ACLU Successfully Challenges Missouri Prison Censorship Policies

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JEFFERSON CITY, MO —United States District Judge Nanette Laughrey granted a preliminary injunction yesterday that requires all Missouri prisons to notify senders whenever written materials they send are censored, seized and withheld from prisoners. The judge also ordered that after getting such notice, senders must have an opportunity to appeal the censorship.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri and the ACLU Foundation of Kansas & Western Missouri filed a lawsuit in August on behalf of Bobbie Y. Lane, owner of the publishing business named Caged Potential, against officials of the Missouri Department of Corrections. Starting in late 2010, Caged Potential received nine orders from inmates at Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, Missouri, for a prisoner-authored book. Crossroads mailroom staff seized the novels and refused to deliver them to the inmates but never gave Caged Potential notice that the books had been seized or an opportunity to challenge the seizures.

“Inmates and publishers were denied their constitutional right to communicate ideas because publishers weren’t given notice that the prison had seized or censored their publications and other mailings,” added Doug Bonney, legal director of the ACLU Foundation of Kansas and Western Missouri. “We successfully argued that without notice, someone who writes or sends a prisoner written material has no way of knowing that their communication has not reached its intended recipient and therefore they cannot appeal the decision to censor it,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.

“This decision will have a significant positive impact not only for publishers, but for anyone who communicates with prisoners,” notes Brenda L. Jones, executive director of the ACLU-EM. “They’ll now know with certainty if their letters reach their intended recipients and have some recourse if they don’t.”

The case was tried in the United States District Court, Western District of Missouri, Central Division. The ACLU attorneys included Bonney, Rothert and Grant Doty. Copies of the court documents can be found on the ACLU-EM’s website.

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Legal Challenge Filed Against Policy Excluding Women from Combat

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Outdated Policy Fails to Recognize Women’s Service and Leadership in Iraq and Afghanistan Conflicts

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ACLU of Pennsylvania Files Brief in Support of City of Philadelphia in Boy Scouts Lawsuit

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Friend-of-the-Court Brief Argues Government Is Not Obligated to Fund Discrimination by Private Organizations

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Massachusetts high court rules against prolonged solitary confinement without due process

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Supreme Judicial Court reaffirms principle that use of solitary must be balanced with firm legal protections, including a 90-day limit without due process.

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Deutsche Borse Announces Shortlist for 2013 Photography Prize

© Mishka Henner

The four finalists for the 2013 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize, which comes with a 30,000 pound (about $48,000 US) award, have been announced. They are: Mishka Henner, Cristina de Middel, Chris Killip and the duo of Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin. The prize honors a contemporary photographer who has made a significant contribution to the medium of photography through an exhibition or publication. The shortlisted photographers will be exhibited in April at The Photographers Gallery in London.

This year the prize stirred controversy when it was awarded to John Stezaker, a veteran collage artist who does not take his own photos. This year’s finalists also includes artists who use photographs they don’t actually shoot with a camera.

Mishka Henner of the UK is nominated for his exhibition No Man’s Land at Fotografia Festival Internazionale di Roma, Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy. Henner uses Google Street View to show areas, usually on the edges of cities, where men hire sex workers, according to online forums.

The duo of Adam Broomberg (a South African-born photographer) and Oliver Chanarin (who is English) were nominated for War Primer 2 (published by Mack). The book is an update of Bertolt Brecht’s 1955 War Primer, which combined press images and newspaper clippings from World War II with his own poems. In War Primer 2, Broomberg and Chanarin examine America’s War on Terror through images found on the internet.

Cristina De Middel of Spain is nominated for her self-published 2011 book The Afronauts, which examines, through constructed images, the national space program launchedin 1964 by the newly independent Zambia. In the statement that accompanied images from the book, honored in the PDN Photo Annual 2012, she wrote,

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ACLU Asks Court to Rule that Providence Protester was Illegally Barred from Leafleting

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Local, State and National Organizations Join Forces to Protect Access to the Ballot Box

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Senate Rejects Cybersecurity Measure a Second Time

A bill to protect the nation's critical infrastructure from cyberattacks has again failed to clear a congressional hurdle.

The vote forecloses action on the legislation until next year, despite warnings by national security officials that the U.S. needs new ways to protect financial institutions, power plants and other critical infrastructure from assault.

"The bill that was, and is, most important to the intelligence community and to the Pentagon was just killed," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said after the vote. "So everyone should understand, cyber security is dead for this Congress. What an unfortunate thing. But that is the way it is."

The legislation, dubbed the Cybersecurity Act or 2012, would make it easier for companies and the government to share information about cyber threats and encourage companies to take steps to reinforce security on their networks.

In a repeat of a Senate vote in August, most Democrats voted in favor of the measure while most Republicans voted against it.

Business groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opposed the legislation.

"Frankly, the underlying bill is not supported by the business community, for all the right reasons, and they are the ones who are impacted by it," said Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, who opposed the bill. "They are the ones who are going to be called on to comply with the mandates and the regulations. Frankly, it is not going to give them the kind of protection they need from cyber-attacks."

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, warned before the vote of a looming digital threat.

"I am very worried there will be a major cyberattack on this nation," Feinstein said. "I do not say that without intelligence to back it up."

The vote follows a string of cyberattacks since September on at least 10 banks and a vow from a group that has claimed responsibility for the assaults to mount others.

The attacks flooded lines that connect banks to the Internet and prevented customers from retrieving their accounts.

In October, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called the attacks "unprecedented" in their scale and speed.



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Phelps-Roper v. City of Manchester Decision

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Willis Provides Expertise to UK Government Report on Cat Models/Risk Reduction

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A bulletin from Willis Group Holdings notes the international broker’s role in providing its expertise for a new UK Government Office of Science Foresight report entitled

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White House Request for Sandy Aid Expected to Include Flood Insurance Funds

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle3 CommentsThe White House is expected in the coming days to send Congress a multibillion dollar request to fund recovery from Superstorm Sandy, which caused an estimated $71 billion in damages in New York and New Jersey.

Congressional aides said there was no clear indication of the request’s size, but some said it would likely be at least $11 billion.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund had access to about $7.8 billion as Sandy slammed the U.S. East Coast on Oct. 29, causing widespread destruction in coastal New York and New Jersey.

Lawmakers and analysts also said Congress will need to shore up the heavily indebted National Flood Insurance Program in the face of $12 billion in payouts resulting from Sandy, ranked as the second-worst disaster in U.S. history.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, asked about the additional Sandy funding request, said: “Well, we can’t do anything with the disaster aid package until we get something from the White House, and I’m told that will be here as early as tomorrow or the next day.”

A White House official declined to provide any details about the administration’s plans. “We are working closely with our partners in the states and in Congress, but it’s premature to speculate on specific actions as we work to ensure the governors have the necessary support,” the official said.

Lawmakers from both parties have voiced support for providing additional disaster relief in Sandy’s wake, but a massive funding request from President Barack Obama could be disruptive to already tense negotiations over year-end tax hikes and automatic spending cuts.

“It’s bound to be large, and we’ll need to scrub it carefully to determine real needs from wishful requests, which will take a little time,” a senior House Republican aide said of the funding package.

Representative Chaka Fattah, a Democratic member of the House Appropriations Committee from Pennsylvania, introduced a $12 billion emergency disaster relief bill four days after Sandy hit. No action has been taken on the measure, which is expected to be superceded by the White House request.

The White House official said that the administration has already obligated more than $1.9 billion to support Sandy response and recovery efforts. This includes $960 million in direct assistance to individuals affected by the storm.

On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state will need $41.9 billion, including $32.8 billion for relief costs and damage repairs and another $9.1 billion to mitigate potential damage from future storms.

New Jersey suffered at least $29.4 billion in overall losses, Governor Chris Christie said on Friday.

Congress has routinely approved emergency supplemental appropriations to cope with unanticipated disaster relief costs, most notably for Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.

Two weeks after that storm flooded New Orleans, Congress approved $62.3 billion in disaster appropriations. It added another $29 billion by Dec. 30 after Hurricanes Rita and Wilma hit the Gulf Coast, and another $19.3 billion for those storms by June 2006. Supplemental appropriations for Katrina costs were still being made as late as 2010.

FLOOD INSURANCE SHORE-UP

Lawmakers are expected to shore up the National Flood Insurance Program by raising its $20.8 billion borrowing authority ceiling, since it has a commitment to pay policyholders hit by Sandy.

The FEMA-run program is essentially the only U.S. flood insurer for residences.

Putting more money into the program would come months after Obama signed a law aimed at improving its finances. Congress bailed out the program after Katrina in 2005, and it is $18 billion in debt.

Senator Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat and chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, will “closely monitor developments to make sure that the NFIP is able to meet its obligations and pay claims to policyholders,” a committee aide said.

FEMA has estimated Sandy-related losses of $6 billion to $12 billion. That is far beyond the insurance program’s more than $690 million in cash and $3 billion in untapped borrowing authority.

A spokeswoman for the White House’s Office of Management and Budget said that as of last week, FEMA had processed 133,461 flood claims from the storm and paid out $302 million.

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: National NewsTopics: federal disaster aid, flood insurance funds, National Flood Insurance Program, NFIP funds, Sandy federal disaster aidHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Senate Preparing New Iran Sanctions, Expanded Insurance Ban

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsNew sanctions aimed at reducing global trade with Iran in the energy, shipping and metals sectors may soon be considered by the U.S. Senate as part of an annual defense policy bill, senators and aides said on Tuesday.

The sanctions legislation, which has not yet been unveiled, comes during a crowded calendar as the Senate races to deal with deficit reduction, the defense bill and other pressing issues by the end of the year.

The package would build on current U.S. sanctions, passed almost a year ago, that have slashed Iran’s oil revenues. The goal is to pressure Tehran to stop efforts to enrich uranium to levels that could be used in weapons.

Tehran has said its nuclear program is strictly for civilian purposes.

Democratic Senator Robert Menendez and Republican Mark Kirk have crafted new sanctions that would punish foreign banks that handle transactions for a broad sector of industries, including shipping, ports, ship building and more types of energy.

“Our significant effort right now is in pursuing areas of the economy that can lead to proliferation – energy, shipping, to mention a few,” Menendez said in a brief hallway interview.

U.S. persons and companies have long been barred from doing business with Iranian entities. These new sanctions apply to foreign banks, threatening to ban them from the U.S. financial system unless they cut their dealings with Iran.

Senator Carl Levin, the Democratic chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he was reviewing a draft version of the sanctions and was amenable to the measures being added to the defense bill.

“It’s fine with me,” Levin said. “Going in, I favor strengthening any way we can the sanctions against Iran.”

The package seeks to ban financial transactions with any person or organization blacklisted for their association with the Iranian government, as well as sales of metallurgical coal and precious metals, a congressional aide said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The sanctions would end “Turkey’s game of gold for natural gas,” a senior Senate aide said, referring to reports that Turkey has been paying for natural gas with gold due to sanctions rules.

The legislation “would bring economic sanctions on Iran near de facto trade embargo levels with the hope of speeding up the date by which Iran’s economy will collapse,” the aide said.

The legislation will also impose new bans on insurance and re-insurance for shipments of a broader range of goods, aides said.

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: National NewsTopics: insurance ban on shipments Iran, Iran marine insurance, Iran sanctions, U.S. sanctions on IranHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Connecticut Archdiocese Sues Insurer Over Misconduct Payments

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford, Connecticut, says its insurer has failed to cover more than $1 million the archdiocese paid out in recent years to settle four sexual misconduct cases involving priests.

The archdiocese filed a federal lawsuit last week against Interstate Fire and Casualty Company of Chicago. The lawsuit says the insurer was supposed to reimburse claims that exceed $200,000, but has failed or refused to make payments to the archdiocese.

An attorney for the archdiocese says the insurer owes the archdiocese more than $1 million.

A spokeswoman says the insurer doesn’t comment on pending lawsuits.

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: Interstate Fire and Casualty Company of Chicago, lawsuit, priest sexual abuse, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of HartfordHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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After Sandy, Lower Manhattan Limps Back to Life

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle1 Comments

The hum of massive mobile generators, boilers and pumps emerges blocks from Manhattan’s Financial District and turns into a steady din south of Wall Street — the now-familiar sound of an area laboring to recover from Superstorm Sandy.

Other parts of New York City have gotten mayoral visits and media attention after the Oct. 29 storm killed dozens of residents and tore apart homes in coastal neighborhoods.

Less obvious were the millions upon million gallons of sea water that wreaked havoc on subterranean electrical panels and other internal infrastructure throughout lower Manhattan, making them unusable even after power was restored to the area.

“There were waves on Wall Street, and it all ended up here,” Mike Lahm, a building engineer who rode out the storm at 120 Wall Street, said during a recent tour of the skyscraper’s basement.

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Wind Deductibles and Sandy: What It Means for Total Insured Losses

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle9 Comments

On October 29, 2012, when Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the northeast coast

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Secretary of State’s Directive Allowing Early Voting During Three Days Before Election Day Long Overdue

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California DAs, Diet Company Reaches 900K Settlement

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A group of California prosecutors say they’ve reached a settlement with a weight loss company that claimed people could lose weight by spreading a so-called

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Appeals Allow Louisiana Cardiologist Convicted of Fraud to Remain Free

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A former Lafayette cardiologist is asking to remain free pending a request that the U.S. Supreme Court hear an appeal of his 2009 health-care fraud conviction and 10-year prison sentence.

The Advocate reports Dr. Mehmood M. Patel, who is accused of billing insurers for more than $2 million in unnecessary heart procedures, has avoided prison while appealing his federal conviction for the past three years.

The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld Patel’s conviction sentence in August, and the court last week denied a request to reconsider the case.

Patel’s attorney, Amy Adelson, has asked the appeals court to allow Patel to remain free pending his request that the U.S. Supreme Court review the case.

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Male Cook Files Bias Lawsuit Against Idaho School District

November 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A former cook in the Nampa School District in Idaho filed a federal discrimination lawsuit, claiming he suffered bias in the kitchen at the hands of a female boss and female colleagues.

In U.S. District Court documents filed Wednesday, Todd Young says he was wrongfully fired in May.

Young says sexual harassment from female colleagues escalated after he complained in 2011 the district was improperly disposing of Styrofoam trays, when it should have been recycling.

He says his boss told him “maybe I’m having staff problems because you’re a man.”

The four-year Nampa employee also complains he was routinely excluded from new menu sampling and creation, with only kitchens with female supervisors being allowed to participate.

Young wants a jury trial where he’s seeking lost wages, damages and legal fees.

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U.S. sues Bank of America over 'Hustle' mortgage fraud

The United States filed a fraud lawsuit against Bank of America Corp., accusing it of causing taxpayers more than $1 billion of losses by selling thousands of toxic mortgage loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
 
Wednesday's case, originally brought by a whistle-blower, is the U.S. Department of Justice's first civil fraud lawsuit over mortgage loans sold to the big mortgage financiers, bailed out in 2008.

It also compounds the legal problems that Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan faces over the second-largest U.S. bank's disastrous July 2008 purchase of Countrywide Financial Corp., once the nation's largest mortgage lender.

According to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Countrywide in 2007 invented and Bank of America continued a scheme known as the "Hustle" to speed up processing of residential home loans.

The program, also known as HSSL for "High Speed Swim Lane," operated under the motto "Loans Move Forward, Never Backward," and tried to eliminate "toll gates" designed to ensure that loans were sound and not tainted by fraud, the government said.

The program removed underwriters from all but the riskiest loans and replaced them with loan specialists, previously considered unqualified even to answer borrower questions.

This led to "defect rates" approaching 40%, roughly nine times the industry norm, but Countrywide concealed this from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and even awarded bonuses to staff to "rebut" the problems being found, the government added.

Defaults and foreclosures soared, yet the bank has resisted buying back many of the defaulted loans from the scheme, which ran through 2009, the government added.
 

"The fraudulent conduct alleged in today's complaint was spectacularly brazen in scope," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan said. "Countrywide and Bank of America made disastrously bad loans and stuck taxpayers with the bill."

Wednesday's lawsuit seeks civil fines, as well as triple damages under the federal False Claims Act, which the government has used several times in recent years against Wall Street.

A bank spokesman said in response to the lawsuit: "Bank of America has stepped up and acted responsibly to resolve legacy mortgage matters. The claim that we have failed to repurchase loans from Fannie Mae is simply false. At some point, Bank of America can't be expected to compensate every entity that claims losses that actually were caused by the economic downturn."

In February, Bank of America agreed to a $1 billion settlement of False Claims Act allegations over home loans submitted for insurance by the Federal Housing Administration, in a case from the U.S. Attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York.
 
Whistle-blower

 Since Mr. Moynihan's predecessor, Kenneth Lewis, paid $2.5 billion for Countrywide, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank has lost nearly $40 billion on mortgage litigation and investor demands to buy back soured loans, Credit Suisse said on Oct. 5.

Some of these costs related to Merrill Lynch & Co., which Lewis bought at the beginning of 2009. Last month, Bank of America agreed to pay $2.4 billion to settle a lawsuit accusing it of misleading investors about that takeover.
 

According to court records, Wednesday's case was originally filed under seal in February by Edward O'Donnell, a Pennsylvania resident and former executive vice president at Countrywide Home Loans who had worked there between 2003 and 2009.

In that complaint, Mr. O'Donnell said Countrywide and later Bank of America dismissed his "numerous" objections to the Hustle, and that he became "one of the lone voices" in his division pointing to escalating loan quality issues and defaults.

Mr. O'Donnell could not immediately be reached for comment, and his lawyer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bank of America shares closed down 5 cents at $9.31 on the New York Stock Exchange. They have fallen 61 percent since the Countrywide takeover closed, while the Standard & Poor's 500 has risen 10%.
 
FHFA lawsuits

 Federal regulators seized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Sept. 7, 2008 and put them into a conservatorship.

The mortgage financiers are now overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and have repaid only about one-fourth of the more than $188 billion of taxpayer funds they have drawn down. Fannie Mae alone has drawn down more than $116 billion.

Wednesday's lawsuit was also brought under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989, which was enacted after that decade's savings-and-loan crisis.

It overlaps other cases that federal agencies have brought against Wall Street over the financial crisis, including the FHFA's 18 lawsuits last year over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

These lawsuits covered losses on the sales of roughly $200 billion of securities, including more than $57 billion linked to Bank of America, Countrywide and Merrill.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have in recent months stepped up their own efforts to force Bank of America and other lenders to buy back soured home loans.

Mr. Bharara's office in the past year and a half has brought five civil fraud lawsuits under the False Claims Act over FHA-insured loans against other lenders.

In February, Citigroup Inc settled its case for $158.3 million and Flagstar Bancorp Inc. settled for $132.8 million, while Deutsche Bank A.G. settled in May for $202.3 million. Cases are pending against Wells Fargo & Co. and Allied Home Mortgage Corp., Mr. Bharara said.

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Senate Banking Committee Post Possible for Wall Street Critic Warren

November 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsThe chances are good, but not guaranteed, that Elizabeth Warren will secure a highly coveted seat on the Senate Banking Committee, a move that would dramatically elevate her campaign against Wall Street excess.

Senior Senate Democratic aides, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Massachusetts senator-elect is a logical fit for the committee, even though it is rare for a freshman senator to get such a plum assignment.

If she gets the slot, Warren’s bully pulpit would be replaced with real power.

The bipartisan panel can greatly influence policy decisions through its oversight of financial services, international trade, insurance, housing, securities and economic issues.

Warren, who has called for breaking up the big banks, could move to block legislative tweaks to the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial oversight law that would blunt the full impact of profit-pummelling reforms.

She would also be able to forcefully push for regulators to use all the powers available to them to write strict interpretations of rules.

That could mean stronger curbs on Wall Street trading, higher capital buffers and rules that would compel mega-banks to shrink.

A spokeswoman for Warren did not respond to numerous requests for comment.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likely won’t start considering committee assignments until the new year. Still, one Senate Democratic aide predicted that if Warren wants to be on the banking panel, the odds are good she’ll get it.

“The leadership and committee chairmen usually work together to try to accommodate incoming senators’ preferences, within reason,” the aide told Reuters.

“If Senator-elect Warren indicates she’d like to serve on the banking committee, given her prominent work on those issues, she would certainly have a very good shot.”

ENEMY NO. 1

Warren, a Harvard law professor, is credited as the prime architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency created by Dodd-Frank.

She rose to national prominence in 2008 when she was named chief watchdog of TARP, the $700 billion taxpayer bailout of the U.S. financial system.

She made regular television appearances railing against Wall Street and mega-banks, a habit that made her bankers’ public enemy No. 1.

Warren then became the acting director of the CFPB, but President Barack Obama dropped the idea of formally nominating her for the post, in large part because there was only a slim chance that the Senate she is now joining would confirm her.

Her victory on Tuesday over Republican incumbent Senator Scott Brown is unleashing fresh nervousness in the financial services sector.

“The biggest impact I think would be for the mortgage and credit card industries,” said Joseph Engelhard, a senior vice president for Capital Alpha. “She’ll be pushing the CFPB to be a really tough regulator and examiner of the big banks.”

Senator Jack Reed, a senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, declined to make a prediction on Warren, saying he thinks she will have an important impact on financial services policy regardless of where she lands.

“I’m just glad she is in the Senate – I’ll settle for that,” Reed said in an interview Wednesday. “She is very talented and she has got great experience. There are very few people that come to this body with literally a lifetime of experience and detailed knowledge about … financial regulatory issues.”

Retiring U.S. Representative Barney Frank, a Democrat and the co-author of Dodd-Frank, said Warren could be a critical defender of cherished reforms against Republican attacks.

“She’ll have a very important role there. I assume she’ll get on the Banking Committee,” Frank said in an interview on Wednesday.

TOUGH COMPETITION

Still, a seat on Senate Banking is still not guaranteed, one senior Democratic committee aide warned.

There are numerous factors that go into committee assignments, from just the basic math of how an election outcome will change a committee’s ratio to whether there is competition among current sitting senators for openings.

At least two Democratic spots on the panel have opened up after both Senators Herb Kohl of Wisconsin and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii decided to leave the Senate.

But aides and analysts who follow the Hill say that Warren may have some tough competition for the slots.

Names being floated around town include Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, as well as Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, just to name two.

Jason Rosenstock, the director of government relations for ML Strategies, said that generally incoming freshmen are not placed on priority “A” committees like banking, though more recently there have been exceptions and first-time senators have landed seats.

He also noted that Warren could be a prime candidate for other committees like Senate Judiciary because of Warren’s in-depth knowledge of bankruptcy law.

Regardless of where Warren lands, most observers agree that Warren won’t need a banking seat to get her position across. But some doubt her larger impact.

“She’s just one of 100 senators,” said Harvey Pitt, a former Republican chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Yes, she can kick up a fuss and raise significant issues, but at the end of the day, all she can do is try to embarrass people or create difficulties. By herself it’s going to be very difficult for her to have very much of an impact.”

 

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Mississippi High Court to Hear Texaco Appeal Over Gas Tank Fumes

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle3 Comments

The Mississippi Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Dec. 3 in Texaco’s appeal of a $19 million verdict for five women who alleged the oil company was responsible for their children born with disabilities and illnesses.

A Hinds County jury ruled for the woman in 2010. Texaco appealed the verdict. Supreme Court records show briefs have been filed in the case.

The women had claimed they were pregnant when they worked in an old Jefferson County office building in Fayette, which previously was a gas station affiliated with Texaco Inc.

The women sued Texaco, now a unit of Chevron Corp., saying they were exposed to leaded gasoline fumes from tanks left in the ground when the former gas station was renovated.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality had the tanks and contaminated soil removed in 2000.

According to court records, the defense’s expert testified Simon was exposed to 46,000 times the safe level for exposure to leaded gasoline fumes.

A Texaco expert said no medical records substantiate the claims of the women being exposed to dangerous levels of leaded gas fumes.

Loraine Simon was the lead plaintiff in the case. She alleged her 20-year-old daughter, Rosalyn, is severely mentally disabled, and the children of the other women suffer from respiratory conditions and learning disabilities.

The trial was moved from Jefferson County to Hinds County.

Texaco claims it never owned, operated or controlled the service station or the underground storage tanks. The company said there is no evidence to link it to the claims made by plaintiffs.

Simon testified during the trial that she and her husband, Robert Simon, had taken their daughter to several physicians trying to determine the cause of her condition. They have two older children who do not have any mental defects. She did not work in the building when she was pregnant with the other two children.

The other plaintiffs didn’t have children with mental disabilities, but all suffer from asthma. Their attorneys argued that each of their children, who now range in age from 11 to 20, has some learning disability.

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Southeast NewsTopics: effect of gas fumes, environmental liability, gas tanks, Mississippi gas fumes lawsuit, pollution liability, Texaco, Texaco gas fumesHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Records Reveal Boston Police Spy on Political and Peace Groups

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Officers Monitor Peaceful Activists, Labeling Legal Activities as “Extremist” and “Homeland Security” Threats

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Lawsuit Targets Assets of Officers of Pharmacy Tied to Meningitis Outbreak

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle1 CommentsThe officers behind New England Compounding Center have been targeted in a lawsuit that seeks to freeze their personal assets, the latest fallout for the pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak.

Peter McGrath, a former federal prosecutor, said he was spearheading a civil case that alleges NECC and company officers Barry and Lisa Cadden and Greg Conigliaro are responsible for the tainted steroid injections that have killed 20 people so far. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an unnamed plaintiff in Middlesex County Superior Court in suburban Boston, court records show.

“We want to pierce the corporate veil and go after the individuals,” McGrath said Friday in a telephone interview. “My clients are in a lot of pain.” His firm, based in Concord, New Hampshire, is representing several people injured in the meningitis outbreak.

NECC’s public relations firm did not return a call seeking comment.

Federal authorities are investigating how NECC supplied hospitals, clinics and other healthcare providers with large orders of compounded drugs and whether it violated state laws regulating pharmacies. U.S. authorities say Framingham, Massachusetts-based NECC distributed thousands of vials of a contaminated steroid that has put 14,000 people at risk of contracting meningitis.

In the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court, the John Doe plaintiff is seeking a court order on Nov. 6 to freeze the assets of the company and the named officers. Such a “prejudgment remedy” is allowed in Massachusetts state courts during pending litigation.

Members of the Boston-area family whose own the pharmacy and related companies spent several million dollars on luxury homes in the months before U.S. authorities shut down their operations. Greg Conigliaro is a recycling entrepreneur who joined forces with his pharmacist brother-in-law, Barry Cadden, and other family members to start NECC in 1998. His sister Lisa, also a pharmacist is married to Cadden.

The real estate transactions, disclosed in publicly available deeds filed in March and April, provide a glimpse into the Conigliaro family’s fortune before authorities moved in and shut down the pharmacy operations of NECC and Ameridose LLC, a related, but larger drug manufacturer and compounder.

In March and April, Greg Conigliaro paid $2.4 million for a beachfront home on Cape Cod, while his brother Doug Conigliaro paid $4.2 million for a penthouse condo on Beacon Street in Boston’s tony Back Bay neighborhood, the deeds show.

About the same time, a real estate venture owned and managed by the two brothers paid $4.6 million to buy the state-of-the-art facility that Ameridose used to win new customers and to rapidly expand its business, real estate records show. Ameridose previously leased the building.

Doug Conigliaro, who is president of Medical Sales Management, the sales arm for NECC and Ameridose, is not named in the lawsuit filed in Middlesex County.

The Caddens, Greg Conigliaro and Doug Conigliaro did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

(Additional reporting by Aaron Pressman and Toni Clarke; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Lisa Von Ahn)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: compounding pharmacy, lawsuit against Massachusetts pharmacy, meningitis outbreak, New England Compounding Center, pharmacy liabilityHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Missouri Insurance Department Fields 26K Complaints

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle1 Comments

Missouri’s Insurance Department says it has recovered $7.7 million so far this year for consumers with complaints about their insurance companies or coverage.

The department said this week it fielded more than 10,000 written inquiries and complaints and more than 16,000 phone calls from consumers through the first nine months of the year.

Common complaints have involved denials of claims and processing delays. Most of the reported problems involve health insurance, followed by auto and homeowner coverage.

Officials say consumers should contact the department if they come to an impasse with their insurer about a claim.

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Midwest NewsTopics: auto insurance, health insurance, homeowners insurance, uri Insurance DepartmentHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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GM Wins Dismissal Of Lawsuit Over Einstein Image

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A federal judge in California has dismissed a lawsuit challenging the use of Albert Einstein’s image in a magazine ad by General Motors.

The 2009 ad for GM’s Terrain vehicle had Einstein’s face on top of a fit, muscular man with the line,

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Drought Holds Steady in Midwest, Clouding Winter Crop Outlook

October 12, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The nation’s worst drought in decades showed no signs of improvement last week in parts of the Midwest and Plains where the corn harvest is about two-thirds complete, clouding the prospects for the winter wheat crop, according to a drought report released Oct. 11.

The U.S. Drought Monitor’s weekly update, showing that nearly two-thirds of the lower 48 states remained mired in some form of drought, was released the same day the federal government lowered for the fourth month in a row its projection for the size of this year’s corn crop.

The USDA now estimates that farmers will harvest 10.71 billion bushels of corn, down from last month’s estimate of 10.73 billion bushels. The average yield is about 122 bushels per acre, off from July’s projection of 122.8 bushels.

The dry conditions remained unchanged in Iowa, the nation’s biggest corn producer, with three-fourths of the state still in the extreme or exceptional drought

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ACE USA Appoints Executive Officer for Northeast Region

October 12, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

ACE USA, the U.S.-based retail operations of the ACE Group, appointed Mitchell Schmidt as senior vice president and regional executive officer for ACE USA’s Northeast region.

Schmidt will be based in Boston, and will be responsible for setting and driving the overall strategic direction for ACE USA’s Northeast region. He will work collaboratively with the Northeast regional team to oversee all business development, retention and underwriting activities, establish distribution strategies, and service delivery to middle and large account commercial customers. He will report to Ed Zaccaria, division president of ACE USA’s regional operations.

Karen Sothern, who has served as senior vice president and regional executive officer for ACE USA’s Northeast region since 2002, now assumes a new global role as change management officer for acquisitions, for the ACE Group, reporting to Evan Greenberg, chief executive officer of ACE Limited.

With more than 15 years in the insurance industry, Schmidt most recently served as senior vice president and national underwriting manager of ACE USA’s custom casualty and public entity units. He has held several senior underwriting positions at ACE, including serving as Western Zone manager, with responsibility for the excess liability and custom casualty product offerings for five of the nine ACE USA regions.

Schmidt joined ACE in 2003 from Chubb Insurance Group, where he held several branch and regional casualty management and underwriting positions, including Midwest regional excess casualty manager.

The ACE Group is one of the world’s largest multi-line property/casualty insurers. With operations in 53 countries, ACE provides commercial and personal property/casualty insurance, personal accident supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. ACE Group is a division of Zurich, Switzerland-headquartered ACE Limited.

 

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Judge Asked to Order Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to Stop Misleading Voters About the Need for ID on Election Day

Share PrintEmailFacebookTwitterShareBookmark & ShareXGoogleDeliciousDiggRedditStumbleUponTechnoratiCurrentPermalink October 19, 2012

False and Misleading Information May Lead to Some Voters Staying Home

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ABI Calls for New Restrictions on Younger Drivers

October 4, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The Association of British Insurers is urging a review of the regulations for younger (17 to 24 year-old) drivers, including some new strictures that would require “a minimum one year learning period, restrictions on night time driving and lowering the alcohol limit for driving.”

The ABI said the changes are needed to “reduce the high crash risk young drivers face and to lower their motor insurance costs.” The ABI’s report  – Improving the Safety of Young Drivers – points out that only one in eight licensed drivers in the UK “are aged 25 or under, yet one in three who die on our roads is aged under 25. An 18 year-old driver is more than three times as likely to be involved in a crash than a 48 year-old driver.”

The ABI said its “research shows that over a quarter (27 percent) of motor personal injury insurance claims over

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Judge Shuts Down Christian Health Ministry Medi-Share in Kentucky

October 4, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle4 Comments

A Christians-only health care ministry must cease operations in Kentucky unless it can get regulatory approval from the state Department of Insurance, a judge ruled this week.

The ruling by Franklin County Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate means Medi-Share, a Florida-based cost-sharing ministry, can no longer accept money or help pay medical bills for churchgoers in Kentucky.

Medi-Share closely resembles secular insurance, but only allows participation by people who pledge to live Christian lives that include no smoking, drinking, using drugs or engaging in sex outside of marriage.

The case put the Department of Insurance in the unenviable position of having to fight against a Christian cost-sharing ministry in a Bible-belt state. The agency took the case to court because of concerns that some Christians might mistakenly believe they’re paying into an insurance plan that guarantees coverage if they’re hospitalized. Medi-Share offers no such guarantee.

“As a state agency, we are charged with enforcing the law and protecting consumers,” said Department of Insurance spokeswoman Ronda Sloan. “This case has continued for 10 years but it always has been about those basic principles.”

Medi-Share had continued to operate in Kentucky a year after the state Supreme Court ruled that it is subject to the same regulations as secular health care plans. Medi-Share contends that its participants aren’t buying insurance, but are involved in a charitable endeavor to help cover medical bills of fellow Christians and potentially have their own expenses covered should the need arise.

Wingate ordered Medi-Share, which is operated by Christian Care Ministry of Melbourne, Fla., “to cease all operations in Kentucky unless and until it receives a certificate of authority or other applicable license from the Department of Insurance.”

“Until that time, Medi-Share’s website must clearly state that it does not operate in Kentucky,” Wingate said in the 14-page ruling. “If the commissioner of the Department of Insurance discovers proof that Medi-Share continues to operate, the commissioner is directed to move this court for an order requiring the secretary of state to place Christian Care Ministry in bad standing.”

The legal battle between Medi-Share and Kentucky revolves around how tightly the state can regulate the Christian health care ministry that serves nearly 40,000 people in 49 states, including 800 in Kentucky. Medi-Share President Tony Meggs testified in August that the group has helped arrange for Christians across the country to pay some $25 million in medical bills for Kentucky participants over the past 10 years.

Meggs said the ministry has revamped its plan in an effort to alleviate Kentucky’s regulatory concerns by no longer collecting contributions from participants into a central account. Instead, Meggs said, participants make contributions into their own accounts at American Christian Credit Union. When Christians need money to pay medical bills, he said, money is transferred directly between member accounts, bypassing a central fund pool that was in existence at the time of the Supreme Court ruling.

Wingate refused to hold Medi-Share in contempt of court for continuing to operate, saying he found no proof that the organization acted in willful disobedience by continuing to operate after the Supreme Court ruling.

Meggs said Tuesday no decision has been made on Medi-Share will do in response to Wingate’s ruling.

“We are currently reviewing whether we will ask for a rehearing before the court or whether we will appeal the denial of our request to have the actions of the Kentucky Department of Insurance reviewed by a neutral administrative hearing officer,” he said in a statement.

Tea party activist David Adams, who has filed complaints with the Department of Insurance about Medi-Share and similar ministries, lamented the judge’s ruling but said he understands it.

“This is exactly the wrong time to be limiting health coverage choices for Kentuckians, but the way the law is written Judge Wingate had no choice,” he said.

Adams is calling on lawmakers to pass legislation exempting organizations such as Medi-Share from state regulations governing secular insurance companies so that they can continue operating in Kentucky.

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: Southeast NewsTopics: Christians-only health plan, Kentucky Medi-ShareHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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N.J. Brokerage Bollinger Acquires The Morville Agency

October 4, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Short Hills, N.J.-based insurance brokerage Bollinger Inc. has acquired The Morville Agency of Newton, N.J.

The Morville Agency specializes in insuring New Jersey public entities. The agency’s owner George Morville joins Bollinger as senior vice president in the commercial lines division.

Bollinger’s chief operating officer, Matthew Gardner, said the acquisition provides Bollinger with an opportunity to grow its public entity business. The Morville agency team will be actively involved in helping Bollinger expand this segment throughout the company’s entire footprint, he said.

Bollinger is headquartered in Short Hills, N.J., with branch offices in Greenwich, New York, Philadelphia, and additional N.J. locations in Holmdel, Moorestown, Newton, Sparta and Vineland. It has over 500 employees and is ranked as one of the country’s largest privately owned insurance brokerage.

Bollinger offers services in: personal insurance; commercial property/casualty insurance; life, health and financial services; employee benefits; sports programs; golf, country and city clubs; student insurance; broker products; and risk management services.

 

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9 Accused of Faking Injuries in Philadelphia Trolley Mishap

October 4, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle4 Comments

Authorities in Philadelphia say nine people who allegedly faked injuries in a minor traffic mishap are being charged with insurance fraud.

District Attorney Seth Williams says the defendants were riding a Sugarhouse Casino trolley in May when it grazed mirrors with a city bus downtown.

Williams says the trolley’s surveillance system indicates the vehicle contact was so slight that none of the 26 passengers moved suddenly. He says the trolley’s mirror had no damage.

But Williams says some riders can be heard on surveillance audio talking about the casino’s “deep pockets.” Nine filed claims against the trolley company, claiming serious injuries.

Williams said Wednesday that the suspects will also face charges of attempted theft by deception.

 

Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: Fraud, PennsylvaniaHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Oklahoma Legislator Criticizes Insurer Premium Tax Credits

September 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle2 Comments

The head of a state House committee that’s scrutinizing millions of dollars in business tax credits is questioning the growth in credits used by insurance companies and whether the state should be reimbursing counties and schools for tax revenue lost when property owners take exemptions.

Rep. David Dank, R-Oklahoma City, took particular aim at the home office tax credit, which he said is granted to insurance companies based in the state that employ a certain number of workers. The home office tax credit grew from about $8.5 million in 2006 to almost $17 million in 2012, he said during a meeting of the House Tax Credits and Economic Incentive Oversight Committee.

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N.Y.-Based Claims Management Company Invision Names Randazzo President

September 28, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Invision, a national claims management company providing third party administration, claims auditing and other services, recently appointed Richard G. Randazzo as its new president.

Randazzo brings three decades of experience in claims management to his new role as well as a 37-year history working in claims investigations. As president, he will oversee all claims matters, including third-party administration, risk management, loss control, claims auditing services, investigation services – including surveillance, skip tracing and background checks, as well as record retrieval and trial preparation.

Throughout his career in management, Randazzo has worked in property/casualty insurance, including commercial general liability, homeowner, commercial property, employment practices, inland marine and private passenger and commercial auto. Randazzo is also personally licensed in more than 12 states and is an active member in many claims and insurance associations.

Additionally, Invision also welcomed Carol Meriam as its new claims manager. In her new role, Meriam will be responsible for claims with high exposures, complex issues and extended litigation on behalf of Invision. Since joining the company
in 1997, Meriam has managed major run-off programs, claims analysis and served as an independent expert witness in a multi-million dollar lawsuit.

Invision is a national claims management company, providing services in third party administration, claims auditing, record retrieval, trial preparation, investigation and all related services, risk management and loss control. The Bay Shore, N.Y.-based company has provided claims services across the United States for more than a decade.

 

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EEOC Sues Colorado Company for Axing Employee with Bipolar Disorder

September 24, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle3 Comments

Dillon Cos., which does business in Colorado as King Soopers Inc., a large retail food company, refused to accommodate and unlawfully fired a receptionist at its company headquarters because of her bipolar condition, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in federal court in Denver.

According to suit, EEOC v. Dillon Companies, Inc., d/b/a King Soopers, Inc., King Soopers refused to accommodate Kelly Ferris’s need for sufficient time off to manage her bipolarism.

Hired as a receptionist in 2003, Ferris worked at King Soopers’ headquarters on Tejon Street in Denver for five years before she was discharged while on medical leave. Ferris requested use of the company’s 18-month medical leave policy saying she needed the time to manage a flare-up in her disability.

During her fifth month of company leave, King Soopers fired her for failing to report to work without permission, according to the EEOC suit.

Disability discrimination violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires employers to engage in an interactive process with employees in good faith, exploring what accommodations for a disability are possible. The EEOC suit seeks monetary damages on behalf of Ferris, training on anti-discrimination laws, an injunction, posting of anti-discrimination notices at the work site and other injunctive relief.

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South Dakota’s Northern Plains Insurance Declared Insolvent

September 24, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A Watertown, S.D., insurance company has been placed into liquidation by state insurance regulators.

A liquidation order issued by the South Dakota Division of Insurance for Northern Plains Insurance Co. was approved on Sept. 18 by Sixth Circuit Court Judge Mark Bennett.

Northern Plains, a high risk auto insurer, is insolvent, according to the liquidation order.

Northern Plains admitted the insolvency and waived service and process notice, the judge noted.

Financial statements submitted by Northern Plains to South Dakota Insurance Director Merle Scheiber showed the company’s

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Monsoon Ends After Dismal Rain Year For N.M.

September 25, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

New Mexico’s summer monsoon season began with promise but has now ended with disappointing amounts of rainfall across much of the state.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jason Frazier told the Santa Fe New Mexican that the ingredients needed to bring normal summer rains to the state’s mountains and plains just never developed this year. Instead, the main moisture plume stayed to the west in Arizona and California.

The upper elevations in the central and northern mountains had some of the best rains, but the moisture rarely dropped down into the valleys around Santa Fe or Albuquerque. The far western portions of the state fared best, with near normal precipitation.

Most of the state received from 40 percent to 80 percent of the 30-year rolling average, with the statewide average at 60 percent of normal. Through August, the state has endured its fifth-driest year on record.

Saturday marked the autumn equinox, when the hours of daylight and darkness are equal, and also signals a continued dry spell at least into October, Frazier said.

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ACLU Sues Department of Health over Restrictive Medical Marijuana Policy

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ACLU Scholarship offers Financial Aid for College to Utah Youth Activists

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Real ID is Dead. New Mexico IDs Will Continue to be Valid.

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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of New Mexico debunks Governor Martinez’s Real ID Scare Tactic

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ACLU to Argue Next Week at Guantánamo Tribunal Against Censorship of Torture Testimony

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Massachusetts Court Rules on Scope of Independent Contractor Exclusion

September 25, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A Massachusetts court recently ruled in favor of insurer Lloyd’s in a dispute over a commercial property and general liability policy excluding coverage for independent contractors.

The insured, a property development firm called Cable Mills LLC, and its insurance agency argued that the exclusion shouldn’t apply in its case involving a injured subcontractor who worked at the construction site and later filed a personal injury lawsuit against Cable Mills.

Cable Mills argued that because the injured worker was retained by a contractor and not directly by Cable Mills, the independent contractor exclusion isn’t applicable and that Lloyd’s is obligated to indemnify and defend Cable Mills in the personal injury lawsuit.

However, Appeals Court of Massachusetts in Middlesex rejected Cable Mills’ narrow definition of the independent contractor and ruled that the injured worker is subject to the coverage exclusion. The ruling, announced earlier this month, affirmed a lower court finding.

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SoCal Fire is Reminder Worst Could be Ahead

September 25, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A 4-square-mile wildfire in a rural San Diego County community has destroyed roughly a dozen homes and has left one man dead, a sober reminder the state has a large number of high risk homes and that Southern California’s peak wildfire season is almost here.

The Shockey Fire had forced the community of Tierra del Sol to remain under evacuation orders, with a total of about 80 homes evacuated at the fire’s height. Those evacuations ended Tuesday afternoon.

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U.S. Weather Forecaster Drops El Niño Watch

November 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsThe U.S. national weather forecaster has called off its El Niño watch five months after raising the alert as it is now less likely that the much-feared phenomenon that can wreak havoc on global weather will emerge.

Since June, the weather forecaster had predicted that El Niño conditions, essentially a warming of waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean that can cause a major drought in Asia, would develop gradually during the Northern Hemisphere winter.

For the United States, El Niño can bring higher than average winter precipitation to the Southwest, less wintry weather across the North as well as stronger winter storms in California and increased storminess across the southern states.

“The previous El Niño watch has been discontinued as the chance of El Niño has decreased,” the Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said on Thursday in its monthly report.

While the chances of El Niño are low, the CPC said the tropical ocean and atmosphere may still resemble a weak El Niño at times, with sea surface temperatures above average.

“While the development of El Niño, or even La Niña, cannot be ruled out during the next few months, … neutral is now favored through the Northern Hemisphere winter 2012-13,” it said.

La Niña is El Niño’s less infamous counterpart and cools the waters in the equatorial Pacific, mainly causing crop-killing droughts in the Americas.

The phenomenon was blamed for last year’s crippling drought – the worst drought in a century – in Texas, the biggest cotton growing state in the United States and only disappeared at the end of April.

El Niño leads to a heating of Pacific waters, triggering drought in Southeast Asia and Australia, which produce some of the world’s major food staples, such as sugar cane and grains. It can also cause flooding in South America.

The CPC is part of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

 

 

 

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How Voters Voted on State Court Justices

November 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Voters around the country for the most part stood by incumbent state Supreme Court justices, including where Republicans, business groups and others targeted the judges for defeat. However, two incumbents on Ohio’s top court lost.

Here is a recap of state court elections:

Alabama

Alabama voters gave a second chance to the former Supreme Court chief justice who was ousted from office in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument. Republican Roy Moore defeated Democrat Bob Vance, a circuit judge, in Tuesday’s election for the Supreme Court seat. Moore was first elected to the chief justice job in 2000.

Florida

Three Florida Supreme Court justices have won a retention bid despite an unprecedented push by the Republican Party of Florida to oust them. Justices R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince each led about 67 percent to 33 percent Tuesday with nearly 90 percent of the precincts reporting.

The Republican Party’s executive committee had opposed the three justices. The GOP had called them extremists. It marked the first time a Florida political party has taken a position in a retention race.

The justices’ supporters include some prominent Republicans who said the GOP was endangering judicial independence and that the three had done nothing that deserves removal.

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Post-Sandy Snowstorm Causes New Damage, Complicates Business Insurance

November 8, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsBusinesses in New York and New Jersey that were preparing insurance claims for losses from Superstorm Sandy now have a second headache: how to deal with new losses from an early winter snow storm.

The snow and wind from the nor’easter made continuing power outages worse, once again snarled road and rail traffic, and may have contributed to fresh damage at businesses that had not made repairs yet from Sandy.

Disaster modeling companies expect Sandy caused as much as $20 billion in insured losses, not counting flood damage that could add billions more to the total.

Insurance experts say the nor’easter will only complicate what was already going to be a difficult and prolonged negotiation between commercial policy holders and insurance companies over what was covered, when and for how long.

“If an adjuster wasn’t already out to identify what Sandy did – and there’s probably a pretty good chance that hasn’t happened in a lot of instances – and you had damage from (the nor’easter), you wouldn’t necessarily know that,” said Rick Miller, chief broking officer for the U.S. property insurance practice at Aon Plc’s Aon Risk Solutions.

The most significant questions will be around coverage known as business interruption (my shop was damaged by the storm and so I couldn’t transact business) and contingent business interruption (my shop is fine but my supplier’s warehouse was damaged and they cannot ship me goods to sell).

Sandy was already expected to cause not only billions of dollars in business interruption losses, but also years of litigation over whether certain kinds of interruption qualified for coverage or not.

Policies typically have limits on how many hours coverage lasts once the interruption begins. Figuring out whether the nor’easter caused a new interruption or was part of an existing one, where time had expired, will be one of the thorny questions to be addressed.

For homeowners, the questions around the nor’easter are much simpler than for business owners: is my house damaged or not, and was it wind or water that caused the damage? Those questions have their own complications, but on a much smaller scale than the disputes potentially facing large corporations.

“It gets complicated because policyholders and their insurers are going to have to work out where the different causes of their property damage came from and how that implicates the provisions of the policy,” said Jonathan Cohen, an insurance litigator at Gilbert LLP in Washington.

CAN’T TELL THE DIFFERENCE

Allianz, the German insurer, released a report last week indicating business interruption claims generally accounted for up to 70 percent of the catastrophe losses on commercial insurance policies.

Experts like Aon’s Miller say it is almost certain that property insurance policies will treat Sandy and the nor’easter as two separate events. That means two separate deductible payments for policyholders, raising costs even further.

“It may well become impossible to separate them out,” said Robert Muir-Wood, chief research officer of RMS, one of the main firms used by insurers to model their disaster losses. “Having an extra storm like that, from what I’ve seen, it’s more that it delays everything, it adds another day or two to recovery.”

Muir-Wood said lower Manhattan, which he described as the “epicenter” of losses, suffered a storm surge from Sandy so severe it would be considered more than a once-in-250-years type of event.

That will create even more problems, Aon’s Miller said, for businesses that had flood coverage but whose policies treated severe floods differently, or excluded them entirely.

“It’s very hard to make a generalization because each of these contracts is going to stand on their own,” he said.

 

 

Copyright 2012 Reuters. Click for restrictions.Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetCategories: East NewsTopics: Hurricane Sandy business interruption, Hurricane Sandy insurance claims, Hurricane Sandy loss estimate, Post-Sandy snowstorm damage, RMSHave a hot lead? Email us at newsdesk

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Former Insurance Agent Headed to Prison for Defrauding Oklahoma Seniors

November 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Former Oklahoma insurance agent Marshall Virden has been sentenced to two years in prison for defrauding senior citizens in Wagoner County, the Oklahoma Insurance Department (OID) announced. The punishment comes after a lengthy investigation by the OID.

Virden pled guilty to one felony count of exploitation of elderly. He received a 10-year sentence with eight years suspended. He was also given credit for time served.

OID investigators discovered that Virden held investment seminars across the state. He would then convince these unsuspecting “customers” to cash in their life insurance and annuity products in exchange for precious metals such as gold and silver. Victims later learned that their investments were fraudulent and that Virden had fled the state.

The insurance department said that hhanks to the efforts of the Wagoner County Sheriff’s Office and U.S. Marshals Service, Virden was eventually arrested in Florida.

“This sentence is just the beginning,” stated Insurance Commissioner John Doak. “Virden faces charges in two other counties, and we believe there are more victims who haven’t come forward. We encourage them to do so. We are determined to protect every Oklahoma senior against insurance fraud.”

Source: OID

 

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Georgia Unlikely to Run Health Insurance Exchange: Gov. Deal

November 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle1 Comments

A day after Barack Obama’s re-election, Gov. Nathan Deal suggested that he will not implement a Georgia health insurance exchange as part of the 2010 federal health care overhaul that ranks as the president signature legislative achievement.

Deal told The Associated Press that he wouldn’t disclose his decision until notifying federal authorities. But he noted that the state stopped planning an exchange once federal agencies wrote regulations that he says restrict Georgia’s ability to design its own program.

The decision to stop, Deal says, is “probably a pretty good indication of where we are headed.”

The law gives states the option to run the exchanges or default to the federal government. The exchanges would allow individuals to shop for private insurance.

Whether consumers would notice real differences between a federal or state exchange remains to be seen. But Deal’s reticence underscores the continued philosophical and political wrangling that surrounds implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Congress set a Jan. 1, 2013, deadline for states to have an operable exchange. Deal has until Nov. 16 to submit an outline for an exchange or notify federal authorities that Georgia declines to open its own.

Deal said he was initially inclined to consider a state-run exchange, and in 2011, he appointed a committee that advised him on how to proceed. That panel opted against recommending a state-managed exchange.

By the time the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on the constitutionality of the law’s key provisions this spring, Deal said he would wait until after the election to make a decision. Republican challenger Mitt Romney had promised to “repeal and replace” the law, a prospect that now is moot given the president’s re-election and Democrats retaining control of the U.S. Senate.

Asked for an example of a policy that Georgia couldn’t implement as part of the exchanges, Deal cited “association plans,” a concept that would allow a professional or trade association to form a large group insurance pool

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Court Invalidates Sex Harassment Award to Southern Mississippi Coaches

November 9, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled against three former University of Southern Mississippi soccer coaches who claimed sexual harassment and sexual discrimination.

The Hattiesburg American reported that the ruling reversed a 2008 Forrest County Circuit verdict that awarded a total of $1.2 million in damages to the coaches.

The Supreme Court found insufficient evidence to the jury’s verdicts in favor of former head coach John Vincent and assistant coaches John Mollaghan and Ged O’Connor, who claimed sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation at the hands of Southern Miss employees.

Vincent, Mollaghan and O’Connor filed suit in 2000, naming as defendants former Southern Miss athletic director Richard Giannini, senior women’s administrator Sonya Varnell, former Southern Miss President Horace Fleming and the university.

 

 

 

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‘Big One’ Looms in Minds of Experts Before California ShakeOut

October 18, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A day before more than 9 million people in California took part in a massive nationwide earthquake drill on Thursday, U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Lucy Jones stood in a room full of risk professionals in the San Fernando Valley and passed on some grim predictions about the

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Travelers Will Continue to Seek Improved Pricing: CEO Fishman

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticle17 Comments

The Travelers Companies Inc. said its Business Insurance segment pricing continued to rise in the third quarter — led by workers’ compensation and commercial auto. Rates also continued to climb in the Personal Lines segment.

CEO Jay Fishman commented during Thursday’s earnings conference call that he continues to assume the “operating environment has changed.”

“Notwithstanding the benign weather we saw in the third quarter, Mother Nature seems to be increasingly unpredictable. And we believe the low interest rate environment will continue to impact our businesses for the foreseeable future,” CEO Fishman said.

“Therefore, we will continue to seek improved pricing and take underwriting steps necessary to improve profits and produce higher returns on capital. This remains business as usual for us.”

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San Francisco Hires Quake Safety Czar

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A building permit consultant in California has been hired as San Francisco’s first earthquake safety czar.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Patrick Otellini is a certified building inspector who served on the mayor’s task force examining soft-story building risks.

So-called soft-story buildings have a garage or storefront on the first floor, making them prone to collapse in a major quake.

As director of earthquake safety, Otellini will implement a 30-year plan to reduce the city’s most dangerous risks in a future earthquake, including retrofitting soft-story buildings, private schools and some concrete buildings.

Otellini will be paid between $108,000 and $138,000 a year.

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27 People Displaced As Fire Claims Small North Dakota Town

October 19, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

A tiny southwestern North Dakota town has been all but destroyed by a wind-fueled wildfire that displaced its 27 residents, prompting an outpouring of assistance from surrounding communities, officials said Thursday.

No one was injured in the fire that swept through Bucyrus late Wednesday, but the rural town is

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Somali Pirates Free Greek Ship, Claim Ransom Was $5.7 Million

October 12, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleCommentsSomali pirates have released the Greek-owned bulk carrier Free Goddess and its 21 Filipino crew members after holding the vessel for more than eight months, the secretary general of the Seafarers Union of Kenya said on Friday.

Andrew Mwangura, whose role involves contact with ships sailing the Indian Ocean and catering for crews’ welfare, said a ransom was dropped onto the vessel from the air on Oct. 10.

“The Liberian-flagged, Greek-owned bulk carrier Free Goddess is now free and she is heading to Salalah, Oman, for … fuel, fresh water and a crew change,” Mwangura told Reuters.

Pirates said the ship had been held at Garad, a haven in Puntland that they use.

“We took $5.7 million ransom after holding the ship for months,” a pirate in Garad called Mohamed told Reuters.

The amount of the ransom could not immediately be verified independently.

Mwangura i s a former head of The East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme, a n independent organization for the welfare of seafarers and a piracy monitoring group.

International navies have cracked down on pirates, including strikes on their coastal bases, and ship firms are increasingly using armed guards and defensive measures on vessels including barbed wire, scaring off Somali seaborne gangs.

That reduced the number of incidents involving Somali pirates to 69 in the first half of 2012, compared with 163 in the same period last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

However, the commander of the European Union’s anti-piracy task force has warned that pirates would “try their luck” again following a lull in attacks on the high seas off Somalia now that the monsoon period has ended.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh and Mohamed Ahmed in Mogadishu and Abdqani Hassan in Puntland and Richard Lough in Nairobi; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by James Macharia)

 

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Father and Daughter in Central Calif. Workers’ Comp. Fraud Must Repay Over $600K

October 5, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Jerry Buffington, 69, and Cynthia Russell, 47, have pled guilty in Kern County Superior Court to one count each of workers’ compensation insurance premium fraud and eight counts each of tax evasion and were ordered to pay restitution to California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund in the amount of $475,100 and $127,899 to the Employment Development Department.

Both have been ordered to serve 10 years’ probation.

According to detectives from the California Department of Insurance Fraud Division, Buffington was the owner and president of Safehome Inc., and Buffington’s daughter, Cynthia Russell, was the chief financial officer.

Their guilty pleas are a result of an investigation led by CDI’s Fraud Division while working with the San Joaquin Valley Premium Fraud Task Force.

In 2007 State Fund discovered Safehome Inc. was underreporting their employee payroll to avoid paying the proper premium. An audit was completed and indicated that Safehome Inc. had failed to pay the proper premiums for their workers’ compensation policy in the amount of $477,285. Additionally, State Fund determined the business was operating out of its classification, which was registered as an alarm company, yet several employees were operating as roofers. The payroll related to the roofing portion of the business was never reported to either SCIF or EDD, according to investigators.

During the investigation a separate set of payroll records was located and corroborated the evidence that the business had not reported payroll to SCIF and EDD as required. The task force investigated the case and filed a complaint with the Kern County District Attorney’s Office, which charged the two with insurance fraud and tax evasion.

Buffington was convicted of one felony count for violating 11880(a) of the insurance code Section, false or fraudulent statement, four felony counts for violating unemployment insurance code Section 2117.5, failure to file return or report, and four felony counts for violating unemployment insurance code Section 2118.5, failure to collect or pay taxes.

 

Russell was convicted of one felony count for false or fraudulent statement, four felony counts for failure to file return or report, and four felony counts for failure to collect or pay taxes. In addition, she was ordered to perform 400 hours of community service.

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Center Announces 2012 Winners of Its $10,000 Prizes

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Clark County Asks Nevada For Disaster Aid After Floods

October 4, 2012Email ThisPrintNewslettersTweetArticleComments

Clark County commissioners are asking the state of Nevada for disaster relief funds in the aftermath of flash floods that killed two people and caused an estimated $2.6 million in damages to government property.

The request that county leaders approved Tuesday could bring assistance for government agencies and low-cost loans for businesses damaged after record-setting rains Aug. 22 and Sept. 11.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported the money won’t go to help homeowners who don’t have flood insurance.

Clark County Fire Chief Bertral Washington told commissioners the state only has about a half-million dollars for disaster relief. But southern Nevadans can be eligible for federal aid if damages to public and private property top $6.6 million.

A state team is set to visit the area Wednesday to assess damages.

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