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July 2, 2008
Let's Not Forget DuPont
Under Andrew's post "RI Supreme Court Overturns Lead-Paint Verdict", commenter Greg brings up the unwritten agreement - don't call it a "settlement" - by which R.I. Attorney General Patrick Lynch excused DuPont paint from his lawsuit and the potential of a very expensive verdict.
While Attorney General Lynch said of the settlement in July, 2005 that details of exactly how the money will be spent will be worked out later (is it later yet?), the proposal was for $1,000,000 of it to go to Brown University at the specific request of Mr. Lynch. The bulk of the money - $9,000,000 - was to go to a non-profit called the Children's Health Forum. However,
On closer scrutiny, the Children's Health Forum turns out to have extensive ties to the giant chemical company; per the AP, "It was founded by a lawyer hired by DuPont to work on lead poisoning issues; it received most of its funding from the Wilmington, Del.-based company and most of its board members have ties to DuPont."
Possibly some points to raise when, following upon yesterday's verdict by the R.I. Supreme Court, the Attorney General's office starts making "at least we salvaged $12,000,000 from this case" noises.
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Monique - Not to correct you twice in as many days, but you should really do more research before posting on subjects of which you are unfamiliar.
You ask, "(is it later yet?)" in reference to how the Dupont money will be spent. Yet, the distribution of over $1.2 million of the Dupont money was already announced last December.
More details on a reputable RI blog
http://www.rifuture.org/showDiary.do?diaryId=915
:-)
Posted by: Matt Jerzyk at July 2, 2008 12:50 PMWe all make mistakes. Monique gets alot more right than wrong. Whereas, 99.44% of the stuff on RI Future is garbage.
On the subject of Patrick Lynch, read the articles on this following website:
http://PatrickLynchSucks.com
Posted by: Citizen Critic at July 2, 2008 1:48 PMThank you, Matt J. In view of both the Attorney General's contemporaneous, alarming comments about working out the details later and his failure to get the settlement ... er, agreement with DuPont in writing, I am pleased to learn that amounts have been definitively committed to.
Posted by: Monique at July 2, 2008 10:46 PMCommitting to amounts being supposedly paid - - is not, being actually paid. Also, if this nonprofit group is heavily linked to the Lead Paint companies, who's to say if the money will ever make it to the account and then channeled to the children versus back to the Lead Paint Companies.
"Wall Street Journal Condemns Cronyism, Corruption in RI AG Office"...
Matt, you haven't convinced me the money will ever get to the children. The AG is going to oversee the whimpy slap these folks are making to this Children's Fund?
Posted by: Suzanne Arena at July 5, 2008 11:49 PM