Photo by AP Wideworld The popularity of narcotic painkillers has a downside and cost that some states may not fully recognize. Related Links: Tightening Up the Rules for Hydrocodone, the Favorite PainKiller The Myth of Workers' Compensation Fraud Someone forgot to send Missouri the memo about the latest research on rising costs in workers' compensation.Concerned about fraudulent claims by workers, state Senator Mike Cunningham (R) late last year sponsored a bill that would have given employers access to a free online database of compensation claims. Employers would be able to screen workers for a history of fraud, without first securing
Related Links: Transcript of oral arguments in Unite Here Local 355 v. Mulhall Link to briefs in case During oral arguments on Nov. 14 in one of the most important labor cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term, the justices seemed skeptical about the claim that employers' “neutrality” agreements with unions violate federal labor law.The case, Unite Here Local 355 v. Mulhall, centers on whether an employer's agreement to remain neutral during a union organizing campaign is legal under the Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA). Neutrality agreements are widely used in the service and hospitality industries and sometimes in
Related Links: ICCB settlement agreement with Justice Dept. US DOJ press release on settlement (11/7/2013) Ex-Corps Engineer Sentenced for Iraq Contract Bribe Plan (enr.com 3/13/13) In the latest development in a lengthy federal contracting probe, an Iraqi construction company has paid the U.S. government $2.7 million to resolve allegations that it bribed a former Army Corps of Engineers official to win U.S. contracts in Iraq, the Dept. of Justice has said.DOJ announced on Nov. 7 that Iraqi Consultants and Construction Bureau (ICCB), headquartered in Baghdad, had reached the settlement of alleged violations of the False Claims Act.The department also noted
Photo Courtesy of Butte County, Calif. Unregulated marijuana cultivation, such as in California's Upper Central Valley, poses a threat to watersheds because of deforestation, watercourse diversion and uncontrolled runoff of pollutants. California officials are considering policies to protect the state's water resources from the growing problems associated with legal marijuana cultivation. The proliferation of farms, both legal and illegal, has exploded in the state due to the loosening of legal prohibitions on the sale of marijuana.After initially declining to place its agency inspectors at risk, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board approved allowing its field personnel to accompany
Related Links: GC Vows Thorough Probe in Miami Garage Fatalities OSHA Cites Five Firms for Miami Garage Collapse Miami Dade College, the owner of a $22.5-million parking-garage project that partially collapsed in October 2012, filed on Oct. 8 a lawsuit against the general contractor, its insurer and six subcontractors. Alleging breach of contract, the suit claims that Ajax Building Corp., Liberty Mutual Insurance and the other firms failed to "undertake to correct or complete the project or to compensate MDC."While under construction, a quarter of the five-story, 520,000-sq-ft structure suffered a progressive collapse on Oct. 10, 2012, killing four workers.
The joint-venture contracting team building the $1-billion-plus data center in Utah for the National Security Agency has been hit with a wrongful death lawsuit arising from a fatal accident near the jobsite in June 2012.Cathi Turner, 48, of West Riverton, Utah, was riding her bike with a friend on a Saturday morning along Redwood Road, which passes near the front entrance to the site, when she collided “with a large orange highway sign sitting in the bike lane and crashed her bike. She died later from injuries sustained in the crash,” says attorney Robert Gilchrist with the Salt Lake City
Land acquisition, a major impediment to large infrastructure projects in India, has in the past delayed private companies' development plans while they sort out litigation over land ownership and compensation.Land costs that a decade ago comprised 10% of investment have increased to around 22%. National bank data released in March revealed infrastructure projects worth $145 billion were being held up.To address issues related to land, Parliament has cleared the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Law, which now replaces the archaic 1894 law. Expected to come into effect by mid-2014, it has evoked a
Related Links: American Subcontractors Association's Supreme Court Brief PDF Atlantic Marine Construction's Reply Brief PDF There are no direct flights and 1,505 miles between Killeen, Texas, and Virginia Beach, Va., the base cities of J-Crew Management Inc. and Atlantic Marine Construction Inc., respectively. J-Crew says Atlantic Marine owes it $160,000 for work it performed as a subcontractor on a $7.4-million child development center in 2011 at Fort Hood, near Killeen. Instead of suing in Virginia, which its contract requires, J-Crew sued in federal court near the U.S. Army base. A federal appeals-court judge in Austin upheld J-Crew's right to sue
Related Links: Press release from office of U.S. Attorney for D.C. A former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official has pled guilty to a federal charge that over more than a decade, he carried out a scheme to cheat the government of almost $900,000 in salary and benefits that he was not entitled to, the Dept. of Justice said.John C. Beale, 64, who worked for EPA from 1989 until last April 30 in the agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, entered a guilty plea to a charge of theft of federal property on Sept. 27 in U.S. District Court for the
Photo Courtesy of N.J. Governor's Office The section of the boardwalk that was destroyed in the blaze had only recently been rebuilt after Sandy destroyed it 11 months ago. Related Links: Moving Beyond the Storm Ocean County, N.J., investigators say that faulty electrical wiring caused the wind-swept fire that destroyed more than 50 businesses along the Jersey Shore's iconic boardwalk on Sept. 12. Corrosive saltwater and sand from Superstorm Sandy, which destroyed the same boardwalk 11 months ago, "defected" the wiring, which was in a "totally inaccessible" area of the boardwalk, investigators note.Joseph D. Coronato, Ocean County prosecutor, announced the
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