The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) issued guidance on Thursday for police and border guards to combat racial profiling, placing special emphasis on “the serious risk of algorithmic bias when artificial intelligence (AI) is used in law enforcement.” The committee remarked that the increased use of big data, algorithmic profiling systems [...]
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) denied a permit for the Pebble Mine in Alaska on Wednesday, a proposed open-pit copper and gold mine that would sit at the headwaters of the Bristol Bay watershed, the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery. The announcement marks the likely conclusion of a decades-long battle between Alaskan Native [...]
The Sierra Club and three other nonprofit environmental advocacy groups filed suit Monday in California state court to block the construction of a proposed new dam in the Del Puerto Canyon. Together with the Center for Biological Diversity, the California Native Plant Society and Friends of the River, the Sierra Club challenged the Del Puerto [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Thursday overturned a lower court decision upholding a securities fraud class action against 3M over its production of “forever chemicals.” The order stems from allegations that 3M, the American corporation best known for products like Post-it Notes, Scotch Tape, and—most recently—N95 respirator masks, deceived potential purchasers [...]
The Trump administration on Monday announced formal proceedings to sell oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil companies. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Alaska State Office issued a call for nominations and comments on several lease tracts considered for the upcoming Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Lease Sale, approximately [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the District of Columbia has barred drilling for the second time in two years on over 300,000 acres of federal land in Wyoming because the government failed to sufficiently consider the drilling’s impacts on climate change. Two environmental nonprofit organizations, WildEarth Guardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility, sued [...]
The Council of the European Union announced Thursday an extended sanction regime against Venezuela for one year, until November 14, 2021. The decision comes in light of the “ongoing political, economic, social, and humanitarian crisis” in the country. The Council originally imposed sanctions in November 2017 following allegations of dozens of Venezuelan officials “undermining democracy, the rule [...]
The Supreme Court of Kentucky ruled in favor of Governor Andy Beshear’s COVID-19 restrictions Thursday, reversing a lower court’s ruling for businesses that challenged the mandates. In late June, three business owners from northern Kentucky filed suit following Beshear’s state of emergency declaration in March. Following the statewide declaration, the state Cabinet for Health and [...]
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Monday that Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (Zoom) must implement a new information security program, in conjunction with a settlement with US regulators over privacy concerns. The settlement resolves allegations that Zoom “engaged in a series of deceptive and unfair practices that undermined the security of its users.” Among [...]
Colorado voters Tuesday passed Proposition 114, the Gray Wolf Reintroduction Initiative, paving the way for gray wolves’ return to the Western Slope. Proposition 114 authorizes the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission to create and implement a plan to reintroduce and manage gray wolves on designated lands west of the continental divide, with “paws on the [...]
