US

NEW YORK, September 8, 2022 – New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg today announced the indictment of Stephen K. Bannon, 68, and his Florida-based not-for-profit corporation We Build the Wall, Inc. (We Build the Wall) for a year-long fundraising scheme in which they defrauded thousands of donors across the […]

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was more than a monarch. She defined an era. In a world of constant change, she was a steadying presence and a source of comfort and pride for generations of Britons, including many who have never known their country without her. An enduring admiration for Queen Elizabeth II united people […]

This week, we begin a new phase in our COVID-19 response. We are launching a new vaccine – our first in almost two years – with a new approach. For most Americans, that means one COVID-19 shot, once a year, each fall. Starting this week, at tens of thousands of convenient pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and […]

OLYMPIA, WA, September 6, 2022 — A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit unanimously affirmed that Washington state’s law protecting minors from conversion therapy is constitutional and may be enforced, holding:  “In relying on the body of evidence before it as well as the medical recommendations of expert organizations, the Washington Legislature rationally acted by amending […]

Washington — A New Mexico judge ordered Otero County Commissioner Couy Griffin be removed from office, effective immediately, ruling that the attack on the Capitol was an insurrection and that Griffin’s participation in it disqualified him under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. This decision marks the first time since 1869 that a court has disqualified […]

SAN FRANCISCO, September 1, 2022 – Millions of Americans’ everyday movements can be traced by police with the click of a mouse and possibly without a warrant, thanks to a data broker that’s selling phone geolocation data to state and local law enforcement, an Electronic Frontier Foundation investigation has found.  The investigation, conducted by a […]

My fellow Americans, please, if you have a seat, take it. I speak to you tonight from sacred ground in America: Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is where America made its Declaration of Independence to the world more than two centuries ago with an idea, unique among nations, that in America, we’re all created […]

August. 29, 2022 – The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against data broker Kochava Inc. for selling geolocation data from hundreds of millions of mobile devices that can be used to trace the movements of individuals to and from sensitive locations. Kochava’s data can reveal people’s visits to reproductive health clinics, places of worship, […]

This weekend saw a series of tragic shootings across the country — many of which were deadly. Early Saturday morning in Kentucky, seven people were shot and wounded outside of the Lexington Legends baseball stadium — just one of at least three shootings that took place across the city that night. On Sunday in Texas, three people […]

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Working Group applauds the Environmental Protection Agency for today proposing to designate the two most commonly detected toxic “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances under the Superfund law. The designation of these two PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, as hazardous will jumpstart the cleanup process at contaminated sites across the country, including military installations. It […]

Washington, DC—Time and time again, we learn that individuals who have committed violent acts against others—whether it be a spouse, a parent, or the 21 schoolchildren and teachers gunned down this year in Uvalde, Texas—also have a history of abusing animals. The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is grateful to Reps. Katherine Clark (D-MA), John Katko […]

BATON ROUGE, La. August 24, 2022 — Louisiana’s Office of Juvenile Justice (OJJ) will pause its plan to move youth from a juvenile facility to the Louisiana State Penitentiary, known as Angola. The pause comes as a result of a federal lawsuit filedlast Friday by attorneys representing youth who were in imminent danger of being […]

August 24, 2022 – Today, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) announced a final extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections through December 31, 2022. Borrowers should plan to resume payments in January 2023. While the economy continues to improve, COVID cases remain at an elevated level, and the President has […]

Brooklyn (NY) – First Street Foundation released their peer-reviewed extreme heat model along with the implications highlighted in The Sixth National Risk Assessment: Hazardous Heat. The report identifies the impact of increasing temperatures at a property level, and how the frequency, duration, and intensity of extremely hot days will change over the next 30 years […]

OAKLAND, August 16, 2022 – California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 21 attorneys general in filing an amicus brief in support of the federal government’s motion for preliminary injunction to stop enforcement of Idaho’s near total ban on abortion. The brief, filed in United States of America v. Idaho, […]

August 16, 2022 – The relative teacher weekly wage penalty between teachers and their non-teacher counterparts grew to a record 23.5% in 2021, according to a new Economic Policy Report. This gap in pay, when adjusted for education, experience, and demographic characteristics, has been worsening over time, hurting students in public education by undermining teacher retention […]

Washington, D.C. — The States United Democracy Center and Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD) today submitted a bar complaint to the District of Columbia’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) requesting that the ODC open an investigation into John Eastman’s assistance in former President Trump’s attempts to discredit and overturn the 2020 election results. The complaint […]

August 12, 2022 – The Senate-passed Inflation Reduction Act includes funding to help the IRS shrink the roughly $600 billion annual gap between taxes legally owed and taxes paid — a gap that disproportionately reflects high-income people’s noncompliance with the nation’s tax laws. The funding would raise $204 billion through 2031, for net savings of […]