Sisters Blew Whistle on Katrina Claims

Sisters Blew Whistle on Katrina Claims: "Richard 'Dickie' Scruggs, a prominent lawyer of tobacco litigation fame, created a stir by announcing in March that two 'insiders' were helping him build cases against insurers for denying claims for Hurricane Katrina losses. Their identities remained a mystery until the day in early June when Cori and Kerri Rigsby -- employees of a company that contracted with State Farm -- told a supervisor they were cooperating with Scruggs.

That startling admission -- and their subsequent resignations -- ended a risky charade. The Rigsbys say they spent months collecting reams of internal State Farm reports, memos, e-mails and claims records before they gave them to Scruggs and state and federal authorities.

The sisters, who managed teams of State Farm adjusters, say the documents show that the insurer defrauded policyholders by manipulating engineers' reports so that claims could be denied."

Emphasis Mine

(Via Salon.)

Engineers Worry About New Orleans Levees

Engineers Worry About New Orleans Levees: "Despite aggressive efforts to repair the New Orleans levee system following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, it isn't clear yet whether it could withstand a sizable hurricane this year, the head of the Army Corps of Engineers conceded Saturday.

Lt. Gen. Carl Strock said the agency was carefully tracking Tropical Storm Ernesto, which was in the Caribbean and projected to reach hurricane strength Tuesday. It was on track to enter the Gulf of Mexico, but it too early to tell whether it would strike the southern United States.

Strock was confident the Corps had done all it could to repair and reinforce 220 miles of levee walls, but he said many variables would determine whether the levees could withstand a major hurricane striking near New Orleans, as Katrina did Aug. 29, 2005."

(Via Salon.)

Nashville's New Nativism

AlterNet: Nashville's New Nativism: "Phil Valentine gets on Rick Casares's very last nerve. 'I don't like to say this about anybody,' Casares says, 'but he's just a racist.' Casares has been working only six months as outreach coordinator for TIRRC, the statewide immigration-rights group, and he knows he needs to be more politic when talking to reporters. But he feels this in his bones. 'For me, it's personal,' he says. 'My parents were illegal immigrants from Mexico.' His father, among other accomplishments, rose to become mayor pro tem in the predominantly white town of Rosemeade, California. Still, Casares says, it was ugly at times. But the discrimination he saw his parents face 'pales to what immigrants face today in this climate of poisonous rhetoric.'"

(Via AlterNet.)

Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs

Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs - New York Times: "The State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said.

The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties."

(Via NY Times.)

Who Are the Real Terrorists?

AlterNet: Who Are the Real Terrorists?: "Fallows' Atlantic Monthly article argues that the war in Iraq has greatly hampered Bush's war on terror: 'The war in Iraq advanced the jihadist cause because it generates a steady supply of Islamic victims, or martyrs; because it seems to prove Osama bin Laden's contention that America lusts to occupy Islam's sacred sites, abuse Muslim people, and steal Muslim resources; and because it raises the tantalizing possibility that humble Muslim insurgents, with cheap, primitive weapons, can once more hobble and ultimately destroy a superpower...' Nonetheless, Bush stubbornly defends the occupation: 'We leave before the mission is done, the terrorists will follow us here.'"

(Via AlterNet.)

New Stem Cell Method Avoids Destroying Embryos

New Stem Cell Method Avoids Destroying Embryos - New York Times: "Biologists have developed a technique for establishing colonies of human embryonic stem cells without destroying embryos, a method that, if confirmed in other laboratories, would seem to remove the principal objection to stem cell research.

'There is no rational reason left to oppose this research,' said Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of Advanced Cell Technology and leader of a team that reported the new method in an article in today’s Nature."

(Via NY Times.)

VA-SEN: Poll: Allen's Lead Over Webb Shrinks To Three Points

VA-SEN: Poll: Allen's Lead Over Webb Shrinks To Three Points: "GOP incumbent Senator George Allen's "Macaca" remarks have turned the contest with Dem challenger James Webb into a real race. An exclusive Survey USA poll done for WUSA-TV shows that Allen's once-double-digit lead over Webb has shriveled to three points -- 48% to 45%. From the WUSA analysis: "Allen has lost support across all demographic groups, but in particular, among younger voters, he has gone from Plus 23 to Minus 17, a swing of 40 points. In Southeastern VA, Allen has gone from a 2:1 lead to a tie, a 31-point swing." Don't mess with Macaca!"

(Via Crooks and Liars.)

This is starting to get old: McCain Breaks McCain-Feingold AGAIN

This is starting to get old: McCain Breaks McCain-Feingold AGAIN - Senate Majority Project: "John McCain hadn’t even finished catching flak for his last McCain-Feingold-related dust-up before he found himself embroiled in a new one: Now McCain’s breaking his own law in Rhode Island."

(Via Crooks and Liars.)