Declarations

Kentucky Shock

“Shame on you for the blatant, arrogant, self-effacing abuses. Equally shocking is for the board to allow executives involved in the oversight of such abuses to remain.”

—Cold Spring Mayor Mark Stoeber in a letter to the Kentucky League of Cities, which is facing mounting criticism over a state audit that blasted its spending. Stoeber and other mayors are displeased the KLC is keeping Deputy Director Neil Hackworth and Insurance Services chief William Hamilton in the top two posts. Some member cities are withholding dues.

Extreme Outlook

“This year has the chance to be an extreme season. It is certainly much more like 2008 than 2009 as far as the overall threat to the United States’ East and Gulf coasts.”

—AccuWeather.com hurricane forecaster Joe Bastardi on his early hurricane season forecast for the Atlantic Basin for 2010. The forecast is calling for a much more active 2010 season with above-normal threats on the U.S. coastline. Bastardi is forecasting seven landfalls. Five will be hurricanes, and two or three of the hurricanes will be major landfalls for the U.S. He is calling for 16 to 18 tropical storms in total, 15 of which would be in the western Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico, and therefore a threat to land. In a typical season, two to three storms may impact the coast of the U.S.

Prepared to Testify

“I am prepared to testify regarding the Gen Re transaction. I, therefore, withdraw my earlier invocation of my Fifth Amendment rights.”

—Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the former chief executive of AIG, agreeing to will testify over a sham transaction involving the insurer and reinsurer General Re. In a March 2 court filing, Greenberg contended that a five-year statute of limitations for the government to file criminal charges against him ran out no later than Feb. 21, freeing him to testify. He had in October 2008 invoked his constitutional right against self-incrimination.

South Carolina Prescription

“Our primary tool for managing our lands is prescribed fires. If we don’t burn it when we chose, then it’s going to burn when it wants to burn.”

—Tom Dooley, state fire manager for The Nature Conservancy of South Carolina, explaining why forest managers and landowners intentionally set fires to reduce debris that could fuel wildfires and inadvertently damage property. State lawmakers are being asked to give them protection from lawsuits. Under a Judiciary Committee bill, they’ll be presumed not to have acted negligently, but someone bringing a lawsuit could still challenge that. Georgia and Florida now have laws that offer more protection from lawsuits than South Carolina, proponents of stronger protections said.