ThePopTort

Military Contractors Misbehavin’

There are surely some clever take-offs of the Fats Waller standard Ain’t Misbehavin'.   There’s the Simpson episode, Eight Misbehavin’.  And the Wavy Gravy movie Saint Misbehavin'.  Even a TLC show called Paint Misbehavin'.  Admittedly, they’re all much catchier than “Defense Contractors Misbehavin,” but who needs clever when there’s an age-old contest at stake, that is, the battle over which is a worse military contractor: KBR or Blackwater. 

On the one hand, we have Blackwater.  Last night on 60 Minutes, there was the story of a widow who sued Blackwater after her husband was killed when some Blackwater pilots essentially took a plane on a joy-ride in the middle of Afghanistan and crashed it into a mountain.  As is typical, the military contractor tried to hide behind government immunity to get out from under this lawsuit, before eventually settling once 60 Minutes started asking questions. 

KBR, on the other hand, is not only being sued by many vets for running lethal burn bits in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they’re also challenging the decision allowing the case of Jamie Lee Jones to move forward in court.  Jones, who was drugged and raped by KBR employees, now has to endure a new ordeal – having KBR call her a liar.  This is the same case that led to national outrage about companies like KBR trying to force victims like Jones into arbitration, rather than allowing her to have her day in court against the company – which led to action by Congress. 

As for the most recent Blackwater impropriety, check out 60 Minutes below.  (Apologies for the Lipitor commericial.)  Let us know what you think!

Watch CBS News Videos Online

The Other Nuclear Power Subsidy – A Liability Cap

With all the hoopla about the resurgence of nuclear power thanks to the President’s announcement of $8.33 billion in loan guarantees for Georgia's Vogtle plant, there’s a lot of talk about whether the federal government should be backing a technology that carries such economic and safety risks, that Wall Street itself has avoided it for 30 years.  Now that the government has stepped in, it’s the taxpayers and ratepayers who will end of paying for a lot of this. 

But loan guarantees aren’t the only potential subsidy from which this industry benefits.  Since the 1950s, when it passed the Price Anderson Act, Congress put a cap on the liability of the nuclear industry in the event of a major accident.  So if there’s anything like, say, the Chernobyl disaster (the 1986 accident in the Ukraine where the containment structure couldn’t hold an explosion causing lethal radiation to spill out killing thousands, harming hundreds of thousands and rendering hundreds of square miles uninhabitable), the industry won’t be responsible beyond a relatively small amount.  Taxpayers will.  In other words, if the nuclear power industry were fully responsible for the health and safety risks of these plants, the industry wouldn’t exist. 

A major accident won’t happen now, some may say.  These new reactors are safe and companies have learned their lesson – they won’t cut safety corners like they used to when, for example, the company running the Three Mile Island reactors was indicted and pled guilty for creating conditions that caused the worst commercial nuclear accident in this country (so far)?  Well, let’s just say they are not off to a great start.

The type of plant proposed for Georgia, built by Westinghouse, has run into trouble with its “Safety Shield Building”, which is supposed to protect the reactor from tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes and airplane crashes, as well as keep large amounts of radiation contained in the event of an accident. In an effort apparently to save money, this building design “features modual construction – bringing prefab components to the site, rather than construction of the Safety Shield Building on-site from the ground-up.”   On October 15, 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sent a letter to the company, saying this design raises major safety concerns.

Perhaps designs for the sake of expediency and trouble acknowledging problems may still be with us. Calling these reactors “our poster child for how to do it right,” an industry representative said, as reported by ABC News, “NRC concerns with the shield building have been resolved to [his] knowledge."  The NRC says no.  We’ll see.  However, never to be resolved are a few other problems, like the fact that reactors are operated by human beings who can make mistakes. They are still dependent on a highly complex technology, which is vulnerable to failure for any number of reasons. And they all contain lethal radioactive fuel, which can melt.

Will the Supreme Court’s Citizens United Decision Declaw our State AG’s?

Right now, there probably no way to adequately describe the horror that the U.S. Supreme Court just rained down on this country with its decision yesterday in Citizens United v. FEC.  As the New York Times put it today,  “With a single, disastrous 5-to-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has thrust politics back to the robber-baron era of the 19th century.  Disingenuously waving the flag of the First Amendment, the court’s conservative majority has paved the way for corporations to use their vast treasuries to overwhelm elections and intimidate elected officials into doing their bidding.” 

Yes, Congress must fix this somehow, but it’s also good to know that there are state Attorneys General out there who are trying to stop fundraising corruption and see this as part of their job.  Like NY’s AG Andrew Cuomo, who filed a lawsuit Wednesday against four New York “fundraising” companies to “shut them down for lying manipulating, and deceiving to get charitable donations.”

The suit is the result of a six-month sting operation in which law enforcement officials obtained jobs with the companies, and found their telemarketers:

   
  * Used aliases and illegally failed to disclose they were paid fund-raisers.

  * Changed the names of charities to sound similar to well-known charities or causes.

  * Lied about the programs client charities actually provided.

  * Filed false annual documents with the state attorney general's office containing fake scripts that were made to seem like the ones used by their telemarketers.

Consumer friendly state AG’s have already had a big target on their back for protecting the public from all sorts of corporate misbehavior.  The terrifying impact of Citizens United on state AG races can only be imagined.  Brace yourselves.

Child Safety, Regulatory Agencies, and the Ongoing Importance of Lawsuits

We’ve noticed a lot of stories in the news lately about federal regulatory agencies like the CPSC and the FDA cracking down on companies that sell and manufacture harmful products to kids.  Massive recalls have taken place affecting strollers that cause fingertip "amputations," and drop side cribs that pose suffocation hazards, not to mention heightened federal scrutiny of bisephenol-A (BPA), an industrial chemical often found in baby bottles.

Of course, this all comes as great news, particularly in light of the Bush Administrations comparatively lax (and grotesquely corporate-friendly) regulatory standards.  Still, as encouraging as this might be, it’s worth emphasizing that regulations after the fact don't do much to help already injured children, some of whom have been mutilated—nor does it help the families of those killed due to corporate negligence.  Lawsuits provide often catastrophically injured victims with the means to pay for excessive medical bills and other injury-related expenses.  Even the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized this “distinct compensatory function that may motivate injured persons to come forward with information.”  Lawsuits can ensure such regulations are followed and increase awareness, which in turn, informs busy parents about dangers that are hard to see. 

So bravo that federal agencies have been taking more aggressive steps to help protect America’s kids.  But let’s not forget that the civil justice system is a crucial complement to our regulatory structure. 

Another Shout Out from our Neo-Con Friends as Auto Crash Victims and Teamsters Rally

It seems our friends over at Dick Cheney’s favorite think tank, the Manhattan Institute (MI), saw fit to take a break from honoring Martin Luther King yesterday to give props to our recent coverage of Christina Catalano’s brave face-off  with Chrysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne on behalf of more than 1000 families whose legal rights were wiped out by the Chrysler/GM bankruptcies – a result that clearly didn’t have to be.

So in honor of this special coverage, we have more!  Take a look (below) at a video of Christina’s impassioned speech about these victims – including her own mother.  She points out the fact that she and most of her family are union members from Michigan who want these companies to succeed but not at the unnecessary expense of victims or consumer safety.  The speech took place at a Teamsters rally outside the Detroit auto show, joined by  U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Detroit City Councilwoman JoAnn Watson, and Detroit Rainbow/PUSH President Rev. D. Alexander Bullock.  The rally was to bring attention to this: GM and Chysler are replacing experienced union haulers who know how to deliver the company’s vehicles safely and securely, with less experienced lower-wage contract workers, which, according to a new report by Wayne State professor and national truck safety expert Michael Belzer “Fiat/Chrysler’s moves to cut-rate car haul companies will likely lead to more accidents on our nations’ roads.”

Families like the Catalanos want accountability and they want to make sure preventable car tragedies happen to no one else.  That’s the Teamster’s message, as well.  Cutting safety corners is not the way to sell cars.  We hope someone over there at GM and Chrysler are listening!

9/11 Lawsuits May Shine A Light on What Really Happened That Day

This week, there was an fascinating AP story illustrating one of the most important functions of the civil 
lawsuits—disclosing significant information about important public matters to the wider public.  This instance concerns two of the brave families of 9/11 victims who perished on the hijacked planes, who decided to forgo compensation from the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund in favor of suing airline security companies and others. 

According to the story, the families’ attorney Mary Shiavo, the well-known former DOT official and airline safety advocate, said the settlements “are likely to include language requiring evidence to be displayed at the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum,” and that  “public display of evidence collected for trial by lawyers in the case was important to the families, [calling] the museum a fitting place for it," adding, "the materials were likely to be put in the museum's reading room.”  This would be a major, publicly important achievement for these families.
 
Mike Low, one of these two family members who sued on behalf of his daughter, Sara, who was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, told CBS News in September, "If it was about money, I would have been gone a long time ago.  It's about ferreting out all the untold stories of the days leading up to 9/11 and 9/11.  It's accountability, it's exposure, it's shining a light on some of those areas that have been successfully hidden from the public….When the trial is complete, I will have done all that I can do….And when I see that old man in the mirror in the morning, I'll be comfortable."

Nevada Hospital ER Shows “Pattern” of Refusing Care

We’ve talked any number of times about the terrible hazards many patients have faced when seeking care from a hospital’s emergency room.  And that makes sense, given that the ER is the location where most medical malpractice occurs.  It’s bad enough that in many states, like Nevada, patients killed or injured by negligence in ER’s have limited rights.   But some have actually targeted ER patients for additional restrictions, laws that would affect no other hospital patient even as the ever-growing litany of ER nightmares continue.

Speaking of Nevada, consider the case of Roshunda Abney (see video below) who was refused treatment last November at the University Medical Center (UMC) in Las Vegas, NV.  Abney, who was unaware of the fact that she was pregnant and in labor, showed up at the hospital’s ER in excruciating pain.  Nevertheless, Abney was made to wait more than five hours in UMC’s ER before eventually seeking help from nearby Valley Hospital Medical Center, where her baby was born—and shortly thereafter, died.  Abney currently has a lawsuit pending against UMC—but the story doesn’t end there.

According to state records obtained by the Las Vegas Sun, Abney’s case was “just the latest in a handful of [similar] cases” at UMC over the past five years.  Patients who received similar treatment (or lack thereof) included a woman bleeding profusely with seven fractures in her face, a woman in labor who was told the hospital had no beds for her as she watched another pregnant woman stroll right in (“Some people have priorities,” the hospital explained, according to the state report), and a man with a “fever, elevated white blood cell count, and possible abscess” on his spine.

You get the idea.  Hospital ERs continue to be incredibly dangerous places—and any suggestion that ER personnel should somehow be immunized from liability for such blatant mishaps makes about as much sense as, well…telling a bleeding woman with seven facial fractures to wait her turn “like everyone else.”

Chinese Drywall, the U.S. Housing Bubble, and Civil Justice

The “hot mess” that is the Chinese drywall fiasco seems to be getting hotter by the day—at least according to blockbuster investigative piece by Tim Elfrink in today’s Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

While the story is striking on numerous levels, what particularly caught our attention was the blatant culpability of developers and builders, who were so eager to cash in on the late 1990s/early 2000s housing boom, that consumer safety was essentially tossed out the window.  In fact, until then, Chinese drywall manufacturers like Knauf Tianjin “rarely exported drywall to the States.”  But when the U.S. housing market “exploded”, Chinese companies started supplying drywall that “the company eventually knew was faulty.”

Home­owners immediately reported problems, but that didn’t stop the builders.  As Richard Kampf, a former EPA chief who was one of the first homeowners to raise a red flag about Chinese drywall (in 2007) discovered, some manufacturers and builders knew as early as 2006 that something was wrong with the drywall.  “They knew this stuff was bad, and they kept right on shipping it.  And Florida builders kept right on using it.”

Meanwhile, the government’s reaction, whether due to a lack of coordination or the considerable political influence of developers who, are “the most politically connected industry in Florida,”  has been anything but stellar.   Said state Senator Dave Aronberg, "The government has dragged its feet on testing, the state has not acted... and there's been no real legislation….It's inertia, and it's a sheer lack of political will holding us back."  In fact, said Aronberg, "The only people taking any initiative are trial lawyers." 

Lawsuits against “the builders, the importers, the manufacturers, and the distributors” have now been filed in Florida, Virginia, and Louisiana, which are “the three states most affected by the drywall.”  Many are class actions and in one, “Knauf, the German-owned company that seems to have imported the most Chinese drywall to Florida, has agreed to be tried in Louisiana.”  That’s a good start.

Docs Blinded by Dollar Signs

We’ve said many times – and the evidence seems to keep on comin’ – that if there’s a problem with doctors’ ordering too many tests, the reasons have to do with the fees they get, not “lawsuits.”

Like this story out of (guess where?) Texas.  Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital just coughed up $1 million to settle a suit with the U.S. Attorneys office who said they had a deal with a doctors’ group to run a blood gas lab and then submitted claims to Medicare for “interpreting” blood tests that didn’t need to be interpreted at all. 

Meanwhile, in parts further north, a self-styled Minnesota-based “country doctor” named Stanley Gallagher has agreed, along with Wheaton County Hospital to pay a $900k settlement for unnecessarily admitting patients to the hospital and keeping them there too long in order to inflate their bills to Medicare.

In one glaring example, a “a 91-year-old man with a history of back pain was admitted [to the hospital] because he had pain radiating down the back of his leg. He spent six days in acute care and was treated with oral pain medication and physical therapy.”  To the astonishment of no one, government “medical experts said that treatments did not require acute level in-patient care.” 

Meanwhile, “Gallagher was disciplined by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice in 2004 for delivering substandard care, although the sanctions were lifted in 2006.”  Another theme of ours, with Minnesota ranking at the very last in the country for serious disciplinary actions against doctors.

Anyway, you get this idea.  There are too many bad docs out there who view their license to practice medicine as a license to gouge.  Here’s hoping Congress takes note as it prepares to “reconcile” the House and Senate health care bills.

Katrina Hospitals Victims “Literally dead in the water”

Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, much has been written about deaths that could have been prevented but for the negligence of various institutions.  We’ve covered the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers,  and its “monumental negligence” for not maintaining the levees that collapsed.  But now, we are finding out that many excruciating deaths in hospital and nursing homes could have been prevented too.

A joint project of the New York Times and ProPublica has reported on a massive corporate failure at New Orleans hospitals to establish emergency backup power systems, causing patients to slowly die as they “languished for days awaiting transport.”

In fact, three years before Katrina, one of Pendleton Memorial Methodist Hospital’s senior executives wrote in a report that the hospital lacked the amount of generators needed “to accommodate an emergency flood with 15 feet of water,” and that one of hospital’s two main generators would be “nonfunctional in about two feet of flood water.”  The report, written in response to similar flooding that had already occurred in Texas, recommended that a $7.5 million fix be undertaken to avert such a disaster.  That warning was never heeded.

One of the patients who died at Pendelton was 73-year-old Althea LaCoste.  In her family’s lawsuit, they say she died horribly and, in turns out, unnecessarily, in “sweltering heat after nurses spent hours pumping air into her lungs by hand in the pitch dark...". 

Meanwhile, according to Robert Wise, vice-president of the Joint Commission, the accreditation body for most American hospitals, “There are many [hospitals] that still know they have to move their generator,” and that without power, will be “literally dead in the water.”

It seems there’s simply no end to the institutional negligence surrounding Hurricane Katrina.