Chinese Drywall: Here doggy, doggy!

September 11th, 2009. By AbiK

There was an article in the Palm Beach Post earlier in the week about…what else? Chinese drywall! Well, you can’t blame the folks in Palm Beach and Broward Counties—it’s a daily nuisance (or worse) they have to live with. But, they might be getting some help—from dogs.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of getting “frisked” by some gnarling, ferocious dogs as you’re tooling through customs in Miami International Airport, you know what dogs are capable of sniffing out. So I’m all for this one.

According to the Palm Beach Post article, defective Chinese drywall can be difficult to locate with real accuracy—and air quality tests don’t necessarily register high levels of sulfur. That one stopped me cold: all the hoopla about “professional” testing of homes for Chinese drywall to date has pretty much focused on air quality tests—and they may not necessarily detect it?

Give it to the dogs!

The article goes on to quote American K-9 president, Mark Mahler, as saying “The more I read about Chinese drywall, the more I’m committed to getting some dogs trained and get them out there to help.” He also noted that dog training could begin in a matter of weeks.

Another little tidbit from Mahler: Dogs’ sense of smell is up to 40x stronger than humans. While humans have about 5 million olfactory cells, dogs average 220 to 250.

Arbonne Recall for Bacteria: Scrub it in – Ouch!

September 11th, 2009. By AbiK

Yes, Arbonne has just put out a voluntary recall on its Seasource Detox Spa Foaming Sea Salt Scrub. It’s only on one lot, so don’t go crazy–and that lot number is Z928. Shipping dates on that lot number ranged from March 28, 2008 to July 15, 2009.

I’d just blogged on a what-price-beauty theme the other day–and I steered clear of OTC beauty products; after all, outside of the hype about parabens and maybe some reports about trace bits of lead in lipstick, for the most part drugstore and cosmetic counter beauty if fairly tame.

But a body scrub? With bacteria? Specifically, Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria, which as the recall states can “cause dermatitis, soft tissue infections, bacteremia, and a variety of system infections, particularly with users who are immunosuppressed”. No thank you.

Arbonne’s doing the right things: Voluntary recall and offering to replace or exchange the product or refund money paid for the recalled product, at the purchaser’s choice. Simply call them at 1-800-ARBONNE.

And hold off on the at-home spa treatment this weekend…

Jessica Simpson ain’t no SunTrust-er

September 11th, 2009. By AbiK

Sure as shootin’ Ms. Simpson doesn’t need a mortgage. But I noticed the TMZ.com video of Jessica Simpson doing her “I’m not an Indian-giver” quip in July. Seems the comment was in reference to whether she would take back the $100,000 boat (rumored to be a Malibu Wakesetter) she gave former boyfriend Tony Romo for his birthday. (Yes, file her comment under “what was she thinking?”)

But it got me thinking about things—and hey, it’s Friday—I could use a little levity. Clearly “Indian-giver” is not the most p.c. thing to say. And I’m betting it’s pretty much past anyone knowing or recalling what the phrase originally meant or was in reference to. So it’s time to come up with a more modern and applicable expression for Jess to use—one that can easily enter our lexicon of colloquialisms and mean “someone who gives something and then takes it back”.

And there it was…we’ve been talking about SunTrust this week, so this one just fell in my lap. Read the rest of this entry »

$150M Zurich Insurer Settlement…by the numbers

September 11th, 2009. By AbiK

Here’s the down and dirty on the insurer price fixing class action settlement imposed on Zurich Financial Services and Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.—the settlement was upheld on Tuesday after going through an appeal process stemming from the original 2006 settlement ruling. The upheld settlement was reported on in the NJ Law Journal.

[By the way, if you want to read about Zurich’s history with price fixing, see previous Zurich articles here]

Settlement Amount:

$150 million, plus $29.9 million in legal fees and costs, paid by the insurance companies as follows:

$122 million to be paid by Zurich Financial Services

$28 million to be paid by Gallagher & Co.

$29.9 million to be paid separately by Zurich to plaintiffs’ lawyers

Who Gets the Settlement Money:

3.79 million potential class members–maybe more, according to estimates

How’s the Settlement Money’s Divided:

51.7% goes to Zurich policyholders who bought excess casualty insurance from 2001 to 2004

33.9% to policyholders who bought other lines of insurance or excess policies at other times

9% to non-policyholders who were affected by the alleged wrongdoing

States party to the Settlement Agreement:

10…California, Florida, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia

SunTrust HELOC Accounts: Now you see it, now you don’t?

September 11th, 2009. By Kristine B

Do you believe in magic? Seems maybe you should if you were one of the folks who allegedly saw their SunTrust HELOC account do a disappearing act for no apparent reason. It’s kinda like that bewildered feeling you have after sitting through some dazzling Vegas magic act—asking, how’d they do that?

Guess it’s gotten to be a bit commonplace to ask “how’d they do that?” when you’re talking about banks. Given the recent troubles faced by numerous financial firms over the past year or so, it should be no surprise that many clients are filing lawsuits against their financial firms, alleging, among other things, mismanagement of accounts. 

However, when lawsuits arise alleging that banks are singling out vulnerable individuals and freezing, decreasing or altogether terminating their lines of credit, you have to wonder what’s going on. And your “how’d they do that?” starts to become “why’d they do that?”

Take the SunTrust Bank situation. SunTrust is accused of taking drastic action against senior citizens— Read the rest of this entry »