Don't get lo$t for the trees:
"Firm to pay $2m fine in D.C. procurement fraud case" by Ben Nuckols, Associated Press December 16, 2014
WASHINGTON — A Maryland construction company has admitted to orchestrating phony partnerships to get millions in District of Columbia government contracts and agreed to pay a $2 million fine, ending a two-year fraud investigation.
The US attorney’s office for the District announced the agreement with Forrester Construction Corp. of Rockville, Md., on Monday. The company had been under investigation for fraud in the procurement of $145 million in government contracts.
And they only had give back $2 million, huh?
Forrester teamed up with small District firms to win the contracts by promising that the local firms would do 51 percent of the work. But instead, prosecutors say, the companies entered into side agreements that called for the local firms to do far less — about 5 percent of the contract value in one such deal.
Critics say that kind of arrangement undercuts the purpose of a city government program that gives advantages to local companies seeking contracts and makes it difficult, if not impossible, for law-abiding firms to submit winning bids.
As part of the agreement, Forrester acknowledged that it entered into fraudulent partnerships that helped it win three high-profile District government contracts: $64 million to build a city agency headquarters; $56 million to modernize a high school; and $5.4 million to build a senior wellness center.
The company’s founder, John Richard Forrester, committed suicide over Labor Day weekend.
Uh-huh.
Under the agreement, Forrester will pay $2.15 million in fines, acknowledge its wrongdoing, and undertake remedial measures to ensure that it complies in the future with city contracting laws. The company also agreed to cooperate in any ongoing investigations.
Less than 1.4% of what they stole.
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"Bishop at wheel in fatal hit-and-run" Associated Press December 30, 2014
BALTIMORE — The first female bishop at the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland was the driver in a hit-and-run crash that killed a bicyclist in Baltimore, a diocese spokeswoman said Monday.
Bishop Suffragan Heather Cook, who’s in the diocese’s number two spot, was driving the car that hit 41-year-old Tom Palermo on Saturday afternoon, diocese spokeswoman Sharon Tillman said. Palermo died at a hospital.
In an e-mail Sunday, Maryland diocese Bishop Eugene Sutton told clergy members that Cook initially left the scene but returned about 20 minutes later ‘‘to take responsibility for her actions.’’
Neither Cook, 58, nor her lawyer, David Irwin, responded to e-mails and calls for comment Monday.
On Monday, a small makeshift memorial was created by the roadside where Palermo was killed. The road included a designated bike lane....
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