Latest news with #Rosenbaum
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill to boost legal services to indigent on governor's desk
Jun. 12—Illinois legislators have created a new statewide public defender's office, but it's going to take a while to sort out the details. They put the finishing touches on the "Funded Advocacy & Independent Representation (FAIR) Act" on May 31, the last day the legislature met in its spring session. The bill now goes to Gov. J.B. Pritzker for his expected signature. The legislation won't take effect until Jan. 1, 2027, because there are major details to iron out. Champaign County Circuit Judge Randy Rosenbaum, the county's chief judge and former longtime public defender, said he is, generally speaking, "very much in favor" of the idea behind the legislation but distressed by a couple of issues. The legislation "doesn't talk about any money," he said, referring to what he expects will be the massive costs of the bill. Plus, Rosenbaum said, it limits the role of the local presiding judge in selecting a county's chief public defender. For example, Champaign County Public Defender Elisabeth Pollock, a former federal public defender, was named by Rosenbaum to fill the job. But Rosenbaum said the legislation takes local "judges out of the selection process" when they are best situated to determine who is most qualified to be appointed to such an important position. He said it is his understanding the new appointment process was established to insulate the appointed county public defenders from the judiciary. The legislation is motivated by a desire to boost the quality of legal representation for individuals charged with crimes who cannot afford a to hire a lawyer. Many of Illinois' 102 counties have a public defender's office. Those that do not appoint private lawyers to handle cases for the indigent. However, there is concern that public defenders have too many cases to handle in an efficient manner. The legislation is designed to ensure they have greater resources. Pollock said she is "grateful" the legislation is before the governor and will be "excited to watch it be implemented." "It is no secret that public defenders have struggled for decades with a need for increased staffing and greater resources in the face of ever-expanding workloads," she said. She called the bill a "a necessary and meaningful step forward." However principled the motivation, the legislation shows signs of the usual politicization in this hyper-political state. For example, Rosenbaum said Cook County lobbied for the legislation but is exempt from some provisions. For example, it leaves public defender appointment power with the president of the Cook County Board instead of transferring it to a committee. The legislation establishes regional offices of the state public defenders that are designed to provide additional resources to county public defender offices. The legislation calls for the Illinois Supreme Court initially to appoint a state public defender. The Coalition to End Money Bond praised the bill, contending it "build(s) on" the SAFE-T Act social-justice law that, among many other things, abolished the cash bond system. It said the new public defender law "brings Illinois closer to ensuring that public defenders have adequate resources" to provide high-quality representation to indigent defendants. Part of the law is devoted to establishing case management resources that ensure access to a "digital discovery storage management system" and "case management software." The new office also is directed to take a survey to determine "the number of employees and contractors providing" legal services and the variety of legal services they provide. It has an odd organizational status, one dubbed as an "independent agency" within the judicial branch. The legislation directs that the state public defender's office "shall" be under the supervision of the state public defender, not the Supreme Court.
Business Insider
21-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Stifel Nicolaus Sticks to Its Buy Rating for CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings (CCCS)
In a report released today, Shlomo Rosenbaum from Stifel Nicolaus maintained a Buy rating on CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings (CCCS – Research Report), with a price target of $13.00. The company's shares opened today at $8.94. Protect Your Portfolio Against Market Uncertainty Discover companies with rock-solid fundamentals in TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter. Receive undervalued stocks, resilient to market uncertainty, delivered straight to your inbox. According to TipRanks, Rosenbaum is a 4-star analyst with an average return of 5.4% and a 55.51% success rate. Rosenbaum covers the Industrials sector, focusing on stocks such as First Advantage, TransUnion, and Vestis Corporation. The word on The Street in general, suggests a Moderate Buy analyst consensus rating for CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings with a $11.78 average price target, implying a 31.84% upside from current levels. In a report released on May 7, Evercore ISI also maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a $12.00 price target. Based on CCC Intelligent Solutions Holdings' latest earnings release for the quarter ending December 31, the company reported a quarterly revenue of $246.46 million and a net profit of $4.85 million. In comparison, last year the company earned a revenue of $228.6 million and had a net profit of $25.21 million Based on the recent corporate insider activity of 82 insiders, corporate insider sentiment is negative on the stock. This means that over the past quarter there has been an increase of insiders selling their shares of CCCS in relation to earlier this year.
Epoch Times
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
Appeals Court Sides With Florida Restaurant Challenging State Law Prohibiting Children at Drag Shows
A federal appeals panel has sided with a Florida restaurant in its challenge to a state law aimed at shielding children from viewing sexually explicit performances. On Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals The law in question makes it a misdemeanor for businesses to knowingly admit a child to an 'adult live performance' that 'depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities.' Under the law, businesses would face fines, suspension or loss of license, in addition to a $5,000 fine for the first violation and a $10,000 fine for each subsequent violation. It also prohibits government entities from issuing licenses for such venues. While the statute does not explicitly reference drag shows, it applies to performances involving 'lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts,' especially when such displays are deemed 'offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community of this state as a whole' with respect to what is age-appropriate for children. Hamburger Mary's sued the state in 2023 shortly after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the law. The restaurant alleged violation of First Amendment rights, saying it had been forced to bar minors from what it describes as 'family-friendly' drag performances. A federal district court granted a preliminary injunction, which the state appealed. Related Stories 3/15/2024 11/16/2023 Writing for the majority, Judge Robin Rosenbaum agreed with the lower court, saying the Florida law's language wasn't specific enough to meet existing legal standards. 'The Act prohibits children's admission to 'live performances' that Florida considers obscene for minors. But by providing only vague guidance as to which performances it prohibits, the Act wields a shotgun when the First Amendment allows a scalpel at most,' Rosenbaum wrote in an 81-page majority opinion, joined by Judge Nancy Abudu. The majority cited the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 decision in Miller v. California, which established a three-part test for defining obscenity. According to Rosenbaum, the Florida law fails to meet Miller's requirement for precision in regulating obscene material. 'If Miller means anything, it is that an obscenity regulation's sweep is only legitimate if it is specific. The Act's 'lewd conduct' provision is the opposite,' Rosenbaum wrote. 'The result is that venues like Hamburger Mary's are prone to restrict minors from consuming speech that they are within their constitutional rights to access.' In dissent, Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat said the law is neither vague nor overly broad, but that the majority 'reads the statute in the broadest possible way, maximizes constitutional conflict, and strikes the law down wholesale.' Instead of outright declaring the law as vague, Tjoflat suggested the case should have been referred to the Florida Supreme Court for clarification on how the statute ought to be interpreted. DeSantis's office condemned the ruling, calling it an 'egregious overreach by a federal court' and vowed to challenge the decision. 'No one has a constitutional right to perform sexual routines in front of little kids,' a spokesperson for the governor said. 'We will do everything possible to have this lawless decision overturned.' In a separate legal maneuver, the DeSantis administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce the law against businesses that are not involved in the ongoing lawsuit. That request Justice Brett Kavanaugh issued a statement explaining the court's denial, noting that the issue raised by the state was unlikely to merit the high court's review at this early stage of litigation. He was joined by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, except for one footnote about procedural grounds for declining the request.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Florida Drag Ban Halted By Appellate Court
A ban on minors attending family-friendly drag shows in Florida was halted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Tuesday after judges ruled 2-1 that it violated the First Amendment. The ruling marks a major victory for Hamburger Mary's of Orlando, a restaurant in the Sunshine State that offers food and entertainment, including drag performances — and specifically family-friendly drag shows on Sundays — to its patrons. The restaurant sued in 2023 after the Florida Senate passed SB 1438. The law purported to focus on the 'protection of children' from obscenity by criminally penalizing businesses that permitted a child into an 'adult live performance.' Anyone found in violation of the law would be charged with a misdemeanor. SB 1438 did not mention drag shows or drag in particular. However, it defined 'adult live performances' as any presentation that 'in whole or in part' depicted things like nudity or sexuality — including 'lewd exposure of prosthetic or imitation genitals or breasts when it predominantly appeals to a prurient, shameful or morbid interest.' Judge Robin Rosenbaum said Florida lawmakers had essentially applied a non-legal, 'non-definition' of obscenity made popular by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in 1964. Potter famously said his threshold to test obscenity was simply that he would 'know it when I see it.' 'Many know Justice Stewart's quip. But it's not, in fact, the law,' Rosenbaum wrote Tuesday, adding that SB 1438's approach to regulating expression 'wields a shotgun when the First Amendment allows a scalpel at most.' Hamburger Mary's said that it lost 20% of its bookings after the ban went into effect. The restaurant shuttered its doors in downtown Orlando in 2024, complaining of lowered foot traffic in the area, and announced plans to relocate to nearby Kissimmee. The state claimed the restaurant's move meant the lawsuit should be nixed altogether, but the appellate court found that SB 1438 still infringed upon the rights of Hamburger Mary's, regardless of where within the state it planned to move. Florida already has obscenity laws meant to protect minors, and the court found Tuesday that the prohibitions laid out in SB 1438 didn't add an extra layer of protection for kids. The court also said Florida officials didn't meaningfully distinguish how 'lewd' and 'sexual' content may or can be separated. These officials appear to be particularly miffed by a drag queen known as Jimbo, Rosenbaum noted in the opinion. Jimbo, who has appeared on 'RuPaul's Drag Race,' is known for highly eccentric performances set to music with costuming that sometimes showcases prosthetic body parts like massive fake breasts beneath deep plunging necklines or bikinis. But that's not what Florida was worried about, the appellate court explained. Added into evidence by the Florida government were photos and video clips from Jimbo's other 'signature acts,' which involved him 'donning Marcel Marceau-like makeup, a prosthetic stomach and backside, and a stretchy, fully body white suit (leaving no skin or prosthetic skin visible other than face,)' Tuesday's order states. 'Jimbo dances and prances onstage, lip-syncing to Björk's cover of Betty Hutton's 1951 song 'Its Oh So Quiet,' before undoing a hidden zipper on the stomach's underside and pulling from within . . . a pile of baloney,' Rosenbaum wrote. 'Perhaps some may consider Jimbo's baloney birth a bit odd (and hammy in every sense of the word).' If Florida state officials thought this was too 'nasty, suggestive, and indecent,' for adults, Rosenbaum noted, that alone raised major questions about what the state would do in response to far tamer drag shows if the injunction was allowed to stand. The sole dissent from Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat claimed that the district court moved too swiftly when it first put an injunction on SB 1438. He also argued that the U.S. Supreme Court had historically upheld laws that emphasized the government's 'special interest in protecting children from exposure to otherwise protected speech.' But neither Florida nor Tjoflat were able to explain what exactly they meant when describing restrictions for so-called 'lewd conduct': Tjoflat suggested 'lewd conduct' was meant to cover depictions of the 'known unknowns' and other 'exotic' materials. 'In other words, the legislature and the dissent would know it when it sees it,' Rosenbaum wrote. If Florida seeks to challenge the ruling, the next stop would be the U.S. Supreme Court. The Future Of A Popular Art Form Could Be In Trump Judges' Hands Federal Judge Says Texas A&M Can Host Drag Show
CBC
19-04-2025
- Health
- CBC
Toronto Island author publishes historical fiction about child with disability
A Toronto Island author is celebrating the release of her new book. Let's Go, Darby! is based on a true story about a boy in the 1800s who was disabled and made a harrowing journey to The Hospital for Sick Children, now known as SickKids Hospital, for a surgery. Linda Rosenbaum says her aim is to advocate for the inclusion of children with illnesses and disabilities in literature. "I think a lot of kids who are ill or have disabilities will relate to it, but what I'm finding is that adults are really enjoying it too because there's so much Toronto history in it," said Rosenbaum, who is the mother of a child with a disability. The middle grade book tells the story of Georgie Titus, who is 10 years old and has clubfoot. He's unable to walk and gets bullied by kids at school. Georgie hears about a new children's hospital in Toronto where they "perform miracles." He is determined to go and makes a 65-kilometre journey from Uxbridge by dogsled to the hospital's front doors. During his months-long stay at the hospital and its summer home on Toronto Island, miracles do happen, mostly unexpected. With the help of his beloved nurse and first-ever friends, Georgie gains the courage and confidence he needs to take the next big steps in his life. "It's historical fiction and you've got to get everything right of the period that you're writing about," Rosenbaum said. "So I spent virtually six months at the archives at SickKids trying to get all the background." Sherry Caldwell, director of the Ontario Disability Coalition, says books like Lets Go, Darby! help kids with disabilities feel represented. "It's really important, especially now, that people are thinking about our children and that they're seeing themselves in the world and can visualize themselves in all sorts of roles and feel included," she said. This month, SickKids Hospital marked 150 years. The hospital started as an 11-room house with just six iron cots, rented by a group of women. Rosenbaum says the book is also intended to recognize the hospital's contributions to health care.
