Tag Archives: bankruptcy

New CDC Data Reveals ‘National Embarrassment’ of For-Profit Healthcare

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“Our leaders must act to kick insurance companies to the curb and enact Medicare for All now,” said one advocate.

By Brett Wilkins. Published 3-21-2024 by Common Dreams

Photo: March for Medicare for All/Facebook

Single-payer advocates on Thursday pointed to new federal life expectancy data—which shows Americans live shorter lives than people in any other major most-developed nation—as the latest proof of the need to enact a Medicare for All-type universal healthcare program.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. life expectancy was 77.5 years in 2022, an increase of 1.1 years from the previous year. The leading U.S. causes of death in 2022 were heart disease, cancer, unintentional injuries, and Covid-19.

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Families Rally for Opioid Accountability as Supreme Court Hears Purdue Case

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“I don’t want their money,” one woman who lost a son to the opioid crisis said of the Sackler family. “I want them in prison.”

By Julia Conley. Published 12-4-2023 by Common Dreams

Family members who lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic rallied at the U.S. Supreme Court on December 4, 2023 to oppose a bankruptcy deal that would allow Purdue Pharma to avoid liability for the deaths of millions of people from opioid use disorder. 
(Photo: @aneripattani /Twitter)

At the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, families whose loved ones are among the tens of thousands of Americans who have died of opioid use disorder each year over the past two decades rallied to push the nine justices to reject a proposed bankruptcy plan that would give the former owners of Purdue Pharma legal immunity—with many joining the U.S. Justice Department in arguing that the company should not be released from accountability for the opioid epidemic.

Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy in 2019, as the number of Americans killed by opioids hit 50,000 and the OxyContin manufacturer faced thousands of lawsuits alleging its aggressive marketing of the addictive painkiller had fueled the rising death toll.

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Biden Education Dept. Reverses on Student Debt Case After Reporting Stirred Outrage

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“This is why we have to support journalism,” one reporter said of The Daily Poster’s work exposing the administration’s attempt to “overturn a key legal victory for borrowers.”

By Jessica Corbett.  Published 2-4-2022 by Common Dreams

Screenshot: CNBC

In a boon for both student borrowers and investigative reporting, the U.S. Department of Education on Friday announced a reversal related to student loan court challenge just two days after The Daily Poster revealed the Biden administration was trying to “bolster a legal precedent against millions of debtors being crushed by bankruptcy laws.”

A Department of Education (DOE) spokesperson confirmed in a statement that the administration will now withdraw a notice of appeal filed last month after a federal judge in Delaware ruled in favor of providing 35-year-old Ryan Wolfson, an epileptic man who struggled to find full-time employment, with nearly $100,000 in student loan relief. Continue reading →

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PG&E Charged With 11 Felony Counts—Including Manslaughter—Over 2020 Zogg Fire

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“PG&E has a history with a repeated pattern of causing wildfires that is not getting better,” said Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett. “It’s only getting worse.”

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 9-24-2021

A fire crew battles the Zogg Fire on October 2, 2020. Photo: California Conservation Corps/Wikimedia Commons

One year after its aging equipment sparked a wildfire that killed four people in Northern California, Pacific Gas & Electric on Friday was hit with 31 charges, including 11 felonies, by a county prosecutor who cited the formerly bankrupt utility giant’s “repeated pattern” of causing such conflagrations.

Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett announced the charges—which include four counts of felony manslaughter—at a Friday press conference during which she said there is “sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt” that PG&E is “criminally liable for their reckless ignition” of the last autumn’s Zogg Fire, which burned more than 56,000 acres, destroyed over 200 buildings in Shasta and Tehama counties, and killed countless wild and domestic animals. Continue reading →

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Supreme Court Renders Puerto Rico ‘Powerless’ in the Face of Austerity

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‘To survive and thrive, Puerto Rico needs flexibility—not austerity.’

By Deirdre Fulton, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-13-2016

"The government should not have to wait for possible congressional action to avert the consequences of unreliable electricity, transportation and safe water," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the dissenting opinion. (Photo: Alex/flickr/cc)

“The government should not have to wait for possible congressional action to avert the consequences of unreliable electricity, transportation and safe water,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in the dissenting opinion. (Photo: Alex/flickr/cc)

Confirming for one Puerto Rican politician “that the island’s current territorial status has evolved into the worst of both worlds,” the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that U.S. bankruptcy code bars Puerto Rico from restructuring more than $20 billion of its $72 billion debt.

The 5-2 decision (pdf) “struck down a Puerto Rico law that would have let its public utilities restructure their debt over the objection of creditors, leaving it to Congress to help the island resolve its fiscal crisis,” Bloomberg reports.  Continue reading →

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