Washington — In response to multiple stakeholder requests, OSHA has extended until Oct. 28 the comment period on a proposed rule that would revise the agency’s standards on occupational exposure to lead in general industry and construction.

Tumwater, WA — Process safety management-focused updates to Washington state’s workplace safety rules for petroleum refineries are set to go into effect Dec. 27.

Washington — The Environmental Protection Agency, in accordance with the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, is seeking comment on proposed significant new use rules for six chemical substances that are subject to agency premanufacture notices.

Source: Pravda.Ru photo archive If you are a smoker who wants to get rid of the nasty habit, you can bid farewell to cigarettes on May 31, the World No Tobacco Day. This day appeared in 1988 when the World Health Organization set a goal to the international community to root out the problem of tobacco smoking in the 21st century. Needless to say that the noble initiative has not brought any results: tobacco still rules the world and kills people. In Russia, smoking remains the most widely-spread ill habit. Up to 65 percent of Russian males and up to 30 percent of females are smokers. The number of smokers in Russia has increased by 440,000 people during the recent two decades. The growth is based on the involvement of new social groups – women and young people. The share of smoking women in the age group of 20-29 is ten times as much as in the group of women over 60. “This year all those who want to quit smoking will have a wonderful opportunity to quit with thousands of other people who care about their own health. You won’t be alone here – you will quit with thousands of other people,” a message from Russia’s Healthcare Ministry said.

[Politics] :
The Supreme Court has ruled against a man who cited his socialist beliefs as grounds for objecting to military service.  In upholding a lower court decision to dismiss the man’s case against the state conscription agency, the top court said Oct. 25 that there had been no error in interpreting the legal ...

[more...]

[Science] :
An international high-level government-civilian meeting opened in Seoul on Monday for discussions on the principles and regulations for artificial intelligence(AI) application in the military. According to Seoul's foreign and defense ministries, this is the Second Summit on Responsible AI in the ...

[more...]

[Sports] :
The Korea Football Association(KFA) has revised its regulations on selecting the head coach of the national football team in a bid to boost the competitiveness and efficiency in operating the team.  Following a meeting of its board of directors in Seoul on Tuesday, the association said that in order to ...

[more...]

New State food rules recently put in place are expected to enforce safe food handling and reduce transmission of food-borne illness.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with students on Wednesday, ruling that a former cheerleader's online F-bombs about her school is protected speech under the First Amendment.

By an 8-1 vote, the court declared that school administrators do have the power to punish student speech that occurs online or off campus if it genuinely disrupts classroom study. But the justices concluded that a few swear words posted online from off campus, as in this case, did not rise to the definition of disruptive.

"While public schools may have a special interest in regulating some off-campus student speech, the special interests offered by the school are not sufficient to overcome B. L.'s interest in free expression in this case," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the court's majority.

At issue in the case was a series of F-bombs issued in 2017 on Snapchat by Brandi Levy, then a 14-year-old high school cheerleader who failed to win a promotion from the junior varsity to the varsity cheerleading term at her Pennsylvania school.

"I was really upset and frustrated at everything," she said in an interview with NPR in April. So she posted a photo of herself and a friend flipping the bird to the camera, along with a message that said, "F*** the school ... F*** cheer, F*** everything."

Suspended from the team for what was considered disruptive behavior, Brandi and her parents went to court. They argued that the school had no right to punish her for off-campus speech, whether it was posted online while away from school, as in this case, or spoken out loud at a Starbucks across the street from school.

A federal appeals court agreed with her, declaring that school officials have no authority to punish students for speech that occurs in places unconnected to the campus.

The decision marked the first time that an appeals court issued such a broad interpretation of the Supreme Court's landmark student speech decision more then a half century ago. Back then, in a case involving students suspended for wearing black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War, the court ruled that students do have free speech rights under the Constitution, as long as the speech is not disruptive to the school.

Although Brandi Levy is now in college, the school board in Mahanoy, Pa., appealed to the Supreme Court, contending that disruption can come from outside the campus but still have serious effects on campus. It pointed to laws in 47 states that require schools to enforce anti-bullying and anti-harassment policies.

The high court, however, focused on the facts in Levy's case, concluding that while her posts were less than admirable, they did not meet the test of being disruptive.

"We do not believe the special characteristics that give schools additional license to regulate student speech always disappear when a school regulates speech that takes place off campus," Breyer wrote. "The school's regulatory interests remain significant in some off-campus circumstances."

In a concurring opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote: "If today's decision teaches any lesson, it must be that the regulation of many types of off-premises student speech raises serious First Amendment concerns, and school officials should proceed cautiously before venturing into this territory."

In a dissent, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the school was right to suspend Levy because students like her "who are active in extracurricular programs have a greater potential, by virtue of their participation, to harm those programs."

"For example, a profanity-laced screed delivered on social media or at the mall has a much different effect on a football program when done by a regular student than when done by the captain of the football team," Thomas wrote. "So, too, here."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan on Friday came in a closely watched lawsuit that tested the ability of Internet Archive to lend out the works of writers and publishers protected by U.S. copyright laws.

The EU's Digital Services Act is one of the most ambitious pieces of legislation on controlling online content since the advent of social media, setting major obligations on how platforms deal with free speech. Meta, TikTok, Twitter, and others have to invest heavily in building compliance teams to meet the new rules.

The companies will have six months to demonstrate their compliance with their obligations and can be fined up to 10% of their annual global turnover for DMA violations.

TikTok has been fined $368 million by European regulators for breaching data privacy rules and failing to protect children's privacy. The investigation found that the app's sign-up process for teen users made their accounts public by default, posing a risk to underage users. The "family pairing" feature also allowed adults to turn on direct messaging for users aged 16 and 17 without their consent.

The European Commission in September opened investigations to assess whether Microsoft's Bing, Edge and Microsoft Advertising as well as Apple's iMessage should be subject to the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

The draft AI rules have to be agreed by the European Parliament and European Union member states. They have so far been discussed three times in trilogues, which are meetings between parliament and EU states to thrash out the final versions of laws.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal would subject companies like Alphabet, Apple, PayPal and Block's CashApp to bank-like supervision, with CFPB examiners inspecting their privacy protections, executives' conduct and compliance with laws barring unfair and deceptive practices.

The use of the technology will also require individual's consent, the CAC said in a statement. It added that non-biometric identification solutions should be favored over facial recognition in cases where such methods are equally effective.

Are you thinking about restocking your packaging supplies? If you are, then you have a lot to think about before making the investment. 

Rules are so easy to make that safety offices are often accused of being a “Rule Mill” because they continuously produce their rule-of-the month. Why do we create so many rules? One particular cog in our mill that causes us to create rules is incidents. When we suffer an incident, we want to throw every tool in the arsenal to keep it from happening again.

EEOC’s final rule and interpretive guidance for implementation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was published in the April 19, 2024 Federal Register.

Empowering Mature Singles with Fresh Perspectives on Modern Relationships

Federal Judge rules in favor of a crypto company, argues SEC committed an abuse of power.

Gorick Ng, career advisor at Harvard, tried to learn about the world of work at an early age, helping his mother search job listings and send out resumes. To launch his own career, he studied hard in school, secured an Ivy League education, and landed a plum job. But he still found himself struggling - as many first-generation college graduates do - because he didn’t understand workplace norms in the way that his (mostly white, middle- to upper-class) peers did. While they'd been taught how to network, angle for promotions, and "speak the language," he was left to figure it out on his own. Now, Ng counsels young people on how to avoid those mistakes and take on their first job in a way that puts them on the fast-track to success. He's the author of the book "The Unspoken Rules: Secrets to Starting Your Career Off Right."

The Nevada Division of Industrial Relations proposed rules to implement the various provisions of a multifaceted 2023 bill that made a host of changes to the state’s workers’ compensation law. The…

The Appellate Division of New Jersey’s Superior Court affirmed a trial court’s decision granting summary judgment that dismisses an intentional harm case, saying the injured worker failed to clear the high…

Oregon's Workers' Compensation Division has posted amendments to rules governing the assessment that supports the state's Workers' Benefit Fund. The proposed changes are as follows: Amended Rule 003 includes the effective date for OAR 436-070,…

The Governing Committee for the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau will review pending legislative, regulatory and judicial actions during a Sept. 25 meeting. Committee members will hear reports on the annual…

The California Division of Workers’ Compensation opened a second 15-day comment period on a proposal to incorporate Medi-Cal’s reimbursement rules into its pharmacy fee schedule. In addition to technical corrections, the…

A federal appellate court has again ruled that a contractor was immune from civil liability for injuries suffered by an employee of a crane company it hired. Case: Hall v. SAC…

The U.S. Department of Labor released a proposed rule that would require employers to develop an injury and illness prevention plan to control heat hazards in workplaces affected by excessive…

The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is holding a reporting webinar Sept. 12. The program will cover best practices and reminders for non-group health plans that are required to…

The Colorado Division of Workers’ Compensation is holding a meeting to discuss a preliminary draft of updated rules for the independent medical examination process. Draft rules that the division is considering…

The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation on Friday proposed rules for designated doctor procedures and requirements for lifetime income benefits to implement House Bill 2468. HB 2468, which was enacted in…

The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation seeks public comments on draft rules that would allow doctors to use telemedicine to perform maximum medical improvement examinations. “For example, when a treating doctor treats…

The Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation posted proposed changes to its pharmacy benefit rules that remove obsolete provisions and update reference language for consistency with other regulations. “When the rules were originally adopted,…

It has been two years since WorkCompCentral's last Case Law Update or an update on the WCAB rules and regulations. Join us for a half-day webinar focused on Case Law…

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation announced that a handful of rules are up for review. The BWC said its claims procedure rules in Chamber 4123-3, as well as the miscellaneous…

The Montana Department of Labor and Industry proposed rules that would add intentional misclassification to the list of violations that justify assessing the maximum penalty. The department will hold a hearing…

The South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission adopted new benefit payment rules after lawmakers permitted the agency to allow electronic payments. The commission on Friday published a statement announcing that the new…

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 6, 2023 — Lifesaving final rules to prohibit the sale of menthol cigarettes and all flavored cigars will be further delayed, according to the Biden administration’s Fall 2023 Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory ...