Michael Soghomonian, also known as Shant, was arrested Sunday for allegedly starting a fire outside Senator Bernie Sanders’ office in Burlington, Vermont on Friday. An accelerant was lit in the office entrance, where the fire was quickly detected in the vestibule between the elevator and the office entrance. After igniting the fire, Soghomonian fled. A [...]
Search Results for: US Senate
US lawmakers announce draft bipartisan bill to address digital privacy rights
US Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and US Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) announced on Sunday draft legislation to “establish a national data privacy and security standard.” In the joint statement, the two lawmakers said that they plan to submit the bill, which will eliminate the “patchwork” of state regulation in favor of a federal law [...]
Tennessee Senate passes bill requiring fetal development video in public schools
The Tennessee Senate passed a bill Thursday that would require public schools to show a fetal development video comparable to one produced by an anti-abortion group to its students. SB 2767 will require public schools’ family life curriculum to include a three-minute “high-quality, computer-generated animation or high-definition ultrasound” that shows the development of vital organs [...]
New York Supreme Court Judge Kevin Bryant invalidated Thursday the state’s laws regulating the marketing of recreational cannabis, clarifying a ruling that appeared to strike down all cannabis regulations as unconstitutionally vague. Judge Bryant criticized the regulatory process and chastised the New York State Office of Cannabis Management for failing to show that the regulations [...]
Advocacy groups file lawsuit to block Alabama law criminalizing absentee voting assistance
Several advocacy groups on Thursday sued Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, Alabama’s 42 District Attorneys, and Alabama Secretary of Stae Wes Allen to block the state’s recently enacted Senate Bill 1 (SB 1), which would directly target, restrict, and severely penalize certain engagement measures that would enable broader access to the right to vote. SB [...]
Idaho Senate passes bill to restrict availability of books 'harmful to minors' in public libraries
The Idaho Senate approved House Bill No. 710 Wednesday, which declares that a school or public library shall not promote or make available any conduct that is deemed harmful to minors. The bill, which is known as the Children’s School and Library Protection Act, could make libraries and schools subject to possible lawsuits based upon [...]
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost admitted on Friday in a court filing that the state’s ban on most abortions is unconstitutional after voters passed an amendment to the Ohio Constitution in November 2023 enshrining access to abortion. The issue in the pending litigation is a law passed by the Ohio legislature and signed by former [...]
US federal judge orders New Jersey to stop using unique ballot design in primary elections
A federal judge in New Jersey on Friday ordered the state to replace its current ballot design for the upcoming June primary elections. Judge Zahid N. Quraishi ruled that the state’s design raises freedom of association concerns under the First Amendment to the US Constitution because candidates need an endorsement from their party to get a [...]
Senators decry solitary confinement of immigrants in US as ‘violation of international norms’
A dozen senators on Friday urged the US Department of Homeland Security to reform its system of placing detained immigrants in solitary confinement, referring to the practice as a “clear violation of international norms” in a heated letter. The senators wrote that in recent years, solitary confinement has been on the rise in Immigration and [...]
A panel of federal judges in South Carolina issued an order Thursday reinstating a congressional map that was declared unconstitutional racial gerrymander in 2023 due to concerns that it would be impractical to adopt a new map so close to the 2024 election season. In their five-page opinion, the three-judge panel, all appointed by Democrat [...]