The Pittsburgh Water and Sewage Authority (PWSA) pleaded guilty Wednesday to eight federal charges for violating the Clean Water Act. The charges include one count of violating the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System by discharging sludge into the Allegheny River, one of three major American rivers that meet at Pittsburgh. US Attorney Scott Brady announced [...]

The inmates of the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have received notice from Warden Orlando Harper that books from the outside would no longer be allowed inside the jail. Instead, the incarcerated population will have limited access to around 250 free books on tablets made available to the inmates. The jail’s previous policy [...]

The European Commission presented its first strategy on Thursday to protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, non-binary, intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) equality, proposing to extend the list of EU crimes to cover hate crime and ensure that EU policymaking reflects LGBTIQ concerns. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the plan in her 2020 State of [...]

Beijing’s top lawmaking body, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPCSC), adopted a resolution Wednesday allowing the Hong Kong government to bypass the courts and ban any lawmakers regarded as “unpatriotic” or deemed to be acting in a manner that “endangers national security.” Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, subsequently announced the disqualification of [...]

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in two decisions on Friday that Kansas state law will recognize same-sex couples as parents when they have a child together. The court held that under the Kansas Parentage Act (KPA), a woman may establish parental rights by acknowledging maternity at the time of the child’s birth. The cases, In [...]

Unofficial results show that Kentucky voters approved Kentucky Constitutional Amendment 1 to add rights for crime victims on Tuesday. The amendment, also known as Marsy’s Law, provides crime victims with specific constitutional rights, including the right to be treated with fairness and due consideration in court proceedings and the right to reasonable protection from the [...]

Colorado and Louisiana voters had the opportunity to weigh in on state ballot measures on Tuesday that could restrict abortion rights. While Colorado voters rejected their state’s proposed 22-week ban, Louisiana voters approved an amendment to their state’s constitution that limits the right to an abortion. Colorado’s measure, Proposition 115, would have banned abortion in [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled Friday that election workers and voters in Texas are not required to wear masks at polling locations. This ruling overturns a previous federal court order mandating that masks are worn at polling locations in Texas. The lawsuit was initially brought by Mi Familia Vota, the [...]

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney issued a citywide curfew on Wednesday night after multiple nights of protests following the fatal police shooting of 27-year-old Black man Walter Wallace Jr. Wallace was killed in Philadelphia by two officers on Monday when they responded to a report of a person with a knife. Shaka Johnson, an attorney for Wallace’s [...]

A US federal court ruled Thursday that a retired officer’s sexual assault case against Air Force General John Hyten is allowed to proceed to the next phase. Hyten, the second-highest-ranking US military official, was accused of sexually assaulting a female officer in 2017. Retired Army Colonel Kathryn Spletstoser accused Hyten of engaging in unwanted sexual [...]