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☆ Exclusive: DOJ civil rights leader says she was a victim of abuse in extraordinary statement
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-01 | by ( Hannah Rabinowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —The leader of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Kristen Clarke, said in an extraordinary personal statement shared with CNN that she was a victim of years-long domestic abuse and chose not to disclose an expunged arrest record from that period during the Senate confirmation process. “Nearly 2 decades ago, I was subjected to years-long abuse and domestic violence at the hands of my ex-husband,” Clarke wrote in the statement on Wednesday. “This was a terrorizing and traumatizing period that I have sought to put behind me to promote my personal health, healing and well-being. “When given the option to speak about such traumatic incidents in my life, I have chosen not to,” Clarke wrote. Clarke said she has brought her “personal experience and perspective of being a survivor of domestic violence” to her work.

Persons: Kristen Clarke, “, ” Clarke, Republican Sen, Tom Cotton, Clarke, ” Sen, Mike Lee, ”, CNN’s Devan Cole Organizations: CNN, Justice, Republican, The Daily, Utah Republican Locations: Utah

The Justice Department is investigating McKinsey & Company, the international consulting giant, for its role in helping drug companies maximize their sale of opioids. Since 2021, McKinsey has agreed to pay about $1 billion to settle investigations and lawsuits across the United States related to the firm’s work with opioid makers, principally Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin. McKinsey recommended that Purdue “turbocharge” its sales of the drug in the midst of the opioid crisis, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. News of the criminal investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Last year another opioid maker, Mallinckrodt, said it received a grand jury subpoena from the same U.S. attorney’s office but did not mention any connection to McKinsey.

Persons: Endo, Mallinckrodt Organizations: McKinsey & Company, U.S, Western, of, McKinsey, Purdue Pharma, Purdue “ turbocharge, Wall, The New York Times Locations: Massachusetts, of Virginia, Washington, United States

☆ US transfers thousands of seized Iranian guns, rocket launchers and munitions to Ukraine
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-09 | by ( Natasha Bertrand | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —The US transferred thousands of machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition seized from Iran to Ukraine last week, US Central Command announced on Tuesday. CENTCOM said the materiel transferred to Ukraine is enough to equip one Ukrainian brigade — around 4,000 personnel — with small-arms rifles. It is not the first time the US has transferred seized Iranian military equipment to the Ukrainians. The US transferred over one million rounds of seized Iranian ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces in October, CNN previously reported. For the last year, the Biden administration has been working to legally send the seized weapons, which are stored in CENTCOM facilities across the Middle East, to the Ukrainians.

Persons: CENTCOM, ” CENTCOM, Biden Organizations: CNN, US Central Command, Russia, Congress, Justice, Iranian, US Navy Locations: Iran, Ukraine, Ukrainian, Yemen

The case heads to court separately from another federal lawsuit filed in October by LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates over the aggravated prostitution law. The Republican-carried legislation would only remove the requirement that those convicted of aggravated prostitution must register as a violent sex offender. Court documents in the other federal lawsuit say that more than 80 people are registered for aggravated prostitution in Tennessee. Because she had to register as a sex offender, the woman has experienced periods of homelessness while struggling to find safe housing compliant with sex-registry requirements. Tennessee law also bars her from changing her legal name to match her gender identity, the lawsuit states.

Persons: ”, Kristen Clarke, general's Organizations: U.S . Justice, Justice Department, Republican, Justice Department’s Civil Rights, for Disease Control, The Justice Department Locations: Tenn, Tennessee, United States, Illinois, New Jersey, Virginia, Shelby County, Memphis

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's decades-old aggravated prostitution statute violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday after an investigation, warning that the state could face a lawsuit if officials don't immediately cease enforcement. LGBTQ+ and civil rights advocates have long criticized the measure as discriminatory, making it almost impossible to find housing and employment due to the restrictions for violent sex offenders. The DOJ letter details several of the struggles of those with aggravated prostitution convictions. A lifetime sex offender registration can stop people from visiting with their grandchildren, revoke job offers, and severely limit housing options. Plaintiffs who had filed a lawsuit seeking to block the aggravated prostitution law in October said the DOJ's letter only further supports their efforts.

Persons: —, ”, Bill Lee, “, Kristen Clarke, Jonathan Skrmetti, David Rausch, Steven Mulroy, it's, Mulroy, ” Brandon James Smith, Skrmetti, “ OUTMemphis, Molly Quinn, OUTMemphis, Adrian Sainz Organizations: U.S . Department of Justice, American Civil Liberties Union, Transgender Law Center, Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, of, DOJ, Associated Press Locations: Tenn, Tennessee, United States, Shelby County, Memphis, Memphis , Tennessee

☆ Israel-Hamas War Hamas and Israel Open to Extension of Truce
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Isabel Kershner | Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

Medics attended to the victims as police officers secured the scene of the shooting in Burlington. The families of the men identified them in a statement as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ahmed. Mr. Awartani studies at Brown University, Mr. Abdalhamid at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and Mr. Ahmed at Trinity College in Connecticut. Mr. Ahmed was shot in the chest, and Mr. Abdalhamid had minor injuries, according to a statement from the families of the victims. “Why would anyone shoot kids who were wearing Palestinian kaffiyeh?” Marwan Awartani said in an interview.

Persons: Jason J, Eaton, Eaton’s, Jon Murad, Miro Weinberger, Murad, Hisham Awartani, Kinnan, Tahseen Ahmed, Abdalhamid, Ahmed, Awartani’s, Marwan Awartani, Hisham, Christina H, Paxson, ” Marwan Awartani, Nikolas P, Kerest, Husam Zomlot, Biden, Bernie Sanders, Vermont, ” Livia Albeck, Ripka Organizations: Police, University of Vermont, Burlington, ”, Burlington police, Ramallah Friends School, West Bank, Brown University, Mr, Haverford College, Trinity College in, Palestinian Authority, District of, Justice Department’s Civil, Division, Islamic Relations, Defamation League, Twitter Locations: Burlington, Burlington , Vt, Ramallah, Pennsylvania, Trinity College in Connecticut, U.S, District of Vermont, Israel, Palestinian, United Kingdom, Illinois, Burlington , VT

Absentee ballots are mailed in and are the only auditable paper trail under Louisiana’s current voting system. “(Election officials) test the machines beforehand and they test the machines afterwards, so it’s not blind faith going into this. ... You’re basically getting a report on the tabulation again.”Louisiana uses paperless touch screen voting machines bought in 2005. “Can you imagine what would have happened in Georgia if they had still had digital voting machines in 2020?” Becker asked. Secretary of State-elect Nancy Landry, a Republican who takes office in January, said implementing a new voting system is a top priority.

Persons: Joe Biden’s, ” John Nickelson, Henry Whitehorn, Mike Spence, Spence, it’s, ” David Becker, “, You’re, Kyle Ardoin, Wisconsin —, Donald Trump, ” Becker, Nancy Landry Organizations: —, Republican, Caddo Parish, Democrat, Justice Department’s Civil, Division, Center, Election Innovation, Research, State Locations: BATON ROUGE, La, Louisiana, Caddo, Arizona , Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Georgia, Donald Trump . Georgia

The United States Justice Department began an investigation on Tuesday into the city of Trenton, N.J., and its police department after getting “serious and credible” reports of officers using improper levels of force and illegally stopping and searching pedestrians and drivers. The inquiry into New Jersey’s capital city and its police force is expected to take a year and could lead to federal oversight of the department through a consent decree. The review will include on-the-job observation of police officers, interviews with residents and an analysis of police records, including footage from body-worn cameras and internal affairs investigations, officials said. Since 2021, the Justice Department has opened similar inquiries into 10 other police agencies across the country, said Kristen Clarke, an assistant attorney general with the department’s civil rights division.

Persons: Kristen Clarke Organizations: United States Justice Department, Justice Department Locations: Trenton , N.J, New

☆ Jeffrey Clark: Trump-era DOJ official can't move Georgia election charges to federal court, judge rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-29 | by ( Marshall Cohen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark cannot move his Georgia election subversion case from state to federal court, a judge ruled Friday. All defendants in the Georgia case – including Clark, Trump and Meadows – pleaded not guilty. The three fake electors – former Georgia GOP chair David Shafer, sitting Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still, and former Coffee County GOP chair Cathy Latham – have pleaded not guilty. Lawyers for the three fake electors clashed with Fulton County prosecutors at a recent hearing about where their case should be tried. Several struck cooperation deals with prosecutors last year, and Willis said in a recent filing that at least four uncharged fake electors would be witnesses at trial.

Persons: CNN — Trump, Jeffrey Clark, Steve Jones, Jones, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s, Trump, Clark, Meadows –, doesn’t, Clark didn’t, general’s, reassign Clark, ” Jones, David Shafer, Sen, Shawn Still, Cathy Latham –, Fani Willis, Shafer, Latham, Willis Organizations: CNN, US, Trump, Meadows, Department, department’s Civil, Civil, Electoral College, Georgia GOP, Lawyers, Prosecutors, Georgia Republicans Locations: Georgia, Coffee County, Fulton, ”

CNN —Trump-era Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who was charged in the Georgia election subversion indictment, will face off in court Monday against Fulton County prosecutors at a hearing over his attempt to move his case to federal court. Clark’s participation in any legal, factual, or policy deliberations at the Justice Department were in his role as a senior official of that Department,” his lawyers wrote. Her team said Clark “went dangerously outside of any actual role” and “exceeded the scope of his own authority” at the Justice Department. These actions are part of Trump’s federal election subversion charges, in which Clark is an unindicted co-conspirator. State prosecutors subpoenaed former Justice Department official Jody Hunt to testify at Monday’s hearing.

Persons: CNN — Trump, Jeffrey Clark, Steve Jones, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump, Clark, “ Mr, Trump, hasn’t, Fani Willis, Clark’s, Clark “, Georgia –, Meadows, didn’t, “, Ed Meese, Reagan, ” Meese, Jody Hunt, Trump . Hunt Organizations: CNN, Fulton, US, Trump White House, Justice Department, Trump, Prosecutors, Department, Former, Attorneys, Justice Department’s Civil, Trump . Locations: Georgia, Atlanta, ’, Fulton County, Clark

☆ Opinion | How Free Speech and Willful Blindness Will Play Out in the Trump Prosecution
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-28 | by ( Burt Neuborne | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Since Mr. Trump is charged with, among other crimes, conspiracy to defraud the United States and to deprive people of the right to have their votes counted, Mr. Smith would clearly be right in arguing that the Alvarez decision doesn’t apply. Characterizing Mr. Trump’s words as “speech incident to criminal conduct” would neatly solve Mr. Smith’s First Amendment problem, but at a substantial cost to the prosecution. To win a conviction, the government must persuade 12 jurors to peer inside Mr. Trump’s head and find beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew he was lying when he claimed to be the winner of the 2020 election. If Mr. Trump actually believed his false assertions, his speech was not “incident to criminal conduct.”How can Mr. Smith persuade 12 jurors that no reasonable doubt exists that Mr. Trump knew he was lying? But there also will likely be evidence that fervent supporters of Mr. Trump’s efforts fed his narcissism with bizarre false tales of result-changing electoral fraud, and frivolous legal theories justifying interference with Mr. Biden’s certification as president-elect.

Persons: Smith, Mike Pence, Joe Biden, Trump, Alvarez, doesn’t, Smith’s, Trump’s, reams, Pence, Biden, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark, John Eastman Organizations: Justice Department, Justice Locations: United States

☆ US sues SpaceX, alleges hiring discrimination against asylum recipients, refugees
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Kanishka Singh | Thomson Reuters | Kanishka Singh Is A Breaking News Reporter For Reuters In Washington Dc | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsWASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department sued Elon Musk-owned rocket and satellite company SpaceX on Thursday for allegedly discriminating against asylum recipients and refugees in hiring. The Justice Department also pointed to online posts from the company's billionaire owner Musk as example of "discriminatory public statements." Musk described the Justice Department lawsuit against SpaceX as "weaponization of the DOJ for political purposes." Clarke also said SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials "actively discouraged" asylum recipients and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company. The United States seeks fair consideration and back pay for asylum recipients and refugees who were deterred or denied employment at SpaceX due to the alleged discrimination, the Justice Department said.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Elon, Musk, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, Kanishka Singh, David Shepardson, Chandni Shah, Paul Grant, Susan Heavey, Frances Kerry, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: SpaceX, Elon, REUTERS, Rights, U.S . Justice Department, Elon Musk, Justice Department, The Justice, Justice, DOJ, United, Thomson Locations: United States, Washington

☆ Tasers, taunts, torment: What we know about the hours of horror 2 Black men suffered at the hands of a self-described 'Goon Squad'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-13 | by ( Emma Tucker | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Dedmon, Opdyke and Elward broke open the carport door and Hartfield kicked open the back door. Entering the home without a warrant, the officers encountered two Black men: Eddie Parker and Michael Jenkins. The abuse continued in a bedroom, where Opdyke, Middleton, Dedmon and McAlpin assaulted Parker with pieces of wood and a metal sword. Dedmon, Middleton, Hartfield and Elward then began to tase the two men repeatedly to see “which (Taser) was the most powerful,” the document said. Attorneys for Middleton, Elward and Hartfield declined to comment on the case.

Persons: Christian Dedmon, Hunter Elward, Jeffrey Middleton, Daniel Opdyke, Brett McAlpin, White, Dedmon, ” Dedmon, Joshua Hartfield, McAlpin, Jerome DeLoach, Elward, Hartfield, Eddie Parker, Michael Jenkins, Parker, Jenkins, —, Mary Helen Wall, Kristen Clarke, tased, Brett McAlpin Forrest, Jenkins –, Opdyke, defecated, Jeffrey Middleton Jerome DeLoach, Elward’s Taser, Middleton, Daniel Opdyke Jerome DeLoach, Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey, CNN Parker, Sheriff Bailey, Joshua Hartfield orrest, “, ”, Jeffery Reynolds, Bailey, CNN’s Ryan Young, ” Parker, “ You’re, ” Jenkins, he’s, I’m Organizations: CNN, Justice Department, Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Adult Detention, Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, Mississippi Department of Public, Rankin, Detention, Mississippi Attorney General’s, Dedmon Locations: Rankin County , Mississippi, Braxton, Jackson, Mississippi, Rankin County, Black, Opdyke, Middleton, Dedmon, Hartfield, McAlpin, Elward

☆ It’s No Surprise That Donald Trump Is Being Charged Under a Reconstruction-Era Law - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Ian Bassin | Kristy Parker | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Other Reconstruction-era laws are also in the center of debates today. That guarantee was ratified in 1868 to reverse the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision holding that African Americans were not citizens. And recently, our organization filed a voting rights lawsuit under the 1870 law that readmitted Virginia to the Union. Ian Bassin is a co-founder and the executive director of the group Protect Democracy and a former associate White House counsel. Kristy Parker is counsel at Protect Democracy and the former deputy chief of the criminal section of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Persons: Trump, Dred Scott, intransigence, Ian Bassin, Kristy Parker Organizations: Boys, Charlottesville Unite, Mr, Black, Capitol, Union . The, Union . The Virginia Readmission, Protect Democracy, White, Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Locations: Charlottesville, United States, New Mexico, Virginia, Union . The Virginia

☆ Justice Dept. Opens Civil Rights Investigation of Memphis Police
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Rick Rojas | More About Rick Rojas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department said on Thursday that it had begun a sweeping civil rights investigation into policing in Memphis, examining allegations of pervasive problems with excessive force and unlawful stops of Black residents that were amplified by the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols in January. In announcing the investigation, officials specifically cited the death of Mr. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, whose beating by Memphis police officers on Jan. 7, 2023, was captured by body camera and surveillance footage. The case stoked outrage across the country and directed intense scrutiny onto how the Memphis Police Department operates. The investigation, officials said, intends to explore those broader concerns and whether there has been a pattern or practice of violating civil rights. Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said on Thursday that though Mr. Nichols’s death was a factor in the investigation, the inquiry was “not based on a single incident or event.”

Persons: Tyre Nichols, Nichols, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Kristen Clarke, Nichols’s, ” Organizations: Memphis, Memphis Police Department, Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Locations: Memphis, Minneapolis, Louisville, Ky

☆ Biden’s Fight With Harvard Is a Political Winner and Policy ‘Band-Aid’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-27 | by ( Reid J. Epstein | More About Reid J. Epstein | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

People involved in the campaign to make higher education more equitable and accessible described the question of legacy admissions as limited to a few applicants to elite universities. At less competitive schools, often state universities, legacy students are recruited and celebrated. is in my blood.”Liz King, the senior program director for education at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said the Education Department’s civil rights office had been obligated to begin an inquiry about Harvard’s legacy admissions process after receiving a complaint about it. She said she hoped the Biden administration would not limit its higher education investigation to legacy admissions, but instead look broadly at a system she described as discriminatory for students and applicants of color. “What we need is equal access in higher education.”

Persons: ”, ” Liz King, Biden, King Organizations: Harvard, University of Delaware, ”, Leadership Conference, Civil, Human, Education, Wesleyan University

☆ Booz Allen Pays $377.5 Million to Settle Government Billing Case
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Katie Robertson | More About Katie Robertson | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton has agreed to pay $377.5 million to settle a federal lawsuit that accused it of falsely billing the U.S. government, the Justice Department said on Friday. The settlement resolves allegations that between 2011 and 2021, Booz Allen improperly charged the government for indirect costs that it should have billed under its commercial and international contracts, the Justice Department said in a news release. The government had alleged that the firm “obtained reimbursement from the government for the costs of commercial activities that provided no benefit to the United States.”A consulting firm’s indirect costs can include expenses like equipment, marketing and office space. Booz Allen, which is based in McLean, Va., has lucrative defense and intelligence contracts with the federal government. Investigators began reviewing the firm’s billing practices in 2016.

Persons: Booz Allen Hamilton, Booz Allen, “, Brian M, Boynton Organizations: Booz, ., Justice, Justice Department, “ Locations: United States, McLean , Va

The report is expected to be released at a news conference with Attorney General Merrick Garland, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and city officials. The expected announcement was previously reported by Bloomberg Law and KSTP-TV in Minnesota. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has negotiated consent decrees in the past to enforce policing overhauls in Baltimore, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo., among other cities, after similar investigations. The murder of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, by Officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020 touched off protests and civil unrest across the country and led to calls to fundamentally rethink or defund policing. Mr. Floyd’s death, video of which circulated widely online, brought condemnations from across the political spectrum and criminal convictions for the police officers who were involved, a relatively rare occurrence.

Persons: George Floyd, General Merrick Garland, Vanita Gupta, Ferguson, Floyd, Derek Chauvin, Floyd’s Organizations: Minneapolis Police Department, Bloomberg Law, Civil, Division Locations: Minnesota, Baltimore , Cleveland, Mo

☆ US set to launch formal investigation into disputed Syria drone strike after reports it killed a civilian, defense officials sa
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-14 | by ( Oren Liebermann | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The US military is set to launch a formal investigation into a drone strike in Syria in early May, six weeks after the operation and following reports it killed a civilian rather than a senior al-Qaeda leader as first claimed, three defense officials familiar with the matter told CNN. A spokesman for CENTCOM, Michael Lawhorn, said the investigation process is continuing but that there were no updates at this time. It took US Central Command two weeks to begin a review of the incident, known as a civilian casualty credibility assessment report. The policy was developed in 2022 after a botched US drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians in the final days of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. In that case, CENTCOM opened a formal 15-6 investigation into the strike within a week of the operation.

Persons: Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM, Kurilla, Hassan, Michael Lawhorn, Matthew McFarlane, ”, Annie Shiel, Shiel, Lloyd Austin, “, Brig, Pat Ryder Organizations: CNN, Command, Central Command, Pentagon, US Central Command, Washington Post, Force, ISIS, Center for Civilians, Defense Department, Defense Locations: Syria, Hassan Mesto, Kabul, Afghanistan

☆ Justice Dept. Reaches Cleanup Deal With Houston After Civil Rights Inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department has reached an agreement with the City of Houston to improve trash removal and environmental monitoring after an investigation into the widespread dumping of garbage, including human bodies, in predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods. The pact, announced on Tuesday, was the result of a yearlong inquiry by the department’s civil rights division into dozens of complaints from residents. It includes a commitment by Mayor Sylvester Turner to fund cleanup projects, under the supervision of federal officials for three years. The agreement, which followed weeks of negotiation between department officials and municipal leaders in Houston, is part of the Biden administration’s larger environmental justice agenda, which seeks to redress the disproportional impact of waste, air and water pollution on communities of color around the country. “No one should have to live next to discarded tires, bags of trash, rotting carcasses, infected soils and contaminated groundwater, all caused by illegal dumping,” Alamdar S. Hamdani, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, said on Tuesday during a news conference in Houston.

Persons: Sylvester Turner Organizations: Department, City, Biden, Southern, Southern District of Locations: Houston, Black, U.S, Southern District, Southern District of Texas

☆ Alabama Discriminated Against Black Residents Over Sewage, Justice Dept. Says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Linda Qiu | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department said it had reached an interim agreement with the health departments of Alabama and one of its rural counties over practices found to discriminate against generations of Black residents. Under the agreement announced Thursday, the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Lowndes County Health Department said they would improve wastewater infrastructure, measure the health risks associated with raw sewage exposure, and stop penalizing residents who cannot afford adequate treatment systems. The agreement represents “a new chapter for Black residents of Lowndes County, Ala., who have endured health dangers, indignities and racial injustice for far too long,” said Kristen Clarke, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s civil rights division. Catherine Coleman Flowers, an environmental activist who grew up in Lowndes, said that residents of the county, like those in many other rural communities, use wastewater systems installed on the grounds of homes and businesses rather than a centralized sewage treatment plant operated by a local government. But the county stood alone in penalizing residents for sanitation issues that were outside their control, she added.

☆ Justice Dept. Presses Local Courts to Reduce Fines
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Glenn Thrush | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department’s third-highest-ranking official, Vanita Gupta, informed local judges and juvenile courts on Thursday that imposing fines and fees without accounting for a person’s financial status violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Doing so “may erode trust between local governments and their constituents, increase recidivism, undermine rehabilitation and successful re-entry, and generate little or no net revenue,” Ms. Gupta, the associate attorney general, wrote in a letter. A Justice Department investigation did not result in federal charges against the officer involved. The policy Ms. Gupta outlined was first enacted during the Obama administration, when she led the Justice Department’s civil rights division. It was revoked under Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017, but a handful of states, including several controlled by Republicans, have taken steps to reduce the practice.

☆ City National Bank to pay $31M redlining settlement, DOJ’s largest ever
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The Justice Department accused Los Angeles-based City National Bank on Thursday of discrimination by refusing to underwrite mortgages in predominately Black and Latino communities, requiring the bank to pay more than $31 million in the largest redlining settlement in department history. City National is the latest bank in the past several years to be found systematically avoiding lending to racial and ethnic minorities, a practice that the Biden administration has set up its own task force to combat. The Justice Department says that between 2017 and 2020, City National avoided marketing and underwriting mortgages in majority Black and Latino neighborhoods in Los Angeles County. Other banks operating in those neighborhoods received six times the number of mortgage applications that City National did, according to federal officials. The settlement with City National is the largest settlement with the Justice Department.

☆ A Texas superintendent ordered school librarians to remove LGBTQ books. Now the federal government is investigating.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | Mike Hixenbaugh | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +11 min

The U.S. Education Department’s civil rights enforcement arm has launched an investigation into a North Texas school district whose superintendent was secretly recorded ordering librarians to remove LGBTQ-themed library books. The comments, combined with the district’s subsequent decision to remove dozens of library books pending a review, fostered a “pervasively hostile” environment for LGBTQ students, the ACLU wrote in its complaint. Last year, voters in Granbury elected a pair of school board members who campaigned against LGBTQ-affirming school curricula and library books. “These comments, combined with the book removals, really send a message to LGBTQ students in the districts that: ‘You don’t belong here. Lou Whiting, a student at Granbury High School, becomes emotional after speaking against the removal of LGBTQ books at a Granbury school board meeting in March.

☆ House passes defense bill scrapping military's Covid vaccine mandate
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

To win bipartisan support for the bill, Democrats agreed to Republican demands to scrap the requirement for service members to get a Covid-19 vaccination. The bill directs Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to rescind his August 2021 memorandum imposing the mandate. Rep. Adam Smith, Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told colleagues that the decision to impose the vaccine mandate was the right call at the time. While the rescission of the Covid-19 vaccine mandate has generated much attention, it takes up one paragraph of what is a 4,408-page bill. This year’s bill authorizes money to support a $4.6% pay raise for military members and the Defense Department’s civilian workers.

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