Race-based claims thrown out in Paula Deen lawsuit

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP)  A federal judge Monday threw out race discrimination claims by a former Savannah restaurant manager whose lawsuit against Paula Deen has already cost the celebrity cook a
valuable chunk of her culinary empire.
Lisa Jackson sued Deen and her brother, Bubba Hiers, last year saying she suffered from sexual harassment and racially offensive talk and employment practices that were unfair to black workers during her five years as a manager of Uncle Bubba's Seafood and Oyster House. Deen is co-owner of the restaurant, which is primarily run by her brother.But claims of race discrimination by Jackson, who is white, were gutted in the 20-page opinion by U.S. District Court Judge William T. Moore Jr. The judge agreed with lawyers for Deen and Hiers that Jackson has no standing to sue her former employers for what she claims was poor treatment of black workers, regardless of her claims that she was offended and placed under additional stress.
Jackson, at best, "is an accidental victim of the alleged racial discrimination," Moore said in his ruling. "There are no allegations that defendant Hiers's racially offensive comments were either directed toward plaintiff or made with the intent to harass her.The ruling lets stand Jackson's claims that Hiers sexually harassed her when she worked at the restaurant from 2005 to 2010. However, the judge said he was reserving the chance to rule on requests from Deen's lawyers to dismiss other claims in the lawsuit.

The judge added that to allow Jackson to seek legal recourse for discrimination directed toward other workers would serve to conscript federal courts as human resource departments that are responsible for imposing and monitoring a federally created standard for harmony in the workplace."
Of course, Jackson's race-based claims have already resulted in serious damage to Deen's public image. It was Jackson's lawyer who questioned Deen under oath in May when she acknowledged having used racial slurs in the past. A transcript of the legal deposition became public in June, and the backlash against Deen caused the Food Network and other corporate sponsors and business partners to drop her.
Still, Deen's publicist issued an upbeat statement Monday.
"We are pleased with the court's ruling today that Lisa Jackson's claims of race discrimination have been dismissed," Elana Weiss said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press. "As Ms. Deen has stated before, she is confident that those who truly know how she lives her life know that she believes in equal opportunity, kindness and fairness for everyone.Jackson's attorney, Matthew Billips, did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. Attorneys for Deen and Hiers also did not immediately return phone calls.The judge's decision comes a month after Deen and Hiers dumped their attorneys and hired a new legal team. But the court motions seeking dismissal for all race-based claims in the case were filed in December, months before those changes were made.In her lawsuit, Jackson had claimed Hiers frequently made jokes containing racial slurs at work and prohibited black workers from using the restaurant's front entrance and customer restrooms. She said she was personally offended because she had biracial nieces.
Attorneys for Deen have said in court filings that Jackson's lawsuit was based on scurrilous and false claims. They said before Jackson filed suit, she threatened to embarrass Deen publicly unless she paid the ex-employee huge sums of money.

Four Degrees That Could Ruin Your Career Chances

Your college major might have serious implications for your future career, so choose wisely.

If you're going to spend the time and money to go to college, you're probably going to expect to see a good return on your investment. But here's something you might not expect: Some degrees could actually hurt your chances of getting the career you want.

Unemployment figures can range widely depending on the major, according to a 2013 study by the Georgetown University study titled "Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings. To understand why, it helps to look at a degree in the same way an employer might.
Your major provides two key elements of job readiness: subject matter expertise and essential skills and training,says Carol Barash, founder and CEO of Story To College, which teaches students how to use storytelling tools to advocate for themselves in school, work, and life.
And those skills need to be in demand, too. “If you want to be employable upon graduation, you have to learn tactical skills that are needed by companies that are growing, explains Michael Staton, partner at Learn Capital, a venture capital firm focused on funding entrepreneurs with a vision for better and smarter learning.
The good news is that for many majors with a statistically high unemployment rate among recent graduates, there are similar alternatives with lower unemployment rates. Read on to learn about a few majors with high unemployment rates - and some potential alternate degrees with better prospects.

Elon Musk reveals his Hyperloop concept, vowing LA-to-San Fran travel in 30 minutes

If there's a barrier to thinking about the future, it comes from being so wedded to the present. When steam-powered passenger trains arrived in the 1800s, doctors worried riders
might die from asphyxiation if they went faster than 60 mph. In our own time, hydrogen cars have never gained traction in part because the benefits have yet to seem worth the trouble.Then there's Tesla Motors co-founder Elon Musk's new idea called the Hyperloop, which he revealed today: an elevated, solar-powered train-in-a-tube that could whisk riders at supersonic speeds up to 900 miles. It sounds fantastic, and according to Musk could be built for less than a comparable magnetic-levitation train roughly 6 billion for a Los Angeles-to-San Franciso route that would cut travel time to 30 minutes for a 20 ticket.It would be cool to see a new form of transport

happen, Musk says. But do we really need it?The proposal from Musk  a 57-page paper full of aerodynamic engineering concepts and economic discussion points  has as much connection to reality as a comic book at the moment. But Musk, a billionaire who founded and sold PayPal before Tesla, SpaceX and SolarCity, has the resources to explore ideas that most would turn down as unworkable, and once you build a reusable space capsule and a profitable electric car, why not broaden your horizons?Musk describes the Hyperloop as essentially a solar-powered version of the pneumatic tubes once common in offices and drive-through bank branches. By riding on pressurized air, with a compressor fan at the front of the capsules, the vehicles could accelerate up to 760 mph without the disruptive sonic booms supersonic aircraft produce. And despite the speeds, Musk says the accelerations would be limited to no more than what passengers face today: "It would feel like you were riding in an airplane, like you're riding in a cushion of air.
To survive in California's earthquake-prone geography, the Hyperloop would be built on pillars designed to cushion the tube from tremors, a system that Musk contends would be safer than trains today. In fact, Musk contends if the Hyperloop tubes were coated in solar panels, they would generate more energy than the system uses and should be better in every dimension  cheaper, safer, more energy efficient and pleasant to travel in than the current alternatives. As for the economics, by Musk's calculations the machinery inside the tube is relatively cheap  about $60 million or so. While the tube itself would cost $6 billion to build along Interstate 5 in California, if the Hyperloop ran at regular intervals it could pay for itself with passenger fares of $20 a ride over 20 years, at several million passengers a year. Musk contends the Hyperloop would work best for distances less than 900 miles; longer than that, airplanes make better sense.

After saying at first he was too busy to pursue the idea, Musk said Monday he would at least take it a little further. I'm somewhat tempted to build at least a demonstration prototype he said. I could do some scale version and hand it over to someone else...I would like to see it come to fruition, and it might help if I did a demonstration article." The whole plan seems outlandish at first blush  but the current estimates for California's high-speed rail upgrade stand around 65 billion, for trains that many critics, including Musk, contend offer few benefits over today's tangle of roads and rails. Los Angeles expects to spend more than 6 billion extending its subway system 10 miles. Whether it's the right track or a dead end, with the Hyperloop Musk has succeeded in offering a provocative alternative to a more expensive future.

Dallas Cowboys cheerleader sees Oklahoma State player on TV, lands him as a boyfriend

If a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader you've never met before suddenly started contacting you online with hopes of starting a relationship, chances are you'd think
it was a hoax.Even if you happened to be a captain on the Oklahoma State football team.Oklahoma State safety Zack Craig had no idea when he went out for the coin toss before overtime against Oklahoma that Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Jordan Daigle who performs under the name Jordan Elizabeth was watching. Fortunately for Craig he was having a good hair day, because

 Daigle suddenly was very interested in finding out more about him. That set in motion the two getting together as a couple, according to a story from the Tulsa World's Kelly Hines.Craig should feel really, really lucky that Oklahoma State didn't win in regulation.Daigle's friend found Craig on Twitter and encouraged Daigle to follow him. When Craig found out about his new follower, he didn't know if he should believe it. The Tulsa World said he asked his sister Do you think this girl is real? Do you know someone who's trying to play a joke on me?" One would assume that's the common response to a Cowboys cheerleader showing interest in you. And this was still a couple months before the Manti Te'o fake girlfriend/catfishing scandal came to light, or else he might have been really suspicious.Craig followed her back after searching her background online, they sent some messages, and hooked up for a date when Oklahoma State played in the Heart of Dallas Bowl.The funny thing is Craig and roommate and defensive end Trace Clark would watch the reality show Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team, which featured Daigle. Now he had gone on a date with her.They (his teammates) were kind of shocked when it happened, Craig told the Tulsa World. "They really didn't believe it at first. They thought, 'Oh, you'll probably hang out with her once and never see her again.'The two became serious over the spring. Most weekends one would drive between Stillwater and Dallas, a four-hour drive, to see the other. It's a very sweet story, and provides hope for red-blooded American males that a Cowboys cheerleader will randomly pop into their lives.

Jeff Saturday has lost a lot of weight, looks much different than when he played

For many athletes, retirement means no more year-round training, and getting fat on the couch.
For many NFL linemen, it's the opposite. Years of keeping
on as much weight as possible to battle in the trenches takes a toll, and they want to get back to being at a healthier size.
Such is the case for Jeff Saturday, who looks a whole lot different than the last time we saw him on a football field in the Pro Bowl.

Saturday, the longtime Colts center who was with Green Bay last year, took in Sunday's Colts-Bills preseason game and it was shocking to see the picture of him from Indianapolis Star photographer Matt Kryger on Twitter. Here's a side-by-side comparison:A couple weeks ago, ESPN's Ed Werder reported Saturday was 230-240 pounds, after weighing a listed 295 last season. That's a lot of weight to drop in about six months, and good for Saturday. We can also rule out any idea of a NFL comeback, unless he wants to play safety or something.