Free Republic

QUITMAN, GA (WALB) - 12 former Brooks County officials were indicted for voter fraud. The suspects are accused of illegally helping people vote by absentee ballot. State officials launched an investigation after an unusually high number of absentee ballots were cast in the July 2010 primary election. "As a result of their grand jury findings 12 individuals were indicted in that particular matter and we will be trying that case in a court of judicial law instead of a court of public opinion so that will be pending this next year," said District Attorney Joe Mulholland

Newly elected Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski is leaving the office of mayor of the Village of McCook, Illinois. Now, a few weeks after the election, the Chicago Sun-Times reports that he and his father before him have filled village government with relatives from top to bottom raking in a combined $350,000 in yearly salary (not including benefits), tax money elicited from a tiny village of only 200 some residents. Naturally, in another installment of the "name that party" game, the Chicago Sun-Times seemed to somehow forget to mention in its coverage of this outrageous nepotism that Tobolski is yet...

Daytona Beach City Commissioner Derrick Henry and his campaign manager were arrested this morning and charged with absentee ballot fraud, the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said. Henry, 41, is charged with two counts of absentee ballots/voting violations, nine counts of being a principal to absentee ballots and voting violations-one count of conspiracy to commit absentee ballots and voting violations. Genesis Robinson, 21, is accused of 11 counts of being a principal to absentee ballots and voting violations and one count of conspiracy to commit absentee ballots and voting violations. All of the charges are third-degree felonies. They will be taken...

A judge on Tuesday sentenced former Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez to three years in prison for taking a bribe and attempted extortion, saying he had to be held accountable for his actions despite all his good deeds. Hartford Superior Court Judge Julia Dewey said Perez also must serve three years of probation after the jail time.

Over the years a lot of suspicion has built up across the country about Washington and its population of opportunistic transients coming to see themselves as a special kind of person, somehow above average working Americans who don't work down in that former swamp. Well, finally, an end to all those undocumented doubts. Thanks to some diligent digging by the Washington Post, those suspicions can at last be put to rest. They're correct. Accurate. Dead-on. Laser-guided. On target. Bingo-bango. As clear as it's always seemed to those Americans who don't feel special entitlements and do meet their government obligations. We...

Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo resigned Thursday just before charges were filed in connection with the largest and most widespread corruption probe in Ohio history. Russo resigned by letter to Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones at about 9 a.m., said Jim McCafferty, spokesman for the commissioners. Russo, 60, of Bratenahl, was then charged at 9:30 a.m. in a 21-count criminal information in connection with the Cuyahoga County public corruption investigation. Federal prosecutors allege that Russo enriched himself at the expense of taxpayers. Here is Frank Russo's resignation letter, which was addressed to county commissioners: I humbly submit my resignation...

For a political hopeful in Alabama, it could be the ultimate endorsement -- a show of support from University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban. Bessemer Councilwoman Dorothy Davidson, who is running for mayor of the city, claims she secured Saban's endorsement of her campaign three weeks ago. Davidson printed it on a color campaign flier that shows her and the coach smiling side by side on a golf course. (snip)

In a bombshell new development in the AL GORE SEX SCANDAL, The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that the former vice president has finally been interviewed by police in the Molly Hagerty case. Sources close to the investigation reveal that detectives from the Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau traveled quietly to San Francisco on Thursday for the secret meeting with the 62-year-old Nobel Prize winner. "Al Gore has finally been interviewed face to face by detectives in the Molly Hagerty case," a close source told The ENQUIRER. "Details of what was disclosed in the police interview by Gore --and exactly how long...

KNOXVILLE, TN (WMC-TV) - Trial is scheduled to begin Tuesday in the case of a Germantown High School graduate who is accused of hacking into Sarah Palin's email account. Monday, David Kernell and his attorneys left a pre-trial hearing at the federal courthouse in Knoxville without commenting.

A 66-year-old Hernando County man has been arrested in connection with a threatening voice mail message left at the district office of U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville. According to the FBI, agents arrested Erik Lawrence Pidrman at his home in Spring Hill without incident Sunday. On March 25, Brown-Waite reported that someone left the following message: “Just wanna let you know I have 27 people that are going to make sure that this b**** does not live to see her next term. Good-bye." The call came amid reports that a number of Congressional Democrats have gotten threats or had bricks...

Prosecutors want to send the longtime mayor of Newark, N.J., back to prison to serve more time for steering sweetheart land deals to a mistress. But a lawyer for 74-year-old Sharpe James asked a U.S. appeals court to reverse his conviction. James is in a halfway house finishing up a 27-month sentence after leaving prison this month.... Prosecutors say Riley flipped the $46,000 land for $665,000. They say a federal judge ignored those profits in calculating James' sentence. They had sought a 20-year term.... James served as Newark's mayor from 1986 to 2006.

Most of the indicted militia members accused of being anti-government extremists have active voting records, a check with area voter registration offices showed yesterday. One is a registered Democrat, and the party affiliations of the rest could not be determined. Jacob J. Ward, 33, of Huron, Ohio, voted as a Democrat in the 2004 and 2008 primary elections. He also voted in 10 other elections since 2000. Party affiliation in Ohio is determined by which party's ballot they requested in the most recent primary election.

Former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was sentenced Friday to 15 years in federal prison for taking some $235,000 in bribes in return for lucrative bond work. U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler imposed the sentence on Langford, 63, who told the court, "I am sorry all this has occurred."

Police in Cambridge, Mass., gave state Sen. Anthony Galluccio a ride home because acquaintances told them he was too drunk to drive about 13 hours before he was involved in a hit-and-run accident. Police were called to a gas station in Cambridge about 4:40 a.m. Oct. 4 after receiving a call about an intoxicated man. The station attendant told police he believed Galluccio was too drunk to drive. Police said another man told them he was trying to drive Galluccio home but couldn't find his house. Police said they drove Galluccio home in their cruiser. About 13 hours later, a...

If you watched the debates or look at the candidate’s websites, you will never see the dreaded “D” word spoken nor spelled out. You know why, and so do these wily candidates. The “D” word conjures up images of Pelosi, Reid and billions of dollars flying out of your collective pockets and into the hands of millionaire bankers and insurance executives. Some will tell you that no one mentions the “D” word because the Houston Mayoral Race is a non-partisan race. Really? You sure you want to go with that one? According to the letter of the law, the race...

HAMMOND, La. (AP) - A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have. Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long. Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist.

Democratic State Sen. Hiram Monserrate was found not guilty today of the felony assault after Queens Supreme Court Judge William Erlbaum rendered his verdict after reflecting on the evidence. Monserrate was found guilty of the lesser charge of third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, in the non-jury trial for dragging his girlfriend down a hallway, an incident that was caught on surveillance cameras. Monserrate, who gets to keep his seat as a result of being acquitted on felony charges, faces up to a year in jail. He will be sentenced Dec. 4.

Reuters newswire service recently published a story reporting that accused swindler Allen Stanford has been moved to a federal lockup facility in downtown Houston in order "to be closer to his attorneys." In fact in a fairly long story as wire copy goes, Reuters reports all sorts of details of Stanford's alleged financial crimes and current status. There is only one little detail that Reuters seems to have forgotten to report. Allen Stanford was a major fundraiser and lobbyists for some of the biggest Democrats in the country. There isn't a single mention, for instance, that Stanford lobbied Congress for...

Two sources with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune today they have been notified that Christopher Kelly, a key figure in the federal corruption probe into former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, is dead. The Cook County medical examiner’s office today confirmed that a body identified as Christopher Kelly was brought to the morgue from Stroger Hospital. The office would not provide any details, including his age, address and manner of death, because the family had not yet arrived at the office. Kelly’s attorney, Michael Monico, declined to comment today when reached by a Tribune reporter. Kelly is a former confidant...

Here is video of a cyclist being hit by an SUV in Wisconsin that ran a red-light. The SUV was driven by a Wisconsin state lawmaker. Miraculously, the cyclist was not seriously injured. . . . . (Watch Video)

CLEVELAND — Federal prosecutors this morning charged a Cleveland construction contractor with bribing Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora with $33,000 in cash, lawn work, Cavs and Indians tickets and hundreds of dollars in meals and drinks for county contracts. The charges said an unnamed public official whose description matches Dimora helped Steve Pumper's company, D-A-S Construction, obtain work on county projects, including brownfield and public housing projects. The bribery charges were filed in U.S. District Court, and they allege that Pumper also used bribes to win contracts in Parma schools. They say he paid former board President J. Kevin Kelley...

The attorney for William J. Jefferson tackled the "elephant in the room" in opening statements Tuesday, explaining the notorious $90,000 "cold cash" discovered in the former congressman's freezer as an FBI setup bid. Prosecutors, for their part, painted a portrait of a debt-ridden man selling out the public good. In his opening speech in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Jefferson attorney Robert Trout addressed the best-known detail in the case - the marked bills found by federal agents in Mr. Jefferson's freezer wrapped inside Pillsbury Pie Crust boxes. He described the money as the trial's "elephant in the room." He...

The media is a abuzed about this, and the lefty blogs are acting as though this being some nuance of the right. Wrong. Let’s not forget that Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, both antisemitic and neither considered spokesmen for the right. But after some research it appears the shooter, James Von Brunn is in fact - despite the protestations of the Kos Kids - a registered democrat from Maryland. So much for the “Right Wing Conspiracy”. Fact is that most of the Holocaust Denier crowd is from the left. Many of the groups follow the writings of Naom Chomsky, the...

Logan County Politician indicted

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Three more federal charges have been filed against a University of Tennessee student charged with hacking into the personal e-mail account of Alaska Gov. and former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

A political candidate who bowed out of the Minneapolis City Council race is being called a fraud and some people are even calling for a criminal investigation. In an exclusive interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS, the 23-year-old former candidate for Minneapolis City Council admits he lied to campaign donors, volunteers and supporters. Charles Carlson burst onto the political scene in December. The University of Minnesota grad student with a British accent announced his campaign for Minneapolis City Council.

With pressure growing on him to act, U.S. Sen Christopher Dodd Monday morning allowed reporters to view all of the loan documents and communication he and his wife had when negotiating mortgages with Countrywide Financial Corp. ... "I regret I did not do this sooner and I apologize to the people of Connecticut for the delay,'' said Dodd, who was joined by his wife Jackie Clegg Dodd in a sometimes tense meeting with reporters at his Hartford offices.

CANTON — Interactions between Canton Mayor William J. Healy II and a high-school-age girl are at the center of two law-enforcement investigations. The investigations began after Canton police received an anonymous tip, even though neither the girl nor her mother had filed a complaint. The mayor denies wrongdoing and wants authorities to discover who sent anonymous letters naming the girl.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The Illinois Senate voted to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office Thursday, marking the first time in the state's long history of political corruption that a chief executive has been impeached and convicted. The 59-0 vote followed several hours of public deliberation in which senator after senator stood up to blast Blagojevich, whose tenure lasted six years. And it came after a four-day impeachment trial on allegations that Blagojevich abused his power and sold his office for personal and political benefit. The conviction on a sweeping article of impeachment means the governor was immediately removed from office....

You'd think, listening to Portland Mayor Sam Adams' apologies for his poor judgment in having sex with a teenager, that the whole thing was a passing mistake. A misjudgment, maybe, covered up by a pro forma lie in the heat of a campaign. When pressed, Adams on Monday reversed that long-standing lie about his 2005 relationship with a young man named Beau Breedlove and admitted that it was sexual, not platonic or mentoring. Adams apologized Tuesday for lying and for pressuring Breedlove into lying, too, when the rumors about them first arose in 2007, early in the mayoral campaign. Adams...

One thing we seem to breed in Oregon are big political scandals, and the latest one is hitting Portland Mayor Sam Adams with gale force. Adams admitted to The Oregonian and Willamette Week Monday that he lied back in September of 2007 when he denied rumors that he had had a sexual relationship with a teenager who had been a legislative intern. Adams, who is openly gay, said that while he first met the intern, Beau Breedlove, when he was 17, the two did not have sex until after Breedlove turned 18. When rumors about the two first surfaced in...

Racine - Authorities seeking felony charges against Mayor Gary Becker say the 51-year-old married father of two, who ran unopposed for re-election two years ago, used the Internet to try to arrange a sexual liaison with what he thought was a teen girl. Taken into custody at Brookfield Square mall Tuesday evening, Becker became one of the more than 475 people arrested by the state's 10-year-old Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. By now, it is relatively widely known that investigators from the Division of Criminal Investigation pose as youths on the Internet, looking for adults who want to have...

Gary Becker, 51, Held On $165,000 Bond Racine city officials say Mayor Gary Becker is under arrest on possible charges of child pornography and solicitation of a minor. The 51-year-old mayor is being held in the Kenosha County Jail on $165,000 bond. City administrator Ben Hughes says Becker was arrested on Tuesday by agents from the state Division of Criminal Investigation at a shopping mall outside of Milwaukee. The case is under review by the Kenosha County District Attorney's office. City Council President David Maack says he got a call from the police chief shortly after midnight telling him about...

JACKSON, MS (WLBT) - Former Hinds County District Attorney Ed Peters has given up his license to practice law. Attorney Joey Langston has linked Peters, attorney Dickie Scruggs, and Hinds county judge Bobby Delaughter in a judicial bribery sceme. According to Langston, Scruggs paid Peters to help influence Delaughter in a dispute over $15-million in legal fees for asbestos litigation. Peters was Delaughter's longtime friend and former boss. Judge Delaughter eventually ruled in Scruggs ' favor. Peters -- along with Langston and former state auditor Steve Patterson -- pocketed $1-million from Scruggs , according to Langston's plea agreement in the...

Democrats have had success running against what they called a GOP 'culture of corruption.' Now the party hopes the political fallout from the Blagojevich case and others will be limited. By Janet Hook December 10, 2008 Reporting from Washington -- The arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich on Tuesday marked the latest in a series of scandals involving Democratic politicians -- an ironic turn for a party that won control of Congress in 2006 in part by saying it would end a "culture of corruption" under Republican leadership. Democrats also highlighted Republican ethical problems in the successful bid to...

CBS Radio: They make no mention Blagojevich's party, but refer to Larry Craig as a Republican I was listening to KNX 1070 News Radio (CBS News Affiliate) just minutes ago. Their top two stories were (1) Blagojevich's arrest and (2) Larry Craig's conviction upheld. For the first story, absolutely no mention of Blagojevich's party was made.... For the second story, Larry Craig was referred to as the "Idaho Republican"..

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested in Chicago Tuesday on two counts each of corruption charges relating to trying to sell President-elect Barack Obama's vacated Senate seat. More at Fox News

Gov. Rod Blagojevich became the state's first Democratic chief executive in more than a quarter of a century after vowing to reform what he labeled the culture of corruption surrounding his predecessor that had fed deep cynicism among Illinoisans. But little more than a year after replacing George Ryan in office in 2003, Blagojevich found his administration at the early stages of what became a host of state and federal investigations into allegations of wrongdoing involving state hiring, board appointments, contracting and fundraising that battered his tenure. *snip* As part of the investigation, in which 13 people have been indicted...

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was arrested this morning on federal charges and is being held at the federal courthouse, the FBI and other federal officials confirm. A special grand jury for several months has been investigating county bond deals and Langford's financial dealings. Langford was Jefferson County Commission president 2002-06. Al LaPierre, a close friend of Langford's who also was part of the federal investigation, will be surrendering today, said his attorney, Tommy Spina. David McKnight, Montgomery banker Bill Blount's attorney, said Blount is on his way to Birmingham from Montgomery to surrender. U.S. Attorney Alice Martin will hold a...

West Palm Beach Congressman Tim Mahoney (D-FL), whose predecessor resigned in the wake of a sex scandal, agreed to a $121,000 payment to a former mistress who worked on his staff and was threatening to sue him, according to current and former members of his staff who have been briefed on the settlement, which involved Mahoney and his campaign committee. Mahoney, who is married, also promised the woman, Patricia Allen, a $50,000 a year job for two years at the agency that handles his campaign advertising, the staffers said. A Mahoney spokesperson would not answer questions about the alleged affair...

A Federal judge from Louisiana is under a cloud of impeachment and if he's convicted it'll be the first Federal judge impeached in almost 20 years. The story was covered by the new wire service named ProPublica, a service that claims to be non-partisan. Yet in two stories on this judge there is not one mention of the fact that he was appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton, nor that his corruption was known by the Department of Justice when Clinton made the appointment. I wonder why ProPublica didn't find that relevant, don't you? A while back, I...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Details emerged Thursday behind the break-in of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin's e-mail account, including a first-hand account suggesting it was vulnerable because a hacker was able to impersonate her online to obtain her password.

The son of a U.S. Congressman from was arrested in Willcox Sunday, charged with human smuggling. According to court documents John F. Boyd son of Florida Congressman Allen Boyd, attempted to drive through a Border Patrol checkpoint in Willcox on Sunday with five illegal immigrants, including a 6-year-old girl. In a statement sent Tuesday, Congressman Allen Boyd said, "On September 14, 2008, my 30-year-old son, John Boyd, was arrested in Arizona, and at a preliminary hearing yesterday, he was charged with alien smuggling." "This is a family matter that my family and I will be dealing with privately. John is...

The son of Florida 2ND District Congressman Allen Boyd remains in custody in Arizona on charges of illegal immigrant smuggling. Authorities say 30-year old John Boyd was stopped at a border patrol checkpoint near Willcox, Arizona Sunday. Federal prosecutors say he was smuggling 4 adults and a 6-year old girl, and that Boyd later admitted knowing they had entered the country illegally. Border patrol agents say they also discovered drugs, knives and a loaded gun in Boyd's truck. When contacted by Eyewitness news, congressman Boyd said John had made some poor choices and would have to be held accountable, but...

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has pleaded guilty to felony charges in Wayne County Circuit Court. He will be forced to resign immediately.

Can a city stop people from posting a link to its Web site? That’s the question at the center of a federal lawsuit brought by a Sheboygan woman against the mayor and other officials there, in what appears to be a first-of-its-kind case, according to an Internet law expert. Jennifer Reisinger says the Sheboygan city attorney ordered her to remove from her Web site a link to the city’s police department, in what she believes was retaliation for her support of recalling Mayor Juan Perez, according to the suit filed last week. The city went further, the lawsuit claims, launching...

SOME FAMILY MAN: Asse Sam Hoyt ALBANY - A married assemblyman got caught with his virtual pants down - busted by XXX-rated e-mails to a 19-year-old intern.....In one sex message Hoyt made it embarrassingly clear they shared not only an interest in the people's business, but in lusty sex and personal hygiene. Titled "what i wish," the Democratic assemblyman's list included: ". . . that i could be painting your toenails right now . . . that i could see you do that little cheerleader move . . . that i could be your human lollipop . . ....

AP's approach: 'Better to get it right even if we couldn't get it first' WASHINGTON - Reporters don't like being beaten on a major political story, especially by a supermarket tabloid. And being beaten up over not reporting one is even less appealing. But a sexual affair can have just two people who know the truth. Without witnesses, documents, photographs or some form of irrefutable evidence pointing to the truth, news organizations will not endanger their own integrity. That made it difficult to prove — and to print — the rumors that John Edwards had cheated on his seriously ill...

(WXYZ) Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is expected to be arraigned on felony assault charges either later today or early tomorrow.

(Undercover agent paid $900 bribe, he testifies) In a stark piece of evidence, jurors saw a video recording Wednesday of former Milwaukee Ald. Michael McGee taking what an undercover federal agent said was $900 in cash in connection with the transfer of a liquor license. As the exchange is made, agent Dan Rabu is heard asking McGee to “remember” him when the matter comes before the Common Council. McGee’s response: “I got you.” Meanwhile, in an audio recording of an earlier meeting with Rabu, McGee declared, “I am the gatekeeper” when it comes to licensing matters in his north side...