US News Roundup: New York launches $100 mln universal health insurance program; Joshua Tree National Park closes amid govt shutdown


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 09-01-2019 07:23 IST | Created: 09-01-2019 07:23 IST
US News Roundup: New York launches $100 mln universal health insurance program; Joshua Tree National Park closes amid govt shutdown
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Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

U.S. top court's Kavanaugh issues first opinion in arbitration case

The U.S. Supreme Court's newest member, Brett Kavanaugh, issued his first written opinion on Tuesday as the justices in a unanimous ruling bolstered companies' ability to use arbitration to resolve disputes with customers or other businesses. The court decided 9-0 to throw out a lower-court ruling that had kept a case involving dental equipment companies from being resolved through arbitration because the court had determined the demand for arbitration was groundless.

Latest trial in J&J talc litigations gets under way in California

A California jury on Monday heard opening statements in the latest trial over allegations that Johnson & Johnson's talc-based products, including the company's baby powder, were contaminated with asbestos and cause cancer. The lawsuit brought by Terry Leavitt in Alameda Superior Court in Oakland is the first of over a dozen J&J talc cases scheduled for trial in 2019. The company is facing some 11,700 lawsuits over the safety of talc in its products.

Joshua Tree National Park closes, at least for now, amid government shutdown

Joshua Tree National Park in California will be closed at least temporarily so that staffers can grapple with sanitation and maintenance issues that have mushroomed during the partial government shutdown, officials said on Tuesday. The popular preserve about 100 miles east of Los Angeles in the California desert will shut its gates to all visitors as of Thursday morning, the National Park Service said in a written statement. It hopes to reopen them in the coming days.

A growing number of Americans blame Trump for shutdown: Reuters-Ipsos poll

A growing proportion of Americans blame President Donald Trump for a partial government shutdown that will cut off paychecks to federal workers this week, though Republicans mostly support his refusal to approve a budget without taxpayer dollars for the U.S.-Mexico border wall, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday. The national opinion poll, which ran from Jan. 1 to Jan. 7, found that 51 percent of adults believe Trump “deserves most of the blame” for the shutdown, which entered its 18th day on Tuesday. That is up 4 percentage points from a similar poll that ran from Dec. 21 to 25.

U.S. judge rejects early release for Madoff ex-secretary

A federal judge has rejected a request by imprisoned swindler Bernard Madoff's longtime secretary to be released early from prison because of her age, and suggested she ask the Federal Bureau of Prisons for permission to move to home confinement. In an order on Monday, U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan said Annette Bongiorno, 70, is eligible for home confinement on Feb. 19, when she will have served four years of her six-year sentence, under a federal prison reform law that took effect in December.

Russian lawyer at Trump Tower meeting charged in separate case

A Russian lawyer who attended a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower under scrutiny in the U.S. special counsel's probe of Russian election meddling was charged in a separate case that U.S. prosecutors said showed evidence of her ties to the Kremlin. Natalia Veselnitskaya, who represented Russian defendants in a money laundering case settled in 2017, was charged with obstructing justice in that case for submitting a declaration that she falsely represented came from the Russian government independently, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

U.S. gives farmers more time to apply for aid due to government shutdown

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday extended the deadline for farmers hurt by trade wars to apply for aid payments as the partial shutdown of the federal government drags on. The deadline, originally set for Jan. 15, will be delayed for the number of business days that USDA offices are closed, according to the agency.

New York City launches $100 million universal health insurance program

New York City has launched a $100 million health insurance program to cover 600,000 uninsured residents, including those unable to afford coverage and those living in the United States illegally, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday. De Blasio, now in his second term as mayor of the country's most populous city, has long supported universal healthcare coverage. Extending the program to an estimated 300,000 illegal immigrants puts the Democrat at odds with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made border security a top priority for his presidency.

Trump to make case about U.S. border 'crisis in address about wall

President Donald Trump will make his case to Americans on Tuesday that a "crisis" at the U.S. border with Mexico requires a wall in a prime-time address aimed at building support for a campaign promise that has sparked an 18-day government shutdown. Trump's Oval Office remarks, scheduled for 9 p.m. EST will be the president's latest attempt to convince Democrats, not to mention furloughed government workers, to support his push for a steel barrier on the U.S. southern border that he says is needed to curb the flow of drugs and illegal immigration.

U.S. top court's Ginsburg misses oral arguments again

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's first absence from the bench extended into a second day on Tuesday as the 85-year-old jurist continued her recovery from lung cancer surgery at home. Although Ginsburg did not attend the oral arguments, she will participate in the cases and rulings by using the briefs and oral argument transcripts, Chief Justice John Roberts announced from the bench.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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