The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin and Upcycle Legal recently joined forces to contribute toys and a monetary donation to the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots charity.

DURHAM, N.C. (PRWEB) November 29, 2017

The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin (JSF) and Upcycle Legal (UL) recently joined forces to contribute toys and a monetary donation to the U.S. Marines Toys for Tots charity.

The two companies, currently employ five former U.S. Marines including Eric J. Sanchez, Gerald Jones, Marcial Harper, Rey Sosa, and Patrick McGollie.

When the companies issued a fitness challenge to raise money for favorite employee charities, Rey Sosa’s team set out to win the prize money for Toys for Tots. The challenge was part of a contest to count the number of steps employee participants took each day. Employees across both companies also had the ability to contribute money toward individual steps.

When Rey Sosa, Operations Manager for Upcycle Legal and former U.S. Marine, previously volunteered for Toys for Tots as a Marine and subsequently as a civilian, he knew he would be a volunteer for life. “When you see the looks on those little kids’ faces. It doesn’t matter if they get a $5 plastic toy, they are so happy their faces light up,” said Sosa.

Sosa’s face lights up too when he talks about the Marines’ annual Toys for Tots charity.

“It was a win-win,” Sosa said. “Not only did the contest get many of us out of the office, moving and getting some exercise, but it also brought in needed funds for this well deserving charity.”

About Toys for Tots Foundation

The mission of the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program is to collect new, unwrapped toys during October, November, and December each year, and distribute those toys as Christmas gifts to less fortunate children in the community in which the campaign is conducted. The primary goal is to deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.

The objectives of Toys for Tots are to help less fortunate children throughout the United States experience the joy of Christmas; to play an active role in the development of one of our nation’s most valuable resources – our children; to unite all members of local communities in a common cause for three months each year during the annual toy collection and distribution campaign; and to contribute to better communities in the future.

ABOUT THE LAW OFFICES OF JAMES SCOTT FARRIN

The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is headquartered in the American Tobacco Historic District, adjacent to the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, in Durham, North Carolina, with 13 additional offices statewide in Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Goldsboro, Henderson, New Bern, Raleigh, Roanoke Rapids, Rocky Mount, Sanford, Wilson, and Winston-Salem. The firm’s 45 attorneys focus on the following practice areas: Personal Injury, Workers’ Compensation, Social Security Disability, Eminent Domain, Intellectual Property, Civil Rights, Mass Torts, and Products Liability. Seven of the attorneys are North Carolina Board Certified Specialists in Workers’ Compensation Law and one is a North Carolina Board Certified Specialist in Social Security Disability Law. The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is involved in the community, including sponsorship of local philanthropic organizations.

ABOUT UPCYCLE LEGAL

Upcycle Legal is a consulting firm located in Durham, North Carolina. Upcycle Legal works with select law firms across the United States to help them grow and enhance their profitability by applying proven systems to their practice.

Contact Information:

David Chamberlin

280 S. Mangum Street

Suite 400

Durham, NC 27701

866-900-7078

http://www.farrin.com

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/11/prweb14960665.htm

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Bell & Co. is a boutique specialist law firm offering a high level of expertise in employment law, family law, dispute resolution and civil litigation, providing significant capability without the cost that is commonly associated with other law firms, and know that family law and relationship property issues are extremely sensitive for everyone involved. Their clients tell them that their level of care, concern and support when they have family law problems has been second to none at a time when they’re feeling at their most vulnerable.

As family law experts they give advice when you’re entering into a de facto relationship, marriage or civil union, or if you’re ending that relationship, and they can advise you on relationship property matters, childcare issues and parenting orders. They also have expertise in dealing successfully in complex relationship property matters.

Bell & Co. are highly experienced family lawyers and can help you with domestic violence and protection orders, deceased estates and protecting your family’s interests, issues regarding family trusts, negotiation, and mediation and settlement conferences, and most hearings in the Family and High Courts.

Family law issues are always emotional, often stressful and can also be quite contentious, and Bell & Co. are there to help you, not only find resolution to these issues, but also will give you support throughout this time.

In this article, we look at dividing relationship property. Dividing your property fairly when your relationship ends can be one of the most emotional and traumatic times of your life, and independent legal advice for both parties is essential, and the law requires this.

Although the Property (Relationships) Act 1976 provides for a 50:50 property split, there can be difficulties when one of you has brought a greater proportion of assets to the relationship, it’s unclear whether some property is separate or relationship property, or one of you is using a trust to protect specific assets.

Also, family inheritances or family gifts have to be factored in and/or you may have to sell your family home in order to release relationship property funds. Bell & Co. are experts in navigating the way through these complex issues and reaching resolution.

Similarly, they can help with the dissolution of a relationship. Ending a marriage or civil union, for whatever reason, is always a difficult time, and Bell & Co. can help you draft a separation agreement, and negotiate with your partner and their lawyer.

To find out more about family lawyers Wellington, employment lawyers Wellington and lawyers for employees, please go to http://www.bellandco.co.nz

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EU court rules firms must give workers paid annual leave
BRUSSELS: The European Union´s highest court ruled on Wednesday that employers must provide paid annual leave for employees in a case that could impact workers in the “gig” economy.
The case involved a salesman for The Sash Window Workshop Ltd in Britain employed from 1999 until 2012 on a self-employed commission-only contract with unpaid annual leave. The salesman took the company to court seeking payment for leave, taken and not paid as well as for days not taken.
A British court ruled that he was a “worker” under EU law, but UK judges asked the European Court of Justice whether the company was obliged to pay him for the leave he had not actually taken.
The EU court said it was a fundamental right for workers to be able to rest and that such a right would not be guaranteed if the salesman was forced to take unpaid leave and only then be able to bring action to claim payment. Companies could limit the accumulation of paid leave, with workers losing their right to leave if they did not take holidays within a given period.

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Companies will no longer have any excuse not to pay —Saraki

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA—THE Senate, yesterday, finally reviewed and amended the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Establishment Act of 2000, to make it mandatory for International Oil and Gas Companies to set aside three percent of their budget for the development of the Niger Delta region.

The Bill for an Act to amend Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc) Act, 2000, and for other matters connected therewith, was yesterday read the third time and passed.

The Bill, which was sponsored by Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, PDP, Delta North, was read for the first time on July 26, 2017, read the second time and referred to the Senate Committee on Niger Delta for further legislative action.

NDDC

The Bill is intended to augment and strengthen the Principal Act so as to clarify certain provisions of the Act, obliterate obvious lacuna and propel the Commission towards excellent service delivery, which will in turn impact positively on the Niger Delta Region and the nation in general.

The bill will also clarify certain provisions of the Act and to provide for prompt remittance of funds due to the Commission and penalties for delay or default.

Meanwhile, Senate President Bukola Saraki, who presided, said that with the passage of the bill, these oil companies and other stakeholders in the gas sector will now be mandated by law to remit the three per cent to the Niger Delta region, just as he said that this would help to boost the revenue base of the NDDC to carry out some projects as well as arrest youth restiveness in the region.

Earlier in his presentation, sponsor of the Bill, Senator Nwaoboshi, said that gas processing companies have not paid the 3% statutory fund to the NDDC, adding: “However, Section 14 of the Act which provides for fund for the Commission has been strengthened to ensure prompt release of statutory funds to the Commission.

“There are adequate statutes to ensure proper utilisation of the funds, more so, the National Assembly will definitely carry out its oversight function over the Commission, to ensure accountability in the utilisation of the fund.

“Accordingly, it is imperative to amend the Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc) Act, 2000, so as to pave the way for more efficient running of the commission.”

“It would be recalled that this hallowed Chamber, at its sitting on October 11, 2016, while considering the request of the President for the confirmation of the Chairman and members of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) observed certain ambiguities in the Niger Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc) Act, 2000 and thereupon, mandated the Committee on Niger Delta to carry out a review of the Act.

“The Committee ensured that a comprehensive review was carried out, as major stakeholders were also consulted and their inputs equally considered and all of which culminated into the provisions of the Bill, which I believe would definitely take care of the lapses in the Principal Act.

“It would also be recalled that the setting up of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in 2000 through the Principal Act was to accelerate the development of the Niger Delta Region and consequently stem the spate of restiveness in the region, which was impacting negatively on national resources. The Commission to some extent has been executing its lofty mandate, but for the obvious impediments, particularly, in the area of funding. It has therefore, become necessary to review the Principal Act, so as to reposition the Commission in carrying out its core mandate efficiently.

“Suffice to make reference to Section 2 (1) (b) of the Act, which states as follows:

“There is hereby established for the commission a Governing Board (in this Act referred to as “the Board”) which shall consist of –one person who shall be an indigene of an oil producing area to represent each of the following member States, that is –; Abia State; Akwa Ibom State; Bayelsa State; Cross River State; Delta State; Edo State; Imo State; Ondo State; and Rivers State”.

“ It turned out that the interpretation of “an indigene of an oil producing area” has been problematic for oil producing area seems to be quite amorphous. This Bill has taken care of the issue by clarifying the phrase to read thus: an indigene of an oil producing Local Government Area. I believe, this has resolved the issue once and for all.

“ An onerous challenge being encountered by NDDC since its establishment in 2000 is in the area of funding, particularly, delay or default in release of fund for it to carry out its functions. For instance, the Commission is being owed the sum of over N1.8 trillion, while its debt profile is over N1 trillion. Worst still, in breach of the provision of the Act, no money from ecological fund has ever been released to the Commission, neither has gas processing companies paid the 3% statutory fund to it. However, Section 14 of the Act which provides for fund for the Commission has been strengthened to ensure prompt release of statutory funds to the Commission.

“There are adequate statutes to ensure proper utilization of the funds, more so, the National Assembly will definitely carry out its oversight function over the Commission, to ensure accountability in the utilization of the fund.

“Accordingly, it is imperative to amend the Niger-Delta Development Commission (Establishment, etc) Act, 2000, so as to pave the way for more efficient running of the Commission.”

The post New NDDC Bill: Gas firms’ll remit 3 percent to N-Delta appeared first on Vanguard News.

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Beijing: China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is pushing to establish a new anti-corruption agency with sweeping powers to sidestep the courts and lock up anyone on the government payroll for months without access to a lawyer — a plan that has met surprisingly vocal opposition from some of the nation’s foremost legal minds.

The proposal is audacious even by the standards of the Chinese Communist Party, which is notorious for relying on secretive detention but has also proclaimed the rule of law as essential to a modern economy.

Dozens of lawyers and law professors from China’s academic mainstream have risked retaliation by speaking out against the plan, in the first substantial public challenge to Xi’s second-term agenda.

During his first term, Xi waged a far-reaching campaign against graft, using it to imprison rivals, instil fear within the party establishment and set himself up as the nation’s most powerful leader in decades.

Under draft legislation issued this month, a new National Supervision Commission would extend the reach of Xi’s campaign to millions more people, including those employed at universities and state-owned firms.

The nation’s current anti-corruption watchdog is an arm of the Communist Party, with broad powers but jurisdiction only over the party’s 89 million members. Xi’s new commission would be a state agency with oversight over China’s entire public sector, which employs as many as 62 million people, many of whom do not belong to the party.

Opponents say the legislation would violate China’s Constitution and give the new commission carte blanche to operate beyond the scope of Chinese laws, especially those meant to prevent arbitrary arrest.

“There are parts of the draft supervision law that mark a clear retreat in protecting human rights,” Tong Zhiwei, a law professor from Shanghai, told a meeting of 40 or so like-minded law scholars in Beijing recently, according to a transcript that he shared.

“The powers of the supervision commission would be too broad, and it lacks official checks on its power.”

By opposing the new commission, Tong and others have raised broader questions about the strength and independence of the Chinese legal system, and whether it can be used to rein in the power of party leaders who have often set themselves above the law.

A party congress last month appeared to strengthen Xi’s authority and usher in a new era of strongman rule in China, laying out a vision of society under the all-encompassing control of the party. The opponents of the new commission are appealing to a counter-ideal: that everybody, including Xi, should be bound by the law.

“The party says it acts within the Constitution and law, but now the party also says it leads everything,” said Hong Zhenkuai, a historian in Beijing who has followed the debate. “How can you abide by the law if you also lead everything and are above the law? That’s the core problem with the supervision commission.”

Speaking out against the new commission has required courage in China’s harsh political climate, where criticism of major party initiatives is rarely tolerated. During Xi’s first five years as China’s leader, outspoken human rights attorneys were imprisoned and hauled out to make televised confessions, while Xi has denounced liberal ideas like constitutional government.

Many critics of the proposed commission are law professors who teach at prestigious schools in Beijing and Shanghai, and who have kept away from the front line of human rights cases. As they have come forward in recent weeks to criticise the new commission, they have striven to cast themselves in the role of a loyal opposition.

The lawyers and legal experts are treading a fine line by not challenging the rule of the Communist Party, but rather calling on the party to honour its own commitments to the rule of law.

Chinese leaders going back to Jiang Zemin in the 1990s have vowed to uphold the rule of law as part of making China a modern, developed nation. Even Xi has paid lip service to respecting the law and the Constitution, though he has also declared that “the party is the leader of all.”

The commission’s critics have voiced their opposition not in street protests, but via meetings of legal professionals, and in joint statements and legal commentaries online. But their criticisms are pointed nonetheless.

They say the new watchdog would violate the Constitution by creating, out of legal thin air, a new body whose vague powers would equal or even surpass those of China’s courts and legislature.

Most opponents see little hope of delaying the new commission’s creation, but they said they still hope to blunt what they call the most dangerous shortcomings.

“That decision is up to the party central leadership,” Tong, the Shanghai academic, said. “As legal experts, and as citizens, we’re just doing everything we can to fulfill our duty to offer our opinions.”

New York Times

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Tim Landis Business Editor @TimLandisSJR

PITTSFIELD – New state incentives for renewable energy are behind solar company solicitations in two west-central Illinois counties, including in one case the prospect of annual lease payments of $160,000 a year for 20 years.

The Farm Bureau for Pike and Scott counties have scheduled an information meeting for Dec. 12 in response to non-binding letters from solar energy developers on the potential for projects from 50 to 200 acres. The meeting, scheduled for noon at the Pike County Farm Bureau auditorium in Pittsfield, will cover topics such as easement rights, land use restrictions, easements and power-grid connections.

“We’re not opposed to it (solar development) by any means,” said Blake Roderick, executive director for the Farm Bureau in Pike and Scott counties. “We want to talk to landowners and make sure they know what they’re signing. Get an attorney involved before you sign anything.”

Regulatory and legal experts from the Illinois Agricultural Association and Illinois Farm Bureau will be in attendance.

Roderick said as many as 30 companies sent solicitation letters to landowners in the two counties. Solicitations have ranged from 50 acres to a minimum of 200 acres, pending a site analysis, formal lease and financial feasibility, according to summaries provided by the Farm Bureau. One proposal included the possibility of 200 acres leased at $800 per acre, per year for 20 years.

Alternative energy companies, including solar and wind, are scouting potential sites statewide as a result of legislation signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner in December 2016 increasing renewable energy incentives, said MeLena Hessel, a clean energy policy specialist with the Environmental Law & Policy Center in Chicago.

“We’re seeing it across the state,” said Hessel. “We think it’s a real great opportunity for rural areas to benefit with solar development. We think it’s really complementary with agriculture.”

“I’m glad to see the Farm Bureau is working to inform landowners on this issue,” said Hessel.

The legislation signed by Rauner sets a series of targets for increased use of renewable energy in the state through 2030. 

Illinois ranked 10th in the nation in 2016 with 233 solar companies based in the state, according to data from the Illinois Solar Energy Association. The solar industry employed 3,718 last year, up 7 percent from 2015. The association expects employment to increase at least 5 percent for 2017.

Contact Tim Landis, 788-1536, tim.landis@sj-r.com, twitter.com/timlandisSJR.

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By

Reuters

Published:
20:06 EST, 29 November 2017

|
Updated:
20:06 EST, 29 November 2017

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    Nov 30 (Reuters) - Gold on Thursday held near a one-week low
hit in the previous session, as the dollar firmed amid upbeat
U.S. growth data and as a likely vote neared on U.S. tax
legislation.     
            
    FUNDAMENTALS    
    * Spot gold        was little changed at $1,283.85 an ounce
at 0050 GMT. On Wednesday, it fell 0.8 percent to touch its
lowest since Nov. 22 at $1,281.90. Still, bullion is heading for
its first monthly gain since August, having risen about 1
percent for the month.
    * U.S. gold futures         were up 0.1 percent at
$1,283.10.
    * The dollar index       , which gauges the greenback
against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.1 percent.  
    * The U.S. Senate on Wednesday took a step toward passage of
tax legislation that is a top White House priority, setting up a
likely decisive vote later this week even though it was unclear
if the bill has enough Republican support to become law.
            
    * The U.S. economy grew faster than initially thought in the
third quarter, notching its quickest pace in three years, buoyed
by robust business spending on equipment and an accumulation of
inventories.             
    * U.S. Treasury yields rose across most maturities on
Wednesday, bolstered by upbeat remarks on the economy by Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and data showing stronger than
expected U.S. economic growth for the third quarter.      
    * The United States warned the North Korean leadership that
it would be "utterly destroyed" if war were to break out, after
Pyongyang test fired its most advanced intercontinental
ballistic missile, putting the U.S. mainland within range.
            
    * OPEC and Russia look set to prolong oil supply cuts until
the end of 2018 this week while signalling that they may review
the deal when they meet again in June if the market
overheats.            
    * The EU has not yet reached a deal with Britain over the
"Brexit bill", EU officials said on Tuesday, adding that some in
Brussels were worried that progress on a cash settlment masked
differences over other issues.            
    * Three of Europe's top central banks raised warning signals
on Wednesday about the risk of financial bubbles that their
ultra-easy monetary policies are blamed for creating.
              
   
    DATA/EVENT AHEAD (GMT)
    0100  China  Official manufacturing PMI            Nov
    0100  China  Official non-manufacturing PMI        Nov
    0700  Germany Retail sales                         Oct
    0745  France  Producer prices                      Oct
    0900  Germany Unemployment rate                    Nov
    1000  Euro zone Inflation                          Nov
    1000  Euro zone Unemployment rate                  Nov      
    1330  U.S. Weekly jobless claims
    1330  U.S. Personal income                         Oct
    1445  U.S. Chicago PMI                             Nov

 (Reporting by Vijaykumar Vedala in Bengaluru; editing by
Richard Pullin)
  		
		

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