Veterans will have expanded access to medical care outside Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities beginning Thursday. The final rule, published Wednesday, establishes the Veterans Community Care Program under the VA MISSION Act of 2018 (MISSION Act). According to the VA’s official blog, “veterans should expect a fairly transparent and seamless transition” into the new [...]
The Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal on Thursday unanimously granted a same sex-couple the same right to employment and tax benefits that an opposite-sex married couple has under Hong Kong law. In reaching its decision the court held that because Hong Kong recognizes opposite-sex couples married in other jurisdictions where there marriage is legitimized, [...]
The US House of Representatives voted 237-187 Tuesday to approve HR6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2019, which would create a path to citizenship for so-called DREAMers who entered the country illegally as minors. According to the Migration Policy Institute, HR6 would help around 2.7 million, of an estimated 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants, [...]
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) released new restrictions on non-family travel to Cuba Tuesday. The new OFAC regulations end a “grandfathering” provision that allowed individuals who had made at least one travel-related transaction for a people-to-people trip [...]
The Tennessee Court of Appeals held Tuesday that the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) do not have standing to prevent the removal of Confederate statutes at parks the City of Memphis had sold to Memphis Greenspace. In December 2017 the city of Memphis sold parkland to Memphis Greenspace, after which Memphis Greenspace removed statutes of [...]
Alabama legislature sent a bill to the governor that would require convicted child sex offenders to undergo chemical castration treatment as a condition of parole. Under existing law, a conviction for a sex offense against a person under the age of 12 years constitutes a Class A or B felony, and is not eligible for [...]
New York lawmakers on Tuesday approved a ban on cat declawing, moving one step closer to becoming the first state to do so. The state legislature voted to amend the agriculture and markets law by adding section 381, which prohibits the declawing of cats. Under the new law, except for therapeutic purposes, no person shall [...]
A new report from Freedom House warns that the right to freedom of the press may be under attack in a number of democratic countries. The report paints a dark picture showing former bastions of democracy turning on the media. The report does clarify that it is not generally through arrests or authoritarian suppression, but [...]
The French government has amended Article 33 of the Justice Reform Act to prohibit the use of data analytics on judge behavior. The new law specifically prohibits: “The identity data of magistrates and members of the judiciary cannot be reused with the purpose or effect of evaluating, analysing, comparing or predicting their actual or alleged [...]
A new report from the Canadian National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls calls for justice the systemic murder and disappearance of women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA people (Two-Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual) The first volume provides background and personal stories on the research and the victims. The report highlights [...]
