Saturday, April 26, 2008

Fighting Pay Bias

The subhead of your April 23 editorial "Fair Pay, Fair Play; the Senate should restore workers' ability to sue over pay discrimination, whenever the injustice is discovered" was inconsistent with the editorial's point.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which you support, would permit an employee to file a pay discrimination lawsuit years after the pay decision was made, even if the employee was aware of that decision. Indeed, in Lilly Ledbetter's case, her lower pay, compared with that of men doing similar work, was caused by low performance evaluations of which she was aware years before she filed her charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A simple solution would be to amend Title VII to make the statute of limitations run from the date the employee discovered, or with due diligence should have discovered, the discrimination that caused the pay disparity.

-- David A. Drachsler

Alexandria

The writer is vice chair of the Virginia Council on Human Rights.

Your Immigration Slant

Once again, I was shocked by your biased reporting on illegal immigration in Prince William County. The April 20 Metro article "Immigration Fight Has a New Target; Stewart Hurts Pr. William With Rhetoric, Some Say" was one-sided. You could have gone with a neutral headline such as "Stewart Rhetoric Spurs Debate in Pr. William."

Illegal immigration is the issue. The fact that you constantly refer to this as an immigration issue shows your bias. Why can't you report both sides?

Corey Stewart would not have been elected chairman of the Board of Supervisors if Prince William citizens hadn't wanted harsh rhetoric and action on the issue. Try talking to someone in Prince William who isn't an activist or on the board, and maybe you'll find out what most people really think.

-- Christopher Lutz

Manassas

Earth Day in Print

The arrival of Earth Day this week brought the expected articles and opinions of how to be more "green." Wouldn't it be comforting if you took a more comprehensive view of our environment throughout the newspaper's sections?

For example, an article praising the "green" thoughts that went into building a 28,000-square-foot house could point out that a 2,800-square-foot house would be much "greener" regardless of how it was built. Recipes that require rinsing an ingredient under cold, running water for 20 minutes would not be printed, and no automobiles would be tested and reviewed unless their fuel consumption was 25 miles per gallon or better.

And the headline on the continuation of an April 21 Metro story, "Mother Nature Uncooperative During Earth Day Festival," should have said "Mother Nature Cooperates Fully During Earth Day Festival" by providing an abundance of that valuable and finite resource, fresh water.

-- Douglas C. Snure

Annapolis

Overlooking the Homies

I find it interesting that The Post chose to recognize only one of the outstanding local women who competed in the U.S. Olympic team trials in Boston on April 20.

Over the past few weeks, you did mention Samia Akbar of Herndon several times. However, you neglected to recognize (or even notice) that several other local athletes -- Kristen Henehan of Silver Spring, Lisa Thomas of Alexandria and Susannah Kvasnicka of Great Falls -- were also in this elite group of only 150 women who qualified to compete for one of the three slots going to Beijing. Considering that Henehan won the 2007 Marine Corps Marathon and has been locally based since her days at Georgetown University, I find it strange that local talent goes unnoticed by your sports department.

-- Bob Ferry

Vienna

A Lot of Hockey Left

I know Washington is a basketball town, not a hockey town. But would it have hurt so much for you to have had a story Thursday on the Stanley Cup playoffs' second round, which began that day? Do you really think Washington Capitals fans are going back to sleep because their team was eliminated?

I've talked to a number of "new" fans, and they are deeply into the game. If you wonder why your readership is suffering, here's another reason: I have to get my hockey news via the Internet.

-- David Lloyd

Chevy Chase