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American Federation of Government v. Trump

(United States DC Circuit) - Vacated. A district court conclusion that executive orders regarding relations between the federal government and its employees was unlawful was in error. The district court lacked jurisdiction.




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MPS Merchant Services, Inc. v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In consolidated petitions for review brought by various power companies of FERC determinations that various energy companies committed tariff violations in California during the summer of 2000, the FERC determinations are affirmed where: 1) it did not arbitrarily and capriciously, or abuse its discretion in finding that electric sellers Shell Energy North America, LP, MPS Merchant Services, Inc., and Illinova Corporation violated the Cal-ISO tariff and Market Monitoring and Information Protocol; 2) FERC's Summer Period determinations regarding APX, Inc., and BP EnergyCo. were not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion; and 3) because FERC's remedial order is not final, the panel lacked appellate jurisdiction over it.




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California Pub. Utilities Comm'n v. Fed. Energy Reg. Comm'n

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In a petition for review brought by various entities challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)'s calculation of certain refunds arising out of the California energy crisis in 2000 and 2001, the petition is: 1) granted in part where FERC acted arbitrarily or capriciously in allocating the refund only to net buyers and not to all market participants; and 2) denied in part as to the question of whether refunds should be netted hourly or a cross the entire refund period where FERC did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in its construction of tariffs.




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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

(United States Second Circuit) - Denying a petition for review by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation seeking to vacate two orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authorizing a company to construct a natural gas pipeline in New York and determining that the Department waived its authority to provide a water quality certification for the pipeline project under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.




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Los Angeles Lakers Inc. v. Federal Insurance Company

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirming the district court dismissal of an action brought under diversity jurisdiction by the LA Lakers against an insurer when it denied coverage and declined to defend them in a lawsuit alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because the court agreed that the lawsuit was an invasion of privacy suit that was specifically excluded from coverage.




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North American Soccer League, LLC v. United States Soccer Federation, Inc.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirming the denial of the North American Soccer League's motion for preliminary injunction seeking Division II designation pending the resolution of its antitrust case against the United States Soccer Federation because they had failed to demonstrate a clear likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.




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Federal Insurance Company v. USA

(United States Second Circuit) - Denying the petition for mandamus by an insurer that had paid millions on an Employee Theft Insurance policy when the insured company was found to have engaged in corrupt activities such as obtaining bribes and kickbacks from subcontractors to a government contract it held because, even if they had overcome various procedural obstacles, the company's criminal conduct and, by extension, that of the insurer, precluded them from obtaining restitution from an implicated employee, but vacating and remanding an order dismissing the insurer's petition in the employee's forfeiture proceeding because the district court failed to determine whether the company's unclean hands kept it from an equitable remedy.




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Great Minds v. FedEx Office and Print Services, Inc.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirming a district court judgment dismissing a copyright infringement suit brought by a producer of educational materials against FedEx for their duplication of the products on behalf of school districts, whose use was licensed as noncommercial, because the distinction between their use and FedEx's facilitation of their use should have been explicitly laid out in the license they gave the schools.




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Fed. Treasury Ent. Sojuzplodoimport, OAO Moscow Distillery Cristall v. Spirits Int'l B.V.

(United States Second Circuit) - In an international trademark action involving rival claims to the "Stolichnaya" trademarks, the district court's dismissal is vacated in part and affirmed in part where: 1) considerations of international comity precluded the district court from determining that the Russian Federation's assignment of trademark rights to plaintiff was invalid under Russian law and dismissing plaintiff's claims under section 32(1) of the Lanham Act for lack of standing; but 2) plaintiff's remaining claims are barred by res judicata and laches.




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Federal Home Loan Bank of Bost v. Moody's Corp.

(United States First Circuit) - In a case arising out of the near-collapse of the mortgage-backed securities market, alleges that various rating agencies falsely gave out triple-A ratings to mortgage-backed securities they knew were far riskier than indicated by their pristine ratings, the District Court's dismissal of plaintiff's claims on jurisdictional grounds is reversed where it erred in finding that it lacks statutory power to transfer this action to another federal court in which personal jurisdiction over certain defending parties may be met.




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Vannoy v. Fed. Reserve Bank of Richmond

(United States Fourth Circuit) - In an employment discrimination action, contending that defendant-employer interfered with and retaliated against plaintiff, a former employee, in violation of the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and failed to accommodate and discriminatorily discharged plaintiff in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendants is: 1) affirmed as to plaintiff's FMLA retaliation claim and ADA claims; but 2) vacated as to plaintiff's FMLA interference claim where genuine issues of material fact exist.




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Fed. Trade Comm'n v. Whole Foods Market, Inc.

(United States DC Circuit) - Denial of the FTC's request for a preliminary injunction against the merger of the Whole Foods and Wild Oats supermarket chains is reversed and remanded where: 1) the case was not moot despite the merger's having already occurred; 2) the district court did not abuse its discretion by considering the market definition proposed by the FTC, in which Whole Foods and Wild Oats compete in the "premium, natural, and organic supermarkets" (PNOS) market, not against all supermarkets; 3) the FTC met the threshold requirements for obtaining a preliminary injunction by demonstrating a likelihood of success on its claim that the two supermarkets did compete in the PNOS market; and 4) the district court was best positioned to balance the FTC's showing against the equities weighing against an injunction. (Amended and reissued opinion)




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American Federation of Government v. Trump

(United States DC Circuit) - Vacated. A district court conclusion that executive orders regarding relations between the federal government and its employees was unlawful was in error. The district court lacked jurisdiction.




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Federal Trade Commission v. AMG Capital Management, LLC

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that the Federal Trade Commission Act could support an order compelling an online payday lender to pay more than $1 billion in monetary relief for unfair business practices. Two of the judges on the Ninth Circuit panel filed a concurring opinion to suggest that the court should rehear the case en banc to reconsider relevant circuit precedent.



  • Consumer Protection Law
  • Banking Law
  • Antitrust & Trade Regulation

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Zabriskie v. Federal National Mortgage Association

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that Fannie Mae is not a consumer reporting agency and thus could not be sued over a false credit report. Consumers alleged that the government-sponsored mortgage market entity had provided false information about their credit history via a software tool it provides for mortgage lenders to use. In a 2-1 decision, the Ninth Circuit concluded that Fannie Mae was entitled to summary judgment because it did not fall within the definition of a consumer reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.




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Federal Trade Commission v. Federal Check Processing, Inc.

(United States Second Circuit) - Held that thirteen collection agencies violated federal law in collecting payday loan and other debts. Affirmed summary judgment in favor of the Federal Trade Commission in this civil enforcement action against the collection agencies and their co-owners.




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Federal Trade Commission v. Consumer Defense LLC

(United States Ninth Circuit) - In an enforcement action brought by the Federal Trade Commission, affirmed a preliminary injunction freezing the assets of companies that allegedly had made deceptive representations regarding loan modification services.




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Colorado’s marijuana businesses should be eligible for federal coronavirus aid, Polis tells Congress

Colorado's cannabis industry is allowed to remain open to provide "critical" services during the coronavirus pandemic, but because marijuana is a federally controlled substance, dispensaries and other businesses are ineligible to receive stimulus funds to help offset the economic impacts caused by COVID-19.




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Friednash: Deploy federal funds to feed seniors and rescue Colorado’s restaurants

The restaurant industry predicts that as many as 30% of all Denver restaurants and 22% statewide may permanently go out of business if they can’t open before the end of May.




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Friednash: Deploy federal funds to feed seniors and rescue Colorado’s restaurants

The restaurant industry predicts that as many as 30% of all Denver restaurants and 22% statewide may permanently go out of business if they can’t open before the end of May.




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Federal judge in Denver rules funding cannot be withheld from law enforcement by using immigration-related terms in grants

The U.S. Justice Department can not withhold millions of dollars in federal funding to Colorado law enforcement agencies by attaching immigration-related terms and conditions to securing the grants according to a federal judge's ruling.




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$558 million in federal coronavirus help arrives on Colorado’s Front Range

In some cases, cities and counties have been hesitant to spend the emergency appropriations, because the federal government hasn't told them exactly how to.




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North American Soccer League, LLC v. United States Soccer Federation, Inc.

(United States Second Circuit) - Affirming the denial of the North American Soccer League's motion for preliminary injunction seeking Division II designation pending the resolution of its antitrust case against the United States Soccer Federation because they had failed to demonstrate a clear likelihood of success on the merits of their claim.




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Federal Trade Commission v. AMG Capital Management, LLC

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Held that the Federal Trade Commission Act could support an order compelling an online payday lender to pay more than $1 billion in monetary relief for unfair business practices. Two of the judges on the Ninth Circuit panel filed a concurring opinion to suggest that the court should rehear the case en banc to reconsider relevant circuit precedent.



  • Consumer Protection Law
  • Banking Law
  • Antitrust & Trade Regulation

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Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board v. Federal Trade Commission

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Held that the Louisiana Real Estate Appraisers Board's petition for review was premature in a case where the Federal Trade Commission had charged it with adopting an unlawful policy that restrained trade. Dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction.




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National Federation of the Blind v. Container Store, Inc.

(United States First Circuit) - Affirmed the denial of a retail chain's motion to compel arbitration of a proposed class action brought by blind customers. The retailer moved to compel arbitration of the discrimination lawsuit, citing an arbitration provision in the terms and conditions of a loyalty program of which the individual plaintiffs were members. However, the district court concluded that the arbitration provision was not enforceable here, and the First Circuit found no error in that ruling.




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Friednash: Deploy federal funds to feed seniors and rescue Colorado’s restaurants

The restaurant industry predicts that as many as 30% of all Denver restaurants and 22% statewide may permanently go out of business if they can’t open before the end of May.




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Denver man sentenced to 8 years in federal prison for two smash-and-grab burglaries of gun stores

A 21-year-old Denver man was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in federal prison for a carjacking and burglarizing two gun stores.




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Colorado AG vows to fight new federal campus sexual-assault rules in court

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser on Wednesday forcefully pushed back on new federal campus sexual assault rules which would bolster the rights of the accused, promising to fight the U.S. Department of Education in court.




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NAACP President Demands More From Feds To Help Black Owned



Derrick Johnson wants solutions for a systemic problem




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Feds Fail To Get Retail Coronavirus Tests To Black People



Only eight of 63 slated sites are in African American areas




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Buy America Requirements for Federal Highway Projects

The Federal Highway Administration's “Buy America Act” requires federally funded highway projects to use only steel, iron, and manufactured products produced in the United States. The TRB National Cooperative Highway Research Program's NCHRP LRD 80: Buy America Requirements for Federal Highway Projects summarizes the intent and application of the provision. It also summarizes the procedure that FHWA has implemented for granting waivers and the impact that court interpretation of such waivers has had on t...



  • http://www.trb.org/Resource.ashx?sn=cover_nchrp_lrd_80a

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Australian Federal Government signs a $1B five-year agreement with IBM

The Australian Federal Government today announced that it has awarded IBM (NYSE: IBM) a new AU$1B, five-year Whole of Government agreement to be a major technology partner with the Australian government.





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U.S. Financial System “Monitor” Failed to Flash Warning as Fed Pumped $6 Trillion Emergency Liquidity into Wall Street

U.S. Financial System “Monitor” Failed to Flash Warning as Fed Pumped $6 Trillion Emergency Liquidity into Wall Street

By Pam Martens and Russ Martens: May 8, 2020 ~  The Office of Financial Research (OFR) was created under the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation of 2010 to keep the Financial Stability Oversight Council (F-SOC) informed on emerging threats that have the potential to implode the financial system — as occurred in 2008 in the worst financial crash since the Great Depression. The Trump administration has gutted both its funding and staff. One of the early warning systems of an impending financial crisis that OFR was supposed to have created is the heat map above. Green means low risk; yellow tones mean moderate risk; while red tones flash a warning of a serious problem. On September 17, 2019, liquidity was so strained on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve had to step in and began providing hundreds of billions of dollars per week in repo loans. By January 27, 2020 (before … Continue reading

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Report: 70% of Olympic sports sought fed funds

At least 70% of U.S. Olympic sports organizations have applied for government funds during the coronavirus pandemic, a stark financial reality that underscores the frailties within the world's most dominant Olympic sports system.





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Elevated, green-roofed cabin minimizes impact on mountain in Norway

Designed by San Francisco- and Oslo-based firm Mork-Ulnes Architects, the Skigard Hytte Cabin in Norway features various openings on each side that allow the architects, who designed the cabin for themselves, to immerse themselves in the incredible, mountainous surroundings. The 1,500-square-foot cabin is resilient to the extreme weather and is elevated off the landscape to reduce its impact. To top it all off, the cabin is crowned with a lush green roof.[...]




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SWN rebuffed in New Brunswick back woods

Local families chase off ATV, security truck hit and run, UN observers arrive

BROWNS YARD, NEW BRUNSWICK – By Sunday, June 23rd, SWN Resource Canada’s highly contested and protested seismic testing along highway 126, in Kent County, New Brunswick, had almost wrapped up.

But the seismic test along the highway is only one of several planned testing lines, and the company’s attempts to begin another line of seismic testing - this time along the back roads of Kent County - was yesterday halted in its tracks by community members living in the vicinity of Browns Yard.

SWN’s seismic testing of the back roads areas of Kent County – conducted with All-Terrain Vehicles known as ‘Bombadiers’, and dynamite charges – is slated to be extensive, with approximately 150kms of testing expected to take place.

Yesterday’s resistance, conducted firstly by local families and the action group known as ‘Upriver Environment Watch’, suggest that SWN’s task in the woods of New Brunswick, where there is local knowledge, deep forests and intense opposition to the testing, will be a tough slog indeed.

At about 2pm, an SWN-contracted truck with a trailer parked itself along highway 490. The truck was abandoned by the SWN-contracted workers, but it was an announcement of their presence to the vigilant community.

A small group of local familities - about 15 people in all, including young children - then gathered. A Bombadier, two geophones, a surveyor's tripod and a SWN antenna, were spotted. Whoever had positioned the equipment had done so on a private piece of land adjacent to the dirt highway.

The driver of the Bombadier approached the surveying equipment, potentially to recover it from the gathering crowd, only to be chased away from the equipment by the crowd. The driver sped south along a dirt road and did not return to the scene.

An SWN-contracted security truck appeared on the scene about ten minutes later. The driver of the truck did not speak to the gathered crowd, but as he was driving away he struck local resident Dave Morang hard enough with his driver’s side mirror to bend the mirror backwards. The driver did not stop.

Morang, injured, requested that an ambulance needed to be called. An Emergency Response team later took Morang to hospital on a spinal board and a stretcher. His condition is currently unknown.

“I can’t believe they didn’t stop,” Morang told the Halifax Media Co-op before the ambulance arrived. “They hit me hard enough with his mirror that it bent it. He would have known that. How many laws can they break?”

About 20 minutes later, RCMP appeared in force, with 26 officers and 14 cars and paddy wagons stationing themselves along the dirt road. The call through social media, however, had beaten them to the punch, and by the time they arrived the gathered crowd had swelled to about 100 non-Indigenous and Indigenous people.

RCMP consulted for about twenty more minutes, before apparently deciding that the best course of action would be to pick up SWN’s antenna and geophones. Photographs indicate that SWN's equipment appears to have been somehow bent and otherwise broken.

With nothing left to do, and with a gathered crowd which now included Chief Aaren Sock of Elsipogtog First Nation, the police packed up and retreated down the dirt road from which they had appeared.

Chief Sock, whose band council late Saturday night issued a Band Council Resolution inviting United Nations Observers to Elsipogtog, was not impressed with SWN’s unwanted incursions into Kent County, or the arrests of his people while in ceremony.

“Message for SWN: You’re not welcome in my territory,” Sock told the Halifax Media Co-op. “Nothing personal.”

After the RCMP departed with SWN’s equipment, those gathered continued to cheer and drum. They then began to slowly trickle back to their respective communities.

It was later discovered that SWN’s abandoned truck - the original sign of their presence - had had its windows smashed, doors dented and bumpers knocked off. As of press time, it is not known how this damage might have happened.

A packed community hall meeting in Elsipogtog, open to the general public, took place later in the evening. The topic of the meeting was not only how to stop SWN, but how to get shale gas out of New Brunswick, and all of the Maritimes. With UN observers now in place, representatives from various Warrior societies from across the Maritimes have been welcomed to Elsipogtog. They were greeted at the meeting with a standing ovation.




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U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team Equal Pay Claim Dismissed by Federal Judge

A federal judge dealt a significant blow to the U.S. Women’s national team’s fight for equality on Friday. While the U.S. women’s team’s claim of unequal working conditions can go forward, a federal judge rejected the player’s claims of pay inequality. In March 2019, the USWNT filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. The suit alleges the U.S. Soccer Federation’s has federally discriminatory payment practices, arguing that they pay women less than men “for substantially equal work and by denying them at least equal playing, training, and travel conditions; equal promotion of their games; equal support and development for their games; and other terms and conditions of employment equal to the MNT.” Judge R. Gary Klausner wrote in his decision that USWNT members did not prove wage discrimination under the Equal Pay Act because the women’s team played more games and made more money than the men’s team. Furthermore, the women’s team also rejected a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) where they would have an identical pay structure to the men’s team in favor of a different CBA. This CBA guarantees players are compensated regardless of whether they play, while the men’s CBA does not. “This approach — merely comparing […]




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‘We Roar’: Graduate alum Ali Nouri fights COVID-19 disinformation as Federation of American Scientists' president

Ali Nouri, a 2006 Princeton graduate alumnus and president of the Federation of American Scientists, is the latest guest on the "We Roar" podcast.




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U.S. EPA, Central Coast Growers, Federal & State Partners Join Healthy Soils Dialogue

SANTA YNEZ, Calif. – Today, in Santa Ynez, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) met with federal and state agencies and leaders from the region’s agriculture and food production industries to make progress on on-farm composting.




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EPA's New England Region Transfers Personal Protective Equipment to Federal Emergency Management Agency

Today, the U.S.




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EPA’s Mountains and Plains Region transfers N-95 masks to Federal Emergency Management Agency

DENVER (April 17, 2020) - Today, the U.S.




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EPA and Federal Partners Commemorate 10-year Anniversary of Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined federal partners—including the U.S. Coast Guard, Department of the Interior, the U.S.




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EPA Region 2 Transfers Personal Protective Equipment to Federal Emergency Management Agency

NEW YORK – Today, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2 announced that it has provided more than 14,400 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) to aid emergency and health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Derbyshire 79 Chesterfield A doffed capplans plans and more plans the only way to wisely use your allocated seconds in the day

I take a sharp intake of breath as I test what the air temperature is outside . The chill of the frosty night has not yet been burned away that frosty morning feeling. My breath comes out like a thick wisp of smoke. I need my gilet on today to keep me warm




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Charlottetown Confederation Bridge Cap Pele 113km Total 4962km

SPAl final hasta las 10 no he salido del hostal ya que habia desayuno incluido. De ahi por la carretera transcanadiense directamente hasta el puente. Un seor puente 13 km de largo hubiese sido divertido recorrerlo en bici pero esta prohibido y




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Gambino capo, 10 cohorts picked up on federal racketeering conspiracy, loansharking, bribery charges

Veteran captain Andrew Campos, 50, was arrested only months after a search warrant uncovered multiple photos of the mobster and co-defendant Richard Martino making prison visits to imprisoned Mafioso Frank LoCascio, once the underboss to the infamous “Dapper Don” Gotti.




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South Brooklynites are fed up with spotty R and D train service: report

The survey of more than 700 people in Sen. Andrew Gounardes’ district — which stretches from Bay Ridge to Manhattan Beach — found that half of those who take the subway to work need to transfer at least once during their commutes.