In late summer–and with much fanfare–it looked like Congress and the Department of Education would finally address the outrageous abuses of bad actors in the for-profit education sector. Predictably, the pace has slowed to a crawl, with Department of Education delaying the promulgation of regulations. Do you need to… Continue Reading →
So there are many advantages to chasing KBR witnesses around the globe. One is getting out to see new and different places. And that’s part of my mantra as I get oriented on the ground in Doha. I left Portland Friday morning our time, and traveled for about 24 hours,… Continue Reading →
Today’s Oregonian includes this thoughtful editorial about what is at stake in our on-going case against KBR for Oregon National Guard Soldiers. I have to agree with the editorial board that what is at issue is more than whether and how KBR will be required to repair the damage… Continue Reading →
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D. Or.) has done his part to get to the bottom of the sad story of Oregon National Guard soldiers exposed to toxic chemicals at the KBR Qarmat Ali facility. Rep. Blumenauer previously asked the Secretary of Defense to provide information about the agreements–both for KBR and… Continue Reading →
The Government Accounting Office released its report today, GAO Report For Profit Colleges (pdf), highlighting a number of abuses by for-profit trade schools. The GAO engaged in undercover testing to ferret out the fraud and abuse in for-profit admissions and lending. Pretty scary stuff. The GAO Report notes that… Continue Reading →
Kind of excited to see that the Oregon Consumer web page has gotten its sea legs and is publishing. Here is the link for some interesting information on a wide range of consumer issues. I’ll be monitoring and noting some of their published reports. My hope is… Continue Reading →
I’m at home this evening with two computers going side by side. On the desktop, I have a several thousand page PDF of Army FOIA documents open, as I wade through KBR discovery. My laptop is up with a running digest of the interesting tidbits. It’s my own odd-duck style… Continue Reading →
Yes, I’m going to name names here. That’s how we do things. But before I start throwing the dirt, I want to be clear about what they’ve done. Last week, a case I’ve been working on–Bixby v. KBR–got a lot of press. This is the Oregon National… Continue Reading →
Mike Doyle and I were in court this morning fighting off more KBR motions. The KBR defendants asked Judge Papak to prohibit us from taking discovery because–according to KBR–their motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction required no discovery. They also asked Judge Papak to prohibit discovery until… Continue Reading →
This is an update on our case, Bixby v. KBR, U.S. District Court Case No. CV 09-632-PK (D. Or.). In the case, soldiers serving in the Oregon National Guard claim that KBR defendants are responsible for their exposures to hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxic chemical. The soldiers claim that KBR… Continue Reading →