Honolulu Personal Injury Lawyer - Miscellaneous

House Financial Services panel debates federal preemption in CFPA.

Wayne Parsons — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:19:29 GMT

The Washington Post (10/21, Dennis) reports that the House Financial Services Committee "continued to wrangle over a provision that would allow state governments to protect bank customers by imposing restrictions that go beyond existing federal laws. The move...would eliminate a doctrine called preemption that has allowed big banks to answer solely to federal regulators." According to the Post, the Obama Administration "has supported the change, but the nation's largest banks have vigorously opposed the idea, saying it would lead to a conflicting patchwork of regulation." Reps. Melvin Watt and Dennis Moore "introduced an amendment to the legislation that seeks a middle ground," which "would dictate that national banks comply with state laws except when a state law has a 'discriminatory effect' on national banks in comparison with state-chartered banks."

Bloomberg News (10/21, Vekshin) also reports on the partisan split over "limiting state enforcement of national banks as the House Financial Services Committee debated a proposed consumer protection agency. Republicans said rules written by the Consumer Financial Protection Agency should prevail, sparing national banks from needing to comply with separate state laws. Democrats said state regulators should have power to impose tougher rules to protect their residents from lending abuses."

Dow Jones Newswires (10/21, Holzer) also reported on the debate, suggesting that Democrats are edging closer to siding with state regulators.

MarketWatch (10/21, Orol) similarly reports that the committee "moved closer to approving a contentious provision that would give state regulators more authority to impose consumer protection restrictions that go beyond federal laws on mortgage and other products issued by big banks. ... The Watt-Moore measure is being considered as part of a House Financial Services Committee effort to create a controversial proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, which Democratic lawmakers are seeking to set up to write rules for mortgage products and credit cards. Big banks are currently exempt from key state laws and they complain that with the measure they could be required to comply with 51 different sets of regulations, including state and federal rules, which would make doing business nationally more difficult." Law360 (10/20, Dye) also covered the story.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Hawaii's William Richardson Law School Garner's National Recognition

Wayne Parsons — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:15:00 GMT

Robert Myers of the Honolulu Star Bulletin reports that the National PreLaw Magazine has named the University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson Law School as being in the top 25 Best Value Law Schools, based on tuition, bar passage and employment rates.

The Princeton Review's recently published "Best 172 Law Schools" college guide ranked the William S. Richardson School of Law as offering the "Best Environment for Minority Students." The law school also placed second as the school "Most Chosen by Older Students" and fifth in the "Most Diverse Faculty" category.

The review's rankings are based on surveys of 18,000 students attending 172 law schools and on school-reported data during the last three academic years.

I have been an attorney in Hawaii since 1975 and am a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School so I have an objective view of the UH Law School. I can say without reservation that I agree with these accolades for the UH Law School and I believe that it deserves _ particularly under the brilliant stewardship of Dean Aviam Soifer _ that the law school deserves even more praise as one of the hidden gems on the American legal scene.

Justice is the most important goal of man on earth and our country is founded out of revolution and a search for a just society. The law will always be a controversial subject because it involves justice and that is always a controversial and somewhat fickle subject. What is justice to one side of a dispute is not justice to the other. And in the end, the public judges what the justice system is doing and the public is a changing mix of attitudes and ideas and opinions. But justice depends on a set of laws and rules that can be enforced in courts with competent and fair judges of the law and citizen juries. The UH Law School admirably contributes to the scholarship and training of practitioners who will participate in the seeking of justice.

Of the three great professions - Religion, Medicine and Law - Medicine answers to science and Religion answers to faith and a higher power while law answers to the people and that can be a difficult and varying standard that changes frequently and is always and inherently controversial.

In Hawaii the graduates of the William S. Richardson School of Law are as good, and often better, than the attorneys from the Ivy League schools like Harvard or Yale. Congratulations to Dean Soifer, the brilliant faculty that he has assembled and that he nurtures and inspires and to as fine a student body as you will find at any law school.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

I Support Obama In Creating A Consumer Financial Protection Agency.

Wayne Parsons — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:57:49 GMT

The AP (10/9, Kuhnhenn) reports President Obama "fought to keep his proposed banking overhaul on track Friday, casting the political struggle ahead as one between big financial interests" and citizens "victimized by complex or unscrupulous financial transactions." Obama said, "My concern are the millions of Americans who behaved responsibly and yet still found themselves in jeopardy because of the predatory practices of some in the financial industry." The President "confronted opponents of the plan, singling out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is conducting a $2 million advertising effort to defeat the consumer plan." Obama said, "They're doing what they always do -- descending on Congress and using every bit of influence they have to maintain a status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers."

The Los Angeles Times (10/10, Puzzanghera) says Obama, speaking in the White House East Room, offered the "sharpest comments on the issue" in criticizing those who are "trying to block, or at least water down, the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency." The Washington Post (10/10, Dennis, Appelbaum) says "both the speech and the setting represented an escalation in the administration's push to expand the government's role." The New York Times (10/10, B5, Labaton) reports US Chamber spokesman Thomas Collamore responded, "The US Chamber is focused on job creation and economic growth. It is our constitutional right to petition our government on behalf of our members, the millions of businesses trying to make their way out of this recession." The Hill (10/9, Youngman) and AFP (10/9) also report on the President's remarks.

Columnist supports CFPA creation. In the "Talking Business" column at the New York Times (10/10), Joe Nocera wrote that the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency is needed because the current regulatory bodies inadequately address consumer concerns. "At the Federal Reserve, consumers will never come first," Nocera writes. "Alan Greenspan had the power to curb abusive subprime loans, but he just wasn't interested. Nor is it any different over at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the nation's other big bank regulator. Not long ago, John C. Dugan, the comptroller, gave a speech in which he said...that the banks had not been responsible for the financial crisis. Regulators who take their talking points from the American Bankers Association don't exactly inspire confidence that they're looking out for consumers."

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Democrats Stuck Again Over Creation of Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Wayne Parsons — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 03:57:40 GMT

Politico (9/30, McGrane) reported, "Creation of a new consumer protection agency is still uncertain, as Democrats fight over whether federal laws should trump those written by individual states. A bloc of moderate Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee are negotiating with Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) over this 'pre-emption' issue as the panel convenes a hearing Wednesday on a proposed consumer financial protection agency." The moderates, members of the centrist New Democrat Coalition, "want to maintain the status quo, in which financial institutions that elect to have a national charter are exempt from additional state consumer protection laws." The current draft of the bill would "require national financial institutions to comply with state-issued rules, even though their federal charters currently exempt them from state consumer protections. On top of that, state attorneys general would be able to bring civil suits against national financial firms for violating federal laws, including regulations issued by the consumer agency."

Dow Jones Newswires (10/1) reports that at Wednesday's hearing, American Bankers Association President Edward L. Yingling said, "We believe that without such preemption we will have a patchwork of state, and even local, laws that will confuse consumers, greatly increase the cost of financial services and serve as a strong disincentive to create new products of value to consumers." The Washington Post (10/1, Dennis) also covered the story.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Rulings open former Bush officials to liability for terror policies.

Wayne Parsons — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 08:48:03 GMT

In a story appearing on at least 111 news websites, the AP (9/29, Sherman) reports that former Attorney General John Ashcroft and John Yoo, "one of his hardline lieutenants face the rare prospect of being held personally liable for alleged violations of individuals' rights in the aggressive aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks." Noting that high-ranking officials "usually are protected from such civil rights claims," the AP reports that three federal court rulings "have left open the possibility that former Bush officials may have to reach into their own pockets to compensate people who were swept up in the law enforcement and intelligence efforts after the Sept. 11 attacks." The AP adds that exposing senior government officials "to legal risk might complicate recruitment as top prospects shun positions that could land them in personal trouble" and could also "make officials think twice about aggressive use of executive authority."

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Second Circuit chief judge rules no requirement of "bad faith" finding for attorney fees reward.

Wayne Parsons — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:10:51 GMT

Law.com (9/8, Wise) reports, "A finding of 'subjective bad faith' is not a prerequisite for an award of attorney fees in a dismissed market manipulation case subject to a 1995 law designed to curb frivolous securities claims, a unanimous federal appeals panel in Manhattan ruled Wednesday. Writing for the panel in ATSI Communications v. Shaar Fund, 08-1815-cv, Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs concluded that a finding of bad faith is not required to support an award of sanctions ordered by Southern District of New York Judge Lewis A. Kaplan under the mandatory provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. However, while upholding Kaplan's finding that the defendants were entitled to a fee award, the panel found that, in the absence of a bad faith finding, the judge nevertheless had to re-examine his award of nearly $70,000 to determine if it was reasonable."

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

Interstate Highways Are No Place For Drunk Drivers Over The Labor Day Weekend

Wayne Parsons — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 16:36:20 GMT

As the Labor day weekend approaches police across the nation are cracking down on drunk driving. Those of us who see the tragic results of dangerous driving behavior support the police and hope that our phones ring silent next week. That's why 5 of us (Steve Lombardi, Devon Glass, Michael Bryant, Steve Lombardi and Rick Shapiro), all members of Injury Board, are writing about highway safety this month _ focusing on the interstate highway system. So today I write about alcohol and the intoxicated user of the interstate highways from Hawaii to Virginia. Our families, like yours, will be on the highways and roads this weekend and we pray that they all come home safe.

The question posed by Steve Lombardi about a death and injury collisions on an interstate highway makes a good point. Who wins and loses when a Ford Focus and a fully-loaded semi-truck crash? - Steve Lombardi from The Lombardi Law Firm (Iowa), August 25, 2009

Let me add some fuel to the discussion by asking how many of the drivers of the Ford Focus or the truck are drunk at any given moment on our interstate highways? That grandmother that, like Mr. Lombardi, likes to push 70 mph on the interstate is a lot safer than the college kid or Realtor in the Ford Focus who is going 45 mph with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.17. In fact there is no comparison. The statistics are remarkable. Forty percent (40%) _ let me pause and catch my breath _ of car crash deaths in Hawaii involve drunk drivers. Forty percent (40%) of the fatal automobile accidents in Hawaii are alcohol related. I wrote on this subject on Monday: Drunk Drivers Caused 40% of Traffic Fatalities In Hawaii In 2006

But where are the accidents happening? Are they more frequent on interstate highways across the country? I wonder what Devon Glass from Church Wyble, P.C. and Steve Lombardi from The Lombardi Law Firm and Mike Bryant see in the highway injury and death statistics in Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota. Mike was recently installed as the president of the Minnesota Association of Justice and is a nationally recognized expert in accident and injury prevention. Or what does Rick Shapiro see on Highways in Virginia or Washington D.C.? Let's look at an interesting data source that puts geography - accident location - into the drunk driving car crashes that happen on or highways. Check out DUIMap.org:

RiskyRoads.org Maps Fatal Accident Hot Spots

Find out if you live or work near a Drunk Driving or Fatal Accident Hot Spot

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) March 3, 2009 -- Today, MapLarge.com released a set of online mapping tools that anyone can use to view the most fatal and stressed roads in our nation's transportation infrastructure. The Risky Roads map shows the areas with the most traffic fatalities and the DUI Map shows the areas with the most DUI related traffic fatalities.

Map of DUI Accidents

Florida and Georgia Road Maps show the enormous amount of traffic increases on our roads. Many highways and roads have more than doubled the amount of traffic they carry in the last six years.

Risky Roads

Using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, RiskyRoads.org maps the concentration of fatal accidents that occur within 1000 feet of one another. The result is a heat map that emphasizes the country's worst hot spots for traffic fatalities.

State DUI Maps
DUIMap.org is a heat map showing concentrations of fatal DUI accidents. Clusters of DUI fatalities highlight the most dangerous areas where drunk driving accidents occur.

Risky Roads reminds us of a chilling statistic from the Center For Disease Control (CDC):

According to the CDC, 36 people die every day due to drunk drivers. The national annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion.

I blinked at the fact that the CDC has the word "disease" in its name and we were talking about car crashes and truck collisions. But then I realized that people cause the death and injury and that alcoholism is a disease.

So let's look at DUI related car deaths in Honolulu via DUIMap.org and Risky Roads:

This heat map displays concentrations of fatal Drunk Driving traffic accidents in Hawaii. Clusters of DUI fatalities highlight the most dangerous areas where drunk driving accidents occur. Each icon on the map represents the location of a DUI motor vehicle crash that resulted in a fatality. The color of the icon represents the number of additional DUI motor vehicle crashes within 1 mile. Click on each icon to see the date and time of the accident.

In DUIMaps you can zome in to see the street and exact locations. As you can see, all three of Hawaii's interstate highways are on this map and we have a number of death cases involving alcohol on the H-1. You can also see this map in a satellite photo with just one click:

Drilling down to see an area of particular interest gets me back to my article on the 55 mph speed limit in Hawaii. I have written two recent articles on the subject of speed and interstate highways:

Hawaii Freeway Chronicles #1: What Are The Danger Points On H-1, H-2 and H-3?, by Wayne Parsons of Wayne Parsons Law Offices. (Hawaii), August 27, 2009, and Death and Injury On Interstate Highways Increase With Higher Speed Limits, Wayne Parsons, August 29, 2009 2:31 AM. In the latter I talked about the 45 mph speed limit in a section on the H-1 going through McCully and about the road rage that we experience from drivers who hate to have to slow down. As I look at the accident map below from DUIMap.org it seems that there are no DUI deaths in that section for the time period covered by the map.

So what is it? Does the lower speed limit save lives? Or is an interstate highway inherently safer because it has one way traffic, regulated interchanges with safe on ramps and off ramps and several lanes of travel? What do you think? I'd like to hear from Lombardi, Glass, Bryant and Shapiro on this subject. And from the outside it would be great to hear the voice of transportation engineers and MADD who really are the ones fighting for safer street and interstate highways.

Devon Glass has written on the subject of interstate highway safety and his articles are worth a careful read:

Are Double-Bottomed Semis More or Less Dangerous to You? - Devon Glass from Church Wyble, P.C. (Michigan), August 26, 2009;

In the latter article Devon points to engineering reasons for his article title. Why does speed matter?

· It increases the distance a vehicle travels from the time a driver detects an emergency to the time a driver reacts.

· It increases the distance needed to stop a vehicle once an emergency is perceived.

· It increases the “crash energy” by the square of speeds—when an impact speed increases from 40 to 60 mph, the energy that needs to be managed increases by 125%. In other words, the crash impact is going to be astronomically greater than if you were going at a slower speed.

Add slower reaction times, blurred vision and fatigue caused by alcohol and the situation deteriorates rapidly. A half a second slower to hit the brakes means the car crash is significantly higher impact.

I am interested in the view from the satellite in Lansing and Des Moines and St. Cloud.

When it comes to highway safety on the interstate highway system, one thing is for sure: drinking and driving don't mix. If you drink, stay off the interstate be it the H-1 or I-95.

Why Speeders on the Highway Cause More Serious Accidents, Glass, August 28, 2009

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

40th Anniversary of the Internet Raises Questions About New Barriers To Its Growth

Wayne Parsons — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:50:00 GMT

I wonder if Len Kleinrock has a Blog? His team at UCLA began tests 40 years ago that resulted in the internet.

It all began with a comic book! At the age of 6, Leonard Kleinrock was reading a Superman comic at his apartment in Manhattan, when, in the centerfold, he found plans for building a crystal radio. To do so, he needed his father's used razor blade, a piece of pencil lead, an empty toilet paper roll, and some wire, all of which he had no trouble obtaining. In addition, he needed an earphone which he promptly appropriated from a public telephone booth. The one remaining part was something called a "variable capacitor". For this, he convinced his mother to take him on the subway down to Canal Street, the center for radio electronics. Upon arrival to one of the shops, he boldly walked up to the clerk and proudly asked to purchase a variable capacitor, whereupon the clerk replied with, "what size do you want?". This blew his cover, and he confessed that he not only had no idea what size, but he also had no idea what the part was for in the first place. After explaining why he wanted one, the clerk sold him just what he needed. Kleinrock built the crystal radio and was totally hooked when "free" music came through the earphones - no batteries, no power, all free! An engineer was born.

Social networking didn't exist. Kos was Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga and not even a kid. The founder of the most politically powerful progressive Blog in the country was not born. Daily to Kos meant afternoon naps and toys, not The Daily Kos. Porn was Playboy. There were only a few on-line unlike the Billion today. Or should I say tonight. It is 8 PM in Honolulu as I write this for posting on Kleinrock's Internet.

Artificial barriers threaten the growth of the Internet:

Spam

Hackers

Security Firewalls.

Authoritarian regimes

Corporate CEO's

Phone Wars

"There is more freedom for the typical Internet user to play, to communicate, to shop — more opportunities than ever before," said Jonathan Zittrain, a law professor and co-founder of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. "On the worrisome side, there are some longer-term trends that are making it much more possible (for information) to be controlled."

Few were paying attention in 1969, when Kleinrock's lab at the University of California, Los Angeles, Stanford Research Institute, UC Santa Barbara and the University of Utah started the whole thing. E-mail and the TCP/IP communications protocols arrived in the 1970's , allowing many networks to connect thus forming the Internet. In the 1980's an addressing system with suffixes like ".com" and ".org" created the architecture of what we have to day.

British physicist, Tim Berners-Lee, invented the Web, a subset of the Internet that makes it easier to link resources across disparate locations. Meanwhile, service providers like America Online connected millions of people for the first time.

Th Internet was not in full view of the corporations and political organizations that are now threatened by its use by the people. The Internet grew free from regulatory and commercial constraints that might discourage or even prohibit experimentation.

"For most of the Internet's history, no one had heard of it," Zittrain said. "That gave it time to prove itself functionally and to kind of take root."

The U.S. government funded much development of the Internet for military applications.

The invention of the Web in 1990 by Berners-Lee, working at a European physics lab, was not hampered by security firewalls that today treat unknown types of Internet traffic as suspect.

Even the free flow of pornography led to innovations in Internet credit card payments, online video and other technologies used in the mainstream today.

"Allow that open access, and a thousand flowers bloom," said Kleinrock, a UCLA professor since 1963. "One thing about the Internet you can predict is you will be surprised by applications you did not expect."

That idealism is eroding.

Look at Apple and Google go at it and you can see that barriers are being thrown up to our use of the Internet.

Mobile devices that connect to the Internet, like the iPhone, restricts the software that can run on it. Only applications Apple has blessed are allowed.

Apple recently blocked the Google Voice communications application, saying it overrides the iPhone's built-in interface. Skeptics, however, suggest the move thwarts Google's potentially competing phone services.

On desktop computers, some Internet access providers have erected barriers to curb bandwidth-gobbling file-sharing services used by their subscribers. Comcast Corp. got rebuked by Federal Communications Commission last year for blocking or delaying some forms of file-sharing; Comcast ultimately agreed to stop that.

Consumer advocates call for the government to require "net neutrality". That means that a service provider could not favor certain forms of data traffic over others, a return to the principles that drove the network Kleinrock and his colleagues began building 40 years ago.

Service providers also discourage consumers' unfettered use of the Internet with caps on monthly data usage. They will greatly lower access and impose charges for use that now is free. The porn and sex industry on the Internet is already there. But it could be in any area where corportaions can make money off of our use of the Internet or politicians and corporations want to shut down our public access to the conversation that Christine Yi describes in The Groundswell.

"You are less likely to try things out," said Vint Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and one of the Internet's founding fathers. "No one wants a surprise bill at the end of the month."

Dave Farber, a former chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission, said systems are far more powerful when software developers and consumers alike can simply try things out.

Farber has unlocked an older iPhone using a warrantee-voiding technique known as jail-breaking, allowing the phone to run software that Apple hasn't approved. By doing that, he could watch video before Apple supported it in the most recent version of the iPhone, and he changed the screen display when the phone is idle to give him a summary of appointments and e-mails.

While Apple insists its reviews are necessary to protect children and consumer privacy and to avoid degrading phone performance, other phone developers are trying to preserve the type of openness found on desktop computers. Google's Android system, for instance, allows anyone to write and distribute software without permission.

Yet even on the desktop, other barriers get in the way.

Looking at the new innovators:

Steve Crocker, an Internet pioneer who now heads the startup Shinkuro Inc., said his company has had a tough time building technology that helps people in different companies collaborate because of security firewalls that are ubiquitous on the Internet. Simply put, firewalls are designed to block incoming connections, making direct interactions between users challenging, if not impossible.

Already, there is evidence of controls at workplaces and service providers slowing the uptake of file-sharing and collaboration tools. Video could be next if consumers shun higher-quality and longer clips for fear of incurring extra bandwidth fees. Likewise, startups may never get a chance to reach users if mobile gatekeepers won't allow them.

If such barriers keep innovations from the hands of consumers, we may never know what else we may be missing along the way.

___

Anick Jesdanun, deputy technology editor at The Associated Press, has been writing about the Internet since its 30th anniversary in 1999, and most of this Blog come from the AP article

As Internet Turns 40, Barriers Threaten Its Growth

Mr. Jesdanun can be reached at njesdanun(at)ap.org.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

GAO to CPSC: Get A Better Plan To Protect Consumers

Wayne Parsons — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:29:27 GMT

Cecelia Prewett of the American Association of Justice has written an interesting and informative article about the (lack of) effectiveness of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) at its job of protecting consumers. New GAO Report Concludes CPSC Needs Better Plan to Protect Consumers. Ms. Prewett summarizes the key issue raised by the GAO Report as protection of Americans from defective foreign products like the Chinese Drywall and the Melamine from China that have made headlines this year:

According to a new report released by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) lacks a long-term plan to prevent entry of unsafe foreign products into the country. The report talks about how the agency relies heavily on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to identify potentially unsafe products, even though CBP is responsible for enforcing regulations from 45 other federal agencies, including antiterrorism and trade responsibilities. The Washington Post and Sarasota Herald-Tribune covered the report.

The GAO report is the latest in a growing number of complaints about defective products injuring U.S. citizens with little recourse against foreign manufacturers. The Washington Post reports that:

Under a 2002 agreement between the entities, the commission has asked Customs and Border Protection for access to certain information, called "manifest data," that describes cargo coming into the country. The commission would receive information about products in a shipment before it arrives in the United States.

The report says the information has not been provided because Customs and Border Protection did not deem it specific enough for the consumer agency's purposes. Seven years later, the agencies have not yet worked out access. The new report says both agencies have work to do to resolve the issue.

"That advanced notice, combined with other data that they have, would help them better identify risks before the products enter the country," said Philip Curtin, a senior analyst at the GAO. Although the information is not perfect, it would certainly be better than not having it, the congressional investigators said.

In comparison, the Food and Drug Administration receives the advance shipment information from Customs, which enforces regulations for about 45 federal agencies.

The product safety commission has come under pressure in the last few years over the increasing number of recalled lead-tainted products, many from China. From 1998 to 2007, the value of consumer products imported into the United States about doubled, according to the investigators. Products from China nearly quadrupled over that time, making up about 42 percent of all imported consumer goods.

Legislation is in Congress to improve consumer protection from these products.The Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act of 2009 (S. 1606), introduced by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), and Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-IL) mandates that if a foreign manufacturer who wants to sell its products in the U.S., it must have an “agent” located in the U.S. that would accept service of process for any civil and regulatory claims, thereby consenting to state and federal jurisdiction.

Drywall From China Causes Concern Over Sulfur Odor In Homes - By Wayne Parsons

The issue also exists in regard to food safety with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA):

Melamine Contamination, Food Poisoning and Foreign Products - By Wayne Parsons

Even if the companies are subject to the U.S. Courts it is often very difficult to collect against a wrongdoer from Asia. Stay tuned to this story as it heralds the new age of a world economy with U.S. manufacturing heading more and more to Asia.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons

New York Indictments In Largest Ind entity Theft Involving 130 Million Credit/Debit Card Numbers

Wayne Parsons — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:32:01 GMT

In a news release from Reuters to by Daniel Trotta the largest identity theft scam in U.S history was busted with three indictments today in New York City. Hold your breath: 130 million credit and debit card numbers are involved!

Hot on the heels of Bernie Madoff and AIG, along comes another blockbuster involving hacking of corporate data. I had just written about internet scams this morning and my story pales in comparison to this one. I was writing about those pleas from overseas about looking for heirs to some huge fortune and colon cleanse free give aways.

Mail Scam Asks For Bank Account Information From Hilo Man - by Wayne Parsons

My friend in Des Moines, Steve Lombardi has covered the Madoff debacle in great detail.

The Madoff Family and Friends Chinese Wall Begins to Crumble - by Steve Lombardi.

But now the latest crime spree is orchestrated by a few hackers. Reuters reports:

Albert Gonzalez, a former government informant already in jail in connection with hacking cases, and two unnamed Russians were indicted on charges related to five corporate data breaches from 2006 to 2008.

Card numbers were stolen in those breaches from credit-card processor Heartland Payment Systems (HPY.N) and retail chains 7-Eleven Inc and Hannaford Brothers Co, prosecutors said.

The men targeted two other corporations, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey said in the statement, without naming those companies.

Heartland Payment Systems and Hannaford Brothers already documented the thefts but no one expected a number like 130 million.

Gonzalez had been arrested last year in a separate hacking scheme involving a restaurant chain. He and two Russians (identified in the prosecution as Hacker 1 and Hacker 2) started with Fortune 500 companies and digging into their corporate websites to look for weaknesses in internet defenses.

Gonzales was a busy guy. In 2008 he and several co-conspirators from 5 countries were indicted for allegedly stealing 41 million credit and debit card numbers from retail companies like TJX Cos Inc (TJX.N), owner of the TJ Maxx and Marshall's. Total damages from that scam is over $400 million.

Gonzalez is in jail in Brooklyn and the location of the two Russian hackers is unknown.

The charges include conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers, to commit fraud in connection with computers and to damage computers, as well as conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The indictments could lead to as much as 35 years in prison and large fines if convicted.

The crooks would sell the data to be used to make fraudulent purchases according to the Reuters story.

They cited one example in which they said the suspects went to retail locations to identify the type of checkout machines, and after further investigation into the computer systems they uploaded information onto servers that worked as hacking platforms.

"These servers, located in New Jersey and around the world, were used by the co-conspirators to store information critical to the hacking schemes and subsequently to launch the hacking attacks," prosecutors said.

Heartland, based in Princeton, New Jersey, calls itself the fifth largest payments processor in the United States.

Reuters story by Daniel Trotta

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Wayne Parsons