Our Latest Updates – Archive

While the current debate about employer vaccine mandates in the United States centers upon COVID-19 requirements, mandates and the debate about them are as old as the country itself.

The US Senate unanimously approved a bill that would make DST permanent as of Nov. 20, 2023 if approved by the House and signed by President Biden. The delay is meant to give airlines and other transportation providers time to adjust to the change as they set schedules months ahead of time.

Ohio’s constitutional carry law, signed on Mar. 15, 2021, goes into effect 91 days after the law is filed by the Secretary of State.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made more than 74,000 administrative immigration arrests in fiscal year 2021, down from over 100,000 yearly under the Trump administration.

Alabama joins a growing number of states eliminating concealed carry permit requirements.

Of 142 countries, 42 (29.6%) require a prescription for birth control pills, 47 (26.1%) officially require no prescription (though 10 require a health screening), and 53 (37.3%) countries informally allow birth control pills to be distributed without a prescription

Between Sep. 9, 1976 and June 17, 2021, 102 drug ingredients were switched from prescription (Rx) to over-the-counter (OTC) status by the FDA.

In a 6-3 vote, the US Supreme Court upheld Tsarnaev’s death sentence. The sentence was overturned in 2020 by an appeals court, but that ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court by the Trump administration. The Biden administration, despite a federal moratorium on capital punishment, pursued the appeal after Biden took office.

On Aug. 4, 2021, the Mexican government sued US gun manufacturers in US federal court. The Mexican government accused the manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc.; Barrett Firearms Manufacturing, Inc.; Beretta U.S.A. Corp.; Colt’s Manufacturing Company LLC, and Glock Inc, of “actively facilitating the unlawful trafficking of their guns to drug cartels and other criminals in Mexico.” The Foreign Affairs Ministry estimates 70% of guns trafficked in Mexico came from the United States, contributing to 17,000 homicides in 2019 alone. In Feb. 2022, the attorneys general of 13 states filed a brief in federal court supporting the Mexican government’s lawsuit.

Governor Tate Reeves signed legislation on Feb. 2, 2022, after both the Senate and House passed the bill on Jan. 26. The law is expected to go into effect later in 2022.

A majority of US states are “shall-issue” states, with more and more embracing permitless (or “constitutional”) carry laws.

As of Jan. 10, 2022, the USDA listed 12 bioengineered products available in the US: alfalfa, Arctic apples, canola, corn, cotton, BARI Bt Begun varieties of eggplant, ringspot virus-resistant varieties of papaya, pink flesh varieties of pineapple, potato, AquAdvantage salmon, soybean, summer squash, and sugarbeet. Find out more about the GMO foods debate.

Colombia legalized euthanasia for people with terminal illnesses in 1997. In 2021, the Colombian court recognized that the procedure should not be only available to those with terminal illnesses and, on Jan. 7, 2022, Victor Escobar, who had a degenerative disorder (end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), was the first person with a non-terminal illness to die via legally regulated euthanasia in Colombia. The next day, Martha Sepulveda, who suffered with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, was the second person with a non-terminal illness to die via legally regulated euthanasia in Colombia.

A 2021 survey found 38% of respondents streamed three or more hours of content on weekdays, and 48% did so on weekends.

A record 21 states raised the minimum wage levels effective Jan. 2021, putting 30 states above the federal level.