A federal judge in San Francisco finds the mass firings of probationary employees were likely unlawful.

The Supreme Court is allowing a roughly $6 billion legal settlement to go forward that will cancel student loans for hundreds of thousands of borrowers who say they were misled by their schools.

The nation's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, is poised to emerge from five years of criminal probation amid worries that it remains too dangerous to be trusted.

A federal judge is weighing whether Pacific Gas & Electric violated its criminal probation by sparking a wildfire north of San Francisco.

The plan outlined Tuesday, March 23, 2021, would add more power shut-offs near tall trees and would at least double the number of power outages in six Northern California counties. U.S. District Judge William Alsup is overseeing PG&E’s safety precautions as part of the utility’s criminal probation after its natural gas lines blew up a suburban neighborhood south of San Francisco in 2010. The number of outages would triple in Trinity County while doubling in Placer, Shasta, Tehama, Madera and Mendocino. PG&E attorney Kevin Orsini assured Alsup the utility shares the judge’s goal of reducing wildfire risks posed by its power lines as the company pours billions of dollars into upgrading its equipment. “It’s a Hobson’s choice, it’s a terrible choice that California is faced with," Alsup lamented.

In a biting decision issued Monday in California, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said the department has been denying claims using template letters that are “alarmingly curt." Spokesperson Angela Morabito said many claims were submitted by borrowers who attended ineligible programs or who failed to make a valid claim for loan forgiveness. “Just because a claim was filed does not make it valid and eligible for taxpayer-funded relief,” she said in a statement. The claims were filed through a program known as borrower defense, which forgives federal student loans for borrowers who are cheated by their colleges. In a proposed settlement in April, the Education Department agreed to process the backlog of claims within 18 months.

Meanwhile, the Public Utilities Commission will vote on the bankruptcy plan. U.S. District Judge William Alsup blasted PG&E for flim flamming him about its newfound commitment to safety in previous hearings. He also raised worries that state power regulators havent done enough to prevent a recalcitrant criminal from causing more death and destruction as the risk of wildfires rises with the summer temperatures. If there ever was a corporation that deserved to go to prison, it is PG&E, Alsup said. But the reforms included in PG&E's plan still might not be enough, acknowledged Clifford Rechtschaffen, one of the the five PUC board members.