Sam Knight - page 34

The Supreme Court declined to make a ruling on a major challenge to Affordable Care Act (ACA) rules on birth control. Justices on Monday ordered the parties in Zubik v. Burwell to try to hash out their differences in the appeals court circuit. The short-handed SCOTUS had agreed to start proceedings in the case before the Feb. 13 death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia. The plaintiffs, non-profits backed by the Christian fundamentalist right, had argued it should be illegal to make them even apply for… Keep Reading

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) finalized a rule that will allow the public to know who the United States’ most hazardous employers are. The regulation, which would take effect in next year, would force firms that already report on-the-job injuries to electronically submit those filings. The agency would then publish information from those submissions on its website. “Currently, employers cannot compare their injury experience with other businesses in their industry; they can only compare their experience with their industry as a whole,” OSHA… Keep Reading

A federal judge in Washington stopped a proposed merger between Staples and Office Depot, agreeing with Obama administration officials who argued it would have violated antitrust law. US District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled Tuesday that the $6.3 billion deal would have illegally quashed competition in the market for office supplies. The two companies said they would not appeal the decision and are jettisoning plans to merge. The Federal Trade Commission, which late last year sued to stop the deal, hailed Sullivan’s decision. “Today’s court ruling… Keep Reading

A pair of top ranking Federal Reserve officials recently made divergent assessments on the ideal trajectory of interest rates. New York Fed President William Dudley told The New York Times that the central bank should soon raise interest rates for the second time in a year. Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, meanwhile, said that it could be better to encourage higher-than-normal inflation rather than hike interest rates. The Fed body that sets monetary policy, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), is scheduled to meet next… Keep Reading

The National Park Service (NPS) is proposing a relaxation on rules governing corporate partnerships in a move that could see parks increasingly commercialized and dependent on the whims of private donors. Some park superintendents will be asked to help raise up to $5 million in individual gifts, according to the NPS proposal. In return, the service will allow the use of park names and imagery in corporate advertising campaigns. NPS will also allow the display of corporate logos in park infrastructure through “donor recognition.” NPS… Keep Reading

Two out of every three cubic meters of natural gas produced in the United States is extracted from the earth via hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” The Energy Information Administration said Thursday that the controversial technique now yields the vast majority of gas produced in the US. In 2010, fracked natural gas accounted for roughly half of all domestic production. “For decades, hydraulic fracturing had been referred to as an unconventional completion technique, but over the past 10 years it has become the technique by which… Keep Reading

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday put forward a rule aimed at preventing “asset fire sales” like the one that preceded the global financial collapse of 2008. Firms that deal with the largest banks would be forbidden from canceling deals with them in the event of their bankruptcy, under the draft approved by the Fed’s Board of Governors. The hold on transactions would last for 48 hours. “The proposed rules we are considering today are important elements of the Board’s strategy to ensure our financial system… Keep Reading

The Justice Department found that South Dakota violates the rights of disabled residents by only offering them nursing homes as part of state-administered treatment. The department’s Civil Rights Division said Monday that the state is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) after a 20-month investigation into its healthcare system. “Thousands” are given no other choice but inpatient treatment through programs financed by Medicaid, DOJ found. Title II of the ADA and a 1999 Supreme Court decision require government institutions to “provide community-based… Keep Reading