AG Alliance Roundup June 24th, 2021

Announcements, information and updates from the AG Alliance Members and Associates

June 24th, 2021

ANNUAL MEETING PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

The Attorney General Alliance 2021 Annual Meeting wrapped on Friday, June 18th and was a great success! Substantive programming was packed with discussion regarding the latest issues of interest and importance to our Attorney General community. AGA would like to continue these conversations with you! For the next few weeks, visit this section of our weekly Roundup to stay up-to-date on your favorite panels and topics.

Do you have a relevant article or follow-up post? Please send all entry pitches to AFriedman@AGAlliance.org.

Ethical Issues for Lawyers During the COVID-19 Era and Information Age - Panel 13

Several minutes into 9th Circuit online hearing, a lawyer realized he was arguing the wrong case!

Combatting Human Trafficking - Panel 10

California AG Bonta formally launched new regional Human Trafficking and Sexual Predator Apprehension Teams within the California Department of Justice and is encouraging law enforcement partners in the state to reach out to the new program.

Environmental Justice - CWAG

Guam AG Camacho received the Conference of Western Attorneys General Jim Jones Public Service Award for advancing environmental justice, particularly in Guam’s Comprehensive, Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act case which was recently argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the first from Guam to receive the award.

Increasing Innovation and Competition in the Tech Marketplace - Panel 11

A House committee approved far-reaching legislation to curb the market dominance of tech giants, including Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc., but much of the effort faced intensive lobbying by affected firms that slowed the committee’s work and foreshadowed a pitched battle in the Senate.

Final Agenda

ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTIONS

CONSUMER PROTECTION

Washington AG Ferguson resolved a case against Recovery Worldwide, a private marketing company that operates several websites containing paid advertising for substance abuse treatment facilities.

D.C. AG Racine and Pennsylvania AG Shapiro announced they successfully collaborated with online food delivery platform Uber Eats to secure better disclosures about the price discrepancy between in-app purchases and orders placed directly with restaurants.

E-CIG/VAPING

Washington AG Ferguson announced a legally binding agreement with a California-based company that was caught in a sweep of online vaping retailers failing to block online sales to minors. The company will pay $375,000 to resolve a lawsuit Ferguson brought in August 2020 after its initial refusal to cooperate with the investigation.

OPIOID CRISIS

Florida AG Moody’s Office of Statewide Prosecution secured convictions against a sibling drug trafficking duo. The defendants faced charges for selling and distributing heroin and fentanyl throughout Central Florida.

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY

New York AG James announced that her office has reached agreements with Orange County and the Town of Chester to end their use of discriminatory housing practices that were designed to prevent members of the Jewish community from moving to Chester, New York.

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT

COVID-19

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech announced plans to provide the U.S. government at a not-for-profit price 500 million doses of the companies’ COVID-19 vaccine, to further support the multilateral efforts to address the surge of infection in many parts of the world and to help end the pandemic. White House fact sheet.

Uber has distributed $4.5 million to 900 local restaurants across the country in partnership with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation to support restaurants impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

CONSUMER PROTECTION

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule today that explains the basis for its authority to examine supervised financial institutions for risks to active duty service members and their dependents from conduct that violates the Military Lending Act.

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND EQUITY

Paypal announced their first anniversary of the date they made our $535 million commitment to advance racial equity, sustain and strengthen underrepresented businesses and communities, and help address the economic underpinnings of racial injustice.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOR ONGOING SOCIAL JUSTICE & EQUITY INITIATIVES

Over the last year, communities across the country have assessed their treatment of minorities and other under-represented populations. In an effort to facilitate dialogue in the Attorney General community, Amazon and the Attorney General Alliance have partnered to create a series of conversations exploring issues around justice and social equity. We are excited to announce 2021 as the inaugural year of this forum and we look forward to providing focused programing aimed at facilitating exploration of these issues. We thank Amazon for their leadership and invite all of our public and private partners join us as we embark on these discussions.

VIRTUAL SEMINAR LIBRARY

Missed our live programs? No problem! Follow the button below to visit our Virtual Seminar Library for access to all recordings.

Do you have a webinar topic suggestion? We want to hear from you! Please email ideas to Andrea Friedman at AFriedman@AGAlliance.org.

Virtual Library

CWAG Executive Committee

- AG Wayne Stenehjem - AG Phil Weiser -

- AG Jason Ravnsborg - AG Hector Balderas -

AG Alliance Co-Chairs

- AG Lawrence Wasden - AG Sean Reyes - AG Karl Racine -

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