Free Republic

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore mayor Sheila Dixon is about to put her political future in the hands of a jury. Dixon goes on trial Monday on theft charges. She's accused of hitting up her wealthy developer pals to donate thousands of dollars' worth of gift cards to needy families. Prosecutors say she used those gift cards for her personal shopping instead.

A Nevada Democratic Party leader who pleaded guilty to hitting his teenage son and throwing him on the hood of a car has resigned, according to a letter received Friday by a newspaper. Paul Belt, the party chairman of Douglas County, said in a letter to the Record-Courier that he resigned his post after his "regrettable actions." He pleaded guilty on Wednesday to a misdemeanor count of domestic battery. He was sentenced to a suspended one-year jail term and ordered to attend counseling. Belt, 45, was accused of punching his 15-year-old son several times on Oct. 22 when he learned...

Note: Notice how AP does not mention Larry Langford is a Democrat!TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) - A federal jury convicted Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford on Wednesday on all charges of accepting bribes in exchange for funneling $7.1 million in bond business to a prominent investment banker. As a convicted felon, Langford was automatically removed from the office he won in a landslide in 2007. Jurors deliberated less than two hours before returning their sweeping verdict on all 60 counts. It came after six days of testimony in which they heard Langford accepted cash and luxury items worth some $236,000 while serving...

TUSCALOOSA, ALABAMA--Larry Langford, Birmingham's mayor and a former Jefferson County commissioner, has been found guilty in his federal bribery trial. Langford was found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified they made cash payments to Langford while he was the president of the Jefferson County Commission to ensure business for Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co.

Senator Monserrate, the Democratic State Senator in New York who was convicted of dragging his girlfriend through her apartment last week, but did not receive a conviction on intentionally stabbing her (when he did), has received a backlash from the public, as they want him out of office. Well there is a movement amongst fellow New York State Senators to rightly expel Monserrate from the Senate, and I have at least one confirmed Republican Senator who supports expulsion.

State Senator Is Found Guilty of Misdemeanor Assault John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times Hiram Monserrate arrives at the Queens County Criminal Courts building to hear the verdict in his assault trial. October 15, 2009 State Senator Hiram Monserrate, a freshman Democrat and former police officer and city councilman, was found guilty on Thursday of misdemeanor assault, but escaped a felony conviction for slicing his companion’s face during a bitter argument in his Queens apartment on Dec. 19, 2008. Justice William M. Erlbaum, who tried the case without a jury in State Supreme Court in Queens, found Mr....

State Senator Anthony Galluccio was cited Monday for leaving the scene of an accident after he allegedly collided with a vehicle carrying three people on Sunday afternoon in Cambridge and then fled. Galluccio, a Cambridge Democrat, collided with the other vehicle at about 5:30 p.m. as he was driving around Garden and Linnaean streets, said officer Frank Pasquarello, spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department.

Sex felon haunts jail at age 100 Here's proof that only the good die young. Meet Theodore Sypnier, the oldest inmate in New York. The geriatric jailbird celebrated his 100th birthday in upstate Groveland Correctional Facility in May and has spent most of his 90s in prison after pleading guilty to attempted sodomy of a child. Sypnier said he is treated no differently than the spring chickens behind bars with him. He catches Z's in a standard prison bed, wears a two-piece forest-green uniform and chows down on regular mess-hall slop. "It's probably just as bad as being the youngest...

Two Iowa lesbian activists who donated approximately $150,000 in the 2006 and 2008 federal election cycles, all (but one) to Democratic candidates, are caught up in a reported $5.9 million embezzlement scheme.Phyllis Stevens was arrested in Las Vegas last Friday on charges of money laundering and wire fraud after the exposure of the scheme by her employer, insurance giant Aviva USA .Her partner, Marla Stevens, has been sued by Aviva for benefiting from the embezzlement because the money was alledgedly deposited in an account shared by both women. Marla Stevens has not been criminally charged, however. According to CampaignMoney.com, Phyllis...

The woman at the center of State Sen. Hiram Monserrate’s assault trial took the stand today -- making it clear that despite testifying for the prosecution, she claimed her injuries were "an accident." Karla Giraldo, 30, conceeded in Queens Supreme Court that "may have gotten a little bit jealous” when he opened her purse and found a PBA card with another man’s name on it. She said she grew "angry" when the 42-year-old Democratic lawmaker tossed the plastic card down a trash chute in his Jackson Heights, Queens, building. The DA claims the PBA card ignited a heated argument that...

It now looks very much like there was a lot more truth to the criticisms about ACORN—the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now—than its leadership, its allies on Capitol Hill and its supporters in the media were willing to acknowledge.... This latest round of problems for ACORN may be the best documented, but they are not the first nor, for that matter, are they the most serious. A report issued last summer by the Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, according to Sunday's Washington Times, "presented evidence that ACORN had engaged in criminal misconduct." Among the...

MISSION – Embattled state Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores announced Tuesday that he will not seek re-election to an eighth term in 2010. Citing recent indictments handed down against him, the legislator said in a statement that he must concentrate on clearing his name and spending time with his family. “I worked effectively, fought hard and delivered for South Texas,” he said. “I will not apologize for standing up for our region.” In July, a Travis County grand jury charged Flores with 16 counts of tampering with government documents and three counts of perjury, alleging he hid more than $847,000 in...

Date goes from bad to worse By Michael P. McConnell Daily Tribune Staff Writer Police say man skipped out on restaurant bill, stole woman's car. FERNDALE — A first date went from bad to worse when police say a man not only skipped out on a restaurant bill but stole his new girlfriend's car while she was still seated at the table. A Detroit man faces trial on charges he stole his date's car after they ate and he asked her for her keys so he could get his wallet out of her vehicle. "She gave him her keys and...

A judge has ruled that a former Pennsylvania legislative power broker and his one-time aide should stand trial on corruption charges. Harrisburg District Judge William Wenner's ruling Friday was a serious setback for Mike Veon, the former Democratic House whip, and co-defendant Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink. A previous judge had dismissed the charges but prosecutors refiled some of them. In the current charges, prosecutors allege that Veon and Perretta-Rosepink illegally diverted millions of taxpayer dollars through a nonprofit that Veon controlled — the Beaver Initiative for Growth — to hire consultants who did little or no work, rented office space that the...

NEWARK, NJ—A federal judge today sentenced former state Senator Joseph Coniglio to 30 months in federal prison for his extortion and mail fraud convictions for an influencepeddling scheme connected to a $66,000-a-year consulting arrangement with Hackensack University Medical Center, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr. announced. U.S. District Judge Dennis M. Cavanaugh also ordered Coniglio to pay a $15,000 fine. Coniglio must surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons on a date to be determined once the BOP designates a prison facility. There is no parole in the federal system. Coniglio, 66, of Paramus, a plumber by trade, was...

Take it from those who have been there: Prison life is hard on people who need to be in control. Especially politicians accustomed to giving orders, cutting deals, spending millions - and getting their way. Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo is due to report to federal prison tomorrow, assigned to serve his 55-month sentence at a low-security institution in Ashland, Ky. His attorneys have fought that, wanting Fumo placed closer to family in Philadelphia. What's definite, experts say, is that prisons specialize in turning people like Fumo from kings to peasants. In free society, his dominion included four homes,...

PHILADELPHIA – A former Pennsylvania state senator convicted on fraud charges is scheduled to report to federal prison in Kentucky on Monday. Sixty-six-year-old Vincent Fumo has been sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for defrauding the Senate and two nonprofits of several million dollars. ... The 66-year-old Fumo was a wealthy Democratic power broker during a 30-year state Senate career.

The chairman of the city Democratic Party was charged with public drunkenness after allegedly intervening in a police investigation of an assault at the Parker House bar late Wednesday. "Do you recognize the name? Do you know who I am?" the party chairman, Art Moran, asked Patrolman Robert Hegedus, according to an affidavit filed by the officer. Officer Hegedus, who reported smelling alcohol on Mr. Moran's breath, didn't recognize him and asked, "Should I?" "Remember my name," Mr. Moran replied, the officer reported. Mr. Moran, 47, a former Scranton school director, denied in an interview Friday he tried to intimidate...

One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide. A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased. It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds. “President Obama’s $787 billion...

A 24-year-old arrested this morning on suspicion of smashing 11 windows at Colorado Democratic Party headquarters tried to conceal his identity while allegedly committing the crime, according to police descriptions. Maurice Schwenkler wore a shirt over his face, a hooded sweat shirt and latex gloves before he and another man fled the scene on bicycles, police said. Schwenkler was apprehended after a short chase. The other suspect remains at large. While Schwenkler does not appear in the state's voter registration database, a person by that name in November 2008 received $500 from a political 527 committee called Colorado Citizens Coalition...

A federal search warrant obtained by the Post-Dispatch connects a former Democratic campaign strategist to a Clayton bombing last year that seriously injured an attorney. About two months after the October bombing, federal law enforcement officials searched the downtown loft of Milton H. "Skip" Ohlsen III, seeking "evidence related to the planning, execution, and/or cover-up of the bombing in Clayton, Missouri, on October 16, 2008." Ohlsen in recent weeks has been at the center of a swirling political scandal that is threatening the political careers of at least two Missouri Democratic legislators. The Clayton bombing injured attorney John L. Gillis...

NEW YORK, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The U.S. attorney in New York on Tuesday charged a New York investor and major Democratic fund-raiser with a $74 million scheme to defraud Citigroup Inc (C.N). Hassan Nemazee, 59, was charged with one count of bank fraud, and faces up to 30 years in prison plus a fine. His lawyer Marc Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Nemazee was a national finance chair of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, and a supporter of John Kerry's run for the White House in 2004....

Democratic Party senators, Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad were "caught" receiving Sub-Prime "VIP" Loans from lender Countrywide Inc. The Loans were at favorable interest rates. Despite the fact that the lender has testified that both men knew that they were getting a sweetheart deal, Senator Dodd claims he didn't know he was getting favorable rates. This revelation came from Robert Feinberg, the official who handled their loans in testimony to congress. According to the Washington Post:Dodd got two Countrywide mortgages in 2003, refinancing his home in Connecticut and another residence in Washington. Conrad's two Countrywide mortgages in 2004 were for...

TRENTON—Former New Jersey State Senator Wayne R. Bryant was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison today for unlawfully using his power and influence to obtain a paid, low-show job at UMDNJ’s School of Osteopathic Medicine in exchange for lobbying and bringing millions of dollars in extra funding to the school, and using that job and others to fraudulently nearly triple his state pension, Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra, Jr., announced. Bryant’s co-defendant, former dean of the School of Osteopathic Medicine (SOM) in Stratford, R. Michael Gallagher, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for his convictions for capitalizing...

N.J. politicians, rabbis arrested in federal money laundering sweep.

A little tip for anyone who gets stopped by a police officer for a possible traffic violation. Be polite. Very polite. Even if you think you were wrongly stopped, do not under any circumstances start yelling at the police officer. Follow this advice and your chances of being given a traffic ticket, instead of just a warning, go way down. The same applies for any encounter with a police officer because the surest way to get yourself arrested is to act act arrogantly and aggressively when questioned. Whatever you do, do not act like the arrestee in the Henry Louis...

HOUSTON — A former Houston congressman accused of firing a gun at two teens in a car avoided going to trial Monday after working out a deal with prosecutors that would result in the charge against him being dropped at a later date. Craig Washington agreed to settle his case through something known as pretrial diversion, which is similar to probation but does not involve him having to change his not guilty plea. Under pretrial diversion, the case is postponed for two years and if he meets conditions set by the court, including finishing 60 hours of community service, the...

The president of the Stokes County NAACP chapter was arrested Monday and charged with several sex crimes, the Stokes County News reported. Larry Lash, 54, of Walnut Cove, was taken into custody at his residence on Old Highway 65 and charged with six counts of statutory rape or sexual offense, two counts of intercourse and sexual offense, two counts of first-degree sexual offense and two counts of incest.

Ex-congressman filmed accepting $100,000Published: 07/08/2009 By Matthew Barakat Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. - From four different angles, jurors saw a former Louisiana congressman accept a suitcase filled with $100,000 on videos played in court Tuesday. **SNIP** The recordings played in U.S. District Court show Lori Mody, a northern Virginia businesswoman who cooperated with an FBI investigation, leading Jefferson to the trunk of a car parked outside the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pentagon City. Jefferson reaches in, grabs the suitcase and puts it in a small duffel bag. The FBI recorded the handoff from five different angles, and four of those were...

Wichita, KS (Lifenews.com) -- An abortion advocate attacked the national headquarters of the pro-life group Operation Rescue on Friday. The attack saw someone attempt to disabled the pro-life organization's security system.

The New Culture of CorruptionDemocrats step up their corruption game By ROBERT A. GEORGE Updated 7:45 PM EDT, Fri, Jun 26, 2009 New joke going around Washington: "Republicans hike the Appalachian Trail; Democrats hike your taxes. Either way, someone's getting screwed." As, the old saying goes -- some of the truest things are said in jest. Washington Republicans -- more in the minority than they have been in decades -- are somewhat haplessly hoping that the Democrats mess up their own policies, rather than figure out how to stop them themselves. So, in the meantime, they keep themselves busy by...

William Jefferson's activities cast as "official acts" by witnesses in corruption trialby Bruce Alpert, The Times-Picayune Friday June 26, 2009, 9:20 PM ALEXANDRIA, VA. -- Prosecutors called five witnesses Friday they hope convinced jurors that former Rep. William Jefferson engaged in "official acts" to promote a telecommunications project in return for payments and promised payments they describe as bribes. The issue is critical to the government's corruption case against the New Orleans Democrat. Prosecutors contend Jefferson solicited payments and stock from iGate Inc., a telecommunications company, to the ANJ Group, a firm controlled by his wife, Andrea Jefferson, in return...

Conyers says little about wife's legal troublesBy COREY WILLIAMS and JEFF KAROUB, The Associated Press 11:15 a.m. June 27, 2009 DETROIT — On the day City Councilwoman Monica Conyers stepped into a federal courtroom at home in Detroit to plead guilty to bribery, her husband was at home in Washington. Several of Rep. John Conyers' colleagues in the U.S. House said they weren't aware his wife could soon wind up spending five years in prison. Rather than take the easy shot, the top Republican on the House ethics committee declined to comment. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat and...

CHICO, Calif.—A Chico man has been arrested on suspicion of trying to run over an anti-abortion protester. Chico police say 40-year-old Matthew Haver was aiming his sport utility vehicle at 69-year-old James Cantfield, who was not injured. Investigators say Haver apparently became enraged when a child traveling with him asked about a sign Cantfield was holding. The sign showed an aborted fetus.

We hope that Mrs. Conyers prison time will allow her an opportunity to UNITE, and will ultimately serve to gain much needed clarity that will see her embracing and protecting American FREEDOMS which were afforded to her by the great sacrifices of millions of Americans.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. has backed off his plan to investigate wrongdoing by the liberal activist group ACORN, saying "powers that be" put the kibosh on the idea. Mr. Conyers, Michigan Democrat, earlier bucked his party leaders by calling for hearings on accusations the Association of Community Organization for Reform Now (ACORN) has committed crimes ranging from voter fraud to a mob-style "protection" racket. "The powers that be decided against it," Mr. Conyers told The Washington Times. The chairman declined to elaborate, shrugging off questions about who told him how to run his committee and give the...

Information compiled from the Washington Post, “Congressional Sex Scandals in History,” and other sources.

The Clinton administration's interest in an international agreement to combat global warming also dovetailed with Enron's business plans. Enron officials envisioned the company at the center of a new trading system, in which industries worldwide could buy and sell credits to emit carbon dioxide as part of a strategy to reduce greenhouse gases. Such a system would curtail the use of inefficient coal-fired power plants that emitted large amounts of carbon dioxide, while encouraging new investments in gas-fired plants and pipelines -- precisely Enron's line of business.

The Obama surrogates have now committed a felony impersonation that is being investigated by the Pueblo Colorado Crime Stoppers, The US Postal Inspector and the Port Orange, Florida Police Department. I was notified yesterday that the management here received as did almost every single resident in this community a post card claiming to be from the Pueblo, Colorado Crime Stoppers. Well I just finished speaking with the Port Orange Police and providing them a copy of the threat to send out these items

City Council member Monica Conyers, the wife of a prominent congressman, sought political support from Baptist pastors and prayers from constituents Tuesday as her re-election bid collided with a corruption probe involving cash bribes handed over in fast-food parking lots. A person told The Associated Press that Conyers is the "Council Member A" listed in a court document as receiving more than $6,000 for her fall 2007 vote on a multimillion-dollar sludge contract. She has not been charged. The information comes from a person with knowledge of the investigation who asked not to be named because the person was not...

Back in 2005, the Old Media was all atwitter over a supposed ”plant reporter” at a Bush press conference. The Old Media made a big deal out of this guy and used it to try and cast the Bush White House as employing some sort of underhanded control of information. Flash forward to today, President Obama held his Healthcare townhall in Green Bay, Wisconsin and it turns out that Obama’s first “spontaneous question” from the audience sure seems like a “plant” in the same way as the previously mentioned situation in 2005. Will the media take notice? Naturally, President Obama...

My father's beliefs have been a constant source of verbal and mental abuse my family has had to suffer with for many years. His views consumed him, and in doing so, not only destroyed his life, but destroyed our family and ruined our lives as well. ***snip*** For the extremists who believe my father is a hero: it is imperative you understand what he did was an act of cowardice. To physically force your beliefs onto others with violence is not brave, but bullying. Doing so only serves to prove how weak those beliefs are.

Troubled Rhode Island congressman Patrick Kennedy’s slide back into rehab may have been triggered by stress related to his senator father’s grim cancer diagnosis, a relative said. “It’s sad,” Kennedy’s stepgrandfather, Edmund Reggie, told the Herald. “He’s been wrapped up in the senator so much. All of us expect (U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.)) to progress better than what’s realistic. I think it really gets to Patrick,” Reggie said of the senior senator’s diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor in May 2008. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.) checked himself in to an undisclosed rehab center once again this week. The lawmaker...

Your tax dollars paid the salaries of Cuyahoga County officials who prosecutors say swapped government contracts for a free gambling junket to Las Vegas. Your tax dollars paid for government leaders to lounge at a secret Flats condo and rake in tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from contractors looking to land county business, according to prosecutors. And that tax levy you passed last year for the poor, elderly and sick? Prosecutors say one of your leaders suggested using some of it to reward a halfway house that flew him first-class to Las Vegas. The first major...

A new appraisal of the Irish cottage owned by Sen. Christopher Dodd concludes that it is worth about three times as much as Dodd has been reporting on his financial disclosure forms. The new value of the cottage, on Inishnee island in County Galway, is $658,000, according to Dodd's 2008 financial disclosure form released Friday. The two-page appraisal was done by the same man who did the original one in 2002 when the 1,200-square-foot cottage was valued at about $190,000. The new appraisal comes two years into a historic crash in property values in Ireland, which suggests that it might...

John Bailey thought it was great when his neighbor was elected to the House of Representatives in 2007. "Not everyone lives next door to a congresswoman," he said. But two years later, he doesn't feel so lucky. The congresswoman's house is abandoned and in disrepair, "a blight on the neighborhood," Bailey said. He thinks the way that Rep. Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach) has treated her Sacramento home tells far more about her than her voting record. "I wouldn't want anyone that irresponsible to represent me," said Bailey, like Richardson a liberal Democrat. "What I don't get is how she has...

John Kerry, D-Mass., a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, is forever excoriating the rich for not paying their fair share of taxes and for dodging income and payroll taxes through shelters, loopholes, and plain old dirty tricks and schemes. It turns out Sen. Kerry knows something about the rich — the Center for Responsive Politics estimates his net worth is at least $284 million, the third highest in Congress — and about tax dodging. He is being sued by the Internal Revenue Service for nonpayment of $819,000 in payroll taxes for workers on his failed 2004 presidential campaign....

Maria Baez (D-Bronx) gave $5,000 from her discretionary office account to Leo Martinez for his work with immigrants. City officials had cut Martinez's funding amid federal/city probes into his shady practice of holding tax allotments for phantom community groups then doling it out later. City Dept of Investigation froze 100 nonprofit contracts, including a $99,000 grant Baez had given Martinez.... The city had twice refused to allow Baez to fund Martinez's now-defunct Alliance for Community Services ..... Baez was undeterred..........She allocated another $198,214 to the group last June, but it was quickly blocked. Baez then tapped an account pols use...

Just having the appearance of someone who might possibly vote for an opponent of Barack Obama could land them on the President's enemies list where proxies do the dirty work. Political appointees in the Justice Department killed a six-month investigation by career DOJ lawyers into the most blatant voter intimidation case in 40 years. Last November, jack-booted, uniformed, baton-wielding thugs from the New Black Panther Party calling themselves "security" obstructed a Philadelphia polling location and behaved in an intimidating manner toward white voters. Days after dismissing charges against the menacing thugs, the Justice Department moved in the opposite direction by...

Money Stashed in Freezer Is Key in Jefferson TrialBy Allison Klein Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 7, 2009 The bribery and fraud case of former U.S. representative William J. Jefferson involves business ventures in seven West African nations, 16 criminal counts and a high-stakes legal battle over the raid of his Washington office. But when the trial begins Tuesday in Alexandria federal court, the case will be summed up to jurors with this key question: "Do you know the case of the congressman with the money in the freezer?" After nine terms in office, the Louisiana Democrat is most...