The EPA has no mandatory duty to require disclosure of “inert” ingredients in pesticides, even if those ingredients qualify as hazardous chemicals under separate statutes, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said during a hearing Wednesday. The Center for Environmental Health and Physicians for Social Responsibility sued the EPA a year ago, claiming it shirked its duty under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).   read more

The American Immigration Council sued Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for information on what it has done in the two years since records revealed that it took “no action” in 97% of cases accusing its agents of abuse. It seeks documents relating to complaints made against Customs and Border agents since January 2012, and the process the agency uses to investigate and resolve these complaints.   read more

Davontae Sanford, a 14-year-old, told Detroit police officers after hours of questioning that he had killed four people in a shooting a few blocks from his house. The teenager, who had quickly recanted, was sentenced to up to 90 years in prison and remained behind bars even after a Detroit hit man admitted to having committed the killings with a second man. But on Tuesday, after eight years of court battles and a reinvestigation of the case, Sanford was ordered released.   read more

The increase in these secret operations, which put operatives in the middle of purported plots, has little public or congressional scrutiny. Agents have helped people suspected of being extremists acquire weapons, scope out bombing targets and find the best routes to Syria to join ISIS. Defense lawyers, Muslim leaders and civil liberties advocates say the FBI coaxes suspects into doing things they might not otherwise do. “They’re manufacturing terrorism cases,” said former FBI agent German.   read more

The primary ingredient is intended to control diarrhea. But abusers sometimes try to achieve heroin-like highs by taking massive doses, up to 300 milligrams at once. Recommended doses range between 8 mg and 16 mg per day. The FDA warned doctors and patients Tuesday that the drugs can cause potentially deadly heart problems when taken at higher-than-recommended levels. The agency has received 31 reports of people hospitalized, including 10 deaths over the last 39 years.   read more

If you’ve come to rely on opioids for chronic pain, as a growing proportion of older adults has, you may have noticed that the drugs are becoming more difficult to get. How do you balance the need to relieve pain against the possibility that potent, habituating drugs can also sabotage people’s health, particularly when older people are more vulnerable than the young to opioids’ side effects? “It’s this enormous conundrum,” said Dr. McPherson. "We do need to rein this in."   read more

Lawmakers hope to extend a ban on moving detainees to U.S. soil. That would leave the president with no way to make the January deadline. The White House may try to persuade lawmakers that the prison is too costly to sustain. Law professor Kassem said the renewed administration interest in closing the prison is hard to take seriously now: "Those efforts and that kind of resolve should have been shown over the course of the eight years of the Obama administration and not in its final moments."   read more

The Education Dept report found 6.5 million students nationwide were chronically absent in the 2013-14 school year. That's more than one out of every ten students missing at least three full weeks of school. It's the first time the department has collected student absenteeism data. On a positive note, the survey found a significant drop in school suspensions for K-12 students, down nearly 20%. But, the report also suggests sharp disparities between how black and white students are disciplined.   read more

Some agencies said they thought they were reporting, even though they were not, and some thought they didn't have to file reports because they hadn't investigated any hate crimes. Others that oversee jails might have assumed they were exempt. "If these crimes are never really counted, it's a way of saying they are not important," said Mark Potok with the Southern Poverty Law Center. "For many black people, it's another form of being victimized. It's a way of saying your life doesn't matter."   read more

It's the first time the government has recommended such limits. The guidelines are voluntary, so food companies won't be required to comply, and it could be a year or more before they are final. "It's disappointing that the FDA is only proposing targets and not formal limits, but in this political climate with a Republican Congress and such massive industry opposition, we're gratified that the administration is at least coming out with voluntary targets," Jacobson said.   read more

Few of those interviewed were concerned that video coverage would affect participants' behavior, privacy or security. Instead, the majority of judges and attorneys who spoke to the GAO feared video coverage would result in the media distorting portions of the arguments, especially if a judge's statement is taken out of context. Video-editing distortions of Supreme Court cases could be especially severe, due to the hotly disputed issues the high court handles.   read more

The utility's latest warning comes amid an ongoing lawsuit against 3M and other companies along the Tennessee River, blaming them for polluting the river with industrial chemicals. The scare comes as other states are dealing with serious water-contamination issues: In Flint, Michigan, tests found lead in tap water earlier this year. In West Virginia, lawsuits and an investigation are ongoing over the release of toxic chemicals into the Elk River in 2014.   read more

The guidelines provide a framework for FBI testimony involving seven types of forensic evidence, including body fluid, fingerprints and footprints. They seek to inject a more realistic measure of doubt in courtroom testimony. No longer, for instance, would FBI forensic witnesses be allowed to testify that there was a “zero error rate” in comparing one fingerprint to another or that one sample of blood was a certain match to another.   read more

Inslee, who has called climate change "the single most important issue of our time," has gained national attention on environmental issues but so far has failed in his own state to pass ambitious carbon-reduction proposals, including a plan to charge polluters a fee for emissions. Frustrated by inaction in the Legislature, Inslee last year used his executive authority and directed state regulators to limit carbon pollution under the state's Clean Air Act.   read more

The commander who left Camp 7 in May insisted that Ramzi bin al Shibh has not faced an "eight-year-long conspiracy" of harassment. The testimony contradicts statements by alleged al-Qaida member Hassan Guleed in support of bin al Shibh's claims. Guleed, who has been held at Guantanamo since 2006 without charge, said he has experienced the same noises and vibrations in the camp bin al Shibh routinely reports. "We have mental torturing in the Camp 7," Guleed said Thursday in the courtroom.   read more

Drugs and alcohol subtracted about 4 months from white life expectancy, according to the report. Increasing suicides had the second largest negative impact. Alzheimer's disease was third, reducing longevity by about 3 weeks. Experts point to whites' easier time getting access to the powerful painkillers, and that they may more quickly turn to suicide because often they don't have the kind of family and social support often seen in black and Hispanic communities.   read more