September 22, 2015

Bees are dying, and it’s going to hurt all of us (starting with our pocketbooks)

How big is the problem? Bees are dying, whole hives of them, by the millions. These mass die-offs have been happening since about 2006. During the 12-month period ending in April, 2015, beekeepers reported losing 42.1 percent of their colonies. The normal rate of yearly loss is only 10-15 percent.

July 29, 2015

Proposed settlement in Canadian oil train derailment case

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the volume of crude oil being shipped by rail from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale to oil refineries throughout the United States and Canada – and with that increase, several train derailments resulting in oil spills or explosions.

May 1, 2015

DOT announces final rule to strengthen safe transportation of flammable liquids by rail

On April 17, 2015 the Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a series of emergency orders designed to help improve the safety of transporting crude oil by rail. In its news release announcing the new orders, the DOT stated, “Immediately slowing trains to 40 mph, increasing inspections for wheels and related…

May 1, 2015

Tax strategies: Can a wealthy, sophisticated investor be defrauded by his lawyers?

Jones Swanson spends a good bit of its commercial litigation group’s energy focused on a particular niche of litigation over tax strategies which have been found by the Internal Revenue Service to have been abusive. No matter how many times we are involved in these cases on behalf of those…