Last Friday, author and journalist Lynn Harris published a "Complaint Box" post on CityRoom about how hard it is for pregnant women to find seats on the subway, based on her experience during her two pregnancies and her friends' experiences. She writes that while people are very nice to offer her seats when she's taking the subway with her now-born children, she wonders, "Where were you people when I was pregnant? Oh, right. You were sitting comfortably in your seats. While I stood. In August."

If anyone did give up a seat — which, O.K., did happen, on days when there was a partial eclipse, a unicorn sighting and alternate-side parking suspended, or when I finally started asking for one — the donors appeared in this order of likelihood: (1) older woman, (2) younger woman, (3) minority man. more ›

It sounds like one bad apple really spoiled the barrel at Duane Reade...to the tune of $240,000! City Room reports that the company today settled a lawsuit brought on by the federal Equal Employment Commission for "a pattern of sexual harassment and retaliation," but it sounds like it all stems from actions taking place at one Bronx location. The commission released a statement saying, “The store manager, Madiaw Diaw, frequently made vulgar remarks about women’s private parts, sexually propositioned female employees, made lewd comments about their pregnancies and bodies, assigned unfavorable job duties to pregnant employees and repeatedly grabbed female employees, including grabbing their buttocks." Duane Reade said that they will instill new training policies, possibly starting with the trick question, "Aren't pregnant women just the laziest?" All of this begs the question if this whole mess could have been avoided if the drug chain was a little more careful about stocking up on some of their OTC offerings. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg spent several hours today being deposed by the federal government. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit in 2007 against the mayor's company, Bloomberg LP, for discrimination against women and accused the mayor of creating a "systemic, top-down culture of discrimination. Though the discrimination allegedly occurred after Bloomberg became mayor in 2001—one example is that former Bloomberg LP CEO Lex Fenwick allegedly said, "I'm not having any pregnant bitches work for me"—but one complaint claimed Bloomberg told a top saleswoman who said she was pregnant, "Kill it." CityRoom reports that one plaintiffs' lawyer said Bloomberg was cooperative, "The mayor is a very smart, sophisticated person and I think his demeanor is the way it normally would be... He happens to be a very good witness." A Bloomberg LP spokesperson said, "We are confident that once all the facts come out they will demonstrate that the claims have no merit." more ›