A Central District of California Judge has preliminarily approved a class action settlement in City of Long Beach, et al. v. Monsanto Company, et al., that will resolve claims by various municipalities against Monsanto Company, Solutia, Inc. and Pharmacia for environmental damages related to PCBs. The underlying basis for the claims are...
CDC’s Detailed Guidance to Reopen Businesses
By: Abby S. Busler The Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) has issued 60 pages of detailed guidance to reopen businesses, health care facilities and providers, schools, transit, and other industries. This guidance also provides information regarding testing and data to assist with exposure and risk concerns for those industries. The following is...

CMS Recommends States Use “Extreme Caution” in Relaxing Nursing Home Restrictions
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued recommendations on May 18 to state and local officials across the country for when nursing homes can relax certain restrictions on visitation, screening, and services related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendations envision moving in three phases. Nursing homes would “reopen” more...

Local Safer At Home Orders Changed Rapidly After Statewide Order Struck Down; Businesses Encouraged to Review Local Orders Regularly to Ensure Compliance
After the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the statewide Safer At Home order on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, a number of local governments, at the county, city, and village levels, began issuing their own Safer At Home orders. By Wednesday evening, Brown and Dane Counties had issued orders—as well as the suburban regions of Milwaukee County, which...
Local Safer at Home Orders—Can They do That?— Legally?
By: James M. Kalny On May 13, 2020 the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a split decision, struck down the Executive Order 28 Safer at Home (SAH). The same day the decision was announced counties and some municipalities started enacting their own health orders. In several cases the orders simply stated that the SAH and a couple other executive orders...
Businesses Must Be Aware of Local Safer At Home Orders, Including Those in Brown, Dane, Kenosha, and Rock Counties, Parts of Milwaukee County, and the Cities of Appleton, Madison, Milwaukee, and Racine
By: Sherry D. Coley and Tiffany E. Woelfel May 15, 2020, 4:00 PM Update This article was originally published the morning of May 14, 2020, and was accurate as of the time of publishing. Since publication, a number of additional counties and local governments have implemented Safer At Home Orders. Additionally, a number of counties have...

EPA’s Updated Guidance Helpful to Buyers of Impacted WI Properties, but Wisconsin Still Lags Behind
Under current Wisconsin law, a property owner is generally liable for contamination regardless of when the pollution occurred and regardless of who caused the contamination. There are some limited exceptions for qualifying local governments, lenders, impacted neighbors and persons who obtain what is known as a Voluntary Party Liability...

City of Milwaukee Property Owners Face May 20th Deadline for Filing of Objections to 2019 Property Tax Notice of Assessment
By: Christopher J. Jaekels The City of Milwaukee recently sent its 2019 "Notice of Assessed Value – Real Property" to City of Milwaukee property owners. In most cases, this Notice of Assessment notifies the property owner of an increase in assessed value and potentially an increase in property taxes. Depending on the size of the increase, the...

Attorneys Ted Warpinski and Chris Meuler Author Wetland Permitting Article for American Bar Association Environmental and Energy Litigation Blog
Litigation attorneys, Christopher Meuler and Ted Warpinski, authored a post for the American Bar Association’s Environmental and Energy Litigation Blog. Their blog post, The Boundaries of State Assumption of Wetland Permitting Authority Get Tested, discusses the pros and cons of a delegation program authorized by section 404(g) of the Clean Water...

New Wetlands Permit Exemptions May Help Projects Avoid Getting Bogged Down
By: Ted A. Warpinski As many landowners, developers and builders know, having to obtain a permit to dredge or fill wetlands can cause substantial delays and increased costs. Some relief is now in sight with the recently enacted Wisconsin Act 183, which became fully effective on July 1, 2018. If the exemptions apply, all that is required is a...