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
6/23/2015 The Justice Department and New York City officials have reached a preliminary agreement to reform one of the most notorious prisons in the U.S., New York’s Rikers Island Correctional Facility. The agreement comes after the office of U.S. Attorney extraordinaire, Preet Bharara, joined a class-action lawsuit last December regarding police brutality and other abuses.
6/22/2015 In the wake of the latest hate-fueled mass shooting of a prominent African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina by 21 year-old racist, Dylan Roof, a major wave of momentum is fomenting towards a longstanding controversy, the public display of the Confederate flag in the state. The controversy over South Carolina’s reluctance to remove the
6/22/2015 Education reform will be a hot topic in Congress as early as this week as dual bills will likely be debated, continuing but offering modifications to the controversial Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The original Elementary and Secondary Education Act was signed into law by President Johnson as a “War on Poverty” measure
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
6/18/2015 The House of Representatives will vote Thursday to repeal two controversial provisions to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), better known as Obamacare. Amidst a considerable degree of bipartisan support, Ways and Means Committee chairman, Paul Ryan (R-WI) successfully advanced measures to a vote earlier this month to cut the unpopular 2.3 percent tax on
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