A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ruled Tuesday that the Biden administration does not have the constitutional right to temporarily pause issuing new oil and natural gas leases for offshore and public lands. For now, the federal court has blocked Biden’s executive order issued on January 27. The [...]

A class action lawsuit was filed Monday in the Western District of New York accusing the Rochester Police Department (RPD) of racist practices and a “pattern … of using excessive force.” Plaintiffs include residents of the city of Rochester, New York, who have been subjected to excessive force by the RPD within the last year, [...]

Nevada Assembly Speaker Jason Frierson and Assemblywomen Teresa Benitez-Thompson and Brittney Miller introduced Assembly Bill 126 Monday to move Nevada from a presidential caucus to a primary system. Caucuses were once the most common method of choosing presidential nominees. In 2020 only four states—Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota and Wyoming—held either a Democratic or Republican caucus. In Nevada, the [...]

The US Supreme Court on Monday lifted an order that would have required Michigan prosecutors to retry a 2007 murder case by May 2021 or release the defendant after state officials cited COVID-19-prompted trial delays. Michigan state prosecutors filed for a stay in December, pending the outcome of a petition for a writ of certiorari. [...]

US President Joe Biden signed four executive actions Tuesday aimed at addressing systemic racism and enhancing racial equity. Building on last Wednesday’s executive order, which introduced his administration’s plans to pursue racial equity, Biden first disavowed discrimination against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community over the coronavirus pandemic. “The Federal Government has a responsibility [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Tuesday blocked a set of regulations from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that were set to significantly reduce the limits on detention for minors taken into custody with a family member or guardian (“accompanied minors”). In coming to the decision, the court held to the [...]

Viasna, a non-governmental human rights center in Belarus, said that seven more people were detained in Belarus on Sunday during the traditional weekend protests against President Alexander Lukashenko, who won his sixth term in office in a disputed election. The total number of detainees is now reported to be over twenty people. According to a [...]

Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeals ruled on Monday that a government-mandated mask ban, instituted on October 5, 2019, is constitutional. During last year’s anti-government protests, which have largely died down, many demonstrators wore masks to hide their identities from authorities and to protect themselves from tear gas. Opposition lawmakers and activists in Hong Kong [...]

A California grand jury charged Apple’s head of Global Security, along with the Santa Clara County Undersheriff and others, with bribery on Monday. The indictment is a result of a two-year investigation by the Santa Clary County District Attorney’s Office, which revealed that Undersheriff Rick Sung, aided by Captain James Jensen in one instance, refused [...]

A wealthy California couple were sentenced to prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to paying $250,000 to fraudulently help their daughter gain admission to the University of Southern California as a volleyball recruit. Diane Blake, the co-founder of a retail merchandising company, and Todd Blake, an entrepreneur and investor, were sentenced by US District Judge Nathaniel [...]