Chinese drywall is on the presidential agenda, according to Florida US Senator Bill Nelson. While it’s not expected that President Obama will broach the subject with his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao. However, Nelson believes there will be discussion of the Chinese drywall debacle on a staff level during the President’s trip to China next week.
Senator Nelson believes the Chinese government should take responsibility for the Chinese drywall problems that have affected thousands of US homes. Nelson made the remarks at a Chinese drywall symposium held in Tampa last week.
Nelson has been advocating on behalf of those affected by Chinese drywall since late last year and even brought up the subject in talks with Chinese officials earlier this year. According to Nelson, the Chinese response was cool. However, officials from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission have also met more recently with Chinese officials and expressed optimism that China would take the problem seriously.

Chinese Drywall class action lawsuit is moving forward against one defendant, Knauf, who imported the contaminated drywall. The Chinese company has agreed to accept service in the US but under certain conditions. While this is good news, there are certain time constraints that have been imposed upon those who want to participate in this class action lawsuit.
IF Chinese drywall was installed in your home, and that drywall was manufactured by Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin (KPT), and if you want to sue KPT, you must do so as part of one giant complaint (an Omnibus complaint) in order for KPT to accept service of process.
While you could still sue KPT without being a part of the omnibus complaint, there would be two disadvantages to you in doing so. 1) KPT has stated that it would not voluntarily accept service of process, and therefore, you would have to personally serve it with the complaint, at a cost of $15,000.00; and 2) We believe that more money will be available for settlements in the Omnibus complaint against KPT than will be available in any complaint filed thereafter.
Under this Court Order, if you want to be a part of the Omnibus complaint, we would have until December 2, 2009 to submit proof that KPT was the manufacturer of the drywall in your home to the lead Plaintiffs attorney and until December 14, 2009 to submit a Plaintiff profile form to that attorney on your behalf. That does not give us much time.
So, if you suspect you’re a victim of the Chinese drywall, you must act now if you want to preserve your rights to bring suit in this class action lawsuit.

A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article reported last week that recently released Archdiocese of Milwaukee church documents refer on several occasions to a confidential file kept by the church. The documents are part of those released in a Catholic Church sex abuse lawsuit involving the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. The Journal Sentinel report notes that the existence of the secret files appears to contradict earlier sworn testimony of former Archbishop Rembert Weakland, OSB who had dismissed the notion of a secret archives as “antique”.
In his deposition last year, Weakland claimed “I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never seen those files, and I don’t know if the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has such things,” when asked about the existence of a secret archival file required by the Church’s Code of Canon Law.
The church documents released in Milwaukee concern correspondence between high-ranking church officials and Weakland himself concerning a priest, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, who’d been the subject of sexual abuse allegations. According to the Sentinel the files include, “a 1996 letter from Vice Chancellor James Connell to Weakland saying he’d searched the secret archives and could find no documents pertaining to Murphy; and a 1998 decree by Canon Judge Thomas T. Brundage saying documents related to the Murphy case would be kept in the secret archives for a period dictated by canon law.”
Jerry Topczewski, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee characterized the secret archival files as merely personnel files. “When we say something creates scandal, it means taking someone away from the faith,” Topczewski said. “And secret doesn’t mean secret; it’s just another form of official file that can be kept for particular reasons.”

A Chinese drywall symposium has been scheduled for next Thursday and Friday in Tampa. The Technical Symposium on Corrosive Imported Drywall will be sponsored by the state of Florida. According to the Associated Press, officials from the Consumer Product Safety Commission will join others from the Centers for Disease Control to discuss the Chinese drywall problem as well as possible solutions. A state toxicologist, David Krause will also give several presentations on waste disposal, fire hazards, techniques to test the drywall as well as a presentation on analyses of chemicals released by the contaminated drywall.

Omnicare, a large pharmaceutical dispensary that provides drugs to nursing homes, will have to pay $98 million in fines for soliciting and receiving kickbacks from the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson, the parent company of Janssen Pharmaceutica, the maker of Risperdal.
In exchange for the kickbacks, Omnicare had to promote and encourage the use of Risperdal to its nursing home clients. It’s important to note that Risperdal comes with a specific warning about the use of Risperdal among the elderly population: ““Elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis treated with antipsychotic drugs are at an increased risk of death.”
Risperdal isn’t approved for patients with dementia and yet the drug has been widely used in the past in nursing home settings in spite of the warning label.
In agreeing to pay the $98 million fine (a drop in the bucket for any big pharma company), Omnicare admits nothing and walks away from the sordid episode with no finding of any wrongdoing, including any criminal liability for any elderly patients who may have died after using Risperdal.
This is a perfect example of what’s wrong with our healthcare system, particularly the pharmaceutical drug industry. When the federal government undertakes an investigation into the possible bad behavior of a pharmaceutical company, the drug company avoids any penalty that would curb the bad behavior in the future. By the time the fine is paid, the drug company has made such a substantial profit on the drug that any financial gain they’ve made outweighs the loss incurred by the penalty.
Until the federal government makes it cost prohibitive for drug companies to circumvent the law and public safety concerns, big pharma will continue to act in its own best interests ie. the profit margin.

One of the defendants in the Chinese Drywall class action lawsuits has agreed to accept service of process of a class action complaint thus allowing those affected by the Chinese Drywall to consolidate their claims in one lawsuit against the defendant Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. (KPT).
The acceptance of service was announced in New Orleans by Judge Eldon E. Fallon. Prior to the agreement Knauf had insisted that it would have to be served through the Hague Convention, which is responsible for establishing procedures for US claims against international companies. In the past, this has proved difficult and expensive for those attempting to bring foreign companies to justice in US courts. The Hague Convention requires a payment of $15,000 for each lawsuit in order for it to be served on the foreign company.
This agreement is a major victory for those who’ve lost their homes or have been severely affected by the Chinese Drywall contamination problem.
According to a report in Reuters, “The court order provides that KPT will accept service of process and waive its
express rights under the Hague Convention only for homeowner plaintiffs who
are named in an omnibus class action complaint to be filed by December 9, 2009
in In re Chinese Drywall Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 2047 (E.D.
La.).”
Knauf is one of several companies of manufacturing and importing the contaminated drywall into the United States. It’s estimated that between 60-100,000 US homes have been affected by the Chinese Drywall.

Byetta, the Type-2 diabetes drug manufactured by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., has received a stronger warning label from the FDA after the federal agency received updated information concerning the drug’s association with kidney problems relating to function and failure.
The side effects associated with Byetta include nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. A loss or reduction in kidney function may result in a build-up of waste in the bloodstream which in turn can lead to serious infections and death.
The stronger warning label comes in the wake of 78 reports of kidney function issues in those taking Byetta.
Byetta (generic exenatide) is an injectable drug that is designed to help control blood sugar in patients with Type 2 diabetes. In 2008, the FDA said it planned to issue a stronger warning for Byetta after reports of 2 deaths and 4 hospitalizations linked to Byetta use.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport has lost its final appeal in its attempt to keep sealed its priest abuse documents. The SCOTUS order amounted to a final refusal to hear the Catholic Church’s appeal concerning the sealed documents. The order was issued without any commentary from the Supreme Court justices.
The thousands of documents now under seal concern diocesan papers that were part of priest abuse lawsuits against the Diocese of Bridgeport. After the cases were settled, four major newspapers The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The NY Times, and the Hartford Courant, sued for access to the church documents.
Barbara Dorris of SNAP issued the following statement: “We’re relieved that the public is one step closer to finally learning how much Cardinal Egan knew and how little he did to stop child sex crimes when he was in Bridgeport. We’re just sorry Bishop Lori has taken 7 years and probably spent at least $100,000 donated by parishioners to protect himself and his colleagues instead of protecting kids.
We believe these records will also reveal the names of others in the Catholic hierarchy who ignored or hid the devastating wrongdoing of pedophile priests.”