ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Come Monday, it’s either vaccination or termination for those who work in state run hospitals and nursing homes. Security officers are among those who work at state hospitals who are being forced to make that decision. The lawsuit claims that the vaccine mandate goes against their constitutional rights.

In a newly filled lawsuit against Governor Kathy Hochul, Heath Commissioner Howard Zucker, and the New York State Health Department, 10 individual state hospital security officers are fighting for the option to have regular COVID tests instead of being mandated to get the vaccine. They say it’s unfair that teachers would have the option for regular testing, but they won’t.

“Students who are 12 years or younger can’t be vaccinated,” said Dennis Vacco. “Inherently, the population in schools is less vaccinated than the population in hospitals or in health care facilities. To say nothing of the fact that health care facilities are constructed to prevent the spread of illness within the facility.”

Former New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco represents the security officers for his Buffalo law firm and said they could lose their jobs, healthcare benefits, and seniority, if they do not get their first shot by Monday.

‘In this instance, we are alleging that the constitutional right to be free from bodily interference and to choose their own treatment is being infringed upon because our clients are being forced to choose between a state mandated treatment, the vaccination, or their employment.”

Vacco requested a temporary restraining order from the court, but it was denied Thursday. However, the lawsuit will be moving forward.

“If we ultimately prevail in the lawsuit, I think that the state is going to be responsible for damages to these employees,” said Vacco.

The state has until October 12 to respond to this lawsuit. NEWS10 reached out to members of the Governor’s Office for a statement on this issue but was told that they do not comment on pending litigation.

ST. LOUIS – Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones posted a photo of himself on Twitter Friday morning visiting the Gateway Arch.

He looks excited to be in the Gateway city with his arms stretched out wide and a big smile on his face.

ST. LOUIS – The Rolling Stones begin their  “No Filter Tour” in St. Louis on Sunday. 

The stage at the Dome at America’s Center is set for the Stones concert. That concert launches their 13-date tour. It will be the band’s first St. Louis show since 2006 when they performed at the Savvis Center, now known as Enterprise Center.

The band’s “No Filter Tour 2020” was going to include a June 2020 show at the Dome at America’s Center, but because of the pandemic, they had to take an unscheduled break and relaunch the tour. After the unscheduled break, the tour relaunches this weekend at the Dome at America’s Center.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – “I think the court got it right and this is a case that’s going to affect tens of thousands of people,” attorney Chris Roberts said.

Roberts is talking about the decision handed down by the Illinois Supreme Court Thursday in the case of Jarret Sproull vs. State Farm. Roberts’ firm represents Sproull.

“If people have a homeowner’s loss within the last year or they’re a business owner with a loss in the last two years, they may have a potential case to pursue and get additional money from the insurance company,” Roberts said.

The issue before the court is whether an insurer may depreciate labor costs the same way it depreciates the cost of the roof you’re replacing when determining the actual cash value of a covered loss.

“It’s not just State Farm,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot of other carriers out there that engage in the same practice.”

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled both the plaintiff and State Farm offered reasonable interpretations of “actual cash value” and “depreciation.” But because the court found State Farm’s policy ambiguous, it ruled the policyholder can recover depreciated labor cost.

“When both sides have a reasonable interpretation, the tie goes to the consumer,” Roberts said. “The tie goes to the person that holds the insurance policy and that’s what the Illinois Supreme Court said.”

In a statement, State Farms said:

“We are disappointed by the Illinois Supreme Court’s ruling in the Sproull case, and its conclusion that certain language in our older insurance policies was ambiguous. Beginning in Feb. 2016, State Farm changed the policy language to provide a definition and outline the components of actual cash value to include materials, labor, and tax. The Sproull case concerns claims made only under the old policy language. We remain committed to paying our customers what we owe on their claims.”

“The next step, because we’re in a class action, is we have to certify the case as a class action,” Roberts said. “If the case eventually resolves, payments can be made from that case to the policyholders or business owners.”

FOX 2 will keep you posted as this case continues through the courts.

It took four agonizing hours and one painful minute on a September afternoon in Coors Field to remind us why they’re the Dodgers and the Rockies never will be, so long as franchise owner Dick Monfort makes a major-league mockery of baseball in Colorado.

After Our Scrappy Lil Rox blew a late lead Thursday and lost 7-5 in 10 innings, the ballpark was awash in Dodger Blue, transplants from the West Coast partying in LoDo like they owned the joint. If championship contention can be bought with a $261 million payroll, maybe if Dodgers offered to a $20 tip to Monfort, he’d also agree to play “I love L.A.” by Randy Newman so they could properly celebrate a victory in Denver.

“Their team travels well, wherever they go. Dodger fans are everywhere. Something you’ve got to deal with. But at the same time, it makes it that much more sweet when you take them down,” said Rockies pitcher Kyle Freeland. He’s a Colorado native who grew up watching fans of the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs and the Evil Blue Empire stage unfriendly takeovers of Coors Field in a great sports town that deserves winning baseball.

The Rox rocked high-priced Dodgers ace Max Scherzer, who had allowed only five earned runs in 58 innings since being hoarded by L.A. in trade, for five runs before he could record his 13th out Thursday.

Freeland, who called home-plate umpire Ed Hickox names that no mother would approve, battled for six solid innings despite being squeezed with a strike zone smaller than the Grinch’s heart.

And Raimel Tapia hit his first home run since before Memorial Day to put Colorado ahead 5-3 in the fifth inning.

It all made the audience of Big Blue transplants, who accounted for at least 50% of the 22,356 tickets sold, as miserable as if they were stuck in traffic on the 405 freeway back in LaLa Land. It was a beautiful thing.

“We enjoying creating that pressure and watching a little bit of panic on the other side of the field,” Freeland said.

Maybe playing spoiler in September is as good as Our Scrappy Lil Rox can do.

“This isn’t the situation we want to be in,” Freeland said. “We want to be one of the teams that is going for a playoff spot.”

Isn’t that why Nolan Arenado wanted out of this dusty old cow town? Isn’t the lack of ownership commitment to fielding a competitive team in Colorado the reason shortstop Trevor Story will soon pack up his glove and bat and seek happiness elsewhere?

Even when the Dodgers were down to their last strike, reliever Carlos Estevez was unable to hold a one-run lead in the ninth inning. A two-run homer by Max Muncey in the 10th turned LoDo into the farthest eastern suburb of Los Angeles.

As die-hard Rockies fans in attendance filed out in the street, I felt like the Red Hot Chili Peppers should’ve been playing on the loudspeakers. Some song about California and the sad pursuit of hollow happiness. Sing along, if you know the lyrics: “Tidal waves couldn’t save the world from …”

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – Racial slurs were found in another Parkway high school after similar verbiage was found at Central High School.

Parkway School District announced that racial slurs were found in bathrooms at Parkway North High School in addition to Central High School.

Parkway Superintendent Keith Marty said the district launched a police and school investigation, and whoever is responsible will be disciplined and could possibly face legal consequences.

A letter that he sent to parents reads in part, “students and staff are hurt, angry and feeling outnumbered by those willing to stand by and watch without taking action to stop it.”

In protest against the hate speech, hundreds of Parkway Central High School students walked out of class Thursday.

“It makes me sad to think that anybody would be in a class with someone where they feel unsafe and know someone said this about people. I don’t like the feeling,” student Olivia Saphian said.

Students said the racist slurs are hurtful to all students and they are demanding to know what school officials will do to help change the culture.

“It’s honestly so upsetting, and it’s not surprising. We have had issues for the last five years. It’s just frustrating, it’s still happening here at Parkway, and they are not meeting us with the action we are trying to bring,” student Grace Bauer said. 
  

Dear Amy: My father has realized his memory is failing and is using this to whitewash his questionable parenting skills.

Now I have no closure or recourse on events like his racist outburst of 2012 that led me to a very awkward Thanksgiving in a house full of people I did not know.

My dad will even see if his partner remembers an incident, and if she doesn’t remember, then it definitely didn’t happen; but she is apt to ignore it like it didn’t happen just to move off the subject.

I don’t need an apology (not that it would come), but it is just a new insult on top of an old one.

It makes me resentful when he literally says I must be wrong because:

1. Both of them don’t remember.

2. One of them doesn’t remember.

or

3. Both remember, but act like they don’t.

My past has been check-mated by insecure septuagenarians. There is nothing I can do, is there?

— Manipulated S

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaking in personal terms, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said extensive news media coverage of the disappearance and death of 22-year-old Gabby Petito while on a cross-country trip should be a reminder of hundreds of Native American girls and women who are missing or murdered in the United States.

Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet secretary, said that her heart goes out to Petito’s family, but that she also grieves for “so many Indigenous women” whose families have endured similar heartache “for the last 500 years.”

The search for Petito generated a whirlwind of news coverage, especially on cable television, as well as a frenzy of online sleuthing, with tips, possible sightings and theories shared by the hundreds of thousands on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.

The Florida woman, who disappeared while on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend, was found dead at the edge of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Authorities have determined she was a homicide victim.

A report prepared for the state of Wyoming found that at least 710 Native Americans were reported missing between 2011 and late 2020. Between 2010 and 2019, the homicide rate per 100,000 for Indigenous people was 26.8, eight times higher than the homicide rate for white people, the report said.

Haaland, a member of the Pueblo Laguna tribe, said she has frequently seen Native American family members posting pictures on fences and the sides of buildings to help locate missing girls or women. When that happens, “you know I see my sisters,” she told reporters Thursday at a news conference. “I see my mother. I see my aunties or my nieces or even my own child. So I feel that every woman and every person who is in this victimized place deserves attention and deserves to be cared about.”

A former New Mexico congresswoman, Haaland pushed for a law signed last year to address the crisis of missing, murdered and trafficked Indigenous women. The law, known as Savanna’s Act, is intended to help law enforcement track, solve and prevent crimes against Native Americans, especially women and girls.

The law is named for Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a member of the Spirit Lake tribe who was abducted and killed in 2017 near Fargo, North Dakota. Greywind, 22, was pregnant, and her unborn baby was cut from her body. Her remains were found in the Red River.

Haaland said she sees her mission as interior secretary in part as a way to elevate attention on Native American issues.

“I feel like it’s my job to lift up this issue as best I can. And hopefully, the folks who are writing the news, and broadcasting the news will understand that these women are also friends, neighbors, classmates and work colleagues,” she said.

Haaland stressed that her comments were not intended to downplay the pain suffered by Petito’s family.

“Anytime a woman faces assault, rape, murder, kidnapping — any of those things — it’s very difficult and my heart goes out to any family who has to endure that type of pain,” she said. “And so, of course, my heart goes out to the young woman who was found in Wyoming.”

Everyone deserves to feel safe in their communities, Haaland said, but “where I can make a difference in particular is in addressing the missing and murdered Indigenous peoples crisis, which has occurred since the beginning of colonization of Indigenous people on this continent for about the last 500 years and it continues.”

Haaland created a Missing & Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services earlier this year and has established a joint commission of national tribal leaders and experts, led by the Interior and Justice departments, to reduce violent crime against American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Haaland also ordered Interior to investigate its past oversight of Native American boarding schools that forced hundreds of thousands of children from their families and communities.

“The primary goal of this work is to share the truth of this dark chapter in our nation’s history, so that we can begin to heal,” Haaland said.

A written report is expected next year.