[NYDAILYNEWS] A top development company donated $100,000 to Gov. Cuomo just days before he signed a bill that quietly showered the firm with lucrative tax breaks.
Two corporations tied to Extell Development each contributed $50,000 to Cuomo's campaign, which recorded the checks on Jan. 28 -- the same day the Assembly passed a housing bill that contained tax breaks for five developers, including Extell, records show.
Cuomo signed the legislation two days later.
The twin $50,000 donations were made by Elco Master LLC and 134 W 58 LLC. Each listed the same Louisville, Ky., address of Extell Financial Services, which is part of Extell Development. It was the first time either company contributed to Cuomo, state records show.
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08/10/2013 00:00 ||
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[reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... Tribune] Dr. Eric Whitaker, a close friend of President Barack Obama We're gonna punish our enemies and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us... , acknowledged that he is cooperating with federal authorities working on a $433,000 kickback scheme at the state public health agency he once led, but he said he was not involved in the alleged crimes.
Whitaker declined an interview request Thursday but released a statement following the indictment of Quinshaunta R. Golden, who was his chief of staff at the Illinois Department of Public Health. Golden is accused of conspiring with state grant recipients to divert federal money into her own pockets and then trying to cover it up.
"I had no firsthand knowledge of the activities outlined in this indictment and was not involved in any way," Whitaker said in the statement. "As requested by the U.S. attorney, I have been fully cooperating with the investigation into these matters."
There was no indication in the indictment that Whitaker knew of the wrongdoing. Asked Thursday if Whitaker is a target in the probe, James Lewis, U.S. attorney for the Central District of Illinois, offered the standard response of refusing to venture beyond details of the Golden indictment.
"At this point, the evidence has taken us to Quin Golden, and the evidence has not taken us farther," Lewis said. Pressed on whether Whitaker is in prosecutors' sights, Lewis said: "There's nothing in the material you have today that leads toward an answer to that question."
But Lewis answered "no" when asked if Obama is linked to the case, given that he is a Whitaker friend who recommended him for the public health job.
Whitaker, who golfed with Obama during the president's 52nd birthday celebration last weekend, left the state public health department in September 2007 to work with Michelle Obama at University of Chicago Medicine before leaving this year. Golden left her state job in early 2008 and joined Whitaker at U. of C.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
Also indicted in the grant probe is the daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.,
Now if Jarrett can be connected, we'll have a enough for a proper picnic reunion, T-shirts and everything.
#2
klaack...krick....ccctaarrr, I hear a very big limb breaking on the Big O's political affiliation tree. Very likely not the only rotted branch, the trunk sounds hollow too. Only a sign of more to come.
First lady Michelle Obama also used to work at the medical center, which received the grant with two co-applicants. She started working at the university in 1996, then became a vice president at its medical center. And senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett was chairman of the medical centers Board of Trustees before coming to Washington, according to her official profile.
[An Nahar] U.S. President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... on Friday pledged an overhaul of government surveillance, acknowledging rising concerns over citizens' privacy.
Obama said he would ask Congress to review a controversial section of the Patriot Act that allows collection of telephone records and would provide for greater outside oversight.
"All these steps are designed to ensure that the American people can trust that our efforts are this line with our interests and our values," Obama told a news conference.
"And to others around the world I want to make clear once again that America is not interested in spying on ordinary people," he said.
Obama said he would ask Congress to reform Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which was passed after the September 11, 2001 attacks, that gives the government access to telephone and other records of citizens.
He also called for the start of debate in the courts that authorize surveillance, which now only hear requests from the government without hearing counter-arguments as is customary in other parts of the U.S. judiciary.
Obama said that the administration would declassify documents on surveillance and also appoint a body of outside experts to help ensure a balance between security and privacy.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/10/2013 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.
[NYDAILYNEWS] A top development company donated $100,000 to Gov. Cuomo just days before he signed a bill that quietly showered the firm with lucrative tax breaks.
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[An Nahar] U.S. President 
