Recent Updates
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Federal Judge rules California assault weapons ban unconstitutional
Courts and the Judiciary 10/20/2023A federal judge who previously overturned California’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons did it again on Thursday, ruling that the state’s attempts to prohibit sales of semiautomatic guns violates the constitutional right to bear ar...
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McCarthy juggles a government shutdown and a Biden impeachment inquiry
Courts and the Judiciary 09/12/2023House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a man who stays in motion — enthusiastically greeting tourists at the Capitol, dashing overseas last week to the G7 summit of industrial world leaders, and raising funds back home to elect fellow Republicans to t...
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Lawyers claim cable TV and phone companies also responsible in Maui fires
Courts and the Judiciary 09/06/2023After a visit to a warehouse where Hawaiian Electric Company is housing power poles and electrical equipment that may be key to the investigation of last month’s devastating fires on Maui, lawyers for Lahaina residents and business owners told ...
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Some states reject federal money to find and replace dangerous lead pipes
Courts and the Judiciary 08/22/2023As the Biden administration makes billions of dollars available to remove millions of dangerous lead pipes that can contaminate drinking water and damage brain development in children, some states are turning down funds.Washington, Oregon, Maine and ...
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Abortion messaging roils debate over Ohio ballot initiative
Courts and the Judiciary 07/25/2023The fraught politics of abortion have helped turn an August ballot question in Ohio that would make it harder to change the state constitution into a cauldron of misinformation and fear-mongering.State Issue 1, the sole question on the ballot, calls ...
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Man gets life sentence for raping 9-year-old Ohio girl
Courts and the Judiciary 07/06/2023A man who confessed to raping and impregnating a 9-year-old Ohio girl has been sentenced to life in prison in a case that became a national flashpoint on abortion rights because the girl had to travel out of state to end the pregnancy.Gerson Fuentes,...
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Judge allows North Carolina’s revised 12-week abortion law to take effect
Courts and the Judiciary 07/02/2023A federal judge ruled on Friday that nearly all of North Carolina’s revised 12-week abortion law scheduled to begin this weekend can take effect, while temporarily blocking one rule that doctors feared could expose them to criminal penalties.Th...
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Court sides with Jack Daniel’s in dispute with makers of dog toy
Courts and the Judiciary 06/24/2023The Supreme Court on Thursday gave whiskey maker Jack Daniel’s reason to raise a glass, handing the company a new chance to win a trademark dispute with the makers of the Bad Spaniels dog toy.In announcing the decision for a unanimous court, Ju...
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Federal court sides with lobster fishers in whale protection case
Courts and the Judiciary 06/17/2023A federal appeals court has sided with commercial fishermen who say proposed restrictions aimed at saving a vanishing species of whale could put them out of business.The fishermen harvest lobsters and crabs off New England and oppose tough new restri...
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Families sue to block Idaho law barring gender-affirming care for minors
Courts and the Judiciary 06/03/2023The families of two transgender teenagers filed a lawsuit Thursday to block enforcement of Idaho’s ban on gender-affirming medical care for minors.The ban, which was signed into law in April and scheduled to take effect in January 2024, violate...
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Tunisian court releases prominent radio director from prison
Courts and the Judiciary 05/29/2023Tunisia’s most popular private radio station said an appeal court has allowed its director to be released on bail from prison, after more than three months of detention.Mosaique FM announced Wednesday that its director, Noureddine Boutar, was f...
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Adnan Syed’s lawyer appeals to Maryland Supreme Court
Courts and the Judiciary 05/25/2023Adnan Syed’s lawyer asked Maryland’s highest court on Wednesday to overturn a lower court’s ruling that reinstated his murder conviction from more than two decades ago — after he was freed last year in a legal case that gained...