Declarations

SeaWorld Safety

“SeaWorld recognized the inherent risk of allowing trainers to interact with potentially dangerous animals. Nonetheless, it required its employees to work within the pool walls, on ledges and on shelves where they were subject to dangerous behavior by the animals.”

—Cindy Coe, OSHA’s administrator in Atlanta, Ga., announcing that OSHA has cited SeaWorld for safety violations following the death of killer-whale trainer Dawn Brancheau at its Orlando park in February. The fines could total $75,000. SeaWorld said it intends to appeal.

Southern Crop Coverage

“The parts of the country where we had the worst weather the last couple years are areas where they don’t buy crop insurance.”

—Tara Smith, of the American Farm Bureau Federation, in response to complaints by growers in the South about lack of federal aid. The farmers said they need federal help because they didn’t buy crop insurance, a requirement to qualify for the permanent disaster aid plan. Crop insurance sign-up is high among Midwest farmers, but in the South many farmers complain premiums are too high.

Christians-Only Insurance

“Thus, regardless of how Medi-Share defines itself or what disclaimers it includes in its literature, in the final analysis, there is a shifting of risk.’

—Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Daniel J. Venters writing in ruling that a Christians-only health care plan, Medi-Share, provides a “contract for insurance” and doesn’t qualify for exemption from state regulations on religious grounds. A split high court found that the program is insurance because it shifts the risk of payments for medical expenses from the individual to a pool of people paying into the program.

Property Slump

“We still see fundamentals in the market declining — if at a slower pace — and we might see more delinquencies in CMBS [commercial mortgage-backed securities].”

—Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services writing that the slump in the U.S. commercial property market didn’t quite plumb the depths of the downturn in residential real estate, and although there are signs that home prices are nearing the bottom, commercial real estate could fall further.

Topics Agribusiness