Racine Mayor Gary Becker's plans to attend Tuesday's inauguration have been canceled after he was charged in an Internet sex sting.
Becker had planned to attend a U.S. Conference of Mayors event in Washington over the weekend and then stay for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. But that was before he was arrested Tuesday night at a suburban Milwaukee shopping mall. Authorities said he went there to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old girl but actually was a state agent.
A criminal complaint filed against him Thursday included sexually explicit chats he had with the other person. He faces six felony charges and has been freed on $165,000 cash bond. Becker's defense attorney did not return a message left Thursday seeking comment on the charges.
City Administrator Ben Hughes said canceling Becker's airline ticket and a four-night stay in an expensive D.C. hotel will cost the city hundreds of dollars. He said city officials learned this week that Becker chose the most expensive of three options - at $550 a night - when booking hotel accommodations. The money for three nights will be refunded, and Midwest Airlines agreed to allow the city to use Becker's $400 ticket for another official's travel in the next 12 months, Hughes said.
The city also has removed Becker's picture that had greeted visitors to the Racine Web site. ``With everything going on I felt it was not appropriate for his picture and his welcome to remain on the Web site,'' said City Council President David Maack on Friday. Maack is serving as acting mayor.
Top city officials are planning to discuss Tuesday removing Becker from office if he does not resign.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
errrrr Whig?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2009 11:42 Comments ||
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#2
Does this mean Obama will make his first muslim outreach in Gaza? Perhaps a full employment initiative for unemployed rocket launchers.
Posted by: ed ||
01/18/2009 9:29 Comments ||
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#3
Actually the Prayer leader is not tied to Hamas. She apparently is a kumbaya muslim who is able to pretend to herself that all the death verses, the killing of infidel verses, the anti Jewish verses, the anti women verses, etc. are somehow not what they seem.
The organization to which she belongs is tied to Hamas.
#2
Exactly, DMFD. Right before they finally do a recount that shows Coleman winning, Democrats will "discover" a couple of hundred ballots - all for Franken, of course - stored in a basement somewhere.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/18/2009 11:59 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
