Declarations – West

Bad Shrooms

“Mushrooms were growing from behind my dishwasher. My builder no longer existed.”

—Tracy Rhodes was one of several homeowners who’ve had to deal with major defects who testified before the a Nevada Senate Judiciary Committee on construction defect laws intended to protect consumers, which some argue have morphed into a trial lawyer’s dream and a nightmare for Nevada’s building trades.

Washington DUIs

“At some point these people need to be removed from society because they kill us.”

—Frank Blair, whose 24-year-old daughter Sheena was killed by a drunken driver in 2010, spoke to a working group held by Washington Rep. Roger Goodman to discuss a variety of ideas to stop more impaired drivers.

Arizona DUIs

“We have a laboratory where the blood results are being used to decide whether people go to jail or prison. For the last going on four years now, at least once a month, every month, there’s some huge error where there’s an unexpected result,”

—Joseph St. Louis, a Tucson attorney involved in felony DUI cases in an ongoing evidentiary hearing in Superior Court challenging the accuracy of blood-testing equipment used by Scottsdale, Ariz., police.

His Heart’s in It

“I think our greatest challenge is going to be keeping him out of the office before he’s cleared to come back. He already asked his wife this morning to bring his laptop.”

—Sandi Peck, Washington’s deputy insurance commissioner for public affairs, said Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler, the nation’s longest serving insurance commissioner, was well on the road to recovering after successful heart surgery in April.