Three University of Kansas professors—Paul Courtney, Chester Whelan, and Frederick Marin—teach a popular but controversial course in humanities called The Humanities Integration Program, also known as HIP. Bernard Kennisbaum, an honors student in competition for the Fulbright Scholarship, is recruited by the school’s chancellor to attend the HIP program and divulge information about the teaching techniques of its professors. Using the Fulbright and the offer of a stipend as an incentive, the chancellor convinces Bernard to report on the activities of HIP. “We simply want your impressions of HIP, the teachers, students, the academics.” The proposition puts Bernard in the middle of the program and close to the Botticelli-like Apryl, with whom he is enthralled. Bernard becomes friends with students who are a part of HIP, and he uncovers more than he could have ever imagined.

This novel is an absolute joy to read. It is filled with references to great literature. Quotes from writers and thinkers such as Plato, Shakespeare, and Aristotle make their way into delightful puns. In fact, as Bernard progresses through the HIP courses, readers are taken back to those profound writings encountered during university studies. The plot is filled with surprising twists that keep readers interested until the end. Bloch is a master storyteller who has created an excellent work that makes the reader consider such questions as “What is truth?” and “What is the purpose of education?” His use of the classics in the conversations between students, usually in puns, is delightful. The lecture scenes are a nice review of those great thinkers and writers of antiquity. This novel will have readers wanting to start reading it again as soon as the last page is finished.

RECOMMENDED by the US Review

to purchase, got to www.scottbloch.com where you will find amazon and barnes and noble links.

Scott Bloch’s new novel, Mount Wonder (WIPF and Stock, Oct. 2022), is based on the experiment in liberal arts education at the University of Kansas in the 1970s, the Integrated Humanities Program, taught by noted educator and writer, John Senior, and his colleagues, Dennis Quinn and Frank Nelick. They took radicals from the sixties and early seventies and exposed them to delight in education, in poetry, star gazing, and the ideas in the great books. They focused on drawing out students’ innate sense of wonder and awe. The narrator encounters a beautiful girl who leads him into lectures by these professors and into a profound odyssey of understanding, knowledge, love, lust, and the search for truth. For more information on the novel, go to www.scottbloch.com.

“This was a labor of love, something I worked on over the years, and finally came to fruition. It is my hope it will inspire people to want to read more good books and great books, and poetry. For in those can be found enduring sources of wisdom, strength, and peace.”

Scott Bloch met with the mayor of Ferizaj in Kosovo, the Honorable Agim Aliu, on May 13, 2019, during a trip to the Balkans to meet with clients and to defend depositions.  During his meeting, the Mayor expressed the strong bond between the United States and Kosovo, first in the help the United States provided in Kosovo’s becoming independent as a country in 2008, and also in the Bondstiehl base in Kosovo, as well as the many jobs American companies have provided through contracts with the military in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as Kuwait.

The meeting was cordial and focused on the good that Bloch has been able to achieve for Kosovars who live in and around Ferizaj in getting their benefits under the Defense Base Act and providing many families with what they need to survive, and boosting the local economy in the process.

The mayor expressed that he was impressed with the level of commitment Bloch had shown to the citizens of Kosovo over many years in providing individuals and families with hope.  The article that appeared in the local Ferizaj newspaper stated:

"Further, attorney Scott J. Bloch from Washington, 
former employee of the Bush administration
at the White House, said there was an extraordinary 
experience with dozens of cases of 
Ferizajas as well as other citizens throughout 
the world in defense of their rights over 
time how many have served the United States. His legal firm Scott J. Bloch Law is what 
has helped many of our fellow citizens to compensate workers engaged in these spheres 
according to the legal enactment in force."

You may read more here:

Kryetari Aliu takoi avokatin amerikan Scott J. Bloch, mbrojtësin e të drejtave të punëtorëve shqiptarë në Afganistan dhe Irak

Albert Bloch was an enigma to many people, including his grandson Scott, who has spent two decades unraveling the mystery of Bloch’s life.

Some answers are revealed in the documentary film “AB,” which are Albert Bloch’s initials. Scott Bloch wrote and produced the film, which will be screened during this weekend’s Kansas City FilmFest International in Kansas City, Mo.

An artist, poet and professor at the University of Kansas, Albert Bloch was the only American in a pioneering German Expressionist art movement known as Der Blaue Reiter, or The Blue Rider. The pre-World War I group helped pave the way for modern art and included Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Paul Klee and Gabriele Münter, who rose to international acclaim.

Albert Bloch’s paintings were part of numerous exhibitions in Germany and around Europe in the 1910s. Originally from St. Louis, Mo., he returned to America after World War I and joined KU’s art faculty in Lawrence, where he lived a quiet life.

“All the other guys became rock stars,” said Scott, an attorney who lives in McLean, Va. “Why did he disappear from the art world into his attic to paint and teach at KU? What motivated him?”

[This 1911 photo of Albert Bloch was taken in Munich, Germany, where he was part of “The Blue Rider,” a pioneering art movement of the early 20th century.]

The documentary looks at Albert Bloch’s life through his art, writing, photographs and home movies shot with Super 8 film.

Through the research, Scott got to know his grandfather and his brush with fame. Now 60, Scott grew up on the East and West coasts and only met his grandfather, who died in 1961, once. Prior to the research, he knew only what he was told by his father, Walter Bloch.

photo by: Mike Yoder  “Spring Night,” 1934-37, by Albert Bloch

 “Winter 1918” by Albert Bloch

The film also includes interviews with Albert Bloch’s widow, Anna, who was Scott’s stepgrandmother, with whom he established a relationship when he was a student at the University of Kansas in the mid-1970s.

The full article may be viewed here, https://www2.ljworld.com/news/general-news/2019/apr/10/late-lawrence-artist-albert-bloch-to-be-featured-at-film-fest-in-documentary-created-by-grandson/.

“Garden of Asses” 1939, by Albert Bloch

In a decision that has significant ramifications for DBA and Longshore Claimants who have been on the receiving end of Administrative Law Judge decisions that are disfavorable, the United States Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, June 21, 2018, that Administrative Law Judges of the Securities and Exchange Commission, like those in the Department of Labor are Officers within the meaning of the Appointments Clause of Article II, section 2 of the United States Constitution, whose appointment must be by either the President, a Court or the head of the Agency.

Most ALJ’s in the Department of Labor were hired by the authority delegated to them by the Secretary of Labor in years past, by persons in inferior positions.  Therefore, it is possible that all persons who are aggrieved by decisions of ALJ’s in the Department of Labor may have a basis for setting aside those decision on a timely application to vacate the decisions.

In its ruling yesterday, in Lucia v. SEC, the Supreme Court rule in a 7-2 decision that an administrative law judge at the Securities and Exchange Commission was not lawfully appointed and therefore had no authority to issue a decision.

In her majority opinion joined by the five justices (Chief Judge Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch), Justice Kagan held that the SEC’s administrative law judges qualify as “Officers” and not mere civil service employees under the Appointments Clause of the Constitution.   The Court found that the SEC as a body did not itself appoint ALJ Cameron Elliot; he was instead appointed by SEC staff members. His appointment was therefore unconstitutional.

Justice Breyer wrote a concurring opinion in which he found that the appointment of the ALJ violated the Administrative Procedure Act because the SEC unlawfully delegated its appointment power lower staff.  Justice Sotomayor (joined by Ginsburg, J) filed a dissenting opinion finding that only “the ability to make final, binding decisions on behalf of the Government” qualifies as an “Officer” under the Appointments Clause.  While ALJ’s in SEC as in the Department of Labor do not make final binding decisions, they become final and binding if no appeal is taken or futher proceedings occur.

This case has far-reaching potential for Claimants before the Department of Labor ALJs in Longshore and Defense Base Act cases.  Interested claimants are welcome to make inquiry of the Law Offices of Scott J. Bloch as to how this decision may benefit them.

DC Circ. Refuses to Extend Exclusive Remedy to defeat Fired Defense Base Workers’ Claims

In another important case with the Law Offices of Scott J. Bloch, the DC Circuit Court reversed a lower court ruling (see Opinion of Court reversing state claims Sickle v Torres) that the Defense Base Act does not preempt breach of contract allegations brought by two overseas military base contractors against their former employer Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions LLC after they were fired in relation to a workers’ compensation claim, on Friday March 9, 2018.

“The touchstone for implied preemption under the Base Act is a claim’s nexus to the statutory benefits scheme,” the panel said. “Because Elliott sought and obtained workers’ compensation under the Base Act, his tort claims arising from that benefits process are preempted, but his independent claim of contractual injury is not. Sickle, for his part, never set foot into the Base Act’s regulatory arena, so both his tort and contract claims can proceed.”

The DBA, building on a previous program for longshoremen and harbor workers established under the Longshore Act, established a workers’ compensation scheme for civilians and federal contractors working at U.S. military bases outside of the U.S.

Among other provisions, those statutes prohibit retaliation against workers who have made a compensation claim or who “testified or are about to testify” in a related proceeding, providing for reinstatement and back pay for retaliatory discharge. Employers in turn are given limited liability for related claims.

Elliott and Sickle were both subcontract workers for Torres at Forward Operating Base Shield in Baghdad, with Elliott working as a kennel master and Sickle as a medic, according to the opinion. Tasked with moving sandbags in the kennel area, Elliott suffered a back injury, diagnosed by Sickle as a herniated disc.

Elliott flew to the U.S. for treatment and had planned to return to Iraq, but after seeking workers’ compensation benefits, was told by Torres he was no longer needed and terminated, the opinion said. After an initial rejection of his workers’ compensation claim — purportedly due to Torres claiming to insurers that Elliott had falsified his claim — Elliott received a copy of a medical file from Sickle and was subsequently granted compensation and underwent back surgery.

Sickle was then allegedly pressured into recanting his support for Elliott’s claim and sent home to “think things over” for a month, and also terminated when he refused to recant, according to the opinion.

The pair jointly sued, alleging retaliatory discharge in relation to Elliott’s workers’ compensation claim, breach of contract and an alleged conspiracy with Torres’ insurance carrier.

Scott Bloch, counsel for the plaintiffs, said the clients feel vindicated by the decision, even if they would have preferred all of their tort claims to go forward, saying it helped flesh out a similar earlier ruling and was likely to have further-reaching effects in other cases.

“For many years, Mr. Sickle and Mr. Elliott have felt like big government contractors had a force field around them, preventing justice,” Bloch said.

The panel’s aside on DBA preemption jurisdiction is also likely to impact other similar cases, Bloch said, saying Torres and other defendants in previous cases had tried to steer courts toward a strict reading of preemption that went beyond what was intended in statute.

“That’s just not what this law is,” he said.

U.S. Circuit Judges Judith W. Rogers, Sri Srinivasan and Patricia Millett sat on the panel for the D.C. Circuit.  Reportage also was done by Law 360 and Thompson Reuters.

The case is Sickle et al. v. Torres Advanced Enterprise Solutions LLC, case number 14-7009, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
 

The Law Offices of Scott J. Bloch, working with Los Angeles based law firm, LA Superlawyers, and head partner William W Bloch, obtained an order on January 9, 2018, reversing an Administrative Judge’s previous ruling denying class certification to the class of Detention Enforcement Officers of the Marshals service.   “This is a good decision to help the DEOs who have endured for many years being put into a lower class of employees of the Marshals service while at the same time standing alongside the higher paid Deputy Marshals performing some of the same duties but being refused the ability to promote or enjoy equal pay for their actual duties,” said their attorney Scott J. Bloch.

In this order of the EEOC 20180109–Appeal Order EEO Class–Ramsey Tuaua et al. reversed the ALJ order refusing to Certify the Class of United States Marshal Service Detention Officers in the class action of Race, Age and Disability Discrimination, the panel at the EEOC set forth that the Marshal’s service has used for years fitness requirements that DEOs had long since passed and met to deny them promotion up to the Deputy position.  Many other pieces of evidence show that the United States Marshal’s Service has discriminated against DEOs on the basis of Race, Age, and Disability, and retaliated against those who led the charge in this class action.  The EEOC remanded for appointment of an ALJ and further proceedings on the case.

There are two areas injured workers need to be watching, one is the civil penalties assessed against insurance companies and employers for discrimination against employees (such as firing you for filing a workers compensation claim overseas, or having an injury that is likely to result in a claim) or penalty for failure to report injury or death (failure to file the LS 202), or termination of payments (failure to file the LS 207).   These regulations will increase the amount assessed against employers, and provide a small disincentive for them to misbehave.

The other regulation to watch is the implementation of the Roberts rule, based on Roberts v. Sea-Land Services, Inc., 566 U.S. __, 132 S.Ct. 1350, 1354 (2012), which would put in a regulation what the courts and the Benefits Review Board of the Department of Labor have long held: that the rate for persons determined to be Permanently Totally Disabled (PTD).  As it is now, the insurance companies get to pick a rate they like to pay a person determined to be PTD, and only give one COLA increase to their original rate at time of accident when they were only TTD (temporarily totally disabled).  Roberts and cases interpreting it and the section 6(c) language “newly awarded compensation” for what rate to pay a person first determined to be PTD, says that the rate is the prevailing rate of maximum average weekly wage in effect on the date when they were determined to be PTD.  That will significantly increase the pay for persons who become PTD after they are initially injured.

The regulation has gone past the public statement phase, but because of the change in administration it is unclear whether this regulation will simply fall into a batch of any regulations pending at the time of the end of the prior administration and be held up pending further review for what cost and effect it would have on business.

The Regulations

The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 requires the Department of Labor (DOL) to annually adjust its civil money penalty levels for inflation. On January 13, 2017, DOL promulgated a final rule adjusting penalties for 2017.  The rule makes small upward adjustments to the following penalties assessed by the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act:

• 20 C.F.R. 702.204

Penalty for late report of injury or death.

• 20 C.F.R. 702.236

Failure to report termination of payments.

• 20 C.F.R. 702.271(a)(2)

Discrimination against employees who bring proceedings.

The public inspection version of the rule is available on the Federal Register’s website athttps://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/01/18/2017-00614/department-of-labor-federal-civil-penalties-inflation-adjustment-act-annual-adjustments-for-2017. The Federal Register will publish the final version on January 18, 2017. The rule became effective on January 13, 2017.

The regulation that has already passed the public comment on the “newly awarded compensation” language of Section 6(c) of the Act, is found at https://www.regulations.gov/documentD=WCPO-2016-0001-0001.

In 2011, a Class Action of 30 plus individuals was filed by Scott J. Bloch in Washington, DC., alleging widespread abuses of injured workers by large government contractors and the insurance companies who have been paid hundreds of millions of dollars in high premiums by tax payer money to protect these workers overseas who are working side by side with the military in combat or support roles, but have instead pocketed the money of the tax payers and then sought to harm the workers and their families in deliberate scheme.

In July of this year, the federal circuit court in DC upheld this barbaric practice, claiming that the the exclusive remedy provisions of the law prevented any second guessing the employer or the insurance carriers for any of their conduct however extreme and intentional, limiting them to the benefits provided under the law.

The lower court opinion has been appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Read the Petition for Writ of Certiorari here As filed Cert Petition Brink et al. v Continental Ins et al.

In this Brief we argue that  the law is confusing on the question of what cases one may sue an employer or insurance carrier on when there is workers compensation insurance, that there is conflict among the circuits, and that courts even though they broadcast an “intentional tort” exception to the exclusive remedy doctrine of the DBA and Longshore Acts, they never allow cases regardless of how extreme the conduct and how deliberate the injuries inflicted on workers to proceed.

But the time has arrived to tell the truth and to fix this twisted interpretation of the law.  No longer should these companies be able to have carte blanche in causing families to lose their homes or credit, to worsen their mental and physical injuries or create wholly new injuries by deliberate frauds on the Department of Labor and the injured workers or their families.