ThePopTort

Don’t Fool with Consumer Watchdog, and Other Election Observations

If you’re one of the 18 to 29-year-olds who made up 19 percent of voters this year (a higher percentage youth vote than in 2008! Yay!), you are mostly likely unfamiliar with an annoying 1970s Chiffon Margarine TV commercial that goes “It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature!”  But whether you’re 18 or 85, that universal “don’t fool with me” sentiment seems to have marked a number of election contests this year, even besides the obvious (i.e., women, gays and pot!) 

Let’s start with the California’s insurance industry. Don’t mess with the 1988 insurance reform initiative, Proposition 103, and the consumer group behind it, Consumer Watchdog. Billionaire Mercury Insurance Chairman George Joseph just wasted $17 million on his Proposition 33, which would have repealed Prop. 103’s provision preventing insurance companies from charging more to drivers who had a lapse in insurance coverage. This is about what Joseph spent almost exactly two years ago on basically the same ballot measure. Yet despite being outspent by Joseph 70 to 1 (the Consumer Watchdog coalition had only about $275,000), Prop 33 went down!  Next up for Consumer Watchdog: the health insurance industry! 

Speaking of the insurance industry, seems like they’re a little nervous that their influence-peddling in Congress may be in need of some new targets. Reports the National Underwriter’s website,

Rep. Judy Biggert, R-Ill., was defeated for re-election, a victim of redistricting. She headed the Subcommittee on Insurance, Housing and Community Opportunity of the House Financial Services Committee, and was expected to be a big player on insurance issues. She shepherded the [National Flood Insurance Program] bill through its tortuous, five-year path to a long-term extension. The bill was finally enacted in July. It is unclear who will succeed her as chair of the insurance subcommittee. Biggert was also expected to be a key player on regulatory issues as well as in gaining passage of A Terrorism Risk Insurance Act extension.  Joel Wood, senior vice president of congressional affairs of the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, called Biggert's defeat, “extremely disappointing to the insurance industry.”

I can see why they’re anxious.  Between escaping payment for climate-related floods and getting bailed out for terrorist attack losses, this industry clearly needs some friends.  

And speaking of elections, here are a few other interesting outcomes:

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce finally got their wish in West Virginia, ousting consumer-friendly AG Darrell McGraw who had held office for 20 years, “perhaps marking the start of major changes to West Virginia consumer protection litigation… [McGraw] has won the state more than $2 billion in consumer protection lawsuit settlements against pharmaceutical, coal and tobacco companies and unscrupulous lenders, according to his office.”
• They also got supermajorities in states like Indiana, Wyoming and Tennessee (both Houses), North Carolina (one House plus Governor) and won back majorities in states like Wisconsin. (See more here and here.) But the good news is that state houses flipped the other way in Colorado, New York, Maine, Minnesota, and Oregon (where there had been a tie), with apparent supermajorities in California and Illinois!  And that awful New Hampshire Speaker who pushed through that horrendous anti-patient medical malpractice bill (which we covered here) is no longer speaker since the Democrats took over!  Let’s hope a repeal is on the way!

As far as Supreme Court races, here’s some of what we know:

• Three Florida Supreme Court justices retained their seats in retention votes despite organized campaigns by conservative organizations to oust them.
• Iowa retained Justice David Wiggins, the Supreme Court Justice who had ruled on same-sex marriage with a 54% retention rate.  (This is in counter to two years ago when 3 of Wiggins’ colleagues were thrown out by voters.)
• In North Carolina, incumbent Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby won over appellate Judge Sam “Jimmy” Ervin IV thanks to an unprecedented and disturbing amount of outside money from business interests and conservative groups. 
• In Mississippi, attorney Josiah Dennis Coleman won over pro-consumer attorney Richard Phillips due to nasty outside money:  "The out-of-state special interest group Law Enforcement Alliance of America ran advertising in north Mississippi blasting Phillips as a trial lawyer who had filed a lot of lawsuits against business. …Phillips said the Virginia-based LEAA was trying to buy a seat on the court. He said such groups can put out negative ads that distort the truth without disclosing who are the individuals paying for the ads."

It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature, or with the truth.

The Newest Senior Citizen Entitlement: Fraud, Abuse and Neglect Without Recourse

Robert Wagner is an 82-year-old former movie star (really more of a TV star and don't let that 43-year-old photo fool you), who lately is probably better known to the non-elderly as 1. the guy who argued with Natalie Wood before her body was found off Catalina Island, and 2. star of reverse mortgage commercials.  Not that we have anything personally against “RJ” as his adoring former leading ladies lovingly called him at a recent "92nd Street Y" event (in New York City) called, “Pioneer Women of Television.” Doesn’t he know that he’s a spokesperson for an industry that has been ruining the lives of his own age group? 

At least that’s according to today’s New York Times front-page story about how reverse mortgage loans, “which allow homeowners 62 and older to borrow money against the value of their homes and not pay it back until they move out or die” and “are supposed to help seniors stay in their homes are in many cases pushing them out.” The Times found rampant abuse against the elderly by many in the reverse mortgage industry:

Some lenders are aggressively pitching loans to seniors who cannot afford the fees associated with them, not to mention the property taxes and maintenance. Others are wooing seniors with promises that the loans are free money that can be used to finance long-coveted cruises, without clearly explaining the risks. Some widows are facing eviction after they say they were pressured to keep their name off the deed without being told that they could be left facing foreclosure after their husbands died.

Now, as the vast baby boomer generation heads for retirement and more seniors grapple with dwindling savings, the newly minted Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working on new rules that could mean better disclosure for consumers and stricter supervision of lenders. More than 775,000 of such loans are outstanding, according to the federal government. …

Mark S. Diamond, a former subprime mortgage broker in Chicago, who has been sued for fraud by the Federal Trade Commission and the Illinois attorney general, faces a federal lawsuit filed in June by seniors who claim that he sold them reverse mortgages and either pocketed their loan amounts or promised to put the proceeds toward home repairs that never materialized. A lawyer for Mr. Diamond did not return calls for comment. Some solicitations reviewed by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau present reverse mortgages as “free money” or mistakenly tell seniors that they could never lose their home. One Maryland reverse mortgage lender tells seniors that they can put the proceeds toward a vacation: “Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you don’t need a vacation every now and then.” Last year, the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks issued cease-and-desist orders to a handful of reverse mortgage firms for operating without a license. In its advertising, one of those mortgage brokers falsely promised seniors “you won’t lose your home.”

In addition to the Illinois AG, Minnesota AG Lori Swanson, who has been a star on the financial crime and arbitration abuse fronts (see e.g., here) is “working on reforming the reverse mortgage market.”

But that’s not the only problem for seniors these days. It’s not enough that many healthy seniors are losing their homes and sick seniors often must live out their remaining days in nursing homes. Now, wealthy trade associations (like the American Health Care Association – the largest trade association representing the interests of many nursing homes) are targeting them too, hiring insurance consulting firms to issue reports trying to convince lawmakers to strip away the legal rights of families when nursing homes abuse and/or neglect their loved ones. See this response from Consumer Voice to an outrageously misleading report issued earlier this year from Aon Risk Solutions.  See more here and here.  In an earlier post, we discussed the enormous pitfalls posed by unethical pre-dispute (and pre-treatment) mandatory binding arbitration clauses in nursing home contacts. 

No doubt, "RJ" has enough money and people around him to protect him from fraud, abuse and neglect, which jeopardizes the “non-celebrity” elderly.  So if we can’t get his attention, how about those 75 million baby boomers who are on the verge of retirement (many of whom are caring for elderly parents as we speak)? 

Animal News and Legal Entanglements

We’re just getting started this week (you may notice here and there that we’ll be taking some time off this summer).  But already, the number of stories about animal mistreatment are way too frequent for my taste. For example, when was the last time you heard of someone (allegedly) killing his poodle by punching it in the face?  Former "NYPD Blue" writer Ted Shuttleworth was arrested over the weekend for this.  It’s said that he “punched the 4 1/2 pound poodle, named Lola … after becoming annoyed with it.”

On a much larger scale, there are the elephants - Billy, Tina and Jewel – at Griffith Park Zoo's "Elephants of Asia" exhibit in LA.  Trial began yesterday over their alleged mistreatment.  The plaintiff’s attorney opened with the statement that “the exhibit was so cramped that it was like stuffing a ‘blue whale in the equivalent of a goldfish bowl,’ and the ground so hard that it wore down the animals’ joints and feet.”  The city denies this and is fighting the case. 

On the other hand, as to the residents of the Bat World Sanctuary, a jury was apparently so convinced that the bats were not being mistreated that it awarded $6.1 million against a former intern, who had launched an internet campaign against the sanctuary and its founder alleging “horrific allegations of animal cruelty.” 

And in a somewhat related story, it was widely reported today that ConAgra Foods Inc has been sued by consumers in Minnesota who say that hot dogs and other products sold under its Hebrew “we answer to a higher authority” National brand, actually aren't Kosher.  While I’m no expert (or even know the facts behind the lawsuit), Kosher slaughtering is supposed to be “most humane method of slaughter possible.”  So wonder what they’re doing?

On the other hand, not sure I want to know.  (So glad I’m not on that jury.)

ALEC Hearts Immunity - Read All About It!

Some important updates on a few stories we’ve been following:

First comes breaking news that George Zimmerman will be charged with Travyon Martin’s murder today, which we assume means he won’t be able to take advantage of the civil immunity provision in Florida’s Stand Your Ground laws.

And on the related ALEC front, kudos to Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton for vetoing yet another ALEC bill (see our coverage of some of his other vetoes). This legislation would have protected the asbestos industry and successor companies from liability, greatly harming asbestos victims.  Meanwhile, Wendy’s joined the list of other high-profile ALEC corporate members disassociating itself from that organization.  And now, shareholders may be joining anti-ALEC efforts, as well. 

Following up on our coverage of the struggles of a severely injured former Pennsylvania student, Ashley Zauflik, to overcome a Draconian $500,000 cap on the school district’s liability, today her lawyers went back to court.  They are arguing that not only is the cap unconstitutional, but also that “the district should face sanctions [because it] withheld the existence of a $10 million insurance policy until after the trial.” 

Meanwhile, medical device manufacturer St. Jude lost its efforts to force a retraction by the medical journal that published devastating research, led by renowned cardiologist Dr. Robert Hauser, about the horrendous defects in its implanted heart defibrillators.  Writes the New York Times, “the journal’s editor, Dr. Douglas P. Zipes, said in an interview late Monday that the publication had looked at St. Jude’s complaint and did not plan to pull back the article, which had undergone review by experts associated with the journal before its online publication two weeks ago.”  This is all part of St. Jude’s (backfiring) “scorched earth” attack on its critics.  

Now this next one isn’t exactly an update, but the irony is just too good: the exceedingly pro-tort reform, anti-litigation Koch brothers are filing another suit against the Cato Institute, which sponsors the exceedingly pro-tort reform, anti-litigation blog, Overlawyered.com. Oh my. Talk amongst yourselves.

Medical Implants – The Real Heart Breakers

You may have heard that Dick Cheney got a new heart this week.  Now, I’m not a professional comedian, but I do know that statement hardly needs a punchline.  That said, we wish him well because goodness knows, the guy’s had five heart attacks and has been implanted with so many bizarre medical devices that even Dr. Frankenstein would be impressed.  Did you see that battery operated heart pump contraption he’d been carrying around? 

Actually, the last time we covered the former VP was to mention his well-documented reliance on a pacemaker, a more common medical device that usually works, but sometimes shocks or even kills patients due to negligent design or manufacturing.  Since 2008, patients have had no legal recourse should that happen.  That's when the medical device industry got a little immunity present from the U.S. Supreme Court.

Speaking of which, since this industry received its immunity back in 2008, what do you think has happened to the safety of these devices?  A new study by the Minneapolis Heart Foundation and Abbott Northwestern Hospital Foundation tells one story.  This study of defective St. Jude Medical implanted defibrillators led Dr. Robert Hauser, the Minneapolis Heart Institute cardiologist who wrote the report, to say, “This is the most difficult and challenging device problem I've seen in 40 years … It's a very unique failure mode. It's never been seen before in a defibrillator or pacemaker lead. And it's very troubling because no one knows what the natural history of this will be.”  Oy.

According to the study,

Recalled St. Jude Medical Inc. heart device wires, still in use to connect life-saving implantable defibrillators in 79,000 patients, had multiple defects that led to melted conductors, electrical abnormalities and shocks.

Little Canada-based St. Jude stopped selling its Riata wires in December 2010 and recalled them last year on reports they could break through their insulation. Surgery to remove the leads may present higher risks than keeping them in, U.S. regulators have said.

“The problem with this whole defect is there is no easy way to pick it up until an event happens," said [Hauser]. "It's an all-or-nothing situation. We are trying to figure out how to manage these patients, or a way to monitor them safely and effectively.”

Double Oy.  By the way, so glad Dick Cheney had good health coverage.  Let’s hope the U.S. Supreme Court doesn't strip that away for the rest of us, too.

Ending Our ALEC Addiction – The First Step

It’s well known that to recover from addiction, the first step is admitting to the problem.

There’s a addiction “problem” that we’ve covered here many times at ThePopTort called ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council.  For example, here (ALEC …is a secretive organization made up of conservative state legislators [who pay little to join], and corporations who pay hefty membership fees - up to $25,000.  Together, they draft model legislation and shop bills to state legislatures across the country without identifying that these bills are written by national corporate lobbyists).  And here (The Center for Media and Democracy calls ALEC “little more than a bill factory for corporate-friendly legislation that often repeals people’s rights or fattens the corporate bottom line”).

There have been bits and starts to admitting to the country's ALEC addiction thanks to the work of the Center for Media and Democracy’s ALEC Exposed project and coverage, and particularly ALEC’s “tort reform" addiction.

And some mainstream news outlets have tried to break through with articles like Forbe’s, “The big political player you've never heard of; The American Legislative Exchange Council is quietly having an enormous influence on how state laws are made.” 

But while all this has been circulating, we haven’t seen anyone in power really admit to ALEC’s negative influence on the country – until now.

Last week, Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton did an extraordinary thing.  Instead of boasting about ALEC’s connection to legislation in his state (as sometimes happens in some states), he vetoed several bills that would limit people’s access to the courts, saying “the measures were a ‘sop’ for the insurance industry and three of the four tort-related measures came directly from the conservative American Exchange Legislative Council. The governor said the measures fell on the side of wrong-doers, not on the side of Minnesotans.”

Then today, the country’s most influential newspaper, the New York Times, finally took notice, publishing an editorial called “The Big Money Behind State Laws,” which states as follows:

The American Legislative Exchange Council was founded in 1973 by the right-wing activist Paul Weyrich; its big funders include Exxon Mobil, the Olin and Scaife families and foundations tied to Koch Industries. Many of the largest corporations are represented on its board.

ALEC has written model legislation on a host of subjects dear to corporate and conservative interests, and supporting lawmakers have introduced these bills in dozens of states. A recent study of the group’s impact in Virginia showed that more than 50 of its bills were introduced there, many practically word for word.  …

ALEC’s influence in the Virginia statehouse is pervasive, the study showed. The House of Delegates speaker, William Howell, has been on the board since 2003 and was national chairman in 2009. He has sponsored or pushed many of the group’s bills, including several benefiting specific companies that support ALEC financially, like one that would reduce a single company’s asbestos liability. At least 115 other state legislators have ties to the group, including paying membership dues, attending meetings and sponsoring bills. The state has spent more than $230,000 sending lawmakers to ALEC conferences since 2001.…

There is nothing illegal or unethical about ALEC’s work, except that it further demonstrates the pervasive influence of corporate money and right-wing groups on the state legislative process. There is no group with any comparable influence on the left. Lawmakers who eagerly do ALEC’s bidding have much to answer for. Voters have a right to know whether the representatives they elect are actually writing the laws, or whether the job has been outsourced to big corporate interests.

Talk about a breakthrough! Sobriety may be just around the corner.

Minnesotans Leading the Anti-Arbitration Charge

Shout out today to the state of Minnesota, whose officials (OK maybe not every official) are taking the lead in trying to wipe out the terribly unfair process known as mandatory binding arbitration.

In 2009, we covered the “consumer protection lawsuit by Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson” which had “resulted in arbitration behemoth, the National Arbitration Forum (NAF), pulling out of ‘the business of arbitrating credit card debts and other consumer collection disputes nationwide’”

So we were delighted to see AG Swanson as a lead witness in yesterday’s U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing called “Arbitration: Is It Fair When Forced?”, presided over by U.S. Senator Al Franken (D-MN), probably the Senate’s single best advocate for consumers on this issue. Here’s the web cast.

As the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reported,

Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson criticized the mandatory arbitration industry Thursday in testimony before a U.S. Senate panel.

The hearing was held by Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., a critic of mandatory arbitration and author of legislation limiting its use in workplace disputes involving defense industry workers. Also present was Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

Swanson, who has testified in Congress before against mandatory arbitration, cited her 2009 suit against the Minnesota-based National Arbitration Forum (NAF), the nation’s largest consumer arbitration company. 

The suit alleged pervasive bias against consumers by a private dispute resolution company that is “in essence an arm of the collection industry.”…

According to Swanson, millions of people give up their legal rights because of "fine print" language in consumer contracts.

We wish this was all it took to protect consumers from these clauses - smart state AG’s - but unfortunately, we have a U.S. Supreme Court determined to step in the way.  In fact, this week the court heard yet another case involving anti-consumer arbitration ("The Supreme Court justices asked the question half a dozen ways: When Congress writes legislation that says, 'You have a right to sue,' why doesn’t that mean that consumers have a right to file a lawsuit in court?).  The case prompted this editorial today from the New York Times, which explains the case pretty well:

The question of how far companies can go in taking away their customers’ right to sue returned to the Supreme Court this week. The case involves a subprime credit card company called CompuCredit, which was sued by three customers in federal court for deceptive practices under the 1996 Credit Repair Organizations Act.

The company argued that they were barred from bringing lawsuits because their contract allowed them to enforce their rights only through arbitration, which prevents them from having their dispute resolved by an impartial judge and jury in a public court.

The act was passed to shield people from companies making bogus promises of credit repair. It says: “You have a right to sue a credit repair organization that violates” the act and a “waiver by any consumer of any protection” shall be “treated as void” and “may not be enforced by any federal or state court or any other person.” Despite that clear language, CompuCredit’s lawyer insisted that the wording is not “sufficiently explicit” to create a right to sue if a contract contains an arbitration clause.…

In AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion in the spring, the court’s conservative majority upheld an arbitration clause in a cellphone contract that forced consumers to waive the right to take part in a class action. The case drew attention to the wide corporate effort to have a privatized system of justice barring people from their day in court. In this case, the justices should rule that a statute explicitly creating a right to sue trumps a contract allowing only arbitration.

Yes, you would think.

The Foreclosure Blues (with Some Purple Tint)

We were a bit taken aback by the news that Prince, now on tour and in the midst of 21-dates in LA, happens also to be “singing the same tune as millions of American homeowners: The Foreclosure Blues.”  Apparently, the 20 acres that he owns in Minnesota, where his home once stood, has been scheduled for auction to satisfy his mortage, althought the Star-Tribune reports “Prince contended Thursday afternoon that the ‘payment has been made’ for the full amount and was sent to the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. ‘about four or five days ago.’”  

So the big question is, will the bank even care?  Clearly for most Americans, they could care less.

For example, JPMorgan Chase just settled for $56 million a class action brought by 6,000 active-duty miliatary families, “who were overcharged on their mortgages.  [The bank also] cut interest rates on soldiers’ home loans and return homes that were wrongfully foreclosed upon.”

There is also an investigation by all 50 state Attorneys General of foreclosure scandals like “robo-signing,” where banks hired people to forge official names on documents so they could take away people’s homes without verifying any facts.  Iowa AG Tom Miller, who is in the midst of crafting a major settlement with the banks, has gotten into a bit of a campaign finance mess due to donations to him from “out-of-state lawyers who make a living representing big banks” but Miller objects strongly to the implication of a conflict.  At least he's trying to hold the banks accountable, so much so that “Oklahoma’s attorney general said he is prepared to break ranks” with the settlement that Miller and the Justice Department are crafting.  He doesn't like banks being forced “to pay at least $20 billion in fines and use the money to reduce the principal on mortgages of ‘underwater’ borrowers, who owe more on their loans than their homes are worth.  ‘I have asked my attorneys to prepare me for an option that does not require that,' he says."  Hope his constituents remember that.

And then there’s the heartwarming story of South Carolina’s Keith Gamble.  As the Richmond Post-Dispatch reports, what started as a hobby “is now a risky, exciting, full-time job: buying properties at the monthly foreclosure sale and flipping them."  He says, "Some people's bad fortune is other people's opportunity.  I know that sounds callous.” 

Honestly, when it comes to the foreclosure business, who isn’t?

Guidant’s Government Payback

We are in an endless, circular debate in this country about medical tests and procedures (too many and why?) and lawsuits (too many and why?).  The tale of Guidant’s Ventak Prizm 2 implanted defibrillator tells the story in many twisted ways but all with the same conclusion: if unneeded procedures are happening, “fear of lawsuits” isn’t why, and victims are being stiffed from every angle.  

Earlier this month, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association said that one in five patients who receive dangerous implantable heart defibrillators, or ICDs, probably don’t need them.

Is this being done because doctors fear they’ll be sued if the don’t implant these dangerous medical devices?  Of course not.  They’re just practicing bad medicine.  In fact, the Director of the University of North Carolina McAllister Heart Institute said,  “We know that over half of individuals who should get an ICD implanted based on guidelines actually don't receive one, for a variety of reasons. This is a far bigger problem.” 

Defibrillators are stopwatch-sized devices that can deliver a 700-volt electric shock to restore a proper heart rhythm.  Thousands of Guidant defibrillators were implanted with major defects that repeatedly shocked, injured and killed patients.  They did so much damage that last year, Guidant (now owned by Boston Scientific) pled guilty to two misdemeanors, was hit with $296 million in fines and fees and was ordered to serve three years probation.  If there’s a lawsuit problem with these devises, it’s clearly the lack of them. In 2008 the industry received immunity for making unsafe defibrillators, courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court (Riegel v. Medtronic). 

But the government’s legal rights were never taken away, and now it wants its money back!  AP writes that yesterday, the government brought suit against Guidant “for violat[ing] the False Claims Act by submitting false or fraudulent claims to the Medicare program. The government says roughly 2,000 false claims were submitted to Medicare for patients who had the defective models implanted.”  The Minneapolis Star-Tribune writes,

"When companies like Guidant request and receive federal dollars for products they know to be defective, the United States is committed to aggressively seeking the recovery of those payments," said John Marti, first assistant U.S. attorney in Minnesota.  In a statement, Boston Scientific spokesman Paul Donovan said the company has been "aware of the government's interest in this civil matter, and we have previously disclosed it in our regulatory filings. Guidant plans to respond to the government's allegations and claim for damages in the appropriate fashion."

That’s all great, but when the court ruled in Medtronic, it removed the most significant and effective financial consequence to a company for choosing to keep a dangerous heart device on the market.  For proof of that, check out Boston Scientific’s reassuring response to this most recent government suit, to quote, “it doesn't expect the civil lawsuit …  to cost the company a significant amount of money.”  Certainly not compared to all the damage it did to the victims of this disaster.  

Towards that end, here is the opening from the Center for Justice & Democracy’s study, Heart Sick. It’s a shocker (no pun intended):

As the widow [Kathleen Gohde] bent toward Allan Gohde's coffin in July [2005], she was startled by a loud beeping coming from his chest. The source of the noise was an implanted Guidant Corp. defibrillator, the same model that was linked to the death of a 21-year-old man [in] March.  Both men died after their defibrillators failed to deliver a life-saving jolt to their hearts. As it turns out, the beeping that Gohde heard was a signal of a device malfunction, and if it hadn't sounded, the family might never have known why he died.

The Land of Milk And Mess Ups

Dallas-based national dairy processor Dean Foods was forcing farmers in Vermont and other northeastern states to work with them.  Now they are going to pay - $30 million, that is - to settle a class-action suit for this violation of federal antitrust laws.  (The deal awaits court approval.)  Also today, Dean “announced plans to issue $400 million in new debt to pay down old debt and named a new chief accounting officer.”

Take note, dairy farms. Just cause you’re “getting squeezed by big-box stores and supermarket chains looking for price concessions” so that your stock “is off 53 percent this year, making it the worst performer in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index” does not mean you get to violate the law.

And by the way, that also includes producing raw milk with E. Coli.

In Minnesota,

State Agriculture Department investigators Tuesday seized hundreds of gallons raw milk and other food produced by a Gibbon dairy farm that has kept churning out product despite a state order to stop.  Raw milk produced by Mike Hartmann's farm was fingered by the state for eight cases of E. coli O157:H7 in May, and seven instances in July and August of other stomach bugs that cause diarrhea and abdonimal pain.…

Seized were 'hundreds of gallons of raw milk', along with cream, yogurt, cheese and meat. … Raw milk isn't pasteurized -- treated with heat to kill pathogens -- and public health authorities widely decry it as dangerous. But some natural food advocates see it as a healthful tonic of sorts, superior in taste and nutrients.

Hhmm … nah.