Immunization Guidance for Schools -NYSED

• The Department has developed new guidance, Immunization Guidelines for Schools, which is based on an older version that was available prior to 2018.
• The guidelines provide direction to schools on how to ensure their students are meeting the immunization requirements.
• The guidance also addresses how to handle certain situations including:

• • Homeless Students
  • Students in Foster Care
  • Non-graded classes
  • Refugee students

• Finally, schools will find direction for students not meeting the immunization requirements, along with documentation and record-keeping requirements.
• Questions may be directed to the Office of Student Support Services at studentsupportservices@nysed.gov or 518-486-6090.

 

Giuliani loses Georgia election worker defamation suit by default, judge rules–The Hill

BY ZACH SCHONFELD

***

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in a 57-page opinion ruled in favor of the two election workers by default after Giuliani resisted turning over discovery in the case. Her ruling suggested Giuliani may have done so to reduce his legal exposure in other cases.

“Perhaps, he has made the calculation that his overall litigation risks are minimized by not complying with his discovery obligations in this case,” Howell wrote. “Whatever the reason, obligations are case specific and withholding required discovery in this case has consequences.”

Howell also ordered Giuliani to pay nearly $90,000 and his businesses to pay more than $43,000 to reimburse legal fees the election workers incurred in their attempt to compel Giuliani to turn over the discovery.

***

Read more…

3M agrees to pay $6 billion after US military said faulty earplugs led to hearing loss–CNN

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York CNN — 

3M has agreed to pay $6 billion to resolve roughly 300,000 lawsuits alleging that the manufacturing company supplied faulty combat earplugs to the military that resulted in significant injuries, such as hearing loss.

In a release, 3M said the agreement is “not an admission of liability” and that the payout will come over several years and encompass $5 billion in cash and $1 billion in stock.

“The products at issue in this litigation are safe and effective when used properly. 3M is prepared to continue to defend itself in the litigation if certain agreed terms of the settlement agreement are not fulfilled,” the company said.

***

Read more…

5 things to know about the first 10 drugs chosen for Medicare negotiation–The Hill

BY JOSEPH CHOI

The Biden administration has announced the first 10 drugs chosen for Medicare price negotiation, representing a major step in Democratic efforts to address health care affordability in the U.S.

However, the entire program is being contested in the courts by major pharmaceutical companies and industry groups, which could potentially delay or even halt implementation, with savings currently set to take effect in 2026. 

***

As of the announcement, there are eight lawsuits challenging CMS’s ability to negotiate drug prices. The suits allege a multitude of constitutional violations stemming from the program, including an illegal taking of product without just compensation.

In a press call Monday, Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the White House was being “premature in its celebrations of reaching this milestone.

“They’re attempting to avoid all of the very real-world negative side effects that their policy, if implemented, would necessarily result in,” Bradley said, pointing to a forecast from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicting that it would result in fewer new drug approvals. 

***

Read more…

Hochul and Adams face off over foie gras–Politico

The debate pits upstate interests versus downstate ones.

By JEFF COLTIN

***

The New York City Council passed, and then-Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law, a bill banning the sale and serving of foie gras in November 2019. It was set to take effect three years later, in November 2022, but the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets ordered the city to foie greddaboudit. The city couldn’t implement the ban since it “unreasonably restricts” two foie gras farms’ “operations and on-farm practices” under state law, the agency ruled.

The Adams administration sued, and got a taste of victory Aug. 3 when an Albany County judge struck down the state’s order blocking the city ban as “arbitrary and capricious.”

That decision is being reported here for the first time.

***

Read more…

Well-Regulated Smart Guns Are Here–Hartmann Report

Thomas Hartmann

***

A company named Safe Gun Technology, Inc., for example, developed a fingerprint reader that’s built right into the grip on handguns and rifles, preventing the weapon from being fired by anybody except those people “authorized” to shoot it by having their fingerprints in its system.¹ Their fingerprint reader, simply a flat spot on the grip where a fingertip would normally lay, can even be retrofitted onto existing weapons. 

Another company, Intelligun, offers a similar fingerprint-reading product and is working with the US Army’s Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center to come up with a stock that, instead of recognizing fingerprints (which can be obscured by dirt, etc.), measures exactly how and where the authorized user grips his or her gun, another biometric measure that’s highly personalized. 

Radio frequency identification (RFID) recognition of a gun’s owner, thus unlocking the weapon, has become a mature industry; TriggerSmart Technologies sells a gun that unlocks when handled by a user who’s wearing a ring that the gun recognizes. The Germany company Armatix sells a gun that unlocks by RFID with a watch worn by the owner. 

***

Read more…

Far-right message boards target the Georgia Trump indictment grand jurors after their names were made public–Media Matters

Users on the far-right message board sites have threatened the jurors with violence and sought to reveal their addresses

WRITTEN BY ALEX KAPLAN

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM CAMDEN CARTER

A Media Matters review found that following the release of the indictment and the grand jurors’ names, users on far-right message boards began targeting them in retaliation.

On a message board that has been the home of “Q,” the central figure of the QAnon conspiracy theory, a user posted the names of the jurors alongside their supposed addresses (Media Matters has blurred the supposed doxxing to protect the jurors, and has chosen to blur and remove other material posted by message board users). And on another message board, where the QAnon conspiracy theory initially emerged, a user seemed to threaten to “follow these people home and photograph their faces.”

Other users on the message boards also issued direct threats against the jurors. One user wrote that the grand jurors’ names was a “hit list” to which another user responded, “Based. Godspeed anons, you have all the long range rifles in the world,” while another wrote that they were “about ready to go Turner Diaries on these treasonous n***** fucks” (referring to a violent white nationalist book). And another user ominously wrote that the jurors were “committing election interference” and so they “should indeed be careful.”

***

Read more…

Federal judge finds Maryland parents have no right to ‘opt-out’ of LGBTQ+ education for their children–JURIST

David DeNotaris | U. Pittsburgh School of Law, US

A Maryland federal judge denied Thursday a parents’ request to have their children “opt-out’ of education on LGBTQ+ history and topics. In Mahmoud v. McKnight, three families parenting elementary-aged children in Maryland, objected on religious grounds to the use of storybooks featuring LGBTQ+ characters in the Montgomery County Public School (MCPS) system. The court rejected the parents’ request, stating, “Public schools are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive, particularly when the school imposes no requirement that the student violate his or her faith during classroom instruction.”

***

Read more…

Trump’s bond set at $200,000 in Georgia election-related case–Politico

By KYLE CHENEY

Donald Trump’s attorneys have signed an order setting his bond on racketeering charges in Georgia at $200,000 and binding Trump to a set of rules that explicitly limit his ability to use social media to attack witnesses or co-defendants in the case.

The three-page order, signed by Georgia Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, sets the conditions of Trump’s pretrial release in the case, which stems from his effort to subvert the 2020 election.

Similar orders were issued earlier Monday to three of Trump’s co-defendants, John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall. But Trump’s included a more explicit order on witness intimidation, explicitly referencing the former president’s ability to use his social media platform to level attacks related to the case.

***

Read more…

Permanent Adoption of the Amendment of Section 19.5 of the Rules of the Board of Regents and Sections 100.2, 200.1, 200.7, 200.15, and 200.22 to the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education Relating to the Prohibition of Corporal Punishment, Aversive Interventions, Prone Restraint, and Seclusion; Permitted Use of Timeout and Restraint; and Data Collection Requirements–Office of Special Education Listserv Memo 8-17-2023

1. At the July 2023 Board of Regents meeting, the Board approved for permanent adoption the amendment of sections 19.5 of the Rules of the Board of Regents and Sections 100.2, 200.1, 200.7, 200.15, and 200.22 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education. The amended regulations:
2. prohibit the use of corporal punishment, aversive interventions, prone restraint, and seclusion;
3. authorize the limited use of timeout and physical restraint;
4. establish new annual data reporting requirements relating to corporal punishment, aversive interventions, seclusion, timeout, and physical restraint; and
5. conform Part 200 of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education relating to students with disabilities to the new requirements on the use of timeout and physical restraints.

1. The regulations took effect on August 2, 2023. Schools must take steps to review and revise their policies, procedures, and practices to ensure that they are in compliance with the new regulatory requirements, including ensuring that all staff have training on the revised policies and procedures.
2. Guidance on the new regulatory requirements will be forthcoming.
3. Questions regarding the new requirements may be directed to the Office of Student Support Services at studentsupportservices@nysed.gov. Questions regarding the requirements specific to students with disabilities may be directed to the Office of Special Education at speced@nysed.gov.