The New York state legislature on Monday passed a package of election and voting reform provisions meant to modify one of the most restrictive election systems in the country. The measures were planned by Democrats, who have reclaimed control of all levels of state government for the first time in recent memory. Measures introduced in [...]
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Monday that seeks to change the way that the state pays for and acquires prescription drugs. The order directs state officials to set up what Newsom said would become the nation’s largest single-purchaser system for prescriptions. It directs California’s Medicaid system to negotiate drug prices for all [...]
A Polish court on Thursday ordered anti-communist dissident and former Polish president Lech Wałęsa to apologize to opposition party leader Jarosław Kaczyński for comments made on Wałęsa’s Facebook page. Wałęsa suggested that Kaczyński, leader of the currently ruling Law and Justice Party, was responsible for a 2010 air crash that killed Kaczyński’s twin brother and [...]
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs on Monday launched the first UN Flagship report on Disability and Development. The report focuses on “Realization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by, for and with persons with disabilities.” The SDGs are a collection of 17 global goals set by the UN in 2015, which include [...]
A Turkish court ruled Friday that the former leader of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party will remain in prison, despite calls from top EU officials for the politician’s swift release. Selahattin Demirtaş is the former co-chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and one of Turkey’s best-known politicians. He was detained two years ago on terrorism-related [...]
South Korea’s Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling ordering Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan to compensate South Koreans who were forced into labor at their factories during World War II. The lower court ruling ordered Mitsubishi to pay five South Korean Women between 100 million and 150 million won each, or about [...]
The US Justice Department has secretly filed criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The charges were revealed on Thursday in an unrelated court document in which prosecutors mentioned the charges against Assange. The document was an unrelated request for a sealing of charges for sex crimes against someone named Seitu Sulaymen Kokayi. There are [...]
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a statement on Thursday outlining a policy framework aimed at curbing sources of youth nicotine addiction. Planned policies include limiting the sale of flavored e-cigarettes to in-person, age-restricted locations such as tobacco shops. The FDA also intends to ban combustible menthol cigarettes, and to ban future introduction of [...]
The Trump White House issued a proclamation on Friday that bans migrants caught entering the US unlawfully from seeking asylum. The ban’s stated purpose is to funnel immigrants from Mexico and Central America to ports of entry along the border, where they will be allowed to apply for asylum “in an orderly and controlled manner [...]
The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ordered on Wednesday that boards of elections in Ohio must count 2018 midterm votes from certain Ohio residents who were previously purged from state voter rolls. In Ohio, voters who fail to cast a ballot for two years will have notices repeatedly sent to them. If they [...]
