Monica Conyers has admitted accepting bribes in a sludge deal, but the Detroit councilwoman's political adviser and onetime chief of staff told the Free Press she received cash and jewelry for brokering other questionable transactions. The aide, Sam Riddle, said Conyers even helped draft a letter sent by her husband, Congressman John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., to help a man with whom she had financial ties. It is unclear whether John Conyers knew of his wife's alleged link to the businessman.
In that deal, Riddle said, Monica Conyers arranged for Riddle to get a $20,000 contract with Greektown entrepreneur Dimitrios (Jim) Papas in about 2007. Riddle said Papas hired him for crisis consulting and political advising -- but he was never asked to do any work. She then demanded $10,000 of that money as a "finder's fee," Riddle said.
At some point after Papas paid him, Riddle said, John Conyers sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in support of a controversial hazardous waste injection well in Romulus that one of Papas' companies was seeking to operate.
Federal investigators examined a variety of Monica Conyers' dealings. U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg said Sunday: "We didn't have any evidence the congressman was knowingly or intentionally involved in Ms. Conyers' illegal conduct."
Monica Conyers' lawyer wouldn't discuss Papas. And Papas did not return messages seeking comment. Karen Morgan, John Conyers' spokeswoman, declined to discuss the letter.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009 10:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
It is unclear whether John Conyers knew of his wife's alleged link to the businessman.
#5
Looking at him, then looking at her, I can understand why there'd be no pillow talk ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/29/2009 12:42 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Ah. It appears we have the definition of "unclear". Looks like ya on your own, baby...
Detroit -- The 14th Congressional District Democratic Party Organization has passed a unanimous resolution backing Congressman John Conyers Jr., whose wife pleaded guilty in federal court to a single count of conspiracy to commit bribery.
"Congressman Conyers has provided outstanding leadership throughout the district and we all look forward to continuing to work with him in the future," Dearborn Democrat Isaac Robinson, chairman of the 14th District Political Organizing Committee, said in a written statement. "Our thoughts and prayers are with the Conyers family. This is an unfortunate situation, but has no negative reflection on Rep. Conyers, one of the most powerful members of Congress, who fights for our district and Michigan every day."
The group's spokesman Tim Gardner said 160 members voted at the meeting held in Teamster's Hall in Detroit.
Conyers' wife, Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers, pleaded guilty and admitted in federal court that she took money in exchange for her vote on a $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract.
According to court documents, Conyers is also accused of tossing her support behind projects being pitched to the city's General Retirement Fund pension board, while she was a trustee.
The Conyerses were married June 4, 1990, when she was 25 and John Conyers, until then a lifelong bachelor, was 61. She was seven months pregnant during the ceremony with the couple's first son, John Conyers III, according to state and county records. The two had met while she was an intern working for the U.S. Congress.
Governor's missteps, others' reactions painted him into a corner
Posted by: Fred ||
06/29/2009 10:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11132 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Thrown from the tracks by the speeding train the badly shaken hound was pleasantly surprised to discover he was all intact with the exception of his beautiful tail. Returning to the tracks to recover his tail, a southbound frieght decapitated the hapless dog. Moral of the story.... Don't lose your head over a piece of tail.
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that white firefighters in New Haven, Conn., were unfairly denied promotions because of their race, reversing a decision that high court nominee Sonia Sotomayor endorsed as an appeals court judge.
New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision. The city said that it had acted to avoid a lawsuit from minorities.
The ruling could alter employment practices nationwide, potentially limiting the circumstances in which employers can be held liable for decisions when there is no evidence of intentional discrimination against minorities.
"Fear of litigation alone cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions," Justice Anthony Kennedy said in his opinion for the court. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."
Justices Stephen Breyer, David Souter and John Paul Stevens signed onto Ginsburg's dissent, which she read aloud in court Monday.
Kennedy's opinion made only passing reference to the work of Sotomayor and the other two judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals who upheld a lower court ruling in favor of New Haven.
But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with "indisputably complex and far from well-settled" questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes.
"This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal," Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit's decision not to hear the case.
#1
That "Social Justice" trumps law and Constitution still has hold at the SCOTUS level.
"New Haven was wrong to scrap a promotion exam because no African-Americans and only two Hispanic firefighters were likely to be made lieutenants or captains based on the results, the court said Monday in a 5-4 decision."
"In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the white firefighters "understandably attract this court's sympathy. But they had no vested right to promotion. Nor have other persons received promotions in preference to them."
If there is no 'vested right', why have the exam? Isn't the promotion exam an implied basis of right to promotion? Let the lawyers make black white and white black. Welcome back to 1984 legalese.
NB - the Constitution is a contract between the people and it's government. When you break the contract because you believe 'Social Justice' trumps it, all conditions of the contract are voided.
#2
In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said...But they (the white firefighters) had no vested right to promotion."
Other than following the rules by studying and passing the test for promotion, you mean. Their outcome would have been different if they were not white.
If it is wrong to deny someone a job based on the color of their skin, then it is wrong to deny someone a job based on the color of their skin.
#3
Themis (Lady Justice) the goddess of justice and law, held the scales in her left hand and a sword in her right. She was blindfolded to show that justice is not subject to enfluence. I submit the blindfold should remain.
#4
But the appellate judges have been criticized for producing a cursory opinion that failed to deal with "indisputably complex and far from well-settled" questions, in the words of another appeals court judge, Sotomayor mentor Jose Cabranes. "This perfunctory disposition rests uneasily with the weighty issues presented by this appeal," Cabranes said, in a dissent from the full 2nd Circuit's decision not to hear the case.
Is it just me, or does Sonia appear not to be a very good judge?
#8
What this means is that finally merit and common sense trump political correctness. Now, is it a stand alone or a super precedent? Wouldn't that be nice but it won't last long since Sonia will be on the bench by October.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/29/2009 13:51 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Yeah, replacing Souter which means 5-4 should be the status quo until one of the conservatives dies. Then you worry.
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.
