Gun control has been a recent new issue that if not taken care of properly will
either aid or diminish many businesses that sell and manufacture firearms. Due to
the rising issues that have been happening this year with mass shootings and
crime. A lot of people are now weighing in on stricter laws on gun control.
President Biden and his administration stated that one of their goals is. "First, the
final rule ensures that firearms with split receivers are subject to regulations
requiring serial numbers and background checks when purchased from a licensed
dealer, manufacturer or importer."
Which I completely stand for and I also believe that the age to legally own a
semi automatic rifle should be raised from 18 to 21. While there is no true age
as to when a person fully matures, it has shown when you are 18 you not as
mature as you would be at 21 or even 25. The legal age to purchase a handgun
is 21, just like to buy alcohol. While we are not certain that raising the age to
21 to be able buy an AR-15 or AK-47 will lower mass shootings or crime rate,
it may help. If the age does raise to 21 or the government does require that
ghost guns are to be traced by serial numbers. This would affect gun shops and
manufactures across the nation and importers.
The recent issue that has been experienced by a business in the United States and
also covered by the news is the issues related to the illegal telemarketing calls.
The customers have a complaint that they are getting fake and illegal
telemarketing calls related to the covid-19 pandemic that is increasing the fear of
the virus among the people as well as spreading messages including the tech
support scams and credit card interest rate reduction. The recorded messages
related to the services of air duct cleaning that filter out the covid-19 virus is
spreading out the illegal telemarketing calls, which is violating the Telemarketing
Sales Rule (TSR) (The United States Department of Justice, 2022). On April 26,
2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) decided to take some action against
these fake and illegal telemarketing calls. It has decided to take some strict action
against the owners of the firms and service providers of Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP) for facilitating and assisting the transmission of millions of fake
and illegal prerecorded telemarketing robocalls or scam calls to consumers across
the world (FTC takes action to stop voice over internet provider from facilitating
illegal telemarketing robocalls. Federal Trade Commission, 2022). For the resolution
of this issue, it is important to understand the application of the law and
constitution. The legislative rules related to FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR)
are helpful to combat telemarketing fraud, which defends against unscrupulous
telemarketers, provides consumers added privacy protections, and helps the
consumers to explain the difference between legitimate and fraudulent telemarketing.
I was recently reading about a lawsuit against Round-Up. The story was based out
of Florida, which is where I reside currently. The lawsuit was about the chemicals
they put in their products causing cancer. It is actually was used a lot in our
orange groves when round up first came out. The lawsuit states that chemicals
that are used in Round-Up are banned in some other countries and that the
company failed to let E.P.A know that their chemicals where being banned. The
lawyer that was on the prosecution, said that by failing to notify E.P.A of the
other nations banning it is failed to protect its consumers over here in the states.
After this lawsuit came out many other people came forward with their issues that
could have been caused by the same chemicals that were used in Round-Up. I
feel with all these people getting cancer because they used Round-Up for
prolonged periods of time that the company will face a bunch of back lash. They
could also possibly owe millions of dollars to the consumers they hurt. An issue I
read about in the news recently faced by the chemical maker TPC group was
about a fire in 2019 that led to major debt and bankruptcies. The fire cost the
company 1.3 billion dollars in secured debt and has led them to file for chapter
11 bankruptcy, with a plan to eliminate 950 million of the debt. The chemical
company manufactures petrochemicals butane and butadiene and is still active with
repairing the damages and debt due to the fire and explosions. "The company
faces federal and state investigations over the Port Neches fire, and is in
negotiations with a committee representing some 7,000 claims for property damage,
business interruption and personal injury, according to court filings." (Feast 2022)
Along with the fire the company also experienced a financial loss due to the
pandemic and a winter storm. Having those compelling reasons for a bankruptcy
would be more convincing to a court. The company is proposing to hand over
control to its lenders and has struggled with legal claims. The company is facing
federal and state investigations into the fire. They are in negotiations with a
committee for property damage, business interruption and personal injury. The case
is U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, No. 22-10493. (Feast, 2022)
The law is applied into this resolution by investigating claims on a state and
federal level and applying the the constitutional right to file for bankruptcy.
According to "United States Courts" (n.d.), "Article I, Section 8, of the United
States Constitution authorizes Congress to enact "uniform Laws on the subject of
Bankruptcies." (para. 1). The U.S. Constitution forbids the government from
restricting freedom of speech, but the Constitution does not apply to companies or
individuals that are not agents of the government. A private corporation or other
private party does not have to allow certain opinions to be expressed on its
website, except to the extent, if any, that a statute or other law might require it
to do so. As an example, if you had a blog that allowed people to post
comments, you would be free to delete any comment that you did not like.But, of
course, it is a problem that so much of the content on the internet is controlled
by only a very small number of very large corporations who try to suppress
information and opinions that do not fit their agenda.
In March 2021 there was a new development in the Volkswagen emissions
scandal. U. S. authorities had charged Volkswagen with committing fraud by
rigging diesel-powered vehicles in such a way as to cheat the emissions test.
Volkswagen later tried to cover up the cheat. Volkswagen pleaded guilty in the U.
S. in 2017 to settle criminal charges for around $4.3 billion. The company also
agreed to pay billions of dollars in compensation to hundreds of thousands of U.S.
owners of Volkswagen and Audi vehicles.
In an unusual move Volkswagen has said that it will seek compensation from a
former CEO of Volkswagen and from a former CEO of its Audi unit. The two
men are also facing charges of fraud in Germany but they deny involvement in
the fraud. Volkswagen says that they failed to take appropriate action to address
the problem. (Boston, 2021)
I have recently heard about a company named Meta, a social metaverse company
was sued by Paxton, a technology company because the Metaverse has been using
face recognition to inappropriately record peoples biometrics without their consent.
As expected Meta verse denied these claims and stated that they will ban the
facial recognition software however it want used for the purposes of collecting
biometrics but instead to make the Metaverse more realistic. Although the case is
still in the process;" Nevertheless, we are taking this step to prevent meritless and
distracting litigation under laws in these two states based on a mischaracterization
of how our features work. We remain committed to delivering AR experiences that
people love, and that a diverse roster of creators use to grow their businesses,
without needless friction or confusion,” according to ABC News. Meaning that the
conflict became a huge situation to the point where Texas and Illinois will now
be taking preventative measures and banning filters from the entire state. Any
media filter that alters or augments the face will now be banned from the entire
state. Due to Texas' facial recognition laws , Instagram (metas partnering company)
will be banning all filters with the exception color change and Green screen ones.
The issue I would like to discuss today is that of the companies being held
responsible for "take-home" Covid 19.I myself have seen many places that do not
hold up their end of the guidelines for employees to prevent the spread of covid
19. In this case, a woman brought home the virus from her work and reported
that she had to work side by side with sick co-workers during her shifts. The
issue is many companies are trying to prevent the spread but due to the economy
and lack of resources are unable to abide by the regulations put into effect. It is
possible that this case could open up several cases against businesses located in
California and pave the way for how they should be handled. For now, it is up
to the family to provide enough evidence to a judge to determine if the husband's
passing was a direct result of his wife having contracted the virus from work.
They can do this by providing enough evidence that the company did not follow
proper covid-19 safety protocols. An issue in the news recently that OSHA dealt
with was the COVID 19 vaccine mandates distributed down from President Biden.
He went back and forth with the public about it being required and it not being
required. The mandate was going to private employers with 100 or more
employees the ability to require vaccines for continued employment or have weekly
coronavirus testing completed. It would have also required all places that received
any forms of payment from Medicare or Medicaid to require their health care
workers to be vaccinated.
The constitution does allow the U.S. Government does not have the power to
require any American adult to have a vaccine. The mandate is unconstitutional and
there was no way either sectors would have survived court. OSHA was not
intended to fight a pandemic but to ward off health scares in the workplace. The
only mandate they can require drug testing. The federal government does not have
the authority to oversee and require that from public or private sectors. Because of
these issues the mandates were not allowed to be made mandatory. One of the
world's biggest and most popular companies is Walt Disney. Many of us grew up
watching the Disney channel and being a member of the Mickey Mouse Club.
Some of our favorite movies and our children's favorite movies were/ are made by
Disney. People travel far and wide to visit Disney world in Florida. Disney's
popularity has made it one of largest companies and brands in in the United
States.
When Disney speaks up the world listens so when it was made known that
Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida was passing a bill to prevent certain lessons
being taught to children Disney spoke against this bill. The bill is titled the
"Parental Rights in Education" bill, but it has been deemed the "Don't Say Gay
Bill". The bill prevents education in relation to gender and sexual identity in the
lower levels of grade school. Some would say the bill is also giving parents the
right to control what their children should learn at a young age. Also, a lot of
people feel like the bill is discriminatory against the LGBTQIA community. Disney
in particular felt is if this rule should not apply to them because it is
discriminating against a community of people. The law states that this rule applies
to everyone and there is no company regardless of size that is exempt from the
rules. Now, Disney is currently fighting to prevent this bill from passing and
applying to their company and plans to pursue legal action if this bills harms in
any way the LGBTQIA community. (Cole, 2022).
Currently, this bill has been signed and will go in effect as of July 2022. At this
time grade schools third grade and under will be prevented from teaching certain
gender/ sexual lessons or talk. Companies like Disney are still fighting to prevent
the bill from being final and or effecting their brand. The LGBTQIA community
is still fighting this bill. Currently, in the state of Florida there is no resolution
where both sides are satisfied or have a resolution and the future is to be
determined on how it will turn out. (Cole, 2022). As many of us may be familiar
with, many large corporations were faced with the challenges of vaccination
mandates and requirements of their employees over the course of the pandemic.
Amongst these businesses was United Airlines. During the peak of the pandemic,
United Airlines made the decision to require vaccinations of all of their employees
and those who could provide medical or religious exemptions would be temporarily
released from duty without pay and those who could not provide the exemptions
by the assigned deadline would be terminated from employment.Because United
Airlines is a private company, they are legally permitted to require proof of
vaccination. When faced with discrimination laws, they are required to provide
reasonable accommodations such as job positions that do not require contact with
the public or taking a financial loss of leave without pay (Gross, 2021).To current
date, those employees who had medical and religious exemptions were given the
opportunity to return back to full duty. However, lawsuits from affected individuals
have been filed claiming that vaccine mandates have infringed on their
constitutional, religious, and medical rights. Refusal of vaccines due to medical and
or religious reasons forced them to take unpaid leave which is in violation of the
Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Canfield,
2022).Although not completely resolved, both the law and constitution were applied
in the current attempts of resolution of this issue by shining light on the violation
of rights each individual were entitled to. The Americans with Disabilities Act
prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities and guarantees equal
opportunities for individuals with disabilities in employment while Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act, prohibits that employment discrimination be based on race, color,
religion, sex, and national origin. On January 13, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court
issued a decision to block the Biden administration's proposed Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations that would have required employers
of 100 or more employees to have their employees receive the vaccines for covid
or else take weekly tests. The Court ruled that OSHA lacked authority for such
rules because the statute that created it gave it authority "to set workplace safety
standards, not broad public health measures."
But in another decision released the same day, the U.S. Supreme Court "ruled that
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra did have the authority to
require all health care workers at institutions that receive Medicare and Medicaid
funding to get the jab, unless they get medical or religious exemptions." (Blitzer
& O'Neil, 2022). Discussion and controversy over gun laws and regulation have
again heightened regarding many different aspects of laws and regulations that are
and are not in place. One of the areas of discussion or controversy is regarding
untraceable firearms. A major "ghost gun" manufacturer and distributor of gun
parts that come in a kit with 80% of the gun is recently coming under heavy
scrutiny in some states . These kits come in pieces that need to be put together
and then the receiver still needs to be purchased. The problem with this product
is that there are no serial numbers on the gun parts so they are unregulated
firearms as they are unable to be traced. The use of these guns have increased
specifically in Baltimore, Maryland where they have recently enacted state laws
prohibiting the sell or purchase of these guns. Some would say that the 2nd
amendment of the Constitution would assist in protecting the right of people to
have these firearms without restriction. This does not speak to firearm regulations
that are in place regarding firearms, legal use of them, and any background checks
that are required to obtain them which this company does not follow.
Currently the lawsuit has been filed with the Baltimore Circuit Court against this
Nevada based business while they have also specifically detailed the definition of
firearms to include these buy and build guns. A current event that has been
covered by the news is the financial losses big-time business Game Stop in the
United States reports. Game Stop has reported “reported a $157.9 million net loss,
which is worse than the $66 million net loss in the year-ago quarter” . Game
Stop answer to net losses is NFTs.
In order to offset the huge loss, it is assessed that Game Stop is making a
transition “into non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which have become a new type of
digital souvenir that users can collect and resell. NFTs are digital items or artwork
that are tied to the blockchain so the original version can be authenticated” . As
other Bitcoin, Crypto, and other digital currencies on the blockchain have made a
successful lucrative asset flow it is possible for Game Stop to make a profitable
return. The NFT will only be able to be accessed through a wallet on the web
browser. Game Stop putting all their eggs in one basket is not the best business
plan. Another huge potential setback is with so many established currencies already
it might be tough to break in. When Blockbuster didn’t transition well with
competitor Netflix.com all but one now remains of Blockbuster. The good news is
Game Stop is protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution
and is protected under US Copyright Law. “NFTs under the US Copyright law are
considered creative works and/or maybe unoriginal works based on pre-existing
copyright-protected works” . zz NFTs also may embody or use trademarks. NFTs
could end up being more costly than current technology. Microsoft already has
coins to purchase to be able to buy digital merchandise such as games and/or
accessories. I would like to talk about the oil industry. I have lived in Bakersfield
California for most of my life and still to this day. Oil is a big part of Kern
County. The reason I bring it up is, because on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, 14 wells
were found leaking methane into our air, by a Oil Company by the name of
Griffin Resources LLC.This is a concern for the residents whom live here and are
concerned, and fear for there health. This company is home base is located in
Ventura, California, 3 hours south of Bakersfield.
The issues people of Kern have is, the leaking wells, that harm humans, and the
earths ozone, and the company just put dirt over the holes thinking gas will
slowly leak and not show signs of methane when taking a reading. According to
California Office of Emergency Services they have been aware of this since early
May and now we are in June and they are just putting dirt over the leaking
areas where leaks were found. The company did follow the rules, and call the
Bakersfield Fire department, to review and make sure they can get back to
business. According to BFD, there were no signs of methane to be detected.
California Geologic Energy Management Division had sent Griffin Resources LLC.
a notice to shut down the wells for two weeks. Was it done I do not know
according to the news they just covered with dirt and received a green light from
the BFD stating no harm can come from the leaking wells and OK to continuing
to work.
The rules and laws that govern oil company's is way to much to mention, they
revise the new law's and rules every year. For more information regarding rules
you can visit. https://www.loc.gov/collections/united-states-statutes-at-large/about-this-
collection/. According to Griffin Resources LLC. company they complied with all
the State, and Federal and International laws that are required to drill for oil.
They had found a way to cover the holes and pass inspection to continue to
work. What they did not do is shut down like asked by the California Geologic
Energy Management Division to plug and abandon the wells. Did they, do what
was asked? According to our local news they were using a cruisers/tracker to
cover hole with dirt well will no longer leak if ground is covered, called BFD
for inspection, passed and were go to get back to work. This issue results back
from 2008 but just recently settled against Facebook. I was a resident of Illinois
at this time so I was awarded a settlement check from the class action lawsuit. I
was shocked to see this check mailed to me as I currently reside in Florida now
so I had to research what this was all about.
After looking into why this money was issued I found that there was a privacy
law passed in Illinois around 2008. This law was called the pioneering biometric
Information privacy act. While reading about this settlement it seems this is a
state-to-state law and that it doesn't apply to everyone. This law is set to protect
those from using facial recognition to have the data stored without permission.
Some states have this law but don't allow consumers to take any legal action,
However, Illinois allows the consumers to take legal action.
The scary thing to me is how do we know these things happen to us. How does
this affect my privacy? I still am not sure how I was even awarded the check. I
feel that upon receiving this settlement I should have been advised what was
exactly done to me and how I was violated to the point of being awarded this
settlement amount. To me, it's been 14 years and I have never noticed anything
different in how Facebook operates besides allowing more scam artists to advertise
on it. A prime example that involves multiple branches of the judicial system, and
is specifically related to the First Amendment, is the ongoing, highly polarized,
argument of Texas House Bill 20 (“HB20”). It’s been all over the news. “HB20”
was signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott on September 2, 2021. In a
nutshell, the new law was introduced, and backed by Republicans, to prohibit large
social media companies, like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, from censoring or
restricting user content based on “the viewpoint of the user or another person”
(Cain, et al., 2021). It would require a level of public transparency and quarterly
reporting of content management and actively censored content. The law allows
Texas citizens to sue large tech companies for being censored (again, in a
nutshell).
This is a hot topic, centrally focused on the First Amendment (U.S. Constitution),
and has been climbing the judicial ladder to different levels of the court system.
Texas state court blocked the law in December 2021, and that ruling was put on
hold by the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who has not
yet issued a ruling on the validity of the arguments in the case. Most recently,
the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the law, siding with the large tech industry
groups. “The industry groups sued to try to block the law, challenging it as a
violation of the free speech rights of companies, including to editorial discretion
on their platforms, under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment” (Chung, 2022).
With the world of technology growing so are people's concerns with their privacy.
Facebook is a social media app that most people above 13 have. In 2018, they
had a serve data breach that caused their platforms' users to question their privacy.
In 2018, Facebook was subject to a huge data breach that compromised the
personal date of around 50 million of its users without their consent (sal19.). This
information was allegedly used for political purposes and advertising. Facebook has
had several data breaches and privacy violations that have caused them to be
under fire in the past.
The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Facebook on the basis of
Facebook violating the FTC Act’s prohibition against deceptive practices. The data
leak violated theses and people were able to gain access of other's phone number
and information for advertising purposes. There is an active case against them as
well as a 5 billion dollar settlement (Staff, the P. N. O.). Facebook has new
privacy structures such as two factor identification, and they must encrypt all
passwords and scan to be sure
References
Blitzer, R., & O'Neil, T. (2022, January 13). Supreme Court blocks Biden OSHA
vaccine mandate, allows rule for health care workers. Fox Business.
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https://www.courthousenews.com/attorneys-spar-over-united-airlines-vaccine-mandate-at-
fifth-circuit/
Gross, J. (2021, June 9). Yes, your employer can require you to be vaccinated.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/09/business/covid-vaccine-employer-rules.html
Cole, Devan (2022). DeSantis signs controversial bill restricting certain LGBTQ
topics in the classroom. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/politics/dont-say-gay-bill-
desantis-signs/index.html
Nash, A. (2022, May 18). Some social media filters have been banned in Texas
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Feast , Lincoln (2022). Chemical maker TPC Group files pre-arranged bankruptcy .
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chemical-maker-tcp-group-files-pre-arranged-
bankruptcy-2022-06-02/
FTC takes action to stop voice over internet provider from facilitating illegal
telemarketing robocalls. Federal Trade Commission. (2022, April 26). Retrieved June
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