Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

A Superior Court judge in Spokane has denied an attempt by Greyhound Lines Inc. to dismiss Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s lawsuit against the national bus line company. The lawsuit, filed in April, seeks to hold Greyhound accountable for its practice of allowing U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) agents to board its buses and conduct warrantless and suspicionless immigration sweeps of Greyhound passengers at the Spokane Intermodal Center, and repeatedly refusing to implement reforms to protect its passengers.
Ayer, una jueza de la Corte Superior de Spokane rechazó el intento de Greyhound Lines, Inc. de despedir la demanda del Procurador General Bob Ferguson contra la compañía nacional de línea de autobuses. La demanda, presentada al pasado abril, busca responsabilizar a Greyhound por permitir que los agentes de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza de los EE. UU.(U.S. Customs & Border Protection) (CBP) aborden los autobuses para llevar a cabo redadas de los pasajeros de Greyhound sin contar con órdenes judiciales ni sospecha razonable en el Spokane Intermodal Center, y por negarse repetidamente a implementar reformas para proteger a los pasajeros.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that Great Columbia Berry Farms LLC, a blueberry grower in Walla Walla County, will pay $350,000 as a result of his office’s civil rights enforcement action. The lawsuit asserts one of the company’s managers, Jose Luis Contreras Ramirez, raped at least one female worker, sexually harassed several female workers over the course of years and retaliated against those workers who spoke out against his conduct. At least four women were affected by Contreras’s conduct.
El Procurador General Bob Ferguson hoy anunció que Great Columbia Berry Farms, LLC, un cultivador de arándanos del condado de Walla Walla, pagará $350,000 como resultado de una acción de derechos civiles por su oficina. La demanda afirma que uno de los mayordomos de la compañía, José Luis Contreras Ramírez, violó al menos a una empleada, acosó sexualmente a varias empleadas durante años y tomó represalias contra dichas empleadas por denunciar su conducta. Al menos cuatro mujeres fueron afectadas por la conducta de Contreras.
Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a lawsuit against the collegiate sorority Alpha Omicron Pi for unlawfully charging University of Washington (UW) students more than $6,000 in rent even though the students could not access or live in sorority housing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alpha Omicron Pi, a national, Tennessee-based sorority, also illegally charged late fees and threatened students with suspensions of their sorority memberships and damage to their credit if they did not pay.
SPOKANE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced a Hayden, Idaho low-income housing provider, Whitewater Creek, will pay $50,000 after evidence revealed they illegally threatened tenants in April 2020 with eviction. In order to resolve Ferguson’s lawsuit, Whitewater Creek entered into a legally enforceable agreement to make this payment and will take additional accountability measures to avoid future violations of law. The Attorney General filed the resolution to his lawsuit in Spokane County Superior Court.
TACOMA — A Tacoma judge has ordered over $41,000 in penalties and mandatory training for a FedEx contractor and its owner for firing a pregnant employee immediately after she asked for an accommodation. An accommodation is a reasonable change to the working environment to accommodate the pregnancy and the health conditions after the birth of the baby. The judge’s decision came in the first case brought to trial by the Attorney General’s Office under the 2017 “Healthy Starts Act.”
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced that a federal judge struck down the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to gut the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The judge, in granting Ferguson’s motion for summary judgment, ruled that this latest DACA rollback violated federal law.
SPOKANE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit today against an Idaho property management company, Whitewater Creek, for violating Gov. Jay Inslee’s Emergency Evictions Proclamation. Inslee’s proclamation establishes a temporary moratorium on evictions for the inability to pay rent as Washingtonians deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. The proclamation specifically prohibits landlords from threatening to evict tenants for unpaid rents during the proclamation’s effective period and specifies they have to enter into repayment plans with tenants.
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s new rule vastly limiting anti-discrimination protections under the Affordable Care Act. Among many other changes, the rule removes explicit protections against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sex stereotyping. This allows for discrimination against LGBTQ patients — particularly transgender patients.

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