Whoa, this isn't going to be anywhere near enough. According to a lawyer filing suit against the owners of the Texas fertilizer plant that exploded last month, the plant only carried a $1 million liability insurance policy. The blast last month killed 14 people, injured 200 more, and destroyed blocks of nearby property. An estimate by an insurance industry group puts the damages at $100 million.

AP:

Tyler lawyer Randy C. Roberts said he and other attorneys who have filed lawsuits against West Fertilizer's owners were told Thursday that the plant carried only $1 million in liability insurance. Brook Laskey, an attorney hired by the plant's insurer to represent West Fertilizer Co., confirmed the amount Saturday in an email to The Associated Press, after the Dallas Morning News first reported it.

"The bottom line is, this lack of insurance coverage is just consistent with the overall lack of responsibility we've seen from the fertilizer plant, starting from the fact that from day one they have yet to acknowledge responsibility," Roberts said.

Roberts said he expects the plant's owner to ask a judge to divide the $1 million in insurance money among the plaintiffs, several of whom he represents, and then file for bankruptcy.

He said he wasn't surprised that the plant was carrying such a small policy.

"It's rare for Texas to require insurance for any kind of hazardous activity," he said. "We have very little oversight of hazardous activities and even less regulation."

Roberts said that lawyers will look to see what other assets the company may have, as well as search for any other responsible parties.

By Suevon Lee, ProPublica, Jan. 7, 2013

U.S. gun policy is set by both state and federal law. We previously published an explainer on the ways states have eased gun restrictions. But federal policy, too, has become more gun friendly in recent years — and we're not just talking about the 2008 Supreme Court ruling that struck down the handgun ban in Washington, D.C., and held that people have a right to keep guns in their homes.

Here, we outline five federal policies relating to guns you may not have known about:

1. A federal firearms trace database is off-limits to the public.

How often do federally licensed gun dealers sell guns that are then used in crimes? It's hard to know, because for nearly a decade such gun trace data has been hidden from the public. Even local law enforcement had been, until recently, barred from accessing the database for anything but narrow investigations.

Under the Gun Control Act of 1968, licensed dealers are required to record certain information about a buyer and the gun's serial number at the point of sale. These records go into a database maintained by The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A tool to catch criminals, the database in the early 2000s became a political flashpoint, as the Washington Post details. Outside research tying seized guns to a small handful of dealers spurred the federal government to impose tougher sanctions and inspections on gun retailers and manufacturers.

But those sanctions sparked a backlash: Since 2003, the Tiahrt Amendments, so named after the former Kansas Republican congressman who introduced the measures, have concealed the database from the public. Prior to 2010, local police could access the database only to investigate an individual crime but not to look for signs of broader criminal activity.

Despite the relaxing of some restrictions, parts of the original Tiahrt Amendment remain in place. The ATF can't require gun dealers to conduct an inventory to account for lost or stolen guns; records of customer background checks must be destroyed within 24 hours if they are clean enough to allow the sale; and trace data can't be used in state civil lawsuits or in an effort to suspend or revoke a gun dealer's license.

Continue reading »

Yesterday, after a weekend training in nonviolent civil disobedience, protesters from the Tar Sands Blockade jubilantly swarmed the Keystone XL pipeline's construction site in Winnsboro, Texas. Keystone XL pipeline opponents have tried petitioning the government, filing lawsuits, and bringing their issues to the media's attention, but with Obama's recent endorsement of the southern leg of the pipeline, the Tar Sands Blockade feels justified to resort to civil disobedience.

Here, protesters emerge from a “sit-in” 70 feet in the air, in trees which stood in an area already cleared to make way for the pipeline. Protesters holler and cheer as they flood into the construction site, scrawling “blood for oil” on the machinery and holding up a banner that read: “All pipelines leak, all markets peak”. Some people locked themselves to pieces of equipment and others stood, defiantly, in the way of the dirty oil machines.

Eight were arrested yesterday but six of those were released from jail today on charges of criminal trespass. The two who chained themselves to Keystone XL machinery will be in court today.

Finders Weepers: Early Bain Disputes Cast New Light on Its Business

by Jesse Eisinger ProPublica, Sept. 11, 2012

It was one of the "quickest big hits in Wall Street history," as the Wall Street Journal put it at the time.

In 1996, an investment group including Bain Capital, the firm then run by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, sold the consumer credit information business Experian to a British retailer, making a $500 million profit. Bain and the other investors who reaped that windfall had closed the acquisition a mere seven weeks earlier, stunning the investing world.

Another party was stunned by the deal, but for a different reason. James McCall Springer believed that he had brought the idea to buy Experian to Bain in the first place.

Springer sued to get what he contended was his rightful finder's fee, eventually settling. And he wasn't the only one. At least three other parties had similar legal disputes with Bain during the early 1990s, when Romney led the company, raising questions of how rough-and-tumble the company could be. The suits also shed light on how Bain actually operated, complicating one of the main narratives Bain, the Romney campaign, and many commentators have used to describe the private equity firm.

The Romney campaign declined to respond to a request for comment on the lawsuits. Bain did not respond to a request for comment. And, of course, disputes about finder's fees are not uncommon; large sums are at stake for little work, a situation ripe for claims of aggrandized roles.

Most accounts of Bain characterize the firm as full of hard-working young men who sought to find troubled companies, invest in them and turn them around. Romney's presidential campaign website says that "under his leadership, Bain Capital helped to launch or rebuild over one hundred companies." Romney campaigns have embraced his reputation as a turnaround artist, as he has run on his private equity record and his overhaul of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. He even titled his 2004 book "Turnaround," a memoir and account of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

But as the disputes illuminate, the reality of Bain's business in the early years is more complicated.

Often, Bain wasn't finding companies on its own. Finders and middlemen were more common in the early days of private equity than they are now. Smaller firms would seek out acquisition targets and bring them to the big buyout firms.

More significantly, Romney's firm wasn't always looking for startups or troubled companies that it could turn around.

Private equity companies conduct a variety of transactions other than buying startups with growth potential or troubled firms ripe for a turnaround. Some seek out family-run operations under the theory that those typically have a lot of fat to cut. Some like "roll-ups," buying up a bunch of small operations in one industry and combining them into a powerhouse with economies of scale. Firms buy divisions of large corporations that are trying to streamline their operations. Some acquisitions fit more than one of these descriptions. The constant is debt, and plenty of it. Private equity firms use such borrowed money to maximize their gains.

The Romney campaign says Bain did various types of deals. And it celebrates that Bain helped launch or rebuild some American corporate stalwarts, like Staples, Bright Horizons and Sports Authority.

Yet in addition, under Romney's tenure, Bain often sought out solid businesses that didn't need to be turned around. The reason: Such companies could operate under the burden of the enormous debt that Bain would layer on them.

Continue reading »

via Occupy Oakland

WHERE: Lakeview Elementary School, 746 Grand Avenue, Oakland CA 94610
WHAT: Sit-in Protest To Reverse Closures of Oakland Public Schools
WHEN: Beginning Friday, June 15 at 1:00 p.m. PST
WHO: Teachers, parents, students, allies, and all who believe in public education

At the end of this school year, the Oakland Unified School District plans to close five public elementary schools and hand children’s school buildings over to private charter schools and district administration offices. Hundreds of the displaced students have been placed by the district in elementary schools that are 10 miles away, and the school district has offered no guarantee that transportation will be provided for families. In response…

Oakland Parents and Teachers Are Sitting-in to Keep Neighborhood Schools Open!

We Need Your Support!!!

On June 15th, after the last day of school, Oakland parents and teachers will sit in at Lakeview Elementary demanding that the district keep all neighborhood schools open. The district has not listened to lawsuits, pleas from parents and teachers, or protests. We know the money exists, but still they insist on closing flatland schools serving predominantly black and brown children. We say no more excuses! We’re keeping the schools open the last way left to us, by sitting-in. But we cannot do this alone. We need your support! Demand the district and the politicians give us full funding for quality education in neighborhood public schools. Join the fight for our kids’ futures!

We demand:

Don’t Close the 5 Schools! Keep All Neighborhood Schools Open! Children’s Needs Before Administration’s!
Stop Attacks on Teachers and School Workers! Teacher Conditions=Student Conditions.
Refuse to Pay the Unjust State Debt!
Fully Fund Quality Public Education for All Students!

Support the People’s School for Public Education:

Friday 6/15 @ 1:00pm – Community Speakout & BBQ Friday 6/15 @ 4:00pm – Rally to Kick-Off Sit-In Saturday 6/16 @ 2:00pm – People’s School Solidarity Rally Every Night starting Friday @ 9:00 – Solidarity Watch

Join our work committees to organize for this action – Email education4the99 [at] gmail.com to get involved!

On Monday, the 18th, we will be starting a free, week-long social justice summer program for our kids – Email education4the99[at]gmail.com for more info and to enroll your child.

Spread the word – Tell your friends and family!

———————

The following are the Principles Of Action for Lakeview Elementary. This is a parent, teacher, and student led action. Please respect and abide by their principles:

Refer all interviews to parents, teachers, and people directly impacted by education struggle who are on a sit-in committee (they will be wearing a special shirt).
Do not confront the police.
No Black Bloc tactics.
No Drugs or Alcohol. This is intended to be a children and family atmosphere.
No Violence No destruction of property.
People sitting in will be people directly affected by education struggle and who work on a sit-in committee (wearing special shirts).
This is a peaceful action.

For more information, and to get involved: and education4the99.wordpress.com

If you thought that the NYPD reserved their cruelty only for the Occupy Wall Street protesters, you'd be so very wrong.

A trans woman says that when she was arrested for a minor subway violation, NYPD officers belittled her, called her names, asked about her genitals — and kept her chained to a fence for 28 hours. Now she's suing. And it turns out she's far from alone.

She's far from alone, and there are plenty of lawsuits against NYC and the NYPD to prove it. Among the many lawsuits, one from an Occupy Wall Street protester:

In October, Justin Adkins, director of the Multicultural Center at Williams College, was arrested for protesting on the Brooklyn Bridge as part of Occupy Wall Street. At The Bilerico Project, he reports almost exactly the same treatment that Breslauer got. When a male officer found out Adkins was trans, he asked Adkins what he "had down there." Then, at the the station, this happened:

"They had me sit down in a chair next to the filthy toilet, and handcuffed my right wrist to a metal
handrail."

"Why was I segregated from all of the other protestors? Perhaps the answer lay in the fact that
police officers were coming by to ogle me, and were laughing and giggling at me through a window.
It was obvious that prisoners were rarely handcuffed to a railing in this manner, because a number
of officers asked a female officer why I was handcuffed to the railing. She told them something, I
couldn't hear what, but then, on each of these occasions, they would laugh and giggle while looking
at me pointedly."

These failures to treat transgendered people as human beings scream out to be addressed promptly, yet the same abuses by the NYPD have been going on for years now, and the above mentioned cruelties are but of few of the many. And while it all may be just sh*ts and giggles for the officers involved, I'd say that being strip-searched (and while in chains, no less!) for no other reason than to have male and female police officers gawk and laugh at your physical anatomy should also be considered a sexual assault that is prosecuted as such.

Full story at Jezebel.

A disturbing report from Reuters today:

In July 2009, Roy and Sheila Bowers refinanced the mortgage on their suburban ranch home in Topeka, Kansas. The couple wanted to take advantage of the low interest rates that were all the rage at the time.

Roy, a truck driver, and Sheila, a former hotel housekeeping supervisor, knew their new loan from Wells Fargo would enable them to save $198.86 a month - a nice chunk to help with gas and groceries.

But what the Bowers never imagined was that their old loan, the one Wells Fargo told them was paid off, would resurrect itself, trashing their credit report, scotching their son's student loans and throwing the whole family into foreclosure. All, they say, even though they didn't miss a single mortgage payment.

The Bowers are not alone.

More and more, homeowners say that mortgages they thought were dead and buried are springing back to life, sometimes haunting them all the way into foreclosure.

"It's the most egregious manifestation of an industry that's seriously broken," said Ira Rheingold, a lawyer who is the executive director of the National Association of Consumer Advocate.

According to several attorney generals, these problems are only going to intensify. Time to put your attorney general on speed dial, perhaps.