lawsuit

Three chemical manufacturing companies have reached a deal to resolve complaints of polluting many U.S. drinking water systems with compounds known as PFAS. DuPont and spinoff companies Chemours and Corteva said Friday they'll create a $1.18 billion fund that could compensate thousands of public water systems. PFAS chemicals are used widely in nonstick and water-resistant products, as well as some firefighting foams. Many water providers have sued the three DuPont companies and others that made or used the compounds. Judge Richard Gergel of the U.S. District Court in Charleston, South Carolina, must approve the settlement before it takes effect.

South Carolina and nine other states have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over sharp increases in national flood insurance rates slated to be phased in over the coming years. Dozens of local Louisiana governments and flood control districts also are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. district court in New Orleans on Thursday. The Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are among the defendants. The suit was announced at a news conference by Attorney General Jeff Landry, who was accompanied by local government officials and business leaders.

A revised version of a federal policy that prevents the deportation of hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. as children is scheduled to be debated before a federal judge in Houston who previously ruled the program illegal. Attorneys representing the nine states that have sued to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the U.S. Justice Department and DACA recipients are set to appear at a court hearing Thursday. U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen is expected to reconsider the program, which was changed in October. Hanen is not expected to immediately rule.

A lawsuit claims officers fired approximately 50 rounds at a despondent man on what was supposed to be a wellness check. The sheriff's office claims officers reacted appropriately to a man with a gun.

A South Carolina barbecue chain known for its pro-segregation stance in a landmark 1960s case and its embrace of the Confederate flag in 2000 is facing allegations of racism and sexual harassment by the fired general manager of one of its restaurants.

A South Carolina school district says a ninth grader walking in a hallway was stopped during a moment of silence and not the Pledge of Allegiance. Marissa Barnwell says in a lawsuit that she was pushed against the wall by a teacher at River Bluff High School when she didn't stop to recite the pledge as she walked to class in November. A lawyer for Lexington School District 1 says videos from the hallway shows the teacher touched Barnwell's shoulder to get her attention but didn't push her.

The parents of a South Carolina high school student are suing a teacher, principal, and other education officials saying she was accosted when she didn't stop and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Fifteen-year-old Marissa Barnwell says she was walking quietly to class at River Bluff High School last November and decided not to stop for the pledge or a moment of silence that followed. Barnwell says the teacher yelled and pushed her against a wall and the principal didn't do anything about it.

The state of Michigan is accusing a former paper mill owner of sending contaminated waste to a composting site for decades in the Thumb region. The lawsuit seeks payments from Domtar Industries for identifying the contamination, near Port Huron, and to restore areas affected by PFAS. The lawsuit, filed Friday, accuses Domtar of knowing that the waste was contaminated, despite telling regulators that it was inert. There's been no comment from Domtar. The state says it learned about the contamination in 2019. PFAS compounds are called "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment or the human body and can accumulate over time.Domtar, based in Fort Mill, South Carolina, said it doesn't comment on lawsuits.

A conservation group is suing in federal court over a U.S. agency's timeline for dredging a Georgia shipping channel, saying dredging in the summertime would threaten rare sea turtles. A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Savannah targets the Army Corps of Engineers. Georgia environmental group One Hundred Miles says the agency plans to conduct harbor dredging off the port city of Brunswick next summer during the nesting season for rare loggerhead sea turtles. The Army Corps has avoided maintenance dredging outside the winter months in Georgia and the Carolinas for three decades to help protect sea turtles. An Army Corps spokeswoman declined to comment on pending litigation.

A coalition of conservative-leaning states is trying to keep in place a Trump-era public health rule that allows many asylum seekers to be turned away at the southern U.S. border. Late Monday, the 15 states moved to intervene in legal proceedings surrounding the public health rule referred to as Title 42. The rule uses emergency authority to allow the United States to keep migrants from seeking asylum at the border, based on the need to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The 15 states that filed the motion to intervene are Arizona, Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.