Food Safety making Front Page News at the WaPo

When Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, they included provisions creating Opportunity Zones. These zones allow eligible investors to defer and reduce their capital gains tax liability in return for investing in communities that could benefit from outside investments. The goal of Opportunity Zones is to infuse much-needed capital in distressed parts of the United States. The goal of this article is to examine how Opportunity Zones work, including their tax benefits and potential risks. Key Takeaways Opportunity Zones – geographical areas within the United States (and some of its territories) where investors can enjoy tax savings while also helping economically distressed communities. How to take advantage of these tax benefits – reinvest capital gains from a prior investment within 180 days of the sale of that investment. Eligibility – the reinvestment must be in a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF), which is an investment vehicle that…

Data is a key resource for artificial intelligence (AI) and technology companies. But with this power comes a critical responsibility: data security. For AI and tech companies, data security isn’t just a matter of ethics — it’s a legal requirement. A single breach can mean hefty fines, lawsuits, and reputational damage. Here are some of the key legal requirements shaping this industry and the practical steps to ensure compliance. Key Data Protection Laws Governments worldwide have crafted regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) to protect personal data as technology advances. Below are the essentials of these laws, organized for quick reference. Continue › The post Data Security and Legal Compliance in the Technology Industry appeared first on ADA Compliance and Defense…

Just over a year ago on these pages, I continued our look at the patent franchises protecting the defining drugs of our time, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s diabetes/weight-loss blockbusters, Ozembic/Wegovy and Mounjaro/Zepbound. As you can imagine with drugs of such culture-defining magnitude, the year that has passed since that column has been full of news relating to their sale. On the legal front, the lifting of the FDA shortage declaration relating to the branded versions of the drugs ended the ability of compounders to sell their versions in bulk, shutting down the gravy train that propelled telehealth companies like Hims and Ro to revenues they could have only imagined sprouting up from their stable of erectile dysfunction and hair-loss offerings. Despite efforts from the compound pharmaceutical industry to have the FDA’s decision overturned, the ban on anything other than personalized versions of the drugs is in effect, with the specter of continued FDA…

Being involved in a rear-end collision can be a jarring and disorienting experience. As a Fort Myers personal injury attorney, I understand the confusion and stress you may be feeling right now. Our team at Garvin Injury Law will always take the time to guide clients through the initial process, explain your legal rights, and formulate a smart strategy for financial compensation. Understanding Liability in Rear-End Collisions In Florida, there exists what we call a “rebuttable presumption of negligence” in rear-end collisions. What this means is that the driver who rear-ends another vehicle is generally presumed to be at fault for the accident. This presumption is based on the principle that drivers should maintain a safe following distance and be prepared to stop when the vehicle ahead slows or stops. However, as established in cases like Cevallos v. Rideout (107 So.3d 348, Fla. 2012), this presumption can be rebutted under certain circumstances. The rear driver…

By the Constantine Cannon Whistleblower Team Last week (May 19), the Department of Justice (DOJ) released a memo describing the details of its new Civil Rights Fraud Initiative, which will use the False Claims Act to push the Trump Administration’s DEI agenda.1  In announcing the initiative,2 Attorney General Pam Bondi made clear that enforcing Trump’s crusade against DEI is a top DOJ priority: “Institutions that take federal money only to allow anti-Semitism and promote divisive DEI policies are putting their access to federal funds at risk.  This Department of Justice will not tolerate these violations of civil rights – inaction is not an option.” THE FALSE CLAIMS ACT WILL BE CENTRAL TO ENFORCING TRUMP’S ANTI-DEI CAMPAIGN The False Claims Act was enacted by President Lincoln during the Civil War to go after war profiteers trying to defraud the Union Army with sawdust munitions and lame mules.  Since then, it has become the…

Bethany Berger, University of Iowa College of Law, is publishing Rosalind's Refund: The Woman, the Lawyers, and the Time that Created McClanahan v. Arizona in the Kansas Law Review (2025). Here is the abstract. Rosalind McClanahan was just twenty-two when she set one of the most important cases in federal Indian law into motion. On April 1, 1968, she filed her Arizona tax return, along with a protest that all the money withheld from her pay—$16.29—should be refunded because she was a Navajo citizen whose income was earned entirely on the Navajo reservation. The Arizona Tax Commission ignored her claim and the Arizona courts rejected it. But the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in her favor, building a foundation for many more decisions rebuffing state jurisdiction as well as landmark legislation such as the Indian Child Welfare Act and Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. This Essay, the first full history of McClanahan, examines the origins of the decision as…

Here is my recent Daily Record column. My past Daily Record articles can be accessed here. **** New Hampshire Ethics Committee On Drafting Legal Documents with AI Despite repeated warnings from ethics committees, lawyers continue to make headlines for citing fake cases in legal briefs that were created by generative artificial intelligence. Most recently, attorneys from some of the largest law firms have been guilty of this transgression.  To be clear, these errors occurred because lawyers failed to review filings before verifying them and submitting them to the court. Regardless of who–-or what—prepares a document, you have an ethical obligation to carefully review it for accuracy.  So why does this keep happening? One key reason is that document drafting is an obvious legal use case for generative AI. According to the 2025 AffiniPay Legal Industry Report, 40% of the respondents who had adopted generative AI in their practices have…

It’s difficult enough to suffer the shock and pain of an injury car accident. The situation can get tragic if you lose a loved one that way. Then there is the outrage that follows when you learn that the accident didn’t have to happen except for the careless behavior of the at-fault party. Just when you thought the situation couldn’t get any worse, the insurance claim adjuster or lawyer denies your claim for a frivolous or even arbitrary reason. At some point, it becomes time to fight back. Profit is an insurance company’s bottom line Insurance companies are not charities. They are businesses, and they exist to turn a profit. They make money by accepting monthly premiums, and they spend money by paying claims. The moment you submit a claim, your interests become directly adverse to theirs. Don’t be surprised if the insurance company ignores your claim or tries to minimize its value. How to fight an insurance claim denial in Illinois An insurance…

When blogs first came out, the author might put a proverbial “Gone Fishing” message to let readers know that they’ve got on vacation. But with the rise of scams, some of us (ahem) just announce vacations AFTER we already had them. While I was away, I ended up pondering a few employment law issues and trying to make sense of it all without the press of work. I’ll have another post or two on some of those thoughts, but one such topic actually relates to vacation. There was a time a while ago where employers would just give employees, say 2-3 weeks off as vacation and call it a day. If someone needed to take a sick day, they could do that too. Then sometime more recently, employers started just using the concept of “paid time off” to track all such time (though schools and some industries were notable exceptions). Some even started moving to “unlimited PTO” with the notion that so long as employees were performing their…

If the police arrest you in Maryland, you need to seek legal representation immediately. While you aren’t guaranteed “one phone call,” you will often have an opportunity to make a call. You may want to use that call to seek a lawyer, but if you call a relative, have them start looking for a criminal defense lawyer who can represent you. Even before you secure a lawyer, appeal to your future lawyer by telling the police you don’t want to answer any questions without a lawyer. Your Miranda rights The 1966 Supreme Court case Miranda vs. Arizona established that the police must issue suspects Miranda warnings before conducting a custodial interrogation. Anyone who has ever watched a TV police drama has heard it before: “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you…” The right to remain silent You don’t have to answer any questions from the police. If you do answer any questions, you can be…

Tuoya Saren (Emory University School of Law) has posted Legal Challenges of AI in NEPA Environmental Impact Assessment: Regulatory Pathways and Judicial Review on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies into the preparation of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) marks a significant shift in federal environmental review processes. This article critically examines the legal challenges posed by AI-assisted EIS production, focusing on compliance with NEPA’s procedural obligations and the evolving standards of judicial review. It identifies key risks stemming from the opacity, bias, and limited explainability of AI systems, which could undermine the “hard look” standard traditionally enforced under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). Furthermore, the paper analyzes regulatory gaps created by the limited authority of the Council on Environmental Quality…

Ed. Note: We’re starting a new feature, kicking off the week with a collection of top stories from the prior week. It’s like our daily See Also, but for the week. So… See Generally. Paul Weiss Lawyers Jump Ship Before It Becomes the S.S. Giuliani: Top litigators leaving to form new firm free of Trump entanglements. Elena Kagan Drops Brutal New Diss(ent) Track: “But then, today’s order poses a puzzle” is the constitutional “Not Like Us” we needed. Kim Kardashian Earns Right To Complain About The Cal Bar Exam Too: Her legal education is complete… on to the test. Moral Bankruptcy Loves Company: Kirkland tried to herd the rest of Biglaw into its Trumpian embrace. Habeas Corpus Hocus Pocus: Noem asked to define basic legal principle and managed to make Sarah Palin look knowledgeable in the process. Biglaw’s MAGA Pivot Gets 1 Star: “Would Not Recommend”: Survey finds legal industry…

The following article is part of a series of reflections on the 2025 New Directions in Environmental Law Conference, also known as NDEL. On February 15, 2025, scholars, practitioners, students, and policymakers convened at Yale Law School to analyze changes and emerging issues in environmental law. The series covers the keynote speaker and each panel from NDEL, and is written by Student Reporter attendees. Student Reporters were guided by Alysia LeComte and Julianne Frey, NDEL Committee Members and 2L students at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.   Student reporters Maria Clara da Silva Fernandes and Shane Ardinger prepared this edited summary of the panel entitled ‘New Directions in the Law and Policy of Climate Migration’, featuring panelists Randall S. Abate, Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies & Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University Law School; Monica Iyer, Assistant Professor of Law at Georgia…

Dentons Hong Kong has advised Xiamen Jihong Co., Ltd (SEHK: 02603) on its dual primary listing and the global offering of its H shares on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Xiamen Jihong

Image: Shutterstock (with AI assist) It is well known that when AI applications can’t respond to a query, instead of admitting they don’t know the answer, they often resort to “making stuff up”—a phenomenon commonly called “hallucination” but which should more accurately be called for what it is, total fabrication. This was one of the legal issues raised by the New York Times in its lawsuit against OpenAI, with the Times complaining, among other things, that false information attributed to the journal by OpenAI’s bot undermined the credibility of Times journalism and diminished its value, leading to trademark dilution. According to a recent article in the Times, the incidence of hallucination is growing, not shrinking, as AI models develop. One would have thought that as the models ingest more material, including huge swathes of copyrighted and curated material such as content from reputable journals like the Times…

By Andrew J. Hull & JP Ellison —At our webinar earlier this month, we talked about Administration priorities as they relate to the FDC Act and noted that we expect much to remain the same with respect to enforcement.  One notable exception has been the Administration’s targeting of certain surgical procedures and the use of certain drugs for a particular intended purpose.  Specifically, these are procedures and drugs used in providing what HHS had, until recently, referred to as gender-affirming care.  The gray box at the top of the document at this link shows the change in position. We’re not trying to bury the lead here, but the battle of labeling these surgical and drug treatments is a political one.  The political battle went into gear on January 28, 2025, with an Executive Order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”  That EO contained instructions to the Department of Justice,…

Mental health injuries are becoming a growing concern in workplaces, including those in Southern Minnesota. Stress, anxiety, and other psychological challenges can have a significant impact on workers’ well-being, sometimes leading to conditions that qualify as workplace injuries. However, navigating workers’ compensation claims for mental health injuries is often complex. Understanding your rights and the legal framework specific to Minnesota is crucial in securing fair benefits. This guide will explore the key steps to filing a claim, common challenges workers face, and the resources available to assist you. Whether you’re an employee seeking support or an employer aiming to foster a healthier workplace, addressing mental health injuries is a vital step toward creating a more inclusive and supportive work environment. Overview Southern Minnesota’s Workers’ Compensation System Minnesota’s workers’ compensation system is designed to…

Ioanna Tourkochoriti (University of Baltimore School of Law; Harvard Law School; University of California, Berkeley - Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law) has posted LGBTQ WEDDING PARTY: CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTIONS TO THE ENFORCEMENT OF ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAW on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article engages with cases that have recently emerged before courts related to conscientious exemptions in the enforcement of antidiscrimination laws regarding access to goods and services. The article proposes a rationale in favor of enforcing antidiscrimination law. Drawing on legal and normative principles, it argues that governments have a compelling interest in enforcing antidiscrimination law. It also analyzes the types of harm that discrimination in this area causes. The article distinguishes between primary and secondary expressive interests, arguing that regulation of secondary expressive interests is legitimate when manifested in the…