Virginia’s House’s Courts of Justice – Criminal Subcommittee passed HB 995, raising the required amount for the crime from $500 to $1000 to qualify for Grand Larceny.  This along with numerous other proposed and passed bills add to Gov. Ralph Northam’s criminal justice initiative. Supporters of the bill emphasized that felony convictions carry a lifetime [...]

Virginia’s House advanced HB33 with a 52 to 45 vote on Friday that supports Gov. Ralph Northam’s criminal justice reform initiative.  This particular bill addresses a long debated issue of parole in Virginia.  Parole was abolished in Virginia in 1995, but no jury was informed of this change when deliberating sentences until 2000 after the [...]

A Virginia Senate committee on Thursday approved SB 733, legislation to ease abortion restrictions, by a 9-6 vote. A similar bill was advanced in the House Wednesday. The legislation aims to undo Republican-backed laws in the state. If signed into law, the bill will reverse the 24-hour waiting period and ultrasound and counseling requirements. The Democratic-backed changes [...]

The US Senate approved the revised United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on Thursday by a vote of 89-10. The goal of USMCA is to expand trade between the US, Mexico and Canada. The bill was approved by the House in December by a 385-41 vote. The USMCA is the replacement for the North American Free Trade [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit upheld on Tuesday the validity of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (“ACA”) risk adjustment program, reversing a lower court’s decision. As a part of the ACA’s enactment, Congress authorized the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) to design and implement this risk adjustment [...]

Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed The Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act on Tuesday, making Illinois the 11th state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. As of January 1, 2020, any adult over 21 years of age will be able to legally purchase cannabis for personal use from the licensed dispensaries across Illinois. The law [...]

The First Appellate District Court of Appeals of California on Monday affirmed a lower court’s ruling that the public’s use of Martin’s Beach is a permissive right. The battle for public access at Martin’s Beach began in 2012 when Vinod Khosla initially purchased the land. Khosla closed the only public access road to the beach [...]

The US House Intelligence Committee on Thursday conducted their final public impeachment inquiry before Congress heads out for the Thanksgiving holiday. The committee heard testimony from Fiona Hill, a former top Russian adviser to the Trump administration, and David Holmes, a diplomat in the US embassy in Kiev, Ukraine. During his opening statement Holmes highlighted his [...]

Judge Tanya Chutkan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the immediate halt of the scheduled executions of four federal death row inmates Wednesday night, essentially freezing the Trump administration’s attempts to re-instate federal executions, a practice that has not been carried out in almost two decades. Underlying statutes and protocols [...]

Phillip Williams filed a class action complaint against Burger King Corporation on Monday in Florida’s Southern District court alleging misleading marketing of Burger King’s “Impossible” Whopper—the fast food chain’s new meatless and vegan burger option. Williams is alleging violations of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, section 501.201, arguing that the patties of the [...]