Articles

Senate panel approves Trump’s attorney general nominee

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved William Barr’s nomination for attorney general along party lines Thursday, with Republicans praising his credentials and Democrats questioning how transparent he’ll be once special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation concludes. The vote now heads to the full Senate, where Barr is expected to be confirmed in a vote as soon as next week.

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Indiana, Ohio leading 6th Circuit appeal supporting law regulating Kentucky abortion clinics

The Hoosier state has filed its second abortion-related appeal this week, this time urging a federal appeals court to uphold states’ authority to regulate abortion clinics. Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill joined forces with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to lead a 16-state coalition in favor of a Kentucky law requiring abortion clinics to maintain transfer-and-transportation agreements with local hospitals and ambulance services.

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Senate panel set to approve Trump’s attorney general nominee

The Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to approve William Barr’s nomination to be attorney general Thursday in a vote that is likely to be mostly along party lines as Democrats have questioned how transparent Barr will be once special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation concludes.

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Indiana appeals 18-hour ultrasound injunction to U.S. Supreme Court

Indiana is again appealing to the Supreme Court of the United States to overturn a preliminary injunction blocking a state abortion law, this one requiring women to get an ultrasound at least 18 hours before the procedure. The provision was included in House Enrolled Act 1337, which was signed into law by then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2016.

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Creation of agency settlement fund rankles Indiana AG

Indiana’s attorneys general have long participated in and even led multistate settlement work, but statutory language quietly slipped into the biennial budget during the 2017 legislative session has changed where the state’s portion of the money goes. And Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill’s office says the switch has curtailed the investigations it can now pursue.

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Judge reinstates credit time after DOC withholds potentially exculpatory evidence

An inmate who was one of more than 1,000 inmates in the Department of Correction with the last name “Taylor” has been granted habeas relief from a prison disciplinary proceeding, with a judge finding the man was denied due process when DOC officials failed to explain how he was selected as the correct “Taylor” in the proceedings.

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Trump says release of Mueller report up to attorney general

President Donald Trump says it’s “totally up to” his attorney general whether the public gets to read special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia report. Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said last week the probe is “close to being completed.”

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Indiana, Kentucky join Planned Parenthood’s western alliance

Planned Parenthood’s affiliate overseeing Hawaii and three western states announced Friday that it was adding Indiana and Kentucky, a first-of-its-kind consolidation based not on geography but on reallocating resources to fight new abortion restrictions in the Midwest and South. The arrangement places Indiana and Kentucky under a Seattle-based affiliate that currently oversees clinics in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho and Washington.

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Trump, Pelosi remain far apart on border wall issue

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has declared that there’ll be no “wall money” in any compromise border security deal as she and President Donald Trump signaled congressional negotiators may never satisfy his demands for his Southwest border proposal.

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Prosecutor: New charges possible in Russia probe leak case

New charges and arrests are possible in the prosecution of a U.S. Treasury Department employee accused of giving a journalist confidential banking reports related to special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Treasury worker Natalie Edwards, 40, is awaiting trial on charges she gave a BuzzFeed journalist reports about wire transfers made by Paul Manafort and other suspects in Mueller’s investigation.

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Stone heads to court; Mueller cites potential evidence trove

Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone is due back in court Friday in the special counsel’s Russia investigation as prosecutors say they have recovered “voluminous and complex” potential evidence in the case, including financial records, emails and computer hard drives.

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Pursuit of happiness can’t blunt man’s marijuana conviction

A man arrested for smoking a blunt in Indianapolis failed to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that his misdemeanor conviction violated his constitutional rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The appeal also raised the issue of the Hoosier State now being among a minority of states that have yet to legalize marijuana in some form.

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