NEW HAVEN - In May of 2001, New York state troopers arrested Ronald Schongar of Clifton Park for allegedly stealing identities to run up more than $10,000 in credit card bills. Four months after his arrest, Schongar - representing his company Microb Phase Laboratories - continued to apply applications of a mystery agent to kill mold. He was contracted by Staples from 2000 to 2003 and went on to spray other schools throughout the country, until a federal Environmental Protection Agency and Easton Police Department investigation stopped him in his tracks.

Schongar sat at a defense table inside the magistrate's court room at the federal courthouse in New Haven late Thursday afternoon. Assistant U.S. Public Defender Terry Ward sat beside him Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Spears told the court Schongar, 58, was being charged with mail fraud, wire fraud and violations of the Federal Fungicide Insecticide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

SANTA ANA, Calif., July 22 /PRNewswire/ -- An Orange County jury returned a defense verdict in a closely watched case involving claims of serious bodily injury from exposure to mold in a town home located in Mission Viejo, California. Jury deliberations were less than thirty minutes according to trial lawyers Kevin Smith and Sam McDermott with the law firm of Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman which represented defendant, Equity Residential Property Management Corporation.

The eight day trial of Shapiroholland v. Equity Residential Property Management (Orange County Superior Court case 03CC0376) stemmed from the rental of a town home located in Mission Viejo, California. During the tenancy of the rental, the property management company noticed a water leak emanating from a water heater closet in an outdoor patio of the plaintiff's unit. Within two days, repairs were made including extraction of all water that had saturated parts of the carpeting in the living room of the unit. The occupants of the unit, husband/wife/seven year old minor child, all complained they suffered debilitating health effects due to exposure to mold.

EDWARDSVILLE - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville has almost completed a $10 million mold removal from three residence halls, and has filed a massive lawsuit against the companies associated with their construction.

SIUE spokesman Greg Conroy confirmed the work is expected to be finished Thursday, in time for the Aug. 1 deadline to begin getting the residence halls ready for the students' return.

Mold cleanup and testing have become a growing piece of the real estate industry nationwide as property owners and renters have filed record numbers of claims against insurers, builders and landlords during the past few years.

Some believe the mold concern has been fueled by misinformation, while others maintain that toxic molds can cause serious health problems.

In May 2003, Chapter 558 became effective in Florida. The statute requires that a residential claimant follow the procedures in the statute to notify the contractor and other responsible parties of defective construction and provides the contractor a method of resolving the construction defect dispute prior to litigation; a right to cure. Similar to California's right to cure statute, Florida's statute is an attempt to reduce the case load in the court system. One key difference from the California statute is that the contractor only has five business days after receipt of the initial notice to conduct an inspection and a total of 25 calendar days to serve a written response to the claim. This is a very short time to coordinate the appropriate inspections, determine the cause of the problem and propose a solution.

The claimant is barred from filing a lawsuit during the right to cure period and any lawsuit filed without complying with the statute may be stayed pending the inspection/cure period. Although the statute does not apply to actions asserting a claim for personal injuries arising out of the alleged construction defect, many personal injury claimants are serving the 558 notice to avoid a potential defense or delay.

ARLINGTON - Craig Sullivan rang the bell himself, ending a round of fighting with the city about flood damage to his home. Sullivan dropped a lawsuit against the city this week, but he may refile.

Sullivan contends that the city is responsible for water damage to his 5,200-square-foot home in a gated community near Lake Arlington because it approved a neighborhood behind his property. He said runoff from the developed area destabilized his home's foundation and left silt and mold inside the home.

Did you know that mold remediation can be subject to the Federal Fungicide Insecticide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA)? (What a mouthful.) FIFRA defines a "pest" as " The term ''pest'' means (1) any insect, rodent, nematode, fungus, weed . . . " "Fungus" is "The term ''fungus'' means any non-chlorophyll- bearing thallophyte (that is, any non-chlorophyll- bearing plant of a lower order than mosses and liverworts), as for example, rust, smut, mildew, mold, yeast, and bacteria, except those on or in living man or other animals and those on or in processed food, beverages, or pharmaceuticals."

Pesticides are "any substance or mixture of substances intended for preventing, destroying, repelling, or mitigating any pest . . ." Either a state or the feds regulate pesticides, and certify pesticide applicators. Not all pesticides are restricted pesticides (bleach and water comes to mind), but if a restricted pesticide is used, the person or firm doing the application needs to be certified.

PALM CITY--John and Leslie Kingsley's ranch still floods at the height of rainy season, driving rats inside their air-conditioning ducts and, occasionally, their living space.

The septic tank in their yard still backs up into sinks and bathtubs when the ground outside gets saturated. And, with each wet summer, mold under their hardwood floors has spread, causing more than $40,000 in damage, estimates show.

Joshua Keegan solves the case of the "Menace in the Walls". This review is from a guest reviewer, my seven-year old son, Coulter John. "It was great I licked when joshua scraped a spesament of the mold off the wall. Allso the part wher joshua had the printout. And the part wher seld the printout."

[Translation: "It was great. I liked when Joshua scraped a specimen of the mold off the wall. Also, the part where Joshua had the printout. And the part where [his sister] sold the printout."]

I read this 'chapter book' (15 chapters) out loud to my seven year old and my four year old. By Chapter 4, we all knew that Stachybotrys was the culprit mold. What we didn't know - and didn't find out until the last chapter - was 'who' and 'why'. That kept us all interested until the end.

Joshua and his sister, Kelley, have typical brother- sister fights. Kelley manages to wiggle her way into Joshua's summer job, cleaning and sterilizing glassware in a lab, and entering data. Joshua notices that babies in Mitland, Ohio, have been dying after a serious flood. He's curious, but no one is answering his questions. Then the babies' records disappear from the database.

Joshua and Kelley join forces to solve the mystery, and they are resourceful. N.L. (Lucia) Eskeland does a good job conveying the science at an understandable level, without dumbing it down.

In honor of the Democratic convention, here's a link to John Kerry jokes. Here are a few of my favorites:

"John Kerry told Tom Ridge he was too busy to receive a Homeland Security briefing. I thought that was odd, since you're not supposed to ignore terrorist threats until after you become president." - David Letterman. "Well the good news for Democrats, now over half the country can identify a picture of John Kerry. The bad news, the majority still thinks he's the dad from 'The Munsters."' -Jay Leno