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Black Lawmakers under Ethics SpotlightWashington AFRO Zenitha Prince Posted: Nov 09, 2009 November 8, 2009) - Are seven investigations too many to be a coincidence? All seven of the full-scale ethics investigations currently underway in the U.S. House of Representatives are focused on African-American lawmakers—and it would be eight if the committee conducting the investigations hadn’t deferred to the Justice Department’s investigation involving Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. The disparity is beginning to raise some eyebrows. “I don’t think they (Black lawmakers) are scared—they’re upset. They think [Congressional Black Caucus] members are being singled out,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, former chairman of...

The American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a coalition of major national Islamic organizations, is calling for an independent investigation into the death of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was shot and killed by the FBI on Wednesday in Detroit during raids in which a number of individuals were arrested on charges unrelated to terrorism. AMT is also calling on the FBI not to link the raids or the allegations against the suspects to the Islamic faith. In a statement, the Muslim coalition said: "It is imperative that an independent investigation of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah's death...

FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) - A key U.S. senator called Sunday for an investigation into whether the Army missed signs that the man accused of opening fire at Fort Hood had embraced an increasingly extremist view of Islamic ideology. Sen. Joe Lieberman's call came as word surfaced that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan apparently attended the same Virginia mosque as two Sept. 11 hijackers in 2001, at a time when a radical imam preached there. Whether Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, associated with the hijackers is something the FBI will probably look into, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on...

After two days of investigation into the mass shooting at Fort Hood, investigators have tentatively concluded that the attack was not part of a terrorist plot. Rather, they have come to believe that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused in the shootings, acted out under a welter of emotional, ideological and religious pressures, according to interviews with federal officials who have been briefed on the inquiry. Investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Major Hasan believed he was carrying out an extremist’s suicide mission. But the investigators, working with behavioral experts, suggested that he may have long...

Democrats' Ethics Targeted by GOP By BRODY MULLINS Republicans are seizing on newly revealed ethics probes of congressional Democrats ahead of next year's midterm elections, accusing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her colleagues of failing to make good on their pledge to clean up Washington when they regained control of Congress. None of the Democratic lawmakers under investigation by the House Ethics Committee is expected to lose in 2010. And ethics concerns are usually less important to voters than pocketbook issues. But Republican campaign strategists say ethics issues rumbling under the surface could help the GOP pick up a few...

Before taking control of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said, "Democrats intend to lead the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history." However, with dozens of mostly Democratic lawmakers and various staff under investigation by the House's twin ethics bodies, the majority clearly values political power over clean government. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Charles B. Rangel, 20-term New York Democrat, and Defense Appropriations subcommittee Chairman Rep. John P. Murtha, 19-term Pennsylvania Democrat, are the poster children for how failed ethics cops protect old-guard lawmakers. While under investigation by the ethics committee, they continue to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Dozens of lawmakers have drawn scrutiny from their ethics monitor this year for everything from financial dealings to travel and campaign donations, according to a leaked account showing an active House panel secretly at work.

WASHINGTON -- Internal investigations into the conduct of several House members have been exposed in an extraordinary, Internet-era breach of security involving the secretive process by which Congress polices lawmaker ethics. Revelations of the mostly preliminary inquiries by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct -- also known as the Ethics committee -- shook the chamber as lawmakers were immersed in a series of scheduled votes Thursday. The panel announced that it was probing two California Democrats -- Reps. Maxine Waters and Laura Richardson -- even as its embarrassed leaders took pains to explain that several other lawmakers also...

House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee said Thursday night that the document was released by a low-level staffer. The ethics committee is one of the most secretive panels in Congress, and its members and staff...

A leaked document shows that House ethics investigators are probing the activities of nearly three dozen lawmakers — an ethical dust storm that will empower the Republicans and could imperil efforts to get health care reform through the House next week. The House ethics committee said Thursday that it was opening two new investigations — one into the foreclosure scandal of Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Calif.) and one involving financial questions about Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and her husband. But shortly after the committee met, chairs Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.) interrupted proceedings on the House floor to say...

Dozens in Congress under ethics inquiry AN ACCIDENTAL DISCLOSURE Document was found on file-sharing network By Ellen Nakashima and Paul Kane Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, October 30, 2009 House ethics investigators have been scrutinizing the activities of more than 30 lawmakers and several aides in inquiries about issues including defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling, according to a confidential House ethics committee report prepared in July. The report appears to have been inadvertently placed on a publicly accessible computer network, and it was provided to The Washington Post by a source not connected to the congressional investigations. The committee...

Report: Dozens in Congress Under Ethics Scrutiny Nearly half the members of a House panel in control of Pentagon spending, including Rep. John Murtha, are under scrutiny by ethics investigators in Congress, according to a leaked report October 30, 2009 WASHINGTON -- Nearly half the members of a House panel in control of Pentagon spending are under scrutiny by ethics investigators in Congress, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing a leaked confidential House ethics committee report. Investigations by two separate ethics offices include an examination of Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.,chairman of the appropriations subcommittee on defense, and six other lawmakers...

The House ethics committee has voted to begin full-scale investigations into ethics allegations against Democratic Reps. Maxine Waters (Calif.) and Laura Richardson (Calif.), but decided against investigating Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.). After Thursday’s votes, Reps. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and Jo Bonner (R-Ala.), chairwoman and ranking member of the committee, went to the House floor to assure members that a cyber-hacking incident – which apparently resulted, they said, in an internal panel document ending up in the hands of the Washington Post – did not signal a major security breach of the committee’s computer system. They suggested that the document in...

Susan Crabtree of The Hill has the scoop: "Two junior Democrats are urging their leaders to open an investigation into the Countrywide VIP mortgage program. Rep. Paul Hodes (N.H.), who is in his second House term, and freshman Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.) called on the House Oversight and Government Reform panel to initiate an investigation into Countrywide Financial's 'Friends of Angelo' VIP program and whether it was used to gain influence over federal officials. They made their case for the investigation in a letter to Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), the panel's chairman, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member....

Rangel probe taking its tollBy GLENN THRUSH | 10/14/09 4:57 AM EDT For years, Charles Rangel has been a visible, vital presence in the Capitol, bantering with reporters or booming gravelly-voiced greetings to well-wishers who yell “Charlie!” at him in the Rotunda. But last week — just before the Republicans’ third attempt to punish Rangel — the Harlem Democrat appeared visibly tired and thinner than usual, and he barely spoke above a whisper when a reporter approached to ask a question. The strains of the ongoing House ethics committee probe into Rangel’s finances — coupled with escalating attacks by the...

BILLINGS, Mont. - Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock has dropped his investigation into a California company following its attempted take over of an empty Montana jail. The company, American Police Force, had missed a Monday deadline to provide documents sought by Bullock's office after revelations that company founder Michael Hilton had a lengthy criminal background. But because American Police Force has since pulled out of its bid to take over a 464-bed jail in rural Hardin, Bullock said Tuesday he was ending the investigation. Bullock said Hilton's failure to answer questions about the project "speaks volumes about his company's legitimacy."

The House panel investigating alleged ethics violations by Rep. Charles B. Rangel, New York Democrat, said Thursday it voted unanimously to expand the probe. A statement by the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct said its investigative subcommittee already has issued nearly "150 subpoenas, interviewed approximately 34 witnesses resulting in over 2,100 pages of transcripts." The subcommittee also has analyzed more than 12,000 pages of documents and held more than 30 investigative meetings, according to the statement issued by Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat, who is the committee chairman, and ranking minority member Rep. Jo Bonner, Alabama Republican. However,...

Get ready for a unique cosmic collision! Early this coming Friday morning (Oct. 9), NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will end its mission with a bang — literally. Currently carrying with it the upper stage of the rocket that launched it on its way to the moon on June 18, the game plan is to send that spent rocket motor on a course to smash into the lunar surface. But just not anywhere on the lunar surface, but to a thoroughly scrutinized crater called Cabeus that lies near the moon's south pole and is enveloped in perpetual...

What's good enough for Rep. William Jefferson is good enough for Rep. Charles Rangel, some sayBy Times-Picayune Staff October 04, 2009, 4:15AM Some House Republicans are calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to follow the same logic dealing with Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., that she did in 2006 when she persuaded the House Democratic caucus to remove then Rep. William Jefferson, D-New Orleans, from the panel. Rep. John Carter, R-Tx., has been alluding to the Jefferson action as he sought to force Rangel's ouster over alleged ethical and financial lapses. Pelosi successfully sought Jefferson's removal after...

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Wednesday to name a Justice Department official to oversee the production of what it called "our overdue information requests" for documents in the dismissal of a civil complaint against New Black Panther Party members accused of disrupting a polling place in the November elections. Commission Chairman Gerald A. Reynolds, in a letter, said the department has been "largely non-responsive" to requests for information since questions about the dismissal were first raised in June and had turned over "none of the documents" being sought. Mr. Reynolds said...

The revelation that Countrywide Financial recorded phone conversations as part of a specialized "VIP" mortgage loan program has added another twist to a Republican-led inquiry on Capitol Hill. Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, who has aggressively pursued the now-defunct Countrywide program for much of this year, said Monday that a call-recording system put in place as early as 2003 could contain evidence of wrongdoing by prominent public officials. He requested a raft of new information about the program and the taping system from Bank of America, which purchased Countrywide in July 2008 as it struggled with mounting losses amid the collapse...

House lawmakers want to pry open the books of the famously secretive Federal Reserve with legislation that would subject the central bank to a sweeping congressional audit. The effort is overwhelmingly bipartisan. Hardline conservatives and liberal Democrats have banded together in their criticism of the Fed as a major power broker in the financial system that doesn't answer to Congress. Friday's debate comes as lawmakers consider a proposal by President Barack Obama that would give the Fed new powers to prevent another economic crisis. "Nobody in my district thinks that the Fed has done such a wonderful job of running...

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, the self-styled progressive Democrat from Orlando, would seem to have little in common with U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian Republican from Texas who ran for president last year. But they both share a deep-seated mistrust of government secrecy in general and the Federal Reserve in particular. Grayson was elected to Congress last year just as the Fed was parceling out the better part of $700 billion to U.S. and foreign banks considered at risk of failure, as part of the Bush (and Obama) administration's response to a worldwide financial crisis. And even as he began...

Investigation Into Alleged NYC Bomb Plot Includes Nearly All of the Bureau's U.S. Field OfficesCriminal Complaint Suggests Cops May Have Tipped-Off Zazi By Questioning New York Imam, Seizing CarThe FBI is expanding its investigation into an alleged terror plot targeting New York City, and nearly every one of the FBI's 57 field offices in the country and several overseas are now in on the case, working along with local police. On Wednesday, the NYPD was showing a new training video in precincts citywide detailing the intelligence from the agencies. Bomb Squad Commander Lt. Marc Torre narrates the video, giving regular...

San Diego County will not open its own investigation into ACORN, the community organizing nonprofit that has become embroiled in a national scandal over video showing employees advising potential criminals. Instead, county officials will assist the state attorney general and the district attorney in auditing thousands of voter-registration cards submitted with the Registrar of Voters Office before the November 2008 election, the Board of Supervisors decided on Tuesday. “This is not about politics,” Supervisor Pam Slater-Price said. “This is about the use of taxpayer money and taxpayer resources and public trust. We should have a thorough investigation from top to...

LOCK HAVEN - The Clinton County district attorney has hired an expert in the field of boat crash reconstruction to probe the July 10 collision on the Susquehannna River that led to the death of a young Hublersburg girl. District Attorney Michael F. Salisbury revealed the hiring Monday as the over two-month investigation continues. Valerie Teresa Heidt, 12, of Hublersburg, was killed when boats operated by John Englert of Mill Hall and Bart Garlick of Lock Haven collided on the river about 7:30 p.m. that day. The accident occurred about two miles above the Veterans Bridge. An autopsy showed the...

Reporting from Washington and New York - Federal authorities have tied as many as a dozen people to a suspected Al Qaeda-linked bomb plot on U.S. soil as they continue to gather evidence to indict on terrorism charges the young Afghan immigrant at the center of the case, law enforcement officials said Monday. Authorities said that they did not know the exact number of potential suspects or many of their identities, but that they had been connected through electronic intercepts, surveillance, seized evidence and interviews. A federal law enforcement official and others, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the...

"The Justice Department's inspector general has agreed to investigate whether ACORN has applied for or received any DOJ grant money, in the wake of bipartisan criticism of the community activist group's operation. And seven other inspectors general are being asked by two congressional members to take a look at their funding mechanisms."

New York Gov. David Paterson ordered state agencies Friday to put a 30-day hold on contracts with the community organizing group ACORN and its affiliate, New York Agency for Community Affairs. In a memo, the Budget Division cited Paterson's "continued efforts to ensure fiscal accountability and integrity," directing the agencies to report "any potential issues." In Washington, the House and Senate separately voted this week to deny all federal funds for ACORN in a GOP-led strike against the liberal-leaning group, which was accused last year of submitting some false voter registration forms in a massive voter-registration drive.

Reporting from Washington - The House Ethics Committee is investigating Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), who has come under scrutiny because of her husband's ties to a bank that received federal bailout funds. The panel's chairwoman and ranking member announced the committee was extending by 45 days a determination on whether it would conduct a more thorough review of Waters' conduct, but they declined to say what was being investigated. Waters, one of Los Angeles' most enduring liberal politicians, also declined to comment.

No posts from Bloomberg allowed. Link is below or at nachumlist.com also linked.

A key figure in ousted Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's federal corruption case died Saturday of an apparent "aspirin overdose," a law enforcement source told the Chicago Sun-Times. Christopher Kelly, 51, was Blagojevich's former chief fundraiser, and was described by the newspaper as "go-to" guy in the ex-governor's administration.

Sheen had earlier written an open letter to the President in which he claimed that there was cover-up by the Bush administration over the 2001 attacks that claimed the lives of several thousand people. The six-and-a-half minute video - released on the eighth anniversary of the disaster - opens with news reports and footage of the incident with Sheen's voiceover: "The questions Mr President, the questions."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – After bungling five probes that should have uncovered Bernard Madoff's $65 billion fraud, regulators must learn to aggressively investigate tips and complaints to catch wrongdoers, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's internal watchdog said on Thursday. A scathing report issued last week by SEC Inspector General David Kotz found that the agency missed numerous red flags, did not properly follow up on leads and dismissed tips and complaints that might have uncovered Madoff's investment sham. At a congressional hearing to examine the SEC's shortcomings, Kotz outlined dozens of recommendations to improve SEC procedures for handling tips and...

(Newser Summary) – A New York City group has secured enough valid signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot to force a new investigation into the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. A press release from the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now says city lawyers conceded today that at least a requisite 30,000 of some 52,000 collected by the group were legal. “Although the City has an incredibly successful record of shooting down ballot initiatives, we will be arguing from a fresh perspective that reflects the unprecedented events of 9/11,” says a lawyer for NYC CAN,...

NYC CAN Breaking News Bulletin - FORWARD WIDELY September 10, 2009 New York – In a last minute decision, lawyers for the City of New York have conceded that the New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN), a group comprising 9/11 family members, first responders and survivors, indeed did submit over 30,000 valid signatures to put the referendum for a new 9/11 investigation before the voters of New York City this November. In an earlier letter from the City Clerk dated July 24, 2009, the City had claimed only 26,003 signatures were valid, 3,997 short of the requisite...

The Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility has begun an inquiry into the dismissal in May of a civil complaint against the New Black Panther Party and two of its members who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during last year's presidential elections. The inquiry was disclosed in an Aug. 28 letter to Rep. Lamar Smith, ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee who first raised questions about the case's dismissal and asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr., to make available the head of the department's Voting Section for a closed-door briefing about the decision. In the letter, Mary Patrice...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2009 – NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan has launched an investigation into a coalition air strike that reportedly killed civilians yesterday, military officials reported. NATO officials still are working to ascertain the facts in the incident, which occurred in Regional Command North’s area of operations in Kunduz province, according to an ISAF news release. What is known is that ISAF soldiers reported that insurgents had hijacked two fuel trucks in Kunduz yesterday. The troops located the trucks on the banks of the Kunduz River when the vehicles became stuck in the mud. The troops observed...

Nato has promised a full investigation into an air strike on two fuel tankers that killed up to 90 people in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province. The alliance said many Taliban insurgents who had hijacked the tankers were killed but it admitted it had reports of many civilian casualties. The Nato-led forces said they regretted "any unnecessary loss of human life". President Hamid Karzai said targeting civilians was "unacceptable" and announced his own investigation panel. A statement from his office said the president expressed "deep sorrow for the loss of our compatriots" and "emphasised that innocent civilians must not be killed...

According to sources, Rep. Frank Wolf R.Va. and Rep. Lamar Smith R-Tx received a letter today from the Dept. of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility (DOJ) about the voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense ( NBP), which was mysteriously dismissed by the DOJ after President Obama took office. Questions about this unusual dismissal have been asked by Messrs. Wolf ...

Attorny General Eric Holder noted it was hard to talk about race, but it was cowardly not to try. In that spirit, he should answer questions about the dismissal of a voter-intimidation case involving a black hate group in Philadelphia. On last presidential election day two black men in paramilitary uniforms, one wielding a nightstick, were reported harrassing voters at a polling place. The Justice Department was prepared to act. Samir Shabazz, head of the Philadelphia chapter of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, and Jerry Jackson, a party member, were deployed 15 feet from the polling place "in...

Besieged by leaks of several closely held secrets, the CIA has asked the Justice Department to examine what it regards as the criminal disclosure of a secret program to kill foreign terrorist leaders abroad, The Washington Times has learned. Two U.S. intelligence officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be named because of the sensitivity of the case, said the leak investigation involved a program that CIA Director Leon E. Panetta told Congress about in June and that surfaced in news reports just a month later. The vice chairman of the the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence declined...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Louisiana's top prosecutor said Friday he will not reopen a probe into allegations of euthanasia at a hospital crippled by Hurricane Katrina, despite new statements from a doctor that he drugged a terminal patient to "get rid of her faster." Dr. Ewing Cook said that as staff at Memorial Medical Center desperately tried to care for and evacuate patients, making spot assessments of which ones might survive, he scribbled "pronounced dead at" on the patient's chart, intending to fill in time and other details later. "I gave her medicine so I could get rid of her...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors, someone familiar with the case said.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and former high-ranking members of his administration won't be criminally charged in a yearlong federal investigation into pay-to-play allegations involving one of the Democratic governor's large political donors, someone familiar with the case said. The decision not to pursue indictments was made by top Justice Department officials, according to a person familiar with the investigation, who asked not to be identified because federal officials had not disclosed results of the probe. "It's over. There's nothing. It was killed in Washington," the person told The Associated Press. A federal grand jury began an investigation in 2008...

As approval ratings for President Obama and the Democrats' Congress continue to fall-with both independents and the Democratic Party base leaving the support column, the Obama Admin has turned to its old tactic of distraction by torture. That is to say, they've leaked to the press some new sort of report about allegations of torture conducted during the early years of the Bush Administration. In the past, President Obama chose not to allow pictures of "torture" to be published because his military commanders said it would endanger the lives of troops in the field by emboldening the enemy. However, his...

WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department official says Attorney General Eric Holder has picked prosecutor John Durham to investigate CIA mistreatment of terror suspects. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to disclose the decision. Durham is already investigating the destruction of videotapes of CIA interrogations, and now will examine whether CIA officers or contractors broke laws in rough handling of suspects.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has decided to appoint a prosecutor to examine nearly a dozen cases in which CIA interrogators and contractors may have violated anti-torture laws and other statutes when they allegedly threatened terrorism suspects, according to two sources familiar with the move. Word of Holder's decision comes on the same day that the Obama administration will issue a 2004 report by the then-CIA Inspector General. Among other things, the IG questioned the effectiveness of harsh interrogation tactics that included simulated drowning and wall slamming. A federal judge in New York forced the administration to release the...

I need some information on disruptions of meetings by Democrats. Not disruptions of rallys or things of that nature, but actual meetings where Democrats or left wingers were a disruption and did not get arrested. My boyfriend's contention is that Democrats were always arrested if they disrupted a public meeting but no one is being arrested at these town hall meetings and his implication is that there's a double standard at work. I say that's not true but can't find anything online to prove it. Please help me with this. I can't lose this argument! Thanks ;)

MARTINEZ — Contra Costa County District Attorney Robert Kochly said Thursday that his office has been looking into the activities of county Assessor Gus Kramer, who was the subject of a series of stories in the Times about his private property investments and actions as an elected official. Kochly, who stressed the probe is not a criminal investigation, said he would not reveal the focus of the inquiry. Kramer's attorney said the inquiry began about six months ago. In a series of stories in June, the Times revealed that Kramer is an active property investor who in 2004 bought a...