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Lower crude prices aren’t just hurting oil companies, they’re also inflicting pain on the country’s largest banks. Commercial and industrial loan payments overdue by three or more months were up in the first quarter by $3.3 billion, according to an FDIC report published Wednesday. The 2.4-percent uptick in commercial and industrial delinquencies was “the first quarterly increase in total noncurrent loan balances in 24 quarters,” the federal banking regulator said. The report noted the trend resulted from “[s]harply lower energy prices,” and that it disproportionately impacted…

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Numbers released from the federal government show that officials tasked with patrolling public lands and forests are dealing with a growing number of assaults on the job. The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reported that abusive incidents against its officers rose by 87 percent last year. The US Forest Service (USFS) reported a 60 percent uptick in violence against its employees. The data was released by the agencies in response to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental…

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A federal appeals court in Richmond, Va. declined to reconsider a high profile ruling it made in favor of a transgender student. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that it would not rehear a case brought by Gavin Grimm. A 16-year-old transgender boy, Grimm was granted the right by the court to sue his local school board for attempting to keep him out of the boys’ bathroom. Grimm was born female but came out as a transgender male in high school. He was allowed…

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The first shipment in years of US rice to Cuba arrived on the island amid a trade delegation led by Gov. Jay Nixon (D-Mo.). Twenty tons of the commodity earlier this week reached the Port of Mariel, near Havana, courtesy of the Missouri-based Martin Rice Company. Cuban trade minister Maria de la Luz B’Hamel called the gift “a symbol on the start of lasting relationships that could be strengthened with all US agricultural producers,” according to a Cuban state news report published Monday. The US…

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The Speaker of the House is threatening to lock down the amendment process after Democrats seized on annual spending bills to ensure protections for gay, lesbian, and transgender Americans. Briefing reporters Thursday just minutes after an energy and water appropriations bill failed on the House floor, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) accused the legislative minority of “sabotaging” the process. More than half of Ryan’s GOP caucus voted down the spending measure after Democrats on Wednesday night succeeded in affixing an amendment to the legislation that would…

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Citibank added $175 million to its LIBOR-fixing legal bills after agreeing to settle charges with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The bank was also fined $250 million by the regulator for manipulating an interest rate indicator called ISDAFix between 2007-2012. The two regularly-published gauges are used to price financial commodities around the world. LIBOR, the London Inter-Bank Offering Rate, is what banks charge each other for short-term loans. It influences the cost of over $300 trillion in financial services. Citibank, in one instance, fudged the…

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Federal regulators are seeking an injunction to stop striking Verizon workers from demonstrating at New England hotels where replacements are being housed. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is accusing the union members of being noisy and “confrontational” at the premises of various hotels, in an apparent violation of labor laws on secondary boycotts. “The union locals’ ‘confrontational’ and ‘highly disruptive’ picketing has included allegedly shouting to hotel guests that they were staying with ‘scabs’ at bedbug-infested hotels,” according to an NLRB motion filed Monday…

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