Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — A real estate investment by House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi's husband went undisclosed for years and has opened a window into a loophole that allows House members to avoid specifying some of their financial assets. In 2010 and 2011, Pelosi voluntarily reported the Sacramento, Calif., land investment as an asset of her multimillionaire husband, Paul. She had not reported the investment for about 10 years previously because it was held by an S corporation her husband had set up, said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for the California congresswoman. Under House financial disclosure rules, lawmakers are not obligated...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband, a real estate developer and investment banker, stands to make millions of dollars in a previously undisclosed residential real estate project in California as a partner with the father of a woman Mrs. Pelosi helped become ambassador to Hungary, records show.

A renowned TV pitchman who allegedly defrauded at least 220,000 people of nearly $52million is believed to have committed suicide in jail. Don Lapre, 47, of Phoenix, Arizona, was charged with running a nationwide scheme to sell essentially worthless Internet-based businesses. The father-of-two was found dead in his prison cell in Florence, Arizona, on Sunday - just two days before his trial was due to begin on Tuesday.

President Barack Obama told an audience of high school students in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday that he was “not always the very best student” and that ethics “would not have made it on the list” of his favorite subjects. “I was not always the very best student that I could be when I was in high school, and certainly not when I was in middle school,” Obama said, speaking at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. “I did not love every class I took. I wasn’t always paying attention the way I should have,” Obama said. “I remember when I was...

'Pass this bill now," President Obama is repeatedly demanding, regarding his new American Jobs Act. There's nothing new in the legislation, just more government spending, more transfer of money from "the rich" to Obama's political allies, more spending for infrastructure enhancement so we all won't allegedly be buried by collapsing schools and bridges. And the "rush" tactics are the same. As with ObamaCare, there's a proclaimed "crisis," followed by demands to pass legislation "now," even if no one's adequately analyzed the bill, even if no one's read it, even if the legislation will only make things worse, and even if...

Some 200 California Democrat clients have fallen victim to a Madoff in their midst. Could it turn the state light blue? It's said that word-of-mouth advertising is the best kind. It certainly worked for Ms. Kinde Durkee for more than 12 years. It would still be working if she hadn't helped herself to some of her clients' bank accounts once too often. Durkee's nearly 200 clients weren't stores and small factories. They were California Democratic office holders, candidates, and committees. For all those years she was the go-to person to be treasurer for any Democrat's campaign accounts. Campaign treasurers serve...

Drip. Drip. Drip. Whether it is Solyndra, Obamacare, or Fast and Furious, President Obama’s push for his “American Jobs Act” has been drowned out this week by the failure of his past policies. Every night it seems there is a new angle on the Energy Department’s failed loan to the bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. Not only was there a headline-grabbing hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday (at which Obama officials tried to blame Bush) , but the Treasury Department separately announced that their Inspector General (IG) would join the FBI and Energy Department IG in their...

Lackawanna County Judge Terrence R. Nealon admitted Wednesday to committing "a lapse of ethical judgment" seven years ago by privately advising local Democrats on how to oppose a county voting plan in a case over which he was asked to rule. Judge Nealon, a lifelong Democrat, admitted his lapse after being shown a copy of an email he sent to prominent Democrats on how to oppose the plan. The email was obtained from a confidential source by The Times-Tribune, and the judge confirmed he wrote it. Read Judge Terrence R. Nealon's email HERE (.pdf) Judge Nealon had been a contender...

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama will nominate businessman John Bryson to lead the Commerce Department, a White House official said Tuesday. Bryson's appointment brings another private sector player into an administration that has been making a concerted effort to improve its relationship with the business community.

A Pennsylvania federal judge thinks being a Philadelphia ward leader is ripe with so much temptation for wrongdoing that she has prohibited convicted felon Carlos Matos from being one - less than a month before several heated contests in the May 17 primary elections. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Anita B. Brody ordered Matos to give up his leadership of Norris Square Park's 19th Ward, an unpaid and publicly unelected position he has held since last June, following his release from prison. Beginning in 2007, Matos served three years and was fined $50,000 for bribing three Atlantic City councilmen whom...

Barry (verified but he refuses to use) & Last Name (quite frankly unknow) plans to announce his reelection campaign early next week in an electronic message to grass-roots supporters, Democratic sources tell POLITICO. Obama launches with a recovering economy and a weak, fractured Republican field, but with chaos in the Middle East that adds unpredictability to an environment that points to likely reelection. Obama’s campaign, which could raise $1 billion or more, will be based in Chicago, just a few blocks from the headquarters of his historic 2008 race. The most likely day for the campaign to file registration papers...

Actually, it’s difficult to hear Senator Frank Lautenberg’s patronizing follow-up, because the right-to-life counterprotestors taping his remarks reacted vocally to the idea that an elected official would divide up Constitutional freedoms based on whether people “deserve” them or not. His allowance that he’d give those freedoms to Tea Partiers despite their political views might be even more offensive than his initial remark on Tuesday, as he addressed a Planned Parenthood demonstration: … The Republicans in Congress claim they’re concerned about the budget balance, but it’s a disguise! It’s not true! It’s a lie! That’s not what they want. They want...

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said Wednesday that she would reimburse the government $88,000 for flights chartered from a company she jointly owns with her husband. McCaskill's office said she had not profited from the flights and that she was returning the money out of concern for how the arrangement might appear. "Sen. McCaskill has been very careful flying on taxpayer dollars," said Maria Speiser, a spokeswoman for McCaskill. "She has only paid for the use of her plane as required by the Senate rules, and there has been no profit to her or her family. She's glad there's transparency -...

As the film director Peter Jackson recovers from emergency surgery, it has emerged that he is the victim of a US$190,000 (£120,000) credit card fraud. Sir Peter, a keen collector of military memorabilia, used his American Express card online to buy items from the Michigan Toy Soldier Company, which specialises in historical miniature models and figurines. Richard Berry, owner of the company, is now facing up to 18 months in jail after admitting fraudulently using the director's credit card information to shore up his struggling business, based in Royal Oak, Michigan. Berry's lawyer, David Steingold, told a US court: "He...

*snip* Fern Stephens, a revenue officer at the Internal Revenue Service, is being charged by the U.S. Attorney's office for stealing more than $160,000 in unclaimed tax funds from 12 taxpayers, according to federal court documents. *snip* Stephens also allegedly took advantage of her position in the IRS to put in fake tax refund requests and transfers in an IRS computer system so the money would go right back to her or relatives and friends.

The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured Thursday, The Post has learned. * * * The center expects to file a second complaint this week contending that Rangel's PAC money included at least $195,000 in donations from lobbyists with business before the House Ways & Means Committee, of which he is a member.

The House on Thursday formally censured Rep. Charlie Rangel for financial misconduct despite pleas from the New York Democratic lawmaker and some of his colleagues for a less punishing reprimand. The House voted to censure Rangel 333-79. Rangel, who became the 23rd House member to be censured, appeared at the front of the chamber while Speaker Nancy Pelosi read the resolution.

Full House Votes On Rangel Censure TodayDecember 2, 2010 12:12 PM NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — The once powerful Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel lobbied colleagues against long odds Thursday in an effort to receive punishment milder than censure by the House for ethical misconduct. A half-dozen supporters spoke on Rangel’s behalf at a closed-door Democratic meeting hours before the House was to discipline the New York Democrat for financial and fundraising misconduct. But Rangel would need to overcome the 9-1 vote for censure from an ethics panel that has five members from each party. “I think it’s important for members on...

Battle-weary Bay State Democrats are getting squeezed by U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry this Christmas, as the nation’s richest senator puts the arm on cash-strapped party donors to fill his campaign war chest — even though he’s not up for re-election for another four years. “I think people feel very tapped-out,” said Phil Johnston, former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman, who is helping to organize Kerry’s Dec. 13 gala. Johnston, who said he is seeing steady ticket sales, still expects a full house. “It’s a measure of John Kerry’s strength among Democrats that this event should be hugely successful,” he said....

President Obama's original car czar has been sued for corruption in New York: Former Obama administration official Steven Rattner was sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo Thursday for his role in a pay-to-play scheme involving New York's pension fund. Rattner, the former auto czar, agreed to pay $6.2 million and to a two-year ban from associating with any investment adviser or broker-dealer to settle the SEC allegations, the SEC said Thursday. Separately, Cuomo's office filed two lawsuits against Rattner, seeking at least $26 million and an immediate lifetime ban from...