Oakland's Community Police Review Agency - a civilian-run bureau that investigates allegations of police misconduct - has appointed a new executive director. Antonio Lawson, who most recently served as the agency's interim executive director, officially assumed the role on Feb. 17, Police Commission Chair Ricardo Garcia-Acosta announced in a press release Thursday. The Community Police Review Agency, widely known as CPRA (pronounced "sip-ruh"), is the investigative arm of the Police Commission, a civilian and volunteer body tasked with overseeing the Oakland Police Department.
Do not use any information from a non-government source (e.g., an NGO, even if it is or has been funded by the U.S. government, or media) that advances policies inconsistent with presidential executive orders, including promotion of 'racial justice,' 'diversity, equity, and inclusion,' and gender ideology, the cable says, per . The department deems such sources not to be credible, the cable goes on. The extraordinary instruction could be applied widely, as Politico points out. Many major human rights groups like Amnesty International tout their investment in initiatives like DEI, as do many large news outlets like The New York Times.
A group of civil rights organizations and U.S. citizens is suing the State Department over its sweeping suspension of immigrant visa processing for people from 75 countries, arguing the new policy attempted to "eviscerate decades of settled immigration law." The Trump administration's visa ban, which went into effect on Jan. 21, affects countries including Afghanistan, Somalia, Brazil, Colombia, Thailand, Russia and Cambodia, and is intended to stem immigration from nations "whose migrants take welfare from the American people at unacceptable rates."
In an attached letter to the complaint, filed with the District Court Litigation Division, Johns details the extent of Bautista's injuries, saying he was "quickly unable to breathe because of the chemical agent and believed he would die from asphyxia," and he "experienced trouble breathing following the assault, and he continues to experience severe trauma from the memory of the assault and his fear that he would die."
On May 28, 2024, Lenore Elfand, the owner of Empire Cannabis Club, an unlicensed dispensary in New York's Chelsea neighborhood, received a frantic call from an employee. NYPD officers and deputies from the city's Sheriff's Office were lined up at the door, poised to raid the shop. Elfand said in an affidavit that when her security guard insisted on filming, officers placed him in handcuffs, killed the security cameras, and stormed in.
A Lexington father is suing the town's school district and some of its leaders, alleging they stonewalled his attempts to excuse his kindergartener from lessons featuring LGBTQ themes that conflict with his Christian values. The parent, referred to as "Alan L." in the Oct. 17 complaint, specifically pointed to picture books depicting same-sex couples and their children - classroom instruction he says is "unmistakably normative and contradicts his family's faith by normalizing and celebrating LGBTQ relationships and identities."
It was late Sunday evening when President Donald Trump got thumped with a court loss again by California. No, a federal judge ruled, Trump cannot command the California National Guard to invade Portland, Ore. At the request of California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta and others, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut broadened a temporary restraining order that had blocked Oregon's National Guard from being used by the federal government.
Simpson Thacher worked with the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of Black civic leaders in a case challenging district maps in Mississippi Supreme Court elections, the article reports. U.S. District Judge Sharion Aycock of the Northern District of Mississippi ruled Aug. 19 that the map diluted the votes of Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
