Controversies
Senate Committee Releases 8,000 Documents Relating to Camp Lejeune Water Contamination
Having grown tired of the military’s stonewalling, a U.S. senator this week released thousands of documents pertaining to the decades-long water contamination at a key Marine Corps base.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), chairman of the Sen... read more
Obama Administration Slow to Implement Food Safety Law
The White House has been dragging its feet over rules implementing a major food-safety law, according to supporters of the legislation.
With broad bipartisan support, Congress adopted the Food Safety Modernization Act in 2010. The law was in... read more
Update on Georgia’s Imminent Execution of Man Deemed Mentally Disabled
As Matt Bewig has reported on AllGov, on Monday, July 23, the state of Georgia will put to death a mentally retarded man unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes and stays the execution. Attorneys for Warren Hill, a 52-year-old African American ... read more
Obama Administration Declares All Statements by 9/11 Accused “Presumptively Classified”
All statements made by the five Guantánamo prisoners accused of plotting the September 11, 2001, attacks have been classified by the Obama administration, prompting legal challenges from civil libertarians and news organizations.
The order, ... read more
Obama Administration Wants Review of Commutation Request by Clarence Aaron
Clarence Aaron may get a second chance at having his life sentence reduced by the White House.
Convicted in 1993 and sent away for three life terms for his role in a cocaine deal, Aaron was denied commutation by President George W. Bush. But... read more
JPMorgan Accused of Manipulating Power Market
Raising the specter of Enron’s intrusion into the California energy market a decade ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is investigating allegations that JPMorgan Chase & Co. manipulated the state’s market in 2010-2011 for milli... read more
Wells Fargo Gets Away with $175 Million Penalty for Racist Lending Practices
Wells Fargo, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, cheated at least 34,000 minority homeowners during the 2004-2008 housing boom, either charging them more for their mortgages or steering them into risky loans. For these acts of discrimination t... read more
County’s Anti-Foreclosure Plan Upsets Bankers
One of the counties hardest hit by the housing debacle that helped crash the U.S. economy has been quietly considering a plan to use its eminent domain powers to seize underwater mortgages to fight foreclosures.
Banks are not happy with the ... read more
Appeals Court Halts Random Drug Testing of Forest Service Job Corps Employees
Random drug testing of government employees, this time by the U.S. Forest Service, was struck down again recently by a federal appeals court, which called the agency’s policy of drug testing all employees of the Job Corps Civilian Conservation C... read more
Verizon Claims Right to “Edit” What You See on the Internet
Like other Internet service providers, Verizon is fighting to derail the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) rules for network neutrality. But Verizon has set itself apart from other ISPs with its legal arguments for why the FCC’s Open Int... read more
Georgia Considers Defying Supreme Court to Execute Mentally Disabled Murderer
The state of Georgia, which in 1988 became the first state to prohibit executions of mentally disabled convicts, is set this week to execute a death row inmate who has been declared mentally disabled by a state court. Warren Hill, already in pri... read more
OSHA Refuses to Issue Rule Protecting Workers from Extreme Heat
Federal safety experts recommended during the Nixon administration that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issue a rule protecting workers from extreme heat. Forty years later, OSHA still has not done so, even after hundred... read more
Federal Government Sues Texas Agriculture Department for Underpaying Women
The U.S. Department of Justice is taking Texas to court for allowing an agricultural office to pay women significantly less money than their male counterparts.
Three former female employees of the now-defunct Texas Department of Rural Affair... read more
Social Security Administration Failed to Record more than a Million Deaths
The “Death Master File” is once again causing troubles for the Social Security Administration (SSA).
A database listing Americans who have died since the 1960s, the Death Master File is used by the SSA and other federal agencies to determine... read more
Colorado Judge Rules Pesticide Spraying Qualifies as Trespassing
In what could become an important legal precedent, a Colorado judge has ruled that the spraying of agricultural pesticides can be considered a form of trespassing if it impacts neighbors.
Delta County District Court Judge Charles Greenacre r... read more
Lawsuit Challenges Effectiveness of Drug- and Bomb-Sniffing Police Dogs
Canines used by police to sniff out drugs and explosives may not be as reliable as their law enforcement masters claim.
Two Nevada Highway Patrol K-9 troopers and a consultant are suing Las Vegas’ police department, arguing that the dogs’ ha... read more