Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. dropped 3,042 marijuana charges on Tuesday, saying it is “one small step toward addressing the decades of racial disparities behind the enforcement of marijuana in New York City.” The charges dropped were misdemeanor possession and smoking charges dating back to as early as 1978. Charges that showed chances of “sale [...]
US President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday announced a plan to amend the 2016 New Source Performance Standards for the oil and gas industry that would weaken requirements for testing and monitoring methane gas emissions. In March the EPA announced two amendments addressing the “fugitive emissions” requirements of the Emission Standards for New, [...]
Two Native American communities filed a lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Montana on Tuesday alleging President Donald Trump’s administration will violate the tribes’ treaty rights when it permits TransCanada to build the Keystone XL Pipeline. Former president Barack Obama rejected the pipeline in 2012 and 2015 on climate change grounds, but [...]
Dutch bank ING agreed to pay nearly USD $900 million to settle charges against its Netherlands branch related to money laundering and compliance failures in violation of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) Act. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service (DPPS) charged ING after investigations revealed, “the bank failed to prevent bank accounts held by [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Western District of Texas on Wednesday struck down a Texas abortion law that requires the embryonic and fetal tissue remains to be buried or cremated. The law also imposed penalties, including: “suspension or revocation of a healthcare facility’s license, a civil penalty of $1,000 for each violation, [...]
Faced with civil racketeering allegations, State Farm agreed to settle for $250 million on Tuesday, only moments before trial was set to begin in the US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois . The settlement brings an end to 20 years of litigation , which started after consumers alleged they received generic car parts of [...]
The American Bar Association (ABA) filed an amicus brief on Tuesday in a US Supreme Court copyright infringement case, arguing the the right to sue attaches at the time the US Copyright Office accepts the application, not when the office acts on the application. The case addresses the divide among federal courts concerning whether to [...]
Several Philippines families filed a communication with the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday, accusing President Rodrigo Duterte of murder during his war on drugs. The communication is the second filed with the ICC, the first of which was filed in April 2017. The ICC began preliminary examination in February. The communication charges Duterte with crimes against humanity in [...]
The Supreme Court of Israel on Wednesday denied appeals from business tycoon Nochi Dankner and his co-defendant Italy Strum and sentenced each to an additional year in prison for charges related to stock fraud. Dankner, former controlling shareholder of IDB Holding Corporation, was sentenced in 2016 to two years. He was convicted for engaging in fraudulent transactions [...]
Public-sector union employees in Missouri filed a lawsuit on Monday in the St. Louis County Circuit Court challenging Missouri’s “paycheck protection” law , arguing it violates the state’s constitutional protections to free speech, association and petition, as well as equal protection, protection against impairment of contracts, and the right to organize and bargain collectively. Plaintiffs argue [...]
