The Inbox, Almost Perfect Baseball-Wise Edition

Here as we approach the close of April, we’ve noticed (in something of our Moneyball moment) that three of the four cities where Zuckerman Spaeder has offices – New York, Baltimore, and Washington – host baseball teams that have won more than half their games thus far this season.  Our colleagues in Tampa are the only ones with a team winning below .500.  Maybe we can make up for that by opening an office in Milwaukee, where the Brewers have won nearly 75% of their games. 

In any event, the items below came over our transom this work and are worthy of note in the world of executive employment disputes:

• Mary Willingham, the controversial University of North Carolina staff member whose comments on student-athlete literacy were widely circulated, has resigned, citing a hostile work environment in the flak over her views. 
• A federal judge in New York dismissed Veramark Technologies’ suit against its former VP of sales and his new employer Cass Information Systems; the court held that Veramark’s non-compete agreement with the former VP was not enforceable because Veramark couldn’t show it was needed to protect its existing customer relationships. 
• Speaking of non-competes, another columnist in the Boston Globe – which has extensively covered Governor Deval Patrick’s proposal to ban non-competes – has come out in support of that ban. 
• An Alabama newspaper published this “how-to” guide to whistleblowing this week. 
• 64,000 technology workers in the Silicon Valley have tentatively settled their lawsuit against Apple, Google, Intel, and Adobe, alleging those companies colluded to keep down wages and limit “poaching” employees from one company to another.  The settlement is reportedly for $324 million, and comes just a few days after the employees argued against Apple’s motion that they could not use statements about the character of late Apple CEO Steve Jobs.
• A bill in the Iowa State Senate that would expand whistleblower protections moved to the full body this week. 
• A former bank examiner’s whistleblower suit against the Federal Reserve was dismissed this week, after a federal judge in New York ruled that she had not connected her allegations of wrongdoing at J. P. Morgan with her termination. 

• The Inbox