Calif. voters give Brown a return trip as governor
National News
Democrat Jerry Brown was elected California governor on Tuesday in an extraordinary political encore, defeating billionaire Republican Meg Whitman and the $142 million she spent of her own fortune as he reclaimed the office he held a generation ago.
The 72-year-old state attorney general's victory leaves him with the enormous task of lifting the state out of a recession and joblessness.
"Jerry's certainly up to it. The people of California made a good choice," said his campaign spokesman, Sterling Clifford.
Several hundred Brown supporters who had gathered at the historic Fox Theater in Oakland began chanting "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry" as television screens showed him as the winner.
Brown visited briefly with some VIPs at the theater, then ducked out a side door. He was expected to return later
Whitman's campaign chairman, former Gov. Pete Wilson, told supporters gathered in Los Angeles that she was not ready to concede the race.
Brown's victory over the former eBay chief executive brought the office back under Democratic control. Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's term will end in January after a little more than seven years in office.
Schwarzenegger congratulated Brown in a statement Tuesday night in which he pledged to work with him for a smooth transition.
Related listings
-
Iowans vote to oust all three Supreme Court justices
National News 11/03/2010All three Iowa Supreme Court justices up for retention election have been ousted from the bench.Around 54 percent of Iowans voted not to retain each of the three judges: Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus and associate justices Michael J. Stre...
-
MPs ordered back to work by Iraq's Supreme Court
National News 10/25/2010Iraq's highest court has ordered the country's parliament back to work, in a ruling that could help break a seven-month deadlock in negotiations to form a new government.The chief judge of the Federal Supreme Court, Midhat Mahmoud, said the court had...
-
Court won't get into battle between 2 USCs
National News 10/04/2010The Supreme Court won't decide who really owns the initials "SC" when it comes to college sports: the University of Southern California or the University of South Carolina.The high court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from South Carolina, which ...
Workers’ Compensation Subrogation of Administrative Fees and Costs
When a worker covered by workers’ compensation makes a claim against a third party, the workers’ compensation insurance retains the right to subrogate against any recovery from that third party for all benefits paid to or on behalf of a claimant injured at work. When subrogating for more than basic medical and indemnity benefits, the Texas workers’ compensation subrogation statute provides that “the net amount recovered by a claimant in a third‑party action shall be used to reimburse the carrier for benefits, including medical benefits that have been paid for the compensable injury.” TX Labor Code § 417.002.
In fact, all 50 states provide for similar subrogation. However, none of them precisely outlines which payments or costs paid by a compensation carrier constitute “compensation” and can be recovered. The result is industry-wide confusion and an ongoing debate and argument with claimants’ attorneys over what can and can’t be included in a carrier’s lien for recovery purposes.
In addition to medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or indemnity benefits for lost wages and loss of earning capacity resulting from a compensable injury, workers’ compensation insurance carriers also expend considerable dollars for case management costs, medical bill audit fees, rehabilitation benefits, nurse case worker fees, and other similar fees. They also incur other expenses in conjunction with the handling and adjusting of workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation carriers typically assert, of course, that, they are entitled to reimbursement for such expenditures when it recovers its workers’ compensation lien. Injured workers and their attorneys disagree.