As the 2016 election season kicks off, the issue of money’s pervasiveness in the political process is gaining some steam. Democratic frontrunner, Hilary Clinton, recently announced that fixing a “dysfunctional” campaign finance system to be among her top priorities, and several prominent Republicans, including presidential hopeful, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), have thrown their support toward
In a landmark investigation released this week, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) uncovered the alarmingly small and insular circle of experts who are used by food manufacturers to determine if a new ingredient is “Generally Regarded As Safe,” or GRAS. The investigation discovered that at least one of 10 particular consultants participated in over
A 1958 law offers food companies who want to market new ingredients in their products a way to bypass extensive and costly FDA safety testing. The law provides the option for companies to demonstrate that the ingredient in question has been deemed “Generally Regarded As Safe” (GRAS) by a consensus panel of scientists and experts.
Telecommunications giant, CenturyLink filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday, April 17th, joining AT&T and 5 other companies and trade groups fighting the February change of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules on net neutrality. The new rules, which were officially published last week into the Federal Register,
As former President, George W. Bush once infamously stated, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice…well… you can’t get fooled again.” That is how I feel when I analyze the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), an enormously entangling trade agreement between several North American and Asian nations that account for 40 percent of the world’s
General Motors won a massive legal victory to the dismay of many former customers when U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge, Robert Gerber ruled Wednesday, April 15th that the company can retain its bankruptcy shield protection of $10 billion for claims against it involving the massive ignition-switch recall. The ruling helps General Motors avoid potentially billions of
Walmart won a major battle for self-determination in its business operations on Tuesday, April 14th, when the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a District of Delaware November, 2014 ruling that could have potentially restricted gun and ammunition sales based on the desires of certain shareholders. The fast-tracked appeal was resolved before the Thursday, April
Southern New York District Judge, Jed Rakoff, delivered a poignant speech regarding the issue of mass incarceration in the U.S. criminal justice system. Speaking at a Harvard Law School conference on the responsibilities and roles that lawyers play both professionally and as citizens on April 10th, Rakoff gave a “fourth principal” argument, taking a non-judicial
In the past year, police abuse cases have permeated the news and the national consciousness, often dividing the country along racial and ideological boundaries. Incidents in Ferguson, New York, Cleveland, Tulsa, and North Charleston, in that order, have given pause to the thought that these are rare, isolated incidents. The emergence of smartphones as personal
In testimony submitted before a Monday, April 13th subcommittee of the House Committee on Veteran’s Affairs hearing, VA employees attest that whistleblower retaliation is still rampant despite a year-long attempt to reform the department. Several whistleblowers, who exposed the shocking data falsification scandal involving treatment delays last year, are claiming that retaliation persists despite the