Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr, the highest-ranking public official charged with Hurricane Katrina fraud, won't be allowed to send questionnaires to potential jurors in his federal trial.
Warr and his wife, Laura, have pleaded not guilty to charges in a 16-count federal indictment accusing them of seeking a homeowners assistance grant for a house they owned but did not live in. They're also accused of making false claims to their insurance company.
Brent Warr's lawyer has said the charges arose from a misunderstanding about the Warrs' living arrangements and a beachfront home they were renovating when the storm hit Aug. 29, 2005.
Warr didn't seek re-election this year. George Schloegel takes over Monday as mayor.
Questionnaires are sometimes used to gauge potential jurors' views, but judges don't have to allow them. It's not clear what Brent Warr's attorney, Joe Sam Owen, wanted to ask people in the jury pool. Owen didn't immediately return a phone call Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Walter J. Gex III ruled Wednesday that the questionnaire is unnecessary. Attorneys will be able to question potential jurors in person.
Federal prosecutors had argued against using questionnaires, saying a copy of it could be leaked to the media because Warr's case is so high-profile.
"A juror questionnaire is just one more opportunity for the press to comment and try the issues outside of the courtroom, exactly the thing we hope to avoid," the government said in a motion June 1.
Senator Merle Flowers to speak at DeSoto TEA Party on July 4th
The national grassroots anti-tax organization, Taxed Enough Already (TEA), is having a rally in DeSoto County on Saturday, July 4th. Senator Merle Flowers (R-Olive Branch) will deliver the keynote address at noon .
“Americans are fed up with government at all levels for taxing us too much, spending too much, and placing huge public debt burdens on the backs of our children and grandchildren,” said Flowers.
“The TEA Party movement is made up of citizens from all walks of life who are concerned about our inefficient and bloated government. Government spending has spiraled out of control, and we are on the verge of seeing the largest tax increases in U.S. history. These government actions have harmed small businesses, drastically affected the housing market, hurt charitable giving, and led to higher energy prices. We want our voices to be heard, we are taxed enough already,” said Flowers.
“The TEA Party rally on July 4th is free of charge and open to the public. I hope everyone brings their children to the rally as we celebrate America ’s freedom,” said Flowers.
The event will be held on the courthouse lawn on the square in Hernando. A bluegrass band will perform at 10:30 a.m. The formal program will begin at noon . Speakers include Flowers, Fox News political analyst Angela McGlowan, as well as an open microphone for the public.
The Mississippi Public Service Commission is furloughing most of its 73 employees until the agency has a budget.
Commission chairman Lynn Posey and two commission members told The Associated Press that about a dozen employees will keep working, including six investigators.
Commissioners were interviewed as they were preparing to notify staff members about the furloughs.
"We're now down to protecting rate payers with spit balls," commissioner Brandon Presley said.
Legislators failed to pass a PSC budget before the fiscal year started Wednesday. The agency's funding didn't pass because of a dispute about commissioners' requests for additional staff members. House Democrats supported the request, but Senate Republicans opposed it.
The Clarion-Ledger did a good job of slamming Rep. George Flaggs (D-Vicksburg) for what they called his self-serving attempt to delay passage of Medicaid funding. Flaggs held up the process for over two hours by demanding a reading of the 82 page bill. I am not sure what Flaggs was trying to prove, did he want to be known as the man who single handily shut down government?
However, another interesting tidbit has surfaced following the Flaggs publicity stunt, and that is the issue of funding for the Public Service Commission. As you may know, a special session will be needed to fund the department who is operating without a budget. Paul Gallo is reporting that members of the legislature are blaming Flaggs for the failure to fund the PSC. A new special session will cost an estimated $60,000. Can the taxpayers send the bill to Mr. Flaggs?
YP - Dueling PSC Press Releases: Rates Up or Down?
On Tuesday, June 30, the Mississippi Public Service Commission issued orders regarding Entergy Mississippi, Inc. Commission Chairman Lynn Posey (D-Union Church) from the Central District, and Southern District Commissioner Leonard Bentz (R-Woolmarket) voted for the orders while Northern District Commissioner Brandon Presley (D-Nettleton) voted against the order. The dueling press releases make for an interesting study in spin.
Today, Central District Public Service Commissioner Lynn Posey (D-Union Church) announced that the Commission has issued orders to Entergy Mississippi, Inc. which will reduce customer rates by $1.91 per 1000 kilowatt hours for average residential customers.
In addition to this cost savings for the rate payer, Entergy Mississippi, Inc. agreed to pay for fuel audits for fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2009 by an independent audit firm which would be hired by the Commission. Another cost saving measure for the rate payer associated with the orders is the agreement that Entergy Mississippi, Inc. withdraw its appeal of the Commission’s denial of the $3.775 million increase pursuant to last year’s formula rate plan evaluation.
Posey states, “By issuing these orders outlining the above referenced cost savings, the Commission has met its statutory requirements to make sure Entergy Mississippi, Inc. provides affordable as well as reliable energy for its customers.”
Jackson, Mississippi (June 30, 2009)- Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley (D-Nettleton) today cast the sole vote against a $14,500,000.00 rate increase for Entergy Mississippi customers. Presley said due to the rate increase consumers will see their power bills increase during the hottest months of the year.
“This rate increase has come about because of Entergy’s formula rate plan that I have advocated changing since day one because it allows the company to ‘grade its own papers’ when it comes to service quality.” Presley said. “The purpose of this plan is to, in-part, tie rates to service quality, yet that gets very little independent scrutiny under the current set-up.”
Presley noted that none of the complaints from consumers of poor service, etc., that are registered with the PSC against Entergy are taken into account when setting the rates under the current plan. “Entergy could have a valid complaint filed by each and every one of their customers in Mississippi, and it would not decrease their profits one penny under this current plan,” Presley said. “Try explaining a plan like that to your neighbor down the road; it makes no sense at all.”
Presley added that Entergy Mississippi has indicated that today they intend to dismiss their current appeal before the Mississippi Supreme Court involving the Commission’s denial earlier this year of a $3,775,000.00 rate increase.
So Posey voted for lower rates and Presley voted against higher rates, but they voted opposite on the same measure. Who is telling the truth? Posey said rates are going down and Presley said rates are going up.
Presley stuck by his story yesterday on Mississippi Network News when he said, "The proposed rate increase is $14.5 million that comes at a terrible time for Mississippi consumers. So, this rate increase is going into effect during the hottest months of the year, and I felt that it just wasn’t a justified rate increase."
Posey also stuck by his story on Supertalk Mississippi's "On Deadline with Sid Salter" when he said, "The rates aren’t going to be raised. That’s a fuel adjustment money that they receive because statute says they can receive it. Actually, your rates will be going down $1.91 per 1000 kilowatt hours starting July 1."
Finally, one of them came around. WLBT interviewed both commissioners and it turns out, Presley admitted that rates are going to go down. Presley said, “Rates are going to go down but they're not going to go down as much as they would have...They're going to go down about a $1 and 91 cents per month they would have gone down in excess of $3.”
It is not unusual to see a scathing press release issued by Brandon Presley attacking Entergy Mississippi, but it is unusual to have two dueling press releases on a split vote come out apparently contradicting each other. And it is interesting that Presley alleges in his press release that “consumers will see their power bills increase during the hottest months of the year” but finally acknowledge to the press after being contradicted in public by the Posey, the Commission chairman, that actually, “rates are going to go down”.
As some newspapers are going out of business and many more are shedding costs, a lot of investigative journalists who have devoted years to exposing government corruption and corporate scandals are leaving their newsrooms.
While some have been given pink slips, others left on their own steam, bailing out for corporate or political PR jobs, teaching gigs or even new careers as private investigators.
Still others are seeking fulfillment in a different kind of public service. Take, for instance, the paths of Doug Frantz and Joel Sappell, two former journalists for the Los Angeles Times.
"The issue for me has always been ... Can I find a job where I can look myself in the mirror every morning before I go to work and say, 'I'm going to do good?' " says Frantz, a former L.A. Times reporter and managing editor.
Frantz is now chief investigator for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi) and four other Democratic lawmakers are under investigation for possibly receiving improper gifts.
Thompson was in Jackson Monday speaking before the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership.
The Committee on Standards of Conduct is looking into whether Thompson's trip to a business conference in the Caribbean last November was paid for by lobbyists.
Thompson says the committee approved the trip before he left, but they received a complaint after he returned home.
"The law requires me to say if I'm invited, to submit the info, and whether or not the trip was approved is subject to the ethics committee," Thompson told WLBT. "I did it, they sent me a letter back in writing saying it's fine. I followed the law absolutely."
"While not all issues are resolved, overall this is a prudent, balanced budget that I believe will serve the state's taxpayers, agencies and their constituents well for the next fiscal year. I am especially pleased the Legislature accepted my proposal to carry forward $60 million from the Health Care Expendable Fund as a cushion against the revenue shortfalls that are expected next year," Governor Barbour said.
"I appreciate the hard work it took to reach a consensus on many issues and want to thank legislators like Senators Alan Nunnelee and Hob Bryan and House members Robert Johnson and Johnny Stringer as well as Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and House Speaker Billy McCoy," he said.
But, sounding a cautionary note, Governor Barbour said this budget contains so much federal stimulus money that "we must learn to wean ourselves from it soon, as it ends after next year." Spending on all three levels of education will be the highest ever, but the federal stimulus funds make that possible.
Disagreement over the size of the Public Service Commission's staff left it as the only state agency unfunded as the fiscal year began Wednesday.
State officials say they expect the issue will be resolved in the coming days, but holding another special session likely will cost Mississippi taxpayers thousands of dollars.
The Legislature ended a three-day special session at midnight Tuesday and completed everything in the $6 billion state budget except the PSC's spending plan.
Gov. Haley Barbour, however, used his partial veto authority to eliminate parts of seven appropriations bills. Among the sections vetoed were a provision to pull $7 million from the state's "rainy day" fund to support the community mental health centers and $100,000 from the fund for the Mississippi Technology Alliance.
Barbour also vetoed a section that took away the Public Safety commissioner's authority to handle overtime pay for troopers.
The special session cost taxpayers about $141,000. A one-day session for the PSC budget could tack on nearly $60,000 more.
The Hill conducted an interesting analysis of how the most vulnerable House Democrats have voted at the beginning of the 111th Congress.
The most likely members to break with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aren’t too surprising, given that they hail from very conservative districts. Rep. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.) voted with Republicans on 13 out of 15 key votes, while Rep. Walt Minnick (D-Idaho) voted with the GOP on 10 of 15. Their political futures depend on creating their own identity, separate from the interests of the national Democratic Party.
Reps. Travis Childers (D-Miss.), Parker Griffith (D-Ala.), Frank Kratovil Jr. (D-Md.) and Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) were also notable mavericks, breaking with their party on eight key votes.
A few surprises: Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio), representing a rural eastern Ohio district that gave John McCain 53 percent of the vote, has supported Pelosi’s positions on every major legislative item. Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Mich.), another swing-district Democrat, joined with the Democratic leadership on all the key votes.
Spending by lawmakers on taxpayer-financed trips abroad has risen sharply in recent years, a Wall Street Journal analysis of travel records shows, involving everything from war-zone visits to trips to exotic spots such as the Galápagos Islands.
The spending on overseas travel is up almost tenfold since 1995, and has nearly tripled since 2001, according to the Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records. Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.
The cost of so-called congressional delegations, known among lawmakers as "codels," has risen nearly 70% since 2005, when an influence-peddling scandal led to a ban on travel funded by lobbyists, according to the data.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D., Miss.), the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, led a group to Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Panama. "This trip further solidified the message that homeland security does not begin or end at our borders," says Mr. Thompson's spokeswoman.
The congressional trips are possible thanks in part to an unlimited fund created by a three-decade old law. Nearly two dozen government officials work full-time organizing the trips. Much of the costs are not made public, including the cost of flying on government jets. The Air Force maintains a fleet of 16 passenger planes for use by lawmakers.
Sen. Thad Cochran's baby grand piano in his office in the Dirksen Senate Office Building is believed to be the only one in the Senate–and he uses it.
Cochran plays the dark red wood Kurtzmann "occasionally," in his words, sometimes for relaxation on a Friday, for example. The senator has played piano since the fourth grade, after his parents encouraged him and his brother to learn two musical instruments each.
Cochran chose piano and clarinet, while his brother became an athletic star "and got a pass," Cochran said. Cochran's mother also played piano, while his father sang in a church choir.
Republicans lead Democrats in mayoral offices in Mississippi's top 15 cities with nine seats to the Democrats six. Gulfport, Biloxi, Meridian, Tupelo, Southaven, Pascagoula, Clinton, Pearl and Olive Branch elected Republican mayors. Jackson, Hattiesburg, Greenville, Vicksburg, Columbus, and Starkville elected Democrats. The partisan breakdown remains unchanged from last cycle except Vicksburg where Democrats defeated an independent for a pick-up.
The Vicksburg win by Paul Winfield with about 60 percent of the vote over two-term incumbent Laurence Leyens was a highlight of the Democrats night. Other big wins include a 96-vote squeaker as incumbent Connie Moran stayed off a challenge by well-funded Republican Scott Walker in Ocean Springs. Doug Lee returned to office in Lucedale by defeating two-term Republican incumbent Dayton Whites, a rematch of their 2001 race when Whites defeated the then incumbent Lee. In Starkville, 28-year-old Parker Wiseman's bested all comers in a well funded, grassroots oriented campaign, keeping Starkville for the Democrats after pushing out incumbent mayor Dan Camp in the Democratic Primary. Democrats describe Wiseman as a rising star in the party.
Republicans earned wins in the open seats for mayor in Tupelo and Meridian. Both were Republican seats but targeted by Democrats with significant resources. Jack Reed, Jr. took close to 70 percent of the vote in Tupelo. Barely had the ballots been counted before Republicans began speculating whether Reed would follow in his father's footsteps and look at a future gubernatorial run.
Cheri Barry became Meridian's first female mayor by defeating Democrat Percy Bland with just fewer than 300 votes. Four-term Republican Mayor John Robert Smith did not seek re-election.
On the Coast, former Democratic Governor William Winter took the stage at swearing-in ceremony and praised new Republican Gulfport Mayor George Schloegel saying, "I'm a George Schloegel Democrat and as far as I'm concerned we're on the same team."
Meanwhile, new Pascagoula Republican Mayor Robbie Maxwell took to heart the political axiom, "you either run scared or you run unopposed." No one qualified against him. After effectively winning the election on the qualifying deadline day, he did still politic and reached out to voters; but his was strictly a positive campaign.
In 2008, Joel Gill campaigned as the Democratic nominee against Republican Gregg Harper for Mississippi's Third Congressional District seat vacated by retiring Congressman Chip Pickering. Gill, an alderman-at-large for the town of Pickens and cattleman by trade in Holmes County (not in the Third District) ran on the slogan, "All Beef, No Bull." Gill did not win his congressional campaign, but this year voters elected him Mayor of Pickens in a nonpartisan election. Three-term mayor Jonathan Moore did not seek reelection.
Voters in Greenwood disappointed Congressman Bennie Thompson by electing independent Carolyn McAdams over incumbent Democrat Sheriel Perkins. Thompson campaigned for Perkins telling voters they needed to reelect the incumbent to set "Greenwood free again" and if they wanted to stop the hospital from continuing to lay off employees and close wards, they needed to keep the same leadership. Trying to sell change and incumbency at the same time reminds me of what Pappy O'Daniel told his son in "O Brother Where Art Thou" when he suggested that maybe they should get some of that "reform": "How we gonna run reform when we're the damn incumbent?"
A third independent candidate in the race, Curressia Brown, was disqualified and removed from the ballot, which Thompson praised while accusing Brown of only being in the race to split the black vote. Perkins and Brown are black; McAdams is white. Thompson said, "There was somebody else in this race, but, you know, God don't like ugly, and with prayer and good lawyers, we can work wonders, and we can even get bad folk off the ballot." McAdams win follows another campaign axiom, "all politics is local."
Race also made the news in the election in Philadelphia, but not in a divisive way. In a town that is 55 percent white, James A. Young, a Pentecostal minister and former county supervisor, defeated incumbent three-term mayor Rayburn Waddell to become the first African-American mayor. The New York Times, CNN, and other national news outlets reported on this story contrasting Young's election against the 1964 "Mississippi Burning" civil rights murders in Neshoba County.
For much of the past month, it appeared quite possible (many said “likely”) that the Legislature would fail to adopt a FY ’10 budget in time to greet the new year. Medicaid was the hangup, and seemingly intractable problems pushed all potential solutions just beyond reach.
“We’re close” was the uniform refrain recited by weary negotiators in response to increasingly skeptical inquiries. As each June day passed by, there was little evident movement and less hope. Finally, the Governor, the Senate and the House (not to mention the Mississippi Hospital Association) all gave their joint blessing to a compromise agreement, and Medicaid was reauthorized and reappropriated less than three hours from the program’s scheduled demise.
What, then, to make of the special session? Success or failure? Triumph attained, or disaster averted? It depends, I think, on whether you’re a “glass half empty” or a “glass half full” kinda guy.
HALF EMPTY – Special Session? You gotta be %#@*&+#% kidding me! The Legislature had 90 days in the Regular Session and failed to produce a budget. Then lawmakers twice extended the Regular Session, adding 60 more days, and still got nothing accomplished. The not-so-special session cost taxpayers $141,000 to do something that could, and should, have been accomplished months earlier.
HALF FULL – Forcing an ultimate special session by refusing to extend the Regular Session for a third time was a smart tactic for which House Republicans deserve credit. Strengthened by this defining move, Governor Barbour cleverly declined to call the Legislature back into session at all until an overall budget deal was pretty much in hand. The resulting three-day special session was tightly focused, and lawmakers proved remarkably productive when compelled to work under the gun. The $141,000 actually is a bargain when compared to the still greater cost to taxpayers had the Regular Session otherwise inevitably continued to drag along in aimless spurts throughout June.
HALF EMPTY – Partisan rancor continues to infect the Legislature, especially the House, where implicit and explicit accusations of racism, inhumanity and cruelty routinely have come to characterize any debate touching on Medicaid. A House committee very nearly sabotaged the delicate four-fold Medicaid compromise by offering deal-killer amendments which had no hope of becoming law. One objecting House member single-handedly caused the entire Legislature to waste a precious two and a half hours Tuesday evening by requiring the entire 70-plus pages of the compromise bill to be read aloud prior to a final vote. Had any Senator subsequently been inclined to act so irresponsibly, the wheels would have come off the Medicaid compromise altogether.
HALF FULL – Cooler heads prevailed, and cooperation trumped partisanship in the end. Oft-maligned Medicaid chairman Dirk Dedeaux ably handled the legislation in an even-handed manner on the floor, and Speaker McCoy and Speaker Pro Tempore Compretta adroitly managed the debate so as to diffuse the simmering mini-revolt within the erstwhile House “leadership” team. Ultimately, most rural white Democrats, virtually every Republican, and a few key Black Caucus members all joined together behind Speaker McCoy to muster the four-vote margin necessary for final passage of the Medicaid compromise. Although it is much too early to herald the birth of a new bipartisan governing coalition, the potential for the future clearly is there for anyone to see.
According to Sen. Merle Flowers, R-Olive Branch, population totals that have risen steadily since the last census in 2000 have the county on track to gain a third Senate seat and two more House seats.
Two senators and five representatives currently serve DeSoto County.
"We are leading the charge," Flowers said about DeSoto County's role in Mississippi adding nearly 94,000 residents between 2000 and a year ago.
Census data released Wednesday placed the state's population at an estimated 2.9 million as of July 1, 2008, with DeSoto County accounting for nearly 155,000 of those residents.
In DeSoto County, the population estimate reflects a growth of 47,549 residents, or 44.4 percent, since 2000.
Southaven grew most, by 15,095 residents, and for the fourth consecutive year was the No. 5 Mississippi city in terms of population.
It was followed locally by Olive Branch with 10,773 new residents, Horn Lake with 4,643 and Hernando with 4,356.
I am writing to bring to your attention recent statements by insurance company attorneys that show beyond any doubt that companies shifted Hurricane Katrina claims to the National Flood Insurance Program that should have been covered by their own homeowners policies. On June 9, 2009, the Mississippi Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the interpretation of "anti-concurrent causation" (ACC) clauses in homeowners insurance policies. The attorney for Nationwide, Christopher Landau, told the Supreme Court that Nationwide applies the ACC clause to exclude coverage of all damage caused by hurricane winds if subsequent flooding was sufficient to cause the damage. In response to questioning, Landau answered that even if a house were 95 percent destroyed by winds before any flooding, Nationwide would owe nothing to the policyholder if the flooding was severe enough to have destroyed the house. JUSTICE PIERCE: So you're sequencing, if 95 percent of the home was destroyed, and then we have the event of the storm surge, then you would not pay a dime? MR. LANDAU: Your Honor, if we prove that the storm surge was sufficient to cause - we have that burden, again, and that is absolutely crystal clear. If we can prove that the storm surge was sufficient to cause all of this, it is no answer then to say, ‘Yeah, but I'm going to show it -- I'm going to have somebody come in and say, "Look, guess what, the window was broken before the storm surge came and then wiped away the whole house. But you don't get into those kinds of issues precisely because of the sequencing of the damage. JUSTICE PIERCE: So you wouldn't pay a dime? MR. LANDAU: If - again, we wouldn't pay a dime for things where we can carry our burden, which is right there in the policy, of showing that the loss was caused concurrently - JUSTICE PIERCE: I'm giving you -- the example is 95 percent of the home is destroyed, the flood comes in and gets the other five percent, and you know that. Does your interpretation of the word "sequence" mean you pay zero? MR. LANDAU: Yes, your Honor. USAA' s attorney Greg Copeland offered a slightly more reasonable interpretation of ACC, but the effect is still to shift some of USAA's costs to NFIP. USAA acknowledges that it must pay for damage caused by wind acting independently from flooding, but insists that it owes nothing on losses caused by wind if flooding is a contributing cause. In fact, Copeland asked the Court to mandate instructions to juries telling them that if they conclude that a loss is caused by the combination of wind and flooding, it is covered by NFIP and not by the homeowners policy. Copeland even claimed that it was the intent of Congress when enacting the National Flood Insurance Program that the federal government should pay for all damage caused the combination of wind and flooding. JUSTICE CHANDLER: And back to this word of "synergistic" or concurrent combined forces of wind and water, if the jury is told that if they believe it was a combined concurrent force of wind and water that caused the damage, you're going to say that the Plaintiff is not entitled to damages? MR. COPELAND: Yes, sir. JUSTICE CHANDLER: But now as I understood the Plaintiff, the Plaintiff is going to argue that, if there are combined forces, then they are entitled to payment because the per square inch of force from water alone is insufficient to cause the damage. MR. COPELAND: Yes, sir. JUSTICE CHANDLER: That's really the disagreement between the two sides that matters; is that correct? MR. COPELAND: Yes, sir. And that's what this second sentence in this policy addresses. JUSTICE CHANDLER: I'm looking at it. MR. COPELAND: And it was - it had to go somewhere. It did not go in the homeowner's policy. It went in the National Flood Insurance. That's what Congress did. The National Flood Insurance Act does not obligate NFIP to pay for any wind damage that occurs in combination with flooding. In fact, the regulations specify that Write Your Own insurance companies have a contractual obligation to represent NFIP and federal taxpayers when handling flood claims. They have a fiduciary responsibility that prohibits them from placing their own corporate interests ahead of NFIP's interests. Several companies blatantly violated that obligation by insisting that the Anti Concurrent Causation clauses in their homeowners policies excluded coverage of wind damage if flooding contributed to the loss. Under the current system, NFIP allows insurance companies to handle flood claims backed by federal taxpayers while they also handle their own homeowners claims for wind damage. GAO described this arrangement as an "inherent conflict of interest." Properties on the Mississippi Gulf Coast suffered four hours of hurricane force winds, with gusts as high as 140 mph, before the storm surge. GAO concluded that NFIP performed almost such poor oversight of flood claims that it did not collect enough information to be able to verify that NFIP paid only for damage caused by flooding. After Hurricane Katrina, State Farm initiated an industry lobbying campaign to persuade NFIP Administrator David Maurstad to waive the requirement for proper investigation of flood claims. State Farm drafted NFIP's Expedited Procedures for Hurricane Katrina, and was so confident in their approval that State Farm claims managers implemented the procedures almost two weeks before they were adopted. On September 9, 2005, the State Farm Flood Coordinator in Mississippi, Alexis "Lecky" King, emailed adjusters who were handling both claims, that "the flood claim should be resolved, paid and closed. However, the wind claim will remain open pending the investigation and resulting findings." On September 13, 2005, State Farm sent its adjusters a document entitled, "Wind/Water Claim Handling Protocol" which instructed them that "where wind acts concurrently with flooding to cause damage to the insured property, coverage for the loss exists only under flood coverage. 1' State Farm, Allstate, Nationwide, and other companies sent their adjusters out to pay full policy limits on flood policies before investigating how much damage had been caused by flooding and how much had been caused by wind and wind-driven debris. The insurers then delayed and denied claims for wind damage under their own policies, forcing thousands of policyholders to sue. GAO also found that insurance companies received windfalls from NFIP by collecting much more in adjustment reimbursements and administrative subsidies than the companies spent handling flood claims. Additionally, federal taxpayers paid billions of dollars for FEMA trailers, housing vouchers, homeowner assistance grants, subsidized loans, and casualty loss tax deductions to assist homeowners during the year or two or three while they waited for an insurance settlement or court date. I urge the Obama Administration to support H.R. 1264, the Multiple Peril Insurance Act, to protect homeowners and taxpayers by creating an option in the National Flood Insurance Program to offer coverage of both wind and flood risk in one policy. By covering wind and flood risk in one policy, the multiple peril option will allow coastal homeowners to buy insurance and know that hurricane damage would be covered. They would not need lawyers, engineers, and public adjusters to distinguish between wind and flood damage. The bill requires premiums for the new coverage to be risk-based and actuarially sound, so that the program would be required to pay for itself. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the multiple peril program would be budget neutral. Every taxpayer in America will benefit from the Multiple Peril Insurance Act because much more hurricane damage would be covered by insurance premiums rather than by costly and inefficient disaster assistance programs. The new program also will reduce future hurricane damages by requiring local governments to adopt and enforce the windstorm building codes recommended by the International Code Council. The current insurance system is not a competitive market, so the prices charged by insurers and reinsurers are not determined by market efficiency. The Wharton Risk Management Center at the University of Pennsylvania found that insurance premiums in some coastal areas are 5 to 10 times higher than the estimated losses that the insurance companies expect to pay. There is high demand for homeowners insurance because most homeowners are required by their mortgages to purchase coverage. Even though insurance premiums have increased substantially in every coastal area since Hurricane Katrina, companies continue to reduce the availability of private insurance coverage. When supply does not respond to increases in demand and price, no one can credibly claim that the private market has the capacity or the desire to cover the hurricane insurance market. In Gulf and Atlantic Coast communities from Texas to Maine, the private insurance market has collapsed. Insurers have dumped hundreds of billions of dollars of coastal properties into state wind pools and other insurers of last resort. Most of the statesponsored plans are not able to spread risk efficiently and not able to build up sufficient reserves to cover a major hurricane. The federal multiple peril program will spread coastal wind risk in a much more efficient manner than the state pools. Single state pools concentrate risk so that a large portion of the pool could be affected by a single event. In order to account for the capital to pay for a major hurricane, the poois are forced to charge excessively higher premiums to buy more reinsurance. The federal multiple peril insurance plan would cover a broad geographical area so that even a large hurricane would affect only a small percentage of the policyholders. The federal plan would establish a stable risk pool that would not have wild swings in premiums after each disaster. The federal government can easily establish risk-based premiums and create an actuarially-sound program if the Administration commits to the effort and staffs the program with appropriately skilled professionals. There are several substantial differences between the proposal for actuarially-sound multiple peril insurance coverage and the existing flood insurance program. First, the flood insurance program was not designed to pay 100% of its costs. The flood program grandfathered properties that were built before the flood maps were implemented. Those properties receive subsidized premiums for the first $35,000 of flood insurance. The new windstorm coverage in the Multiple Peril Insurance Act does not include any subsidies and requires that the premiums pay the full costs of the program. Second, the flood insurance program is not responsible for levees, dams, and other structures, but it is often left with most of the bill when they fail. Much of the NFIP debt for Hurricane Katrina resulted from flooding that would not have happened if the levees and floodwalls had performed to expectations. Much of the recent flooding in the Midwest also was the result of levee failures. Flood risk also can be dramatically altered by developments elsewhere in the flood plain. Wind insurance premiums are much simpler than flood premiums because they do not require assumptions about the performance of levees, dams, and other structures. Third, every Gulf and Atlantic state already has a state-sponsored wind pool or other insurance pool of last resort that collects detailed wind and loss data and contracts for hurricane risk models. The insurance industry also has compiled volumes of data on wind risk, which they use to determine which properties to cherry-pick while leaving the rest to the state-sponsored insurance pools. FEMA could easily acquire the same data and models that states and insurance companies use to determine hurricane wind risks. The first goal of federal disaster policy should be to improve our preparedness for hurricanes and other disasters. One of the best ways to meet that goal is to ensure that more coastal homeowners have insurance that will cover hurricane damage promptly and efficiently, so they will not have to depend on federal disaster assistance. Another important goal should be to reduce future hurricane damage by encouraging stronger building codes and mitigation standards. The Multiple Peril Insurance Act would accomplish both of those goals in an efficient and fiscally responsible manner. I urge you and others in the Administration to actively support this legislation. Thank you for your interest and attention to this important issue. I look forward to continued discussions about the need for disaster insurance reform.
The president ultimately took seven questions, including four that had been selected by aides who waded through hundreds of videos submitted through the White House Web site. (One, though, came from a Republican congressman from Texas asking about medical malpractice.) Three questions were from members of the audience, all of whom were associated with groups close to the Democratic Party.
Asked whether a government-run, single-payer health care system could work, Mr. Obama said no, explaining that most people are insured through employers that are private companies. But he renewed his push for a so-called public option, which could compete with private insurers and, Mr. Obama said, “keep insurers honest.”
On a sleepy week in Washington, with the Fourth of July holiday approaching, the reach of the event was unclear. But the Republican National Committee was watching, setting up its own blogging operation that provided a running commentary.
“WOW! A question from a guy who works for Health Care for America Now, an organization promoting President Obama’s government-run plan. Coincidence?” wrote Matt Moon, a deputy research director at the committee.
Later, Mr. Moon added, “President Obama doesn’t have an answer to these questions, he has a speech for each of these questions.”
The policy and politics, though, was interrupted for a moment when Debby Smith, 53, of Appalachia, Va., rose to address the president. She explained how she was struggling to get treatment for cancer in her right kidney, saying, “I have a new tumor and have no way to treat it.”
The president walked over to Ms. Smith, who was fighting back tears, and summoned her into the aisle. He listened to her story, briefly embraced her and offered his thoughts, as photographers circled into capture the moment.
“I don’t want you to feel like you’re alone on this,” Mr. Obama said. “Without knowing all the details, I’m not going to give you an answer right now about exactly how we can help.”
As she spoke to reporters later, Ms. Smith said she was active in Organizing for America, a Democratic group that grew out of the Obama campaign. The White House said it was a coincidence that the president called on her. He did not seem to know her because after he extended a hug, he said awkwardly, “What was your name again?”
R. Allen Stanford’s former chief financial officer and right-hand man at his fallen financial empire has struck a plea deal with prosecutors, his lawyer said today.
David Finn, who represents former Stanford Financial Group finance chief James Davis, said that his client will plead guilty to a crime in coming weeks as part of his ongoing cooperation with the government.
Davis is slated to appear before a U.S. magistrate on July 13, and at that time will plead not guilty to three counts of conspiracy and fraud pending against him “for procedural reasons,” Finn said, to allow time to notify victims of a subsequent plea hearing.
And at that subsequent hearing before senior U.S. District Judge David Hittner, Davis will plead guilty to those three counts, Finn said.
“We will accept responsibility and change the plea,” Finn said. “We continue to cooperate as of this moment.”
Mississippi’s Public Service Commission has requested an opinion from Attorney General Jim Hood “as to what functions it can legally continue to perform without a budget.”
Budgets for the Public Service Commission and the Public Utilities Staff were left unfunded at the beginning of the new fiscal year that started today.
According to a news release from the PSC, the three elected commissioners “stand united with their commitment to serve the public despite the lack of funding.”
“We want to communicate to the public that we are working on a step-by-step basis until this issue can be resolved,” the release said.
Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss. says yes. That's why he's pushing a proposal to broaden the National Flood Insurance Program to cover hurricanes. His argument is that the federal flood program ends up paying for a lot of hurricane-related damage anyway so it should collect premium for that, not private companies.
Taylor produced the video below using court testimony from a case against USAA insurance that was heard before the Mississippi Supreme Court earlier this month.
USAA and Nationwide Insurance attorneys said that a so-called anti-concurrent clause buried in most insurance policies legitimately exempts companies from paying for windstorm damage when any water damage is involved.
Here is an excerpt from the transcript, an exchange between Mississippi Supreme Court Associate Justice Randy Pierce and Nationwide Attorney Christopher Landau:
JUSTICE PIERCE: I’m giving you -- the example is 95 percent of the home is destroyed,
the flood comes in and gets the other five percent, and you know that. Does your interpretation of the word “sequence” mean you pay zero?
MR. LANDAU: Yes, your Honor.
We'll add thoughts from Nationwide and USAA when they get back to us.
Most teens now will need their parents' permission before using a tanning facility, 16-year-olds can donate blood, and Internet pharmacies face stricter regulations.
It's been estimated that about 1,500 more teens across the state will be able to donate blood because of House Bill 150, which Gov. Haley Barbour signed into law on April 17.
Those additional donors could mean as many as 2,000 to 5,000 lives saved, said Tony Bahou, spokesman for Mississippi Blood Services in Jackson.
"It will have a great impact on the blood supply in the state," Bahou said.
The 16-year-olds still have to meet the overall requirements for blood donation, including a minimum weight of 110 pounds. There also are pre-donation restrictions related to foreign travel, diet and liquid intake.
They elected Wilbert Jones to represent them in the Legislature with a comfortable 64 percent of the vote.
Jones beat out opponent Bill Marcy in Tuesday's run-off election with 1,664 votes. Marcy received 920 votes, or 36 percent of the total vote, including adsentee ballots.
"It's a calmness," Jones said shortly after his victory became clear. "I feel great. I have very strong supporters that believe in me. It was just a matter of getting out the vote."
Though Jones was happy with his percentage of the vote, he admitted he was disappointed with the low overall voter turnout. Only 2,385 people turned up to vote in the election, though the circuit clerk's office reported there were more than 10,000 active registered voters in the district.
Jones, who plans to declare as a Democrat, will replace the late Rep. Charles L. Young, Sr., who passed away in April while in his 30th year in office. The Young family endorsed Jones immediately after he qualified for the special election to fill Rep. Young's seat.
Lawmakers had to come to a quick agreement. Medicaid was set to expire at midnight unless they agreed to reauthorize the health-care program that serves nearly 600,000 lower-income Mississippians.
On the day before the new fiscal year begins, leaders in the House and Senate and Gov. Haley Barbour agreed to the provisions in House Bill 71. The bill cleared the House first and then the Senate.
Barbour has said he can run Medicaid by executive order if the program was not reauthorized, but Attorney General Jim Hood has said the governor would have no spending authority.
House Bill 71 mirrors in many ways an agreement the House and Senate reached last week, one which Barbour said he wouldn’t accept. The current bill limits the amount of cuts that Barbour can make on hospitals and health-care providers. The previous bill would have exempted hospitals and nursing homes from future cuts.
"There are a lot of dogs and cats in this bill, many of which I wouldn't have done in normal policy, but just because I didn't agree with them doesn't mean that they're bad or terrible," Barbour said
The next task for Minnesota's new junior senator will be to complete his transformation from edgy comedian to influential politician.
To prepare, Al Franken has studied the experiences of former Sen. Bill Bradley, the basketball star who won his seat in 1979 after a Hall of Fame career with the New York Knicks. Mr. Bradley kept his head down and worked on unglamorous issues such as tax policy. Mr. Franken is determined to follow suit.
"We've talked about this -- how do you come in with a certain cachet, as Bill Bradley or Jay Rockefeller or Hillary Clinton had to do, and make sure you don't p -- off your colleagues from the get-go?" said Norman Ornstein, a close friend of Mr. Franken's and a scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "He will be very cognizant of that."
Mr. Franken faces an obstacle previous Senate arrivistes didn't. In his years hosting a liberal radio show and writing books such as "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," he might find it hard to work with some Republican colleagues. Mr. Franken has friends in the GOP, but has thrived on insulting conservatives.
"Republicans will have their guard up and approach him with caution due to his overly partisan nature as a liberal media star," said Ron Bonjean, a onetime aide to Sen. Jon Kyl (R., Ariz.) and former Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi. "He will have to make the first move."
The day began with 14 states lacking a final budget signed by the governor. By evening, several had come to some agreement.
But some states -- most significantly, Arizona and Pennsylvania -- faced the specter of a government shutdown for failing to have a budget in place by the start of the new fiscal year today. Two others -- Ohio and North Carolina -- basically conceded that they needed more time by passing legislation to allow government business to continue into July while they keep debating.
In Mississippi, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour called legislators back into session Sunday to pass a budget that included a special Medicaid funding package. Late Tuesday, it was unclear if the sides could agree. Barbour contended that he could keep government running by executive order if a deal wasn't reached by midnight.
Even though several states had completed budgets, officials will probably have to revisit them because revenue continues to plummet, said Todd Haggerty of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
He noted that last year, states cut $32 billion in spending, then had to frantically cut another $60 billion after July 1 because tax receipts tailed off.
"There's a definite possibility, unless revenues improve soon, that states are going to have to continue to make these hard decisions and revisit these budgets," Haggerty said.
The surprisingly personal political battle between Barbour and the leadership of the MHA over Barbour's "hospital tax" lasted some three years.
When I first began reporting on the "hospital tax" question in mid-2006, Barbour and the Division of Medicaid said that the Legislature had known for years that the state's Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital funding plan was questioned by the federal government.
Both said that the Public Health committees in both houses were specifically advised during the 2006 regular session that the feds would disallow the former funding plan on June 30, 2006. But lawmakers like respected state Rep. Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, disputed that claim.
"We did not know there was a problem for 2007," Brown told me on July 16, 2006. "Certainly if we had known about this during the session, we would have addressed it somehow. It was never mentioned in the (2006) tobacco tax debate, which would have been the logical place for it to come up."
The federal Medicaid disallowance of the state's former DSH funding mechanism left the state's Medicaid program short $90 million that had previously been used to draw down another $270 million in federal matching funds, according to Division of Medicaid executive director Bob Robinson.
The 50-plus Democrats considered vulnerable by The Cook Political Report have voted with Republicans about 20 percent of the time on those 15 votes. Some of the members didn’t desert the party on any of the major votes.
The votes include last week’s climate change bill, the stimulus package, President Obama’s budget and other votes like an amendment to cut off funding for the closure of Guantánamo Bay prison.
The defection rate has been much higher in the subset of 10 Democrats whose districts went for GOP presidential nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.) by double digits — 45 percent. All but one voted with Republicans on the energy bill and all but two voted to keep Guantánamo open.
Congressional representatives, Ron Klein (D-Fla.) and Henry Brown (R-S.C.), Candice Miller (R-Mich.) and Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) got things underway with Resolution 505 two years ago. After passage in the U.S. Senate, the bill was signed recently by President Obama.
The designation signifies governmental recognition of the industry's importance to the U.S. economy. An estimated $1.9 billion in economic stimulus dollars have been directed to accelerate dredging of waterways throughout the country. Many other projects that support boating activities have received or will be receiving federal funds, as well.
House Minority Leader John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) animated speech on climate change late last week has attracted praise from both Republicans and Democrats.
Boehner, known for his laid-back personality and constant shrugs, delivered a scathing critique of the Democrats’ climate bill that passed 219-212 on Friday. Some political observers on and off Capitol Hill say the speech could represent a significant change in Boehner’s leadership style.
Fifteen minutes into what most expected to be a two-minute closing argument against the bill, Boehner pulled out a pair of reading glasses from his coat pocket and flipped open the four-inch binder he had slammed on the lectern before him.
Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.), who voted against the bill, said, “If I were the average Joe listening to this at home I’d think, ‘That was a pretty good speech.’ ”
“I actually thoroughly enjoyed John Boehner’s speech,” said Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.). Wu backed the bill on Friday.
In his remarks, Boehner said, “It’s hard to say in the first six months of the new Congress that this could be the defining vote and the defining bill for this Congress, but I really, truly believe that this is the defining bill.”
Most importantly, Boehner — who has been overshadowed at times in his career by former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and President George W. Bush — united his GOP conference.
The infamous Phoebe factoids controversy has re-surfaced--this time in a film.
A documentary by a Chicago production company focuses on how big not-for-profit hospitals, including Phoebe, deal with uninsured and under-insured patients. Phoebe administrators say it's not factual.
The film is called "Do No Harm". "The whole thing started off with those faxes," said Albany surgeon Dr. John Bagnato.
It's a documentary with a series of faxes called the Phoebe Factoids at the center. "They could have been ignored or they could have taken them as legitimate criticism," said Bagnato, "instead they went on an illegal witch hunt and that's where we are today."
In the film you see some of the events following that faxed criticism of Phoebe's administrators and financial practices. Dr. John Bagnato and his then office manager Charles Rehberg were booked into the Dougherty County Jail and indicted after it was revealed they were the anonymous faces behind those Factoids.
"I was sort of fascinated by their story because of who they were," said Rebecca Schanberg. Film director Rebecca Schanberg describes the film as a story about two whistleblowers taking on hospital corruption and the plight of the uninsured.
"I think what we'd like to do is bring to light the fact that hospitals in general, although they can take care of people and be really great, their financial practices need to come in line with their medical practices," said Schanberg.
One thing is certain--"Do No Harm" will be seen all over the United States. "It's being picked up by those who would like to create some rallying cry for health reform based upon one inaccurate fax," said Wernick.
"The negative publicity that has occurred over there has more to do with what they did and less to do with what we did," said Bagnato.
Dr. Bagnato thinks this will re-ignite a national debate about the cost of healthcare. A screening will take place in Atlanta next month. The filmmaker says they're working on one here in Albany also.
Joel Wernick claims the production was paid for by a "Scruggs Cartel" to portray the hospital poorly. Richard Scruggs is an attorney who sued Phoebe. He's now in prison for trying to bribe a judge.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
