On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted to ban single-use plastics. The new law bans certain single-use plastic items, such as plastic cutlery, plastic straws, and plastic plates. This ban is planned to be in place by 2021. The law also states that “ember states will have to achieve a 90% collection target for plastic bottles [...]
The US District Court for the District of Colorado held Wednesday that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to take a hard look at the reasonably foreseeable impact of certain aspects of the Bull Mountain Master Development Plan. The Bull Mountain Master Development Plan approved the development of 146 [...]
The Democratic majority House of Representatives passed the Paycheck Fairness Act on a vote of 242-187 on Wednesday. The bill attempts to close loopholes to the 1963 Equal Pay Act by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act. The legislation is intended to close the gender pay gap between men and women working in the same [...]
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) filed a complaint against Facebook Thursday for its targeted housing advertisement tools that allegedly discriminate against certain demographics. The complaint follows a 2018 statement of interest that similarly alleged that the data that Facebook collects from its users including race, religion, zip codes and language capabilities are [...]
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed a bill Wednesday allowing same-day voter registration starting in 2021. Voters will not be able to change their party affiliation on the same day of an election, but the bill allows New Mexicans to register to vote as long as they have a valid ID and vote through [...]
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a bill Wednesday to create a commission to review prosecutorial misconduct by District Attorney’s. This is the second version of the bill that the governor has signed. The first version of the bill was challenged by a coalition of district attorneys under separation of powers concerns between the judiciary [...]
A three-judge bench of the High Court in Malé ordered police to release former Maldives president Abdulla Yameen on Thursday. The court ruled that there was not enough reason to hold Yameen beyond a month under the law, finding that the prosecution had not provided sufficient reason to extend his remand in custody. Yameen was [...]
James Boasberg, a judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia, issued two opinions on Wednesday blocking the Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky and Arkansas. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) approved Kentucky’s work requirement plan in January 2018, but the plan has yet to go into effect. The plaintiffs are Kentucky [...]
Authorities in the Maldives transferred former vice president Ahmed Adeeb to house arrest on Tuesday. Adeeb, who is serving out a 33-year prison sentence, underwent surgery to remove kidney stones and was being treated at Malé’s Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital. While the Maldives Correctional Service (MCS) confirmed that Adeeb was being placed under house arrest, [...]
Purdue Pharmaceutical, the makers of OxyContin, and their owners the Sackler Brothers will pay a nearly $275 million settlement in a lawsuit brought by the State of Oklahoma. Nearly $200 million from the settlement will fund a new addiction treatment and research center at Oklahoma State University. The suit, brought in 2017 by Oklahoma Attorney [...]
