| Sign the petition NOW - Tell TDI No! | ALERT: Please take a minute to sign this petition from our friends at Texas Watch urging TDI to reject the insurance industry's attempt to buy the rights of Texas homeowners. The rights of homeowners are under attack. At least one Texas insurance company is actively negotiating with the state insurance commissioner over new language that would subject homeowners to pre-dispute binding arbitration when the company low, slow, or no pays valid insurance claims. A decision on this key issue is imminent. Click on the headline to sign the petition. ________________________________________
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| One Question Re: Your Social Media | Please take a brief moment to let us know which Social Media platforms you currently use. Click on the headline to participate in a one question survey. The TTLA Communications Department appreciates your input!
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Texas Tribune Daily Brief
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| Doctors Fire Back at Bad Yelp Reviews — And Reveal Patients' Information Online |  | Burned by negative reviews, some health providers are casting their patients' privacy aside and sharing intimate details online as they try to rebut criticism. In the course of these arguments -- which have spilled out publicly on ratings sites like Yelp — doctors, dentists, chiropractors and massage therapists, among others, have divulged details of patients' diagnoses, treatments and idiosyncrasies.
Charles Ornstein, Pro Publica, The Washington Post 05/27/2016    | | Read Article: The Washington Post |
| Wisconsin Ship Yard Faces Lawsuit Over Employee's Lead Exposure | | A lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Madison, Wisconsin, on Wednesday over the toxic exposure of a man to lead at Fraser Shipyards. The lawsuit was filed against the Superior-based Fraser Shipyards and alleges that the plaintiff was exposed to lead while performing work on the lake freighter Herbert C. Jackson at Fraser earlier this year. The complaint is seeking damages in excess of $75,000 for the 48-year-old man's exposure to the toxic material.
Brady Slater, TwinCities.com 05/25/2016 | | Read Article: TwinCities.com |
| Court Rules Companies Cannot Impose Illegal Arbitration Clauses | | A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that companies cannot force their employees to sign away their right to band together in legal actions, delivering a major victory for American workers and opening an opportunity for the Supreme Court to weigh in. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago struck down an arbitration clause that banned employees from joining together as a class and required workers to battle the employer one by one outside of court.
JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and NOAM SCHEIBER, The New York Times 05/27/2016 | | Read Article: The New York Times |
| Monsanto Hit With $46.5M Jury Verdict In Mo. PCB Suit | | A Missouri state jury on Wednesday awarded $46.5 million to three people who claimed Monsanto Co. negligently handled toxic polychlorinated biphenyls that gave them cancer. The three alleged they absorbed PCBs through the course of their daily lives, by eating food, drinking liquids or breathing air that contained traces of the chemical. The St. Louis jury awarded the plaintiffs, one of whom has died, $17.5 million in damages and $29 million in punitive damages.
Juan Carlos Rodriguez, Law360.com 05/27/2016 | | Read Article: Law360.com |
| J&J Seeks To Pause Hip Implant Trials After $498M Verdict | | Johnson & Johnson has asked a Texas federal judge to put upcoming bellwether trials on ice in the multidistrict litigation over allegedly defective Pinnacle hip prosthetics manufactured by its DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. unit, as it intends to appeal a $497.6 million verdict.
Emily Field, Law360.com 05/27/2016 | | Read Article: Law360.com |
| Consumer Groups Oppose Insurance Company's Push for Arbitration | | Government and private sector consumer advocates are calling on TDI to reject a proposal by Texas Farm Bureau's insurance division to allow the company to require customers to go to arbitration over policy disputes. Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch, said it would be unprecedented for the Texas Department of Insurance to approve a clause, like the one being proposed, that calls for arbitration before a dispute even arises.
Tim Eaton, Austin American Statesman 05/27/2016 | | Read Article: Austin American Statesman |
| Air Bag Recall Gets Even More Massive: | | Eight automakers are recalling more than 12 million vehicles in the U.S. to replace potentially dangerous Takata air bag inflators. Documents detailing recalls by Honda, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Ferrari and Mitsubishi were posted Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Matt Peterson, The Dallas Morning News 05/27/2016 | | Read Article: The Dallas Morning News |
| Cellphone-Cancer Link Found in Government Study | | A major U.S. government study on rats has found a link between cellphones and cancer, an explosive finding in the long-running debate about whether mobile phones cause health effects. The multiyear, peer-reviewed study, by the National Toxicology Program, found "low incidences" of two types of tumors in male rats that were exposed to the type of radio frequencies that are commonly emitted by cellphones. The tumors were gliomas, which are in the glial cells of the brain, and schwannomas of the heart.
RYAN KNUTSON, WSJ Blogs 05/27/2016 | | Read Article: WSJ Blogs |
| Maker of $1.5 Million Surgical Robot Hid More Than 700 Injury Claims, Insurer Says | | Two insurance companies say da Vinci's maker, Intuitive Surgical Inc., failed to reveal more than 700 injury claims when it applied for liability coverage. Intuitive says that's nonsense. If a federal judge concludes the insurers are right and rescinds policies providing $25 million in coverage, one of the fastest-growing medical device manufacturers would be left with only self-insurance for a one-year period. Intuitive, meanwhile, accuses Illinois Union Insurance Co. and Navigators Specialty Insurance Co. of acting deceitfully and breaking their contracts.
Kartikay Mehrotra, Bloomberg 05/27/2016 | | Read Article: Bloomberg |
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