Over the years, Texas legislators have declined to pass at least three bills that would create siren or alert systems, a tool that Kerr County officials tried to secure for years before the July 4 flooding.
law
You gotta wonder when their story keeps changing…
Before the #Trump admin began attacking people suspected of smuggling drugs at sea, #Defense Secy Pete #Hegseth approved contingency plans for what to do if an initial strike left #survivors, acc/to multiple #US ofcls.
#law #criminal #murder #WarCrimes #ExtrajudicialKillings #Congress #Carribean #InternationalLaw
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/us/politics/trump-boat-strikes-survivors.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share
Edited 39d ago
The DOJ has halted lawsuits accusing Louisiana of keeping prisoners locked up long after they were meant to be released and South Carolina of institutionalizing thousands of mentally ill people — sometimes for decades — in violation of federal law.
#Law #DOJ #CivilRights #Prison #Louisiana #SouthCarolina #MentalIllness #News
Edited 165d ago
When a well-off, widely respected pillar of the community and member of the hospital’s board can’t get the care he needs at the town’s only hospital, it raises the question: Who can?
https://projects.propublica.org/albany-georgia-hospital/part-five/?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
He Spent Funds Meant for Native Hawaiians on Polo and Porsches. The Federal Government Failed to Stop Him.
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A small business program allowed Christopher Dawson to win big contracts if he promised to uplift Native Hawaiians. Instead, federal prosecutors allege, he used the money to line his own pockets.
https://www.propublica.org/article/hawaii-sba-native-indigenous-nonprofit-oversight?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Hawaii #Indigenous #Native #Nonprofit #Government #Law
“You Feel Like You’re Being Cheated”: Oil Companies Unfairly Take Millions, North Dakota Mineral Owners Say
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Oil companies are holding back a large portion of revenue payments to the people they lease drilling rights from, often with little explanation. But the industry has an outsize influence in the state, and public officials have refused to take action.
https://www.propublica.org/article/north-dakota-mineral-owner-royalty-deductions?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Trump’s War on Big Law Means It’s Harder to Challenge the Administration
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Some of America’s largest law firms are refusing to take pro bono and paid legal work from groups that seek to hold the government to account on issues like environmental protection, LGBTQ+ rights and police accountability.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-law-firms-accountability-environment-police-lgbtq?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Law #Trump #LGBTQ #Environment #CriminalJustice #Nonprofit
All kinds of awful.
"I am the lawyer for a multinational group active in the energy sector that intends to displace a small Amazonian indigenous community from their territories in order to build a dam and a hydroelectric plant."
https://futurism.com/leaked-chatgpt-lawyer-displace-amazonian
Frustrated by oil companies mysteriously withholding large amounts of royalties, North Dakota mineral owners lobbied for change.
Instead, lawmakers provided an oversight program that, owners say, fails to address the issue it was created to solve.
https://www.propublica.org/article/north-dakota-oil-gas-oversight-mineral-rights?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
America’s Largest Landlord to Stop Using RealPage Rent-Setting Software, Makes Deal With DOJ
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Greystar, which manages nearly 950,000 apartments, has agreed to stop using “anti-competitive” algorithms to suggest rents. ProPublica previously showed how such software lets landlords set rents in a way that could result in cartel-like behavior.
Trump’s Own Mortgages Match His Description of Mortgage Fraud, Records Reveal
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The administration has argued that Fed board member Lisa Cook may have committed mortgage fraud by declaring more than one primary residence on her loans. We found that Trump once did the very thing he claimed could be a crime.
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-mortgage-fraud-florida-principal-residences?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Texas Private Schools Hire Relatives and Enrich Insiders. Soon They Can Do It With Taxpayer Money.
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An investigation by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune found more than 60 instances of nepotism, self-dealing and conflicts of interest among 27 private schools that likely would have violated state laws had the schools been public.
https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-vouchers-private-schools-conflicts-of-interest?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Education #Texas #School #Law #Ethics #Students #Teaching
The #LawsOfWar Are Being Largely Ignored
#International #courts have never been busier. Conflicts are more common than at any point since 1945. Ever more #civilians are being bombed, #starved & #raped by men with guns. These are the curses that the laws of war were invented to prevent, & that international courts are meant to punish & deter.
#law #InternationalLaw #ICC #ICJ #CrimesAgainstHumanity #WarCrimes #geopolitics #RulesBasedOrder #NewWorldOrder
https://www.economist.com/international/2025/08/05/why-the-laws-of-war-are-widely-ignored
Edited 159d ago
“I hope that the people in North Dakota wake up and realize how much money should be in their pockets instead of industry’s pockets,” said Tom Huber, leader of West Virginia’s royalty owner association.
https://www.propublica.org/article/north-dakota-oil-mineral-rights-comparison?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Trump’s DOJ Pressured Lawyers to “Find” Evidence That UCLA Had Illegally Tolerated Antisemitism
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“The end goal was never to conduct a thorough, unbiased investigation,” said one DOJ lawyer. “The end goal was to file a damn complaint — or have something to threaten the university.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/ucla-antisemitism-investigation-trump-doj?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #UCLA #College #DOJ #Trump #USPolitics #Law #Palestine #Protest
Immigrants in Alabama Can Face Harsher Sentences Than Citizens for the Same Crimes
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A review of more than 100 court cases found some immigrants saw harsher punishments, even when they have fewer prior convictions. Defendants in these cases said they believe their citizenship status tipped the scales of justice against them.
https://www.propublica.org/article/immigrants-alabama-harsher-sentences-citizens?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Alabama #Law #Immigration #Crime #Justice #Immigrants
Pam Bondi Dismissed Charges Against a Surgeon Who Falsified Vaccine Cards. It Emboldened Others With Similar Cases.
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A Utah surgeon’s victory in a vaccine fraud case has encouraged other “medical freedom” advocates to consider seeking leniency for similar charges. “This undermines every layer of the system that protects us from infectious disease,” an expert said.
https://www.propublica.org/article/pam-bondi-fake-covid-vaccine-cards-kirk-moore?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #COVID #Vaccines #Fraud #Law #Health #PublicHealth #Utah #PamBondi
Sept. 11 Victims’ Lawsuit Against Saudi Government Can Go to Trial, Judge Rules
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More than two decades after victims and families of the 9/11 attacks began trying to hold the Saudi government responsible for aiding the Qaida terrorists who carried out the plot, a judge has ruled that a lawsuit against the kingdom can go to trial.
What One Man’s 45-Year-Old Case Tells Us About the “Jim Crow Juries” Haunting Louisiana
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Today, a split verdict would mean a mistrial. But in 1980s Louisiana, when nonunanimous juries were still legal, 19-year-old Lloyd Gray, a Black man, was sentenced to prison for life — even though the only two Black jurors had voted not guilty.
https://www.propublica.org/article/lloyd-gray-louisiana-split-juries-history?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
Judge rules #Trump troop deployment in #LA #illegal
The federal judge found that the deployment exceeded legal limits that generally prohibit the use of the #military for domestic law enforcement.
The Trump admin illegally used thousands of military #troops in #California, a federal judge said on Tues, in a ruling that accused Trump of effectively turning nearly 5k #Marines & #NationalGuard soldiers into a national police force.
#law #PosseComitatusAct #MilitaryState
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/us/judge-ruling-trump-national-guard-los-angeles.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
New records show that Uvalde school leaders initially planned to defend Police Chief Pete Arredondo after the Robb Elementary shooting.
The details were revealed in over 25,000 pages the district released after a legal fight with news outlets.
https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-pete-arredondo-new-records?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#Connecticut DMV Committee Expands Study of Towing Law to Help Low-Income Residents Get Their #Cars Back
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The working group was created as part of a towing reform law passed in response to a ProPublica and Connecticut Mirror investigation into towing practices in the state.
A fabulous baseball/legal rabbit warren I stumbled upon last night—while watching the incredible Dodgers-Orioles game—into which one can dive and spend hours better understanding both baseball and law, amongst various and sundry related (and wholly unrelated) time-wasting matters[1]:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Common_Law_Origins_of_the_Infield_Fly_Rule
1. I found myself sorely tempted to footnote much of the foregoing, but somehow managed to resist.[2]
2. Note 1 supra.
Edited 127d ago
#Judges vexed by #SCOTUS '#ShadowDocket' rulings in #Trump cases
An extraordinary fight is occurring within the #US #judiciary concerning a flurry of #SupremeCourt decisions backing Trump, with judges voicing confusion over the rulings issued on an emergency basis while a Trump-appointed justice accused some of them of defying the nation's top judicial body.
#law #Constitution #democracy #PartisanCourt #ActivistCourt #FederalistSociety #HeritageFoundation #LeonardLeo
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/judges-vexed-by-supreme-court-shadow-docket-rulings-trump-cases-2025-09-10/
Edited 124d ago
A County’s Move to Protect Domestic Violence Victims Is Spreading Across Tennessee After Legislative Delay
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Judges across Tennessee are now demanding greater accountability from people who have been ordered to give up their guns, a shift aimed at strengthening protections for domestic violence victims.
https://www.propublica.org/article/tennessee-guns-dispossession-domestic-violence-impact?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post
#News #Tennessee #DomesticViolence #Violence #Guns #Safety #Women #Law