Overlawyered » Michael Bloomberg

Labor and employment roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 04 May 2012 04:06:24 +0000

Failure to accommodate employee’s religious belief forbidding hair-cutting results in $27K payout by Taco Bell operator [EEOC, North Carolina]
There’s a reason they call it Government Motors: nonunion GM assembly workers get shaft [Fountain]
Mayor Bloomberg refreshingly sane on “living wage,” though not alas rent control [Heather Mac Donald, Secular Right]
“The cost of labor isn’t the main problem, it’s the rigidities,” says French CEO [Bloomberg]
Maryland governor signs bill softening “workplace fraud” law that bedevils firms that use independent contractors [H.B. 1364, earlier]
Watch out for ghastly, mislabeled “Paycheck Fairness Act,” they’re trying to bring it back [Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Examiner, earlier]
“The most infuriating part of this is that it takes five years of litigation to fire a badly behaved police officer” [Josh Barro, Masnick/TechDirt, on cop's harassment of skateboarder; Baltimore Sun (police union calls officer's firing "outrageous.")]

Tags: Baltimore, France, General Motors, labor unions, Maryland, Michael Bloomberg, police, religious discrimination

Labor and employment roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NYC issues $300 tickets for ornamental birdbaths

Walter Olson — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:14:43 +0000

The premise is that they are a public health menace since standing water in them might afford a haven for mosquitoes that carry West Nile virus. [Gideon Kanner]

Tags: animals, Michael Bloomberg, NYC, public health

NYC issues $300 tickets for ornamental birdbaths is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

April 16 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:07:53 +0000

Although I’m known as a foe of everything John Edwards stands for, I hope he beats this campaign finance rap [Atlantic Wire]
Michael Bloomberg launches demagogic new campaign against Stand Your Ground laws, calling to mind the recent critique of the NYC mayor’s paternalist dark side by Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic;
Jerry Brown frees grandmother dubiously jailed in shaken-baby death [Slate, earlier]
As Scruggs (Dickey not Earl) still pursues vindication, Alan Lange looks back on Mississippi scandals [YallPolitics]
Deservedly favorable profile of Fifth Circuit judge Jerry Smith [NOLA]
In which I tell off Bill Donohue’s Catholic League for its double insult last week to gays and to adoptive parents [IGF]
“The Ninth Circuit was, believe it or not, correct” [Ilya Shapiro and Trevor Burrus, Cato, on administrative law case arising from NLRB rules change on drug rep overtime]

Tags: adoption, campaign regulation, Dickie Scruggs, Fifth Circuit, Jerry Brown, John Edwards, Michael Bloomberg, Ninth Circuit, self-defense, wrong right

April 16 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Bloomberg: no food donations to homeless shelters

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:06:37 +0000

“[Glenn] Richter has been collecting food from places like the Ohav Zedek synagogue and bringing it to homeless shelters for more than 20 years, but recently his donation, including a ‘cholent‘ or carrot stew, was turned away because the Bloomberg administration wants to monitor the salt, fat and fiber eaten by the homeless. … Richter said that over the years he’s delivered more than two tons of food to the homeless.” The NYC mayor says he’s not planning to reconsider the recently adopted policy. [CBS-NY] Earlier here (Connecticut), here (N.J.: “retail food establishment”), here, etc.

Tags: churches, Michael Bloomberg, NYC, obesity, salt

Bloomberg: no food donations to homeless shelters is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Food law roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:14:26 +0000

NYC health officials, in yet another federally funded food-denunciation ad campaign, Photoshop leg off obese guy to turn him into supposed diabetic amputee [my new Cato post, Radley Balko; more Caroline May/Daily Caller]
Are White House advisors reading my posts? Probably not, but deregulation of dairy-farm “oil” spills still gave President an applause line in State of the Union speech [also at Cato]
More on L.A. schools’ healthy-lunch debacle [WSJ edit, earlier] It’s an illustration of how promising pilot projects often don’t scale [Megan McArdle] New Penn State study finds no connection between child obesity and availability of “bad” foods at school [NYT, Philly Mag, study via Wajert]
“Obesity plateau” of American population should offer chance for calm policy reflection, but probably won’t [Jacob Sullum] “Food Lawsuits Claiming ‘Addiction’ Coming To a Courtroom Near You?” [Lammi, Forbes]
Despite lip service to “letting consumers make their own food choices,” Obama won’t legalize raw milk [Obama Foodarama]
Coming in April from Tyler Cowen, “An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies” [Amazon, Freakonomics, Food and Drink category of MR, and you can follow Twitter account @AnEconomistGets;
"2011 Brought Lots of Good News for Salt Lovers" [Greg Conko, Open Market]

Tags: advertising, eat drink and be merry, Michael Bloomberg, obesity, salt

Food law roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

EU directive on kids, balloons and other toys

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:37:54 +0000

“Whistle blowers, that scroll out into a long coloured paper tongue when sounded – a party favourite at family Christmas meals – are now classed as unsafe for all children under 14. … the EU legislation will impose restrictions on how noisy toys, including rattles or musical instruments, are allowed to be.” Unsupervised children under 8 should not be allowed to blow up balloons, according to the European Union directive, which has just taken effect. [Telegraph; headline changed after objection that the Telegraph's headline was misleading]

In related news, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, addressing a United Nations conference on “the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases,” has said that “mak[ing] healthy solutions the default social option” on matters such as diet is “ultimately government’s highest duty.” [Sullum]

Tags: child protection, Europe, Michael Bloomberg, nanny state, United Nations

EU directive on kids, balloons and other toys is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

NYC cracks down on dogs in bars

Walter Olson — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 05:13:22 +0000

And community is undermined as a result, argues Thom Lambert at Truth on the Market.

Tags: alcohol, animals, Michael Bloomberg, NYC

NYC cracks down on dogs in bars is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Mayor Bloomberg and for-your-own-goodism

Walter Olson — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 12:28:18 +0000

I’m quoted in this article by the Daily Caller’s Caroline May on New York’s paternalist chief executive. Another memorable Bloomberg health-nanny moment: his health department’s edict ordering labs to report high blood sugar readings to the city whether patients want them to or not, the better to pave the way for “interventions.”

Tags: Michael Bloomberg, nanny state

Mayor Bloomberg and for-your-own-goodism is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

July 22 roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 11:30:14 +0000

Illinois prisoner sues for land to start his own country [AP]
“Have you got a piece of this lawsuit?” Important Roger Parloff piece on litigation finance [Fortune, now out from paywall] “Hedge Funds Finance Medical Malpractice Claims” [Jeff Segal, Michael Sacopulos and Wayne Oliver, Forbes via White Coat]
Criminalizing bad parenting: more scrutiny of “Caylee’s Law” proposals [Steve Chapman, L.A. Times and Boston Globe editorials, New Scientist]
Deal with ADA complainant averts closure of popular Popponesset Marketplace in Mashpee, Mass. [Cape Cod News]
Because it’s not as if NYC needs electricity or anything: Bloomberg gives $50 million to Sierra Club campaign to stop coal burning by utilities [WaPo] “Environmental justice” arguments deployed against pipeline that would bring Alberta tar sands oil to U.S. [John Kendrick, WLF]
Unimpaired have permanent right to sue: Fla. high court throws out asbestos-reform law [PBP]
Red tape demanded by quality-of-life progressivism suffices to strangle poorer urban economies [Walter Russell Mead]

Tags: asbestos, Chevron, disabled rights, environment, Florida, litigation finance, Massachusetts, medical malpractice, Michael Bloomberg, prisoners, regulation and its reform

July 22 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Bloomberg on perp walks

Walter Olson — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:58:28 +0000

If you don’t like the Mayor’s principles, he has different principles [NYDN]

Tags: Michael Bloomberg, prosecution

Bloomberg on perp walks is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system