Homeowners living in houses with suspect Chinese drywall are already in a bind: Their air conditioners stop working, a rotten-egg smell permeates their homes, they suffer a litany of health problems including troubled breathing, nosebleeds and headaches.
Now, some of them could lose their property insurance coverage.
Hundreds of homeowners jammed a meeting in Mandeville City Hall on Wednesday night to figure out what to do about Chinese drywall in their homes.
The forum, organized by state Sens. Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, and A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, had a line snaking outside the door with people from as far away as Baton Rouge. After efforts to move to a community center failed, Quinn held back-to-back meetings to try to squeeze people into City Hall in shifts. A police officer estimated the crowd at 500.
MANDEVILLE, La. -- Hundreds of people caught in the growing contaminated drywall problem packed the Mandeville City Hall Wednesday night.
Thousands of people statewide, many of them on the Northshore, are frustrated and angry that they're trying to survive and cope in homes built with contaminated drywall, and few know where to turn.
MANDEVILLE, La. – A colossal crowd unsuccessfully tried to squeeze inside of the Mandeville City Council chambers, eager to get answers on what to do about their contaminated Chinese drywall.
The unexpected overflow painted a grim reality in the New Orleans metro area—an immense population victimized by toxic drywall.
Hundreds of homeowners jammed a meeting in Mandeville City Hall on Wednesday night to figure out what to do about Chinese drywall in their homes. The forum, organized by state Sens. Julie Quinn, R-Metairie, and A.G. Crowe, R-Slidell, had a line snaking outside the door with people from as far away as Baton Rouge. After efforts to move to a community center failed, Quinn held back-to-back meetings to try to squeeze people into City Hall in shifts. A police officer estimated the crowd at 500.
When Peter Means returned to graduate school after a career as a civil servant, he turned to a debit card to help him spend his money more carefully.
So he was stunned when his bank charged him seven $34 fees to cover seven purchases when there was not enough cash in his account, notifying him only afterward. He paid $4.14 for a coffee at Starbucks — and a $34 fee. He got the $6.50 student discount at the movie theater — but no discount on the $34 fee.
MIAMI, FL - Alters Law Firm, P.A. today announced that the firm has been appointed to provide international general counsel services to the Province of Buenos Aires, as stated by a decree signed late last week by Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires Daniel Scioli. Alters Law Firm also announced that Daniel Korn will head the firm's Buenos Aires office, largely dedicated to supporting Argentina-US government and private interests.
Since 2006, new homeowners in 23 states have been suffering from what they say are odorous batches of corrosive drywall that were imported from China and used by U.S home builders.
On the outside, they are new and sunny looking. On the inside, they are strange-smelling and rotting. These are the thousands of new houses built in the United States within the past few years that owners allege may contain yet another problem export from China: bad drywall.
MIAMI - Georgetown University student Melanie Garcia became alarmed last summer when her Wachovia branch in Miami Springs charged her two overdraft fees for covering debit card transactions with insufficient funds in her account.
Garcia then discovered something peculiar about her purchases. At least four transactions were held for three days, and a check with the highest amount was processed first, depleting her account when smaller and earlier transactions could have been processed without a fee.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara's famous beret is gone. His iconic beard is filthy and matted against skeletal cheekbones. Bushy eyebrows arch over his half-open eyes.
As a Bolivian country surgeon methodically saws off his lifeless hands, Che appears vaguely amused.
Gustavo Villoldo, a stocky figure in green Army fatigues, stands just inside the tiny laundry room where the Cuban revolutionary's corpse rests atop a sink. For five months, the CIA operative led soldiers hunting Guevara through the rough crags and valleys of southern Bolivia. Less than 24 hours ago, his team captured and executed him in the village of La Higuera and then brought his body here to Vallegrande.
MIAMI HERALD - Broward homeowners who have discovered that defective imported drywall is damaging their homes could be eligible for a break on their property tax bills this year.
Homeowners who have documentation that the presence of defective Chinese drywall triggered an insurance claim, a request for assistance from a mortgage company, a lawsuit, or have other paperwork showing the problem exists could see reduced home values, said Ron Gunzburger, general counsel for the Broward property appraiser's office.
MANATEE - A Lakewood Ranch homeowner's lawsuit over Chinese drywall and nine other similar class-action lawsuits filed elsewhere will be consolidated into one case in Louisiana, a panel of federal judges ruled Monday.
The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation said the 10 drywall cases, including Kristin Culliton's, will be handled and tried in New Orleans. The seven-member panel also appointed U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon to preside over the consolidated case.
MIAMI June 8, 2009 - Alters Law Firm has been selected for the 2009 Miami Award in the Local Business category.
Each year, The Miami Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.
MIAMI (AP) - A judge on Friday awarded more than $1 billion in damages against the Cuban government for the 1959 suicide of the father of a Cuban-American man who was involved in the CIA-backed capture and killing of revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
MIAMI, FL - Miami-Dade Judge Peter Adrien awarded $1.179 billion to two Cuban brothers, Gustavo and Alfredo Villoldo, to pay damages for the wrongful death of their father, Cuban businessman Gustavo Villoldo Argilagos. The judge found the defendants, Fidel Castro Ruz, Raul Castro Ruz, Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Cuban Ministry of Interior, the Army of the Republic of Cuba, and the Republic of Cuba, guilty of inflicting intentional emotional distress upon Villoldo Argilagos, ultimately causing him to commit suicide.
Miami Herald - There's something rotten in Homestead.
It's the odor in Jason and Melissa Harrell's house, which was built with defective, Chinese-made drywall redolent of strong paint or rotten eggs. The smell got so bad that the Harrells felt forced to move. They now pay rent on top of their mortgage.
Miami Herald - In what is considered the largest civil judgment against the Cuban government, a Miami-Dade judge on Friday awarded more than $1 billion to a Miami man who blamed Fidel Castro and his Cuban revolutionary sidekick Che Guevara for his father's suicide in 1959.
Los Angeles Times (AP) - A judge on Friday awarded more than $1 billion in damages against the Cuban government for the 1959 suicide of the father of a Cuban-American man who was involved in the CIA-backed capture and killing of revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.
MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida judge awarded nearly $1.2 billion on Friday to a Cuban American former CIA operative who hunted revolutionary Che Guevara, in a lawsuit he brought against Cuba over the suicide death of his father. The award eclipses past judgments against the Cuban government handed down by courts in Miami, the heart of Cuban exile opposition to the island's communist leadership. But it was not immediately clear if the judgment could be collected.
Miami New Times - First Fidel Castro's cronies took his father's car dealership. Then, they took his father's life. Now, Gustavo Villoldo has a legal verdict for $1 billion against El Commandante himself. And he fully intends to collect, as crazy as it sounds.
It all started with a whiff of sulphur. In the home of Kathy Foster and Drew Rohnke, and in some of the other houses throughout their two-year-old subdivision in Boynton Beach, Fla., the smell was noxious -- like a box of lit matches, or rotten eggs. Not to mention that their new air conditioning unit quit working -- more than once. That's when Foster and Rohnke began to realize that something eating away at their $750,000 home, from the inside out.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency has found suspect materials in a small sampling of Chinese-made drywall, adding weight to fears that the house-building staple may be causing corrosion in homes and possibly sickening people in several states, a report released Tuesday said.
DALLAS, May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Dallas-based law firm, Baron & Budd, P.C., today announces its partnership with Miami-based Alters Law Firm, P.A., in an effort to represent a growing number of homeowners suffering the effects of Chinese-manufactured drywall.
There's something lurking in the walls of thousands of beautiful new homes and it stinks.
So what's causing the stench? It's the walls themselves. The drywall, also known as plasterboard, was imported from China.
Some health officials suspect the drywall from China is contaminated with dangerous chemicals. When exposed to heat and humidity, it emits sulfur gases. It causes plugs to turn black, wires to corrode, and appliances and lights to stop working and nearly every ounce of copper in the home turns black.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating whether drywall made in China may be emitting toxic gases. Most materials used to build or remodel homes are made in the United States, but the building boom and Hurricanes Katrina and Wilma caused building material shortages. That's when some builders started buying up Chinese-made drywall.
Knauf brand drywall is now at the center of several lawsuits alleging that it emits gases that harm household systems and may be dangerous to your health.
Real estate agent Felix Martinez thought he'd found his dream house when he bought the 3,500-square-foot beauty in Homestead, Fla., two years ago.
Then, he says, his large-screen TV mysteriously failed. Next, the air conditioner went. His bath towels smelled like rotten eggs. Visitors noted an odor in the house. Martinez says he's suffered new sinus problems and sleep apnea. His wife and son sneeze a lot.
The walls in the home, a recently filed class-action lawsuit alleges, were built with the same kind of Chinese-made drywall that tests have shown emit sulfur gases that corrode copper coils and electrical and plumbing components.
Prominent appellate attorney Bruce Rogow will join Miami plaintiff firm Alters Law as special counsel.
He will be handling appellate work for the firm and provide trial support, said firm founder Jeremy Alters. Rogow will continue to work on some of his own cases and teach at Nova Southeastern University's law school.
Sasha Herrera and her fiancé Giancarlo "J.C." Squicimari were spending a few relaxing days at the Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach last Memorial Day weekend, seven months before they were to be married.
They were on the beach with friends when they heard a woman screaming.
The woman's two young daughters were struggling in the ocean - one farther out and in danger of drowning. Squicimari and his friend jumped into the water.
What makes for cutting-edge décor in a law office? A reception area with sharks frolicking in an oversize tank? The offices of Alters Law Firm, in Miami's Design District, are not that extreme, but they are pretty neat. Surfboards line the hall; comforting throws suitable for wrapping oneself in are tossed over sofas and chairs, right.
WSVN -- Cynthia Turner was alone, driving down Interstate 95, the first time she received a body-rocking shock.
Cynthia Turner: "All of a sudden, it was like lightning came and bam, my whole body jumped. I had to hit the brakes really fast."
She'd recently had a defibrillator implanted to kick start her heart into perfect rhythm, but now it was striking her with electrifying force.
Ruth Hudge had a pacemaker implanted at Parkway Regional Medical Center on March 15, 2004, after complaining of chest pains.
The complaint claimed a pacemaker wire tore a hole in her heart, which led to internal bleeding that caused a neuro-psychological brain injury and cardiac arrest. Hudge suffered from a cardiac tamponade, a disorder in which the sac encasing the heart fills with fluid and prevents the ventricles from pumping out oxygen-rich blood, increasing the risk of a cardiac arrest.
