"From last month’s announcement – right here in Philadelphia – of more than $111 million in COPS Hiring Program grant awards to save or create jobs for approximately 800 officers – including more than $3 million for this city to hire 25 new officers – to our efforts to better understand and address the threats that law enforcement officers face every day – I’m proud to report that our dedication to ensuring the safety, and the success, of America’s law enforcement officers has never been stronger," said Attorney General Holder.

The Justice Department today announced agreements with Wills Point, Texas, and Randolph County, Ga., to improve access to all aspects of civic life for individuals with disabilities

The Department of Justice announced today that the United States has entered into a comprehensive, cooperative consent decree with the city of New Orleans to resolve allegations of unlawful police misconduct by the New Orleans Police Department.

The agreement is the 200th settlement reached under Project Civic Access (PCA), the department’s wide-ranging initiative to ensure that cities, towns and counties throughout the country comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The Department of Justice announced today that it will require United Technologies Corporation (UTC) to divest certain assets used in the production of electrical power systems and aircraft engine control systems in order to proceed with its acquisition of Goodrich Corporation.

Albino “Albie” Folcarelli, 54, of Johnston, R.I., an admitted associate of the New England La Cosa Nostra (NELCN), was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Providence, R.I., today to serve 84 months in federal prison for his participation in an extortion conspiracy to extort $25,000 from a Rhode Island individual by using implied threats of violence, including visits to the individual’s place of employment and home.

U.S. Attorney’s offices across the nation are partnering with the Civil Rights Division to target their enforcement efforts on a critical area for individuals with disabilities through a new Barrier-Free Health Care Initiative, the Justice Department announced today. The announcement comes on the 22nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which was passed on July 26, 1990. Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez announced the new initiative today at an event celebrating the anniversary of the ADA in Washington, D.C.

Capital One N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA) N.A. (together Capital One), have agreed to pay approximately $12 million to resolve a lawsuit by the Department of Justice alleging the companies violated the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.

"Thanks to the work of so many of you in this room, the ADA has both literally and figuratively opened millions of doors for individuals with disabilities across this nation. Just as importantly, it has revolutionized the way our society thinks about individuals with disabilities, and it has revolutionized the way people with disabilities live in our communities," said Assistant Attorney General Perez.

"Through this historic new partnership, government leaders and private sector experts will come together as never before – to share information while protecting patient confidentiality, to leverage critical resources, and to seek out and implement the solutions we need," said Attorney General Holder.

The United States has entered into a comprehensive, cooperative agreement with the city of Seattle to implement sustainable reforms within the Seattle Police Department (SPD), the Justice Department announced today. The agreement seeks to resolve issues raised by the Justice Department’s investigation into SPD through federal court oversight of reform efforts to ensure effective and constitutional policing in Seattle. The agreement includes a settlement agreement and stipulated order of resolution (settlement agreement), filed in federal court in Seattle today, that is subject to an independent monitor and court oversight, and separately a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to be enforced by the parties with community oversight and the assistance of the monitor.

The Justice Department today announced an agreement with a California municipality and a homeowners’ association to resolve allegations of discrimination on the basis of familial status in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The settlement, in the form of a consent order, must be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

The Justice Department announced that it has reached an agreement with Merced County, Calif., that will allow for the county and some 84 political subdivisions in the county that conduct elections to bail out from their status as “covered jurisdictions” under the special provisions of the Voting Rights Act, and thereby exempt these jurisdictions from the preclearance requirements of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. The agreement is in the form of a consent decree filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and must be approved by the court.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor the elections on July 31, 2012, in Randolph and Washington Counties, Ga., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group.

The Department of Justice and the Allentown, Pa., School District today filed a proposed consent decree addressing multiple complaints of sexual assault of students at Central Elementary School. The comprehensive consent decree resolves allegations that six- and seven-year-old students were sexually assaulted by another student in the boys’ bathrooms at Central Elementary School during the 2003–2004 school year.

TRW Deutschland Holding GmbH, a Koblenz, Germany-based subsidiary of U.S.-based TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., has agreed to plead guilty for its involvement in a conspiracy to fix prices of seatbelts, airbags and steering wheels sold to two German automobile manufacturers, and installed in cars sold in the United States.

The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the state of Michigan and its chief elections officials to help ensure that military service members, their family members and U.S. citizens living overseas have the opportunity to participate fully in Michigan’s Aug. 7, 2012, federal primary election and Sept. 5, 2012, federal special primary election.

Two former high-ranking employees of facilities operations at New York Presbyterian Hospital (NYPH) pleaded guilty today to an indictment charging them with conspiring to defraud NYPH.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement with the city of Woodlake, Calif., to resolve allegations that the city engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against people with disabilities by requiring applicants for job vacancies to undergo unlawful pre-employment medical examinations before receiving an offer of employment, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, on behalf of the White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, today announced the eight neighborhoods that will receive training and technical assistance through the groundbreaking Building Neighborhood Capacity Program.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached an out-of-court agreement with the Escambia County School District in Alabama to end the use of race-based selection criteria for homecoming courts and other student activities in two of the district’s high schools.

The Justice Department announced that it has asked a federal court in Chicago to bar Bruce E. Grant and his business, Quick Check Limited, from preparing tax returns. The civil injunction suit alleges that Grant falsifies customers’ income on their tax returns, frequently by fabricating business income and expenses, in order to claim the maximum earned income tax credit (EITC) for them.

The Justice Department today announced it has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against Baltimore County, Md.

The former chief of party in Baghdad for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), Robert Nathan Boorda, pleaded guilty to an information unsealed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for conspiring to enrich himself by having USIP award a security contract at a fraudulently inflated price in exchange for a purported monthly consulting fee of $20,000 paid by the contractor.

"We must continue to work because today, somewhere, there’s a child who will feel the sting of a punch because the clothes he’s wearing aren’t cool; who will believe her difference is a detriment as she eats alone in a crowded school cafeteria; who will skip school another day to avoid a terrifying confrontation; or will contemplate suicide because nothing seems like it can hurt more than this moment of humiliation right now," said Acting Associate Attorney General West.

The Justice Department released a letter of findings today determining that the Lauderdale County Youth Court, the Meridian Police Department (MPD), and the Mississippi Division of Youth Services (DYS) are violating the constitutional rights of juveniles in Meridian, Miss. The department’s investigation found reasonable cause to believe that these agencies have violated the constitutional due process rights of children in the city of Meridian and the county of Lauderdale under the Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor elections on Aug. 14, 2012, in the following jurisdictions to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal voting rights statutes: Collier, Hendry, Lee, Osceola and Polk Counties, Fla.; and the city of Milwaukee, Wis.

The Justice Department announced today that John Wingard Altman has agreed to pay $25,000 to settle a lawsuit involving violations of the Fair Housing Act at Altman Apartments, a 16-unit apartment complex he owns in Summerville, S.C. In July 2012, the court, ruling on a motion filed by the government, found that the defendant had violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against families with children.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached a settlement agreement with Best Packing Services Employment Agency Inc., which is based in Philadelphia, resolving allegations that the company discriminated under the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), when it impermissibly delayed the start date of two refugees after requiring them to provide specific Form I-9 documentation.

An executive of Tokyo-based Yazaki Corporation has agreed to plead guilty for his role in a conspiracy to fix prices of instrument panel clusters, also known as meters, installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere.

The Department of Justice announced today that it will require Verizon and four of the nation’s largest cable companies—Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications—to make changes to a series of agreements concerning both the sale of bundled wireless and wireline services, and the formation of a technology research joint venture. The department said that, if left unaltered, the agreements would have harmed competition by diminishing the companies’ incentive to compete, resulting in higher prices and lower quality for consumers.

The Justice Department announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with Valley Club, a former swimming facility located in Huntingdon Valley, Pa, resolving allegations that the company discriminated against persons because of race. The Justice Department’s investigation was conducted under Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin and religion in places of public accommodation, such as hotels, restaurants and places of entertainment.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced today that they will hold a joint public workshop on most-favored-nation clauses (MFNs) on Sept.10, 2012, to explore the use of MFN clauses and the implications for antitrust enforcement and policy.

The Justice Department announced today that it reached an agreement with MicroLink Devices, a manufacturer of semiconductor structures and advanced solar cells based in Niles, Ill. The agreement resolves allegations that the company violated the anti-discrimination provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), when it placed six online job postings that explicitly stated citizenship status preferences or requirements that excluded certain work-authorized non-citizens from consideration.

Gregory Lawrence, 54, of Detroit, pleaded guilty yesterday before U.S. District Court Judge Victoria A. Roberts in the Eastern District of Michigan to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

The Justice Department announced today that it has entered into an agreement with the state of North Carolina to ensure the state is in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act. The agreement will transform the state’s system for serving people with mental illness. Under the settlement agreement, over the next eight years, North Carolina’s system will expand community-based services and supported housing that promote inclusion and independence and enable people with mental illness to participate fully in community life.

The Justice Department today concurrently filed a complaint and consent decree against the Burke County, N.C., Department of Social Services, alleging that the county did not have an effective harassment and discrimination policy in place and did not provide sufficient training in race harassment and discrimination for its employees and supervisors, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended. Title VII is a federal statute which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin or religion.

The Justice and Interior Departments this week launched a new training seminar for tribal and federal law enforcement on investigating and prosecuting sexual assault cases on tribal lands.

The Justice Department announced today that it will monitor elections on Aug. 28, 2012, in Lanett, Reform, and Phenix City, Ala., and Maricopa County, Ariz., to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination in the election process on the basis of race, color or membership in a minority language group.

GFI Mortgage Bankers Inc., a large independent home mortgage firm that concentrates on the New York, New Jersey, and Florida markets, will pay $3.555 million to resolve a lending discrimination lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit alleges that GFI engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination by pricing residential mortgage loans for qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers higher than for similarly-qualified non-Hispanic white borrowers between 2005 and 2009.

Nagoka, Japan-based Nippon Seiki Co. Ltd. has agreed to plead guilty and to pay a $1 million criminal fine for its role in a conspiracy to fix prices of instrument panel clusters, commonly known as meters, installed in cars sold in the United States and elsewhere.

The Justice Department announced today that it and the National Federation of the Blind have reached a settlement with the Sacramento Public Library Authority in Sacramento, Calif., to remedy alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The agreement resolves allegations that the library violated the ADA by using inaccessible Barnes & Noble NOOK electronic reader devices in a patron lending program.

The Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, and the Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, today entered into a settlement agreement with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) that requires ADE and Arizona public schools to offer targeted reading and writing intervention services to tens of thousands of English Language Learner (ELL) students who were prematurely exited or incorrectly identified as Initially Fluent English Proficient (IFEP) over the past five school years. The agreement also requires ADE to develop proficiency criteria that accurately identify and exit ELL students.

The Justice Department announced that it has reached an agreement with U.S. Virgin Islands officials to help ensure that military service members, their family members and U.S. citizens living overseas have the opportunity to participate fully in the territory’s Sept. 8, 2012 primary election and the Nov. 6, 2012, general election.

3M Co. abandoned its plan to acquire Avery Dennison Corp.’s Office and Consumer Products Group, its closest competitor in the sale of adhesive-backed labels and sticky notes, after the Department of Justice informed the companies that it would file a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the deal.

The Justice Department announced today that it seeks to intervene in a class action lawsuit against the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) in federal court in San Francisco to remedy violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The lawsuit, The Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. LSAC, Inc., et al., charges LSAC with widespread and systemic deficiencies in the way it processes requests by people with disabilities for testing accommodations for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). As a result, the lawsuit alleges, LSAC fails to provide accommodations where needed to best ensure that those test takers can demonstrate their aptitude and achievement level rather than their disability.

Following a comprehensive investigation, the Justice Department today released its letter of findings determining that the Topeka Correctional Facility (TCF), an all-female facility in Topeka, Kan., under the jurisdiction of the Kansas Department of Corrections (KDOC), fails to protect women prisoners from harm due to sexual abuse and misconduct from correctional staff and other prisoners in violation of their constitutional rights. The Justice Department delivered a letter detailing the findings to Governor Samuel D. Brownback and Secretary of the KDOC Ray Roberts.

John Wyss, aka “Bones,” 55, of Monroe, Wis., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Maurice Hicks in the Western District of Louisiana.

The Justice Department announced today that it has sued two Dallas tax return preparers, seeking to bar them from preparing federal tax returns for others.

The Justice Department announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the owner and operator of the Heritage Point mobile home park in Montgomery, Ala., alleging that the companies and their employees or officers discriminated against African-Americans.