Legally Last Again

Despite recent changes in law to help to get our legal system under control, West Virginia finds itself dead last again. How could that be? Perhaps the answer is simpler than one would expect. The legal system across this country is out of control. Other States and the federal government have enacted legislation to correct many of the injustices that are occurring. WV was one of the last to do so and simply did not do enough. As usual, too little, too late.

We need more tort reform and fewer lawyers deciding to become trial or plaintiff council. You see the trial lawyer market is saturated. There are simply too many of them trying to get rich to be bothered by normal and routine cases so they are forced to create new and innovative ways to create litigation worth bigger bucks. They prey on juries who fail to realize that they and their fellow citizens are the ones who will pay for the awards handed down to litigants where the lawyer gets to keep 30 or 50 percent of the haul.

If the market was based only on need, then why would lawyers have to advertise there services as they do. If justice were the real reason for such suits, then why do so may lawyers advertise the desire to handle only serious injury and wrongful death? Because that’s where the money is and it’s not about justice anymore. It is always about the money and too few are benefiting from the litigation lottery at the expense of the rest of us.

Wake up WV. Stop electing lawyers and demand reform from your legislators.

Finally a Real Choice

Chris Wakim will offer a real challenge to Congressman Alan Mollohan’s bid for reelection this year. The national party certainly believes in their ability to take that seat away from the dems. Delegate Wakim’s record of achievement is very admirable. Here is a brief bio:

Elected to the West Virginia House of Delegates on his first run in 2002, Chris is a Gulf War veteran. Upon graduation from Linsly Military Institute in Wheeling in 1976, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, NY, and earned a commission in the United States Army Infantry in 1980. To further his education, Chris earned a Master’s Degree in Government from Harvard University in 1991, graduating in the top 15% of his class.

Delegate Wakim has extensive business experience. He currently owns several real estate and commercial properties in the Northern Panhandle and assists his wife, Jeannette, with the management of her retail and service corporations in Wheeling, WV.

He is a former investment banker in Chicago, and managed a national portfolio valued at $180 million. He also negotiated Initial Public Offerings (IPO’s) and capitalizations for corporations valued at $80 million. In addition, Chris lobbied extensively for a Fortune 300 company throughout New England and the Midwest, specializing in state taxation issues.

A disabled Veteran honorably discharged for injuries sustained in the line of duty, Chris held various command and staff positions throughout the United States and Europe, culminating in a command of a mechanized infantry company in the Fourth Infantry Division.

In the West Virginia State Legislature, Chris serves on the Finance Committee, Health and Human Resources Committee, and Veterans and Homeland Security Committees.

His opponent Alan Mollohan will begin to surface once again as he always does during an election year. This is the best opportunity we have had to defeat the guy who never shows up except for the scarce election year stunt to make voters think he is actually doing something. Time to step aside Alan. A new generation of West Virginian’s is taking control of our future.

Show your support for Chris by contacting his campaign on the net at www.chriswakim.com. With a strong grassroots effort, we can show the nation that West Virginians want to change the policies and culture of cronyism.

Energy Trap

A growing propensity for state regulators to continue the practice of deficit energy consumption may cause catastrophic failure of the regulatory system. More and more utilities are being asked to defer collections of its full costs to future years on the hope that prices will somehow be lower at some point in the future. West Virginia has already employed this strategy for gas utilities. Ohio and Illinois have postponed their day of price reckoning by freezing rates consumers pay for certain periods for electricity.

The problem is that freezing the rates or granting only particle cost recovery only postpones the day when consumers will have to pay the piper. If prices for energy suddenly move lower and lower levels are maintained for extended periods, then and only then could this strategy provide some relief against future increases that far exceed anything imagined by the consuming public.

What results from all of this is that utilities, on behalf of the rate payers amass huge deficits that rate payers will eventually be responsible for. In addition, the utilities are entitled to interest and a rate of return for carrying the debt on their books which only serves to compound the problem and raise costs. Much in the same manner that government spends more than it collects in revenue leaving the deficit for future generations, this deficit energy policy creates debt that future rate payers will eventually have to pay.

While it is remotely possible that deficit energy consumption will ultimately prove beneficial overall, it is not likely that it will result in any difference than that of government deficit spending. The folks who use the energy tomorrow are going to pay part of the energy costs of today.