Key California Employment Law Cases: April 2017

Summary: While determination of exempt or nonexempt status should be made on weekly basis, factfinder may use evidence from weeks in which evidence is available to make reasonable inferences for weeks in which evidence is not available. Facts: Plaintiffs, grocery store assistant managers, brought individual claims for unpaid overtime against defendant grocery store after class certification was denied.

Prosecutors use Joe Arpaio’s immigration talk against him

Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio's criminal trial opened Monday over his defiance of the courts in traffic patrols that targeted immigrants, marking the most aggressive effort to hold the former lawman of metro Phoenix accountable for tactics that critics say racially profiled Latinos. In opening arguments, prosecutors displayed comments Arpaio made in news releases and during TV interviews in which he bragged about immigration enforcement, aiming to prove that he should be found guilty of "He thought he could get away with it," prosecutor Victor Salgado said, adding that at least 170 were illegally detained because Arpaio didn't stop.

Ex-Sheriff Joe Arpaio to defend reputation at criminal trial

In this Wednesday, July 28, 2010 file photo, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks in Phoenix about U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton's ruling that blocked the most controversial sections of Arizona's new immigration law from taking effect. The former longtime sheriff of metro Phoenix will go to court Monday, June 26, 2017, to defend his reputation at a trial in which he's charged with purposefully disobeying a judge's order.

Prosecutors seek to uphold ‘Making a Murderer’ confession

The confession of a Wisconsin inmate featured in the Netflix series "Making a Murderer" was improperly obtained and he should be retried or released from prison, a three-judge federal appeals panel ruled. Brendan Dassey was sentenced to life in prison in 2007 in photographer Teresa Halbach's death on Halloween two years earlier.

Washington governor calls third special session as government shutdown looms

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a third special session on Wednesday and said it was time to "crack the whip" on lawmakers to get a budget deal and avoid a July 1 government shutdown. Unless lawmakers can agree on a budget, the state of Washington is just days away from a first-ever government shutdown.

BART joins sanctuary movement, will not enforce federal immigration laws

The agency's governing board on Thursday approved a "Safe Transit" policy that closely mirrors the spirit of sanctuary city policies in the Bay Area, including San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose, where police officers are directed not to expend resources enforcing federal immigration laws. BART's policy would also forbid employees, including its police officers, from questioning riders or other employees about their immigration status.

Google wants law enforcement to have more access to overseas data

PanARMENIAN.Net - Alphabet Inc's Google will press U.S. lawmakers on Thursday, June 22 to update laws on how governments access customer data stored on servers located in other countries, hoping to address a mounting concern for both law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley, Reuters says. The push comes amid growing legal uncertainty, both in the United States and across the globe, about how technology firms must comply with government requests for foreign-held data.

From the desk of… Trumpa s persecutors are going off the rails

In one of the latest examples of our information crisis, CNN took a story this week about how a friend of Donald Trump said after a meeting at the White House that he thought the president was considering firing Robert Mueller. Then the network sloppily repackaged the story so it could report that Trump was, in fact, thinking about terminating the special counsel.

Sessions asked Congress to let him prosecute medical marijuana providers

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according to a May letter that became public Monday. The protections, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, prohibit the Justice Department from using federal funds to prevent certain states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana."

Anger management but no jail in Gianforte body-slam saga

Congressman-elect Greg Gianforte avoided jail time after pleading guilty Monday to an election-eve assault on a reporter that turned the race for Montana's lone U.S. House seat into a full-fledged political spectacle. The Republican tech entrepreneur instead will serve 40 hours of community service and attend 20 hours of anger management classes for throwing Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs to the ground at Gianforte's campaign headquarters in Bozeman on May 24. For all the national attention the audiotaped assault brought to the race in its waning hours, the judge, prosecutors and the new congressman's attorneys maintained Monday he was treated like any other first-time misdemeanor offender.

Montana’s Gianforte avoids jail time for reporter assault

Montana's next congressman, Greg Gianforte, avoided jail time Monday after pleading guilty to assaulting a reporter the day before he was elected. Gallatin County Justice of the Peace Rick West sentenced the Republican technology entrepreneur to 40 hours of community service, 20 hours of anger management counselling and ordered him to pay a $385 fine for the misdemeanour.

Our Opinion: ‘Sanctuary’ semantics shouldn’t hold up good legislation

Legislation on Beacon Hill effectively making Massachusetts a "sanctuary state" would protect local and state law enforcement officers from being dragged into federal immigration issues where they risk being compromised. However, the word "sanctuary" is a loaded one that is a misnomer in this case, a misnomer that should not but may contribute to sinking this worthy effort.