DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
Wednesday, August 09, 2017
Exclusive – Jeff Sessions Orders Look into 'DOJ Slush Fund' Payments to Leftists
An internal Department of Justice memorandum obtained by Breitbart News Friday indicates Attorney General Jeff Sessions is trying to get to the bottom of the DOJ “slush fund” for left-wing groups he dismantled in June.
The memo asks all components of the DOJ to recount the last ten years of payments made to non-governmental organizations as third parties in settlements and provide that information to Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, the number three Justice official. These “cy pres” payments were a long-standing policy of having mostly corporate defendants, for example in a civil rights suit, agree to pay into charities as part of their settlement with the government to avoid further prosecution.
In recent years, especially during the Obama administration, the practice increasingly funneled funds to left-wing “community organizing” groups such as the now renamedNational Council of La Raza, or “The Race,” a Latino racial advocacy group that supports mass illegal immigration. Congressional Republicans and conservative groups decried the payments for years, often characterizing the system as a “slush fund” for leftists but, since they were made under the auspices of the Department of Justice using broad, decades-old legislation, it was difficult to rein in.
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The memo asks all components of the DOJ to recount the last ten years of payments made to non-governmental organizations as third parties in settlements and provide that information to Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand, the number three Justice official. These “cy pres” payments were a long-standing policy of having mostly corporate defendants, for example in a civil rights suit, agree to pay into charities as part of their settlement with the government to avoid further prosecution.
In recent years, especially during the Obama administration, the practice increasingly funneled funds to left-wing “community organizing” groups such as the now renamedNational Council of La Raza, or “The Race,” a Latino racial advocacy group that supports mass illegal immigration. Congressional Republicans and conservative groups decried the payments for years, often characterizing the system as a “slush fund” for leftists but, since they were made under the auspices of the Department of Justice using broad, decades-old legislation, it was difficult to rein in.
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Maxine Waters: Trump Is The Most "Deplorable" Person I've Ever Met
Maxine Waters was, famously, the first member of Congress to call for President Donald Trump’s impeachment long before Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia began.
And though no concrete evidence has surfaced to justify impeachment or collusion, Waters has kept up her attacks on Trump, saying onMSNBC that she believes both parties will band together to fire the president once Mueller successfully produces his smoking gun – whatever it may be – which should be happening any day now, she said.
According to Waters, Trump is a “deplorable” person who should’ve triggered more red flags in the intelligence community.
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And though no concrete evidence has surfaced to justify impeachment or collusion, Waters has kept up her attacks on Trump, saying onMSNBC that she believes both parties will band together to fire the president once Mueller successfully produces his smoking gun – whatever it may be – which should be happening any day now, she said.
According to Waters, Trump is a “deplorable” person who should’ve triggered more red flags in the intelligence community.
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Pugh Crime-Fighting Plan Includes Free Community College
Mayor Catherine Pugh unveiled her crime-fighting plan following the Board of Estimates meeting Wednesday and part of that plan includes free college for Baltimore's youth.
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Pugh unveiled what she called a "violence-reduction plan," looking at the following key areas:
- Making Baltimore Safe: Improve effective policing, focus on repeat offenders and increase police clearance rates.
- Keeping Baltimore Healthy: resources for addiction recovery, a 24-hour city stabilization center that is strategically located, increasing Narcan availability, expanding the Homeless Outreach Team (HOT) to help those in need.
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Doctors hesitate to prescribe drug treating opioid addicts
Doctors are hesitant to prescribe a drug that treats opioid addiction and withdrawal, a new survey revealed.
One of the two drugs that treats opioid addiction is being underprescribed, especially when taking into account the spike in numbers addicted.
Most doctors said they don't want to prescribe the drug because they don't want to be flooded with new patient requests according to the study at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland.
And among the doctors that can prescribe it, a number didn't want to give it to new people because they don't feel they can take on new patients.
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One of the two drugs that treats opioid addiction is being underprescribed, especially when taking into account the spike in numbers addicted.
Most doctors said they don't want to prescribe the drug because they don't want to be flooded with new patient requests according to the study at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Maryland.
And among the doctors that can prescribe it, a number didn't want to give it to new people because they don't feel they can take on new patients.
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Michelle Obama’s school lunch guru indicted for stealing money from school lunch program
Do you ever find yourself wondering why and how the liberals fell in love with Michelle and Barack Obama? I do, and today is one of those times when I am scratching my head — what was America thinking voting for this couple? That said, I really hope you share this article because it will get virtually no play with the mainstream media.
Back in 2014, Michelle Obama invited a food services director from California to the White House for a round table discussion. Reportedly, the first lady wanted to pick the guy’s brain for ideas and suggestions on how to get school kids to eat healthier.
The guys’s name is David Binkle. If you live in Los Angeles, this name is probably very familiar to you because he’s making headlines this week.
Binkle has been indicted for stealing $65,000 in public funds. You have to laugh, or perhaps cry, when you think about how Michelle Obama and her husband have a knack for circling themselves with losers.
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This One Chart Perfectly Explains Why The Auto Market Is Doomed
Of course, as many of you will undoubtedly note, there are plenty of legitimate reasons why new car sales may outstrip scrappage rates in certain markets. We completely agree...but, unfortunately, none of them apply to the U.S. automotive market.
One reason could be that the market is simply under-penetrated. That said, with a fleet of ~265mm light vehicles on the road today vs. a driving age population of only ~255mm people, or just over 1 car per person, we would say the market is fairly penetrated.
Another possible explanation for this phenomenon could be population growth. Taking a look, we find that new car sales outstripped scrappage by about 5 million units in 2016 which, on a base of 265 million vehicles, implies population growth of 1.9%. Unfortunately, the U.S. population is growing at exactly one-half that rate...
Which leaves us with one remaining explanation: a massive debt and lease-fueled auto bubble that has been sparked by a ridiculous buying spree courtesy of everyone with a pulse suddenly rushing out to trade in their 10-year-old Maxima for a brand new BMW....because you can 'afford' it so long as you can get approved for a 0% interest, 8-year loan which pegs your monthly payment at that magical $400 mark...
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15-Year-Old Boy Undergoes Sex Change. What Happens Next Is Heartbreaking.
As conservatives throw cold water on the push to give children suffering from gender confusion puberty blockers and put them on the path to "change" their sex via medical means, the Left is doing their best to drown-out their warnings with phony shouts of "transphobia." But the Left's misguided stance is leaving a wake of real victims in its path, tragically and predictably so.
This seems to be the case with 23-year-old Ria Cooper, born Brad Cooper, who has "swapped" his sex a reported three times.
Cooper, a biological male, was put on the fast-track to change his sex at the young age of 15, making him "Britain's youngest sex-swap patient," reports The Mirror. The confused young man then reversed the sex change process at 18-years-old after compounding confusion and, sadly, two suicide attempts. And, now, at age 23, Cooper has decided to switch his sex for a third time.
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White Marlin Open: New First Place White
New First Place White!!!! 2.7 million dollar fish!!! Congrats Mike Donahue and the Griffin!!
https://www.facebook.com/WhiteMarlinOpenTournament
Visualizing The Fiery Death Of American Manufacturing
On Wednesday, the US added 178k private sector jobs in July, verse 185k jobs expected. The number was just shy of Wall Street estimates, and did not stop the mainstream media and Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi from saying, “the American job machine continues to operate in high gear.”
This ADP report sounds great, but underneath the surface a majority of additions are non-productive jobs called ‘Service-providing’. What is not widely spoken about on the mainstream media is the loss in –4k manufacturing jobs.
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This ADP report sounds great, but underneath the surface a majority of additions are non-productive jobs called ‘Service-providing’. What is not widely spoken about on the mainstream media is the loss in –4k manufacturing jobs.
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Child miners aged four living a hell on Earth so YOU can drive an electric car
Picking through a mountain of huge rocks with his tiny bare hands, the exhausted little boy makes a pitiful sight.
His name is Dorsen and he is one of an army of children, some just four years old, working in the vast polluted mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where toxic red dust burns their eyes, and they run the risk of skin disease and a deadly lung condition. Here, for a wage of just 8p a day, the children are made to check the rocks for the tell-tale chocolate-brown streaks of cobalt – the prized ingredient essential for the batteries that power electric cars.
And it’s feared that thousands more children could be about to be dragged into this hellish daily existence – after the historic pledge made by Britain to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 and switch to electric vehicles.
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Record Number Of Dallas Police Officers Quit In July Amid Ongoing Pension Crisis
We first introduced readers to the Dallas Police and Fire Pension (DPFP) crisis last summer in a post entitled "Dallas Cops' Pension Fund Nears Insolvency In Wake Of Shady Real Estate Deals, FBI Raid." For those who have managed to avoid this particular storyline for the past 15 months, here is a brief recap of how it all started from our original post on the topic:
The Dallas Police & Fire Pension (DPFP), which covers nearly 10,000 police and firefighters, is on the verge of collapse as its board and the City of Dallas struggle to pitch benefit cuts to save the plan from complete failure. According the the National Real Estate Investor, DPFP was once applauded for it's "diverse investment portfolio" but turns out it may have all been a fraud as the pension's former real estate investment manager, CDK Realy Advisors, was raided by the FBI in April 2016 and the fund was subsequently forced to mark down their entire real estate book by 32%. Guess it's pretty easy to generate good returns if you manage a book of illiquid assets that can be marked at your "discretion".
To provide a little background, per the Dallas Morning News, Richard Tettamant served as the DPFP's administrator for a couple of decades right up until he was forced out in June 2014. Starting in 2005, Tettamant oversaw a plan to "diversify" the pension into "hard assets" and away from the "risky" stock market...because there's no risk if you don't have to mark your book every day. By the time the "diversification" was complete, Tettamant had invested half of the DPFP's assets in, effectively, the housing bubble. Investments included a $200mm luxury apartment building in Dallas, luxury Hawaiian homes, a tract of undeveloped land in the Arizona desert, Uruguayan timber, the American Idol production company and a resort in Napa.
Despite huge exposure to bubbly 2005/2006 vintage real estate investments, DPFP assets "performed" remarkably well throughout the "great recession." But as it turns out, Tettamant's "performance" was only as good as the illiquidity of his investments. We guess returns are easier to come by when you invest your whole book in illiquid, private assets and have "discretion" over how they're valued.
In 2015, after Tettamant's ouster, $600mm of DPFP real estate assets were transferred to new managers away from the fund's prior real estate manager, CDK Realty Advisors. Turns out the new managers were not "comfortable" with CDK's asset valuations and the mark downs started. According to the Dallas Morning News, one such questionable real estate investment involved a piece of undeveloped land in the Arizona desert near Tucson which was purchased for $27mm in 2006 and subsequently sold in 2014 for $7.5mm.
Then the plot thickened when, in April 2016, according the Dallas Morning News, FBI raided the offices of the pension's former investment manager, CDK Realty Advisors. There has been little disclosure on the reason for the FBI raid but one could speculate that it might have something to do with all the markdowns the pension was forced to take in 2015 on its real estate book. At it's peak, CDK managed $750mm if assets for the DPFP.
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The Dallas Police & Fire Pension (DPFP), which covers nearly 10,000 police and firefighters, is on the verge of collapse as its board and the City of Dallas struggle to pitch benefit cuts to save the plan from complete failure. According the the National Real Estate Investor, DPFP was once applauded for it's "diverse investment portfolio" but turns out it may have all been a fraud as the pension's former real estate investment manager, CDK Realy Advisors, was raided by the FBI in April 2016 and the fund was subsequently forced to mark down their entire real estate book by 32%. Guess it's pretty easy to generate good returns if you manage a book of illiquid assets that can be marked at your "discretion".
To provide a little background, per the Dallas Morning News, Richard Tettamant served as the DPFP's administrator for a couple of decades right up until he was forced out in June 2014. Starting in 2005, Tettamant oversaw a plan to "diversify" the pension into "hard assets" and away from the "risky" stock market...because there's no risk if you don't have to mark your book every day. By the time the "diversification" was complete, Tettamant had invested half of the DPFP's assets in, effectively, the housing bubble. Investments included a $200mm luxury apartment building in Dallas, luxury Hawaiian homes, a tract of undeveloped land in the Arizona desert, Uruguayan timber, the American Idol production company and a resort in Napa.
Despite huge exposure to bubbly 2005/2006 vintage real estate investments, DPFP assets "performed" remarkably well throughout the "great recession." But as it turns out, Tettamant's "performance" was only as good as the illiquidity of his investments. We guess returns are easier to come by when you invest your whole book in illiquid, private assets and have "discretion" over how they're valued.
In 2015, after Tettamant's ouster, $600mm of DPFP real estate assets were transferred to new managers away from the fund's prior real estate manager, CDK Realty Advisors. Turns out the new managers were not "comfortable" with CDK's asset valuations and the mark downs started. According to the Dallas Morning News, one such questionable real estate investment involved a piece of undeveloped land in the Arizona desert near Tucson which was purchased for $27mm in 2006 and subsequently sold in 2014 for $7.5mm.
Then the plot thickened when, in April 2016, according the Dallas Morning News, FBI raided the offices of the pension's former investment manager, CDK Realty Advisors. There has been little disclosure on the reason for the FBI raid but one could speculate that it might have something to do with all the markdowns the pension was forced to take in 2015 on its real estate book. At it's peak, CDK managed $750mm if assets for the DPFP.
More
EBT Card Transactions Will Be Unavailable Early Sunday Morning in Delaware as DHSS Transitions to New Vendor
The conversion from JPMorgan Chase & Co. to the new vendor, Conduent, Inc., will not mean any other changes for clients of Delaware’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) beyond the brief system downtime, said Ray Fitzgerald, director of the Division of Social Services, which administers Delaware’s SNAP Program.
Fitzgerald said clients will be notified of the EBT card outage time through the DHSS website and social media outlets, and via posters in DHSS offices. Emails also are being sent to community partners, and retail outlets have been notified so that they can put up posters in their stores alerting customers that the EBT system will be down during those hours.
M/V Collision 113 at Rt 12
Type of Incident: Motor Vehicle Collision
Date and Time: 08/09/2017 @ 1358 hrs.
Location: S/B Rt 113 @ Rt 12 Snow Hill , MD
Case#: 17-MSP-033584
Vehicles: Vehicle #1 blue 2004 Dodge Durango VA registration TINK357
Vehicle # 2 white 2015 Ford Focus MD registration SG29076
Accused: (At Fault)/ Driver Vehicle #1: Brittani Lee Selert of New Church VA 24 yoa
Narrative: Vehicle #1 a blue 2004 Dodge Durango VA registration TINK357, operated by Brittani Lee Selert of New Church VA was travelling S/B 113 approaching a red signal at 113 and RT 12.
Vehicle #1 failed to stop at the red signal and struck Vehicle #2 which was traveling on RT 12 preparing to get on 113. Vehicle #2 a white 2015 Ford Focus MD registration SG29076 operated by Kim Poole of Berlin Md.
The Dodge Durango was occupied by 4 occupants including the driver, Nicole Annetta Parks, a 9 month old infant and a 9 year old child. All occupants of the Durango were transported to AGH for their injuries.
The Ford Focus was occupied by 2 occupants. Driver Kim Poole and passenger Gloria Lambert. Lambert was transported to PRMC for her injuries and Poole was transported to MD Shock Trauma via Trooper 6 for her injuries.
Disposition: Investigation continues-charges pending
Investigating Trooper: Tfc S. Meyers
Date and Time: 08/09/2017 @ 1358 hrs.
Location: S/B Rt 113 @ Rt 12 Snow Hill , MD
Case#: 17-MSP-033584
Vehicles: Vehicle #1 blue 2004 Dodge Durango VA registration TINK357
Vehicle # 2 white 2015 Ford Focus MD registration SG29076
Accused: (At Fault)/ Driver Vehicle #1: Brittani Lee Selert of New Church VA 24 yoa
Narrative: Vehicle #1 a blue 2004 Dodge Durango VA registration TINK357, operated by Brittani Lee Selert of New Church VA was travelling S/B 113 approaching a red signal at 113 and RT 12.
Vehicle #1 failed to stop at the red signal and struck Vehicle #2 which was traveling on RT 12 preparing to get on 113. Vehicle #2 a white 2015 Ford Focus MD registration SG29076 operated by Kim Poole of Berlin Md.
The Dodge Durango was occupied by 4 occupants including the driver, Nicole Annetta Parks, a 9 month old infant and a 9 year old child. All occupants of the Durango were transported to AGH for their injuries.
The Ford Focus was occupied by 2 occupants. Driver Kim Poole and passenger Gloria Lambert. Lambert was transported to PRMC for her injuries and Poole was transported to MD Shock Trauma via Trooper 6 for her injuries.
Disposition: Investigation continues-charges pending
Investigating Trooper: Tfc S. Meyers
US Generals Want to Extend Our Longest War
Media reports claim President Donald Trump let loose on his generals behind closed doors, blasting them royally for their startling failures in Afghanistan, America’s longest war.
The president has many faults and is a lousy judge of character. But he was absolutely right to read the riot act to the military brass for daring to ask for a very large troop and budget increase for the stalemated Afghan War that has cost $1 trillion to date.
Of course, the unfortunate generals are not really to blame. They have been forced by the last three presidents to fight a pointless war at the top of the world that lacks any strategy, reason or purpose – and with limited forces. But they can’t admit defeat by lightly-armed Muslim tribesmen.
The truth is, simply, that America blundered into the Afghan War under President George W. Bush who needed a target for revenge after the humiliating 9/11 attacks. Instead of blaming Saudi Arabia, a US protectorate which was clearly involved in the attacks, Bush went after remote but strategic Afghanistan and cooked up the Osama bin Laden bogeyman story.
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The president has many faults and is a lousy judge of character. But he was absolutely right to read the riot act to the military brass for daring to ask for a very large troop and budget increase for the stalemated Afghan War that has cost $1 trillion to date.
Of course, the unfortunate generals are not really to blame. They have been forced by the last three presidents to fight a pointless war at the top of the world that lacks any strategy, reason or purpose – and with limited forces. But they can’t admit defeat by lightly-armed Muslim tribesmen.
The truth is, simply, that America blundered into the Afghan War under President George W. Bush who needed a target for revenge after the humiliating 9/11 attacks. Instead of blaming Saudi Arabia, a US protectorate which was clearly involved in the attacks, Bush went after remote but strategic Afghanistan and cooked up the Osama bin Laden bogeyman story.
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Malia Obama’s bizarre dance moves while laying on floor grab headlines (video)
Former President Barack Obama’s eldest daughter, Malia Obama, 19, was caught on camera Friday evening in a bizarre “dance” at the Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago.
The incident reportedly occured while the Las Vegas rock band, The Killers, were performing one of their hits Friday night.
TMZ captured the 45-second video blip of Malia and another girl in a “dance,” as the unidentified friend lay on the ground and Malia hoovered over her.
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Joe Scarborough Thinks Your Children Should Want to Die in Wars Rather Than Playing Games
Content originally published at iBankCoin.com
Joe grew up in Florida and never bothered to join the military. I suppose he was busy playing shuffleboard or whatever the hell they do down in Pensacola. Ever since Joe entered the political scene, he's been part of the neocon gang. You know, rubbing elbows with the likes of Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz or his wife's late father Zbigniew Brzezinski -- chicken hawks who clamor for the blood of young Americans in a perverse, ritualistic manner.
Now, obviously feeling his oats for being a hardcore Never Trumper, making all sorts of new friends in the liberal media, Scarborough tweeted out a criticism to today's youth, upset over their lack of enthusiasm for military service, opting to instead stay at home playing video games.
Being an avid collector of old newspapers, and regular peruser of old articles on Google's News Archive, I can tell that before and during WW2, there were countless older men penning articles critical of the youth of that time, who went on to become 'the greatest generation.' They called them soft and bitter, accustomed to American decadence, unable to go toe to toe with the hardened Hitler youth.
Wrong.
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Joe grew up in Florida and never bothered to join the military. I suppose he was busy playing shuffleboard or whatever the hell they do down in Pensacola. Ever since Joe entered the political scene, he's been part of the neocon gang. You know, rubbing elbows with the likes of Bill Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz or his wife's late father Zbigniew Brzezinski -- chicken hawks who clamor for the blood of young Americans in a perverse, ritualistic manner.
Now, obviously feeling his oats for being a hardcore Never Trumper, making all sorts of new friends in the liberal media, Scarborough tweeted out a criticism to today's youth, upset over their lack of enthusiasm for military service, opting to instead stay at home playing video games.
Young men in the 1940s liberated Europe from Nazism and the Pacific from the Japanese Empire. Today, too many stay home playing video games. twitter.com/joenbc/status/…
Wrong.
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University Professor Will Allow Students To Choose Their Own Grades
Professor Dr Richard Watson is teaching two fall business courses and has introduced the policy because 'emotional reactions to stressful situation scan have profound consequences for all involved.'
In an emailed response, Dr. Watson who said that his syllabus haven't been solidified so the policy isn't currently listed.
'There is no such policy on the current web site,' he said in the email.
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