Legal
Legal matters are a core focus for local and state government agencies, encompassing the creation, interpretation, and enforcement of laws and regulations that govern public affairs. Legal frameworks ensure that government actions are consistent with the rule of law and protect citizens’ rights. Though by no means a perfect system – enforcement inequities continue to make the headlines – local leaders strive to create laws that work fairly for all.
Several northeast Ohio departments will continue to screen for marijuana, as the law permits employers to bar applicants who use it
The 2022 shooting left both officers wounded; one has not returned to police work
The lawsuit was filed by three academy graduates from 2017 and 2018 on behalf of their whole classes
State legislators had rejected an amendment allowing the use of public assistance IDs, which District Court Judge Loretta Biggs described as “particularly suspect”
“We are ending the 50-year-long war on cannabis,” Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement. “We are restoring rights to many tens of thousands of Illinoisans.”
Birmingham firefighter Gary Michael Horsley Jr. says in his lawsuit filed last week that the station has reopened despite safety concerns.
All three measures declare that any gun-removal order from another state or a federal court are null and void, and no state or local agency could accept federal grants that require such orders to be enforced.
The Associated Press provides an overview of the new laws set to take effect around the country in regard to electric vehicles, police use-of-force, opioids and more.
The 2016 agreement with the Justice Department required several changes, including doubling the number of defense attorneys available to represent indigent youths and ensuring that defense lawyers were appointed in a timely manner and properly trained.
A federal lawsuit filed this week by several cities, counties and groups accuses the Army Corps of Engineers and commission of violating federal law by opening the spillway more frequently in response to increased rainfall, spewing polluted river water across the region in the process.
The ruling leaves the 31-year-old former officer as the sole defendant in the suit, which argues she used excessive force and that better police training could have prevented Botham Jean’s death.
The city’s police chief calls the cameras in street lights ‘a game changer.’ Critics aren’t so sure, especially given that the program was introduced as a way to save energy and money instead of a way to collect data in public spaces.
Before the 2016 presidential election, when Russian state hackers targeted voting systems across the country, the job of local election officials could have been described as akin to a wedding planner, who keeps track of who will be showing up on Election Day and ensures all the equipment and supplies are in place. Not any more.
A federal judge has ordered the city of Gardendale, Alabama, to pay nearly $740,000 in legal fees to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and another $106,400 in expenses for its 2014 attempt to create a predominantly white school district within city limits.
Across the country, district attorneys are increasingly taking a progressive approach to criminal justice
Police yellow tape and makeshift memorials with flowers, stuffed animals and balloons have become common in some neighborhoods of this deeply segregated city.
Many law enforcement agencies in small communities across the United States are facing questions about how aggressively they pursue reports of sexual violence
State Farm, the largest in the state, Allstate and other insurers declined to renew roughly 350,000 policies in areas at high risk for wildfires since 2015, the California Department of Insurance said back in August.
Just 9% of wage earners in the bottom 25% have access to paid family leave, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares to 30% of wage earners in the top 25%
