A US military spokesman said Thursday that a hunger strike of prisoners at the US terror-suspect detention camp at Guantanamo Bay has entered its second month. Some prisoners are now being force-fed via tubes and through medical assistance. The number of hunger strikers has risen to 87 – a week ago, before new hunger strikers [...]
In Thursday's environmental law news, California has joined 14 other states suing the US Department of Energy (DOE) , alleging that the agency is 6 to 13 years behind schedule in updating efficiency standards for some household and commercial appliance categories and has failed to issue any new efficiency standards at all since January 2001. [...]
On a visit to the stricken Gulf Coast region with Vice President Dick Cheney, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Thursday outlined priorities for a new Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force set up in the Justice Department to deter, investigate and prosecute disaster-related federal crimes like charity and insurance fraud, identity theft, and government benefit fraud. [...]
US Immigration Judge Kenneth Hurewitz has ruled that Basuyouy Mamdouh Ebaid should not be deported because he would likely be tortured in his native Egypt. Ebaid was found on a terrorist watch list for praising Osama bin Laden and suicide bombers after police arrested him for selling liquor to minors in his restaurant. Although Ebaid [...]
Swiss authorities have announced that they are investigating four people in connection with the now defunct UN Oil-for-Food program , all of whom are suspected of money laundering and bribery. The four suspects have not been identified, but are said to be non-Swiss citizens who have had their assets in Swiss bank accounts frozen. AP [...]
Leading Thursday's states brief, the Washington Supreme Court ruled today that lawmakers did not violate the state constitution or a teacher-pay initiative by eliminating state financing for one of three paid non-classroom "learning improvement days." The lawsuit, filed by the Washington Education Association and teachers and taxpayers from several districts, argued that the move violated [...]
The Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice on Thursday sued the National Association of Realtors , claiming the organization blocked competition by allowing real estate agents to withhold listings from brokers who utilized the Internet when providing customer service. Though the association announced a modified approach Thursday, the new steps failed to fend [...]
The US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York on Thursday made public a complaint seeking over $1 million in fines against American Airlines . The complaint alleges that a Federal Aviation Administration inspector observed the airline as it violated numerous federal air-safety regulations and "endangered the life and property" of passengers when [...]
The US Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to allow high ranking members within the group to subpoena certain information from companies sued over asbestos claims. Committee leaders Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and the ranking Democrat on the panel, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) , have been asking for more data from the industry for [...]
A Texas grand jury has indicted a political action committee formed by US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and a Texas business group on charges relating to campaign contributions for DeLay's 2002 congressional campaign, though DeLay himself was not charged. Texans for a Republican Majority was charged with illegally accepting a $100,000 political contribution, and [...]
