In the News
The Islamic State terror group is increasingly using encrypted communications to recruit troubled Americans and urge them to carry out attacks, FBI Director James Comey is expected to tell Congress on Wednesday.
Comey's testimony is the latest effort by the Obama administration to pressure Silicon Valley companies to enable law enforcement agencies to continue monitoring communications over devices that are increasingly equipped with high-level encryption.
Jobs, housing and education rights, and a complete ban on “conversion” therapy are among the next agenda items for gay-rights groups and their allies.
There will also be a strong push-back against churches and lawmakers who want to use religious liberty as a way to escape the new laws on gay marriage, a church-state watchdog organization promised Tuesday.
House lawmakers want the public to see a rule the Food and Drug Administration has proposed cracking down on tanning beds.
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) signed by 17 House representatives, said new tanning bed regulations submitted by FDA to OMB are critical in the fight to eradicate skin cancer, one of the most commonly occurring cancers in the U.S.
Voices
One of the barriers to comprehensive immigration reform is the misguided belief that talented foreigners willing to work for less are taking jobs from American workers. To address this problem, some suggest that the number of H-1B visas that allow people with special skills to work here should be reduced. This argument is wrong.
It took barely the first two sentences of Justice Anthony Kennedy's narration of the momentous majority decision on same-sex marriage before the tears came for lead plaintiff, Jim Obergefell. In a widely anticipated 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court held last Friday that marriage equality is now the law in all 50 states.
JACL among groups supporting decision.
Posted On June 29, 2015 Civil Rights, Politics
Rafu Wire and Staff Reports
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision Friday that recognizes same-sex marriage as legal and deems state-level bans on it unconstitutional.
Madeleine Troup, of Houston, wipes tears of joy away Friday after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriages nationwide. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)
Except for some reporters and cameras on the East Front, the Capitol grounds were fairly quiet Friday morning, standing in stark contrast to the electric crowds across the street.
Today, in Michael Ferguson v. JONAH – a case brought by the Southern Poverty Law Center in New Jersey Superior Court against practitioners of so-called “conversion therapy” – the jury found that the defendants providing this dangerous and discredited anti-LGBT practice are guilty of fraud under New Jersey’s consumer protection laws. HRC praised the decision as an important legal victory.
Celeb: Actress Kelly Rutherford might be best known for her role on CW's "Gossip Girl," playing the chic matriarch of an Upper East Side clan prone to affairs, faked deaths and other scandalous dealings. But in recent years, she's been engulfed in her own real-life drama — a high-profile, multi-jurisdictional battle with her German ex-husband for the custody of their two children.
At least two lawmakers received have received notices that their personal data may now be in the hands of hackers believed to be working for China.
June 18, 2015 At least two lawmakers have received notifications from the Office of Personnel Management informing them that their personal data may have been stolen by foreign hackers, marking the latest expansion of a massive data breach that exposed the information of millions of current and former federal employees.