News & Events

For media inquiries and other press-related questions, please contact the NAAG Press Center at (202) 326-6027.

Press Room

State News Headlines

January 29, 2007

The following headlines are compiled as an internal service for state Attorney General offices only. This list is not exhaustive and is a snapshot of news from around the country compiled through the use of various search engines.

Judge Puts Settlement on Katrina in Question

A federal judge in Mississippi, citing the need for more information, has rejected — at least temporarily — a settlement by State Farm Insurance that was expected to provide several hundred million dollars to help policyholders rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina 17 months ago… In an eight-page order, Judge L. T. Senter Jr. of Federal District Court in Gulfport, Miss., said he was rejecting the agreement because it did not provide enough information for him to conclude that it was “fair, just, balanced and reasonable.” State Farm said last night that it had expected the agreement to be approved and that it now looked forward to addressing the judge’s concerns. The lead trial lawyer in the case, Richard F. Scruggs, and Mississippi officials also expected court approval. Last night, Mr. Scruggs and Jim Hood, the attorney general of Mississippi, said they were optimistic that the agreement would be revived. Mr. Hood said he was confident that State Farm would “fix the things that need to be fixed.” Full Article

South Dakota transfixed by allegations that state senator fondled legislative page

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — A Statehouse scandal in which a lawmaker is accused of fondling a page has transfixed South Dakota, with many people following the case on TV and the Web as if it were a Hollywood reality show. Sen. Dan Sutton, 36, is accused of groping the young man last year while the two shared a motel room at the start of the youth's week-long stint in the Legislature. The young man was 18 at the time. The South Dakota attorney general and other law enforcement agents investigated the allegations and made no arrests. But a Senate committee accused Sutton of sexual misconduct and on Thursday wrapped up investigative hearings. Austin Wiese, now 19, testified that Sutton, a longtime personal and family friend, touched his genitals through his shorts as the two slept in a king-size bed last February. Full Article

How to Protect Your Private Information

Your life is an open book online. It doesn't have to be. "On the Internet," as a New Yorker cartoon famously observed, "no one knows you're a dog." Thanks to the ease of finding personal information online, that may be the only thing about you they don't know. Indeed, for anyone who knows where to look, your address, phone number, birth date and more are only a few clicks away. Dedicated searchers can easily turn up property records, unlisted or cellphone numbers, and even more sensitive information such as Social Security, credit-card and bank-account numbers. In Broward County, Fla., a simple search through pet licenses can in fact tell whether you're a dog -- or at least whether you have one. Full Article

Leslie R. Kershaw
Communications Assistant
Office: (202) 326-6027
Fax: (202) 408-8061
Email: lnelson@naag.org

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