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> From: VeryPDF-Email-Service <noreply@verymailer.com>
> Subject: [VeryPDF RSS to Email] RSSMix.com Mix ID 8161944 - 20160102192028
> To: moganomics@yahoo.com
> Date: Sunday, 3 January, 2016, 3:20 AM
> Generated by VeryPDF RSS to Email
> SubscriptionTrial in NYC set to air GM ignition switch
> recall issues
> 2 January 2016, 5:50 pm
>          NEW YORK   
>     (AP) -- A civil trial set to start this month
> in New York City will test the legal boundaries of hundreds
> of claims remaining against General Motors Co. stemming from
> faulty ignition switches. The case involves an Oklahoma man
> who blames a defective ignition switch for preventing his
> air bags from deploying during a crash. It's the first trial
> to result from hundreds of lawsuits filed against GM after
> the auto giant revealed in 2014 that faulty ignition
> switches in Chevy Cobalts and other small cars necessitated
> an unprecedented recall. The switches can slip out of the
> "on" position, causing the cars to stall, knocking out power
> steering and turning off air bags. GM knew about the faulty
> switches for more than a decade but did not recall them
> until February 2014. The company paid nearly $600 million to
> settle 399 claims made to a fund it established. Those
> claims covered 124 deaths and 275 injuries, though GM's fund
> rejected more than 90 percent of the 4,343 claims it
> received, according to figures the company released in
> December. In recent weeks, U.S. District Judge Jesse M.
> Furman, the presiding judge, has made rulings that may
> prevent the automaker from taking the easy road toward
> settling or forcing dismissal of scores of lawsuits. The
> judge has refused the company's request to exclude evidence
> and arguments related to punitive damages, saying GM's delay
> in recalling admittedly defective vehicles was "arguably
> dangerous conduct as it involved a hidden defect that caused
> a risk of serious injury or death." The judge also ruled
> that the "New GM," as it is repeatedly referred to in court
> papers, cannot dismiss the claims of Robert S. Scheuer - the
> plaintiff in the trial set to start Jan. 11 - merely because
> he failed to keep his 2003 Saturn Ion after his front air
> bags failed to deploy when he was forced off an Oklahoma
> highway by another car and smashed head-on into two trees in
> Bristow. Scheuer, of Tulsa, was injured in the May 28, 2014,
> crash and retained lawyer Bob Hilliard, co-lead counsel for
> hundreds of federal cases consolidated in New York City.
> "For years and years, GM - including to some of my clients -
> would say: 'Look, this accident is your fault. Take $75,000
> even though your family is dead,'" he said in a telephone
> interview from his Texas office. Hilliard said the litigants
> watching the case closely include "many traumatized folks
> who got pushed around by GM while the cover-up was active."
> General Motors has told U.S. regulators in a recent
> quarterly report that it still faces 217 wrongful death and
> injury lawsuits in the U.S. and Canada, along with 122
> lawsuits alleging that the recalls reduced values of owners'
> cars. GM spokesman Jim Cain said the Scheuer trial, likely
> to last about a month, is the first of six bellwether trials
> that will occur over the next year. He said the outcome of
> the Scheuer trial would "help form the basis for settlement
> of similar claims." "It's our belief that the air bags
> weren't designed to deploy in the accident that he had,"
> Cain said. In September, GM announced it had reached a $575
> million deal with Hilliard to settle 1,385 death and injury
> cases and to resolve a 2014 class-action lawsuit filed by
> shareholders claiming GM's actions reduced the value of
> their stock. The announcement came as the U.S. attorney's
> office in Manhattan revealed GM had settled a criminal
> investigation, agreeing to pay $900 million to the
> government to avoid prosecution on wire fraud charges. The
> company has initiated companywide safety reforms and in 2014
> issued a record 84 recalls covering more than 30 million
> vehicles, including 27 million in the U.S.
>
> States plan renewed debate on LGBT rights, religious
> freedom
> 2 January 2016, 5:04 pm
>          JEFFERSON CITY,
> Mo.        (AP) -- With same-sex
> marriage now legal nationwide, lawmakers in numerous states
> are preparing for a new round of battles in 2016 over
> whether to grant discrimination protections to LGBT people
> or religious exemptions to nonprofits and businesses that
> object to gay marriage. The tussle over civil rights and
> religious freedoms is one of several hot-button issues that
> could drive states in opposite policy directions, as
> lawmakers seek to appeal to voters during a year in which
> more than 5,800 state legislative seats will be up for
> election. Republicans hold majorities in two-thirds of the
> states' legislative chambers, meaning they get to set the
> agenda. Those priorities could include attempts to exempt
> businesses from providing wedding-related services to gay
> couples, expand gun rights and further restrictions on
> abortions. Democrats, meanwhile, will likely be pushing in
> the opposite direction. "What we've got is division," said
> William Pound, executive director of the National Conference
> of State Legislatures. He predicts there will be a
> "significant number of bills" seeking to advance either
> religious rights or the civil rights of gay, lesbian,
> bisexual and transgender people. "You've got the Democratic
> states reacting very differently, a lot of the time, than
> the Republican states to these issues," Pound said. Those
> potentially divisive debates will be playing out as
> legislators also struggle with some traditionally difficult
> financial issues, such as budget shortfalls and calls to
> boost funding for public schools and infrastructure.
> Education issues are expected to be at the forefront in more
> than a third of the states, according to an analysis by
> Associated Press statehouse reporters around the country. At
> least 10 states might consider new revenue for
> transportation in 2016, building on a trend in which at
> least half the states already have acted in the past several
> years. States that rely heavily on the energy industry for
> tax income, such as Alaska, Oklahoma, West Virginia and
> Wyoming, are taking big budget hits due to falling oil,
> natural gas and coal revenue. But tax cuts could be on the
> agenda in more than a half-dozen other states, including
> Arizona, Florida and Maine. States' general revenues are
> expected to grow by about 2.5 percent in 2016, according to
> the National Association of State Budget Officers. As they
> prepare their next budgets, "states are still going to be
> very pinched" to meet rising costs for K-12 schools,
> Medicaid and core services, said David Adkins, executive
> director and chief executive of The Council of State
> Governments. Added to the mix will be several emerging
> issues, such as how to quell a rise in opiate addictions and
> overdoses, and whether to extend regulations to online
> fantasy sports and to individuals renting rides or lodging
> through the "sharing economy." Some states also will be
> wrestling with unique local issues, including flood recovery
> in South Carolina, whether to keep the Confederate emblem on
> the Mississippi flag, as well as ethics overhauls following
> political scandals in New York, Missouri and New Mexico.
> Influential national groups such as the American Civil
> Liberties Union and the Family Research Council are
> preparing for a new round of legislative debates after the
> U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that states must allow
> same-sex marriage. Their focus now is on the effect of that
> ruling. There are 22 states with laws barring discrimination
> based on sexual orientation and 21 with laws limiting the
> government's ability to burden the free exercise of
> religion. But just four states - Connecticut, Rhode Island,
> Illinois and New Mexico - have both. The ACLU will be
> seeking to expand the list of places barring discrimination
> based on sexual orientation and gender identity. It's
> targeting at least a half dozen states - Arizona, Florida,
> Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania - that have
> Republican-led legislatures and also may be pivotal in
> presidential elections. The Supreme Court's decision
> "certainly provides momentum on the issue," said
> Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Frankel, a Democrat from the
> Pittsburgh area who has been unsuccessfully sponsoring gay
> rights bills for more than a decade. He said challenges
> remain and pointed to a November referendum in which Houston
> voters rejected a city ordinance extending nondiscrimination
> protections to gay and transgender people. The Family
> Research Council, which opposed the Houston ordinance, is
> supporting state measures that would grant broad protections
> "from government discrimination" against people "who have a
> sincere belief - religious or not - in natural marriage,"
> said Quena Gonzalez, the group's director of state and local
> affairs. Missouri House Majority Leader Mike Cierpiot said
> many of his Republican colleagues were alarmed by the
> Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. "I think there's a lot
> of states that are looking at this and seeing what can be
> done to make sure that religious freedoms are respected,"
> said Cierpiot, a Republican from suburban Kansas City. An
> intense debate over gay rights already is shaping up in
> Indiana, where a religious-rights law passed last spring
> thrust the state into the national spotlight over concerns
> it could sanction discrimination against gays and lesbians.
> A coalition of 150 businesses is backing legislation to ban
> discrimination in housing, employment and public
> accommodations based on a person's sexual orientation or
> gender identity. An LGBT rights proposal outlined by Indiana
> Senate Republicans would grant broad exceptions intended to
> protect small business owners and religious schools,
> nonprofits and adoption agencies. For example, a
> wedding-related business with fewer than four employees
> could refuse to do work for a same-sex marriage. Other
> issues that made headlines in 2015 also are expected to lead
> legislative agendas in the new year: - Lawmakers in several
> states are seeking to expand gun rights, citing a need for
> self-defense following a spate of mass shootings in San
> Bernardino, California, a community college in Oregon, a
> historically black church in South Carolina and a Planned
> Parenthood clinic in Colorado. States such as Florida, South
> Dakota and West Virginia are among those considering bills
> allowing concealed guns on college campuses or dropping
> requirements for a government permit to carry concealed
> weapons. Stricter gun controls are being discussed in
> California, Illinois and New York, including measures that
> would prohibit firearm sales to people on government no-fly
> lists or terrorist watch lists. - A battle over funding for
> Planned Parenthood - and a renewed push for additional
> abortion restrictions - is expected in response to
> undercover videos released last summer showing Planned
> Parenthood officials discussing aborted fetal body parts.
> Ohio Right to Life has an aggressive agenda, including a
> 20-week abortion ban, a prohibition on ending pregnancies
> involving a Down Syndrome diagnosis and the defunding of
> Planned Parenthood. Republican-led legislatures in Arizona,
> Idaho, Missouri, South Dakota and Utah also are among the
> places pushing greater restrictions on abortion and Planned
> Parenthood. In Colorado, where a gunman killed three people
> at a Planned Parenthood clinic in November, the
> Democratic-led House could consider increasing the state's
> protest buffer around abortion clinics. But Republican
> senators may try to defund Planned Parenthood, citing the
> fetal body part videos. - Some states, responding to police
> shootings of citizens that prompted widespread protests,
> plan to try again in 2016 to set policies for the use of
> police body cameras and new procedures for investigating
> police shootings. Several states are considering
> comprehensive sentencing changes, such as prison
> alternatives for non-violent offenders. More states also are
> expected to debate bills relaxing laws against marijuana,
> either by revoking criminal penalties or allowing for its
> medicinal use. --- Associated Press reporters in all 50
> states contributed to this report. --- Follow David A. Lieb
> at: https://twitter.com/DavidALieb .
>
>
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