Welcome to the latest edition of AFT NewsWatch, a weekly service of Advocates for Fairness in Transportation, an ad hoc group of regulated transportation service companies dedicated to informing and educating the public on threats to public safety from new so-called ride-sharing or ride-booking services such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar. Visit the Archive to read previous editions.

Uber should be suspended in California and fined $7.3 million, judge says

Uber - plagued by problems with regulators, drivers and taxi unions around the world - took a big blow in its home state when an administrative judge recommended that the ride-sharing giant be fined $7.3 million and be suspended from operating in California. In her decision, chief administrative law judge Karen V. Clopton of the California Public Utilities Commission contended that Uber has not complied with state laws designed to ensure that drivers are doling out rides fairly to all passengers, regardless of where they live or who they are. 

Read more from the Los Angeles Times

Equal access at issue in PUC battle with Uber over data disclosure

Uber likes to say it is the great equalizer when it comes to transportation: Anyone with a smartphone can use the app to hail a ride quickly and affordably. The state of California wants Uber to prove it, particularly the "anyone" part. Blind people? People in wheelchairs? People who want a ride to a bad neighborhood, or out of one? 

Read more from the Los Angeles Times

Uber, Lyft face questions from Massachusetts over disability access

The Massachusetts attorney general's office is examining how Uber and Lyft ensure equal access for people with disabilities, a spokeswoman for the attorney general told Reuters. Disabilities-rights activists have questioned how Uber Technologies and Lyft drivers handle passengers in wheelchairs and the blind, but the Massachusetts inquiry appears to be the first from an attorney general. 

Read more from NBC News

Uber could have to pay an additional $209 million to reclassify its drivers in California

Uber says many of its drivers prefer being contract workers to full-fledged employees, a blunt response to a raging debate among on-demand startups. Of course, that answer suits Uber very well, since its business is founded on that very idea - to say nothing of its purported $40 billion value. And that's why it's currently fighting a lawsuit that would otherwise force it to reclassify its California drivers as employees. 

Read more from Re/Code

Employee or contractor? Labor Department seeks to clarify rules

When are workers employees? When are they contractors? The Labor Department issued new guidance intended to help companies answer that increasingly fraught question. The issue has taken on greater urgency with the growth of sharing-economy firms such as Uber and TaskRabbit, which increasingly rely on independent workers, often for short-term projects. 

Read more from The Associated Press

Former Uber driver linked to series of assaults in Boston

An ex-Uber driver, who was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Massachusetts late last year, has been linked to a series of previously-unsolved sexual assaults in Boston, authorities said. Alejandro Done, a 46-year-old Boston man, was charged in connection with a series of five sexual assaults that occurred in Boston between 2006 and 2010, according to a press release from the office of a Boston county District Attorney, Daniel F. Conley.

Read more from USA Today

Judge allows cab companies to sue Uber for 'false' safety ads

California taxicab companies can sue competitor Uber over advertising statements that it offers the safest rides on the road, a federal judge ruled. The suit was filed in March by 19 taxi companies in several cities, including San Francisco. They accused the ride-hailing company of false advertising for stating in ads and online postings that its background checks were the most thorough and its services the safest in the business.

Read more from SF Gate

Uber settles suit with family over girl's New Year's Eve death

Uber has tentatively settled a lawsuit over the death of a 6-year-old girl hit by one of its drivers in a San Francisco crosswalk. The agreement, disclosed in court records and confirmed by Uber, provides an undisclosed amount of money to the girl's family and allows the ride-hailing company to avoid a trial about its responsibility for drivers who serve its customers. 

Read more from SF Gate

Lyft loophole allows illegal pickups at Seattle airport, puts drivers at risk of citations

Lyft driver Nick Starr was waiting for a ride request when he received a notification from a passenger needing a pick-up at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Starr made his way to the terminal, found his customer, helped put luggage in the trunk, and began to drive away. That's when Starr says an airport official stopped his vehicle and asked him if he was working for uberX or Lyft. 

Read more from GeekWire

Uber, Lyft carpool bill pulled ahead of key committee vote

Legislation allowing California commuters to carpool using services like Uber and Lyft could be finished for the year after a committee hit the brakes ahead of an approaching deadline. The chair of the committee, who has worked in the taxi industry, said he considered the bill a "piecemeal" approach to regulating ridesharing companies. 

Read more from The Sacramento Bee

Bill would punish Uber, Lyft for hiring sex offenders

A new ride-hailing bill has surfaced in the California State Capitol, and it's sure to add fuel to the political fire smoldering over attempts to regulate the sharing economy in California. SB 372, so-called gut-and-amend legislation that replaces the previous contents of the bill, would make it illegal for companies such as Lyft Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc. to "employ" or "retain" any driver required by law to register as a sex offender. 

Read more from The Recorder

Uber debuts 'de Blasio' feature to rip possible cap in NYC

A dispute is simmering between the ride-booking service Uber and New York Mayor Bill de Blaiso's City Hall, an increasingly pitched disagreement playing out on smartphones, over the airwaves and in the press over a fundamental question: Who controls access to the streets of the nation's largest city? By the day, more and more Uber cars have taken to Manhattan's streets, summoned by smartphone apps to pick up passengers who enjoy their convenience and consent to pay additional surge pricing during peak hours.

Read more from NBC4 New York

Uber driver stole my combat photos, camera, disabled vet says

A disabled military veteran says a Chicago Uber driver stole her camera and thousands of images from her deployment as well as other belongings left in the back seat of his car. Along with the irreplaceable images that were on memory cards, Laleņa Heathington - who was visiting Chicago from Indianapolis - said the driver took nearly $2,700 worth of stuff from her. 

Read more from DNAinfo