National Roundup

California
Judge: State can’t require cancer label for weed killer
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California can’t require a cancer warning label on Roundup, the world’s most widely used weed-killer, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. District Judge William Shubb issued a permanent injunction against the labeling, saying the state couldn’t meet a legal standard for such a requirement, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

California requires warning labels on cancer-causing products under the state’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, approved by voters in 1986.

The state wanted to label products containing glyphosate — the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup — because of a 2015 finding by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, that glyphosate was a probable cause of cancer in humans.

But Monsanto sued and in 2018 Shubb temporarily blocked the warning label. In issuing Monday’s permanent injunction, the judge said the state can only require a private company to change its label if the statement is “purely factual and non-controversial.”

Shubb said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and similar agencies in Europe haven’t found a connection between the chemical and cancer.

“The great weight of evidence indicates that glyphosate is not known to cause cancer,” the judge said.

The decision is “a very important ruling for California agriculture and for science,” Monsanto said in a statement.

Last year, the Trump administration said it wouldn’t approve warning labels for products that contain glyphosate because its research showed the chemical poses no risks to public health.

Monsanto contends the product is safe but is facing thousands of lawsuits. Cancer victims in Northern California have won nearly $200 million in awards in three lawsuits, including a couple last year who were awarded about $2 billion. That award was later reduced to $87 million.

The verdicts are being appealed.


Maryland
Baltimore firm to pay nearly $1M in case of discrimination
BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge ordered a Baltimore-based contractor to pay employees nearly $1 million in back wages and damages for race and gender discrimination as well as physical abuse.

WMS Solutions, an asbestos removal staffing firm, was ordered Monday to pay more than $960,000 to resolve a 2015 lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Labor alleging harassment and discrimination against Hispanic workers, The Baltimore Sun reported.

The judge found the company violated federal equal employment opportunity rules between early 2011 and the beginning of 2012 by using race and ethnicity as a “determining factor” to intentionally hire Hispanic workers over those of other races, the newspaper said.

Once hired, some employees reported to managers that they had been struck with objects, dragged and punched in the face and chest at work sites, according to the judge’s order.

The firm was also accused of giving women lower-paying jobs and paying them less per hour than male workers.

“The harassment reported by the employees working for WMS was horrific,” said Oscar L. Hampton III, the Labor Department’s regional solicitor.

WMS Solutions was working on projects involving the General Services Administration, National Institutes of Health and the Navy when the discrimination and harassment happened, The Sun previously reported.

Illinois
Woman claiming breast cancer, other issues accused of fraud
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — A southern Illinois woman who allegedly lied about having muscular dystrophy and other health issues in order to obtain financial assistance and other benefits pleaded not guilty Monday to federal charges.

Sarah Delashmit, 35, of Highland entered her plea to wire fraud, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gilbert Sison, who released her on own recognizance and ordered to surrender her passport.

Delashmit, who was indicted in March, is accused of faking illnesses to attend Camp Summit in Dallas, which serves people with muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy, between October 2015 and March 2016. She allegedly used another person’s identity and provided that person’s Social Security benefit statements as proof of income.

The indictment states Delashmit also falsely claimed she was a breast cancer survivor from October 2017 to March 2018 to go on a trip and receive donated items through Young Survival Coalition, a New York City nonprofit organization. She also received a new bicycle and cycling equipment through the organization’s Tour de Pink Survivor Bike Program.

Delashmit’s next court appearance will be Aug. 13 at the U.S. District Courthouse in Benton. A jury trial of the woman has been set for Aug. 24.

Indiana
Ex-college student sentenced for filming students showering
VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) — A former Valparaiso University student has been sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to secretly filming male classmates showering and using the bathroom and posting the videos online.

A Porter County judge sentenced Joshua Baker III of Memphis, Tennessee, on Monday to one year of suspended prison time for each of the two counts of voyeurism he had pleaded guilty to in the case.

Baker, 22, will serve two years of probation and is required to attend counseling, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported.

He was charged in April 2019 after one of the young men caught on video told police he was alerted by someone on Instagram that the videos were listed on a pornographic website under various versions of the name “Dorm Spy.”

According to court documents, one of the men filmed in showering contacted police and provided Baker’s identity after hunting it down using Facebook.

All the videos were shot in a dormitory at the Valparaiso campus’ Wehrenberg Hall and were posted by someone using the same obscene screen name, police said.

The university issued a statement at the time saying campus police launched an investigation immediately after learning of the accusations. Baker was then banned from campus by university police.