Illustration of a book of the statute of limitations on a courtroom desk. (Image: designer491, via Shutterstock)OPINION: Over the last couple of years, our society has finally started taking instances of sexual abuse seriously. The most shocking and attention grabbing cases are of course assaults against children. State legislatures have begun to examine what can be done to help victims of sexual abuse and assault of minors.
A top view of a VW diesel engine. (Photo: Shanti Hesse)The California Air Resources Board’s aggressive questioning of Volkswagen about emission test results led to the company admitting in 2015 that it used a “defeat device” designed to cover up diesel emissions that greatly exceeded legal limits. The massive fraud case — it included a $14.7 billion settlement in 2016 and $4.7 billion in civil and criminal fines this year — dramatically underscored California’s role as a national and international air-quality watch dog.
A safety inspector on the job. (Photo: BillionPhotos, via Shuttterstock)FairWarning: The whistleblower claim filed last week with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel charges that the San Francisco regional office of OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program routinely dumped legitimate complaints. He contends his disclosures to senior OSHA and Labor Department officials -– all the way up to Labor Secretary Thomas Perez — “did not spark good faith corrective action.”
Entrepreneur and venture capitalist Anis Uzzaman literally wrote the book on success in Silicon Valley. The CEO and co-founder of Fenox Venture Capital is the author of “Startup Bible: The Silicon Valley Way of Developing Success.” But now the U.S. Department of Labor has thrown the book at his company.
A major Sacramento-based lobbyist and his firm have been fined a record $133,500 for throwing fundraisers for politicians and candidates – parties that violated the state’s laws governing gifts and campaign donations to public officials. The enforcement arm of the state’s Fair Political Practice Commission posted the settlement with lobbyist Kevin Sloat and the firm, Sloat Higgins Jensen and Associates, on the FPPC web site on Monday.