The Supreme Court on June 25 dealt a blow to victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, cutting the $2.5 billion in punitive damages award for the worst oil spill in US history to $507 million. The court ruled 5-3 that the damages were excessive under maritime law. The ruling in Exxon Shipping v. Baker, No. 07-219 brings to a close a long-running legal battle between Exxon and a group of 33,000 fishermen, cannery workers, Native Alaskans and others affected by the disaster.

One is reported killed and over 80 people, including at least 30 police, injured in clashes when protests over the transfer of forest land to the Amarnath shrine trust exploded into street-fighting in Srinagar and Ganderbal district, Kashmir, June 23. Indian police, including elite Central Reserve Police Force officers, fired tear-gas and live ammunition to break up protests by Muslims angry with a government decision to transfer 100 acres to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board to erect temporary structures for thousands of Hindu pilgrims who annually trek to the holy site deep in the Himalayas. Muslim protesters attacked government buildings and a police post, and set vehicles ablaze. A strike to protest the death of a protester in the repression has shut down Srinagar.

NATO forces in Afghanistan shelled insurgent targets in Pakistan in two incidents June 22, following rocket and artillery attacks launched into Khost and Paktika provinces from sanctuaries across the border. Four Afghan civilians were reportedly killed in the insurgents attacks, at least two of them children. Casualty figures for Pakistan were not available. Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai threatened to send troops across the border if Pakistan's government does not prevent militants from crossing the border. (NYT, June 23)

It is pretty depressing that 29 years after Three Mile Island and 22 after Chernobyl, the nuclear industry has recouped its propaganda losses to the point that both candidates are obliged to pay lip service to the oxymoron of "safe nuclear power." McCain is gung-ho for nukes, calling for building 45 new reactors over the next 30 years. Obama's support is more equivocal—he said June 20 that nuclear power is an option worth pursuing, while adding the caveat: "I don't think that nuclear power is a panacea." (Reuters, June 20)

On June 11 and 12, ICE agents from the Rhode Island Fugitive Operations Team arrested 42 immigrants from Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico in the areas of Newport and Middletown, Rhode Island. Half of those arrested—21 people—were identified by ICE as immigration "fugitives" (people who had failed to comply with prior deportation orders). Another 12 were described as people who had reentered the US after being previously removed, while nine merely lacked authorization to be in the US.

On June 10, sheriff's deputies in Maricopa County, Ariz., raided two water parks in the Phoenix area and arrested nine workers on charges of suspicion of identity theft and using forged documents to obtain employment. The raid followed a four-month investigation of hiring practices at the sites. The operation is being seen as a test case for a law that went into effect in Arizona in January 2008 which allows the state to suspend or revoke business licenses of employers who "knowingly" hire unauthorized workers.

On June 9, Sun Valley Floral Farms in northern California's Humboldt County fired 283 employees after a letter from ICE informed the company that the workers are not eligible to work in the US because their Social Security numbers do not match government records. More than half of the company's workforce was laid off, according to Sun Valley Group CEO Lane DeVries. "It's like a neutron bomb hitting our company," DeVries said. "Some of these people worked with us for 17 years. Some were team leaders for 10 or 12 years. This is very devastating to the people involved."

On June 4, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at the business office of Boss 4 Packing in Heber, California, a locally-owned company that provides contract workers to farms in southern California's Imperial Valley. The search warrant remains under seal. Agents arrested two of the company's foremen on federal criminal charges for misusing Social Security numbers to employ unauthorized workers. One was arrested at his home near Brawley, California, while the other was arrested working in a nearby field. ICE also arrested 32 Boss 4 Packing employees—seven women and 25 men—on administrative immigration violations. Most of the workers were arrested in the Brawley area.