A New California Law Takes Aim at Uber and Lyft

The biggest change in the American labor market this decade came quietly from California on Tuesday, as the state legislature passed a bill requiring companies to treat workers as employees, not as independent contractors, in most regular jobs. The prospective law would reform the business models of Lyft, Uber, DoorDash, and other giants of the so-called —companies that routinely treat field employees as contractors. As legislation, it proposes to change what is often termed, with yellow floats of optimism attached, “the future of work.” For some years now, we have been told that working when you want, in pursuits you love, piecing together a salary outside the constraints of the time clock and the gray flannel suit, was a bright, creative life awaiting those who desired it. The new bill, which, if signed, would go into effect next year, concedes that this progressive vision has been a mirage. read more »

'Purdue and the Sacklers must be shut down completely': critics slam opioids settlement

Connecticut attorney general says company ‘started this fire and poured gasoline on it’ as many states reject tentative deal

At least 20 states have rejected a tentative multibillion-dollar settlement with the OxyContin maker, Purdue Pharma, that would go toward helping with the costs of the opioids crisis, with one attorney general accusing the drugmaker of choosing to “pour gasoline” on the fire it had started. read more »

Nursing home mogul Philip Esformes sentenced to 20 years for $1.3 billion Medicaid fraud

Former Illinois and Florida nursing home mogul Philip Esformes wept and pleaded for mercy Thursday before being sentenced to 20 years in prison for what the U.S. Justice Department called the largest single health care bribery and kickback scheme in American history.

Esformes, who once controlled a network of more than two dozen health care facilities that stretched from Chicago to Miami, garnered $1.3 billion Medicaid revenues by bribing medical professionals who referred patients to his Florida facilities then paid off government regulators as vulnerable residents were injured by their peers, prosecutors said. read more »

PG&E Agrees To Pay $11 Billion Insurance Settlement Over California Wildfires

California utility giant Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has agreed to a second large settlement over devastating wildfires, saying it will pay $11 billion to resolve insurance companies' claims from fires in Northern California's wine country in 2017 and the 2018 Camp Fire.

"These claims are based on payments made by insurance companies to individuals and businesses with insurance coverage for wildfire damages" in those catastrophic blazes, PG&E said in announcing the deal.

While the $11 billion sum is large, it's far smaller than the roughly $20 billion that a group of insurance companies had sought, after paying out billions to California wildfire victims. read more »