Petition to FAA Calls for Seat-Shrinkage Pushback
sent a petition containing the names of over 30,000 flyers to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief Michael Huerta calling for set limits for airline seating.
Business
Judge Approves Settlement in Silicon Valley Wage Class-Action Case
The lawsuit depicts Jobs as the mastermind behind the agreement. One email cited by the plaintiffs from 2007 involves Jobs writing to Schmidt about poaching, saying “I would be very pleased if your recruiting department would stop doing this.” Schmidt forwarded the request down the chain of command, writing “I believe we have a policy of no recruiting from Apple and this is a direct inbound request. Can you get this stopped and let me know why this is happening? I will need to send a response back to Apple quickly so please let me know as soon as you can.”
Alleged Cover-up Could Blow Roof off of Asbestos Litigation
The appeals ruling involved a class-action suit filed by relatives of alleged asbestos victims who accused BASF and Cahill of a systematic cover-up involving the destruction of key documents involving Engelhard asbestos litigation. Although the case in itself is not injury related, evidence of a cover-up could revive many previously litigated cases and cases in which plaintiffs settled for less than they would have had they attained access to factual information.
Sincerely Nuts Recalls Macadamia Products due to Salmonella Scare
According to the FDA, Persons infected with the salmonella organism “often experience fever, diarrhea (which may be bloody), nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain” that in rare circumstances, “can result in the organism getting into the bloodstream and producing more severe illnesses such as arterial infections (i.e., infected aneurysms), endocarditis and arthritis.”
Virginia to Conduct New Testing of ET-Plus Guardrails
The tests come as several critics dispute the validity of eight road tests that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) claims that the ET-Plus passed in March. The ET-Plus guardrail is designed to act as a shock absorber when a vehicle collides with it, but many believe that the guardrail can buckle and splinter instead, spearing the vehicle and possibly drivers with jagged pieces of metal piercing through the door or window. Currently, there are over 200,000 ET-Plus guardrails installed throughout the U.S. highway system.
Takata Recall Total Lowered amid Widened Side-Airbag Probe
Original projections had estimated about 34 million airbags, with faulty inflators that could send shrapnel flying into the passenger cabin upon impact. The revised total estimates the number to be 23.4 million, with roughly 4 million of the airbags having already been replaced. The agency also estimates that 4 million of the affected vehicles have at least two of the recalled airbags, bringing the actual number of vehicles affected by the recall in the U.S. to around 19 million.
Fiat-Chrysler Unveils Incentive Program to Repair Defective Vehicles
The company announced that it is offering a $1,000 trade-in credit towards a new Fiat-Chrysler vehicle, or $2,000 towards the purchase of a Ram model pickup. For those who desire to keep their repaired vehicles, the company will offer a $100 prepaid credit card for completing the repair which consumers can spend as they wish.
USDA Approves Second-Generation Genetically-Engineered Potato
Simplot is hoping that the FDA will approve the blight-resistant potatoes by early 2017, enough time for crops to be ready for consumers by the fall of that year. Since hitting the market, Simplot has sold about 400 acres worth of the first-generation potatoes to supermarkets in 10 Midwestern states.
Will Lexmark’s ‘Ink War’ Reach the Supreme Court?
Lexmark added Impression products to the list of over two dozen defendants in a patent infringement lawsuit filed in U.S. Court for the Southern District of Ohio, a suit that began by the company in 2010. Although all of the other defendants buckled to Lexmark’s clout, either choosing to settle, or with the court granting Lexmark default judgments against absentee defendants, Smith and his attorney stood their ground electing to fight the lawsuit.
Dole Executives Fined $148 Million for Valuation Fraud
Laster believed that the executives fraudulently created grim sales forecasts, as well as drove the stock price down by understating the cost savings of Dole’s 2012 sale of its Asian operations, as well as cancelling a planned stock buyback. These activities led to Murdock purchasing the remaining shares for $13.50 each in a $1.2 billion purchase. Laster ruled that the executives undervalued the shares by $2.74 apiece, ordering that they pay the difference, a total of $148.2 million to the investors, many of them pension funds, that filed the class-action lawsuit.