UN human rights experts called on US officials to end environmental racism in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” on Tuesday, citing concerns over future development plans that could double the already elevated risk of cancer for area residents. Cancer Alley, which encompasses most of the St. James Parish, gets its name from the increased levels of cancer [...]

The largest power company in Texas filed for bankruptcy Monday following a historic cold snap that caused week-long blackouts and left at least 4.3 million people without power across the state. When temperatures in Texas dropped below freezing and caused power grids to fail, energy providers like Brazos Electric Power Cooperative had to purchase replacement [...]

Representatives of the Western Apache tribe filed an emergency appeal in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent foreign mining company Resolution Copper from destroying the tribe’s sacred land at Oak Flat in Arizona. The copper mining company will take control of the territory in less than [...]

Wanda Cooper, the mother of Ahmaud Arbery, filed a lawsuit against the Glynn County Police Department and the District Attorney’s office Tuesday on the one-year anniversary of his murder. Arbery was shot while jogging by several vigilantes who had been deputized by police. His name became a rallying cry during the 2020 protests against police [...]

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a new memo on Thursday reversing restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removals that were implemented as part of a 100-day freeze on deportations. Shortly after the Biden administration took office, DHS officials issued an order halting deportations of certain undocumented people for 100 days while the [...]

A Tennessee private security company recruiting military veterans to ‘protect’ polls in Minnesota will face new restrictions as part of a settlement with local civic engagement organizations. Two weeks before the November 3 election, The League of Women Voters Minnesota (LWVMN) and the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) filed a lawsuit [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Friday that an Arkansas law prohibiting state contracts with companies that refuse to pledge against boycotts on Israel is an unconstitutional violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The 2017 law prevented contractors from signing deals with the state unless they agreed to abstain from [...]

Homeless advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) on Friday, challenging a rule that “target the manner in which homeless persons use the subway system.” New York advocacy organizations Urban Justice Center (Safety Net Project) and Picture the Homeless seek to block a rule that bans the use of large wheeled [...]

Georgia Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has opened a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Governor Brian Kemp concerning the former president’s request to “find” the votes he needed to win the state. In his January 2 call, Trump made uncorroborated claims about thousands of [...]

Brazilian mining giant Vale Thursday reached a settlement for damages caused by an iron ore waste dam rupture that killed at least 270 people. Several company officials are also charged with murder. The Vale dam burst in January 2019. Without warning, an inundation of toxic sludge buried the mining site’s cafeteria while hundreds of employees were having [...]