ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609230081
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
Woman wins suit against Wal-Mart
TAMPA, Fla. - A federal jury awarded $2 million to a woman who said Wal-Mart Stores ignored her complaints of sexual harassment by a co-worker, who eventually threatened to cut out her tongue.
``Finally, somebody listened to me,'' Connie Holmes said Friday after jurors decided the company fostered a hostile work environment.
Because of federal limits on jury awards, she can only collect $300,000, said her lawyer, Neil Chonin.
Holmes, 39, testified she and Jon Criswell both worked nights at a Wal-Mart in Cape Coral, restocking shelves after the store closed.
``He threatened to do gross sexual things to me,'' she said.
She said that for five months her bosses told her not to complain, until Criswell attacked her on April 28, 1992, with a razor used to open boxes.
- Associated Press
Greek Orthodox get new archbishop
NEW YORK - Archbishop Spyridon was enthroned Saturday as the first U.S.-born head of the Greek Orthodox church in America, promising to build a Christian ministry relevant to life in a multiethnic country.
``We must love those who are different,'' he told a congregation of more than 1,000 at the Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity.
``What we see all too often is a destructive politics of identity,'' he said.
Spyridon, 51, succeeds Archbishop Iakovos, 85, who retired in July after serving 37 years as spiritual leader of 2 million Greek Orthodox faithful in North and South America. That archdiocese now has been divided into four, and Spyridon heads only the United States metropolitanate, which has 1.5 million of those faithful.
Applause and shouts of ``Axios!'' - meaning ``worthy'' - rang out in the cathedral on Manhattan's Upper East Side as the new archbishop accepted the symbolic shepherd's staff and embraced Iakovos amid chanting and bell-ringing.
Spyridon, born George Papageorgiou in Warren, Ohio, said he would use his post ``to learn about your concerns, dreams and expectations, not as a podium from which to dictate.''
He said he would expand the teaching of Greek language and culture in a church built by hardworking immigrants, but added that the modern church also should embrace the ``American mosaic'' of many creeds and races.
``It is no betrayal to join ourselves to a new nation,'' Spyridon said.
- Associated Press
First lady's book is moneymaker
WASHINGTON - After 20 weeks on the best-seller lists, Hillary Rodham Clinton's book on child raising, ``It Takes a Village,'' is a moneymaker.
Now the first lady has a new job: selecting the charities among which to divide the $742,000 from the first royalty check.
When the book was published earlier this year, Clinton said she would donate the first after-tax royalties to children's hospitals.
Marsha Berry, the first lady's communications director, said Clinton is seeking the advice of the National Association of Children's Hospitals on distributing the money.
- Associated Press
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