News & Events

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Press Room

State News Headlines

January 31, 2007

The following headlines are compiled as an internal service for state Attorney General offices only. This list is not exhaustive and is a snapshot of news from around the country compiled through the use of various search engines.

Tougher Regulations for Farm Odors Urged

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Neighbors of factory-size farms who have long complained about foul smells are urging a state panel to strengthen Missouri's regulation of agricultural odors. ''The current odor regulations are not working,'' said Edward Heisel, an environmental attorney at Washington University in St. Louis. ''There are plenty of places in northern Missouri that are not suitable places to live because of the air.'' Such places include property near a Premium Standards Farm operation in northwest Missouri. Four months ago, a jury awarded $4.5 million in damages to three families who sued over the stench from the company's Trenton hog farm. The Kansas City company agreed not to appeal the jury award. Heisel, affiliated with a law clinic at the university, represents northern Missouri homeowners who petitioned the state to toughen its odor regulations, which were last revised in 1999. In response, a group of regulators, activists and livestock industry officials met Tuesday for the first time to consider revisions. The request for tougher odor regulations has the support of Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, whose office prosecutes the worst violators. Full Article

North Carolina: Duke Hearing Postponed

A pretrial hearing in the Duke sexual assault case set for Monday has been delayed until May as state prosecutors, who took over for the embattled district attorney, Michael B. Nifong of Durham County, study the evidence against former members of the Duke lacrosse team. Prosecutors met with defense lawyers for about two hours, their first meeting since the state attorney general’s office took the case this month. Full Article

Many Katrina victims still living on hold

Living the lives of nomads, Michael Brandner, his wife, Cindy, and their two sons lived in seven different places in the three months after Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005 and destroyed their new dream house in Bay St. Louis, Miss. "The frame of the house was still standing, but everything was totally blown out," Brandner says. "The wind just ripped it apart." John and Claire Jo Tuepker lived in a trailer, then with relatives, then in an apartment after Katrina leveled their home about 1,200 feet from shore in Long Beach, Miss. "We went back the next day, and there was nothing but the concrete foundation," he says. Wesley McFarland, 83, has lived in a trailer since his home in Bay St. Louis blew away and essentially disappeared. "There is nothing left," he says.In the 17 months since the most destructive hurricane to hit land in U.S. history scoured much of the Mississippi Gulf Coast clean, and the failure of the levee system in New Orleans caused torrential flooding, tens of thousands of homeowners have been living life on hold. They haven't been able to rebuild because they've been unable to get the money they thought they were owed from their insurers. But a settlement reached last week with State Farm — a deal that's been blocked, at least temporarily — would provide some compensation for 1,000 Mississippi homeowners whose lots were stripped bare….Last Tuesday, State Farm agreed to pay at least $50 million and allow 35,000 homeowners to ask for their cases to be reopened so they could argue about what caused the damage. The total settlement could reach $500 million, the Mississippi attorney general said last week. Full Article

Consumers warned of loan scams

A flurry of advance-fee loan scams is victimizing consumers across the USA and Canada, the Council of Better Business Bureaus warns. Consumers who respond to phone calls or ads that purportedly guarantee loans to those with poor credit instead lose hundreds of dollars or more in fees demanded by the suspected scammers. The frauds follow a typical pattern. Consumers call a toll-free number and are told to submit credit information over the phone or fill out paperwork to be mailed later. In exchange for a $5,000 to $100,000 loan, they are told to wire or mail a money order for $500 or more to pay processing fees or other charges. The applicants never get the loan, and they lose what they paid in fees. They also risk having their identity stolen if they provided a Social Security number or other personal data to the scammers. "People with the poorest finances are being victimized," said Steve Cole, CEO of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. Although the group had no data on the number of victims, spokesman Stephen Cox said workers in the council's 129 local bureaus have fielded a rise in complaints about the alleged scam. Full Article

Leslie R. Kershaw
Communications Assistant
Office: (202) 326-6027
Fax: (202) 408-8061
Email: lnelson@naag.org

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