Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer

Opposes legislation to modernize air travel

North Carolina Senator and former Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole today voted against the Aviation Investment and Modernization Act which would modernize air travel by improving air safety and enhancing passengers’ rights. Dole’s vote comes despite hundreds of flights cancelled last month due to safety problems and reports of passengers trapped on planes for hours with overflowing toilets and no food.

from the Associated Press

Gov. Mike Easley said Thursday that he's disappointed in the state Labor Department's response to reports of mistreatment of immigrants who work in the poultry industry.

"I think the Department of Labor has to be more aggressive," said Easley, a Democrat. " I didn't see the level of concern that needs to be there."

In a 40-minute interview with The Charlotte Observer, Easley discussed the newspaper's series in February that said a North Carolina poultry company disguised the number of injuries that its workers suffered on the job. He said he didn't speak out right away in order to give state agencies time to fashion their own response to workplace safety issues.

Elizabeth Dole advocates for unchecked military spending while ignoring the real needs of our country’s troops and their families.

In an editorial this week in the Washington Times, Dole dusts off her proposal to spend 4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product on the military. That’s more than $560 billion.

America already spends more than 4 percent of the GDP on defense, including war costs.

American taxpayers already burdened with higher gas and food prices are spending more money on defense than any other time since World War II.

A real plan for America’s security includes spending money on the right things, on real threats and protecting our security.

The House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight today examined how and why the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a sister agency of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), failed to protect the public’s health after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The agency failed to translate scientific findings and facts into appropriate public health actions which would have resulted in properly informing and warning tens of thousands of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita survivors living in FEMA-provided trailers and mobile homes of the potential health risks they faced. Instead of pushing to have the residents removed immediately, the agency did virtually nothing.

Act would prevent insurance companies from using credit information against consumers

Responding to an increasing trend of insurance companies using consumer credit scores in assessing risk and rates, Rep. Melvin L. Watt (D-NC) and Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) introduced legislation that would protect consumers, especially minority citizens, who tend to have lower credit, yet who do not present an increased insurance risk because they are safe drivers.

The Non-Discriminatory Use of Consumer Reports and Consumer Information Act of 2008 (H.R. 5633) is co-sponsored by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA).

“The introduction of the bill today is a step toward leveling the playing field for purchasers of personal lines of insurance such as automobile and homeowners insurance," said Rep. Watt "The insurance industry has been increasingly using credit information to underwrite and rate personal lines of insurance. Government studies have shown that credit scores correlate with race or ethnicity, so minorities often end up paying more for personal lines of insurance even when they are safe drivers or have never filed claims.”

Raleigh News and Observer

Gov. Mike Easley has questions about the safety of manufactured homes.

Easley sent a letter Thursday to the head of the state Manufactured Housing Institute seeking information on formaldehyde levels in manufactured homes. The institute is an advocacy and lobbying group.

Easley sent the letter in response to a finding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that manufactured homes used to shelter Gulf Coast hurricane victims contain dangerously high levels of formaldehyde that can cause burning eyes and breathing problems for people with asthma.

Easley has asked the state Board of Education to direct school systems to check temporary classroom buildings for toxic fumes.

The North Carolina Democratic Party today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Office of the Inspector General to obtain a detailed list of Chairman Kevin Martin’s recent travel.

The request comes in the wake of numerous news reports that Chairman Martin may be using public funds and his position as Chairman of a large government agency to seek elected office in North Carolina.

“Members of Congress who are running for office are closely regulated to ensure that they are not campaigning on the taxpayer dollar – why shouldn’t Kevin Martin be held to the same standard?” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“Our citizens deserve to know whether their taxpayer dollars are being used for Kevin Martin’s political gain,” Meek said.

Copyright 2008 by wral.com

A Florida company "that took struggling homeowners’ money, but did little or nothing to help them fight foreclosure,” has been ordered to stop, Attorney General Roy Cooper said Friday.

Cooper filed suit this week against Mortgage Assistance Solutions, LLC, which does business as Fresh Start. Fresh Start has an office in Clearwater, Fla., although its manager, Michael Thomas Stoller, resides in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Wake County Superior Court Judge Robert Hobgood agreed with Cooper’s request to stop their foreclosure assistance operations in the state and ordered the company to turn over records on all North Carolina customers within 10 days.

Under North Carolina law, it’s illegal to charge an upfront fee for foreclosure assistance.

“Families facing foreclosure need real help, not expensive schemes that drive them further into debt,” said Cooper. “People should call North Carolina’s free hotline and avoid losing their hard-earned money to scams.”

The Durham Herald Company

The Federal Emergency Management Agency manipulated scientific research in order to play down the danger posed by formaldehyde in trailers issued to hurricane victims, according to an investigation by congressional Democrats released Monday.

Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., led the investigation.

FEMA "ignored, hid and manipulated government research on the potential impact of long-term exposure to formaldehyde" on Katrina and Rita victims now living in FEMA trailers, Democrats on a House Science and Technology subcommittee wrote in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. FEMA is part of the Homeland Security Department.

In a separate letter, lawmakers said the federal health agency that provided guidance to FEMA was "complicit in giving FEMA precisely what they wanted."