In light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, on July 14, 2020, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed into law SB20-205, the “Healthy Families and Workplaces Act,” which provides new sick leave benefits for workers in Colorado.

In October 2019, San Francisco Marine & Energy Partner David Russo spoke at the BiLog Conference in La Spezia, Italy about the advent of autonomous and highly automated vessels. Beyond the numerous legal and technical issues raised by the advancement of this technology (discussed in this article), it was noted at the conference that this technology was accelerating. It was expected then that an extended Atlantic voyage would happen in 2020. That has now occurred. 

Recently, the U.S. Coast Guard issued a draft advance notice of proposed rulemaking regarding safety management systems to be required of domestic passenger vessels, including small passenger vessels (Subchapter K vessels). By doing so, the Coast Guard is seeking public comment about the scope, content, cost, and benefits of such a requirement. 

On November 20, 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking aimed at ensuring fair access to banking services and eliminating  politically-driven, “de-banking” practices used to deny access to financial services to disfavored industry sectors based on ideology rather than quantifiable risk-based factors.

On November 19, 2020, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) proposed sweeping and significant new emergency standards to reduce employee exposure to COVID-19.