House passes bill to crack down on gasoline ‘price gouging’
A closely divided House approved legislation Thursday to crack down on alleged price gouging by oil companies and other energy producers as prices at the pump continue to soar.
Federal Government
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Indiana Southern District criminal chief recognized for legal achievements, proven character
Indiana Southern District U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division chief Cindy Cho is committed to the Department of Justice’s mission to do justice through the law — so much so that her desire to become a federal prosecutor dates back as far as her memory serves.
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‘Ordered freedom’: AG Rokita sets agenda focused on ‘liberty’
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita recently sat down with Indiana Lawyer to answer questions about his first 100 days in office and his agenda for the next four years.
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Innovation needed to bridge patent diversity gap, attorneys say
A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate in March seeks to quantify the lack of diversity among patent holders. The Inventor Diversity for Economic Advancement Act of 2021 — or IDEA Act — would require the USPTO to collect inventors’ demographic information, including race and gender.
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Fighting for love: Immigration attorneys say challenges for unmarried couples rise amid COVID
Immigration attorneys say international couples attempting to reunite during the pandemic are feeling desperate as borders between countries are closed to foreigners and backlogs continue to mount.
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Articles
Lawsuit alleges Clay Co. misappropriating funds from ICE, detention contract should be terminated due to poor conditions
Calling the agreement to hold U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at the local jail a “cash cow,” a federal lawsuit alleges Clay County officials are unlawfully diverting funds required to care for ICE detainees to unrelated county expenses.
For Supreme Court justices, secrecy is part of the job
Supreme Court justices have long prized confidentiality. It’s one of the reasons the leak of a draft opinion in a major abortion case last week was so shocking. But it’s not just the justices’ work on opinions that they understandably like to keep under wraps.
US quietly expands asylum limits while preparing to end them
The Biden administration has begun expelling Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico under pandemic-related powers to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum, expanding use of the rule even as it publicly says it has been trying to unwind it, officials said Wednesday.
Hundreds of urban areas to become rural under new criteria
Hundreds of urban areas in the U.S. are becoming rural, but it’s not because people are leaving.
Indianapolis Immigration Court opening in 2023
On April 19, Gail Montenegro, the Executive Office of Immigration Review’s Midwest regional public information officer, confirmed to Indiana Lawyer that an immigration court will open in Indianapolis in 2023. The court will have around 40 employees, including judges, she said.
Federal judiciary’s workplace conduct committee issues additional recommendations for improvement
A working group created at the height of the #MeToo movement to address workplace conduct within the federal judiciary has released additional recommendations for improvement in a new report.
Feds will appeal mask ruling only if mandate still needed
The Justice Department said Tuesday it will not appeal a federal district judge’s ruling that ended the nation’s federal mask mandate on public transit unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes the requirement is still necessary.
Appeals court OKs Biden federal employee vaccine mandate
President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 was upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court.
Battle heats up over remaining federal rental assistance
States in recent months returned tens of millions of dollars in unused rental assistance because they have so few renters.
Madeleine Albright, 1st female US secretary of state, dies
Madeleine Albright, a child refugee from Nazi- and then Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe who rose to become the first female secretary of state and a mentor to many current and former American statesmen and women, died Wednesday of cancer, her family said. She was 84.
Biden to nominate ex-IUPUI chancellor Paydar for education department job
Nasser Paydar, who spent seven years as chancellor of IUPUI before retiring March 1, is set to be nominated by President Joe Biden for assistant secretary for postsecondary education in the Department of Education, the White House announced last week.
High court reverses decision allowing Muslims’ FBI bias suit
The Supreme Court sided unanimously with the Biden administration Friday and reversed a lower court decision that had allowed a lawsuit to go forward by Muslim men claiming FBI religious bias. But the justices’ limited decision did not end the case, and the men and their lawyers said they would continue to pursue their lawsuit.
State of the Union: Biden vows to halt Russia, hit inflation
Addressing a concerned nation and anxious world, President Joe Biden vowed in his first State of the Union address Tuesday night to check Russian aggression in Ukraine, tame soaring U.S. inflation and deal with the fading but still dangerous coronavirus.
Families of American captives frustrated with Justice Dept.
When relatives of American oil executives jailed in Venezuela met virtually with a senior Justice Department official this month, it didn’t take long for their frustrations to surface.
Bankruptcy filings fall again in 2021, holding off expected ‘wave’
Bankruptcy filings fell again in 2021, dropping 24% nationwide, according to newly released data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.
How’s he doing? Americans weigh in on Biden’s performance
President Joe Biden took office at a particularly polarized time in American history, so it’s not surprising that citizens are divided on his performance at the one-year mark.
After Biden’s first year, the virus and disunity rage on
For President Joe Biden, it’s been a year of lofty ambitions grounded by the unrelenting pandemic, a tough hand in Congress, a harrowing end to a foreign war and rising fears for the future of democracy itself. Biden did score a public-works achievement for the ages. But America’s cracks go deeper than pavement.
Supreme Court skeptical of Biden’s workplace vaccine rule
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared skeptical Friday of the Biden administration’s authority to impose a vaccine-or-testing requirement on the nation’s large employers. The court also was hearing arguments on a separate vaccine mandate for most health care workers.
Biden and Congress mark 1 year since violent insurrection
President Joe Biden on Thursday marked the first anniversary of the U.S. Capitol insurrection, the violent attack that has fundamentally changed Congress and raised global concerns about the future of American democracy.