Chinese Drywall Toxic?

MANATEE — The Internal Revenue Service should consider allowing homeowners to deduct Chinese drywall-related losses on their federal income-tax returns, several lawmakers said. Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida and three lawmakers from Virginia — Sens. Mark R. Warner and Jim Webb, and Rep. Glenn Nye — made the request in a letter dated Tuesday and [...]

Three U.S. senators, including Florida Democrat Bill Nelson, and a Virginia congressman have written to the Internal Revenue Service asking that costs incurred by homeowners who have fallen victim to Chinese drywall should be deductible for federal tax purposes. The letter, sent Tuesday, asks the IRS to clarify whether section 165(h) of the tax code [...]

SenatorMarkWarner asked: The Chinese drywall controversy surfaced again on Capitol Hill as the Senate Commerce Committee considered the nomination of Inez Tenenbaum to chair the Consumer Product Safety Commission. US Senator Mark Warner directed Tenenbaum to remain focused on the issue, which has impacted hundreds of families across Hampton Roads, and Senator Warner asked her [...]

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in New Orleans has been assigned to hear a batch of lawsuits against Chinese drywall manufacturers and other companies linked to the product. Monday’s ruling by a panel of judges consolidates cases from Louisiana, Florida, Ohio and other states and assigns U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon to oversee them. [...]

WASHINGTON — Senators from both parties praised Inez Tenenbaum on Tuesday as a solid nominee to strengthen federal regulation of toys, Chinese drywall and a host of other consumer products with health and safety defects. Tenenbaum told the Senate Commerce Committee her experience running South Carolina’s public schools system, from 1998 to 2006, had trained [...]

President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission faced questions Tuesday on the growing problem of tainted drywall at her U.S. Senate confirmation hearing. The nominee, Inez M. Tenenbaum, appeared before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where she promised that if confirmed she would work quickly to reach a [...]

By now, we have all heard about the problems with Chinese drywall. It begins with an acrid odor. Next, the physical damage is discovered, from blackened electrical and plumbing components to broken air-conditioning units. Then, alarm sets in as the homeowner wonders how the problem can be fixed, who will pay for it, whether the [...]

Kent Burkman and Rosie Puello-Burkman and their two kids live in a rental house in Boca Raton while their two-story dream home 20 miles away is stripped to the bare slats to remedy a homeowner’s horror: defective Chinese drywall. Their builder, GL Homes, is fixing their house and at least two dozen others in the [...]

Some drywall imported from China between 2002 and 2006 seems to cause problems. In the past year or so, homeowners began reporting odors, health conditions and destruction of electronic wiring that they attributed to the drywall. Federal and state officials are trying to determine whether the drywall can be scientifically linked to these issues. The [...]

BATON ROUGE, La. – The Senate diverted legislation dealing with Chinese-made building materials, which has been implicated in health problems, to a second committee hearing. Several federal and state agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are investigating complaints that Chinese drywall is causing health problems. There also are reports that fumes from [...]