Wendy McCaw, the controversial Santa Barbara News-Press publisher, was ordered by an administrative law judge to rehire eight former employees who were fired for engaging in union activities and give them back pay, the LA Times and other newspapers are reporting today. (Here’s a link to the 78-page ruling.) 

Meanwhile, as LA Observed reports, another trial continues: McCaw is suing former News-Press editor (and former SF Chronicle managing editor) Jerry Roberts (pictured) for $25 million in damages, this after she smeared him with bogus child porn accusations and after he began treatment for lymphoma.

Los Angeles magazine has a story about the case and one point jumps out — McCaw (nee Petrak) was born in Redwood City: “[T]he child of a Hewlett-Packard engineer, [she] then became a bit of a hippie at Stanford University, where she majored in history. She met Craig McCaw when both were sophomores. He was dyslexic and leaned on her help with course work; he was running his family cable business from his fraternity room.” She later divorced McCaw and got half of the multi-billion dollar fortune he amassed as a pioneer in the cellular phone industry.