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91,000 Gulf oil spill claims, just 1 final payment
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2011/02/01 10:21
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pBP's compensation fund for Gulf oil spill victims has issued a final settlement payment to just one of the thousands of people and businesses waiting for checks, records show, and that $10 million payout went to a company after the oil giant intervened on its behalf./ppBP won't identify the business, citing confidentiality, but acknowledges it lobbied for the settlement. The amount far exceeds smaller stopgap payments that some individuals and businesses have received while they wait for their own final settlements./ppThe Gulf Coast Claims Facility was set up in August to independently administer BP's $20 billion compensation fund in the aftermath of its April 20 oil well blowout off Louisiana./ppAs of this weekend, roughly 91,000 people and businesses had filed for final settlements, but the fund's administrator, Washington lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, has said those checks won't start rolling out until February at the earliest. Thousands of people have received some money to tide them over until a final settlement amount is offered, but only one business listed as paid on the facility's website has so far received a check./ppA BP spokeswoman called it a unique situation in which an existing BP business partner and BP submitted a view on a specific claim to the facility.
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Tax on medical residents upheld by Supreme Court
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2011/01/12 08:59
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| pMedical residents are doctors, not students, when it comes to paying federal taxes, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday in a decision that disappointed the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic, who have been fighting the issue in court for years./ppAn opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts upholds an Internal Revenue Service requirement that medical residents pay Federal Insurance Contributions Act taxes./ppThe University of Minnesota and Mayo have argued that medical residents are students who qualify for a long-standing exemption from paying those taxes. Full-time students who work are generally exempt./ppBut the Supreme Court says medical residents -- who typically work 50 to 80 hours a week -- don't qualify./ppThe decision ends decades of legal back-and-forth and could cost medical schools $700 million in federal taxes annually. The employer and employee each pay half the tax. The University of Minnesota estimates that the U and its medical residents pay about $4.3 million a year./p |
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Judge approves $179M settlement for AK Steel retire
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2011/01/12 08:02
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pU.S. District Judge Timothy Black has approved a previously disclosed $179 million settlement and entered a final judgment in a dispute between AK Steel and retirees at its Butler, Pa., steel plant./ppThe AK Steel retirees had filed a class-action lawsuit in June 2009 to stop the company from making changes to their health insurance benefits. It had started making retirees pay a portion of their premiums in January 2010./ppWest Chester-based AK Steel is the largest Dayton-area company, with more than $4 billion in revenue./ppUnder the terms of the settlement, AK Steel will continue to pay for the benefits through 2014 and also pay $91 million to two trusts to cover future benefits for hourly and salaries retirees./ppIn return, the company has been relieved of liability for any benefits after 2014, and the lawsuit was dismissed.
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Judge Rules Teacher Performance Ratings Should Be Public
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2011/01/12 03:59
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| pA State Supreme Court judge ruled yesterday that New York City can make teacher performance ratings public. The United Federation of Teachers has vowed to appeal the decision./ppThe suit, which was launched by the UFT against the Department of Education, argued that the move by the city to release the ratings was “arbitrary and capricious.”/ppThe data reflected in the Teacher Data Reports (TDRs) should not be released, because the TDRs are so flawed and unreliable as to be subjective and without merit, argued a union representative./ppState Senator Velmanette Montgomery, a longtime champion of children’s education, expressed some concern around the test methodology which, she says, should be independently verified by a recognized authority. If it is flawed, the actions taken could ruin the careers of valuable educators and hurt the school system and our children, said Montgomery./p |
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Appeals Court judge lobbies for high court spot
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2011/01/09 09:02
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| pAppeals Court Judge Jane Markey of Grand Rapids says Gov. Rick Snyder should name her to the Michigan Supreme Court because she'd bring a west Michigan perspective. /ppSnyder could name a replacement as early as Monday for Justice Maura Corrigan, who steps down Friday to become Human Services director. /ppThe 59-year-old Markey said in a release that current justices are from southeast Michigan or the Lansing area. She adds no one from Grand Rapids has been a justice since 1946. /ppMarkey hoped to run for the high court in 2010, but Republicans nominated Wayne Circuit Court Judge Mary Beth Kelly, who beat Justice Alton Davis. /p |
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Mass. man accused of killing kin pleads not guilty
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2010/09/02 13:53
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pA Massachusetts man accused of killing his wife, two children and mother-in-law pleaded not guilty Thursday to four counts of first-degree murder as a prosecutor described how he left two copies of a letter confessing to the slayings./ppThomas Mortimer IV was arraigned in Woburn Superior Court on Thursday following his indictment last week. He had previously entered not guilty pleas in district court and has been held without bail since his arrest following the killings in June./ppMortimer frowned as he listened to a clerk read an indictment charging him in the murders of his wife, 41-year-old Laura Stone Mortimer, mother-in-law, 64-year-old Ellen Stone, and two children, 4-year-old Thomas Mortimer V, and 2-year-old Charlotte Mortimer. He did not look at his wife's family members, seated in the front row of the courtroom./ppThe family was found beaten and stabbed to death in their Winchester home./ppDistrict Attorney Gerard Leone has said that the slayings followed a fight and ongoing marital discord. Leone said there were signs that Mortimer attempted suicide at the home.
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Thousands sign on for $10 billion BP suit
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2010/08/30 08:23
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| pThe revelation that BP's Texas City refinery emitted toxic benzene for more than a month has ignited a furor in the port community that has suffered its share of deadly industrial accidents and toxic spills./ppThousands of residents who fear they may have been exposed to the known carcinogen released at the oil refinery from April 6 to May 16 have been flooding parking lots and conference halls where local trial attorneys hosted information sessions and sought clients for class-action lawsuits against the oil giant./ppBP faces the new challenge just as it is reaching a key milestone in another crisis — plugging the Gulf of Mexico well that blew out in an oil spill disaster that is costing the company billions of dollars./ppOn Wednesday, more than 3,400 people lined the hallways and sidewalks around the Nessler Center to sign on to a $10 billion class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday in Galveston federal court by Friendswood attorney Anthony Buzbee. /ppThe lawsuit alleges the release of 500,000 pounds of chemicals - including 17,000 pounds of benzene - has jeopardized the health and property values of people who live and work in the area. At the nearby College of the Mainland, a separate town hall meeting drew a crowd of 600. /p |
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