Public PolicyRSS

  • August 5, 2009

    Feds To Examine Competition In Agriculture Industry

    The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday that they will begin holding public workshops early in 2010 to explore competition issues in the agricultural industry.

  • August 5, 2009

    Treasury Vows Hands-Off Reform For Credit Ratings

    A top official from the U.S. Department of the Treasury told a Senate committee Wednesday that the Treasury had no intention of evaluating, regulating or interfering with credit rating agencies' methodologies for rating securities as part of its proposed financial reform efforts.

  • August 5, 2009

    FINRA Expels Trading Co., CEO Over Short-Selling

    A Financial Industry Regulatory Authority hearing panel has expelled Legacy Trading Co. LLC, barred its CEO and owner from the securities industry, and fined both more than $1 million, finding that they made almost $900,000 from illegally short-selling stocks.

  • August 5, 2009

    EPA Reopens Perchlorate Rule To Public Comment

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is asking for public comments on potential regulation of perchlorate, a toxic rocket fuel component found in drinking water that the EPA declined to regulate under the previous administration.

  • August 5, 2009

    Senate Weighs Carbon Incentives For Private Forests

    Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., has put forth a bipartisan bill that would give small-forest owners incentives to manage their land to store more carbon, the latest legislative effort to help curb global warming.

  • August 5, 2009

    Bill Would Roll Back Tax Break For Hard Rock Mines

    Sens. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.; Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., have revived a bid to eliminate a tax break for hard rock minerals mined on federal land, claiming that closing the tax loophole — which they say lets companies double-dip in government subsidies — could free up $250 million for mine renewal plans.

  • August 5, 2009

    Senate Supports New Scrutiny For Seafood Imports

    The U.S. Senate has approved a measure directing the Food and Drug Administration to study its seafood import inspection infrastructure and supply chains most vulnerable to contamination in order to fortify its ability to keep tainted foreign seafood products from reaching U.S. consumers.

  • August 4, 2009

    SEC To Weigh Ban On Flash Trading

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering regulations aimed at restricting or banning so-called flash orders, which employ specialized technology to help give stock traders a split-second advantage over other market participants.

  • August 4, 2009

    Sinochem Wins ITC Ruling In Coolant Case

    The U.S. International Trade Commission has effectively terminated an investigation into whether Sinochem Modern Environmental Protection Chemicals (Xi'an) Co. Ltd.'s refrigerants infringe a patent held by Ineos Fluor Holdings Ltd., deciding to nix an earlier ruling by an administrative law judge upholding the patent.

  • August 4, 2009

    Hynix Got Countervailable DRAM Subsidies: DOC

    The International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce said Tuesday it had preliminarily determined that Hynix Semiconductor Inc. received countervailable subsidies in the dynamic random access memory semiconductor market.

  • August 4, 2009

    FDA Orders Cancer Warning For TNF Blockers

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has announced that it will require a class of drugs known as tumor necrosis factor alpha blockers to include a stronger warning highlighting the possibility of an increased risk of cancer in children and adolescents.

  • August 4, 2009

    Economists Urge Limits On Carbon Credit Giveaways

    Economic experts on Tuesday continued a debate in a U.S. Senate committee over how to distribute carbon credits under a proposed cap-and-trade framework, urging direct federal rebates to mitigate customer costs, rather than routing savings in the form of free credit allocations to local utilities.

  • August 4, 2009

    Bill Introduced To Overturn Stoneridge

    Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., is taking aim at two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions with proposed new legislation that would allow third parties suspected of aiding and abetting securities fraud to be named as defendants in private civil suits.

  • August 4, 2009

    Waterfront Brownfields Bill Sent To House Panel

    A proposed amendment to the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 that would provide grants to restore former industrial sites near bodies of water has made its way to the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce.

  • August 4, 2009

    Federal Rights Trump State On La. River: 5th Circ.

    A federal appeals court has affirmed a lower court's ruling that the U.S. government's right to protect navigable waterways supersedes a Louisiana environmental agency's responsibility to maintain a nature preserve near the Red River.

  • August 3, 2009

    Italy Probes MasterCard, Banks On Interchange Fees

    Italy's antitrust enforcer has launched a probe of MasterCard Inc. and eight banks — including the Italian units of Barclays PLC, BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank AG — over suspicions that agreements on interchange fees may run afoul of the European Union's regulations on restrictive business practices.

  • August 3, 2009

    New Acting Chairman Appointed To PCAOB

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has appointed one-time Baker & McKenzie LLP attorney Daniel L. Goelzer to serve as acting chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which supervises the accounting firms that audit public companies.

  • August 3, 2009

    FDA, EMEA Launch Clinical Trial Oversight Program

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency have launched a joint initiative to ensure the use of safe and effective practices in clinical trials as part of the drug approval process.

  • August 3, 2009

    House Panel Adds Pay-For-Delay Ban To Health Bill

    As part of a health care reform package up for debate in the fall, the U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee has voted to add a provision banning so-called pay-for-delay deals between brand-name pharmaceutical manufacturers and generics competitors.

  • August 3, 2009

    Clarcon Skin Products Seized Amid Bacteria Scare

    U.S. marshals have seized skin sanitizers manufactured at Clarcon Biological Chemistry Laboratory Inc.'s Roy, Utah, facility following the company's failure to destroy the products after an inspection by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that revealed high levels of potentially disease-causing bacteria.