Thanks. That would definitely save me money. The generic is cheap.

That was my endocrinologist who told me that. Maybe I will ask her to explain.

I believe it is salt, not water, that provides Americans with iodine. I think fluoride is the only supplement we put in our water.

Yeah, I’ve heard that many thyroid removals because of a cancer diagnosis are unnecessary—but we’ve made a fetish out of “catching it early” (which certainly is important for many cancers. I read that it South Korea, they are especially hypervigilant.

The business of allowing a runner to fumble into the end zone as long as he “breaks” the plane is contrary to the rules for the rest of the field and, as Drew points out, completely contradicts the rule for receivers who have caught and are in obvious control of the ball.

(“No means no.”)

The attempt by the accuser’s mother to cook up evidence isn’t doing her any favors.

Right, but if I am “fired,” I don’t work here any more and I don’t get paid. I often hear great sympathy for “fired” coaches who are going to get several million dollars for not working for two years.

When coaches are fired for being shitty and losing games, they are still paid for the full value of their contract, sometimes for several years (that’s why I think saying such coaches are “fired” is a bit inaccurate. What is at issue here is whether USC can terminate his contract.

That is a big assumption you are making that he was “on notice.” It generally has to be formal and specific to an incident. They would have trouble doing it after the fact.

Hey, I am just saying this is not cut and dried. Courts and labor boards might decide. If the university took no action at the time, he might have a case that he had a medical condition for which he sought treatment. Employees have a lot of protection in that regard

Good insurance plans will pay for basic medical/hospital based rehabs, but generally not for the spa types that he probably went to. He would have insurance, either still in force or available to him through COBRA. Many of the Malibu/spa-type rehabs don’t accept insurance anyway. It’s even possible that there is…

Most of the comments here aren’t “defending” him but are pointing out it might be hard for USC to get out of paying him.

He did not admit he was drunk or high. He said he’d had a “little” alcohol and was taking an unspecified medication. That is not fireable. Nor is the word of witnesses after the fact if the school did not directly address the matter.

There might be, but it might be trumped by legal protections that say an employee can’t be punished or terminated for a medical condition.

Actually he used the old “accidently mixed a little alcohol with ‘medication’ excuse,” probably because that was better than “I was totally hammered.”

I think because of its name, a lot of people think USC is a public university. (And FOI applies to any govt institution, not just federal).

I think you pretty much have it. Unless they actually confronted him, they don’t have much of a case. And apart from state law, I think federal protections come into play, including ADA.

I doubt they can if they did not clearly confront him about his behavior and warn him. They might have done this hoping for a settlement that would cost them less than the entire contract.

Unless they can show that they confronted him about being drunk on the job, trying to demonstrate it by testimony probably would not work. Employees have pretty strong rights to keep their job if they respond to being confronted by seeking medical help.