Another example of how the corporations loot, pillage...

[newswolf56]

and weasel out of the consequences, all the more infuriating since now -- thanks to Bush -- individuals aren't allowed bankruptcy protection any more. Here's a story from The News Tribune, Tacoma, to make your blood boil:

Asarco’s bankruptcy filing has put more than $2 million in payments to neighbors of the former Ruston smelter on hold.

(cut)

The money is owed to about 7,500 householders who previously received checks from the 1995 settlement of the class-action lawsuit, Concannon said.

The smelter, the focus of a federal Superfund cleanup, produced copper for nearly a century before shutting down in 1985. During that time, it sullied the air and surrounding area with toxic contaminants, principally lead and arsenic.

(cut)

“A lot of people got sick here and died of cancer,” said Mineo, who also blames the smelter emissions for his wife’s asthma. “They should compensate for all this illness and health hazard.”

(more)

Full text at:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/5277714p-4789266c.html

The reporter's story is so gently worded it is an especially blatant example of how corporate media panders to and protects corporate interests: TNT is owned by the viciously anti-worker McClatchey chain.

Among the horrors the story conveniently (and predictably) omits is the fact that Asarco's poisoning of the environment is of such toxic magnitude it is not safe to eat vegetables grown anywhere in the city of Tacoma, thereby effectively prohibiting all urban gardening. Nor is it safe to build a children's playground in Tacoma without first replacing the soil, by some accounts to a depth of 10 feet.

[marmar]

1. Infuriating indeed...

Eventually, there's going to be some kind of revolution. There has to be. No control at all over corporations is what this administration and his corporate masters want. Some of these industries need to be brought back into the public realm.

[OneBlueSky]

2. campaign slogan . . .

"Restoring Citizen Authority Over Corporations"

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/