7/22/2015 Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), announced his support on Tuesday of AT&T’s $48.5 billion merger with DirecTV. The announcement makes it very likely that the deal will pass any forthcoming regulatory obstacles involved with completing such a massive consolidation. Wheeler’s approval is conditional however; contingent on the willingness of
7/21/2015 Reasonable dialogue took a back seat on Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing regarding controversial “Sanctuary Cities.” These municipalities have some form of explicit agreement that bars employees from discussing residents’ immigration status with federal officials. Begun in the 1980s by church groups seeking to protect refugees from war-stricken Central American countries, the
7/21/2015 A facility manager for Augusta, Georgia’s Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center has been indicted on 50 counts of instructing his staff to falsify medical records for patients seeking treatment outside of the VA health system. Cathedral Henderson pleaded not-guilty to the charges in U.S District Court in Savannah on Friday. Henderson managed revenue and
Implied Warranty of Merchantability In order to protect consumers, Hawaiian law applies two inherent promises into commercial transactions: that the goods sold will do what they are supposed to do and that there is nothing significantly wrong with them. If a product meets these two promises then they are “fit to be sold”. Hawaii Revised
7/20/2015 Auto safety became political last week on Capitol Hill as lawmakers debated a series of attachments to a transportation bill to be presented next month. Much of the debate went along partisan lines, with the Republican majority blocking several key measures surrounding the massive auto recall epidemic that has plagued the industry over the
7/20/2015 It appears that a major piece of Americana will be gone within a short period of time. The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, better known for over 150 years as A&P, is likely going out of business for good. The company filed papers late Sunday night for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in U.S.
On Friday, banking giant JP Morgan Chase agreed to a $388 million settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit claiming that the company misled investors regarding the stability of $10 billion worth of mortgage-backed securities (MBS). The lead plaintiff in the case was the Fort Worth employees’ retirement fund, along with others including the Northern and Southern
Hawaiian law protects consumers by making merchant sellers of a product liable to all consumers and users injured if a product fails to meet its express warranties. HRS § 490:2-313 explains, an express warranty is any affirmation, promises, description of the good, samples or models which is made part of the basis of the bargain
7/19/2015 Former Congressman Michael Grimm (R-NY) was sentenced on Friday to eight months in prison and one year of supervised released in a Brooklyn federal court after pleading guilty to tax evasion. Apologizing in front of Judge Pamela Chen, Grimm pleaded for the judge to avoid prison; however Chen said that she was troubled by the
7/18/2015 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given the recall of Medtronic’s Shiley neonatal and pediatric tracheostomy tubes a Class I label, its most serious designation. Under a Class I label, the FDA believes that “there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause serious adverse health consequences or death.” Last