A Florida contractor hired by the Housing Authority of New Orleans to oversee its finances embezzled more than $900,000 during the past three years, according to charges filed Monday by the U.S. attorney's office.
Separate public records show that during the same time period the fiscal manager, Elias Castellanos, 43, bought a $1.6 million mansion in Davie, Fla., just north of Miami, and five late-model cars -- including a Lamborghini Gallardo worth more than $200,000, a Ferrari F430, a Porsche 911 and two Mercedes-Benzes.
Federal prosecutors charged Castellanos with one count of embezzlement Monday through a bill of information, indicating that a plea agreement is likely soon to follow. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office didn't provide details of the alleged scam, but charged that Castellanos pocketed $900,927 while serving as HANO's chief financial officer.
Federal prosecutors also said they would seek to recover $876,917 if they can prove the charges against Castellanos. The bill of information states that the government will try to seize property Castellanos purchased with the money.
Florida public records show he bought the 6,000-square-foot home in 2008 and the five cars between January 2008 and April 2009.
The felony charge against Castellanos comes on the heels of Friday's news that the head of HANO's rental voucher programs, Dwayne Muhammad, was using a Section 8 voucher to pay his own rent, even as he received a $100,000 government salary. And just before Castellanos left HANO in June, the FBI raided the authority's offices after three employees were accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in a separate accounting ruse.
Although Letten's office declined to elaborate on how Castellanos' alleged scheme worked, a separate audit report filed in January by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's inspector general details a part of what happened.
That report questioned $97,193 in charges by the agency's contracted chief financial officer. From at least September 2006 until January 2009, that position was held by Castellanos, working for the Coral Gables, Fla., accounting firm Alberni, Caballero & Castellanos.
The report says the authority, led by a federally designated HUD receiver, hired Castellanos and his associates and placed them in charge of monitoring their own contract. In a limited review of some invoices from September 2006 to March 2008, the inspector general's auditors found the contractor overcharged HANO, mostly by invoicing work by employees who weren't part of the contract and weren't approved by the housing authority.
HANO officials told the inspector general that the overcharged money had been recovered, but in reality only a few thousand dollars of it had been, the inspector general's report said. The audit findings were handed over to criminal investigators, who found the problem was nearly 10 times larger than the initial audit had reported.
Castellanos was removed as chief financial officer in January when the audit came out, according to court records. But according to the bill of information against him, Castellanos continued to be "an agent of HANO" until June.
Voicemail messages left at two numbers listed for Castellanos' home in Davie were not returned Monday evening, and there is no record of who his attorney is.
HUD spokesman Jerry Brown declined to comment on what he called a continuing investigation. HANO's general counsel Wayne Woods couldn't be reached for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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Separate public records show that during the same time period the fiscal manager, Elias Castellanos, 43, bought a $1.6 million mansion in Davie, Fla., just north of Miami, and five late-model cars -- including a Lamborghini Gallardo worth more than $200,000, a Ferrari F430, a Porsche 911 and two Mercedes-Benzes.
According to a leading accountancy firm, one-in-five entrepreneurs who have started a business in the UK would not do so again under the present system, while almost 90pc believe the country is at serious risk of a "brain drain".
"The message from business is clear," Nigel May, tax principal at MacIntyre Hudson, said. "What was once a celebrated, competitive tax and regulatory regime has become increasingly burdensome, particularly for those ambitious individuals who underpin the health of our economy."
The survey warns that because of Labour's tax policy "a nascent economic recovery could be choked off in its prime". Mr May added: "The Government's optimistic forecasts for recovery are based on the assumption that Britain's entrepreneurs will continue to innovate, build, work and take risk as they have before. "What the Chancellor may have overlooked is that these essential activities for future growth rely on the very people his so-called 'targeted' tax rises hit the hardest."
As the UK's net debt rises, entrepreneurs have become increasingly frustrated at changes to the taxing of businesses and high earners. These include the raising of the top level of income tax to 50p, withdrawing personal allowances for those earning over £100,000 and restricting pension relief for those earning £150,000.
Business leaders fear more tax rises as the public finances remain weak, and believe that changes to the tax system are a larger threat to the economy than cuts in public spending, according to MacIntyre Hudson's survey.
Around 72pc believe the UK tax regime has already become less competitive compared to other major economies in recent years. As a consequence, 89pc think the country will fall victim to leading business talent moving to more favourable conditions abroad, while 12pc say there is a "significant chance" their own business could move.
Further taxes also risk dampening expansion within businesses, with entrepreneurs less motivated to develop their business or forced to make cutbacks. Out of the 350 small and medium-sized businesses questioned, 69pc warned they would be forced to make substantial cost reductions in the event of future tax increases.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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...ah, just don't move to California cause it's not going to be much better.
Auto makers will release their monthly sales reports Tuesday and they're expected to show the first year-to-year increase since 2007. While the Cash for Clunkers program is getting all the credit, local car dealers are still waiting for their cash.
During the month long program, Billion Automotive sold close to a thousand vehicles but has only been reimbursed for 272 of them. Vern Eide sold over 200 cars and has only been paid for 27 of them, and that's fueling lots of concerns in the auto industry.
Billion Automotive cashed in during Cash for Clunkers, but owner Dave Billion is still waiting for the rest of his money from the government run program, $3.2 million.
"I wonder how long they'd wait if I owed them $3.2 million. I think they'd be at my door or at least my banker's door," Billion said.
Even though Billion is beginning to get some of his reimbursement money, he's still concerned because he says there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the program.
When Cash for Clunkers was first announced, dealers were supposed to be reimbursed within 10 days of a sale. Billion says that hasn't happened.
"The program started in July and we haven't gotten paid for cars we sold back then, but then on the other hand we got paid for a car we sold last week. They don't have an accurate format. It's not like they're taking the first deals that were submitted and working those. I don't know how they're doing it, no idea. I know it's very random" Billion said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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OTTAWA Canada moved closer to its second federal election in less than a year on Tuesday, after the opposition leader Michael Ignatieff announced that his Liberal Party would no longer support Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative government.
Mr. Harper, your time is up, Mr. Ignatieff told a cheering crowd of Liberal politicians at a party retreat in Sudbury, Ontario. We will hold Stephen Harper to account and we will oppose his government in Parliament.
The Conservatives do not control a majority of the votes in the House of Commons and rely on the support of the Liberals and two smaller opposition parties to maintain power. Some combination of members from the two smaller parties, the New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québécois, would have to join the Liberals in order to bring down the government.
Bob Rae, a prominent Liberal member of Parliament, said his party would introduce a motion of no confidence in the government at the first opportunity in the Parliamentary calendar, probably in early October.
Exactly how either of the smaller parties, which are to the left of both the Conservatives and the Liberals, will respond when that happens is unclear. Last week, however, Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democrats, said that his party would be the least likely of the political parties to support the Conservatives.
Since 2006, Mr. Harper has maintained two governments without a majority of Parliamentary votes partly because the opposition parties were concerned that Canadians were weary of federal elections. There have been three since June 2004.
Mr. Harper and other Conservatives were quick to say Tuesday that Canadians were not longing for another vote this fall. The prime minister also suggested that the end of his government would harm the economy. Political uncertainty does not serve the country right now, Mr. Harper said in Calgary, Alberta, the city which includes his Parliamentary district.
In his speech, Mr. Ignatieff, a former journalist who also headed a human rights institute at Harvard University, criticized Mr. Harper for eroding public health care at a time when Americans want a public health care system, for lowering the countrys international profile and for replacing a large federal budget surplus with a deficit.
This is the second time since the October 2008 election that Mr. Harpers government has been in peril. In December, Mr. Harper asked Governor General Michaëlle Jean, who represents Queen Elizabeth II as the nations head of state, to shut down Parliament so that his government could avoid a no confidence vote. Stéphane Dion, the Liberal leader at the time, had formed a coalition with the other two opposition parties to replace the Conservatives in power.
While the episode eroded Mr. Harpers reputation as a shrewd political strategist, it ultimately proved worse for Mr. Dion who had already announced his resignation as Liberal leader. The partys executive accelerated the replacement process with the unusual step of naming Mr. Ignatieff as leader in December without holding a party convention.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The Liberal party is split on this with one half just plain wanting to do ANYTHING to get back in power and the other half reading the polls and not wanting an election because they know they'll lose.
Most people I hear yakking about this in stores and shops don't want another election so soon after the last one in October of last year. The current minority government is doing okay and a lot of people are cool with that.
SO . . . . . if the Libs force another election this fall they just might cause Canada to elect a majority Conservative government. and the Liberals might just be searching for yet another new leader.
#2
The Liberals should be careful what they pray for then, Canuckistan sniper? Good. Perhaps you-all can offset what the American electorate did last fall.
#1
....well, if they didn't have such in their ranks, they'd still probably still be in power. It's not like they have a particular safe seat out of the line of fire. What the Donks don't grasp is that this isn't about the old fight between them and the Trunks. This is literally an erosion of the very legitimacy of the government.
#2
So, how many Republicans would return the compliment? I certainly would. A$$hole doesn't even begin to describe Van Jones, but please, don't try to fully describe these qualities. My organic waste bin is quite full as it is.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/02/2009 13:16 Comments ||
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#4
When those in power - a small majority at best - hold those out of power in such contempt, they are sowing the seeds for civil war (and I think they know it, which is why they are working so hard for gun control.)
#5
I guess when you are surrounded by a$$holes, everyone looks like an a$$hole.
This is literally an erosion of the very legitimacy of the government.
I believe you are right Procopius2k. When us folk out here start believing our government is the ruination of the country, then there is trouble in the land.
Recognition of Ramadan
On December 11, 2007, Woolsey, along with 8 other Democrats, voted nay on a resolution to recognize the importance of "Christmas and the Christian faith," but did vote to "recognize the commencement of Ramadan," an Islamic religious observance, and Diwali, a Hindu religious holiday, earlier in the year.
In September 2000 Woolsey sponsored H.R. 4892, The Scouting for All Act, to revoke the charter held by the Boy Scouts of America, which had been held since 1916.
#2
Wolsey took over Babs "Ma'am" Boxer's old Congressional district. This Marin/Sonoma district is crawling with an overabundance of Limousine Liberals.
#5
I was there, and considering that Sonoma Co. is overrun with KoolAid swillers, the fact she got an earful was awesome. I swear to God some asshat got before the mice and declared "we won!". That didn't go over so well, heh heh. No, I don't think she'll be voted out, but a shitload of her Demo pals will. Conservatives on both sides of the isle are fired up and pissed off. We've had great attendance at the local tea parties, and this was confirmation that the fire has not burned out. Also, originally Woolsey tried to dodge a townhall. No mention on her website...nothin'. Then in the local rag she claimed to have held a teleconference involving up to 5,000 people. That was an outright lie and she got busted on it bigtime, forcing her to host a real townhall. Good on the right-thinking folks of Sonoma Co!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
09/02/2009 16:29 Comments ||
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The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has discovered a secret White House project to harvest personal date from social networking websites like facebook and twitter.
The White House office of New Media has sent out a request for proposals from technology vendors to develop and run the project. According to the proposal request, the information to be captured includes comments, tag lines, emails, audio, and video.
The targeted sites include Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and others any space where the White House maintains a presence. The Proposal requests a bid covers allowing this project to last eight years.
In all fairness if you read the PDF of the solicitation, it speaks of the project as a way to to comply with the Presidential Records Act. But then there are the frightening parts especially for this administration which promises to be the most transparent in history. The disturbing parts of the proposal include:
Extremely broad secrecy terms preventing the vendor from disclosing to the public or the media what information is being captured and archived (page 7, Restriction Against Disclosure)
Wholesale capturing of comments by non-White House staff on publicly accessible sites
Capturing of content of any type (text, graphics, audio, or video)
Capturing of comment by both Obama critics and supporters, with no restriction as to how the White House would use the information.
#4
The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) has discovered a secret White House project to harvest personal date from social networking websites like facebook and twitter.
Critics of 'data mining' during the Bush years will be as vocal as their counterparts who were against the war are today, when it was Bush's war. It's about power, baby.
#5
Rather than analyzing comments and tag lines, they could get a clear picture by looking at the daily tracking poll to see their problem - most Americans do not like what they are doing. They could also turn on talk radio and find out why they have a problem.
Posted by: ed ||
09/02/2009 13:54 Comments ||
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#7
Critics of 'data mining' during the Bush years will be as vocal as their counterparts who were against the war are today, when it was Bush's war. It's about power, baby.
Except that this data mining is not about terrorism, nor is it being done by an intelligence agency of any kind. This was commissioned by the Office of the White House and the information being gathered is being Classified. This is a blatant attempt at developing a database of individuals who dislike the current administration, most likely for later use in 'trials' or justifications of actions taken against them.
This type of thing encourages me to never use Facebook, Myspace, etc. Since my job depends on .gov money I may stop posting at the few sites I participate in.
Posted by: Jame Retief ||
09/02/2009 14:53 Comments ||
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#8
Another good reason for people to keep their internet footprint to a minimum.
Perhaps it's time to start exchanging ideas via privately owned shipping companies.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/02/2009 16:58 Comments ||
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Two frequent political rivals are joining forces to pursue radical changes to the nation's voter-registration system, a bid aimed in part at eliminating massive voter drives by groups such as ACORN that last year saw people fraudulently registering under the names of cartoon characters and sports figures.
The two prominent election lawyers - who advised Sens. John Kerry and John McCain during their respective presidential campaigns - want states to place the name of every eligible citizen on the voter rolls, rather than having people affirmatively register to vote, as they do now.
Another key objective: to modernize the registration process so it no longer depends so heavily on postcards and paper forms, said officials at the Pew Center on the States, a nonpartisan group that is backing the effort.
Marc Elias, who served as Mr. Kerry's lawyer, said there is at least one point on which campaign specialists from both parties can agree: "There ought to be a better way to do this."
Mr. Elias said he became convinced the registration process needed an overhaul while he was representing Al Franken during his protracted legal effort to be declared the victor in the 2008 Senate race in Minnesota. The court, he said, waded through more than 18,000 documents, often with the goal of gleaning whether someone who cast a ballot was properly registered.
As the case evolved, Mr. Elias said, lawyers on both sides found a rare sliver of common ground in their shared frustration with the voter-registration system.
Trevor Potter said his frustration with the registration system blossomed while he represented Mr. McCain during the 2008 election.
While Republicans raised vocal concerns about the potential for voter fraud during the final weeks of the campaign, he said his worries had less to do with fraud.
When the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) hired volunteers to fan out with clipboards and then flooded elections officials with registration forms as Election Day approached, Mr. Potter said he worried it would result in the election system being overwhelmed. That, he said, could have led to the vast use of provisional ballots, or to scenarios where elections officials simply allowed people to vote without having had time to verify that they were officially registered.
Worse still, he said, was that it was later determined that only about one-third of the late registration forms submitted were from legitimate, new voters.
"I want to be clear, I do not have a vendetta against ACORN," Mr. Potter said. His beef, he said, is with a registration process that feels like something "left over from the horse and buggy days."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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want states to place the name of every eligible citizen on the voter rolls, rather than having people affirmatively register to vote, as they do now.
That is similar to the system used down under and the problem of voter fraud is just not an issue.
However there is a sting in the tail, that being compulsory voting. If you register to vote you must vote, you will be fined if you don't. Kind of concentrates peoples minds and eliminates issues like voter drives.
Once you are on the roll, you are on it for life.
#3
Where do they get the names of every eligible citizen? How are the rolls kept up-to-date with deaths, in-migration and out-migration from the district? How is a person's citizenship determined?
What's to keep ACORN from simply filing thousands of names as being 'residents' of a district (no ID and likely no proof required...) and having them automaticaly registered to vote?
A better system would be to require voters to get off their fat asses and physically go to a center (which may be, for example, the DMV) and register (with proof of citizenship AND positive ID) unless they are disabled - in which case a registration employee will come to their home.
Also require re-registration every 4 years.
Besides if you are too lazy or stupid to get your ass down to a registration center in time then you probably probably shouldn't vote.
·Register as many democrat voters as possible, legal or otherwise and help them vote, multiple times if possible.
·Overwhelm the system with fraudulent registrations using multiple entries of the same name, names of deceased, random names from the phone book, even contrived names.
·Make the system difficult to police by lobbying for minimal (or NO) identification standards.
#7
IMHO there are just some people who should be allowed to vote. For instance if I am on welfare why would I not vote for more benitifts or to recieve them longer? If I am a criminal I would vote for lighter sentencing. If I were king there would be a civics test (IN ENGLISH) that citizen would be required to take before voting. 10 really easy questions, such as "What are the houses of Congress" or "Who was the first President" or "What is income tax and who pays it". Can't pass the test? you no vote! And you can re-apply eash year.
#8
the distressing issue is how 50+% of our populace pays basically no Fed income tax now. They have no "skin in the game" and remain beneficiaries of the killing the golden goose attitude that the Donks have specialized in as a party platform. Until punitive tax policies hit home with them, it's all "get the rich!". Pretty soon there'll be no rich. Who'da thunk that Ten Years After would be economic geniuses? (ed: anyone who listened)
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2009 21:23 Comments ||
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George Stephanapoulos: The trial balloon launched yesterday by Kennedy friends Chris Dodd and Orrin Hatch isn't going anywhere. A solid source assures me that Vicki Kennedy won't run in a special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat. She's not interested in an interim appointment if it becomes available.
Governor Deval Patrick is making an announcement about the special election at 3:00 today, likely setting a date.
A joint committee of the Mass. legislature will hold its first hearing on the succession legislation September 9th.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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So, in other words, the only reason she won't inherit the seat is that she doesn't want it.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/02/2009 7:10 Comments ||
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She doesn't want it because she's been told not to want it.
She's a lightweight and would be a placeholder for whoever the Kennedy family would put up in time.
What's happening here is that the other Massachusetts pols have brought out the knives and made it clear that one of them wants the seat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2009 8:00 Comments ||
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I'm sure Princess Caroline will be willing to make the sacrifice....
Exasperated watchdog groups are calling for a special counsel to intervene in the ethics committee probe of Rep. Charles Rangel.
The good-government officials say they are astounded by Rangel's (D-N.Y.) disclosure last week of at least $650,000 in assets that he previously had failed to list on his House financial disclosure forms. And they are frustrated that the House ethics committee has not issued findings on Rangel, who requested that the panel investigate him in July 2008. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in November 2008 that she expected the probe to be completed in January 2009.
The disclosure records normally are due in May, but Rangel, who chairs the powerful Ways and Means panel, filed an extension and then decided to amend previous-year reports and filed those changes in August, when news is usually slow and lawmakers are out of town.
Some in the watchdog community are tired of waiting for the ethics committee.
"Appointing a special counsel is a step the committee could and should take," said Lisa Gilbert, democracy advocate for U.S. PIRG. "There really couldn't be a situation where there is a more overt case for doing so than with Rangel ... it's that serious and far-ranging."
They lost the PIRGs? I didn't realize that was possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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The good-government officials say they are astounded by Rangel's (D-N.Y.) disclosure last week of at least $650,000 in assets that he previously had failed to list on his House financial disclosure forms.
The Reno Gazette-Journal has a sit-down with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who addresses the Ted Kennedy question in, um, an interesting way.
Q: How will U.S. Sen. (Edward) Kennedy's death affect things?
A: I think it's going to help us. He hasn't been around for some time. We're going to have a new chairman of that committee, it'll be, I don't know for sure, but I think Sen. (Chris) Dodd, (D-Conn.). He has a right to take it. Either him or (U.S. Sen. Tom) Harkin, (D-Iowa), whichever one wants it can have it. I think he (Kennedy) will be a help. He's an inspiration for us. That was the issue of his life and he didn't get it done.
He didn't get a great many other things done that he'd intended to either, I'm sure. Given how angry the country is about this thing, I don't think even the sainted Kennedy name is enough to conjure with. That is to say, the Democrats may force passage of the bill by sheer weight of numbers, but they'll pay for it in spades next November. And what's been voted in can be voted out, if it hasn't yet become a tradition.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2009 00:00 ||
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They've fallen so far that a death helps them?
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/02/2009 6:00 Comments ||
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Well, if that's the case how about a dozen or so of you and your fellow Ds in the Senate follow suit. That will certainly make it an even bigger help. /sarc off
US President Barack Obama praised Islam as an integral part of America, as he feted prominent US Muslims at an Iftar dinner marking the holy fasting month of Ramadan.
"For well over a billion Muslims, Ramadan is a time of intense devotion and reflection," Mr Obama said, in remarks welcoming his guests in the State Dining Room of the White House.
"Tonight's Iftar is a ritual that is being carried out this Ramadan at kitchen tables and mosques in all 50 states," he said.
"Islam as we know is part of America. Like the broader American citizenry, the American Muslim community is one of extraordinary dynamism and diversity.
"On this occasion, we celebrate the holy month of Ramadan and we also celebrate how much Muslims have enriched America and its culture in ways both large and small,'' he said.
Among the guests Mr Obama praised was Bilqis Abdul-Qaadir, a first-year student at the University of Memphis who scored more points than any other girl or boy in the history of high school basketball in the state of Massachusetts.
"She recently told a reporter, 'I would like to inspire a lot of young Muslim girls if they want to play basketball. Anything is possible, they can do it too'," said Mr Obama, who has a well-known love of the sport.
"Bilquis is an inspiration not simply to Muslim girls, she is an inspiration to all of us."
The President also recognised the first two Muslim lawmakers in the US Congress, Keith Ellison and Andre Carson.
In a message marking Ramadan last week, he pledged "concrete actions" to renew ties with Islamic countries, less than three months after his historic address to the Muslim world in Cairo.
"I want to reiterate my commitment to a new beginning between America and Muslims around the world," Mr Obama said in a video address posted as the world's estimated 1.5 billion Muslims prepared for a month of fasting and reflection.
The President, who has Muslim heritage on his father's side of his family, also pledged "unyielding" support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and to "responsibly end the war in Iraq".
Islam's fasting month began last month in most of the Arab world and Iran.
#3
Religion and bloody basketball.... once again well covered. Can we now move on to some of those 4 million jobs you promised to create and our economy?
#9
I know the irony coming from a Brit , but aint he just a bit of a patsy appeasement whore .. We all know how well that worked for a cetain Neville Chamberlain .
Posted by: Oscar ||
09/02/2009 9:52 Comments ||
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#14
As a friend of Muslims and all things Islam, will Barack be looking into recent allegations that Code Pink defiled a Koran? The story is now the TOP result on Google for the search "Code Pink Defiled a Koran".
One has to wonder what other sites might be reporting on this rumor even now, and when Code Pink will break its silence on these serious charges.
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.
According to a leading accountancy firm, one-in-five entrepreneurs who have started a business in the UK would not do so again under the present system, while almost 90pc believe the country is at serious risk of a "brain drain".
Auto makers will release their monthly sales reports Tuesday and they're expected to show the first year-to-year increase since 2007. While the Cash for Clunkers program is getting all the credit, local car dealers are still waiting for their cash.
George Stephanapoulos: The trial balloon launched yesterday by Kennedy friends Chris Dodd and Orrin Hatch isn't going anywhere. A solid source assures me that Vicki Kennedy won't run in a special election to fill the Massachusetts Senate seat. She's not interested in an interim appointment if it becomes available.
The good-government officials say they are astounded by Rangel's (D-N.Y.) disclosure last week of at least $650,000 in assets that he previously had failed to list on his House financial disclosure forms. And they are frustrated that the House ethics committee has not issued findings on Rangel, who requested that the panel investigate him in July 2008. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said in November 2008 that she expected the probe to be completed in January 2009.
The Reno Gazette-Journal has a sit-down with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who addresses the Ted Kennedy question in, um, an interesting way.
