FERC concludes that MISO’s proposed tariff revisions do not provide a new service to GFA customers and that MISO failed to meet the public interest standard necessary to modify the services under GFAs.

At the NERC Board of Trustees meeting this week in Vancouver, Canada, NERC outlined a new initiative intended to reduce the administrative burden on Registered Entities associated with the processing of Reliability Standard violations.

New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to begin accepting applications this summer for waivers of environmental compliance.

Protocol provides clues regarding areas of focus for ongoing HIPAA audits assessing compliance with the Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released its August 2010 Visa Bulletin. The Visa Bulletin sets out per country priority date cutoffs that regulate the flow of adjustment of status (AOS) and consular immigrant visa applications.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has released its October 2010 Visa Bulletin.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has stopped accepting H-1B petitions subject to the 2014 fiscal year H-1B cap or the advanced degree exemption.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced that the allotment of 20,000 H-1B petition approvals available to foreign nationals holding a U.S. master’s or higher degree has been exhausted for fiscal year 2011.

Now is the time for employers to assess their FY 2013 H-1B needs and to get petitions ready.

The U.S. Department of State (DOS) has announced that the annual limit for immigrant visa numbers was exhausted on September 16, 2010 for all family-based preference categories and for the second, third, and fourth employment-based categories.

The U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices recently issued a technical assistance letter stating that employers that share Form I-9 or E-Verify data with third parties, may be in violation of both the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Earlier this week the UK government announced controversial new plans to place a cap on the number of migrant workers from outside Europe entering the United Kingdom.

For cases filed before enactment of the America Invents Act, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has clarified that unrelated defendants may be joined together in a single patent case only if claims are based on the same product or process.

Commissioner Kieff will work to determine the effects of U.S. intellectual property rights violations on U.S. industry.

During a recent telephone conference regarding a discovery dispute in Roffe v. Eagle Rock Energy GP, et al., C.A. No. 5258-VCL (Del. Ch. Apr. 8, 2010), Vice Chancellor Laster ruled from the bench that confirmatory discovery—like formal discovery—requires the defendant’s attorney to be physically present during the collection of electronically stored information from his/her client; selfcollection by the client is not permitted.

On October 20, the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued Advisory Opinion 2011-09A (AO 2011-09A), in which it concludes that relief under Prohibited Transaction Class Exemption 80-26 (PTE 80-26) is not available for an indemnification arrangement involving a futures trading agreement for an individual retirement account (an IRA), raising the question as to whether such indemnification arrangements would be non-exempt prohibited transactions.

On December 7, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued new temporary regulations providing sourcing rules for "fails charges" that may arise in the delivery-versus-payment market for Treasury securities.

According to Department of Labor (DOL) officials, the agency will soon publish a "final" final regulation on required disclosures by plan service providers under the statutory prohibited transaction exemption provided by Section 408(b)(2) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).

On July 29, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) extended its timeline for issuing rules with respect to various Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) provisions applicable to executive compensation.

Last week’s federal district court decision in United States v. Quality Stores, Inc., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15825 (W.D. Mich. Feb. 23, 2010), should generate renewed interest and revive hopes throughout the country for several billion dollars in Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax refund claims that are pending review.