National Roundup

Rhode Island
Woman who stole $5M denied prison release
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — A Rhode Island woman who stole nearly $5 million from close friends and family was denied special release from prison because of the pandemic on Monday.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. said in his ruling there is “nothing unique” about Monique Brady’s situation that would prompt her release to home confinement.
The 45-year-old East Greenwich resident is being held at the Women’s Facility at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, where three guards have tested positive for COVID-19.

Brady pleaded guilty in July to wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and obstructing an IRS investigation. She was sentenced in February to eight years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered her to pay nearly $5 million in restitution to her 23 victims.

Brady’s lawyer filed an emergency motion in federal court on Friday arguing that imprisonment would put Brady “at special risk of infection,” the Providence Journal reported.

A judge previously denied Brady’s request for home confinement. She was deemed a “flight risk” for allegedly planning to flee the country with her lover and buying a ticket for a one-way flight to Vietnam.

New York
Court approves Dean Foods asset sale
NEW YORK (AP) — A bankruptcy court has approved the asset sale of one of the U.S.’s biggest dairy companies, Dean Foods.

Dean Foods Co. got the go-ahead to sell $433 million worth of properties and interests to the Dairy Farmers of America. Dean filed for bankruptcy protection in November of last year. Another major milk producer, Borden Dairy Co., filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year.

The dairy industry has been struggling for decades as consumers increasingly shun milk for juice, soda and an array of non-dairy milk substitutes made from soy, almonds or oats. Since 1975, the amount of liquid milk consumed per capita in the U.S. has tumbled more than 40%.

In addition to the sale of several production facilities and distribution branches, Dallas-based Dean has also lined up buyers for several of its brands, including Uncle Matt’s, Berkeley Farms and Meadow Gold Hawaii.

Washington
Court denies Seattle’s bid for wealthy household income tax
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington’s Supreme Court has denied Seattle’s bid to reinstate an income tax on wealthy households.

In a majority decision, the Supreme Court on Thursday declined to review the city’s request to overturn rulings against the tax by a King County Superior Court judge and the state Court of Appeals, The Seattle Times reported.

Without issuing an opinion, Supreme Court dismissed Seattle’s petition for review and a petition written by the Economic Opportunity Institute, a Seattle-based progressive think tank.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman declined to report the tally and how each justice voted.

The ruling means Washington and its cities will remain barred from enacting graduated income taxes, with different rates based on wealth. But some advocates may still see a way to move forward, because the Supreme Court let stand a decision by the Court of Appeals last year to void a state law that banned taxes on net income.

“Seattle has the authority to adopt an income tax, and I believe we can craft a proposal that can help make our tax system less regressive,” Mayor Jenny Durkan said in a statement Friday.
“We are once again confronted with the reality that in times of crisis, those same residents that earn or have the least are the first to feel economic stings of job loss and instability,” Durkan added. “As we emerge from this emergency all of us need to rebuild a city that is more just and equitable.”

Washington is one of the few states without an income tax, and its system has been labeled by tax reformers as the most regressive, meaning poor residents pay a much higher percentage of their earnings than do rich residents.

Florida
Strip clubs sue over raised danger age limit
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Adult clubs in one Florida city are suing over a new law that raised the minimum age for strippers from 18 to 21.

The law in Jacksonville was enacted March 5 in a bid to reduce human trafficking. But lawyers for the clubs, including the lead plaintiff Wacko’s, contend in a federal lawsuit that it violates the First Amendment by restricting the ability of performers to dance.

“The Constitution does not permit the deprivation of First Amendment rights based on the age of ... citizens who have attained the age of 18,” attorneys Gary Edinger and James Benjamin argue in a complaint filed in the names of 13 businesses and four dancers, two of them under age 21.

The Florida Times-Union reported that after the law was signed, the clubs were prevented from using close to 100 dancers under age 21 during a two-week period, according to the lawsuit.
The 140-page suit notes that people under 21 can hold any other job at those businesses, even own the clubs.

The law also requires performers to get work identification cards from the sheriff’s office.

City attorneys have not yet responded to the lawsuit.

Washington, D.C.
Supreme Court declines H. Rap Brown case
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is declining to take the case of a 1960s black militant formerly known as H. Rap Brown who is in prison for killing a Georgia sheriff’s deputy in 2000.

As is usual, the justices didn’t comment Monday in turning away Brown’s case. Brown had argued his constitutional rights were violated at trial.

Brown converted to Islam and now goes by the name Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin. He gained prominence more than 50 years ago as a Black Panthers leader and was at one point the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

In 2002, Al-Amin was convicted of murder in the death of Fulton County sheriff’s Deputy Ricky Kinchen and the wounding of Kinchen’s partner, Deputy Aldranon English. He was sentenced to life in prison.

Al-Amin had argued that a prosecutor violated his right not to testify by directly questioning him during closing arguments in a sort of mock cross-examination.