Free Republic

An attorney serving in the Illinois state Comptroller’s Office has been fired for an antisemitic tirade in which she told a Jewish person that she wanted them to face the gas chamber and said, “Hitler should have eradicated all of you.” Sarah Chowdhury referred to Jews as “vermin” and said “all Zionists should pay” in private messages with an Instagram account called Big Law Boiz. Other messages, which the Instagram user screenshotted and were later posted to X, included, “Hopefully someone sends you anthrax or poison and you die a slow terrible death.” In the messages, she also said, “I’d...

Doc-No-Go. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander rejected the city’s no-bid $432 million migrant housing and care contract with a medical services provider Wednesday — citing the company’s lack of expertise and other controversies. “My office did not make this decision lightly. After a careful review, we are declining to approve this contract due to numerous outstanding concerns,” Lander said in a statement about his decision to return the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s nine-figure deal with DocGo. There is “little evidence” to suggest that DocGo — formerly known as Rapid Reliable Testing NY LLC — had the experience...

Facing insurmountable odds against Office of the Comptroller of the Currency nominee Saule Omarova in the U.S. Senate, the Biden administration accepted the withdrawal letter from the embattled nominee on Tuesday.The President characterized the abandonment of the nomination as “… unfortunately, from the very beginning of her nomination, Saule was subjected to inappropriate personal attacks that were far beyond the pale.”But members of the Senate Banking Committee on both sides of the aisle had grown increasingly uncomfortable with Omarova’s past policy stances on how banks should be organized and regulated; including, supporting radical proposals that would “change banking as we...

President Joe Biden's nominee to oversee the to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was arrested for stealing in 1995, it was revealed on Wednesday. Since the White House announced it was tapping Cornell University professor Saule Omarova, 55, to lead the agency overseeing the country's largest banks, revelations about the Soviet-born academic's radical views have surfaced. They've also created an uphill battle to her first hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. According to the latest report, Omarova was arrested in Madison, Wisconsin on a 'retail theft' charge.

resident Biden’s pick to lead a powerful bank regulator is certain to spark a partisan battle in the Senate. Biden announced Thursday he will nominate Cornell University law professor Saule Omarova to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), tapping a fierce critic of big banks for a post with broad power over the industry. Omarova has argued that major banks have failed to serve broader public needs and that the Federal Reserve should replace private firms in consumer banking. In a paper published last year, she proposed “a series of structural reforms that would radically redefine...

Stefan I. Mychajliw Jr., the comptroller for Erie County, New York, has taken a stand for liberty and small businesses098and has used his legal authority to prevent the Erie County Health Department from collecting, cashing, or depositing fines issued for violating COVID-19 restrictions. Fines for COVID-19 violations in Erie County will now be sent directly to the comptroller’s office instead of the Health Department. “I am exerting the accounting authority given to my Office by the Erie County Charter. Changing accounting policies fall under my authority as Erie County Comptroller. This change in policy does not require approval by the...

Washington has responded to the unprecedented economic disruptions brought on by the coronavirus pandemic with extraordinary measures to bolster our nation’s health-care system, keep businesses afloat and support tens of millions of unemployed Americans. Given the vast scope of the public health and economic challenges we face, our federal government must go further. Federal aid for state and local governments that matches the depth of the crisis is urgently needed. The language of “revenue shortfalls” and “fiscal cliffs” used to describe these challenges may seem distant from the concerns of New Yorkers who are struggling to pay their bills and...

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer has declared that he will conduct an official audit of the New York City Board of Elections in response to many claims of polling irregularities and errors throughout the city’s primary voting system Tuesday.

Pakistani authorities said Wednesday they have jailed and intend to charge Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s former city comptroller Amer Ahmad after taking him into custody Monday with a fake Mexican passport, a forged visa to enter their country and a large amount of cash. Ahmad was carrying about $146,000 and 126,000 euros in cash when he was stopped by authorities Monday morning at the international airport in Lahore, said Usman Anwar, the Punjab region director for the Federal Investigation Agency, the Pakistani equivalent of the FBI. "He said he that he lived in America and lied that he never had American...

City Comptroller Scott Stringer on Wednesday criticized Mayor de Blasio for personally intervening when a politically connected preacher pal was busted by cops — saying “the mayor shouldn’t be involved in any way when someone gets arrested.” “It’s my sense that good intentions — trying to obviously be concerned about a bishop — is certainly something that I’m sure he felt,” Stringer said after a City Hall budget briefing. “But I think the rule is mayors should not get involved in any way about somebody’s arrest. It can only be problematic.” “Once a mayor makes a call like that, it...

Less than a month ago, Jazz Shaw wondered whether Client #9 could be stopped. Eliot Spitzer had a 17-point lead over Scott Stringer in the New York City Democratic primary race for comptroller and presumably a clear path to a political comeback. In just three weeks, though, his nineteen-point lead over Stringer (56/37) in the Quinnipiac poll series has flipped to a 45/47 deficit — a change of 21 points in the gap in nearly as many days: The Democratic primary for New York City Comptroller is too close to call, with 47 percent of likely primary voters for Manhattan...

Two of the men seeking to be New York City’s next comptroller touted their different backgrounds and experiences in an Aug. 1 forum in Laurelton, each saying his made him more qualified than the other to be the city’s next top financial officer. Democrat Scott Stringer is the Manhattan borough president and also served 13 years in the state Assembly. Republican John Burnett has spent more than 20 years in the financial services industry, including supervisory and management positions at Smith Barney and Merrill Lynch. Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who joined the Democratic campaign just prior to the deadline for...

Eliot Spitzer has refused to deny claims that he is cheating on his wife Silda - again. The New York City comptroller candidate was given three opportunities this morning to defend himself against allegations he has a girlfriend, but instead chose to dodge reporters' questions. 'I am so tired of the personal attacks and I've answered all those questions,' he said at a Brooklyn campaign stop.

Eliot Spitzer may be Scott Stringer’s worst nightmare, but he could be a dream come true for John Burnett. Who? A 43-year-old African-American with nearly a quarter-century experience on Wall Street, Burnett is also running for city comptroller — as a Republican. Spitzer has brought an explosion of public attention to the race for comptroller. Good: It’s arguably the second most important office in city government and shouldn’t be handed to someone in a walkover. Maybe now we’ll have a conversation about the job — and job qualifications. Until Sunday, Manhattan Borough President Stringer was looking at that walkover, with...

(CNN) -- Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York in the wake of a prostitution scandal, is looking at a return -- this time as comptroller of New York City. He said he hoped that voters would be able to see beyond his past. "I accepted responsibly for what I did," Spitzer told CNN late Sunday night. "I spent five years of working, doing useful things, and I hope the public will offer me an opportunity." Spitzer, a Democrat, resigned in 2008 after revelations about his relationship with a prostitute. Since stepping down, he has worked as a...

Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has become the latest disgraced politician looking to make a comeback in city politics. Spitzer is running for city controller, a source with direct knowledge of the situation told the Daily News. Spitzer now joins Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who tweeted away his career, as pols seeking redemption from the constituents they betrayed.

A former finance official stole more than $53 million in city funds from former President Ronald Reagan's boyhood hometown in Illinois in a fraud that spanned more than two decades, US prosecutors said on Tuesday. Rita Crundwell, 59, who had served as comptroller of Dixon, Illinois since 1983, used the money to buy three homes, more than a dozen cars, trucks and other vehicles, and to invest in a horse farm that has 311 quarter horses, the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago said. Crundwell was arrested in mid-April and charged with stealing $30 million...

Former U.S. Comptroller David Walker has warned that the U.S. could slide into a debt scenario similar to what Greece is experiencing. “The truth is if you count total U.S. government debt as compared to many of the European nations that are in the news, we’re already worse than they are, and we’re two years away from where Greece was when it had its crisis,” Walker said in a recent interview with CYInterview.com. But he said that the size and economic power of the U.S. means it would have more time to right itself before disaster. Walker served as U.S....

Dramatic developments are rocking the campaigns for two of Milwaukee's least dramatic offices: city comptroller and city treasurer. The comptroller's race effectively ended Thursday, the day that Milwaukee County prosecutors charged Supervisor Johnny Thomas with accepting a bribe. Thomas, who had been the front-runner in the comptroller's race, immediately suspended his campaign, leaving Martin Matson, the city's deputy pension director, as the only active candidate on the April 3 ballot. In a single day, a promising political career was derailed and a little-known bureaucrat was virtually assured of becoming the chief financial officer of a $1 billion-a-year local government. The...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (CBS) — Illinois keeps falling farther behind on its debt. As WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports, officially, the state has a backlog of more than $4.25 billion in unpaid bills. LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio’s Regine Schlesinger reports (listen at link) But Illinois State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka says when one factors in other bills, the figure is closer to around $8.5 billion. Those other outstanding bills include tax refunds, employee health insurance, and bills that have not yet reached her desk. Topinka says this is extremely disappointing, since a year ago, the state sharply increased income taxes (by 67...