Odds and ends, 2/15/08

It's about time.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Justice Larry Starcher has become the second state Supreme Court justice to recuse himself from a case involving Massey Energy Co.

And Starcher is calling on Justice Brent Benjamin to do the same.Massey’s appeal seeks to overturn a $76.3 million judgment won by Harman Mining Co. and its president, Hugh Caperton.

The Supreme Court had reversed the ruling in November before photos surfaced showing Chief Justice Elliott “Spike” Maynard in Monaco with Massey President, Chairman and Chief Executive Don Blankenship.

Maynard later agreed to recuse himself, and the remaining justices voted to erase their decision and rehear the appeal.

Starcher cites Blankenship’s multimillion-dollar campaign that helped Benjamin get elected in 2004 in urging him to step aside.

Considering his publicly expressed opinion of Blankenship, Starcher should have recused himself. And Benjamin should d0 likewise.

###

One perk of this job is being on all sorts of mailing lists. Either this week or last, I received the latest copy of Adjusting Today, published by Adjusters International. The nugget in this issue is a map of the USA showing the number of flood insurance policies in each state as of 9/30/06.

WV had 22,155. OH had 38,535 and KY had 21,346.

Guess which state had the largest number. (Cue theme for "Final Jeopardy").




Florida, with 2,162,239. It was the only state with more than 2 milllion policies. It wawsw the only state with more than 1 million. It was the only state with... The second-highest was Texas wtih 615,686. Third was Louisiana with 489,094. Hmm. You can figure that one out.

###

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. Feb. 14 is my son Joey's birthday. He'll have a lot of fun when he's older. His wife will ask what he got her for Valentine's Day, and he'll ask what she got him for her birthday. It will be a wash.

###

I'll check comments through the weekend. Other than that, I'll see you Monday.