Cultivated Compendium

Legislators in Nevada are considering a bill that would regulate drones, including the protection of privacy interests, the Associated Press' Riley Snyder reports. The bill would set "250 feet as the lowest level a drone can fly before trespassing, with some exceptions, and it requires a warrant for certain police observations by a drone on a private home," Snyder reports. The bill passed out of Assembly, but the Senate has not yet taken action.

The Chicago City Council has voted to make $5.5 million in compensation available to at least 119 people tortured by police officers into giving false confessions, the Chicago Reporter's Adeshina Emmanuel reports. Police officers beat victims, burned them with cigarettes, handcuffed them to hot radiators, tied plastic bags over their heads and came close to suffocating victims, and electrocuted victims in their mouths and on their genitals. The measure "draws from the United Nations Convention against Torture and human rights practices around the world, especially in nations that overcame the legacy of violent, repressive regimes," Emmanuel reports.

Indigenous leaders from the Ecuadorean Amazon have split with their American lawyer on having their pollution case against Chevron retried in the United States, Courthouse News' Adam Klasfeld reports: "Ecuador's rainforest residents have been defending a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron from the oil giant's counteroffensive on three continents that label the verdict an extortionate 'shakedown.'"

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is considering whether to affirm a finding that the $9.8 billion verdict rendered in Ecuador against Chevron was procured through corrupt means. Chevron opposed a suggestion by one of the Second Circuit judges during oral argument that the case be returned to New York, while attorneys representing the indigenous leaders' original counsel were amenable to it. Now, apparently some of the Ecuadorian plaintiffs oppose that idea.

Homeowners who think they were shortchanged in the money they received for damage from Superstorm Sandy are going to get another chance to seek reimbursement through the National Flood Insurance Program, the New York Law Journal's Andrew Keshner and the Associated Press report. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has agreed to reexamine about 142,000 claims from policyholders "amid concerns that altered damage reports have caused underpayments and denials."

The Federal Aviation Administration and the drone industry are finally starting to see eye to eye, The Washington Post's Matt McFarland reports. For example, the FAA now appears to be committed to testing if drones can be operated safely outside of the line of sight of operators, including by CNN. The cooperation between industry and the FAA is a change from when the governmental agency was highly criticized for missing deadlines for making commercial drone flights legal.

The Arkansas Supreme Court has ruled that the current lineup of justices should decide whether to legalize same-sex marriage, according to the Associated Press. The court said that Special Justice Robert McCorkindale, a gubernatorial appointee who heard oral arguments, should not decide the case. Instead, the court ruled that, under the state constitution, that Justice Rhonda Wood, who took office in January after being elected, must decide the pending appeal. 

After an appellate court ruled that cities can't charge more for water than the cost of providing it, California water districts have been left scrambling on how to curb heavy water usage during a time of drought, the Los Angeles Times' Matt Stevens reports: "Now, agencies must prove that the high water rates for heavy users are not meant as punishment but actually reflect the cost of delivering the extra water."

The problem is that many California water districts have the biggest users pay much more than users that save water, and they now have to show a "'clear nexus'" between operating costs and price, Stevens reports.

In the underlying case, San Juan Capistrano's water rates were challenged as arbitrary and unconstitutional.

There was an interesting bioethics ruling in Canada last month at the crossroads of traditional medicine and modern medicine. A young aboriginal girl has leukemia, and a Canadian judge ruled that her mother has a constitutional right to seek indigenous medicine, rather than chemotherapy, to treat her daughter, the Toronto Star's Jacques Gallant reports. The judge later clarified his ruling, writing that "'recognition and implementation of the right to use traditional medicines must remain consistent with the principle that the best interests of the child remain paramount.”'

The girl's treatment team includes a "doctor, a senior pediatric oncologist recommended by the government, and a Haudenosaunee chief who practises traditional medicine and was invited by the family," Gallant reports.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Thursday that the National Security Agency's bulk collection of Americans' phone records is illegal, The New York Times' Charlie Savage and Jonathan Weisman reports. The panel ruled that the Patriot Act can't be interpreted to allow the bulk collection of domestic call metadata, but noted that Congress could choose to authorize "'such a far-reaching and unprecedented program.'" The Patriot Act is set to expire June 1.

The Patriot Act permits the collection of records deemed "'relevant'" to a national security case, but the federal government interpreted this to cover the collection of all phone-call metadata so long as relevant records were reviewed by intelligence analysts, Savage and Weisman note.

Alabama lawmakers have passed a bill to shield brand-name drug companies and medical-device manufacturers from liability for generic versions of their products, Reuters' Brendan Pierson reports. Last year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that drugmakers and device makers could face liability for innovating a product that harmed patients who take generic versions of their drugs.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is expected to sign the bill.