Motel 6 hotel chain to settle lawsuit over sharing guest lists with ICE

(Reuters) - Motel 6 has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over claims the budget chain routinely provided guest lists from properties in Arizona to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, court documents showed on Saturday.

The proposed settlement, outlined in court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona, calls for Motel 6 to abide by a three-year consent decree to not give guest information to immigration authorities without a warrant or subpoena and to provide training on the issue to workers.

A previous settlement over the Arizona properties reached by the two sides was rejected in November 2018 by a federal judge who said it did not go far enough in making sure that the plaintiffs, many of whom may be in the country illegally, would be found and compensated.

"Motel 6 fully recognizes the seriousness of the situation and accepts full responsibility for both compensating those who were harmed and taking the necessary steps to ensure that we protect the privacy of our guests. Since this issue emerged, we’ve taken strong action to make sure a similar issue never happens again in the future," a spokesman for the company said in a written statement.

Immigration has become an incendiary issue in U.S. politics amid a surge of immigrants seeking to enter illegally and moves by President Donald Trump to step up deportations and build a wall along the southern border with Mexico.

Local governments dubbing themselves "sanctuary cities” have resisted cooperating with the Trump administration’s crackdown, and immigration is certain to play a major role in the 2020 presidential campaign.

The lawsuit was filed in January 2018 by the Los Angeles-based Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, or MALDEF, on behalf of Motel 6 guests with Latino names after the Phoenix New Times newspaper reported that the chain was providing their names to ICE at two of its properties in Arizona and six in Washington state.

The new settlement seeks to clarify how the plaintiffs would be found and paid and sets up a fund for that purpose.

A spokesman for MALDEF could not be reached for comment on Saturday.

In April of this year, Motel 6 agreed to pay $12 million to settle a similar lawsuit filed by Washington state.

Motel 6 is controlled by the private equity firm Blackstone Group LP, which bought the brand in 2012.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/motel-6-hotel-chain-settle-032043808.html

New White House press secretary left with bruises after scuffles between North Korean security guards and journalists

The incoming White House press secretary became embroiled in a scuffle with North Korean officials during a brawl between reporters and the country’s security guards.

Stephanie Grisham was left with bruises after chaotic scenes saw officials shoving and attempting to block the press.

The jostling came as Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to enter North Korean soil – stepping over from the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) to shake hands with the North Korean leader.

The fracas intensified as reporters tried to enter a room inside the Freedom House on the southern side of Panmunjom where Mr Trump and Kim Jong-un were meeting after exchanging initial handshakes on the border.

North Korean guards tried to physically prevent members of the US press pool from entering the room, pushing and shoving, and the Secret Service stepped in to intervene.

A source on the scene said Ms Grisham got in “an all out brawl” with the North Koreans, according to CNN.

Ms Grisham, Melania Trump’s spokesperson who had been with the president’s campaign team since 2015, could be seen later directing reporters outside the building in which the two world leaders met.

Read More – https://www.yahoo.com/news/white-house-press-secretary-left-091929166.html

Happy Asteroid Day! NASA still can’t track the ones that could end civilization

The United Nations would like you to be aware of asteroids. I’d like you to be aware of this: We—us humans—don’t know even know where all the threatening asteroids are.

June 30 is the day for this kind of activity because on this day in 1908, an asteroid exploded over Tunguska, Russia, destroying hundreds of acres of forest. There are more recent examples: Last December, a larger asteroid broke apart over the Bering Sea with force 10 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It wasn’t tracked in advance, but a NASA satellite accidentally captured imagery of the fireball from space:

Naturally, astronomers have set out to find the asteroids that might intersect with Earth. They’ve found more than 8,000 so far, but researchers believe that is only a third of the asteroids that might come near our planet. Thankfully, most of the asteroids larger than the one behind the extinction of the dinosaurs have been found. But if astronomers are correct, there are still thousands more in the solar system that could devastate cities or entire regions if they were to impact the Earth.

The politicians got involved, too, with the US Congress passing a law in 2005. The law required that NASA find 90% of near-Earth objects (that’s the term of art here) that are larger than 140 meters in diameter by 2020. We’ve known for a few years now that NASA isn’t going to make the deadline. They just don’t yet have the tools yet to find all these asteroids.

Read More – https://qz.com/1654310/its-asteroid-day-and-we-still-cant-see-the-scary-ones/?utm_source=YPL&yptr=yahoo