Free Republic

<p>BILLINGS, Mont. -- Federal regulators knew potentially contaminated bark and wood chips were being sold from a Superfund site in the asbestos-tainted town of Libby, Mont., for three years before they stopped the practice.</p> <p>That revelation comes in a letter from the Environmental Protection Agency to U.S. Sen. Max Baucus.</p>

A federal jury on Friday acquitted W.R. Grace & Co. and three of its former officials of charges that they knowingly exposed residents of Libby, Mont., to asbestos poisoning associated with a mining operation and conspired to hide it. The verdict brings to an ignominious end one of the most significant criminal prosecutions the government had ever filed against a corporate polluter. The acquittals raise new questions about prosecutorial failings in the Justice Department, which already was reeling from the dismissal of its corruption case against former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).In Libby, where an estimated 1,200 residents have died or...

Back in '86, W.R. Grace, a multi-national chemical and everything else company, paid Oscar-winning director Ridley Scott to direct a commercial about Grace's concern for rising deficits. The commercial was made, but when WR Grace tried to buy airtime on the networks, they were refused. Isn't it interesting that no one brings up this commercial in the Age of Obama and it's only been seen 3,000 or so times on YouTube?

LIBBY, Montana: A reckoning in one of American history's worst industrial disasters, which unfolded here over seven decades as an asbestos-tainted mineral was dug from the ground and processed, begins Thursday when five former mine executives go to trial on federal criminal charges. The case is highly unusual in that prosecutors have generally avoided criminal charges in the broad arena of asbestos law, leaving the issue to the civil courts.

According to Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, victim compensation depends directly on how much the companies contribute, and the fact that stock prices of asbestos firms have risen with each step in the legislative process of the bill is a clear indicator that the companies are the winners under the legislation. Seven asbestos firms will collectively benefit from an estimated 73.6 percent reduction in their liabilities – down from $18 billion to $4.7 billion – according to the group. W.R. Grace & Co., for example, would see an estimated 86.9 percent fall in liability from $3.2 billion to $418...

...If a recent federal indictment that refers to Milberg Weiss is anything to go by, the trial bar has its Enron.... Sham "screenings" to round up asbestos plaintiffs, forum shopping for friendly juries, "coupon" settlements that enrich only lawyers and frivolous lawsuits have all become staples of today's tort system. Yet they have received almost no media, much less legal, scrutiny. ...The focus of the charges is retired Palm Springs lawyer Seymour Lazar, who seems to have had a second career as a plaintiff in Milberg Weiss lawsuits. From 1976 to 2004, Mr. Lazar and family members... served as named...