SEATTLE – Attorney General Rob McKenna said it’s too soon to tell how Washington will be impacted by the damage Hurricane Katrina caused to Gulf refineries, but warned drivers that the state has a limited ability to regulate gasoline prices.

SEATTLE -- Washington consumers who used the antidepressant drug Remeron could receive part of a $36 million multi-state settlement with its manufacturer, Organon USA Inc, Attorney General Christine Gregoire announced today.

Remeron is a mental health drug primarily used to treat depression. Attorneys General from 50 states sued Organon for improperly trying to keep Remeron's generic equivalent off the market in order to maintain profitability on sales of the drug. With annual sales over $400 million at its peak, Remeron is Organon's top-selling drug.

SPOKANE -- Thousands of consumers who purchased bogus medical supplies in Washington and 17 other states will benefit from a settlement announced today by Washington Attorney General Christine Gregoire.

The settlement, for $150,000, was reached with defendant Eric Glenn concerning Glenn's sale of magnetic mattress pads and "Chinese" mineral lamps.

SEATTLE -- Attorney General Christine Gregoire today announced that 49 agencies statewide will receive grants totaling $695,000 from a recent settlement with Medco Health Solutions, Inc. The money will be used to benefit low-income, disabled or elderly consumers of prescription medications in Washington.

SEATTLE – Attorney General Rob McKenna today said that while the Attorney General’s Office has not seen any activity by Washington gasoline suppliers or retailers that would warrant taking legal action, his office will assist with a national inquiry into the causes of escalating gas prices.

SPOKANE -- Attorney General Christine Gregoire today filed suit against two marketing companies that allegedly scammed senior citizens out of their life savings by encouraging them to buy high-risk or bogus investments, including insurance products and living trusts.

SEATTLE– The Attorney General’s Office Criminal Justice Division today filed charges of theft in the first degree (by deception) against a former state senator who purchased government rated airfares on Alaska Airlines while claiming he was still a state senator.

According to an investigation by the Washington State Patrol, from September 2003 through July 2005, Timothy Erwin purchased 36 government rated airfares, costing Alaska Airlines $14,366.99 in losses. Erwin served in the state Senate from 1990 to 1994.

SEATTLE -- A $430 million settlement with makers of a prescription epilepsy drug will return millions of dollars to Washington's Medicaid program and provide money to offset the company's improper efforts to market the drug Neurontin for other purposes, Attorney General Christine Gregoire announced today.

SEATTLE – Attorney General Rob McKenna today announced the filing of Washington’s first lawsuit under the state’s new computer spyware act.

The suit, filed late yesterday in U.S. District Court in Seattle, accuses New York-based Secure Computer, as well as associates in the United States and India, of marketing software that falsely claims computers are infected with spyware and selling consumers a program that claims to remove it. In fact, the software renders computers more susceptible to attacks.

OLYMPIA – A bipartisan group of state representatives will sponsor the House of Representatives’ version of Attorney General Rob McKenna’s request legislation to protect by law a reporter’s confidential sources.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, and Deputy Republican Leader Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, will join Reps. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, and Skip Priest, R-Federal Way, in championing the measure through the House of Representatives.