What are you grateful for this year? Here is my list.

This has been a weird year for me. (And, no, I'm not even thinking about the election!) But I have much to be thankful for, and I hope you do, too.

BREAKING THING TO BE THANKFUL FOR: Yesterday evening, the U.S. Department of Labor's new rule governing white-collar exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act was struck down by a federal judge in Texas. I'll have more on the decision ...

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced last week that it would indeed require all employers with 100 or more employees to file EEO-1 reports that contain compensation data by EEO category, race, ethnicity, and sex. The first compensation reports will be due March 31, 2018, for a "snapshot" period that will run from October 1 through December 31, 2017. (There will be no ...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced yesterday that it will indeed start requiring employers with 100 or more employees to include compensation information in their annual EEO-1 reports. This includes companies that are not federal contractors as well as those that are.

The new reporting obligations will begin on March 31, 2018, for the 2017 calendar year.

For ...

Our Franchise Industry Group is out with a new bulletin this week, discussing the recent decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Williams v. Jani-King.

The plaintiffs in this case, former franchisees, claim that they and other franchisees are actually misclassified "employees" of Jani-King, the franchisor.

Although the court hasn't made a final decision on ...

A federal judge in Indiana dismissed yesterday all that remained of a lawsuit filed by student athletes, alleging that they were "employees" and therefore entitled to the minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Don Prophete, Jim Goh, and Steve Moore of Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete, LLP, represented the NCAA and hundreds of the university defendants.

The suit was ...

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, baby!

The other day, I tweeted about an age and disability discrimination trial going on in Los Angeles (thanks to Law360, whose coverage made me aware of the case).

T.J. Simers, a notorious well-known former sports columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has sued the owners of the Times, contending that he was let go in 2013 because of his age (then in his ...

First responders in West, Texas*. Sales clerks in the stores near the finish line at the Boston Marathon. Staff of the District Attorney's office in Kaufman County, Texas. Teachers and administration at Sandy Hook Elementary. Ticket-takers and popcorn-scoopers at the Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.

*Although the explosion at West Fertilizer Company appears to ...