Federal Government

Illegal trafficking of animals is becoming a growing issue in global trade

Efforts by the Obama administration in recent months to focus on illegal trafficking of wildlife and related activities undermining wildlife conservation have not received widespread attention. But that could change in the near future. The under-the-radar nature of the issue may help explain why only a dozen people attended a…

Aug 7, 2014 11:16 PM CDT

James Brady, gun-control advocate wounded in ‘81 attack on President Reagan, dies at 73

James Brady, a former White House press secretary who became a prominent advocate for gun control after he was severely wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, died Monday following what his family described as a series of health issues. He was 73 years old. The attack…

Aug 4, 2014 8:25 PM CDT

Ginsburg says she’s not retiring and asks: Who would you rather see on the court than me?

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is defending her plans to remain on the bench with a question. In an interview with the Associated Press, Ginsburg, 81, asked: “So who do you think could be nominated now that would get through the Senate that you would rather see on the court than…

Aug 4, 2014 1:51 PM CDT

Obama nixes LGBT discrimination by federal contractors; there is no religious exemption

Resisting pressure to include a religious exemption, President Barack Obama on Monday signed an executive order banning discrimination by federal contractors based on employees’ sexual orientation or gender identity. “I firmly believe that it’s time to address this injustice for every American,” Obama told those present, Politico reports. His order…

Jul 21, 2014 7:33 PM CDT

FTC sues Amazon, says it let kids make in-app purchases that ran up big bills for parents

The Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon on Thursday. The agency contends that the online retail giant violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by allowing children playing games such as Angry Birds and Ice Age Village to make in-app purchases that ran up a big bill for their parents, without their…

Jul 11, 2014 12:49 PM CDT

Transgender federal workers will be protected from discrimination by executive order, Obama says

President Obama announced on Monday that he will sign an executive order that bans discrimination against transgender employees in the federal government. The announcement follows Obama’s disclosure earlier this month that he will sign an executive order banning federal contractors from discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity, report…

Jul 1, 2014 12:02 PM CDT

Massachusetts SWAT teams claim immunity from open records laws

Some Massachusetts police departments belong to regional law enforcement councils that claim to be private corporations not subject to the state’s open records law, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. Such claims have helped stymie the ACLU’s efforts to study police militarization in the state, the Washington Post’s The…

Jun 30, 2014 10:14 PM CDT

Hundreds of Nebraska inmates released early due to sentence miscalculations, officials say

More than 300 Nebraska prison inmates have been freed prematurely due to a miscalculation of their sentences, state officials acknowledge. Forty-one of those inmates are in the process of being rounded up to serve out the rest of their sentences, the Omaha World-Herald reports. More than 250 others whose sentences…

Jun 30, 2014 9:12 PM CDT

Howard Baker, former US senator, White House chief of staff and practicing lawyer, is dead at 88

Howard Baker Jr., a longtime Republican leader in the U.S. Senate who also took the helm at the White House and steered President Ronald Reagan into calmer waters as chief of staff for a 17-month period during the late 1980s, has died. He was 88 years old. Perhaps best-known for…

Jun 26, 2014 7:05 PM CDT

SCOTUS strikes down Obama’s recess appointments made during three-day recess

The U.S. Supreme Court has struck down President Obama’s three recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, made during a short break between pro forma sessions of the Senate. In his opinion (PDF) for the court on Thursday, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Obama lacked the power to make…

Jun 26, 2014 2:14 PM CDT

House speaker says he will sue Obama over executive orders

House Speaker John Boehner says he is planning to file a lawsuit challenging President Barack Obama’s use of executive orders. Boehner told reporters Wednesday that Obama is encroaching on powers of the legislative branch, report CNN, Washington Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire column. “The…

Jun 26, 2014 11:15 AM CDT

‘Lawful conduct of war’ analysis in DOJ memo justified killing of US citizen in Yemen

The September 2011 killing of a U.S. citizen in Yemen in a targeted drone strike was determined to be justified, in a prior U.S. Department of Justice legal memo, as “lawful conduct of war.” Released Monday in a redacted version by the DOJ, the memo says the strike was authorized…

Jun 23, 2014 7:59 PM CDT

Citing his own law school debt, Obama expands repayment caps on student loans

President Barack Obama has signed an executive order expanding a 2010 law that capped student-loan repayments for newer government-backed loans at 10 percent of the borrower’s monthly income. Obama announced his action on Monday, citing his own experience with law school loans paid off just 10 years ago. The goal…

Jun 10, 2014 12:45 PM CDT

White House says notice law didn’t apply in ‘unique circumstances’ of detainee swap

The White House is offering an explanation for President Obama’s decision to authorize a detainee swap freeing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl without notice to Congress. A federal law requires the secretary of defense to give Congress 30 days’ notice before transferring Guantanamo Bay detainees. But a statement released by National Security…

Jun 4, 2014 12:10 PM CDT

Legal ethics may be the only surviving Watergate reform, John Dean tells Techshow audience

“How in God’s name could so many lawyers get involved in something like this?” That was the question former White House counsel John Dean wrestled with during his 1973 testimony before the U.S. Senate committee as he blew the whistle on President Richard Nixon and his administration for crimes relating…

Jun 1, 2014 8:20 AM CDT