The US Justice Department has asked for a one-day prison sentence for a former policeman convicted of violating the civil rights of Breonna Taylor, a Black woman whose 2020 killing sparked protests for police reform and racial justice.Brett Hankison, who was convicted by a federal jury in Kentucky in November of one count of abusing Taylor’s civil rights, is to be sentenced on Monday and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.But the head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, in an unusual intervention, asked the judge on Wednesday to sentence Hankison to time served — the day he spent in jail at the time of his arrest — and three years of supervised release.”The government respects the jury’s verdict, which will almost certainly ensure that defendant Hankison never serves as a law enforcement officer again,” said Harmeet Dhillon, who was appointed to the position by President Donald Trump.”But adding on top of those consequences a sentence within the lengthy guidelines range… would, in the government’s view, simply be unjust,” Dhillon said.”Hankison did not shoot Ms. Taylor and is not otherwise responsible for her death,” she said. “Hankison did not wound her or anyone else at the scene that day, although he did discharge his duty weapon ten times blindly into Ms. Taylor’s home.”Lawyers for the Taylor family condemned the government’s sentencing recommendation as “an insult to the life of Breonna Taylor.””Recommending just one day in prison sends the unmistakable message that white officers can violate the civil rights of Black Americans with near-total impunity,” they said in a statement.Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, were sleeping in her Louisville apartment around midnight on March 13, 2020, when they heard a noise at the door.Walker, believing it was a break-in, fired his gun, wounding a police officer.Police, who had obtained a controversial no-knock search warrant to make a drug arrest, fired more than 30 shots back, mortally wounding Taylor.The deaths of Taylor, 26, and George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man who was murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020, became the focus of a wave of mass protests in the United States and beyond against racial injustice and police brutality.In May, the Justice Department announced it was dropping lawsuits filed by the administration of former president Joe Biden against police forces in Louisville and Minneapolis that accused them of using excessive force and racial discrimination.

Juul Labs said Thursday that the US Food and Drug Administration had officially authorized the e-cigarette maker to market its vaping system and refill capsules in the United States.Juul won the new marketing granting orders (MGO) after submitting more than 110 scientific studies to the agency, the company said in a statement.The decision means Juul can continue to sell products that have been on the US market but in regulatory limbo following earlier actions by the FDA.”Following rigorous evaluation of the data, FDA decided that an MGO for the Juul System was ‘appropriate for the protection of public health’ –- the standard required by statute for authorization,” Juul said.Juul has argued that its vaping products provide a public health benefit by shifting smokers away from combustible tobacco products closely linked to deadly illnesses. But the company has been criticized for its marketing practices, agreeing to pay $438.5 million in a 2022 settlement with 34 US states to resolve accusations of marketing to underage smokers.The FDA’s move allows Juul to sell five products in all: the Juul device and capsules for the “Virginia Tobacco” and menthol flavor, each in versions with three or five percent nicotine concentration, said a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services.The products needed to meet the standard set under a 2009 smoking prevention law showing that the benefits of switching to a potentially less harmful product is “sufficient to outweigh the risks of the product,” including to anyone not using tobacco products, the spokesperson said.The applicant submitted data “demonstrating high rates of adults completely switching from cigarettes to either the tobacco- or menthol-flavored Juul products.”But the agency’s determination “does not mean these tobacco products are safe, nor are they ‘FDA approved,'” said the spokesperson, who added that the agency will continue to monitor Juul’s compliance with youth marketing restrictions.Juul survived a difficult stretch after the FDA ordered it to halt sales in June 2022 because of health questions, although the decision was adminsistratively suspended by the same agency shortly thereafter.In June 2024, the FDA formally rescinded its June 2022 order, shifting the matter back into “pending” status while a substantive review continued.The FDA’s action on Thursday “confirms that these products are now authorized to remain on the market,” said a Juul spokesman.