Students deliver Christmas meals to veterans in Great Falls
In the video above, Paul Sanchez reports on students from Central Catholic High School in Great Falls, who provided all of the fixings for Christmas meals for 50 military veterans.
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A health clinic in a Montana town plagued by deadly asbestos contamination faces millions of dollars in penalties after a jury found it submitted more than 300 false asbestos claims to the U.S. government, making some of its patients eligible for Medicare and other benefits they shouldn’t have received.
The small, federally funded clinic has been at the forefront of the medical response to deadly pollution from mining near Libby, Mont.
The town of about 3,000 people along the scenic Kootenai River gained national notoriety when it was declared a deadly Superfund site two decades ago, following media reports that workers and their families were being sickened by dust from a W.R. Grace mine.
Smaller meat and poultry operators in 17 states will receive $115 million in grants. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the funding Thursday.
A federal jury has ruled that a health clinic in a Montana town where hundreds of people died from asbestos exposure submitted 337 false asbestos claims making its patients eligible for benefits such as Medicare.
A federal board has ordered BNSF Railway to transport at least 4.2 million tons of coal from a Montana mine to a port in Canada this year.
Former U.S. Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy says he will seek the 2024 Republican nomination to challenge Montana U.S. Sen.
A seven-person jury said Wednesday night that the false claims caused more than $1 million in damages to the federal government. Under the federal False Claims Act, the clinic is liable for three times the damages — or about $3.2 million — and millions of dollars more in potential penalties.
The verdict also could undermine numerous lawsuits from asbestos victims against BNSF Railway and other entities that courts have held liable for turning Libby into one of the nation’s deadliest polluted sites. Health officials have said at least 400 people have been killed and thousands sickened from asbestos exposure in the Libby area.
The case stemmed from a civil lawsuit filed by BNSF against the town’s Center for Asbestos Related Disease health clinic, or CARD, in 2019 under the False Claims Act, which allows private parties to sue on the government’s behalf. BNSF’s lawsuit alleged CARD submitted claims on behalf of more than 300 patients without sufficient confirmation that they had asbestos-related disease. The jury agreed.
However, the railway also said 1,369 people received federal benefits with no proper disease diagnosis — an argument the jury rejected.
Federal prosecutors declined to intervene in the case, and there have been no criminal charges related to the false claims that were submitted.
It was not immediately known Friday if the patients involved in the false claims would lose benefits they’ve been receiving, or if that would require further action.
The CARD clinic and its high-profile doctor, Brad Black, have certified more than 3,400 people with asbestos-related diseases, according to court documents. It’s received more than $20 million in federal funding.
Attorneys for CARD had argued during a 12-day civil trial that its diagnoses were in line with requirements of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which included special provisions for the Libby victims.
“CARD was doing exactly what the law said,” clinic attorney Tim Bechtold said during closing arguments in the trial.
The railroad company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett is a defendant in numerous lawsuits over its own role in the town’s contamination. In 2020, Montana’s Supreme Court found BNSF liable for shipping asbestos-tainted vermiculite from a nearby mine through Libby.
The railway could be eligible for 15% to 25% of any amount recovered by the government from the false claims case.
Asbestos-related diseases can range from a thickening of a person’s lung cavity that can hamper breathing, to deadly cancer.
Exposure to even a minuscule amount of asbestos can cause lung problems, according to scientists. Because of the long latency period for those diseases, symptoms can take decades to develop.
The 2010 federal health law made victims of asbestos exposure in the Libby area eligible for Medicare, housekeeping, travel to medical appointments and disability benefits for those who can’t work.
Dr. Black, a pediatrician, has said the ailments caused by the type of asbestos in Libby are difficult to detect and can be missed by outside radiologists less familiar with it than he is.
BNSF attorney Adam Duerk criticized Black’s stated ability to perceive early signs of asbestosis disease that others missed.
“That’s not the practice of medicine, that’s the practice of roulette,” Duerk said. “When you see it, when you’re certain it’s there, that’s when you diagnose, not before.”
The CARD clinic’s defense in the false claims case was hampered by a ruling that barred testimony on its behalf from former U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, who helped craft the Libby provision in the health law.
Baucus said in depositions with attorneys that the clinic’s practice of declaring some patients eligible for benefits without confirmation of their condition from a secondary source such as an X-ray was legitimate.
U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen blocked the testimony and said it was the court’s role to decide whether the law was followed.
Brown reported from Denver.
Posted
and last updated
Students deliver Christmas meals to veterans in Great Falls
In the video above, Paul Sanchez reports on students from Central Catholic High School in Great Falls, who provided all of the fixings for Christmas meals for 50 military veterans.
Copyright 2024 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Gas prices have dropped again across Montana just as drivers hit the roads for one of the year’s busiest travel times.
GasBuddy.com reports average gasoline prices in the state have fallen 4.2¢ per gallon in the last week and are averaging $2.79 per gallon as of Monday.
Gas prices are 20.2¢ per gallon lower than at this time a month ago and 22.7¢ per gallon lower than a year ago.
The national average price of gasoline has risen 3.1¢ per gallon over the last week to $3.01 per gallon, which is 2.6¢ lower than a month ago.
GassBuddy.com reports the cheapest gas in Montana was at $2.56 per gallon on Sunday while the most expensive was $3.06 per gallon.
Montana’s Republican lawmakers may not be swayed by the gravity of climate crisis, but six state Supreme Court justices did not need convincing. Last Wednesday, 16 young plaintiffs won a resounding victory as those jurists upheld a historic 2023 climate decision, with only one dissenting vote among the seven justices. With climate deniers poised to roll back energy and environmental policies in Washington next year, and the U.N. climate conference (COP29) failing to resolve major international challenges, the decision was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal year of climate policy developments.
The case tackled the state’s appeal of Held v. Montana (2023), which found a provision of the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) unconstitutional. This “MEPA limitation” prohibited environmental studies demonstrating how the state’s greenhouse gas emissions contribute to global climate change. The state Supreme Court agreed with a lower-court ruling that the provision is unconstitutional because it violated the right to “a clean and healthful environment.”
More from Gabrielle Gurley
In the 2023 decision, Judge Kathy Seeley took great care to provide a detailed exploration of the climate issues and give credence to the young people’s fears for their future. While state Supreme Court justices touched on some climate issues, such as increasing global temperatures, they turned their attention to the specific question of climate change as “a serious threat to the constitutional guarantee of a clean and healthful environment in Montana.”
Significantly, the justices pointed to the state constitution’s stipulation that “the state and each person shall maintain and improve” Montana’s environment “for present and future generations.” The legislature, for its part, had the responsibility to protect what they termed the “environmental life support system” from “unreasonable depletion and degradation of natural resources.”
They decided that the framers of the state constitution wanted to carve out “the strongest environmental protection provision found in any state constitution” and agreed with the young plaintiffs that there is ample evidence that the climate crisis has exacerbated wildfires and affected air and water quality in the state. The jurists also noted that the framers “would [not] grant the State a free pass to pollute the Montana environment just because the rest of the world insisted on doing so.”
The single dissent from Justice Jim Rice rested largely on the standing of the young people to bring the initial lawsuit. He argued that there was “no project, no application, no decision, no permit, no enforcement of a statute” that materially affected the group. Their stories were “not legally unique” and no different from other state residents.
Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) argued that the case will prompt “perpetual lawsuits” and increase energy bills for residents. He also echoed the dissenting justice’s contention that the decision was another example of judicial activism with the court “step[ping] outside of its lane” to tread on legislative prerogatives. Not surprisingly, using Held v. Montana as an entrée, Montana Republican legislative leaders—the GOP controls both chambers—have pledged to take up new curbs on the state courts when the legislature reconvenes in January.
But for now, the ruling produces a powerful precedent that citizens, no matter their age, play an important role in shielding the planet from environmental harm, and cannot be easily dismissed.
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