Investigators are tight lipped, rumors are flying and a community is in shock by the discovery Saturday of a body that is widely believed to be Monroe County Election Commission Chairman Jim Miller, stuffed in the trunk of a burning car.
Late Monday afternoon, it was announced that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation had become the lead agency of the four agencies investigating the case.
"It is Jim's car, and Jim is missing," said his longtime attorney and personal friend, John Cleveland, who is the city attorney for Sweetwater, Tenn. "But everybody would be pleased ... to find out that we are wrong (and it is not him)."
Cleveland issued a statement Monday on behalf of Miller's family that clearly indicates they believe he is the victim. Miller was last seen at the county's Election Commission office around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. He was working that day because of early voting, said County Election Administrator James R. Brown.
"He'd made a call to his wife and was going home, but he never made it home," Brown said. "This has got people talking in the county. It's got people wondering."
Around 8 p.m. that night, Miller's vehicle, a black Ford Crown Victoria, was discovered along Sands Road by a Monroe County Sheriff's Department deputy. The vehicle was "fully engulfed" in flames when the deputy arrived, according to a brief statement issued by the department.
Firefighters from the Christianburg Volunteer Fire Department were called to extinguish the blaze, after which the body was discovered. The state's Division of Bomb & Arson and the 10th District Attorney General's Office are also investigating the case. "It's pretty shocking, someone killed and put in a car and the car set on fire like that," said Sweetwater Fire Chief Doug Watson. "It's got the county all tore up."
It was a topic of conversation among people coming to Sweetwater City Hall on Monday, said City Recorder Jessica Morgan. "People are shocked," she said. "Jim was well known around here and well liked." "He was a very generous person and loaned money to a lot of people," Cleveland said. "As far as I know, he had no personal enemies."
No information has been released about how the victim died.
Miller, 60, was a lifelong Sweetwater resident and very active in community affairs and the Republican Party, say people who knew him. Note he was a Republican, which is likely why this story won't be front page news on the NYT.
"Whenever somebody in the community needed anything, Jim was the first one everybody called," Cleveland said. "This is a tragedy to us," Brown said. "He was a gentleman who worked very hard for the county and community. He will be missed for a long time to come."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Posted by: November Elections ||
07/21/2010 11:49 Comments ||
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#3
Not much is being released officially on this case. The following was reported today:
A Monroe County deputy has been placed on administrative leave with pay in connection with the investigation. Sheriff Bill Bivens would not discuss details of the case or give a specific reason for the suspension of Kenny Hope.
He said that Hope is not "any kind of a number one suspect or anything like that," Bivens said. "A person of interest, maybe."
It is not known why Hope was suspended or whether he has anything to do with this murder.
A Bell councilman said Monday that he didn't know his salary was $90,000 a year less than his colleagues' nor that some city administrators made far more than that, until The Times reported that the district attorney's office was investigating why the pay was so high for the part-time positions.
Councilman Lorenzo Velez said he is being paid $8,076 a year, while his colleagues are drawing nearly $100,000 annually.
Ahead of Monday night's council meeting, Velez called for an investigation, saying that if The Times' report is true, the city manager, assistant city manager, police chief and entire council should resign.
The Times reported that Bell's Chief Administrative Officer Robert Rizzo was earning $787,637 annually, twice as much as President Obama; Police Chief Randy Adams was earning $457,000 a year, 50% more than Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck; and Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia was earning $376,288, more than most city managers.
Hundreds of angry residents attended Monday night's council meeting, expecting that officials would take action against Rizzo. Earlier in the day, Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo said she expected Rizzo to resign or be fired at the meeting.
Instead the council, citing legal concerns, ordered a staff report on city salaries, sparking outrage from spectators.
"We're asking for your patience," Velez said over the shouts of "Fire Rizzo now!" and "Recall, recall!"
Rizzo did not attend the meeting. The council asked for the salary report to be available at the July 26 meeting.
"You're either with us or against us -- and if you've been earning a $100,000 a year, you're against us," said Cristina Garcia of the community group Bell Assn. to Stop the Abuse.
Group members said they planned to file recall papers against council members. In recent days, the group had passed out more than 9,000 fliers urging people to attend Monday's meeting.
"I'm very angry," said Leticia Arquino. "I literally have to work 24 hours to pay their salaries."
A number of people waved signs that read "Stop the abuse on our taxes" and "Welcome to Bell, where the City Council makes more than you do. Also, we have nice parks." One person had a sign showing Mayor Oscar Hernandez with devil horns.
As the meeting got underway, people were collecting signatures demanding an audit of all City Hall finances. Outside the tiny council chambers, people pressed against the door as fire officials threatened to shut down the meeting unless the crowds backed off.
Earlier in the day, Velez showed a reporter his statement of earnings and deductions, showing that the city paid him $310.62 every two weeks. His annual salary is about what his colleagues get paid each month. It was unclear what caused the discrepancy.
Velez said he bears some responsibility for not finding out the salaries of city employees, "but I was under the impression that I was being paid just like everyone else."
Records show that the councilman whose resignation led to Velez's appointment was quickly hired at the city's food bank. According to city records, that councilman kept his salary after stepping down.
Council members receive the same benefits as city employees, including medical coverage and pension eligibility.
Velez, a heavy-equipment operator for the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, said he was "in shock" when he learned that the other council members were making nearly $100,000 annually. "I was truly surprised."
The 55-year-old was appointed to the council to fill the unexpired term of Victor Bello, who resigned for undisclosed reasons in August. Almost immediately after Bello left the council, he became the only full-time employee at the city food bank, working as an assistant to the food-bank coordinator, according to Rizzo.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Sunlight on slime, concerned owners looking for disinfectant: this is progress. Hope, you might say.
Those already outraged by the president's health care legislation now have a new bone of contention — a scarcely noticed tack-on provision to the law that puts gold coin buyers and sellers under closer government scrutiny. The issue is rising to the fore just as gold coin dealers are attracting attention over sales tactics.
Section 9006 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will amend the Internal Revenue Code to expand the scope of Form 1099. Currently, 1099 forms are used to track and report the miscellaneous income associated with services rendered by independent contractors or self-employed individuals.
Starting Jan. 1, 2012, Form 1099s will become a means of reporting to the Internal Revenue Service the purchases of all goods and services by small businesses and self-employed people that exceed $600 during a calendar year. Precious metals such as coins and bullion fall into this category and coin dealers have been among those most rankled by the change.
This provision, intended to mine what the IRS deems a vast reservoir of uncollected income tax, was included in the health care legislation ostensibly as a way to pay for it. The tax code tweak is expected to raise $17 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Taking an early and vociferous role in opposing the measure is the precious metal and coin industry, according to Diane Piret, industry affairs director for the Industry Council for Tangible Assets. The ICTA, based in Severna Park, Md., is a trade association representing an estimated 5,000 coin and bullion dealers in the United States.
"Coin dealers not only buy for their inventory from other dealers, but also with great frequency from the public," Piret said. "Most other types of businesses will have a limited number of suppliers from which they buy their goods and products for resale."
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/21/2010 12:08 ||
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Since this is the most transparent administration in history, I'm sure no one will mind if the bullion dealers make a public disclosure of all purchases by senior members of the administration since the inauguration and going forward (of course including trusts, Cayman Islands LLP's, etc.) I can't think of a more reliable indicator of the state of the economy than, for example, the TGBPI (Tim Geithner Bullion Purchase Index.)
Posted by: Matt ||
07/21/2010 13:34 Comments ||
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#2
You are a bad, bad, bad man Matthew.
BTW, yoof is heading back to that school, for a Masters in Public Health. From Anchorage to NOLA, I fear he might break.
#3
I supplement my income by selling paper collectibles, and this new law WILL affect me. In a bad way. I have no idea how I'm going to deal with these new rules. Sell at small local shows and accept only cash?
A policy like this will have one major effect: Capital flight. And push much of this trade into the black and gray economy.
#4
I wonder if this applies to gun purchases over $600?
Even if it isn't, it is effectively "gold registration". Any why does the government want to know who owns gold?
If it is, then it is gun registration. But don't worry, it's only for guns transactions over $600. They would never inflate the currency so much that almost all guns would cost over $600. That just wouldn't be nice.
#7
I buy a US Eagle gold bullion coin every 2 weeks. Tell me WHY its any business of the IRS how I spent my money?
OldSpook, Form 1099 only becomes operative when the dealers purchase goods and services (including gold) not when they sell, which is part of their normal business accounting.
So if you sell an item or service to a business entity you have to provide a paper trail and also declare that income on your tax statement, as they will have a 1099 from the dealer.
In the case of gold, people who sell to dealers probably bought when prices were low and would now trigger a capital gains event. Same would apply to jewelry, I suppose.
#10
I think I prefer copper, zinc, lead, and certain pressure=sensitive explosive compounds to gold as a SHTF investment. Not that much less convenient and a whole lot more useful.
Two years ago, Kathy Dahlkemper,, a mother of five from Erie, Pa., won a seat in Congress on a pledge to do something about the national debt. Then she went to Washington -- and immediately voted to increase borrowing by nearly $1 trillion.
Back home, Dahlkemper, a Democrat, has no trouble defending her support for the stimulus package, which economists say probably saved the nation from disaster. I've seen at least two other articles today with phrasing that's either identical to that "economists say probably saved the nation from disaster" or close enough to it that there's no difference. I didn't see the same phrasing yesterday or last week or last month. I'm guessing it just came out on the Dem talking points this morning.
"I didn't think I could live with myself if we had gone into a depression," she said over iced Pepsi at the Eat'n Park diner. "We were on the right side of history with that vote."
Now, however, the recession is over and people want the borrowing to stop. Although the jobless rate tops 10 percent in parts of this sprawling district of farmers and blue-collar workers north of Pittsburgh, Dahlkemper said there's no more sense of emergency about the economy. "The sense of emergency, at this point, is focused on the debt," she said.
As President Obama presses for more spending to prevent a relapse into recession, Dahlkemper is one of dozens of moderate Democrats who are frustrating that effort, forcing Obama to downsize some proposals, pay for others and ditch some altogether. Although Obama blames Republicans for blocking legislation to extend emergency jobless benefits and other stimulus programs, conservatives in his own party were among the first to balk.
Like Dahlkemper, many are new to Washington, part of a wave of more than 50 Democrats elected to Congress from conservative and swing districts since 2006. Swept into office on a tide of disillusionment with President George W. Bush, they have become ripe targets for by supporting Obama's economic policies, drawing criticism from Republicans who paint the president as a free-spending, big-government liberal out of touch with heartland values.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2010 00:00 ||
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"We were on the right side of history with that vote."
I suspect a historical assessment at this point might be a bit premature, but certainly within the scope of the administration hand jive talking points.
#5
Mr. Popeil, I'm in trouble.
Need your assistance on the double.
Oh no! Now how am I gonna make
My old vinyl car top look like new?
Mr. Popeil!
Tell me, what am I s'posed to do?
#9
"We were on the right side of history with that vote."
They have to believe that because otherwise as a responsible intelligent adult with a soul they'd have to face the fact that they've participated in the greatest theft in human history for party and patronage. Has anyone else in history looted the losers any greater to shower 'their' people with bread and games?
#12
As a former sailor, I must ask people to stop saying that Congress is spending money like a drunken sailor.
As someone here once pointed out, a drunken sailor stops spending money when he runs out of money. Congress just borrows more.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/21/2010 22:41 Comments ||
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#13
At last check US Debt is officially a mere 83% of GDP - DAT STILL LEAVES 17% TO REACH DA MAGICAL 100%.
Or twas it 90-93%???
Anyhoo, to wit...
* ION > WMF > "DEUTCH WELLE" GERMAN MEDIA: CHINA'S WORLD REAL GDP IS REACHES 2/3 OR 13% OF US WORLD REAL GDP, BUT REMAINS HIGHLY FRAGILE/VULNERABLE DUE TO UNCERTAIN BUBBLES OF ECON GROWTH.
Reporting from Las Vegas -- Every few weeks, when Rep. Dina Titus props open a folding table in some corner of her sprawling congressional district, the first-term Democrat is hit by a tidal wave of woes: bankruptcies, job losses, unpaid medical bills, communities emptied of homeowners and hope.
Though Titus' mostly suburban turf is relatively affluent, the recession has ripped apart its neighborhoods with a tornado's fury. After the Las Vegas-area district was carved out after the 2000 census, its population swelled with middle-class transplants scooping up good-paying casino and construction jobs and carbon-copy homes.
The financial crash obliterated southern Nevada's economy -- the unemployment rate is 14.5% -- and turned Titus' district into a land of thwarted dreams. The home foreclosure rate is triple the national average. Bank of America even took possession of the building that houses Titus' Las Vegas office.
"This unemployment thing is killing us all," said landlord Shirley Ritz, 72, who sat down at Titus' folding table on a recent Saturday. Ritz had been struggling to fill her properties -- even after shaving rent to $650 -- after tenants were laid off or their hours were slashed.
Amid the ruin, Titus is running -- uphill -- for reelection in November. Emblematic of a crop of freshmen swept into office with President Obama and campaigning in the wake of the worst economic contraction since the Great Depression, Titus must win over an angry and frustrated electorate.
Do voters trust Democrats to steer the nation back to prosperity? Or have they soured on a diet of federal spending and industry bailouts that, so far, have done little to dent the nation's unemployment rate?
In a year when pocketbook concerns will decide whether Democrats forfeit the House and Senate to Republicans, many wallets are as threadbare as voters' patience.
"Voters who hired Democrats in 2008 desperately hoped that a change in government would bring about a change in the trajectory of the economy," said David Wasserman, an analyst who handicaps House races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. "They haven't seen that happen.
"To the extent things have gotten worse, or at least been stagnant," he added, "[Titus] stands to lose her job."
Titus' district is a key theater in the midterm skirmishing. The GOP considers the Y-shaped mass -- closely split between registered Republicans and Democrats -- a place where it can pick up one of the 39 seats it needs to control the House.
Titus, 60, must contend not only with the sluggish economy but a strong opponent in Joe Heck, 48, who represented some of the district in the state Senate, as well as a flood of national Republican money, which promises to make the contest one of the nation's costliest.
Heck, a physician who lost his seat in the 2008 Democratic wave, said campaigning has involved skipping past bank-owned houses and meeting Nevadans fleeing the state after losing jobs, homes, cars and confidence. While Titus has voted nearly down the line for Obama's agenda, including the 2009 stimulus bill and sweeping healthcare legislation, Heck has mostly lined up with congressional Republicans, who have moved to block -- or vowed to repeal -- much of what Democrats accomplished.
Though many economists say the stimulus eased the economic downturn and saved millions of jobs, Heck is unconvinced. Boy. Shucks. Golly. Gosh. That's original phrasing. It's not a bit like any Dem talking points. Many unnamed economists ...
"What it comes down to is that, for the people of southern Nevada, it failed," he said. "We're at 14% unemployment, ground zero for foreclosures. So no matter what came out of Washington, what it did in the 49 other states, it's not doing anything for us."
Titus enjoys a commanding financial edge, having raised $1.75 million to Heck's $600,000. More significantly, she had nearly four times the cash on hand.
Still, money is hardly determinative, especially in a campaign shaped by such deep-felt economic anxiety. Nothing can resuscitate Nevada's tourism-dependent economy until other states, particularly California, bounce back -- and economists don't expect much before 2011.
Obama's waning popularity won't help Titus. Nor will signs that Republican fervor is eclipsing that of Democrats. While the voter rolls of both major parties in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, dipped over the last 18 months, Democrats lost nearly twice as many registered voters as Republicans.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Obama's waning popularity won't help Titus. Nor will signs that Republican fervor is eclipsing that of Democrats.
It appears lame-duck Sen. Arlen Specter, sometime-Democrat from Pennsylvania, hasn't had enough of the Obama administration's job-for-politics merry-go-round. Not one to go gentle into that good night, Mr. Specter is angling to be a special envoy to Syria. At the same time, he is abandoning his own standards in order to support the Supreme Court nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan, all while giving the cold shoulder to Sept. 11 victim families even though those victims are trying to help his own legislation.
Mr. Specter's sellout adds new skulduggery to the increasingly troubled ethics of the Kagan nomination. It is a nomination that ought to be foundering because of Ms. Kagan's manipulation of medical information in order to keep partial-birth abortions legal and because she deliberately flouted the law to keep military recruiters away from Harvard Law School.
Even for a politician known for shape-shifting, Mr. Specter's latest metamorphosis is twisted. The senator famously opposed the nomination of Ms. Kagan to her current job of solicitor general, saying she didn't sufficiently answer Senate questions. Now that she wants a promotion, the senator again seemed utterly underwhelmed by her performance during confirmation hearings. In a column for USA Today July 15 about whether or not he would support her, he devoted the first seven paragraphs to complaints about her "stonewalling." Then, almost as an afterthought, he praised Ms. Kagan for favoring cameras in the Supreme Court chambers and for citing the late Justice Thurgood Marshall as her role model - hardly matters of great substance. Yet, on the basis of those two additions to the record, he wrote that "Kagan did just enough to win my vote."
Those are laughably flimsy reasons for giving a promotion to somebody he didn't think fit for her current job. The very same day, though, ABC's Jake Tapper reported that Mr. Specter opened preliminary discussions with the Obama administration about a possible job after his Senate term ends. Three days earlier, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported Mr. Specter had been in Syria talking about a possible role as a peace mediator between Syria and Israel. Both ABC and JTA noted that Mr. Specter is known (in JTA's words) "to be looking for a more majestic career ender."
This is the same man for whom the White House went to bat by offering a top political appointment to his Democratic primary rival, Rep. Joe Sestak, if Mr. Sestak would only forgo the race. To say that job offer raised a stink would be an understatement. Perhaps Mr. Specter should be more wary of mixing politics with Obama job discussions.
Now comes another oddity. Mr. Specter is author of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act. The bill would effectively overturn a court ruling that barred Sept. 11 victims' families from suing Saudi Arabia for providing material support to the terrorists. However, when Mr. Specter held a hearing on the legislation the day before announcing his support for Ms. Kagan, he didn't publicly acknowledge a key letter in support of the bill from famed Sept. 11 victims' advocate Debra Burlingame. Mr. Specter might be embarrassed that Ms. Burlingame's letter spent a paragraph criticizing Ms. Kagan for having submitted the key brief that helped convince the court to disallow the lawsuits.
Mr. Specter already did not approve of Ms. Kagan to be solicitor general. As solicitor general, Ms. Kagan sided against victims' families in a way Mr. Specter thought was so wrongheaded that he introduced a bill to overrule it - and he now cites no other new argument in her favor except for her almost irrelevant support for cameras in the high-court chambers. Despite all of this, he is supporting Ms. Kagan for the Supreme Court, while giving short shrift to the Sept. 11 families who Ms. Kagan opposed but whom he purportedly supports.
If Mr. Specter thinks his road to Damascus will be helped by shilling for Ms. Kagan at the expense of Sept. 11 victims, he should think about what happened the last time the Obama administration dangled a job offer for his benefit: He lost his current job - and his way.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2010 00:00 ||
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If Mr. Specter thinks his road to Damascus will be helped by shilling for Ms. Kagan
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin announced on Tuesday his plans for a U.S. Senate bid this fall.
The governor said during a press conference with reporters that he'll run for the seat held by the late Robert C. Byrd.
"I only hope I would be able to follow in his footsteps and continue to help the people of West Virginia," Manchin said of Byrd, who died last month at age 92.
"I intend, with the opportunity, to work as hard in Washington as I've worked in West Virginia," he said. "I believe in you more than you believe in yourself."
Manchin, a Democrat, announced his plans following passage of special session legislation setting an Aug. 28 primary and Nov. 2 general election for the seat.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2010 00:00 ||
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All Democrats on the committee voted in favor of Kagan, while all but one Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), voted against her. Graham, who was one of just nine Republicans who voted in favor of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation last year, joined Democrats in voting in favor of Kagan. Lindsey's still a few years out from having to run for reelection.
"No one spent more time trying to beat President Obama perhaps other than senator McCain," Graham said. "I understood that we lost, Sen. Obama won, and ....the Constitution requires me as a senator not to replace my judgment for his...or pick a fight with Ms. Kagan."
Graham also praised Kagan's performance during the hearing and predicted she would serve "honorably" even though he disagrees with her "liberal" views and would not have chosen her himself.
The full Senate is expected to approve Kagan's nomination with just a handful of centrist GOP votes; most likely later this month.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Disgrace
America is over already. Look at your lawmakers.
This is a banana republic now.
#6
There's no way a liberal judge is not going to be replaced by a liberal under this admin. and two dem houses of congress. Combine that with the fact that she's a woman and a dyke and it just wouldn't be fashionable not to seat her.
She can only vote yes or no to cases that come across the docket, she does not have the power to destroy the universe.
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.
Investigators are tight lipped, rumors are flying and a community is in shock by the discovery Saturday of a body that is widely believed to be Monroe County Election Commission Chairman Jim Miller, stuffed in the trunk of a burning car.
A Bell councilman said Monday that he didn't know his salary was $90,000 a year less than his colleagues' nor that some city administrators made far more than that, until The Times reported that the district attorney's office was investigating why the pay was so high for the part-time positions.
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin announced on Tuesday his plans for a U.S. Senate bid this fall.
All Democrats on the committee voted in favor of Kagan, while all but one Republican, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), voted against her. Graham, who was one of just nine Republicans who voted in favor of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation last year, joined Democrats in voting in favor of Kagan.
