Colorado
Should elephants have the same rights as people? Court may decide
DENVER (AP) — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo have lived in Colorado Springs for decades in the elephant exhibit at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Now an animal rights group is trying to release the elephants from what they say is essentially a prison for such highly intelligent and social animals known to roam for miles a day in the wild.
Colorado’s highest court will hear arguments Thursday on whether the older African female elephants should be legally able to challenge their captivity under a long-held process used by prisoners to dispute their detention. The animal rights group NonHuman Rights Project says the animals are languishing while “unlawfully confined” at the zoo, and wants them released to an unspecified elephant sanctuary.
“They are suffering immensely and unnecessarily. Without judicial intervention, they are doomed to suffer day after day, year after year, for the rest of their lives,” a lawyer for the group, Jake Davis, said in a May brief submitted to the Colorado Supreme Court.
The main legal issue is whether or not the elephants are considered persons under the law, and therefore able to pursue a petition of habeas corpus challenging their detention. The NonHuman Rights project argues that legal personhood is not limited to humans.
The lawsuit is similar to an unsuccessful one the group filed challenging the confinement of an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo in 2022. New York’s Court of Appeals ruled that Happy, while intelligent and deserving of compassion, cannot be considered a person illegally confined with the ability to pursue a petition seeking release.
The New York ruling said giving such rights to an elephant “would have an enormous destabilizing impact on modern society” and change how humans interact with animals.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo says moving the elephants and potentially placing them with new animals would be cruel at their age, potentially causing them unnecessary stress. It says they are not used to being in larger herds and, based on its experience, they do not have the skills or desire to join them.
In a statement ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the zoo claimed the NonHuman Rights Project isn’t concerned about the elephants but is just trying to create a judicial precedent that would allow the captivity of any animal to challenged.
“We hope Colorado isn’t the place that sets the slippery slope in motion of whether your beloved and well-cared-for dog or cat should have habeas corpus and would be required to ‘go free,’ at the whim of someone else’s opinion of them,” it said.
Pennsylvania
Lawsuits claim dozens of children were sexually abused inside juvenile facilities
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A set of lawsuits was filed Wednesday by people who claim they were sexually abused inside Pennsylvania juvenile detention and treatment facilities, making more than 200 people to have launched such cases since May.
The New York-based Levy Konigsberg firm said it filed on behalf of more than 60 people, alleging government-run and private facilities did not protect their clients when they were children.
The latest cases make allegations that date from more than two decades ago until last year.
“Despite the decades separating their experiences, these dozens of survivors experienced disturbingly similar patterns of abuse across the various facilities, evidencing systemic failures at these institutions in protecting children from harm,” the law firm said in a news release.
The filings on Wednesday included 10 people suing the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services in Dauphin County, where the state capital of Harrisburg is located, for claims of abuse inside state-operated facilities. Together with the allegations filed earlier this year, 45 clients of Levy Konigsberg have sued the state.
The new negligence and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Human Services says the plaintiffs were sexually abused by guards, counselors and other staff members “who were supposed to be watching out for them” inside the Loysville Youth Development Center, the North Central Secure Treatment Unit in Danville and the South Mountain Secure Treatment Unit near Chambersburg.
“This longstanding, widespread pattern of abuse could only have flourished at these facilities because the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania tolerated it, failing the children in its care through decades of negligence,” the lawsuit claims.
A spokesman for the Department of Human Services, Brandon Cwalina, said the agency does not comment about pending litigation but noted it does not countenance abuse or harassment. He said anyone who suspects a child has been sexually abused or sexually harassed at any facility should call Pennsylvania’s child safety hotline, ChildLine, at 1-800-932-0313.
The other lawsuits were filed in federal and county courthouses in other parts of Pennsylvania.
The law firm has also pursued similar litigation in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Michigan.
California
Walmart agrees to pay $7.5 million to settle lawsuit over disposal of hazardous waste
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Walmart has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by California officials that alleged the retail giant illegally dumped batteries, aerosol cans of insect killer, toxic cleaning supplies, electronic waste, latex paints and other hazardous waste in municipal landfills throughout the state.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the settlement Tuesday, saying the company will also be required to hire an independent, third-party auditor to conduct three waste audits each year at its facilities throughout California during the next four years.
The audit results will have to be shared with the attorney general’s office, the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the district attorneys of the 12 counties involved in the lawsuit.
As part of the settlement, Walmart agreed to continue operating and maintaining its hazardous waste programs and make modifications necessary to comply with changes in California’s Hazardous Waste Control Law.
“The fact that the settlement agreement requires Walmart to “maintain” our pre-existing waste compliance program is a testament to the strength of the compliance program we have built, and the settlement agreement itself recognizes that Walmart’s program is extremely effective at keeping allegedly hazardous waste out of public landfills,” Walmart said in a statement.
Walmart will have to pay $4.3 million in civil penalties and $3.2 million in reimbursements if the settlement is approved by an Alameda County Superior Court judge, according to the settlement.
“Walmart’s illegal disposal of hazardous and medical waste not only violated California laws, but, if left unchecked, posed a threat to human health and the environment,” Bonta said. “This settlement will ensure that Walmart takes the necessary steps to ensure that its hazardous waste is handled and disposed of as required by law.”
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the district attorneys of Alameda, Fresno, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, Tulare, and Yolo counties joined the attorney general’s office in filing the 2021 lawsuit.
The state did 70 inspections from 2015 to 2021 of waste that Walmart stores sent to municipal landfills and found thousands of containers of toxic aerosols and liquid wastes, including spray paints, rust removers, bleach, pesticides, and medical waste, such as over-the-counter drugs.
The unlawful disposals are alleged to violate the Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, and Unfair Competition Law, Bonta’s office said.
“The illegal disposal and mismanagement of hazardous waste by employees pose serious risks to the environment, public health, and worker safety,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “We will continue to work with our prosecution partners around the state to protect the public by holding businesses such as Walmart accountable for its violations of environmental law.”
The attorney general’s office settled a similar lawsuit in 2010 in which Walmart, operating more than 300 stores in California, paid $25 million and agreed to stop the dumping into local landfills that are not equipped to contain the hazardous products.
It paid $1.25 million to Missouri in 2012 to settle a similar lawsuit.
And in 2013, the company pleaded guilty to six federal misdemeanors of negligently discharging a pollutant into drains in 16 California counties, part of an $81 million deal that also included charges in Missouri.
California
Man charged with using ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in courthouse bomb attack
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man is facing new federal charges after being arrested in a courthouse bomb attack that injured five people last month, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Nathaniel McGuire, 20, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, maliciously damaging a building with an explosive, and possessing unregistered destructive devices, the U.S. Attorney’s
Office in Los Angeles said in a statement.
McGuire was arrested Sept. 25 after officials say he threw a bag with explosives into the lobby of a courthouse in Santa Maria, a city of about 110,000 in California’s central coast region. He told law enforcement he had planned to kill deputies and a judge in the building, officials said.
At McGuire’s arraignment last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge A. Joel Richlin in Los Angeles ordered a mental health evaluation for him after he had an outburst, yelling about world events and blaming the government. He did not enter a plea and has remained in custody since his arrest.
McGuire is expected to appear in federal court again in Los Angeles on Friday. Federal public defender Iboh Umodu is representing McGuire and did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
McGuire had been arrested in July on suspicion of illegal gun possession and was about to be arraigned at the Santa Maria Courthouse when the explosion went off. Federal authorities said he was arrested as he was trying to get into his car, which was parked nearby, and “yelled that the government had taken his guns and that everyone needed to fight, rise up, and rebel.”
Law enforcement said they found ammunition, a rifle, a shotgun, a suspected bomb, fireworks, and 10 Molotov cocktails inside the car.
During a search of McGuire’s home, they found an empty can with nails glued to the outside, a duffel bag containing matches, black powder, used and unused fireworks, and papers that appeared to be recipes for explosive material.
In a court filing, federal authorities said McGuire told law enforcement after his arrest that he had gone to the courthouse planning to kill deputies working at the security desk and after throwing the bag yelled “Liberty or Death.” Authorities said he told them he planned to go back to the car to get weapons and reenter the courthouse to kill a judge.
“The new charge of using a weapon of mass destruction underscores how seriously we are treating this misconduct and my office’s determination to hold accountable those who seek to bring violence upon our courts, law enforcement personnel, and the public,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.
McGuire has also been charged by Santa Barbara County prosecutors with 10 counts, including two counts of attempted murder, use of an explosive device with the intent to murder, and carrying a loaded firearm. He is also being charged with arson of forest land in connection with three fires on the outskirts of Santa Maria.
Should elephants have the same rights as people? Court may decide
DENVER (AP) — Missy, Kimba, Lucky, LouLou, and Jambo have lived in Colorado Springs for decades in the elephant exhibit at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Now an animal rights group is trying to release the elephants from what they say is essentially a prison for such highly intelligent and social animals known to roam for miles a day in the wild.
Colorado’s highest court will hear arguments Thursday on whether the older African female elephants should be legally able to challenge their captivity under a long-held process used by prisoners to dispute their detention. The animal rights group NonHuman Rights Project says the animals are languishing while “unlawfully confined” at the zoo, and wants them released to an unspecified elephant sanctuary.
“They are suffering immensely and unnecessarily. Without judicial intervention, they are doomed to suffer day after day, year after year, for the rest of their lives,” a lawyer for the group, Jake Davis, said in a May brief submitted to the Colorado Supreme Court.
The main legal issue is whether or not the elephants are considered persons under the law, and therefore able to pursue a petition of habeas corpus challenging their detention. The NonHuman Rights project argues that legal personhood is not limited to humans.
The lawsuit is similar to an unsuccessful one the group filed challenging the confinement of an elephant named Happy at the Bronx Zoo in 2022. New York’s Court of Appeals ruled that Happy, while intelligent and deserving of compassion, cannot be considered a person illegally confined with the ability to pursue a petition seeking release.
The New York ruling said giving such rights to an elephant “would have an enormous destabilizing impact on modern society” and change how humans interact with animals.
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo says moving the elephants and potentially placing them with new animals would be cruel at their age, potentially causing them unnecessary stress. It says they are not used to being in larger herds and, based on its experience, they do not have the skills or desire to join them.
In a statement ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the zoo claimed the NonHuman Rights Project isn’t concerned about the elephants but is just trying to create a judicial precedent that would allow the captivity of any animal to challenged.
“We hope Colorado isn’t the place that sets the slippery slope in motion of whether your beloved and well-cared-for dog or cat should have habeas corpus and would be required to ‘go free,’ at the whim of someone else’s opinion of them,” it said.
Pennsylvania
Lawsuits claim dozens of children were sexually abused inside juvenile facilities
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A set of lawsuits was filed Wednesday by people who claim they were sexually abused inside Pennsylvania juvenile detention and treatment facilities, making more than 200 people to have launched such cases since May.
The New York-based Levy Konigsberg firm said it filed on behalf of more than 60 people, alleging government-run and private facilities did not protect their clients when they were children.
The latest cases make allegations that date from more than two decades ago until last year.
“Despite the decades separating their experiences, these dozens of survivors experienced disturbingly similar patterns of abuse across the various facilities, evidencing systemic failures at these institutions in protecting children from harm,” the law firm said in a news release.
The filings on Wednesday included 10 people suing the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services in Dauphin County, where the state capital of Harrisburg is located, for claims of abuse inside state-operated facilities. Together with the allegations filed earlier this year, 45 clients of Levy Konigsberg have sued the state.
The new negligence and breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against Human Services says the plaintiffs were sexually abused by guards, counselors and other staff members “who were supposed to be watching out for them” inside the Loysville Youth Development Center, the North Central Secure Treatment Unit in Danville and the South Mountain Secure Treatment Unit near Chambersburg.
“This longstanding, widespread pattern of abuse could only have flourished at these facilities because the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania tolerated it, failing the children in its care through decades of negligence,” the lawsuit claims.
A spokesman for the Department of Human Services, Brandon Cwalina, said the agency does not comment about pending litigation but noted it does not countenance abuse or harassment. He said anyone who suspects a child has been sexually abused or sexually harassed at any facility should call Pennsylvania’s child safety hotline, ChildLine, at 1-800-932-0313.
The other lawsuits were filed in federal and county courthouses in other parts of Pennsylvania.
The law firm has also pursued similar litigation in Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey and Michigan.
California
Walmart agrees to pay $7.5 million to settle lawsuit over disposal of hazardous waste
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Walmart has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by California officials that alleged the retail giant illegally dumped batteries, aerosol cans of insect killer, toxic cleaning supplies, electronic waste, latex paints and other hazardous waste in municipal landfills throughout the state.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the settlement Tuesday, saying the company will also be required to hire an independent, third-party auditor to conduct three waste audits each year at its facilities throughout California during the next four years.
The audit results will have to be shared with the attorney general’s office, the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, and the district attorneys of the 12 counties involved in the lawsuit.
As part of the settlement, Walmart agreed to continue operating and maintaining its hazardous waste programs and make modifications necessary to comply with changes in California’s Hazardous Waste Control Law.
“The fact that the settlement agreement requires Walmart to “maintain” our pre-existing waste compliance program is a testament to the strength of the compliance program we have built, and the settlement agreement itself recognizes that Walmart’s program is extremely effective at keeping allegedly hazardous waste out of public landfills,” Walmart said in a statement.
Walmart will have to pay $4.3 million in civil penalties and $3.2 million in reimbursements if the settlement is approved by an Alameda County Superior Court judge, according to the settlement.
“Walmart’s illegal disposal of hazardous and medical waste not only violated California laws, but, if left unchecked, posed a threat to human health and the environment,” Bonta said. “This settlement will ensure that Walmart takes the necessary steps to ensure that its hazardous waste is handled and disposed of as required by law.”
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the district attorneys of Alameda, Fresno, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, Solano, Tulare, and Yolo counties joined the attorney general’s office in filing the 2021 lawsuit.
The state did 70 inspections from 2015 to 2021 of waste that Walmart stores sent to municipal landfills and found thousands of containers of toxic aerosols and liquid wastes, including spray paints, rust removers, bleach, pesticides, and medical waste, such as over-the-counter drugs.
The unlawful disposals are alleged to violate the Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, and Unfair Competition Law, Bonta’s office said.
“The illegal disposal and mismanagement of hazardous waste by employees pose serious risks to the environment, public health, and worker safety,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer. “We will continue to work with our prosecution partners around the state to protect the public by holding businesses such as Walmart accountable for its violations of environmental law.”
The attorney general’s office settled a similar lawsuit in 2010 in which Walmart, operating more than 300 stores in California, paid $25 million and agreed to stop the dumping into local landfills that are not equipped to contain the hazardous products.
It paid $1.25 million to Missouri in 2012 to settle a similar lawsuit.
And in 2013, the company pleaded guilty to six federal misdemeanors of negligently discharging a pollutant into drains in 16 California counties, part of an $81 million deal that also included charges in Missouri.
California
Man charged with using ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in courthouse bomb attack
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California man is facing new federal charges after being arrested in a courthouse bomb attack that injured five people last month, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Nathaniel McGuire, 20, has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, maliciously damaging a building with an explosive, and possessing unregistered destructive devices, the U.S. Attorney’s
Office in Los Angeles said in a statement.
McGuire was arrested Sept. 25 after officials say he threw a bag with explosives into the lobby of a courthouse in Santa Maria, a city of about 110,000 in California’s central coast region. He told law enforcement he had planned to kill deputies and a judge in the building, officials said.
At McGuire’s arraignment last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge A. Joel Richlin in Los Angeles ordered a mental health evaluation for him after he had an outburst, yelling about world events and blaming the government. He did not enter a plea and has remained in custody since his arrest.
McGuire is expected to appear in federal court again in Los Angeles on Friday. Federal public defender Iboh Umodu is representing McGuire and did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
McGuire had been arrested in July on suspicion of illegal gun possession and was about to be arraigned at the Santa Maria Courthouse when the explosion went off. Federal authorities said he was arrested as he was trying to get into his car, which was parked nearby, and “yelled that the government had taken his guns and that everyone needed to fight, rise up, and rebel.”
Law enforcement said they found ammunition, a rifle, a shotgun, a suspected bomb, fireworks, and 10 Molotov cocktails inside the car.
During a search of McGuire’s home, they found an empty can with nails glued to the outside, a duffel bag containing matches, black powder, used and unused fireworks, and papers that appeared to be recipes for explosive material.
In a court filing, federal authorities said McGuire told law enforcement after his arrest that he had gone to the courthouse planning to kill deputies working at the security desk and after throwing the bag yelled “Liberty or Death.” Authorities said he told them he planned to go back to the car to get weapons and reenter the courthouse to kill a judge.
“The new charge of using a weapon of mass destruction underscores how seriously we are treating this misconduct and my office’s determination to hold accountable those who seek to bring violence upon our courts, law enforcement personnel, and the public,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.
McGuire has also been charged by Santa Barbara County prosecutors with 10 counts, including two counts of attempted murder, use of an explosive device with the intent to murder, and carrying a loaded firearm. He is also being charged with arson of forest land in connection with three fires on the outskirts of Santa Maria.
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