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| Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| Special Report: Misclassified - Contract to Cheat | | 
| | Across the country, roughly 10 million construction workers spend each day in a dangerous and fickle industry. They hang drywall, lay carpet, shingle roofs. Yet in the eyes of their bosses, they aren't employees due the benefits the government requires. Employers treat many of these laborers as independent contractors. It's a tactic that costs taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Yet when it comes to public projects, government regulators have done nearly nothing about it, even when the proof is easy to get. The workers don't have protections. The companies don't withhold taxes. The regulators don't seem to care. McClatchy reporters in eight newsrooms spanning seven states spent a year unraveling the scheme, using little-noticed payroll records that show how widespread the practice has become and what it costs us all.
McClatchy News DC, Star Telegram 09/05/2014    | | Read Article: Star Telegram |
| Ore. Man Files Suit Over Past Sex Abuse by Priest | |
| | An Oregon man who alleges he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest when he was an altar boy in the late 1980s has filed a lawsuit. Filed on Thursday, the suit names as defendants the Capuchin Franciscan Friars, the Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Baker and a Hermiston church. The plaintiff alleges he was sexually abused by the priest who trained him as an altar boy between 1988 and 1989. According to the lawsuit, the priest had been transferred from Los Angeles to Hermiston after he was accused of molesting two boys in 1987. The lawsuit seeks $8.1 million in damages.
Stuart Tomlinson, The Oregonian 09/04/2014 | | Read Article: The Oregonian |
| Google to Pay $19M to Settle In-App Purchases Lawsuit | |
| | Google has agreed to pay $19 million to settle a lawsuit by consumers who allege they were charged for in-app purchases made by their children. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), who have been investigating Google's in-app purchases for the last three years, "Google made it too easy for children to use Android phones to buy items ranging from 99 cents to $200 in kids-oriented games without a parent's permission." Tech-giant Apple agreed to a $32.5 million settlement of a similar lawsuit in January and Amazon says it is also fighting charges brought by the FTC.
Cecilia King, The Washington Post 09/04/2014 | | Read Article: The Washington Post |
| Austin Man Shot By Police Files Excessive Force Suit | |
| | An Austin man has filed a lawsuit over an incident where he was shot by a local police officer back in March. The lawsuit alleges that police used excessive force when they shot the man after responding to a domestic disturbance call about the man and his girlfriend. According to the lawsuit, police believed that the BB gun that the plaintiff was holding was a semi-automatic pistol. After the plaintiff told him it was a BB gun and refused the officers' command to drop it, he was shot and taken to the hospital with injuries to his face and right shoulder. The lawsuit asserts that the plaintiff "had done nothing remotely threatening" and "made no aggressive moves towards the officer." It seeks damages for physical and mental anguish, disfigurement, impairment, medical expenses, a loss of earning capacity and attorneys' fees and costs.
Shannon Murray, KVUE-TV 09/04/2014 | | Read Article: KVUE-TV |
| Free Speech Case Springs From Fracking Dispute | |
| | Steve Lipsky’s tainted water well had already stirred national debate about the impacts of oil and gas production. Now it stars in a free speech dispute that has landed in Texas’ highest court – the biggest test of a state law meant to curb attempts to stifle public protest.
Jim Malewitz, Texas Tribune 09/05/2014 | | Read Article: Texas Tribune |
| BP May Be Fined Up to $18 Billion for Spill in Gulf | |
| | In the four years since the blowout on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig killed 11 workers and sent millions of barrels of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has maintained that it was not chiefly responsible for the accident, and that its contractors in the operation, Halliburton and Transocean, should shoulder as much, if not more, of the blame. On Thursday, a federal judge here for the first time bluntly rejected those arguments, finding that BP was indeed the primary culprit and that only it had acted with “conscious disregard of known risks.” He added that BP’s “conduct was reckless.” By finding that BP was, in legal parlance, grossly negligent in the disaster, and not merely negligent, United States District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier opened the possibility of $18 billion in new civil penalties for BP, nearly quadruple the maximum Clean Water Act penalty for simple negligence and far more than the $3.5 billion the company has set aside.
CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and CLIFFORD KRAUSS, The New York Times 09/05/2014 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
| BASF Must Face Asbestos Coverup Fraud Claims, Court Says | |
| | BASF SE , the world’s biggest chemical maker, was ordered to face claims it fraudulently hid evidence that its talc products contained asbestos as it sought to scuttle thousands of personal-injury lawsuits. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia revived a suit alleging a unit of BASF, based in Ludwigshafen, Germany, and law firm Cahill, Gordon & Reindel LLP systematically concealed damaging evidence and manufactured documents to defeat claims that its talc contained cancer-causing asbestos.
Jef Feeley and Sophia Pearson , Bloomberg 09/05/2014 | | Read Article: Bloomberg |
| When Your Surgeon Accidentally Leaves Something Inside You | |
| | Other than removing the wrong kidney or something like that, one of the more harmful things a surgeon can do is leave material inside you that doesn't belong there. Studies estimate that this happens once in every 5,500 to 7,000 surgeries; there were 51.4 million in-patient procedures performed in 2010, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. The authors of a new study estimate that a typical hospital has two of these incidents each year. According to the new study, in the September issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons, the item left behind is usually a surgical sponge, those two-inch-by-two-inch or larger squares of gauze used to sop up blood. And, the authors say, technology offers a way to reduce the number of times this happens, which medical officials already are trying to limit via an awareness campaign.
Lenny Bernstein, The Washington Post 09/05/2014 | | Read Article: The Washington Post |
| Raiders Cheerleaders Reach $1.25M Settlement with Team | |
| | A $1.25 million settlement has been reached in the lawsuit filed by cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders football team who alleged wage-theft by the team. The class action lawsuit was filed eight months ago and alleged that the team violated numerous state labor laws by failing to pay minimum wage, withholding wages for months and refusing to reimburse cheerleaders for their business expenses. Prior to the settlement, the team admitted fault and offered the cheerleaders a new contract which tripled their pay. The settlement will grant back pay for cheerleaders dating back to the 2010-2011 season.
Staff Report, LA Times 09/04/2014 | | Read Article: LA Times |
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