Obama Campaign Slogan “Forward” Tied To Socialism And Marxism Throughout 19th And 20th Centuries

WASHINGTON, DC – The Obama campaign apparently didn’t look backwards into history when selecting its new campaign slogan, “Forward” — a word with a long and rich association with European Marxism.

Many Communist and radical publications and entities throughout the 19th and 20th centuries had the name “Forward!” or its foreign cognates. Wikipedia has an entire section called “Forward (generic name of socialist publications).”

“The name Forward carries a special meaning in socialist political terminology. It has been frequently used as a name for socialist, communist and other left-wing newspapers and publications,” the online encyclopedia explains.

The slogan “Forward!” reflected the conviction of European Marxists and radicals that their movements reflected the march of history, which would move forward past capitalism and into socialism and communism.

The Obama campaign released its new campaign slogan Monday in a 7-minute video. The title card has simply the word “Forward” with the “O” having the familiar Obama logo from 2008. It will be played at rallies this weekend that mark the Obama re-election campaign’s official beginning.

There have been at least two radical-left publications named “Vorwaerts” (the German word for “Forward”). One was the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany whose writers included Friedrich Engels and Leon Trotsky. It still publishes as the organ of Germany’s SDP, though that party has changed considerably since World War II. Another was the 1844 biweekly reader of the Communist League. Karl Marx, Engels and Mikhail Bakunin are among the names associated with that publication.

East Germany named its Army soccer club ASK Vorwaerts Berlin (later FC Vorwaerts Frankfort).

Vladimir Lenin founded the publication “Vpered” (the Russian word for “forward”) in 1905. Soviet propaganda film-maker Dziga Vertov made a documentary whose title is sometimes translated as “Forward, Soviet” (though also and more literally as “Stride, Soviet”).

Conservative critics of the Obama administration have noted numerous ties to radicalism and socialists throughout Mr. Obama’s history, from his first political campaign being launched from the living room of two former Weather Underground members, to appointing as green jobs czar Van Jones, a self-described communist.

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Cops Promise Their Will Be Drones Flying In US

WASHINGTON, DC – Look up. Drones are “certainly” coming to the skies over the Beltway in the next few years, one area police chief says.

The use of drones in the D.C. area became public information last week, after the Federal Aviation Administration released a list of agencies currently or previously permitted to use the unmanned aerial vehicles. It included many federal departments, such as Agriculture, Homeland Security and Energy as well as local organizations such as Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Tech.

“Drones will certainly have a purpose and a reason to be in this region in the next, coming years,” said Fairfax County Police Chief David Rohrer, while speaking on WTOP’s “Ask the Chief” program on Monday. “Just as a standpoint as an alternative for spotting traffic and sending information back to our VDOT Smart Traffic centers, and being able to observe backups.”

The use of drones over U.S. soil has some in Congress concerned about Americans’ privacy rights.

“The potential for invasive surveillance of daily activities with drone technology is high,” wrote Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., in an April 19 letter to FAA. “We must ensure that as drones take flight in domestic airspace, they don’t take off without privacy protections for those along their flight path.”

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said in the same letter he “proudly suppported” the FAA Modernization and Reform Act that allowed for the domestic use of drones. There are many institutions in his home state that the FAA has cleared for done use, including Texas A&M University, and the police forces in the city of Arlington outside Dallas-Fort Worth and in Montgomery County near Houston.

“However, if used improperly or unethically, drones could endanger privacy and I want to make sure that risk is taken into consideration,” he said.

The police chief of Prince William County, Va., which neighbors Fairfax, is not as focused on the prospect of the alternative monitoring system.

“I really haven’t studied them that much,” says Police Chief Charlie Dean. “I’m sure they’re valuable to some degree, but I don’t know about their capabilities.”

The police chiefs also discussed their officers’ involvement in seeking out illegal immigrants.

Prince William County has received national attention for its aggressive policy of checking the immigration status of every person arrested.

Victims of crimes and witnesses are exempt from such questioning, Deane said Monday. He supported the policy as “fair, lawful and reasonable.”

Upon learning that an arrested person is an illegal immigrant, Prince William police officers then turn over their information to federal authorities, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Fairfax County officers are not required to ask about immigration status after making an arrest, says Rohrer, though officers are trained to ask if they suspect someone might be in the country illegally.

“We are not a sanctuary,” he says.

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New Mobile Application Allows Travelers To Immediately Report Harassment Or Mistreatment By TSA Agents

WASHINGTON, DC — A Sikh advocacy group launched a free mobile application Monday that allows travelers to complain immediately to the government if they feel they’ve been treated unfairly by airport screeners.

Launched at midnight by The Sikh Coalition, the FlyRights app had fielded two complaints by 10 a.m. EDT Monday.

The first complaint came from a woman who said she felt mistreated after she disclosed to a screener that she was carrying breast milk. A man who is Sikh filed the second complaint, saying he was subjected to extra security even though he had not set off any alarms. The woman’s complaint was based on gender and the man’s, religion, said coalition program director Amardeep Singh.

Singh said the Department of Homeland Security and Transportation Security Administration were notified of the app before its launch. The agencies agreed to allow the app to use the agencies’ system for submitting the complaints.

TSA said in a statement that it does not profile passengers on the basis of race, ethnicity or religion and is continually working with communities, including The Sikh Coalition, “to help us understand unique passenger concerns.” The agency said it supports “efforts to gather passenger feedback about the screening process.”

The app, available for iPhone and Android phones, was conceived in response to complaints from Sikhs in the U.S, who since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are routinely subjected to additional inspection, Singh said. Some are made to remove their turbans, which Sikhs wear for religious reasons, Singh said.

The app is intended for everyone who feels they are racially profiled or subjected to other unfair treatment. It is also intended to provide better data on how often such incidents occur.

In light of the shooting of Trayvon Martin, immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona, and the anniversary of the Rodney King trial “it has never been more readily apparent how the practice of racial profiling impacts all Americans,” said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. The conference helped launch the app.

After completing screening, a person can go to the app and click on the “report” button. The app will automatically fill in the person’s name, phone number and email address. The app asks questions such as race and name of airport, as well as the basis of the complaint, such as religion or gender. It has “submit” and “share” buttons to post on social media that a complaint was filed. The app also contains information on rights of passengers and TSA procedures.

The Sikh Coalition gets hundreds of complaints of unfair treatment and profiling, Singh said. By contrast, he said, the Department of Homeland Security said in its last report to Congress on civil rights and civil liberties that 11 people in the U.S. submitted complaints in the first six month of 2011.

“My hope is that this app will exponentially increase the number of complaints filed with the TSA, flood the system so they get that this is a problem. For too long the Transportation Security Administration has been able to tell Congress this is not an issue, nobody’s complaining,” Singh said.

Passengers can ask to speak to supervisors or customer support managers at an airport, contact the TSA Contact Center, submit feedback through “Talk-to-TSA” online or file a civil rights complaint through its website, the agency said.

Prabhjit Singh, a motivational speaker, said he has been profiled 30 times, starting in Feb. 2007 when he was taking an early morning flight from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport to Alabama. In that incident, he was told he had to go through a mandatory pat-down of his turban, even though he had not set off the detector. But after asking for information on the TSA policy, a supervisor told him he could not fly, he said.

“Out of those 30 incidents, I have not yet been able to take myself and write down all the information I needed to and been able to convey that to the Sikh Coalition. This app will allow me to do that,” said Prabhjit Singh, who is not related to Amardeep Singh.

“When I sat down on that airplane, after that experience, I looked around at everybody else … and I thought, they did not have to go through what I had to go through to get on this airplane,” he said.

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Dallas Texas Police Officer Rafael Mendoza Arrested And Suspended After Shooting At A Car – Suspended Last Month After Attacking His Girlfriend

DALLAS, TEXAS – A Dallas police officer, arrested over the weekend for allegedly firing a gun at another vehicle, received a five-day suspension last month over a prior family violence case after the alleged victim decision not to prosecute, police officials said Monday.

In July 2011, Officer Rafael Mendoza was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence and unlawful restraint after his girlfriend alleged he knocked her to the ground, handcuffed her and threatened to send her to prison.

Mendoza’s girlfriend later signed an affidavit of non-prosecution so the charges were not filed, police said.

The department’s internal affairs investigators later concluded that Mendoza precipitated, caused or escalated a domestic disturbance and was untruthful to a supervisor. He received a five-day suspension on March 1.

He also was on administrative leave from July 31 until March 1. He has now been put back on administrative leave as a result of the incident that occurred early Sunday, which my colleague Melissa Repko detailed in this blog item.

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Windsor Ontario Police Officer Det. David Van Buskirk Pleads Guilty After Brutally Beating Blind Doctor

WINDSOR, ONTARIO, CANADA – CBC News has obtained video that shows a Windsor, Ont., police officer beating a doctor who is legally blind.

Det. David Van Buskirk, who attacked Dr. Tyceer Abouhassan on April 22, 2010, pleaded guilty Thursday to assault causing bodily harm.

Video cameras at the Jackson Park Health Centre captured the beating, although much of the physical altercation is slightly out of frame. Afterwards, Van Buskirk wrote in his report that the doctor “”immediately reached out and grabbed my throat and pushed me backward.”

In pleading guilty, Van Buskirk admitted that Abouhassan “did not strike him at all.” He also confirmed that all of the doctor’s reaction “was in lawful resistance to being assaulted by the accused.”
David Van Buskirk has pleaded guilty to assault.David Van Buskirk has pleaded guilty to assault. (CBC News)

Julian Falconer, the lawyer representing Abouhassan, told CBC News that “in the face of denials by this officer and allegations that my client attacked, I think it’s essential that the public see this.”

Abouhassan, who is legally blind, suffered a broken nose, bruised ribs, a torn eyelid and detached retina in the beating.

Adding insult to injury, he was subsequently charged with assaulting a peace officer following the initial investigation by Windsor police, including Det.-Sgts. Paul Bridgeman and Patrick Keane.

Bridgeman watched the video between eight and 10 times before endorsing assault charges against Abouhassan, according to the office of the independent review director.

Both Bridgeman and Keane were charged with discreditable conduct for trying to prevent Abouhassan from filing criminal charges against Van Buskirk. Both were later exonerated.

Falconer said this case is the poster child for the failure of the police disciplinary hearings and a huge embarrassment for Windsor police.

“This was a vicious beating of an innocent doctor-turned-cover-up-turned-conspiracy, pure and simple. And our discipline apparatus couldn’t do a thing about it,” Falconer said.

Abouhassan has filed a lawsuit seeking more that $14 million in damages from the Windsor Police Department, seven of its officers and Smith, the former chief.

Van Buskirk is due to be sentenced on the assault charge Wednesday. Acting police chief Al Frederick has reserved comment until then.

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Newark New Jersey Airport Terminal Shut Down And Passengers Evacuated After Baby Slips Through Security

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - A terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport was shut down for over an hour Friday after officials discovered that a baby hadn’t been properly screened, Transportation Security Administration officials said.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, described the incident as a security breach that occurred at around 1:15 p.m. at a security checkpoint. Terminal C was evacuated and passengers had to go through security screening again.

TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein said a mother and baby went through a metal detector when the machine sounded an alarm. The mother handed the child to the father, who had already been screened. The mother was cleared, but the baby hadn’t been properly screened. The parents and baby left the checkpoint and headed to their gate, Farbstein said.

TSA officers searched for the family in the secure area of the terminal and notified Port Authority police as per protocol, but they emphasized that it was a low-risk situation, Farbstein said.

A TSA official said they had explained the circumstances of the breach to the Port Authority police and recommended against evacuating the terminal since it was a low-risk situation.

Steve Coleman, a Port Authority spokesman, said that it took the TSA more than 30 minutes to notify police of the lapse and that officers “took immediate action to make sure the breach did not endanger passengers or our facility.”

“We’re not going to second-guess a real-time decision made by our police department to err on the side of caution and protect passenger safety,” he said.

The terminal and checkpoint were closed from 1:30 p.m. to 2:50 p.m.

Passenger Jennifer Pallanich said she was on a Houston-bound flight scheduled to depart at about 2 p.m. and boarding had been completed, but because of the breach, the passengers had to evacuate and go through security screening again.

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US Government The Biggest Problem For US Economy

WASHINGTON, DC – Government has become its own worst enemy when it comes to the economy, with public spending putting a damper on growth that otherwise continues at a steady if unspectacular pace.

Friday’s gross domestic product report confirmed what a drag government can be: While consumer spending grew at a 2.9 percent clip, state and local governments cut back spending by 1.2 percent on an annualized basis and the federal government pulled back by 5.6 percent.

As a result, the GDP [cnbc explains] number showed just a 2.2 percent improvement. The report disappointed economists, some of whom had the number as high as 3 percent and beyond, and cast an uncertain future on a stock market dependent on Federal Reserve stimulus for growth.

“None of this is all that surprising, so where is the miss?” wondered Brown Brothers Harriman global currency strategist Marc Chandler, after noting some fairly pedestrian and in-line quarterly growth results. “Contrary to what passes as conventional wisdom, the main drag is coming from the government itself.”

Before anyone starts thinking that Washington suddenly has gotten religion on spending, the bulk of the federal government cuts came from defense spending, which plunged 8.1 percent.

State and local governments, facing the necessity to balance their budgets against declining revenue (not to mention the specter of Meredith Whitney’s muni bond default forecast) likely will continue to cut, though that’s not as certain with their federal counterpart. Washington’s drop in spending came after a 19.1 percent decrease in the fourth quarter of 2011.

“The government spending plunge is unlikely to repeat for a third quarter (in 2012 at least) and an inventory drag in 2Q only masks moderate demand gains,” Citigroup economist Steven C. Wieting said. “But the 1Q GDP data should limit remaining optimism that U.S. economic growth will accelerate significantly this year.”

So what does this all mean?

Investors are watching the Federal Reserve [cnbc explains] closely for signs that the U.S. central bank might step in and provide more stimulus once Operation Twist ends in June.

The Fed currently is buying long-dated bonds and selling shorter-dated notes in an effort to stimulate risk and drive down lending costs. At the same time, it is rolling over the $2.8 trillion already on its balance sheet in the form of Treasurys as well as mortgage and other debt.

Some are hoping that Chairman Ben Bernanke and Co. will be willing to step in with a third round of balance sheet expansion — quantitative easing [cnbc explains] — to keep goosing the market through the economic trudge. But the GDP progress, halting as it is, likely will forestall if not completely derail QE3 prospects.

It’s all part of “Bad Goldilocks” phenomenon, in which the economy doesn’t grow quickly enough to inspire confidence but moves just enough to keep the Fed at bay. Central bank critics worry that all the liquidity efforts will spur inflation, not to mention uncertainty over what happens once the Fed has to start unwinding all that debt it is holding.

Also remember: Out there not so far in the future is the “fiscal cliff” of which Bernanke has warned will appear if Congress cannot agree on deficit reduction and thus face an automatic round of steep spending cuts and tax increases at the end of 2012.

“Enthusiasm for equities is likely to be curbed by a turn in the US profit cycle, an absence of additional unconventional monetary stimulus from the Fed and a renewed flare-up of the crisis in the euro-zone,” John Higgins, senior market economist at Capital Economics, said in a note.

“The latter should weigh particularly heavily on stock markets in the region, even though valuations are now low from a historical perspective and relative to the US,” he added.

Indeed, there’s a lot not to like about an economy that relies on government spending as its primary growth engine. Just ask anyone in Europe.

Ostensibly, the U.S. economy is consumer-driven, with private spending amounting to 70 percent of GDP. But several economists doubted that the robust 2.9 percent spending increase in the first quarter could last, raising further questions about where we go from here.

“We assumed that growth would be driven primarily by final demand, but, inventories contributed 0.6 (percentage points) to GDP, putting real final sales at a weak 1.6 percent annualized growth rate,” said Neil Dutta, U.S. economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “Moreover, the strength in consumer spending and contribution from motor vehicle output look unlikely to repeat in future quarters.”

Government policymakers, then, face a dicey dilemma: Continue spending and risk falling further into the fiscal abyss, or cut back and deal with a prolonged future of uninspiring GDP numbers.

“The dagger (from the GDP letdown) came from a second straight steep drop in federal government spending due to plunging defense outlays,” observed Pierpont economist Stephen Stanley. “Boy, wait until these budget cuts start to kick in.”

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New York State Police Troopers Titus Taggart, Jeremy Smith, And Michael Petrits Suspended Amid Investigation Into Parties That Included Canadian Prostitutes

BUFFALO, NEW YORK – An internal investigation into alleged misconduct has led to the suspension of three State Troopers.

A State Police press release says Titus Taggart, 41, allegedly organized parties that may have involved the promotion of prostitution. The alleged incidents happened when Taggart was off duty. Taggart is assigned to Troop T in Buffalo, which patrols the Thruway.

A NYS Police spokesman in Albany confirms for 13WHAM News that Taggart’s father, Arthur, was a 34-year veteran of the State Police who retired in 1997 as a Colonel who served directly under two past superintendents.

Two troopers who are assigned to the Troop T Henrietta barracks have also been suspended without pay.

Jeremy Smith, 34, and Michael Petritz, 33, are accused of misconduct. A State Police press release says they were not involved in organizing the parties.

The suspensions are the result of an internal investigation and the NY State Police spokesman added that a parallel criminal investigation is also underway. He would not comment on the status of any other investigations by outside agencies. The spokesman was unaware how many Troopers could be caught up in the ongoing investigations.

Numerous media reports have cited sources that claim the women involved were brought into Western New York from Canada.

Criminal charges have not been filed.

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Babysitters To Accompany Secret Service Agents To Keep Them From Overdrinking, Bringing Whores To Their Hotel Rooms, And Out Of Sleazy Bars

WASHINGTON, DC – Embarrassed by a prostitution scandal, the Secret Service will assign chaperones on some trips to enforce new rules of conduct that make clear that excessive drinking, entertaining foreigners in their hotel rooms and cavorting in disreputable establishments are no longer tolerated.

The stricter measures, issued by the Secret Service on Friday for agents and employees, apply even when traveling personnel are off duty.

The policies, outlined in a memorandum obtained by The Associated Press, are the agency’s latest attempt to respond to the scandal that surfaced as President Barack Obama was headed to a Latin American summit in Cartagena, Colombia, earlier this month.

The embattled Secret Service director, Mark Sullivan, urged agents and other employees to “consider your conduct through the lens of the past several weeks.”

Sullivan said the rules “cannot address every situation that our employees will face as we execute our dual-missions throughout the world.” He added: “The absence of a specific, published standard of conduct covering an act or behavior does not mean that the act is condoned, is permissible or will not call for — and result in — corrective or disciplinary action.”

“All employees have a continuing obligation to confront expected abuses or perceived misconduct,” Sullivan said.

Ethics classes will be conducted for agency employees next week.

The changes were intended to staunch the embarrassing disclosures since April 13, when a prostitution scandal erupted in Cartagena involving 12 Secret Service agents, officers and supervisors and 12 more enlisted military personnel who were there ahead of Obama’s visit to the Summit of the Americas.

But the new policies raised questions about claims that the behavior discovered in Cartagena was an isolated incident: Why would the Secret Service formally issue new regulations covering thousands of employees if such activities were a one-time occurrence?

“It’s too bad common-sense policy has to be dictated in this manner,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “New conduct rules are necessary to preventing more shenanigans from happening in the future, and whether these are the best, and most cost effective, rules to stop future misconduct remains to be seen.”

The rules did not mention prostitutes or strip clubs. But they prohibit employees from allowing foreigners, except hotel staff or foreign law enforcement colleagues, into their hotel rooms. They also ban visits to “nonreputable” establishments, which were not defined. The State Department was expected to brief Secret Service employees on trips about areas and businesses considered off-limits to them.

During trips in which the presidential limousine and other bulletproof vehicles are transported by plane, senior-level chaperones will accompany agents and enforce conduct rules, including one from the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., praised the new rules as “very positive steps by the Secret Service to make clear what is expected of every agent and also makes clear what will not be tolerated.”

The Secret Service has forced eight employees from their jobs and was seeking to revoke the security clearance of another employee, which would effectively force him to resign. Three others have been cleared of serious wrongdoing. The military was conducting its own, separate investigation but canceled the security clearances of all 12 enlisted personnel.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano assured senator this week that the incident in Colombia appeared to be an isolated case, saying she would be surprised if it represented a broader cultural problem. The next day, the Secret Service acknowledged it was investigating whether its employees hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of Obama’s visit last year to El Salvador. Prostitution is legal in both Colombia and El Salvador.

“If they are true, the emergence of these anecdotes about past Secret Service misconduct is precisely why our committee will be trying to determine if such behavior is widespread,” said Sen. Joe Lieberman, R-Conn., who heads the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee has asked Sullivan for information “related to misconduct by agents on assignment,” he said.

In a confidential message to senators on Thursday, the Secret Service said its Office of Professional Responsibility had not received complaints about officer behavior in El Salvador but would investigate.

On Capitol Hill, early signs surfaced of eroding support for the Secret Service director. Grassley said Sullivan’s job could be secure if the scandal were an isolated incident. “But if it goes much deeper, you know, nothing happens or nothing’s changed in Washington if heads don’t roll,” Grassley said on CBS “This Morning.”

The White House said the president remained supportive of Sullivan and confident in the capabilities of the Secret Service.

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CISPA Cyber Billl Allows Warrantless Electronic Intelligence Gathering On American Citizens – Dozens Of Corporations Line Up And Pour Funds Into Bill Sponsor Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) Or His PAC

WASHINGTON, DC – With the body of SOPA still warm in the grave, Congress is making another run at a cyber-bill — and the battle over it is starting to look a little familiar.

This one’s not about piracy. Known as CISPA (the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act) the bill would, among other things, allow private companies — internet service providers and others — to turn over information about users to law enforcement and security agencies without a court order. It has bipartisan support (there are 82 Republican co-sponsors and 25 Democratic ones, unusual these days) and a lot of backing from big tech companies. But it has infuriated advocates who claim it lacks protections for individual privacy.

A vote in the House is expected next week, which has privacy advocates scrambling — this week a coalition launched a Twitter campaign similar to the one that brought the SOPA bill to the public’s attention. This campaign has led quite a few people to OpenSecrets.org looking for information on the bill, who backs it in Congress and who supports those lawmakers. For instance, we dug in the data to find out who has been contributing to the bill’s original sponsor, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich).

It turns out that of the several dozen companies that have lobbied on CISPA, 12 have given Rogers or his leadership PAC (Majority Initiative To Keep Electing Republicans) at least $103,000 just in this election cycle. The single biggest contributor to Rogers that also lobbied on the bill was SAIC, a huge defense contractor that provides electronics and information systems to the Pentagon and other parts of the government. Here’s the company’s lobbying profile and here’s SAIC PAC’s list of contributions to candidates since the start of 2011.

And this is the list of companies that both lobbied on the bill and contributed to Rogers or his PAC:

Organization Individual PAC Totals
SAIC Inc - $20,000 $20,000
Lockheed Martin – $15,000 $15,000
AT&T Inc $1,000 $11,000 $12,000
CMS Energy – $12,000 $12,000
Northrop Grumman – $11,000 $11,000
General Dynamics – $8,000 $8,000
National Rural Electric Cooperative Assn – $6,000 $6,000
National Cable & Telecommunications Assn – $5,000 $5,000
Time Warner Cable – $5,000 $5,000
US Telecom Assn – $3,000 $3,000
Cellular Telecom & Internet Assn – $3,000 $3,000
Exxon Mobil – $3,000 $3,000

TOTAL $103,000

You can read our profile of the bill (H.R. 3523) here. You’ll be able to see both a list of companies that have lobbied on it (which will be updated this coming week) and the list of all co-sponsors of the bill. With these tools, you’ll be set to start exploring this bill’s supporters (and who their financial backers are) but keep in mind these few things:

Lobbying disclosure reports show who lobbied on a bill and how much they spent on lobbying overall, not just on that bill. And spending on lobbying is different from spending on campaign contributions. But we also have campaign contribution information for the lobbyists themselves and the companies that hire them.
Just because a lawmaker has taken a stance on or cosponsored a bill and he or she has received campaign money from a company or lobbyist with an interest in the legislation doesn’t mean there was a quid pro quo. Most of the companies that have lobbied on the bill have many different interests in Washington. For instance, General Dynamics, which has a keen interest in this new bill, also lobbied on 51 other pieces of legislation, and spent $11.4 million on lobbying altogether.

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New Rules For Agents As Second Secret Service Sex Scandal Surfaces

WASHINGTON, DC – Seeking to shake the disgrace of a prostitution scandal, the Secret Service late on Friday tightened conduct rules for its agents to prohibit them from drinking excessively, visiting disreputable establishments while traveling or bringing foreigners to their hotel rooms.

The new behaviour policies apply to Secret Service agents even when they are off duty while traveling, barring them from drinking alcohol within 10 hours of working, according to a memorandum describing the changes obtained by The Associated Press. In some cases under the new rules, chaperones will accompany agents on trips. The embattled Secret Service director, Mark Sullivan, urged agents and other employees to “consider your conduct through the lens of the past several weeks.”

The Secret Service said it would conduct a training session on ethics next week.

Mr Sullivan said the rules “cannot address every situation that our employees will face as we execute our dual-missions throughout the world.” He added: “The absence of a specific, published standard of conduct covering an act or behaviour does not mean that the act is condoned, is permissible, or will not call for – and result in – corrective or disciplinary action.”

“All employees have a continuing obligation to confront expected abuses or perceived misconduct,” Mr Sullivan said.

The agency-wide changes were intended to staunch the embarrassing disclosures since April 13, when a prostitution scandal erupted in Colombia involving 12 Secret Service agents, officers and supervisors and 12 more enlisted military personnel who were there ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to a South American summit.

But the new policies announced on Friday raised questions about claims that the behaviour discovered in Cartagena was an isolated incident: Why would the Secret Service formally issue new regulations covering thousands of employees if such activities were a one-time occurrence?

“It’s too bad common sense policy has to be dictated in this manner,” said Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “New conduct rules are necessary to preventing more shenanigans from happening in the future, and whether these are the best, and most cost effective, rules to stop future misconduct remains to be seen.”

The new rules did not mention prostitutes or strip clubs, but they prohibit employees from allowing foreigners – except hotel staff or foreign law enforcement colleagues – into their hotel rooms. They also ban visits to “non-reputable” establishments, which were not defined. The State Department was expected to brief Secret Service employees on trips about areas and businesses considered off-limits to them.

During trips in which the presidential limousine and other bulletproof vehicles are transported by plane, senior-level chaperones will accompany agents and enforce conduct rules, including one from the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

In a Wonderland moment, the operator of the “Lips” strip club in San Salvador, Dan Ertel, organised a news conference late on Friday and said he didn’t know whether any Secret Service employees were among his customers. Mr Ertel said the club was the only one in the country where prostitutes don’t work. But a dancer who identified herself by her stage name, Yajaira, told the AP earlier in the day that she would have sex with customers for money after her shift ended.

“You can pay for dances, touch a little, but there’s no sex,” she said. “But if somebody wants, if they pay me enough, we can do it after I leave at 3 in the morning.”

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Republican Peter King, R-N.Y., praised the new rules as “very positive steps by the Secret Service to make clear what is expected of every agent and also makes clear what will not be tolerated.”

The Secret Service already has forced eight employees from their jobs and was seeking to revoke the security clearance of another employee, which would effectively force him to resign. Three others have been cleared of serious wrongdoing. The military was conducting its own, separate investigation but cancelled the security clearances of all 12 enlisted personnel.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano assured senators earlier this week that the incident in Colombia appeared to be an isolated case, saying she would be surprised if it represented a broader cultural problem. The next day, the Secret Service acknowledged it was investigating whether its employees hired strippers and prostitutes in advance of Obama’s visit last year to El Salvador. Prostitution is legal in both Colombia and El Salvador.

In a confidential message to senators on Thursday, the Secret Service said its Office of Professional Responsibility had not received complaints about officer behaviour in El Salvador but would investigate.

“Fifteen years in business, it’s the one club in this country that does not prostitute the girls,” said Mr Ertel, the owner of Lips, at his news conference. “Look, every guy that comes in there propositions the girls, and the answer is always going to be ‘no.’ Was there Secret Service in there? I have no idea.”

On Capitol Hill, early signs surfaced of eroding support for the Secret Service director. Mr Grassley said Mr Sullivan’s job could be secure if the scandal were an isolated incident. “But if it goes much deeper, you know, nothing happens or nothing’s changed in Washington if heads don’t roll,” Mr Grassley said on CBS “This Morning.”

A member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Republican Chip Cravaack, R-Minn., warned against a “knee-jerk reaction” and urged a full investigation. But he compared Mr Sullivan as the agency’s director to the captain of a foundering ship: “I’m a Navy guy,” he said. “The captain of the ship can be in his cabin sleeping and if the ship runs aground the captain of the ship is responsible. I’m not saying anybody’s head should roll here, but I expect the captain of the ship to do the right thing.”

The White House said on Friday that the president remained supportive of Mr Sullivan and confident in the capabilities of the Secret Service.

The fallout from the scandal remained raw. When an AP reporter on Friday visited the home in Maryland of Gregory Stokes, who lost his job in the agency’s first round of disciplinary action, someone in the home called police, who asked the AP to leave his property.

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Connecticut Prison Officals Want Inmates Who Masturbate To Be Labeled As Sex Offenders And Spend 5 More Years In Prison

HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT – Connecticut prison officials are asking for a new law that would label inmates who commit lewd acts in their cells as sex offenders.

Department officials say it’s an ongoing problem at prisons such as the high security Northern Correctional Institution in Somers, where some inmates purposefully masturbate in front of staff, often female guards, counselors or other prison workers.

“If they were on the outside and they did something like this, they would be arrested and held accountable as a sex offender,” said Brian Garnett, a department spokesman. “And frankly, the same thing should hold true on the inside.”

Lisamarie Fontano, president of AFSCME Local 387, which represents prison workers, says about 500 such instances were written up at Northern last year. She said the problem involves a relatively small group of inmates, and has very little to do with sex.

“It’s about power,” she said. “If you can demoralize somebody, and some of the acts that women have described to me are absolutely horrific, then by all means the inmates feel more powerful over them.”

The legislation would make public indecency in a correctional institution a class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, a sentence that would be mandated to be tacked on to any current sentence. It also would designate the convict as a sex offender.

The bill would only apply to inmates who are deemed to be targeting staff with their activity, and would not be used when someone inadvertently walks in on an inmate in a private moment, Garnett said.

Garnett said it has proven difficult to charge inmates under current sexual assault statutes for behavior that happens in their cells.

Fontano said that internal discipline hasn’t deterred the behavior, but that inmates may stop if they know they will be labeled as a sex offender when they leave prison.

“This would be something that would be with them for the rest of their lives,” she said. “This isn’t something where you lose commissary privileges within the walls of the facility. Typically, a male prisoner does not want to be labeled as a sex offender.”

The bill has passed out of committee and is awaiting action by the full Legislature, which adjourns on May 9.

The move to pass legislation comes at the same time that the department is removing all pornography, material that contains “pictorial depictions of sexual activity or nudity,” from the prisons. Inmates were given a year to get rid of all their porn and the total ban takes effect in July.

The ban is intended to improve the work environment for prison staffers who might be inadvertently exposed to the material.

Garnett said the two issues are not related, but said both are expected to have a positive impact on the work environment in the prisons

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At Least 3 Attackers Have Invoked Name Of “Trayvon Martin” In Beatings Of White Victims

SANFORD, FLORIDA – In at least three cases nationwide, attackers have invoked the name of Trayvon Martin in the beating of white victims, with one alleged attacker saying anger over the case was the motivating factor for the assault.

In the latest incident, Alton L. Hayes, an 18-year-old African American in suburban Chicago, told police that he jumped a white 19-year-old because he was upset about the Sanford, Fla., case, police told the Chicago Tribune.

Hayes and a 15-year-old from Chicago attacked the victim about 1 a.m. April 17 in Oak Park, west of Chicago, police said.

Hayes told police the pair grabbed the man from behind, hit him several times and threatened him with a tree branch, saying, “Empty your pockets, white boy,” FOX Chicago reported. The pair then allegedly threw the man to the ground and hit him in the head several more times before taking off. The man called police, who stopped the pair a few blocks away.

On Wednesday, Hayes was charged with a hate crime, as well as with attempted robbery and aggravated battery. He was being held in Cook County jail on $80,000 bail Thursday, according to jail records. The 15-year-old, who is also black, was charged with attempted robbery.

Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old walking through a gated community, was shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on Feb. 26. The shooting, and the Police Department’s initial refusal to charge Zimmerman, sparked outrage and protests across the country. A special prosecutor was appointed to the case, and she ultimately charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder.

Now the name “Trayvon” is being invoked not only to describe other cases — in Baltimore, New York and beyond — in which young people have been injured or killed, but also as a sign of anger during attacks on whites.

On Saturday, a mob of about 20 African Americans allegedly beat a white man on the porch of his Mobile, Ala., home with chairs, pipes, brass knuckles and paint cans. The man’s sister said one of the assailants shouted, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon,” WKRG reported.

Despite pleas from the man’s relatives for the incident to be investigated as a hate crime, the attack on Matthew Owens, 40, was investigated as an assault. Investigators insisted that the Martin case had nothing to do with the assault, that the attack arose out of an ongoing dispute between Owens and a neighbor.

On Wednesday, police arrested 44-year-old Terry Rawls for first-degree assault in connection with the attack, WKRG reported.

“I can tell you this without a doubt, 100% certainty, that Trayvon Martin was not the motivating factor in this incident,” Mobile Police Cpl. Chris Levy told WKRG.

Mobile County Dist. Atty. Ashley Rich told WKRG on Wednesday that she was conferring with counterparts at the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI, and that she was leaving it up to federal officials to decide whether the incident merited hate crime charges.

As Owens remained hospitalized this week, conservative talk shows and websites buzzed with news of the attack and supporters started the Facebook page “Justice for Matthew Owens.” Mobile’s mayor, who is African American, tried to clear the air Wednesday and distance the incident from events in Sanford, Fla.

“We don’t have that kind of information that would tell us this stemmed from some hate crime that started somewhere else,” Mayor Samuel Jones told Local15, “or even one that started here that was strictly based on race.”

The Martin case was also mentioned in connection with a third attack on an elderly white Ohio man late last month.

Dallas Watts, 78, told police he was walking home in Toledo on March 31 when he was confronted by six youths, white and black, ages 11 to 17, one of whom directed the group to “take him down,” FoxToledo.com reported.

Watts said he pleaded, “Why me? Remember Trayvon,” in a “peaceful way.” He told reporters that only seemed to anger the youths.

“[Get] that white [man]. This is for Trayvon. … Trayvon lives, white [man]. Kill that white [man],” the boys are quoted as saying in a police report cited by the Toledo Blade.

Three of the six youths have since been charged in connection with the attack, but police did not find evidence to support hate crime charges, FoxToledo.com reported.

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Chicago Illinois Public School Teaching Kids How To Protest – Teacher Says NRA Wants “Porch Monkeys” To Die

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – Jones College Prep, a Chicago Public Schools “selective enrollment” school, held “Social Justice Week” in March, a collection of events geared towards turning students into activists. See the schedule of events here.

According to a flyer on the school’s website:

Social Justice Week was created to promote community advancement through dialogue and community service based activism. Moreover, we hope to unify the voice of various JCP and community organizations in which to facilitate collaboration for the betterment of the community at large and promote a unified human rights advancement initiative.

The school is, according to U.S. News & World Report, a Top 100 high school in the country. It’s one of the best of the best–the cream of the crop.

Demographically, Jones College Prep is fairly balanced. Statistics from 2007-2008 show black enrollment is 23.4%, white enrollment is 29.5% and Hispanic enrollment is 33.7%.

Yet the school administrators, through Social Justice Week, gave a platform to community organizers who in turn provided students biased information and encouraged them to take specific steps to protest, EAGnews.org reports exclusively.

When we heard about the week, we contacted school officials requesting to observe and record the events. All parties consented.

You can watch the exclusive video below.

On Wednesday of Social Justice Week, Black Star Project, a Chicago-based community organizing group, was brought into the school after school hours to teach students about “non-violent” protesting. Led by Phillip Jackson, former “Chief of Education” under former Mayor Richard Daley, the optional discussion was focused on students fighting back against gun crime.

Black Star Project, according to its website, is funded by Open Society Foundations (i.e. George Soros), Best Buy, ING and Toyota Motor Sales, among others.

But Jackson apparently had no interest in allowing students to come to their own conclusions on gun ownership.

Jackson’s co-presenter, Camille Williams of the Peace in the Hood movement, made several inflammatory statements about gun ownership and the National Rifle Association. She claimed the NRA is indifferent to gun violence. She also asserted she has received emails from the NRA and/or its members claiming she is “going to hell” for her advocacy and “these porch monkeys deserved to die,” referring to black children killed by guns.

EAGnews.org contacted Jackson regarding these emails, wishing to make them public. We received no response.

When one student stated that she believed everyone should be able to own guns, her opinion was dismissed.

Williams: Right now in Springfield, they are moving to pass conceal and carry so that everybody can carry guns. Are you all in agreement with that?

Student: Um…I am because I think if you take away guns from regular citizens, the criminals and the police are the only ones who have them, so…

Williams: did you look at this?

[At that point, she held up a list to young people who have been killed with guns.]

Student: Yes, ma’am, I did.

Williams: How many of these kids on here are able to carry a gun?

Student: None of them.

Williams: And they are the leading targets.

At this particular session of Social Justice Week, no opposing views were offered. It appeared only certain outcomes were being sought. Jackson strongly encouraged the students to develop forms of non-violent protest. “I’m not telling you to do it, but if you were going to,” he said, leading the proverbial horse to the water.

“I’m just saying,” he said on several occasions.

Jackson then offered the idea of creating a symbolic graveyard on the school lawn of headstones featuring the names of Chicago residents killed with guns.

Do the leaders of Jones College Prep understand what’s going on?

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Contempt Citation Against Digraced US Attorney General Eric Holder In The Works In Wake Of His Department Supplying Mexican Drug Cartels With Thousands Of Firearms – Holder Still Hiding Documents

WASHINGTON, DC – House Republicans investigating the Fast and Furious scandal have gotten the go-ahead by their party leaders to pursue a contempt citation against Attorney General Eric Holder, senior congressional aides told CBS News. The resolution will accuse Holder and his Justice Department of obstructing the congressional probe into the allegations that the government let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The citation would attempt to force Holder to turn over tens of thousands of pages documents related to the probe, which has entered its second year.

For months, congressional Republicans probing ATF’s Fast and Furious “Gunwalker” scandal – led by California Republican Darrell Issa, have been investigating a contempt citation. They’ve worked quietly behind the scenes to build support among fellow Republicans, since it could ultimately face a full House vote. CBS News has confirmed that House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, has given Rep. Issa, who heads the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the go-ahead to proceed. A 48-page long draft contempt resolution is being prepared.

How does a contempt proceeding against the executive branch work?

Both Democrats and Republicans have used it, but rarely. After former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten refused to comply with congressional subpoenas on the George W. Bush administration firing of U.S. attorneys in 2008, the Democrat-led House voted to hold them in contempt.

The House then went to a federal district court seeking a declaratory judgment and injunction ordering Miers and Bolten to comply with the subpoenas. The district court ruled in favor of the House, the ruling was subsequently stayed, and a compromise was reached.

Under President Clinton, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee voted to hold Attorney General Janet Reno in contempt over documents regarding campaign finance law violations.

In the case of Holder and Fast and Furious, the Oversight Committee’s contempt resolution would eventually have a full House vote and, if passed, Congress could seek enforcement through federal courts. Passage of the resolution itself could, however, encourage the Justice Department to comply even without a court order.

The Justice Department has maintained it is cooperating with the investigation and has made more than 6,400 pages of documents available for congressional review. However, congressional investigators say the Justice Department has supplied the documents piecemeal and highly redacted, and that tens of thousands of pages of internal documents are responsive to congressional subpoenas.

A contempt citing by Congress against the executive branch, a strong sanction, is considered by some to be politically risky; especially if it doesn’t succeed. Sources say that’s why Republican staffers have taken a great deal of time trying to build support among colleagues in advance of the citation’s formal release, which could come in the next few weeks if not sooner.

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Veteran Lawmaker Wants Independent Investigation Of US Secret Service – “…Nothing’s Changed In Washington If Heads Don’t Roll”

WASHINGTON, DC – A veteran Republican lawmaker says it’s time for an inspector general’s investigation to find how widespread the problems at the Secret Service are.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, says the nation needs to know whether reports of sexual misbehavior by agents traveling in advance of the president reflect part of the culture of the Secret Service. He says national security and the president’s safety could be at risk.

Grassley told CBS’ “This Morning” that the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general can handle the investigation — so long as that office can maintain its independence from the department and the White House.

Grassley said Friday that officials must be held accountable. As he put it, “You know nothing’s changed in Washington if heads don’t roll.”

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President Obama Has Hit List Of Romney Supporters – Obama ReElection Campaign Attacking Private Donors To Romney Campaign

WASHINGTON, DC – Try this thought experiment: You decide to donate money to Mitt Romney. You want change in the Oval Office, so you engage in your democratic right to send a check.

Several days later, President Barack Obama, the most powerful man on the planet, singles you out by name. His campaign brands you a Romney donor, shames you for “betting against America,” and accuses you of having a “less-than-reputable” record. The message from the man who controls the Justice Department (which can indict you), the SEC (which can fine you), and the IRS (which can audit you), is clear: You made a mistake donating that money.

Are you worried?

Richard Nixon’s “enemies list” appalled the country for the simple reason that presidents hold a unique trust. Unlike senators or congressmen, presidents alone represent all Americans. Their powers—to jail, to fine, to bankrupt—are also so vast as to require restraint. Any president who targets a private citizen for his politics is de facto engaged in government intimidation and threats. This is why presidents since Nixon have carefully avoided the practice.

Save Mr. Obama, who acknowledges no rules. This past week, one of his campaign websites posted an item entitled “Behind the curtain: A brief history of Romney’s donors.” In the post, the Obama campaign named and shamed eight private citizens who had donated to his opponent. Describing the givers as all having “less-than-reputable records,” the post went on to make the extraordinary accusations that “quite a few” have also been “on the wrong side of the law” and profiting at “the expense of so many Americans.”

These are people like Paul Schorr and Sam and Jeffrey Fox, investors who the site outed for the crime of having “outsourced” jobs. T. Martin Fiorentino is scored for his work for a firm that forecloses on homes. Louis Bacon (a hedge-fund manager), Kent Burton (a “lobbyist”) and Thomas O’Malley (an energy CEO) stand accused of profiting from oil. Frank VanderSloot, the CEO of a home-products firm, is slimed as a “bitter foe of the gay rights movement.”

These are wealthy individuals, to be sure, but private citizens nonetheless. Not one holds elected office. Not one is a criminal. Not one has the barest fraction of the position or the power of the U.S. leader who is publicly assaulting them.

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Associated Press/The News & Observer

Barack Obama at the University of North Carolina, April 24

“We don’t tolerate presidents or people of high power to do these things,” says Theodore Olson, the former U.S. solicitor general. “When you have the power of the presidency—the power of the IRS, the INS, the Justice Department, the DEA, the SEC—what you have effectively done is put these guys’ names up on ‘Wanted’ posters in government offices.” Mr. Olson knows these tactics, having demanded that the 44th president cease publicly targeting Charles and David Koch of Koch Industries, which he represents. He’s been ignored.

The real crime of the men, as the website tacitly acknowledges, is that they have given money to Mr. Romney. This fundraiser of a president has shown an acute appreciation for the power of money to win elections, and a cutthroat approach to intimidating those who might give to his opponents.

He’s targeted insurers, oil firms and Wall Street—letting it be known that those who oppose his policies might face political or legislative retribution. He lectured the Supreme Court for giving companies more free speech and (falsely) accused the Chamber of Commerce of using foreign money to bankroll U.S. elections. The White House even ginned up an executive order (yet to be released) to require companies to list political donations as a condition of bidding for government contracts. Companies could bid but lose out for donating to Republicans. Or they could quit donating to the GOP—Mr. Obama’s real aim.

The White House has couched its attacks in the language of “disclosure” and the argument that corporations should not have the same speech rights as individuals. But now, says Rory Cooper of the Heritage Foundation, “he’s doing the same at the individual level, for anyone who opposes his policies.” Any giver, at any level, risks reprisal from the president of the United States.

It’s getting worse because the money game is not going as Team Obama wants. Super PACs are helping the GOP to level the playing field against Democratic super-spenders. Prominent financial players are backing Mr. Romney. The White House’s new strategy is thus to delegitimize Mr. Romney (by attacking his donors) as it seeks to frighten others out of giving.

The Obama campaign has justified any action on the grounds that it has a right to “hold the eventual Republican nominee accountable,” but this is a dodge. Politics is rough, but a president has obligations that transcend those of a candidate. He swore an oath to protect and defend a Constitution that gives every American the right to partake in democracy, free of fear of government intimidation or disfavored treatment. If Mr. Obama isn’t going to act like a president, he bolsters the argument that he doesn’t deserve to be one.

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CHANGE: US Home Ownership Falls To Record Lows

PRINCETON, NJ - The 62% of Americans who say they own their own home marks a new low since Gallup began tracking self-reported homeownership in 2001.

The current level of homeownership marks a decline from 68% in 2011. For most of the prior decade, roughly seven in 10 Americans reported owning their own home. While the recession and financial crisis took place in 2008-2009, homeownership rates didn’t begin to reflect the bursting of the housing bubble until 2010, when 65% of Americans reported owning their own home — the lowest level recorded before this year.

Fifty-three percent of Americans believe their house is worth more today than when they bought it, down significantly from 80% in 2008 and 92% in 2006. It confirms that many Americans are underwater in terms of the value of the home they currently own.

Houses that were purchased many years ago, well before the collapse of the real estate market, are more likely to be worth more today than when they were bought. Accordingly, older Americans are less likely to say their home’s value has not appreciated since they bought it — 31% of Americans aged 50 and older say this. In contrast, 62% of Americans aged 30 to 49, many of whom likely bought homes closer to the collapse, say their home is not worth more.

Lower home prices combined with continued low mortgage interest rates have 70% of Americans believing now is a “good time” to buy a house. This is about the same as in the past several years, but up from 53% in 2008.

Americans are much more positive about the direction of housing prices this year than they were last year. They are significantly more likely to expect the average price of houses in their area to increase over the next 12 months than to decrease, 33% vs. 23%. Last year, Americans were about evenly split, 28% to 30%.

Today’s housing price expectations differ sharply from those during the housing price boom. In 2005, 70% of Americans expected house prices in their area to increase, while 5% expected them to decrease. Expectations moderated as prices hit record levels in 2006-2007. Expectations became more negative during the recession and financial crisis. In 2010, price expectations were similar to those anticipated today.

Most Americans recognize that now is likely a good time to buy a house. Mortgage rates remain at historical lows and Federal Reserve policy seems determined to keep them low for some time to come. While recent Case-Shiller measurements show home prices declining, about one in three Americans expect house prices to increase over the next 12 months and another 44% expect prices to remain unchanged. Relatively stable prices and low interest rates would seem to make buying a house extremely attractive in many local housing markets.

Part of the explanation for decade-low homeownership likely has to do with today’s broken housing finance system that depends on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA/VA. Potential home buyers can take advantage of today’s low mortgage interest rates only if they can meet significantly more stringent down payment and underwriting standards than was the case prior to the financial crisis.

Further, while record home foreclosures and distress sales resulting in declining house values have also played a role in the declining rate of homeownership in recent years, so has the weakness of the overall economy. Buying a home is the most important purchase and largest financial commitment most people make during their lives. For most Americans, it is hard to feel secure enough to make such a commitment when the economy is growing slowly and they see nearly one in five workers underemployed, that is, unemployed or employed part time but willing to work full time.

Declining homeownership rates suggest some Americans are beginning to doubt that homeownership remains part of the American dream — or at least, an attainable part of it. From an economic perspective, U.S. economic growth needs to be much stronger than it has been in order to achieve the hiring necessary to get unemployment rates to the “normal” levels of the past. This doesn’t seem likely as long as housing activity remains relatively moribund and homeownership rates are declining.

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Nearly Half Million In Taxpayer Cash Spent On Michelle Obama’s Vacation In Spain – Similar Costs When Obama’s Went To South Africa And Botswana

WASHINGTON, DC – It cost taxpayers nearly a half-million dollars for first lady Michelle Obama to travel to Spain in 2010, according to an analysis by Judicial Watch.

The right-leaning watchdog group estimated that the trip cost $467,585. It based its analysis on documents obtained from the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Air Force.

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said it took his group “two years and a lawsuit to get these documents out of the Obama administration.”

“It is hypocritical for President Obama to fire GSA officials for wasteful conference spending, while his family went on a luxury vacation in the Costa del Sol Spain that cost taxpayers nearly half a million dollars,” Fitton said.

Among the various travel costs, the group estimated — using the Defense Department’s 2010 published hourly rates — that it cost the government $199,323 to fly to Spain and back to the United States.

The New York Times reported that those on the trip included the first lady, one of her daughters and “two friends and four of their daughters, as well as a couple of aides and a couple of advance staff members.”

Fitton’s group has previously disclosed the cost of sending the first family on overseas trips. Its analysis indicated that it cost $424,142 to fly the first family to South Africa and Botswana in 2011.

White House press secretary Jay Carney declined to comment on the report during a press briefing Thursday.

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ISLAM IN ACTION: Egyptians Can Have Sex With Dead Spouse’s Body After Death, Minimum Age Of Marriage Lowered To 14, And Women’s Right To Education And Employment Tossed

EGYPT – Egyptian husbands will soon be legally allowed to have sex with their dead wives – for up to six hours after their death.

The controversial new law is part of a raft of measures being introduced by the Islamist-dominated parliament.

See Also: BILLIONS IN US TAXPAYER CASH DIVERTED TO EGYPT AS ECONOMIC AND MILITARY AID

It will also see the minimum age of marriage lowered to 14 and the ridding of women’s rights of getting education and employment.

Egypt’s National Council for Women is campaigning against the changes, saying that ‘marginalising and undermining the status of women would negatively affect the country’s human development’.

Dr Mervat al-Talawi, head of the NCW, wrote to the Egyptian People’s Assembly Speaker Dr Saad al-Katatni addressing her concerns.

Egyptian journalist Amro Abdul Samea reported in the al-Ahram newspaper that Talawi complained about the legislations which are being introduced under ‘alleged religious interpretations’.

The subject of a husband having sex with his dead wife arose in May 2011 when Moroccan cleric Zamzami Abdul Bari said marriage remains valid even after death.

He also said that women have the right to have sex with her dead husband, alarabiya.net reported.

It seems the topic, which has sparked outrage, has now been picked up on by Egypt’s politicians.

TV anchor Jaber al-Qarmouty slammed the notion of letting a husband have sex with his wife after her death under the so-called ‘Farewell Intercourse’ draft law.

He said: ‘This is very serious. Could the panel that will draft the Egyptian constitution possibly discuss such issues? Did Abdul Samea see by his own eyes the text of the message sent by Talawi to Katatni?

‘This is unbelievable. It is a catastrophe to give the husband such a right! Has the Islamic trend reached that far? Is there really a draft law in this regard? Are there people thinking in this manner?’

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First Arrest Of Savage Beast In “Justice For Trayvon” Beating Of Mobile Alabama White Man On His Front Porch

MOBILE, ALABAMA – Mobile Police made their first arrest in the mob beating of Matthew Owens. 44-year-old Terry Rawls surrendered Wednesday on assault charges.

“This here is an ongoing dispute with neighbors, that’s what this is,” explained Corporal Chris Levy with the Mobile Police Department.

Police say the tension between Owens and Rawls had been escalating for three years. In fact, that wasn’t the first time police were called to Delmar Drive. Police say Rawls has attacked Owens before, but charges were never filed because they say Owens instigated it.

“Unfortunately that’s what this is, and these things can lead to violence and that’s what happened,” said Levy.

Matthew Owens suffered severe head injuries and was taken to USA Medical Center after witnesses say a mob of 20 or so people attacked him with paint cans, pipes, and chairs across the street from his sister’s house. But police only expect to arrest three more people. They claim most of the mob were just bystanders.

“What we know is that Mr. Owens was fussing at some kids about playing basketball in the street,” said Levy. “These kids then went back and told their parents about the exchange they had with Mr. Owens, who were having a get together down the street, came down to where Mr. Owens is, and there was a series of racial slurs exchanged, and there was a fight.”

Witnesses claim one of those attackers screamed, “That’s justice for Trayvon” as she drove away. That comment has created has created an uproar nationwide, but police say Florida’s Trayvon Martin case has nothing to do with this.

“I can tell you without a doubt 100 percent that the Trayvon Martin case was not the motivating factor, said Levy. “That 100 percent, it is an ongoing incident between people that have been fighting for a few years now.”

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New US Secret Service Scandal – El Salvador: Agents Bragged About Routine Use Of Third-World Whores While On Out Of Country Details For Presidential Visits

WASHINGTON, DC – Seattle-based Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne (KIROTV- CBS- COX MEDIA GROUP) just returned from El Salvador, where he interviewed a U.S. government subcontractor who worked extensively with the Secret Service advance team (snipers, K-9 and explosives sweeps) in San Salvador prior to President Obama’s trip there in March of 2011.

The eyewitness says he joined about a dozen Secret Service agents and a few U.S. military specialists at a strip club in San Salvador a few days before President Obama and his family arrived in El Salvador to meet with its new president, Mauricio Funes.

This source witnessed the majority of the men drink heavily (“wasted,” “heavily intoxicated”) at the strip club. He says most of the Secret Service “advance-team” members also paid extra for access to the VIP section of the club where they were provided a number of sexual favors in return for their cash. Although our source says he told the agents it was a “really bad idea” to take the strippers back to their hotel rooms, several agents bragged that they “did this all the time” and “not to worry about it.” Our source says at least two agents had escorts check into their rooms. It is unclear whether the escorts who returned to the hotels were some of the strippers from the same club.

These alleged incidents in El Salvador occurred a full year prior to recent revelations that secret service agents used prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, on a presidential trip this month.

To further confirm information provided about behaviors in El Salvador that reportedly occurred in March of 2011, Halsne interviewed the owner of the San Salvador strip club in which the subcontractor said they visited. The strip club’s owner confirmed a large number of U.S. secret service agents (and some military escorts) “descended on his club” that week prior to President Obama’s visit. He claims agents were there at least three nights in a row. “No surprise to me.” The owner told Halsne his club routinely takes care of high-ranking employees of the U.S. embassy in San Salvador as well as visiting FBI and DEA agents. The owner says his reputation for “security” and “privacy” makes him a popular strip club owner with “those who want to be discreet.” He told Halsne during a lengthy interview, he doesn’t allow prostitution inside the club and that all his “girls” are at least 18-years-old. He says the girls can do what they want after work, but he discourages them from making contact with customers at other locations.

This investigation is still fast-developing. Halsne has names of some of the agents allegedly involved in the partying and has viewed records which add credibility to the subcontractor’s eyewitness testimony. KIRO-TV is currently writing and editing-together a series of television stories for air beginning at 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 26.

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New South Wales Australia Police Force Caught Pirating Software – Handing It Out “Like Confetti” To Other Law Enforcement Agencies And Employees

NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA – UK software company Micro Focus is suing New South Wales (NSW) Police Force for unauthorised use of its ViewNow product, which ABC program 7:30 reports is used to access a critical database that contains information on most of the Australian state’s citizens.

Micro Focus’ Australasian Managing Director Bruce Craig told the program that the force does have licence for 6,500 users of the software, but has been “handing out our software like confetti” to other law enforcement agencies and internal users.

The unauthorised use of the application apparently came to light when the NSW Ombudsman told Micro Focus it would soon be using ViewNow. But Micro Focus knew the Ombudsman did not have a licence. Further investigations revealed that other law enforcement agencies were using the application. NSW Police, meanwhile, cannot say how many of its 20,000 staff are using the software, but Micro Focus feels it is more than 6,500

NSW’s Police Integrity Commission, Department of Corrective Services Ombudsman’s Office all settled with Micro Focus, but the Police Force has not offered the company any information about how many of its workers use the software. Nor has it reached an agreement or admitted fault.

Craig says that means Micro Focus will pursue the claim in the courts, as he feels that the Police Force is not particularly interested in investigating itself

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Moron: Chicago Illinois Savages Attacked And Robbed White Teen Due To Shooting Death Of A Stranger 1200 Miles Away In Florida

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – An black 18-year-old suspected of a violent attack on a white teen told Chicago police the beating was motivated by his anger over the Trayvon Martin case in Florida, MyFoxChicago reports.

Alton Hayes III was charged with a hate crime after he and a 15-year-old attacked the 19-year-old man at about 1:00 a.m. on April 17 in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb.

Police say Hayes and his teenage partner, who has not been named since he is a juvenile, picked the man apparently at random and pinned his arms to the side.

Hayes allegedly then picked up a tree branch and demanded the victim give them his belongings, saying, “Empty your pockets, white boy.”

The suspects then rifled through the victim’s pockets, threw him to the ground and punched him numerous times in the head and back. Both suspects are black and the victim is white, according to police.

MyFoxChicago reports Hayes told police he decided to attack his victim because he is angry over the death of Trayvon Martin. Hayes said he chose his victim because he is white.

Hayes was charged with attempted robbery, aggravated battery and a hate crime, all felonies. His teenage comrade was referred to juvenile court.

Trayvon Martin, 17, is the unarmed black teenager who was fatally shot as he walked through a gated community in Sanford, Fla. on Feb. 26. George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder, went into hiding Monday as he awaits trial.

Emotions have run high across the US over the incident, in large part because six weeks passed before Zimmerman was charged — leading many African-American community leaders to decry what they perceived as racism in the justice system.

On Saturday night, a white man was beaten by a throng of African-Americans in Mobile, Ala., after telling a group of children to stop playing basketball in the middle of a street — with one witness claiming she heard an assailant exclaim, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon,” WKRG -TV reported.

However, the Mobile Police Department said the assault on Matthew Owens, 40, was not being investigated as a hate crime.

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Simi Valley California Passes Law That Allows Its Police Officers First Viewing Of All Pornographic Videos Produced In The City To Check Condom Compliance

SIMI VALLEY, CALIFORNIA - The city of Simi Valley has passed a new law that is aimed at keeping adult film productions from entering the municipality.

The city council passed the law at a meeting Monday night.

Beginning in May, all film productions must use condoms at all times. Under the new law, producers have to submit unedited copies of their adult films to the Simi Valley Police Department for review.

The law does have an exemption when filming for “personal use.”

The new ordinance stems from a similar measure passed by the City of Los Angeles in January.

Many adult films are made in Chatsworth, near LA County’s border with Simi Valley. The council feared those productions would simply move a few miles west, into Simi Valley.

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Video Catches Brutal Beating Of Subdued Man By Meriden Connecticut Police Officer Evan Cossette – Police Chief’s Sun – Faces At Least Two Other Brutality Complaints

MERIDIAN, CONNECTICUT – A Connecticut police officer has been captured on video throwing several punches at a subdued man on the floor and then proceeding to Taser him while another officer holds him.

The officer, Evan Cossette, who works in Meriden, is being sued by the man, Joey Bryans, after the 30-year old claimed that the video evidence showed police brutality.

The grainy and out of focus video-tape from the early morning of January 23 of this year shows Bryans leaving MidSate Medical Centre for a cigarette.

According to police reports, the hospital staff were worried Bryans might injure himself because he was drunk and contacted Cossette and another Meriden police officer, Mark Nowak

The pair were already at the hospital as part of an unrelated call.

Walking out into the hospital car-lot wearing only a white T-shirt, Bryans is seen to be followed by Cossette and Nowak.

Unfortunately, the camera goes out of focus and moves away from the scene for around 10-12 seconds.

When it returns, Cossette’s right arm can be viewed hitting Bryans at least five times while Nowak holds his legs.

The video then features Cosette reaching into his belt for a Taser and shocking Bryans twice, the first for nine seconds and the second time for four seconds according to police records.

However, the official report of the incident differs from the account seen on the video.
Watched by the hospital security guards the police officers continue to work to subdue Bryan allegedly using excessive force

Watched by the hospital security guards the police officers continue to work to subdue Bryan allegedly using excessive force

Cossette wrote that Bryans was running away from the hospital when he is clearly walking and says that both he and Nowak shouted several verbal commands to Bryans to stop running.

In addition, Cossette reported that Bryans ‘tensed his arms and body up, forming fists maintaining an aggressive fighting posture.’

He also claims that Bryans ‘spun around and engaged him in a physical altercation’ which meant that the pair were ‘forced to bring him to the ground’.

The gap in the grainy and inconclusive video between Nowak first grabbing Bryans to when Cossette is clearly punching him is 12 seconds.

Meaning that the ‘aggressive fighting posture’ by Bryans must have occurred during that time period.

Cossette wrote in his report that the punches had ‘little to no effect’, which forced him to use the Taser

Already under investigation by a federal grand jury, Officer Evan Cossette has had three police brutality complaints made against him in just over a year and received a written warning for one.

However, in this case the Internal Affairs investigator at Meriden police ruled that Cossette had not violated any police procedures.

Bryans’ attorney, Sally A. Roberts, declined to comment at length, saying only that the video ‘speaks for itself.’

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TSA Agents Accepted Bribes As High As $2,400 To Allow Suitcases Filled With Cocaine, Methamphetamine, And Marijuana To Pass Through Security At Los Angeles California LAX Airport

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – Two current and two former TSA employees have been arrested in an alleged drug and bribery scheme by screeners who allowed large shipments of narcotics to pass through security at Los Angeles International Airport in exchange for cash.

Another three people, suspected drug couriers, are allegedly involved. One is in state custody. A second is expected to surrender on Thursday. Authorities are searching for a third.

According to a 22-count grand jury indictment unsealed Wednesday, the Transportation Security Administration employees took payments of as much as $2,400 to allow suitcases filled with cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana to pass through X-ray machines at LAX while TSA screeners looked the other way.

The indictment outlines five separate incidents that occurred from February 2011 through July 2011.

TSA employees allegedly conspired with either drug couriers or an undercover operative working with the Drug Enforcement Administration to smuggle narcotics through checkpoints.

In one incident, two suspects allegedly agreed to have a third suspect bring about 5 kilograms of cocaine in a bag through a security checkpoint manned by one of the TSA screeners. But that third screener failed to follow the instructions and went to the wrong security checkpoint, where TSA officials uninvolved in the scheme seized the bag filled with cocaine.

In the final incident outlined in the indictment, two TSA screeners allegedly conspired with the DEA confidential source to allow about 8 pounds of methamphetamine to pass through a security checkpoint staffed by one of the two screeners. After the drugs made it through security, the suspect allegedly met the confidential source in an LAX restroom to receive $600 in cash, which was the second half of the agreed-upon $1,200 fee.

The U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California says all the defendants were arrested either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. They face arraignment Wednesday afternoon in U.S. District Court.

If convicted, each of the current and former TSA officials faces potential life in prison sentences.

“Airport screeners act as a vital checkpoint for homeland security, and air travelers should believe in the fundamental integrity of security systems at our nation’s airports,” said U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. in a news release. “The allegations in this case describe a significant breakdown of the screening system through the conduct of individuals who placed greed above the nation’s security needs.”

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Congressmen And Senators Attempting Constitutuional Amendment Thats Strips Basic Right To Freedom Of Speech From Corporations

WASHINGTON, DC – Does Comedy Central have a right to free speech?

Some congressional Democrats believe no association of human beings formed in the manner Comedy Central has been formed ought to have freedom of speech. Accordingly, they have sponsored constitutional amendments to incorporate this principal into our basic law.

This is no joke.

The First Amendment says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

On Capitol Hill last week, several congressmen and senators held a forum to draw attention to their efforts to ratify a constitutional amendment that — at a minimum — strips corporations of freedom of speech.

They have offered multiple amendments. Some seem to deny corporations all constitutional rights. Some focus more narrowly on limiting, or regulating, the money that could be raised and spent supporting or opposing candidates for office. All would diminish the Bill of Rights.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who caucuses with the Democrats, was a leading voice at the forum. He has cosponsored an amendment with Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida that may be the most radical of all.

The key language in the Sanders-Deutch Amendment says: “The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations, limited liability companies, or other private entities established for business purposes or to promote business interests under the laws of any state, the Untied States, or any foreign state.”

It also says: “Such corporate and other private entities established under law are subject to regulation by the people through the legislative process so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.”

How would this amendment apply to Comedy Central?

Well, Comedy Central is merely a cog in a larger conglomerate called Viacom — a self-described “multinational company.” Some of Viacom’s other components include MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, Spike TV, TV Land and Paramount Pictures.

Given that Viacom is not a “natural person” but a “for-profit corporation,” the Sanders-Deutch amendment literally says “the rights protected by the Constitution of the United States … do not extend” to it.

The Fourth Amendment says the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, and papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause.” Does the Sanders-Deutch Amendment, therefore, mean Congress could pass a law empowering federal agents to enter Comedy Central, and other Viacom facilities, and seize its papers without showing probable cause or securing a warrant?”

Why not? Sanders-Deutch expressly says the rights protected by the Constitution “do not extend to for-profit corporations.”

Some might object that a law targeting Viacom in this way would violate the principle of due process.

But in a nation whose Constitution included the Sanders-Deutch Amendment, the federal agents carrying out the congressional command to invade Viacom’s offices could say: So what?

After all, the Fifth Amendment says “nor shall any person … be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” It does not say “any corporation.” And, again, Sanders-Deutch says constitutional rights are for “natural persons and do not extend to for-profit corporations.”

The second element of the Sanders-Deutsch Amendment appears no less radical. It says Congress can regulate corporations and other private entities “so long as such regulations are consistent with the powers of Congress and the States and do not limit the freedom of the press.”

Why does it expressly carve out just that part of the Bill of Rights that protects freedom “of the press”? The First Amendment, as it currently stands, also protects the free exercise of religion, freedom of speech generally, the freedom to peaceably assemble and the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Yes, many of this nation’s most powerful — and liberal — news organizations are corporations and private entities that would like to keep — and ought to be able to keep — their freedom “of the press.” But are there not also many corporations and private entities in this country today that engage freely in exercising their religion, their right of speech, their right of assembly and their right to redress the government when they have a grievance with its policies?

No doubt Comedy Central — and its parent Viacom — enjoy exercising many of these rights and ought to be able to continue doing so.

Referring to the forum at which Sanders and Deutch promoted their proposed constitutional amendment, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said that her party now has a “clear agenda” to “amend the Constitution to rid it of this ability for special interests to use secret, unlimited, huge amounts of money flowing to campaigns.” She did not specify which amendment this agenda embraced.

Does it seek to abridge just freedom of speech — or the entire Bill of Rights?

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Video Surfaces Of Top EPA Official Admitting Agency’s “Philosophy” Is To “Crucify” And “Make Examples” Of Oil And Gas Companies

WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) took to the Senate floor today to draw attention to a video of a top EPA official saying the EPA’s “philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make examples” of oil and gas companies – just as the Romans crucified random citizens in areas they conquered to ensure obedience.

Inhofe quoted a little-watched video from 2010 of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, Region VI Administrator Al Armendariz, admitting that EPA’s “general philosophy” is to “crucify” and “make examples” of oil and gas companies.

In the video, Administrator Armendariz says:

“I was in a meeting once and I gave an analogy to my staff about my philosophy of enforcement, and I think it was probably a little crude and maybe not appropriate for the meeting, but I’ll go ahead and tell you what I said:

“It was kind of like how the Romans used to, you know, conquer villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go in to a little Turkish town somewhere, they’d find the first five guys they saw and they’d crucify them.

“Then, you know, that town was really easy to manage for the next few years.”

“It’s a deterrent factor,” Armendariz said, explaining that the EPA is following the Romans’ philosophy for subjugating conquered villages.

Soon after Armendariz touted the EPA’s “philosophy,” the EPA began a smear campaigns natural gas producers, Inhofe’s office noted in advance of today’s Senate speech:

“Not long after Administrator Armendariz made these comments in 2010, EPA targeted US natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, Texas and Wyoming.

“In all three of these cases, EPA initially made headline-grabbing statements either insinuating or proclaiming outright that the use of hydraulic fracturing by American energy producers was the cause of water contamination, but in each case their comments were premature at best – and despite their most valiant efforts, they have been unable to find any sound scientific evidence to make this link.”

In his Senate speech, Sen. Inhofe said the video provides Americans with “a glimpse of the Obama administration’s true agenda.”

That agenda, Inhofe said, is to “incite fear” in the public with unsubstantiated claims and “intimidate” oil and gas companies with threats of unjustified fines and penalties – then, quietly backtrack once the public’s perception has been firmly jaded against oil and natural gas.

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Crimes In New York City Subways Skyrockets 20 To 30 Percent Since January

NEW YORK, NEW YORK – The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is reporting a major surge in New York City subway crime.

The agency said pick pockets and other thieves are bumping up the crime rate by more than 20 percent this year compared to last, reports CBS 2’s Dave Carlin.

On her guard Wednesday was East Village resident Mariam Figueroa. She said she doesn’t wear any visible jewelry and her electronics are hidden every time she steps into a station and on to a subway train.

“I’m not showing anything, you know, in the train because I really don’t feel safe,” Figueroa said.

Crime is way up in these areas, to the point where straphangers can be left vulnerable and trapped.

There were 232 robberies in the first quarter of 2012, according to the NYPD. That’s a bump of 31.8 percent.

In addition, there were 393 grand larcenies, mostly iPhones and iPads, during that same period, an increase of 23.6 percent.

Almost a third of the victims in these cases were reportedly asleep when they were robbed, the NYPD said.

“I guess it’s up to you to know not to fall asleep. [Some] can’t really help it, though. You fall asleep you fall asleep,” straphanger Freddie Cantillop said.

As the MTA continues with its “stay awake and stay alert” policy of 30-second public service announcements, some MTA board members want more than just increased patrols. They are pushing for a new prosecutor appointed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to specifically handle subway crimes.

They point to the rap sheet of 69-year-old Thomas Coles, who is heading back to jail for attempting to rob a straphanger. Board members argue his nine-month sentence is too lenient for a repeat offender.

Former NYPD detective and security expert Sal Lifrieri told Carlin no matter what the government does to try and make people safer so much of it is up to the people, themselves.

“Pay attention where your valuables are. Don’t flash money. Don’t show your wallet. Don’t go through your wallet. Don’t make yourself an easier mark,” Lifrieri said.

And it’s not just gadget thieves straphangers have to weary of. On Tuesday, police said they were looking for two suspects in two unrelated crimes on the subway.

One man is wanted for allegedly taking an upskirt picture of a straphanger while the other is wanted for public lewdness, police said.

But at the MTA’s monthly board meeting on Wednesday, Chairman Joseph Lhota insisted crime has decreased month-by-month since January.

“Crime stats are down from March of 2011 to March 2012, so I’m a little bit taken a back by the amount of reports that keep talking about crime increasing on the subways,” he said. “I think the NYPD is doing a very good job monitoring crime.”

Last month, Lhota said he would be meeting with the city’s five district attorneys to discuss the possibility of banning repeat subway crime offenders from the underground system.

Earlier reports Wednesday said NYPD Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was set to meet with Lhota to discuss subway crime, but officials said the two regularly hold meetings and that no special discussion was scheduled.

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Brazilian Hooker Injured Last Year By US Embassy Staffer And 2 Marines Now Suing US Government – Embassy Tracked Down Whore And Paid Medical Bills For Broken Collarbone She Sufffered After Being Tossed From A Car

WASHINGTON, DC – A Brazilian prostitute injured last year in a scuffle with a U.S. Embassy staffer and two Marines is now suing the federal government — a development in the aftermath of the Secret Service prostitution scandal in Columbia.

The incident occurred in late 2011 in the city of Brasilia when at least one of the Americans pushed the woman from a car outside of a nightclub.

The Embassy tracked down the women and paid her medical bills, but she now intends to sue, a senior U.S. official has confirmed to Fox News.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday the incident has been fully investigated and that the Marines and the embassy staff member have been punished.

“I have no tolerance for that kind of conduct, not here or any place in the world,” Panetta told reporters in Brazil.

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Family Misses Flight After TSA Agents Target 7 Year Old Doctor’s Daughter With Cerebral Palsy For Traumatic Agressive Screening

WASHINGTON, DC – The Transportation Security Administration is once again the subject of national scrutiny, this time after aggressively screening a 7-year-old female passenger with cerebral palsy which caused her family to miss their flight.

The girl, identified as Dina Frank in a report by The Daily, was waiting with her family on Monday to board a flight departing from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York headed to Florida.

Since Dina walks with the aid of leg braces and crutches, she cannot pass through airport metal detectors, and must instead submit to a pat-down by TSA agents.

Dina, who is also reportedly developmentally disabled, is usually frightened by the procedure. Her family reportedly requests that agents on hand take the time to introduce themselves to her.

However, the agents on duty at the time began to handle her aggressively instead.

Air travel is difficult to the family due to Dina’s disabilities, but the nature of Monday’s inspection was especially traumatic for the child.

“They make our lives completely difficult,” her father, Dr. Joshua Frank, a Long Island pediatrician, told The Daily. “She’s not a threat to national security.”

Frank taped the encounter, which ended when a supervisor inspected her crutches and let them pass. But agents followed up and insisted upon doing a full inspection of Dina.

Ultimately, the family missed their flight.

“They’re harassing people. This is totally misguided policy,” Frank told The Daily. “Yes, I understand that TSA is in charge of national security and there’s all these threats. [But] for her to be singled out, it’s crazy.”

Dina, from Long Island, had recently experienced triumph after Botox and phenol injections helped her to gain control of her legs, enough to take several unassisted steps.

After being born prematurely and suffering from bleeding in the brain, Dina struggled for years to get around, even enduring a double hip replacement to assist in her recovery, CBS New York reported.

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Obama’s Attorney Chokes Again As Federal Government Finds Itself On Thin Ice While Attacking Arizona Immigration Laws – Claims Feds Have Limited Resources And Should Have The Right To Limit Calls About Possible Illegal Immigrants

WASHINGTON, DC – Supreme Court justices took a dim view of the Obama administration’s claim that it can stop Arizona from enforcing immigration laws, telling government lawyers during oral argument Wednesday that the state appears to want to push federal officials, not conflict with them.

The court was hearing arguments on Arizona’s immigration crackdown law, which requires police to check the immigration status of those they suspect are in the country illegally, and would also write new state penalties for illegal immigrants who try to apply for jobs.

The Obama administration has sued, arguing that those provisions conflict with the federal government’s role in setting immigration policy, but justices on both sides of the aisle struggled to understand that argument.

“It seems to me the federal government just doesn’t want to know who’s here illegally,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said at one point.

The Arizona law requires all police to check with federal officials if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. The government argues that is OK when it’s on a limited basis, but said having a state mandate for all of its law enforcement is essentially a method of trying to force the federal government to change its priorities.

Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. said the federal government has limited resources and should have the right to determine the extent of calls it gets about possible illegal immigrants.

“These decisions have to be made at the national level,” he said.

But even Democratic-appointed justices were uncertain of that.

“I’m terribly confused by your answer,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who went on to say that the federal government can always decline to pick up illegal immigrants when Arizona officials call.

The Obama administration was on its firmest ground when it argued Arizona should not be allowed to impose state penalties such as jail time against illegal immigrants who try to seek jobs.

Federal law chiefly targets employers, not employees, and Mr. Verrilli said adding stiffer penalties at the state level is not coordination. He said Congress’s 1986 immigration law laying out legal penalties was meant to be a comprehensive scheme, and Congress left employees untouched — and Justice Sotomayor seemed to agree.

“It seems odd to think the federal government is deciding on employer sanctions and has unconsciously decided not to punish employees,” she told Paul D. Clement, who argued the case on behalf of Arizona.

A decision is expected before the end of the court’s term this summer.

Only eight justices were present for the arguments. Justice Elana Kagan recused herself from the case, presumably because she was the Obama administration’s solicitor general in 2010, when the law was being debated in Arizona.

Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the measure into law, was present for the arguments, as were members of Congress who follow the immigration issue: Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the top Democrat on the House immigration subcommittee, and Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican who has fought for an immigration crackdown.

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Veteran US Marine Corps Sergeant Gets Other Than Honorable Discharge For Criticizing Less Than Competent President

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – The Marine Corps said Wednesday it has decided to discharge a sergeant for criticizing President Barack Obama on Facebook.

The Corps said Sgt. Gary Stein will be given an other-than-honorable discharge for violating Pentagon policy limiting speech of service members.

The San Diego-area Marine has served nearly 10 years in the Marine Corps. He has said he was exercising his free-speech rights.

The discharge will mean he loses all benefits.

A federal judge previously denied a request to block military discharge proceedings against Stein, who called Obama an enemy on Facebook.

U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff ruled then that the military has the right to respond to Stein’s online comments in a case that has called into question the Pentagon’s policies regarding social media and the limits regarding the speech of active duty military personnel.

Attorney J. Mark Brewer told Huff the entire process violates the First Amendment, which federal courts have the right to uphold.

Huff disagreed, calling Stein’s postings “truly troubling.” Service members have had their speech limited since the Civil War, especially if their comments are believed to disrupt good order and discipline.

The judge pointed out Stein’s March 1 comments on a Facebook page used by Marine Corps meteorologists in which the sergeant stated, “Screw Obama and I will not follow all orders from him.”

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Obama Lawyer Worried That Inforcing AZ State Laws, That Parallel Federal Laws, Will Result In “Mass Incarceration” Of Illegal Immigrants And Will Cause “Significant Foreign Relations Problems”

WASHINGTON, DC – The lawyer arguing for the Obama administration against provisions in Arizona’s controversial immigration law said Wednesday that if the U.S. Supreme Court upholds S.B. 1070 “mass incarceration” of Latinos would cause “significant foreign relations problems.”

During oral arguments before the high court on the law – which allows state police to check the immigration status of individuals stopped, detained or arrested for other reasons – Solicitor General Donald Verrilli responded to Justice Antonin Scalia’s remarks that Arizona seems to be merely enacting laws that are already federal statutes.

“Well, what I think they are going to do in Arizona is something quite extraordinary, that has significant real and practical foreign relations effects,” Verrilli said. “And that’s the problem, and it’s the reason why this power needs to be vested exclusively in the federal government.”

Verrilli said Arizona’s “Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act” takes that power away from the government and gives it to the state.

“And so – so, you’re going to have a situation of mass incarceration of people who are unlawfully present,” he argued. “That is going to raise – poses a very serious risk of raising significant foreign relations problems.

“And these problems are real,” Verrilli continued. “It is the problem of reciprocal treatment of the United States’ citizens in other countries.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy responded: “So you’re saying the government has a legitimate interest in not enforcing its laws?”

“No,” Verrilli replied. “We have a legitimate interest in enforcing the law, of course, but it needs to be – but these – this court has said over and over again, has recognized that the balance of interest that has to be achieved in enforcing the immigration laws is exceedingly delicate and complex, and it involves consideration of foreign relations, it involves humanitarian concerns, and it also involves public order …”

Of two million Latinos in Arizona, Verrilli told the court, “only 400,000 at most are there illegally.”

Scalia suggested that the government could take action to prevent the incarceration of illegal aliens.

“Well, can’t we avoid that particular foreign relations problem by simply deporting these people?” Scalia asked. “Look, free them from the jails.”

During the one-hour session both conservative and liberal justices seemed skeptical of the government’s case. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was nominated by President Obama and is the first Hispanic to serve, told Verrilli at one point that she was “terribly confused” by his remarks.

“It seems to me that the federal government just doesn’t want to know who’s here illegally,” commented Chief Justice John Roberts.

Attorney Paul Clement, arguing on behalf of Arizona, said the Ninth Circuit federal court decision that set in motion the case coming before the Supreme Court was “inverting fundamental principles of federalism.”

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law two years ago. Several groups, including the Department of Justice, challenged the law in court.

Only eight justices will decide the case since Justice Elena Kagan recused herself because of her work on immigration during her tenure as Solicitor General.

The court is expected to rule on the case by the end of its current term this summer. Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and Utah have proposed or enacted similar legislation.

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Strip Clubs And Hiring Prostitutes While Secret Service Agents Are On The Road Is Nothing New

WASHINGTON, DC – Some Secret Service employees accused of misconduct in the Colombian prostitution scandal are privately contending that their conduct didn’t warrant dismissal because senior managers tolerated similar behavior during official trips, according to people familiar with the employees’ thinking.

Several of the men who agreed to resign under pressure last week are also considering reversing their decisions and fighting to keep their jobs, said the people knowledgeable about the case.

The prospect of Secret Service agents sharing embarrassing tales about rank-and-file employees and superiors partying to the hilt could bring more anguish to an agency reeling from scandal.

Those close to the accused employees said that in an effort to fight for their jobs they could opt to divulge details of how colleagues spent some of their downtime on presidential trips — drinking heavily, visiting strip clubs and cavorting with women for hire.

“Of course it has happened before” said one agent not implicated in the matter, remarking on the Secret Service’s history of occasionally licentious partying. “This is not the first time. It really only blew up in this case because the [U.S. Embassy] was alerted.”

In a statement Tuesday, Assistant Director Paul S. Morrissey said the service “is committed to conducting a full, thorough and fair investigation in this matter, and will not hesitate to take appropriate action should any additional information come to light.”

President Obama, visiting the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Tuesday, faced questions from late-night host Jimmy Fallon about the quality of the president’s protectors. Obama stressed that the actions of a few should not overshadow the dedication of the agency.

“The Secret Service, these guys are incredible,” Obama said, according to a press pool report of his visit. “They protect me, they protect our girls. A couple of knuckleheads shouldn’t detract from what they do. What they were thinking, I don’t know. That’s why they’re not there anymore.”

Twelve Secret Service employees and 11 military service members have been implicated in the misconduct ahead of Obama’s trip this month to Cartagena, Colombia, for an economic summit. The men are accused of heavy drinking, visits to strip clubs and payments to prostitutes.

Last week, the agency moved to oust six of the service’s employees, including two supervisors, and cleared a seventh of serious misconduct. On Tuesday, it made decisions on the other five, saying that two more had agreed to resign, two would retain their service employment but face demotion, and another would be recommended for dismissal but could work for other federal agencies.

Lawrence Berger, attorney for several employees who were recommended for removal, declined to comment on his clients’ cases.

As the investigation continues, differing accounts have emerged about the men’s alleged behavior on the night of April 11 and morning of April 12. Congressional officials briefed on the investigation have said some of the men argued that they did not know the women were prostitutes when they brought them back to the Hotel Caribe, where they were lodging, not far from the Hilton where Obama was scheduled to stay.

In an internal employee-only briefing Tuesday, Secret Service security officials said that not all of the men may have had sexual encounters with prostitutes, according to a person familiar with the briefing. But the officials said that the employees implicated in Cartagena violated policy simply by soliciting prostitutes and negotiating prices for services, whether they received the services or not. In Colombia, prostitution is legal, but hotel guests are often asked to pay a fee if an additional guest joins them overnight.

The people familiar with the accused employees said some of them have said there was no sexual activity because the men were so drunk that they fell asleep immediately after bringing the women to their rooms.

Agents not involved in the Colombia trip, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss matters publicly, said the events in Cartagena may be embarrassing, but they are not without precedent. They pointed to a 2009 visit to Buenos Aires by former President Bill Clinton, whose protective detail included agents and uniformed officers. During that trip, the agents said, members of the detail went out for a late night of partying at strip clubs.

“You take a bunch of guys out of the country and have a lot of women showering them with attention, bad things are bound to happen,” one agent said.

The scandal has been a deep blow to morale among current and former agents, who feel tarred by the behavior of the relatively small group of men, said James Huse Jr. , a former assistant director. He called the alleged misconduct “an egregious failure on the part of those people involved.”

One former agent disputed the suggestion that agents and officers accused of misdeeds in Cartagena risked impairing their abilities to perform their assignments after Obama arrived two days later. “Some guys could have a good time Wednesday night, and Friday morning they would be on their post, shaved and ready to go,” said this person, who emphasized that he does not condone paying prostitutes for sex.

Huse said he is particularly dumbfounded that the men partied so openly during an era when smartphones and social media can so easily spread details of misbehavior. “We live in different age that makes the behavior of these people more impossible to comprehend,” he said. “What were they thinking?”

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Crazed Obama Administration Now Wants To Criminalize Those Whose Children Do Chores On Family Farms

WASHINGTON, DC – A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves.

The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land.

Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.”

“Prohibited places of employment,” a Department press release read, “would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.”

The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course.

Rossie Blinson, a 21-year-old college student from Buis Creek, N.C., told The Daily Caller that the federal government’s plan will do far more harm than good.

“The main concern I have is that it would prevent kids from doing 4-H and FFA projects if they’re not at their parents’ house,” said Blinson.

“I started showing sheep when I was four years old. I started with cattle around 8. It’s been very important. I learned a lot of responsibility being a farm kid.”

In Kansas, Cherokee County Farm Bureau president Jeff Clark was out in the field — literally on a tractor — when TheDC reached him. He said if Solis’s regulations are implemented, farming families’ labor losses from their children will only be part of the problem.

“What would be more of a blow,” he said, “is not teaching our kids the values of working on a farm.”

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the average age of the American farmer is now over 50.

“Losing that work-ethic — it’s so hard to pick this up later in life,” Clark said. “There’s other ways to learn how to farm, but it’s so hard. You can learn so much more working on the farm when you’re 12, 13, 14 years old.”

John Weber, 19, understands this. The Minneapolis native grew up in suburbia and learned the livestock business working summers on his relatives’ farm.

He’s now a college Agriculture major.

“I started working on my grandparent’s and uncle’s farms for a couple of weeks in the summer when I was 12,” Weber told TheDC. “I started spending full summers there when I was 13.”

“The work ethic is a huge part of it. It gave me a lot of direction and opportunity in my life. If they do this it will prevent a lot of interest in agriculture. It’s harder to get a 16 year-old interested in farming than a 12 year old.”

Weber is also a small businessman. In high school, he said, he took out a loan and bought a few steers to raise for income. “Under these regulations,” he explained, “I wouldn’t be allowed to do that.”

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Fargo North Dakota Police Officer Bret Witte, Previously Disciplined For Sex With Teen In Patrol Car, Left Patrol Car Unlocked, And Bulletproof Vest, Handcuffs, Taser Weapon, Radio, Knife, And Ammo Disappear

FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA – A Fargo police officer disciplined for having sex in his police car in 2002 has now been disciplined for leaving his police car unlocked, leading to the theft of police equipment.

In the latest incident, officer Bret Witte left an unmarked police vehicle unlocked in his driveway on April 11 and someone stole several items from it, said Fargo police Lt. Joel Vettel.

The items included several pairs of handcuffs, a bulletproof vest, a handheld radio, a Taser, two loaded ammunition clips for a handgun and a knife, Vettel said. One set of handcuffs was recovered the next day in Moorhead after a man called dispatchers to say he needed help getting out of them, according to a search warrant filed in Clay County District Court.

Aware of the theft from the Fargo police car, Moorhead police questioned three people about the handcuffs, including the man who had a set of handcuffs on his right wrist, the search warrant states.

The handcuffed man told police an acquaintance pulled the cuffs out of a backpack and placed them on him.

The acquaintance told police the handcuffs belonged to the person who was wearing them and he was unsure where they came from.

A third man, brother of the man wearing the cuffs, told police the handcuffs belonged to a friend of his brother, but he would not provide the person’s name. No charges have been filed, but Fargo and Moorhead police say the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

Vettel said Witte received a letter of reprimand for leaving valuable items in a car and leaving the car unlocked, something he said police often warn the public not to do.

In the 2002 incident, Witte lost 15 days without pay after admitting to supervisors he had sexual relations in his squad car with an 18-year-old woman he was dating at the time. The same woman was arrested in 2004 as part of a Fargo prostitution sting and later convicted.

Vettel confirmed Monday that Witte also was involved in an incident in which he tried to use a Taser on a driver who was leaving the scene of a traffic stop. It was determined that the use of force fell outside of department policy, Vettel said. He said Witte’s latest disciplinary action would have taken into account Witte’s past performance.

“We look at not only the situation at hand, but also the totality of his entire career and work history,” Vettel said, adding that the decision would also have been based in part on the type of discipline other officers received for similar incidents.

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Des Moines Police Officer Brandon Singleton Crashed Patrol Car, Took Off, Five Hours Latter Needed Help Changing Tire, And Other Officers Found Meth And Pot In His Car – Previously Arrested On Drug Charges

DES MOINES, IOWA – A Des Moines police officer had methamphetamine and marijuana in his patrol car Tuesday morning when he was involved in at least his second traffic accident during almost five years with the department, authorities said.

Officer Brandon Singleton, 28, of Pleasant Hill crashed into a vehicle on the city’s east side, then drove away, police said. He allegedly misled co-workers about the details of the accident and was later arrested.

Police said it didn’t appear Singleton had the drugs in his car for legitimate reasons. He was charged with drug possession and a traffic offense.Singleton and the city of Des Moines also are being sued over a 2010 traffic accident.

Police Sgt. Chris Scott said Singleton apparently crashed his vehicle around 1 a.m. Tuesday in the 3800 block of East Ovid Avenue. A neighbor told police he heard a noise and saw a police car at the scene.

Over five hours later, at 6:34 a.m., Singleton told dispatchers he needed help changing a tire in the 2600 block of Dean Avenue — over three miles away. A police supervisor noticed damage on the patrol car that didn’t add up with Singleton’s description of what had happened: The car had two flat tires and some body damage, Scott said.

An officer allegedly spotted marijuana in the car. That prompted a search that turned up meth and drug paraphernalia, police said. Scott said there was no indication Singleton was under the influence of any illegal substance when he was arrested, although a long time had passed since the accident.

Scott did not specify how much meth and marijuana was found, but he said the amounts led police to think the drugs were for personal use, rather than part of an investigation or an arrest.

The investigation was already in progress when the owner of the damaged car from the hit-and-run called police Tuesday morning. Officers examined the damage to both vehicles and concluded that Singleton was involved, Scott said.

He did not have information on where Singleton may have been between the initial accident and his call for service.

Scott said he could not comment on Singleton’s history with the department, which he joined in 2007. He did say that Singleton was known as a “hard worker” among the officers on his shift.

Singleton is charged with possession of marijuana, possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia, as well as hit-and-run. He was booked at the Polk County Jail about 4:50 p.m. Tuesday, but he was released at 5:20 p.m. on the condition that he attends court proceedings. No initial court date was available. He was not required to post bond, the Polk County Sheriff‘s Office said.

Police placed Singleton on paid leave pending an investigation. His most recent salary was not available Tuesday.

Polk County court records show a Brandon Singleton the same age as the Des Moines officer was arrested for misdemeanor cocaine possession in 2003 — a charge that Polk County authorities later declined to prosecute in 2004.

Singleton was hired by the Des Moines police department in 2007.

Singleton, and the city of Des Moines, also face a trial in May in a civil lawsuit stemming from a 2010 traffic accident with a woman who was driving past Singleton’s stopped police car. Attorney John Nemminger said Jo Ann Meyer was driving on Southeast 14th Street when Singleton pulled into traffic and struck her vehicle. The incident caused less than $1,000 of damage, Nemminger said, but was fatal to Meyer’s older-model car.

“He seemed like a pretty good guy, frankly,” Nemminger said of the officer. “He was honest and forthright about his part of it.”

Court records show Brandon Singleton, 28, also faces a foreclosure lawsuit on a Pleasant Hill townhome. Records show the homeowners’ association won a small claims judgment against him last September for $2,420 in unpaid fees.

Scott, the police spokesman, declined to release any recordings from Singleton’s vehicle or radio communications, saying they were evidence for the investigation.

He said officials do review the criminal histories of prospective police officers. In the case of past drug use or arrests, Scott said, the department looks at factors including frequency and the length of time that has passed since a person used a drug or was arrested.

While Scott was not aware of Singleton’s 2003 drug arrest, he said that any committee hiring him as an officer would have reviewed the charge.

“I’m sure that the committee that hired him felt that he’d made a bad mistake and he’d learned from it and moved on,” he said.

Scott said he could not remember a similar incident during his 11 years with Des Moines police.

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Pedophile Veteran Woodland Park New Jersey Police Officer Steven Vigorito Jr. Charged With Seeking Sex With 12 Year Old Girl After Sending Her Explicit Photos Of Himself In Uniform

WOODLAND PARK, NEW JERSEY - A New Jersey police officer sent a 12-year-old girl explicit photos of himself in uniform and tried to set up a sexual encounter with her, days after meeting the girl while assisting her family in an unrelated police matter, authorities said Wednesday.

Woodland Park Police Officer Steven Vigorito Jr. pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges ranging from attempted aggravated sexual assault to luring and enticing a child. He was being held on $250,000 bail following his arrest while on duty Tuesday night. A message left after-hours for the public defender who represented him at the arraignment was not returned.

Passaic County Prosecutor Camelia Valdes said the girl’s mother complained to the police department on Monday that the officer had made inappropriate comments to her daughter, had given her his private cellphone number and had asked her to text him. Woodlawn Park Police Chief Anthony Galietti said they immediately contacted the prosecutor’s office, whose detectives posed as the girl and started exchanging texts with Vigorito.

The texts became increasingly explicit over the course of several days, prosecutors said. Vigorito eventually texted the girl photographs in which he was exposing himself while wearing his police uniform and arranged to meet her for a sexual encounter, prosecutors alleged.

The girl was never in harm’s way, and never exchanged texts with the officer, Valdes said.

“What is so disturbing about this, is the person who was to assist the family, ends up preying on the family,” Valdes said.

The 39-year-old Vigorito has been with the police department for 12 years in Woodland Park, a small suburb about 15 miles from Manhattan. The town, known until a recent voter-approved name change as West Paterson, is a bucolic, leafy borough of neatly landscaped homes adjacent to Paterson, a grittier, more industrialized urban neighbor.

Vigorito, who is a married father of two, was arrested Tuesday night in the police station while on the night shift, according to Galietti, who said the patrolman was suspended without pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

The arrest of one of the 25 officers on the force has shaken the small department, Galietti said.

“It’s very upsetting, when you have one of your own do something like this. It’s very upsetting,” he said. Galietti added that department officials had acted immediately upon receiving the family’s complaint about the officer, and had no hesitation in alerting the prosecutor’s office.

“When this came to light we went into it head-on. We didn’t care if it was one of our own,” he said. “I’m the father of five kids, and this is wrong. It’s a very inappropriate situation. Unfortunately, he (Vigorito) had a badge at the time.”

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TSA Agents Target Elderly Disabled Couple, Steal $300 From Them – Treated Like Terrorists

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA – Omer Petti and Madge Woodward expected the alarms to go off at the airport security’s metal detector when they were flying home to Detroit after visiting family recently near San Diego.

After all, Petti, who is 95 years old, has two artificial knees and Woodward, at 85, has had her hip replaced. But they sure didn’t expect to be subjected to accusations, extreme pat-downs, and most importantly, to be missing $300 in cash.

“Can you imagine an 85-year-old lady and 95-year-old retired Air Force Major in wheelchairs being treated like terrorists?” Petti asked recently sitting in the kitchen of the Bloomfield Township home he shares with Woodward.

On March 29 Petti and Woodward arrived at the San Diego International airport at 10 a.m. for a flight scheduled to leave at 11:36 a.m. As usual, Petti and Woodward removed their shoes, jackets and sweaters and put these along with their other belongings — belt buckles, carry on bags, purse and jewelry, including Petti’s money clip — into a total of four rubber bins.

Petti says a security officer asked him to remove Kleenex and $300 in folded bills that he had in his pocket and send it through the detector. “I hesitated and said: ‘You really want me to put my bills in there?’ ” Petti said. The officer said yes, so Petti put the cash into a fifth bin. Then he and Woodward proceeded through the metal detector.

After both set off alarms, they were patted down. Then, a security officer did a litmus test on Petti’s clothing, which tested positive for nitrates. Petti explained that he carries nitroglycerin pills for his heart. Nonetheless, Petti was taken to a private room for yet another pat-down by a different officer while the same security officer emptied their carry-on bags and rifled through every item.

“When I was patted down, I’ve never before been touched in every part of my body before,” Woodward said.

As the search went on, the couple — both widowed who met a few years ago at a bridge game and fell in love — became increasingly concerned about missing their flight.

Finally, they were released and told to retrieve their belongings. But only four bins were handed over to them. When Petti inquired about his $300, a senior security official was called over. Petti says this officer insinuated that they were mistaken about the missing cash, instructing the two to take off their shoes again, check their pockets again. “When I told him we were going to miss our flight he asked me if I was objecting or refusing his request.” Petti says. “I said: ‘No, I’d do anything I was asked, I would just like to know where my $300 went.’ “

Finally, Petti says the officer promised they would check their video cameras to see what happened to the fifth bin and he would advise the Transportation Security Administration manager in Detroit so that they could briefed when they arrived. Then came the mad dash for the plane. “The wheel chair attendant literally ran the two of us by himself with both wheel chairs down to the gate, endangering us and anybody who got in our way,” says Petti.

“I think I was scammed,” Petti says. “I would like my money back, but money doesn’t pay for all the stress and humiliation.”

In the weeks since, Petti has filed a police report with the San Diego Harbor Police. He’s written a lengthy letter addressed to the airport federal security director in San Diego and he’s copied politicians: local and national, including President Obama. And he is in the process of filling out a four-page “Tort Claim Package” as required by the TSA.

Nobody, he says, is giving him a straight answer. “The police said they went and reviewed the videotapes but they were too blurry,” Petti says. Petti’s son Bill, who is helping his father, doubts that. “You can bet if my father were a terrorist, those videos would not be too blurry.”

For their part, the San Diego Harbor Police declined to comment on Petti’s case. Jim Fostenos, a spokesman in the TSA’s Office of Strategic Communications and Public Affairs said only: “They are looking into the case in San Diego. That’s all I have for you.”

Says Bill Petti: “The bottom line is my dad’s money went missing. Someone in the TSA or the next passenger took it. Either way, treating a 95-year-old like that is inexcusable.”

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Economy And Unemployment So Bad Under Obama That Millions Of Illegal Immigrants Are Heading Home

WASHINGTON, DC – Well, that’s one way to stem the tide of illegal aliens streaming across the border from Mexico.

Jack up unemployment rates to near double digits, dunk America into a double-dip recession and put us so deeply into hock with the Chinese communists that it will take generations for us to recover.

After long enough, living and working and trying to eke out bare survival in America becomes even worse than trying to get by in Mexico.

A new study from the highly esteemed Pew Hispanic Center says the millions of Mexicans who risked their lives crossing the desert to get here to the promised land for a better life have given up on the U.S.

This is no small feat. Have you ever been to Mexico? Not the ritzy beach towns with the gated resorts, but Nuevo Laredo? The dusty streets are filled with bony children selling gum and candy for just a few spare pennies.

Desperate as that little trade may have once seemed to us, at least it has the vibe of the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during the ‘90s. Nothing like that is going on anywhere on this side of the border.

Remember the axiom of big government bureaucrats: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. When, finally, under the crushing weight of taxes and regulation, it stops moving, subsidize it.

So the Mexicans have quit coming to the hopeless part of North America. Canada is just too far to walk.

Or, at least, the few final stragglers who have not kept up with America’s woes and are still sneaking into the U.S. are balanced out by all the illegal Mexicans already here who are now risking their lives to cross the desert to escape the American “dream.”

Now we know why all the politicians in Washington have finally agreed to beef up security and build a fence along the southern border. They’re desperate to keep all the Mexicans from leaving.

That’s right, who would raise their children and mow their lawns and do all of America’s dirty work if all the Mexicans left?

Authors of the Pew report call the stunning shift in migration patterns historic. Not since the Great Depression, they say, has a shift of this magnitude occurred along the U.S.-Mexico border. Not since the Great Depression?

It’s almost enough to make you pine for the good old days of rampant illegal immigration.

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Social Security Faces $8.6 Trillion Unfunded Liability – $73 Thousand Dollars Per US Household

WASHINGTON, DC – Social Security faces an unfunded liability of $8.6 trillion, according to the 2012 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds.

The unfunded liability is the amount that has been promised in benefits to people now alive that will not be funded by the tax revenue the system is expected to take in to pay for those benefits. (The Social Security trustees calculate the unfunded liability for a period of 75 years into the future, from 2012 to 2086)

The $8.6 trillion in unfunded benefits Social Security is expected to pay over the next 75 years equals $73,167.83 for each of the 117,538,000 households the Census Bureau said were in the United States in 2010.

However, the report also shows that when considering the unfunded obligations over an “infinite horizon”—the period extending into the indefinite future—the $8.6 trillion shortfall balloons to $20.5 trillion.

“Extending the horizon beyond 75 years increases the measured unfunded obligation,” the report said.

“Through the infinite horizon, the unfunded obligation, or shortfall, equals $20.5 trillion in present value, which represents 3.9 percent of future taxable payroll or 1.3 percent of future GDP,” reads the report.

The report adds that the 2012 estimate for unfunded obligations over the infinite horizon has increased from the $17.9 trillion in the 2011 report.

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Disgraced US Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against Jacksonville Florida – Fire Department’s Tests Written In English Discriminate Against Blacks

WASHINGTON, DC - The Justice Department sued the city of Jacksonville, Florida, on Monday, claiming its use of written tests to determine promotions in the city’s fire department discriminates against African-Americans.

The lawsuit followed a more than two-year investigation examining Jacksonville’s record of promoting African-Americans for the ranks of lieutenant, captain, district chief and engineer dating back to 2004.

It came after a separate lawsuit filed last year by two dozen Jacksonville firefighters challenging the city’s promotional process. In the lawsuit, the firefighters alleged union officials unfairly shared exam questions with white workers but not with black workers ahead of the test.

“This complaint should send a clear message to all public employers that employment practices that have the effect of excluding qualified candidates on account of race will not be tolerated,” Thomas Perez, a U.S. assistant attorney general for civil rights, said in a statement.

A spokesman for the Jacksonville mayor’s office declined to comment.

The complaint by the Justice Department alleges the exams are “not job related for the positions in question.”

The complaint said use of the tests “has resulted in a disparate impact upon black candidates” because African-Americans pass the examinations at significantly lower rates than white candidates.

The Justice Department said black employees who do pass the tests rarely are promoted since their scores are generally lower than white workers.

“At best, these tests measure only a slice of what is necessary to be a supervisor, but they stand in the way of qualified African-Americans advancing in the fire department,” the statement said.

The lawsuit also named the local firefighter’s union, the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters Local 122, as a defendant since it negotiates the terms of promotion tests with the city.

No union official could be immediately reached for comment.

Black firefighters, city and union officials in Jacksonville have been in court mediation since 2009 working to resolve decades of courtroom battles over African-American participation in the city’s fire department.

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Whore-Gate II: US Marines From Brazilian US Embassy Security Team And Embassy Staff Member Punished After Pushing Whore Out Of A Car

BRASILIA, BRAZIL — Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday three Marines on a U.S. Embassy security team and one embassy staff member were punished for allegedly pushing a prostitute out of a car in Brasilia late last year after a dispute over payment.

The incident is similar, but unrelated, to the scandal involving Secret Service agents at the Summit of Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, before President Barack Obama arrived for a visit.

Panetta, speaking to reporters in Brasilia, says the Marines were pulled out of the country. Two had their ranks reduced. The embassy staffer was removed from his post.

Panetta said he had “no tolerance for that kind of conduct.”

“Where it takes place you can be sure that we will act to make sure that they are punished and that that kind of behavior is not acceptable,” he said.

According to a defense official, “there were at least two women with the Marines outside a nightclub.” The official said it appears that one of the women started a fight in a vehicle, then she was removed from the car and when she tried to re-enter fell to the ground and was injured. The official also said that no charges were filed by Brazilian authorities.

According to another defense official, the embassy staff member was a supervisor. The second official said the woman broke her collarbone when she was pushed from the car in late December.

The official says the embassy tracked the woman down and paid for her medical expenses. But in the wake of the Cartagena scandal, she has hired an attorney and is suing the embassy. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Panetta is touring South America to meet with his counterparts in the region.

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Congressman Assaulted By TSA Agent At San Antonio Texas Airport

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – U.S. Rep. Francisco Canseco said he was assaulted by a TSA agent at the San Antonio International Airport.

The Texas Congressman said the security agent went too far during a pat-down earlier this month.

“The agent was very aggressive in his pat-down, and he was patting me down where no one is supposed to go,” said Canseco. “It got very uncomfortable so I moved his hand away. That stopped everything and brought in supervisors and everyone else.”

Canseco told the KENS 5 I-Team the agent said he too was assaulted when Canseco pushed his hand away.

According to TSA, neither man was cited.

A week later when going through the San Antonio International Airport, Canseco was once again selected for a pat-down.

“I did not see it as a coincidence,” he said. “I asked them why are you going to pat me down again, so we discussed it further and after discussing it further, they patted me down.”

However, before the discussion was over San Antonio Police Department officers were called to the security check point area.

Again, no one was cited.

TSA issued the I-Team the following statement about the incident:

“TSA incorporates random and unpredictable security measures throughout the airport. Once a passenger enters the screening process, they must complete it prior to continuing to a flight or secure area.”

Canseco said his experience illustrated changes in the airport security are needed.

“It is very important that Americans feel safe and secure as they travel in our nation’s airways – safe and secure from acts of terrorism and all that. But, I also think that TSA sometimes gets too aggressive, and it’s not just about me it’s about every American that goes through those TSA scanners.”

The I-Team requested video from TSA of both incidents. A TSA spokesperson said our request is being reviewed.

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Secret Service Agents Dropping Like Flies In Columbian Prostitution Scandal Investigation – Three More Down

WASHINGTON, DC – Two more Secret Service employees are leaving the agency over the Colombia prostitution scandal,while a third is appealing his planned removal, the Secret Service announced tonight.

The agency also said that two other employees have been cleared of wrongdoing, “and will face appropriate administrative action.”

In a statement, Assistant Director Paul S. Morrissey said two employees resigned, while “the Secret Service is moving to permanently revoke the security clearance of one other individual.

“The Federal Security Clearance process allows for an appeal associated with any permanent revocation,”‘ Morrissey said. “If the security clearance action is upheld, and the clearance is permanently revoked, this individual must separate from the Secret Service.”

That brings to nine the number of Secret Service officials who have resigned, retired, or been fired over allegations of bringing prostitutes to hotel rooms in Cartagena, Colombia.

The actions now account for all 12 agents initially implicated in the prostitution scandal. But U.S.Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said “the entire investigation is not over.”

King’s committee has requested detailed information about the Secret Service’s operation in Cartagena.

Up to a dozen members of the military also face discipline over the incident that took place just two days before President Obama arrived for the Summit of the Americans, April 13-15.

Today’s announcement came shortly after Obama defended the Secret Service, saying that the “knuckleheads” implicated in the scandal shouldn’t discredit the entire agency.

“The Secret Service, these guys are incredible,” Mr. Obama told talk show host Jimmy Fallon. “They protect me, they protect our girls — a couple of knuckleheads shouldn’t detract from that they do.”

Of the incident in Colombia, Obama said: “What they were thinking, I don’t know. That’s why they’re not there anymore.”

The Secret Service has investigated 12 of its employees over the incident.

Before today, six men had either resigned, retired, or been fired. Another has been cleared of serious wrongdoing, but faces administrative action.

Said Morrissey: “The Secret Service is committed to conducting a full, thorough and fair investigation in this matter, and will not hesitate to take appropriate action should any additional information come to light.”

Today’s announcement:

“The Secret Service’s investigation into allegations of misconduct by its employees in Cartagena, Colombia continues.

The Secret Service is prepared to announce actions regarding the remaining five employees of the twelve who were initially identified in this investigation.

To date, six employees have either resigned or left the agency, and a seventh has been cleared of serious misconduct, and will face appropriate administrative action. In addition to those actions:

— Two additional employees involved have been cleared of serious misconduct, and will face appropriate administrative action.

— Two more employees have chosen to resign.

— The Secret Service is moving to permanently revoke the security clearance of one other individual. The Federal Security Clearance process allows for an appeal associated with any permanent revocation. If the security clearance action is upheld, and the clearance is permanently revoked, this individual must separate from the Secret Service.

At this point, all twelve have either been cleared of serious misconduct, resigned, retired, been notified of personnel actions to permanently revoke their security clearances, or have been proposed for permanent removal for cause. The Secret Service is committed to conducting a full, thorough and fair investigation in this matter, and will not hesitate to take appropriate action should any additional information come to light.”

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Mobile Alabama Police Claim That White Man Brutally Beaten On His Porch By Pack Of Black Savages Was Not A Hate Crime – One Attacker Said “Now That’s Justice For Trayvon”

MOBILE, ALABAMA – A racially charged beating of a white Alabama man by a throng of African-Americans is not being investigated as a hate crime, despite one witness’ claim that she heard an assailant exclaim: “Now that’s justice for Trayvon.”

Matthew Owens, of Mobile, Ala., was assaulted with baseball bats, paint cans and other weapons at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday after telling a group of children to stop playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive, according to Ashley Rains, public information officer for the Mobile Police Department.

After the children left the area, a group of adults armed with weapons returned and confronted Owens, 40, in his front yard, where he was assaulted. Owens’ sister, Ashley Parker, told WKRG she witnessed the attack and that there were as many as 20 assailants. Parker said she overheard one of them say, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon.”

Asked if the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, Rains replied: “No, it’s not. It’s being investigated as an assault.” Eugene A. Seidel, first assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama, declined to comment on the case when reached by FoxNews.com.

“Our policy is not to comment one way or another about cases,” Seidel said when asked if his office has inquired about the incident. “All I can say is no comment.”

Trayvon Martin, 17, is the unarmed teenager who was fatally shot Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. George Zimmerman, who has been charged with second-degree murder in Martin’s death, went into hiding Monday as he awaits trial. Emotions ran high as six weeks passed before Zimmerman was charged, leading many African-American community leaders to decry what they perceived as racism in the justice system.

Rains said Parker’s statement could not be independently corroborated as of Tuesday. Attempts to reach Parker — who reportedly characterized the assault as the “scariest thing” she ever witnessed — were unsuccessful.

“We have not been able to find any other witness that can back that statement up,” Rains told FoxNews.com. “It’s unknown right now if that was said.”

Owens, who regained consciousness early Tuesday, remains in serious condition at the University of South Alabama Medical Center, Rains said.

It remains unclear how many people participated in the assault, but Rains said it involved multiple assailants. The relationship — if any — between the children and the alleged perpetrators is also unclear, Rains said.

“We’ve spoken to the victim and we’re doing our best to put together a suspect list and identify any suspects that were in the assault,” she said.

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Investigation Centers On Will County Illinois Judge Joseph Polito’s Internet Account Being Used In Attempts To View Hardcore Internet Pornography

JOLIET, ILLINOIS – Associate Judge Joseph Polito was trusted with one of Will County’s most notorious heater cases in 2007 when he presided over Plainfield man Craig Stebic’s attempt to divorce his missing wife Lisa.

Now he’s at the center of an unsolved riddle of his own.

Someone using Judge Polito’s computer login and password at the Joliet courthouse has been trying to use county computers to view hardcore Internet pornography, documents obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

Polito won’t say if it’s him — but Chief Judge Gerald R. Kinney has apologized “for any embarrassment this incident has caused.” And he’s referred the case to the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board, which has the power to file disciplinary charges that could result in Polito being suspended or even fired.

Among the 243 porn websites somebody using Polito’s county computer account attempted to access are chubbyparade.com, hugeheavybreasts.com, bigbras-club.com, portofdebauchery.com and teenagesextape.com.

Many of the websites have names that can’t be printed in a family newspaper. Several suggest an interest in masturbation and large breasted women. Others cover specialty interests including office sex and older women.

The list of porn websites was logged by Web-filtering software designed to stop county employees from wasting taxpayer time on non-work-related websites.

Tens of thousands of attempts to visit inappropriate websites — typically social networking, chat and shopping sites — are automatically blocked and logged in Will County government every month by the software, which is similar to software used in workplaces across the U.S.

But it wasn’t until the Sun-Times used the Freedom of Information Act to request a copy of the log in May last year that officials say they launched an investigation into the unusual activity on Polito’s computer account.

Chief Judge Kinney insisted for months that documents identifying Polito as the likeliest prolific courthouse porn user were judicial records that the public had no right to see. He finally released them earlier this month, after the Illinois Attorney General’s office wrote in a legal opinion that the list of porn websites was “unrelated to any judicial function [and] is not a judicial record.”

The list covers a six-month period beginning in late 2010. It shows that someone using Polito’s county computer account attempted to view porn on five days in January and April last year.

Polito, who was appointed an associate judge in 2006 and has a computer on the bench of his third-floor courtroom, was assigned as a “floating judge” at the time, records show. He handled traffic, small claims and forfeiture hearings on the days his account was used to try to view porn.

Now assigned to divorce cases, he refused to speak to a Sun-Times reporter about his workplace Internet habits last week. A bailiff who polices Polito’s courtroom said the judge “is not available” for comment.

But a defendant in a small claims case who appeared before Polito on Jan. 4 last year said it would be a “disgrace” if it turns out the judge was looking at porn during court hours.

Andrew Coleman, 53, believes he was treated “unfairly” in several rulings by Polito. His opponent in court was a “young woman in a tight leotard” and Polito “sat there and smiled at everything she said and ignored everything we said,” Coleman said, adding, “Maybe that’s where his mind was — he didn’t seem focused on the facts.”

Judge Kinney disagrees that the alleged porn use had any effect on Polito’s work. The chief judge said there was “no evidence that there’s been any impact on [Polito’s] ability to serve the community as a member of the judiciary.”

In a vaguely worded statement he released with the other Will County Circuit Court Judges, Kinney added that “appropriate steps have been taken to address any underlying issues that led to this behavior.”

He said a probation officer whose account was also used to view porn is no longer employed by Will County but declined to discuss specifics of Polito’s case, saying the matter was a “confidential personnel issue.”

Whoever used Polito’s account was likely frustrated.

Though he or she tried to visit 69 inappropriate websites on April 27 alone, none of those nor any of the other 164 attempts to view porn logged by the filtering software was successful, according to Will County Information, Communications and Technology director Mike Shay.

The software works by blocking websites on a banned list, Shay said. The list of banned sites is updated daily, but the vast amount of pornography published online means it isn’t foolproof, Shay added, making the system vulnerable to a determined and persistent porn hunter.

“Sometimes someone will get through,” he said.

Whether they’re a judge or an office clerk, anyone who uses a computer at work should assume they’re leaving a digital trail that can be tracked by their bosses, according to Daniel Keller, president of Interim HR Consulting.

If you’re at work using a computer and Internet connection supplied by your employer, “There shouldn’t be any expectation of privacy,” he said.

Keller routinely advises clients to install porn-blocking software but said that the biggest problem facing employers is workers using social media during work hours.

“Back in 2007 or 2008, most of the terminations for inappropriate Internet use were related to pornography,” he said. “Now it’s nearly all Facebook and Twitter.”

Whatever you’re looking at, Keller cautioned, “there are tracking mechanisms that go back to the individual user.”

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Utah Highway Patrol Officer Sgt. Andrew Davenport Fired After Brutally Beating 60 Year Old Female Motorist – Now An Ogden Police Officer, But Faces “Possible Decertification” By State

UTAH – A seasoned police officer has been terminated for repeatedly punching a woman in the head with a closed fist at a traffic stop.

Utah Highway Patrol Sergeant Andrew Davenport pulled over 60-year-old Darla Wright after a police chase through Ogden in August, 2010.

Davenport, 37, claimed he was using ‘distraction blows’ because the woman refused to get out of her vehicle, and had disputed allegations he used excessive force.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports Davenport was dismissed on January 19, 2011 after a five-month internal investigation. He appealed the decision to the board and was put on paid administrative leave.

A Utah Career Service Review Board report was released to the newspaper after a state open-records request.

According to the report, the board on October 26 upheld the firing of Davenport, who now works as an Ogden patrol officer.

The board found Davenport ‘violated numerous department polices regarding use of force, ethical conduct, use of mobile recording equipment and assault’, according to the Tribune.

The report said that Davenport failed basic skills on how and when to use force, and ‘could not be trusted to use it properly in the future.’

Officers claimed in an incident report that Wright was driving erratically and tried to avoid being pulled over.

During the chase, they finally managed to spin her vehicle to a halt by hitting the back of her car and sandwiched it between two police cars.

Dash camera footage shows Davenport running up to Wright’s vehicle, shouting, ‘Get out of the car!’ and asking her to roll down the window; but she refused to let go of the steering wheel.

‘The suspect was still trying to escape, she had the accelerator floored and engine revving in an attempt to push our vehicles out of the way,’ Davenport wrote in the incident report.

It was then that the video shows him smashing the driver’s side window and beginning to punch the woman, striking her repeatedly in the head and face.

Another officer is seen pointing a Taser at the startled woman from the back window.

The shocking images were captured by the camera on the police vehicle dashboard were released by the Utah Department of Public Safety in January, 2011.

‘She refused to comply with commands to give us her hands’, Sergeant Davenport wrote in his police report.

‘Due to my close proximity to the suspect and my experience with Taser failure at such close distances, I delivered three close hand strikes to her head in an attempt to gain compliance with our commands.

‘I did this to distract and stun her and to stop her from trying to drive off and strike our vehicles or possibly run us over. The strikes worked and we were able to grab her hands,’ he added.

According to the board report, Davenport shut off his microphone during the incident, and did not give directions to troopers about how to approach the vehicle.

One trooper is seen jumping over the hood of Wright’s car with a handgun, pointing it at her with Davenport in the line of fire.

Another trooper pointed a Taser in Wright’s direction through the back passenger side window.

The board said that closed-fist punches were not encouraged in the force, although strikes with a forearm or open hand are viewed as acceptable in force is needed to get someone out of a vehicle.

Wright was taken into custody on suspicion of DUI, reckless driving, eluding police, resisting arrest and assault on a police officer. She was taken to hospital and required stitches.

The charges against her were dismissed in January, 2011; she reached a reported $25,000 out-of-court settlement with the state.

Davenport was employed by the Utah Highway Patrol as a trooper for ‘several years’ and was promoted to sergeant in 2007, according to the Tribune.

A spokesman for the board said the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council was looking into Davenport’s conduct for possible decertification; however, no criminal charges have been filed.

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