RALEIGH, N.C. – A federal appeals court on Friday blocked a North Carolina law that required voters to produce photo identification and follow other rules disproportionately affecting minorities, finding that the law was intended to make it harder for blacks to vote in the presidential battleground state.
The Virginia-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals declared that the measures violated the Constitution and the federal Voting Rights Act by targeting black voters “with almost surgical precision.” It marks the third ruling in less than two weeks against voter ID laws after court decisions regarding Texas and Wisconsin.
Friday’s opinion from a three-judge panel states that “the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern North Carolina history” when it rewrote voting laws in 2013.
ORLANDO, Fla. – Mosquitoes have apparently begun spreading the Zika virus on the U.S. mainland for the first time, health officials said Friday in a long-feared turn in the epidemic sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean.
Four recently infected people in the Miami area – one woman and three men – are believed to have caught the virus locally through mosquito bites, Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference.
U.S. health officials said they do not expect a widespread outbreak of the sort seen in Brazil and other countries. While officials have long predicted mosquitoes in the continental U.S. would begin spreading Zika this summer, they have also said they expect only isolated clusters of infections.
The four patients in Florida would be the first of the more than 1,650 U.S. Zika cases to have contracted the virus from a mosquito on the U.S. mainland.
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that will require labeling of genetically modified ingredients for the first time.
The legislation passed by Congress two weeks ago would require most food packages to carry a text label, a symbol or an electronic code readable by smartphone that indicates whether the food contains genetically modified organisms, or GMOs.
The Agriculture Department has two years to write the rules, which will pre-empt a Vermont law that kicked in earlier this month.
The food industry says 75 percent to 80 percent of foods contain genetically modified ingredients most of those corn and soy-based.
Associated Press
