It wasn't good feel right from the start:
An emerging — and vocal — movement
Really hits you in the grut.
"N.Y. lawmaker pleads not guilty to US fraud charges; Grimm says case tied to NYC eatery is a witch hunt" by Tom Hays | Associated Press April 29, 2014
NEW YORK — US Representative Michael Grimm, a former Marine and FBI agent who has been the target of a campaign-finance investigation, was instead charged Monday with evading taxes by concealing more than $1 million in sales and wages while running a small Manhattan restaurant — a case he called a political witch hunt meant to drive him out of office.
Grimm surrendered to FBI agents early Monday following a two-year investigation that initially focused on alleged attempts to bypass contribution limits.
He pleaded not guilty through his lawyer in federal court in Brooklyn to mail, wire, and tax fraud charges and was released on $400,000 bond secured by his Staten Island home.
The Republican lawmaker, using a World War II memorial across the street from the courthouse as a backdrop, later accused prosecutors of leaking ‘‘all kinds of innuendos and accusations to support a political witch hunt’’ intended to ‘‘assassinate my character.’’ He vowed to return to work in Congress while fighting the charges.
‘‘I know I’m a moral man, a man of integrity,’’ he added. ‘‘And I also know I have a lot more service and leadership to provide this country, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.’’
US Attorney Loretta Lynch said investigators uncovered the restaurant fraud as they conducted the campaign finance probe.
She also denied the prosecution was politically motivated and suggested more charges were possible.
‘‘We follow the evidence and see where it goes. . . . The investigation is broader and ongoing,’’ she said.
Grimm ‘‘was anything but an upstanding citizen,’’ said George Venizelos, head of the FBI’s New York office. ‘‘He cheated, evaded, and then lied.’’
He is a U.S. politician all right!
The 20-count indictment alleges the tax fraud began in 2007 after Grimm retired from the FBI and began investing in an Upper East Side eatery called Healthalicious. It accused him of trying to evade payroll, income, and sales taxes by paying his workers — some in the country illegally — in cash.
Oh, he likes the cheap foreign labor that can't complain over Americans looking for work, 'eh?
Grimm ‘‘physically handed out cash payments to his employees on numerous occasions,’’ the indictment says, with money taken from the restaurant’s daily receipts.
It's called under the table.
Authorities say Grimm left the business in 2010, the same year he won his first term in Congress. A House Ethics Committee announced in November that he was under investigation for possible campaign finance violations.
During the 2010 race, Grimm acknowledged receiving $250,000 to $300,000 in contributions from followers of an Israeli rabbi, Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto. Some members of Pinto’s congregation subsequently said they made tens of thousands of dollars in illegal contributions, including gifts that were passed through straw donors.
Those charges gone away now?
The Israeli businessman who had served as Grimm’s liaison to Pinto’s followers, Ofer Biton, pleaded guilty in August to an immigration fraud charge.
Can there really be any more doubt regarding the stranglehold Israel has on the AmeriKan political $y$tem?
Three days after that, the FBI filed a sealed criminal complaint accusing a Houston woman, Diana Durand, who had been romantically involved with Grimm, of using straw donors to make illegal campaign contributions.
Related: GOP representative from Louisiana won’t seek reelection
Something to do with sex I'm told.
Grimm, 44, made headlines in January after confronting a New York City cable news station reporter who tried to question him about the campaign finance inquiry.
After reporter Michael Scotto finished his report from a balcony in the Capitol, Grimm stormed back, leaned into him, and said: ‘‘Let me be clear to you. If you ever do that to me again, I’ll throw you off this [expletive] balcony.’’
That looks like a bullying threat!
Grimm’s legal troubles, while embarrassing to his fellow Republicans, were unlikely to determine the balance of power in the GOP-dominated House.
I care about the criminal corruption! Who cares about the inside baseball of musical chair control in D.C.?
Republicans have the majority in the House by a margin of 233 to 199 seats, with three vacancies.
Democrats, meanwhile, have been eyeing Grimm’s seat. The Democrats’ favored candidate, former New York City councilman Domenic Recchia, has been hammering Grimm over his ethics and has impressed Washington Democrats.
News of the charges drew a mixed reaction from constituents on Staten Island.
‘‘This is supposed to be someone who respects the law and that’s certainly in question at this point,’’ said Marc Patrick, 57, a retired teacher.
Eddie Garcia, 70, who’s also retired, said he had voted for Grimm and credited the congressman with helping Staten Island recover from Hurricane Sandy.
Grimm is being prosecuted ‘‘because he is a rising star in the Republican Party,’’ he said. ‘‘They think they got him. I hope justice will prevail.’’
Now a falling $tar.
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Related:
Minimum wage bill nears likely Senate rejection
After they got it up, too.
More grim news:
"Algeria’s ailing president sworn in for 4th term" | Associated Press April 28, 2014
ALGIERS — Facing an increasingly united opposition calling for political changes, Algeria’s president promised national reconciliation as he took his oath of office for a fourth term from his wheelchair on Monday.
Uh-oh.
Abdelaziz Bouteflika, 77, who suffered from a stroke last year and rarely appears in public, recited the oath in a hoarse voice and briefly thanked voters. In a speech handed out to journalists, however, he promised to continue democratic reforms and efforts at national reconciliation.
The president, in power since 1999, received more than 81 percent of the vote in the April 17 election.
See: Algeria's Election Results
Looks rigged to me.
With Algeria facing dwindling oil reserves, high youth unemployment, and the threat of Al Qaeda in the southern desert, there has been worry about the president’s ability to govern.
The expectation is that Bouteflika’s fourth term, probably his final one, will see an effort by the powerful military and intelligence generals that hold much of the power in Algeria to find a successor.
That's the close US ally calling the shots, as opposed to the ill figurehead.
Opposition parties maintained that the results were marked by fraud and are mobilizing against the government.
If the government has to put down protests we will see how much coverage the Globe gives it, and how they cover it.
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He looks like a zombie, which leads us here:
"In Haiti, ‘picking up money’ by recycling" by Trenton Daniel | Associated Press April 29, 2014
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s central government collects only about 40 percent of the capital’s garbage, leaving the rest to pile up in streets and gutters in impoverished neighborhoods, adding to the nation’s misery.
But now, several entrepreneurial firms have stepped in to combat both blight and poverty as Haitians learn how to recycle throwaways for cash, something people in other countries learned long ago.
OMG!
The media of elite wealth is touting picking through the garbage for nickel deposits!
What an insult!
With just one landfill in Port-au-Prince, the garbage can still pile up in places. But the metropolitan region of 3 million people has grown noticeably cleaner since at least four recycling companies began operating in the years after an earthquake devastated the capital in 2010.
They all recycle plastic bottles collected by thousands of scavengers and one, Environmental Cleaning Solutions SA, also buys plastic water bags and aluminum cans.
‘‘It helps the environment. It helps with health issues. It helps the economy,’’ said Environmental Cleaning’s president and founder, Edouard Carrie.
I'm not saying it does not, but why must doing the right thing always have to be about the buck in my propaganda pre$$.
Another company, Sustainable Recycling Solutions, cofounded by Mike Shinoda of the rock band Linkin Park, recently received a $250,000 grant from former president Bill Clinton’s private foundation.
Is that where some of the billions in missing aid money entrusted to you and Bush went?
Danisa Julien takes her recyclables to one of 26 kiosks run nationwide by a program called Ranmase Lajan, Haitian Creole for ‘‘picking up money.’’ It has more centers than any other recycling firm.
On a recent day, the 28-year-old woman and her 16-year-old sister dragged four big bags crammed with empty juice bottles to a roadside kiosk, one in each hand, then scooped out the plastic containers with their slender arms.
The $27 they earned is a small fortune in Haiti. Together, the sisters earn about $10 a day selling plantains and rice in Port-au-Prince, where only about 30 percent of the population has steady work.
They said the extra money would go for food, tuition, and school supplies for Julien’s two children.
‘‘If my son needs something, like food, or even a piece of paper for school, I can now do it,’’ the older sister said.
It's a Haitian $ucce$$ story.
The bags of plastic bottles are bought for 11 to 14 cents per pound by Haiti Recycling, which cleans and shreds the plastic into a raw material for shipping to the United States. The other companies ship their cleaned recyclables to the United States and elsewhere.
Johnny Atilus, who oversees the recycling kiosks, says Haitians are still struggling with the idea of rummaging through trash.
Who wouldn't?
‘‘There are a lot of people who do feel ashamed,’’ said Atilus, a local coordinator for Boston-based Executives Without Borders, which created the enterprise by linking Thread LLC of Pittsburgh with Haiti Recycling, a family-run metal salvaging concern.
‘‘But you got to look at it this way,’’ Atilus said, ‘‘there aren’t any job opportunities down here, and this is what people do to feed and support their families.’’
Yeah, just accept your lot as the government hu$tles a cool million a week to international creditors. The bleach washed down the mud pie.
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"Haitians sue UN over cholera epidemic" by Edith M. Lederer | Associated Press March 12, 2014
NEW YORK — Nearly 1,500 Haitians filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking compensation from the United Nations for victims of a cholera outbreak that health officials say has killed more than 8,000 people and sickened over 600,000 in the impoverished Caribbean nation.
Scientific studies have shown that cholera was probably introduced in Haiti by UN peacekeepers from Nepal, where the disease is endemic.
There is no "probably" about it, and it really makes you wonder about the "help."
Despite the poverty, Haitians had never seen a cholera crisis until then.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon rejected a previous claim for compensation for cholera victims, citing diplomatic immunity, but announced a $2.27 billion initiative to help eradicate cholera in Haiti in December 2012.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court seeks compensation for deaths and illnesses and funding for clean water in Haiti, which was devastated by a 2010 earthquake.
The suit includes documents the plaintiffs say clearly show that the UN waived its immunity.
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UPDATE: Raising hope at Revere High
Maybe there is some good news out there somewhere.
See: Justina Pelletier to transfer to Conn. facility
That makes me happy, although I hope it is not by train.
