Indiana getting $1 million to help deal with opioid use
The federal government is awarding Indiana more than $1 million to train workers in 25 counties to help deal with widespread opioid use, addiction and overdoses.
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Is Biden overlooking Bureau of Prisons as reform target?
President Joe Biden took quick action after his inauguration to start shifting federal inmates out of privately run prisons, where complaints of abuses abound.
50-year war on drugs imprisoned millions of Black Americans
Fifty years ago this summer, President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs. Today, with the U.S. mired in a deadly opioid epidemic that did not abate during the coronavirus pandemic’s worst days, it is questionable whether anyone won the war. Yet the loser is clear: Black and Latino Americans, their families and their communities.
Legislation approved that would grant LSC $600 million for legal aid
The Legal Services Corporation could get an additional $135 million in its pockets, the largest single increase in the legal aid organization’s history, following an approval of funding legislation by the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations.
Indiana delays unemployment benefits despite judge’s ruling
Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development said Wednesday that it still hasn’t decided how to continue payment of federal unemployment benefits, more than a week after a judge ruled that the state must restart the extra $300 weekly payments to unemployed workers.
Hunt for Capitol attackers still on 6 months after Jan. 6
The first waves of arrests in the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol focused on the easy targets. But six months after the insurrection, the Justice Department is still hunting for scores of rioters.
‘Private right of action’ at heart of unemployment dispute
Before the Indiana Court of Appeals, the governor and a group of unemployed Hoosiers are sparing over whether a state statute is intended to cover the extra unemployment payment provided by Congress to buoy those who lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic.
Federal executions halted; Garland orders protocols reviewed
The Justice Department is halting federal executions after a historic use of capital punishment by the Trump administration, which carried out 13 executions in six months.
Beech Grove man charged with setting Amtrak buildings on fire
A man accused of setting two buildings on fire at the Amtrak facility in Beech Grove last month was arrested Monday on federal criminal charges.
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dies at 88
Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time defense secretary and one-time presidential candidate whose reputation as a skilled bureaucrat and visionary of a modern U.S. military was unraveled by the long and costly Iraq war, died Tuesday. He was 88.
Judge reinstates enhanced payments to unemployed
Finding Indiana state law requires the state to accept the federally-funded enhanced unemployment benefits, a Marion County Court has granted plaintiffs’ request to require the state to resume $300 payments to Hoosiers who lost their jobs because of COVID-19.
Indiana unions sue over yearly hurdle on teacher union dues
Three Indiana teachers unions have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block a new state law that would require educators to renew requests every year for automatic paycheck deductions of union dues.
Biden to sign bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday
The United States is commemorating the end of slavery with a new federal holiday.
Loan relief granted to defrauded for-profit college students
The U.S. Education Department said Wednesday it’s erasing student debt for thousands of borrowers who attended a for-profit college chain that made exaggerated claims about its graduates’ success in finding jobs. The Biden administration said it is approving 18,000 loan forgiveness claims from former students of ITT Technical Institute, a chain that closed in 2016 after being dealt a series of sanctions by the Obama administration.
Emails show Trump pressured Justice Dept. over 2020 election
During the last weeks of his presidency, Donald Trump and his allies pressured the Justice Department to investigate claims of widespread 2020 election fraud that even his former attorney general declared without evidence, newly released emails show.
Justice Department to tighten rules on seizing Congress data
The Justice Department will tighten its rules around obtaining records from members of Congress, Attorney General Merrick Garland said, amid revelations the department under former President Donald Trump had secretly seized records from Democrats and members of the media.
Justice Department will review GOP voting laws
The Justice Department will scrutinize a wave of new laws in Republican-controlled states that tighten voting rules, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday, vowing to take action on any violations of federal law.
Trump DOJ seized data from House Democrats in leaks probe
The Justice Department under former President Donald Trump seized data from the accounts of at least two members of the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 as part of an aggressive crackdown on leaks related to the Russia investigation and other national security matters, according to a committee official and two people familiar with the investigation.
US increasingly unlikely to meet Biden’s July 4 vax goal
For months, President Joe Biden has laid out goal after goal for taming the coronavirus pandemic and then exceeded his own benchmarks. Now, though, the U.S. is unlikely to meet his target to have 70% of Americans at least partially vaccinated by July 4.
US fights ruling to extend SSI benefits to Puerto Rico
The federal government filed a brief late Monday to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing Congress has the authority to withhold Supplemental Security Income benefits from U.S. citizens depending on where they live even as President Joe Biden promised to extend those benefits to Puerto Rico.