FEMA ordered to stop collection efforts

By Natalie Chandler
natalie.chandler@clarionledger.com
Clarion-Ledger
June 19, 2007

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"(FEMA) will send a letter out that says, 'We've determined you're ineligible for the money you received.' And that doesn't tell you anything," said Crystal Utley, an attorney with Mississippi Center for Justice. "And they're not telling people they may be eligible for a hardship waiver. And when people ask for a waiver, they ignore their request."

***

Ocean Springs resident Leslie Keller said she cannot afford to repay the $2,500 she was given for rental assistance. She said FEMA originally told her she didn't qualify for the money because she was living in a FEMA trailer. But because she was still paying a mortgage on her destroyed home, she said, FEMA relented.

"Then six months later, they said I had to give it back," said Keller, a 45-year-old mother of three who attends school during the day and works at night.

"I can understand going after the ones that fraudulently (received money)," she said. "But as far as the people who accepted aid and then FEMA says it's the wrong type of aid, it's not right."
FEMA has provided $1.23 billion in aid to Mississippi since Katrina struck.

_____________________________________________
Read the rest of the article in the Clarion Ledger, daily newspaper in Jackson, Miss., the state’s capitol.

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White House Muzzling Hurricane Center Director

National Hurricane Center Director Bill Proenza has been the loudest voice calling for a replacement of an aging satellite.

U.S. hurricane satellite could fail at any time
Associated Press
June 12, 2007
MIAMI - An aging weather satellite crucial to accurate predictions on the intensity and path of hurricanes could fail at any moment and plans to launch a replacement have been pushed back seven years to 2016.

In a letter obtained by The Associated Press, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's chief said the failure of the QuikScat satellite could bring more uncertainty to forecasts and widen the areas that are placed under hurricane watches and warnings.

If the satellite faltered, experts estimate that the accuracy of two-day forecasts would suffer by 10 percent and three-day forecasts by 16 percent, which could translate into miles of coastline and the difference between a city being evacuated or not.

Read the MSNBC article.

A.M in the Morning Comment: In typical fashion, the Bush Administration prefers a PR campaign and muzzling public employees to telling the American people the truth. See next story.

I'd really like to reinforce to American public that we are prepared to provide
hurricane services this season.

Mary Glackin, acting head of the U.S. Weather Service

Hurricane center director chastised for comments to media
June 17, 2007

MIAMI (AP) — The director of the National Hurricane Center, who has been outspoken in warning about an aging satellite used for hurricane forecasting, was chastised . . . by a superior for his comments.

Bill Proenza has been talking about the QuikScat satellite since taking office in January. The satellite was launched in 1999 and designed to last two to three years but is now showing signs of its age. Certain hurricane forecasts could be up to 16% less accurate if it fails, Proenza has said. That could lead to wider areas placed under hurricane watches and warnings. A satellite with technology meant to replace QuikScat would not fly until 2016, seven years later than planned, The Associated Press reported this week.

. . . Proenza was given a 3-page letter from the acting head of the Weather Service, Mary Glackin. Proenza's recent statements "may have caused some unnecessary confusion about NOAA's ability to accurately predict tropical storms," Glackin wrote.

Read the USAToday story.

A.M in the Morning Comment: Yeah, Glackin is marching in lockstep with the Rove, Cheney, and Bush.

Hurricane chief: NOAA wasted millions
By Brian Skoloff, Associated Press Writer
May 17, 2007

The federal government is spending millions of dollars on a publicity campaign that could be used to plug budget shortfalls hurricane forecasters are struggling with, the National Hurricane Center's director said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is spending up to $4 million to publicize a 200th anniversary celebration while the agency has cut $700,000 from hurricane research, Bill Proenza said. The hurricane center is part of the National Weather Service, which is a NOAA agency.

"No question about it, it is not justified," he said in a phone interview while attending the Florida Governor's Hurricane Conference in Fort Lauderdale. "It is using appropriated funds for self promotion."Read the USA Today story.

A.M in the Morning Comment: How wonderful to have folks who know their craft, have a backbone to stand up to political pressure AND receive mainstream media attention. What a breath of much needed fresh air!

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State Farm, Partners, and RICO: What a Racket!

[At end of this piece are additional resources on the RICO case including a video of the press conference annoucing this historical lawsuit.]

I’m not talking tennis either. The whirlwind of news swirling about is almost dizzying. Shortly after Katrina hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast and breached the New Orleans’ levees, rumors floated around implying that the insurance companies would rig their claims process to wiggle out of paying what was owed to Paula and Peter Policyholders.

I thought to myself how criminal and cruel, heartless and calculating the people running a corporation would have to be to actually pull off something like this.

I envisioned a set of companies passing back and forth among themselves responsibility for the Katrina claims. I had thought this would be a way to shift its costs to other companies depending on which of them had the flood insurance policies. I was unaware that the private insurance corporations had bailed out of the flood insurance business some forty years ago.

I didn’t realize that our U.S. Government was taking care of what the private market neglected. When corporations failed to fill the market needs of American families and business owners, the federal government stepped in. Indeed, a lesson in the absurdity of arguing in favor of straight up laissez faire economics.

What I had envisioned was in the right direction of what occurred. I just didn’t realize that the US taxpayers would get stuck with the private corporations’ bill.

Courageous Whistleblowers Step Forward
Thankfully, two courageous women—Cori and Kerri Rigsby—blew the whistle on what has turned out to be a scenario worse than imagined. These very brave Rigsby sisters came forward with evidence that allegedly proves that State Farm defrauded policyholders by manipulating engineers' reports so that claims could be denied.

Photo of Cori and Kerri Rigsby

ABC News was able to obtain a copy from State Farm files of the original FAEC damage report, which included the image of an attached "Post-it" note that read, "Put in wind file - do not pay bill - do not discuss"

Below is a post it note on a file that appears to embody the essence of the allegations.

Cori and Kerri Rigsby turned to attorney Richard Scruggs to represent them. A few years back, Scruggs had won his fight against Big Tobacco costing the cigarette industry a “$246 billion settlement to help states defray Medicaid costs for smoking-related illnesses.”

The sisters say they ultimately printed out and copied roughly 15,000 pages of claims records. In addition to providing the material to Scruggs, they say they gave copies to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton's offices on June 5, the same day they told a supervisor they were cooperating with Scruggs. For eight years, Cori and Kerri Rigby had managed State Farm claims adjuster teams.

Of course, State Farm is doing everything it can to suppress the use of this information in any legal proceeding. Doesn’t this sound just like they took a page straight out of the playbook for their Republican buddies in the White House?

Remember how the Administration went ballistic when we learned that someone in Bush’s employ had leaked the identity of CIA undercover operative? The White House wasn’t upset that someone had betrayed the country and put at risk Valerie Plame’s life and all those with whom she was associated as well as compromised her work on weapons of mass destruction. No ma’am. Bush and his team were upset that they had been caught. Well, this is the same game State Farm seems to be playing.

Racketeering
On Wednesday, June 20,2007, the Scruggs Katrina Group filed a federal lawsuit against State Farm and its corporate partners alleging the corporations were violating the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act, which most of us have heard of as RICO. State Farm worked with “Forensic Analysis & Engineering Corp. of Raleigh, N.C., and E.A. Renfroe Co. Inc. of Hoover, Ala. Forensic's engineers inspected homes for State Farm, while Renfroe helped the company adjust claims.”

The Scruggs Katrina Group characterized the complaint as "a story of how State Farm and its web of surrogate companies conspired to deny claims that should be paid by State Farm and to shift liability to the federal-funded flood insurance program. Actions taken by State Farm and conspirators included:

• threatening experts who disagreed with their desired result
• concealing information that would work in the policyholder's favor destroying or falsifying reports
• placing pressure on engineers to use scientifically inaccurate and deceptive language
• firing engineers who refused to be corrupted inventing a new policy to exclude all hurricane damage
• using their strength and size to intimidate policyholders in the mediation process

My God alive! Racketeering charges against an insurance company that is known for its jingle claiming “just like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.”

“I've never seen a smoking gun this good, even in the tobacco litigation when I'd thought I'd seen it all,” Scruggs said in an interview. “They collaborated to defeat valid homeowner claims through rigged engineering reports and biased adjusting.”

Boy oh boy. This is sounding more and more like the Bush Administration’s kind of friends. For an analysis of the obscene amount of money the insurance industry invests in Republican candidates, see Soaking U.S. Taxpayers.

Where’s the Federal Probe?
The Rigsby sisters had turned over their documentation to both the state attorney general and the U.S. Attorney. Just over a week ago, Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood, a good Democrat, filed a lawsuit against State Farm for breach of contract. [See State Farm Paying Attorney Fee for Miss. Insurance Commissioner]. As part of that contract, Hood had agreed to drop the state’s criminal probe into State Farm. With State Farm’s alleged breach, Hood has not ruled out reopening the criminal probe.

The Sun Herald reported that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has subpoenaed records from Nationwide Insurance, State Farm, and Allstate. The paper also reported “records indicate a grand jury is hearing evidence. Grand jury proceedings are secret and don't necessarily result in criminal charges.”

I feel the public is in good hands with Attorney General Jim Hood and attorney groups like the Scruggs Katrina Group. But I have reservations when it comes to the federal probe.

In September 2001, George W. Bush appointed Dunn Lampton, a Republican, as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi. The Clarion-Ledger reported that Lampton was allegedly on a White House 2005 hit list for canning U.S. Attorneys. When asked why he would be on the list, Lampton said, “I don’t have a clue.”

How’s about this for a clue, Mr. Lampton? Your office has subpoenaed documents from three of the big insurance companies: State Farm, Allstate, and Nationwide. Your office has convened a grand jury in the federal probe of these companies … and if that isn’t plenty enough, you just successfully concluded the criminal conviction of “reputed Klansman James Ford Seale [for] kidnapping and conspiracy in the 1964 deaths of two black teenagers in southwest Mississippi.”

I applaud you for bringing justice to the families who have endured immense and unthinkable pain for the last 33 years. Bush’s lapdog Gonzales and his minions found out that you were not one of them. I’m quite sure that the compassionless folks in the White House do not share your sense of justice, your values. I think it’s probably quite safe to say that you are a bit out of sync with the Republican leadership, and once again, for this, I applaud you. You have brought justice to these families and a sense of closure for their wounds.

I hope that you will pursue with equal vigor your probe into the alleged criminal behavior of the corporations that have brought a different kind of unthinkable pain and suffering to the families of all racial and ethnic backgrounds here along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

To top it all off, Mr. Lampton, you’ve stirred up a hornets nest with pursuing a public campaign for gun control. Bravely, you yourself were featured in this public service television spot. As I’ve already stated twice and now shall do so for a third time, I applaud you, Mr. Lampton. This was the right thing to do. However, the Bushies do not share your values, sir. Even though you are a Republican, this may be yet another reason that your name was on Gonzales’ hit list for the political purging of the Justice department.

Be strong, Mr. Lampton. The people of South Mississippi, and for that matter throughout this country, need an honest to God federal investigation into the insurance racket.

Whether it’s the White House once again squirming out of taking responsibility for its own wrongdoing in the political firings of U.S. Attorneys or one of the Bush Administration’s partner industries spinning its PR to cover up their corporate corruption, we need strong public leadership.

What the insurance companies have done to the people of Mississippi and New Orleans will continue to happen to anyone of us anywhere in the country until we bring together every resource to end what is essentially a legal mob ring.

While the legal eagles are taking care of their responsibilities in our grand democratic scheme of government, we can also do our part to put all of our families on safer ground after natural disasters.

Since the insurance companies are obviously bowing out of taking care of the customers, the ultimate remedy is to expand the federal government’s flood insurance program to include all natural perils. Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) introduced the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007. (The bill is H.R. 920.)We can partner with Congressman Taylor to take the wind out of the insurance industry. You know what that means! It's political hell raising time again. We can call and email our own congressional representatives to request that they co-sponsor the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007.

Taking these steps is how we begin to break up this insurance racket so that each of us and our families will truly be in good hands.

__________________________________________________________

Watch the press conference (Quicktime) high-res low-res
Download and install Quicktime to view videos .

Press Release Statement of Atty. Don Barrett
Summary of the case (PDF) Concise Statement (PDF)
Court Documents: Shows vs. State Farm
Original Complaint (PDF) Exhibits (PDF) Note: These are large files and may take over a minute to load.

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Scruggs Katrina Group File RICO Suit Against State Farm

Investigation shows pattern of corrupt behavior violating Federal law; policyholders were cheated out of claims payments

June 20, 2007

MOSS POINT, MS – The Scruggs Katrina Group (SKG) has today filed federal charges against State Farm, E.A. Renfroe Company, and Forensic Analysis and Engineering Company on behalf of 21 policyholders whose homes were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. The suit has been filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi under the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act ("RICO").

"We have proof that State Farm and its partners conspired to cheat policyholders out of rightful payments worth millions of dollars," said SKG attorney Don Barrett. "They willfully caused victims of Hurricane Katrina extreme emotional and financial distress in their calculated strategy to falsify and conceal evidence, intimidate anyone who got in their way, and use their privileged position to pressure policyholders into accepting pitiful payments both before and during the mediation process."

The lawsuit is the result of a nearly two-year investigation that uncovered evidence – including e-mails, altered engineering reports, confessions, and other smoking guns – that tell the story of what State Farm and corrupt companions have done to the families of the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.

It is a story of how State Farm and its web of surrogate companies conspired to deny claims that should be paid by State Farm and to shift liability to the federal-funded flood insurance program. Actions taken by State Farm and conspirators included:

• threatening experts who disagreed with their desired result
• concealing information that would work in the policyholder's favor
• destroying or falsifying reports
• placing pressure on engineers to use scientifically inaccurate and deceptive language
• firing engineers who refused to be corrupted
• inventing a new policy to exclude all hurricane damage
• using their strength and size to intimidate policyholders in the mediation process

Most disturbingly, the court submission tells of the cold and calculated way that State Farm orchestrated a coordinated strategy to accomplish their objectives. Even before Hurricane Katrina hit, State Farm began holding strategy "meetings of the minds" at corporate headquarters to devise ways to avoid paying claims. A few days following the hurricane, a claims "council" continued to meet to develop a strategy for maximizing payment of national flood policy claims. Later, State Farm and Renfroe employees met to participate in "mock mediations" during which they practiced scripted dialogue designed to demoralize policyholders.

The investigation has shown that there are potentially hundreds or more policyholders who have been victims of the corrupt enterprise. It also reveals not just how State Farm treated the 21 clients initiating this lawsuit, but how State Farm treated all their policyholders who lost their homes. This consolidated lawsuit is the first of its kind on the Mississippi Coast.

Former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore added: "Thousands of State Farm policyholders looked forward with great hope and expectation to the day when the supposedly independent adjuster and objective engineer would inspect their property and make a fair and honest assessment of their loss. Little did these victims know that the deck was stacked against them. There would be no fair dealing. The fix was on and State Farm had already pre-written the reports to deny the claims."

For more information, visit www.scruggskatrinagroup.com on the web.

About the Scruggs Katrina Group
The Scruggs Katrina Group is a legal team consisting of Mississippi attorneys from the following firms: Don Barrett and Marshall Smith of the Barrett Law Office; Dewitt Lovelace of the Lovelace Law Firm; David Nutt, Meg McAlister, and Derek Wyatt of Nutt & McAlister, PLLC, and Richard Scruggs, Sid Backstrom, and Zach Scruggs of the Scruggs Law Firm. For more information go to scruggskatrinagroup.com

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The court submission and an indexed summary can be found at www.scruggskatrinagroup.com.

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State Farm Paying Attorney Fee for Miss. Insurance Commissioner

While I’ve been busy the last few weeks sanding baseboards and crown molding and painting ceilings for family members’ homes, Mississippi Deputy Insurance Commissioner David Lee Harrell was busy preparing for his deposition in one of the big insurance cases. The fee for his attorney? State Farm funded that.

Yes, you read that correctly.

State Farm is paying the attorney fee for the lawyer helping the Mississippi Deputy Insurance Commissioner prepare for his testimony under oath and representing him at the proceedings in one of the large lawsuits that Mississippi policy holders are bringing against . . . State Farm.

Can you believe it?! Talk about the fox guarding the hen house!! But this is really more like a criminal defense team paying the salary of the local prosecuting attorney assigned to its case. What a whopper of a conflict of interest. Here’s a guide to the deposition and links to the deposition itself.

The insurance commission claims that it got approval from the Attorney General and that there is some kind of law permitting this conflict of interest. I've seen horrifyingly disgusting relationships between regulators and those they are to regulate. Clearly, this example is quite troubling. The Insurance Transparency Project agrees.

It’s not as if the Mississippi Insurance Commission sent out a press release or held a press conference to inform the state’s good citizens of this obvious fox/hen house relationship.

The only reason that we even know about this unsavory tryst is because courageous policyholders, regular Jane and John Q. Citizens here in Katrina Land, have hired one of the sets of pit bull attorneys, the Scruggs Katrina Group, who is determined to ensure that the insurance companies make good on their legal obligations to these policyholders.

Praise God for trial lawyers!

Even Senate Republican Whip Trent Lott (MS), who also lost his family home in Katrina, has seen the light about the importance of a good trial lawyer. Bloomberg News wrote

“Lott, a longtime critic of trial lawyers, went to court with the aid of his brother-in-law, Richard Scruggs, who in 1998 wrested a $206 billion settlement out of the tobacco industry.”

Lott has also seen the light on the corruption of the insurance industry with which he had been so closely aligned for many decades. Bloomberg News reported

“"Lott says he is willing to work with the industry, though his words would seem to leave little room for compromise. ``These are venal people,'' he says."

I never thought I’d see the day when Trent Lott and I would agree on something of substance. Yet here we are. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, a good democrat from New Orleans, Louisiana, summed it up quite nicely. “Disasters make for strange bedfellows."

The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ‘venal’ as “capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable consideration : PURCHASABLE; especially : open to corrupt influence and especially bribery : MERCENARY.” You know, like the Bush White House.

Now, let’s get this straight.

The Mississippi Insurance Commission licenses and regulates the practices of all insurance companies and agents. State Farm and its agents are among the companies that the Mississippi Insurance Commission, a state government agency, regulates. State Farm is paying the fees of the outside attorney that the government commission hired to help it prepare for testimony under oath in a lawsuit against State Farm. Well if that don’t beat all!

To top it all off, on Monday, June 11th, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood (another good Democrat) filed a lawsuit against State Farm for breach of contract. Apparently, State Farm did not live up to its legal obligations under the court sanctioned agreement. Does this sound familiar, this failure of a corporation to live up to its legal obligations?

Can we say . . . Enron? Halliburton?

Thankfully, Attorney General Hood is hauling State Farm back to court to ensure that the insurance company lives up to its responsibilities to Mississippi policyholders.

Attorney General Hood is “asking that $50 million be set aside to pay Coast policyholders for Katrina damage and an unspecified amount for damages they suffered because State Farm has breached its agreement. He also is seeking an unspecified amount of punitive damages, designed to deter bad behavior.”

Good. That is the point of these kinds of lawsuits. First to make whole the parties who were injured. In this instance, that would be the citizens to whom State Farm refused to pay its obligations under the terms of their insurance policies.

The second point of these lawsuits is punishment. With big corporations like State Farm, Enron, and Halliburton, the only way to assist them in becoming good corporate citizens is to punish them in ways that they understand: depleting their profits.

Corporations are legal entities that are neither moral nor immoral. However, the men and women who run the corporations, those members of the boards of directors, they demonstrate their moral core—or lack thereof—through the policies they propose and implement. Their god is the Almighty Dollar. Eagerly, they bow down to the Almighty Dollar’s Altar of Greed.

In their pursuit of big boons from their god, Almighty Dollar, should we, our family members, our friends and neighbors, or our coworkers be hurt in the process, well, greed is their god and ruthlessness is their rapture. ruthlessness is their rapture. In our civil court system, paying money, taking away their scandalous profits made at our expense is the way to make these creatures pay for wronging us. Punitive damages is about punishing wrong doers so that we can protect the next person from being victimized.

This is what the Mississippi Attorney General is doing: protecting the citizens of the state against a major corporation that is victimizing its policyholders.

Dale, DINO, Lieberman
The Mississippi Insurance Commissioner, an elected officer just as the Attorney General also has this same obligation. Apparently, Mississippi’s Insurance Commissioner George Dale is a DINO, Democrat in Name Only. Mississippi’s Democratic Party Officials voted to prohibit Dale from running as a Democrat because he had supported Bush’s campaign in 2004.

Dale went to court over the Democratic leaders’ decision and hired “Greg Copeland, an attorney who is a longtime lobbyist for the insurance industry” to represent him. When asked about it, Dale retorted, "I don't see any conflict." Oh, I see. The man must think we’re stupid.

Dale’s lawyer asserted that the bad press had hurt Dale’s ability to run as a Democrat and asked that he be allowed to run as an Independent. Yes, Dale has the distinct honor of being a poster child for turncoat Democrats, a Mississippi Lieberman, if you will. Hell, if Dale likes the Republican values so much, why doesn’t he just come out of the closet and declare himself to be one?!

Copeland “has been a registered lobbyist for the American Insurance Association since 2000.” The website for his firm, Copeland, Cook, Taylor & Bush, states that CCTB “serves as general counsel to Mississippi's largest property and casualty insurer and as local counsel for numerous other insurance companies. The American Insurance Association selected the head of the firm's insurance practice group to serve as Mississippi counsel for the Association. . . . The Mississippi Department of Insurance . . . and numerous other insurance-related organizations utilize the services of the insurance practice group.”

Excuse me?! More conflicts of interest?! Holy Moly.

Since the judge ordered that Dale be put on the ballot to run as a Democrat in the primary this August, hopefully Mississippi Democratic voters will elect a real Democrat as insurance commissioner rather than putting back into office George Dale who has obviously developed toooo cozy of a relationship with the folks he is supposed to regulate.

Insurance commissioners don’t have to be this way
Let’s contrast Mississippi’s insurance commissioner with California’s former insurance commissioner John Garamendi, who won his race for Lt. Governor in last November’s election. Garamendi has a fierce reputation for defending California’s policyholders and going up against insurance companies like State Farm. About a year ago, Garamendi went public “accusing California's largest auto insurers of using political extortion to get him to delay implementing laws that would save California motorists money.”

San Francisco’s CBS television station reported that Garamendi received a phone call in which “he was offered a take it or leave it deal. [Garamendi] says a lobbying group that represents the state's top auto insurers threatened to spend over $2 million in a negative ad campaign unless he delayed new insurance regulations - regulations that require auto insurance companies to give more weight to how people drive rather than where they live, a practice known as red lining.”

Garamendi said the lobbying group behind the threats “is funded by State Farm, Farmers, Safeco, Allstate and other top insurers.” The San Francisco television station reported that “State Farm confirmed to CBS 5 that the phone call to Garamendi did take place, but they denied blackmail or coercion.” State Farm sure is busy these days, and apparently not with taking great care of its policyholders.

Rather than buckling under the weight of the alleged blackmail and extortion, Garamendi went public. View news clip. He also turned the matter over to the FBI and state officials. Read Garamendi’s letter to the FBI and state officials.

Garamendi is proof positive that standing up to corporate bullies can be successfully accomplished. All it takes is courage, character, and commitment to the public good. I am proud to have cast my ballot for Garamendi for California’s Lt. Governor and proud that he won the election. Garamendi is the kind of public servant we need all over this country. We need the likes of him from the local court house straight through to the White House, from one side of this country to the other—including my homestate of Mississippi.

I’m proud, too, of Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood for doing his job in the face of what must be enormous political pressure to back down. He is keeping his promise to the citizens of Mississippi to "strictly enforce our consumer protection laws [and] advocate for the rights of victims." Between Hood’s efforts and those of pit bull attorneys like the Scruggs Katrina Group, State Farm will be forced to live up to its PR and become a good corporate neighbor.

Of course, the ultimate remedy is to expand the federal government’s flood insurance program to include all natural perils. Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) introduced the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007 (The bill is H.R. 920.)

We can partner with Congressman Taylor to take the wind out of the insurance industry. You know what that means! It's political hell raising time again. We can call and email our own congressional representatives to request that they co-sponsor the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007.

That way next time a natural disaster befalls any of the “55 percent of the U.S. population already living within 50 miles” of our nation’s coastlines, we can be assured we will be treated fairly . . . just like a good neighbor.

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Who will pay Insurance Department's legal bills?

Official planned to bill State Farm
By ANITA LEE
mailto:LEEcalee@sunherald.com

The Mississippi Department of Insurance had planned to bill State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. for Deputy Commissioner Lee Harrell's legal fees for testimony in a policyholders' lawsuit, but has backed off that position.

Instead, Harrell said Monday that State Farm will cover only the portions of his testimony about the department's ongoing market-conduct examination of the company. State law allows the Department of Insurance to bill insurance companies for fees associated with such examinations.

However, Harrell said during his sworn pre-trial testimony June 7 in McIntosh v. State Farm the Attorney General's Office had agreed State Farm would pay for his attorney, James P. Streetman III.

Attorney General Jim Hood disagreed. On Friday, he released a statement that said: "At no time did the Attorney General's Office authorize the Department of Insurance to have its legal representation paid for by an insurance company in any matter other than the market-conduct survey. To do so would be a conflict of interest and MDI should know that."

Read the rest of the Sun Herald story.

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Insurance: A Business Breaker

Posted: Tuesday, May 1 at 05:01 am CT by Mike Stuckey
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss.

[Mark] Currier, who with his wife, Jenise McCardell, runs Clay Creations in Old Town and owns a gallery there that is leased by an artists’ cooperative.

“Come on,” Currer says of the commercial rate increase. “The big thing is we’re all excited that they did drop [insurance rates] down from being tripled, but it’s still more than doubled.”

Currier, who plans to remain in his current location, saw the annual insurance bill for his Main Street holdings -- which include his shop, the gallery, a photographer’s studio and a couple of residences -- go from $7,000 to $25,000 before coming back down to $17,000. “It’s a freaking mess,” he says.

And more of a mess than Renee and Drew Boxx, Currier’s new neighbors in Old Town, could take.

Read the entire MSNBC story.


Mark Currier and Jenise McCardell (David Friedman / MSNBC.com)

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A Bridge Restores a Lifeline to a Battered Town

By ADAM NOSSITER
Published: May 29, 2007
New York Times

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss., May 24 — Sometimes a bridge is more than just a bridge. The new span across the copper-colored St. Louis Bay connects today’s diminished reality to memories of a more generous past, a hopeful link to the return of better days.

The soaring bridge was dedicated last week amid jubilation in a ceremony attended by hundreds, 20 months after Hurricane Katrina blew out the old span. That tangible sign of pushing forward and of a quickening pace — commutes now are drastically shortened — has left people in this battered waterfront town of 8,000 quietly giddy about a future recently in doubt.

And it has ended the isolation, physical and mental, of a place that once considered itself a jewel of the Gulf Coast, a sun-baked collection of picturesque old frame houses that Hurricane Katrina smashed, then severed from its brethren to the east. The surge from the storm wiped out the concrete bridge carrying U.S. Highway 90 that had stood for a half-century.

And it has ended the isolation, physical and mental, of a place that once considered itself a jewel of the Gulf Coast, a sun-baked collection of picturesque old frame houses that Hurricane Katrina smashed, then severed from its brethren to the east. The surge from the storm wiped out the concrete bridge carrying U.S. Highway 90 that had stood for a half-century.

Read the rest of the New York Times story.



Paul J. Richards/Agence France-Press — Getty Images.

A seven-minute dash across the bay bridge
became a 45-minute commute around it.

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Soaking U.S. Taxpayers

Katrina’s force broke New Orleans’ levees drowning the city, and many of its residents. Her rains drenched the Gulf Coast. Financially speaking, though, it was the insurance companies that really soaked Katrina’s survivors . . . and us, the taxpayers.

Clearly, the cost of Katrina has been tremendous, and the deluge of claims to the federal flood insurance program has been unprecedented. According to the Congressional Research Services, the largest number of flood claims prior to Katrina was 31,000, and that was back in 1995. The aftermath of Katrina, Rita, and Wilma created 258,000 flood claims. That’s an increase of 800%!

Yesterday’s piece titled Wind? Water? More like a bunch of hot air!, discussed the insurance companies written memos that apparently directed agents to blame Katrina’s damages on water, even if wind damage were present. To date, those companies have sent a $23 billion bill to the federal government’s flood insurance program for damages allegedly caused by water alone.

As the 2007 hurricane season officially began at the start of this month, Risk Management Solutions Inc. had hoped to gain approval for an extraordinarily controversial forecast model which would have “increase[d] projections of potential hurricane losses by as much as 40 percent in Florida, the Gulf Coast and the Southeast -- moves that [would have] translate[d] into drastically higher insurance rates for already-battered policyholders in coastal states.”

My god, these people will stop at nothing to make money off of our tragedies. With insurance companies already failing to live up to their fiduciary responsibilities to us as policyholders or as taxpayers, the last thing we need is some forecasting company lobbying states to adopt their controversial model as the basis for authorizing the insurance companies to gouge us further through increasing our premiums for coverage they won’t pay on.

Blinded by greed, the insurance companies have already dramatically increased their post-Katrina premiums—if they hadn’t already packed up their bags and skipped town taking our policies with them.

"We can't, every time there's a hurricane in the United States, raise insurance rates 50% and then expect to 'let the private sector redevelop.'" — U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

With 55% of the U.S. population living in coastal communities, we all need to pay close attention to these corporate maneuverings. If we don’t live within close proximity to America’s coastline, surely to goodness we have relatives, friends, or coworkers who do.

Boy, do we ever need to implement national insurance reform. Let’s start this discussion with a quick question.

In which political party has the insurance industry invested 80% of its political monies for presidential campaigns between 1992 and 2004?

You have thirty seconds. Can you hear the theme to Jeopardy playing in your head? Da da da da . . .Finished? Good.

If you answered: What is the Republican Party? You are correct!

Before we get to what it all this means, let’s flush out the specifics of this financial partnership between the insurance industry and the Republican Party.

From 2000 – 2006, the insurance industry consistently invested its political dollars in Republican candidates by a margin of 2 out of every 3 dollars it spent. Now, when we break it down specifically to the difference in how the insurance companies invested in the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns of 2000 and 2004, the margin increases substantially.

Of the $27 million the insurance industry invested in the 2000 federal elections (that would be the presidential and U.S. senatorial and congressional races), the insurance industry invested FIVE times as much money in Republican nominee Texas Governor George Bush to the tune of $1.7 million as it did in Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore with only $330 k.

Four years later in 2004, the insurance industry practically doubled it investment in Republican George Bush giving his campaign $3.3 million compared to the paltry $848 thousand the industry contributed to the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Senator John Kerry.

“So what?” you may say. Let’s put some context around this, so we can get perspective on it.

In 1996, the insurance industry gave only $700k to the campaign of Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and $300k to President Bill Clinton’s re-election campaign. Going back another four years to 1992, the insurance industry gave only $550k to the reelection campaign of President George Bush, Sr. and $190k to the Clinton presidential campaign.

From 1992 to 2000, the insurance industry became wildly enthusiastic about investing its corporate profits in the Republican candidate George W. Bush. The industry increased its investment from father to son by 600%. Geeze, Louise!


No wonder the industry is having a hissy fit over Republican Minority Leader Trent Lott leading the charge against the industry’s corrupt practices.

I suppose come hell or high water, the insurance industry will soak us . . . until you and I do what must be done politically inside the legislative arena at the federal level to turn things to our favor.

This week’s political hell raising activities include supporting two important legislative measures. First, Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) introduced a bill to expand the federal flood insurance program to include all natural perils. Following the rules established under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), the legislation requires that the program be financially self-sufficient. Click here for political hell raising activities to provide real all perils insurance for Americans.

Second, Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate have introduced legislation to close the insurance industry’s legal loophole that allows it to collude to price gouge and to pass off their own business costs to the federal flood insurance program. U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and U.S. Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) are among the co-sponsors of this important legislation. Click here for political hell raising activities to close the loophole.

Everywhere else in the U.S., it’s the beginning of summer. Officially here in Katrina land, it’s the opening of the hurricane season. Everyone wants to know what we’re doing to protect ourselves. One thing is certain. We’re supporting the efforts of our elected officials to pass two important pieces of legislation that will protect our families . . . and yours.

Raising a little political hell together, we can protect everyone’s families from being soaked by insurance companies.

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Wind? Water? More like a Bunch of Hot Air!

Ever since the last drop of Katrina rain passed through the Gulf Coast and the water receded after the levees burst in New Orleans, the insurance industry has been hell bent on implementing at full throttle its great American rip off program. In no time flat did those who had likened their company to good neighbors or to the security of being in good hands issue written instructions on how to maximize what seems to have been their goal: blame Katrina’s damage on flooding.

Let me help the insurance industry become crystal clear on this point. This was a H-U-R-R-I-C-A-N-E! We didn’t call this Katrina, the flood. We didn’t call this Katrina, the tornado. We didn’t call this Katrina, the storm surge. Everybody calls it . . . H-U-R-R-I-C-A-N-E Katrina. Capiche? Now let’s get technical.

The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAO) states on its hurricane preparedness website that “[h]urricane hazards come in many forms: storm surge, high winds, tornadoes, and flooding.”

In other words, a hurricane is a natural disaster consisting of both wind and water. How does one slice and dice the impact of one on the other and the amount of damage directly attributable to each?

Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) testified before Congress that insurance companies were choosing not to pay on claims unless the policy holder provided an eye witness. [See Video: Katrina Insurance Claims Hearing: Rep. Taylor Testimony on the homepage of A.M. in the Morning!]

Can you believe this?! Unethical,? Of course. Heartless? Obviously. Ruthless? Evidently. Maniacal and Evil? Absolutely.

Stupid? No. These corporate execs who made the decision to blame Katrina’s damage on water comes out of value system foreign to most of us of any religious or spiritual background. Seems these execs live in a decency-free bubble where their god, the Almighty Dollar, reigns supreme. There will be no conversions. So, forget any lofty notions of that sort.

What we need are two things. First, we must fully understand how they are getting away with this horrendous travesty. Second, we must understand and implement what we can do to prevent its continuation.

Look, they know how to play us and play the politicians. Moreover, they know how to take advantage of the conflicts of interest that are inherent in the U.S. Government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Yesterday’s piece titled Scamming Policyholders & Taxpayers reported that our federal government has been in the flood insurance business since 1968. The private insurance companies pretty much got out of the flood insurance business “because of the catastrophic and unpredictable nature of floods.” In 1983, the federal government turned over to the private insurance industry the selling, servicing, and adjusting of those policies and claims. This may have been a fine arrangement for those natural disasters that dealt with floods only.

However, when it comes to a hurricane which by its very nature simultaneously involves several types of natural calamities such as storm surge, high winds, tornadoes, and flooding, a conflict of interest rises when it is the private insurance companies that are determining whether damage would be covered by them or by the federal taxpayers. In this instance, the conflict of interest is $23 billion.

So far, claims paid out on Katrina add up to $64 billion— and this amount only accounts for those who’ve been paid on their claims through 2006. By the end of last year, the private insurance companies had paid $41 billion. These same companies essentially handed a $23 billion bill to American taxpayers for damages that these private companies determined flood waters had caused. How generous that the private insurance industry only stiffed us for 36% of the bill.

What a racket! But could companies really be that methodically maniacal to stiff its own customers and the American taxpayers to the tune of at least $23 billion?!

On his official government website, Gulf Coast Congressman Gene Taylor (D-MS) has an incredible collection of “documents that suggest fraud by insurance companies in the handling of Katrina wind and water claims.” The doozies below are from Nationwide, State Farm, and Allstate.

9/4/2005: Nationwide instructed its adjusters that “if loss is caused by both flood and wind there is no coverage.”

9/13/2005: State Farm instructed adjusters that “where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property, coverage for the loss exists only under flood coverage.”

6/28/2006: On-site damage assessment by engineer Jerome Quintero of Rimkus Consulting Group for Allstate… concluded that there was “insufficient physical evidence to determine the proportion of wind versus storm surge that destroyed the structure.”

11/4/2005: Jerome Quintero’s damage assessment after revision by Rimkus staff who never visited the site. Quintero’s conclusion of “insufficient physical evidence” was changed to “storm surge and waves destroyed the residence.” Quintero’s name was signed to the revised report without his knowledge.

So there we have it. In the three examples, Nationwide, State Farm, and Allstate seem to be essentially instructing its adjusters to blame Hurricane Katrina’s damage on water alone thereby sticking the American taxpayers with an inflated $23 billion bill.

We haven’t even begun to talk about the rebuilding costs that weren’t covered at all or the folks who didn’t have flood insurance because they believed their policy provided adequate coverage. We haven’t touched on the fact that many like my own family are not in an official flood zone and may not have purchased flood insurance.

What is important, though, is to recognize that what the insurance companies are doing to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast can happen to over half the population of our country.

“Populations and built environments in coastal watersheds are growing rapidly, with 55 percent of the U.S. population already living within 50 miles of the coast.”

“The Coastal Community Development Partnership”

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

The Coastal Community Development Partnership brings together NOAA and EPA offices to better support state and local governments as they promote safer and smarter development along the coast.



The name of the game is to be informed and to take action.

Yesterday, we discussed the need to eliminate the insurance industry’s exemption from the anti-trust law governing business throughout our country. Right now, the Senate is considering the Insurance Industry Competition Act (S. 618), which will make it illegal for the insurance companies to collude with each other for things like price fixing and claims adjustment. Go here to tell your two U.S. Senators that you support the Insurance Industry Competition Act.

Today, we take action to protect ourselves from the inherent conflict of interest created because the insurance industry gets to determine for our federal government the amount of damage allegedly attributable to flooding at the same time the private insurance industry is determining the damage at the same property that it will attribute to wind.

Congressman Taylor has introduced H.R. 920, which amends the National Flood Insurance Program. In his testimony before Congress, he stated, “in response to the fact that the insurance industry apparently no longer wants to over people for wind damage in coastal America, or will not provide that coverage at a cost that is reasonable, I am asking you to consider legislation that will expand the National Flood Insurance Program to include all natural perils.”

Taylor explains that under the rules of the House of Representatives, the insurance plan would have to be financed in a way that pays for itself. “Thus, any argument that this would be taxpayer-subsidized would be eliminated. Under the new rules of the House, that is not an option.” What Taylor is referring to is that when the Democrats were swept into office last November, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi instituted strong fiscal controls on spending. She ended the fiscally irresponsible era under Republican leadership.

Lastly, Taylor stated, “This problem affects thousands of people. Quite frankly, people should be encouraged to get out of coastal areas in a time of a storm, rather than encouraged to stick behind with a camera to record the event.” Amen to that!

Speaking of the Amen Corner, former Congressional Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA), that compassionless conservative crony, has already come out against national disaster insurance. What a shock! The only thing those so-called conservatives are interested in is conserving their power.

During the apex of his reign in Congress, Gingrich accepted almost $425,000 in political contributions from the insurance industry coffers. Newt being a mouthpiece for an industry that has so blazingly betrayed the American people and her families isn’t all that shocking these days.
And just as the wind got knocked out Newt’s political sails, we can partner with Congressman Taylor to take the wind out of the insurance industry’s selling to us wind insurance policies on which they fail to appropriately pay out after a natural disaster.

Today, we can call and email our congressional representatives to request that they co-sponsor H.R.920, which is called the Multiple Peril Insurance Act of 2007.

After all, the more this private industry continues to push their wind vs. water rationale, the more it sounds like nothing more than a bunch of hot air.

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