[nfbmi-talk] Fw: oregon blind sues v a randolph shepard

[David Robinson]

The very thought of what the agency is doing to the blind in the BEP makes me grieve for the blind of Michigan and more convinced that state officials are corrupt, underhanded and outright thieves. The blind will suffer greatly,and the worse is still yet to come. 

Dave
----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz Comcast 
To: David Robinson NFB MI 
Cc: terry Eagle ; Mark Eagle ; Larry Posont NFBMI Pres. ; Michael Powell NFB MI ; mary wurtzel ; Derek Moore ; J.J. Meddaugh NFB MI 
Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 5:36 PM
Subject: oregon blind sues v a randolph shepard


But what do we do in Michigan when the very Bureau itself violates state and federal law? Well we shoot the messengers until there is no one left to fight.

Joe
Oregon sues VA for not employing blind vendors at southern Oregon rehab center

VA.Rosenblumcollage.jpg

Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, representing the Oregon Commission for the Blind, has filed a federal lawsuit against Veterans Affairs for allegedly

failing to follow a federal law that gives a leg up to blind workers at government facilities. (Veterans Affairs, The Oregonian file)

Bryan Denson | bdenson at oregonian.com

By

Bryan Denson | bdenson at oregonian.com

Email the author |

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on January 05, 2015 at 11:18 AM, updated January 05, 2015 at 11:19 AM

The state of Oregon accuses the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs of breaking a law that gives preference to blind people to run vending operations on

government property.

 

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, acting on behalf of the

Oregon Commission for the Blind,

has sued the VA for failing to follow the law at its

Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center & Clinics

in White City, about 10 miles north of Medford.

 

At issue is the

Randolph-Sheppard Act of 1936,

which is intended to provide economic opportunities and job stimulation for people who are blind, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in Medford's U.S.

District Court.

SORCA(va.gov).jpg

U.S. Veterans Affairs has operated the Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics since 1949.U.S. Veterans Affairs

 

For more than 40 years, the VA's White City facility has employed up to 600 employees and maintained a food court and 28 vending machines, according to

the lawsuit. In recent years, those machines have generated a net profit of about $6,000 a month.

 

The Oregon Commission for the Blind accuses the VA of failing to follow the Randolph-Sheppard law. The dispute has  dragged on since 2009, when the state

agency requested a permit to provide vending services at the White City facility.

 

Veterans Affairs

denied the request, saying it was exempt from the law, according to the lawsuit. But a panel of arbitrators found that the law did apply to the facility

and that the VA was in violation of the law.

 

"Notwithstanding the issuance of the arbitration panel's decision, the VA continues to maintain that the (Randolph-Sheppard Act) does not apply to its facility

and refuses to take any remedial action to issue the permit sought by the OCB or to otherwise prioritize blind vendors," the lawsuit alleges.

 

The VA facility, contacted about the lawsuit on Monday, had no immediate comment.

 

bdenson at oregonian.com

503-294-7614;

@Bryan_Denson

 

Source:

 

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2015/01/oregon_sues_va_for_not_employi.html