Stenberg:
■■ . O :r -:.u
OMAHA (AP) — Attorney Gen
eral Dm Stenberg wants answers be-'
fore he gets Nebraska involved in a
lawsuit seeking to recover taxpayer
costs for treating smoking-related ill
nesses.
More than a dozen other states have
filed such suits against tobacco com
panies and the Ndvaska Department
of Social Services has asked Stenberg
to lode into the feasibility ofNebraska
doing the same.
But Stenberg said this week that he
had a list of questions that needed an
swers before he would consider filing
such a lawsuit One of the questions
was whether the politics of U.S. Sen
ate candidate, Gov. Ben Nelson, was
at the heart of the request.
Stenberg said the timing of the re
quest from an agency under Nelson’s
control raised political questions. He
noted that the request came during the
recent Democratic National Conven
tion where party leaders highlighted
tobacco issues.
“This raises serious questions as to
whether your letter is a good-faith re
quest for my advice, or simply postur
ing for the benefit ofBen Nelson’s U.S.
Senate campaign,” Stenberg, a Repub
lican who sought the GOP senate nomi
nation in May, wrote to Social Services
Director Don Leuenberger on Monday.
Deb Thomas, deputy director for
Social Services, denied political moti
vation in the request for die lawsuit,
which she said had been discussed in
the department for nearly two months.
“I thought it was a very political
response to a nonpolitical request for
a legal opinion,” she said.
She was also puzzled by several
other questions Stenberg raised, in
cluding (me for the department to iden
tify a legal theory under which such a
suit could be filed successfully.
"l don't thinJc it 's appropriate far a
client to tell his attorney what legal
theories exist,” she said.
Thomas said she hoped department
officials could sit down with Stenberg’s
staff soon to work through the issues
involved in such a lawsuit. She agreed
with Stenberg that there are important
questions to be answered, but she said
they would be answered most easily in
a joint effort.
In the last two years, 14 states have
filed suit against tobacco companies
over public health costs related to
smoking. States, including Kansas and
Oklahoma, claim that the cigarette
manufacturers conspired to mislead
and misinform the public about their
products even after their own research
ers told them there were links between
cigarettes and cancer.
One small tobacco company re
cently settled a suit with the state of
Mississippi, agreeing to change its ad
vertising practices and to pay a small
financial settlement.
. Thomas said it was the settlement
by Liggett Inc. that first got her depart
ment interested in the tobacco litiga
tion. But the battle apparently is not
going as easily elsewhere.
In Minnesota, Philip Morris is
spending $1.25 million a week review
ing and processing documents for the
health-care lawsuit brought by the state
of Minnesota, according to an attorney
for the cigarette manufacturer.
ft-—
I thought it was a very political
reponse to a nonpolitical request for
a legal opinion *
Deb Thomas
deputy director for Social Services
Philip Morris attorney Peter
Sipkins said as many as 210 attorneys,
legal assistants and secretaries worked
to meet an Aug. 31 deadline to pro
duce more than a million pages of in
ternal documents requested by the
state.
“This is the largest document pro
duction in the history of Minnesota and
is approaching one of the largest na
tionally,” Sipkins told Judge Kenneth
Fitzpatrick in a hearing Tuesday.
That suit invd ves six tobacco com
panies and two trade groups. The state
and co-plaintiff Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Minnesota are seeking reim
bursement for the cost of treating Med
icaid patients for smoking-related ill
nesses.
Stenberg said Nebraska “should
neither rush into litigation nor rule out
the possibility.”
He said considerations should be
whether such a suit could be success
ful, how much it would cost, whether
the state could prove damages suffered
and if it was appropriate to sue tobacco
companies when products such as al
cohol and junk food also pose health
risks.
Correction
Because of a reporting error in the Sept.
11 story, “Moeser stresses excellence,”
numbers concerning UNL retirement
benefits were off, said James Ford,
English professor and president-elect
of the Academic Senate. UNL lags
behind peer-group universities in re
tirement benefits by 6 percent, not 3
percent, Ford said. Also, he said, the
Academic Senate wants to raise the
benefits from the legal limit of 8 per
cent to 12 percent.
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