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Page 50, The Detroit Legal News FRIDAY , OCTOBER 27, 2006 OPINION Open letter to President Bush on insurance reform Dear President Bush: For years you have attacked lawyers and our civil justice sys- tem for a so called “lawsuit crisis” which you claim is causing insur- ance premiums to skyrocket and hurting the economy. Meanwhile, you have failed to hold the insur- ance industry responsible for fraudulently raising premiums and denying coverage while mak- ing windfall profits on the backs of Americans. Your stalwart support of the insurance industry over Ameri- cans is unsupported even by facts and studies from your own admin- istration. For instance, Justice Department statistics show that injury cases filed in U.S. District Courts fell 80% between 1985 and 2003 and Bureau of Justice Statistics show that the number of state personal injury trials has decreased 32% between 1992 and 2001. In Michigan the insurance industry itself reports a 75% decline in payouts to medical mal- practice victims, and the numbers of civil lawsuits regarding wrong- doing and injury have been declining drastically for years. So what is the real problem if not lawsuits and our civil justice system? The real problem is a runaway, unregulated insurance industry. There’s only one solution to that, Mr. President: insurance reform. The insurance industry is the only industry (outside of major league baseball) that is unregulat- ed. The trillion-dollar insurance industry, which has been making huge profits for years, must be held to the same standards as other businesses; namely fiscal accountability, transparency, and honesty. Insurance reform would help working families, doctors, small business owners and our economy by lowering insurance premiums, ending insurance company fraud, and curtailing price gouging by the insurance industry. There are numerous examples of insurance industry gouging, Mr. President. Despite Hurricane Katrina – and in the face of huge and rising premiums for all of us – the insurance industry racked up $44.8 billion in profits last year for homeowners and auto insurance alone while raising its surplus by more than 7% to near- ly $427 billion. Even your wealthy friend Sen- ator Trent Lott was cheated by the insurance industry after his Mis- sissippi home was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Insurance reform could prevent such huge, economically devastating, and widespread fraud, Mr. President. Mississippi Attorney General James Hood described insurers who defrauded homeowners after Katrina as “the robber barons of our time.” Mississippi was forced to sue the insurance industry because adjusters tried to cheat homeowners out of millions of dollars in claims. But one state, standing alone, is no match for an industry with hundreds of billions of dollars to protect it. Here in Michigan, the insur- ance industry used its muscle to evade and finally destroy a law that merely required the number of medical malpractice insurance cases be reported so that lawmak- ers might have some idea if these lawsuits were really increasing as the insurance industry claimed (suits were rapidly declining instead). In Oklahoma, tornado victims were cheated when State Farm acted “recklessly” and with “mal- ice” in denying insurance claims on their family homes. The FBI raided Hospital Corporation of America offices after massive systematic Medicare insurance fraud and HCA pled guilty to 14 criminal counts and agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle the case. California earthquake victims were routinely defrauded by State Farm, and State Farm officials lied in court about it. Prudential agreed to pay a $35 million fine and set aside money to settle poli- cyholder suits after an investiga- tion found the company had defrauded more than 10 million life insurance customers. In New York, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer uncovered ubiquitous wrongdoing in the insurance industry, testifying that “a small group of brokers and insurance companies essentially control the market, having created a network of interlocking connections and secret payments which ensure that the bulk of business goes to certain insurers and that profits remain high. The bottom line is the con- sumer pays more for coverage.” Mr. President, we can all work together to stop this. Insurance reform worked in California. After pro-insurance “caps” on the rights of victims hobbled the legal system, insurance premiums for doctors still increased by an astounding 190%. When insur- ance reform was enacted, remov- ing the insurance companies’ anti- trust exemptions, doctor’s insur- ance premiums finally leveled off. In Missouri lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to give the state insurance director more authority to veto doctor’s insurance premi- ums that are “excessive” or other- wise inappropriate. Insurance reform – such as legislation to remove the antitrust exemption for the insurance industry and to create account- ability over hundreds of billions of dollars of our premiums dollars – would go a long way toward helping to lower rates for every- one, and reign in insurance com- pany fraud and price gouging. Instead of bashing our civil court system and undermining our Constitution Mr. President, you need to stand up to the insur- ance industry and enact insurance reform. Yours truly, Jesse M. Reiter President, Michigan Trial Lawyers Association Administration’s prosecutors targeting GOP lawmakers BY LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Pub- lic corruption cases brought by Justice Department prosecutors in Washington are on the rise, fueled in part by investigations targeting Republican lawmakers in Con- gress. With the Nov. 7 elections looming, prosecutors have moved forward on investigations of three GOP lawmakers in the last month alone. And several Justice Depart- ment officials privately hint that even more inquiries — involving Republicans and Democrats alike — may be under way. “We can’t look at what party someone is a member of in decid- ing whether or not to pursue an investigation,” Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told reporters last week, calling government corruption prosecution one of his top priorities. “We have to follow the evidence wherever it leads.” Gonzales said there is “no spe- cial emphasis” on those cases as the elections approach. But the Justice Department generally tries to keep a low profile on govern- ment corruption cases in the months before an election to avoid unfairly influencing voters. Justice Department data show a 60 percent increase over the last five years in government corrup- tion convictions and settlements by its Washington-based public integrity unit. Prosecutions result- ed in 84 convictions and settle- ments in 2005, the data show, compared to 52 in 2001. The aggressive pursuit of Republican lawmakers by Bush administration prosecutors is a sign of the independent streak of career attorneys inside the public integrity unit, said Paul F. Roth- stein, a legal and government ethics professor at Georgetown Law School. “A lot of them are nonpolitical — they do have a taste for rooting out corruption and wrongdoing,” Rothstein said. “There are some tensions coming from it . ... It’s probably a very delicate and ago- nizing situation for the political appointees at the top” of the Jus- tice Department. Investigations by the public integrity unit at Justice headquar- ters in Washington make up only a sliver of public corruption cases prosecuted nationwide, most of which are handled by U.S. attor- neys’ offices. Last year, for exam- ple, federal prosecutors around the country charged 445 govern- ment officials, resulting in 390 convictions. With only 29 attorneys, the public integrity unit in Washing- ton is small when compared to the 450 government lawyers who prosecute criminal cases in the capital. The unit’s prosecutors general- ly lead or assist in high-profile corruption or national security cases, including inquiries involv- ing members of Congress or the administration. According to its annual report, the unit had five open investigations — all of them unidentified — involving Con- gress at the end of last year. The unit has seen an increase “in certain kinds of corruption that gets in newspapers,” said one prosecutor who spoke on condi- tion of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the cases. “Any time you’re investigating a mem- ber of Congress, it’s going to get a lot of attention.” In the last month, the Justice Department has moved forward on inquiries involving two House Republicans: Reps. Mark Foley of Florida and Jim Kolbe of Arizona, both being investigated for possi- ble improper or illegal sexual con- tact with teenage congressional pages. At the same time, prosecu- tors stepped up their investigation into whether Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican, steered $1 million in contracts to his daughter’s lobbying firm. All three men have denied the charges. Foley resigned shortly after the allegations surfaced, while Kolbe is retiring from the House. Additionally, three other House Republicans and one GOP senator, as well as two House Democrats have been linked to ongoing Justice Department investigations over the last year. Two other House Republicans — Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunning- ham of California and Bob Ney of Ohio — have pleaded guilty to corruption charges. Experts say the spike in report- ed corruption cases is likely caused by one-party control of both the House and Senate. Inves- tigations by the Republican-con- trolled House Ethics Committee, for example, ground to a near- standstill for more than a year because of partisan squabbles over staff and rules for its inquiries. “It’s far worse than what we’ve seen for decades on Capitol Hill,” said Craig Holman of the watch- dog group Public Citizen. “We’ve got sex, we’ve got bribery, we’ve got lobbyist corruption, earmark- ing, money laundering. ... The people who are in power become very comfortable with their posi- tions, and they don’t think that they can get in trouble for step- ping over the line.” Fire chief charged with setting vacant buildings ablaze BY WOODY BAIRD Associated Press Writer TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The city’s fire chief and three volunteer firefighters, including the chief’s grandson, were charged recently with setting a string of fires in vacant build- ings over the past two years. The men, all members of the Tiptonville Volunteer Fire Department, were arrested last week. No one was hurt in the blazes they were accused of starting. All four men were in the Lake County jail after a judge set bond at $100,000 for Fire Chief James Blackburn and $25,000 or more each for the others. Neighbors were aware some- one was setting fires, but they were shocked when the fire- fighters were charged. “Everybody knew that we had a firebug for a couple of years,” said Johnny Whitson, who owns an auto body shop near where two buildings burned. Norman Rhodes, police chief in this town of 2,400 people about 90 miles northeast of Memphis, did not give a motive. “I don’t think anybody has an explanation,” Rhodes said. The charges list 10 structures that were burned from August 2004 to June 2006 – several with- in 150 yards of Blackburn’s home. A judge appointed lawyers for all four men. Two attorneys declined to comment, and the others did not return recent calls. The men are scheduled to appear in court next week for arraignment. Police began investigating shortly after the fires began and have been “pretty sure” about the suspects for the past year, Rhodes said. The police chief said he called on the state for help with the arson investigation, and that James Blackburn, as fire chief, knew about the probe. “He was actually giving me static about calling in bomb and arson investigators, said that was his job,” Rhodes said. Charged in the investigation were Blackburn, who is also superintendent of the city water plant; his firefighter grandson, Brandon Blackburn; and fire- fighters Floyd Joe Kilburn and Chris Burrus. But the police chief and other Tiptonville residents said there have been many other suspicious fires that no one has been charged with setting. Robert Dougherty said he moved next door to the fire chief about six months ago and has been amazed by the number of fires in the area. Across the street is the rubble of a burned house, and a burned shed sits in a neighbor’s back yard. Neither fire is listed in the charges. “The house burned twice; the shed burned three times,” Dougherty said. Phil Bivens, district attorney general for Lake County, said if convicted the firefighters could receive three to 15 years in prison. “One of the factors the court will look at is that they are in a position of public trust as fire- men,” Bivens said. “I just hate that it happened in my town,” said Rhodes, adding that he attended school with Blackburn. “These are peo- ple that children look up to.” BY JANE C. P ARIKH Kalamazoo Gazette KALAMAZOO (AP) — Long before you, your kids or the people at the office gear up for Hal- loween, Antony Gerard is already selling scary masks. Months after you take down the orange and black crepe paper, toss the pumpkins and finish off the trick-or-treat candy, he and his family are still selling them — not only here but all over the country. “We’ve had sales from just about all of the 50 states,” said Gerard, owner of the Timid Rabbit Magic and Masquerade Shop in Kalamazoo. “But most of sales continue to be in the Midwest.” By answering a simple question posed by his father, a financial planner, Gerard was launched into turning an enterprise built around a single sea- son and his love for magic and mask-making into one that sells magic tricks, custom-made outfits for sports mascots and custom-made costumes and masks into a successful year-round business. Gerard said that as he started his business in the mid-1970s, his father asked, “What if there was no Halloween?” Gerard said he thought that was a stupid ques- tion and answered, “There will always be a Hal- loween.” But his father persisted, asking: “But, what if there wasn’t? How would your business survive?” Diversification to serve other holidays and events has been the key for the Timid Rabbit, which has scary-goods sales heading into October but otherwise would suffer a frightening drop-off in sales during the offseason. While he would not cite numbers, Gerard said October sales of masks, costumes and other goods are four to five times higher than sales for most other months, and there is a corresponding drop in profits. “Most of the year it would be cheaper for us to close than stay open,” Gerard said. “But Halloween through Christmas is a busy time for us. “People are renting Pilgrim costumes for Thanksgiving events and Santa Claus outfits for Christmas.” Business slows down in January, but Gerard said sales at the shop pick up again for Valentine’s Day, Mardi Gras and Easter. As Gerard Enterprises, the business also manu- facturers and sells haunted-house props, magic supplies, special-effects items and novelties. Those have been promoted through trade shows. Besides the shop, Gerard and his wife, Laura, also run Phobia House, a haunted house that opens in early October and runs through Halloween. The Timid Rabbit shop has been at its location since 1990. Its upper level houses costume retail and rental areas, and the lower level is where Ger- ard, his wife, their two college-age sons and Antony Gerard’s mother craft custom and mass- designed masks and costumes. One mask may take four days to complete and can sell for $200 to $1,000, depending on what customers want and whether they want it to fit their faces perfectly, Laura Gerard said. “If we think it’s something that could fit into our line that we would sell, we don’t charge as much,” she said. Antony Gerard estimates that he and his helpers make about 1,000 masks and about four dozen mascot outfits each year. The mascot outfits are for athletic teams as well as businesses. The shop pro- duced Buddy The Bull for instance, for Brann’s Steak House & Grille. The shop stocks more than 11,000 costumes and masks. A deluxe witch mask designed and sold by the shop “probably outsells all of the other masks 3-to- 1,” Antony Gerard said. That is followed by an ape mask that he designed. Those products, in addition to Gerard’s magic tricks, are shipped throughout the year to cus- tomers in the United States, Australia, Canada, England and Puerto Rico. Laura Gerard said about 5 percent of total sales are international. The remainder are in the United States. “Canada is bigger than any of the other coun- tries we get orders from because it’s closer,” she said. “Puerto Rico would be the second because it’s cheaper for us to ship there.” Antony Gerard said he recently shipped two custom-made electric chairs — for show purposes only. One went to a customer in Virginia and the other to the Chicago Police Department. ——— On the Net: Gerard Enterprises: http: //www.gerardenter- prises.com. Chris Altman (left) applies a prosthetic nose and chin to Adrian Johnson before painting her green to turn her into a witch at the Timid Rabbit Magic and Masquerade Shop in Kalamazoo. AP Photo, Kalamazoo Gazette, by Jill McLane Baker Company’s masks more for than just Halloween DSO reunites with Järvi to perform William Tell Overture The Detroit Symphony Orchestra saddles up for a series of concerts that reunite the Orchestra with DSO Music Director Emeritus Neeme Järvi in the first of two concert series he will lead in Detroit this season. Titled “William Tell,” the pro- gram includes Gioacchino Rossi- ni’s popular and evocative Over- ture to “William Tell”; Edouard Lalo’s violin concerto, “Sym- phonie Espagnole,” featuring Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman; and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Sym- phony No. 15.” The concerts take place at Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center on Friday, November 10, at 8 p.m., Saturday, November 11, at 8:30 p.m., and Sunday, November 12, at 3 p.m. Rossini’s thrilling overture to the opera William Tell is often bet- ter known as the theme to “The Lone Ranger,” a radio program that got its start in 1933 in Detroit on WXYZ-AM. The last of Rossi- ni’s operas, “William Tell” is con- sidered the culmination of Rossi- ni’s mastery and innovation in Ital- ian and French music. The pro- grammatic overture is seen by many as a precursor to the tone poem. It opens with the depiction of the beautiful Swiss landscape at dawn and builds to depict a pow- erful Alpine storm, then subsides into pastoral calm. This tranquility is interrupted by a trumpet fanfare announcing the well-known finale representing Tell’s ride with the Swiss Army, which vividly evokes the image of Tell’s (or The Lone Ranger’s) galloping horse. Edouard Lalo’s “Symphonie Espagnole” resembles a dance suite with soloist. However, Lalo rejected the name suite; for him, it was a “worn-out tag.” Instead, he chose symphony because, as he expressed, “it conveyed my thoughts – that is to say, a violin soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony.” Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 15” quotes many well-known compositions including “William Tell.” The finale uses music based on the “Annunciation of Death” leitmotif from Wagner’s “The Ring of the Nibelungs,” as well as Haydn’s final symphony. Shostakovich, often imprecise about his works, described the first movement as childhood-like, “just a toyshop, with a cloudless sky above.” In contrast, the finale is riddled with allusions to death, making this one of the most para- doxical and poignant symphonies ever composed. Violinist Vadim Gluzman has been lauded by both critics and audiences as a performer of great depth, virtuosity and technical brilliance. Gluzman has per- formed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Japan, Korea and Australia as a soloist and in a duo setting with his wife, pianist Angela Yoffe. Gluzman, in technique and sensi- bility, is reminiscent of Golden Age violinists in the 19th and 20th centuries, yet at the same time, displays the passion and energy of contemporary violinists. Neeme Järvi, the DSO’s music director for 15 years, returns to Detroit after a summer of perfor- mances in distant locations, from Japan to his native Estonia. Järvi, the second-longest serving music director in the DSO’s history, is one of the world’s most recorded conductors with a distinguished recording repertoire including more than 360 discs. Following his appointment in 1990, Järvi led the DSO to new artistic and insti- tutional heights, attracting audi- ences in record numbers, leading acclaimed concerts, national and international tours, radio broad- casts and award-winning record- ings. Tickets for the DSO’s Classical Series concerts range in price from $19 to $69. A limited num- ber of box seats are available for $61 to $117. Tickets may be pur- chased at the Max M. Fisher Music Center box office, located at 3711 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, or by calling the DSO at (313) 576-5111. Seniors (ages 60 and over) and students can pur- chase 50% off rush tickets at the box office, ninety minutes prior to classical concerts, based on avail- ability. Discounts are available for groups of 10 or more. All regular priced tickets can be purchased on line via the DSO’s Web site at www.detroit- symphony.com. For more information, call (313) 576-5111. Oct27:Layout 1 10/26/06 3:39 PM Page 13
Transcript of O Administration’s prosecutors targeting GOP lawmakers ...Prudential agreed to pay a $35 million...
Page 50, The Detroit Legal News FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2006
OPINIONOpen letter to President
Bush on insurance reformDear President Bush:
For years you have attackedlawyers and our civil justice sys-tem for a so called “lawsuit crisis”which you claim is causing insur-ance premiums to skyrocket andhurting the economy. Meanwhile,you have failed to hold the insur-ance industry responsible forfraudulently raising premiumsand denying coverage while mak-ing windfall profits on the backsof Americans.
Your stalwart support of theinsurance industry over Ameri-cans is unsupported even by factsand studies from your own admin-istration. For instance, JusticeDepartment statistics show thatinjury cases filed in U.S. DistrictCourts fell 80% between 1985and 2003 and Bureau of JusticeStatistics show that the number ofstate personal injury trials hasdecreased 32% between 1992 and2001. In Michigan the insuranceindustry itself reports a 75%decline in payouts to medical mal-practice victims, and the numbersof civil lawsuits regarding wrong-doing and injury have beendeclining drastically for years.
So what is the real problem ifnot lawsuits and our civil justicesystem? The real problem is arunaway, unregulated insuranceindustry. There’s only one solutionto that, Mr. President: insurancereform.
The insurance industry is theonly industry (outside of majorleague baseball) that is unregulat-ed. The trillion-dollar insuranceindustry, which has been makinghuge profits for years, must beheld to the same standards asother businesses; namely f iscalaccountability, transparency, andhonesty.
Insurance reform would helpworking families, doctors, smallbusiness owners and our economyby lowering insurance premiums,ending insurance company fraud,and curtailing price gouging bythe insurance industry.
There are numerous examplesof insurance industry gouging,Mr. President. Despite HurricaneKatrina – and in the face of hugeand rising premiums for all of us– the insurance industry rackedup $44.8 billion in prof its lastyear for homeowners and autoinsurance alone while raising itssurplus by more than 7% to near-ly $427 billion.
Even your wealthy friend Sen-ator Trent Lott was cheated by theinsurance industry after his Mis-sissippi home was destroyed byHurricane Katrina. Insurancereform could prevent such huge,economically devastating, andwidespread fraud, Mr. President.
Mississippi Attorney GeneralJames Hood described insurerswho defrauded homeowners afterKatrina as “the robber barons ofour time.” Mississippi was forcedto sue the insurance industrybecause adjusters tried to cheathomeowners out of millions ofdollars in claims. But one state,standing alone, is no match for an
industry with hundreds of billionsof dollars to protect it.
Here in Michigan, the insur-ance industry used its muscle toevade and finally destroy a lawthat merely required the numberof medical malpractice insurancecases be reported so that lawmak-ers might have some idea if theselawsuits were really increasing asthe insurance industry claimed(suits were rapidly declininginstead).
In Oklahoma, tornado victimswere cheated when State Farmacted “recklessly” and with “mal-ice” in denying insurance claimson their family homes. The FBIraided Hospital Corporation ofAmerica off ices after massivesystematic Medicare insurancefraud and HCA pled guilty to 14criminal counts and agreed to pay$1.7 million to settle the case.California earthquake victimswere routinely defrauded by StateFarm, and State Farm off icialslied in court about it. Prudentialagreed to pay a $35 million fineand set aside money to settle poli-cyholder suits after an investiga-tion found the company haddefrauded more than 10 millionlife insurance customers.
In New York, Attorney GeneralEliot Spitzer uncovered ubiquitouswrongdoing in the insuranceindustry, testifying that “a smallgroup of brokers and insurancecompanies essentially control themarket, having created a networkof interlocking connections andsecret payments which ensure thatthe bulk of business goes to certaininsurers and that profits remainhigh. The bottom line is the con-sumer pays more for coverage.”
Mr. President, we can all worktogether to stop this. Insurancereform worked in California.After pro-insurance “caps” on therights of victims hobbled the legalsystem, insurance premiums fordoctors still increased by anastounding 190%. When insur-ance reform was enacted, remov-ing the insurance companies’ anti-trust exemptions, doctor’s insur-ance premiums finally leveled off.
In Missouri lawmakers votedoverwhelmingly to give the stateinsurance director more authorityto veto doctor’s insurance premi-ums that are “excessive” or other-wise inappropriate.
Insurance reform – such aslegislation to remove the antitrustexemption for the insuranceindustry and to create account-ability over hundreds of billionsof dollars of our premiums dollars– would go a long way towardhelping to lower rates for every-one, and reign in insurance com-pany fraud and price gouging.
Instead of bashing our civilcourt system and underminingour Constitution Mr. President,you need to stand up to the insur-ance industry and enact insurancereform.
Yours truly,Jesse M. Reiter
President, Michigan TrialLawyers Association
Administration’s prosecutors targeting GOP lawmakersBY LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pub-lic corruption cases brought byJustice Department prosecutors inWashington are on the rise, fueledin part by investigations targetingRepublican lawmakers in Con-gress.
With the Nov. 7 electionslooming, prosecutors have movedforward on investigations of threeGOP lawmakers in the last monthalone. And several Justice Depart-ment officials privately hint thateven more inquiries — involvingRepublicans and Democrats alike— may be under way.
“We can’t look at what partysomeone is a member of in decid-ing whether or not to pursue aninvestigation,” Attorney GeneralAlberto Gonzales told reporterslast week, calling governmentcorruption prosecution one of histop priorities. “We have to followthe evidence wherever it leads.”
Gonzales said there is “no spe-cial emphasis” on those cases asthe elections approach. But theJustice Department generally triesto keep a low profile on govern-ment corruption cases in themonths before an election toavoid unfairly influencing voters.
Justice Department data showa 60 percent increase over the lastfive years in government corrup-tion convictions and settlementsby its Washington-based publicintegrity unit. Prosecutions result-ed in 84 convictions and settle-ments in 2005, the data show,compared to 52 in 2001.
The aggressive pursuit ofRepublican lawmakers by Bushadministration prosecutors is asign of the independent streak ofcareer attorneys inside the publicintegrity unit, said Paul F. Roth-stein, a legal and governmentethics professor at GeorgetownLaw School.
“A lot of them are nonpolitical— they do have a taste for rootingout corruption and wrongdoing,”Rothstein said. “There are sometensions coming from it. ... It’sprobably a very delicate and ago-nizing situation for the politicalappointees at the top” of the Jus-tice Department.
Investigations by the publicintegrity unit at Justice headquar-ters in Washington make up onlya sliver of public corruption casesprosecuted nationwide, most ofwhich are handled by U.S. attor-neys’ offices. Last year, for exam-ple, federal prosecutors aroundthe country charged 445 govern-ment officials, resulting in 390convictions.
With only 29 attorneys, thepublic integrity unit in Washing-
ton is small when compared to the450 government lawyers whoprosecute criminal cases in thecapital.
The unit’s prosecutors general-ly lead or assist in high-profilecorruption or national securitycases, including inquiries involv-ing members of Congress or theadministration. According to itsannual report, the unit had fiveopen investigations — all of themunidentif ied — involving Con-gress at the end of last year.
The unit has seen an increase“in certain kinds of corruptionthat gets in newspapers,” said oneprosecutor who spoke on condi-tion of anonymity because of thesensitive nature of the cases. “Anytime you’re investigating a mem-ber of Congress, it’s going to get alot of attention.”
In the last month, the JusticeDepartment has moved forwardon inquiries involving two HouseRepublicans: Reps. Mark Foley ofFlorida and Jim Kolbe of Arizona,both being investigated for possi-ble improper or illegal sexual con-tact with teenage congressionalpages. At the same time, prosecu-tors stepped up their investigationinto whether Rep. Curt Weldon, aPennsylvania Republican, steered$1 million in contracts to hisdaughter’s lobbying firm.
All three men have denied thecharges. Foley resigned shortlyafter the allegations surfaced,while Kolbe is retiring from theHouse.
Additionally, three otherHouse Republicans and one GOPsenator, as well as two HouseDemocrats have been linked toongoing Justice Departmentinvestigations over the last year.Two other House Republicans —Reps. Randy “Duke” Cunning-ham of California and Bob Ney ofOhio — have pleaded guilty tocorruption charges.
Experts say the spike in report-ed corruption cases is likelycaused by one-party control ofboth the House and Senate. Inves-tigations by the Republican-con-trolled House Ethics Committee,for example, ground to a near-standstill for more than a yearbecause of partisan squabblesover staff and rules for itsinquiries.
“It’s far worse than what we’veseen for decades on Capitol Hill,”said Craig Holman of the watch-dog group Public Citizen. “We’vegot sex, we’ve got bribery, we’vegot lobbyist corruption, earmark-ing, money laundering. ... Thepeople who are in power becomevery comfortable with their posi-tions, and they don’t think thatthey can get in trouble for step-ping over the line.”
Fire chief charged with setting vacant buildings ablazeBY WOODY BAIRD
Associated Press Writer
TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP)— The city’s fire chief and threevolunteer firefighters, includingthe chief ’s grandson, werecharged recently with setting astring of f ires in vacant build-ings over the past two years.
The men, all members of theTiptonville Volunteer FireDepartment, were arrested lastweek. No one was hurt in theblazes they were accused ofstarting.
All four men were in theLake County jail after a judgeset bond at $100,000 for FireChief James Blackburn and$25,000 or more each for theothers.
Neighbors were aware some-one was setting f ires, but theywere shocked when the f ire-fighters were charged.
“Everybody knew that we hada firebug for a couple of years,”said Johnny Whitson, who ownsan auto body shop near wheretwo buildings burned.
Norman Rhodes, police chiefin this town of 2,400 peopleabout 90 miles nor theast ofMemphis, did not give a motive.
“I don’t think anybody has anexplanation,” Rhodes said.
The charges list 10 structuresthat were burned from August2004 to June 2006 – several with-in 150 yards of Blackburn’s home.
A judge appointed lawyers forall four men. Two attorneysdeclined to comment, and theothers did not return recent calls.
The men are scheduled toappear in court next week forarraignment.
Police began investigatingshortly after the fires began andhave been “pretty sure” about
the suspects for the past year,Rhodes said.
The police chief said hecalled on the state for help withthe arson investigation, and thatJames Blackburn, as fire chief,knew about the probe.
“He was actually giving mestatic about calling in bomb andarson investigators, said that washis job,” Rhodes said.
Charged in the investigationwere Blackburn, who is alsosuperintendent of the city waterplant; his firefighter grandson,Brandon Blackburn; and f ire-fighters Floyd Joe Kilburn andChris Burrus.
But the police chief and otherTiptonville residents said therehave been many other suspiciousf ires that no one has beencharged with setting.
Robert Dougherty said hemoved next door to the fire chiefabout six months ago and hasbeen amazed by the number offires in the area.
Across the street is the rubbleof a burned house, and a burnedshed sits in a neighbor’s backyard. Neither fire is listed in thecharges.
“The house burned twice; theshed burned three times,”Dougherty said.
Phil Bivens, district attorneygeneral for Lake County, said ifconvicted the firefighters couldreceive three to 15 years inprison.
“One of the factors the courtwill look at is that they are in aposition of public trust as fire-men,” Bivens said.
“I just hate that it happenedin my town,” said Rhodes,adding that he attended schoolwith Blackburn. “These are peo-ple that children look up to.”
BY JANE C. PARIKH
Kalamazoo Gazette
KALAMAZOO (AP) — Long before you, yourkids or the people at the office gear up for Hal-loween, Antony Gerard is already selling scarymasks.
Months after you take down the orange and blackcrepe paper, toss the pumpkins and finish off thetrick-or-treat candy, he and his family are still sellingthem — not only here but all over the country.
“We’ve had sales from just about all of the 50states,” said Gerard, owner of the Timid RabbitMagic and Masquerade Shop in Kalamazoo. “Butmost of sales continue to be in the Midwest.”
By answering a simple question posed by hisfather, a financial planner, Gerard was launchedinto turning an enterprise built around a single sea-son and his love for magic and mask-making intoone that sells magic tricks, custom-made outfits forsports mascots and custom-made costumes andmasks into a successful year-round business.
Gerard said that as he started his business in themid-1970s, his father asked, “What if there was noHalloween?”
Gerard said he thought that was a stupid ques-tion and answered, “There will always be a Hal-loween.”
But his father persisted, asking: “But, what ifthere wasn’t? How would your business survive?”
Diversif ication to serve other holidays andevents has been the key for the Timid Rabbit,which has scary-goods sales heading into Octoberbut otherwise would suffer a frightening drop-offin sales during the offseason.
While he would not cite numbers, Gerard saidOctober sales of masks, costumes and other goodsare four to five times higher than sales for mostother months, and there is a corresponding drop inprofits.
“Most of the year it would be cheaper for us toclose than stay open,” Gerard said. “But Halloweenthrough Christmas is a busy time for us.
“People are renting Pilgrim costumes forThanksgiving events and Santa Claus outfits forChristmas.”
Business slows down in January, but Gerardsaid sales at the shop pick up again for Valentine’sDay, Mardi Gras and Easter.
As Gerard Enterprises, the business also manu-
facturers and sells haunted-house props, magicsupplies, special-effects items and novelties. Thosehave been promoted through trade shows.
Besides the shop, Gerard and his wife, Laura,also run Phobia House, a haunted house that opensin early October and runs through Halloween.
The Timid Rabbit shop has been at its locationsince 1990. Its upper level houses costume retailand rental areas, and the lower level is where Ger-ard, his wife, their two college-age sons andAntony Gerard’s mother craft custom and mass-designed masks and costumes.
One mask may take four days to complete andcan sell for $200 to $1,000, depending on whatcustomers want and whether they want it to fit theirfaces perfectly, Laura Gerard said.
“If we think it’s something that could fit into ourline that we would sell, we don’t charge as much,”she said.
Antony Gerard estimates that he and his helpersmake about 1,000 masks and about four dozenmascot outfits each year. The mascot outfits are forathletic teams as well as businesses. The shop pro-duced Buddy The Bull for instance, for Brann’sSteak House & Grille.
The shop stocks more than 11,000 costumes andmasks.
A deluxe witch mask designed and sold by theshop “probably outsells all of the other masks 3-to-1,” Antony Gerard said. That is followed by an apemask that he designed.
Those products, in addition to Gerard’s magictricks, are shipped throughout the year to cus-tomers in the United States, Australia, Canada,England and Puerto Rico.
Laura Gerard said about 5 percent of total salesare international. The remainder are in the UnitedStates.
“Canada is bigger than any of the other coun-tries we get orders from because it’s closer,” shesaid. “Puerto Rico would be the second because it’scheaper for us to ship there.”
Antony Gerard said he recently shipped twocustom-made electric chairs — for show purposesonly. One went to a customer in Virginia and theother to the Chicago Police Department.
——— On the Net:Gerard Enterprises: http: //www.gerardenter-
prises.com.
Chris Altman (left) applies a prosthetic nose and chin to Adrian Johnson before paintingher green to turn her into a witch at the Timid Rabbit Magic and Masquerade Shop inKalamazoo.
AP Photo, Kalamazoo Gazette, by Jill McLane Baker
Company’s masks more for than just Halloween
DSO reunites with Järvi to perform William Tell Overture
The Detroit SymphonyOrchestra saddles up for a seriesof concerts that reunite theOrchestra with DSO MusicDirector Emeritus Neeme Järvi inthe first of two concert series hewill lead in Detroit this season.Titled “William Tell,” the pro-gram includes Gioacchino Rossi-ni’s popular and evocative Over-ture to “William Tell”; EdouardLalo’s violin concerto, “Sym-phonie Espagnole,” featuringIsraeli violinist Vadim Gluzman;and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Sym-phony No. 15.” The concerts takeplace at Orchestra Hall at theMax M. Fisher Music Center onFriday, November 10, at 8 p.m.,Saturday, November 11, at 8:30p.m., and Sunday, November 12,at 3 p.m.
Rossini’s thrilling overture tothe opera William Tell is often bet-ter known as the theme to “TheLone Ranger,” a radio programthat got its start in 1933 in Detroiton WXYZ-AM. The last of Rossi-ni’s operas, “William Tell” is con-sidered the culmination of Rossi-ni’s mastery and innovation in Ital-ian and French music. The pro-grammatic overture is seen bymany as a precursor to the tonepoem. It opens with the depictionof the beautiful Swiss landscape atdawn and builds to depict a pow-erful Alpine storm, then subsidesinto pastoral calm. This tranquilityis interrupted by a trumpet fanfareannouncing the well-known finalerepresenting Tell’s ride with theSwiss Army, which vividly evokes
the image of Tell’s (or The LoneRanger’s) galloping horse.
Edouard Lalo’s “SymphonieEspagnole” resembles a dancesuite with soloist. However, Lalorejected the name suite; for him, itwas a “worn-out tag.” Instead, hechose symphony because, as heexpressed, “it conveyed mythoughts – that is to say, a violinsoaring above the rigid form of anold symphony.”
Shostakovich’s “Symphony No.15” quotes many well-knowncompositions including “WilliamTell.” The finale uses music basedon the “Annunciation of Death”leitmotif from Wagner’s “TheRing of the Nibelungs,” as well asHaydn’s f inal symphony.Shostakovich, often impreciseabout his works, described thefirst movement as childhood-like,“just a toyshop, with a cloudlesssky above.” In contrast, the finaleis riddled with allusions to death,making this one of the most para-doxical and poignant symphoniesever composed.
Violinist Vadim Gluzman hasbeen lauded by both critics andaudiences as a performer of greatdepth, virtuosity and technicalbrilliance. Gluzman has per-formed throughout the UnitedStates, Canada, Europe, Russia,Japan, Korea and Australia as asoloist and in a duo setting withhis wife, pianist Angela Yoffe.Gluzman, in technique and sensi-bility, is reminiscent of GoldenAge violinists in the 19th and 20thcenturies, yet at the same time,
displays the passion and energy ofcontemporary violinists.
Neeme Järvi, the DSO’s musicdirector for 15 years, returns toDetroit after a summer of perfor-mances in distant locations, fromJapan to his native Estonia. Järvi,the second-longest serving musicdirector in the DSO’s history, isone of the world’s most recordedconductors with a distinguishedrecording repertoire includingmore than 360 discs. Followinghis appointment in 1990, Järvi ledthe DSO to new artistic and insti-tutional heights, attracting audi-ences in record numbers, leadingacclaimed concerts, national andinternational tours, radio broad-casts and award-winning record-ings.
Tickets for the DSO’s ClassicalSeries concerts range in pricefrom $19 to $69. A limited num-ber of box seats are available for$61 to $117. Tickets may be pur-chased at the Max M. FisherMusic Center box office, locatedat 3711 Woodward Avenue inDetroit, or by calling the DSO at(313) 576-5111. Seniors (ages 60and over) and students can pur-chase 50% off rush tickets at thebox office, ninety minutes prior toclassical concerts, based on avail-ability. Discounts are available forgroups of 10 or more.
All regular priced tickets canbe purchased on line via theDSO’s Web site at www.detroit-symphony.com.
For more information, call(313) 576-5111.
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