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☆ 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

☆ Somehow 32 school districts in Mississippi are still under federal orders to desegregate
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Michael Goldberg | Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

But 69 years later, 32 school districts in Mississippi are still under federal desegregation orders. (AP) — There are 32 school districts in Mississippi still under federal desegregation orders, the US Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division's assistant attorney general said Thursday. "In our ongoing efforts to fulfill the promise of Brown vs. Board of Education, we currently have 32 open cases with school districts here in Mississippi," Clarke said. In addition to school districts, Clarke said at least five Mississippi jails and prisons have come under federal scrutiny. Clarke declined to offer more details about the case, citing an ongoing federal civil rights investigation.

Persons: Brown, —, Kristen Clarke, Clarke, Rogelio V, Solis Mississippi, Michael Corey Jenkins, Jill Collen Jefferson, JULIAN, Bonita Streeter, Mitzi Dease Paige, Solis, Jefferson Organizations: Service, US Department of Justice's, US Department of Justice's Civil Rights, Justice Department, of Education, Holmes, Community, Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, AP, The Justice Department, Mississippi Delta, Penitentiary, South Mississippi Correctional Institution, Central Mississippi Correctional Facility, Correctional, Sheriff's Deputies, Southern, Southern District of, Solis An Associated Press, Lexington Police Department, The, Department, FBI Locations: Mississippi, LEXINGTON, Miss, Lexington, Jackson, Parchman, Wilkinson, Hinds, Rankin, Southern District, Southern District of Mississippi, Solis An

☆ A DoJ official said forced labor was 'heinous conduct' after a Louisiana man was jailed for making minors bake and sell brownies 7 days a week
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Sam Tabahriti | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A Louisiana man was jailed for forcing minors to work long hours baking and selling brownies. The Department of Justice said Friday that Darnell Fulton was sentenced to 35 years in prison. A DoJ official said forced labor was "heinous conduct" and would not be tolerated. He was jailed Friday for 35 years for crimes including conspiracy to commit forced labor. "This sentence demonstrates the Justice Department's commitment to standing up for the survivors of forced labor schemes.

Leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, NVIDIA Corp (NVDA.O), OpenAI, and Stability AI, will participate in a public evaluation of their AI systems. Shortly after Biden announced his reelection bid, the Republican National Committee produced a video featuring a dystopian future during a second Biden term, which was built entirely with AI imagery. Such political ads are expected to become more common as AI technology proliferates. In February, Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to eliminate bias in their AI use. The Biden administration has also released an AI Bill of Rights and a risk management framework.

☆ 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.

☆ White House to meet Microsoft, Google CEOs on AI dangers
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Nandita Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationWASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - The White House will host CEOs of top artificial intelligence companies, including Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O) and Microsoft (MSFT.O), on Thursday to discuss risks and safeguards as the technology catches the attention of governments and lawmakers globally. Leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Stability AI, will participate in a public evaluation of their AI systems at the AI Village at DEFCON 31 - one of the largest hacker conventions in the world - and run on a platform created by Scale AI and Microsoft. Such political ads are expected to become more common as AI technology proliferates. In February, Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to eliminate bias in their use of AI. The Biden administration has also released an AI Bill of Rights and a risk management framework.

☆ DOJ sues Tennessee, alleging it discriminates against transgender youth with new law
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Spencer Kimball | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Activists for transgender rights gather in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2023. The Department of Justice is suing Tennessee for allegedly discriminating against transgender youth with a new state law banning the use of puberty blockers, hormones, and other medical procedures that affirm a child's gender identity. The DOJ asked the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee on Wednesday to declare that the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and to prohibit state authorities from implementing the statute. The lawsuit originally was filed April 20 by the parents of transgender children in Tennessee who are undergoing gender-affirming care. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Health Commissioner Ralph Alvarado must respond to the suit by May 8.

The Justice Department said the law violated the U.S. Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, which promises equal protection. The Justice Department also said it was asking the court to issue an immediate order to prevent the law from going into effect on July 1. But many medical associations have said the law is transphobic and that gender-affirming care can be life-saving. Republican Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed the ban into law last month along with a separate measure restricting drag performances in public. Several other U.S. states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, and over the last several weeks groups have sued over laws adopted in Utah, Florida, Indiana and Arkansas.

☆ U.S. regulators warn they already have the power to go after A.I. bias — and they're ready to use it
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The warning comes as Congress is grappling with how it should take action to protect Americans from potential risks stemming from AI. CFPB also plans to propose rules to ensure AI valuation models for residential real estate have safeguards against discrimination. "There is not an exemption in our nation's civil rights laws for new technologies and artificial intelligence that engages in unlawful discrimination," Chopra told reporters during a virtual press conference Tuesday. The FTC is also prepared to take action against companies that unlawfully seek to block new entrants to AI markets, Khan said. "The Civil Rights Division is committed to using federal civil rights laws to hold companies accountable when they use artificial intelligence in ways that prove discriminatory," Clarke said.

☆ 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.

☆ Abuses Proliferate in Police Squads Like Memphis's Scorpion Unit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-28 | by ( Katherine Long | Jack Newsham | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +27 min

Street Crime Unit. Jon Naso/NY Daily News Archive via Getty ImagesMemphis police chief Davis also has prior experience with special street crime units. Street crime squads are popular among politicians who say only aggressive policing will reduce violent crime. In the late 1990s, the Street Crime Unit tripled in size, amid a panic over a rising number of homicides. In a city grappling with violent crime, authorities touted the Street Crime Unit as a bright spot.

A Louisiana man was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for kidnapping and attempting to murder a gay teen as part of a broader hate crime scheme targeting men on an LGBTQ dating app, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. His decadeslong sentencing rested on a variety of factors, the Justice Department revealed, including that Seneca intentionally targeted the teen and other gay men because of their sexual orientation. Within days of his assault on White, Seneca allegedly attempted to kidnap a different man and allegedly kidnapped another, the Justice Department said in a previous statement. The Louisiana case is one of several where people have used Grindr, a dating app founded in 2009 that is predominantly used by gay men, to target LGBTQ people around the world. In 2018, it was widely reported that Egyptian authorities and residents were using Grindr and other dating apps to entrap and persecute gay men.

They said they plan to share the footage with the Justice Department. The main entrance to the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Mississippi Department of CorrectionsThe crisis in state prisons had become so acute that Gov. Some changes were already in the works under new leadership, the Justice Department said at the time, with cooperation coming from state officials. The Justice Department did not immediately return a request for further comment.

The Department of Justice and FBI on Wednesday announced a civil rights inquiry into a traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, that preceded the death of a Black man. Tyre Nichols, 29, died three days after being taken to a hospital in critical condition following the Jan. 7 stop. Nichols' family has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump and have demanded the public release of body camera and any other surveillance footage from the stop. Crump did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment regarding the civil rights investigation Wednesday. Sierra Rogers, holding her daughter Khloe Rogers, wipes away tears as she speaks during a memorial service for her friend Tyre Nichols on Tuesday.

☆ 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.

☆ DOJ touts first-of-its-kind settlement in racial discrimination case targeting ‘crime-free housing’ policy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Tierney Sneed | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —The US Justice Department on Wednesday filed what it is describing as a first-of-its-kind settlement in a racial discrimination case challenging a so-called “crime-free housing ordinance.”The proposed consent decree was filed Wednesday in a lawsuit the Justice Department brought in 2019 against the central California city of Hesperia, alleging that the city’s ordinance violated the Fair Housing Act’s prohibitions on racial discrimination in housing access. Hesperia continues to deny the allegations. She noted under the program, Black renters were almost four times more likely to be evicted than White renters and Latino renters were 29% more likely to be evicted. According to the Justice Department, Hesperia and its co-defendants – the county of San Bernardino and the San Bernardino Sheriffs Department – have agreed to pay a $950,000 settlement. It will compensate people who were harmed under the policy and will cover anti-discrimination training and other initiatives.

☆ F.B.I. asking about videos and racist website in connection with Colorado shooting
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Jo Yurcaba | Jo Yurcaba Is A Reporter For Nbc Out. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

The former neighbor, Xavier Kraus, said an FBI agent asked him about the two websites at an FBI field office in Colorado Springs last Thursday afternoon after an agent called him earlier that day. The website allegedly created by Aldrich is a forum-type “free speech” site where people have anonymously posted racist and antisemitic memes, language and videos. The videos appear to have gone up from 9:28 p.m. to 11:43 p.m. local time on the night of the shooting. Kraus said the agents asked whether Aldrich posted the “Wrong Targets” video on the homepage. After listening to the voice in the videos, Kraus said it “sounds very, very similar” to Aldrich, but he could not confirm this with certainty.

☆ Mississippi man who burned cross to intimidate Black neighbors pleads guilty to hate crime
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( Minyvonne Burke | Minyvonne Burke Is A Senior Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

A Mississippi man pleaded guilty to a federal hate crime after he burned a cross in his front yard to intimidate his Black neighbors. Cross-burning was used in the Jim Crow era by the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups as a form of racial intimidation of Black people. "Cox admitted that he burned the cross because of the victims’ race and because they were occupying a home next to his," the release stated. "Burning a cross invokes the long and painful history, particularly in Mississippi, of intimidation and impending physical violence against Black people," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. "The Department of Justice will continue to prosecute those who use racially-motivated violence to drive people away from their homes or communities."

☆ Nebraska man gets prison for leaving noose for coworker
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-03 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +1 min

— A former employee at the Oriental Trading Co. has been sentenced to prison for leaving a noose on a floor scrubber that a Black colleague was set to use. The Nebraska U.S. Attorney’s office said Bruce Quinn, 66, was sentenced Friday to four months in prison and one year of supervised release for leaving the noose for his coworker to find. He pleaded guilty in September to a federal civil rights violation. Prosecutors said a 63-year-old Black man who worked for Oriental Trading found the noose made out of orange twine sitting on the seat of the equipment in June 2020. “Federal courts have long recognized the noose as one of the most vile symbols in American history,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

☆ Elon Musk mocks #staywoke shirts at Twitter that were made to support Black Lives Matter and once worn by Jack Dorsey
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The shirts were promoted by Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey and designed to promote Black Lives Matter. Musk deleted a tweet that appeared to defend the police officer who shot Michael Brown in 2014, Bloomberg reported. "Found in closet at Twitter HQ fr," Musk posted on Twitter early Wednesday morning, along with the crying-while-laughing emoji. Musk and a spokesperson for Twitter did not respond to a request for comment from Insider ahead of publication. The officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, had claimed he shot at Brown in self defense.

☆ DeSantis' administration won't allow Justice Department monitors inside Florida polling places, saying his secretary of state will watch the 3 Democratic strongholds instead
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Rebecca Cohen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The DeSantis administration said DOJ-appointed election monitors aren't allowed inside Florida polling places. A letter from Florida Department of State General Counsel Brad McVay said they are legally not allowed inside. But according to Brad McVay, General Counsel for the Florida Department of State, "the presence of federal law enforcement inside polling places would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election." McVay wrote that while law enforcement officials are allowed inside polling places, Department of Justice monitors do not qualify. "They can certainly be outside of the polling places," Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd said of the monitors at a press conference Tuesday.

☆ There have only been 2 Black elected governors in US history, but the 2022 midterm elections could usher in unparalleled change
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

There have only been two Black elected governors in US history, but that could change on Tuesday. With the victory, Wilder became the first Black elected governor in the United States, generations after P.B.S. He said people brag about him as the first Black governor elected in America. However, this year, Black gubernatorial candidates weren't overly reliant on the party leadership to help them land the nominations in their respective states. At the end of the day, if that's what I accomplished, that's not enough," Moore told Insider.

☆ DOJ plans to monitor elections in these 46 cities and counties to ensure voters aren't harassed
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The Justice Department plans to monitor polls in two dozen states across the country to ensure no one intimidates voters or otherwise meddles with Tuesday's midterm elections. The department's Civil Rights Division selected 64 jurisdictions in 24 states, including Alaska, Florida, Georgia and Nevada, for oversight in both the general election and early voting. The division routinely monitors elections in the field, starting in 1965 when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. DOJ monitored polls in 18 states and 44 cities and counties in 2020, by comparison. Attorneys' Offices and the Office of Personnel Management will assist the DOJ Civil Rights Division in monitoring efforts and maintaining contact with state and local election officials.

☆ 3 murder verdicts vacated in New Orleans shooting case involving corrupt officers
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

NEW ORLEANS — Three men imprisoned since the 1990s for a fatal New Orleans drive-by shooting were ordered freed on Wednesday, their convictions vacated by a judge after prosecutors cited the involvement of two notoriously corrupt police officers in their case. Kunta Gable and Leroy Nelson were 17 when they were arrested shortly after the Aug. 22, 1994, shooting death of Rondell Santinac at the Desire housing development in the south Louisiana city. Pedestrians walk past Orleans Parish District Court, in New Orleans. Among them, it said, the state failed to disclose evidence undermining the case against the men. The attorney added that Juluke had maintained his innocence from the moment of his wrongful arrest.

☆ A mechanic who says he was fired after refusing to 'forgive and forget' a colleague's use of a racist slur is suing a Georgia county
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A mechanic said he was fired by a Georgia county after refusing to forgive the use of a racist slur. Loyal told his brother-in-law, Bobby Turner, about the incident, upsetting Puryear. Both men were fired by the county for misconduct two weeks after Loyal's initial complaint, per the filing. "No employee should have to endure racial harassment or retaliation in the workplace, especially racial slurs," said assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's civil rights division. "Punishing employees for reporting harassment and discrimination to their supervisors is illegal and undermines the basic statutory protections designed to identify and root out racial harassment in workplaces across the country."

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