Academy Award-winning actor and activist George Clooney met privately Monday night with President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to urge the new administration's action on the crisis in the Darfur region of the Sudan.
Mr. Clooney told reporters that Mr. Obama said once a foreign policy review is completed, he would appoint a "full-time, high-level envoy" to the region to report directly to the White House.
"The administration has assured me that Darfur is one of a small handful of foreign-policy reviews being undertaken at the [most senior] level," Mr. Clooney said.
He said the envoy would be "a huge policy step" since, in many cases, envoys have only been in the region "when the fire starts."
The actor, who made a documentary highlighting the Darfur conflict and has been outspoken on the issue, said it was "nice to hear" that the region is a priority for the Obama White House.
"There was some concern that this could fall off the radar," he said. "There's quite a few other things [the administration is tackling], but they assured me this is high on their agenda."
He also delivered to Mr. Obama 250,000 postcards from Americans who want the new president to help end the crisis in Darfur.
A fund of hedge funds run by two members of Vice President Joe Biden's family was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud.
The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens' Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund. Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to investors and also invested about $2.7 million of their own money in the fund, according to a lawyer for Paradigm. Paradigm Global Advisors is owned through a holding company by the vice president's son, Hunter, and Joe Biden's brother, James.
The fund has offered to turn over the $2.7 million investment it received from Mr. Stanford's firm in 2007 to a court-appointed receiver in the SEC's civil fraud case involving Mr. Stanford, according to Paradigm's attorney, Marc X. LoPresti. The fund terminated its relationship with Mr. Stanford's companies after the SEC filed civil charges against them last week, Mr. LoPresti said.
Mr. LoPresti, who represents Hunter Biden and James Biden, as well as Paradigm, said he didn't know which Stanford entity invested the roughly $2.7 million. He said the Bidens never met or communicated with Mr. Stanford.
"There is no connection between the Bidens and Allen Stanford or Stanford period, full stop," the attorney said. "There never was any meeting between any member of the Biden family, no phone calls, zero correspondence."
The vice president's office had no comment. A spokesman for Mr. Stanford referred calls to the SEC. A spokesman for the agency declined to comment.
The SEC accused Mr. Stanford of an $8 billion fraud centered on certificates of deposit sold by his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank. Mr. Stanford made large donations to an array of elected officials in recent years and provided some with trips to the Caribbean.
#4
"There is no connection between the Bidens and Allen Stanford or Stanford period, full stop," the attorney said. "There never was any meeting between any member of the Biden family, no phone calls, zero correspondence."
#6
Hope and change, Eric, Rahm and I are great we are a great nation, we can do this, trust me......coming TONIGHT! Cheering donks, deafening applause, slobbering media converage. Barry wills it!
As U.S. Sen. Roland Burris prepared today to return to work in Washington, D.C., his attorneys continued to prepare a document they say will show he has not changed his story about how he secured the Senate seat from Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
I'm sure a memo to that effect will suffice ...
Although last week Burris said the finished document will be provided to the public, his top attorney said Monday it is being written primarily for the ongoing perjury probe in Springfield and the Senate Ethics Committee investigation in Washington.
In an interview, attorney Tim Wright said he has been reviewing the senators statements as well as media clippings about those statementsand believes Burris has never been inconsistent. He hopes to be done with the report in a day or so, but said its release will be up to Burris. It will show he hasnt changed his story, Wright said. This will be a document that will be factually based and Im confident it will show that its been the media thats changed their story, not the senator.
Because Illinois Senators never lie ...
Burris spokesman Jim OConnor on Monday declined to comment on whether the report would be released to the pubic and referred calls to Wright. Burris was scheduled to fly to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday morning, OConnor said.
In addition to calls for resignation from an array of fellow Democrats including Gov. Pat Quinn, Burris is facing a pair of investigations into his evolving explanation of whom he contacted and what he did prior to being appointed by Blagojevich to replace President Barack Obama in the Senate.
Blagojevich was charged Dec. 9 with trying to sell the Senate seat for personal or political profit. Burris on Saturday was interviewed by federal authorities for several hours as part of the Blagojevich probe.
In a series of sworn statements and media comments, Burris has gradually revealed more and more contacts with Blagojevich allies. Last week, speaking largely uninterrupted to reporters, Burris disclosed for the first time he had sought unsuccessfully to raise money for Blagojevich at the same time he was expressing his interest in the Senate seat to a number of the governors allies. The disclosure called into question his longstanding assertion there was never any discussion of favors for the governor, who had sole authority to fill the Senate seat Burris coveted.
Burris has denied having any inappropriate conversations about the Senate seat and said last week we are working on a concise document that will be provided to the public later this week.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/24/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Academy Award-winning actor and activist George Clooney met privately Monday night with President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. to urge the new administration's action on the crisis in the Darfur region of the Sudan. 
As U.S. Sen. Roland Burris prepared today to return to work in Washington, D.C., his attorneys continued to prepare a document they say will show he has not changed his story about how he secured the Senate seat from Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
