[GEO.TV] In what marks the largest single-day bribery crackdown in the history of the Department of Justice, over 70 current and former employees of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) face charges for allegedly accepting cash payments in exchange for "no-bid" contracts.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York disclosed that these employees are accused of demanding over $2 million in bribe money and awarding contracts exceeding $13 million.
The arrests unfolded across multiple states, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and North Carolina. Charges against the defendants range from solicitation and receipt of a bribe to extortion and conspiracy.
The accused individuals are purported to have received cash from contractors involved in NYCHA contracts, demonstrating a stark violation of the bidding process.
NYCHA's CEO, Lisa Bova-Hiatt, expressed the agency's "zero tolerance for wrongful and illegal activity," condemning the actions of those accused. She emphasised the betrayal of trust and vowed to collaborate with law enforcement to eliminate malfeasance within the Authority.
The alleged bribery scheme primarily targeted contracts related to repairs and construction work, occasions when outside contractors were enlisted by NYCHA.
The accused employees reportedly demanded and received cash payments either upfront or after the completion of the work. The amounts ranged from $500 to $2,000, depending on the contract's size.
US Attorney Damian Williams underscored the commitment to eradicate corruption within NYCHA, stating, "The culture of corruption at NYCHA ends today." The Department of Investigation recommended reforms to NYCHA's no-bid contracting process, an initiative accepted by the authority.
Homeland Security Investigations special agent Ivan Arvelo expressed concerns that Housing Authority residents may have been deprived of better services and programs due to these "lucrative, under-the-table deals."
The NYCHA, responsible for housing in 335 developments and receiving substantial federal funding annually, has been grappling with corruption allegations for years, with this recent episode further amplifying the challenges faced by the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2024 00:00 ||
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#1
Usually bribes involve greed which reduces the number of people involved. Also jealousy would work to unravel a conspiracy. Not sure how they kept a 70 person bribe going for that long. Evidently, they bribed the right people to a certain extent.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/08/2024 10:50 Comments ||
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#2
Remember - NYC voters are absolutely sure they are much smarter than you, and their choices prove it!
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/08/2024 10:55 Comments ||
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[Blaze] The Democrat governor of Massachusetts has just nominated an ex-girlfriend to fill a vacancy in the highest court in the commonwealth.
Earlier this month, Justice David Lowy announced he was retiring from the Supreme Judicial Court to accept a position at the University of Massachusetts. On Wednesday, Gov. Maura Healey, 52, announced that she had nominated state Appeals Court Associate Justice Gabrielle Wolohojian, 63, to fill the seat. "She's not just a L3sbian Cougar!"
"There is no one more qualified or better prepared to serve on the Supreme Judicial Court than Justice Wolohojian," Healey said in a statement. Healey further claimed that Wolohojian "has an exceptional understanding of the law" and that "her work is widely respected by members of the bench and bar."
The announcement from Healey's office also includes a statement from retired Associate Justice Geraldine Hines. Hines claimed that Wolohojian is "uniquely qualified" for the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and that she has demonstrated "the ability to accept and coax consensus from the inevitable debates that arise" among its seven justices.
[ET via ZERO] On Feb. 6, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon
... the Colombian-born American lawyer serves in the Southern District of Florida. She started out doing corporate law, then was a federal prosecutor, so she knows all the tricks...
ordered the unsealing of some names and information about government officials, granting in part a motion by former President Donald Trump to unseal a partially redacted version of his motion to compel prosecutors to hand over evidence.
"The parties are reminded of the strong presumption of public access in criminal proceedings," the judge wrote, ordering that no unclassified material in the case be filed under seal going forward.
All filings under full or partial seal will require approval from the judge in the future, unless there are "clear and supported cases of risk to personal safety or national security."
The case, prosecuted by sneaky little shit
special counsel Jack Smith, has been dominated by a battle for documents, extending the pre-trial motions stage and delaying what would have been a May 20 trial. Last year, President Trump pleaded not guilty to 40 counts related to allegedly mishandling classified documents.
On Jan. 16, President Trump filed multiple motions to compel discovery and attached several exhibits under seal. Some of these were emails obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and containing names and identifying information about government officials, which defense attorneys argue show that the prosecution and the Biden administration have colluded to target President Trump.
The defense attorneys have asked to unseal this information, and a coalition of news media companies have sought to intervene to request the same, both arguing that court filings are "matters of public record."
The special counsel’s office has opposed both requests, arguing that there are witness safety and intimidation concerns.
Referencing the First Amendment, Judge Cannon found that "the Special Counsel has not set forth a sufficient factual or legal basis warranting deviation from the strong presumption in favor of public access to the records at issue."
She found the prosecutors’ arguments "sparse and undifferentiated" and lacking the facts she needed to weigh their arguments.
[Washington Examiner] Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said he was shocked that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) could not get more Senate Republicans to support the newly unveiled border legislation that was struck down on Wednesday.
The Senate killed that $118 billion bipartisan border and foreign aid bill after failing to receive 60 votes to advance, falling short by a 49-50 vote. The failed procedural vote came after Republicans vocally disparaged the border legislation on Monday, at times blasting McConnell and other GOP leaders for the bill’s provisions.
McConnell himself reversed course when he saw no chance of the bill becoming law. Murphy, the lead Democrat on the bill, as well as Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and officials from the White House worked together on the bill for months and unveiled it on Sunday, and it was once championed by the Kentucky Republican.
Now, Murphy said he found McConnell’s change of heart and the complete dismissal from the GOP concerning.
"He didn’t just bless the deal. He wrote the deal," Murphy said to NBC News. "I have a ton of respect for his commitment to Ukraine. I genuinely enjoyed working with his team. They were in the room every single day. But it’s really worrying that a deal that was written and endorsed by the minority leader gets four votes from his caucus."
...suggesting it’s time for the turtle to retire...
The average American wants the border secured. The average American supports Israel. The average American knows nothing about Ukraine and does NOT want anything related to Ukraine to be a deal-killer for securing the border (and to a lesser degree supporting Israel).
#2
Lankford has to be extra stupid to have let himself be cast in the role of front-man shill for this mess.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/08/2024 10:57 Comments ||
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#3
The Uniparty professionals in Washington have taken the cloaked looting of America's credit card (we stopped being solvent years ago and are now in late-stage over-draft protection lending at this point) to epic levels. Mitch and Shumer are at the pinnacle of that con, as both approach their individual exit ramps and safe haven estates, far from the citizens they have looted for decades. But like Pelosi and so many others, they just can't let go of just one more squeeze...
[NY Post] A clear majority of the Supreme Court’s nine justices signaled Thursday that they would overturn a Colorado ruling barring former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.
The former president, 77, and his lawyers were appealing the Dec. 19 decision by Colorado’s Supreme Court that found Trump ineligible for the March 5 Republican contest by virtue of violating the Constitution’s so-called "Insurrection Clause" during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Trump’s team argued separately that Congress — not the states — was tasked with enforcing the clause, that the provision did not apply to the office of president, and denied that the 45th president engaged in an insurrection by seeking to remain in office after his 2020 election defeat by Joe Biden.
During oral arguments, Chief Justice John Roberts fretted about the possibility that upholding the Colorado ruling would open the door to red and blue states removing politicians of opposing parties from the ballot on a whim.
"It’ll come down to just a handful of states that are going to decide the presidential election. That’s a pretty daunting consequence," Roberts said.
"Your Honor, the fact that there are potential frivolous applications of a constitutional provision isn’t a reason," argued attorney Jason Murray, representing a group of Colorado voters who sought to remove Trump from the ballot.
"The question you have to confront," liberal Justice Elena Kagan told Murray at another point in his argument, "is why one state should decide who gets to be president of the United States."
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito asked Murray about a hypothetical in which an administration for "diplomatic reasons think that it’s in the best interests of the "US to send funds to a foreign nation who described Washington as "its biggest enemy" — a clear reference to the Obama-Biden policy toward Iran.
#2
If Kagan is skeptical, Colorado is going to lose. Murry comes across as insolent, not a good look.
Posted by: Too Old To Work ||
02/08/2024 14:08 Comments ||
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^Kagen has never been as much of "team blue" justice as she's made out to be. Though Sotomayor definitely us. And we'll have to see about Jackson in the long run.
#4
Unlike the usual "narrowly tailored" ruling, I think this time the court will signal "We don't want to see this issue again. Period."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/08/2024 15:45 Comments ||
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#5
hope you're right murcek
Posted by: Chris ||
02/08/2024 18:47 Comments ||
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#6
Justice Thomas made it clear in this hearing that after the Civil War was over (an insurrection of Southern States against the Union), the U.S. did NOT prevent candidates who took part in the insurrection from running for U.S. Congress or for President.
[WFB, h/t Insty] These POS need to be constantly exposed as pariahs
As Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D., N.Y.) and Cori Bush (D., Mo.) face difficult primary challenges, the progressive lawmakers are teaming up—by holding a swanky joint fundraiser alongside anti-Israel activists who have endorsed Hamas terrorism and defended notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
Bowman and Bush attended the Saturday fundraiser at the Los Angeles home of Sylvia Aroth and Dante Cacace, with attendees paying as much as $13,200 to attend. The fundraiser's host committee included a slew of anti-Israel activists who have defended Hamas in the wake of the terror group's Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.
Melina Abdullah, for example, serves as executive director of BLM Grassroots, which said that "resistance must not be condemned" and praised the attack as "a desperate act of self-defense." Another host, Jodie Evans,
...she’s married to Neville Roy Singham, the Sri Lankan-American entrepreneur who sold his IT consulting firm, Thoughtworks, for $785 million in 2017. He’s been a Maoist Black Nationalist from childhood— which is some trick considering he is half Asian and half white...
serves as cofounder of Code Pink, a left-wing group that argued on Oct. 7 that Hamas had "every right to resist" Israel's "apartheid regime." Estee Chandler
... a moderately successful movie actress when she was younger, but since the 2000 election she’s joined various anti-Republican and anti-Israel causes to keep her name in the headlines...
also served as a fundraiser host—Chandler, who leads Jewish Voice for Peace's Los Angeles chapter, blamed Israel for provoking Hamas's attack, citing the Jewish state's "constant ethnic cleansing."
The fundraiser comes as both Bowman and Bush face serious primary challenges driven in large part by their anti-Israel views. The left-wing lawmakers have emerged as Israel's top opponents in the wake of Oct. 7, with both accusing the Jewish state of "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing." Those remarks prompted condemnation from Jewish leaders in Bowman's and Bush's districts.
Twenty-six rabbis in Bowman's New York City district wrote a letter in October denouncing Bowman's "anti-Israel policy positions and messaging." In Bush's St. Louis district, a coalition of Jewish organizations accused the congresswoman of "fanning the flames of antisemitism."
"Representative Bush has shown little outrage against the horrendous attacks by an organization whose very charter calls for the killing of all Jewish people," the coalition said in a November letter.
"To the contrary, in private discussions she has stated repeatedly that she supports the Jewish community, is listening to our fears and concerns, and stands against antisemitism," the coalition continued. "She then issues public statements that directly contradict what she told us in private."
That criticism helped drive a pair of pro-Israel Democrats to challenge Bowman and Bush. Westchester County executive George Latimer launched his campaign against Bowman in December and has since criticized the congressman for voting against a resolution that condemned Hamas. St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell, meanwhile, is challenging Bush, a run that has seen him condemn those who accuse Israel of genocide.
"It is offensive to me that you would say that Israel defending itself is genocide," Bell told a self-described "anti-Zionist" attendee during a November campaign event. "Israel was attacked by a terrorist organization, who in their charter says that the destruction of Israel is their goal. They stated after this attack that they were going to do it again and again."
Both challengers have outraised their incumbent opponents in recent months. Latimer raised $1.4 million in the last quarter of 2023, while Bowman raised just $724,000. Bell during that period raised $490,000 and holds most of that cash—$409,000—on hand. Bush raised $487,000 in the last quarter of 2023 and holds just $216,000 on hand.
While Bowman and Bush's Los Angeles fundraiser may help them close that money gap, it is also prompting pushback. In addition to BLM Grassroots' embrace of Hamas, Abdullah defended Nation of Islam leader Farrakhan after he was banned from Instagram and Facebook. Farrakhan, an unabashed anti-Semite, has called Jews "termites" and praised Adolf Hitler as a "very great man."
"We should all be outraged by the banning of Minister @LouisFarrakhan from Instagram and Facebook," Abdullah wrote in 2019. "In a country built on our backs there can be no 'Black supremacy.'"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/08/2024 08:50 ||
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#1
Fund raisers in Los Angeles.
Which wasn't part of either New York of Missouri thre last time I checked. I generally oppose these feel-good campaign finance laws, but I am wondering why we allow rich LA liberals to pour so much money into out-of-state races. Granted I wish we had an electorate intelligent enough to resist their advertisements and blandishments, but I certainly don't see that these days.
Posted by: Tom ||
02/08/2024 16:15 Comments ||
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#2
I think if I got the proverbial three wishes, one of them would be for all America haters to be made to run a gauntlet of America lovers as far as they can make it around the border of CONUS.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
02/08/2024 16:28 Comments ||
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#3
Free Greyhound bus tickets to nearest exit port out of the United States.
[GEO.TV] Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley ...Trump administration's former ambassador to the UN. First woman to serve as Governor of South Carolina, and the second Indian-American governor in the country, after Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. At the age of 39, Haley was the youngest governor in the U.S., a distinction formerly held by Jindal. She is a Republican, which really grates on the Dems... embarassingly lost in Nevada's primary falling behind votes marked "none of these candidates" by Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons...... supporters, Rooters reported citing findings of Edison Research.
Haley, the last remaining rival to Trump, was the only major Republican candidate contesting the party's Nevada primary on Tuesday as the former president was not on the ballot.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Kinnison began his slow infiltration of the sewer system... US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. You're a lyin' dog-faced pony soldier... won Nevada's Democratic presidential primary, securing 90% support with over 70% of votes counted.
As an incumbent, Biden faces minimal opposition within his party to run for re-election in a likely November general election rematch with Trump.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/08/2024 00:00 ||
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So did anyone else. She got 30% while everyone else got barely 1% or lower. Trump wasn't on the ballot and none of the above got 67%. Do the math.
#3
"Thank you, Nevada, for our second place finish!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/08/2024 9:55 Comments ||
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#4
This has happened before but never by this wide a margin, so they have rules that declare the 2nd place finisher the winner. Nikki is technically the winner, but the look is so bad that she is circling the drain.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/08/2024 10:54 Comments ||
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#5
To top it off, that 'election' doesn't even determine the Nevada GOP delegate votes. It was a circus run by the Dem controlled legislature. The actual votes will be determined by a GOP caucus that will be run by the party itself.
#9
No way should the second place finisher be declared the winner. Dunno how the delegates to the Republican Convention will be allocated but, if they want to do this the right way, delegates proportional to the votes for "None of the above" should be free agents and not allocated to Haley.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/08/2024 13:10 Comments ||
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#10
Remember, everyone who voted "None of the Above" took time and effort out of their day to do so.
That is, indifferent people just ignored it.
On the other side of the ticket, was Brandon and someone named Marrianne Williamson who runs on a hard-left platform. I wonder how much of that 10% she got, and if from the Californians voting in Nevada.
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.
[Blaze] The Democrat governor of Massachusetts has just nominated an ex-girlfriend to fill a vacancy in the highest court in the commonwealth.
[NY Post] A clear majority of the Supreme Court’s nine justices signaled Thursday that they would overturn a Colorado ruling barring former President Donald Trump from the state’s Republican presidential primary ballot.
[WFB, h/t Insty] 
...46th president of the U.S. 
