LABOR, ECONOMY & THE CLIMATE - page 41

In a move that could have set an important legal precedent, a federal judge cited Congressional intent to protect a California medical marijuana dispensary from being shut down by the feds. US District Judge Charles Breyer on Monday barred the Department of Justice from proceeding with legal actions to shutter the state’s first licensed pot dispensary, pointing to a budget amendment passed by Congress at the end of 2014. The policy rider prohibited the DOJ from using funds to crackdown on medical marijuana sellers complying with state… Keep Reading

Investors aren’t expecting Congress to raise the debt ceiling in a timely fashion. Yields of US Treasury bills that mature next month rose on Monday to a two-year high, The Wall Street Journal reported. Treasury bills maturing on Nov. 12 saw yields rise to as high as 0.178 percent, up from a Friday closing level of 0.036 percent. Bond yields and prices are inversely correlated. “It marks the highest intraday level since Oct. 16, 2013, when the yield spiked to 0.505 percent on fear of a… Keep Reading

President Obama met Monday with five corporate executives and received commitments about emissions reductions from 68 companies ahead of a UN conference in Paris. The White House is hoping to use the pledges to rebut Republican accusations that efforts to combat climate change are part of an anti-business agenda, The Hill noted. The President was scheduled to meet with leaders from Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co., Hershey Co., Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Johnson & Johnson and Intel Corp. All five companies have already made commitments similar to the ones… Keep Reading

If Democratic presidential candidates want to earn the support of people calling on the government to do more to help Americans awash in student debt, they might want to run from the Obama administration’s record. On Tuesday, the same day of the first Democratic presidential primary, the Department of Education told a federal judge in Boston that a 65-year-old former blue collar worker should not be discharged of his student loan obligations. The department said that the unemployed man shouldn’t be entitled to relief because… Keep Reading

A federal agency charged with protecting whistleblowers in the workplace has been remarkably dismissive of retaliation complaints, according to an analysis of government data. NBC Bay Area News reported Monday that over the last decade the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) found merit in fewer than two percent of retribution charges. The agency dismissed 59 percent of cases, and facilitated a settlement in another 22 percent of complaints, the records showed. The allegations surrounded illegal workplace practices and safety procedures. The NBC affiliate also found… Keep Reading

Swiss bank UBS has agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $19.5 million to settle charges it lied to investors about an index linked to its products. The regulator called the case “the agency’s first involving misstatements and missions by an issuer of structured notes,” remarking that roughly $45 billion worth of the financial instrument are registered annually with its offices. Structured notes are typically made up of debt securities and derivatives linked to the value of other financial products and indicators, the commission… Keep Reading

For the second time in a week, a progressive leader on Capitol Hill threw his support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) announced in a statement released on Monday that he would be endorsing the democratic socialist candidate. Ellison’s backing means that Sanders has now earned the endorsement from both co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still leads Sanders by a wide margin, in terms of political endorsements. According to FiveThirtyEight, Clinton has garnered… Keep Reading