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at happened.Of course, the whole notion of amocrat running for New Yorks attorneyneral next year is complicated, becausedrew M. Cuomo, a highly popularmocrat, already holds the job. Mr.nallo is assuming that Mr. Cuomo willn for governor next year to supplant atering Gov. David A. Paterson.He says he will abort his campaign if Mr.omo ultimately runs again for attorneyneral, but in New York political circles abernatorial bid is viewed as such aegone conclusion that more than half azen potential candidates are consideringlowing Mr. Dinallo into the race. Mr.omo has been evasive on the topic, even

speculation has intensified since itcame known that the White Housented Mr. Paterson to drop out.A changing of the guard would be closelytched. Under Mr. Spitzer and then Mr.omo, the New York attorney generals

fice has often picked up where thecurities and Exchange Commission didt venture.Few regulators were more despised thanr. Spitzer there were cheers on thew York Stock Exchange when the

ostitution scandal broke last year,ruptly ending Mr. Spitzers term asvernor. Mr. Cuomo has had his share ofhts, recently battling Bank of Americaer disclosure about the Merrill Lynchquisition and clashing with Charleshwab over how it sold auction-ratecurities.But there is a division among stateficials over how vigorously New Yorksorney general should batter Wall Street. the one hand, there has been outrage

ross the country at the enormous bill for rescue of Wall Street, even as tales of

eed, excess and Ponzi schemes haveoliferated. On the other hand, New Yorkpends on Wall Street for about a fifth of states revenue, and its latest troubles

ve depleted the states coffers.Mr. Dinallo has been both enforcer andider. Intense, caffeinated and lawyerly,grew up in Manhattan until the age of 9,en his family moved to Santa Monica,lif. His father, Greg, was a writer on TVows like Quincy M.E. and Knightder and even wrote an episode involvinggfoot for The Six Million Dollar Man.

Mr. Dinallo didnt take to California Ifelt like a 45 record being played at 33 and returned east for school: a philosophydegree at Vassar, a masters degree inpublic policy from Duke and a law degreefrom New York University. He later workedfor the Manhattan district attorney, RobertM. Morgenthau, prosecuting boiler roomsand bucket shops.

After more than four years of working inMr. Spitzers office of the attorney general,he left in 2003 to work as a corporatelawyer at Morgan Stanley. When Mr.

Spitzer was elected governor in 2006, Mr.Dinallo rejoined his old boss, serving asNew Yorks insurance commissioner untillast July and leading the states role in therescue of the American International Group,the troubled insurer. He now teaches ethicsto M.B.A. students at the Stern School ofBusiness at New York University.

Mr. Dinallos work as insurancecommissioner won praise from the nationsbest-known insurance executive, Warren E.Buffett, who said in an interview, Iddefinitely give him an A for hisperformance. Mr. Dinallo enlisted Mr.Buffetts help last year to stave off a crisisin the small group of insurers that guaranteehundreds of billions of dollars of bonds soldby states and municipalities.

Some years, the insurance commissionercan relax and play golf and do other things,but this was not a period like that, Mr.Buffett said, adding that Mr. Dinalloworked with all of the parties in anintelligent way to minimize something thatcould have been quite disruptive to thesystem, and he was the main player of the50 states. He jumped in and took charge in away that minimized the damage.

Mr. Dinallos campaign pitch is that heknows the terrain of the office well, havinghad a front-row seat during its reinvention,

but that he intends to put his own stamp onthe job. He would like to reallocateresources to focus on consumer andinvestor-based cases that go to peopleseveryday financial lives their phone bills,their credits cards, their mortgages, hesaid.

That assumes Washington will take anassertive role in reshaping regulations.

No one thinks the A.G.s office issupposed to be the primary regulator for thefinancial industry in this country, but thereare times when it has had to be in that role,he said. I actually think the S.E.C. andMary Schapiro have been very active andhave posted quite a good number of earlyactions, but thats not the issue.

The issue, he said, is that Congress needsto undo the damage from two pieces of

legislation: the Gramm-Leach-Bliley1999, which repealed the Glass-Steaand allowed for mergers of traditionwith investment banks, and the ComFuture Modernization Act in 2000deregulated the derivatives market.

They were profound, once-in-amissteps that destroyed our ecoMr. Dinallo said.

For a Spitzer veteran, he haunexpected supporters.

Im a big fan of Erics, Mr. said.In the stock analysts case, Mr. worked with Mr. Dinallo and Mr. Spnegotiate a settlement: 10 major fira total of $1.4 billion and avoided c

prosecution.Erics got the right experience

terrific balance of regulatory approacbusinessmans approach, said Mr. whose relations with Mr. Spitzerafter Mr. Dinallo left the office. IMr. Spitzer embarked on a suit toMr. Grassos $187.5 million pay pacsuit ultimately abandoned by his suafter several adverse court rulings.

The Grasso pay case, Mr. Dinaldoes not have the hallmarksconsumer-based case. Thats prettall I would say about it now.

Mr. Langone, a fervid Spitzer criserved on the stock exccompensation committee, said, Dingood guy and I have great hope understands the significance of business attitude.

Few others have so thorough a grin the operations of the attorney goffice as Mr. Dinallo.

My relationship with Wall Strevolved, he said. Initially, people of me as a very aggressive attacker Street because of the research analymostly, but then it evolved into swho was trying to help regulate the and get us through the worst financiof our lifetime.

We have to reform Wall Streadded, but not destroy it.

Mr. Grasso, at least, is sold.Maybe hell want Eliot and I

joint commercial for him, he said, ahe began a mock TV voiceover thing they agree on.

Andrew M. Cuomo, a Democrat, right, is the current New York attorney general. Eric R. Dinallo, left, said he would abort his

campaign if Mr. Cuomo ultimately ran again for attorney general. (Cary Conover For the New York Times)

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Bravo, Dinallo

As far as the state Insurance Department is concerned,you're not in good hands with Allstate. The same for LibertyMutual, the second insurer accused of breaking a law aimed at

protecting consumers from coercive sales tactics. As StateInsurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo demanded, the firmsmust stop exploiting fears over losing homeowner coverage tosell auto insurance policies.

Dinallo deserves kudos for responding quickly tocomplaints from consumers after Newsday revealed Allstateand Liberty Mutual's decisions to cut their numbers ofhomeowner insurance policies. The firms, in an industry stillreeling from losses due to Katrina, Andrew and otherhurricanes, fear that Long Island, New York City andWestchester are well overdue for a catastrophic storm.

This page has defended the insurers' right to reduce theirexposure - as long as they follow laws that bar forcingconsumers to buy one policy if they want another and that

limit the number of homeowners whose coverage can bedropped in any given year. The state, as it should, has foundevidence of the former and remains vigilant on the latter.

As a result of the state's diligence, Liberty Mutual hasreinstated 380 homeowner policies and is reviewing othersthat were canceled. Overall, more than 15,500 policyholdershave found themselves scrambling over the past year, afterreceiving nonrenewal notices from several insurers. That'sscary, considering that Long Island has hundreds of miles ofcoastline, and a home is usually a family's most valuableasset.

Now, regulators must do their best to assure thahomeowners have other sources of coverage, and areasonable rates. Families can't be left high and dry the nextime they are down and damaged if - or, as forecasters saywhen - the next Big One hits.

(Newsday, Editorial, August 20, 2007)

Ensuring Progress at Ground Zero!

Visitors to the former World Trade Center site last yearwitnessed the idle construction equipment and saw only thefaintest of markings where the twin towers once stood.

Ground zero was a sad place made even sadder by a lack ofprogress.Now, as thousands of todays tourists can attest, there are

construction workers and cranes and the first signs of newsteel beams going in the ground, welcome signs thatrestoration is under way. What got this work started was anagreement about a year ago between Larry Silverstein, whoheld the lease on the twin towers, and the governors of NewYork and New Jersey and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Butthere was always one big missing piece the insurancemoney owed by those companies who carried policies on thetwin towers.

This week, most of those insurers finally agreed to whatmay be the largest insurance payout in history $4.55billion. The agreement means that Mr. Silverstein and the Port

Authority of New York and New Jersey, the two maindevelopers of the site, can now proceed to get additionalfinancing to build the entire $9 billion complex.

Although numerous politicians were lining up to grabcredit for ending this particularly acrimonious legal dispute, itis really Eric Dinallo, New Yorks new insurancesuperintendent, who deserves the applause. Mr. Dinallo didwhat former Gov. George Pataki and his own insuranceappointee should have done long ago. He finally called all thewarring parties into one room and prodded them to settle theirdifferences.

The insurance agreement does not completely clear theway for the complicated reconstruction work that needs to bedone at ground zero. Plans for building and leasing the

Freedom Tower, the tallest skyscraper on the site, are stilshaky. The old Deutsche Bank building, which was set to bedemolished three years ago to make way for one of thetowers, is still there, its deconstruction proving more costlyand difficult by the day.

The unraveling of the insurance mess, however, hasprovided new hope. Instead of a grim silence around groundzero, the noise of rebuilding sounds the revival of LowerManhattan.

If there is progress in the reconstruction, news about how

9/11 affected peoples health only gets worse. For the firsttime, New Yorks chief medical examiner, Dr. CharlesHirsch, has linked the death of a lawyer who worked near thetrade center to the cloud of dust that enveloped her that day.

Felicia Dunn-Jones, who ran from the area as the towersdisintegrated, developed sarcoidosis, a rare lung disease, anddied five months later. The medical examiners decision couldexpand the number of people with claims that they wereinjured by the destruction of the towers. The seriousness ofthe health problems, and the growing number of people whoappear to have been affected, make it clear that the price tagwill be in the billions of dollars. New Yorkers alone cannotand should not, have to pay for the care that is neededCongress will have to do that. Sept. 11 was an attack onAmerica, and America should care for its victims.

(New York Times, Editorial, May 26, 2007!

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