June 01, 2016

Lower crude prices aren’t just hurting oil companies, they’re also inflicting pain on the country’s largest banks. Commercial and industrial loan payments overdue by three or more months were up in the first quarter by $3.3 billion, according to an FDIC report published Wednesday. The 2.4-percent uptick in commercial and industrial delinquencies was “the first quarterly increase in total noncurrent loan balances in 24 quarters,” the federal banking regulator said. The report noted the trend resulted from “[s]harply lower energy prices,” and that it disproportionately impacted…

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Numbers released from the federal government show that officials tasked with patrolling public lands and forests are dealing with a growing number of assaults on the job. The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reported that abusive incidents against its officers rose by 87 percent last year. The US Forest Service (USFS) reported a 60 percent uptick in violence against its employees. The data was released by the agencies in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental…

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A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va. declined to reconsider a high profile ruling it made in favor of a transgender student. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that it would not rehear a case brought by Gavin Grimm. A 16-year-old transgender boy, Grimm was granted the right by the court to sue his local school board for attempting to keep him out of the boys’ bathroom. Grimm was born female but came out as a transgender male in high school. He was allowed…

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