Miscellaneous

• Study Claims I.R.S.’s Scrutiny On Large Firms Is Decreasing

  Greg Webb | April 23, 2008 9:10 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  A new study, conducted by the research group Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), has shown corporate America fears the Internal Revenue Service (I.R.S.) less than it used to. The...

• Industries Rushing To Cement Favorable Regulations, Taking Rights Away from Citizens

  Greg Webb | March 26, 2008 5:45 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  The Bush administration is being pressured by industries, from agriculture to power, to act on an abundance of pending regulations, mostly challenging the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). For example, last month, power companies and manufacturers took their objections about an expected EPA proposal to tighten federal smog rules to the White House budget office. There, they urged officials...

• Toxic Chemicals Contaminate Towns In New York and Florida

  Greg Webb | January 30, 2008 4:54 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  The neighbors of a former IBM plant in two upstate New York towns are suing the company for allegedly discharging chemicals, such as trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene, into the air, water and ground for the past eighty years. The plaintiffs claim the chemicals caused birth defects and cancer and are seeking unspecified damages. The lawsuit is said to be the first of several planned...

• Florida Suspends New Issuances of Insurance For Allstate

  Greg Webb | January 22, 2008 5:58 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  Florida Insurance Commissioner, Kevin McCarty, announced he would be suspending Allstate Insurance companies from issuing any new insurance in his state. This decision comes after Allstate refused to obey subpoenas served to them on October 16, 2007 by the Office of Insurance Regulation. The subpoenas are trying to seek the disclosure of the McKinsey Documents, in which McKinsey & Co. detailed...

• Aetna Joins With Other Insurers in Denying Anesthetic Used In Colonoscopies

  Greg Webb | January 07, 2008 5:32 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  Aetna, one of the leading national private health plan managers, has joined with other insurers, such as WellPoint and Humana, to declare it will not cover a powerful anesthetic, Propofol, used to eliminate discomfort during a colonoscopy. A colonoscopy is a common form of colon cancer screening which allows doctors to explore the small intestine to identify and remove cancerous tumors before...

• EPA To Make Cutbacks In Requirements For Industry's Toxin Reports

  Greg Webb | December 31, 2007 11:15 AM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rushed to make cutbacks on the requirements for companies to disclose their release of toxins annually. The EPA expedited these cutbacks after being pressured by the White House Office of Monetary Budget to meet their commitment to reduce the amount of paperwork to industries by 2006. With these changes, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has...

• Allstate Fined $25,000 A Day in Missouri For Not Producing Documents

  Greg Webb | December 28, 2007 12:20 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  Allstate Insurance Company has made it clear that although it is being fined $25,000 daily, it will not produce key records in a case pending in Missouri (thereby becoming public documents) unless the documents are sealed. The documents in question, also known as the McKinsey documents, have been called the "holy grail" for lawyers representing injured people (plaintiff's lawyers). The McKinsey...

• Mining Death Toll Rises Due To Poor Inspections

  Greg Webb | December 16, 2007 3:26 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  Last year the total number of workers who died in mining accidents more than doubled to an astonishing 47. This sharp increase in casualties could be, at least in part, due to the fact that over one in seven of the United State's 731 mines were not inspected at all by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), although they were required to under the Federal Mine and Health Act of 1977,...

• Federal Regulation on Amusement Parks Needed

  Greg Webb | December 06, 2007 2:16 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  While amusement park thrill rides are only supposed to seem dangerous, many people are injured each year due to negligence in the operation of these rides. On average, four people are killed each year while riding amusement park rides, while injury reports average in the thousands. A man was killed in 1999 riding the Shockwave at Paramount's King's Dominion in Doswell, Virginia.The Consumer...

• Recall Issued for Skil Circular Saws

  Courtney Mills | August 15, 2007 5:06 PM | 0 CommentsCharlottesville, VA

  The U.S. Consumer Protection Agency in conjunction with the Robert Bosch Tool Corp. of Mount Prospect, Illinois, has undertaken a voluntary recall of the Skil brand Circular Saw. The saw has had at least five reported incidents in which the trigger switch fails to keep the blade from stopping after use, a situation which poses a laceration hazard. The current switch causes unexpected operation...