YOUNG ANDY CUOMO IN NEW YORK IS DOING THE SAME THING "TEDDY" SCHNEIDERMAN WAS DOING, PROMOTING HIMSELF, BY CONTINUING THIS LAWSUIT THROUGH HIS POLITICAL LACKEY BARBARA UNDERWOOD AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE ...
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
"NY attorney general: No backing down on Trump lawsuit"
Tom McElroy | Associated Press
08/31/2018, 04:54pm
NEW YORK — Lawyers for President Donald Trump asked a judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought against his charitable foundation by New York’s attorney general, arguing that it was politically motivated.
In the motion Thursday, Trump attorney Alan S. Futerfas argued that former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman “made it his stated mission to ‘lead the resistance’ and attack Mr. Trump whenever possible” and “used his public antipathy for Mr. Trump to solicit donations for his own re-election campaign and advance his career interests and aspirations.”
Trump very publicly announced his intention to dissolve the foundation and donate all of its remaining funds to charity, but the AG “actively stonewalled dissolution,” Futerfas wrote.
“At the same time, the NYAG turned a blind eye to serious and significant allegations of misconduct involving the Clinton Foundation, including claims that it, and its subsidiaries, violated New York law by failing to disclose $225 million in donations from foreign governments,” Futerfas wrote.
Schneiderman began investigating the Trump Foundation in 2016 following Washington Post reports that its spending personally benefited the presidential candidate.
Schneiderman ordered the foundation to stop fundraising in New York.
Schneiderman resigned in May after allegations that he physically abused women he had dated; he denied the claims.
His successor, Democratic Attorney General Barbara Underwood, filed the lawsuit in June, claiming the Trump Foundation “was little more than a checkbook for payments from Mr. Trump or his businesses to nonprofits, regardless of their purpose or legality.”
The suit seeks $2.8 million in restitution and the foundation’s disbandment.
The filing said Underwood continued the “inflammatory rhetoric, stating publicly that she considers her battles with the President ‘the most important work (she) has ever done’ and has vowed that such ‘work will continue.'”
Trump’s lawyers also argued that several impermissible donations by the foundation were due to clerical errors and were all corrected when brought to the attention of foundation officials.
In a statement Thursday, the attorney general’s office said it won’t back down from “holding Trump and his associates accountable for their flagrant violations of New York law.”
“As our lawsuit detailed, the Trump Foundation functioned as a personal piggy bank to serve Trump’s business and political interests,” the statement said.
https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/d ... n-lawsuit/
CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
AND HERE COMES YET ANOTHER FRIVOLOUS LAWSUIT AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE AS YOUNG ANDY CUOMO, THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST GOVERNOR OF CORRUPT NEW YORK STATE, USES TAXPAYER FUNDS TO BUY HIS WAY INTO THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2020 ...
AND THIS IS THE SAME CUOMO ADMINISTRATION THAT ITSELF ROUTINELY VIOLATES THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW OF THOSE OF US WHO ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS LIVING IN UPSTATE NEW YORK …
AS TO THE CONSTITUTION IN THE CASE OF PUERTO RICO, IT IS ENTIRELY SILENT AS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BEING DUTY-BOUND TO DO ANYTHING FOR PUERTO RICO AFTER A HURRICANE …
And so ...
CBS NEWS
"Cuomo to help families sue Trump over Hurricane Maria response"
Peter Martinez
3 SEPTEMBER 2018
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a congregation Sunday that he would help families sue President Trump and his administration for failing to provide adequate assistance to those affected by Hurricane Maria.
Cuomo said the Trump administration violated Puerto Ricans' Constitutional rights of equal protection under the law.
He said that New York stands committed to helping victims of Puerto Rico rebuild after the deadly storm walloped the island in September 2017.
"President Trump never tried to help Puerto Rico."
"Florida got attention, Texas got attention, and Puerto Rico got the short end of the stick."
"That is not just wrong and unethical and despicable, it is also illegal," Cuomo said Sunday at the Heavenly Vision Christian Center in the Bronx, New York.
Cuomo's press statement laid out five disparities between the federal government's response to and treatment of citizens in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which primarily struck Texas, and Hurricane Maria -- which devastated the Puerto Rican island:
1. A three week wait
2. Lack of funding
3. Lack of food and water
4. Sparse resources
5. Unacceptable relief
"We're going to hold 'King' Trump to the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution said equal protection under the law."
"Puerto Rico did not receive equal protection under the law," Cuomo said.
"New York is standing with Puerto Rico the way we said we would."
"We are going to fight back and we're going to show this president that the law is the law."
There were no immediate details released about Cuomo's plan nor did he take any questions at Sunday's event.
Cuomo, who is a seeking a third term as governor, also took swipes at Mr. Trump's border wall and how the president reacted to the aftermath of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.
"Somebody has to stand up to this president."
"He is a bully," Cuomo said.
Cuomo's speech Sunday comes on the heels of a report out last week that said Hurricane Maria is now considered the most deadly U.S. natural disaster in the last century.
Puerto Rico's government requested an independent review by George Washington University, which found Maria killed an estimated 2,975 people – more than 46 times the original official death toll of 64.
For months, there's been speculation the death toll was much higher than what the government was reporting.
San Juan's mayor, Carmen Cruz, called the new report "painful and shameful," and told CBS News' David Begnaud the governor should take more responsibility.
"When I saw people dying I opted to shout it."
"I opted to ask for help."
"When others saw people dying they opted to shut up," Cruz said.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló acknowledged Tuesday that he made mistakes.
"The focus shouldn't be, you know, hey, let's blame all these folks."
"The focus should be who's going to be accountable and who's going to take the action so this doesn't happen again," Rosselló said.
Researchers found the government and hospitals were inadequately prepared for the Category 4 storm.
They also found the risk of death was 45 percent higher for those living in low-income areas on the island, and elderly men were at the greatest risk of dying.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... id=HPDHP17
AND THIS IS THE SAME CUOMO ADMINISTRATION THAT ITSELF ROUTINELY VIOLATES THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER THE LAW OF THOSE OF US WHO ARE AMERICAN CITIZENS LIVING IN UPSTATE NEW YORK …
AS TO THE CONSTITUTION IN THE CASE OF PUERTO RICO, IT IS ENTIRELY SILENT AS TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BEING DUTY-BOUND TO DO ANYTHING FOR PUERTO RICO AFTER A HURRICANE …
And so ...
CBS NEWS
"Cuomo to help families sue Trump over Hurricane Maria response"
Peter Martinez
3 SEPTEMBER 2018
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a congregation Sunday that he would help families sue President Trump and his administration for failing to provide adequate assistance to those affected by Hurricane Maria.
Cuomo said the Trump administration violated Puerto Ricans' Constitutional rights of equal protection under the law.
He said that New York stands committed to helping victims of Puerto Rico rebuild after the deadly storm walloped the island in September 2017.
"President Trump never tried to help Puerto Rico."
"Florida got attention, Texas got attention, and Puerto Rico got the short end of the stick."
"That is not just wrong and unethical and despicable, it is also illegal," Cuomo said Sunday at the Heavenly Vision Christian Center in the Bronx, New York.
Cuomo's press statement laid out five disparities between the federal government's response to and treatment of citizens in the wake of Hurricane Harvey, which primarily struck Texas, and Hurricane Maria -- which devastated the Puerto Rican island:
1. A three week wait
2. Lack of funding
3. Lack of food and water
4. Sparse resources
5. Unacceptable relief
"We're going to hold 'King' Trump to the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution said equal protection under the law."
"Puerto Rico did not receive equal protection under the law," Cuomo said.
"New York is standing with Puerto Rico the way we said we would."
"We are going to fight back and we're going to show this president that the law is the law."
There were no immediate details released about Cuomo's plan nor did he take any questions at Sunday's event.
Cuomo, who is a seeking a third term as governor, also took swipes at Mr. Trump's border wall and how the president reacted to the aftermath of a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last year.
"Somebody has to stand up to this president."
"He is a bully," Cuomo said.
Cuomo's speech Sunday comes on the heels of a report out last week that said Hurricane Maria is now considered the most deadly U.S. natural disaster in the last century.
Puerto Rico's government requested an independent review by George Washington University, which found Maria killed an estimated 2,975 people – more than 46 times the original official death toll of 64.
For months, there's been speculation the death toll was much higher than what the government was reporting.
San Juan's mayor, Carmen Cruz, called the new report "painful and shameful," and told CBS News' David Begnaud the governor should take more responsibility.
"When I saw people dying I opted to shout it."
"I opted to ask for help."
"When others saw people dying they opted to shut up," Cruz said.
Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosselló acknowledged Tuesday that he made mistakes.
"The focus shouldn't be, you know, hey, let's blame all these folks."
"The focus should be who's going to be accountable and who's going to take the action so this doesn't happen again," Rosselló said.
Researchers found the government and hospitals were inadequately prepared for the Category 4 storm.
They also found the risk of death was 45 percent higher for those living in low-income areas on the island, and elderly men were at the greatest risk of dying.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ ... id=HPDHP17
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR September 3, 2018 at 10:25 pm
Paul Plante says :
And here is yet another news story, this one from CBS News entitled “Cuomo to help families sue Trump over Hurricane Maria response” by Peter Martinez on 3 September 2018, about a ridiculous, loud-mouthed bully of a hack politician named Young Andy Cuomo, aka “THE HONKER,” the Democratic Socialist governor of corrupt New York state, the most corrupt state in the nation, who is the prospective Democrat party presidential contender in 2020, the same hack politician who said America was never great, and won’t be until he is put in charge of it as our emperor, using state taxpayer dollars to file frivolous lawsuits against the Trump administration to buy his way in to the White House in 2020, to wit:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a congregation Sunday that he would help families sue President Trump and his administration for failing to provide adequate assistance to those affected by Hurricane Maria.
end quotes
Now, frankly, that claim is as ridiculous as is the one making it, as we see from the following from that same article to wit:
Cuomo said the Trump administration violated Puerto Ricans’ Constitutional rights of equal protection under the law.
end quotes
HUH?
Say what?
How so, Young Andy?
And this is the same Young Andy Cuomo whose own thuggish policies routinely violate the Constitutional rights of equal protection under the law of those of us who are American citizens residing in upstate New York, outside of Young Andy’s power base of New York City, whose Democrat and Democratic Socialist population far outstrips that of the rest of the state, which is why Young Andy, the thug, can routinely violate our rights and get away with it with impunity, since he is the one who also appoints the state’s judges.
Getting back to the CBS News story:
“President Trump never tried to help Puerto Rico.”
“Florida got attention, Texas got attention, and Puerto Rico got the short end of the stick.”
“That is not just wrong and unethical and despicable, it is also illegal,” Cuomo said Sunday at the Heavenly Vision Christian Center in the Bronx, New York.
end quotes
Yeah, right, Young Andy, in your dreams!
But it gets better yet, as we see from the following:
“We’re going to hold ‘King’ Trump to the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution said equal protection under the law.”
“Puerto Rico did not receive equal protection under the law,” Cuomo said.
“New York is standing with Puerto Rico the way we said we would.”
“We are going to fight back and we’re going to show this president that the law is the law.”
end quotes
That, people, is what political pandering looks like in real life, right there before our eyes.
For those unfamiliar with the term, Wikipedia tells us that “pandering” is the act of expressing one’s views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal, and the term is most notably associated with politics.
In pandering, the views one is expressing are merely for the purpose of drawing support up to and including votes and do not necessarily reflect one’s personal values, as is obvious in the case of Young Andy here, to wit:
There were no immediate details released about Cuomo’s plan nor did he take any questions at Sunday’s event.
end quotes
Which brings us right back to 2010, when Young Andy, then the attorney-general, was running for the office of governor, and this editorial from the NY Times entitled “Cuomo for Governor” on Oct. 22, 2010, as follows:
Despite several position books, Mr. Cuomo’s candidacy has been more skeletal than it should have been, and there have been times when he failed to stand up forcefully for his stated principles.
end quotes
Young Andy always has a press release full of praise for himself, but never any substance,
And speaking of press releases touting his greatness, we have one from Young Andy on September 24, 2017, entitled “Governor Cuomo Launches Statewide Empire State Relief & Recovery Effort for Puerto Rico” as follows:
Following his visit to Puerto Rico to deliver emergency supplies and see firsthand the widespread damage and devastation from Hurricane Maria, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today launched the Empire State Relief and Recovery Effort for Puerto Rico.
“After seeing the breathtaking devastation and unfathomable need for help firsthand in Puerto Rico, I am launching this effort to put the full weight of New York’s resources behind the Puerto Rican people,” Governor Cuomo said.
“New York has a long and proud history of standing up to help those in need, and with millions of Puerto Ricans suffering, we must do everything we can to help our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters recover.”
“Puerto Ricans have helped make New York great — and we will not leave our family alone in its time of need.”
end quotes
So America was never great, but New York was great, and that because of people from Puerto Rico, not Americans.
What horsecrap, but that is what political pandering is all about.
Getting back to Young Andy’s latest pandering, we have:
“Somebody has to stand up to this president.”
“He is a bully,” Cuomo said.
end quotes
Now, given the facts here, that last line is a real doozy, because Young Andy, who is calling Trump a bully, is himself a thug and bully, which makes him calling Trump a bully a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, but such is presidential politics in America today, so what else can we expect, beyond yet more of this horsecrap from Young Andy to come between now and 2020, so America, stay tuned to this same station for breaking news as it happens on this same story of Young Andy Cuomo’s quest for the Washington White House.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/a ... ment-69194
Paul Plante says :
And here is yet another news story, this one from CBS News entitled “Cuomo to help families sue Trump over Hurricane Maria response” by Peter Martinez on 3 September 2018, about a ridiculous, loud-mouthed bully of a hack politician named Young Andy Cuomo, aka “THE HONKER,” the Democratic Socialist governor of corrupt New York state, the most corrupt state in the nation, who is the prospective Democrat party presidential contender in 2020, the same hack politician who said America was never great, and won’t be until he is put in charge of it as our emperor, using state taxpayer dollars to file frivolous lawsuits against the Trump administration to buy his way in to the White House in 2020, to wit:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told a congregation Sunday that he would help families sue President Trump and his administration for failing to provide adequate assistance to those affected by Hurricane Maria.
end quotes
Now, frankly, that claim is as ridiculous as is the one making it, as we see from the following from that same article to wit:
Cuomo said the Trump administration violated Puerto Ricans’ Constitutional rights of equal protection under the law.
end quotes
HUH?
Say what?
How so, Young Andy?
And this is the same Young Andy Cuomo whose own thuggish policies routinely violate the Constitutional rights of equal protection under the law of those of us who are American citizens residing in upstate New York, outside of Young Andy’s power base of New York City, whose Democrat and Democratic Socialist population far outstrips that of the rest of the state, which is why Young Andy, the thug, can routinely violate our rights and get away with it with impunity, since he is the one who also appoints the state’s judges.
Getting back to the CBS News story:
“President Trump never tried to help Puerto Rico.”
“Florida got attention, Texas got attention, and Puerto Rico got the short end of the stick.”
“That is not just wrong and unethical and despicable, it is also illegal,” Cuomo said Sunday at the Heavenly Vision Christian Center in the Bronx, New York.
end quotes
Yeah, right, Young Andy, in your dreams!
But it gets better yet, as we see from the following:
“We’re going to hold ‘King’ Trump to the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution said equal protection under the law.”
“Puerto Rico did not receive equal protection under the law,” Cuomo said.
“New York is standing with Puerto Rico the way we said we would.”
“We are going to fight back and we’re going to show this president that the law is the law.”
end quotes
That, people, is what political pandering looks like in real life, right there before our eyes.
For those unfamiliar with the term, Wikipedia tells us that “pandering” is the act of expressing one’s views in accordance with the likes of a group to which one is attempting to appeal, and the term is most notably associated with politics.
In pandering, the views one is expressing are merely for the purpose of drawing support up to and including votes and do not necessarily reflect one’s personal values, as is obvious in the case of Young Andy here, to wit:
There were no immediate details released about Cuomo’s plan nor did he take any questions at Sunday’s event.
end quotes
Which brings us right back to 2010, when Young Andy, then the attorney-general, was running for the office of governor, and this editorial from the NY Times entitled “Cuomo for Governor” on Oct. 22, 2010, as follows:
Despite several position books, Mr. Cuomo’s candidacy has been more skeletal than it should have been, and there have been times when he failed to stand up forcefully for his stated principles.
end quotes
Young Andy always has a press release full of praise for himself, but never any substance,
And speaking of press releases touting his greatness, we have one from Young Andy on September 24, 2017, entitled “Governor Cuomo Launches Statewide Empire State Relief & Recovery Effort for Puerto Rico” as follows:
Following his visit to Puerto Rico to deliver emergency supplies and see firsthand the widespread damage and devastation from Hurricane Maria, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today launched the Empire State Relief and Recovery Effort for Puerto Rico.
“After seeing the breathtaking devastation and unfathomable need for help firsthand in Puerto Rico, I am launching this effort to put the full weight of New York’s resources behind the Puerto Rican people,” Governor Cuomo said.
“New York has a long and proud history of standing up to help those in need, and with millions of Puerto Ricans suffering, we must do everything we can to help our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters recover.”
“Puerto Ricans have helped make New York great — and we will not leave our family alone in its time of need.”
end quotes
So America was never great, but New York was great, and that because of people from Puerto Rico, not Americans.
What horsecrap, but that is what political pandering is all about.
Getting back to Young Andy’s latest pandering, we have:
“Somebody has to stand up to this president.”
“He is a bully,” Cuomo said.
end quotes
Now, given the facts here, that last line is a real doozy, because Young Andy, who is calling Trump a bully, is himself a thug and bully, which makes him calling Trump a bully a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, but such is presidential politics in America today, so what else can we expect, beyond yet more of this horsecrap from Young Andy to come between now and 2020, so America, stay tuned to this same station for breaking news as it happens on this same story of Young Andy Cuomo’s quest for the Washington White House.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/a ... ment-69194
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
"Cuomo forgets pledge to bar donations from businesses with open RFPs"
By Rachel Silberstein, Albany, New York Times Union on September 4, 2018 at 4:10 PM
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appears to have forgotten his November 2016 pledge instruct his campaign to reject contributions from companies with open bids for state contracts.
“I believe we did that,” Cuomo told the Albany Times Union editorial board on Tuesday morning.
The governor then began to shift the conversation to the broader issues ethics reform, but the Times Union’s Casey Seiler interjected, noting that the TU had asked the campaign about the broken promise several times.
“I thought we did, didn’t we?” Cuomo asked, turning to his campaign aide Abbey Collins.
“No, we did not implement that,” Collins responded, echoing her previous statements that, “the best way to implement that is through the Legislature.”
“I don’t even remember the issue, to tell you the truth.” Cuomo said, adding, “I have to go back and check.”
Following revelations in 2016 that two of his close associates had played a key role in a massive bid rigging scandal, accused of diverting state contracts to developers who contributed generously to the governor’s campaign, Cuomo announced several steps that he would immediately and under his “own authority” to curb pay to play practices.
Here’s a refresher, in the governor’s own words.
There are other steps we can take immediately.
The contracting systems at CUNY and SUNY have become the focus of US Attorney and IG inquiries in the past several months.
To insure more permanent supervision, I will create and appoint separate Inspector Generals for both SUNY and CUNY.
They will be charged with identifying and investigating conflicts of interest, fraud, corruption and abuse.
They will review contracts and hiring for both improper and illegal actions.
They will look for personal benefit to any executive or legislative employee or improper actions with a third party.
They will review all campuses and all affiliated entities.
The IGs will have the authority to bring any report of improper conduct directly to law enforcement.
I will also appoint a Chief Procurement Officer for the Executive branch.
That person will be charged with reviewing all state contracts, with an eye towards eliminating any wrongdoing, conflicts of interest or collusion.
And just so there is no confusion, I do mean all contracts.
Any contract or agreement that entails the disbursement of state funds will be subject to review.
The Chief Procurement officer will have authority to review any disbursement from the State Division of the Budget.
This will include all contracts, grants, executive or legislative disbursements.
Any question of collusion, political benefit or personal connections will be thoroughly examined.
The Chief Procurement Officer will have investigative and prosecutorial experience, and will be authorized to refer problematic issues directly to law enforcement for further action.
I will order my campaign and my party not to accept campaign contributions from companies once a Request for Proposals has been announced, and for six months following the conclusion for the winner.
I believe the other state offices and the legislature should do the same and will propose such a law.
Those are the actions I can take under my own authority.
But there is more to do.
As the Times Union has reported, none of the reforms materialized and Cuomo’s spokespersons have repeatedly blamed the Legislature for failing to act on similar, but unrelated campaign finance and oversight measures.
During an hour-long meeting with editorial board members, Cuomo spoke in detail about his office has enacted increased oversight over the Legislature and continues to push for comprehensive ethics and campaign finance reform.
https://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/arc ... open-rfps/
By Rachel Silberstein, Albany, New York Times Union on September 4, 2018 at 4:10 PM
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo appears to have forgotten his November 2016 pledge instruct his campaign to reject contributions from companies with open bids for state contracts.
“I believe we did that,” Cuomo told the Albany Times Union editorial board on Tuesday morning.
The governor then began to shift the conversation to the broader issues ethics reform, but the Times Union’s Casey Seiler interjected, noting that the TU had asked the campaign about the broken promise several times.
“I thought we did, didn’t we?” Cuomo asked, turning to his campaign aide Abbey Collins.
“No, we did not implement that,” Collins responded, echoing her previous statements that, “the best way to implement that is through the Legislature.”
“I don’t even remember the issue, to tell you the truth.” Cuomo said, adding, “I have to go back and check.”
Following revelations in 2016 that two of his close associates had played a key role in a massive bid rigging scandal, accused of diverting state contracts to developers who contributed generously to the governor’s campaign, Cuomo announced several steps that he would immediately and under his “own authority” to curb pay to play practices.
Here’s a refresher, in the governor’s own words.
There are other steps we can take immediately.
The contracting systems at CUNY and SUNY have become the focus of US Attorney and IG inquiries in the past several months.
To insure more permanent supervision, I will create and appoint separate Inspector Generals for both SUNY and CUNY.
They will be charged with identifying and investigating conflicts of interest, fraud, corruption and abuse.
They will review contracts and hiring for both improper and illegal actions.
They will look for personal benefit to any executive or legislative employee or improper actions with a third party.
They will review all campuses and all affiliated entities.
The IGs will have the authority to bring any report of improper conduct directly to law enforcement.
I will also appoint a Chief Procurement Officer for the Executive branch.
That person will be charged with reviewing all state contracts, with an eye towards eliminating any wrongdoing, conflicts of interest or collusion.
And just so there is no confusion, I do mean all contracts.
Any contract or agreement that entails the disbursement of state funds will be subject to review.
The Chief Procurement officer will have authority to review any disbursement from the State Division of the Budget.
This will include all contracts, grants, executive or legislative disbursements.
Any question of collusion, political benefit or personal connections will be thoroughly examined.
The Chief Procurement Officer will have investigative and prosecutorial experience, and will be authorized to refer problematic issues directly to law enforcement for further action.
I will order my campaign and my party not to accept campaign contributions from companies once a Request for Proposals has been announced, and for six months following the conclusion for the winner.
I believe the other state offices and the legislature should do the same and will propose such a law.
Those are the actions I can take under my own authority.
But there is more to do.
As the Times Union has reported, none of the reforms materialized and Cuomo’s spokespersons have repeatedly blamed the Legislature for failing to act on similar, but unrelated campaign finance and oversight measures.
During an hour-long meeting with editorial board members, Cuomo spoke in detail about his office has enacted increased oversight over the Legislature and continues to push for comprehensive ethics and campaign finance reform.
https://blog.timesunion.com/capitol/arc ... open-rfps/
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR September 4, 2018 at 6:34 pm
Paul Plante says :
And since we are actually looking at the start of a presidential campaign here, whether we realize it or not, as Progressive Democrat and Democratic Socialist Young Andy Cuomo, the thuggish governor of corrupt New York state, the most corrupt state in the nation, amps up his rhetoric as the opposition to U.S. president Donald Trump in anticipation of his 2020 run for the Washington White House, let’s take a quick review of things here for the moment as regards the many positions Young Andy has taken with respect to the question of America being “great,” or not.
First off, we have Young Andy in The Hill article “Cuomo: America ‘was never that great’” by Emily Birnbaum on 15 August 2018 telling us American citizens as follows:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said at an event on Wednesday that America “was never that great,” drawing groans and boos from the crowd.
end quotes
Then we have the “walk-back” by Young Andy in The Hill article “Cuomo reverses ‘inartful’ comments: ‘Of course America has always been great’” by John Bowden on 17 AUGUST 2018, to wit:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) reversed remarks he made earlier this week about American greatness, calling his language “inartful.”
Cuomo told reporters on a conference call Friday that he believes the country “has always been great,” the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
“The expression I used the other day was inartful, so I want to be very clear,” Cuomo said Friday.
“Of course America is great and of course America has always been great.”
“No one questions that.”
end quotes
But at the same time, if we go back to 2010, when Young Andy was announcing his candidacy for governor of New York as was reported by the NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedi ... ement.html we have him saying, to wit:
“I’m Andrew Cuomo, and I work for you.”
“Together, we can make New York great again.”
“Let’s get to work.”
end quotes
And then on September 24, 2017, in one of his plethora of press releases touting his own greatness, this one entitled “Governor Cuomo Launches Statewide Empire State Relief & Recovery Effort for Puerto Rico,” we have the same Young Andy saying as follows:
“Puerto Ricans have helped make New York great — and we will not leave our family alone in its time of need.”
end quotes
So what is it really, people, besides a pandering hack politician with a mouth so agile and mobile that Young Andy can speak out of many different sides of it, all at the same time, depending on who is in front of him right then?
And with respect to prospective Democrat presidential contender and front-runner Young Andy Cuomo’s highly mobile mouth, which makes him the demagogue’s demagogue, back in 2010, when Young Andy was telling us in New York state something we already knew, that not only was the state not great, notwithstanding what the rest of the nation might have been back then under the bootheel of Democrat Barack Hussein Obama, who wanted Young Andy to be governor of New York to give Obama political support for his Obama agenda, it was in fact a corrupt ****hole, as we see from the wording of this press release Young Andy put out back then, telling us why the state was a corrupt ****hole, to wit:
Hello. I’m Andrew Cuomo.
I have the great honor to serve you, the people of our State, as your lawyer, your advocate, your Attorney General.
end quotes
Now, when it comes to putting out gobs of political horse****, there is a prime example of it, because as attorney general, Young Andy Cuomo was never “our lawyer,” nor was he “our advocate.”
As attorney general, Young Andy was in fact the state’s lawyer, and as the state’s lawyer, Young Andy defended the corruption.
According to New York Executive Law § 60, as attorney general, Young Andy was the head of the Department of Law in NYS, as follows:
There shall continue to be in the state government a department of law.
The head of the department of law shall be the attorney-general who shall receive an annual salary of one hundred fifty-one thousand five hundred dollars.
end quotes
In NYS, the Department of Law, which Young Andy was head of as attorney general, does not serve as our lawyer.
It serves as our adversary.
As to Young Andy’s duties as attorney general, those are defined by New York Executive Law § 63, General duties, as follows:
The attorney-general shall:
1. Prosecute and defend all actions and proceedings in which the state is interested, and have charge and control of all the legal business of the departments and bureaus of the state, or of any office thereof which requires the services of attorney or counsel, in order to protect the interest of the state.
end quotes
The phrase “protect the interest of the state” makes it pretty clear exactly what Young Andy’s job was as attorney general, and it certainly was not to be our lawyer or our advocate, unless, of course, we were a part of the pay-to-play culture, having bribed the state for special favors, and then, yes, as attorney general, Young Andy would have had our back, which takes us back to his 2010 press release, as follows:
Every single day for the past three years, I have gone to work with one mission: to represent the people – Period.
To fight for you, no matter how powerful the foe, no matter how long the odds.
end quotes
That is pure horse**** leavened by a dollop of pig ****, because it is patently false, and that, people, is what a demagogue looks like in action in real life, where demagogue is defined as a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.
And that is just the start of the spew of horse****, which Young Andy is reviving as he positions himself for his 2020 presidential run against Trump, as we see from the following from that same press release, to wit:
You have welcomed me into your homes.
I have met your families.
I have learned about your problems and your challenges.
I understand that we are in a difficult time, even a frightening time.
end quotes
And people, I am not making any of that up.
Those are Young Andy’s own words from a real press release he put out to gull the people of New York back in 2010.
And consider, when he says “I understand that we are in a difficult time, even a frightening time,” that he is referring to Barack Hussein Obama being president and Hillary Clinton being secretary of state, which certainly did make those times frightening for many people, not only in America, but in the world, as well.
And getting back to Young Andy's very revealing 2010 press release, we have as follows:
The economic collapse has wrecked havoc in too many lives.
Life savings have been lost, jobs are shaky, home values have plummeted, and with it dreams for retirement, college tuitions, and a nest egg to rely on.
Reckless bankers exploit the economy and working families are paying the price.
Now Wall Street gets bonuses and taxpayers get the bill.
It’s not right and it’s not fair.
end quotes
And Wall Street was getting those bonuses and working families were paying the price, because that is how Democrat president Barack Hussein Obama decreed that it was the right thing to do, as did Young Andy himself, in real life, as we see from the Politico article “The governor of Wall Street” by Jimmy Vielkind on 10/28/2014, to wit:
Some Democrats have done well for themselves by attacking Wall Street.
Elizabeth Warren and Eric Schneiderman, who called for stricter regulation and prosecution of of executives involved in the housing bubble; Bill de Blasio, who won a mayor’s race by attacking income inequality and promising to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund social programs.
And then there is Andrew Cuomo, who has done well for himself over the past four years by doing the opposite.
The son of a liberal icon who has cast himself as a centrist, Cuomo has treated New York’s financial services sector with kid gloves, quietly pushing through favorable policies and, a bit more loudly, holding the line against others’ calls for tax increases.
end quotes
As a hack politician who is a consummate demagogue, Young Andy knows which side the bread is buttered on when it comes to Wall Street, as we see from this following from that same article:
Overall, Cuomo has done little to rock an industry that, according to recent estimates, accounts for a fifth of the state’s tax revenues and employs 162,400 workers with an average salary of nearly $360,000.
If Wall Street executives had any concerns about the governor before—as a vestige, perhaps, of the rather more adversarial pose he struck following the financial collapse, which took place when he was attorney general—they seem to have disappeared with de Blasio’s election, and the mayor’s immediate push for a tax hike and limits on the proliferation of charter schools.
Cuomo made a public point of blocking de Blasio on both fronts, making an unprecedented appearance at a pro-charter rally at the Capitol and declaring the tax hike dead.
If anything, Cuomo seems likely to deepen his engagement with the financial sector in a second term.
Cuomo has raised nearly $45 million over his four years in office, according to an analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group, with top sums coming from real estate magnates.
But while S.E.C. regulations make it difficult for investment banks to contribute, Cuomo has received over $50,000 each from KPMG and Ernst & Young; employee PACs from Citigroup, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, as well as hedge fund titans and investors like Stanley Druckenmiller, Daniel Loeb, Blair Effron, James Simons, Carl Icahn, Ron Perelman and Ken Langone.
The other end of the stick is taxes, where Cuomo has treated Wall Street quite well.
He has not only resisted calls to raise taxes, he has cut the overall corporate tax rate and eliminated the state’s dedicated bank tax, saying it relied on an outdated formula that offered a disincentive to keep jobs in New York.
The governor talked about the changes in the context of manufacturing and small business, but dollar for dollar, banks will see the biggest impact.
They boosted Cuomo, too: The governor has touted them in advertisements and won adulation from business groups.
“Certainly there is great appreciation that he understood the need for corporate tax reform, and the importance of that to the financial industry,” said Wylde.
“We love corporate tax reform.”
end quotes
If that looks like Young Andy Cuomo pandering to Wall Street, it is because Young Andy is indeed pandering to Wall Street, as again we see from that Politico article, to wit:
But these very same policies came at a political cost to Cuomo within his own party, angering public sector labor unions and progressives who labeled him “Governor One Percent” and protested him during the 2011 Occupy demonstrations in New York City and Albany.
“His economic policies certainly favor the wealthiest New Yorkers over regular New Yorkers,” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of the labor-backed New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness.
“Ultimately, he’s a trickle-down, supply-side subscriber, basically.”
“I think he really does believe that you have to cut taxes for the job creators.”
“He buys into and promotes many of these Republican tax policies.”
end quotes
Which is going to make this a very interesting presidential race between Young Andy Cuomo and Donald Trump, since Young Andy, who bills himself as the opposition to Trump, in fact has many of the same policies as Trump, except that Young Andy had them first.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/a ... ment-69194
Paul Plante says :
And since we are actually looking at the start of a presidential campaign here, whether we realize it or not, as Progressive Democrat and Democratic Socialist Young Andy Cuomo, the thuggish governor of corrupt New York state, the most corrupt state in the nation, amps up his rhetoric as the opposition to U.S. president Donald Trump in anticipation of his 2020 run for the Washington White House, let’s take a quick review of things here for the moment as regards the many positions Young Andy has taken with respect to the question of America being “great,” or not.
First off, we have Young Andy in The Hill article “Cuomo: America ‘was never that great’” by Emily Birnbaum on 15 August 2018 telling us American citizens as follows:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said at an event on Wednesday that America “was never that great,” drawing groans and boos from the crowd.
end quotes
Then we have the “walk-back” by Young Andy in The Hill article “Cuomo reverses ‘inartful’ comments: ‘Of course America has always been great’” by John Bowden on 17 AUGUST 2018, to wit:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) reversed remarks he made earlier this week about American greatness, calling his language “inartful.”
Cuomo told reporters on a conference call Friday that he believes the country “has always been great,” the Democrat and Chronicle reported.
“The expression I used the other day was inartful, so I want to be very clear,” Cuomo said Friday.
“Of course America is great and of course America has always been great.”
“No one questions that.”
end quotes
But at the same time, if we go back to 2010, when Young Andy was announcing his candidacy for governor of New York as was reported by the NY Times https://www.nytimes.com/video/multimedi ... ement.html we have him saying, to wit:
“I’m Andrew Cuomo, and I work for you.”
“Together, we can make New York great again.”
“Let’s get to work.”
end quotes
And then on September 24, 2017, in one of his plethora of press releases touting his own greatness, this one entitled “Governor Cuomo Launches Statewide Empire State Relief & Recovery Effort for Puerto Rico,” we have the same Young Andy saying as follows:
“Puerto Ricans have helped make New York great — and we will not leave our family alone in its time of need.”
end quotes
So what is it really, people, besides a pandering hack politician with a mouth so agile and mobile that Young Andy can speak out of many different sides of it, all at the same time, depending on who is in front of him right then?
And with respect to prospective Democrat presidential contender and front-runner Young Andy Cuomo’s highly mobile mouth, which makes him the demagogue’s demagogue, back in 2010, when Young Andy was telling us in New York state something we already knew, that not only was the state not great, notwithstanding what the rest of the nation might have been back then under the bootheel of Democrat Barack Hussein Obama, who wanted Young Andy to be governor of New York to give Obama political support for his Obama agenda, it was in fact a corrupt ****hole, as we see from the wording of this press release Young Andy put out back then, telling us why the state was a corrupt ****hole, to wit:
Hello. I’m Andrew Cuomo.
I have the great honor to serve you, the people of our State, as your lawyer, your advocate, your Attorney General.
end quotes
Now, when it comes to putting out gobs of political horse****, there is a prime example of it, because as attorney general, Young Andy Cuomo was never “our lawyer,” nor was he “our advocate.”
As attorney general, Young Andy was in fact the state’s lawyer, and as the state’s lawyer, Young Andy defended the corruption.
According to New York Executive Law § 60, as attorney general, Young Andy was the head of the Department of Law in NYS, as follows:
There shall continue to be in the state government a department of law.
The head of the department of law shall be the attorney-general who shall receive an annual salary of one hundred fifty-one thousand five hundred dollars.
end quotes
In NYS, the Department of Law, which Young Andy was head of as attorney general, does not serve as our lawyer.
It serves as our adversary.
As to Young Andy’s duties as attorney general, those are defined by New York Executive Law § 63, General duties, as follows:
The attorney-general shall:
1. Prosecute and defend all actions and proceedings in which the state is interested, and have charge and control of all the legal business of the departments and bureaus of the state, or of any office thereof which requires the services of attorney or counsel, in order to protect the interest of the state.
end quotes
The phrase “protect the interest of the state” makes it pretty clear exactly what Young Andy’s job was as attorney general, and it certainly was not to be our lawyer or our advocate, unless, of course, we were a part of the pay-to-play culture, having bribed the state for special favors, and then, yes, as attorney general, Young Andy would have had our back, which takes us back to his 2010 press release, as follows:
Every single day for the past three years, I have gone to work with one mission: to represent the people – Period.
To fight for you, no matter how powerful the foe, no matter how long the odds.
end quotes
That is pure horse**** leavened by a dollop of pig ****, because it is patently false, and that, people, is what a demagogue looks like in action in real life, where demagogue is defined as a political leader who seeks support by appealing to popular desires and prejudices rather than by using rational argument.
And that is just the start of the spew of horse****, which Young Andy is reviving as he positions himself for his 2020 presidential run against Trump, as we see from the following from that same press release, to wit:
You have welcomed me into your homes.
I have met your families.
I have learned about your problems and your challenges.
I understand that we are in a difficult time, even a frightening time.
end quotes
And people, I am not making any of that up.
Those are Young Andy’s own words from a real press release he put out to gull the people of New York back in 2010.
And consider, when he says “I understand that we are in a difficult time, even a frightening time,” that he is referring to Barack Hussein Obama being president and Hillary Clinton being secretary of state, which certainly did make those times frightening for many people, not only in America, but in the world, as well.
And getting back to Young Andy's very revealing 2010 press release, we have as follows:
The economic collapse has wrecked havoc in too many lives.
Life savings have been lost, jobs are shaky, home values have plummeted, and with it dreams for retirement, college tuitions, and a nest egg to rely on.
Reckless bankers exploit the economy and working families are paying the price.
Now Wall Street gets bonuses and taxpayers get the bill.
It’s not right and it’s not fair.
end quotes
And Wall Street was getting those bonuses and working families were paying the price, because that is how Democrat president Barack Hussein Obama decreed that it was the right thing to do, as did Young Andy himself, in real life, as we see from the Politico article “The governor of Wall Street” by Jimmy Vielkind on 10/28/2014, to wit:
Some Democrats have done well for themselves by attacking Wall Street.
Elizabeth Warren and Eric Schneiderman, who called for stricter regulation and prosecution of of executives involved in the housing bubble; Bill de Blasio, who won a mayor’s race by attacking income inequality and promising to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund social programs.
And then there is Andrew Cuomo, who has done well for himself over the past four years by doing the opposite.
The son of a liberal icon who has cast himself as a centrist, Cuomo has treated New York’s financial services sector with kid gloves, quietly pushing through favorable policies and, a bit more loudly, holding the line against others’ calls for tax increases.
end quotes
As a hack politician who is a consummate demagogue, Young Andy knows which side the bread is buttered on when it comes to Wall Street, as we see from this following from that same article:
Overall, Cuomo has done little to rock an industry that, according to recent estimates, accounts for a fifth of the state’s tax revenues and employs 162,400 workers with an average salary of nearly $360,000.
If Wall Street executives had any concerns about the governor before—as a vestige, perhaps, of the rather more adversarial pose he struck following the financial collapse, which took place when he was attorney general—they seem to have disappeared with de Blasio’s election, and the mayor’s immediate push for a tax hike and limits on the proliferation of charter schools.
Cuomo made a public point of blocking de Blasio on both fronts, making an unprecedented appearance at a pro-charter rally at the Capitol and declaring the tax hike dead.
If anything, Cuomo seems likely to deepen his engagement with the financial sector in a second term.
Cuomo has raised nearly $45 million over his four years in office, according to an analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group, with top sums coming from real estate magnates.
But while S.E.C. regulations make it difficult for investment banks to contribute, Cuomo has received over $50,000 each from KPMG and Ernst & Young; employee PACs from Citigroup, Bank of America and J.P. Morgan Chase, as well as hedge fund titans and investors like Stanley Druckenmiller, Daniel Loeb, Blair Effron, James Simons, Carl Icahn, Ron Perelman and Ken Langone.
The other end of the stick is taxes, where Cuomo has treated Wall Street quite well.
He has not only resisted calls to raise taxes, he has cut the overall corporate tax rate and eliminated the state’s dedicated bank tax, saying it relied on an outdated formula that offered a disincentive to keep jobs in New York.
The governor talked about the changes in the context of manufacturing and small business, but dollar for dollar, banks will see the biggest impact.
They boosted Cuomo, too: The governor has touted them in advertisements and won adulation from business groups.
“Certainly there is great appreciation that he understood the need for corporate tax reform, and the importance of that to the financial industry,” said Wylde.
“We love corporate tax reform.”
end quotes
If that looks like Young Andy Cuomo pandering to Wall Street, it is because Young Andy is indeed pandering to Wall Street, as again we see from that Politico article, to wit:
But these very same policies came at a political cost to Cuomo within his own party, angering public sector labor unions and progressives who labeled him “Governor One Percent” and protested him during the 2011 Occupy demonstrations in New York City and Albany.
“His economic policies certainly favor the wealthiest New Yorkers over regular New Yorkers,” said Ron Deutsch, executive director of the labor-backed New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness.
“Ultimately, he’s a trickle-down, supply-side subscriber, basically.”
“I think he really does believe that you have to cut taxes for the job creators.”
“He buys into and promotes many of these Republican tax policies.”
end quotes
Which is going to make this a very interesting presidential race between Young Andy Cuomo and Donald Trump, since Young Andy, who bills himself as the opposition to Trump, in fact has many of the same policies as Trump, except that Young Andy had them first.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/a ... ment-69194
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
THE CAPE CHARLES MIRROR September 5, 2018 at 8:35 pm
Paul Plante says:
As we consider all the various positions taken by prospective Democrat party presidential frontrunner Young Andy Cuomo on the greatness of America, or lack thereof, depending on which day of the week it is that Young Andy is speaking, back in 1838, in a work entitled “The American Democrat,” in the chapter “On Demagogues,” American author James Fenimore Cooper, stated as follows with respect to the breed, which most definitely includes prospective Democrat presidential front-runner Young Andy Cuomo of corrupt New York State, to wit:
Men properly derive their designation from their acts, and not from their professions.
The peculiar office of a demogogue is to advance his own interests, by affecting a deep devotion to the interests of the people.
end quotes
That description fits Young Andy Cuomo to a tee, which again takes us back to 2010, and the press release of Young Andy telling us why he should be the governor of the state of New York, which office was but a stepping stone on his path to the presidency of the United States of America in 2020, to wit:
To make matters worse, Manhattan’s Wall Street debacle is matched only by Albany’s State Street debacle.
Our state government in Albany is disreputable and discredited.
New York State is upside down and backwards; high taxes and low performance.
The New York State government was at one time a national model.
Now, unfortunately, it’s a national disgrace.
Sometimes, the corruption in Albany could even make Boss Tweed blush.
end quotes
Indeed, it does, right on up to today, and as we read those words from the man likely to be our next president, we have to consider that Young Andy’s father Mario, known as the “Hamlet on the Hudson, ” served as the 52nd Governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994, and Young Andy began his political career working as the campaign manager for his father, so Young Andy has a political insider’s view of the corruption, which was rampant when his father was governor, and when Young Andy was attorney general.
That is why he can speak so authoritatively about it.
From there, our Young Andy then continued as follows with his demagoguery:
In my option (sic.), politicians of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, share the blame.
Both are guilty of playing partisan politics and bringing New York State to the brink.
end quotes
WOW, people, who’d a thought it!
Democrats, which party includes Young Andy himself, and Republicans playing partisan politics!
The things we are learning in here thanks to the Cape Charles Mirror.
And the interesting thing about all of this is that despite what I am quoting being an actual press release, not once was Young Andy called out on any of these statements he made, as I am doing in here.
Why?
Is it because the mainstream media has no memory?
Is it because the main stream media is cowardly?
Or is it because the main stream media itself plays politics?
You would think that the main stream media would have come right back when Young Andy made his claim about politicians of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, sharing the blame, by asking him why that indictment did not include him, as well, and why that indictment should preclude him from holding either state or national office, but not a peep.
Go along to get along is all I can think.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/a ... ment-69760
Paul Plante says:
As we consider all the various positions taken by prospective Democrat party presidential frontrunner Young Andy Cuomo on the greatness of America, or lack thereof, depending on which day of the week it is that Young Andy is speaking, back in 1838, in a work entitled “The American Democrat,” in the chapter “On Demagogues,” American author James Fenimore Cooper, stated as follows with respect to the breed, which most definitely includes prospective Democrat presidential front-runner Young Andy Cuomo of corrupt New York State, to wit:
Men properly derive their designation from their acts, and not from their professions.
The peculiar office of a demogogue is to advance his own interests, by affecting a deep devotion to the interests of the people.
end quotes
That description fits Young Andy Cuomo to a tee, which again takes us back to 2010, and the press release of Young Andy telling us why he should be the governor of the state of New York, which office was but a stepping stone on his path to the presidency of the United States of America in 2020, to wit:
To make matters worse, Manhattan’s Wall Street debacle is matched only by Albany’s State Street debacle.
Our state government in Albany is disreputable and discredited.
New York State is upside down and backwards; high taxes and low performance.
The New York State government was at one time a national model.
Now, unfortunately, it’s a national disgrace.
Sometimes, the corruption in Albany could even make Boss Tweed blush.
end quotes
Indeed, it does, right on up to today, and as we read those words from the man likely to be our next president, we have to consider that Young Andy’s father Mario, known as the “Hamlet on the Hudson, ” served as the 52nd Governor of New York for three terms, from 1983 to 1994, and Young Andy began his political career working as the campaign manager for his father, so Young Andy has a political insider’s view of the corruption, which was rampant when his father was governor, and when Young Andy was attorney general.
That is why he can speak so authoritatively about it.
From there, our Young Andy then continued as follows with his demagoguery:
In my option (sic.), politicians of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, share the blame.
Both are guilty of playing partisan politics and bringing New York State to the brink.
end quotes
WOW, people, who’d a thought it!
Democrats, which party includes Young Andy himself, and Republicans playing partisan politics!
The things we are learning in here thanks to the Cape Charles Mirror.
And the interesting thing about all of this is that despite what I am quoting being an actual press release, not once was Young Andy called out on any of these statements he made, as I am doing in here.
Why?
Is it because the mainstream media has no memory?
Is it because the main stream media is cowardly?
Or is it because the main stream media itself plays politics?
You would think that the main stream media would have come right back when Young Andy made his claim about politicians of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, sharing the blame, by asking him why that indictment did not include him, as well, and why that indictment should preclude him from holding either state or national office, but not a peep.
Go along to get along is all I can think.
http://www.capecharlesmirror.com/news/a ... ment-69760
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
"Rensselaer dump opponents get legal help"
By Brian Nearing, Albany, New York Times Union
Updated 3:49 pm EDT, Friday, September 7, 2018
Rensselaer - A national environmental group is providing legal assistance to local opponents of the state's largest construction and debris dump that continues growing in Rensselaer.
The Sierra Club has retained Albany lawyer John Barone to review the 2012 state permit issued for the sprawling Dunn landfill by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
"I have been retained, and am currently reviewing this permit and other documents," Barone said Friday.
He is a member of the Albany law firm of Tooher and Barone.
Barone is a former board member of Saratoga PLAN, a not-for-profit environmental advocacy group in Saratoga County.
"It is gratifying to have a group that is willing to help us legally prove our contention that we are suffering excessive impacts from the trucks going to and from this landfill all day long," said Lou Sebesta, a Partition Street resident who is part of a grassroots group called Stop Trucks From Assaulting Rensselaer.
"The state has not been taking our points seriously that we are being impacted, and that the dump is destroying our quality of life and the prospect of quality development in our community," he added.
Last month, DEC hit owner S.A. Dunn & Co. LLC, an affiliate of the regional waste company Waste Connections, with a $50,000 fine for four separate environmental violations at the dump, which accepts construction and demolition debris.
Neighbors like Sebesta and others have complained about dozens of large tractor trailer trucks that deliver loads to dump during weekdays, and question a 2012 state permit that allows up to 100 such vehicles daily.
The dump can legally accept concrete, sheetrock, asphalt, masonry, roofing materials, plumbing fixtures, insulation (but not asbestos), empty buckets, wood, plastics and "pulverized waste."
It cannot take regular household garbage or hazardous waste.
Sebesta that the 2012 DEC permit that allowed up to 100 trucks a day to visit the facility — a limit set when the facility was still only a sand and gravel mine — should never have been applied to the construction dump.
Partition Street, which is lined with homes, is the only way in and out of the facility.
The heavy trucks cause excessive noise, exhaust and rattle buildings as they pass, according to neighbors.
The trucks are also spreading dirt and dust through the area.
Since the dump opened in 2015, more than 50,000 trucks from multiple states have used the facility.
The state violations against Dunn last month did not address the underlying truck issues and 2012 permit that are being raised by dump opponents.
The violations included trucks using two roads to the facility that were not on the 2012 plan approved by the state, storm water running off the facility down Partition Street, dumping of hundreds of tons of dirt fill on nearby land that is being used to construct new athletic fields for the nearby Rensselaer Junior-Senior High School, and dust clouds blowing off the facility.
The agreement called for a fine of up to $100,000 against Dunn, but DEC will forgive half of that if the company fixes the problems, including plans to control dust.
The agreement also calls for Dunn to spend $225,000 for an unspecified project that benefits the Rensselaer School District and "the local community."
The athletic fields being built next to the high school are being done by Kubricky Construction, a Wilton-based construction firm where former Dunn mine owner Michael Dunn is now president.
According to a Feb. 2 DEC notice of violations to Dunn, Kubricky is "also the subcontractor that operates the Dunn facility mine."
In 2015, Dunn sold the 99-acre property to Waste Connections, a Texas-based corporation that is one of the nation's largest waste haulers.
As part of the $30 million sale, which also included a dump in Texas, Dunn received a $3 million bonus for obtaining the state and city agreements and permits necessary for the dump, according to a report that Waste Connections filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016.
https://www.timesunion.com/business/art ... 212562.php
By Brian Nearing, Albany, New York Times Union
Updated 3:49 pm EDT, Friday, September 7, 2018
Rensselaer - A national environmental group is providing legal assistance to local opponents of the state's largest construction and debris dump that continues growing in Rensselaer.
The Sierra Club has retained Albany lawyer John Barone to review the 2012 state permit issued for the sprawling Dunn landfill by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
"I have been retained, and am currently reviewing this permit and other documents," Barone said Friday.
He is a member of the Albany law firm of Tooher and Barone.
Barone is a former board member of Saratoga PLAN, a not-for-profit environmental advocacy group in Saratoga County.
"It is gratifying to have a group that is willing to help us legally prove our contention that we are suffering excessive impacts from the trucks going to and from this landfill all day long," said Lou Sebesta, a Partition Street resident who is part of a grassroots group called Stop Trucks From Assaulting Rensselaer.
"The state has not been taking our points seriously that we are being impacted, and that the dump is destroying our quality of life and the prospect of quality development in our community," he added.
Last month, DEC hit owner S.A. Dunn & Co. LLC, an affiliate of the regional waste company Waste Connections, with a $50,000 fine for four separate environmental violations at the dump, which accepts construction and demolition debris.
Neighbors like Sebesta and others have complained about dozens of large tractor trailer trucks that deliver loads to dump during weekdays, and question a 2012 state permit that allows up to 100 such vehicles daily.
The dump can legally accept concrete, sheetrock, asphalt, masonry, roofing materials, plumbing fixtures, insulation (but not asbestos), empty buckets, wood, plastics and "pulverized waste."
It cannot take regular household garbage or hazardous waste.
Sebesta that the 2012 DEC permit that allowed up to 100 trucks a day to visit the facility — a limit set when the facility was still only a sand and gravel mine — should never have been applied to the construction dump.
Partition Street, which is lined with homes, is the only way in and out of the facility.
The heavy trucks cause excessive noise, exhaust and rattle buildings as they pass, according to neighbors.
The trucks are also spreading dirt and dust through the area.
Since the dump opened in 2015, more than 50,000 trucks from multiple states have used the facility.
The state violations against Dunn last month did not address the underlying truck issues and 2012 permit that are being raised by dump opponents.
The violations included trucks using two roads to the facility that were not on the 2012 plan approved by the state, storm water running off the facility down Partition Street, dumping of hundreds of tons of dirt fill on nearby land that is being used to construct new athletic fields for the nearby Rensselaer Junior-Senior High School, and dust clouds blowing off the facility.
The agreement called for a fine of up to $100,000 against Dunn, but DEC will forgive half of that if the company fixes the problems, including plans to control dust.
The agreement also calls for Dunn to spend $225,000 for an unspecified project that benefits the Rensselaer School District and "the local community."
The athletic fields being built next to the high school are being done by Kubricky Construction, a Wilton-based construction firm where former Dunn mine owner Michael Dunn is now president.
According to a Feb. 2 DEC notice of violations to Dunn, Kubricky is "also the subcontractor that operates the Dunn facility mine."
In 2015, Dunn sold the 99-acre property to Waste Connections, a Texas-based corporation that is one of the nation's largest waste haulers.
As part of the $30 million sale, which also included a dump in Texas, Dunn received a $3 million bonus for obtaining the state and city agreements and permits necessary for the dump, according to a report that Waste Connections filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2016.
https://www.timesunion.com/business/art ... 212562.php
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
YOUNG ANDY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG BECAUSE YOUNG ANDY NEVER DOES ANYTHING WRONG ...
"Cuomo: Crystal Run could have 'admitted to a crime' - Governor says contact to Rep. Maloney's campaign would be akin to confessing violation"
By Chris Bragg, Albany, New York Times Union
Updated 4:56 pm EDT, Tuesday, September 4, 2018
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign has generally refused to answer questions about an ongoing federal investigation into Crystal Run Healthcare, which has given $400,000 in campaign donations to the governor and received an extraordinary $25.4 million in state grants.
In a meeting with the Times Union editorial board on Tuesday, Cuomo did answer a question his campaign has evaded for weeks: Crystal Run officials, the governor said, have not approached him about any potential legal problems with their donations.
By contrast, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney — currently running for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general — has publicly stated that Crystal Run approached him about irregularities with more than $35,000 in donations its made to the congressman.
"Well, then," Cuomo said of Crystal Run's disclosure to Maloney, "they admitted to a crime."
"Which is sort of incredible for me to believe as a former prosecutor and an attorney general," Cuomo said.
"Why somebody would call up and say to a congressman, 'I committed a felony.'"
"'Just thought you should know.'"
"Especially since nobody's been charged."
"I mean, who would make that phone call?"
Maloney's decision to turn over Crystal Run's legally problematic donations to the U.S. Treasury has put Cuomo – who has refused calls to return any portion of his own Crystal Run donations – in the position of having to rationalize that stance.
On Tuesday, Cuomo theorized that Maloney's statements about Crystal Run admitting legal troubles were not accurate.
"How much do you want to bet," he said, "the Crystal Run people never called Maloney and said that?"
In response to Cuomo's comments, Maloney's office on Tuesday provided the Times Union with a letter from a Crystal Run attorney that disclosed issues with the company's donations but insisted they were inadvertent.
No one from Crystal Run has been charged with any wrongdoing.
Following a series of Times Union articles last year, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office and FBI are investigating Crystal Run over its manner of giving to Cuomo.
The investigation has also brought allegations of pay-to-play behavior from the governor's electoral challengers this year: The company in 2016 landed $25.4 million in state grants for projects it was already building without taxpayer subsidies.
Cuomo maintains the prodigious campaign giving of Crystal Run and other donors – totaling $49 million for his current reelection bid – has never impacted state policy decisions.
The ongoing criminal investigation of Crystal Run is examining whether its officials were reimbursed by company bonuses for a flurry of $25,000 donations they made to Cuomo's campaign in 2013.
If that occurred, it would be a potential violation of state election law.
On Tuesday, Maloney's office provided more information about how it came to return the Crystal Run-connected donations.
The Orange County-based company this spring asked Maloney to give back some of its officials' past campaign donations to the congressman.
In response, Maloney's office asked for more information.
In April 2018, an outside counsel for Crystal Run, David Frulla of the firm Kelley Drye, wrote a letter to an attorney for Maloney.
"Upon review, Kelley Drye determined it was appropriate to request the enumerated refunds, but have no reason to believe that Maloney for Congress was privy to any of the information or actions that caused the refund request," Frulla said in the letter.
"Crystal Run has made a sua sponte" – or voluntary – "submission to the Federal Election Commission regarding this matter."
"Further, we requested the refunds because our review found that (Crystal Run), and its officers, partners, and employees, did not fully or accurately understand campaign finance law and regulations applicable to partnerships," the lawyer wrote.
"Any resulting failure to comply with the applicable law or regulations was, accordingly, inadvertent."
Maloney's office has also said that Crystal Run acknowledged the donations were "incorrectly attributed" in campaign filings.
A Crystal Run spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Cuomo, meanwhile, has declined to heed calls from his political opponents, actress and Democratic primary opponent Cythnia Nixon and Republican Marc Molinaro, that he also return Crystal Run's money.
The governor stated again on Tuesday that he would return the company's money if legal wrongdoing was found.
"The Crystal Run situation is this," Cuomo said.
"Two years ago, I don't know which office started an investigation on a doctor as a 'straw donor.'"
" Our contribution form, on our website, says 'Do not do straw donors.'"
"That was two years ago," Cuomo said, noting he had heard little since.
"As soon as there is a finding that somebody did something wrong, I will return the contributions."
Over a two-day period in October 2013, Crystal Run officials, doctors or their spouses gave Cuomo 10 donations of $25,000 apiece.
The donations came during a Cuomo fundraiser, though the governor's campaign has repeatedly refused to discuss its location and details such as whether it was an exclusive Crystal Run event.
Of the 10 Crystal Run donors to Cuomo, seven had not made a donation in a New York election in at least a decade.
On Tuesday, Cuomo stated for the first time that Crystal Run officials threw a fundraiser for him in 2013.
He also said it was not unusual for so many people, who had not given in New York elections before, to give him the 10 identical $25,000 checks.
"If you do a fundraiser for me, you're going to go to your neighbors and your friends and say, 'Do me a favor — Andrew Cuomo's a good guy, he's a friend of mine, come over and contribute,'" Cuomo said.
"Yeah, so the company did a fundraiser."
Cuomo also addressed the fact that Crystal Run was granted $25.4 million in 2016 by the state Department of Health to build two health care facilities — in Monroe, Orange County, and West Nyack, Rockland County — that it was already constructing without taxpayer subsidies.
Cuomo said the agency's decisions in handing out $1.2 billion in health care capital funds grants statewide had been made by civil service employees.
"It's done on objective criteria, pursuant to a 2014 law."
"And that's how the program works," Cuomo said.
"I haven't gotten into it well enough."
"But there is no suggestion that they got the grant from Health because of the contribution.
"The only suggestion is this guy was a straw donor," Cuomo said of the investigation.
"That was two years ago."
The Times Union first wrote about the Crystal Run donations to Cuomo in February 2017, about 18 months ago.
On Tuesday, the Times Union reported that for the two projects, Crystal Run had attempted to get taxpayer reimbursement of the $25 million in grants for a number questionable expenses, from artwork and "mood music" systems to plastic flowers for a lobby.
While the Cuomo administration has not repaid the company for those purchases, it did reimburse Crystal Run — one of New York's fastest-growing private medical firms — for $6 million, including $1.2 million in corporate office furniture.
"Not another a dime of taxpayer money should go from the Cuomo administration to Crystal Run while the FBI and Orange County are investigating this," said Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, in a statement responding to the story.
"And, Gov. Cuomo: You won't have enough money in your campaign arsenal in November to explain away the dirty $400,000 you're holding."
"Mark my words: New Yorkers have had enough."
Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Collins responded that "Trump mini-me Marc Molinaro should look in the mirror."
"He's taking a page from Trump's playbook by taking contributions from business with local contracts, doling out tax breaks in return, and handing out favors to his friends and family."
At the Times Union, Cuomo said Maloney had only returned the more than $35,000 because he is currently running in the heated Democratic primary for state attorney general, the state's top law enforcement job.
"I think it was just a political decision," Cuomo said.
"It was a PR decision."
"There's been no charge," Cuomo added.
"And also, straw donor cases are also sort of an open-and-shut case."
"It's 'Dr. Smith, you gave $25,000 to Sean Patrick Maloney.'"
"'Did the company reimburse you?'"
"That's it."
"And, 'Is there a check that goes to you for the $25,000?'"
"This has been two years!"
"If they have that case, that's the case," he said.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... ion_Capcon
"Cuomo: Crystal Run could have 'admitted to a crime' - Governor says contact to Rep. Maloney's campaign would be akin to confessing violation"
By Chris Bragg, Albany, New York Times Union
Updated 4:56 pm EDT, Tuesday, September 4, 2018
ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign has generally refused to answer questions about an ongoing federal investigation into Crystal Run Healthcare, which has given $400,000 in campaign donations to the governor and received an extraordinary $25.4 million in state grants.
In a meeting with the Times Union editorial board on Tuesday, Cuomo did answer a question his campaign has evaded for weeks: Crystal Run officials, the governor said, have not approached him about any potential legal problems with their donations.
By contrast, U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney — currently running for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general — has publicly stated that Crystal Run approached him about irregularities with more than $35,000 in donations its made to the congressman.
"Well, then," Cuomo said of Crystal Run's disclosure to Maloney, "they admitted to a crime."
"Which is sort of incredible for me to believe as a former prosecutor and an attorney general," Cuomo said.
"Why somebody would call up and say to a congressman, 'I committed a felony.'"
"'Just thought you should know.'"
"Especially since nobody's been charged."
"I mean, who would make that phone call?"
Maloney's decision to turn over Crystal Run's legally problematic donations to the U.S. Treasury has put Cuomo – who has refused calls to return any portion of his own Crystal Run donations – in the position of having to rationalize that stance.
On Tuesday, Cuomo theorized that Maloney's statements about Crystal Run admitting legal troubles were not accurate.
"How much do you want to bet," he said, "the Crystal Run people never called Maloney and said that?"
In response to Cuomo's comments, Maloney's office on Tuesday provided the Times Union with a letter from a Crystal Run attorney that disclosed issues with the company's donations but insisted they were inadvertent.
No one from Crystal Run has been charged with any wrongdoing.
Following a series of Times Union articles last year, the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office and FBI are investigating Crystal Run over its manner of giving to Cuomo.
The investigation has also brought allegations of pay-to-play behavior from the governor's electoral challengers this year: The company in 2016 landed $25.4 million in state grants for projects it was already building without taxpayer subsidies.
Cuomo maintains the prodigious campaign giving of Crystal Run and other donors – totaling $49 million for his current reelection bid – has never impacted state policy decisions.
The ongoing criminal investigation of Crystal Run is examining whether its officials were reimbursed by company bonuses for a flurry of $25,000 donations they made to Cuomo's campaign in 2013.
If that occurred, it would be a potential violation of state election law.
On Tuesday, Maloney's office provided more information about how it came to return the Crystal Run-connected donations.
The Orange County-based company this spring asked Maloney to give back some of its officials' past campaign donations to the congressman.
In response, Maloney's office asked for more information.
In April 2018, an outside counsel for Crystal Run, David Frulla of the firm Kelley Drye, wrote a letter to an attorney for Maloney.
"Upon review, Kelley Drye determined it was appropriate to request the enumerated refunds, but have no reason to believe that Maloney for Congress was privy to any of the information or actions that caused the refund request," Frulla said in the letter.
"Crystal Run has made a sua sponte" – or voluntary – "submission to the Federal Election Commission regarding this matter."
"Further, we requested the refunds because our review found that (Crystal Run), and its officers, partners, and employees, did not fully or accurately understand campaign finance law and regulations applicable to partnerships," the lawyer wrote.
"Any resulting failure to comply with the applicable law or regulations was, accordingly, inadvertent."
Maloney's office has also said that Crystal Run acknowledged the donations were "incorrectly attributed" in campaign filings.
A Crystal Run spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Cuomo, meanwhile, has declined to heed calls from his political opponents, actress and Democratic primary opponent Cythnia Nixon and Republican Marc Molinaro, that he also return Crystal Run's money.
The governor stated again on Tuesday that he would return the company's money if legal wrongdoing was found.
"The Crystal Run situation is this," Cuomo said.
"Two years ago, I don't know which office started an investigation on a doctor as a 'straw donor.'"
" Our contribution form, on our website, says 'Do not do straw donors.'"
"That was two years ago," Cuomo said, noting he had heard little since.
"As soon as there is a finding that somebody did something wrong, I will return the contributions."
Over a two-day period in October 2013, Crystal Run officials, doctors or their spouses gave Cuomo 10 donations of $25,000 apiece.
The donations came during a Cuomo fundraiser, though the governor's campaign has repeatedly refused to discuss its location and details such as whether it was an exclusive Crystal Run event.
Of the 10 Crystal Run donors to Cuomo, seven had not made a donation in a New York election in at least a decade.
On Tuesday, Cuomo stated for the first time that Crystal Run officials threw a fundraiser for him in 2013.
He also said it was not unusual for so many people, who had not given in New York elections before, to give him the 10 identical $25,000 checks.
"If you do a fundraiser for me, you're going to go to your neighbors and your friends and say, 'Do me a favor — Andrew Cuomo's a good guy, he's a friend of mine, come over and contribute,'" Cuomo said.
"Yeah, so the company did a fundraiser."
Cuomo also addressed the fact that Crystal Run was granted $25.4 million in 2016 by the state Department of Health to build two health care facilities — in Monroe, Orange County, and West Nyack, Rockland County — that it was already constructing without taxpayer subsidies.
Cuomo said the agency's decisions in handing out $1.2 billion in health care capital funds grants statewide had been made by civil service employees.
"It's done on objective criteria, pursuant to a 2014 law."
"And that's how the program works," Cuomo said.
"I haven't gotten into it well enough."
"But there is no suggestion that they got the grant from Health because of the contribution.
"The only suggestion is this guy was a straw donor," Cuomo said of the investigation.
"That was two years ago."
The Times Union first wrote about the Crystal Run donations to Cuomo in February 2017, about 18 months ago.
On Tuesday, the Times Union reported that for the two projects, Crystal Run had attempted to get taxpayer reimbursement of the $25 million in grants for a number questionable expenses, from artwork and "mood music" systems to plastic flowers for a lobby.
While the Cuomo administration has not repaid the company for those purchases, it did reimburse Crystal Run — one of New York's fastest-growing private medical firms — for $6 million, including $1.2 million in corporate office furniture.
"Not another a dime of taxpayer money should go from the Cuomo administration to Crystal Run while the FBI and Orange County are investigating this," said Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive, in a statement responding to the story.
"And, Gov. Cuomo: You won't have enough money in your campaign arsenal in November to explain away the dirty $400,000 you're holding."
"Mark my words: New Yorkers have had enough."
Cuomo campaign spokeswoman Abbey Collins responded that "Trump mini-me Marc Molinaro should look in the mirror."
"He's taking a page from Trump's playbook by taking contributions from business with local contracts, doling out tax breaks in return, and handing out favors to his friends and family."
At the Times Union, Cuomo said Maloney had only returned the more than $35,000 because he is currently running in the heated Democratic primary for state attorney general, the state's top law enforcement job.
"I think it was just a political decision," Cuomo said.
"It was a PR decision."
"There's been no charge," Cuomo added.
"And also, straw donor cases are also sort of an open-and-shut case."
"It's 'Dr. Smith, you gave $25,000 to Sean Patrick Maloney.'"
"'Did the company reimburse you?'"
"That's it."
"And, 'Is there a check that goes to you for the $25,000?'"
"This has been two years!"
"If they have that case, that's the case," he said.
https://www.timesunion.com/news/article ... ion_Capcon
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
THE NEW YORK TIMES
"Limo Owner’s Past: F.B.I. Informant, Recruiter of Terrorists, Fraudster"
By ANDY NEWMAN, BENJAMIN WEISER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
10 OCTOBER 2018
In 2001, a 45-year-old gas-station owner from Pakistan named Shahed Hussain walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles in Albany and obtained a driver’s license using fake documents for a would-be taxi driver who paid him $1,000.
Mr. Hussain was caught, faced federal charges and, to avoid deportation, began a secret career that led him to pose as a recruiter of terrorists.
He continued to run a series of businesses with his family, despite bankruptcy and legal issues — including, eventually, a limousine service that repeatedly ran afoul of state inspectors.
Now, Mr. Hussain’s improbable journey — from asylum-seeking immigrant to petty criminal to trusted ally of government prosecutors, has taken yet another turn.
His complicated past is central to the investigation of the nation’s deadliest crash in years.
On Saturday, a stretch limo operated by Mr. Hussain’s company, Prestige Limousine, ran a stop sign on a rural highway in Schoharie, an hour west of Albany, plowed into another car and left 20 people dead.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the limo had failed inspections for problems with its brakes, suspension and chassis last month, and was being driven by a man lacking the proper license to operate a commercial vehicle.
The car was also not certified to carry the 18 people riding in it when it crashed.
“There is a ton of information that’s got to be processed — forensic information, witness statements and other materials,” a law enforcement official said of the investigation into the crash.
State Police have made clear that they would like to interview Mr. Hussain, 62.
Lee Kindlon, a lawyer for Mr. Hussain and Prestige, said he spoke on Tuesday with Mr. Hussain, who he said has been in Pakistan for some time dealing with health issues.
“He has indicated he is willing to come back if the investigation requires,” Mr. Kindlon said.
Citing the pending investigations, he declined further comment, saying, “I think it’s best right now to let the process take place.”
Prestige issued a statement on Monday expressing condolences to the relatives of those killed.
“We are performing a detailed internal investigation to determine the cause of the accident,” the statement said, adding that the company had voluntarily taken its vehicles off the road.
An examination of Mr. Hussain’s history, based on court records and interviews with those who dealt with him, shows a man who has spent the better part of two decades crossing back and forth from one side of the law to the other.
His work helped convict two leaders of an Albany mosque in a 2004 plot to import a missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat, and four other men in a 2009 conspiracy to bomb synagogues in the Bronx.
In both cases, the attacks never took place because they were part of a sting operation.
In one of those terrorism trials, Mr. Hussain described five years of solid work for the F.B.I.
“We did about 21 cases, including money laundering, human trafficking, drug trafficking, credit card fraud, stolen identity and D.M.V. officials — corrupt D.M.V. officials,” he said.
But a federal defender who represented one of the men whom Mr. Hussain helped lure into the terror plot in 2009 offered a darker assessment of Mr. Hussain’s character.
“If Wikipedia did a definition of fraudster, they could put his picture in,” the lawyer, Susanne Brody, said on Tuesday.
“He lies about everything.”
Still, federal prosecutors during the two trials portrayed him as a trustworthy witness.
In the bomb-plot case, for example, the prosecutors said his testimony was corroborated by other evidence.
“Despite trying to turn over every single rock in this man’s life in a desperate attempt to find a worm, they were never able to call into question his basic account of what happened in this case,” a prosecutor, Jason P.W. Halperin, told the jury.
Mr. Hussain arrived in the United States in about 1995 with considerable legal and extralegal adventures already behind him.
He testified in the 2009 terrorism trial that in Pakistan, he had been active in an opposition political party, arrested and tortured and charged with murder in the 1990s, freed after his father bribed the police, had fled to Moscow, Mexico and finally Texas on a fake passport and was granted asylum in Albany.
While working in and later owning gas stations, he developed a sideline helping people get driver’s licenses.
He worked for a company that provided interpreters for people taking driver’s license tests at the D.M.V. and would give his customers the correct answers while ostensibly translating the questions to them.
In 2003, he used his illegal expertise in driver’s licenses in his first terrorism sting.
Under the alias “Malik,” he met with the Bangladeshi owner of an Albany pizzeria who said his brother needed a learner’s permit.
For $100, no problem, Mr. Hussain said.
The men discussed religion, politics and jihad.
Over time, Mr. Hussain, acting on orders from the F.B.I., convinced the pizzeria owner and another man that he was helping plan an attack on a Pakistani diplomat in New York and would be importing a surface-to-air missile from China for the purpose.
They joined the plot, were arrested and, ultimately, convicted, despite their lawyers’ complaints that Mr. Hussain entrapped them.
Also in 2003, Mr. Hussain filed for bankruptcy, claiming debts of $177,000.
He continued his various ventures, sometimes in partnership with family members.
They bought a hotel, now called the Crest Inn Suites and Cottages, in Gansevoort, north of Albany.
In 2008, his family started Prestige Limousine.
That same year, according to court documents, some hotel guests sued him for taking reservations for cabins that had not even been built yet.
It was in 2008 that Mr. Hussain, posing as a wealthy jihadist named Maqsood and driving a series of luxury cars provided to him by the F.B.I., recruited four men for what he said was a plot to bomb synagogues in the Bronx.
Mr. Hussain drove with the men to a synagogue in Riverdale, where one of them put what he believed were bombs outside.
They were fake.
The four men were arrested and convicted.
But after the trial, the judge, Colleen McMahon, took the extraordinary step of writing to federal prosecutors in Albany, saying that Mr. Hussain’s trial testimony suggested he may have “perpetrated a fraud” during his earlier bankruptcy proceedings.
She noted Mr. Hussain testified about receiving “substantial sums of money” during his bankruptcy case from a family trust in Pakistan, which he did not disclose to the court or his creditors.
“A fraud on a court mocks our laws and compromises our system of justice,” the judge wrote in a letter obtained by The New York Times at its request from a court spokesman.
She formally referred the case for investigation.
Mr. Hussain was never charged with any such fraud.
Follow Andy Newman, William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser on Twitter:@andylocal @WRashbaum @BenWeiserNYT
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/limo-o ... id=HPDHP17
"Limo Owner’s Past: F.B.I. Informant, Recruiter of Terrorists, Fraudster"
By ANDY NEWMAN, BENJAMIN WEISER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
10 OCTOBER 2018
In 2001, a 45-year-old gas-station owner from Pakistan named Shahed Hussain walked into the Department of Motor Vehicles in Albany and obtained a driver’s license using fake documents for a would-be taxi driver who paid him $1,000.
Mr. Hussain was caught, faced federal charges and, to avoid deportation, began a secret career that led him to pose as a recruiter of terrorists.
He continued to run a series of businesses with his family, despite bankruptcy and legal issues — including, eventually, a limousine service that repeatedly ran afoul of state inspectors.
Now, Mr. Hussain’s improbable journey — from asylum-seeking immigrant to petty criminal to trusted ally of government prosecutors, has taken yet another turn.
His complicated past is central to the investigation of the nation’s deadliest crash in years.
On Saturday, a stretch limo operated by Mr. Hussain’s company, Prestige Limousine, ran a stop sign on a rural highway in Schoharie, an hour west of Albany, plowed into another car and left 20 people dead.
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said the limo had failed inspections for problems with its brakes, suspension and chassis last month, and was being driven by a man lacking the proper license to operate a commercial vehicle.
The car was also not certified to carry the 18 people riding in it when it crashed.
“There is a ton of information that’s got to be processed — forensic information, witness statements and other materials,” a law enforcement official said of the investigation into the crash.
State Police have made clear that they would like to interview Mr. Hussain, 62.
Lee Kindlon, a lawyer for Mr. Hussain and Prestige, said he spoke on Tuesday with Mr. Hussain, who he said has been in Pakistan for some time dealing with health issues.
“He has indicated he is willing to come back if the investigation requires,” Mr. Kindlon said.
Citing the pending investigations, he declined further comment, saying, “I think it’s best right now to let the process take place.”
Prestige issued a statement on Monday expressing condolences to the relatives of those killed.
“We are performing a detailed internal investigation to determine the cause of the accident,” the statement said, adding that the company had voluntarily taken its vehicles off the road.
An examination of Mr. Hussain’s history, based on court records and interviews with those who dealt with him, shows a man who has spent the better part of two decades crossing back and forth from one side of the law to the other.
His work helped convict two leaders of an Albany mosque in a 2004 plot to import a missile and assassinate a Pakistani diplomat, and four other men in a 2009 conspiracy to bomb synagogues in the Bronx.
In both cases, the attacks never took place because they were part of a sting operation.
In one of those terrorism trials, Mr. Hussain described five years of solid work for the F.B.I.
“We did about 21 cases, including money laundering, human trafficking, drug trafficking, credit card fraud, stolen identity and D.M.V. officials — corrupt D.M.V. officials,” he said.
But a federal defender who represented one of the men whom Mr. Hussain helped lure into the terror plot in 2009 offered a darker assessment of Mr. Hussain’s character.
“If Wikipedia did a definition of fraudster, they could put his picture in,” the lawyer, Susanne Brody, said on Tuesday.
“He lies about everything.”
Still, federal prosecutors during the two trials portrayed him as a trustworthy witness.
In the bomb-plot case, for example, the prosecutors said his testimony was corroborated by other evidence.
“Despite trying to turn over every single rock in this man’s life in a desperate attempt to find a worm, they were never able to call into question his basic account of what happened in this case,” a prosecutor, Jason P.W. Halperin, told the jury.
Mr. Hussain arrived in the United States in about 1995 with considerable legal and extralegal adventures already behind him.
He testified in the 2009 terrorism trial that in Pakistan, he had been active in an opposition political party, arrested and tortured and charged with murder in the 1990s, freed after his father bribed the police, had fled to Moscow, Mexico and finally Texas on a fake passport and was granted asylum in Albany.
While working in and later owning gas stations, he developed a sideline helping people get driver’s licenses.
He worked for a company that provided interpreters for people taking driver’s license tests at the D.M.V. and would give his customers the correct answers while ostensibly translating the questions to them.
In 2003, he used his illegal expertise in driver’s licenses in his first terrorism sting.
Under the alias “Malik,” he met with the Bangladeshi owner of an Albany pizzeria who said his brother needed a learner’s permit.
For $100, no problem, Mr. Hussain said.
The men discussed religion, politics and jihad.
Over time, Mr. Hussain, acting on orders from the F.B.I., convinced the pizzeria owner and another man that he was helping plan an attack on a Pakistani diplomat in New York and would be importing a surface-to-air missile from China for the purpose.
They joined the plot, were arrested and, ultimately, convicted, despite their lawyers’ complaints that Mr. Hussain entrapped them.
Also in 2003, Mr. Hussain filed for bankruptcy, claiming debts of $177,000.
He continued his various ventures, sometimes in partnership with family members.
They bought a hotel, now called the Crest Inn Suites and Cottages, in Gansevoort, north of Albany.
In 2008, his family started Prestige Limousine.
That same year, according to court documents, some hotel guests sued him for taking reservations for cabins that had not even been built yet.
It was in 2008 that Mr. Hussain, posing as a wealthy jihadist named Maqsood and driving a series of luxury cars provided to him by the F.B.I., recruited four men for what he said was a plot to bomb synagogues in the Bronx.
Mr. Hussain drove with the men to a synagogue in Riverdale, where one of them put what he believed were bombs outside.
They were fake.
The four men were arrested and convicted.
But after the trial, the judge, Colleen McMahon, took the extraordinary step of writing to federal prosecutors in Albany, saying that Mr. Hussain’s trial testimony suggested he may have “perpetrated a fraud” during his earlier bankruptcy proceedings.
She noted Mr. Hussain testified about receiving “substantial sums of money” during his bankruptcy case from a family trust in Pakistan, which he did not disclose to the court or his creditors.
“A fraud on a court mocks our laws and compromises our system of justice,” the judge wrote in a letter obtained by The New York Times at its request from a court spokesman.
She formally referred the case for investigation.
Mr. Hussain was never charged with any such fraud.
Follow Andy Newman, William K. Rashbaum and Benjamin Weiser on Twitter:@andylocal @WRashbaum @BenWeiserNYT
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/limo-o ... id=HPDHP17
Re: CORRUPT AND INEPT GOVERNMENT
CITY & STATE NY
"The growing list of corrupt Cuomo associates - Steve Pigeon pleaded guilty Tuesday to funneling an illegal donation to the governor’s campaign."
By JORDAN LAIRD
October 11, 2018
On Tuesday, Steve Pigeon, the one-time Democratic politician and long-time controversial New York power broker, pleaded guilty to channeling an illegal foreign donation to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 campaign.
Although the U.S. Department of Justice noted that the Cuomo campaign rejected the donation when it realized it came from a Canadian, Cuomo’s Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro, eagerly decried the “foreign money laundering scheme.”
This is only the latest in a string of recent legal proceedings against Cuomo former associates and allies.
In late September, the governor’s former close aide Joseph Percoco, who Cuomo had likened to a brother, was sentenced to six years in prison for taking bribes.
On the same day, Cuomo ran an ad accusing Molinaro of corruption.
Molinaro used Pigeon’s guilty plea as fodder to fire back, saying, “Andrew Cuomo spends his days pointing fingers at others while his own backyard is despicably dirty.”
Cuomo has not been accused of any wrongdoing in any cases involving his associates.
At a news conference when the Percoco charges were first announced, then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara replied to a question about Cuomo by saying, “There are no allegations of any wrongdoing or misconduct by the governor anywhere in this complaint."
"That’s all I’m going to say.”
Here is a list of the cases that have brought down political figures with ties to Cuomo, in descending order of how close they come to the governor’s office.
Joseph Percoco
Joseph Percoco began working for former Gov. Mario Cuomo when he was just 19.
He was so close to the Cuomo family that during the younger Cuomo’s eulogy for his father in January 2015, he described Percoco as “my father’s third son, who I sometimes think he loved the most.”
He joined Andrew Cuomo at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration and he worked with him until 2015.
He served as the executive deputy secretary to the governor between January 2012 and mid-2014, and again in 2015.
In March, Percoco was found guilty for selling his influence in the governor’s office when he accepted more than $315,000 in payments from Competitive Power Ventures and Cor Development in exchange for favoring their projects.
As early as 2010, CPV treated Percoco to expensive meals and a Hamptons fishing trip.
The bulk of the bribe came in the form of a job given to Percoco’s wife, Lisa, that required very minimal work.
In exchange, Percoco agreed to use his influence to assist CPV in obtaining a contract with the state.
When Percoco was sentenced in September to six years in prison, Manhattan Federal Judge Valerie Caproni said, “I hope this sentence will be heard in Albany."
“Joe Percoco is paying the price for violating the public trust,” Cuomo said at the time.
“And it should serve as a warning to anyone who fails to uphold his or her oath as a public servant.”
Alain Kaloyeros
Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, the former president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, is credited with helping to foster a high-tech industry around Albany.
This led Cuomo to tap Kaloyeros to run the Buffalo Billion project, the governor’s signature economic development project that initially aimed to invest $1 billion in the Buffalo-area economy.
In July, Kaloyeros was found guilty of rigging the bidding process.
Kaloyeros colluded with powerful New York lobbyist Todd Howe to funnel lucrative contracts to Cor and LPCiminelli, whose executives donated significantly to Cuomo’s campaign.
Howe and Kaloyeros tailored requests for proposals to their corrupt patrons’ companies.
Todd Howe
Cuomo has denied that he was very close to Howe, but according to testimony from Kaloyeros’ trial, Howe was paid $300,000 a year by a state college to be Cuomo’s informer inside Kaloyeros’ office.
Howe was also involved in the Percoco case.
In order to gain access to Percoco, CPV and Cor retained Howe.
In 2016, when prosecutors announced the charges against Percoco, they also revealed that Howe had pleaded guilty to eight felonies and was cooperating.
Bribes paid to Percoco were channeled through bank accounts and a shell company set up by Howe.
According to a Department of Justice press release, Percoco and Howe referred to the bribe payments as “ziti,” a reference to a term used for money in the television show “The Sopranos.”
Howe cooperated with the prosecution on the Percoco trial as a key witness.
However, he was arrested and his bail condition revoked mid-way through the trial when he admitted during cross-examination that he attempted to con his credit card company.
Steve Pigeon
Steve Pigeon, former Erie County Democratic Chairman and long-time New York kingmaker, has dared prosecutors for years to challenge his questionable political fundraising tactics.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to federal charges that he helped hide an illegal $25,000 donation to Cuomo’s 2014 campaign.
This comes just two weeks after a separate guilty plea in a state case for bribing a judge.
The contribution was made on behalf of the Canadian founder of Amaya, an online gambling site.
It is illegal in the U.S. for foreign nationals to make donations to political campaigns.
The DOJ noted that the Cuomo campaign rejected the donation when it realized it came from a Canadian.
But Pigeon then tried to sneak through the donation by channeling it through a legal U.S. resident employed by Amaya.
Edward Mangano
Edward Mangano, the former Republican Nassau County executive who was arrested on corruption charges in late 2016, has weaker ties to the governor.
However, in an article from November 2016, City & State outlined Mangano and Cuomo’s complicated alliance.
Cuomo’s desire to secure the Long Island vote has a long history and, despite representing the opposing party, Mangano assisted Cuomo in his quest.
Mangano and Cuomo made joint public appearances and only tepidly endorsed each other’s opponents.
Since Cuomo took office in 2011, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state-controlled fiscal monitoring board created in 2000 to help Nassau County dig itself out of a funding crisis, became more sympathetic towards Mangano.
During Mangano’s 2013 reelection bid, Cuomo had replaced enough members of NIFA that the committee could rubber-stamp Mangano’s fiscal agenda.
Mangano and his wife, Linda, are currently facing a federal corruption retrial, although the proceedings were abruptly postponed on Tuesday.
The case revolves around allegations that Mangano assisted local restaurateur Harendra Singh in securing a number of Nassau County contracts in exchange for bribes, including a $450,000 no-show job for Linda Mangano.
Mangano pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys maintain there was nothing illegal about Singh giving gifts to his longtime friends and that the former county executive did nothing in return that broke the law.
Jordan Laird is an editorial intern at City & State.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles ... ion_Capcon
"The growing list of corrupt Cuomo associates - Steve Pigeon pleaded guilty Tuesday to funneling an illegal donation to the governor’s campaign."
By JORDAN LAIRD
October 11, 2018
On Tuesday, Steve Pigeon, the one-time Democratic politician and long-time controversial New York power broker, pleaded guilty to channeling an illegal foreign donation to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 2014 campaign.
Although the U.S. Department of Justice noted that the Cuomo campaign rejected the donation when it realized it came from a Canadian, Cuomo’s Republican opponent, Marc Molinaro, eagerly decried the “foreign money laundering scheme.”
This is only the latest in a string of recent legal proceedings against Cuomo former associates and allies.
In late September, the governor’s former close aide Joseph Percoco, who Cuomo had likened to a brother, was sentenced to six years in prison for taking bribes.
On the same day, Cuomo ran an ad accusing Molinaro of corruption.
Molinaro used Pigeon’s guilty plea as fodder to fire back, saying, “Andrew Cuomo spends his days pointing fingers at others while his own backyard is despicably dirty.”
Cuomo has not been accused of any wrongdoing in any cases involving his associates.
At a news conference when the Percoco charges were first announced, then-U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara replied to a question about Cuomo by saying, “There are no allegations of any wrongdoing or misconduct by the governor anywhere in this complaint."
"That’s all I’m going to say.”
Here is a list of the cases that have brought down political figures with ties to Cuomo, in descending order of how close they come to the governor’s office.
Joseph Percoco
Joseph Percoco began working for former Gov. Mario Cuomo when he was just 19.
He was so close to the Cuomo family that during the younger Cuomo’s eulogy for his father in January 2015, he described Percoco as “my father’s third son, who I sometimes think he loved the most.”
He joined Andrew Cuomo at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development during the Clinton administration and he worked with him until 2015.
He served as the executive deputy secretary to the governor between January 2012 and mid-2014, and again in 2015.
In March, Percoco was found guilty for selling his influence in the governor’s office when he accepted more than $315,000 in payments from Competitive Power Ventures and Cor Development in exchange for favoring their projects.
As early as 2010, CPV treated Percoco to expensive meals and a Hamptons fishing trip.
The bulk of the bribe came in the form of a job given to Percoco’s wife, Lisa, that required very minimal work.
In exchange, Percoco agreed to use his influence to assist CPV in obtaining a contract with the state.
When Percoco was sentenced in September to six years in prison, Manhattan Federal Judge Valerie Caproni said, “I hope this sentence will be heard in Albany."
“Joe Percoco is paying the price for violating the public trust,” Cuomo said at the time.
“And it should serve as a warning to anyone who fails to uphold his or her oath as a public servant.”
Alain Kaloyeros
Dr. Alain Kaloyeros, the former president of SUNY Polytechnic Institute, is credited with helping to foster a high-tech industry around Albany.
This led Cuomo to tap Kaloyeros to run the Buffalo Billion project, the governor’s signature economic development project that initially aimed to invest $1 billion in the Buffalo-area economy.
In July, Kaloyeros was found guilty of rigging the bidding process.
Kaloyeros colluded with powerful New York lobbyist Todd Howe to funnel lucrative contracts to Cor and LPCiminelli, whose executives donated significantly to Cuomo’s campaign.
Howe and Kaloyeros tailored requests for proposals to their corrupt patrons’ companies.
Todd Howe
Cuomo has denied that he was very close to Howe, but according to testimony from Kaloyeros’ trial, Howe was paid $300,000 a year by a state college to be Cuomo’s informer inside Kaloyeros’ office.
Howe was also involved in the Percoco case.
In order to gain access to Percoco, CPV and Cor retained Howe.
In 2016, when prosecutors announced the charges against Percoco, they also revealed that Howe had pleaded guilty to eight felonies and was cooperating.
Bribes paid to Percoco were channeled through bank accounts and a shell company set up by Howe.
According to a Department of Justice press release, Percoco and Howe referred to the bribe payments as “ziti,” a reference to a term used for money in the television show “The Sopranos.”
Howe cooperated with the prosecution on the Percoco trial as a key witness.
However, he was arrested and his bail condition revoked mid-way through the trial when he admitted during cross-examination that he attempted to con his credit card company.
Steve Pigeon
Steve Pigeon, former Erie County Democratic Chairman and long-time New York kingmaker, has dared prosecutors for years to challenge his questionable political fundraising tactics.
On Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to federal charges that he helped hide an illegal $25,000 donation to Cuomo’s 2014 campaign.
This comes just two weeks after a separate guilty plea in a state case for bribing a judge.
The contribution was made on behalf of the Canadian founder of Amaya, an online gambling site.
It is illegal in the U.S. for foreign nationals to make donations to political campaigns.
The DOJ noted that the Cuomo campaign rejected the donation when it realized it came from a Canadian.
But Pigeon then tried to sneak through the donation by channeling it through a legal U.S. resident employed by Amaya.
Edward Mangano
Edward Mangano, the former Republican Nassau County executive who was arrested on corruption charges in late 2016, has weaker ties to the governor.
However, in an article from November 2016, City & State outlined Mangano and Cuomo’s complicated alliance.
Cuomo’s desire to secure the Long Island vote has a long history and, despite representing the opposing party, Mangano assisted Cuomo in his quest.
Mangano and Cuomo made joint public appearances and only tepidly endorsed each other’s opponents.
Since Cuomo took office in 2011, the Nassau Interim Finance Authority, a state-controlled fiscal monitoring board created in 2000 to help Nassau County dig itself out of a funding crisis, became more sympathetic towards Mangano.
During Mangano’s 2013 reelection bid, Cuomo had replaced enough members of NIFA that the committee could rubber-stamp Mangano’s fiscal agenda.
Mangano and his wife, Linda, are currently facing a federal corruption retrial, although the proceedings were abruptly postponed on Tuesday.
The case revolves around allegations that Mangano assisted local restaurateur Harendra Singh in securing a number of Nassau County contracts in exchange for bribes, including a $450,000 no-show job for Linda Mangano.
Mangano pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys maintain there was nothing illegal about Singh giving gifts to his longtime friends and that the former county executive did nothing in return that broke the law.
Jordan Laird is an editorial intern at City & State.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/articles ... ion_Capcon