Latest Legislation Headlines
All the headlines from our Legislation Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Judge Says Inspectors Must Have Full Access to North Dakota Mine
Aug 8 2014 // A North Dakota company must allow federal inspectors unfettered access to a sand and gravel mine that is the subject of workplace safety complaints, a federal judge ordered Aug. 6. The U.S. Department of Labor filed a...
Maryland Panel Says Uber Subject to State Regulations
Aug 8 2014 // Maryland’s state body that oversees utilities and transportation in the state ruled Wednesday that a popular Web-based ridesharing service is subject to state regulation. The Public Service Commission ruled that Uber...
U.S. Fire Prevention Budget Tapped to Fight Summer’s Wildfires
Aug 8 2014 // The U.S. Forest Service will soon have to scale back some projects designed to help prevent wildfires so that it can meet the expenses of fighting this summer’s round of fires. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said...
Uber, Lyft Given OK to Operate in Virginia
Aug 7 2014 // Virginia is allowing ridesharing companies Uber and Lyft to operate under a temporary agreement between the companies and the state, officials said Wednesday. The move follows letters from state officials in June telling...
Louisiana Flood Authority Challenges Law Blocking ‘Big Oil’ Lawsuit
Aug 7 2014 // A south Louisiana flood authority is fighting a new state law aimed at retroactively killing a lawsuit filed last year over coastal damage attributed to oil and gas drilling. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection...
Texas Bill Would Delay New Rules on Storing Hazardous Chemicals
Aug 7 2014 // The massive fertilizer plant explosion that killed 15 people last year is unlikely to meaningfully change regulatory or safety rules in Texas until at least 2016 under the latest bill offered Aug.5 by lawmakers tasked with...
Mississippi City Eyes Ice Cream Truck Regulations
Aug 6 2014 // Aldermen in Ocean Springs, Mississippi are considering writing laws to regulate ice cream trucks. Officials told The Sun Herald that a mother recently watched her child, along with the others, leave a birthday party in a...
Obama Administration Weighing Options to Curb Corporate Inversions
Aug 6 2014 // The U.S. Treasury Department is examining unilateral actions to curb corporate inversions, reversing its position that only Congress has the authority to stop or slow the deals. About three weeks after Secretary Jacob J....
NRA Seeks Guns-in-Cars Law in Alabama
Aug 5 2014 // A lobbyist for the National Rifle Association said the gun lobby expects to support legislation in Alabama next year allowing people to carry a loaded handgun in their car without a permit. NRA lobbyist Michael Sullivan...
Drunken Driving Crackdown Among New Maine Laws
Aug 4 2014 // A new Maine law that aims to crack down on people with multiple drunken driving violations is among several that kicked in last Friday, roughly three months after the Democratic-led Legislature wrapped up its short,...
Mass. OKs Bill Tying Flood Insurance to Mortgage Balance
Aug 4 2014 // Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on July 23 signed into law legislation that prohibits creditors from requiring residential property owners to buy flood insurance in an amount that exceeds the balance of their mortgage or...
Rebates, Referrals and Rewards in Texas – What’s OK and What’s Not?
Aug 4 2014 // What are the rules governing insurance agents in Texas on rebates, referrals and rewards, and why do they matter? For starters, at a minimum, agents could lose their license for violating rules regarding such activities....
Portable Persistency and the Prop 103 Roadblock
Aug 1 2014 // The emerging need to develop new insurance products to cover California’s Transportation Network Company operators has spurred a reexamination of the nature of Proposition 103’s quasi-constitutional status. In...
New Suit Filed in Louisiana Claims Chinese Drywall Destroyed Homes
Aug 1 2014 // Lawyers for people who say their homes were wrecked by defective drywall made in China have filed a new lawsuit against the manufacturers and a new defendant — the Chinese Cabinet agency that oversees the country’s...
AIG, GE Capital Systemic Risk Designations Renewed
Aug 1 2014 // The top U.S. regulatory panel tasked with policing the safety of the financial system said on Thursday it is launching a review of potential risks in the asset management industry. But the Financial Stability Oversight...
House Votes to Proceed with Lawsuit Against Obama
Jul 31 2014 // The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives voted to sue President Barack Obama’s administration over implementation of his 2010 health-care law. With a near-party-line vote of 225-201, lawmakers endorsed...
UnitedHealth’s $173M Fine May Be Warning to P/C Insurers
Jul 30 2014 // A decision by California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones to fine UnitedHealth Group $173.6 million for violations having to do with the Unfair Business Practices Act, the Unfair Insurance Practice Act and unfair claims...
New York Lawmakers Push for Airline Safety Devices
Jul 29 2014 // Two U.S. legislators urged the government to study whether American passenger jets should be equipped with devices protecting them against missiles like the one that brought down a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine and...
West Virginia Drawing Up List of Dangerous Animals
Jul 29 2014 // A board tasked with compiling a list of animals that are illegal to keep as pets in West Virginia will consider one that’s shorter than a list suggested earlier. Media outlets report the state Wild and Dangerous...
Judge OKs Ohio Workers’ Comp Settlement
Jul 28 2014 // The Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation will pay out $420 million to state employers that were overcharged for insurance premiums under a settlement approved by a judge. Cuyahoga County Judge Richard McMonagle said the...
