About L.A.W.


  • MOTTO: Qui male agit odit lucem. ("He who does evil despises the light.")

  • PUBLISHER: Local Area Watch, Inc. ~ a Michigan non-profit corporation ~ Copyright 2002-2007

  • STAFF: William Tingley, Executive Director ~ Bridget Tingley, Editor ~ Mary Hines, Office Manager ~ Robert Harrison, Photographer

  • CONTACT INFO: Local Area Watch Inc. ~ 1009 Ottawa Avenue, N.W. ~ Grand Rapids, Michigan 49503 ~ ph 616-458-3125 ~ fx 616-454-9958

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Categories

Highlights

  • Bio-Tech Blather
    Watch your wallets, boys and girls. The politicians and the corporate panhandlers are about to put a big bet on the bio-tech boom with your tax dollars and charitable donations.
  • Dumping Scandal FAQ's
    Answers to the main questions about the dumping of hazardous waste at the Monroe Avenue Water Filtration Plant and other dumpsites.
  • Gutless U-M Caves on Bronzes
    Art endures, if obscured, in that grotty little fiefdom of intellectual poseurs and petty inquisitions that has become the University of Michigan.
  • Kent County Medical Examiner Compromised
    In a glaring conflict of interest, Kent County Medical Examiner Stephen Cohle whitewashes autopsies that could have revealed misconduct by Spectrum Health and Laboratory Pathologists, a staffing firm Cohle owns and operates.
  • Living Wage Kills Jobs
    City pols support a Marxist policy that, like all Marxist policies, hurt the very people they say it will help.
  • Local Prof Sez We're Bible-Beating Bigots
    Outspoken GVSU professor Ben Rudolph gets it wrong when he concludes that River City's "conservative" values are wrecking the local economy.
  • Lost Cause
    A story of how River City lost its way to a secure economic future.
  • Mayor Heartwell: The Best Investment in Town
    The mayor takes a campaign contribution from a lobbying firm and then awards it a $70,000 city contract.
  • Poison
    The nasty nature of the 26,000 tons of poison that The Boardwalk's developers dug up and then dumped upon the rest of us.
  • The Fixer
    A four-part series about the local attorney behind the demise of Autodie, Butterworth Hospital, Amway, and Old Kent. Warning: Strong accusations of corruption, greed, and skullduggery. Not for the feint of heart.
  • The Flying Monkey Brigade
    Lysenkoists now rule and dictate what citizens will and will not discuss as science in the public square -- especially, the public school classroom.
  • The Pig in the Python
    The dirty little secret behind the success and failure of every school reform that the education establishment, the public school bureaucrats, and the teachers unions will never reveal.
  • The Problem With Teachers
    Why teachers are the professionals least suited to run a school district -- or even a school.
  • Thirty-Six Bucks
    Balancing the City budget: Maybe it's time for those making a living on the taxpayer's dime to give up a little instead of sticking it to the taxpayer one more time.
  • Urban League Takes a Wrong Turn
    The Grand Rapids chapter of this venerable civil rights organization took a step backward with its dubious report finding institutionalized racism in area police forces.
  • When Will It Stop?
    Enough of the repulsive tactic of accusing everyone of bigotry who doesn't kowtow to the racemongers.
  • Who Tickets the Cops?
    State highway patrolmen flout the law on our freeways.
  • Yeah, and Summer is Hotter Than Winter
    The Grand Rapids Press ignores science to promote feel-good politics on the environment and becomes the watchdog that doesn't bark.

Archives

More...

Quick Links

Government Links

Media Links

Public Interest Links

« BOSS LOGIE SUED IN TOXIC DUMPING CONSPIRACY, WON'T RUN FOR RE-ELECTION | Main | LAWYER GUILD DEMANDS: EXPLAIN YOURSELF! »

Jul 11, 2002

CITY AWARDS CONTRACT TO FIRM OF TOXIC DUMPING DEFENDANT

Should we be surprised?

Tuesday evening the Grand Rapids City Commission, a.k.a. Boss Logie & the Supine Six, awarded the law firm Wardrop & Wardrop P.C. a City contract for legal services. The small three-man firm specializes in bankruptcy, immigration, and ambulance-chasing – ahem, that is, personal injury. Exactly why the taxpayers need the services of such a firm isn’t clear.

(L.A.W. will send a Freedom of Information Act request to the City to find out.)

What is clear is that one of the firm’s partners is Robert Wardrop, who is also a co-defendant of Boss Logie’s in the hazardous waste dumping lawsuit Tingley v 900 Monroe. One of the wrongful acts alleged in that lawsuit is that Wardrop struck a crooked deal with Logie and former City economic development chief Ned Zimmerman that, to make a VERY short story of it, ensured that the developers of the Berkey & Gay building would have a drive for transporting offsite the hazardous waste they were digging out of that property.

Wardrop had indiscreetly blabbed about this deal, and even went so far as to put the basic facts of it in an affidavit, as a way to stop the local court from prohibiting the developers from using that drive, which they desperately needed to get the hazardous waste out. Will Wardrop keep blabbing now that an attorney-client privilege – and a steady flow of taxpayer dollars - exist between the City and his firm?

Let’s answer that with the question that started this story. Should we be surprised that the City has decided that the taxpayers need an ambulance chaser on the payroll? Not if that ambulance chaser can implicate Boss Logie and the City in dumping hazardous waste in the middle of our fair city.

Posted by Wm Tingley on Jul 11, 2002 at 05:12 PM in Project: Toxic Towers |

Comments

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

Posted by:  | 

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been posted. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment