Minnesota’s $5 billion case over 3M chemicals is halted
A judge halted jury selection Tuesday in the trial of Minnesota’s $5 billion lawsuit against manufacturer 3M Co., and both sides planned an afternoon announcement signaling a possible settlement. The lawsuit, filed in 2010, focuses on the company’s disposal of chemicals once used to make Scotchgard fabric protector and other products. The state alleges 3M damaged Minnesota’s natural resou[...]
AT&T targets Trump role in Time Warner battle
AT&T Inc. is pursuing an unprecedented strategy of injecting politics into the fight to salvage its planned takeover of Time Warner Inc. by threatening to call the head of the U.S. Justice Department’s antitrust division to testify about his decision to sue to block the merger. AT&T believes Trump and the head of the division, who previously worked at the White House and was appointed[...]
Judge rules against Trump on immigration program
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump’s administration didn’t offer “legally adequate reasons” for ending a program that spared many young immigrants from deportation if they were brought to the U.S. as children, a judge ruled Tuesday as he ordered the program to continue. U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis in Brooklyn said in a written order that the Republican president “indispu[...]
Court hears challenge to federal marijuana laws
NEW YORK — Army veteran Jose Belen says the horrors of the Iraq War left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and the drug that helped him cope best with the symptoms was one his Veterans Affairs doctors could not legally prescribe: marijuana. “Once I did use cannabis, immediately I felt the relief,” said Belen, who is now working with other medical marijuana users to mount a long-shot[...]
Trump fights releasing details on monument decision
BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. government says it does not have to release documents involving legal arguments for President Donald Trump’s decision to shrink national monuments because they are protected presidential communications. The Department of Justice made a more detailed request of a federal judge in Idaho last week to dismiss a lawsuit from an environmental law firm, one of several tied [...]
Wisconsin counties use stun cuff to control defendants
By FRANK SCHULTZ Janesville Gazette JANESVILLE, Wis. — Rock County Deputy Bryan Hanthorn is one of the few people who has worn a stun cuff and experienced the 50,000 volts the device can deliver. Hanthorn said the jolt focuses the mind on one thing only: how to get the device off. Hanthorn had it strapped to his arm, but it’s usually fastened to the legs of defendants. “It l[...]
Massachusetts court: Do you know this justice?
BOSTON — A man’s portrait has hung for years outside the chambers of the chief justice on Massachusetts’ highest court. The problem? No one knows who he is. It’s a mystery that has stumped officials at the Supreme Judicial Court for more than a decade. Now they’re turning to the public for help in cracking the case of the unknown justice. “I basically said, listen, if we have not[...]
9/11 conspirator claims ‘psychological torture’
OKLAHOMA CITY — The only person convicted in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is suing President Donald Trump over conditions at a federal prison, where he alleges he experiences "psychological torture" while kept in total isolation. Zacarias Moussaoui, 49, has filed handwritten petitions in federal courts in Oklahoma and Colorado in which he accuses federal[...]
How ban affected trusted traveler program
U.S. Customs and Border Protection removed more than 400 people from “Trusted Traveler” programs in January 2017 following President Donald Trump’s first, and most extreme, version of a travel ban aimed at people from seven majority-Muslim nations, according to a legal advocacy group’s analysis of government emails. The CBP actions arose from an executive order that initially included[...]
Airport agents to get training after lawsuit
FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A wooden box carried an eagle feather and bone whistle, a gourd rattle and a feather fan — items that carry spiritual energy and are used in Native American religious ceremonies. The man holding the box asked security agents at the San Antonio International Airport to allow him to display the items so their energy wouldn’t be polluted. The agents declined, roughly handl[...]
Alabama sued in transgender driver’s license case
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Three transgender individuals filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Alabama saying the state won’t allow them to change the gender listing of their driver’s licenses without proof that they’ve undergone surgery. The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the plaintiffs, said the requirement to show proof of sex-altering surgery is an unconstitutional violatio[...]
Analysis: No clear health impact from 3M chemicals
A new analysis by the Minnesota Department of Health finds drinking water contaminated by 3M Co. apparently has not caused higher rates of cancer or low birth weights in parts of Washington County compared with the rest of the state. The Star Tribune reports the results were released Wednesday before the state's lawsuit against 3M goes to trial next week. Those results contradict the conclusion[...]
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