[NBC New York] Federal authorities jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Trenton Mayor Tony Mack and more than half a dozen other people early Monday in connection with an ongoing corruption probe, NBC 4 New York has learned.
Mack faces federal charges including conspiracy to obstruct commerce by extortion. Joseph "JoJo" Giorgianni, a top campaign contributor, and six others were also taken into custody. Information on their attorneys wasn't immediately available. Specific charges against the suspects are expected to be outlined by Paul Fishman, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, later Monday.
Mack, a Democrat, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on extortion charges, prosecutors said.
In recorded conversations, Giorgianni said, "I can be bought," "We want this," "I like to do it the Boss Tweed way, you know, Boss Tweed ran Tammany Hall," and "Tony knows when I'm in for a penny I'm in for a pound," according to a criminal complaint.
During the conversations, Giorgianni referred to Mack using the code name "Napoleon," the complaint said.
Mack and the others jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! Monday were brought to the FBI office in Hamilton for processing and are scheduled to appear in federal court.
The arrests are the latest development in an ongoing federal investigation that began in 2010 into alleged corruption within Mack's administration, which has been marked by accusations of nepotism and reckless spending. In July, FBI agents searched offices in Trenton City Hall a day after raiding the mayor's home. They also searched the home of his brother, Ralphiel Mack, and that of Giorgianni.
In the first of two criminal complaints, Tony and Ralphiel Mack and Giorgianni were charged with conspiracy in connection with a parking garage project. The complaint alleges that cash payments intended for Mayor Mack were made by a cooperating witness to Giorgianni inside his restaurant.
In the second complaint Giorgianni and eight others, not including the Macks, were charged with conspiracy to obtain and fill prescriptions for oxycodone-based pain medications, and to distribute the pain medications.
Mack's administration has been in turmoil from Day 1, staggering from one crisis to another. A housecleaning of staff at City Hall opened the door for Mack's own appointees, who quickly turned it into a revolving door. Some left over questions about their credentials, others to face criminal charges.
In Mack's first year in office in Trenton, a city of 85,000, he ran through a string of business administrators. The first resigned after a month, saying the mayor didn't believe in "good government." Another resigned just ahead of pleading guilty to embezzlement at another job.
Mack's housing director quit after it emerged that he had a theft conviction. His chief of staff was jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! trying to buy heroin. His half-brother, whose authority he elevated at the city water plant, was jugged Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! on charges of stealing.
Questions have also been raised about how he financed his campaign for mayor.
A former longtime city employee sued the mayor late last year. The parks department employee said she was let go after refusing to dole out jobs for the mayor's friends, refusing to give federal grant money to people who didn't apply and for inquiring about city funds she said were missing.
The ex-employee also said she was replaced by a Mack supporter who never showed up for his $40,000-a-year job.
A former campaign aide told NBC 4 New York he disassociated with Mack when he "saw the way he was going."
"This is not a surprise," Jerell Blakley said of the probe into Mack's activities. "A lot of people in Trenton were of the opinion -- not of if, but when."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2012 00:00 ||
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I did a search for his party affiliation. Apparently he doesn't have one?
/naive
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2012 11:15 Comments ||
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[The Hill.com] A woman has been locked away Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! for pointing a gun at Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) in Spartanburg, S.C., on Sunday evening.
Gowdy told police he was waiting in the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Spartanburg when he was approached by 52-year-old Gloria Yvonne Brackett, according to media reports.
Gowdy told Sherlocks Brackett told him to "stop following her" and left after he told her he was waiting to pick up his daughter. Brackett allegedly returned with a firearm, which she pointed at Gowdy. The freshman politician put his car in reverse to leave and was chased by Brackett on foot.
He reported the incident to police, who locked away Drop the rod and step away witcher hands up! her and charged her with illegally carrying and pointing a gun.
Gowdy's office said Monday in a statement that the politician was "grateful to the Spartanburg Public Safety Department for their help last night and especially for helping make sure his daughter was safe," according to a report.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2012 00:00 ||
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President Barack Obamas deputies are negotiating a $1 billion aid package with Egypts new Islamist government, even as Egypts cash-strapped military revealed that it is trying to buy $1 billion worth of German submarines that could threaten Israels fast-growing offshore energy projects.
The German government has pointedly declined to deny the incendiary revelation about Egypts request to buy the two submarines.
Instead, the German government offered vague support for Israel, which is facing renewed threats from Irans nuclear program and the Muslim Brotherhoods rise to power in Egypt.
There has been no change in the German governments position towards Israel, in the commitment the German government feels towards Israels security, a spokesman for Germanys chancellor told Der Speigel, a major German newspaper.
State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland did not respond to an inquiry by The Daily Caller.
The submarine purchase will likely be an issue in the U.S. election, because both parties are vying for support from a relatively large concentration of swing-voting Jewish Americans in Florida.
During the Democrats convention in Charlotte, for example, several speakers declared that Obama is a strong supporter of Israels defense.
#4
Specifically, why is the administration giving them military aid when Congress has officially placed such aid on hold until there is a determinition they've improved on human rights?
#5
Buying "friendship" of other nations never works in the long term. Look up Barbary Pirates and see how that worked out.
The submarine purchase will likely be an issue in the U.S. election, because both parties are vying for support from a relatively large concentration of swing-voting Jewish Americans in Florida.
Aren't these the same folks that Bernie Madoff targeted for his giga ponzi scheme? Hmmmmm.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/11/2012 13:09 Comments ||
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Egypt can't feed itself and we are helping them buy high skill highly expensive weapons? I'm not sure I buy this story.
[Washington Post] A Maryland Democratic candidate quit her congressional race Monday after her own party told state officials that she had committed fraud by voting in both Maryland and Florida in recent elections.
Wendy Rosen, a small-business owner running against freshman Rep. Andy Harris (R) in the Eastern Shore-based 1st Congressional District, released a statement saying that "with great regret, and much sorrow" she was resigning from the contest.
"Personal issues have made this the hardest decision that I have had to make," Rosen said
Rosen's announcement came the same day the state Democratic party released a letter to state Attorney General Douglas Gansler and state prosecutors reporting the allegations against Rosen.
"The Maryland Democratic Party has discovered that Ms. Rosen has been registered to vote in both Florida and Maryland since at least 2006; that she in fact voted in the 2006 general election both in Florida and Maryland; and that she voted in the presidential preference primaries held in both Florida and Maryland in 2008," wrote Yvette Lewis, the state party chair. "This information is based on an examination of the voter files from both states. We believe that this is a clear violation of Maryland law and urge the appropriate office to conduct a full investigation."
A senior Maryland Democrat said the party had been tipped off this weekend by someone within the party about Rosen's potential issue. After checking the allegation, the party contacted Rosen on Monday morning and urged her to quit.
Local Democratic committees in the 1st district will now meet and vote on a new candidate to replace Rosen on the ballot. The new name must be submitted to the state by Sept. 27.
Regardless of his opponent, Harris is considered a safe bet for reelection. Though the 1st district was previously competitive -- Democrat Frank Kratovil won the seat in 2008 before being ousted by Harris in 2010 -- it was redrawn to be safer for Republicans after the 2010 Census.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2012 00:00 ||
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So a Dem candidate has voted several times in two states, but voter fraud is "almost non-existent"?
I'm pretty sure it was not the States comparing voter rolls that caught her - she leaked thru the "system". Somebody dug deep enough to find out.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/11/2012 6:03 Comments ||
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of course voter ID wouldn't stop this if she had both a MD and FL driver's license
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/11/2012 7:08 Comments ||
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"But suddenly Democrats have to admit that voter fraud infanticide exists. Thats really going to dent the narrative...."
You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free
#6
Did she vote twice in the same election? Probably not. Probably rationalized that she was only voting on local issues in both places she has local interests. But I do not think you can be legally registered in two places at the same time, and her votes clearly show she was. Next question - which address is her domicile for the purpose of running for Congress?
#7
"The Maryland Democratic Party has discovered that Ms. Rosen has been registered to vote in both Florida and Maryland since at least 2006; that she in fact voted in the 2006 general election both in Florida and Maryland; and that she voted in the presidential preference primaries held in both Florida and Maryland in 2008," Lewis said.
Note the Maryland Democrat party "discovered" it and dropped the dime on her. She must have really PO'ed somebody high up. She was going to lose anyway as she is running in the district carved our for Trunks only.
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.
