May 24, 2007
WTC insurance dispute settled, construction advances
More than five and a half years after the World Trade Center towers fell, the final seven of the skyscrapers' two dozen insurers have finally agreed to settle multi-billion dollar their dispute and pay most of what a court previously ordered them to pay.
 "The unsettled insurance claims were the last major barrier to rebuilding and have been bitterly and intensely contested for almost six years," the governor told the New York Times. "This means we can now fund construction, access the financial markets and move on to what should be our primary focus: rebuilding."
There were numerous complicatiosn in the process, including the fact that Larry Silverstein had leased the trade center from the Port Authority only six weeks before the attacks and "iIn most cases, the contracts were preliminary ... and negotiations were still ongoing," according to Bloomberg News.
Wednesday's news came on the one year anniversary of the opening of the rebuilt 7 World Trade Center building. It also came on the day it was revealed that the Sept. 11 death toll is officially rising. The city classified the Feb. 10, 2002 death of Felicia Dunn-Jones as a homicide as a reult of the terror attacks. From the Associated Press report:The city said the Sept. 11 death toll at the trade center is now 2,750. Dunn-Jones will be listed on the Sept. 11 memorial when it opens in 2009, a spokeswoman for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation said. Dunn-Jones, a civil rights attorney who breathed in the toxic dust of the falling towers, was the only victim who didn't die the day of the attacks but still received federal death benefits for her family.
She may not be the last name added. From the Daily News:"I would hope they would review all the police who got sick, including my son, and put their names on the memorial," said Joseph Zadroga, father of NYPD Detective James Zadroga, who died of lung disease last year. "They belong there just like her." Earlier: Firemen hurt as pipe falls from WTC deconstruction site
WTC Memorial names to be grouped, not at random
WTC Museum opening delayed to 2010 - Daily News
Symbolic WTC cross moves to St. Peter's Church
In memory of the fifth anniversary of September 11
Tribute Center to open week of September 5
May 24, 2007 06:49 AM in Architecture, Downtown, History, Sightsology
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