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| Bubbles User ID: 868552  Canada01/23/2010 10:24 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:28 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Funeralgate The Skeleton in Bush's Closet that won't go away See Fox News: Gruesome Photos, Video Show Bodies Discarded in Woods Behind Cemetery [link to www.foxnews.com] Here's a new chapter in an old scandal involving a Bush contributor and longtime family friend, Robert Waltrip. This time it's the desecration of dead bodies, and George W. Bush is directly linked to this scandal (as is former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, GW's Chief of Staff while governor of Texas). According to Fox News, Waltrip's company, a cemetery company called Service Corporation International (also known as Dignity Memorial) was "recycling" graves, removing the bodies that were there originally and throwing them in the woods to use the space to house new customers at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida. Bush's connection to the story is that he was subpoenaed in 1999 but refused to testify in a lawsuit by an ousted Texas state employee as to what his involvement was in halting an investigation into SCI's embalming practices, among other things. This was a big Texas scandal for our president at the time, but as you will learn from this Washington Post article dated August 31, 1999, a Texas judge put everything right for then-governor Bush, just in time to campaign for the Presidency. Taxpayers of the state of Texas and SCI settled the lawsuit for $210,000 on November 9, 2001, weeks before the gruesome discovery made at two cemeteries in Florida caught the brief attention of the media. From Fox News December 20, 2001 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Attorneys suing a cemetery company accused of recycling graves showed grisly photos and video footage Thursday of crushed burial vaults and human remains discarded in the woods. They also presented internal documents they say show Menorah Gardens & Funeral Chapels in West Palm Beach and its owner, Houston-based Service Corporation International, were aware of the grave desecrations. SCI is the world's largest cemetery company. The attorneys represent 10 families who say their loved ones were dug up and dumped in the woods, buried in the wrong graves or buried in vaults on top of each other instead of side by side as the families had paid for. More than 1,000 people could become part of the class-action lawsuit, they said. "That body that is placed to rest for eternity is now destroyed, maligned, abused," said attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez. SCI officials did not immediately return a call Thursday but said Wednesday that they had no knowledge of any wrongdoing. The state attorney general's office is investigating Menorah Gardens and four other South Florida cemeteries owned by SCI. A videotape and photos taken by private investigators showed a leg bone beside chunks of a concrete vault, in which coffins are placed. They also show Jewish burial shrouds, and a Star of David next to finger bones. A former cemetery worker led investigators to the remains, attorneys said. Also see: Suicidal Coincidences Related Articles Cemetery manager found dead from apparent suicide State inspecting other SCI cemeteries; plans to sue Menorah Garden's Makeshift Vaults Which Funeral Homes in your area are owned by or are affiliated with SCI? State of Florida sues SCI Families Relate their Suspicions Riled families barred from visiting cemetery Foley Calls for Federal Probe Secrets of the Tomb Secrets of the Tomb: Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power Skull and Bones, the Ivy League, and the Hidden Paths of Power Remarks in the burial book, obtained from former employees, included "no room for spouse," "move Mrs. Kolin" and "dig this grave double deep." Another handwritten note said: "Where are Lippitis and who are Haskells and are they both deceased? Move Haskell marker." The pages show "there are several hundred people who have purchased graves, premium contracts purchased years ago, that do not have a place to be laid to rest," said co-counsel Neal Hirschfeld. Myra Stone of Lake Worth said her parents bought side-by-side graves in 1982. Her father died in 1994, but another man allegedly was buried next to him in her mother's grave. When her mother died last year, the cemetery's operators dug up the man's vault and threw most of his remains in the woods, according to a former employee. "I understand that some of his remains are still in her grave," Stone said. "I am just horrified." The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, seeks unspecified damages. "We've investigated allegations that we thought too heinous to be accurate, too horrible to be true, over the last several years," Hirschfeld said. UPDATES: 9,000 stake settlement claim in Florida Jewish cemetery desecration case Several of the funeral homes being sued for using the Georgia crematory where hundreds of desecrated corpses have been found were owned by SCI. |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:29 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Partners: Related Items On Our Site # Campaign 2000 # Key stories on the 2000 presidential race, including news on Bush # Post Series: The Making of George W. Bush # Early Returns: News from beyond the Beltway Bush Need Not Testify, Judge Rules Texas Gov. George W. Bush Tex. Gov. George W. Bush. (Associated Press) By Paul Duggan Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, August 31, 1999; Page A2 AUSTIN, Aug. 30—A Texas judge ruled today that Gov. George W. Bush cannot be forced to testify in a lawsuit by an ousted state regulatory official who contends she was fired for investigating a funeral home company headed by a Bush political supporter. Sparing Bush what might have been a nagging distraction during his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, state Judge John K. Dietz said the former official, Eliza May, a Democrat, had not produced enough evidence to show that Bush has "unique and superior personal knowledge" that would aid her case. Dietz threw out a subpoena issued by May's lawyers for Bush to give a deposition in the lawsuit. Bush's office applauded the decision, which came after a day-long hearing. "This ruling is an important one for Governor Bush and for future governors because it essentially says that the governor should not be used to generate publicity for lawsuits in which he is not involved," spokesman Ray Sullivan said. Bush, who is not a defendant in the case, has called May's claims "frivolous" and denied knowing about circumstances of her ouster. May, a former treasurer of the Texas Democratic Executive Committee, was fired last February as staff director for the Texas Funeral Service Commission, which regulates the state's funeral industry. The ouster came amid a long-running dispute between her and Robert L. Waltrip, chairman of Houston-based Service Corporation International (SCI), over May's investigation of alleged licensing violations by the company. Waltrip is an old friend of Bush's father, former president George Bush, and SCI's political action committee donated $45,000 to the governor's 1994 reelection campaign, according to a spokesman for the company, which owns more than 3,700 funeral homes, cemeteries and crematoriums worldwide. May, who has sued the commission, Waltrip and SCI, contends she was fired because she resisted pressure from Bush's office to halt her investigation. But the commission said she was ousted because members lost confidence in her and because she allegedly ordered an employee to research SCI's political contributions to Bush and other elected officials. Texas Attorney General John Cornyn (R), who represented Bush at today's hearing, described the subpoena as a "reckless" attempt to pressure the state into a financial settlement by embarrassing the governor politically. "The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn is that this is not a search for the truth," Cornyn told the judge. "This is about harassment. This is about politics." Waltrip, whose company is contesting $450,000 in fines for the alleged licensing violations, has acknowledged complaining to Bush aides. But Waltrip's lawyers said he did not speak with Bush. Cornyn cited a 1995 case in which the Texas Supreme Court held that an employee suing a corporation could not compel the company's top executive to give a deposition without first showing that the executive had "unique and superior personal knowledge" that would aid the plaintiff's case. "The standard should be even higher for the governor," Cornyn said, noting that, on average, 10 lawsuits a day are filed against the state. Seeking to show that Bush was aware of the circumstances surrounding the dispute between May and Waltrip, May's lawyers displayed a recent Newsweek article that quoted Johnnie B. Rogers, an SCI lawyer and lobbyist. The story cites an April 15, 1998, meeting at which Waltrip and Rogers were complaining about the investigation to Bush's then-chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh. Bush happened to be walking by and poked his head in. According to Newsweek, Rogers, in an interview, recalled that Bush said to Waltrip, "Hey Bobby, are those people still messing with you?" May's lawyer argued that the remark suggests Bush was aware of the investigation. But Rogers testified that Newsweek misquoted him, that Bush did not use the word "those." He said the governor made only a general remark, asking, "Are people still messing with you?" He said the question did not imply Bush knew why Waltrip was meeting with Allbaugh, now Bush's presidential campaign manager. |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:30 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Funeral Industry| Funeral News| Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy, Funeral Director Illinois and Virginia. Technorati Tags: blog, burial, burials, dead photo, dump truck, dump truck burials, earthquake, funeral, funeral industry, Funeral News, graves, Haiti, Haiti Earthquake Mass Burials, mass, photo Related posts * Video Haiti Burial| Haitians go to Extremes to avoid Mass Graves-Your Funeral Guy (0) * Help Wanted Funeral Directors in Haiti Quake:Photo Makes You Cry-YourFuneralGuy (1) * Haitian Mass Grave|Funeral Home|Haiti Proper Burial-YourFuneralGuy (0) * Sadly, Horrific Funeral Video From Haiti Earthquake-Your Funeral Guy (0) * US Funeral Directors to Haiti Earthquake Survivors:Let Your Dead rot-YourFuneralGuy (0) Tags: blog, burial, burials, dead photo, dump truck, dump truck burials, earthquake, funeral, funeral industry, Funeral News, graves, Haiti, Haiti Earthquake Mass Burials, |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:47 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | SCI to buy funeral home operator Keystone North America for $208 million Thu Oct 15, 10:44 AM The Canadian Press * Email Story * IM Story * Printable View By The Canadian Press TORONTO - Funeral home operator Keystone North America Inc. (TSX: KNA.TO) has agreed to be taken over by U.S.-based Service Corporation International for $208 million. The Toronto-based company, which operates 199 funeral homes and 15 cemeteries across the United States and Ontario, said Thursday the $8 per share offer represents a 34 per cent premium over its 20-day volume-weighted average share price. Keystone began a strategic review with an eye to putting itself up for sale in May. Its board is recommending the deal with Service Corporation International, or SCI, to shareholders, "as it provides Keystone's shareholders with significant value and liquidity," chairman Lorie Waisberg said in a release. SCI (NYSE: SCI) is North America's largest provider of funeral and cemetery services, with 22,000 employees providing funeral, cremation and cemetery services though a network of more than 2,000 funeral homes and cemeteries. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2010 and requires approval by two-thirds of Keystone's shareholders. It carries a break penalty of $6 million should Keystone accept a superior bid from another party. The agreement also stipulates that Keystone not issue any further dividends after a previously declared dividend payable Thursday. If the deal is not done by the end of next February, "the offer price will be increased by seven cents per share per month beginning on March 1, 2010 until completion," Keystone said. Keystone shares gained $1.30 or 20 per cent to $7.75 in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:48 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | to families Sunday, December 30, 2001 By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer United Airlines Flight 93 slammed into the earth Sept. 11 near Shanksville, Somerset County, at more than 500 mph, with a ferocity that disintegrated metal, bone and flesh. It took more than three months to identify the remains of the 40 passengers and crew, and, by process of elimination, the four hijackers. Those remains were gathered by the FBI and other investigators from the 50-foot-deep pit the Boeing 757 jet gouged in a reclaimed strip mine, and from the woods adjoining the crash site. But searchers also gathered surprisingly intact mementos of lives lost. Those items, such as a wedding ring and other jewelry, photos, credit cards, purses and their contents, shoes, a wallet and currency, are among seven boxes of identified personal effects salvaged from the site. They sit in an El Segundo, Calif., mortuary and will be returned to victims' families in February. "We have some property for most passengers," said Craig Hendrix, a funeral coordinator and a personal effects administrator with Douglass Air Disaster Funeral Coordinators, a company often contacted by airlines after devastating crashes. Hendrix said United Airlines' insurance underwriter hired Douglass on Sept. 12 to handle not only funeral arrangements for the victims but also the return of personal effects. His company also is helping identify the remains and coordinating funeral services for the passengers from the three other airline crashes that day -- United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center; American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the north tower of the World Trade Center; and American Airlines Flight 77, which hijackers flew into the Pentagon. A ring and a badge Since receiving the personal effects of Flight 93 passengers from the FBI in early November, Douglass has been preparing the items for return. For example, about two weeks ago, FBI agents presented the wedding ring and wallet of passenger Andrew Garcia to his wife, Dorothy, in Portola Valley, Calif. But before the FBI delivered the ring to Garcia, which was inscribed with "All my love, 8-2-69," Douglass sent it to a jeweler for cleaning and repair. Around Thanksgiving, Jerry and Beatrice Guadagno of Ewing, N.J., received word that their son Richard's credentials and badge from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been found by the FBI at the crash site. "It was practically intact," Richard's sister, Lori, said of the credentials, which were returned in their wallet. "It just looked like it wasn't damaged or hadn't gone through much of anything at all, which is so bizarre and ironic. "Everything takes on an extra special meaning, especially when there's so little that you have." Hendrix and Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller said for most of the other families, the personal effects and the remains of the crash victims will be returned at the same time in mid-February. "We haven't wanted to bother the families with the return of property without the return of remains," Hendrix said. "The last thing we want is confusion, with them thinking, 'Is this the last thing we're going to get back or is there more?' " The families of college student Toshiya Kuge of Tokyo and computer specialist Waleska Martinez of Jersey City, N.J., already have claimed some of their remains. Miller said Martinez's family took possession of her remains within weeks of the crash -- she was one of the first victims identified -- and Kuge's did the same before Thanksgiving. Miller identified the last of the bodies Dec. 19. He is still doing DNA tests on additional tissue samples. Soon after the crash, the FBI and Miller asked victims' families to fill out forms detailing physical descriptions of relatives on the flight and what jewelry, clothing and personal effects they carried. Hendrix said the personal effects that survived the crash were ejected from the plane at the moment of impact. Garcia received her items early because she had described them in detail to investigators. The Guadagnos surmise they received Richard's credentials early because of his status as a federal employee. In the meantime, Douglass is refurbishing jewelry, straightening credit cards and photos with steam heat, and topically disinfecting most other items. When the FBI releases to Douglass the "unassociated" material gathered from the crash site -- items that haven't been matched to an individual on Flight 93 -- the company will photograph each item and compile a catalog for victims' families. Members can then make claims for items they recognize. Miller said Douglass also was helping with the disposition of unidentifiable remains from the site. Picking up the costs Miller said Douglass had arranged for four funeral homes in Somerset County to put the victims' remains in individual caskets. The cost of the caskets, airline shipping, flowers, limousine rides, the services of the local funeral home, burial, even the purchase of a grave site, if needed, will be paid by Douglass, through United States Aircraft Insurance Group, United Airlines' insurance underwriter, one of the largest and most successful claims organizations in the aviation insurance industry. Hendrix declined to say what his company's fees were. USAIG officials did not return calls. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines to have disaster plans, which include how they deal with affected families. A United Airlines spokesman said it was "common practice" for the airline's insurance underwriter to hire Douglass after a major accident. "They handle most of the major accidents worldwide," said the spokesman, Joe Hopkins. Douglass Air Disaster Funeral Coordinators has been at the scene of dozens of major airline crashes since the 1970s, from the 1977 Canary Islands crash that killed 582 people to the American Airlines Flight 587 crash in Queens, N.Y., on Nov. 12, which killed 265 people. Along with other companies such as Kenyon International Emergency Services in Houston, they handle a wide range of services for airlines, from search and recovery of remains and personal effects to morgue operations and mass interments. One reason Douglass and other companies like it are hired is that airlines hope to minimize the number of lawsuits that families of victims may file in the future. Tom Ellis, a spokesman for the Chicago law firm Nolan Law Group, which handled lawsuits stemming from the crash of U.S. Airways Flight 427 in Hopewell on Sept. 8, 1994, said he objected to the fact that the information gleaned from victims' families by companies such as Douglass is often used by airlines to limit monetary awards that stem from lawsuits. For example, he said, information about a couple's marital problems has been used by airlines in court as an argument for limiting the carrier's financial liability for the surviving spouse's pain and suffering. "When these people are making their notes and doing the tests they need to do," Ellis said, "they're doing it on behalf of the airline. And that information goes on to the liability insurance [company] for the airline. I don't know why they'd need that." Hendrix said his company did not operate like that. "The only thing the insurance carrier wants to know about is the cost involved [of the funerals]," he said. "But we don't get into the intimate details of how or why we're doing something." Hendrix declined to talk about the personal effects that haven't been returned. But Sandy Dahl, wife of Capt. Jason Dahl, hopes her husband's plain gold wedding band is among them. And, more importantly, she said, she hopes workers located the present Dahl's son made for him at age 3. "He took a small box and colored the outside of it," she said. "He put a few rocks in it and called it a Box of Rocks. Jason took it with him every time he flew. He kept it in his flight bag." |
| Anonymous Coward User ID: 872421  Ireland01/23/2010 10:50 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:51 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | to families Sunday, December 30, 2001 By Steve Levin, Post-Gazette Staff Writer United Airlines Flight 93 slammed into the earth Sept. 11 near Shanksville, Somerset County, at more than 500 mph, with a ferocity that disintegrated metal, bone and flesh. It took more than three months to identify the remains of the 40 passengers and crew, and, by process of elimination, the four hijackers. Those remains were gathered by the FBI and other investigators from the 50-foot-deep pit the Boeing 757 jet gouged in a reclaimed strip mine, and from the woods adjoining the crash site. But searchers also gathered surprisingly intact mementos of lives lost. Those items, such as a wedding ring and other jewelry, photos, credit cards, purses and their contents, shoes, a wallet and currency, are among seven boxes of identified personal effects salvaged from the site. They sit in an El Segundo, Calif., mortuary and will be returned to victims' families in February. "We have some property for most passengers," said Craig Hendrix, a funeral coordinator and a personal effects administrator with Douglass Air Disaster Funeral Coordinators, a company often contacted by airlines after devastating crashes. Hendrix said United Airlines' insurance underwriter hired Douglass on Sept. 12 to handle not only funeral arrangements for the victims but also the return of personal effects. His company also is helping identify the remains and coordinating funeral services for the passengers from the three other airline crashes that day -- United Airlines Flight 175, which crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center; American Airlines Flight 11, which hit the north tower of the World Trade Center; and American Airlines Flight 77, which hijackers flew into the Pentagon. A ring and a badge Since receiving the personal effects of Flight 93 passengers from the FBI in early November, Douglass has been preparing the items for return. For example, about two weeks ago, FBI agents presented the wedding ring and wallet of passenger Andrew Garcia to his wife, Dorothy, in Portola Valley, Calif. But before the FBI delivered the ring to Garcia, which was inscribed with "All my love, 8-2-69," Douglass sent it to a jeweler for cleaning and repair. Around Thanksgiving, Jerry and Beatrice Guadagno of Ewing, N.J., received word that their son Richard's credentials and badge from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been found by the FBI at the crash site. "It was practically intact," Richard's sister, Lori, said of the credentials, which were returned in their wallet. "It just looked like it wasn't damaged or hadn't gone through much of anything at all, which is so bizarre and ironic. "Everything takes on an extra special meaning, especially when there's so little that you have." Hendrix and Somerset County Coroner Wallace Miller said for most of the other families, the personal effects and the remains of the crash victims will be returned at the same time in mid-February. "We haven't wanted to bother the families with the return of property without the return of remains," Hendrix said. "The last thing we want is confusion, with them thinking, 'Is this the last thing we're going to get back or is there more?' " The families of college student Toshiya Kuge of Tokyo and computer specialist Waleska Martinez of Jersey City, N.J., already have claimed some of their remains. Miller said Martinez's family took possession of her remains within weeks of the crash -- she was one of the first victims identified -- and Kuge's did the same before Thanksgiving. Miller identified the last of the bodies Dec. 19. He is still doing DNA tests on additional tissue samples. Soon after the crash, the FBI and Miller asked victims' families to fill out forms detailing physical descriptions of relatives on the flight and what jewelry, clothing and personal effects they carried. Hendrix said the personal effects that survived the crash were ejected from the plane at the moment of impact. Garcia received her items early because she had described them in detail to investigators. The Guadagnos surmise they received Richard's credentials early because of his status as a federal employee. In the meantime, Douglass is refurbishing jewelry, straightening credit cards and photos with steam heat, and topically disinfecting most other items. When the FBI releases to Douglass the "unassociated" material gathered from the crash site -- items that haven't been matched to an individual on Flight 93 -- the company will photograph each item and compile a catalog for victims' families. Members can then make claims for items they recognize. Miller said Douglass also was helping with the disposition of unidentifiable remains from the site. Picking up the costs Miller said Douglass had arranged for four funeral homes in Somerset County to put the victims' remains in individual caskets. The cost of the caskets, airline shipping, flowers, limousine rides, the services of the local funeral home, burial, even the purchase of a grave site, if needed, will be paid by Douglass, through United States Aircraft Insurance Group, United Airlines' insurance underwriter, one of the largest and most successful claims organizations in the aviation insurance industry. Hendrix declined to say what his company's fees were. USAIG officials did not return calls. The U.S. Department of Transportation requires airlines to have disaster plans, which include how they deal with affected families. A United Airlines spokesman said it was "common practice" for the airline's insurance underwriter to hire Douglass after a major accident. "They handle most of the major accidents worldwide," said the spokesman, Joe Hopkins. Douglass Air Disaster Funeral Coordinators has been at the scene of dozens of major airline crashes since the 1970s, from the 1977 Canary Islands crash that killed 582 people to the American Airlines Flight 587 crash in Queens, N.Y., on Nov. 12, which killed 265 people. Along with other companies such as Kenyon International Emergency Services in Houston, they handle a wide range of services for airlines, from search and recovery of remains and personal effects to morgue operations and mass interments. One reason Douglass and other companies like it are hired is that airlines hope to minimize the number of lawsuits that families of victims may file in the future. Tom Ellis, a spokesman for the Chicago law firm Nolan Law Group, which handled lawsuits stemming from the crash of U.S. Airways Flight 427 in Hopewell on Sept. 8, 1994, said he objected to the fact that the information gleaned from victims' families by companies such as Douglass is often used by airlines to limit monetary awards that stem from lawsuits. For example, he said, information about a couple's marital problems has been used by airlines in court as an argument for limiting the carrier's financial liability for the surviving spouse's pain and suffering. "When these people are making their notes and doing the tests they need to do," Ellis said, "they're doing it on behalf of the airline. And that information goes on to the liability insurance [company] for the airline. I don't know why they'd need that." Hendrix said his company did not operate like that. "The only thing the insurance carrier wants to know about is the cost involved [of the funerals]," he said. "But we don't get into the intimate details of how or why we're doing something." Hendrix declined to talk about the personal effects that haven't been returned. But Sandy Dahl, wife of Capt. Jason Dahl, hopes her husband's plain gold wedding band is among them. And, more importantly, she said, she hopes workers located the present Dahl's son made for him at age 3. "He took a small box and colored the outside of it," she said. "He put a few rocks in it and called it a Box of Rocks. Jason took it with him every time he flew. He kept it in his flight bag." |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:54 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:57 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | May claimed that current White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales was also complicit in the matter and even helped SCI in a cover-up. Gonzales, who was also Bush's gubernatorial counsel, reportedly received a memo on April 22, 1996, suggesting possible improprieties by two funeral commissioners with ties to SCI....In his interview with Newsweek, Gonzales said such a memo was merely one of many that might have crossed his desk and was otherwise not memorable. In any case, Bush never acted on the memo's recommendations that the SCI affiliated commissioners be removed." "The Federal Emergency Management Agency has hired Kenyon International to set up a mobile morgue for handling bodies in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. Kenyon is a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a scandal-ridden Texas-based company operated by a friend of the Bush family. Recently, SCI subsidiaries have been implicated in illegally discarding and desecrating corpses....Kenyon's original deal was secured by the Department of Homeland Security." |
| Anonymous Coward (OP) User ID: 868552 Canada01/23/2010 10:59 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Tuesday, February 14, 2006 Whittington, Funeralgate and FEMA I'm sure by later today some bloggers and some in the national press might bother to actually gather more background on super-rich attorney Harry Whittington who was shot by Vice President Cheney the other day. Whittington's history with Bush coincides with a grisly graveyard discovery which the Texas press dubbed "Funeralgate" and led to hundreds of millions in fines. Former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh was also a player in this scandal from Bush's days as governor. "Funeralgate" was the name given the case involving the nation's largest funeral service company, SCI, and then Gov Bush was subpoenaed to testify in the case but refused, as was his then chief of staff Allbaugh. Luckily then governor Rick Perry called a halt to the case just in time for W. to begin his campaign for the White House. One story on this part of the case is here. SCI was caught by then Texas funeral service regulator Eliza May after numerous complaints were made against SCI for all kinds of "grave" errors. The company paid $100 million in a class action lawsuit by families for moving bodies into the wrong locations and other "errors". However, the claims were so disturbing and May's actions so bothersome, she was fired from her job, which prompted her to file a suit which was eventually settled out of court.. More details about the cases here. It was in May's case that she alleged Allbaugh and Bush hassled her to drop her claims, but she didn't. And it wasn't long before questions about lying began to emerge. And it was about this time Whittington was appointed the take over SCI and help smother the complaints. SCI had been one of the biggest contributors to the Bush campaign for governor. But, thanks to the help from Allbaugh and Perry, the case was quietly silenced. However, just a few weeks after Whittington took over, it was found that another SCI operation in Florida (the irony is so thick here you can't cut it with a titanium chainsaw) had been playing hide-the-cadaver in Menorah Gardens and dumping the bodies into the woods. "... the plaintiff's attorney said that SCI secretly broke into and opened burial vaults and dumped remains in a wooded area where the remains may have been consumed by wild animals. Additionally, SCI buried "remains in locations other than those purchased by plaintiffs; crushing burial vaults in order to make room for other vaults; burying remains on top of the other rather than side-by-side; secretly digging up and removing remains; secretly burying remains head-to-foot rather than side-by-side; secretly mixing body parts and remains from different individuals; secretly allowing plots owned by one part to be occupied by a different person; secretly selling plots in rows where there were more graves assigned than the rows could accommodate; secretly allowed graves to encroach on other plots; secretly sold plots so narrow that the plots could not accommodate standard burial vaults; secretly participated in the desecration of gravesites and markers and failed to exercise reasonable care in handling the plaintiff's loved ones remains." But the story isn't over yet. A subsidiary of SCI , Kenyon International, got handed a no-bid contract to operate a "mobile mortuary" to deal with the bodies left in the destructive wake of Hurricane Katrina. Yep. It pays and pays to be a friend of Bush. Charged with desecrating corpses? Get a FEMA contract. In addition (this story seems to have no end!) the same SCI was also the same owner of the crematory in Georgia a few years ago where bodies were never cremated but stacked up like cordwood and stuffed into sheds. The company's web site proclaims they are dedicated to "compassionately supporting families at difficult times, celebrating the significance of lives that have been lived, and preserving memories that transcend generations, with dignity and honor." |
| Anonymous Coward User ID: 872776 Ireland01/24/2010 06:10 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
| Anonymous Coward User ID: 839198  Australia01/24/2010 06:14 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
| Anonymous Coward User ID: 871550  Germany01/24/2010 10:13 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | |
| Anonymous Coward User ID: 850259 Canada01/25/2010 01:01 AM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Okay, can you sum up the whole shit in like 20 lines? Quoting: Anonymous Coward 871550Deathcare Industry is conglomerating Wal-mart style.Subsidiaries are becoming the "cleaners" for crime and disaster scenes.The political insiders and cronies are cornering the profits and suppressing the truth about the causes and resultsof mass human tragedies.Dumping bodies and violating corpses.In Italy in ancieent churches we repeatedly saw skull and bones iconography.I have heard they were the guys who carted off the dead during the great plauges.Ghouls. |
ShadowDancer  User ID: 287857  United States01/25/2010 02:41 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Waltrip, chairman of SCI, is a longtime friend of Bush’s father, former President George Herbert Walker Bush. The firm’s political action committee donated $45,000 to George W. Bush’s 1994 gubernatorial campaign. The company also contributed more than $200,000 for construction of the George H.W. Bush presidential library. “It is appalling that the Bush administration –- which has already badly bungled its response to hurricane Katrina –- would hire a company with a record of gross mismanagement of mortuary services,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a Washington D.C.-based watchdog group. “I can only imagine that this decision was made because of President Bush’s long-time friendship with the head of SCI, Robert Waltrip.” SCI also owned fifteen funeral homes named as defendants in a lawsuit filed on behalf of family members alleging “macabre mishandling, abuse and desecration of bodies” by Tri-State Crematory in Georgia. The lawsuit accused SCI-owned funeral homes of sending bodies to the unlicensed, unregulated crematorium, where never-incinerated corpses were found piled outdoors and stuffed in sheds in 2000. Some vaults designed to hold one body each had 67 sets of human remains stuffed inside, investigators discovered. SCI was among the companies ordered to pay settlement fees to family members, a legal source has confirmed to RAW STORY. Kenyon bills itself as the world’s leading disaster management company. It provided morgue support services following the 9/11 plane crash in Pennsylvania and the Asian tsunami. As North America’s largest funeral and cemetery company, SCI operates 1,500 mortuaries and cemeteries nationwide. The company’s website claims the firm is dedicated to “compassionately supporting families at difficult times, celebrating the significance of lives that have been lived, and preserving memories that transcend generations, with dignity and honor.” SCI was also involved in an earlier scandal in Texas. Eliza May, former Texas Funeral Service Commission Director, filed a lawsuit accusing George W. Bush, then Governor, of obstructing an investigation into SCI license violations. May was fired following a dispute with Waltrip. Waltrip and an SCI lobbyist met with Governor Bush’s chief of staff, Joe Allbaugh (Allbaugh was later appointed head of FEMA after Bush became President, but left to become a lobbyist representing Halliburton, among other corporate clients). According to Newsweek, Bush stopped by and said to Waltrip, “Hey, Bobby, are those people still messing with you?” May, a Democrat, sought to force Bush to testify in the case, but in August 1999, a Texas judge tossed out a subpoena issued by May’s lawyers for Bush to give a deposition. Bush, who was not a defendant, called May’s claims “frivolous” and denied knowing the circumstances of her ouster. In 1999, when Bush was gearing up to run for the presidency, Texas Governor Rick Perry approved a settlement for May. SCI paid $55,000; the state of Texas shelled out the balance without admitting wrongdoing in May’s termination. Jennifer Crider, spokeswoman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), expressed concern over FEMA’s choice of an SCI subsidiary and questioned whether the selection was made through a no-bid process. “The tragedy in the Gulf States must not be compounded by disrespecting those who have died,” Crider told RAW STORY. “It’s critical that government contracts be subjected to scrutiny to ensure that there has been no fraud or abuse of taxpayer money or interest.” Democrats have called for formation of an anti-fraud commission to investigate no-bid contracts awarded in relation to Hurricane Katrina, she added. Why FEMA chose to outsource mortuary services to a paid contractor is also mystery to Dan Buckner, co-owner of the Gowen-Smith Chapel in the Gulf area. Buckner had planned to serve with the Disaster Mortuary Operational Responses Team, which reportedly told Buckner’s partner, Gary Hicks of Paducah, KY, to expect up to 40,000 deaths from Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi. Upon learning of Kenyon’s contract, Buckner expressed puzzlement. He told the Shelbyville Times-Gazette, “Volunteers would have gone at no charge.” Clarification: After FEMA began working with Kenyon, they were subsequently contracted by Louisiana Governor Blanco. It was Louisiana that signed a formal contract." friends of friends and the election FUND for priorities. Disgusting ************************************ fortitudo et spes ************************************ When Japan happened I responded: "The Excrement Has Impacted the Rotary Oscillator." and clearly it has. Thread: The Excrement Is Striking the Rotary Oscillator +++++++++++++++ "Ego et Dominus sumus amici" +++++++++++++++ Ego et mea umbra +++++++++++++++ 'Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electric stimulation of the brain.’ - U.S. government mind manipulator, Dr. Jose Delgado, Congressional Record, No. 262E, Vol. 118, 1974 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Realeyesrealizereallies. C. Thread: GIRD uP as GRID Collapses Thread: Eugenics 101 (Page 27) Thread: Frankenfoods for YOU (Page 2) Thread: I Do Not Consent Thread: FOOD Thread: Cern Power___Colder than Space Thread: Hempilation Compilation Contemplation Thread: Harmonics and Healing (Page 35) Thread: Sarah's Nightmare (Page 10) Thread: Destination Maccabees Thread: Let's Play a GAME Thread: Throat Singing |
