Legal

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar (on June 28th) pushes back against questioning from Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden over his agency's handling of over 2,000 migrant children placed in its custody as a result of the Trump administration's family-separation policy. Secretary Azar declines to provide specific numbers on how many parents know the whereabouts of their children, but says they can find the information at agency portals and with the help of case workers. more »

Jo Freeman writes: Once inside [the Hart Office Building] women occupied a central atrium and intentionally disturbed the peace. The US Capitol Police said that they arrested 575, though some reports said there were over 600. After about ten percent of the women had been arrested, several Democratic Members of Congress came to greet the women. These included Sen. Ed Markey, Kirsten Gillibrand and Tammy Duckworth. Sen. Gillibrand sat down and linked arms with the protestors. Sen. Duckworth rolled in with her new daughter in her lap. Rep. Pramila Jayapal sat down and was arrested with the other women. Sen. Elizabeth Warren waved to them from an upper floor. more »

“People tend to experience social change as this irresistible tide of public opinion,” he said. “But there are always many people who worked countless hours to create the context for change actually happening. It’s the same with Freedom to Marry. There were hundreds of deeply engaged people, many of whom we interviewed for this project, who worked to change the discourse so that people would feel that changing their opinion on same-sex marriage was actually the right thing to do.”    more »

“My husband accidentally shot me,” Hill, 75, of The Dalles, Ore., groaned on the May 16, 2015, call. “In the stomach, and he can’t talk, please …” Less than four feet away, Hill’s husband, Darrell Hill, a former local police chief and two-term county sheriff, sat in his wheelchair with a discharged Glock handgun on the table in front of him, unaware that he’d nearly killed his wife of almost 57 years. The 76-year-old lawman had been diagnosed two years earlier with a form of rapidly progressive dementia, a disease that quickly stripped him of reasoning and memory. “He didn’t understand,” said Dee, who needed 30 pints of blood, three surgeries and seven weeks in the hospital to survive her injuries. more »