CANTON, Ohio — At a dinner
and ceremony Thursday night as part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction
weekend, Sydney Seau received a standing ovation after Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner,
presented her with a gift honoring her father, Junior, one of the game’s most
celebrated linebackers.
The moment brought the Seau family to tears, with Sydney
clutching the offering and bashfully waving to the crowd.
She received a similar reception Saturday as she paid
tribute to her father, who was inducted posthumously, in an onstage interview
after the showing of a poignant video featuring family photos and clips of his
bone-crushing tackles. It was a concession made by the league, which had said
it would not allow her to make an introductory speech.
After the montage, Sydney and Seau’s three sons uncloaked
their father’s bronze bust to claps and cheers. Seau’s mother, who sat in the
stands, wept.
“You are a light, and I want
nothing more than to see you come on stage and give the speech you were meant
to give, give me a hug and tell me you love me one last time,” Sydney Seau
said, her voice breaking during the interview, which lasted about five minutes.
“But that isn’t a reality.”
Canadian doctor at FDA kept the dangerous drug off U.S.
market half a century ago
LONDON, Ontario— Frances Kelsey, a Canadian
doctor known for her tenacity in keeping the dangerous drug thalidomide off the
U.S. market, has died at age 101.
She died Friday morning, less than 24 hours after
receiving the Order of Canada in a private ceremony at her daughter's home
here.
Dr. Kelsey was a medical officer for the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration in the early 1960s when she raised concerns about
thalidomide, a drug that was being used in other countries to treat morning
sickness and insomnia in pregnant women.
Despite pressure from the makers of thalidomide to
approve the drug, she refused, and as a result, thousands of children were
saved from crippling birth defects.
After the sedative was
prescribed in other countries beginning in 1950, thousands of children whose
mothers took the drug were born with abnormally short limbs and in some cases
without any arms, legs or hips. The birth defects were reported in Europe,
Australia, Canada and Japan.
It is one of the most beloved
and famous of all songs, belted out at countless gatherings for infants and
octogenarians alike. Yet, Happy Birthday To You - far from being as free as a
piece of cake at a party - is considered private property.
A federal lawsuit filed by a group of independent artists
is trying to change that. In a recent filing, lawyers in the case said they had
found evidence in the yellowed pages of an almost century-old songbook that
shows the song's copyright - first issued in 1935 - is no longer valid.
A judge could rule on the case in the coming weeks. If
the song becomes part of the public domain, it would cost the Warner Music
Group, which holds the rights, millions of dollars in lost licensing fees.
It would also be a victory for those who see Happy
Birthday To You as emblematic of the problems with copyright - a song that has
long since outlived anyone involved in its creation, yet is still owned by a
corporation that charges for its use.
A Corpus Christi man is suing
Hooters, accusing the restaurant chain of gender discrimination for not hiring
him as a food server in a filing that attempts to reopen an issue that was
settled 11 years ago.
Nikolai
Grushevski's suit acknowledges the earlier agreement, which established that
the chain's signature Hooters Girls would continue to be the restaurants' only
food servers and established gender neutral jobs. But the suit challenges the
policy, saying it still is discriminatory, and invites other men to seek a
class action suit.
He
asserts in the suit that when he applied to be a waiter at the local restaurant
in May he was not hired because of his gender. The suit says that even though
food servers are referred to exclusively as "Hooters Girls," the job
should not be limited only to women.
"Just
as Southwest Airlines attempted nearly three decades ago with stewardesses, the
waiter's position addressed herein is being limited to females by an
employer..." the suit states.
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