NEW YORK - March 27 - The Center for Justice & Democracy (CJ&D) today condemned the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's fifth annual state liability rankings report for its inexplicable targeting for criticism every state in the Hurricane ravaged Gulf Coast region, suggesting that these states are bad for businesses.

The report, which, according to CJ&D, is based on nothing more than the views of corporate lawyers who defend corporate wrongdoers, ranks the hardest-hit Gulf Region states among the bottom 10 states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas. As one illustration of how completely erroneous such "rankings" are, the same day the Chamber released its report, an economic survey by Chicago-based Pollina Corporate Real Estate Inc., evaluating businesses based on 26 factors, put Alabama as no. 5 in the nation for business friendliness.

"At a time when the rest of the country is pulling for these states to recover from devastating hurricanes, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has apparently decided this is a good time to trash them with false information, adding to the misery of their citizens and wreaking further havoc on their business communities," said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of the Center for Justice & Democracy. "The U.S. Chamber of Commerce needs to get back to its mission of helping promote good businesses and stop attacking the very states and communities it should be helping."

CJ&D also condemned the Chamber for focusing attacks on several other states including Wisconsin, Illinois, and West Virginia, all of which are doing well or better than they have in recent years in terms of business climate. For more information, see: http://centerjd.org

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