With cybersecurity risks increasing and evolving moving into 2023, the federal government is taking steps to help secure our cyber infrastructure. The recent passing of the 2023 omnibus spending agreement included additional funds for a variety of federal agencies in order to strengthen our cybersecurity apparatus. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (“CISA”) received $1.3 billion for its cybersecurity programs. This is a $230 million increase over last year ...
The U.S. does not have a federal data privacy law. In the absence of an all-encompassing data privacy law, the U.S. has a myriad of individual state privacy laws. The significant state data privacy laws that are often used as models are the California Privacy Rights Act (which amends that California Consumer Privacy Act), the Virginia Consumer Data Privacy Act, the Colorado Privacy Act, and the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act ...
On January 20, 2023, Governor Glenn Youngkin announced that Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) plans to invest $35 billion by 2040 to establish multiple data center campuses across Virginia, pending legislative approval. Numerous localities in the Commonwealth are under consideration, and although none have been selected, residents in Northern Virginia have voiced concerns ...
In recent years, there has been a surge in new union organizing efforts and tactics to unionize and organize employers in the state of Florida. From Amazon workers in Jacksonville to farmworkers in Immokalee, unions are imploring Floridian workers to turn to unions to help address issues like low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions. Unionizing has become more heavily publicized, even romanticized, in the media and many employees have bought in to the movement ...
In recent years, there has been a surge in new union organizing efforts and tactics to unionize and organize employers around the country. From Amazon workers in Jacksonville to Starbucks employees in 280 stores and counting, unions are imploring workers to turn to unions to help address issues like low wages, lack of benefits, and poor working conditions. Unionizing has become more heavily publicized, even romanticized, in the media and many employees have bought in to the movement ...
Construction continues to be one of the deadliest industries in the United States, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) is heavily targeting construction workplaces. In 2022, OSHA inspected construction workplaces more than any other industry, and OSHA’s focus on construction employers is expected to continue this year ...
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) plans to prioritize its efforts to correct discrimination and harassment in the construction industry following a review of data that revealed the construction sector to be one of the most challenging areas in terms of discrimination and harassment cases ...
In 2018, second-term Governor Roy Cooper issued climate-related Executive Orders, which was followed in 2019 by the state’s clean energy plan ...
Federal infrastructure funding is coming to North Carolina and Pennsylvania! Recently, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced an award of $1.2 billion in grants for nine projects around the country. This includes projects in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The funding for these projects is coming from the new National Infrastructure Project Assistance (Mega) discretionary grant program ...
While a recent Pennsylvania ruling issued In February 2023 has been hailed as a victory for the underfunded school districts in the state, it could be a long road ahead before meaningful change makes its way to the students, teachers, and schools who need it the most ...
As a new wave of book banning appears to be to be sweeping the nation, public school libraries are relying on a 1982 plurality opinion for guidance and coming up with more questions than answers ...
The Providing Urgent Maternal Protections for Nursing Mothers Act (“PUMP Act”), enacted by Congress in late December 2022, provides more nursing mothers with reasonable break time to express breast milk after childbirth and requires employers to designate private locations (other than bathrooms) that are free from intrusion and shielded from view for this purpose ...
With only four months left before most changes to the federal Standards for Safeguarding Customer Information (“Safeguards Rule”) – a component of the Gramm-Leach Bliley Act (“GLBA”) that provides for the protection of consumers’ privacy and personal information – take effect, the Federal Student Aid Office is focused squarely on postsecondary educational institutions and third-party servicers, according to its recent announcement ...
Illinois has the strictest biometric privacy law in the country with the Biometric Information Privacy Act (“BIPA”). The BIPA requires employers who collect employees’ biometric data to follow a number of protocols. These protocols include (1) maintaining a written policy about the collection and storage of employee biometric data, (2) providing employees with written notice of that policy, and (3) obtaining informed consent from employees to collect biometric data ...
Nearly 106,000 Americans are currently on waiting lists for donor organs and 17 die each day while waiting. The holy grail for rising to meet this demand and end this suffering will be the ability to “print” the organs, muscles, and tissues from individually grown cells, lowering the need for human donors and the complicated and sometimes unbearable stress that goes along with donor wait lines ...
As consumer data collection continues to rise in the United States and around the world, aggregated health data is becoming a more common product bought and sold by data brokers. While worrying on its own, even more concerning is the growth in individually identifiable data being sold by private companies, which could range from the number of occurrences of a certain condition in a given zip code to the names, addresses, and incomes of individuals with the same condition ...
On March 1, 2023, the Department of Education (“DOE”) released guidance related to the instances in which it will require assumption of personal liability for an institution’s continued participation in Title IV programs. Last year, the DOE announced updated signature requirements for institutions’ Program Participation Agreements (“PPA”). Institutions entering into PPAs already agree to comply with regulatory requirements related to financial responsibility ...
Originally published in West Virginia Banker With plaintiff attorneys seeing potential large dollar settlements and verdicts, along with increased regulatory scrutiny, banks need to review their overdraft practices. As noted by the American Bankers Association, banks resolve most customer inquiries and disputes informally, with a phone call or through digital channels. Banks are incentivized in today’s hyper-competitive marketplace to do so to maintain customer satisfaction ...
Biometric identifiers are unique to every individual. They include your fingerprints, facial structure, and even how you walk. There is the Illinois Biometric Information Protection Act (“BIPA”), and biometric protection bills are currently working their ways through the legislatures in Maryland and Mississippi ...
When a union knocks on an employer's door, it can be a shock and awe experience for the unprepared employer. It is important for employers to understand their rights and obligations when dealing with unions to ensure that they make the right decisions for their business. And, like most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound or more of cure ...
When a union knocks on an employer's door, it can be a shock and awe experience for the unprepared employer. It is important for employers to understand their rights and obligations when dealing with unions to ensure that they make the right decisions for their business. And, like most things, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound or more of cure ...
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) guarantees bank deposits of up to $250,000. Following the failure of two banks in recent weeks, regulators created some confusion among the industry and the public when they guaranteed customer deposits above this limit claiming that doing so was necessary to stem serious systemic risk to the financial system ...
An old adage is that history will repeat itself. In other words, all of this has happened before, and it will all happen again. Another banking crisis is upon us following the familiar cycle of financial deregulation. The failures of Silvergate, Silicon Valley, and Signature Banks provide an opportunity to learn and to act. From the early 1980s through the 1990s, Presidents and Congress worked together on “financial services modernization ...
When you hear the word cyberattack you think of attacks on banks, large box stores, or medical facilities. You should add the construction industry to that list because it is the third most common target for cyberattacks. These types of attacks are only increasing because bad actors have created processes that have streamlined how they attack businesses. They like to attack the construction industry because large sums of money are being transferred in and out of bank accounts via wire transfers ...
Project owners whose activities are subject to environmental permitting requirements often carry a heavy financial burden in securing and maintaining these permits. For those who also find themselves having to defend a permit appeal in Pennsylvania, this burden may be a little heavier as a result of a recent decision from the Commonwealth’s highest court ...
