A recent risk-based audit of Grand Canyon University conducted by the Arizona State Approving Agency (SAA) for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs did not “show any findings” related to the institution’s doctoral disclosures, which have been targeted by the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) through a $37.7 million fine.
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The Goldwater Institute (GI) sued the U.S. Department of Education last week over fining Grand Canyon University (GCU) almost $40 million.
The fine was purportedly for “insufficiently inform[ing] PhD students that they may have to take continuing courses while completing their doctoral dissertations,” GI said in a press release. GI noted that the $37 million fine against the Christian university “is 10 times bigger than penalties the Education Department assessed against Penn State and Michigan State for covering up the sexual crimes of Jerry Sandusky and Larry Nassar.”
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Georgia Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King on Tuesday announced a stiff fine for Blue Cross Blue Shield for multiple violations of state law and other “serious issues.”
The insurance provider will be forced to pay $5 million, following a months-long investigation by the state agency.
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A new report from The Sycamore Institute shows Tennessee collects nearly $38 million annually in fines and fees through the criminal justice system, while county governments are collecting a shrinking amount in fines and fees.
While the Tennessee Department of Revenue reports its collections of fines and fees annually, other agencies, such as the Department of Correction, the Department of Safety & Homeland Security and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, do not report detailed information on their collections.
The Sycamore Institute study found 360 fees and fines authorized in Tennessee law, from being charged with a crime to civil asset forfeiture to incarceration costs.
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by Tim Pearce The U.S. Coast Guard has ordered a U.S. energy company to plug a 14-year-old offshore oil leak or face a rolling fine of $40,000 a day, The Washington Post reported. Taylor Energy must “institute a … system to capture, contain, or remove oil” from its former drill site 12 miles off the coast of Louisiana, the Oct. 23 order said. The site has leaked between 300 and 700 barrels of crude a day since 2004, adding up to 1.5 million to 3.5 million barrels of total oil leaked, according to WaPo. The company submitted a plan to the Coast Guard on Nov. 8, but federal officials rejected the plan in favor of another by an independent contractor that “provided both the best capability and timeline for responding” to the oil spill, a Coast Guard spokesman told WaPo. The company, which sold off all assets and ceased drilling operations in 2008, has pushed back against the Coast Guard’s analysis of the leak. The Coast Guard has based its action partly on an analysis commissioned by the Justice Department that Taylor Energy says is flawed. “The inflated volumes are completely inconsistent with the scientific record built over a decade…
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by Nick Givas A Delta Air Lines customer was hit with a $500 fine from customs, for saving an apple she’d received on her flight from Paris back to the United States. Crystal Tadlock from Arvada, Colo., said a flight attendant gave her the apple in a plastic bag. She wasn’t hungry, but decided to save it in her bag for later, Fox31 Denver reported. When she went through customs her bag was searched and the apple was discovered. Taldock explained the situation and asked if she could eat it or throw it out, but she was told “no.” Customs then handed her a $500 fine for possessing the apple. “He had asked me if my trip to France was expensive and I said, ‘Yeah.’ I didn’t really get why he was asking that question, and then he said, ‘It’s about to get a lot more expensive after I charge you $500,’” Tadlock told Fox31. Part of the blame should fall on Delta for not reminding passengers they couldn’t take fruit off the plane, she said. She thinks it’s ridiculous that she was ticketed when the apple was clearly from Delta Air Lines. “It’s really unfortunate someone has to go through that…
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