7/15/2015 The Obama administration quietly launched the Open Government initiative last week by requiring seven agencies to publish documents they furnish via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) online. By publishing this information, the public will be able to view the same documents that have been requested via the FOIA online form or through the
7/14/2015 A week after reaching a settlement agreement with six Occupy Wall Street Protesters for conduct that occurred in the early days of the 2011 protest; New York City agreed on Monday to give the Estate of Eric Garner $5.9 million. Garner was killed last July in Staten Island after being detained by police after
7/14/2015 Following a month of monumental Supreme Court decisions regarding Obamacare and gay marriage, both battles which saw federal authority win out over state sovereignty, the ceaseless tug-of-war between the two levels of government has increasingly focused on the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority over state regulators. On Tuesday, representatives for state-level enforcement, as well
7/13/2015 Tomorrow will be one of the biggest dates in book history, not Fifty Shades of Grey history, perhaps more like Grapes of Wrath history. After more than five decades, a companion to America’s most beloved book, To Kill a Mockingbird, will be released in stores nationwide. Go Set a Watchman was actually submitted to
7/12/2015 Embattled Japanese airbag manufacturer Takata has roiled some lawmakers by announcing that the company will not set up a victim’s compensation fund similar to that for the General Motors’ ignition switch recall. Takata’s North American senior vice-president Kevin Kennedy made the announcement in a letter penned to Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who had strongly
7/11/2015 As the old adage goes (I think), hack me once, shame on you, hack me twice; well, you know the rest. Unfortunately for the head of the federal government’s main human resources department, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) Katherine Archuleta, two major data breaches into the sensitive electronic files affecting over 22
7/9/2015 After a raucous 13-hour debate Wednesday bleeding into Thursday morning, South Carolina’s House of Representatives voted to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds by a 94-20 margin in the bill’s required third reading, passing despite a last-minute attempt to delay the measure by proposing a barrage of amendments. The quick action in
7/9/2015 On Wednesday, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia has affirmed the federal Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s 2-1 decision last year that the Washington Redskins’ nickname and logo are offensive to Native Americans. Last year, the board voted that the trademark violated terms of the Lanham Act, which
7/8/2015 Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood announced in a Tuesday press release that his office will be joining 26 other states who have filed four separate lawsuits since last month over rule changes regarding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement of the Clean Water Act. The legal fight is essentially a territorial battle over which
Generally, we expect manufacturers to create products in a way that makes them safe to use. But there are some products consumers buy that will be dangerous no matter how they are created. Washington has adopted comment k to the Restatement (second) of Torts Section 402A, which precludes liability for certain “unavoidably unsafe products.” As