Press & Dispatches

COLUMBUS, OH — In a significant archival milestone, the Supreme Court of Ohio formally accepted an independent amicus curiae brief authored by Shawn SN on a case of first impression regarding administrative deference and statutory interpretation.

The brief challenges the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' interpretation of unitization laws, leveraging the landmark TWISM Ents., L.L.C. precedent to enforce the judicial branch's ultimate authority to interpret the law without mandatory deference to agencies, advancing constitutional due process protections for property owners.

The Native Claim Firm submitted a formal fiscal analysis to the New York City Council Committee on Contracts regarding proposed local laws strengthening Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (M/WBE) reporting requirements. The firm is urging that Native American-owned businesses be maintained as a distinct tracking category rather than aggregated.

Key Metrics: Drawing on the City's 2018 Disparity Study, the testimony notes that Native American-owned firms received $0 (0.00%) of dollars awarded in the Professional Services category, despite representing 0.65% of available firms. As an illustrative calculation, matching that baseline availability would represent roughly $130,234,188 out of the $20 billion awarded.

Methodology: The testimony points to the strict scrutiny standard under the Fourteenth Amendment, as articulated in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co. (1989), which requires a “strong basis in evidence” to justify race-conscious contracting. It argues that blending a 0.00% utilization rate into an aggregate minority figure could weaken the program's defensibility, and urges the Mayor's Office of Contract Services (MOCS) to preserve distinct data columns.

During an oversight hearing regarding the mayoral administration's use of auto-deleting Signal messages, The Native Claim Firm urged the committee to look beyond past compliance to forward-looking liabilities regarding municipal records retention.

Key Metrics: The testimony presents an illustrative fiscal reference model contrasting a nominal $1,500 cost for one-time technical device-management configurations against a projected 10% annual probability of a $45,000 fee-shifting exposure per incident under FOIL litigation.

Methodology: The testimony relies on Section 1133 of the New York City Charter, which, as the testimony explains, restricts the destruction of municipal records without prior approval from the Commissioner of the Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS) and the Corporation Counsel. It argues that ephemeral messaging may bypass that requirement by deleting data before review, cites Public Officers Law § 89(4)(c) and appellate precedent, and urges the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) to technically block auto-delete configurations rather than rely on staff practice.

Addressing the Executive Order 13 language access audit, the firm is advocating for separate tracking of Indigenous Latin American languages (e.g., Mixteco, K'iche', Nahuatl) in municipal intake data, citing due process risks when those languages are not recorded.

Key Metrics: The testimony illustrates the cost of inaction using civil rights settlement ranges from HUD and the DOJ that it cites as typically spanning $82,500 to $115,000 for language access violations, contrasted with a nominal estimated cost of $360 to add a drop-down category to municipal audit forms.

Methodology: The testimony distinguishes Local Law 30 (which mandates document translation based on defined methodologies) from Executive Order 13 (a performance-tracking mechanism downstream of mandates). It argues that Indigenous individuals may be misrouted to Spanish-language services when intake options are missing, and that simply recording language data imposes no mandate to translate, and urges the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) to correct its intake reporting.

Addressing the Runaway and Homeless Youth (RHY) shelter system managed by the Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), this testimony demands disaggregated demographic tracking for Native American and Alaska Native youth.

Key Metrics: The testimony relies on federal HUD Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) data, which it describes as showing that Native youth are represented among unaccompanied homeless youth at roughly four times (4x) their share of the general youth population nationally.

Methodology: The testimony focuses on federal funding mechanisms. Noting that the NYC Continuum of Care operates under HUD grant conditions subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it frames the lack of data tracking, caused by collapsing small populations into “Other” or “Multiracial” residual categories, as a potential federal compliance risk. It argues that recording an intake category is independent of the sample size needed to draw statistical inferences, answering a common rationale for omission.

Submitted for a joint hearing regarding the simplification of the Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption (SCRIE) and the Disability Rent Increase Exemption (DRIE), this testimony requests explicit outreach and application identifiers for Native American elders.

Key Metrics: The firm scaled the eligible pool using the 2.0% Native population share derived from the 2020 Census. Applying that share to the City's estimate of 158,214 eligible households yields approximately 3,164 eligible Native elder households. Assuming an average annual benefit of $1,245 and an illustrative 50% outreach gap, the firm projects nearly $1.96 million in potentially unclaimed rent relief annually.

Methodology: The testimony maps the bureaucratic friction point in the program's bifurcated administration. While the Department for the Aging (DFTA) handles public outreach, the Department of Finance (DOF) controls the physical and digital application forms. By directing specific requests to both agencies simultaneously, the testimony argues that mechanical simplification does not benefit everyone equally without targeted structural awareness.

HARTFORD, CT, Connecticut Senate Bill 397, “An Act Concerning Democracy and Government Accountability and the Use and Retention of Data Derived From Automated License Plate Reader Systems,” was signed into law by Governor Ned Lamont on May 4, 2026 as Public Act No. 26-14.

Written testimony in support of SB 397 was submitted to the Connecticut Joint Committee on Judiciary, addressing constitutional enforcement, police accountability, and government transparency. We are grateful to the legislators and advocates who carried this bill forward.

HARTFORD, CT, Connecticut House Bill 5374 was signed into law by Governor Ned Lamont on May 28, 2026 as Public Act No. 26-33.

Among its provisions, the Act requires applicable health insurance policies that cover chemotherapy to also cover scalp cooling systems, at a level at least equivalent to Medicare and without cost-sharing more restrictive than that applied to other covered benefits, effective January 1, 2027. Testimony in support of Medicare-parity scalp cooling coverage was submitted to the Joint Committee on Insurance and Real Estate. We are grateful to the legislators and patients who made this coverage possible.

NEW YORK, STEMpathize 501(c)(3) has officially been designated as an official United Nations Partner Organization, unlocking international collaboration and worldwide educational development resources.

Achieving this milestone was earned after meeting strict ethical, financial, and public service thresholds. This formal partnership reflects the organization's strict commitment to institutional excellence and positions STEMpathize to scale its educational equity mission internationally with unparalleled alignment to worldwide governance frameworks.

GENEVA / NEW YORK, The Native Claim Firm announced today that its international membership has surpassed 70,000 active sovereign and civil rights advocates spanning 12 countries, including the United States, Canada, England, Mexico, Australia, China, Saudi Arabia, India, Russia, Germany, Italy, and France.

Designated as an official United Nations Partner Organization after meeting strict ethical, financial, and public service thresholds, the organization expanded its legal healthcare compliance framework and sovereign advocacy initiatives throughout summer 2026.

BALTIMORE / BOSTON, As an Indigenous House music artist, Shawn SN released his debut musical record internationally across all major streaming platforms under UnitedMasters.

The project blends ancient, sacred tribal chants with high-energy modern house and dance rhythms. The artistic rationale directly challenges widespread cultural biases: whereas traditional Indigenous music is often prematurely judged or marginalized, the vibrant, universally uplifting tempo of house music proves that good vibes are contagious and all are welcome.

XI'AN, CHINA, In a landmark achievement for medical technology and healthcare equity, lead researcher Shawn has been officially selected to present at the highly esteemed Nature Conference, Flexible Electronics – Transforming Technology for Human Health.

The accepted poster presentation is titled, "Patent-Pending AI Auditor on Flexible Electronics Wearables: Correcting Bias in Indigenous RHC Health Insurance Claims." Selection for a Nature event is notoriously competitive; their scientific committees exclusively accept research that demonstrates paradigm-shifting potential and impeccable methodology.

WASHINGTON, In a remarkable intersection of independent research and federal oversight, findings stemming from patent-pending healthcare auditing technology formally shaped a major national Medicare determination in the Federal Register.

To command the exclusive attention of federal regulators inside a consequential Medicare ruling is exceedingly rare. When the Department of Health and Human Services published its binding six-year national accreditation decision, this singular research submission was formally accepted, evaluated, and explicitly addressed by CMS, establishing an enduring administrative precedent for rural and Indigenous health equity.

Governor's Proclamation · March 1–7, 2026

Testimony on Native maternal health disparities was delivered to the Massachusetts state legislature. Separately, Governor Maura T. Healey, joined by Lieutenant Governor Kimberley Driscoll and Secretary of the Commonwealth William Francis Galvin, proclaimed March 1 through 7, 2026 as Native American Health Awareness Week in the Commonwealth, citing health disparities affecting Native American communities, including diabetes rates double the state average and life expectancy up to 11 years below the state average.

We are grateful to the Commonwealth for elevating these disparities, and we remain committed to the Native families and communities at the center of this work.

WASHINGTON, D.C., In a significant victory for public education infrastructure, Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a formal letter of appreciation recognizing critical advocacy efforts to halt systemic educator attrition.

Following independent testimony delivered before the D.C. Council, the precise systemic metrics provided were directly cited by lawmakers to justify the restoration of a $72 million educator equity fund. This official correspondence from the Mayor's office affirms the tremendous scale and effectiveness of the research in directly securing resources for the district's underserved youth and retaining critical teaching professionals.

TAUNTON, MA, Mayor Shaunna O'Connell has issued a proclamation designating May 30, 2026 as “STEMpathize International Day” in the City of Taunton.

The proclamation cites the publication of STEMpathize International's 20th STEM textbook, now freely available online; scholarly work including a mathematical proof published in Cambridge University Press and STEM research developed at Harvard University; testimony in Washington, D.C. on educator retention and contributions to initiatives that may support over 100,000 underserved K–12 students by 2030; and continued support through scholarships, tutoring for at-risk youth, and humanitarian aid efforts worldwide.

We are deeply grateful to Mayor O'Connell and the City of Taunton. For those of us who grew up as first-generation students in under-resourced communities, this recognition belongs to the young people and families the work is meant to serve.