June 2022

Montgomery Co. schools could owe millions to former staff over prepaid insurance premiums

Former employees of Montgomery County Public Schools could be owed millions of dollars after a report found that they forfeited prepaid health insurance premiums when leaving the Maryland school system.

Former employees of Montgomery County Public Schools could be owed millions of dollars after a report found that they forfeited prepaid health insurance premiums when leaving the Maryland school system.

Anywhere from $3 million to $13.5 million in overpaid premiums were kept from retiring and departing staff at Montgomery County Public Schools over the course of two-plus decades, according to a new report from the county’s Office of Inspector General.

The overpayments were neither refunded to eligible employees nor remitted to health insurance providers.

The OIG said that the practice has been going on for at least 22 years, and that the school system first became aware of it about seven or eight years ago.

“A senior manager estimated that refunds due to individual retirees would likely range from $200 to $900 depending on the insurance plan they selected,” the report reads.

Over the last three years, the OIG said an average of 683 employees either retired or resigned from working with Montgomery County schools.

Those numbers helped shape

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June 15, 2022 by INSURANCE

Pence-world’s final takedown of Trump’s Jan. 6 bid to remain in power revealed in his lawyer’s memo

Such a move, Jacob concluded, would assuredly fail in court. Or worse, he said, the courts would refuse to get involved and leave America in an unprecedented political crisis.

In that case, he said in the memo obtained by POLITICO and published for the first time, “the Vice President would likely find himself in an isolated standoff against both houses of Congress … with no neutral arbiter available to break the impasse.”

Jacob is scheduled to testify publicly Thursday to the Jan. 6 select committee about Pence’s decision to resist Trump’s pressure campaign. The panel declined to comment on Jacob’s memo.

The memo informed Pence’s ultimate decision to rebuff pressure from Trump to reverse the outcome of the election. Pence announced his decision the next day, when he traveled to the Capitol to preside over the Jan. 6 meeting of the House and Senate. His decision, in a letter that closely tracked Jacob’s memo, inflamed a crowd of thousands of Trump supporters that the president had called to Washington to protest his defeat.

Within an hour of Pence’s announcement, hundreds of members of that mob would bludgeon their way past police lines and into the Capitol itself, sending the

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June 15, 2022 by LAW

Knesset debate over Civil Law in Israel threatens protections on settlers

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HEBRON, West Bank — Noam Arnon and Issa Amro live within a few blocks of each other in the center of this biblical city, but they live under two different sets of laws. Amro, along with Hebron’s other 200,000 Palestinian residents, is subject to military law imposed by the occupying Israeli forces. Soldiers can, and have, entered his house and body-searched him on the streets without warrant or warning.

Arnon and the other 800 residents of an Israeli settlement in Hebron’s Old City live under Israeli civil law, enjoying the same protections against warrantless searches, the arrest of minors and other police powers as their countrymen living in Israel. “Israeli law must apply here,” said Arnon, who believes that Jews have a biblical and historical claim to these ancient lands. “Hebron is more Israeli than Tel Aviv.”

But the decades-old system in which Israel extends its legal code to its citizens settling in the Palestinian territories is suddenly imperiled. Lawmakers in Jerusalem are deadlocked on renewing the arrangement in a schism that could dissolve the unusual two-tiered legal system and subject the West Bank’s Israelis to the same martial law as their Palestinian neighbors.

It

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June 15, 2022 by LEGAL

The Waseca County Attorney is running for re-election. A police investigation raises questions about whether she actually lives there.

The Waseca County Attorney is running for re-election. A police investigation raises questions about whether she actually lives there.

For over a year, a county attorney in southern Minnesota was the target of a criminal investigation as detectives tried to understand whether she actually lived in the district where she was elected.

Now, nearly three years after investigators found she “does not reside” in Waseca County, Rachel Cornelius is running for re-election in the same county.

The Attorney General’s Office ultimately declined to charge Cornelius with a crime.

But the evidence, obtained by 5 INVESTIGATES through a public data request, raises serious questions that have derailed political careers in the past.

The criminal investigation into Cornelius’ residency involved months of physical and video surveillance by Owatonna police. Detectives determined Cornelius stayed at her home in Waseca just 30% of the time while spending the majority of her days at her family’s farm in neighboring Le Sueur County.

Minnesota law requires candidates to sign an affidavit of candidacy, swearing under oath that they live where they serve.

“It doesn’t mean you can kind of play games,” said political and election lawyer Charlie Nauen. “It’s a very real consequence.”

Throughout the criminal investigation, Cornelius maintained her innocence.

“The voters of Waseca County granted me the privilege of being their County Attorney,”

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June 14, 2022 by ATTORNEY

Increasing home, construction costs could impact insurance coverage

Increasing home, construction costs could impact insurance coverage

Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes

SALT LAKE CITY — Rising prices could hit you hard if disaster strikes. Skyrocketing home values and construction costs are leaving gaps in some homeowners’ coverage.

A lot of this varies by policy — most are written in terms of what’s replaced rather than the current cost of materials. But at least one disaster cleanup professional is finding that some mishaps may have limits that are not set to today’s high prices.

What happened in the Parsons’ home could happen anywhere.

“When I got out of bed, I felt like wetness on the ground,” said Josh Parsons.

He made the discovery.

“I came rushing in here, and there was probably about an inch, inch and a half of standing water,” he said.

A toilet leaked all over the floor and down below.

“I went to put some things out in the garage, and when I opened the door, it sounded like a light river in our garage,” said Jeramie Parsons.

Three levels were impacted as water came through the rafters and behind walls and cabinets.

“All of the flooring has to be removed because we have trapped moisture,” said Ryan Marriott, owner of Floodsmen Disaster

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June 14, 2022 by INSURANCE
June 2022
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