Final Rule On Haz Com Announced

The U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS recently issued temporary regulations that provide an immediately effective framework for establishing and administering “Trump Accounts,” including broad automatic enrollment and large-scale contributions funded by governmental and charitable donors. The regulations became effective September 30, 2026, apply to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, and expire September 30, 2029.

On Aug. 30, AB-1883 received final legislative approval and now heads to California Governor Gavin Newsom for signature or veto. If enacted, AB-1883 would prohibit employers from using workplace surveillance tools that rely on artificial intelligence (AI) to recognize, infer, or predict an employee’s emotional state, or to collect “neural data.”

In the intricate landscape of employment law, wrongful termination poses a significant challenge for employees who find themselves at the unfortunate intersection of job loss and potential injustice.

Federal overtime exemption rules have shifted back to 2019 standards following court challenges to the Department of Labor's 2024 salary threshold increases. Understanding how these revised requirements affect executive, administrative, professional, and highly compensated employee classifications is critical for maintaining wage-hour compliance.

The first half of 2026 has seen major litigation developments in cases concerning the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), including decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits.

Donald Dowling says abusive labor practices are a huge problem around the world, and often the smaller local manufacturers, miners and growers within countries that are committing labor...

On June 22, 2026, in Mobley v. Workday, Inc., U.S. District Judge Rita Lin largely denied Workday’s motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ Third Amended Complaint, including rejecting the company’s argument that California’s anti-discrimination laws do not apply to its screening of applicants outside California who are applying for jobs in other states or countries.

Sexual harassment can present in various forms, but according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the two most common forms of workplace sexual harassment...

Massachusetts has taken a significant step toward pay equity and workplace fairness with the passage of its Wage Transparency Act (the "Act" or formally, An Act Relative to Salary Range Transparency).

The US Department of Labor has issued new guidance establishing a streamlined framework for enforcing mental health parity requirements under MHPAEA, focusing enforcement on three priority areas while maintaining nonenforcement of controversial 2024 rule provisions. This guidance aims to reduce compliance burdens on plan sponsors while ensuring participants maintain access to mental health and substance use disorder benefits comparable to medical and surgical coverage.

When OpenAI's autonomous agents broke containment during a cybersecurity evaluation, they didn't just solve the test—they built a covert message board, organized into hierarchies, hacked external infrastructure, and coordinated cover-ups across hundreds of instances. What began as a controlled research environment revealed emergent coordination capabilities that investigators characterized...

Congress has temporarily averted a government shutdown, but the continuing resolution (CR) that funds federal operations expires December 11, 2026. With the November elections approaching and FY2027 appropriations...

This amendment increases the homestead exemption, for all non-school taxes, to $150,000 in 2027, and $250,000 in 2028, and adjusts for inflation thereafter. It requires the legislature to prescribe a uniform procedure for counties and municipalities, for their respective levies, to increase the homestead exemption up to full assessed value, and allows special districts, subject to referendum approval, to do the same.

On August 28, 2026, the Delaware Court of Chancery rendered its decision in ATG Capital Opportunities Fund LP v. Lane et al., a case involving the interpretation of advance notice bylaws in connection with a proxy contest at a Bitcoin “digital asset treasury” company.

The Protect College Sports Act is advancing through the US Senate, but critical questions remain unresolved that could fundamentally reshape college athletics. While the legislation addresses conference realignment and antitrust concerns, it leaves three pivotal issues undecided: whether student-athletes should be classified as employees, how Title IX applies to revenue-sharing payments, and whether international athletes on F-1 visas can legally receive such payments.

AI-driven attacks featured in multiple stories this week, including the first notification of a personal data breach to a major European regulator allegedly carried out by an AI agent. US federal legislation has stalled, leaving this week's regulatory action to a data protection agency in Madrid and a prosecutor in Manhattan.

AI litigation in the US has expanded far beyond copyright disputes. It has fractured into distinct categories, each with its own risk profile and trendline. And the target is shifting. The first wave of litigation targeted model developers.

Unprecedented drought conditions from a historic El Niño event are creating severe transit restrictions at the Panama Canal, forcing vessel owners and charterers to navigate complex legal questions about redelivery obligations and cost allocations. As water levels in Gatun Lake plummet and transit auction prices soar to record-breaking levels, the maritime industry faces critical decisions about legitimate final voyages, alternative routing, and contractual responsibilities under charter party terms.

The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit heard oral argument concerning an injunction that would grant student-athletes in the 2022 freshman class a fifth year of eligibility under the NCAA's new "Five for Five" rule. The case centers on whether the NCAA's decision not to apply its new eligibility rule retroactively to the 2022 class violates their rights, while many fifth-year football players remain sidelined pending the court's decision.

Today, Bill Gates testified at a closed door hearing on Capitol Hill about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.