Category Archives: Law

Florida: Urge Your Representative to Oppose the Misleading ‘Pet Protection Act’

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Adangerous Florida bill, misleadingly named the “Pet Protection Act” (S.B. 994 / H.B. 849), would nullify important reforms for animals.

Far from “protecting” companion animals, this bill would preempt new local retail sales bans for cats and dogs and stop local governments from enacting additional safeguards against puppy and kitten mills.

Commercial breeding mills prioritize profits over animals’ health and well-being. Pet stores are a common sales venue for puppies and kittens from these operations, and local efforts to ban such sales are an important tool in the fight to stop mill cruelty.

Please use the form below to send a message to your representative, urging them to oppose this harmful bill. Remember, personalizing your message will help it stand out.

Markeith Loyd sentencing: Jury recommends death penalty for convicted cop killer

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“We the jury find the aggravating factors are sufficient to warrant a possible sentence of death … answer yes,” a jury representative stated.

Loyd asked for the judge to sentence him today before he was ordered out of the courtroom. Loyd said, “I love you” to his family before leaving.

Loyd was on the run for the murder of Sade Dixon when he killed Lt. Debra Clayton in January of 2017.

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Los Angeles has turned into ‘The Purge,’ detective warns

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A Los Angeles police detective is warning tourists to stay clear of the city, saying that they will be unsafe, and comparing conditions to the horror movie ‘The Purge.’
“We’re telling people don’t visit because we don’t think we can keep you safe right now,” Los Angeles Police Department detective Jamie McBride told Fox News on Monday.

Police clear a homeless encampment in Harbor City, Los Angeles

The city, he added, is like the movie ‘The Purge,’ a popular horror film set in a US where crime is legal for a set period of time every calendar year. The difference between the movie and the city, however, is that in Los Angeles, criminals have 365 days to run riot, McBride said.

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Professor sues UCLA after refusing to grade Black students more leniently than peers

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An accounting professor at UCLA said he filed a lawsuit against the school after it put him on leave and allegedly threatened to fire him for not grading Black student’s more leniently than their peers.

“Recently, I was suspended from my job for refusing to treat my black students as lesser than their non-black peers,” Gordon Klein wrote in an op-ed titled, “Why I Am Suing UCLA.”

The ordeal began, according to Klein, on June 2, 2020, eight days after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis. A white student emailed Klein asking for a “no harm” final for Black students, meaning low grades would not be counted, in response to “unjust murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.”

Klein described the proposal as “deeply patronizing and offensive” to Black students and said the email left him “shocked.”

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Biden administration unveils details of vaccine mandate covering 84 million workers

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On Thursday, senior Biden administration officials announced details of a highly anticipated mandate requiring U.S. employers with 100 or more workers to ensure employees are either fully vaccinated for COVID-19 or tested each week for the virus.

The officials also unveiled details of a separate mandate that will require employers participating in Medicare or Medicaid to have a fully vaccinated workforce, with no testing alternative.

The first rule covers 84 million U.S. workers, or two-thirds of the U.S. workforce, officials said. That rule, which will be administered by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, will require employees to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.

Employees who aren’t fully vaccinated by Jan. 4 have to produce a verified negative test to their employers every week and begin wearing a mask at work as of Dec. 5. Workers who test positive for COVID-19 or receive a diagnosis from a licensed health care provider have to be removed from the workplace. The rule doesn’t require employers to pay for the tests, though agreements with unions might require employers to cover the bill.

Starting Dec. 5, the OSHA rule will require covered employers to provide workers with paid time time off to receive vaccinations, as well as sick leave to recover from vaccination side effects that preclude working.

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Markeith Loyd’s murder trial begins today

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Jury selection to be made in shooting death of Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton

More than four years after authorities say Markeith Loyd shot and killed Orlando police Lt. Debra Clayton and was captured following a massive manhunt, his first-degree murder trial in her killing will start today with jury selection.

It will be the second time that Loyd, 45, faces the possibility of being sentenced to death. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2019 for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend Sade Dixon and her unborn child, but he avoided capital punishment after jurors recommended he be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors say Loyd gunned down Clayton Jan. 9, 2017, at a Walmart on Princeton Street after she tried to arrest him for killing Dixon in December 2016

Florida State Rep. files Texas-style anti-abortion bill

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State Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deltona

State Rep. Webster Barnaby, R-Deltona, filed a proposal Wednesday that aims to follow Texas’ lead in blocking physicians from performing abortions if there is a “detectable fetal heartbeat.”

The 40-page proposal (HB 167), dubbed the “Florida Heartbeat Act,” would require doctors to test for fetal heartbeats, which can occur six weeks into pregnancy. If heartbeats are detected, doctors “may not knowingly perform or induce an abortion” on pregnant women, under the proposal.

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John MacArthur’s Church to Receive $800K COVID-19 Settlement

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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to authorize a $400,000 payment to settle a legal battle with Grace Community Church over lead pastor John MacArthur’s defiance of COVID-19 restrictions in the early months of the pandemic.

This agreement, county officials said, was reached in the context of the US Supreme Court’s decision in February that told California it couldn’t enforce a ban on indoor worship because of the coronavirus pandemic. LA County modified its health order and lifted the indoor worship ban after the ruling.

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Minimum Wage in America: How Many People are Earning $7.25 an Hour?

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President Biden Proposed raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15.00/hour as part of his $1.9 billion stimulus plan.

Americans have debated where to set the federal minimum wage for decades. President Joe Biden’s proposed stimulus plan aims to increase the federal minimum to $15 an hour, more than doubling the current wage of $7.25. Currently, wages vary by state, with some cities mandating more than double the federal minimum and other states with requirements below $7.25. Employees covered by both state and federal minimum wage laws are entitled to the higher of the two minimums.

How many people earn the federal minimum wage?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 1.6 million workers, or 1.9% of all hourly paid, non-self-employed workers, earned wages at or below the federal minimum wage in 2019. That year, 82.3 million people were paid hourly rates, making up 58.1% of all wage and salary workers in the United States.

Fewer Americans today make the federal minimum wage or less.
In 1980, when the federal minimum wage was $3.10 ($9.86 in 2019 dollars), 13% of hourly workers earned the federal minimum wage or less. Today, only 1.9% of hourly workers do. The number of federal minimum wage workers has decreased from 7.7 million in 1980 to 1.6 million in 2019. This is partly due to states establishing higher minimum wages than the federal level.

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