Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Airbnb Sues New York City to Block User-Data Bill Over Privacy
Aug 27 2018 // Home-rental providers Airbnb Inc. and HomeAway are suing New York City over a recently passed law that allows the collection of data on the websites’ hosts, claiming the ordinance violates users’ constitutional...
Senate Republicans Prepare Pre-Existing Condition Bill in Case Obamacare Nixed
Aug 27 2018 // Ten Senate Republicans have introduced legislation that would reinstate Obamacare rules that prohibit insurers from turning away people with pre-existing conditions if a new lawsuit that seeks to invalidate the healthcare...
South Carolina Supreme Court Appoints Judge to Manage Opioid Lawsuits
Aug 27 2018 // South Carolina’s high court has appointed a single judge to handle any lawsuits related to opioids in the state system. On Thursday, the state Supreme Court assigned Circuit Court Judge Perry Gravely to the task....
J&J Vows to Appeal After Missouri Judge Affirms $4.69B Talc Verdict
Aug 23 2018 // A Missouri trial court judge has affirmed the massive $4.69 billion verdict against Johnson & Johnson in a case involving 22 women and their families who alleged the company’s talc-based products, including its...
Federal Judge Keeps Duke Energy Water Pollution Lawsuit Alive
Aug 22 2018 // A federal judge is keeping alive a lawsuit accusing the country’s second-largest electricity company of violating water pollution laws by allowing potentially toxic coal ash sludge into neighboring waterways. U.S....
Republicans Move to Clarify Tax Provision on Sexual Harassment Claims
Aug 21 2018 // U.S. Senate Republicans on Thursday sought to correct a section of President Donald Trump’s tax overhaul that threatened to prevent sexual harassment victims from claiming a tax deduction for the legal costs they...
VW’s CEO Knew About Cheating Software Before Scandal Emerged: Der Spiegel
Aug 21 2018 // Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess was told about the existence of cheating software in cars two months before regulators blew the whistle on a multi-billion exhaust emissions scandal, German magazine Der Spiegel...
California’s Plan for PG&E Bonds to Cover Fire Damages in Final Stages
Aug 20 2018 // California is finalizing the details of a plan that could let PG&E Corp. issue bonds to cover potential damages from wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes last year. The details are still being worked out, and a...
Washington Lawmaker Sues University, Investigator over Firing
Aug 20 2018 // Republican Rep. Matt Manweller is suing Central Washington University and the investigator it hired to look into allegations of inappropriate conduct. Manweller, a political professor at the college since 2003, was fired...
Changes in California Fire-Liability Law Looking Less Likely
Aug 20 2018 // California utilities won’t get a break from lawmakers who were weighing changes to state liability laws that expose the companies to billions in potential damages from last year’s wildfires. Lawmakers...
No-Deal Brexit: A Lose-Lose for UK and EU Financial Stability
Aug 20 2018 // With Brexit talks back from the summer holidays, it’s worth considering one way in which failure to reach a deal before the U.K.’s departure in March would also be bad for the European Union. Such an outcome...
Court Says Trump Administration Must Implement Chemical Safety Rule
Aug 20 2018 // A federal appeals court on Friday ordered the Trump administration to immediately implement an Obama-era chemical safety rule introduced in response to a 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas that killed 15...
New Louisiana Law Allows Insurance Agencies to Employ Convicted Felons
Aug 20 2018 // A law that went into effect on Aug. 1 in Louisiana allows insurance producers to employ convicted felons if the producer obtains permission or consent in writing from the state insurance commissioner. The Louisiana...
Third Compliance Date Approaching for New York Cybersecurity Regulation
Aug 20 2018 // The third transitional period for New York’s first-in-the-nation cybersecurity regulation for all Department of Financial Services (DFS) regulated entities ends on Sept. 4, 2018. Beginning on Sept. 4, banks,...
Jury Orders Pork Producer to Pay $473.5M in North Carolina Nuisance Lawsuit
Aug 20 2018 // A federal jury decided Aug. 5 that the world’s largest pork producer should pay $473.5 million to neighbors of three North Carolina industrial-scale hog farms for unreasonable nuisances they suffered from odors,...
How Florida’s Flood Insurance Model Could Work Nationwide
Aug 20 2018 // While Congress works on various reforms to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), the time is ripe for the private insurance market to step up and play a greater role in providing Americans needed flood...
IRS Proposals Clear Way for Trump Tax Cut for Insurance Brokers
Aug 20 2018 // The Treasury Department has moved to clear up some confusion in the Trump tax cut law by proposing that the full 20 percent deduction for pass-through businesses be made available to a broad spectrum of small businesses,...
Tighter Regulations in NYC Could Take Bite Out of Airbnb Profits
Aug 17 2018 // Airbnb faces tightening regulations in New York City that could take a big bite out of its profits, and on Wednesday the short-term rental company offered a counter-measure designed to appease hostile politicians: a $10...
Judge Dismisses Certain Claims in West Virginia Industrial Fire Suit
Aug 14 2018 // A federal judge has dismissed part of a lawsuit in connection with an industrial fire in West Virginia. The Parkersburg News and Sentinel reports U.S. District Judge Thomas E. Johnson dismissed most of the claims made in a...
Facing $17B in Fire Damages, PG&E CEO Blames Climate Change
Aug 13 2018 // It was California’s biggest fire yet. In late July and August, wildfires devastated an area north of San Francisco far bigger than New York City, destroying more than 100 homes and injuring two fire fighters....
