Texas Tribune Daily Brief | |
Raw Gas Fuels Worry for Rural Homeowner | | Jon Salis learned that the natural gas flowing through his pipes in his Lake Palo Pinto home isn't the fully processed, clean-burning fuel that most Texans picture. Rather, it's what he calls a "raw gas cocktail," tapped from a pipeline that runs beneath the lake on its way to a processing plant. Salis' neighborhood was hooked up to a natural gas pipeline decades ago through what's called a "farm tap." In years past, many utilities and landowners considered it easiest and cheapest to hook up rural homes to nearby pipelines that carry mostly raw fuel from gas fields to processing plants. Known as “wet gas” because it contains higher concentrations of liquids such as ethane and butane, the unprocessed gas is prone to freezing in cold weather and, in rare cases, can corrode appliances, causing them to misfire and potentially emit carbon monoxide, according to documents filed with the Texas Railroad Commission. No one knows how many Texas customers are hooked up to wet gas. The Railroad Commission regulates natural gas utilities and the state’s 426,000-mile network of natural gas, hazardous liquid and other pipelines, but doesn’t set standards for the gas pumped through them. Jim Malewitz and Max B. Baker, Texas Tribune 01/06/2015 | Read Article: Texas Tribune |
Ohio Farmers File Suit Against Swiss Company | | A group of Ohio farmers have joined a lawsuit against a Swiss company over the sale of their yet-unapproved genetically modified corn seed. The group of farmers filed suit on December 3 in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and alleged that Syngenta's sale of the seed before it had been approved in China pushed down the sale prices. While the genetically modified seed was approved by the US in 2010, China had yet to approve importing the seed. The lawsuit accuses Syngenta of negligence and creating a public nuisance and seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Kathy Lynn Gray , Columbus Dispatch 01/06/2015 | Read Article: Columbus Dispatch |
JPMorgan Chase Bank to Settle Antitrust Lawsuit | | JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the first bank to settle in a federal antitrust lawsuit accusing 12 major banks of rigging prices in the $5 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market. The lawsuit was filed by investors who allege that the banks conspired since January 2003 in chat rooms, instant messages and emails to manipulate the WM/Reuters Closing Spot Rates. Other banks named in the lawsuit are Bank of America Corp, Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA, Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, HSBC Holdings Plc, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and UBS AG. JPMorgan settled the lawsuit for around $100 million. Jonathan Stemple, Reuters 01/05/2015 | Read Article: Reuters |
Safeway to Pay Nearly $10M in Hazardous Waste Settlement | | Safeway Inc. has agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle allegations that its grocery stores improperly disposed of hazardous waste and customers' medical information in CA. The agreement comes after an investigation found that the Pleasanton company was "routinely and systematically" sending hazardous materials such as medicine and batteries to local landfills, the Alameda County district attorney's office said Monday. Safeway was also failing to protect confidential records of its pharmacy customers. SHAN LI, LA Times 01/06/2015 | Read Article: LA Times |
Who Is a Whistle-Blower? The Courts Weigh In | | The vagaries of the whistle-blower provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act have left much room for interpretation in what protections Congress intended to provide whistle-blowers. One of the central questions of the provision has been whether a whistle-blower has to first report information about questionable practices to the SEC in order to be protected from firing, demotion or harassment. The federal courts have been split on this question. PETER J. HENNING , The New York Times 01/06/2015 | Read Article: The New York Times |
Scrutiny for Laxatives as a Childhood Remedy | | The FDA has raised new questions about the safety of an adult laxative routinely given to constipated children, sometimes daily for years. The agency has asked a team of scientists in Philadelphia to look more closely at the active ingredient in Miralax and similar generic products, called polyethylene glycol 3350, or PEG 3350. While outlining the scope of the research, the agency also disclosed that its scientists had discovered trace amounts of two potential toxins in batches of Miralax tested six years ago. Doctors have long recommended these laxatives for their convenience and on the grounds that very little PEG 3350 is absorbed in the intestines. But the F.D.A. says there is little data on its absorption in children, especially the very young and chronically constipated. The agency never approved long-term daily use of the laxatives, even in adults. CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS, The New York Times 01/06/2015 | Read Article: The New York Times |
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