Associated Press — Civil rights groups working to protect the voting rights of blacks, Latinos and Asian Americans say they have a vision for redrawing state legislative districts in the city to reflect the demographic changes of their communities.
Calling it a “unity map” for new state Assembly
Downtown Express — After a highly contentious debate among community members, the City Council unanimously voted in favor of the Chinatown Business Improvement District at its meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 21. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s signed the legislation on Tuesday night.
More than three-quarte
Brennan Center — Civil liberties groups today called on the New York City Police Department (NYPD) to hand over records related to the department’s domestic intelligence gathering operations. The request comes on the heels of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director David Petraeus’ call to inves
Queens Campaigner – If any teacher wanted to instruct students about gerrymandering, a field trip to state Sen. Tony Avella’s (D-Bayside) district might be a good place to start.
The lawmaker represents an unpopulated, rocky stretch of sand that forms a border around – but does not encroach upon –
Brooklyn Daily Eagle – A lawsuit in which low-income Latino and Asian immigrants in Sunset Park sued to stop a proposed 128-block rezoning of the neighborhood was defeated on appeal last week.
The Appellate Division First Department’s five-judge panel handed down a 3-2 decision on Thursday, upholdi
Reuters — A state appellate court has given New York City the green light to proceed with the rezoning of a Brooklyn neighborhood, a move Chinese and Latino immigrants had complained would reduce the amount of affordable housing.
The city contended that the rezoning, which targeted 128 blocks in Su
NY Daily News — State officials must draw new district lines that give growing Queens immigrant groups a stronger voice, advocates demanded this week during a nearly six-hour public hearing.
A joint Senate-Assembly body that oversees redistricting has held public sessions throughout New York sinc
NEW YORK, Aug 30 (Reuters) – A group of Chinese workers who say they were forced to take meal breaks in bathroom stalls are suing their former employer for discrimination and retaliation.
In a lawsuit filed Friday in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, thirteen employees who were fired from the kitch
Sam Levin | New York Daily News
August 25, 2011
As the city pushes the U.S. Census Bureau to up its head count of Queens, a coalition of Asian-American groups is trying to make sure they don’t get short-changed, either.
Led by the Flushing-based MinKwon Center for Community Action, 11 groups jo
By Aline Reynolds
Why are there two different geographical parameters within the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act? And, if post-traumatic stress disorder is recognized by the U.S. Army, then why doesn’t the U.S. Department of Justice consider it to be a compensatory illness for 9/11 v
Peter L. Zimroth
New York Law Journal | August 10, 2011
Arnold & Porter is leading a pro bono effort–together with Archer & Greiner, the Brennan Center, and the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund–to challenge a newly enacted zoning law in Bridgewater, N.J., which was designed to block
by Lisa Wong Macabasco
Bethany Li speaking at a rally in 2009, when the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (with co-counsel South Brooklyn Legal Services) sued New York City over its failure to reveal the devastating impact a rezoning would have on Brooklyn’s working-class Sunset P
By Sameer Ahmed and Amna Akbar
Imagine being thrown in jail in the United States for over four years, not because you had violated any laws, or even because the government thought you were about to commit a crime, but because government officials believed that you may engage in criminal acts at som
by Wajahat Ali
One of the global architects of terror responsible for inspiring the 9-11 tragedy was finally killed this week. Osama bin Laden, who violently hijacked the faith of 1.5 billion to rationalize his perverse criminal actions, is permanently seared into our collective consciousness as th
by Seth Freed Wessler
Ten years after Sept. 11, 2001, the animating target of the war on terror is dead, his body cast into the sea. A chapter is closed. Yet, in many communities here in the United States, it seemed the target was never just Osama bin Laden. For Arabs and Muslims in the U.S., and f
by Susannah Griffee
A group seeking to build a mosque in Bridgewater, N.J. has sued the township for changing zoning laws to prevent the project.
The Al Falah Center says it worked with township officials for months to create a plan to renovate a former banquet center to be its new mosque and Isla
by Lisa Fleisher
An Islamic group sued Bridgewater, N.J., for religious discrimination after the town changed zoning rules to block a mosque from opening in a residential neighborhood.
The Al Falah Center wanted to convert a former banquet hall located on a quiet side street into a mosque, day-car
by Rhea Mahbubani
Two workers who claimed in court they were cheated out of wages by a Jersey City-based food distributor have settled their case for a total of $8,500, their attorneys said last week.
The $8,500 includes unpaid minimum wages, overtime compensation, and liquidated damages, said Apa
Providence, RI – A military officer from the United Arab Emirates accused of keeping an unpaid servant while attending the Naval War College in Rhode Island has been arrested by federal officials after he boarded an international flight in New York City.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arr
by Arun Venugopal
As the city plans to challenge what it says are low census numbers by showing that many of the thousands of vacancies – namely in Brooklyn and Queens – were in fact occupied homes, some residents in those areas spoke of an impenetrable “housing underworld” that census workers coul
