Transcripts For WUSA 60 Minutes 20161205

The bulldog. A place call the Golden Triangle, led by the toughest bulldog of all. The only way we win any deal is to tear off everybody elses face. We got to kill everybody to win the deal. 170, turned into 1. 75 billion. Do the friggin math. Ever heard of a google lawsuit or how about a drive by lawsuit. We found thousands of these suits being filed around the americans with disabilities act. Many Business Owners think theyre nothing more than a shakedown. Businesses here hate you. Well, i would say that. How many lawsuits have you filed . 2,000, 2,500. I mean, i dont really keep track. Do you know how much youve made in the 2,000 cases youve filed . Oh, i wouldnt dare to say. Millions . Yeah, i would say that. Im bill whitaker. Im anderson cooper. Im scott pelley. Those stories, tonight on 60 minutes. Preponderance cbs money watch sponsored by American Express open, proud supporter of growing business tsz. Good evening. President elect trump is jobs moved out of the country. 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Pelley for Donald Trumps agenda to become reality, it must pass through the office of the speaker of the house, paul ryan. Ryan didnt want trump to be president. The men threw ugly names at one another, and ryan refused to campaign for trump. But elections have a way of proving that old adage, that in his Capitol Office about a partnership that may become the most scrutinized in washington. How often are you speaking to the president elect . Paul ryan about every day. Pelley do you call him, or does he call you . Ryan both. Pelley when you call over to the ryan he answers his cell phone. I sh probably shouldnt say that on tv. laughs he just he just answers the phone. Pelley you call donald trump on his cell phone . Ryan all the time. Pelley and how does he answer . What does he say . Ryan he says, hi, hello. Pelley he doesnt say, this is the president elect . Ryan no. Hes a pretty casual guy. He calls me paul. Because i just i have a reverence for the office. But yeah, hes very casual about it. Pelley hey, this is paul. And heres heres something im thinking about. Ryan yeah, yeah. All the time. Pelley how long do those conversations go on . Ryan 20 to 45 minutes. Pelley have you told him being president is not being c. E. O. Of the united states, that the congress is going to have a say . Ryan oh, weve talked about that extensively. Weve talked about the constitution, article one on the constitution, the separation of powers. He feels very strongly, actually, that that, under from the constitution, away from the legislative branch of government. And we want to reset the balance of power, so that people and the constitution are rightfully restored. Pelley and thats what donald trump believes . He believes in the separation of power . You dont think he thinks hes going to run this country the way he wants to . Ryan no, i think he understands theres a constitution, and that those separate but equal branches of government give us a limited government. And he believes that. Pelley you called donald trump a racist. Ryan no, i didnt. I said his comment was. Pelley uhhuh. Well im not sure theres a great deal of daylight between those two definitions. But he definitely called you ineffective and disloyal. Have you patched it up . Ryan yeah, we have. Were fine. Were not looking back. Thats behind us. Were way beyond that. Now were talking about, how do we fix this countrys problems. Pelley you know, im curious, though. How did you patch it up . Who apologized to whom . laughs how did that conversation go . Ryan we went fine. It was pretty much the day after the election, or maybe two basically decided to let bygones be g bygones, and lets move forward and fix this countrys problems. And it was over and done with. And ever since then, weve had nothing but extremely productive conversations. Pelley paul ryan has led the majority in the house just over a year. He took the job, reluctantly, when his predecessor gave up on trying to pull the fractured party together. Ryan is 46, from wisconsin and an expert on the budget. What is the first bill you intend to pass . Ryan well, the first bill were going to be working on is pelley youre going to repeal it first . Ryan yes. Pelley youre not pulling the rug out from under the 20 Million People who already have ryan no, no. We pelley obamacare. Ryan we want to make sure that we have a good transition period, so that people can get better coverage at a better price. Pelley so what are we talking about . Months . Years . Ryan i cant give you an answer to that. Were still working on that. Pelley but people talked about three years, in terms of a transition. Ryan yeah, i dont know the answer to that right now. What we know is we have to make good on this promise. We have to bring relief as fast as possible to people who are struggling under obamacare. Pelley what do republicans ryan patientcentered healthcare that gets everybody access to affordable healthcare coverage. So they can buy what they what they want to buy. Pelley so people will still get coverage, regardless of their preexisting condition. Ryan yeah. We think preexisting conditions is a very important feature of any healthcare system. Pelley children will stay on their parents plans until the age of 26 . Ryan yeah, thats something that we actually have always had in our plan, as well. Pelley and women will pay the same as men . That didnt used to be the case. Ryan it depends on the age of a person. So w we believe that we should have support based on the sicker and the older you get, the more support you ought to get. If youre a person that has low income, you probably should have more assistance than a person with high income, for example. Pelley is your plan going to cover everyone in america . Ryan we will give everyone access to affordable healthcare coverage. Pelley in the first year, what else do you expect to get through the congress . Ryan we really want to focus on Economic Growth and growing the economy. There are a lot of regulations that are really just crushing jobs. Look at the coal miners in the rust belt that are getting out of work. Look at the look at the in the west coast. Look at the ranchers or or farmers in the midwest with with regulations. Pelley are you talking about rolling back environmental regulations, safety regulations . Ryan were talking about smarter regulations that actually help us grow jobs in this country. We want to have good stewardship and conversation of the environment and Economic Growth. We have a real Economic Growth problem in america. We are limping along. Wages are flat, and jobs arent being created near to the extent that they could and should be. So we think regulatory relief is very, very important, and thats something were g pelley ryan told us that he can now support trumps changed positions on immigration from deporting all 11 million illegal immigrants, to focusing on only those whove committed crimes and from building a 2,000 mile wall to something less. Ryan no, were not working on a d deportation force. Heres what were working on with respect to immigration, securing our border, enforcing our current laws. He talked about criminal aliens. Thats just enforcing laws for crimes. We should enforce those laws. But really, what were focused on is securing our border. Pelley well, trump said he was going to build a wall. Ryan yeah, i think conditions on the ground determine what you need in a particular area. Some areas, you might need a wall. Some area, you might need double fencing. I my own view on this is, whatever kind of device or barrier or policy to secure the boarder, thats necessary to secure the border, then do it. Pelley how big will the tax cut be for the middle class . Ryan well, again, we havent written this bill. But if yan of what were looking at, its virtually identical with the one that donald trump rolled out in the campaign. It means everyone gets lower tax rates, but we plug loopholes to pay for it. Pelley but give me a number. What is the tax cut for the average middleclass family . Ryan when i have a bill, ill tell you the number. Lets do this again pelley youve thought this through. Youve been thinking it through for years. What would you like to see . Ryan yeah, so the tax rates that we talked about, for individuals, we would have a 15 bracket, i think a 25 bracket, and a 33 bracket. We consolidate down to three. The other thing thats really important in tax reform is making sure that we dont tax american businesses at much higher tax rates than our foreign competitors tax theirs. It is costing us jobs. Its one of the reasons all these American Companies are moving overseas. Pelley what should the Corporate Tax rate be . Ryan well, our plan says 20 , and Donald Trumps plan says 15 . Its now 35 . Pelley do you think the rich will benefit the most from your tax reform plan . R get this economy growing. Raise wages. Simplify the tax system, so its easy to comply with. Pelley you youre a little shy, when i ask you about the rich receiving the greatest part of the ryan well, heres the problem when you pelley of the tax cuts. Ryan when you ask these things. Most of that income is Small Business income. You have to remember, eight out of ten businesses in america, they file their business as individuals, as people, and so but its that business in the in the Business Park out of jamesville, wisconsin, that has 50 employees. And do i want to lower their tax rates . You bet i do. Pelley mr. Trump promised a 1 trillion infrastructure program. What are you going to build, and how are you going to pay for it . Ryan well i think, that should be decided by the marketplace. That should be decided by the needs in the particular states and communities as to what is built or rebuilt. And its going to be one of our High Priorities that we are going to be addressing this year. Pelley one of your High Priorities that we heard almost campaign is poverty. Ryan actually, ive talked to him a lot about that. We feel very strongly about making work pay, about getting people transitioned from welfare to work. Get people skills they need, help they need, so they can get on the ladder of life. Pelley ryan told us he has no plans to change social security, but Government Health insurance, including medicare, is a fire, he says, burning in the budget. Ryan if you want to think of boom generation, no offense, and theres a lot of you. Pelley i i qualify. Ryan yeah, you qualify. And and were just not ready for the retirement of the baby boomers, and wed better prepare for that. Pelley what changes do you plan for medicare . Ryan heres the problem. Medicare goes bankrupt in about ten years. The trust fund runs out of money. So we have to make sure that we shore this program up, and the reforms that weve been talking about dont change the benefit for anybody who is in or near retirement. My moms now enjoying medicare. Shes already retired. She earned it. But for those of us, you know, the xgen generation on down, it wont be there for us on its current path. So we have to bring reform to this program for the younger generation, so that its there for us when we retire, and so that we can keep cash flowing to current generations commitments, and the more we kick the can down the road, the more we delay, the worse it gets. Pelley but you are going to kick the can down the road for the next year or two. This is not your top priority. Ryan its not our t i havent even discussed this that we have to tackle. Pelley from his balcony, the speaker is watching the rise of Donald Trumps inauguration platform. But, for ryan, the best view in washington isnt a pretty sight. You know, one thing i noticed during our interview inside was that every time you talked about the evils of washington, you glanced out the window. Ryan i do, because thats where all the bureaucracys are. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Thats right. Pelley you think of this town as part of the problem, not part of the solution. Ryan absel if you look down, i can see h. H. S. , education, e. P. A. Pelley the two most prominent things on the skyline from this Vantage Point are the Washington Monument and the new trump hotel. Ryan thats right. Thats what i knew you were going to say. Pelley the new trump hotel. Ryan thats the new trump hotel. Yeah he notic he actually noted that, when i took him up here. Pelley i bet he did. He probably told you what a great place it was. Ryan he said Something Like that. Pelley is that a reminder of whos boss . Ryan the Washington Monuments the tallest one. And by the way, the dome, its a pelley beneath the dome, ryan will have a front row seat to trumps swearing in. Did you believe he could be nominated . Really . Ryan yeah, no, i i didnt see this one comin. He knows that. I dont think most people in the country saw. If you wouldve put last year into a movie script and taken it to hollywood two years ago, they wouldve laughed you out of the room, because it wouldnt have been believable. Pelley did you see Election Night coming . Ryan no, not really. I think pelley you expected Hillary Clinton to win. Ryan i thought the odds were clearly in her favor. So i was a little surprised, pleasantly so. Pelley do you trust him . Ryan yeah. Pelley heres something many people wonder. Does he say the same bizarre things to you in private that he says in public . And its an important distinction ryan you know, i think there is a bit of a difference between the private person and the public person. In the private person, theres a conversation like this, and its all about how to get things done. Almost always revolves around, you know, personnel and policy focused on producing results. Pelley trump tweeted, in the last week or so, that he had actually won the popular vote, if you deduct the millions who voted illegally. Do you believe that . Ryan i dont know. I im not really focused on these things. Pelley wait a minute. Wait a minute. You you have an opinion on whether millions of americans voted illegally . Ryan i i have no way of backing that up. I have no knowledge of such things. Pelley you dont believe that ryan but i dont it pelley but how, we asked, does he negotiate with a man whose word, or tweets, cannot always be believed . Ryan look, sighs , like i said, hes going to the way i see the the the tweets youre talking about, hes basically giving voice to a lot of people who have felt that they were voiceless. Hes s communicating with people in this country whove felt like they have not been i really think we have a great opportunity in front of us to fix problems, produce results, and improve peoples lives. Thats why were here in the first place, and so thats whats going to matter at the end of the day. Did we improve peoples lives . Did we solve the problems that the American People need solved . Are we addressing the concerns of people who are tired of being tired . And who cares what he tweeted, you know, on some thursday night, if we fix this countrys big problems . Thats just the way i look at this. Speaker ryan shared more details with scott pelley about his agenda for the trump administrations first days. Go to 60minutesovertime. Com sponsored by lyrica. 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Manufacturing is showing signs of coming back due to cheap energy, proximity to customers, and a rising cost of labor in nearly a Million Manufacturing jobs have been created since the great recession. About 350,000 are unfilled, because factories cant find properlytrained american workers. The new plants demand more brainpower than brawn. Its called advanced manufacturing, and if you want to see what it looks like, you need to go a place off the beaten track the Golden Triangle. Thats a bit of a misnomer, because its one of po cheering if you have heard of the Golden Triangle, it might be because of this Mississippi State football. Around here, Everybody Loves the bulldogs, and bulldog is an apt description of the man who runs Economic Development for the area Joe Max Higgins. Joe max higgins the only way we win any deal is to tear off everybody elses face. We c got to kill everybody to win the deal. Whitaker ferocity is a job requirement. During the recession, unemployment in some parts of the triangle got as high as 20 . Higgins were going to come up with a program. Whitaker at 6. 0 , unemployment is now just above the national average, and a lot of people here credit Joe Max Higgins. He has attracted 6 billion of this mill run by Steel Dynamics. Its one of the most hitech steel mills in the country. He got this helicopter factory up and running. Truck maker paccar used to build engines only in europe it opened its first u. S. Plant in the triangle. Companies were moving around, this offshoring. They were going to countries where everythings cheaper . Higgins for some companies, offshore wasnt as great as they many of the Companies Said hey, if its going to be consumed in the u. S. , we can produce it in the u. S. Cheaper and more efficiently than we can elsewhere and bring it in. Whitaker they save money by being here in mississippi . Higgins uhhuh. Whitaker higgins has brought in 6,000 jobs to the tricounty area since 2003. That might not sound like a lot to people in big cities, but to the people here in the small towns of the Golden Triangle, it amounts to about half the the last 25 years. Through the 1990s, factories here produced textiles, toys, and tubing. One by one, they shut down, and thousands of lowskilled jobs vanished. So where did all those jobs go . Higgins well, a lot of those people just left. They were so devastated by artechs closing, flexible flyers closing, blazon tube closing, how about that . I mean, just bam, bam, bam, the hits just keep on coming. Development job in arkansas to stop the hemorrhaging here in the triangle. He makes 250,000 a year, paid by a partnership of the three counties and local businesses. People here will tell you he earns every penny. Hes like a very demanding head coach. Higgins theres no taking plays off, never, okay . I tell our staff, if you leave our office and and you didnt do something to make our place a whitaker you sound like a coach. Higgins well, its probably what i should be. Whitaker right away, he coached his small staff to the triangles biggest win in fifty years. They beat out louisiana, missouri and arkansas, convincing the steel mill that building here was its smartest and cheapest option. Since 2007, 24 hours a day, scrap metal is dumped into giant buckets, lifted into an electric fiery display. In the old days, a mill like this would have needed 4,000 workers; here, it takes only 650 to churn out more than 3 million tons of steel a year. Electrician jared glover took us as close to the blazing furnace as you can get. This is all automated . Jared glover all the workers, were just a small force. Whitaker this is what advanced manufacturing looks like a small, highlytrne workforce keeps the automation humming. Jared glover used to work at a lumber mill, living paycheck to paycheck. Now he earns more than 100,000 a year, about three times his old salary. What has that meant to you and your family . Glover had two kids coming here, and now i got four, and we got a bigger house. Got a little more land. You know, were they got a good school they go to, and everybodys happy. Higgins how ya doin . The very definition of downhome. But dont be fooled. Its a good bet hes got more hardedge Business Savvy then many harvard m. B. A. s. Higgins 170, turned into 1. 75 billion. Do the friggin math. Whitaker he outwits the competition with a bag full of tricks. He can twist your arm or kill you with kindness. He can wear you down. He lobbies relentlessly, and so far has rounded up a half billion dollars in generous tax breaks and cash innt state and local politicians. Higgins here, theres 4 million in here. Let me tell you how this is structured. Whitaker Joe Max Higgins has vision, and we dont mean 20 20. He can see what others dont. He took us up to show us. Joe, when i look out here i see beautiful green agricultural land. What do you see . Higgins well, when i i when i look at the land, i see it as product for us to develop. Whitaker he bet the farm that in this state with weak turned that land down there into massive industrial ready sites. If you build it, they will come . Higgins yeah. Were installing the water. Were installing the sewer. Were installing the roads, and were getting everything ready so when that Company Comes to locate, theyre eliminating all risk. I mean, that lots there ready to stick a shovel in and build. Whitaker higgins had to convince county supervisors to spend almost 12 million on that first site, where Steel Dynamics now sits. He has s b other socalled megasites, and envisions more. It wasnt an easy sell at first. He told us people in the Golden Triangle were paralyzed by the decline and poverty. He saw an area rich in assets an airport, railroads, waterways that ran north to the great lakes and south to the gulf coast, and a Quality Engineering program at Mississippi State. Higgins i said, these guys those advantages . Higgins correct. They didnt realize that they were big and strong and fast. Nobody had ever told them they were big and strong and fast. They just thought they were, you know, slow and stupid, i guess. Allegra brigham he would say, you just have a losing attitude. You expect to be a loser. You dont expect to be a winner. Whitaker allegra brigham, the former c. E. O. Of the local power company, and john davis, a bank executive, served on the Search Committee that recruited higgins. They thought his brash style before joe came in, what would have been considered a success . John davis the mayor at that time said, if you will just get us a new movie theater, well consider your job a success. A movie theater, which was hardly any jobs, and theyre all theyre all high schoolers. Whitaker so when did he start to turn things around . Brigham immediately. Whitaker he pressed the county to fork over 400,000 for helicopter plant off the ground. Today, 200 workers handcraft about 50 helicopters a year, mostly for the army and law enforcement. The average pay on the factory floor 50,000 a year, plus full benefits. They made the helicopter we flew in. What sort of impact did that have on the community . Higgins i think the helicopter plant kind of transformed this region, and heres why it was literally that was the project that gave us some reason to believe. We can do this. Whitaker just when it seemed things were taking off, the triangle was blindsided. Its biggest industrial employer, sara lees centuryold pork processing plant, shut down. It once employed 2,500 people. This is the factory today. Single mother nina head worked on the slaughter floor for 14 home. Nina head that was the heartbeat of the Golden Triangle. Whitaker the heartbeat . Head yeah. Whitaker and when those jobs went away . Head you had a lot of unemployment. You had a lot of uncertainty. Whitaker it was Joe Max Higgins biggest challenge. He became obsessed with winning the next deal. He found out paccar was considering building its engine plant in jonesboro, arkansas near where he grew up. He got on his motorcycle and rode home to scope it out. When he got back, he convinced county supervisors to build this substation to undercut arkansas with cheaper power. He won the deal. Today, its a 500 million facility filled with robots and about 500 humans. When paccar began hiring, 3,000 people applied for the first 50 jobs. Higgins nobody in the Golden Triangle made engines. Nobody made any of this stuff. So what youre really looking for is, do our citizens have the acumen for work . Do they have the work ethic . Are they skilled enough to be trained to do jobs . And the answer is yes, yes, and yes. Whitaker Joe Max Higgins enlisted the Community College to provide customized training for paccar, so when the plant was ready, the workforce was ready. Nina head now works there doing quality control. She makes 10,000 a year more than on the kill floor at sara lee. When you first got here, did you have the skills required for this job . Head ive never worked with robots, so i had to be trained to do that, but i had the skills because i went to school to learn how to get the job. Whitaker the school now gears its training for each manufacturer coming in. Critical part of his business plan. The promise of a trained workforce caught the eye of his biggest catch yet yokohama tire. The Japanese Company plans to employ 2,000 workers not far from the old sara lee plant. It considered every county in the continental u. S. , so higgins pulled out all the stops. He tracked the tail number of the private plane shuttling yokohama executives from site to site to find out who his competitors were. When the executives came to the triangle, higgins had researched their shoe sizes and had galoshes ready for them to tour the muddy site. This is not just about making executives feel comfortable . Higgins no. Whitaker this is hardnosed financial negotiation . Higgins yeah. Financial negotiations. I call it, watching game film, you know . If we were a football coach, were watching game film, whats the competition doing . What do we need to do to be successful . What are their power rates . What are their what are their demands . How do we do what we do . Whitaker what Joe Max Higgins has done is burnish the Golden Triangle. Local tax revenue is going up. This construction site is an expansion of the steel mill. People now expect the coach to win. Higgins has his eye on ten more advanced industry projects and 4,000 more jobs. So the people who say that the glory days of American Manufacturing are over, you say . Think thats not right. These plants, they pay well. Most of the working conditions are very good, and those are the jobs that are in demand. If we can create those types of industries, those types of jobs, i think the skys still the limit for the united states. Whitaker skys the limit . Higgins i think it can be, to protect them. Making the right decisions today for your longterm financial future can protect you and your family, and preserve your legacy. Ask a Financial Advisor how retirement and Life Insurance solutions from pacific life . Tomorrows the day well play something besides video games. Every day is a gift especially for people with Heart Failure. But today theres entresto . A breakthrough medicine that can help make more tomorrows possible. Tomorrow, i want to see teddy bait his first hook. 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Because of the law, every business that serves the public, all seven million of them in america, has to make sure disabled customers have equal access, and if businesses dont comply, they can be sued without warning. Customer of a business to file a lawsuit against it, but in some states you dont. You can simply drive by a store or restaurant, and if you see a sign in the wrong spot, or a ramp thats off by a few inches, you can sue. They are called driveby lawsuits, and some lawyers are filing hundreds of them, against businesses that often have no idea they have done anything wrong. At first glance, this Convenience Store in fort americans with disabilities act. There is a parking space for the disabled, and an access ramp to the store. But the americans with disabilities act has thousands of very technical regulations, and this store is in violation. Nolan klein what we see here are really sort of the typical red flags that attract lawsuits. Cooper so, i mean, theres a parking space here. Klein there is a space. Its not the right dimensions. It needs to be a van space. That means this has to be eight feet, this has to be five feet. Cooper attorney nolan klein says that disabled parking sign is also in the wrong spot, and it doesnt say the words van accessible. That access ramp isnt right either. Whats wrong with it . Klein under the law, this is not an access ramp, so this has to be on an accessible route, which is sort of the area that they tried to create there, but this is supposed to be five feet long. Cooper mike zayed, who has owned the store for 18 years, says no disabled customer had ever complained about the ramp, but that didnt stop him from having to hire attorney nolan klein when he got sued. The person who sued you, you dont believe they were actually a customer in the store . Mike zayed no, no. Cooper you think they just drove by or stopped outside . Zayed thats what i believe. The lawyer, he was just driving around. Cooper thats why its called a driveby lawsuit when a lawyer or a disabled person notices violations outside a business and files suit. Mike zayed doesnt think the person who sued him was a real customer, because the man claimed he encountered barriers insidehe zayed to me, i feel its not fair, because to me, i feel like thats stealing. We work hard for our money and these people just driving around in their car, here you go, this violation here, and there. Cooper do you know other storeowners who have been sued . Zayed i have two guys i know in broward, they get sued twice. Cooper same lawyer . Zayed same lawyer, same guy. Cooper if you think driveby lawsuits hatched from the comfort of a car are a novel way to enforce a law, theres another kind of lawsuit that requires less work lawyers call whats a google lawsuit . Klein a google lawsuit is where the suspicion, at least, is that the property was spotted on google, google earth, google maps, whatever the case may be, and you could see certain things from google. You could see if theres a pool lift or not. Cooper a pool lift is a seat that can help disabled people get in and out of the water. Since 2012, all hotels and motels in america are required to be accessible to the disabled, which, in most cases, means having a lift permanently attached this is what a pool lift looks like from google earth. In the comfort of your own home, with a few clicks of a mouse, you can see if a pool near you has one; and if they dont appear to have a pool lift, like many of these hotel pools we looked up, you can file a lawsuit, just like that. Perry pustam runs the adobe Hacienda Motel in hollywood, florida. He has a pool lift now, but says he didnt know he was required lawsuit. Did a disabled person actually come here perry pustam no. Cooper and want to use the pool . Pustam at no point in time we ever had a customer on the property that requested it or that was even in a room that requested it. Cooper it turns out the same man who sued him, sued dozens of other motel owners as well, all for pool lift violations. Pustam it was about 60 something lawsuits in 50 something days. Cooper 60 lawsuits in 50 days . Pustam 60plus, yes, in less than 57 days. Cooper all from the same attorney . Pustam same attorney, using the same client. Cooper at last count, that attorney has sued nearly 600 businesses in just the last two years, many for not having pool lifts. Perry pustam ended up paying 3,000 to buy a lift, that so far, no one has ever used. He also spent thousands of dollars in attorneys fees. He told us he believes these lawsuits are sometimes simply a moneymaking venture for lawyers, because under federal law, Business Owners have to pay both sets of attorneys fees, and if you dont settle, it can pustam its a game for these attorneys. Basically, thats what it is. Cooper every private business in america thats open to the public, millions of shops, restaurants, movie theatres, grocery stores, laundromats, nail salons, and more, have to be compliant with the americans with disabilities act. But Business Owners we spoke to say its almost impossible to be totally compliant with the law, because the requirements are very specific and there are thousands of them. Page manual that details everything from the exact height of a mirror in a bathroom, to the maximum thickness of carpeting, to the angle at which water can come out of a drinking fountain. Every doorway, every door handle, every surface you walk on, every light switch, outlet, counter you name it are all covered by the americans with disabilities act, which was first passed in 1990. In theory, businesses only need to comply if its readily reality, if youre not meeting every single requirement, you can be sued without warning. Essentially, youre saying that after 25 years, there really is no excuse for any business not to be compliant . John wodatch well, people who say that they need a grace period. I would say 25 years is a grace period enough. Cooper john wodatch is the retired chief of the department of justices disability rights section, and was part of the team that wrote the americans with disabilities act. Is the law, as its written, too specific, that a mirror has to be 40 inches off the ground as opposed to 39 or 41 . Wodatch my first answer is no, its not. I think the specificity is needed, because i think inches matter. If you have a lip on a curb ramp, a wheelchair user is likely to tumble into the street and injure him or herself. Cooper wodatch points out, the number of Disability Access lawsuits is small, compared to the tens of millions of americans who have some form of are some people taking advantage of the law . Wodatch i think some people are. There are some people who are engaging in what i think people have called shakedowns or frivolous lawsuits, where they are not really looking at significant change for people with disabilities, theyre looking to use the law to make some money. Cooper when the americans with disabilities act was being written, the department of justice was concerned about people taking advantage of this part of the law. They intentionally did not include moneta plaintiffs in federal lawsuits. The problem is, now many states do provide for damages, and john wodatch says, that has led to abuse, most notably in california, where, with limited exceptions, Business Owners have to pay not only lawyers fees and remodeling costs, but also a minimum of 4,000 in damages each time a disabled customer visits a business with a violation. That can add up to hundreds of attorney Tom Frankovich is one of the top filers of Disability Access lawsuits in california. Businesses here hate you. Tom frankovich well, i would say that. Cooper how many lawsuits have you filed . Frankovich 2,000, 2,500. I mean, i dont really keep track. Cooper do you know how much youve made in the 2,000 cases youve filed . Frankovich oh, i wouldnt dare to say. Cooper millions . Frankovich yeah, i would say that. Cooper couple million . Cooper is it fair to say youre scaring people to comply with the law . Frankovich i hope. Cooper you hope . Frankovich i hope. Cooper so when people call you an extortionist, when people call you a shakedown artist, you say what . Frankovich im acting as a private attorney general, and im enforcing a law that precludes discrimination by you against people with disabilities. Cooper when youre filing hundreds of lawsuits for one frankovich you know, its more than fair, anderson. Because what people dont realize is that i represent activists. What you find is that it takes courage to be an activist. Cooper but not everyone is an activist. Some attorneys are being accused of recruiting disabled clients to file these lawsuits. Daniel delgado owns a medical Equipment Repair shop in madeira, california. He is w childhood polio and has a learning disability. He didnt know much about the americans with disabilities act until, he says, he was approached by attorneys randy and tanya moore. What did they say to you . Daniel delgado they goes, how would you like to make 100,000, 200,000 a year . And he goes, all you got to do is a. D. A. I said, what the heck is a. D. A. . Cooper he says he was told he would make 1,000 per lawsuit, and would help improve access for the disabled. They were saying to you, not money, but it was actually going to improve life for disabled people . Delgado exactly. Cooper and thats important to you . Delgado that was more important to me than anything. Cooper Daniel Delgado told us randy and tanya moore sent him to businesses he would not have otherwise visited, with instructions to buy something and get a receipt. He signed off as a plaintiff on dozens of cases, and says he was asked to recruit some of his disabled friends including john morales to File Lawsuits as well. What kind of businesses did you visit, john . I went to grocery stores, i went to restaurants, i went to a couple of just different stores. And she would tell me to look for if theres accessible seating, if theres a table for the handicapped, or if theres a restroom that you can go into. She told me what to look for, so i started doing that. Cooper john morales says the law firm assured them businesses would get a warning before being sued. Is that what happened . Cooper do you think thats fair . Morales no, i dont. Cooper why . Morales and i wasnt happy with it. Why dont i think its fair . I just dont think its fair. I think that the Business Owner should have the opportunity to fix that. You know, everybody should have a second chance, you know. Cooper both men say they were paid, but nothing close to what they were entitled to under the law. The moores say that john morales and Daniel Delgado both signed fee agreements that gave them Unlimited Power of attorney to initiate lawsuits and negotiate settlements. Delgado and morales say they only saw the last two pages of the contracts, and didnt know the details of the agreements they signed. When lawsuits were settled, did you know how much money the attorneys were making . Morales no, never did. Cooper we wanted to talk to randy and tanya moore, but they refused our request for an on camera interview. They deny asking Daniel Delgado to recruit disabled clients, and say they never told him or john morales that businesses would get advance warning before being the moores have filed more than 1,000 lawsuits related to the americans with disabilities act and have earned, by our estimate, at least 3 million doing so. They are now being sued by Daniel Delgado and john morales for fraud. Both men say, while the lawsuits did improve access for the disabled, they have also made some Business Owners wary of dealing with disabled customers. You think, john, this is having a negative effect . Morales yes. Cooper on businesses both yes. Morales and so, instead of us doing a good thing, i felt like because of the advantage they took on us, coming against all these businesses, we did more harm than good. Cooper in places like california and florida, there is little doubt that disability lawsuits have led to improved access. Most states and the District Of Columbia currently award cash damages for plaintiffs who file such lawsuits, and with so many not be long before you start hearing about these kind of lawsuits in a town or city near you. This cbs sports update is brought to you by ford division. Im james brown with the nfl today. Eric berry shines defensively in the chiefs win. They stun buffalo. Detroit picked off drew brees three times to win their fourth straight. The packers make it two behind aaron rodgers. The patriots tom brady gets win 201 most, alltime bay quarterback. And dallas clinches a playoff berth. For more sports news and scores berth. For more sports news and scores go, to cbssports. Com. 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