Oct 10
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) ordered Clean Diesel Technologies Inc.(“CDTI”) to pay $1.9 million to its former chief financial officer in association with a violation of the whistleblower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. OSHA determined that CDTI wrongfully terminated the former CFO in April 2010 after he warned the board …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/10/1-9-million-to-whistleblower-cfo/
Oct 01
The American Arbitration Association (“AAA”)’s recent revisions to the AAA’s Commercial Arbitration Rules are effective for any AAA-administered arbitration filed on or after today, October 1. One area of update is the discovery process. Going forward, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties, these new rules should make it easier for arbitrators to more closely control …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/10/new-aaa-discovery-rules-are-in-effect/
Oct 01
It is Tuesday, October 1, 2013 and Congress has not been able to reach a compromise on a funding bill that could get the government running again. One of the major stumbling blocks is the long-running dispute regarding President Obama’s health care reform law (commonly referred to as Obamacare). The House would like Obamacare to …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/10/government-shutdown-what-to-expect/
Sep 14
On August 29, 2013, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Revenue Ruling 2013-17. Consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Windsor, the IRS concludes: “…individuals of the same sex will be considered to be lawfully married under the Code as long as they were married in a state whose laws authorize the marriage of two …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/09/irs-officially-recognizes-same-sex-marriages/
Aug 20
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) has issued its second report regarding auditors of brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). This report relates to inspections of 60 audits conducted by 43 firms, which the PCAOB performed from March 1, 2012 to December 31, 2012. The overall result was dismal, and as follows: In contrast to …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/08/pcaob-reports-auditors-and-broker-dealers-are-too-close-for-comfort/
Aug 09
On July 11, 2013, in re: Beaumont-Jacques v. Farmers Group Insurance, a California appellate court affirmed summary judgment in favor of an insurance company. The issue was whether a District Manager was properly classified as an independent contractor, rather than an employee. The decision is perhaps not as significant once one understands the underlying written …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/08/big-setback-in-california-to-reclassify-workers-as-employees/
Aug 01
A recent decision by the Georgia Court of Appeals in the matter of Monitronics v. Veasley upheld a multi-million dollar jury award to an alarm company customer who suffered an in-home assault. The alarm company argued that their contract included a $250 limitation of liability for any service related losses. The Appeals Court, in a …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/08/appeals-court-rules-that-size-matters/
Jun 19
The Securities and Exchange Commission(“SEC”) announced the agency has approved its second Dodd-Frank whistleblower award since the program’s 2011 inception, this time to three individuals who were each deemed to have provided information related to a $7.5 million enforcement action that was (i) voluntary, (ii) original, and (iii) led to the successful result. The SEC’s “fact …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/06/sec-whistleblowers-rewarded/
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/05/is-college-worth-it-taking-new-econometric-methods-seriously/
Mar 10
A recent article from the Wall Street Journal identifies a paradox: (i) “conservative lore” predicted rich people would leave California in response to a massive tax increase, yet, in fact, (ii) poor and middle class people have left instead. As evidence, the article summarizes the following about those who have left the state: 1. Their …
Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/03/has-californias-tax-on-the-rich-driven-out-the-poor-and-middle-class/
May 28
Is College Worth It?— New Econometric Methods Provide Another Approach
May 28, 2013
In a previous post, Eric discussed a Brookings Institution policy brief that argued, among other things, that college education is a poor investment for some students. This assertion is based in large part on the negative return on investment (ROI) reported by Payscale.com for certain non-selective colleges. The problem with this sort of analysis, however, …
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