New York Attorney General Letitia James has celebrated a "major victory" against Google after a court found that it maintained an illegal monopoly of online search engines.

"This decision is a major victory in our efforts to ensure all companies, no matter how powerful or influential, are held accountable when they harm others," James said in a statement.

Just asking questions? That might become illegal, sort of, in New Jersey. Powerful interest groups there are pushing a bill that would overhaul the state Open Public Records Act (OPRA), making it harder for the public to request government documents—and the legislature might vote on it today. One provision would allow state and local agencies to sue people who request too many documents at once.

Twenty states authorize civil commitment of sex offenders who have completed their criminal sentences but are deemed too dangerous for release. Minnesota, which deploys that option against a larger share of its population than any other state, spends $100 million a year to detain about 750 individuals who are deemed "likely" to commit sex offenses.

Each year, the U.S. Congress allocates over $400 million for food assistance to support more than 250,000 residents of Puerto Rico who are able-bodied adults without dependents, and are between the ages of 18 and 54. Notably, this financial assistance does not come with a work obligation. Congress does not apply this approach to any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or even to Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Oregon’s Bottle Bill, which offers cash refunds for empty bottles and cans, was a landmark piece of legislation when it first passed in 1971.

Since then, it’s served as a model for similar bills in nine other states and led to some of the highest recycling rates in the nation.

According to the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative, which runs the beverage container return program, Oregon had a 90.5% redemption rate in 2023.