Civil Gideon: NJ Court Affords Counsel in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases

OTHERWISE: Civil Gideon: NJ Court Affords Counsel in Child Abuse and Neglect Cases: Civil Gideon - Right to Counsel in Child Abuse Allegation by Division of Children and Families  Almost fifty years ago the New Jersey Su...

Kansas school funding meets constitutional requirements - Kansas Supreme Court

Kansas school funding meets constitutional requirements: 

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled in Gannon v. Kansas that the state legislature's increased spending on education has met constitutional requirements for public school funding.

The Kansas City Star reports that the state "has substantially complied" with court's mandate for additional funding, but the justices also have decided to retain jurisdiction of the case, so they can make sure lawmakers follow through on promises to boost school spending.  

 The court's decision comes after a decade-long lawsuit that sought to force the legislature to add bolster funding for education.

Gov. Laura Kelly called the court’s opinion a victory for Kansas.

Related: Kansas legislature boosts school funding by $500 million over 5 years

“Today is a great day for Kansas and for our kids,” says Kelly, a Democrat who took office earlier this year. “Educating our kids is not just one of the best ways to address challenges facing our state, it’s also our moral and constitutional obligation. Yet for years our leaders failed to meet that obligation.”

READ THE COURT'S OPINION

Guide to the Mueller Report’s Findings on “Collusion” - Ryan Goodman - Just Security

Guide to the Mueller Report’s Findings on “Collusion” - Just Security: Essential reading on the Mueller Report: an annotation plus key findings, drawing on investigative reports and Special Counsel court filings.



by Ryan Goodman

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report focuses only on whether crimes were committed. It addresses two Russian conspiracies to interfere in the 2016 election—one involving a social media influence campaign and the other involving the hacking and dissemination of stolen emails. The Report then addresses whether Trump Campaign associates knowingly entered an agreement with the Russian government to assist those conspiracies.

As many experts have noted, what’s missing from the Mueller Report is the Special Counsel’s counterintelligence findings. We don’t know what the Special Counsel’s Office or the FBI have assessed, for example, with respect to whether Trump associates engaged in reciprocal efforts with Russian agents without entering a criminal agreement to do so, whether Americans have been witting or unwitting Russian assets, and what leverage or influence Moscow may have over particular individuals.

As a shorthand, we may use the term “collusion” to refer to these kinds of activities, which would be implicated in a counterintelligence analysis—though, as Asha Rangappa and I have written, the more analytically precise issues to consider are whether Trump Campaign associates “coordinated with, cooperated with, encouraged, or gave support” to the Russia/WikiLeaks election interference activities. Those are important questions regardless of whether such activities amounted to crimes, regardless of whether individuals’ actions and intentions can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, regardless of whether Americans acted as unwitting Kremlin assets in support of Russian operations, and regardless of whether individuals and organizations can be prosecuted without endangering First Amendment interests.

Although the Mueller Report does not squarely address these questions of “collusion” that fall outside the scope of potential criminal liability, it can be mined for substantive information that provides some meaningful answers.

What follows is a detailed guide to the Mueller Report’s evidence on collusion. The analysis discusses affirmative evidence and countervailing evidence in the Report, references the Special Counsel’s court filings and reliable news reports that help shed additional light on information in the Report, and identifies significant loose ends that the investigation was unable to answer.

A ‘big deal’ or not enough? What to know about the diversity recommendations de Blasio just embraced

A ‘big deal’ or not enough? What to know about the diversity recommendations de Blasio just embraced: Chalkbeat

Despite the soaring rhetoric, the suggestions the city has pledged to adopt don’t come with precise integration goals, changes to any enrollment policies, or a timeline for seeing results.

Mayor Bill de Blasio endorsed a series of recommendations offered by the city’s School Diversity Advisory Group, an announcement that top city officials — and even some integration advocates — heralded as a triumph.

“Today’s a big deal,” Chancellor Richard Carranza said, noting the city had accepted virtually all of the advisory group’s 67 recommendations. It “represents the systemic change that we’ve been yearning for,” said Mark Treyger, chairman of City Council’s education committee.

But despite the soaring rhetoric, the suggestions the city has pledged to adopt don’t come with precise integration goals, changes to any enrollment policies, or a timeline for seeing results.

The initial recommendations made by the advisory group, released in February, did not address some of the most explosive issues — including gifted and talented programs or academic screening — that advocates say are essential in addressing segregation. The education department’s latest announcement sidesteps those issues, too.

Instead, the city has pledged to push schools to be more representative of their surrounding districts and boroughs — with the goal for schools to eventually match citywide demographics. That is a more aggressive target than the city’s previous diversity goals, which experts said were extraordinarily modest. Officials also announced Monday that five additional districts would receive $200,000 each in grant funding to begin the process of crafting hyper-local integration plans.

Some school integration advocates who were part of the diversity advisory group said those efforts represent an important milestone.

“This is more policy that’s been implemented than anywhere in the country I’ve seen voluntarily,” said Matt Gonzales, who supports school integration work through the nonprofit New York Appleseed. “This is a critical step.”

John Oliver on FDA failures re medical devices

https://youtu.be/-tIdzNlExrw

SCOTUS could decide whether 'tender back' rule applies to Title VII, equal-pay claims - Reuters

SCOTUS could decide whether 'tender back' rule applies to Title VII, equal-pay claims - Reuters: The U.S. Supreme Court could soon wade into a circuit split over whether workers who file discrimination lawsuits have to pay back severance or other benefits they previously received in exchange for waiving their right to sue.