These are based on statistics from Jan 1 2009 through Dec 31 2009

Tangiers International Updates

And still awaiting the outcome of the Department of Labor and the Department of Justice investigations into Tangiers International.

We’ll report on our own findings at the same time.

More on this below     On your toes Tacticor

DBA CNA Casualty Anniversary

Is it just the photo of these really good looking guys or do people have a problem with CNA  and Roger Levy’s tactics used for dragging claims out for six and more years while denying medical and cutting off payments?

KBR has blocked MsSparky from their Servers

Tag Teaming to keep the info train rolling

The Defense Base Act Compensation Blog was soon blocked as well !!

Fluor did not waste anytime following suite

Danny Fitzsimons Discharged From Army with PTSD

This is a tragic tale of two dead contractors, Darren Hoare and Paul McGuigan,  at the hand of a third contractor who was fighting a “War within his head”.   He was hired by several different security companies despite his diagnoses of PTSD and known drug and legal problems.

It took the publicity and outrage of the world but the company who last hired him has since starting doing background checks.   And yet, due to the DBA sanctioned right to deadly negligence, the burden will be borne only by the dead, injured, their families, and what’s left of Danny Fitzsimons tortured mind.  Danny awaits trial in Baghdad.

Civilian Contractors Toll in Iraq and Afghanistan Ignored by Defense Dept

by T. Christian Miller, ProPublica – October 9, 2009

Despite the importance of civilian contractors to its mission, the Defense Department hasn’t been measuring their sacrifice. More than 5,200 soldiers have died in the two war zones, meaning that one civilian contractor has died for every three soldiers.

Dropping the DBA Ball
CYA Statement of the year from the one in charge of the ball

“The problem that we see a lot is where injuries occur overseas the knee-jerk reaction is the insurance company says,‘I can’t pay right now. I don’t have documentation,’ ” said Miranda Chiu, Labor’s director of policy for Defense Base Act claims.“They drop the ball.”

AIG Faces Hearing on Denial of Medical Claims by Contractors Injured in Iraq and Afghanistan

Kucinich, the chair of the committee’s domestic policy panel, said earlier that he was “alarmed” by a joint investigation [4] by ProPublica [5], ABC News [6] and the Los Angeles Times [7], which found that the troubled insurance giant routinely denied medical care to civilians injured in the war zones. Rep. Elijah Cummings [8], D-Md., first requested [9] a hearing after the reports aired earlier this year. Kucinich’s panel will be joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders [10], I-Vt.,

Independent Medical Evaluations AIG and CNA

Dispelling the Myth that insurance company Defense Medical Evaluations are in someway unbiased Indpendent Medical Evaluations.   Only the DoL can arrange for an Independent Medical Examination under the DBA.    The insurance company is entitled to have you see a doctor of their choice, under certain restrictions,  but this is a Defense Medical Evaluation.

Tangiers International DBA “Medical Providers

Tangiers International , AIG’s Medical Provider/Spy Kids Caught Lying

Tangiers Vice President a Dept of Labor Employee

Remember Them Too

Don’t Contractors Count When we Calculate the Cost of War? By Steven Schooner

Despite the light that Memorial Day will shine, briefly, on the U.S. death tolls in Iraq and Afghanistan, don’t expect an accurate accounting of the real human cost of our military actions abroad. The numbers you’ll see — mostly likely just under 5,000 fatalities — won’t tell the whole story.

How CNA Treats Foreign Claimants

“I arranged for a meeting with CNA Global and Donna Sprags. The nursecase manager Jody Mcewan arranged the meeting In Chicago at the offices of CNA Global. I left South Africa with a Medic, a Nurse and my wife.

When  I arrived at the building of CNA I was told that “she will not see me and was thrown out of the building by security”. The trip cost me $15 000 and I have outstanding medical debts of $150 000.

AIG their IME, PTSE, The Saga Continues

The Infamous Dr. Griffith and those who enable him

In Memory of Tim Eysslinck

We lost Tim to PTSD five years ago April 23.  Tim’s wife and children have been denied DBA benefits in a most disturbing series of events replete with fraudulent statements.  And his widow paid the original lawyer who allowed this to happen.

Texas District Court Rules Iraq War not Life Threatening

Casualties not Counted

Eysslinck Files

This is the new license plate format for cars and SUVs.

By Brad Benfield

Passenger vehicle owners in Whitman, Whatcom, Asotin, Benton, Franklin, and Kitsap Counties will be the first to receive the new seven-character passenger vehicle license plates officially announced last October. These plates are issued for use on cars and sport-utility vehicles.

The new plates will have three letters followed by four numbers (AAA1111). This new configuration will yield about 138 million possible combinations. The general appearance of these new license plates won’t change—the colors will be the same and they will still feature the standard mountain background currently in use.

The first plates manufactured, with numbers AAA0000 through AAA0599, were shipped to Whitman County and will soon be distributed to local vehicle licensing offices. These offices will begin issuing them after they run out of the current six-character license plates they have in their inventories. This process will be used in all counties.

Like Washington’s other license plates, this new series is produced by prison inmates through the Correctional Industries program at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. They are shipped directly from the production facility to counties across our state.

A Prudential Insurance Company of America employee has accused the company of forcing her to work overtime without pay.  The employee stated she and other employees were pressured to work up to 50 hours per week while only being paid for 37 ½ hours and her requests for overtime pay were routinely denied.  The company denies any unlawful conduct.

Under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), nonexempt employees are to be paid time and one-half for all hours worked over 40 hours in the same pay period.  Enforcing the overtime provisions of the FLSA is a priority of the U.S. Department of Labor.  The DOL has recouped for employees millions of dollars each year, not including penalties assessed employers.  The DOL may recover back wages, either administratively or through court action, for the employees that have been underpaid in violation of the law. Violations may also result in civil or criminal action.

 To avoid contributing to these record-breaking collections, employers must ensure they are in full compliance with the FLSA when it comes to three central areas: classifying exempt employees, hours worked, and calculating overtime.  A full review of your pay procedures, along with record keeping and supervisory enforcement is essential for all employers.  Don’t expose yourself to an overtime claim.  The costs are too high.

By Brad Benfield

In order to ensure that the millions of Americans traveling this holiday season are not disrupted, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano announced on December 18 that all valid, state-issued driver licenses and identification cards will continue to be acceptable for federal purposes beyond the December 31, 2009, deadline for material compliance with the federal REAL ID Act. Secretary Napolitano cited “significant cost, legal considerations, and privacy concerns” as reasons DHS decided to extend the deadline until May 10, 2011.

For more details, see the Department of Homeland Security press release.

Emad Hatabah

AMMAN, Jordan—For Emad Hatabah, the war in Iraq became a business opportunity.

As AIG’s chief representative in Jordan, he was responsible for coordinating the care for hundreds of Iraqis who had been injured while working under contract for U.S. troops as linguists, truck drivers and other jobs.

He fulfilled his functions by sending business to himself, his friends and business associates, according to interviews and records. For instance, Hatabah created his own air ambulance service in July 2006, a company called Arab Assist, which AIG hired to transport injured patients from Iraq to Jordan, records show.

“They needed someone who has lots of connections. I’m a doctor with lots of connections,” Hatabah said during an interview at a hotel on a street crowded with hospitals and medical offices in Amman.

But those connections have raised questions about whether Hatabah acted in the best interests of the injured Iraqis or of his ad-hoc medical network. Taxpayers may ultimately pay the bill for such care under a U.S. law which allows insurance firms such as AIG to seek full reimbursement for the cost of treating civilian contractors injured in combat.

Hatabah sent scores of interpreters and other Iraqi hires to a Jordanian hospital called Al Khalidi, where the chief of the intensive care unit was a business partner and college friend, Nael Abu Khaff. He called it the best hospital to treat them. While they were waiting for care, Hatabah had the interpreters stay at hotels owned by friends, he said.

In an interview at Al Khalidi hospital, Abu Khaff confirmed his business dealings with Hatabah, but said that his hospital was chosen to care for the patients because it was one of the best in Jordan.

“We were the provider of medical treatment to these patients. I’m not an insurance doctor,” Abu Khaff said.

Hatabah also negotiated with Jordan’s immigration authorities to arrange for their visas, worked with local banks to set up accounts for the interpreters and obtained rehabilitation therapy and prosthetic devices.

Colleen Driscoll, a former official for defense contractor L-3, questioned Hatabah’s choices. For instance, Al Khalidi hospital is a well-respected local institution, but it has not been accredited by the U.S.-based Joint Commission International–the gold standard certification held by other Jordanian hospitals.

Hatabah also placed interpreters with no legs in hotels that had no handicapped access, Driscoll said, and their prosthetics were heavy and fit poorly.

“Hatabah was a businessman. It was all about making money,” Driscoll said.

Hatabah acknowledged that some patients were placed in a hotel that was not equipped to handle people with disabilities. However, he said he was forced to relocate the patients quickly by L-3, and that the facilities were upgraded as soon as possible. Hatabah also said the prosthetics that he purchased were top quality.

Jordanian doctors who reviewed medical records for some of the patients questioned some charges as high. The cost of most medical procedures in Jordan is set by a standardized fee schedule issued by the local medical association.

One record indicates that AIG paid $29,105 for two surgeries to remove stitches and other “medical expenses” for a patient whose care was being coordinated by Hatabah. Jordanian doctors who reviewed the bill said such charges would normally amount to around $3,500.

“They act like a team and they want to manage all this number of patients. This makes you suspicious,” said one doctor, who did not want to be identified for fear of offending AIG.

All told, Hatabah estimated that he had overseen the care for more than 400 civilian workers from Iraq and a handful of other nearby countries such as Jordan. Hatabah said that he worked under a “mutual understanding” with AIG in which the company paid him a certain fee per patient per day. He declined to reveal specifics, but said he made at most about $100,000 a year working for AIG.

He also said that AIG paid his doctors rates far above normal for Jordan. He said that AIG officials told him that they wanted to pay top dollar to obtain the best care.

Hatabah acknowledged that neither AIG nor the federal government had accounting mechanisms to oversee the network that he created.

“Is there a guarantee that I didn’t take a percentage? No, there is no guarantee other than my word. It’s my reputation. Is there a way for AIG to make sure that I didn’t get a percentage if I referred to Al Khalidi? They can’t.”

While AIG paid for Hatabah’s services, the company can seek reimbursement under a U.S. law known as the War Hazards Compensation Act.

The Act, passed in the 1940s, allows insurers to seek payment from the Labor Department for medical costs and disability payments associated with combat-injured civilian contractors. It also provides companies an additional 15% to pay for the cost of handling the claim.

As of May 2009, the department had paid AIG $5.7 million for 77 claims, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. It is not clear why AIG has submitted so few claims for reimbursement, given that hundreds of contractors have been injured or killed in combat.

AIG officials declined to answer specific questions. Hatabah said he had no knowledge of the War Hazards Compensation Act.

“I believe strongly that these people received the best we know, the best we can and without taking sides,” Hatabah said. “I do believe that AIG tried their best to give these patients good and fair treatment.”

However, Hatabah’s former clients have complained that he did not fully inform them of their rights. Under the law, injured workers are allowed to choose their own physician. Few Iraqi workers were aware that they had this right, and said they relied on Hatabah for care.

Rafid Kully, 32, was injured in a road accident while traveling with the U.S. Marines as an interpreter. He said the orthopedist brought in by Hatabah botched an operation on his foot, leaving him with a permanent limp. When he attempted to get treatment from other doctors, AIG denied his requests, he said.

In the interview, Hatabah said he had advised Kully against the procedure. He acknowledged that Kully’s surgery did not achieve its intended results.

Now living in North Carolina as a refugee, Kully continues to battle AIG for medical treatment.

“We thought our companies would help. We thought if you proved that something was wrong, they would fix it. But it was all about money. Nobody cared about us,” Kully said. “Everybody was happy with the situation. The doctors were making millions. AIG was making millions. The companies did not have to pay a lot. Everybody was happy. But us.”

Write to T. Christian Miller at T.Christian.Miller@propublica.org [1]// ‘;l[1]=’a';l[2]=’/';l[3]=”;l[38]=’\”‘;l[39]=’ 103′;l[40]=’ 114′;l[41]=’ 111′;l[42]=’ 46′;l[43]=’ 97′;l[44]=’ 99′;l[45]=’ 105′;l[46]=’ 108′;l[47]=’ 98′;l[48]=’ 117′;l[49]=’ 112′;l[50]=’ 111′;l[51]=’ 114′;l[52]=’ 112′;l[53]=’ 64′;l[54]=’ 114′;l[55]=’ 101′;l[56]=’ 108′;l[57]=’ 108′;l[58]=’ 105′;l[59]=’ 77′;l[60]=’ 46′;l[61]=’ 110′;l[62]=’ 97′;l[63]=’ 105′;l[64]=’ 116′;l[65]=’ 115′;l[66]=’ 105′;l[67]=’ 114′;l[68]=’ 104′;l[69]=’ 67′;l[70]=’ 46′;l[71]=’ 84′;l[72]=’:';l[73]=’o';l[74]=’t';l[75]=’l';l[76]=’i';l[77]=’a';l[78]=’m';l[79]=’\”‘;l[80]=’=';l[81]=’f';l[82]=’e';l[83]=’r';l[84]=’h';l[85]=’a ‘;l[86]=’= 0; i=i-1){
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Original Story here

 OMB released a report today, “Acquisition and Contracting Improvement Plans and Pilots:  Saving Money and Improving Government,” which follows up on its July 2009 directive that agencies trim 7 percent – about $40 billion — from their contracting budgets over the next two years by improving their buying processes.

OMB says that agencies have undertaken several steps to achieve $19 billion in savings for the first year:

• The 24 largest agencies, covering 98 percent of contract spending – have submitted plans with specific actions they will take to cut contracting costs and improve efficiencies.
• Agencies have identified initiatives to save 10 percent of money spent through new high-risk contracts (noncompetitive, cost-reimbursement, or time-and-materials/labor-hour contracts).
• Agencies have identified at least one pilot initiative where over-reliance on contractors may affect performance and then reassess the workforce mix.

OMB also reports that the Chief Acquisition Officers Council is “identifying new strategic-sourcing approaches, and how to structure contracts so as to provide better value for a lower price for commonly acquired goods and services.”

In a related story, the Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe reports OMB deputy director Jeff Zients said “The government is the world’s largest total buyer of goods, but has permitted agencies to act as separate customers for too long, contributing, in part, to wasteful spending” and that OMB will increase most agencies’ acquisition workforces by about 5 percent in the coming fiscal year.

OMB offered several examples of how agencies are trimming their contracting costs:

• Homeland Security standardized department-wide its desktop operating systems, e-mail, and office automation.  These standardized requirements allowed the Chief Information Officer to award a single contract, resulting in expected savings of $87.5 million over the next six years.
• Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) launched a contracting tool that puts a service need up for bid “like e-Bay” that serves as a reverse auction where bidders offer their lowest price.  NNSA is seeing an average cost savings of 18 percent so far.
• IRS switched from cost-reimbursement to a firm-fixed-price contract vehicle for processing support services, saving $6 million over the old approach.
• Labor is investigating the potential benefit of in-sourcing a subset of contracted workers who currently process foreign labor certifications to see if this allows increased efficiency.

OMB says it will launch an on-line dashboard in spring 2010 to “allow the public to track whether agencies are progressing in their efforts. . . . Where progress is insufficient, OMB will work with agencies to develop aggressive steps to meet their targets.”

The Washington Post article also noted: “One item missing from the report is eagerly anticipated guidance on the definition of “inherently governmental functions,” a critical term in the contracting community that would clarify the tasks and services contractors should no longer conduct. Obama asked OMB to provide guidance on the matter in March. The agency promised to deliver an answer by year’s end, but officials said they need a few more weeks.”

The U.S. Department of Labor is using a variety of social media tools to provide information from OSHA and other Department agencies to workers and employers.

For example, the U.S. Department of Labor has a YouTube channel, which includes two videos developed by OSHA (in English and Spanish) on the differences between respirators and surgical masks and the correct procedure for donning and doffing a respirator to protect against airborne contaminants in the workplace.   Here are links to the U.S. Department of Labor’s social media resources:

• U.S. Department of Labor Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/departmentoflabor
• Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/hildasolis
• U.S. Department of Labor Twitter page: http://twitter.com/USDOL
• U.S. Department of Labor YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/usdepartmentoflabor

This is also from Occupational Health & Safety:

An online chats by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and OSH Acting Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab tell us they are not planning an ergonomics rulemaking, although a column to log MSDs on the 300 log will be restored.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Acting OSH Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab took  questions from reporters on Dec.  6 and the public about the new regulatory agenda issued by DOL earlier today.

Both Solis and Barab were asked whether an item in the agenda to add a musculoskeletal disorders column to OSHA’s 300 injury and illness log is a forerunner of a new ergonomics standard. Both said it is not; adding the column merely restores the log to what was intended when OSHA adopted the revised recordkeeping rule in 2001, they said.

Barab also said OSHA expects to issue its long-awaited final cranes and derricks construction rule in July 2010.

Read the article

• Increases the Employment Based quota from 140K to 290K per year with recapture of past unused numbers.
• Recaptures of Family Based unused numbers.
• Immediate relative definition to be expanded to include imm family members of LPRs as well.
• L-1 violations to be investigated by DHS
• Mandatory L-1 employer audits on an annual basis.
• Mandatory compliance audits of employers with more than 100 employees total and if 15% are L-1.
• Prevailing wages for L-1 employees.  And mandatory Level 2 of OES wage for L1 positions.
• Mandatory filing of W-2 evidence by employers with DHS on a yearly basis.
• Money penalties of $10,000 per violation of H-1 or L-1 laws.
• DOL to hire additional 200 staff to handle complaints, etc.
• L-1B employees placement is tied to displacement of U.S. workers at client sites.
• L-1B placement at client locations no more than 1 year unless DHS Secretary waives in writing stating that no U.S. worker is displaced. 
• Restrictions on new office L-1s by requiring a long list of documents.  Sort of like RFE is etched in the law itself!!!
• No discussion of H-1B quota increase or anything (at least to the extend I read).
• And many more, which I could not get to yet. 

If you want to read the bill for yourself, click on the following link:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.4321:

Vehicles on Pike Street in Seattle in 1902, prior to state vehicle licensing requirements. Photo courtesy of Washington State Digital Archives.

By Brad Benfield

The Washington State Legislature established the Motor Vehicle License Division under the Office of the Secretary of State in 1905. This new division was responsible for registering and issuing vehicle license numbers to the state’s growing number of personal vehicles. 

The division issued license numbers—not license plates. The vehicle owner was responsible for creating their own license plate out of wood or leather. The license number also could be painted directly on the front and rear of the vehicle.

At this time the licensing fee for a vehicle was $2, and all vehicle licenses expired on the same day—May 31^st. If a vehicle owner failed to renew their registration before June 1, their license number would be assigned to someone else and they would have to make a new set of plates or repaint them on their vehicle. 

A total of 763 licenses were issued in 1905. The first of these was issued to S. A. Perkins of Tacoma on May 2^nd, for a 30 horsepower Pope-Toledo touring car.

The Labor Department has failed to crack down on one of the agency’s fastest growing and most expensive programs–a system designed to ensure medical care for civilian workers injured in war zones.

This story was co-published with Salon [1].

WASHINGTON–In her first public address after taking office, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis promised to increase enforcement of laws designed to protect workers.

“You can rest assured that there is a new sheriff in town,” she told union members at a gathering in Miami Beach shortly after her confirmation in February.

Ten months later, Solis’ Labor Department has failed to crack down on one of the agency’s fastest growing and most expensive programs–a system designed to ensure medical care for civilian workers injured in war zones.

The department is responsible for overseeing a workers compensation system in which insurance carriers provide coverage to civilians working on overseas federal contracts. Such policies are funded by taxpayers.

But the department has failed to pursue sanctions against corporations accused of ignoring federal requirements to purchase such insurance, according to a ProPublica review of court cases, federal records and interviews with worker advocates.

The department has also taken no action in cases where insurance carriers allegedly provided false or misleading information to the federal government to terminate medical benefits for injured civilians–another potential crime under the law, known as the Defense Base Act [2].

The lack of enforcement has allowed carriers and contract companies to abuse the system by avoiding or blocking payments, forcing contractors to spend months and sometimes years battling carriers in court for benefits, claimants and their attorneys said.

“No one has ever been prosecuted for anything,” said Dennis Nalick, a veteran claimant’s attorney. “It’s like having a bank robber who gets caught, apologizes and then is let go.”

The department’s internal regulations call the detection of fraud and abuse the “highest priority” for officials overseeing the insurance program. Labor Department “personnel are responsible for reporting actual or suspected fraud or abuse, through appropriate channels to the Department of Labor,” the department’s procedural manual states.

But the ProPublica examination shows that the department has rarely deployed the tools available under the law to crack down on fraud and abuse–a record that extends back through Democratic and Republican administrations. Labor officials can recommend cases for prosecution to the Justice Department–but have only done so once in the past two decades, according to Labor officials.

They can directly levy civil penalties, but have done so sparingly. As of June, Labor officials have imposed fines in only about 50 of more than 36,000 cases processed by the two largest insurance carriers, according to an internal Congressional memo [3] obtained by ProPublica.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

In private conversations, Labor officials have told Congressional staff that they are not an enforcement agency, despite the agency’s internal regulations and federal laws.

One Labor official told Congressional investigators the agency was “at best a score keeper, not a referee,” according to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, who conducted a hearing into the program earlier this year. (The hearing came after a joint investigation by ProPublica, ABC News and the Los Angeles Times [4], which found that civilian contractors had routinely been denied basic medical care.) Foreign-born civilian contractors often had received no benefits at all, despite law requiring the delivery of payments within 14 days of an injury, the investigation found.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Labor officials have the power to enforce the law, but have ignored their responsibilities.

“Under the last administration, there was virtually no oversight,” said Sanders, who serves on the Senate’s Health, Education and Labor Committee. “Obviously, this whole thing has been a fiasco.”

In a statement, the Labor Department said it had recently imposed a series of fines on corporations that failed to report worker injuries as required by law.

The department indicated that it had fined Blackwater, the private security company now known as Xe, $11,000 for failing to report a worker injury for more than two years. KBR, Armor Group and insurance carriers AIG and CNA have also been fined in recent months.

“We are taking a stronger approach with respect to penalizing the failure to meet the requirements of the law and regulations,” said Shelby Hallmark, the senior Labor official overseeing the program. “We’re upping the ante.”

Nobody’s in charge

Passed in 1941, the Defense Base Act requires every company with an overseas U.S. contract to obtain health insurance for its workers.

But no single U.S. agency is fully in charge of implementing the program, which has exploded since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 1,600 civilians have died and 37,000 have reported injuries.

In theory, the Labor Department is the lead agency. But Labor officials do not issue overseas contracts. That responsibility falls largely to the Pentagon and a handful of other federal agencies such as the State Department.

When the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan started, contracting officers with little experience in war zones began awarding bids to companies that lacked the required insurance.

The ProPublica review identified five companies that either did not purchase the required insurance, or which purchased the insurance, and then cancelled it. At least 33 employees have reported serious injuries while working for uninsured companies, according to Labor records.

One company, Strategic Security Solutions, Inc., failed to renew its insurance as recently as last year, according to court records. The company did not return calls for comment.

When companies fail to buy insurance, contractors’ medical care is put at risk.

Typical was the injury sustained by John Mancini, a contract specialist who found a job in Kuwait in 2004 with Procurement Services Associates, a small firm in Pleasanton, Calif., that did bookkeeping for larger contractors in Iraq.

John Mancini. Photo credit: Giulio Sciorio/GiulioSciorio.com

Mancini was on his way home from work in Kuwait City in September 2004 when he was hit from behind by another SUV. Mancini smashed head-on into a concrete freeway barrier. The crash, at speeds of more than 75 miles per hour, totaled both cars. Mancini was left with severe back pain and difficulty walking.

Procurement Services had never purchased Defense Base Act insurance, court records show. Mancini was left to battle the company in Labor Department administrative courts to force them to pay his medical bills. Finally, after nearly two years of frustration and mounting pain, Mancini snapped.

On Oct. 6, 2006, Mancini barricaded himself inside his home outside of Phoenix and began calling 911 [5], making threats and bizarre demands, records show. When local police arrived, Mancini unleashed a barrage of gunfire. After a lengthy stand-off caught live on television, police managed to lure Mancini out of his home.

Mancini pleaded guilty but insane in summer 2007 to charges of endangering police officers and passersby. He was sentenced to 10 years in the Arizona mental hospital. (In August 2006, Mancini filed an affidavit at the request of this reporter as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit to obtain records from the Labor Dept. on injured civilian contractors.) He now spends his days going to therapy and reading books, locked behind high walls.

“It was against everything that I stand for,” Mancini said in a jailhouse interview shortly before being sent to the hospital. “It’s not like I’m a crazed maniac. I don’t shoot at police.”

Mancini and his family believed the standoff would not have happened, had Mancini been able to get help earlier [6].

Mancini’s neck continues to bother him, and he is scheduled for surgery next year. Taxpayers will foot the bill, although the injury stems from his work accident, said his ex-wife, Susan Mancini. Mancini hopes to petition for an early release, but he has no home to return to. Earlier this year, his house burned down in a case of unsolved arson.

“You hear about veterans’ mental health all the time. These poor contractors end up with nothing,” said his ex-wife, Susan Mancini. “To me, that’s a crime.”

Scofflaws Run Free

In an interview at his company’s offices in Pleasanton, Dan Plute, the president of Procurement Services, acknowledged that his company had not purchased Defense Base Act insurance.

Plute said he was unfamiliar with the law since his firm had not worked overseas before Iraq. Procurement Services paid some of Mancini’s medical bills, but stopped after a doctor hired by the company found that Mancini was fit to return to work, Plute said.

Plute accused Mancini of exaggerating his injuries to get disability payments. He said the Defense Base Act program was biased against employers.

“I don’t think the judge realizes the misery that his decision put me, my family, my employees through,” he said.

And yet under the law, Plute could have been charged with a federal misdemeanor or a fine. But Labor officials did not pursue such charges–despite admonitions from one of the department’s own judicial officials.

At a Labor Department hearing just before Mancini snapped, Administrative Law Judge Russell Pulver warned Plute that failure to provide coverage can result in “criminal liability.”

Procurement Services “has consistently shirked its responsibility to [Mancini] to furnish adequate and prompt medical treatment, apparently hoping that someone else will shoulder its responsibilities in this regard,” Pulver wrote. “I find this position untenable, if not outright reprehensible.”

Under the law, Labor officials are required to ask Justice Department prosecutors to pursue charges against company officials who fail to purchase insurance, a misdemeanor that can result in a year in federal prison.

But Justice has historically shown little interest in pursuing such low-level crimes. In a statement, the Labor Department said that since 2001, it had proposed one case to the Justice Department involving a contract company which failed to purchase the required insurance, but the case resolved before any action was taken.

The law “does not provide for fines or penalties except through criminal prosecution by the Department of Justice,” the Labor statement said. “That avenue is currently not available to us.”

Yet even when Labor officials have the power to impose penalties on companies for administrative infractions, such as failing to file timely paperwork, they rarely act, the review found.

Companies are supposed to file a notice with the Labor Department within 10 days of an employee’s injury. But in nearly 7,000 cases, the companies filed those notices more than a year after they had knowledge of the injury, according to an analysis of Labor Dept. records.

Yet the department has only fined only five companies since 2001 for failing to report injuries. “The current system…provides little incentive for enforcement,” the memo by Congressional investigators concluded.

In the U.S., at least the threat of punitive fines and possible criminal charges exists. For a corporation operating abroad, the Labor Dept. has no way to pursue scofflaws. And hundreds of companies contracted to work in Iraq are based overseas.

David Barnett, a Florida attorney who handles injured worker claims, has argued several cases in which foreign firms contracted with the U.S. government failed to purchase insurance. He said foreign companies face little incentive to cover workers since the Labor department does not pursue actions against them.

“If there are no repercussions to not having insurance coverage, why would you do it?” Barnett said. “It’s a huge problem.”

Falsehoods

The Labor Department has not done much better overseeing insurance carriers.

Under the Defense Base Act, it is illegal to intentionally falsify claims information. Violators face five years in prison or a $10,000 fine. Yet the government has rarely enforced the provision, according to interviews and federal records.

Insurance experts and claims attorneys said the lack of enforcement opens the door to abuse by insurance carriers. Civilian contractors have been forced to spend months, and sometimes years trying to get benefits restored after having payments cut on false grounds submitted by carriers, according to court records, injured workers and their attorneys.

Terry Marshall suffered back and hip injuries in May 2005 when he fell from the top of his truck while working for defense contractor KBR at a U.S. base in Iraq.

His hip shattered, he went through years of surgeries and rehabilitation. KBR’s workers compensation carrier, American International Group, faithfully paid Marshall’s medical bills and disability payments.

Then, this March, Marshall was surprised when AIG cut off his disability payments without warning. AIG told the Labor Dept. that Marshall had failed to attend a doctor’s appointment arranged by the firm [7].

The problem? AIG itself had cancelled the appointment, according to an email Marshall received from his case manager [8].

In an Feb. 2009 email, Terry Marshall is informed that AIG has canceled his medical appointment.

In this Mar. 24, 2009 Labor Dept. form, AIG cancels Terry Marshall’s benefits, claiming that he had failed to attend the medical appointment, which they had canceled.

Marshall appealed his case to the Labor Dept., which instructed AIG to reinstate his benefits. “There would appear to be no basis for the employer/carrier to have terminated” benefits, a Labor claims examiner wrote to AIG in April [9].

AIG simply ignored the notice, which carries no legal weight. Marshall is now in the final stages of negotiating a settlement agreement with the carrier.

AIG “can punch in anything it wants, and the Department of Labor accepts it,” said Marshall, 53, of Springville, UT. “I have to go in and prove that I’m innocent.”

AIG declined to respond to questions about individual cases. But the company denied making false statements. It noted that it had never been sanctioned by the Labor Department for such a violation.

“We do not make false statements to the federal government on (Defense Base Act) claims,” the company said in response to written questions. “Our claims personnel are held to the highest standard in handling claims ethically, professionally and fairly.”

Fred Busse

If true, Fred Busse, 44, has a hard time understanding AIG’s handling of his claim. Earlier this year, AIG refused to provide Busse medical and disability payments for a neck injury he suffered while riding in a truck in Iraq in 2007 [10].

Busse “never reported this alleged injury to employer [11],” an AIG attorney told a Labor Department judge to explain why the company was denying the claim.

Yet Busse’s employer, KBR, had sent Busse to a doctor in Kuwait [12] to examine his neck, according to court records. And AIG had sent an investigator to Busse’s house, where Busse recounted his neck injury, records show [10].

Perhaps most puzzling of all, a Labor department judge explicitly noted Busse’s neck injury: Busse “injured his neck in an automobile accident [13],” the judge wrote in a decision involving a separate injury that Busse had suffered.

More than two years after hurting his neck–diagnosed [12] by KBR’s doctors, noted by AIG’s investigators [11] and litigated by a federal judge [14]– Busse finally won his case earlier this month. A Labor department judge ruled that AIG must pay [15] for Busse’s neck treatment and disability wages, records show. “No medical evidence disputes claimant suffered a neck injury during his employment in Iraq for employer,” Judge Clement Kennington wrote in his decision.

“They’re doing this to everybody,” Busse said. “They’re just trying to get rid of you is what they’re doing. Period. They’re trying to dismiss you.”

Gillelan, the former attorney for the Labor Department, said that Labor officials have a duty to report instances of fraud–when committed either by claimants or insurance carriers.

Over the years, however, staff has been cut back and successive Democratic and Republican administrations have emphasized “compliance assistance” over enforcement.

“They no longer have the personnel to be proactive,” Gillelan said. “They can’t even be reactive.”

Hallmark, the Labor official, said that today’s system depends heavily on checks and balances between workers and insurance carriers. Claimants’ attorneys and unions battle in court with insurance carriers, employers and their attorneys.

“This is an insurance-driven program. It presumes that the parties have access to the mechanisms for resolving disputes,” he said.

Hallmark acknowledged, however, that Iraq and Afghanistan lack the components which help protect worker rights. There are no unions for contract employees. Nor are there many attorneys who specialize in Defense Base Act cases.

“There are limits to what we can actually do in a foreign location that’s in the middle of a war,” Hallmark said.

Richard Philemon

Richard Philemon learned about the Labor department’s limits the hard way. He was driving a fuel truck for KBR in northern Iraq in October 2006 when he was hit by a roadside bomb. He jumped out of the burning truck, his face, chest and arms on fire.

“I looked like a Roman candle,” Philemon said. “I was surrounded by flames.”

After returning to the U.S. for initial treatment for his burns, Philemon flew back to the Philippines, his home. He repeatedly asked to be treated at Filipino medical centers. AIG adjusters told him he had to return to the U.S., but never paid for his flights, court records show.

After several trips to the U.S., Philemon decided to start treatment in the Philippines. In September 2007, he began seeing a rehabilitation specialist and a psychiatrist, who diagnosed him as suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. He also hired an attorney to force AIG to pay for his care in the Philippines.

Three months later, AIG cut off his disability and medical benefits. The company told the government that Philemon had “apparently abandoned medical care,” according to federal records–even though Philemon was seeing doctors regularly.

Philemon spent the next year living off money from relatives as he waited for his case to wind through the system. Finally, this February, a judge ordered AIG to pay Philemon’s disability, starting from the cut off date in December 2007.

“We put our lives in danger for our military. We supply them with water, food, ammunition, housing. And yet, we’re screwed,” said Philemon, an Air Force veteran. “I almost give my life for my country and I get treated like dirt?

“Something’s not right with that picture,” he said.

Write to T. Christian Miller at T.Christian.Miller@propublica.org

Food for thought all of you injured contractors who have been denied by AIG and CNA.  We’ve been saying all along that these denials are criminal.

How many of you continue to be sent to Houston (from out of state to boot!) to see AIG’s hired guns for DME’s,  that they misleadingly call IME”s, over and over again?  Why would you travel out of state to do this when common sense and the law do not require you to leave your geographic area (50 miles).  Why do your lawyers suggest that you do?

Only the DoL can arrange an IME, an Independent Medical Examination.  If the insurance company, their claims adjuster, or their lawyer arranges it it is called a Defense Medical Examination.  Nothing Independent about it.

How have so many contractors lost their claims due to testimony by Dr. Griffith?

Another one from Worker’s Comp Insider

Racketeering and Comp:  When the Denial of an Injury is an Injury

Imagine you work as a commercial driver for a long-established trucking firm that self-insures for workers comp. You are injured on the job. You seek benefits under the comp statute. The TPA handling the claim refers you to a company doctor. The doctor determines that the injury is not work related. The adjuster for the TPA denies the claim. End of story?

Not quite. What if you shared your story with five other employees, all of whom filed comp claims, all of whom saw the same doctor (a family practitioner), with the same result: claim denied by the same adjuster at the TPA? A coincidence or a conspiracy?

Five employees of Cassens Transport in Michigan concluded that there was a conspiracy to deny their claims. They filed suit in federal court, alleging a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”). A district court dismissed their claims, finding that their individual claims did not constitute a “pattern” of activity and that invocation of the RICO statute would violate the McCarren-Ferguson Act by interfering with state regulation of insurance.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit reviewed the case and overturned the district court’s ruling. Now the U.S. Supreme Court, by declining to get involved, has upheld the Appeals Court. The Appeals ruling is a fascinating document which explores the nature and definition of racketeering, the relationship of workers comp benefits to insurance and the roles of state and federal governments. It’s required reading for attorneys and highly recommended for all others.

Criminal Acts?
The district court has been ordered to reconsider the allegations. The five Cassens drivers allege that Cassens, their self-insured employer, Tina Litwiller, a claims adjuster for the TPA Crawford and Co., and Dr. Saul Margules conspired to deny their comp claims. (While you might expect Dr. Margules to be board certified in occupational medicine, he appears to be a family practitioner.) The Appeals Court does not address the substance of the allegations: it simply rules that denial of the workers comp claims might involve a violation of the RICO statute and thus is appropriate fodder for the federal courts.

Some folks are alarmed that the feds are getting involved in what is usually a state issue. That might be a problem, but let’s not lose sight of the delicious prospect before us. During the course of the new hearings, plaintiff attorneys will seek access to some fascinating communication records: between Cassen and Crawford, detailing the status of individual claims; Ms. Litwiller’s claim notes; and communications between Crawford and Dr. Margules, who had so much difficulty finding a connection between a given injury and work. As much as I enjoyed the Appeals Court’s discussion, I am really looking forward to the nitty-gritty details of the proceedings in the district court. (You don’t suppose that some of the written and electronic communications have disappeared, do you?)

At heart, this is a very serious matter. The five employees allege that they have been unlawfully denied the protection of Michigan’s workers comp law through a conspiracy of company, TPA and doctor. If the allegations are proven, if the accused violated the RICO statute, they will face the consequences of a criminal conspiracy. In the Insider’s burgeoning annals of fraud – employee, employer, attorney, doctor, agent, insurer – this case will surely offer one of the more compelling narratives

Have you heard about climategate? I think it’s gonna shake the rational foundation of science quite a bit, not just for the climate talk, but for all things science. People in America were already reluctant to ‘believe’ in science, now it’s just ridiculous to them.

Sign up for Daily email and feed at etfdesk.com

Today’s market-moving headlines, macro trade ideas and more…

• BofA/ML : Ten Investment Themes For 2010
• Ken Rogoff: Housing, Unemployment Will Get Worse Before They Get Better
• Mexico hedges against falling oil prices
• Collapse In Tax Withholdings Refutes Improvements In Either Unemployment Or Corporate Profitability
• Dubai debt concerns spread beyond Dubai World
• Ben Bernanke, Treasury Salesman
• Paulson taking the long view on market
• Mexico hedges against falling oil prices

The U.S. Department of Labor is centralizing the prevailing wage determination procedure effective January 1, 2010.  This applies to programs including, but not limited to, H-1B, H-1B1, H-1C, H-2B, E-3, and permanent labor certification  cases.  When the centralized process starts January 1, 2010, it will likely be only physical mailing of wage determination requests.  No fax or e-filing is available until Dept of Labor further notifies.  Physical mailing of prevailing wage requests is probably going to result in delays with increased case load at the national center as well as physical mailing back/forth.

The Department of Labor published its Regulatory Semiannual Agenda of Regulations Dec. 7. It includes some target dates for proposals. For example, page 49 suggests that silica proposed rule will come out in July of 2010

http://www.dol.gov/asp/regs/unifiedagenda/fall_2009_agenda.pdf#OSHA

For the latest news on Mr. T’s classroom, follow us at Twitter.

There will be no testing this week. Our Friday testing moves to Tuesday, December 15.

Thursday and Friday are crazy this week. Here goes:

• Science Fair. It’s this Thursday. Click here for the last minute details.
• Rocket Works. It’s this Friday morning. It’s a free in-school field trip. Here is the scoop.
• Market Day. It’s on Friday afternoon. Here are the details.

Download the “Weeks 17 and 18 for Parents” .zip file here from YouSendIt. It contains the:

• Open Court vocabulary words (the story is not available online)
• Mr. T’s spelling list
• DOL (daily oral language) answer key

–Download a .zip file unpacker here (most computers will open this file automatically when you click on it. If not, you can find one here)

Math 5. Problem sets 58 – 61 will be due as homework this week. They should have plenty of time in class to complete homework. They will not test this week.

Daily Oral Language (DOL). Students edit two or three sentences daily in class and will test on some of the same sentences next Tuesday, December 15. Additionally, students will edit two similar sentences weekly for a quiz grade (to see if they can apply their newfound editing knowledge).

Spelling. Every student has a spelling list at their individual spelling level as determined by their Morrison-McCall test results (several kids spell well beyond the fourth grade age level). A copy of their list is sent home in their Monday Folder and a duplicate list kept at school.

Vocabulary. All students take a five word vocabulary test next Tuesday, December 15.

Shurley Grammar. Students will continue classifying “Pattern 2″ sentences and working with vocabulary.

The U.S. Department of Labor has posted an updated version of its popular Employment Law Guide, an online publication that describes the major employment laws administered by the Department.

The Employment Law Guide helps workers and employers understand many of the laws affecting the workplace, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act.  It provides workers and their representatives with information on worker rights and responsibilities under federal employment laws and helps small businesses develop wage, benefit, safety and health, and nondiscrimination policies.      The Employment Law Guide is a companion to the department’s FirstStep Employment Law Advisor, an online system that allows employers to quickly determine which federal employment laws apply to them by answering a few simple questions.  Together, the updated Employment Law Guide and the FirstStep Employment Law Advisor can help employers and workers ensure safe and fair workplace policies and practices.

Links:

• U.S. Department of Labor News Release: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/asp/oasp20091467.htm
• Employment Law Guide: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/guide/index.htm
• FirstStep Employment Law Advisor: http://www.dol.gov/elaws/FirstStep/

This from ABC – American Builders & Contractors:

The Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division Nov. 19 announced it added 250 new investigators to examine employment law violations, including minimum wage or overtime violations, as well as misclassification of employees as exempt or independent contractors.

The additional investigators were added in response to a Government Accountability Office report that found the Wage and Hour division frequently responded inadequately to complaints.

In response to the same report, the Internal Revenue Service said it will begin conducting audits of 6,000 companies in February 2010 with the goal of reducing the number of misclassified independent contractors in addition to expanding revenue.

The audits will include line-by-line reviews of employment tax returns and related documents and will initially focus on four targeted areas: payroll taxes, independent contractor status, fringe benefits; and executive compensation.  Companies will be selected at random and will be audited at the rate of 2,000 each year for three years.

For more information on the IRS audits, click here.

Here are a few shots from Serissa’s first Birthday Party:

Serissa and Mommy

Serissa's Dol Table with the Hanmade Dol Go-Ims

Serissa and Daddy

Choosing the Musical Instrument at her Doljabi

For all the photos from Serissa’s Birthday please visit our Flickr Photo Page.

Some info on traditional Korean Parties:
Blog Link
Wikipedia Info on Doljanchi with References

Welcome to our new DBA Forum

We’re no Lexis Nexis but we’re free and we’ll do our best to keep you informed on whats going on behind the scenes with DBA claims in the Department of  Labor’s Administrative Law System

Misjudgements

Today we have what appears to be another case of an Administrative Law Judge trying to change the law against the contractor.

This case also provides some interesting insight into payroll and safety practices KBR and Halliburton have been accused of indulging in.

“Claimant raised concerns regarding the computation of his pay, the adequacy of the employer-provided living quarters, and safety issues involving the manner in which electrical work was being performed.

Claimant stated that he was instructed by employer’s security personnel to get into a military vehicle.
Claimant stated that he refused to do as instructed because he did not think the trip to BAB was safe.  After two MPs arrived, the IG intervened but ultimately turned the situation back over to them, leading to repeated requests that claimant get into the vehicle.
Claimant’s continued refusal to do as asked prompted the MPs to take action. As one MP handcuffed claimant’s hands behind his back, the second attempted to put claimant into body armor. Claimant repeatedly resisted the MP’s efforts, and stated that before he knew it, he was on the ground. The MPs then pulled claimant up from the ground, placed him into the vest, and put him into the vehicle. At that time, he was driven to Camp Phoenix, where he immediately informed the MPs that his neck, shoulder and wrist were hurting. He was treated at employer’s clinic for these injuries.“

The players:  Halliburton, AIG, an injured contractor

http://www.dol.gov/brb/decisions/lngshore/published/07-0810.pdf

As the administrative law judge’s denial of benefits
relied on his findings that claimant was at fault, or that the injury-causing incident did not directly involve employer or its personnel, it is in error. Given the totality of the administrative law judge’s discussion, it is apparent that his conclusion that claimant’s injuries are not within the scope of employment was inappropriately influenced by those determinations.

For the latest news on Mr. T’s classroom, follow us at Twitter.

Market Day. It’s the day after the Science Fair. I know you want to string us up, but it’s the favorite event of many students during their stay in Fourth Grade. So, here are the details.

The fourth grade website is NOT operable. I had to change hosting sites recently and it does not work. So here’s the fix:

–Download the “Revised Week 16 for Parents” .zip file here from YouSendIt. It contains the:

• Open Court vocabulary words (the story is not available online)
• Mr. T’s spelling list
• DOL (daily oral language) practice sheet and answer key
• Shurley Grammar study guide for my class (we are starting “Pattern 2″ sentences this week)
• Science Fair Information Packet
• Student Science Fair Notebook
• Mrs. Waide’s newsletter and spelling list

–Download a .zip file unpacker here (most computers will open this file automatically when you click on it. If not, you can find one here)

Science Fair. Science fair materials can be viewed and downloaded here (look in the lower right hand corner under “Science Fair”). These are the remaining assignments:

Math 5. Problem sets 54 – 57 will be due as homework this week. They should have plenty of time in class to complete homework. They will test this Friday.

Daily Oral Language (DOL). Students edit two or three sentences daily in class and will test on some of the same sentences this Friday. Additionally, students will edit two similar sentences weekly for a quiz grade (to see if they can apply their newfound editing knowledge).

Spelling. Every student has a spelling list at their individual spelling level as determined by their Morrison-McCall test results (several kids spell well beyond the fourth grade age level). A copy of their list is sent home in their Monday Folder and a duplicate list kept at school.

Vocabulary. All students take a five word vocabulary test each Friday.

Shurley Grammar. Students will test this week in addition to classifying “Pattern 2″ sentences and working with vocabulary.

On his first full day in office, January 21, 2009, President Obama issued a memorandum to the heads of all departments and agencies on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The President directed that FOIA “should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails.” Moreover, the President instructed agencies that information should not be withheld merely because “public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears.”

Agencies were directed to respond to requests “promptly and in a spirit of cooperation.” The President also called on agencies to “adopt a presumption in favor of disclosure” and to apply that presumption “to all decisions involving [the] FOIA.” This presumption of disclosure includes taking “affirmative steps to make information public,” and utilizing “modern technology to inform citizens about what is known and done by their Government.”

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• Feds Demand Over Half A Million Dollars To Fulfill A Freedom Of Information Act Request (techdirt.com)

te encontré en una casa prestada siglos después: el mundo era otro mundo ya y tú parecías habitar otro mundo también. pero te acercaste y me dijiste: habría sido maravilloso que nos conociéramos antes. y después dijiste: nos habríamos casado, tendríamos hijos… qué te hubiera gustado tener, dijiste, ¿niño o niña? mejor no pensemos en eso, te dije. entonces respondiste, y tu voz te devolvía al mundo aquel que tuvimos tú y yo en la madrugada del tiempo: yo siempre pensaré en eso. en la ventana pegaban unas gotas enormes de lluvia. era como si dios las estuviera lanzando contra nosotros.

* * *

download : yousendit
dol : lara antipova

{hat tip: jorge pedro}