Posted lb >>4363413 No Notable?
NOTABLE Resignation missed lb
Top Amazon exec who was large shareholder is leaving after two-year hiatus, adding to exodus
Diego Piacentini, one of the most senior executives at Amazon who had previously led its international business, has left the company.
He went on a two-year leave in 2016 to work with the Italian government, but has decided not to return to Amazon after his project came to an end in October, according to a person familiar with the matter.
His departure is particularly notable given that he’s the second person to leave this year out of Amazon's "S-Team," a tight-knit group of senior leaders that see very little turnover.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/18/amazon-exec-diego-piacentini-has-left-after-two-year-leave.html
WTH is this?
Contract worker sues school district after losing job for refusing to sign pro-Israel pledge
A speech pathologist who served as a contract employee in Texas is suing the school district she once worked for, arguing that a state law forcing her to sign a pro-Israel pledge violates her First amendment rights.
Bahia Amawi had provided pathology services and speech therapy for children under 5 since 2009 at Pflugerville Independent School District, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The newspaper noted that a contract renewal for her in August included a clause demanding that she agree to not boycott Israel. Amawi, an American citizen of Palestinian descent who was born in Austria, declined to sign it.
Amawi said the clause violated her First and 14th Amendment rights in a lawsuit filed against both the district and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The Morning News noted that Amawi stopped working with the district after officials explained to her that they couldn't work with anyone who didn't accept the clause.
In 2017, Texas passed a law that forbid government agencies, including public schools, from contracting with anybody who didn't agree to the pledge not to boycott Israel, The Morning News reported.
Boycotting is described as "refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise taking any action that is intended to penalize, inflict harm on, or limit commercial relations specifically with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israel or in an Israeli-controlled territory," according to the law.
The newspaper noted that 26 states have enacted similar legislation.
The Washington Post noted that Amawi's lawsuit is seeking an injunction that cuts the "No boycott of Israel" clause from school contracts. It also asks for the clause to be cut from other state contracts.
"It's baffling that they can … decide to protect another country's economy vs. protect our constitutional rights," Amawi told The Intercept, adding that "the point of boycotting any products that support Israel is to put pressure on the Israeli government to change its treatment, the inhumane treatment of the Palestinian people."
Pflugerville ISD addressed the lawsuit on Facebook on Monday, saying that “unfortunately, Pflugerville ISD and all Texas school districts are at the mercy of the state and the regulations printed into law, and in situations such as this, we are forced to spend time on state political issues and not on our core mission — educating students."
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/421939-contract-worker-sues-school-district-after-losing-job-for