Justice Department Launches Investigation into Rhode Island for Race-Based Employment Preferences in Violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation into the State of Rhode Island (“Rhode Island”) concerning potential race-based discrimination in state employment practices. The state of Rhode Island mandates state agencies set hiring targets that are effectively race-based employment quotas.[1] These statutorily mandated goals pressure state agencies to engage in discriminatory, and potentially unlawful, hiring practices. The Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section opened the investigation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which…
US plans to close Chemical Safety Board by October
The Trump administration has proposed to shut down the US Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), an independent federal agency charged with investigating industrial chemical accidents and developing recommendations to prevent their recurrence. The government wants the agency’s $14 million (£10 million) budget should be withdrawn by 30 September, before the start of the next fiscal year. The CSB should only have access to funds needed to ‘carry out the closure of the Board,’ the White House said. The…
NSF chemistry funding faces 75% cut under Trump budget request
The Trump administration has released more details of its budget request for the 2026 financial year and the picture for research is even worse than the ‘skinny’ budget released last month. Funding for chemistry from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the maths and physical sciences programme is projected to plummet by 75%, from more than $244 million (£180 million) last year to just over $61 million. Materials research would be cut by 71% to $92 million. And maths and…
CEO of Health Care Software Company Convicted of $1B Fraud Conspiracy
A federal jury convicted the CEO of Power Mobility Doctor Rx, LLC (DMERx) for his role in operating a platform that generated false doctors’ orders to defraud Medicare and other federal health care benefit programs of more than $1 billion. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Gary Cox, 79, of Maricopa County, Arizona, and his co-conspirators targeted hundreds of thousands of Medicare beneficiaries who provided their personally identifiable information and agreed to accept medically unnecessary orthotic braces,…
Did the Feds Label You a Covid “Violent Extremist?”
Biden administration policy-makers hated you more than you knew. From the start of the Covid pandemic, I warned that the feds were vilifying anyone who failed to kowtow to the latest commands. In October 2023, I wrote: “Federal bureaucrats heaved together a bunch of letters to contrive an ominous new acronym for the latest peril to domestic tranquility. The result: AGAAVE—’anti-government, anti-authority violent extremism’—which looks like a typo for a sugar substitute. The FBI vastly expanded the supposed AGAAVE peril by…
Dozens of Palestinians massacred at US-Israel backed food distribution sites
Jerusalem – Dozens of Palestinians were killed and hundreds more injured today, 1 June, as they waited for food at the newly created Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centres in Rafah and close to the Netzarim Corridor, according to the Ministry of Health. Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams joined the mass casualty response in Nasser hospital, Khan Younis. Patients told MSF they were shot from all sides by drones, helicopters, boats, tanks and Israeli soldiers on the ground. “Today’s…
US government to ‘aggressively revoke’ Chinese students’ visas
The Trump administration has escalated its attacks on US research universities by announcing that it will begin revoking visas for Chinese students. If fully implemented, the new policy would have a significant impact on the research community, with more than 277,000 Chinese students enrolled at US universities in the 2023–2024 academic year, according annual data compiled by the Institute of International Education. The figure represents almost a quarter of the international students studying in the US. ‘Under President Trump’s leadership,…
DOJ in talks to drop criminal prosecution against Boeing
The United States Department of Justice is in talks to drop a criminal prosecution against Boeing (BOE, Washington National) stemming from two fatal B737 MAX crashes, according to a May 18 court filing. Instead, the DOJ says the matter is likely to be resolved through a settlement that will not result in a criminal conviction. Multiple outlets reported on a May 16 meeting between the DOJ and law firms representing some of the 346 people killed in the crashes in 2018 and 2019. Boeing faces…
Texas alleges BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard used their holdings in coal companies to reduce U.S. coal production
Today, the Justice Department, joined by the Federal Trade Commission (the “Agencies”) filed a statement of interest in the Eastern District of Texas in the case of Texas et al. v. BlackRock, Inc. The States’ lawsuit—led by the Texas Attorney General—alleges that BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard used their management of stock in competing coal companies to induce reductions in output, resulting in higher energy prices for American consumers. This is the first formal statement by the Agencies in federal…
Gaza being deliberately asphyxiated by Israeli forces
As part of the expansion of their ground operations, Israeli forces have issued widescale evacuation orders, further limiting people’s access to medical care and MSF’s ability to provide it. On 19 May, for example, an evacuation order covering almost the entire eastern part of Khan Younis, at the edge of Nasser hospital, forced people to immediately move towards Al-Mawasi area. The Site Management Cluster estimates that over 138,900 people were forcibly displaced between 15-20 May. The intensified Israeli bombardments and evacuation…
Canada Moves to Take Ownership of Stranded Russian Cargo Plane, Hand It to Kyiv
Canada is moving forward with a legal bid to gain full possession of a Russian Antonov An-124 cargo plane and potentially hand it over to Ukraine, the country’s foreign ministry has said. The Antonov An-124 — the world’s largest mass-produced cargo aircraft — has been stranded at Toronto Pearson International Airport for over three years due to airspace restrictions that Canada imposed due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “The Attorney General of Canada commenced forfeiture proceedings by seeking the…
Ukraine, U.S. Sign Minerals Deal, Tying Trump to Kyiv
Trump had originally sought $500 billion in mineral wealth — around four times what the United States has contributed to Ukraine since the war. U.S. presence against ‘bad actors’ Trump has balked at offering security guarantees to Ukraine and has rejected its aspiration to join NATO. But Trump said on Wednesday that a U.S. presence on the ground would benefit Ukraine. “The American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out…
U.S. Attorneys for Southwestern Border Districts Charge More than 990 “Illegal Aliens”
Since the inauguration of President Trump, the Department of Justice is playing a critical role in Operation Take back America, a nationwide initiative to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN). Last week, the U.S. Attorneys for Arizona, Central…
Rubio calls US NATO allies ‘a bunch of junior partners’
The US secretary of state has urged member countries to increase defense spending US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has renewed pressure on NATO members to increase their defense contributions, describing the current arrangement within the military bloc as the US and “a bunch of junior partners.” While being part of NATO is in the US’ interests, its members must shoulder their share of the responsibilities, otherwise it’s not really an alliance, but a “dependency,” he told The Free Press…
Canada’s Role in a Shifting Global Order — with Mark Carney | Prof G Conversations
Mark Carney, Canada’s 24th Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, joins Scott to discuss the country’s economic outlook, how Canada fits into a shifting global order, and whether the U.S.-Canada relationship can be repaired amid rising trade tensions.
Gaza has become a mass grave for Palestinians and those helping them
MSF considers that only international and independent investigations can bring to light the circumstances of, and the responsibilities for, these attacks on aid workers. Although the situation has already been catastrophic for over 18 months, over the past three weeks, MSF has witnessed several incidents involving the killing of humanitarian and medical workers. The coordination of humanitarian movements with Israeli authorities, known as the Humanitarian Notification System, an already imperfect mechanism, has become more unreliable and is now barely affording…
