Women Get Unkind Cuts From Stylists

Dry cleaners, hair stylists and others that charge women more than men for the same work were targeted Monday at a hearing before a Senate panel.

The Labor, Commerce and Trade Committee considered a bill by Sen. Pat Thibaudeau, D-Seattle, to make it an unfair business practice to charge more for a product or service because of a customer’s gender. Businesses found to be discriminating against women could be hit with a $10,000 fine.

SB6669 would still allow businesses to charge more for services that take longer or are more expensive to provide. For example, a woman with long hair could be charged more for a haircut than a man with short hair.

But Thibaudeau said there are plenty of establishments that charge women extra for the exact same services. Unfair pricing by businesses is doubly unfair given the fact that women make only 70 percent of what men do on similar jobs, she said.

In other legislative action:

Death row transplants

Death row inmates would be prohibited from receiving publicly funded organ transplants under a bill approved Monday by the Senate.

Senators voted 42-0 to approve the bill and send it to the House.

Sen. Calvin Goings, D-Puyallup, filed the bill following news reports that convicted killer Mitchell Rupe was being evaluated for a possible liver transplant. Rupe was sentenced to death for the 1981 slayings of two bank tellers in Olympia.

Goings said no death row inmate should not receive a transplant ahead of a deserving, law-abiding citizen.

Prisons chief Chase Riveland has said Rupe is not in line for a transplant, although the state has declined to release any further information on Rupe’s medical condition until a court rules whether it can.

Child abuse laws

A pastor acquitted of child sex charges in December is to testify before a legislative panel in support of bills to change the way child-abuse investigations are conducted.

Robert “Roby” Roberson said Monday he and his wife, Connie, will ask the House Children and Family Services Committee to take aim at the powers of Child Protective Services, the state agency that investigates claims of child abuse and neglect.

Roberson said he and his wife will also bring their 5-year-old daughter, Rebekah, to today’s hearing. The child, one of the alleged victims, was removed from the Robersons’ custody until after their acquittal. She denied she had ever been abused when she testified in November at her parents’ trial.

The House panel is to take up HB1883, requiring investigators to videotape interviews with suspected child abuse victims. Another bill, HB2335, would strip CPS of its authority to investigate child abuse cases, giving that responsibility to local police.

High-tech education

House Republican leaders signalled Monday they are backing away from a $34.5 million proposal to link state colleges with a high-tech network, saying more study is needed.

The proposed Washington Higher Education Network would use computer and video technology to provide greater access to higher education across the state.

WHEN appeared to have momentum early in the legislative session, with lawmakers from both parties praising it as a way to beef up college capacity without new construction.

But Rep. Don Carlson, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, now says more planning is needed. “We’ve tried to be realistic and realize there is a limit on the amount of money available,” Carlson, R-Vancouver, said in an interview. “We never, never said we had the money for what they were describing.”

Computer theft

The market for used computers is big and growing, and so is the market for hot computers, a lawmaker said Monday in proposing a measure aimed at halting the trade in stolen hardware.

Used computers are fetching good prices - several hundred to a few thousand dollars per unit - “and you can sell them to any number of stores in a matter of a few hours,” Rep. Steve Van Luven, R-Bellevue said.

The Labor and Commerce Committee is expected to approve Van Luven’s bill to subject stores that trade in used computers to the same regulations applied to pawnbrokers.

Those regulations require pawnbrokers to record information about transactions, including the identity of the seller and serial numbers, that police might use to track down a thief if the item turned out to be stolen.