MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Two of five people charged with conspiring to bribe a Minnesota juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash in exchange for the acquittal of defendants in one of the country’s largest COVID-19-related fraud cases pleaded not guilty Wednesday.  Said Shafii Farah and Abdulkarim Shafii Farah were arraigned before U.S. Magistrate Judge […]

SEATTLE (AP) — A judge has paused parts of a new Washington state parental rights law derided by critics as a “forced outing” measure.  King County Superior Court Judge Michael Scott on Friday paused portions of the law while a lawsuit brought by civil liberties groups and others is pending, The Seattle Times reported.  The […]

Author: Atieh Razavi Yekta, Sessional Lecturer, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia The rise of technology in the workplace, labour market deregulation and the decline in union representation have all significantly impacted the occupational health and safety field.  Occupational health and safety is a critical area of public health aimed […]

HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas doctor who calls himself a whistleblower on transgender care for minors is accused of illegally obtaining private information on patients from the nation’s largest pediatric hospital who were not under his care. Federal prosecutors said Dr. Eithan Haim, a 34-year-old surgeon, snatched the information and shared it with a conservative […]

CHICAGO (AP) — Reeling from a string of defeats, anti-abortion groups and their Republican allies in state governments are using an array of strategies to counter proposed ballot initiatives intended to protect reproductive rights or prevent voters from having a say in the fall elections. The tactics include attempts to get signatures removed from initiative […]

The steering committee charged with redefining Kings County Memorial Hospital’s role within healthcare and designing a new facility does not contain any local representatives, according to documents obtained through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. KCMH and QEH administration and working committees have both been consulted, according to the records, but they […]

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A new, reworked version of a bill that originally caught flak for removing a pandemic-era health exemption for wearing a mask in public was approved by North Carolina lawmakers on Tuesday. The amended bill still increases punishments for people wearing masks while committing a crime. It was brought forth in part […]

Ontario will add more beds to its beleaguered jails, which are bursting with inmates, solicitor general Michael Kerzner said Monday. The province intends to add several hundred spots throughout the system as it grapples with a surge of inmates over the past 18 months. “We’re expanding and building facilities that will help front-line staff to […]

At what age should kids be on social media? Should they be on it at all? If they aren’t, will they be social pariahs? Should parents monitor their conversations? Do parental controls work?  Navigating social media as a parent — not to mention a child — is not easy. Using social media platforms is still […]

More than 70,000 children are seeking support through the Ontario Autism Program, but fewer than 15,000 of them are getting funding for core therapies, the province’s Financial Accountability Office said in a report Wednesday. The Progressive Conservative government has more than doubled the budget for the Ontario Autism Program, now at $720 million, but that […]

A new Washington state parental rights law derided by critics as a “forced outing” measure will be allowed to take effect this week after a court commissioner on Tuesday declined to issue an emergency order temporarily blocking it. The civil liberties groups, school district, youth services organizations and others who are challenging the law did […]

The Alberta government is facing calls to stop admitting complex mental health patients into long-term care facilities until the risks are fully reviewed. Seniors’ advocates joined Opposition New Democrats at a news conference Monday in asking for the halt. They said mixing residents at Calgary’s Carewest Colonel Belcher facility with those who have vastly different […]