Tag Archives: feds

The Office of Personnel Management has announced a proposal under which federal employees can include the children of same-sex partners on their insurance. Under the proposed regulation, children will be eligible for coverage if a parent is in a domestic same-sex relationship with a federal employee who receives coverage through federal programs. These children would be eligible for coverage — …

Fantastic news even if its release is shrewdly timed to arrive a few days before the International AIDS Conference. Via White House press release: Today, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced nearly $80 million in grants to increase access to HIV/AIDS care across the United States. The funding will ensure that low-income people living with HIV/AIDS continue …

The Centers for Disease Control has launched a new national campaign intended to lessen the stigma of living with HIV. Via press release: Let’s Stop HIV Together features HIV-positive Americans from all walks of life –including “The Voice” star Jamar Rogers, POZ magazine editor , and young HIV advocate Hydeia Broadbent – standing in solidarity with their friends and family, …

Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline has agreed to plead guilty and pay $3B in fines and restitution in response to multiple federal charges of marketing deception and product safety violations. Theirs will be the largest federal penalty ever paid by a pharmaceutical company. Today’s multibillion-dollar settlement is unprecedented in both size and scope,” Deputy Attorney General James Cole said. “At every level, …

So claims the Council for Secular Humanism. (Via Zack Ford)

Metro Weekly’s Chris Geidner has the details: Echoing several other recent court opinions, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jones today ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act’s federal definition of marriage is unconstitutional insofar as it forced Edie Windsor to pay estate taxes after the death of her wife, Thea Spyer, that would not have been owed had she been …

The “Chinese bus” has long been the cheapest and to many, the hippest way to travel between the major cities of the Northeast. But long plagued by shoddy maintenance and not a few accidents, their safety record has been as legendary as the low price. Today the feds, for now, put an end to most of them. Federal transportation officials …

They’re only on screen for less than a second, but predictably Tony Perkins is furious that a gay couple is shown in a new international ad promoting U.S. tourism. Via Right Wing Watch: In 236 years, America’s never had an international tourism ad. So when Congress passed the Travel Promotion Act, people thought it’d be a great chance to highlight …

Big news! The First Court of Appeals ruled in Boston today that it is unconstitutional to deny federal marriage benefits to same-sex couples. The ruling applies to Section Three of the Defense Of Marriage Act. The appeals court agreed with a lower court judge who ruled in 2010 that the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with the right of …

The FBI is considering adding a federal hate crime charge to the murder charge already filed by the state of Florida against George Zimmerman. FBI investigators are actively questioning witnesses in the retreat at the Twin Lakes neighborhood, seeking evidence for a possible federal hate crime charge. Martin was unarmed when he was shot to death, police said, and some …

Two of the teenagers charged in the nation’s first-ever federal anti-gay hate crime case pleaded guilty today in a Kentucky court. Alexis Leeann Jenkins and Mable Ashley Jenkins, who goes by Ashley, pleaded guilty to one charge of kidnapping and one charge of aiding others in causing bodily injury to Kevin Pennington of Letcher County because he is gay. The …

Today the White House thoughtfully picked the Day Of Silence to endorse the federal Student Non-Discrimination Act (SNDA) and the Safe Schools Improvement Act. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly: White House spokesman Shin Inouye tells Metro Weekly, “The President and his Administration have taken many steps to address the issue of bullying. He is proud to support the Student …

Talking Points Memo reports: For the first time in history, the United States has issued an indictment in hate crime case involving a crime against an individual based on their sexual orientation, the Justice Department said Thursday. A federal grand jury in London, Ky., returned a three-count indictment charging David Jason Jenkins, 37, and Anthony Ray Jenkins, 20, for kidnapping …

GQ Magazine has learned the code names that the Secret Service is using for GOP candidates. Those with Secret Service protection are allowed to chose their own names if they want to. According to multiple campaign sources, Mitt Romney elected to call himself “Javelin.” And Rick Santorum chose “Petrus.” The use of code words to refer to candidates are a …

After months of obstructionism by the GOP, the U.S. Senate today finally approved President Obama’s nomination of Michael Fitzgerald to the federal bench, making him the fourth openly gay federal judge in the nation. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly: Fitzgerald’s confirmation will make him the first out LGBT Article III judge serving outside of New York City. Article III …

The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking public comment on a proposed plan to ease the ban on blood donations from gay men. “[T]he increased effectiveness of donor testing for [Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)], [Hepatitis B Virus (HBV)], syphilis and other infectious agents has greatly enhanced blood safety,” the department states in the notice, which will be published …

On Wednesday a federal court struck down Section 3 of DOMA as unconstitutional. Today GOP House Speaker John Boehner ordered that ruling appealed. In court papers, a group of congressional Republicans defending the federal gay marriage ban revealed they are appealing the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit will become the second federal appeals …

Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly: Today, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued its order finding that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act — the federal definition of marriage — is unconstitutional in Golinski v. Office of Personnel Management, Karen Golinski’s challenge to the denial of her request for equal health insurance benefits …

The Latino rights group Respect Respeto has filed a formal request that the federal government investigate Sheriff Paul Babeu for abuses of power. In the document submitted to the Department of Justice, Respect Respeto says Babeu made “text messages, pictures and threats that are unbecoming of an elected sheriff.” On their Facebook page , the group complains Babeu ignored helping …