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The article talks about the approval of a pre-empt bill for the local control of oil & gas drilling by the Oklahoma House after a report which linked the cause of earthquakes with disposal wells. It focuses on Texas Legislature which will be processing a similar measure to ban hydraulic fracturing in North Texas city of Denton, U.S., in 2014. In addition it also launched a site called Earthquakes in Oklahoma, which includes scientific reports & answers queries about earthquakes.

The article details a lawsuit filed in 2004 by Allan Parks who claimed MBNA credit card company did not disclose the finance charges on convenience checks he used and notes the California Supreme Court's ruling that national banks do not have to comply with state law on this issue.

The article presents information on a report issued by the American Association for Justice (AAJ), which revealed that former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief counsel Daniel Troy was responsible for the efforts to pre-empt state liability claims in many federal agencies. The report says that the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush instructed federal agencies to insert pre-emption language into the preambles of proposed and linal rules.

The article offers medical-related news briefs in the U.S. A three-judge California appeals court has overturned the pro pre-emption ruling of a lower court in Carlynne McKenney v. Prurepac Pharmaceutical. Funding for the Food and Drug Administration has been boosted about $300 million on a full-year basis over FY 2008. Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. has retained the services of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his firm to review compliance issues.

The article focuses on the pre-emption of "failure-to-warn" state lawsuit of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to David Kessler, FDA commissioner, and law professor David Vladeck, there are both legal and practical problems with the FDA's new position. It is stated that the pre-emption does nothing to benefit the agency and the public and can prevent information which is helpful to the FDA and healthcare providers.

The article reports that the dispute between state regulators in Washington and the wireless communications industry concerning federal pre-emption of state regulation in a telecommunications bill will intensify. Brad Ramsay of the National Association of State Regulatory Utility Commissioners said that pre-empting states from pursuing consumer bills shuts down an important avenue for consumers to pursue complaints. The telecommunications bill will depend on the election in November 2006.

Reports that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said a national bank that buys and holds loans as a trustee of mortgage-backed securities generally cannot assert pre-emption defense for failing to comply with state laws. Impact of the agency's opinion on a case involving Wells Fargo & Co. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Reports on the decision of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on the Schering-Plough Health Care Products Sales Corp. versus Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case. Argument by the state that the pre-emption did not apply to Schering-Plough; Significance of the decision; Position of other states in the pre-emption issue.

Reports that Cambridge Antibody Technology's (CAT) general counsel has welcomed a Government-commissioned document regarding pre-emption reform among public companies in Great Britain. Assessment on association of pre-emption rights with relationship between shareholders; Comments of Diane Mellett, spokesperson of CAT, on pre-emption reform.

Reports on the absence of any plans by the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA) to challenge the state of California in court to prevent the effectivity of the January 1, 2005 date regarding its mattress fire-resistance standard. Advocation by the ISPA for California to seek the permission of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission prior to the standard enforcement based on federal pre-emption laws; Disagreement with the law interpretation by the State of California; Belief by ISPA president Dick Doyle of California’s need to secure a request for exemption.

Presents a letter to the editor about William Isaac's views on preemption rules, in the article "Perspective: Debunking the Myths About OCC Preemption."

The article presents news related to the financial services industry in the U.S. as of May 10, 2004. The clock is ticking for Senator John Edwards, Democrat-North Carolina, to take advantage of special procedures to turn back the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's preemption rules. House and Senate lawmakers are using the complicated and seldom-used Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to overturn federal regulations. Under the law, legislators have a limited amount of time to introduce disapproval resolutions. In the case of the preemption rules, that period was set to end in mid-May in the House and early next month in the Senate.

New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer called on the state assembly on Friday to help him fight federal preemption and said he would keep suing national banks to get them to obey state laws, particularly on predatory lending. Testifying in Manhattan before the assembly's standing banks committee, Mr. Spitzer recommended that state legislators continue to "use the hearing capacity to create a record of the harms that would befall consumers" without the protection of state laws.

U.S. Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr. went to Capitol Hill on Thursday ostensibly to talk about his agency and the condition of national banks, but lawmakers did not seem to care about much except preemption. Since he returned from medical leave early last month, Mr. Hawke has spent a fair amount of time meeting with members of the House Financial Services Committee to discuss preemption rules issued by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in January. Various concerns are whether the OCC followed the appropriate path in issuing its rulemaking, its ability to handle consumer complaints and whether it is using preemption as a recruiting campaign for new charters.

New York's state banking superintendent, Diana L. Taylor, and the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) first senior deputy, Julie L. Williams, took opposing views on federal preemption on Thursday. But in their prepared remarks at the New York Bankers Association conference in Manhattan, Ms. Taylor and Ms. Williams gave similar warnings to bankers concerning post-preemption compliance. While defending the OCC's preemption action and its record on consumer protection, Ms. Williams warned banks not to use its recent actions to avoid answering customer complaints. Ms. Taylor, meanwhile, said giving one federal agency sole authority over national banks could come back to haunt these institutions in a less industry-friendly administration.

Julie Williams, the second in command and chief counsel of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, is perhaps the bank regulatory agencies' leading defender of preemption. Bankers should read the speech she delivered on March 9 at an America's Community Bankers conference, a helpful response to the most dangerous threat to free-market banking in more than a century. If Ms. Williams loses the preemption war, consumers, the insurance industry, and others that rely on and benefit from the nation's commitment to free markets will lose too.

An alliance of federal lawmakers, state attorneys general, and consumer advocates expressed their displeasure with the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) preemption regulations and threatened for a legislative action on the issue. The issue is whether the OCC can issue a rule preempting state attempts to regulate the lending, deposit-taking, and other operations of national banks. Julie Williams, the OCC's chief counsel, told that OCC would not pull its preemption rules in the face of the threat of such a resolution

Reports on the relationship of Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft New York with key client Lehman Brothers. Conflict between the firms; Pre-emption rights of Lehman; Impact of restructuring practice on the firms.

State regulators and consumer groups have complained that the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has gone too far in preempting their authority, but Standard & Poor's Corp. says that in one sense the OCC did not go far enough. In a report published on Wednesday, the New York rating agency said that despite the OCC's rule, laws in Arkansas and Los Angeles still pose liability for purchasers of loans from national banks or their affiliates. The upshot is that S&P will not rate securities backed by pools that include such loans in those jurisdictions.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), whose relations with state officials strained by a recent exchange, is telling national banks to be responsive to inquiries from state regulators. National banks should "resolve consumer complaints fairly and expeditiously regardless of the source of the complaint," the OCC said in an advisory letter released on Monday. State attorneys general and bank regulators have claimed that the OCC's recent rules on preemption and visitorial rights have gutted their ability to make sure national banks obey state consumer protection requirements.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) latest rules regarding preemption, which took effect on February 12, are not in response to any recent act of Congress that redefined or otherwise changed the law. Instead they are for "clarification" regarding the supremacy of the National Bank Act of 1864! Under the OCC's new rule, the standard for preemption is that "state laws that obstruct, impair, or condition" a national bank's exercise of its powers are preempted. The OCC's standard for preemption has been built on a political platform for the promotion of its charter.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's (OCC) new preemption rules got roughed up at a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, but a top lawmaker's support dimmed the prospects of congressional action to overturn them. Representative Sue Kelly, Republican-New York, who called the oversight and investigations subcommittee hearing, renewed her request that the OCC delay its January 7 rules on preempting state banking laws and on visitorial rights. She criticized the agency for rebuffing an earlier request and for issuing the rules during a congressional recess.

In the week since it released a rule broadly articulating its preemption authority, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has gotten a lot of attention in newspapers around the country, almost none of it good. Local newspapers, generally limit mention of the OCC to articles about new bank charters or branches, as well as the occasional local banker who runs astray of banking rules. That seems to suit the OCC, especially given the alternative, which in the case of its preemption rule has largely been coverage replete with impassioned statements from local politicians railing against it.

Four New York members of the House Financial Services Committee have written to Comptroller John D. Hawke Jr. asking him to hold off on a proposal to expand his agency's preemption powers. The lawmakers said that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's plan was the most far-reaching action in a series of regulator steps that it has taken without congressional review.

At its core, the current debate over the impact of the U.S. federal preemption on the dual-banking system is based upon fundamentally different views of the system. For the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), preemption is a way to maintain the integrity of the two independent regulatory systems and prevent the states from imposing inappropriate conditions or limitations on national banks. For the states, preemption disrupts the balance of the dual-banking system. It allows national banks to avoid state laws and potentially gain a competitive advantage over state banks. The reason states emphasize a policy of equalization over a policy of distinction is because Congress has diminished their ability to distinguish state banks from national banks -- not through the National Bank Act or any actions by the OCC, but through other federal laws, specifically the Federal Deposit Insurance Act and the Bank Holding Company Act. Since the demise of state deposit insurance systems, all state banks have become subject to the Federal Deposit Insurance Act. It imposes a host of conditions on state banks.

A number of victories by federal banks and thrifts on the preemption issue have not have suppressed their desire for national predatory-lending legislation, most observers said. Over the past year several favorable court decisions and actions by the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have made it more likely that the thrifts, banks and their operating subsidiaries will be able to escape the reach of state laws--though nonbank mortgage lenders and state-chartered institutions could be left in the lurch.

Reports that U.S. Department of Treasury will testify at a congressional hearing on the renewal of a data-sharing preemption provision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Details to be given by an unidentified witness at the hearing.

Reports on the announcement of the U.S. comptroller of the currency John D. Hawke about his agency's decision to preempt the Georgia Fair Lending Act as of April 17, 2003. Focus on the issue of dealing with the problem of predatory lending; Addressal of regulatory restructuring proposals by Hawke; Approach of countries around the world about the efficiency of the central bank and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Reports that New Regency Productions Inc. has made a pre-emptive deal for 'Position,' a script written and to be directed by Rand Ravich.

Discusses a United States General Accounting Office report which found that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) preempted state and local laws 67 times since the start of 1994. Reiteration of the laws that guide agency actions and where information is publicly available; Review of several opinions rendered by the OCC and the OTS.