The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday rejected an appeal brought by US servicemembers seeking damages for alleged radiation exposure from the March 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The lawsuit, filed in federal district court in California, aims to hold both Tokyo Electric Power [...]
A federal judge ruled Sunday that Florida’s pay-to-vote law is unconstitutional when applied to ex-felons who are eligible to vote but genuinely unable to pay. Historically, under Florida law, convicted felons may be disenfranchised from voting. Recently, however, Amendment 4 was passed to restore the voting rights of felons, except those convicted of murder or [...]
During this entire period of three back-to-back lockdowns with a fourth coming soon, if there is a group who has suffered the most, it is the migrant laborers. When the lockdown was announced at very short notice and all transportation was immediately halted, these inter-State migrant workers became victims of this pandemic in a different [...]
“The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. If we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves.” – Wangari Maathai As the coronavirus pandemic unfolds across the globe, threatening lives and upending the world economy, an unexpected side effect has been a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse [...]
Countries around the world are working to alleviate the vast challenges the COVID-19 pandemic is posing. Confronting this global problem isn’t possible without international cooperation. COVID-19 has implications for public health and the global economy. Endemic diseases contribute to the economic burden by impacting health, livelihoods, agricultural productivity and ecosystems. The SARS outbreak of 2003 [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled Friday that the majority of the public officials named as defendants in the federal Flint water crisis lawsuit should remain in the case. The opinion affirms the district court’s denial of several motions to dismiss with respect to former public officials like Michigan Governor Rick [...]
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo announced on Thursday that the US will be submitting notice of its withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies on Friday, May 22, 2020. Secretary Pompeo noted reasons for the US withdraw were that Russia “has undermined central confidence-building function of the Treaty – and has, in fact, fueled [...]
A judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued a decision on Monday allowing a salvage company to go ahead with an expedition to recover artifacts from the wreckage of the Titanic. R.M.S. Titanic, Inc. (RMST) was appointed salvor-in-possession of the wreckage in 1994, and has carried out many dives [...]
Despite President Donald Trump’s statement during a press briefing on Friday that religious services would be considered “essential” operations during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, a Federal Appeals Court ruled the same day that the California Governor’s order banning in-person religious services is binding. The South Bay United Pentecostal Church challenged Governor Gavin Newsom’s May 4th [...]
During a press briefing on Friday, US President Donald Trump announced that places of worship will be considered “essential” operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump stated that “they have places ‘essential’ that aren’t essential, and they open. And yet the churches aren’t allowed to open and the synagogues and—places of faith—mosques, places of faith.” Under [...]
