Announcements, information & updates from the Attorney General Alliance Members and Associates
August 19, 2022
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We are excited to announce that registration is
now open for this webinar!
State Attorneys General are turning their cryptocurrency focus from discussions and dialogue to action. The AGA cybersecurity working group is comprised of Attorneys General, investigators, prosecutors and our public partners with specialized knowledge in the field. The working group sets forth the ability to coordinate actions across jurisdictions and in collaboration with the private sector. Together we lay the foundation for national anti-cybercrime efforts with effective deterrent consequences.
As part of this initiative, the Attorney General Alliance and Coinbase's Global Intelligence team are pleased to offer a 90-minute training session on cryptocurrency investigations. The training will include a high-level overview of crypto crime, as well as a primer on blockchain analysis. We will also discuss best practices for working with and requesting records from exchanges like Coinbase.
All attorney general staff and cybersecurity working group members are welcome to register for this webinar.
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October 17-18, 2022
WAGLAC MEETING
San Diego, California
*AG/AGO Staff Only
October 23-24, 2022
ORC WORKING GROUP
Law Enforcement Training
Nashville, Tennessee
November 16-18, 2022
CANNABIS PROJECT
Las Vegas, NV
November 27-December 4, 2022
INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION
Madrid & Barcelona, Spain
December 13-16, 2022
US/MEXICO BINATIONAL SUMMIT
Los Cabos, Mexico
January 11-13, 2023
ANTI-HUMAN TRAFFICKING SUMMIT
Park City, Utah
March 1-3, 2023
ENVIRONMENTAL & ENERGY
Stewardship Summit
Seattle, Washington
March 17-26, 2023
INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION
Poland & Israel
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April 19-21, 2023
AGA Event
TBD
June 19-22, 2023
2023 ANNUAL MEETING
Terranea Resort
Rancho Palos Verdes, California
August 9-11, 2023
AGA Event
TBD
September 20-24, 2023
INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION
TBD
October 4-6, 2023
AGA Event
TBD
November 27-December 1, 2023
INTERNATIONAL DELEGATION
TBD
June 12-15, 2024
2024 ANNUAL MEETING
The Broadmoor
Colorado Springs, Colorado
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If you have any questions regarding events, please contact Ale Stephens, Director of Events at astephens@agalliance.org or 303.304.9206.
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Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita released an important warning for parents related to their kids’ internet usage. Technology is a great learning resource, but it can also expose children to inappropriate and dangerous activities online. Attorney General Rokita wants parents to become familiar with popular phone apps that may make children vulnerable to dangers online.
New apps are always available, so Attorney General Rokita offers a few tips to help parents monitor their child’s online activity:
- Keep the computer or laptop in a common room of the house, not in a child’s bedroom.
- Utilize parental controls available from internet service providers or use blocking software. Some may be accessed by going to “Settings” on your device.
- Always maintain access to a child’s online account and monitor text, email, and other message inboxes.
- Familiarize yourself with computer safeguards, like firewalls, anti-virus software, effective passwords, and secure websites and ask if they are being utilized at school, the library, and at friends’ homes.
- Never automatically assume that what a child is told online is true.
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Attorneys General across the nation have reached an agreement in principle with opioid maker Endo International and its lenders that would provide up to $450 million to participating states and local governments and ban the promotion of Endo’s opioids.
Endo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the Southern District of New York. The agreement in principle resolves allegations that Endo boosted opioid sales using deceptive marketing that downplayed the risk of addiction and overstated the benefits.
Thirty-five attorneys general from states, territories and the District of Columbia joined in the settlement. The negotiations are being led by the attorneys general Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia. The settlement is also joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
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District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine, alongside Acting New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, led a group of 20 Attorneys General in filing an amicus brief supporting an important new federal rule regulating “ghost guns”: unserialized weapons that are often made at home from weapon parts kits or partially complete frames and receivers and can be purchased without background checks. The rule will help ensure that buyers pass background checks before purchasing such kits and that law enforcement officers can trace any self-made guns that are later used in a crime. It will also limit gun traffickers’ ability to distribute these dangerous weapons.
Absent federal enforcement, these dangerous weapons have continued to proliferate, including in states that have tried to regulate ghost guns themselves. The Final Rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) helps curb this problem by serving as a vital backstop to existing state efforts to stem the flow of ghost guns.
The brief was led by Attorney General Racine and the Attorneys General of New Jersey and Pennsylvania and joined by the Attorneys General of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Wisconsin.
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The U.S. Department of Education discharges all remaining federal student loans for borrowers attending ITT Technical Institute from January 1, 2005, through its closure in September 2016. The decision will result in 208,000 borrowers receiving $3.9 billion in full loan discharges. Eligible student borrowers will automatically have their loans discharged without any action required. The now-defunct for-profit school defrauded thousands of individuals by encouraging them to enroll and borrow loans based on false and misleading information about the value of an ITT degree and empty promises of high-paying jobs after graduation.
The announcement follows a borrower defense application filed by 25 attorneys general asking the U.S. Department of Education to cancel federal student loan debt for ITT Tech students. Their application cited deceptive tactics used to convince students to attend the school and borrow federal student aid.
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District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine and New York Attorney General Letitia James co-led a group of 17 attorneys general opposing a law that would make it more difficult for millions to vote.
In an amicus brief, the coalition supports a challenge to portions of SB90, a law that decreases voting opportunities by restricting the use of drop boxes for ballot collection. A lower court already struck down portions of SB90, finding that they were enacted to burden voters by limiting when drop boxes could be used and where they could be placed. The attorneys general filed their brief in support of the lower court’s decision and argue that election security can be protected while increasing—not limiting—access to the ballot.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel partnered with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul to lead a multistate amicus brief urging the United States Supreme Court to protect the ability of states to regulate industries within their borders. A coalition of 15 attorneys general signed onto the amicus brief in support of the respondents in National Pork Producers Council et al. v. Karen Ross.
The National Pork Producers Council, with other industry organizations, filed suit against Karen Ross in her capacity as Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, arguing that California’s Proposition 12, a voter-approved law that regulates certain farm animal confinement, violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The brief filed by the coalition argues that “petitioners’ expansive view of the dormant Commerce Clause would distort the States’ traditional regulatory role and undermine their sovereign authority to regulate matters of importance within their borders. This Court should decline petitioners’ invitation to take such a drastic departure from its precedent, which rightly construes the dormant Commerce Clause to invalidate only those state laws that discriminate against or excessively burden interstate interests.”
Joining Attorney General Nessel and Attorney General Raoul on the brief are attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington.
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Attorneys General from across the Attorney General community have been on both sides of the reproductive rights debate. Below are the actions of the Attorneys Generals on the matter and their respective side of the debate. |
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ATTORNEY GENERAL HIGHLIGHT |
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North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Honors Attorney General Josh Stein with Distinguished Service Award
The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners (NCACC) honored Attorney General Josh Stein with the organization’s Distinguished Service Award for his work to fight the opioid crisis and bring hundreds of millions of dollars to local governments across North Carolina. The NCACC’s Distinguished Service Award is given to someone who is not a county official but has “rendered a truly outstanding and distinctive service to the cause of improving local government above and beyond his usual duties or occupation.”
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“The progress we've made in our fight against the opioid crisis is a result of a lot of smart, hardworking, and caring people working together towards the same end. I’m grateful for the partnership between the NCDOJ and North Carolina Association of County Commissioners."
--North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein
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AGA Sponsor Cozen O’Connor adds seasoned Attorney General practitioner Siran S. Faulders to its State Attorneys General Group. Siran S. Faulders who served as Virginia’s section chief and senior assistant attorney general for nearly a decade before moving to private practice—has joined its nationally recognized State Attorneys General Group in Washington, D.C. Faulders joins the firm as a shareholder and will once again work alongside Jerry Kilgore, who served as Virginia’s attorney general from 2002 to 2005.
Faulders comes to Cozen O’Connor from a national law firm’s State Attorneys General practice. Known as “a consummate legal diplomat,” she advises and defends clients involved in a wide range of state attorney general enforcement actions and other regulatory matters, including those in the cannabis, pharmaceutical, technology, retail and manufacturing, nonprofit and charitable organizations, and consumer financial credit industries. Spending nearly three decades working on state attorney general matters, Siran is recognized as a leading authority on state attorneys general nationwide. She’s well known and highly regarded across the country, especially for her multi-state investigation work and her successful representation of clients in business-critical negotiations.
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“I’ve witnessed Cozen O’Connor’s State Attorneys General practitioners’ work and the stellar reputation they have. I’m also impressed by the firm’s strong commitment to giving talented women the opportunity to take a leadership role in a growing, national law firm. I’m looking forward to working with my new colleagues.”
--Siran S. Faulders
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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 Patricia Salazar at PSalazar@AGAlliance.org.
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CWAG Executive Committee
AG Alliance Co-Chairs
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Attorney General Alliance 5050 | Laguna Blvd., Ste. 112-323 | Elk Grove, CA 95758
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