The New York Times scoops West Virginia’s papers with news that Governor Joe Manchin “consulted” with DuPont before filing his amicus brief with the state Supreme Court urging them to take DuPont’s appeal of the largest civil penalty ever imposed against it.
Oh, but Joe just wanted to make sure DuPont’s case received a fair hearing before the Court. Yeah. Silly me. He was just looking out for us all by trying to combat West Virginia’s reputation as a “judicial hellhole.”
I remind every one that the Chamber of Commerce’s solution to West Virginia being a “judicial hellhole” was to throw hundreds of thousands of dollars behind Spike fucking Maynard.
August 13, 2008 at 2:43 pm
More info and links on DuPont here (thanks, HK for linking Lincoln Walks at Midnight your earlier post).
http://mywvhome.blogspot.com/
August 13, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I know this is terrible, but I don’t understand the big deal. The executive is free to submit briefs to the court. So what if taxpayers save some money when the papers are drafted by a third party? After all, ninety percent of lawyering is cutting and pasting.
August 13, 2008 at 6:18 pm
Scooped again. West Virginia is a legal hell hole if you are a citizen and you need a legal remedy in relief for corporate negligence. No doubt injured workers want some due process in West Virginia too.
This story once again represents what one Charleston Gazette vent commentary (2007) called Manchin’s “Nefarious disdain” for workers and thus the people in general. Didn’t one of Manchins appointed Judges seal the records in the DuPont C8 case? Bring back the simple days of gifted MBA’s, this story requires real investigative journalism.
This story is without a doubt further evidence of the widespread corrupt political factions undermining our government in favor of special interests, all of which have ties to our current Governor. They also mention in the article the purchase of two of our five state Supreme Court judges and like story after story, reeks of this open for business favoritism of industry over the public good.
This Manchin story is huge news and mirrors the MBA insider trading games Manchin plays. This is signature Governor Manchin at his best.
Don’t forget $2.4 billion dollars in uncollected Clean Water Act fines and penalties over the past five years, Manchin’s current term of office – and that was just Massy Energy’s violations. Right at this very moment the WV DEP is also writing off hundreds of millions of dollars more in uncollected Clean Water Act fines and penalties against the rest of the coal industry.
Manchin caught the voters sleeping and sold the state on the Constitutional Amendment that was necessary to allow an increase in the investment of the state pension and retirement accounts in the stock market. After $643 million dollars in West Virginia’s investment loss, this Republican idea of investing our social security holding on the stock market appears to be the bad idea those crazy lefties said it always was. More than twice as much as A. James Manchin, aka Uncle Jimmy, lost. Ain’t learned nothing.
Another example of the brilliant Manchin CEO Leadership. A hazmat traffic accident on the Turnpike shuts down traffic for 15 hours and Manchin wants answers? Manchin made himself King of the Turnpike several years ago, blessed by the sheepish legislature, and now he claims he doesn’t know what is going on. Oh that is leadership all right.
Then his puppet news outlets punt a story that it is somehow the first responders, who are were fault, or low paid toll booth operators who were to blame. Reminds me of Garrison and the zero accountability of anyone associated with Manchin.
What happened, it appears, is that they have no emergency plan in place for State and Local Police to redirect traffic. Unbelievable right? There has to be something like tens of thousands of traffic accidents each year, so they are they telling us our wonderful homeland security is too busy spying on us, the people, and didn’t anticipate something exactly like this kind of accident happening.
Manchin also made himself king of the Public Broadcasting Authority, about the same time he took control of the Turnpike, and notice the absence of news coverage about any of these Manchin scandals on either network or on public broadcasting.
Instead they blame the low paid public workers. I bet the public workers would like some of that due process too, to fix their round robin rigged grievance process. While kind and generous Manchin gives tens of thousands of dollars in raises to his appointed ones, he has frozen every working persons salary in the state. What a scrooge. With a 10% statewide staff vacancy rate, Manchin has the budgeted money to pay every state worker a living wage, provide the merit raises good public servants are legally entitled to and he can pay to promote good employees to the leadership positions they have earned.
Instead of responsible government we have Governor Manchin and his Open for Business sleaze parade. We need due process all right – Thank God this an election year.
August 13, 2008 at 7:42 pm
I read the amicus brief. It is incredibly non-partisan. It says that the court should review the award (which USSC says they must, but our court apparently doesn’t feel the need to follow that precedent). It says if the verdict is justified, then the court should say so. I can’t argue with that.
August 13, 2008 at 9:44 pm
WV Always Free – Thank you, well said about Manchin’s sleaze parade of cronies in leadership positions that continually neglect and undermind the public worker. If Joe could get away with it, he would have us all volunteering. The grievance procedure is a true joke, the civil service system of hiring and employment is underrepresenting the employee everyday. Public workers are truly powerless as each day brings more humiliation at our inability to do our jobs without checking every detail out with Manchin’s appointees. This administration is disallowing professional credentialing. Along with everything else, if we want professional credentialling we have to pay for it ourselves. I really don’t have the words for what these managers are but eliteist puppets who love their jobs. I’ve been lied to, intimidated, disregarded……I’m sorry, I’m starting to babble….thanks for listening.
August 13, 2008 at 10:40 pm
We could enjoy our status at the bottom of the economic ladder, or we can do something about it.
Once educated to the facts, we naturally organize together, such as in a good union or in a church, we continue to work to change the croney hatred for our way of life, as civil citizens and if necessary, such as it is today, then we vote for new leadership with the vision to lift people forward. Spike is gone, what about Joe? One down and one to go.
August 13, 2008 at 10:53 pm
the local paper probably got wind of it on twitter. ha!
I’d love to get your take on the chuck runyon/turnpike accident story in the paper today.
August 14, 2008 at 2:03 am
What’s with the apologists for Manchin? The point here is NOT should the Supreme Court take in and give review to punitive damages awards. The point is the Governor’s participation in the appeal process, and whether it was driven by a desire to help BIG BUSINESS screw the little guy again. Sure looks that way, considering he secretly discusses all this with DuPont’s top officials right before he files a brief spoon-fed from DuPont. Lawbot- cutting and pasting may have its place, but for a non-party to intervene on behalf of a big business party in such a large case under those circumstances, that ain’t normal. It’s a big deal.
All that said, IMO the Court SHOULD review all punitive awards, just they it should review all “life-without-mercy” sentences. Perhaps if the Governor took a principled stand in a case where an accused is convicted and given a life-without-mercy sentence, I might feel differently about his intervention for DuPont. But if we are going to demand the state Supreme Court “take in” specific kinds of cases (i.e., punitive damage jury awards), how about asking them “take in” all life-without-mercy cases too. The same logic aplies with far more force – no one is telling the court to rule one way or the other – but doesn’t due process for the convicted mean the supreme court should actually look over the whole case and take in the appeal when we are talking about locking someone up for life with no chance of parole?
August 14, 2008 at 8:41 am
Screw the “little guy”? Really? Have you ever seen any of these plaintiffs’ lawyers offices?
August 14, 2008 at 9:24 am
I have yet to meet a plaintiffs’ attorney who really gave a rat’s rear end for the so-called “little guy” (having worked for a prominent PI atty in Pa.).
August 14, 2008 at 10:07 am
The discussion about little guy versus big business will go on, and will bring forth good ideas.
However, we must not loose sight of the issue we CAN impact, and that is the upcoming election.
MANCHIN HAS SHOWN US OVER AND OVER AGAIN HOW HIS SLIME BAG OPERATION WORKS.
MANCHIN HAS SHOWN US THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE FAMILY, WHERE IT IS ALL ABOUT THE FAMILY MANCHIN.
MANCHIN HAS SHOWN US PLENTY OF REASONS TO VOTE THE MOTHER FUCKER OUT OF OFFICE.
So, we should read, listen, and ponder, then VOTE.
NEVER, NEVER, EVER VOTE FOR ANYONE WITH THE LAST NAME MANCHIN. THEY ARE ALL APPLES OFF THE SAME TREE!
VOTE THE MANCHIN ASSHOLES OUT OF EVERY PUBLIC OFFICE ON THE FACE OF THE PLANET. SEND THE PRICKS PACKING.
A vote for a “Manchin” or “Manchin ASSociate” is a vote for corrupt government. Send him the message. Send him, his cousins and ASSoociates back home.
August 14, 2008 at 10:36 am
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gu9fzL4b8e26aYkqJK8jfCC9v3ZAD92HK82O1
This article speak a lot.
August 14, 2008 at 10:58 am
As a side note, the same toxic metals continue to pollute ground and surface water surrounding the old Dupont plant in Morgantown—a Superfund site that was never cleaned up.
Defying all reason, a development group is currently “clearing ” all the nearby area for an industrial park.
This should add to the toxic brew which blows over Beechurst Avenue(and all the new student housing) and creeps up onto “:cancer hill” in South Park.Heavy morning fogs will be especially pleasant.
August 14, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Speaking of the state grievance process:
Fiscal Year 2008 was the first year of operation by the West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Board under the revised statutes. In that period, 1544 new grievances were filed by public workers covered by the provisions. A combined total of 463 decisions were issued by the five staff administrative law judges (ALJs) during that same period. Of those decisions, 78% were denied completely, with another 5% denied in part.
In the Final Report on grievance procedures prepared by the WVU Institute for Labor Studies and Research for the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government and Finance (March 1, 2006), it was determined that only 15% of grievance decisions issued in 2004 (the last year for which totals were provided) were granted in favor of employees. A frequent justification of adopting the revised statute was to address what was acknowledged as a statistically lopsided outcome under the old statute. The glaring bias in favor of the employer was to be addressed under a procedure that was touted as more fair to grievants than had previously been the case.
The 2008 figure of 17% of decisions granted to the employee is, however, only marginally different from the 2004 figure contained in the Final Report, as well as below the figures for most years prior to 2004. The inescapable conclusion is that the legislative remedy adopted in July 2007 failed to adequately address the issue of fairness in West Virginia’s public employee grievance system.
The West Virginia Public Workers Union, UE Local 170, therefore calls for the following legislative remedies:
● Strengthening and expanding the due process rights, including the right to representation, of West Virginia’s public employees
● Adoption of collective bargaining for West Virginia’s public employees
● Removal of the West Virginia Public Employees Grievance Board from the administrative authority of the executive branch and its reassignment to the administrative authority of the state’s judicial branch
August 14, 2008 at 12:24 pm
This just in from the Governor’s e-mailing list, about 10 minutes ago:
Aug. 14, 2008
STATEMENT FROM THE GOVERNOR
ABOUT TRIAL LAWYERS’ BRIEF FILING
Manchin reiterates his brief was strictly about due process
Contact: Lara Ramsburg, 304-558-2000
Gov. Joe Manchin today responded to the brief filed today by trial lawyers in the DuPont Spelter case:
“The brief filed today by the trial lawyers in the DuPont case in response to my office’s amicus brief filing is truly disappointing. While I did meet with DuPont officials, my office clearly declined to file the brief that DuPont was requesting from us. However, we did determine that there was a due process question that has consistently come up in our state that we felt warranted a brief being filed on that topic alone.
“Our brief is solely based on the issue of due process and whether or not our Supreme Court follows the same standards as established by the U.S. Supreme Court with regard to the right to appeal punitive damages. We did not take sides in the actual case in any way and want any citizen that has been adversely affected to get the benefits and compensation that they deserve.
“What is amazing to me is that while our brief is based solely on the legal principles of due process and the right of appeal, the trial lawyers brief, led by several big out-of-state law firms, does not address that legal issue in any way and instead spends their time attacking my secretary – who has not been involved in one meeting on this issue and who does not deserve this kind of treatment.
“Shame on these trial lawyers for attacking this hard-working state employee and grandmother simply because I, as governor, dared to ask a legal question about due process. That’s just not right. It’s these kinds of tactics that I believe have made people so discouraged about our legal system, and after seeing up close and personal how they operate I am committed now more than ever to protecting the legal rights of all West Virginians.”
– Gov. Joe Manchin
August 14, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Carolyn Hampson @10:58
This link gives background on the DuPont site you referred to – what group is clearing it now? I missed something on this.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/8220/8220earlygov.html
August 14, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Interesting thread you have developing here HK.
Let’s be fair and look at all of the facts.
Regarding the Turnpike toll booth employees and the first responders being blamed by Manchin apologists, like Runyan. What happened is clearly a lack of leadership by Turnpike CEO Manchin, Homeland Security CEO Manchin and State Police CEO Manchin. The good people of this state should be outraged at blaming the lowest paid employees in the nation when once elected Manchin said “He” is in charge. Blame the employees is still more proof that while Manchin is in charge, he sure isn’t the least bit accountable. Manchin may not be accountable to the taxpayers, but, Manchin sure is friendly with his corporate masters, as the NY article illustrates.
30 odd news outlets in the state and not a damn one of them can report the unbiased fact that this Governor is as corrupt as any republican or democrat in the history of this country. Thank god for out of state news reporting or we would be expected to swallow the Chamber of Commerce swill without so much as a drop of fresh water as a chaser.
Plaintiff attorney offices are nothing compared to corporate attorney offices for glitz, schmooze and propensity for excess. Want real tort reform? Corporations sue 100 x more often than citizens, clogging up the courts with frivolous lawsuits to protect their greed and the corporate lust for power over us mere mortals.
We should also be concerned with the money going to both so called “political parties” from the regulated communities. Cash from these regulated industries does translate into them expecting big time favors for these so called “campaign donations”.
On WV Public Radio this morning in reference to the DuPont case, they called the relationship between the Governors office, the regulated community and the (Supreme) Court as “incestuous” and the “worst in the country”.
This is a very big deal. Judicial hell hole my foot, the corruption of our government is a very big problem and at the core of the problem is the open for business lack of accountability philosophy running rampant in this state. Corporations can and do cause harm and they should be held accountable to the fullest extent the law allows, including providing for economic damages as a deterrent to such lawless corporate behavior in the future. Fair is Fair.
So, let us look closely at the Governor Manchin relationships with the regulated community. There is a lot to be concerned about, especially if you care about the appearance of a conflict of interest.
I almost agree – so what, Manchin has a former employee of DuPont on staff as office help? We should not be as worried about an administrative staff person as we should be worried about the more obvious conflicts of interest. I are not even going to get into the appointment of agency heads who’s only qualification is the donated money to Manchin’s campaigns.
Attorneys who are conflicted and government policies that favor campaign contributors are “normal” in the Manchin Administration and that is why this story is such a news worthy story.
WV DEP sided with DuPont specifically in this case and appears to have dragged their feet on other enforcement against DuPont in the past. DEP Secretary Timmermyer was an attorney for DuPont while they manufactured C8, with significant environmental problems resulting in another court victory for the people harmed by open for business negligence. Goodwin and Goodwin represented DuPont. Manchin’s staff attorney is a Goodwin. A Goodwin rigged the BOG selection process to favor a Manchin corporate pal (to be President of WVU). A Manchin appointed Judge sealed the records in the DuPont C8 case. A Goodwin wrote the Manchin friend of the court brief on behalf of the polluter DuPont.
Equally concerning is the fact that the regulated community gives money to the Manchin Party Tent slush fund and the Manchin regulatory agencies look the other way, while one set of industry donors violates the Clean Water Act – FOR 5 YEARS (all under Manchin and Timmermyer’s watch). Other tent donations include the pharmaceutical industry, one of who expected a free MBA from our state university, where Governor Manchin had the presidential selection process rigged to select his man, from the same company no less. Then Manchin squashed the financial disclosure requirement regarding industry payola to doctors and now WV is the leading state for drug use in the nation as consumer costs soar.
Then Timmermyer has obtained an Ethics exemption from the 1 year prohibition of seeking employment with the regulated community she oversaw.
A Judicial hell hole or A corrupt unaccountable CEO as Governor?
The facts are clear enough, but I will wager 100 to 1 some attorney will make excuses for Manchin and every news organization in WV will report the excuse as the only item of interest and no other facts.
August 14, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Equality for all:
I hope you stick around. You sound like an attorney I had years ago, who did well by my case at the time. So is Manchin going to succeed in appearing an innocent friend of the court? He’s quite offended, too. Last time a Manchin was so offended, well . . . you know.
August 14, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Steph- The investors are Dave Biafora and Robert Louis Schumann. The thing is scheduled to go before the county commission this month sometime
August 14, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Then there is our county commission . . .(sigh)
August 14, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Wow, how can Biaforas ruin so many areas in one county? West Run Road is a nightmare.
August 14, 2008 at 5:25 pm
I think the second commenter, WV Always Free, got it right. It’s not so much that Manchin has a right to file an amicus brief. I think he does. It’s what he’s signalling to the public by doing so.
A jury evidently got pissed off enough to award a lot of damages in this case. I actually am a plaintiff’s lawyer and i’m here to say that kinda stuff almost never happens in real life — despite what the Chamber and State Journal say. So when the governor says he wants the Supreme Court to review it, well that just looks shitty and it pisses me off no end.
August 14, 2008 at 6:09 pm
We non-lawyers think it looks bad, too, offroute. If there are concerns about legal principles and due process, why can’t the governor address that apart from a town suffering with cancer? And look how many years that case has been ongoing? Oh, it’s an election year.
August 14, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Thanks Steph, I have been around for a long time. I hope to stay a lot longer.
Funny, every time I get the wind knocked out of my sails fighting for social and economic justice, people say of government corruption, “well it happens all the time”.
Yes, corruption is rampant in West Virginia. It was, however, my understanding that it isn’t supposed to be corrupt. Certainly not this corrupt.
August 14, 2008 at 6:18 pm
http://wvgazette.com/comments?build=yes&ContID=200808140533
Article from gazette about “ethical breach” of governor re: Dupont
August 14, 2008 at 6:43 pm
That is a fantastic article. This could be a tipping point for Manchin.
August 14, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Equality for all: thanks for keeping the family tree incestuously coherent.
August 14, 2008 at 7:59 pm
TT @ 3:40 p.m. I hear you! West Run, Easton Hill and now have you seen what they’re doing at the Pierpont Road exit. Does anyone from the DOH know how to do a proper entrance into a shopping center from the interstate???? And where does the money for this come from? Do the private developers pay for all this highway work or does the state?
August 14, 2008 at 8:35 pm
Morgantown might be the worst managed city in the United States of America.
Seriously, a town of that size shouldn’t have such nightmarishly awful traffic problems.
But don’t worry. Ron Justice will figure it all out. Right?
Hey, come back…
August 14, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Garrison sighting. Today. Clarksburg, West Virginia. From a most trustworthy eyewitness. Nothing more to report.
August 14, 2008 at 10:11 pm
Bridges would help Morgantown get around… or alternative forms of transportation. But as Manchin doesn’t seem hip to maintaining our roads as much as lining his pals pockets, we probably won’t get any help, especially now we will not even be keeping the grass mowed they way the Manchin fire sale of state equipment has been going.
Because people are so sick of the corrupt politicians nobody votes, largely becauise we are so sick of the corruption, nobody runs for office, for fear of their lives if they go against the “political machines”. Coal barons thought nothing of hiring private mercenaries and murdering workers who wanted a fair wage.
As for gifting my tax money to corporations who good and well can afford research and development, it is not the “governments job” to provide welfare to special interests while starving the people. That is more like communism. And these unions who are giving hard earned working peoples dues to politicians instead of investing in measures to help the working people are contributing to the problem, not the solution.
Like the courts, all branches of government are (ok used to be) bound by certain ethics, one of which was a prohibition of benefiting your self or family ahead of the public good, where a personal interest is subject to recusal (or at a minimum of silence) on any specific conflict of interest.
What we see in West VIrginia is the brazen culture of political corruption that has been allowed to develop under the rule of the two faces of money in modern politics.
Thursday, August 14 on 580 am, live with Hoppy from the State Fair, Democratic candidate for WV Secretary of State Natallie Tennant said she would count the Democrat and Republican ballots. When pressed by Hoppy, she said the rest don’t really matter.
Oh shame on the DINO-cratic party. I really wish we had a few federal prosecutors around right about now. Any media outlet that benefits from public tax dollars for any reveue who fails to report on third party candidates without bias should have their business licenses and charters revoked. Talk about a wild election year in 2008, Hoppy defended third party and independent candidates against the tyrant democrat.
These treasonous democrats are as bad as any republican and it is time to start seriously considering third party protest votes. Thank god for a democracy, a free press and an informed electorate.
August 15, 2008 at 9:53 am
I want to thank all of you. Sometimes I feel as though I am losing my mind, witnessing all I believe in down the tube, seeing people with good heart deluded into collaboration. I come here, find truth—and it helps.
Steph, would you like to have coffee sometime? my email is giselle@iolinc.net.
August 15, 2008 at 11:15 am
Carolyn H:
Very nice invitation, and I agree that we need to seek and sustain our sanity any way we can. Hopelessness is not a good thing. I admit to going into denial on an intermittent basis, and then sometimes it’s just “pick your battles.” And then sometimes just a small step or a small decision validates that we can and are doing something about it.
As for coffee- I’ll think about that. With school starting, it will be hard to check the favorite blogs, which is a relatively new thing for me. I’m part of that newer group who started looking for faster and better information regarding the degree scandal. It’s also important to stay under the radar field – no guilt here about owning up publicly to my comments. We are fortunate to have safe places like Fifth Column and Mountaineers United. Many other good ones, too; too many to visit.
We are trying to provide some depth with a more WVU-limited focus over on M-United, so check in sometime. I think many people appreciate the blog community. Bookmark the domain name GarrisonMustGo.com but we have “moved on.”
August 15, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I understand what interim prez Magrath said about blogs, heck a lot of his peers don’t even email. But I do think the blog community is essential today. It’s easy and important to check on the accuracy of the comments, but there is no faster and more complete way to get information as far as I’m concerned. So thanks to all.