PORTLAND, Maine — The Maine Human Rights Commission is scheduled to hear an investigator's report on a complaint made by two white cab drivers who said they were denied access to Portland's airport because of their race.
An investigator has already found "no reasonable grounds" for the discrimination claims originally made in 2012, but the report gets a public hearing before the commission on Sept. 8.
The Portland Press Herald reports that the white drivers, one of whom has since died, alleged that the city discriminated when they were denied "non-reserved taxi" permits required to pick up travelers at the Portland International Jetport.
The men said Somali or Iranian immigrants held all of the nearly 50 city-issued permits for curbside taxis at the time.
The city dismissed that fact as "happenstance."