Category Archives: Legal

Golden State Killer Suspect Arrest Opens Floodgates for Law Enforcement Use of DNA Websites

Police are casting their DNA-matching efforts wider via genealogy websites.

Wolf Richter: Deutsche Bank CoCo Bonds Plunge, Shares Hit Record Low, after US Entity Makes FDIC’s “Problem Bank List”

Double whammy regularity revelations wallop Deutsche bonds and shares, raising the old question: When will she buckle?

Unsafe At Any Speed Redux, Self-Driving Cars, and Legal Liability

Senators seek information on testing protocols for self-driving cars; mandatory arbitration for further lawsuits involving such vehicles looms as a threat.

Do Fewer Settlements by Pharmaceutical Companies Mean Even Less Accountability for Their Execs?

Drug company settlements with the Feds, which never were very tough to begin with, are also becoming less frequent.

Eyewitness Sketches Provide ‘Stormy’ Results, Can Lead to False Convictions

On the shortcomings of eyewitness memories, and in particular, forensic sketches based them.

Payday Lending Rule Survives…For Now

Congress has failed to use Congressional Review Act procedures to scupper the payday lending rule. Pending CFPB and court challenges may still doom the measure.

CalPERS Issues False and Misleading Press Release to Try to Railroad Board on Private Equity Industry Enrichment Scheme

A brazen example of CalPERS staff trying to muscle board members and have them violate their fiduciary duty regarding a massive, misguided, and sketchy private equity outsourcing scheme.

CalPERS Board Members Say They Don’t Want to Do Their Jobs, Can’t Be Bothered With Dealing With Their Mail

The CalPERS board makes an embarrassing display of how little interest it has in rolling up its sleeves and doing some work.

Ecuador Hints It May Hand Over Assange

Assange’s luck in staying out of the hands of the US may be coming to an end.

Update: CalPERS Chief Financial Officer Charles Asubonten Now Not Presenting at Board Meeting Today

A bit of evidence suggests that Charles Asubonten may be on his way out of CalPERS.

Criminality, CalPERS Style: Board Members Misappropriate Public Funds by Signing Blank, Undated Expense Forms

The CalPERS Board President, Priay Mathur, the Board Services Unit, and board members are pre-signing expense forms in violation of the California Penal code.

Election-Rigging, CalPERS-Style: How Voting by Phone Was Designed to Favor Incumbent, Suppress Support for Challenger

CalPERS not only looks to have tried to throw the phone voting in a runoff election last year in favor of the incumbent, but it is acting awfully guilty by refusing to cough up records and data.

CalPERS Has Chief Financial Officer Charles Asubonten, With Verifiable Misrepresentations on His Resume, Presenting to the Board Next Week. What Gives?

CalPERS CEO Marcie Frost appears to be doubling down on her initial bad judgment about Chief Financial Officer Charles Asubonten’s resume misrepresentations by featuring him prominently at a board committee meeting next week.