Utah

Utah man sues Alaska troopers, says his job offer was yanked after revealing HIV status

Published

1 year ago

June 9, 2023

Utah man sues Alaska troopers, says his job offer was yanked after revealing HIV status

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Salt Lake City man who says his job offer to become an Alaska state trooper was rescinded after he disclosed he was HIV positive filed a lawsuit in state court Thursday to get his position on the statewide police force and to prevent others from suffering similar alleged discrimination.

The lawsuit was filed electronically by Anchorage civil rights attorney Caitlin Shortell on behalf of a man only identified as John Doe, whose HIV is undetectable and untransmissible.

“There are no reservations about his ability to do the duties of the job, and he is completely fit,” Shortell said, adding he can work without accommodations.

Doe “seeks to challenge the constitutionality of the Alaska State Troopers’ rescission of a job offer based on his being a person who lives with HIV, in light of medical advancements that render HIV status irrelevant to a person’s ability to meet the criteria for entry and service at Alaska State Troopers in any capacity,” the lawsuit states.

It alleges violations of civil rights laws, the state and U.S. constitutions and the Alaska Human Rights Act. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the lawsuit, which, as of Thursday morning, had not yet appeared online.

Named as defendants are James Cockrell, the head of the troopers; the state of Alaska; the troopers, and Beacon Occupational Health and Safety, the troopers’ outside vendor.

Emails seeking comment sent to the state attorney general’s office and the troopers were not immediately returned. Aris Brimanis, the operations manager for Beacon in Anchorage, said the company did not have immediate comment.

‘No’

According to the lawsuit, Doe wanted to be a law enforcement officer since his childhood, where he volunteered at the California Highway Patrol Academy and was an explorer with the local sheriff’s office during high school. He was working as a flight attendant when he applied to be a trooper in April 2020.

Six months later, he was offered a conditional offer of employment, the lawsuit said, detailing how he completed the required written exam, two physical ability tests, passed a background test and an oral board interview.

Doe also passed the written psychological test and interview, and then had to take a polygraph and medical exam as part of the conditions for employment, according to the suit.

At the medical exam, Doe disclosed his disability status as a person living with HIV, the lawsuit said. He also provided to Beacon’s nurse practitioner recent lab results and a note from his doctor saying he was able to perform all functions of a trooper without reasonable accommodation. However, the nurse practitioner noted on paperwork that Doe may require an accommodation.

The lawsuit said the practitioner initially wrote “no” to a question if she had any reservations about the candidate’s ability to perform the duties of the job, but then crossed that out and wrote “error,” noting the guidelines for a law enforcement officer. Doe argues the guidelines were out-of-date and didn’t reflect advances in medicine for those with HIV.

The next day, during a polygraph test, he was asked if he took medication, the lawsuit said. He said yes, but noted he felt this was a prohibited medical inquiry and he had provided medical information to the nurse.

‘A false pretext’

He told the examiner he wasn’t comfortable disclosing his medical condition when asked what the medication was for. Doe then disclosed his HIV status to the examiner when told the interview process could be stopped if he refused, according to the court documents.

That polygraph was deemed inconclusive. He took another the following day, which he passed with no questions about his medical condition, the lawsuit said.

Doe said troopers later rescinded his conditional job offer, telling him there were better qualified applicants even though he already had received the conditional offer and, of the initial 245 applicants, Doe said he was one of the 10 finalists.

Doe said he was told other applicants had prior military experience and others had already been living in Alaska. Neither is a condition for employment, according to the lawsuit. Half of the 10 finalists offered jobs didn’t live in Alaska, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit argues these reasons “were nothing more than a false pretext for unconstitutional discrimination based on Doe’s HIV status.”

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Here’s what Utahns need to make to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment

Published

3 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Press Room

Here’s what Utahns need to make to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment

This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribune’s ongoing commitment to identify solutions to Utah’s biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab. [Subscribe to our newsletter here.]

Renters in most Utah counties likely don’t make enough to afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment, according to new data.

The “Out of Reach 2024″ report was released recently the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The report uses HUD’s fair-market rent calculations to determine the housing wage — how much a full-time worker must earn to afford a modest rental home without spending more than 30% of their income on housing — for states, counties and metropolitan areas across the country.

The report found that “more renters than ever before are paying more than they can afford on rent,” and risk homelessness, said Diane Yentel, who heads the coalition.

That includes Utah, where the mean wage for renters was lower than the housing wage in all but four counties, and was within 50 cents of it in another two. All six are rural counties.

Renters in Utah can’t afford to buy a home in all but one county, according to a recent analysis by The Salt Lake Tribune of U.S. Census Bureau and real-estate industry data. And based on a Tribune analysis of the new report, they can’t afford to rent in most counties, either.

The coalition’s analysis found Utah’s statewide housing wage — what a person would have to earn to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment at fair-market rent — is $26.89 an hour.

That cost varies from $17.40 an hour in several rural counties to $30.88 in Salt Lake County, and a maximum of $34.75 in Summit County. There is data available for every county in Utah except Daggett County.

Meanwhile, the mean renter wage is lower statewide and in nearly every county than the housing wage — sometimes by double-digit numbers.

It’s only higher in Duchesne, Garfield, San Juan and Wayne counties, all rural counties in eastern or southeastern Utah.

Mean renter wages also are lower but within 50 cents an hour in two other counties — Box Elder County in the northwestern part of the state and Uintah County in eastern Utah. That gap is small enough that the NLIHC determined a renter could work one job and still afford a modest, two-bedroom apartment.

In other counties, the gap between the typical renter and housing wages varies from 87 cents in Beaver County to $15.64 in Kane County and averages about $7 an hour (more than $14,500 a year).

There is more affordability for one-bedroom apartments, but the mean renter wage is still short in 18 counties, including Cache, Davis, Grand, Iron, Kane, Salt Lake, Tooele, Washington and Weber.

The gap matters because even in “an improving economic landscape,” renters continue to struggle, Yentel said, and that leads to more evictions and higher rates of homelessness.

There is, however, some good news for Utah renters.

For one, the state’s housing wage is about in the middle compared to other states.

Utah’s housing wage also is lower than neighboring Arizona, Colorado and Nevada, as well as other western states like California, Oregon and Washington. Utah’s northern neighbors have housing wages somewhat lower than Utah’s — Idaho’s is about $4 lower, and Wyoming’s is about $8 lower.

And though there are new and luxury rentals across the state that cost much more than the fair-market rent HUD set, one analysis found typical rents for one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments are lower.

Median rent along the Wasatch Front is between $77 and $166 a month less than fair-market rent for two-bedroom apartments, according to data from ApartmentList.com.

And median rent is only higher than fair-market in Davis County by $8, the ApartmentList data shows — it is lower in Salt Lake, Utah and Weber counties by at least $80.

Utah has focused on ways to improve the state’s housing crisis, but most have focused on homeownership.

As part of the Out of Reach report, the coalition suggested solutions for the rental side, though they are actions the federal government is advised to take. The coalition has recommended:

Long-term federal investments in affordable housing, including rental assistance.
Construction of deeply affordable housing.
Preservation of existing affordable housing.
Stronger renter protections.

Megan Banta is The Salt Lake Tribune’s data enterprise reporter, a philanthropically supported position. The Tribune retains control over all editorial decisions.

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Utah

Utah Made: Multi-generational ladder company still going strong

Published

10 hours ago

July 3, 2024

Press Room

Utah Made: Multi-generational ladder company still going strong

SPRINGVILLE, Utah — Art Wing still fondly remembers when his late dad Hal Wing, the founder of Little Giant Ladders, said: “If you concentrate on building the company and not the person, you will fail. If you concentrate on building the person, the company will take care of itself.”

That motto is still at Little Giant’s core today.

In the early 1970s, Hal was a salesman living in Germany, forging a friendship with an inventor who created a ladder that Hal thought was a technological marvel. He took the idea back to the United States, perfecting it and pattening it before heading out on the road.

“He bought a pinto station wagon and he loaded it with ladders, and he went on the road upwards of 250 days a year just selling them out of that thing,” Art recalled.

Art says the roadshow worked, and people quickly took note of their sturdy ladders and all they could do.

In 2002, Little Giant Ladders climbed to new heights by hitting television screens all over the country with an infomercial that often ran late at night and on weekend afternoons. It was a catchy ad that ran for 16 years and racked up sales of over a billion dollars in ladders sold.

Today, the Little Giant brand continues where it started, calling Utah home.

Company president and CEO Ryan Moss says the Beehive State is headquarters for good reason.

“We have great people here in the state of Utah. Honestly, that is one of the best blessings about Little Giant, is the wonderful people that we get to work with every single day,” Moss said. “They’re hardworking, they’re smart, they’re creative.”

While Utah is the Little Giant premier factory, the company has facilities and warehouses all over the world, working to keep their standards and safety high. Globally, Little Giant employs several thousand people, together taking a small idea to a huge enterprise and stepping up the ladder of success with no end in sight

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Utah

Warning issued after harmful algal bloom found at Utah Lake marina

Published

18 hours ago

July 2, 2024

Press Room

Warning issued after harmful algal bloom found at Utah Lake marina

SARATOGA SPRINGS, Utah — A Warning Advisory has been issued for an area along Utah Lake after a harmful algal bloom was detected Tuesday.

The City of Saratoga Springs said the bloom was found present at the Saratoga Springs, and could be producing dangerous toxins that would be harmful to humans and animals.

The Utah County Health Department issued the warning, advising people to do the following when in the vicinity of the marina: