As a strong supporter of the communities we serve, the Firm recently joined the Boerne-Kendall County Economic Development Corporation. The BKCEDC is a Public/Private Partnership sponsored by Kendall County, City of Boerne, Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce, and a dedicated group of over 80 private business investors who, like Leger Ketchum & Cohoon, PLLC are committed to promoting desirable economic development that will support a thriving, diverse and sustainable quality of life in Kendall County.

The deadly Oakland warehouse inferno that took the lives of 36 people during a party Friday night may have been caused by a refrigerator. Alameda County Sheriff Greg Ahern told reporters on Tuesday that investigators with the US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) have identified a refrigerator as possibly being where the fire sparked. A video taken inside the enclave just hours before the tragedy, shows a few partygoers dancing and laughing among each other in a darkened room. The dark and grainy video appeared to back up stories from survivors who have previously told how they had to fight for a way out of the burning warehouse down a narrow staircase. One of the people who escaped told authorities there were flames coming from the refrigerator.

On November 22, 2016, Hon. Amos Mazzant issued an order enjoining implementation of the new FLSA rule changes set to begin on December 1, 2016. Those changes, among other things, more than double the minimum salary certain employees must be paid to be considered exempt from paying overtime. Judge Mazzant’s ruling is likely to be appealed. But it could be months or years before we know whether the Department of Labor’s interpretation of the FLSA is constitutional. For now, though, the new rule’s requirements are on hold. Please call Patrick Cohoon (San Antonio area) or Derek Flynn (Houston area) if you have questions about this important decision and how it may affect your business.

General Motors Co (GM.N) agreed to pay $900 million and admit to misleading the government andthe public about the safety of its vehicles toend a U.S. criminal investigation into its handling ofdefective ignition switches linked to 124 deaths. The settlement and charges, which were detailed in papers filed on Thursday in Manhattan federalcourt, have transformed the relationshipbetween the automaker and the U.S. government, whichhad bailed out GM during the financial crisis. GM admitted to failing to disclose to its U.S. regulator and the public a potentially lethal safetydefect with the switches that kept airbags fromdeploying in some vehicles. The largest U.S. automaker also admitted to misleading consumers about the safety of vehiclesaffected by the defect. GM was criminally charged with scheming to conceal a deadly safety defect from its U.S. regulator,as well as wire fraud.

A scandal that has battered Volkswagen’s image in the United States spread to the automaker’s core market in Europe on Tuesday, when thecompany said that 11 million of its diesel cars wereequipped with software that could be used to cheat on emissions tests. That was more than20 times the number of cars previously disclosed. The company also said it would set aside 6.5 billion euros, or about $7.3 billion—the equivalent ofhalf a year’s profits—to cover the cost ofmaking the cars comply with pollution standards. In the United States, pressure was ramped up on Volkswagen, with attorneys general for New York and other states saying that they wereforming a group to investigate the deceit, and Senator BillNelson, a Florida Democrat, asking the Federal Trade Commission to begin an inquiryand look into remedies for owners.