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Public Policy
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December 17, 2024
Ariz. Families Seek Class Cert. Over Sober Home Living Scam
A group of Arizona families is seeking class certification in an effort to hold the state and its healthcare agencies accountable for the so-called sober living crisis, arguing that despite knowing the magnitude of fraud that was occurring, it continued to enable the multibillion-dollar scam.
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December 17, 2024
Biden Admin Finalizes Revamp Of Seasonal Visa Programs
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday finalized changes to the program for foreign seasonal workers that will bolster worker protections, penalize employers who impose prohibited fees and make it easier for workers to change employers.
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December 17, 2024
US Seeks Foreclosure To Pay 'Survivor' Winner's $3.3M Taxes
A federal magistrate judge should have recommended allowing the U.S. government to foreclose on two properties it claims are controlled by a winner of the "Survivor" TV series who owes $3.3 million in taxes, the government told a Rhode Island federal court.
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December 17, 2024
Seattle, Solar Group Sue To Block Natural Gas Ballot Initiative
The city of Seattle and solar industry and environmental groups have sued the state of Washington to preserve municipalities' ability to curb natural gas use in new buildings, arguing a voter-approved measure blocking that power had unrelated provisions that made it unconstitutional.
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December 17, 2024
Tulsa Tribal Jurisdiction Fight Is Paused For Settlement Talks
An Oklahoma federal judge has hit pause on a dispute between the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and the city of Tulsa over jurisdictional rights after the parties asked for time to participate in settlement discussions.
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December 17, 2024
Senate Dem's Bill Would Mandate New FCC Outage Reports
Networks that receive funding to help them rebound from climate-related disasters would need to file new reports of outages to the Federal Communications Commission under a Democratic bill filed in the U.S. Senate.
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December 17, 2024
Nevada Defeats DOJ Military Bias Suit Over Pension Credits
A Nevada federal judge tossed the U.S. Department of Justice's suit claiming Nevada and its public employees' retirement system overcharged service members for pension credits, ruling that a law protecting troops' reemployment rights doesn't let service members beef up their retirement benefits at a discounted rate.
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December 17, 2024
Split Pa. High Court Revives Kleinbard Fee Row Over DA Work
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday revived Kleinbard LLC's bid to get Lancaster County to pay for legal work on behalf of a former district attorney, reasoning that a lower court hastily rejected the firm's factual assertions.
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December 17, 2024
PG&E Secures $15B Energy Dept. Loan To Upgrade Grid
The U.S. Department of Energy said on Tuesday that it has conditionally committed to lending Pacific Gas & Electric Co. up to $15 billion for projects aimed at expanding hydropower generation and clean energy infrastructure in California.
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December 17, 2024
NYC Mayor Must Face Bribery Charge For Turkish Travel Perks
A Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday rejected New York City Mayor Eric Adams' request to dismiss the bribery charge from his indictment, finding that prosecutors clearly alleged a corrupt bargain with Turkish government agents to receive lavish travel perks.
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December 17, 2024
NC Legal Advice Law Challenge Meets Early Demise
A lawsuit by two paralegals and a nonprofit challenging North Carolina's ban on the unauthorized practice of law restricting who can offer legal advice has been cut short after a federal judge found the statute falls within a substantial state interest to protect its citizens.
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December 17, 2024
4 Recent Policy Developments Benefits Attys Should Know
A trio of federal agencies finalized new disclosure requirements for how health plans cover mental health treatments, states took steps to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, the U.S. Department of Labor's investment advice regulations failed in court, and Congress passed legislation to make compliance with the Affordable Care Act easier. Here, Law360 looks back at four policy-related developments in the employee benefits field from the latter half of 2024.
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December 17, 2024
Pa. Supreme Court Says Judge's Side Job Sinks Tax Rulings
A Pennsylvania state judge who held a side job on a Philadelphia tax appeals board had nullified rulings he made on a local hospital's tax cases, the state's Supreme Court said Tuesday, reasoning that holding both jobs was a "constitutionally impermissible conflict of duties."
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December 17, 2024
IRS Corrects Proposed Admin Requirements For Direct Pay
The Internal Revenue Service issued a correction Tuesday to proposed regulations laying out administrative requirements for tax-exempt entities to elect out of their partnership status in order to take advantage of new rules enabling direct cash payment of clean energy tax credits.
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December 17, 2024
Possible 6th Circ. Picks Now That Biden's Nominee Is Done
A district judge, state Supreme Court justice and a former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member are among the contenders for a seat on the Sixth Circuit when the outgoing judge retires, a pending vacancy that had been a matter of contention between Tennessee's senators and the Biden administration.
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December 17, 2024
Ex-Pol Can't Shake Fraud Rap Over Jury's Racial Makeup
A Massachusetts federal judge denied a Vietnamese-American former state senator's bid to undo his conviction for unlawfully accepting unemployment assistance and filing a false tax return, rejecting claims that jury selection was tainted by "racial animus" on the part of prosecutors.
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December 17, 2024
Colo. Atty Accused Of Poaching Seeks State Justices' Take
It's time for Colorado's Supreme Court to weigh whether law firms may prohibit attorneys from soliciting co-workers to depart their firm together, a lawyer accused of soliciting BigLaw firms to poach her department from a Denver personal injury firm argued Monday, asserting the case is a matter of first impression.
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December 17, 2024
Canadian Cabinet Official Takes Over Finance Minster Role
Canada's intergovernmental affairs minister is now also the country's finance minister following the sudden resignation of the previous official to hold the post, who cited conflicting views with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about how to respond to U.S. tariff threats.
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December 17, 2024
Groups Want Win In Partially Blocked Prevailing Wage Rule
The U.S. Department of Labor's final rule updating how prevailing wages are calculated under the Davis-Bacon Act should sink because it is arbitrary and capricious, a group of construction groups said, urging a Texas court to ax the rule after it partially blocked it.
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December 17, 2024
Former Massachusetts AG Frank Bellotti Dies At 101
Former Massachusetts Attorney General Francis Bellotti, who spent more than a decade as the state's top prosecutor, died Tuesday at 101, his family said.
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December 17, 2024
IRS Finalizes Expanded 'Coverage Month' For Premium Credit
The Internal Revenue Service finalized rules Tuesday that will expand the definition of a coverage month for purposes of computing the health insurance premium tax credit.
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December 16, 2024
Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2024's Most Memorable Moments
One judge said a litigant's position would cause "an effing nightmare," and another decried the legal community's silence amid "illegitimate aspersions." Public officials literally trashed one court's opinion, and fateful rulings dealt with controversial politicians, social media and decades of environmental policy. Those were just a few appellate highlights in 2024, a year teeming with memorable moments both substantive and sensational.
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December 16, 2024
Split SEC Will Require Certain Filings Be Made Electronically
A split U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday adopted rule amendments that require certain filings be made electronically, with Chair Gary Gensler saying the changes will streamline the commission's filing process.
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December 16, 2024
Menendez Prosecutors Say 'Chat Chains' Were Admitted In Error
Federal prosecutors in the government's case against former Sen. Bob Menendez on Monday notified the New York federal court of another evidentiary blunder, this time saying they mistakenly admitted "long chat chains" that included "small portions of material" that should've been excluded.
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December 16, 2024
TikTok Brings Sale-Or-Ban Fight To High Court
TikTok asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to stay a federal law that would force its owners to divest from the wildly popular social media app or shut its U.S. operation down just before Donald Trump's inauguration, saying his administration should get a say in the app's fate.
Expert Analysis
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What To Make Of Dueling Corporate Transparency Act Rulings
Although challenges to the Corporate Transparency Act abound — as highlighted by recent federal court decisions from Alabama and Oregon taking opposite positions on its constitutionality — the act is still law, so companies should comply with their filing requirements or face the potential consequences, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.
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Series
The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan
Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.
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California's AI Safety Bill Veto: The Path Forward
California Gov. Gavin Newsom's veto of a bill that sought to impose stringent regulations on advanced artificial intelligence model development has sparked a renewed debate on how best to balance innovation with safety in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, say Bobby Malhotra and Carson Swope at Winston & Strawn.
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Staying Off The CFPB's Financial Services Offender Registry
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's soon-to-launch registry of financial services companies that have faced public enforcement orders is designed to ratchet up long-term scrutiny of entities that could become repeat offenders, so companies should take their new compliance and filing requirements seriously, say Andrea Mitchell and Chris Napier at Mitchell Sandler.
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New TCPA Rule Faces Uncertain Future Post-Loper Bright
The Federal Communications Commission's new rule aiming to eliminate lead generators' use of unlawful robocalls is now in doubt with the U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, and the Eleventh Circuit's Insurance Marketing Coalition v. FCC is poised to be a test case of the agency's ability to enforce the Telephone Consumer Protection Act post-Chevron, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.
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A Look At Calif.'s New AI Law For Health Insurers
A newly enacted California law prohibits artificial intelligence tools from making medical necessity determinations for healthcare service plans or disability insurers, addressing core questions that have arisen around AI's role in coverage decisions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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New HHS Research Misconduct Rules Bring Seismic Changes
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' new rule regarding research misconduct investigations brings significant changes that focus on remediation, appeals and confidentiality, while other changes could result in institutions causing undue harm to scientists accused of such misconduct, say attorneys at Cohen Seglias.
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To Report Or Not To Report Others' Export Control Violations
A recent Bureau of Industry and Security enforcement policy change grants cooperation credit to those that report violations of the Export Administration Regulations committed by others, but the benefits of doing so must be weighed against significant drawbacks, including the costs of preparing and submitting a report, says Megan Lew at Cravath.
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Earned Wage Access Laws Form A Prickly Policy Patchwork
Conflicting earned wage access laws across the country, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's recently issued rule, mean providers must adopt a proactive compliance approach and adjust business models where needed, say attorneys at Sheppard Mullin.
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What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean
A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.
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HSR Amendments Intensify Merger Filing Burdens, Data Risk
The antitrust agencies' long-awaited changes to premerger notification rules under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act stand to significantly increase the time and cost involved in preparing an initial HSR notification, and will require more proactive attention to data issues, says Andrew Szwez at FTI Technology.
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Deadline Extension Highlights PFAS Reporting Complexities
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's recent extension of reporting and recordkeeping timelines for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act offers relief to the regulated community, but the unprecedented volume of data required means that businesses must remain diligent in their data collection efforts, say attorneys at Alston & Bird.
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Can SEC's Consolidated Audit Trail Survive Post-Chevron?
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently in a showdown at the Eleventh Circuit over its authority to maintain a national market system and require that the industry spend billions to maintain its consolidated audit trail, a case that is further complicated by the Loper Bright decision, says Daniel Hawke at Arnold & Porter.
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What's Inside Feds' Latest Bank Merger Review Proposals
Recent bank merger proposals from a trio of federal agencies highlight the need for banks looking to grow through acquisition to consider several key issues much earlier in the planning process than has historically been necessary, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.
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State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape
Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.