TEXAS TWO-STEP

district litigation (Johnson & Johnson Talcum Powder Products Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, MD 2738 (D.N.J.), questions J&J's tactics.

"There's no settlement here; this is a scam," Papantonio said. "It's a continuing scam by Johnson and Johnson, which has been lying to American women for 50 years. They've lied to the court, their shareholders, the media and the families of women they've killed. And sadly, the lies continue."

Cameron Stephenson, also an attorney with Levin Papantonio Rafferty, questions whether the lawyers who have given J&J commitments to support the reorganization plan and the proposed settlement are operating in the best interest of their clients.

"These bottom-feeder firms did not have any cases actually filed in the MDL before the bankruptcy," Stephenson told Inweekly. "These lawyers saw an opportunity to say, 'Hey, you know what? We're not going to have to work up and prove these cases. Let's go out and buy a bunch of leads from marketing firms.' And so they accumulated tens of thousands of cases, and they're just cases on paper. They don't have medical records."

By Rick Outzen

Nearly 50,000 women have lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson alleging they developed ovarian cancer or mesothelioma after regular, prolonged use of Johnson's Baby Powder and Shower to Shower body powder. The lawsuits claim that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) deceptively marketed the talc-based products for feminine hygienic use without disclosing talc's carcinogenic properties.

Earlier this month, J&J announced that its subsidiary LTL Management LLC had re-filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, prompting statements of outrage from attorneys of the women who claim that J&J's talc products caused their ovarian cancer or mesothelioma. U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed a similar bankruptcy filing, known as the "Texas Two-Step," last January. The three-judge panel found LTL Management was created solely to file for Chapter 11 protection but had no legitimate need for it.

Last week, J&J requested a pause in the litigation to give the company the time to reach a permanent settlement with plaintiffs in the talc cases. The company proposed an $8.9 billion settlement for current and future talc-related claims, alleging that more than 60,000 claimants had already committed to voting in favor of the plan. J&J said it expected to bring that plan to bankruptcy court in mid-May.

On Thursday, April 20, Judge Michael Kaplan put a temporary hold on the suits that will last through mid-June. J&J won't have to go to trial over any other talc claims during the pause, but new lawsuits can still be filed against the company.

"A SCAM"

Mike Papantonio, a senior partner with Levin Papantonio Rafferty law firm, whose attorneys are heavily involved in the national talc multi-

He continued, "And then, so what J&J did is they went around to two or three of these case acquisition players, negotiated a settlement and announced that they re-filed for bankruptcy with an $8.9 billion settlement on the table."

The average cost to a family of an ovarian cancer victim exceeds $500,000. This amount encompasses damages for medical expenses and lost wages and does not even account for pain and suffering and non-economic loss.

"Ovarian cancer is a hell of a disease," said Stephenson. "Under this bankruptcy plan, each woman would be entitled to somewhere between $90,000 and $120,000. And there's no way we or anyone in top leadership would ever support that."

For J&J's plan to be approved, the company would have to represent that it could get 75% of talc claimants to participate. Papantonio said, "This is never going to happen. It's not even close."

Stephenson added, "We don't know if any of these purported supporters of the plan by these case acquisition attorneys are going to be qualified to vote on the settlement."

However, Papantonio worries that the threat of even more delays for compensation for women who have allegedly suffered at the hands of this corporation and who face hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical costs and lost wages could turn heads, leading them to consider accepting J&J's settlement offers.

Stephenson believes J&J fears dealing with the lawsuits in a jury trial. "They just are. A lot of people did not get involved in this litigation because they never thought that the science would be this good or that this judge would actually allow the case to go to a jury. But this very conservative judge, Judge Wolfson, after three years of the attorneys on both sides litigating the science, had a Daubert hearing, which is the gateway to science to get to a jury. After a week-long hearing, she found there was support that there was asbestos in talc, the talc could cause ovarian cancer and that we could bring these cases to a jury."

He continued, "And so once that happened, J&J is sitting over here saying, 'Look, we can't be on this field anymore. We're going to lose. So we got to pick up our ball and find another place to litigate these cases.' And that's why they decided to try bankruptcy, which is ludicrous in the first place because they're a half-atrillion-dollar company."

The LPR attorney sees the bankruptcy filing as a ploy to bypass the MDL leadership that has been litigating this case for seven years and go to these case acquisition firms in the hopes that they could generate legit cases to get the $8.9 billion settlement approved. He said, "And I'll tell you right now, with a litigation that's been pending for seven years, the vast majority of legitimate cases out there had already retained law firms or retained attorneys."

Stephenson added, "The only way that you're going to get true compensation for someone is to go to trial and win and collect the money. I mean, that's the only way you ever get true compensation for someone."{in}

PALAFOX MARKET SOUTH Palafox Market is expanding its popular Saturday farmer's market into Plaza Ferdinand starting Saturday, May 13. The Downtown Improvement Board has invited local farmers and small businesses interested in being part of the new market to find out more and apply online at palafoxmarket.com/vendors.

"Palafox Market South" will include a blend of familiar Palafox Market vendors, along with a new mix of local farmers, artists, and craftsmen and women, who will fill up Plaza Ferdinand on the corner of Palafox and Government streets every Saturday between 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

The Downtown Improvement Board opened the Palafox Market in 2006 with about 25 farmers but has grown to weekly markets featuring painters, jewelry makers, glass blowers, bakers, floral designers and other cottage entrepreneurs, with as many as 10,000 shoppers on the busiest Saturdays.

"The market began as an outlet for local farmers to be able to sell their fresh produce and has grown to be a top weekend destination for locals and visitors," said Walker Wilson, executive director of the DIB. "Palafox Market is a great economic engine for all of our downtown merchants and offers low-barrier access to anyone looking to start a small business."

DEFAMATION BILL DEAD Rep. Alex Andrade's defamation bill (HB 991) is officially dead. The bill that drew criticism from both Republicans and Conservatives made it through the House Civil Justice Subcommittee in March but has been waiting for a House Judiciary Committee hearing for more than a month.

Last week, Florida Politics reported the bill and its Senate companion bill were dead for this session. Andrade—who would told House Civil Justice Committee the bill should be titled "Journalism 101"—acknowledged the bill's demise but tried to spin it, telling Florida Politics, "While I'm sure journalists and media outlets cared a great deal about this policy, there were just too many more important issues than a niche issue in civil torts that we needed to commit our time and attention towards."

The bill was backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

In February, the governor held a roundtable discussion in Hialeah Gardens. The staged, scripted event included "victims of media defamation, legal experts, and a member of the media who has witnessed the defamatory practices of his colleagues." They discussed "the damaging impacts of defamation from the legacy media as it becomes a more prevalent issue in the lives of everyday citizens."

DeSantis called upon lawmakers to take action during the 2013 Legislative Session. Andrade filed his bill two weeks later.

The First Amendment Foundation come out against the bill, "HB 991: Bad for Florida, bad for America." The Florida Press Association also lobbied against it. U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (R-Lake Mary) criticized the bill for violating "the free speech rights that are enshrined in the First Amendment of the United State Constitution."

NEW POCKETS OF POVERTY Eight years ago, the Studer Community Institute published a map showing the pockets of poverty in Escambia County based on the 2014 census data. Inweekly asked the UWF Haas Center to update the map using the most recent census data.

"Our developers, which include Mariah Hill, our statistician and two UWF economic students, Alex Vargas and Oliver Watson, worked on this team effort," said Nicole Gislason, executive director of the UWF Haas Center. "Our big focus was to shine a light on areas of Escambia County where children are experiencing poverty."

The map can be found by visiting haas.uwf. edu and clicking on "Explore the Economy" and then "Pockets of Poverty." Gilason said, "Readers can hover over various parts of the county to identify the population, the poverty rate under 18, as well as snap households by census tract, among other measures. This is all in an effort to identify exactly where the greatest need resides in our community."

The county has 78 census tracts and 14,308 children living in poverty. Six tracts in the city and county's urban core have more than half their children living in poverty. These six tracts account for 24% of the children in poverty—so almost one in four children in Escambia County living in poverty reside in those neighborhoods.

BELMONT

Hall

Last year, the PNJ reported on Jordan Yee and Alistair McKenzie building a food hall and multi-purpose outdoor area in the parking lot across from the SCI Building on Garden Street. Belmont Hall's plans included a large food hall, a terrace, an event space and an openair lawn for community events.

The lot on the corner of Spring and Garden streets had an option for the Studers to repurchase it if construction was not begun by a specific date. The credit crunch stalled the construction, and the Studers bought back the land.

McKenzie shared with Inweekly that he is working on an agreement to move the project to the Port of Pensacola near the proposed pickleball facility and the ferry landing.

Quint Studer told us that he and Rishy are looking at a developing project similar to the Pins Mechanical Company in the Bottleworks District in Indianapolis. (Check out pinsbar.com/indianapolis). He said they wouldn't need the entire lot for the Pins project and would like to work with Yee and McKenzie because the site has enough space for both. But he also thinks the Port location would be an excellent site for them.

He said, "We love those guys and support whatever they do."

VALENTINO REMEMBERS Former Escambia County Commissioner Gene Valentino told Inweekly that he tried to get county staff to get a declaratory judgment concerning the 75-foot public beach easement after he took office in 2006.

"It was during that period of time that land use was becoming a real issue," Valentino shared. "The number one issue—which is a blessing and a curse for Escambia County—is its management and mismanagement of land. The land use management in this county sucks, and it's been a total debacle of inconsistency and a disjointed vision in its methodology of developing the community."

He added, "The have and the have-nots were the central issue of how land was developed, and it caused in many ways for this community to lag behind in its growth."

The former District 2 commissioner praised Commissioner Jeff Bergosh and Mike McCormick for uncovering the easement. He said he believed a public easement existed and was being hidden from the public.

Valentino said he asked his fellow commissioners and county staff to investigate and do "a deeper dive into the deeds and the encumbrances or restrictions or easements on those deeded properties, not only for Perdido Key but also Pensacola Beach.

"I was disappointed that the deep dive of research did not occur into the true origination of the deeds and any language related to those deeds that may have clarified some of the land use issues," he told Inweekly. "I wanted the county commission to do what's called a declaratory ruling, authorizing the attorney to seek legally a de - claratory judgment countywide, which would've given us clarification on the entitlements to land, whether it was the land leases on Pensacola Beach and how they could be distinguished from true land ownership down towards the rest of the county, specifically Perdido."

Valentino said, "That never happened, but it needed to happen because you could not soundly develop land without clarity of thought, clarity of understanding of what the deed entitled you to do."

CHANGE OF COMMAND Cmdr. Peter Manzoli relieved Capt. Meredith Schley as commanding officer of Information Warfare Training Command (IWTC) Corry Station during a change of command ceremony held at the National Naval Aviation Museum on April 7. Capt. Blythe A. Blakistone, commanding officer of Tactical Communications Command (TCC) 1, served as the guest speaker.

Capt. Blakistone noted the time-honored change of command ceremony. "This is a longstanding tradition that dates back to the Roman Legions; passing the commanding officer baton in front of the troops as witnesses to signify a new leader would take them into battle."

She acknowledged that Schley led the schoolhouse during the COVID-19 pandemic. "She stepped into the position with grace, confidence and solid decision-making abilities and successfully continued to guide this command."

After her captain shoulder boards were affixed, Schley proudly reported that IWTC Corry Station had successfully accomplished its mission during her time in command. She added that the broad talent and sheer will of those assigned to the command is on par with the best operational commands around the fleet and that it possesses vast subject matter experts with a drive to deliver highly trained technicians.

IWTC Corry Station, as part of the Center for Information Warfare Training (CIWT), provides a continuum of training to Navy and joint service personnel that prepares them to conduct information warfare across the full spectrum of military operations.

Skatepark Opening

The city of Pensacola invites the public to a ribbon-cutting event at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2, to celebrate the completion of the Blake Doyle Community Skatepark.

The event will take place under Interstate 110 along North Hayne Street, between Jackson and La Rua streets. The skatepark is not yet open to the public, but it will open immediately following the ribbon cutting.

All community members, skaters, stakeholders and project supporters are encouraged to join in celebrating the completion of the skatepark, which features approximately 25,000 square feet of skateable surface area for skaters of all ages and skill levels. The skatepark also includes a beginner area, multilevel skate plaza, and two skate bowls, along with an additional 5,700 square feet of surrounding sidewalk and gathering areas.

CRIME PROBLEM Want to win a bet? Ask your drinking buddies which county has the bigger crime problem - Mobile County, Ala., or Escambia County, Fla.?

Escambia County has a much bigger crime problem. From 2015-2022, Escambia County's violent crime rate per 1,000 people was 6.0; Mobile County 1.18. Over the same period, Escambia County's property crime rate per 1,000 was 25.93; Mobile County 9.14. The data sources are the Alabama Department of Labor and the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity.

PERDIDO KEY SAFETY Escambia County

Public Safety Director Eric Gilmore is improving the public safety messaging on Perdido Key to avoid further drownings on the beaches in southwest Escambia County.

"We are putting up notices that there are no lifeguards at the four public access points," said Gilmore. "And as you cross over the dunes, we're working on putting rip current signage out there, making sure that's visible as you walk onto the public beach."

The county is also working on syncing flags along the beach. "There are four different entities out there that fly flags—the private condos, state park, Gulf Islands National Seashore and Station 19. We're making sure we're getting out the same message on the rip currents."

Gilmore continued, "I need to work with the condos and make sure that they're on board with flying the same flag that we're all flying across the key. So messaging, communication and coordination right now are what we're focusing on and to make sure everybody's on the same page at the key."

He said that the county provides lifeguards on the federal law on Johnson Beach but not the rest of Perdido Key because it was thought that those areas were privately owned. If the county can prove that there is a 75-foot public beach easement, then more lifeguards could be placed on Perdido Key at the taxpayers' expense.

"Right out the gate, when we buy a lifeguard stand that's $60,000, and that's just one of those fiberglass huts, no power that sits out there," Gilmore said. "And then we started adding our manpower, at least a minimum of two lifeguards at each stand running 9:00-6:00. You're looking somewhere around $70,000 per stand, not including the vehicles we need to go out there. We have four-wheelers at Pensacola Beach."

WAVERLY UPDATE Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves shared the latest update on The Waverly on Garden Street with Inweekly last week. The Waverly project was announced last June, with construction beginning in the fall, but that failed to happen. Recently the sales office was removed from the site, but Mayor Reeves isn't concerned. The grocery store and apartments may be the first phase as the city works on timelines for street improvements based on city officials' conversations with the developer.

The mayor said, "We're working with them on making sure that we're supporting their effort, but also our partnership with them to help us enhance the streetscape there that'll allow the store to be there and really make for a beautiful Spring Street and entry into our downtown."

He continued, "They need those improvements for a store to be able to go in and to get deliveries, which makes sense. So, we're just having conversations about the sequence of funding. We should be good to go, and I'm really excited about that and getting more apartments online. You know, the demand is unbelievable downtown."

The mayor pushed back against criticism of the city paying for infrastructure improvements on Spring Street. "People asking, 'Are you helping with a developer's infrastructure?' Really, it's the opposite. Our dollars are going to enhance a very old, outdated intersection whose parts are unsafe. All of our dollars are going into the improvement of Spring Street."

STAMP OUT HUNGER The annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive is only a month away. Letter carriers will be picking up food donations on May 13. Organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive is the largest one-day food drive in the country. Food collected in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties stays here.

This year, residents in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties can participate by leaving non-perishable food donations at their mailboxes on Saturday, May 13, for their letter carriers to collect.

"Many folks in need of food assistance right now are the working poor, grandparents raising their grandchildren, and moms and dads who do not have enough money to pay their bills and buy food for their family due to high food, utility and housing costs," said DeDe Flounlacker, executive director of Manna Food Pantries. "Stamp Out Hunger makes it possible for Manna and many of the area's food pantries to feed thousands of children, senior citizens, veterans, families and individuals in need."

Residents are encouraged to leave a bag of healthy, non-perishable food items, such as canned fruit in 100% juice, canned mixed vegetables, canned chicken, canned tuna, dry breakfast items (oatmeal, whole-grain cereal), peanut butter and/or dry beans. Residents should not donate items in glass containers or items that have been opened or homemade.

Local food donations will benefit individuals and families served by Manna Food Pantries, Feeding the Gulf Coast, ACTS Ministries, We Care Ministries and Warrington Emergency Aid Center. Last year Escambia and Santa Rosa letter carriers collected 188,813 pounds of food from generous residents.

Residents of the two-county area will receive a Stamp Out Hunger postcard reminder in the mail, as well as a bag to fill with donation items. For more information about the annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, please visit uwwf.org/soh. {in}