US Secretary of Education Besty DeVos filed proposed amendments to Title IX Friday addressing campus sexual harassment and assault. Title IX originated in 1972 with the goal of reducing sexual discrimination in educational environments receiving federal funding. In 2011 the Obama administration expanded the scope of the law with guidance (known as the Dear Colleagues Letter) [...]
The FBI released its 2017 Hate Crimes Statistics on Tuesday that document 8,437 criminal offenses motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, gender and gender identity, religion, disability or sexual orientation that occurred in 2017. This marks a substantial increase over the previous year’s 7,321 offenses. The bureau’s report indicates that a total of 7,106 single-bias [...]
Three decades after the initial filing, a special anti-corruption court on Friday sentenced former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos, to serve 6-11 years in prison for each of seven counts of violating anti-corruption laws. She is accused of funneling USD $200 million into Swiss bank accounts under the name “John Lewis” in the [...]
In the first statewide referendum on transgender rights Tuesday, Massachusetts affirmed the decision to continue to provide legal protections to transgender persons. At current count, two-thirds of the electorate voted yes on ballot question 3. The measure is to keep in place the current law prohibiting gender identity discrimination in places of public accommodation. The [...]
The US Supreme Court on Friday allowed the trial over the 2020 census inclusion of a citizenship question to proceed, over the objection of the Trump administration. The court issued a brief order rejecting the request of the Trump administration to stay the trial. The trial is set to start Monday in the US District [...]
The Supreme Court granted certiorari in three cases Friday. In Return Mail v. US Postal Service the court will review whether the government is a “person” that can proceed under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act. The act permits a “person” who has been sued for patent infringement to challenge the validity of the patent through the [...]
Members of the EU Parliament approved a draft bill Wednesday to ban single use plastics by 2021. According to the European Commission, single use plastics make up 70 percent of marine litter and include items like plastic cutlery, straws and take out containers. Overall, 80 percent of Marine litter is plastics. While single-use plastic is [...]
