7 replies to this topic

[stocks]

Sheldon Silver, Ex-New York Assembly Speaker, Is Found Guilty on All Counts

Silver's Corruption Spanned Decades

 

Mr. Silver, 71, a Manhattan Democrat, was convicted on all seven counts against him. The charges of honest services fraud, extortion and money laundering stemmed from schemes by which he obtained nearly $4 million in exchange for using his position to help benefit a cancer researcher and two real estate developers.

 

Sheldon Silver, who held a seemingly intractable grip on power for decades as one of the most feared politicians in New York State, was found guilty on Monday of federal corruption charges, ending a trial that was the capstone of the government’s efforts to expose the seamy culture of influence-peddling in Albany.

 

 

Mr. Silver is the most prominent in a parade of state lawmakers who have been convicted by Mr. Bharara’s office. Mr. Silver’s former counterpart, State Senator Dean G. Skelos, a Republican from Long Island who served as Senate majority leader, is also being tried on federal corruption charges; his case, which also includes Mr. Skelos’s son, Adam, entered its third week on Monday.

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.c...trial.html?_r=0

 

 

 

[stocks]

Rahm Emanuel’s Next Scandal? Chicago’s Public Housing

 

As the mayor reels from the Laquan McDonald controversy, he must deal with a housing authority with heavy pockets and empty promises.

 

The Chicago Housing Authority has been perpetrating some of the most disturbing institutional mismanagement in a city where jaw-dropping corruption is a spectator sport.

 

 

 

https://newrepublic....-public-housing

 

 

 

 

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How D.C. spent $200 million over a decade on a streetcar you still can’t ride

 

The District is spending three or four times what other cities have to build a maintenance facility for its fledging streetcar system, a reflection of the flawed planning and execution that have dragged down the transit start-up for more than a decade.

 

 

https://www.washingt...:homepage/story

 

 

 

[stocks]

Rahm Emanual must resign.

 

The city denied 15 Freedom of Information requests.

 

Emanuel's apology simply isn't good enough. I say this because of the concerted efforts of the City of Chicago to block the release of the video showing McDonald's death. The City denied 15 FOIA requests for the video.

 

The video was finally released last month following the ruling of a Cook County judge. When the video was made public it discredited the contention of Chicago Police that McDonald had lunged at them with a knife. In fact, McDonald was in retreat. Emanuel bears responsibility both for the delay in releasing the tape and not being forthcoming about what happened that night.

 

 

http://spectator.org...-he-must-resign

[stocks]

Dean Skelos, Ex-New York Senate Leader, and His Son Are Convicted of Corruption

 

Dean G. Skelos, the former majority leader of the New York Senate, and his son were found guilty of federal corruption charges on Friday, a quick and devastating follow-up punch to the State Capitol, which has seen two entrenched leaders convicted and removed from office in less than two weeks.

 

Dean Skelos, a Republican from Long Island, had been one of the most powerful men in state government until his arrest this year, and his conviction — along with the conviction of his former colleague, the longtime Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, a Manhattan Democrat — is sure to have repercussions beyond the courtroom. As in Mr. Silver’s case,which ended on Nov. 30, the verdict resulted in Mr. Skelos’s expulsion from the State Legislature, where both men had served for more than three decades.

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.c...v=top-news&_r=1

 

 

[stocks]

Chicago Property Tax and Graft; Who Benefits?

 

The state’s political machine will continue to line their pockets off of a property-tax game in which their connections are priced at a premium.

Illinois House Speaker Mike Madigan and Chicago Alderman Ed Burke both run law firms specializing in the lucrative field of Cook County property-tax appeals, one of the most inefficient, corrupt systems in urban politics.

 

Illinois Senate President John Cullerton is a member of a large law firm that handles a range of issues, including property-tax law. The three have held political office in Illinois for a combined 126 years.

 

Flawed property valuations and the process required to fix them are a cash cow for law firms, including those of Madigan, Burke and Cullerton, which know what strings to pull.
 

 

Read more at http://globaleconomi...CuvJZhtuqlPG.99

 

[stocks]

Death Watch Illinois:

 

Illinois Pension Liabilities Go Up, and Up, and Up
 

Illinois is terminal. Pension cancer is too deep and has spread too far to save the patient. The state is bankrupt morally, politically, and monetarily.

Illinois cancer is not just at the state level. The cancer permeates cities far and wide.

The Chicago Board of Education is already dead whether the coroner or Mayor Rahm Emmanuel makes the announcement or not.

Corrupt politicians in bed with union officials have hollowed out the state beyond repair.

 

Read more at http://globaleconomi...yKUIr5g2IWGx.99

 

[stocks]

 

Rahm Emanual must resign.

 

The city denied 15 Freedom of Information requests.

 

Emanuel's apology simply isn't good enough. I say this because of the concerted efforts of the City of Chicago to block the release of the video showing McDonald's death. The City denied 15 FOIA requests for the video.

 

 

Chicago Pays Millions but Punishes Few in Killings by Police

 

 

http://www.nytimes.c...id=9378554&_r=3