The Problem With HR

For 30 years, we’ve trusted human-resources departments to prevent and address workplace sexual harassment. How’s that working out?

For 30 years, ever since Anita Hill testified at Clarence Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings, HR has been almost universally accepted as the mechanism by which employers attempt to prevent, police, and investigate sexual harassment. Even the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission directs Americans to their HR offices if they experience harassment. That the #MeToo movement kept turning up so many shocking stories at so many respected places of employment seemed to me to reflect a massive failure of human resources to do the job we have expected it to perform. Even Harvey Weinstein’s company, after all, had an HR department. read more »

Jeffrey Epstein’s offshore fortune traced to Paradise Papers

Fresh revelations raise the likelihood that sex offender Jeffrey Epstein cloaked his fortune in a series of offshore shell companies registered in notoriously secretive tax havens.

The wealthy financier accused of systematically assaulting and trafficking numerous underage girls tried this week to convince a federal judge in New York to allow him to go free on bail, partially by detailing his fortune for the court. read more »

The Complicated Orbit of Jeffrey Epstein

The disgraced financier wove a tangled web of high society types, corporate bigwigs, and academic elites. A clear picture is challenging, but here’s a partial accounting.

He flew to his Caribbean islands on private jets and counted royalty among his friends. His business interests—those that can be identified, that is—were just as rarefied. Federal prosecutors, who say Epstein’s worth more than $500 million, arrested him earlier this month and charged him with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy. The allegations came more than a decade after a deal in Florida saw him plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution instead of facing more serious federal sex-trafficking charges. read more »

Sexual harassment complaints soaring amid 'frat boy culture' in airline industry

Mandalena Lewis was enjoying a layover in Hawaii with her WestJet co-workers the night she says a pilot pinned her down and tried to force her to have sex.

“I escaped being raped, but I was sexually assaulted,” the former flight attendant said.

Airline insiders say the alleged incident speaks to an industry plagued by sexual harassment and gender discrimination as it struggles to shed a “frat boy culture” among pilots that plays out in everything from lewd jokes in the cockpit to “midnight knockers” at the hotel door. read more »

Kevin Spacey's Legal Woes Persist Even With Groping Case Out

Prosecutors in Massachusetts announced that they were dropping the indecent assault and battery charge brought last year against Spacey

Kevin Spacey's legal woes are not over, despite the collapse of the only criminal case brought against the two-time Oscar winner since he became mired in sexual misconduct allegations.

The former "House of Cards" star is still being investigated in London and Los Angeles over several allegations and faces a federal lawsuit alleging he assaulted a massage therapist. read more »