ReleaseWire Connect

The state of California's Labor Commissioner, Angela Bradstreet recently announce that they had reached an agreement with the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. regarding the issue of unpaid wages to its workers from California. Bradstreet announced that Wal-Mart has agreed to pay $3.9 million and more in overtime payment, waiting time penalties and the equivalent interests to around 50,000 employees. Wal-Mart also agreed to pay civil penalties to the state of California for state employment law and policies it has violated.

An assembly of reporters, together with members of their family, filed charges against Hewlett-Packard Co. and its two former executives. These journalists and their families have been subject to the technological giant's boardroom surveillance system. As part of the spying scheme, HP obtained their confidential telephone records in secret.

In an attempt to engender the federal government's liability in its failure to prevent the September 11 terrorist attacks, the airline companies being sued by victims filed complaints seeking testimonies from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Seven airline companies filed separate complaints on Tuesday with the United States Court for the Southern District of New York.

A steady increase in the number of accounted dog bite incidents has been noted during the recent years in Hawaii.

In a whistle-blowing case in Miami, Florida, certified neurosurgeon, Linda I. Bland and the hospital administration where she was employed agreed to reimburse the government with the outstanding amount of $1.275 million for their illicit medical performances on several Medicare patients.

Social Security Administration (SSA) has set a record backlog on disability appeals filed by members. It is said that an outstanding number of unresolved cases has reached 745,000.

California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. asked the public to examine their vehicle tires carefully

A new study on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was released by the New England Journal of Medicine or NEJM showing results in the use of some antidepressants in the course of pregnancy. According to the study, the use of these antidepressants during certain stages in pregnancy, like in particular, the "selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors or widely known as the SSRIs, have not significant effect on the increase in risk of having birth defects.

The issue of clergy sexual abuse was again fired up in Los Angeles after a former priest of the Roman Catholic sect was arrested on charges of child molestation last Tuesday. This is incidentally five years after the previous allegations of sexual abuse have been thrown out due to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court canceling a statute of limitations extension in California for such cases, as prosecutors have claimed. Sixty-nine years old George Miller was charged with alleged sexual abuse of a boy during the period of March 1988 up to March 1991. These incidents happened when Miller had been assigned as priest in Pacoima's Guardian Angel Church, Los Angeles County.

The dock clerks of the United States' biggest port complex came to a tentative agreement with their employers regarding a new employment contract on Thursday. Even if it was just provisional, the contract had served as a measure to prevent a strike to occur. If the employee's had staged a strike due to dead end in negotiations, it could have caused such crippling effects on the nation's shipping activities. If a strike would happen on this principal port, billions of dollars would be lost, according to a negotiator in the agreement.