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Two attorneys challenge Virginia's lethal injections

Virginia’s execution team is engaging in the unlicensed practice of medicine, pharmacy and anesthesiology, claims an unusual challenge to lethal injection filed Tuesday.

The complaint, filed in Richmond Circuit Court, names the director of the Virginia Department of Corrections, the unnamed execution team leader (the identity of team members are confidential) and other prison officials as defendants.

The defendants are not authorized under state law to request, dispense, distribute, give and/or obtain or intravenously administer as a general anesthetic controlled prescription substances to condemned inmates, alleges the complaint.

Virginia has conducted 79 lethal injections since it became an option to the electric chair in 1995. The state’s lethal injection procedures have withstood a number of legal challenges over the years.

Meghan Shapiro, an Alexandria lawyer, and a colleague filed the complaint. She said they do not represent a death row inmate and are entitled under state law to file a challenge against any person engaged in the unauthorized practice of any profession.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Governor urges colleges to hold tuition hikes under 3 percent

As the state's colleges and universities prepare to set tuition rates, Gov. Bob McDonnell has written school presidents and board members urging them to keep increases below 3 percent.

In a two-page letter Friday, McDonnell urged public schools to tie tuition increases “for the fall semester and beyond” to the Consumer Price Index. That rate for the past 12 months was 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustments.

McDonnell noted in his letter that the General Assembly approved a two-year budget that provides more than $230 million in new funding for higher education “with the clear understanding” that in-state rates would be held down.

So far only the University of Virginia has set rates for the next academic year. U.Va.'s board increased in-state tuition and mandatory fees by 3.7 percent, which was the lowest increase since 2001-02.

Virginia Commonwealth University's board was scheduled to meet Tuesday to discuss rates for next year, but the meeting was postponed because of the assembly's delay in adopting the state budget, said Rector Thomas G. Snead. The board is scheduled to meet May 10 to review options and vote the next day.

Snead and VCU President Michael Rao said they were grateful for the additional state funding but couldn't say whether the university could abide by the governor's request.

“He's absolutely right,” Rao said of the governor's call to control costs to reduce the amount of student borrowing.

But VCU needs to add faculty, Rao said, and because the school enrolls primarily in-state students the university can't “lean on out-of-state revenue” to supplement its budget.

VCU increased tuition and mandatory fees by 7.9 percent for the current year, which was far below the 24 percent spike the year before that drew a public rebuke from McDonnell.

Statewide, increases for tuition and mandatory instructional fees averaged 9.7 percent for the current academic year as public schools sought to make up shortfalls resulting from five consecutive years of state budget cuts. The increases averaged 7.9 percent when all mandatory fees, such charges for athletics, health services and student activities, are included.

Tuition rates are set by boards of visitors for the 15 public four-year institutions and by the State Board for Community Colleges for the 23 two-year colleges.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Government says transgender people protected under law

In a first-of-its-kind ruling, the agency that enforces the nation's job discrimination laws has ruled that transgender people are protected from bias in the workplace.

The decision late last week from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that a refusal to hire or otherwise discriminate on the basis of gender identity is by definition sex discrimination under federal law.

While some federal courts have reached the same conclusion in recent years, employment law experts say the EEOC decision is groundbreaking because it sets a national standard of enforcement that offers employers clear guidance on the issue.

The case involved a California woman who claimed she was denied a contractor job with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after the contractor learned she had undergone a procedure to change her gender from a man to a woman.

Brief by the Associated Press

Mexican cartel boss Guzman, 23 others indicted

Federal officials unsealed a new federal indictment Tuesday against Mexico's most-wanted drug boss Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as “El Chapo,” leader of the Sinaloa cartel and one of the world's richest men.

The 14-count indictment was returned April 11, but federal officials announced it Tuesday in El Paso. The 28-page indictment names Guzman and “co-leader of the cartel” Ismael Zambada Garcia, along with 22 other men. It alleges they were involved in the operations and management of the cartel, which they say has moved thousands of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. and used the profits to wage war against their rivals and the Mexican government.

The indictment targets the infrastructure of the Sinaloa Cartel, officials said. Although Guzman and Zambada have been indicted elsewhere in the U.S., this indictment focuses on their operations in the El Paso area, Ciudad Juarez and the Mexican state of Chihuahua.

If convicted, the defendants face sentences of up to life in a federal prison.

Brief by the Associated Press

Novartis tries to make UK hospitals use $1,000 drug

Drug maker Novartis is taking legal action in Britain to make state-run hospitals use an eye drug that costs about 700 pounds ($1,130) per shot instead of a cheaper one that costs 60 pounds ($97).

In a statement, Novartis said it was calling for a judicial review “as a last resort” because it believed patient safety was being potentially compromised.

According to the U.K.'s health watchdog, Novartis' Lucentis is the only drug recommended to treat the eye problem macular degeneration in the country's state-run National Health Service hospitals.

However, several NHS hospitals have been prescribing the much cheaper Avastin, a cancer drug made by Genentech Inc., a subsidiary of Roche, for the same problem even though it has not been officially approved.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last year showed Avastin worked just as well as Lucentis for treating the eye disorder.

Most U.K. doctors only prescribe drugs approved by the health watchdog, but have the discretion to use other treatments if they believe they are warranted.

Brief by the Associated Press

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