wr grace and co. and seven high-ranking employees knew a montana mine was releasing cancer-causing asbestos into the air and tried to hide the danger to workers and townspeople, according to a federal indictment unsealed monday. more than 1,200 people became ill, and some of them died, prosecutors said.
the asbestos was naturally present in a vermiculite mine operated by grace in the small town of libby for nearly 30 years. the federal grand jury said that top grace executives and managers kept secret numerous studies spelling out the risk the cancer-causing asbestos posed to its customers, employees and libby residents.
The indictment also accused grace and alan stringer, former manager of the now-closed mine, of trying to obstruct efforts by the us environmental protection agency to investigate the extent of asbestos contamination in the libby area beginning in 1999. additional charges in the indictment include wire fraud and violating the federal clean air act.
"a human and environmental tragedy has occurred in libby. this prosecution seeks to hold grace and some of its executives responsible for the misconduct alleged in this indictment," bill mercer, the us attorney for montana, said at a news conference in missoula.
lori hanson, a special agent with the environmental protection agency, called the allegations against grace and its executives "one of the most significant environmental indictments in our history." - forbes ---- saying it can't handle the flood of asbestos personal-injury lawsuits, wr grace & co. has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. because of the filing, taxpayers may get stuck with millions of dollars for cleaning up sites contaminated by the 150-year-old company - seattle times ---- overall, including the libby suits, wr grace is a defendant in 105,000 asbestos-related lawsuits across the country, the new york times reports.
how could this problem lie buried for so long? this is a question being asked and answered right now by libby residents and others. certainly local doctors who treated the lung patients knew about it. over 15 years ago, a local physician, dr. richard irons, became so concerned about the many cases of asbestosis he was seeing in his patients that he met with the plant health and safety director, and also traveled to grace offices in cambridge, mass. to request money for new equipment to allow him to study the problem. as the doctor’s colleague said in a recent interview, the company told him to "leave it alone. they just dismissed him and did nothing" - uenews ---- the halliburton co. settled legal claims with about 120 families of asbestos victims in the pacific northwest this week, agreeing to pay out $30 million and to create a fund for future victims of the deadly fiber.
the local settlement was part of a $4.3 billion national settlement involving about 250,000 plaintiffs who had sued the company in connection with exposure to asbestos products distributed by halliburton subsidiaries.
matthew bergman, attorney for the local families and one of seven lawyers involved in negotiating the settlement, said dresser industries, a halliburton subsidiary, knew since the 1930s that asbestos was harmful, yet issued no warnings. Locally, asbestos products were widely used in shipyards, pulp mills and power plants. - seattle times ---- halliburton's political action committees and cheney contributed $494,452 to congressional candidates from 1997 through mid-2000. of that, $157,500 went to members of congress who co-sponsored the asbestos legislation -- 59 republicans and four democrats. (See list ofcontributions) cheney, as an individual, donated $12,500 to members who sponsored or co-sponsored the asbestos bills. - seattle times
some folks are laughing....but me thinks they are the same ones who got that tax break. is hell going to be big enough for these folks? time to start rethinking about why corporations are given more status than humans in our society.
but awol should know about frivolous lawsuits...
bush, the republican presidential nominee, sued enterprise rent-a-car in austin, texas, for the Sept. 8, 1998, accident, according to an article in saturday's new york daily news. the april 1999 civil lawsuit was filed in austin, the newspaper said.
lawyers familiar with texas insurance law told the daily news the type of lawsuit bush filed probably was unnecessary because his insurance policy probably would have handled the costs. "it's more typical to just slip it to your insurance company," including the deductible payment, said dallas lawyer thomas woodman. - foxnews via thefirsttwins.com
(*lost most of my links...will have to research them again...)
skippy international is proud to announce two new guest bloggers to our humble site. the witty rj of night light and the pithy mimus pauly of a mockingbird's medly will be joining our regulars, the lovely cookie jill and the very determined holden caufield (as well as skippy himself) in our continuing mission to right wrongs, wrong the right, ferret out the secrets and secrete the ferrets.
please join us in welcoming mimus, who has heretofor been a regular contributor on our comments section, and rj, who has been a regular contributor by way of emailing us with links to their own brilliant insights.
two incredible actors recently passed, and it makes us sad.
ossie davis, the consumate actor and activist, died at age 87. knight-ridder tells us:
he was a voice for justice - and what a voice it was.
ossie davis, 87, the actor, writer and social activist who died friday, had the kind of rich, soulful, sonorous delivery that seemed to arise as much from his conscience as his vocal cords.
but it wasn't just timbre and elocution that made davis, who starred on broadway and in movies such as "do the right thing" (1989) and in tv productions such as "roots: the next generations" (1979), famous and beloved.
davis and his wife, actress ruby dee, who survives him, seemed always in the center of a political storm. they were blacklisted during the mccarthy era for communist sympathies; they marched and picketed in major civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s. davis also delivered the eulogy at malcolm x's funeral in 1965.
and it was davis who gave voice to the united negro college fund mantra, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste" in the well-known ad campaign.
"there was such a presence in that voice," said eleanor traylor, chairwoman of the howard university english department. "it reached out to speak of a seasoned humanity. it was just irresistible."
and john vernon, the great character actor who gave animal house such a hard time as dean wormer, also passed at age 72. the latimes:
john vernon, a canadian-born character actor who frequently played villains in films and on television and may be best known as the sinister dean wormer in the comedy classic animal house, has died. he was 72…
a graduate of the royal academy of dramatic arts who appeared on stage in canada and new york in the 1950s and '60s, mr. vernon was known for his deep, resonant voice and for what one critic referred to as "a ravaged, burtonian face."
over the past four decades, mr. vernon amassed more than 200 film and television credits.
he played a bounty hunter stalking clint eastwood in the outlaw josey wales, the mayor of san francisco in dirty harry; a vulnerable bad guy in point blank, starring lee marvin; and a revolutionary leader in alfred hitchcock's topaz.
then there was wormer in animal house, in which mr. vernon did his best to expel the delta house fraternity -- the beer-swilling, toga-partying gang of college misfits personified by the uncouth and unkempt john belushi as john "bluto" blutarsky.
and, on a personal note, we were watching the sag awards last night, and were quite dismayed to learn that the wonderful character actor eugene roche had passed earlier this year.
skippy was an acquaintance of mr. roche, who always treated him with genteel grace, though mr. roche was a star of a magnitude that far outshined anything skippy would ever hope to achieve.
at last, proof positive the left owns blogtopia (yes! we coined that phrase!)
if the weekly standard says it, it must be true:
the daily kos (rhymes with rose, based on moulitsas' old army nickname) is far and away the most popular blog on the internet: kos averages over 400,000 page views a day. by comparison, the second most popular blog, right leaning law professor glenn reynolds's instapundit, averages barely 200,000 page views a day.
thanks to atrios we find moveon.org's response to factcheck.org's assertion that the move on social security ad was wrong.
basically, move on says they were right:
in referring to a cut against scheduled benefit levels, moveon was using the standard framing for the whole debate. there would be no social security shortfall whatsoever, if the goal was simply to provide the current benefit level. president bush and proponents of privatization have consistently used the scheduled benefit as their benchmark when they have warned of benefit cuts, if no changes are made. this statement is not true if a benefit cut means a cut against current benefit levels -- it only could be true if they are referring to scheduled future benefits. in this sense, moveon.org has referred to benefit "cuts" in exactly the same way as the president. if fact check only considers a cut as a reduction against current benefit levels, then it should correct the president and other proponents of privatization who routinely warn of benefit cuts...
since the longstanding debate on social security has proceeded from the standpoint that not paying currently scheduled benefits is a "cut," and that is the framing that both sides in the debate have adopted, and factcheck itself finds it difficult to avoid this framing, i suggest that you adopt the standard framing. at the very least, you should not accuse an organization that uses the standard framing of being misleading or inaccurate.
weeks before the first picket signs went up in southern california's bitter supermarket labor dispute, grocery chains were designing a mutual aid pact to ensure that no chain could profit at the expense of another as they battled the union, court documents unsealed friday showed.
during the dispute, the stores acknowledged that they had used the mutual aid agreement under which kroger ultimately paid money to the other companies so all could weather a protracted work stoppage. but the chains had refused to divulge details about the agreement or why they crafted it. the unsealed documents revealed that the stores used a complex formula based on their individual sales — before and during the dispute — and their regional market shares to figure out what kroger should pay. the formula also contained a profit mechanism that california atty. gen. bill lockyer alleged in a federal antitrust lawsuit provided an incentive to keep the chains from cutting prices during the dispute.
the formula's details "bring into sharp relief the anti-competitive nature" of the pact, lockyer said in a statement friday. "we will continue to aggressively prosecute our lawsuit." - latimes
well...sorry ralphs and vons...taking my money elsewhere.
oil and gas companies leaving california children behind
last week, senator dianne feinstein joined controller westly in requesting a federal investigation into the loss of oil and gas royalties for california's schools and children. the state controller's office discovered that california receives far less oil and gas royalties than states east of the rockies. in california, most revenues from state trust lands go to public schools, prompting controller westly's concern and action. the state controller also has a pending lawsuit against the bush administration for other oil and gas royalty reductions that help large corporations but hurt our schools. - steve westly's blog
the gang at the american street (full disclosure: we at skippy international are part of that gang, though we had nothing to do with this project, because we are lazy) has compiled a listing by state of over 1100 progessive blogs now available in blogtopia. (yes! we coined that phrase!)
unfortunately, they insist that it is "blogistan," a phrase that no! we didn't coin!
as it was a monumental undertaking, we graciously overlook the mislabeling of blogtopia, and the lack of the use of a phrase that yes! we coined!
the washpost says howard dean has the dnc chairmanship all but sewed up:
activist simon rosenberg abandoned his bid for democratic national committee chairman on friday and backed front-runner howard dean, moving the former presidential candidate closer to capturing the party title.
rosenberg's departure from the race leaves a field of three -- dean; democratic activist donnie fowler, who ran the kerry-edwards campaign in michigan, and former indiana rep. tim roemer.
about 430 voting members of the party's national committee will choose a successor to outgoing dnc chairman terry mcauliffe on feb. 12.
dean has surged into the lead with 250 endorsements from dnc members, but some democrats are worried about dean's at-times fiery comments and style. rosenberg stressed dean's success in rallying democratic support and ability to unify the party.
"what's going on with democrats right now is we're coming to understand and accept we're not a majority party," rosenberg said in a telephone interview with reporters. "we're fighting in ways we didn't use to have to fight."
"all of this is a sign of tremendous progress for us as a party," he added. "democrats recognize we have to fight harder for our beliefs."
if you want to see class, take a look at mr. rosenberg's statement he wrote on the daily kos. or just look up "class" in the dictionary and see simon's picture.
perhaps we haven't evolved as far as we had thought....
a new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. the way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say.
the rhesus macaque monkeys also splurged on photos of top-dog counterparts, the high-ranking primates. maybe that's like you or me buying people magazine. the research, which will be detailed in the march issue of current biology, gets more interesting. the scientists actually had to pay these guys, in the form of extra juice, to get them to look at images of lower-ranking monkeys.
curiously, the monkeys in the test hadn't had any direct physical contact with the monkeys in the photos, so they didn't have personal experience with who was hot and who was not. "so, somehow, they are getting this information by observation -- by seeing other individuals interact," said michael platt of the duke university medical center.
next, platt and his colleagues want to see how people will perform in a similar experiment. - live science
jobs growth didn't again last month, reports cnnmoney:
the job market started the new year in much the same way as it finished out the old -- posting disappointing job growth.
the labor department reported friday that u.s. payrolls grew by 146,000 jobs in january, up from a revised 133,000 in december. but that was below the 200,000 new jobs economists were looking for, on average, according to a survey by briefing.com.
january marked the seventh time in the last eight reports that economists had overestimated the number of jobs the economy created.
the unemployment rate fell to 5.2 percent from 5.4 in december, but that came mostly from a drop in the size of the labor force, not due to strong employment gains. economists were looking for an unchanged reading.
"some of the signals pointing to job market improvement simply did not bear fruit this month," said robert brusca of fao-economics, who had forecast a gain of 225,000 jobs. "the report makes the economy look even less like it is building a head of steam."
and what do repubbbs do when faced with reality? why, deny reality, of course:
“it either means the economy is losing momentum or the (bureau of labor statistics) is losing touch what's actually happening in the economy," said mark vitner, senior economist at wachovia securities. "right now i don't know what side to come down on. my sense is that job growth has been stronger than reported."
sure, it's the department of labor that's hinkey, not the actual economy itself. now, that's what we call faith-based!
pandagon sums it up...."if peter orzag's calculations are correct in this new york times article, in the first 20 years of privatization, it would cost $4.5 trillion dollars to shore up a system projected to run a $3.4 trillion deficit over 75 years. bush wants to commit the government to an unnecessary extra $1.1 trillion of spending that will still result in my benefits getting cut when i retire.
the lovely hesiod sends us an la times piece which points out that in his state of confusion speech, awol changed his position on the rationale for "fixing" social security...thus hanging the rest of his party out to dry:
in a significant shift in his rationale for the accounts, bush dropped his claim that they would help solve social security's fiscal problems — a link he sometimes made during last year's presidential campaign. instead, he said the individual accounts were desirable because they would be "a better deal," providing workers what he said would be a higher rate of return and "greater security in retirement."
a bush aide, briefing reporters on the condition of anonymity, was more explicit, saying that the individual accounts would do nothing to solve the system's long-term financial problems.
that candid analysis, although widely shared by economists, distressed some republicans.
"oh, my god," one gop political strategist said when he learned of the shift in rhetoric. "the white house has made a lot of republicans walk the plank on this. now it sounds as if they are sawing off the board."
the real problem with social security is the feds keep borrowing from it
i went to an economic presentation this morning...and of course the speaker read from the "talking points" of the bushies - "social security needs privatization. blah. blah. blah." however, during the question and answer period after the slide show, the truth came out. according to this economist who worked with gov. arnie, et al., "social security takes in more money than it expends."
hmmm...doesn't sound like it's broken.
maybe the broken part of the scenario is that the federal government keeps "borrowing" from social security to make the national debt not seem so scary. sounds like the part that needs fixing is that the top of the cookie jar needs to be capped from our own government plundering from the working folks.
under the budget proposed by the bush administration, the government is expected to borrow over $2 trillion from these social security trust funds to pay for government spending over the next ten years. moreover, administration officials and republican congressional leaders have called the trust funds "a mere accounting device"1 from which employees will get "nothing in return"2 - indicating that the federal government does not plan to honor its commitment to paying back what it has borrowed from social security.
1 House Majority Leader Dick Armey, Memo to House Republicans (July 5, 2001)
2 White House Spokesman Ari Fleischer, Associated Press (July 25, 2002)
calculate government borrowing from your social security contribution....here.
but he can roll over and play dead while filing a story!
our buds over at resident bush send us this bosglobe story which details the scrutiny "reporter" jeff gannon is getting from the real press:
jeff gannon calls himself the white house correspondent for talonnews.com, a website that says it is "committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news coverage to our readers." it is operated by a texas-based republican party delegate and political activist who also runs gopusa.com, a website that touts itself as "bringing the conservative message to america."
called on last week by president bush at a press conference, gannon attacked democratic senate leaders and called them "divorced from reality." during the presidential campaign, when called on by press secretary scott mcclellan, gannon linked senator john f. kerry, democrat of massachusetts, to jane fonda and questioned why anyone would dispute bush's national guard service.
now, the question of how gannon gets into white house press conferences is coming under intense scrutiny from critics who contend that gannon is not a journalist but rather a white house tool to soften media coverage of bush. the issue was raised by a media watchdog group and picked up by internet bloggers, who linked gannon's presence in white house briefings to recent controversies over whether the administration manipulates the flow of information to the public.
these include the disclosure that the education department secretly paid columnist armstrong williams to promote its education policy and the administration's practice of sending out video press releases about its policies that purport to be "news stories" by fake journalists.
mcclellan said gannon has not been issued -- nor requested -- a regular "hard pass" to the white house, and instead has come in for the past two years on daily passes. daily passes, he said, may be issued to anyone who writes for an organization that publishes regularly and who is cleared to enter the building.
the kids from the daily cookie alert us that general wesley clark will be chatting with kitty felde today at 2:00 pm real time on talk of the city heard on kpcc radio.
blogs that don't link to us because her co-blogger won't do it, but she says she "loves the bush kangaroo," though we are beginning to suspect otherwise
skippy is not responsible for the views and opinions of any website linked to from this page. take it up with them. leave us alone. we're tired, and we need a snack.
