JUIRST Guest Columnist Bruce Ledewitz discusses the potential implications of courts taking a stand on gerrymandering…. The unseemly haste of the recently elected Democratic Party majority on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has undermined the impact of a path breaking decision to void Pennsylvania’s current congressional district map as an unconstitutional political gerrymander under the State [...]
A new report by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and National Election Watch (NEW) on Monday reveals that 11 of the 31 chief ministers of the various states and union territories of India, representing 35 percent of the chief ministers, have declared criminal charges against themselves in self-sworn affidavits. The chief ministers represent the [...]
Four survivors of a church massacre that occurred during the Liberian civil war filed a civil suit in US court Monday against the commander of the armed forces allegedly responsible for the massacre. The suit, brought in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania , alleges that Moses Thomas commanded forces at [...]
An associate of South Korea’s impeached former president Park Geun-hye’s, Choi Soon-sil, was sentenced to 20 years and fined 18 billion won (USD $17 million) for abuse of power and bribery, among other crimes. The sentence was handed down from the Seoul Central District Court . Choi was unheard of until late 2016 when it [...]
A British judge upheld an arrest warrant for Julian Assange, who has spent more than five years hiding inside Ecuador’s embassy in London. The WikiLeaks co-founder breached bail conditions and sought refuge at the embassy in 2012 to avoid an arrest warrant from the Swedish Prosecutor’s Office regarding two separate sexual assault claims. Though prosecutors [...]
The African National Congress (ANC) , the governing political party in South Africa, called Tuesday for South African President Jacob Zuma to step down. The call for resignation comes amidst corruption allegations against Zuma and social and economic issues such as unemployment, economic stagnation and water shortages. The president had previously agreed to resign offering [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday unsealed an indictment against five Venezuelan officials for allegedly participating in an international bribery and money laundering scheme involving Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA), a state-owned oil and natural gas company. The indictment alleges that the defendants, including the deputy energy minister, were known as a “management [...]
The US Department of Justice (DOJ), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) said Monday they had reached a settlement with Shell Chemicals LP over the alleged Clean Air Act (CAA), National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAPs) and Louisiana state law violations committed by failing to properly operate [...]
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Monday that it has filed a complaint against the three biggest dental supply companies, “alleging that they violated U.S. antitrust laws by conspiring to refuse to provide discounts to or otherwise serve buying groups representing dental practitioners.” The dental supply companies, Benco, Henry Schein and Patterson, are full-service [...]
Human Rights Watch urged Liberia’s new president George Weah in a letter Monday to investigate and prosecute atrocities committed during Liberia’s recent civil wars. Liberia experienced civil war from 1989-1996 and 1999-2003. HRW reports that during the civil wars, “Liberian citizens were subjected to horrific abuses including summary executions; numerous large-scale massacres; widespread and systematic [...]
