New Jersey is joining the states of Texas, New Mexico and West Virginia and Harris County, Texas, in suing Volkswagen. The U.S. Justice Department filed its own lawsuit accusing VW of violating clean air laws and seeking up to $46 billion on Jan. 4. VW faces more than 500 civil lawsuits that have been consolidated before a federal judge in California, who has retained a former FBI director as a settlement adviser. The automaker also faces investigations by 48 U.S. state attorneys.   read more

Robert M. Gates, then defense secretary, appealed to President Obama to reconsider the release of the photographs, warning that it could provoke attacks against U.S. troops in the war zones. Obama changed his mind and obtained legislation from Congress permitting the defense secretary to exempt the photos from disclosure. Current Pentagon chief Ash Carter extended it again in November, but decided that the 198 photos could be made public.   read more

Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, offered his support for the crosses in a legal brief, filed in response to a sheriff's office that received a complaint about images of a Christian cross displayed on its patrol vehicles. "In addition to its religious significance, the cross has a long history in America and elsewhere as a symbol of service and sacrifice," Abbott wrote. His office wouldn't say if he also supported the display of other religious symbols on patrol cars.   read more

The metals may have included cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc. Tests done after the spill also found arsenic and lead in the wastewater. The EPA said most of the metals consisted of small particles and came from Cement Creek, a tributary that carried the water from the mine to the Animas. An EPA-led cleanup crew inadvertently triggered the spill on Aug. 5 while doing preliminary cleanup work at the inactive Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado.   read more

High-ranking officials in Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's administration were aware of a surge in Legionnaires' disease potentially linked to Flint's water long before the governor reported the increase to the public last month, internal emails show. When he disclosed the spike in Legionnaires' cases on Jan. 13, Snyder said he had learned about it just a couple of days earlier. But emails show Snyder's own office was aware of the outbreak since last March.   read more

"I've heard nothing but horror stories on the appointments system," said Ken Thibodeau, a Vietnam-era vet who gets VA treatment for diabetes and blindness. He said he's been waiting nearly six months for an appointment for a new prosthetic leg. "It is intolerable that investigations continue to uncover these unacceptable practices at the VA," said Sen. Michael Bennett. Rep. Doug Lamborn said he will call for a congressional hearing into the new report. "We have been deceived," he said.   read more

"The way this was done in secret, unilaterally, without consultation, without public review and comment, without any of the normal processes and procedures that would be used for a dramatic change in policy like this, makes it all the more shocking and brazen and wrong," said ACLU's Kubic. He added that the EAC's executive director should be someone who believes in extending and guaranteeing the right to vote — not creating hindrances.   read more

NOAA's report assigned a "climate vulnerability score" to 82 Northeastern fish and shellfish species. It listed types of scallop and quahog and the Atlantic salmon as the most vulnerable in the region, as well as eastern oysters, a $175 million fishery in 2014. Also, certain types of herring, a vital part of the ocean's food web and commercially important as bait, were found to be highly vulnerable to climate change.   read more

Reports related to sexual misconduct accounted for just 1% of all reports in the NPDB, suggesting that it's underreported. This could be because victims are unwilling to lodge complaints, given that a majority of reported cases result in no punishment for the accused. Penalizing doctors for sexual misconduct is crucial because such offences are intentional unlike negligence or diagnostic mistakes. Most of the doctors with sexual misconduct reports were aged 40 or older, the study noted.   read more

A study found that Texas saw a drop in women obtaining long-acting birth control after Republican leaders booted Planned Parenthood from a state women's health program in 2013, which researchers said may explain an increase in births among poor families. The same year Texas barred Planned Parenthood from state family planning services, then-Gov. Rick Perry signed abortion restrictions that shuttered clinics under a sweeping law that the U.S. Supreme Court will review next month.   read more

The decision came while gun rights and safety registering are hot-button issue on the U.S. presidential campaign trail after several mass shootings last year. Monika Bickert, Facebook’s head of global policy management, said that gun group administrators were notified of the new policy ahead of its enforcement. Bickert said Facebook's community operations team decides whether to remove reported content including terrorist activity, cyber-bullying and nudity, in addition to private gun sales.   read more

Rep. Jeff Miller called Schroeder's ruling "a twist of tragic comedy." The VA's attempt to discipline Graves "was undone by its refusal to discipline other employees involved in this scandal," he said. "By now there should be no doubt whatsoever that our federal civil service system is in need of drastic reform." VA Secretary Gibson says he still intends to punish two senior officials accused of manipulating the agency's hiring system for their own gain.   read more

The complain claims there was a "pervasive system of corruption and racism" in Indian Country, and the Dept. of Interior recovered money on behalf of minor allottees. The plaintiffs seek an accounting related to the alleged breaches of fiduciary duties. The defendants, Interior Secretary Jewell and Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Washburn, moved to dismiss. Judge Contreras granted the motion, relying upon the ruling that "the wrong to the ancestor is not a wrong to the descendants."   read more

The selective service question revealed differences between the military chiefs and their political leaders. Army Gen. Mark Milley and Marine Gen. Robert Neller both flatly said that women should be included in the requirement to register for the selective service at age 18. But Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Army Acting Secretary Patrick Murphy would only say that the issue should be discussed. Political leaders overall have so far been reluctant to endorse the draft requirement.   read more

"Every year that we've operated the hotline since 2007, the number of cases we've handled has increased," Bouchard said. A recent academic report funded by the National Institute of Justice found that posting the hotline number in public places was "the most important provision for increasing the number of human trafficking arrests." Three-quarters of the cases reported last year entailed sex trafficking and slightly more than 10 percent were labor trafficking, Polaris said.   read more

The Republican leaders of Texas, who have stood by the cheerleaders, saw the court's decision as a victory for religious freedom. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which brought the complaint, said it sees the banners as violating the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution regarding government prohibitions on establishing religion. "They (the banners) signal to students and members of the community who are non-Christian that they are outsiders," said foundation lawyer Patrick Elliott,   read more