That's the title of this article by Tom Hamburger. Hamburger says his article describes the newest chapter in Senator Warren's "crusade against the power of wealthy interests."
Tomorrow, former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship will stand trial in federal court in West Virginia for allegedly lethal violations of federal mine safety rules. From a Slate preview of the case: Known for his in-your-face policies and politics, Blankenship is accused of creating a ruthless work culture that skimped on safety and employee well-being […]
As fivethirtyeight.com documented earlier this week, in spite of Obamacare’s extensions of health care coverage to millions of previously uninsured Americans, 33 million still don’t have coverage. Who are those people and why aren’t they covered? Some are noncitizen immigrants; others fall into the “Medicaid gap” (referring to the range of “incomes that were too […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Board released today a report outlining widespread servicing failures reported by both federal and private student loan borrowers. According to the CFPB press release: Consumers describe companies using a wide range of sloppy, patchwork practices that can create obstacles to repayment, raise costs, cause distress, and contribute to driving struggling borrowers […]
The New York Times has an estimate: Unlike the ignition defect in General Motors vehicles that caused at least 124 people to die in car crashes, Volkswagen pollution is harder to link to individual deaths. But it is clear to public health researchers that the air pollutants the cars illegally emitted damage health, and they […]
The FTC announced yesterday that it sued weight-loss company Roca Labs in federal court in Florida for making unsubstantiated claims about its products then trying to silence critics using a non-disparagement clause followed up by threats (a subject we've covered numerous times on this blog, see, e.g., here and here). The FTC's press statement explains: In a […]
You might assume, based on our prior discussions of lawsuits over modern day debtors' prison practices in Georgia and Missouri (see here and here) that the practice of jailing people who can't pay court fines and fees is confined to the South. An ACLU report last week discussing practices in New Hampshire shows otherwise. Among […]
Here, in the Daily Kos. An excerpt: If Spotify does something illegal, no one can ever know that a consumer is challenging it. And then, if an arbitrator did find that Spotify acted illegally (which is asking a lot, since Spotify will pick the private arbitration company that will, in turn, select the arbitrator to hear the […]
Here. Excerpt: We believe that consumers should not be forced into arbitration. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should use its authority to stop forced arbitration in financial services; it recently announced it's holding a hearing on October 7 in Denver to discuss the topic, and may make an announcement then. Congress should enact legislation to make arbitration voluntary in […]
A timely counterweight to the troubling political movement to roll back regulations that protect public safety, the American Museum of Tort Law opened in Winsted, Connecticut this past weekend. As the NYT describes, The museum aims to describe the evolution of the law regarding negligence and liability, and it features some of the most groundbreaking […]