist who had pleaded no contest to a felony-hazing charge, also will have to complete six months of community control, a type of probation that might require him to wear an ankle monitor.

Circuit Judge Marc Lubet earlier had labeled Jones’ involvement in the hazing as “rather minimal.”

Champion, 26, died Nov. 19 after being beaten aboard a band bus parked outside the Rosen Plaza hotel. The Marching 100 had traveled to Orlando from Tallahassee to perform at the annual Florida Classic football game.

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NEW YORK

Walmart hit with lawsuit citing labor law violations

Walmart Stores Inc. is being slapped with a lawsuit that claims that the world’s largest retailer and its staffing agencies broke federal minimum wage and overtime laws by requiring temporary workers to appear early for work, stay late to complete work and work through lunches and breaks without compensation.

According to the proposed class action suit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of Illinois Eastern Division, Labor Ready and QPS, two of the staffing agencies that the discounter used in the Chicago area, failed to provide workers assigned to the Walmart stores with required employment information.

The suit also claims that Walmart itself failed to keep accurate records of workers’ time. That has made it difficult for workers to make claims that they were not paid by the temporary agencies for all hours worked. “I only get paid minimum wage and yet Labor Ready and Walmart still try to cheat me by not paying me for the time I actually work,” said Twanda Burk, the primary plaintiff on the lawsuit. “I’ve proven that I’m a good worker, and they just want to take advantage of that.”

The suit seeks all unpaid wages for the workers and calls for an injunction against Walmart and its temporary agencies preventing them from future violations of state labor laws.

– From news service reports

 


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