Month: March 2024

President Joe Biden and House Republicans said in separate statements on Tuesday that they have struck a deal on a government funding agreement for the rest of the fiscal year. Neither publicly announced details of the deal. It remains unclear if Congress will have enough time to pass the proposal before Saturday and avert a partial government shutdown this weekend. Congress needs to beat a Saturday morning deadline for the State, Defense, Homeland Security, Labor and Health and Human Services departments to keep operating; however, Republicans remain deeply divided and will likely need Democrat votes to pass, possibly putting Johnson’s job as speaker in jeopardy. The House is not expected to vote until the end of the week.

Biden said in a statement that an agreement had been reached, urging lawmakers to move as swiftly as possible to get the bill to his desk: “We have come to an agreement with congressional leaders on a path forward for the remaining full-year funding bills. The House and Senate are now working to finalize a package that can quickly be brought to the floor, and I will sign it immediately.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that negotiators had reached a deal and that some major hurdles had been resolved, in particular funding the department of homeland security through the rest of the fiscal year. Johnson said on X: “An agreement has been reached for DHS appropriations, which will allow completion of the FY24 appropriations process. House and Senate committees have begun drafting bill text to be prepared for release and consideration by the full House and Senate as soon as possible.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on X that both chambers were moving forward, with some details being worked out: “Senate and House leaders and the White House have reached an agreement to finish the final set of full year appropriations bills. The Senate and House Appropriations Committees are in the process of finalizing text and reports for Congress to closely review and consider ASAP.”

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A New York state judge has ordered that lawsuits against Reddit and Google’s YouTube can more forward, seeking to hold the social media platforms responsible for helping enable the avowed white supremacist who killed 10 Black people in 2022 at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store.

Justice Paula Feroleto of the Erie County Supreme Court said that the 25 plaintiffs can proceed with their lawsuit that is alleging that the social media platforms were designed to addict and radicalize users, which in turn gave the shooter, Payton Gendron, knowledge of the equipment and training needed for the mass shooting at Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, NY. Gendron, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, pleaded guilty to charges including murder and terrorism motivated by hate. He was sentenced in February 2023 to life in prison without parole, and also faces federal charges. The U.S. Department of Justice said in January it plans to seek the death penalty.

The civil lawsuits were filed by the gun control advocacy group Everytown Law; executive director Eric Tirschwell said: “We must hold accountable every single bad actor that prepared and equipped the shooter to target and kill members of Buffalo’s Black community.”  The 25 plaintiffs included store employees and customers who witnessed the May 14, 2022, shooting, and the son of one of those killed. Reddit and YouTube had sought a dismissal to the lawsuit, stating that they merely host third-party content and are not liable under a federal law governing such content: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, or the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. However, the judge said the plaintiffs can attempt to show Reddit and YouTube owed them a duty because their platforms were defective and led to injuries, adding that the mental distress that many witnesses suffered justified their pursuit of negligence-based claims.

Reddit said in a statement that hate and violence have no place on its platform, and that they continue to evaluate means to remove such content. YouTube spokesman Jose Castaneda said that they will appeal the decision, while expressing its “deepest sympathies” for attack victims and their families

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Attorneys for former President Donald Trump said in a court filing on Monday that he has not been able to get a bond to secure the $464 million civil fraud judgment against him.  Trump’s lawyers said he needs to post a bond for the full amount by next week in order to stop New York Attorney General Letitia James from being able to collect while he appeals, but they have not had any success getting a bond.

The filing said: “Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility.’ These diligent efforts have included approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers. Their efforts, including “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world,” have proven that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented.”

The filing added that other bond companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral and will only accept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities),” and also noted those companies typically “require collateral of approximately 120% of the amount of the judgment” totaling @ $557 million. In addition, sureties would likely charge bond premiums of approximately 2 percent per year with two years in advance—an upfront cost over $18 million .. the actual amount of cash or cash equivalents required ‘to collateralize the bond and have sufficient capital to run the business and satisfy its other obligations’ approach[es] $1 billion.”

In a filing last month, Trump’s lawyers asked that the bond amount be reduced to $100 million, but Monday’s filing argues he shouldn’t have to put up any bond at all.  His attorneys are now arguing that the $464 million penalty is “grossly disproportional” and cited the argument that “there are no victims, as there were no damages and no financial losses.”

Trump also asked that if the state Appellate Division denies his request, they enter a temporary stay so he can try to make his case to the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. A 30-day automatic stay of the judgment handed down by Judge Arthur Engoron is set to expire March 25, at which point James would be clear to start seizing Trump’s assets unless the appeals court steps in.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday announced a comprehensive ban on using and importing cancer-causing asbestos, a carcinogen still used in some vehicles and in some industrial facilities and other products in the U.S.  The new rule would ban chrysotile asbestos, the only ongoing use of asbestos in the United States. The substance is found in products such as brake linings and gaskets and is used to manufacture chlorine bleach and sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan called the final rule a major step to protect public health: ““The science is clear – asbestos is a known carcinogen that has severe impacts on public health, that’s why EPA is so proud to finalize this long needed ban on ongoing uses of asbestos. With today’s ban, EPA is finally slamming the door on a chemical so dangerous that it has been banned in over 50 countries. This historic ban is more than 30 years in the making, and it’s thanks to amendments that Congress made in 2016 to fix the Toxic Substances Control Act.” 

The final rule marks a major expansion of EPA regulation under a landmark 2016 law that overhauled regulations governing tens of thousands of toxic chemicals in everyday products, including substances such as asbestos and trichloroethylene that for decades have been known to cause cancer yet were largely unregulated under federal law. Known as the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, the law was intended to clear up a hodgepodge of state rules governing chemicals and update the Toxic Substances Control Act, a 1976 law that had remained unchanged for 40 years.

Raw chrysotile asbestos was imported into the U.S. as recently as 2022 for use by the chlor-alkali industry, which makes asbestos diaphragms to make sodium hydroxide and chlorine, used to disinfect drinking water and wastewater. It is also used to make aftermarket automotive brakes and linings and other vehicle friction products, as well as sheet gaskets. Eight such plants remain in the U.S.

The EPA banned asbestos in 1989, but the rule was largely overturned by a 1991 court decision that weakened the EPA’s authority under TSCA to address risks to human health from asbestos or other existing chemicals. The 2016 law required the EPA to evaluate chemicals and put in place protections against unreasonable risks.

Exposure to asbestos has been linked to cases of lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer and laryngeal cancer, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year. The EPA said the announcement is part of President Joe Biden’s Cancer Moonshot, a whole-of-government initiative to end cancer in the U.S.

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