Protecting What's Right

The federal government’s point man on the Gulf oil spill response, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, will meet with New Orleans parish presidents Thursday morning to outline plans after the well is permanently sealed.

As Allen meets with parish leaders, preparations are moving forward for two efforts to kill the well–first, sealing it from above by pouring mud and cement into the well in an operation called “static kill” and then closing it off permanently from below with an intersecting relief well. The static kill could begin as early as Sunday while the relief well may be ready for the “bottom kill” effort five to seven days afterward.

A panel of federal judges will meet in Boise, Idaho on Thursday to consider arguments on where litigation over the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill will be consolidated.

Dell Inc., the third-largest computer maker in the world, is settling a civil fraud case with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) for $100 million.  The company’s chairman and CEO is separately paying $4 million to settle a civil penalty levied against him.

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Georgia-based Perdue Farms is recalling frozen chicken nuggets because the product could contain small pieces of blue plastic.

At issue are over 91,000 pounds of “GREAT VALUE Fully Cooked Chicken Nuggets” sold in 1-pound, 13-ounce bags bearing the establishment number P-33944 and case code 89008 AO160.

For the full story, go to Business Week.

Homeowners with tainted Chinese drywall have yet another concern to contend with: purported drywall remediators who are not licensed contractors and, in some cases, have criminal records for consumer fraud.

A recent report by the Palm Beach Post found that, of 47 Florida drywall remediation and inspection companies it identified, 26 were created since January 2009—around the time that problems with the contaminated drywall were becoming widely known.  Only 18 were being operated by licensed contractors, and some were run by known felons with a history of consumer fraud convictions.

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