6/24/2015 Despite countless attempts to block the measure, including a dramatic standoff in the House of Representatives earlier in the month, President Obama will get his Fast Track Authority (FTA) in order to unilaterally negotiate the terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on behalf of the U.S. government. The Senate approved FTA today following Tuesday’s
6/24/2015 For the first time in nearly 40 years, significant reforms to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) may finally take place as the House of Representatives passed a bill on Tuesday by a 398-1 vote on HR 2576, offering major changes to the law. The passage comes as a Senate panel advanced another
6/23/2015 The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee alternated flaying both Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata, and the U.S.’s top auto regulator, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) during a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill Tuesday. The hearing accompanies two separate reports that highlight extreme failings by both the manufacturer and the agency. The hearing
6/18/2015 Following the June 8th midnight deadline to file claims involving British Petroleum’s (BP) Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, 10 claims centers operating through the country will be closing on Friday, June 19th. The offices opened shortly after the 2012 settlement was announced, and have remained open past the claims deadline
6/18/2015 The U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that the government acted illegally when it acquired stock during its $85 billion bailout of insurance giant, American International Group (AIG). Although a win for AIG’s former longtime CEO, Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, he considers it to be only a moral victory, as Judge Thomas C. Wheeler
6/17/2015 America is a land of wacky museums, including ones honoring Pez dispensers, barbed-wire, and even the Museum of Bad Art in Massachusetts, but there is no law museum despite there being myriads of museums dedicated to similarly significant professions. That is about to change, however, as legendary consumer advocate and not-so-legendary presidential candidate, Ralph
6/17/2015 Four more banks have agreed to settlements in a massive, two-year long ordeal regarding manipulation of the $5.3 trillion currency market. HSBC, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and BNP Paribas all signed settlement agreements this week. HSBC agreed on a $285 million settlement, Barclays settled for $375 million, Goldman Sachs is finalizing an agreement estimated to
6/17/2015 Bill Belichick might be quite upset to hear that a new sports franchise has allegedly taken cheating to the next level. The FBI is investigating baseball’s St. Louis Cardinals for allegedly hacking into a rival team, the Houston Astros’ information database, stealing important information about players and others involved in the organization. Although sign-stealing
6/16/2015 It appears that the wave of high-level consolidations in the business world has now carried over to the nation’s top health insurers. United Healthcare, by far the industry leader, has approached Aetna, the U.S.’s third-largest health insurer, this week in early discussions of a merger. Anthem, the country’s second-leading health plan provider has also
6/15/2015 Although the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been defeated by the courts twice before in very public fashion over the issue of net neutrality; new rules proposed by the FCC in February quietly went into effect on Friday, June 12th. This comes as a three-judge panel from the D.C. Circuit Appeals Court denied a