News & Events
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NAAGazette
Volume 2, Number 1
January 18, 2008
Attorneys General Announce Agreement with MySpace Regarding Social Networking Safety
Nick Alexander, Criminal Law Counsel
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, on behalf of 49 states and the District of Columbia, announced a landmark agreement this month with MySpace, a social networking website, to take significant steps to better protect children on its site, including the creation of a broad-based task force to explore and develop age and identity verification technology.
Full Article
An Unholy Confluence: Bankruptcy Fraud Meets Mortgage Fraud and What Attorneys General Can Do About It
Karen Cordry, Bankruptcy Counsel
The current housing crisis has led some predators to afflict hapless homeowners with both bankruptcy and mortgage fraud. New scams involve convincing desperate home owners to temporarily deed away their homes with the empty promise of getting it back. Creative predators are becoming more aggressive in forging documents and launching serial filing scams. How can Attorneys General use the Bankruptcy Code to fight this disturbing trend and help homeowners?
Full Article
Enforcement of Charitable Organizations
Ellen Ryan, Project Manager and Counsel, Consumer Protection and Telemarketing Fraud
The holiday season is often a time when people think about charitable giving. The web site, Charitynavigator.org, estimates that 50 percent of all charitable gifts for 2007 were made between the day after Thanksgiving and the end of the year. Unfortunately, fraudulent fundraisers try to use the public?s good intentions to their advantage by illegally setting up programs that solicit funds for phony causes. Over the holiday season, many Attorneys General issued consumer alerts informing the public on how to avoid charity fraud. But what gives the Attorney General and other governmental officials authority over charitable organizations? And how do state officials work together in combating charity scams?
Full Article
End-of-Life Care and Organ Donation: Is There an Irreconcilable Conflict?
Judy McKee, End of Life Health Care Project Coordinator and Counsel
In a laudable effort to address the critical shortage of organ donors and increase the number of available organs for transplant, lawmakers have created an ethical issue for those providing end-of-life care. Revisions to the 1987 Uniform Anatomical Gift Act (UAGA) have meant determining if a potential donor would prioritize organ donation over palliative care.
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Employee Spotlight
Karen Cordry, Bankruptcy Counsel
Karen Cordry knows firsthand the ?ABCs? of the legal system --- asbestos, bankruptcy and corrections, that is. Formerly a labor lawyer with the National Labor Relations Board, Karen was hired in 1992 under an 18-month contract to help states litigate two cases surrounding asbestos companies that had filed for bankruptcy, leaving states with numerous property damage claims to cleanup up state buildings where asbestos has been used. Karen?s bankruptcy work since then has expanded from asbestos to many other areas ranging from environmental and consumer protection to taxes to guns ? any place where there is an intersection between financially troubled companies and the financial and regulatory interests of state and local governments.
Full Article
iMIS Launched
Scott Messing, Chief of Staff
In November 2007, NAAG launched its new membership management system, iMIS. While the last few months have been focused on new internal processes, data import and data cleansing, the iMIS web-based portal will be launched in spring 2008. Stay tuned for future details.
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NAGTRI Calendar
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NAAG Calendar
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