Workers' Compensation

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

U.S. Fines Automakers Hyundai and Kia for Misstating Mileage

Today's post is shared rom nytimes.com/
WASHINGTON — In the largest-ever penalty for a violation of the Clean Air Act, the Korean automakers Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors will pay the federal government a combined $300 million as part of a settlement for overstating vehicle fuel-economy standards on 1.2 million cars, Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency officials said on Monday.

The action, announced by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Gina McCarthy, the E.P.A. administrator, is part of a broader, more aggressive enforcement effort by federal regulators on the auto industry. Analysts said it was meant to send a clear message to automakers that they would be harshly treated for compromising federal rules.
“This type of conduct quite simply will not be tolerated,” Mr. Holder said at a joint news conference at the Justice Department with Ms. McCarthy. The Justice Department, he added, “will never rest or waver in our determination to take action against any company that engages in such activities.”
The settlement also signaled that the Obama administration intended to aggressively enforce new climate-change regulations. “Businesses that play by the rules shouldn’t have to compete with those breaking the law,” Ms. McCarthy said.
Under the agreement, the automakers will pay $100 million in fines and forfeit an estimated $200 million in greenhouse-gas emissions credits, which auto companies earn by building vehicles with lower emissions than are...

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Little Opposition Seen in Some Votes to Raise State Minimum Wages

Today's post is shared from nytimes.com/

In state after state, labor unions and community groups have pushed lawmakers to raise the minimum wage, but those efforts have faltered in many places where Republicans control the legislature.

Frustrated by this, workers’ advocates have bypassed the legislature and placed a minimum-wage increase on the ballot in several red states — and they are confident that voters will approve those measures on Tuesday.

In Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, binding referendums would raise the state minimum wage above the $7.25 an hour mandated by the federal government.

These measures are so overwhelmingly popular in some states, notably Alaska and Arkansas, that the opposition has hardly put up a fight.

“These groups have noticed that minimum-wage increases can easily pass — they have seen this in the past few years,” said John G. Matsusaka, executive director of the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California. “They can’t get it through the legislatures in these red states, so they do it this way.”

Some Republicans say that the main reason for these initiatives is to mobilize low-income voters to help re-elect embattled Democrats, like Senators Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mark Begich of Alaska. But supporters deny this, saying they are pushing to raise the minimum because so many workers are struggling and because the minimum wage has trailed inflation.

The measures in Alaska, Arkansas, Nebraska and...
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In Traveling to the Stars, Risk and Cost

Today's post is shared rom nytimes.com/

Space travel has long been the preserve of governments and sci-fi fans, but in recent years a crop of new commercial ventures, often backed by billionaire entrepreneurs, has sought to get into the race.

The list of so-called thrillonaires has only grown, along with their ambitions: Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder who set up Blue Origin to lower the cost of space technology; Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX with the aim of going to Mars one day; and Richard Branson, who started the space tourism company Virgin Galactic.

But two recent accidents involving commercial rockets have underscored the high risks and soaring costs involved in any spaceflight.

On Friday, a Virgin Galactic space plane exploded during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing one pilot and injuring another. Days earlier, an Orbital Sciences rocket carrying a supply vessel to the International Space Station blew up seconds after it was launched.

Both accidents are under investigation. Although they were unrelated, their occurrence just days apart was a stark reminder that the path to space is just as arduous for private companies as it is for government-funded programs.

“The engineering and physics of space tend to be unforgiving, no matter who is doing this,” said Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University and a former assistant administrator at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The common thread between these new space initiatives is that...

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Recalled G.M. Cars Remain Unrepaired

Today's post is shared from nytimes.com/
YONKERS — Nearly nine months after General Motors began recalling millions of its cars for a dangerously defective ignition switch, almost half of the vehicles still have not been fixed.
A spokesman for the automaker said it was increasing its outreach to owners through social media and a new call center staffed with 72 employees dedicated to contacting those who have not scheduled repairs.
But even owners who requested repairs months ago have been waiting, with dealers managing wait-lists and dozens of drivers writing to federal regulators in recent weeks asking why it was taking so long. Some of them are also raising safety concerns about the drawn-out timetable, as a recent fatal accident here suggests.

One of the unrepaired vehicles was a red 2006 Chevrolet Cobalt that crashed here the night of Oct. 9, killing its 25-year-old driver, Brittany Alfarone. Her mother, Dierdre Betancourt, said she had tried to fix the car twice, but two dealers turned her away.
Now the police are investigating the single-car accident for possible ties to the ignition defect, which can cause power to cut out in a moving car, shutting down airbags and impeding power steering and brakes.
A few weeks before the accident, Ms. Betancourt said, the car had done precisely that, shutting off after hitting a bump while in the middle lane on a busy parkway in the Bronx.
A spokesman for the Yonkers Police Department said the car had been so badly damaged in the wreck that killed Ms. Alfarone that it...

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Monday, November 3, 2014

Many On Medicaid See Boost In Benefits As Economy Improves

Today's post was shared by Kaiser Health News and comes from capsules.kaiserhealthnews.org

Short Takes On News & Events

With an improving fiscal climate, many states are increasing benefits for Medicaid recipients and paying their providers more.
The trend is continuing into fiscal year 2015 for those who rely on Medicaid, the state and federal health insurance program for the poor, according to a survey of 50 state Medicaid programs released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the National Association of Medicaid Directors. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
The report found that 22 states were expanding Medicaid benefits compared to just two states restricting them in fiscal 2015, which for most states started July 1, 2014. That’s the fewest states cutting or restricting benefits in at least 9 years. The most commonly added benefits were dental coverage, along with mental health and substance abuse services.
However, virtually every state indicated concern about high-cost specialty drugs, especially $1,000-a-pill Sovaldi, approved last year to treat hepatitis C. Officials in 22 states said that new prior authorization rules were in place or under development to restrict use of the drug and New Jersey said it was exploring protocols to do that.
Meanwhile, 14 states were increasing Medicaid fees to specialists in fiscal 2015, compared to three states lowering them. More states were also increasing fees to nursing homes and managed care...

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Preventing Falls at Work

Falls result in serious injuries and death, especially for those over 65 years of age. As the workforce grows older, falls are at work will increase. Are there adequate preventative measures in place to meet this increase risk? Today's post is shared from nytimes.com

"Those who study and manage retirement facilities and nursing homes say there is heightened attention to preventing falls. Trying to anticipate hazardous conditions, retirement facilities like The Sequoias hire architects and interior designers, some of whom wear special glasses that show the building as an old person would see it.

"The dangers are real. The number of people over 65 who died after a fall reached nearly 24,000 in 2012, the most recent year for which fatality numbers are available — almost double the number 10 years earlier, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"And more than 2.4 million people over 65 were treated in emergency departments for injuries from falls in 2012 alone, an increase of 50 percent over a decade. All told, in the decade from 2002-2012, more than 200,000 Americans over 65 died after falls. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in that age group.

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NTSB Cites Co-Pilot Error As Caused for Virgin Galactic Crash

It has been a terrible week for space flight. Firt the Antares rocket was a detonated on lift-off from Wallops Flight Center and then the Virgin Galactic crashed.

Today's post is shared from the wsj.com/

"A pilot of the Virgin Galactic spacecraft that crashed Friday, killing one of its two pilots, unlocked a lever used to move the aircraft to its unique "feathered" position, crash investigators said late Sunday.

"In its third media briefing on the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board's Acting Chairman Christopher Hart said a preliminary review of the telemetry and optical data showed that at about 9 seconds after ignition, the "feather" parameters on the craft changed from locked to unlocked earlier than procedure.

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Tuesday, November 4, 2014

U.S. Fines Automakers Hyundai and Kia for Misstating Mileage