About 500,000 had claims against boards: A federal judge has given his final approval to a $20 million settlement of class-action lawsuits against several Louisiana levee boards filed on behalf of thousands of homeowners whose property was damaged by Hurricane Katrina’s flood waters. The plaintiffs’ lawyer Joseph Bruno says a court-appointed “special master” will decide how to distribute proceeds from the settlement with the Orleans, East Jefferson and Lake Borgne parish levee districts. Bruno says about 500,000 property owners had claims against the levee boards, but he didn’t know how many of those could benefit from the settlement. An appeal could delay the process of distributing money, Bruno says. U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval gave his preliminary approval to the deal in December and his final approval on Wednesday. The settlement doesn’t involve separate claims against the Army Corps of Engineers over damage from levee failures.
Coming off the menu: New restrictions have been put in place for the hoki, an ugly fish found deep in the waters around New Zealand, reports the New York Times. That’s due to a reduction in the numbers of the fish, which were used by McDonald’s for its Filet-O-Fish sandwich patties and by Long John Silver’s. McDonald’s says it uses 11 million tons of hoki a year, down from its recent annual use of 15 million tons before the new restrictions were instituted. The fast food chain says it will use other types of white fish for the sandwich. “Everything we’ve seen and heard suggests the fishery is starting to come back,” a McDonald’s spokesman says. Read the story here.
