Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Day in Detroit

"Video raises questions on police shooting" By Associated Press | May 18, 2010

DETROIT — A lawyer for the family of a 7-year-old girl slain during a weekend raid at their Detroit home said yesterday that video footage contradicts the Police Department’s version of events.

Related: Girl, 7, killed during home search in Detroit, police say

Paper always gives you the police story first.

Geoffrey Fieger said the video shows that police fired into the home at least once after lobbing a flash grenade through a window. He said that contradicts the department’s explanation that an officer’s gun fired during a confrontation with a resident inside the home.

The cops lied? You're kidding!

Aiyana Jones, 7, was shot in the neck and died.

Police said they were trying to acquire the video shot by a television crew.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said yesterday that State Police will take over the investigation of the fatal shooting.

Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family’s apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst in and an officer’s gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck, family members said.

When her father, 25-year-old Charles Jones, rushed into the living room, police forced him to lie on the ground, with his face in his daughter’s blood, he said. “I’ll never be the same. That’s my only daughter,’’ Jones told WXYZ-TV.

Assistant Chief Ralph Godbee said officers set off the flash grenade as they entered the apartment with their guns drawn about 12:40 a.m. Sunday with a warrant to look for a suspect in the Friday slaying of a 17-year-old boy.

And now an innocent 7-year-old girl is dead.


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Anybody have any answers?

"Mayor says Detroit doesn’t know how to stop violence; City tense after police killing of 7-year-old" by Corey Williams, Associated Press | May 21, 2010

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — Mayor Dave Bing of Detroit said yesterday that the city has no answer to the recent spike in violence that has left at least 12 people dead, including a patrolman, two teenage males, a grandmother, the adult son of a police officer, and a 7-year-old girl....

How about reigning in your commando cop squads?


Tension after a Detroit police officer accidentally shot second-grader Aiyana Stanley-Jones during a raid early Sunday morning continues to hang over the city.

Police have said the officer’s gun discharged inside the house after he was jostled by, or collided with, the girl’s grandmother.

A lawyer for the family has filed two lawsuits in the case and contends that the shot was fired from outside on the porch.

Sort of vague descriptions there when there is a video showing the cops lied, MSM.

Both Bing and Police Chief Warren Evans have apologized to the girl’s family, and the Michigan State Police have launched an investigation into Aiyana’s death.

That would not be good enough for me.

Representative John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan, on Wednesday asked Attorney General Eric Holder to have the Justice Department look into the case and evaluate similar police raids, nationally.

“Too many people are pointing to the Police Department,’’ he said yesterday.

“I don’t think they are the problem. They have to be the solution.’’

Related: Marriage Counciling For Conyers

The Corrupt Conyers'

You are PART of the PROBLEM, John!

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"Mourners attend 7-year-old’s funeral" by Associated Press | May 23, 2010

DETROIT — Hundreds of people turned out yesterday for the funeral of a 7-year-old Detroit girl killed in a police raid and were told they must help stop the violence that has recently swept the city. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton gave the eulogy for Aiyana Stanley-Jones, and called on the congregation gathered at Second Ebenezer Church to help stop violence.

They must stop the violence?

DETROIT — Former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, already in state prison for probation violations stemming from his conviction for lying about an affair with his chief of staff, was indicted yesterday on federal fraud and tax charges for allegedly using his charity as a slush fund.

Federal prosecutors said the alleged scheme is related to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, a tax-exempt fund that was supposed to pay for voter education and other purposes. Instead, they said, the former mayor took cash payments from the fund for himself, friends, and relatives....

Color doesn't seem to matter when it comes to corruption!

Prosecutors accused Kilpatrick, a Democrat, of failing to report at least $640,000 in taxable income between 2003 and 2008, which includes money, private jet flights, and personal expenses paid by the civic fund.

The government said he used the money to pay for yoga and golf lessons, camp for his children, personal travel, moving expenses, and “countersurveillance and antibugging equipment.’’

WTF?

He is just DOING what GOVERNMENT DOES!

Kilpatrick spokesman Mike Paul said the Kilpatrick family was aware that the indictment could be coming. He said it shows that after three years investigating Kilpatrick, federal officials did not charge him with public corruption linked to his job as mayor, proving that those allegations were only rumors.

So what is he trying to say? He's an angel?

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And look at what they want to go after:

"Detroit prosecutor wants parents who miss school meetings jailed" by Associated Press | July 7, 2010

DETROIT — Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy is still working on the details, but once her proposal is finished, she hopes to present it to county commissioners in August and persuade them to approve an ordinance. Then, she may take it to state legislators.

It’s unlikely to quickly become an ordinance, because it would probably be challenged in court. Civil libertarians say it may be outside the law; even some teachers, who often spend several hours waiting for parents who don’t show up for the conferences, are skeptical.

“I understand the prosecutor’s concern, but jail time?’’ said Ann Crowley, a Detroit middle school teacher....

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I have to get out of this city.

Also see
:
Pilot, 3 grandchildren killed in plane crash

Not that way.

Stench of Torture in Windy City

And you thought it was just Muslims at Gitmo.

Welcome to what AmeriKa has been for a long time -- despite the lectures from the government.

"Ex-officer accused of torture faces trial" by Associated Press | May 24, 2010

CHICAGO — For decades, black men across Chicago described torture at the hands of former police lieutenant Jon Burge and his officers, and for decades no one listened.

Suspects landed in jail and even on death row for crimes they say they didn’t commit after Burge and his men coerced confessions using terrifying methods including suffocation, a form of waterboarding, and electric shocks.

Finally those complaints from the 1970s and 1980s are being taken seriously....

Authorities have, to a degree, acknowledged that Burge may have committed these acts, but he does not face torture-related charges because the statute of limitations has run out....

Un-flipping-real!

Maybe some of those African war criminals should look into that.

The allegations of torture and coerced confessions eventually led to a moratorium on the state’s death penalty and the emptying of death row — moves credited with reigniting the global fight against capital punishment. But they also earned Chicago a reputation as a haven for rogue cops, a place where police could abuse suspects without notice or punishment....

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"Ex-Chicago officer convicted of perjury in torture trial" by ASSOCIATED PRESS | June 29, 2010

CHICAGO — A decorated former Chicago police lieutenant accused of suffocating, shocking, and beating confessions out of scores of suspects was convicted yesterday of federal perjury and obstruction of justice charges for lying about the alleged torture of suspects.

Jurors deliberated for parts of three days before finding Jon Burge guilty. Burge faces 45 years in prison.

Burge’s name has become synonymous with police brutality and abuse of power in the country’s third-largest city. For decades, dozens of suspects — almost all of them black men — contended that Burge and his officers tortured them into confessing to crimes ranging from armed robbery to murder.

Former governor George Ryan of Illinois released four condemned men from death row in 2003 after Ryan said Burge had extracted confessions from them using torture.

The allegations of torture and coerced confessions eventually led to a still-standing moratorium on Illinois’s death penalty and the emptying of death row — moves credited with re-igniting the global fight against capital punishment....

In 2006, a special prosecutor’s report found that dozens of men had credible claims of abuse but that the statute of limitations had run out on any relevant crimes. It was not until Burge’s 2008 indictment that any officer was criminally charged in relation to the alleged torture.

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Ever hear the expression "can dish it out but can't take it," coppers?

"Ill. police, firefighters hit with fireworks" by Associated Press | July 7, 2010

ALTON, Ill. — An unruly mob lured emergency personnel to a housing complex near St. Louis with reports of a blaze, a shooting, and other crimes, then attacked them with fireworks and bottle rockets, authorities said.

No one was injured in the onslaughts against firefighters and police in Alton on Sunday night and early Monday.

The attackers apparently intended the assaults as entertainment for a hundreds-strong crowd of adults and children who had gathered at the Oakwood Housing Complex to watch, said Mark Harris, a deputy fire chief who witnessed the attacks....

There was no immediate word on any arrests or charges in the attacks.

Police Chief David Hayes said officers tried to control the assailants by using guns firing pepper balls. He said the assaults turned his stomach.

“I’m so angry,’’ Hayes told the newspaper. “This type of conduct is not supposed to happen in civil society.’’

Neither is torture, but....


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And now they want to take your
gun away?

"Residents, group sue over Chicago gun rules" by Associated Press | July 8, 2010

CHICAGO — Four Chicago residents and a gun sellers group have sued the city over a tough new gun control ordinance put in place after the US Supreme Court made a decades-old ban on firearms unenforceable.

The federal lawsuit contends the new ordinance, which city officials say is the strictest in the country, infringes on residents’ constitutional right to bear arms. The plaintiffs want the measure declared void and the city barred from enforcing it.

Gun rights supporters had predicted a flood of lawsuits after aldermen unanimously approved the ordinance Friday, four days after the Supreme Court ruled that Americans have the right to have handguns anywhere for self-defense....

The lawsuit’s plaintiffs include a trader on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, an educator who lives near a high-crime neighborhood, a veterinarian who owns a clinic, and her husband....

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"
Chicago sets strict rules for handguns" by Associated Press | July 13, 2010

CHICAGO — An ordinance allowing Chicago residents to own handguns took effect yesterday, two weeks after the US Supreme Court made the city’s handgun ban unenforceable — but people may still be four months and a couple hundred dollars away from having one legally.

Oh, that i$ what thi$ is about!

Police Superintendent Jody Weis said that those who want guns must be fingerprinted, submit to a background check, pay a $100 application fee plus $15 for each gun they register....

Under the ordinance, residents must take and pass a four-hour class and one hour of training at a gun range, and submit affidavits signed by state-approved firearms instructors. Gun rights advocates were quick to criticize the process that the police department is implementing. “The purpose of all this is to simply prevent civilian firearm ownership, [and] it doesn’t make anybody safer,’’ said Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association. “When was the last time local gang-bangers went through a background check and firearm training?’’

Right.


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more--"

How come all the TOUGH GUN CONTROL CITIES have HIGHER CRIME RATES?

When GUNS are OUTLAWED only OUTLAWS have GUNS!

"Elderly couple found buried alive under trash in Chicago home" by Associated Press | May 26, 2010

CHICAGO — Fire crews investigating a mysterious stench found an elderly couple buried alive under mounds of garbage in their Chicago home, authorities said yesterday....

The Fire Department team forced in the door of the South Side home and found an overpowering smell, piles of food waste, and trash....

Police had initially been called to the two-flat apartment building by neighbors who had not seen the couple in some time and wondered about their welfare. Police called in the Fire Department because of the stench; the team that entered wore hazardous-materials suits.

An 83-year-old neighbor, Hattie Fields, said she used to see the man going out and getting in his truck to go to work in the morning, although not lately.

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Chicago the True City of Brotherly Love

It's not Philly!

"Blagojevich retrial scheduled for January" by Associated Press | August 27, 2010

CHICAGO — Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich is set to go back on trial in early January, but he will stand alone as a defendant this time after prosecutors dismissed all corruption charges against his brother yesterday.

US District Court Judge James Zagel said Blagojevich’s retrial will start the week of Jan. 4. Jurors deadlocked last week on all but one of 23 charges against the former governor and on four charges against his brother....

Some jurors said the panel was close to acquitting Robert. A few said they did not want to see him retried....

Robert Blagojevich worked as his brother’s campaign manager for only four months in 2008. The Republican had been a successful banker and retired Army officer living in Nashville with his wife, but said he went to work for the Democratic governor out of a sense of brotherly love.

Testifying at the trial, he denied allegations that he helped his brother scheme to benefit from his public office. Another witness, pointing out Robert’s relative lack of importance in the campaign, said his desk was the corner of a conference table and faced a sink.

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Related: Blagojevich Jury Seeing Government Set-Up?

Blago Beats Crack Government Prosecutor

And the hero of the case:

"Holdout juror airs her side of the story; Defends role in Blagojevich case" by Michael Tarm and Don Babwin, Associated Press | August 28, 2010

CHICAGO — As attorneys and defendants scanned jurors faces for favorable signs during Rod Blagojevich’s corruption trial, most couldn’t get a read on the pokerfaced grandmother at the far end of the jury box taking meticulous notes.

JoAnn Chiakulas, a retired state employee, turned out to be the lone holdout standing in the way of a conviction of the ousted Illinois governor....

Chiakulas publicly defended her resolve for the first time in an interview published yesterday by the Chicago Tribune, filling out a picture of tense juror deliberations and feeding debate about her role.

Chiakulas, 67, stood by her vote, saying she found Blagojevich’s statements captured on FBI wiretap recordings so disorganized and scattered that his actions did not amount to a criminal conspiracy.

“I thought he was just rambling,’’ she told the Tribune. “I could never live with myself if I went along with the rest of the jury.’’

**************

In the Tribune interview, Chiakulas said she decided the prosecution had simply not proven its case, and that she had a responsibility to follow her conscience....

I congratulate the old lady!

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Also see:

Slow Saturday Special: The Blagojevich Media Blitzkrieg

The Democrats' Distracting Diversion

Not now.

Retrial isn't until January(?).

Chicago's Cameras

So small you can't even see them!

"Weis said he would like to add “covert’’ cameras, perhaps as small as matchboxes"


"Cameras make surveillance commonplace to Chicagoans; Public, private network covers most of the city" by Don Babwin, Associated Press | April 18, 2010

CHICAGO — When the body of Chicago’s school board president was found partly submerged in a river last fall with a bullet wound to the head cameras helped determine that it was a suicide.

Friends had speculated someone forced Michael Scott to drive to the river before shooting him — and maybe even wrapped his finger around the trigger.

But within days, police recreated Scott’s 20-minute drive through the city using high-tech equipment that singled out his car on a succession of surveillance cameras. The video didn’t capture Scott’s final moments, but it helped convince police that his death was a suicide: He wasn’t followed. He wasn’t following anyone. He never picked up a passenger.

So it is all worth it, right?

The investigation offered a riveting demonstration of the most extensive and sophisticated video surveillance system in the United States, and one that is transforming what it means to be in public in Chicago.

In less than a decade and with little opposition, the city has linked thousands of cameras — on street poles and skyscrapers, aboard buses, and in train tunnels — in a network covering most of the city. Officials can watch video live at an emergency command center, police stations, and even some squad cars.

“I don’t think there is another city in the US that has as an extensive and integrated camera network as Chicago has,’’ said Michael Chertoff, the former Homeland Security secretary.

New York has plenty of cameras, but about half of the 4,300 installed along the city’s subways don’t work.

Related: New York's Subway Snapshot

Also see: Around AmeriKa: Breakfast in the Big Apple

Other cities haven’t been able to link networks like Chicago. Baltimore, for example, doesn’t integrate school cameras with its emergency system and it can’t immediately send 911 dispatchers video from the camera nearest to a call, like Chicago can.

Even London — widely considered the world’s most closely watched city with an estimated 500,000 cameras — doesn’t incorporate private cameras in its system as Chicago does.

So I guess you are ahead of them.

While critics decry the network as the biggest of Big Brother invasions of privacy, most Chicago residents accept the cameras as a fact of life in a city that has always had a powerful local government and police force.

Related:

Are they in the jailhouses, too?

And authorities say the system helps them respond to emergencies in a way never before possible. A dispatcher can tell those racing to the scene how big a fire is or what a gunman looks like. If a package is left next to a building for more than a few minutes, a camera can spot it.

Cameras have recorded drug deals, bike thefts, and a holiday bell ringer dipping his hand into a pot outside a downtown store. Footage from a camera on a city bus helped persuade a suspected gang member to plead guilty to shooting a 16-year-old high school student in 2007.

In the death of the school board president, the cameras helped diffuse mounting suspicion and anger. “It really closed that piece of the puzzle,’’ police Superintendent Jody Weis said. “We don’t know what was going through his head, but we definitely know he was alone.’’

The network began less than a decade ago with a dozen cameras installed in Grant Park to deter violence during the annual Taste of Chicago festival.

While authorities would not say exactly how many cameras are included, with 1,500 installed by emergency officials, 6,500 in city schools, and many more at public and private facilities, nobody disputes an estimate of 10,000 and growing. Weis said he would like to add “covert’’ cameras, perhaps as small as matchboxes.

City officials from around the world have visited Chicago to see the system and how effective it is.

Chicago police point to 4,000 arrests made since 2006 with the help of cameras. And, an unpublished study by the Washington-based Urban Institute found crime in one neighborhood — including drug sales, robberies, and weapons offenses — decreased significantly after cameras were installed, said Nancy La Vigne, director of the institute’s Justice Policy Center.

“It does stop people from coming out and acting the fool,’’ observed Larry Scott, who lives in one of the city’s last remaining public housing high-rises.

He said residents rarely complain, unless they get caught for a minor offense or the cameras fail to record a violent attack....

Sig heil.

Police say they usually hear from Chicago residents about the cameras only when they want one installed in their neighborhood or worry one will be removed. Such a claim is supported by an unlikely source: the American Civil Liberties Union, which has criticized the use of cameras as an invasion of privacy and ineffective crime-fighting tool.

“It does appear that people only object when they get a ticket [because of a camera] for running a red light,’’ ACLU spokesman Edwin Yohnka said.

As well they should: Tools of Tyranny: Ticketing Terrorists

Turns out they are AmeriKan motorists!

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Related: From Chicago, joke’s on Hub

Do you see me laughing here?

The Boston Globe's Invisible Stink

Never appeared in my paper:

"2 DCR employees accused of selling marijuana" by John M. Guilfoil, Globe Staff | July 25, 2010

Two Department of Conservation and Recreation summer employees were arrested after allegedly selling marijuana to undercover state troopers on Revere Beach last night, the Suffolk district attorney’s office said.

Alexis David, 17, of Roxbury and Jordan Jones, 21, of Jamaica Plain allegedly sold a small amount of marijuana to plainclothes troopers conducting routine antidrug operations, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

Conley’s office said State Police are engaged in ongoing drug interdiction activity on Revere Beach, which led to the arrest of the two suspects....

Wark said a small amount of marijuana changed hands.

He noted that while possession of less than 1 ounce of the drug has been decriminalized in Massachusetts, the sale of marijuana remains a crime.

No other crimes to solve, 'eh?

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River Ends For Racist New York Teens

Right at the doors of the big house.

"4 teens sentenced in immigrant’s death" by Associated Press | August 26, 2010

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Three teenagers who admitted targeting Hispanics for violence were sentenced yesterday to seven-year prison terms for their roles in the 2008 killing of an Ecuadoran immigrant, and a fourth teen who had met the others on the night of the killing received a six-year sentence.

The killing focused the national debate over immigration on New York’s Suffolk County and prompted an ongoing US Justice Department probe of how the police on Long Island respond to hate crimes....

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Related:
Around AmeriKa: Hate In Empire State?

Buffalo Boogie

FLASHBACK:

"8 shot, 4 killed at Buffalo restaurant; Victim had hoped to celebrate his 1st anniversary" by Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press | August 15, 2010

BUFFALO — Eight people leaving a party at a downtown Buffalo restaurant were shot early yesterday, four of them fatally, including a Texas man who had returned to his hometown to celebrate his first wedding anniversary, police said.

Managers had decided to close the City Grill in the city’s business district after an altercation inside. The victims were leaving at about 2:30 a.m. when a man who had been inside began shooting, police said.

“There were verbal things going on,’’ Chief of Detectives Dennis Richards said. “Management apparently chose to close down and have everybody leave the restaurant. People were leaving when this shooting happened.’’

********

The group was attending a party in advance of a more formal anniversary celebration scheduled for later yesterday, authorities said. The couple, Danyell Mackin, 30, and his wife, Tanisha, married in Texas a year ago and had returned to celebrate with Buffalo-area friends and family, authorities said. Tanisha Mackin was not hurt.

“An occasion that should have been a joyous one, a happy one, turned tragic,’’ Mayor Byron Brown said near the restaurant, a popular stop for office workers during the week and people attending theater and sporting events at night....

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Well, I won't be going to Buffalo anytime soon.

Related:
Charges dropped in Buffalo shooting that killed 4

Wrong man arrested in Buffalo killings

Yeah, they don't know who it was.


Related:
Shuffling Off to Buffalo

Looks like they found him:


"Suspected N.Y. shooter asserts innocence" by Associated Press | August 27, 2010

BUFFALO — The high school dropout accused of fatally shooting four people outside a downtown bar insists he has never fired a gun in his life, despite past weapons charges, his lawyer said yesterday.

Riccardo McCray, looking solemn and surrounded by guards, pleaded not guilty to four counts of second-degree murder, a day after he surrendered to authorities at a local TV station.

Relatives and friends had heard police were looking for him and asked a community activist to persuade him to turn himself in rather than run, said the activist, Darnell Jackson.

McCray, 23, is accused of opening fire outside the City Grill early Aug. 14. Four people were killed and four wounded.

Prosecutor James Bargnesi said the case was headed to a grand jury. “We expect this to be a continually evolving investigation,’’ he said.

McCray, who was in special-education programs before quitting school, appeared shocked that anyone believes he is the gunman, his lawyer said.

“He comes across as very soft-spoken, easygoing, with a kind of deer-in-the headlights appearance,’’ attorney Terrence McKelvey said. “He even went so far as to say, ‘Look, I’ll take a lie detector test. I’ve never shot a gun in my life.’ ’’

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Paying a Mayor's Ransom

About $36 million a percentage point, right?

"Bloomberg campaign for mayor cost $109m" by Sara Kugler Frazier, Associated Press | July 16, 2010

NEW YORK — All the bills are paid in the most expensive self-financed bid for office in US history — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s campaign for a third term — and they total $109.2 million.

The billionaire mayor, who outspent his Democratic opponent by more than 11 times....

And only won by three points.

Bloomberg, who founded the financial information company that bears his name, has a fortune estimated by Forbes magazine at $18 billion. He is ranked as the wealthiest person in New York City and the 23rd richest in the world.

He did not take donations or public money and was permitted to spend freely on his campaign.

Dave Levinthal at the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics, said the mayor’s spending total is “a remarkable number.’’

“This simply has not happened at any level of government,’’ he added.

Bloomberg’s reign at the top may be short-lived: In California, former eBay chief Meg Whitman has spent $90 million of her own money on her Republican campaign for governor and says she is willing to spend $150 million.

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Here is where $1 million went:

"GOP operative accused of stealing $1m" by Associated Press | June 15, 2010

NEW YORK — A Republican operative was indicted yesterday on charges that he exploited his political reputation to swindle $1.1 million from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, prosecutors said.

John Haggerty duped Bloomberg and his political advisers into giving the money to the state Independence Party to help with ballot security during the mayor’s campaign for a third term, said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

Haggerty then laundered the money and used it for personal expenses in the months after the election, including the purchase of a house, Vance said....

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Related: Former NYC inspector sentenced for bribery

I love politics, don't you?

Clinic Makes N.Y. State Senator Healthy

"Federal authorities investigate N.Y. clinic" by Associated Press | April 22, 2010

NEW YORK — Federal authorities carted away campaign posters and cardboard boxes yesterday from a government-funded clinic run by the state Senate majority leader a day after New York’s attorney general accused him of siphoning $14 million from it.

Investigators were looking for evidence to support possible money laundering, mail fraud, and tax fraud charges against Senator Pedro Espada Jr., a law enforcement official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation had not been completed.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo confirmed that his office is assisting federal prosecutors in Brooklyn in a criminal probe against Espada.

His chief of staff, Steven Cohen, said potential charges against the senator could include fraud, theft of government funds, and conspiracy.

About a dozen FBI and IRS agents and investigators from Cuomo’s office were at the Soundview Healthcare Network in the Bronx, where a canopy above the front door lists Espada as its president and chief executive.

Agents used bolt cutters to open an 8-foot-tall, 25-foot-long storage container behind the building and removed Espada campaign posters and other items.

Espada, a Bronx Democrat, called the raids “a media circus, a media show’’ and said the accusations against him are “false and unfounded.’’

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Also see:
Around AmeriKa: Heading Up to Harlem

It just goes to show you CORRUPTION comes in ALL COLORS!

That's the Way the City Hall Crumbles

Where has all the tax loot gone?

"Citing decay, New York starts a fight to renovate City Hall" by Sara Kugler Frazier, Associated Press | July 19, 2010

NEW YORK — Officials found widespread failings and alarming decay: cracks through the trusses that support the roof, a rotting basement floor, wiring that was known to spark, and dangerously sagging ceilings.

“It’s gotten to the point where it’s really bad,’’ said Philip J. Kelly, the city official overseeing the project. “It has to be done. It’s amazing no one’s been hurt or there hasn’t been a fire.’’

Recently, just before repairs were to begin in a City Council hearing room, a 10-foot-long, 6-inch-wide piece of plaster molding broke away from the wall and crashed to the floor.

Sort of a sign from above.

The building was once the home of executive, legislative, and judicial operations — including a criminal court and jail — but it is now primarily occupied by the offices of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the City Council, and supporting operations for both....

When workers first considered the renovation project, the cost was estimated at $65 million. But officials said the expense has shot up to $106 million as crews found more problems when they ripped into walls and ceilings....

The building will get more efficient lighting, heating and cooling controlled by a computerized building-management system, water fixtures and lighting that are activated by sensors, and solar panels on the roof....

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Diplomatic Embassies Enjoy Property Tax Immunity

I suppose it is only fair; they are GUESTS in this country, right?

"Nations owe no NYC property tax, court says" by Associated Press | August 18, 2010

NEW YORK — The decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan handed a victory to the governments of India and Mongolia, which had fought the city’s demands that they pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes for their Manhattan embassy buildings.

The three-judge panel said the State Department acted within its power in June 2009 when it established an exemption from taxes on property owned by foreign governments and used to house staff for permanent missions to the United Nations, the Organization of American States, or consular posts.

The Foreign Missions Act allows the State Department to issue tax exemptions that preempt state and municipal tax laws, the appeals court said....

Did I ever just catch a whiff of federal fascism.

The State Department issued its tax exemptions while arguing that the United States would be subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes for its diplomatic properties in foreign countries if the exemptions were not allowed....

Oh.

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Hollywood Hollers Cut in New York City

"NYC seeks $300 permit fee for filming" by Associated Press | April 28, 2010

NEW YORK — For the first time ever, television and film productions that come from all over the world to shoot in the city will have to pay for the City Hall permits that have always been free, a major change in policy that Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration attributes to budget woes.

Related: Hollywood Helps Mass. Workers

Yeah, Massachusetts shovels tax loot at them.

Senior Bloomberg administration officials summoned representatives from Hollywood studios, advertising, and labor unions yesterday to tell them about the proposed $300 fee for films, commercials, music videos, and television series.

To be sure, $300 is a barely noticeable budget line in most multimillion-dollar television and screen projects, and most major cities — including Los Angeles, New York’s major film competitor — already charge permit fees. But the change is an about-face in policy for a city that has long prided itself on uniquely providing free permits and other perks to lure projects to shoot in the iconic Big Apple.

Permits have been free since the city established a film office in 1966.

“At this stage with these unprecedented budget cuts, we have no other choice,’’ said Katherine Oliver, commissioner of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting. “We think this is the best way to go in this environment to address the cuts we are facing.’’

The fee probably would raise less than $1 million a year, but still significant to the film and television office’s relatively small $2 million budget. The city’s budget is about $60 billion.

The charge would be required once for every movie, commercial, or music video shoot.

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Artists Gone Wild!

"NYC seeks limits on art vendors in city’s most popular parks; Sidewalks getting too crowded, says the mayor" by Sara Kugler, Associated Press | April 18, 2010

NEW YORK — Manhattan’s most famous parks are lined with artists selling their sculptures, paintings, and photographs — often of quintessential New York scenes — but city officials say the vendors have grown out of control and are trying to force many of them off the streets.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration wants to shrink the vendor population by up to 80 percent in some areas — dramatically altering a colorful part of the cityscape that has for decades served as an outdoor gallery popular among tourists in a city known worldwide for its arts.

“If they do this, it will be war in the city because so many people will lose money and a place to show their work,’’ said Alex Basansky, a photographer who sells his prints of city scenes at the southeast entrance of Central Park.

The regulations would also severely limit the number of vendors in parts of Central Park, plus all of Union Square and Battery Park in downtown Manhattan and the High Line Park, a new elevated park along Manhattan’s far West Side.

The Bloomberg administration says street art has outgrown its space in the city’s most popular parks, dominating sidewalks and interfering with pedestrian traffic....

In anticipation of the fight, vendors in the parks are displaying yellow signs saying “Stop Harassing the Artists’’ and “Artist Power.’’

One artist in Union Square created a mock old-West style poster, with a photo of Bloomberg, that read “Wanted: Killer of NYC Artists’ Rights.’’

Who cares?

There are "terrorists" out there.

--more--"

New York City Students Take to the Streets

"NYC students walk to save free rides" by Associated Press | June 12, 2010

NEW YORK — About 1,000 New York City high school students chanted “This is what democracy looks like!’’ and waved homemade signs and banners yesterday as they marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest a plan to eliminate their free transit passes.

They couldn't protest the wars, huh?

What selfish little s***s!

The students walked out of classrooms all over the city at noon and converged at City Hall Park for a rally with elected officials and transit union members....

The protest comes a day after Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a stepped-up effort to fight truancy. Bloomberg said yesterday that the students should have stayed in class.

That is what I was told back in February 2003 when the college kids planned a walk out.

“If I were them, I’d just think long and hard someday,’’ he said. “If I didn’t pass a test, I’d always go back and wonder, ‘Was it that afternoon when I was trying to be cute and picketing was better than being in class?’ ’’

Oh, gimme a break! If they failed it wasn't because they missed one class!

Some 500,000 city students receive free or reduced fares to get to and from school.

Too bad the kids are not a bank on Wall Street or a war-profiteering defense contractor.

The MTA has proposed ending the perk as part of its effort to close an $800 million budget gap.

Why must the KIDS PAY for something they had NO HAND IN, huh?

Without the free passes, families would be forced to buy monthly MetroCards at a cost of about $1,000 a year per child.

WOW!!

A spokesman for the Department of Education said that any disciplinary action the students might face for cutting class would be up to their principals.

Conform -- or else!

--more--"

So let's hop on the bus, Gus!

"NYC moves to silence sightseeing buses" by Associated Press | April 30, 2010

NEW YORK — Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who typically says “so what’’ to most complaints about New York, allowed recently that....

--more--"

Related
: NYC bus drivers take months off when spat upon
I'd rather walk anyway, kiddo!

New York City Shootouts

"Man dies, 2 officers hurt in NYC gunfight" by Associated Press | August 9, 2010

NEW YORK — An argument at a block party escalated into gunfire, killing one man and wounding several others, including a police officer hit by a colleague, authorities said.

The gunfire erupted at about 3 a.m. yesterday in upper Manhattan, where two men had been arguing, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said....

Five officers responded to the scene, and the gunman fired at them, Kelly said. Four of the five officers fired back in a barrage of more than three dozen shots. The gunman was hit multiple times and hospitalized in critical but stable condition, police said.

Two of the officers were shot. Officer Michael Tedeschi was hit in the chest, but the bullet, which came from another officer’s gun, struck his bullet-resistant vest.

When asked how one officer could have ended up in another’s line of fire, Paul Browne, police spokesman, attributed it to the confusion of the event....

Or they are just blasting away not knowing who they are shooting at.

--more--"

Related:

"An appeals court tossed out the first federal death sentence given in New York in five decades yesterday, finding that prosecutors improperly advised a jury after it convicted a man of killing two undercover police detectives who were posing as gun buyers....

--more--"

Also see
: 2 NYC policemen killed in car crash

New York's Subway Snapshot

"NYC mayor studies London transit security" by Associated Press | May 12, 2010

LONDON — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg visited Britain’s capital in a fact-finding mission yesterday less than two weeks after the thwarted Times Square bombing....

Bloomberg wants to ramp up the security camera network in New York City’s subways to mimic that in London’s underground train system. London authorities say the city’s train stations are watched by more than 12,000 cameras, and in a few years they aim to install a few thousand more. Officials say the additions would mean every person’s face would be recorded when they enter the subway system.

New York City has far fewer such cameras — about 4,000 along its subways — and Bloomberg has complained that half of them don’t work. Police, instead, have had to rely on regular patrols and random bag searches.

“Crime rates in both the subway systems in London and New York City are as low as you can get, but there’s always the threat of terrorism,’’ Bloomberg told reporters....

Related: Prop 101: The "Terrorism" Business

London has one of the world’s highest concentrations of surveillance cameras, with a ring of them encircling the central district. The network inspired a 3,000-camera network being installed in lower Manhattan and midtown New York.

--more--"

Massachusetts Scores in New York

"5 from Mass., N.Y. facing charges of prostitution" by Caitlin Castello, Globe Correspondent | April 2, 2010

Apartments in Newton, Watertown, Wellesley, and Somerville were used as brothels in an interstate prostitution ring in which five individuals from Massachusetts and New York were arrested, the US Justice Department said yesterday.

Dong Kai Chen, 41, Yu En Jin, 26, and Jing Liang Chen, 30, all of Quincy, along with Xiang Hua Zhang, 27, and Hong Wei, 37, both of Flushing, N.Y., were each charged with one count of conspiracy to transport and entice women to travel for the purpose of prostitution.

The were additionally charged with one count of inducing travel to engage in prostitution, one count of sex trafficking by force or coercion, and two counts of forced labor, harboring or concealing aliens, and seven counts of interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

Women were lured by advertisements in newspapers across the country asking for Asian women to work as prostitutes, according to law enforcement authorities.

Also see: No Mark Down on My Boston Globe

The women usually arrived at South Station and then were transported to various apartments across Massachusetts, where they worked as prostitutes, the authorities said.

In some cases, the women were in the United States illegally.

Related:

"Women from the former Soviet Union and China are still being trafficked across the border with Egypt into Israel for forced prostitution by organized criminal groups"

Who is bringing them in?

“Human trafficking is a widespread crime that exists in both urban and suburban communities, as today’s arrests demonstrate,’’ Bruce Foucart, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said in a statement.

Don Kai Chen’s arraignment is set for April 12. Jing Liang Chen is expected to be arraigned on April 12. Arraignment has not been set for the other suspects.

--more--"

Feeling Frisky in New York City

"N.Y. scraps list of those only frisked" by Associated Press | July 17, 2010

NEW YORK — Governor David Paterson signed legislation yesterday that eliminates a database of thousands of people stopped and frisked by New York City police without facing charges, calling the practice “not a policy for a democracy.’’

Paterson signed the law over vehement objections from New York City’s mayor and police commissioner, who said the city was losing a key crime-fighting tool....

Be sure to sig heil when they stop you.

Critics have said information from such stops, mainly of blacks and Latinos who are innocent, can lead to future police suspicion and surveillance. Police say the database helped to solve crimes, including antigay and anti-Hispanic attacks.

“Albany has robbed us of a great crime-fighting tool, one that saved lives,’’ Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. “Without it, there will be, inevitably, killers and other criminals who won’t be captured as quickly, or perhaps ever.’’

Paterson said he had met with Kelly and spoken to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, but had not been persuaded that the database protects the city from crime.

“Civil justice, and I think common sense, would suggest that those who are questioned and not even accused of crimes be protected from any further stigma or suspicion,’’ Paterson said.

--more--"

Also see:
NYC man survives headfirst fall onto spike

Eating champ leaves NY jail after hot dog fracas

NYC anglophiles anxiously await queen

Statue of Liberty to get new staircase to improve safety

EMT accused of ignoring dying NYC woman is killed

Threat grounds flight to NYC

Judge says Paterson gave faulty testimony

The Devil's Classroom

Isn't that what they say about idle hands?

"NYC to stop paying idle teachers" by Associated Press | April 16, 2010

NEW YORK — Hundreds of New York City teachers who are paid full salaries to do nothing while they await disciplinary hearings will be released from the city’s “rubber rooms’’ this fall, officials announced yesterday.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the teachers union announced a deal to reassign most of the teachers to administrative or non-classroom work while their cases are pending.

About 650 educators, more than 500 of them teachers, are in the teacher-reassignment centers, costing the city tens of millions of dollars a year, including $30 million in salaries, officials said.

It sounds like a concentration camp!

The teachers generally spend months or years in the so-called rubber rooms playing Scrabble, reading, or surfing the Internet while still collecting full salaries of $70,000 a year or more. The nickname refers to the padded cells of asylums, and teachers have said the name is fitting, since some of the inhabitants can become unstable.

And then they are going to send them into a classroom?

The city has blamed union rules that make it difficult to fire teachers, but some teachers assigned to rubber rooms say they have been singled out because they blew the whistle on a principal who was fudging test scores.

Related: Boston Globe Summer School: Taking the Test

Orlando Ramos, who spent seven months in a rubber room in 2004-05, said he was ecstatic to hear they would be closing. “The rubber room has been the wrong answer for so long.’’

Ramos, who is now a middle school principal in San Jose, was an assistant principal in East Harlem when he was accused of lying at a hearing on whether to suspend a student. Ramos denied the allegation but quit before his case was resolved and moved to California.

--more--"

Nanny Martinez

"Overtime pay for nannies backed in N.Y." by Associated Press | June 4, 2010

ALBANY, N.Y. — Advocates say that if Governor David Paterson signs the measures, New York will become the first state establishing those rights for household workers, most of whom are women and immigrants....

Related:
Illegals Already Have Amnesty

Senator Diane Savino, Democrat of Staten Island, said the legislation would not apply to casual laborers like baby sitters and occasional house cleaners....

That means you, illegal.


Domestic Workers United, an advocacy group, estimated there are 200,000 such workers in New York City alone. The group said it found one-third reported verbal or physical abuse by employers, while two-thirds said they never received overtime pay.

I told you that is why the rich like the illegals that make life so enjoyable for them.

Nothing like having a slave class that can't complain and keeps Americans out of work.

---more--"

Quick Dip in the Hudson

"Mother allegedly threw girl in river" by Associated Press | May 15, 2010

NEW YORK — An unhappy mother hurled her toddler daughter into the chilly Hudson River and then jumped in herself in an apparent murder-suicide attempt intended to spite her husband, prosecutors said yesterday.

Dispirited after a few years of moving around the United States because of her husband’s job, Devi Silvia told relatives she wanted to go back to her native India with her 19-month old daughter shortly before the river plunge Tuesday, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Robert Hettleman said.

Later, “she told us that she was sad and lonely and angry at her husband, and that she did this horrific act on purpose,’’ he said as she was arraigned on attempted murder and other charges. Silvia, 33, didn’t enter a plea and is being held without bail at least until a June 15 court date. Hettleman said the child was in stable condition yesterday.

I don't think she will be going back to India anytime soon.


--more--"

Also see: Mother’s Day shooting leaves 2 Bronx teens dead, woman injured

Staten Island House Party

"House fire investigated as murder-suicide" by Associated Press | July 23, 2010

NEW YORK — The deaths of a mother and four children in a torched New York City apartment were being investigated yesterday as a possible murder-suicide committed by one of the children, a troubled teenager with a history of setting fires, police said.

Two young girls whose badly burned bodies were found in a front room of the apartment along with their mother and 2-year-old brother had slit throats, New York Police spokesman Paul Browne said.

The body of an older brother, 14-year-old C.J. Jones, was found slumped over a bed in a back bedroom, his throat also slit. A straight razor was discovered underneath his body, Browne said.

Police were investigating the possibility that the teen may have killed his mother and siblings — ages 2 to 10 — set the house ablaze, and killed himself, Browne said.

--more--"

"Mystery deepens in blaze that killed 5" by Associated Press | July 27, 2010

NEW YORK — A single mother and her teenage son apparently ingested some type of drug before dying in a suspected murder-suicide and arson that claimed the lives of three other children in their apartment, two law enforcement officials said yesterday....

Firefighters responding early Thursday at the family’s Staten Island home found the charred bodies of Leisa Jones and two daughters, ages 7 and 10, in a front room, and that of her 14-year-old son, C.J., slumped over a bed in a back bedroom. A 2-year-old son pulled out alive died later at the hospital of smoke inhalation.

--more--"

Why no mention of the slit throats?

Emipre State Building Suicide

Why?

"NYC suicide jumper was Yale junior; Texan leapt from iconic skyscraper" by Associated Press | April 1, 2010

NEW YORK — A Yale University junior left a suicide note in his dorm room before heading to New York, where he apparently plunged to his death by jumping from the Empire State Building, police said yesterday.

Cameron Dabaghi, 21, from Austin, Texas, jumped from the 86th floor observation deck Tuesday during evening rush hour. His note said he was sorry and he would be jumping from either the George Washington Bridge over the Hudson River in upper Manhattan, or the Empire State building, police said.

There were seven other people on the observation deck at the time, shortly before 6:30 p.m., and one person tried to talk to Dabaghi as he climbed over the barrier, but could not stop him.

He was a student in Berkeley College, majoring in East Asian studies....

The Empire State Building is the third-tallest building in the United States. More than 30 people have committed suicide at the building since it opened in 1931....

Big Ape fell, too.

--more--"

Girl on a Ledge

Look out!

"US ambassador’s daughter dies in NYC fall" by Associated Press | August 28, 2010

NEW YORK — A 17-year-old girl whose father is the US ambassador to Thailand slipped off her shoes and stepped out onto the ledge of a Manhattan high-rise apartment with a camera before plummeting more than 20 stories to her death, police said.

Nicole John fell about 4:15 a.m., apparently from the top floor of the 25-story Herald Towers, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. She was found on a third-floor ledge with severe trauma to her body after people across the street saw her fall.

Her death was believed to be an accident. John was believed to have been drinking....

John had a fake ID from Brazil that gave her age as 23 or 24....

Police believe the apartment might have been cleaned up by the time investigators arrived...

--more--"

Lost and Found in New York

A North Reading woman missing for nearly a week from her Brooklyn, N.Y., apartment returned home safely yesterday afternoon, her family said.

Brianna Zani, 21, left her Bushwick neighborhood residence on March 16 after she abruptly stopped taking an experimental antidepressant called Levomilnacipran, her family said yesterday....

On March 16, Zani left her apartment without her cellphone, wallet, or subway pass. Disoriented, she wandered around Brooklyn for two days before police found her, her father said.

Zani’s parents arrived in New York on Wednesday and got the call that she was safe at a hospital. But minutes before they arrived, she had wandered away.

As her parents arrived in New York, her friends and other family members took to the Web, gathering support on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. By yesterday, more than 1,300 people had joined a Facebook group called “Find Brianna Zani,’’ and several more were following a Twitter account, a website, and a blog.

Will Zani said his daughter did not know people were looking for her and that she was sorry “to cause such a fuss.’’

Zani has battled depression and may suffer from bipolar disorder, her father said.

Dr. Gary Sachs, founder and co-director of the Bipolar Clinic and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, said patients who abruptly stop taking these kinds of medications can suffer radical and dangerous effects....

That's usually where the crazed gunmen come from!

“It’s the same as flying on an airplane or driving home from work — there’s a certain amount of risk that we take, and we should take it with our eyes open.’’

Or not at all.

--more--"

Look What Was Left on the Church Steps

"Police seek couple who left toddler in NYC church" by Colleen Long, Associated Press | April 22, 2010

NEW YORK — Eleanor Black, 29, was identified through surveillance footage at the cathedral, police said yesterday. She and William Scott, 32, were believed to have been the last two people with Nathaniel Fons, and they were also suspected of being involved in the counterfeiting operation in Florida where his mother was charged....

Flagler County authorities in Florida issued a missing child alert for Nathaniel on Sunday after his mother, Erin Comeau, 26, was arrested on charges of operating a counterfeit money operation.

--more--"

Related
: Grandparents hope to take boy home

Kin wait for custody of deserted boy

"Boy abandoned in NYC to return to Fla." by Associated Press | April 28, 2010

NEW YORK — A 3-year-old boy abandoned at St. Patrick’s Cathedral will return to Florida but must remain in the care of child welfare officials because the case needs further investigation, a family court judge in New York City ruled yesterday.

Nathaniel Fons’s paternal grandparents had traveled to New York last week in the hope of taking their grandson home. Nathaniel has been in foster care in New York since he was found last Tuesday by security guards at the cathedral with a note in his hand bearing the name and number of a Florida detective.

His mother, Erin Comeau, was arrested in Flagler County, Fla., on counterfeit charges and said her friends had been traveling with Nathaniel. They are suspected of ditching him at the famed Fifth Avenue landmark before skipping town.

Nathaniel’s father is also in jail on separate charges. Comeau initially said she was comfortable with the paternal grandparents, Donald and Frieda Fons, caring for Nathaniel, but changed her mind and would now rather have him placed with her mother, who lives in Port Deposit, Md.

Caseworkers with the Administration for Children’s Services in New York said Nathaniel didn’t have any memories of the couple and didn’t seem particularly desperate to be with them.

I can't imagine why.

--more--"

I'm From Jersey

Are you from Jersey?

"Thousands protest proposed state cuts

TRENTON — An estimated 25,000 people gathered yesterday near the New Jersey State House to protest Governor Chris Christie’s proposed budget cuts. State Police reported few problems despite the crowd, believed to be one of the largest ever to protest in state history. Christie has called for workers to accept wage freezes, and he has pushed for them to contribute toward their health benefits.

--more--"

Related
: N.J. education chief fired over grant gaffe

Boston Globe Says Bye-Bye to Biomass

But not for good....

"The bloom is off the biomass

IS THERE any better symbol of energy independence than a Berkshire oak replacing oil from Saudi Arabia? Apparently, there is.

Even though burnt wood produces carbon dioxide, policy makers have long insisted that it should be considered a renewable alternative to fossil fuels because trees are carbon neutral — after some are cut down to burn, the new growth that replaces them absorbs CO2. On that ground, the state has sought to make “biomass’’ a priority for its energy future. But it’s now reconsidering, and probably with good reason.

A new study by a Massachusetts environmental think tank casts some doubt on the benefits of biomass. It spells out, in a variety of scenarios, just how long it would take for the regrowth to offset both the carbon emitted by a burned tree and the loss of that tree as a carbon absorber.

The payback time can be as short as five years if the wood-burning plant is simply used for heat and replaces an oil-fired facility. But if the wood is replacing an electric generator fueled by natural gas, the first global-warming dividends will not come for 90 years....

Of course, curbing global warming is just one reason to favor wood energy as an alternative to fossil fuels....

So they are not really against it; they are just pretending.

Harvesting trees runs no risk of offshore oil spills or coal-mining disasters.

Nothing like exploiting any crisis for agenda-pushing purposes.

The jobs in supplying and running wood-burning plants would all be local.

Is it worth the cost of your health?

Backers of wood-burning energy plants and the author of the study disagree on whether the state has enough wood from storm damage, landscaping, building-site clearing, mill waste, and construction debris to supply much of the fuel for wood facilities.

What, all that debris wood with CHEMICALS in it?

You are going to BURN THAT up into the AIR?

Wood from such sources has a much lower carbon profile, since it is no longer absorbing carbon dioxide and, if burned in a field or left to rot, would emit it anyway....

Yeah, you would be getting sick anyway!

--more--"

Related: Earth Day: Biomass Mess in Massachusetts

The Boston Globe is one every day.

FLASHBACK:

"Bay State rethinking wood power; Worse for climate than coal, study says" by Beth Daley, Globe Staff | June 11, 2010

Burning wood to generate electricity can be worse for global warming than burning coal, according to a Massachusetts-sponsored study released yesterday. That surprising conclusion immediately prompted state officials to reconsider substantial financial incentives provided to wood-burning plants.

Yes, ANYTIME the AGENDA is SHOWN for the S*** it is the great propagators of the Boston Globe are always surprised. Ever notice it is happening to them more and more these days, as if there are too many lies to be covered and concealed?


Related: April Fools Day

Global Warming Lie Destroying Global Government Credibility

Corn Ethanol can cause more greenhouse pollution than gasoline

Biofuel Fart Escapes at U.N.

And they don't even say excuse me?

The six-month study by the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences in Plymouth comes amid controversy over the proposed construction of two large wood-burning power plants in Western Massachusetts....

The Manomet study shows that wood burning releases more heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere per unit of energy than oil, coal, or natural gas....

So ONCE AGAIN you have been led down the primrose path by politicians and papers, America -- and for WHAT?

So YOU can have YOUR TAX MONEY LOOTED to fund some DESTRUCTIVE INTEREST based on a LIE?

Matt Wolfe of Madera Energy Inc., which is proposing a wood-burning power plant in Greenfield, said the study incorrectly assumes whole trees would be cut to fuel the power plants.

Incorrect assumptions, huh? Smells like a newspaper to me.

And why would you want to locate a business in a town that will hate you, Matt?

Rather, he said, most wood for his plant would come from tree tops and branches left over from logging operations or from storm damage, land clearing for new development, or tree-trimming operations....

Right; however, that would NOT BE ANYWHERE NEAR ENOUGH FUEL to power what you are proposing, liar.

Besides, WE HAVE HEARD SO MANY PROMISES from STATE and INDUSTRY only to have been LIED TO and DECEIVED!

The Manomet Center analysis, however, concludes that there is only a small amount of such leftover wood, and that whole trees will have to be taken to fuel Massachusetts wood-burning power plants.

NOTHING WE DO NOT ALREADY KNOW!

The "curse" of an INFORMED CITIZENRY (on this issue, at least)!!!!!

The study indicates wood burning still may make sense in certain cases. For example, heating buildings with wood is more efficient than wood-burning power plants....

Translation: A WOOD STOVE or a FIREPLACE is FINE!

But I'm sure YOU will have to PAY some sort of CARBON TAX on that fire, folks.

Yeah, it is INDUSTRY and GOVERNMENT that are the ENVIRONMENTAL RAPISTS -- and here they are coming to $AVE YOU from the problem!!!!

Many, but not all, types of wood burning create a “carbon debt’’ that growing forests gradually repay by reabsorbing gases before a “carbon dividend’’ begins....

$ee how the AGENDA-PU$HING LINGO i$ already being DEPLOYED!!!!

See: Banks Will Save the World From Global Warming

Hey, they have done such a great job with everything they have touched so far.

But when two large wood-burning (also called biomass) plants were proposed a few years later, in Russell and the one in Greenfield, a large and vocal group of residents opposed them, asserting they would be fueled by cutting trees on public and private lands across Massachusetts....

I'm surprised the GLOBE MISSED the VOTE! They seem to devote so much print to politics. How could they miss this one?

"Greenfield voters say 'no' to effluent sale

GREENFIELD -- Thirty-five percent of the town's registered voters came out Tuesday to tell town officials they don't want Greenfield to sell its treated wastewater to a man who wants to build a 47-megawatt biomass wood-burning power plant on Butternut Street.

Yup, JUST AROUND the CORNER from me.

Three earlier Town Council votes that included selling treated wastewater to Matthew Wolfe of Madera Energy Inc., allowing the mayor to enter into a 20-year contract with Wolfe and leasing the power plant space in the town's wastewater treatment plant were each defeated by a 6-1 margin."

That's 86% AGAINST burning down our oxygen-giving trees for fuel, folks.

Darn near UNANIMOUS, isn't it?

Related: Town Meeting in Massachusetts

The Globe only report votes that go their agenda-pushing way?

The study counters earlier estimates showing there is plenty of wood available for wood-burning power plants in the state, saying there would not be enough sustainably harvested wood to fuel even one large wood-burning plant....

Translation: The self-serving s***s LIED!

Jana S. Chicoine, who has led the fight against the Russell plant, said she was pleased at the findings, calling the study a “policy earthquake. We always made the case this was not a NIMBY issue but a policy failure and now we have the state saying exactly the same thing,’’ she said.

Seeing as GOVERNMENT LIES are told ALL the TIME I barely notice the shaking these days. I would be surprised if it stopped.

John Hagan, president of the Manomet Center, said the report leaves policy makers with key questions.

“Do you want to wait 10, 20, 30 years just to get to the point [wood burning] is as good as coal? That is a real social question: Do we as a society want to make the climate worse before it gets better?’’

Through POLLUTION, not the fat-misters lie.

--more--"

Related: Earth Day: King of the Forest in Massachusetts

Oh, so the $TATE is the WORST OFFENDER of the whole CLEAR-CUTTING LOT, huh?

Yeah, THEY will PROTECT the FORE
$T$, right!

Earth Day: Taking a Chainsaw to the Environmental Movement

And there goes THEIR CREDIBILITY with the WHINE of the SAW!!!!

TIMBER!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, the agenda-pushing Globe is in
FAVOR of biomess -- or was.

More mess:

"State suspends mandate for wider use of biofuels; Cost and complexity cited; suppliers upset" by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | July 2, 2010

Massachusetts energy officials have suspended a requirement, scheduled to take effect yesterday, that oil retailers blend biofuel into the diesel and home heating oil they sell.

The decision, delivered Wednesday in a notice from the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, sparked an outcry from biofuel makers, distributors, and sellers, who said their businesses will suffer without the state mandate....

Then they SHOULD NOT BE in BUSINESS in a FREE MARKET ECONOMY!!

--more--"

Is there a clearer example of state agenda-pushing?


"Start-up that’s planning to convert fleet vehicles to hybrids gets $1.8m " by Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff | July 15, 2010

A Somerville start-up, founded by an MIT lecturer and two alumni, has raised $1.8 million to convert fleet vehicles that run on fossil fuels into electric hybrids.

Part of that financing comes from the Massachusetts Green Energy Fund, a private venture group that awarded $300,000 this week to the company, XL Hybrids Inc....

Related:
VenCap Vroom-Vroom

Now you know why your pensions never came back and the kid's tuition went up.


The fund gets much of its money from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, a state-funded authority that was created to spur job growth and economic development in the clean-energy sector.

Then how come we have not had either?!

Is that where you wanted your tax dollars going when schools are being shut and teachers, cops, and firefighters laid off?

--more--"

I gave you all you needed, readers.


And it is almost time to say goodbye to the Boston Globe:

"Climate panel needs new management, report says; Recent errors prompt call for reform" by Seth Borenstein, Associated Press | August 31, 2010

WASHINGTON — Last year, a batch of errors embarrassed the authors of the climate report.

Translation: they were exposed for the liars they are!

Among the most prominent were misleading statements about glaciers in the Himalayas.

We call them LIES here!

The Intergovernmental Panel incorrectly said they were melting faster than others and that they would disappear by 2035, hundreds of years earlier than other information suggests.

“Those errors did dent the credibility of the process, no question about it,’’ said former Princeton University president Harold Shapiro, who led the review of the Intergovernmental Panel.

How about SHATTERED IT because I NO LONGER believe a THING these LIARS SAY -- especially after the LAST TWO BRUTAL WINTERS and LAST YEAR'S MISSING SUMMER!

The InterAcademy Council said the climate change group overall has done a good job....

Yeah, of LYING to the WORLD!!

Climate-change science took a parade of public hits last winter, starting with the release of hacked e-mails from a British climate center. Then, on top of that, the winter seemed unusually cold in many places, undercutting belief in global warming.

Yeah, it just SEEMED THAT WAY!

And isn't SCIENCE NOT supposed to be BASED on FAITH?!!

The mood seems different now.

Yeah, the agenda-pushers have had nine months to try and scrub your brain of its memories.

Several outside reports — including those by the British, Dutch, and American governments — have upheld the chief scientific finding of the climate panel: that global warming is man-made and incontrovertible. This year is on target to be the hottest on record with a number of extreme weather events.

I am TIRED of AGENDA-PUSHING BULLSHIT!!!

Really TIRED OF IT!!!!!!!!!

Seeing as the Globe is going to start charging for articles I failed to log, this relationship is near its end.

Still, Shapiro said the way the report expressed confidence in scientific findings was incomplete and at times even misleading.

Lies.

In the panel’s first report, which addresses the physical causes of global warming, scientists may have underestimated how confident they were in their conclusions, Shapiro said.

Underestimated their overconfidence?

WTF kind of JOURNALISM is this?

In the second report, about effects on daily life, in at least one instance they may have overestimated the scientific backing for their conclusions, he suggested.

Translation: They LIED, LIED, LIED to YOU, world!!

--more--"

Changing the promoter of the turd isn't going to lessen the stink, MSM!!