Selasa, 28 Desember 2010
Minggu, 26 Desember 2010
Sabtu, 18 Desember 2010
Jumat, 17 Desember 2010
Dallas | Is Tome Leppert truly who he claim he is?Like Tennell pronounces it.lol
WHILE ALL THE BIG FUSS WAS MADE OVER EXTENDING TERM LIMITS AT YESTERDAYS DISD BOARD MEETING, A LESSER KNOWN BUT HIGHLY IMPORTANT FACT IS, TURNER CONSTRUCTION, FORMERLY OWNED BY CURRENT DALLAS MAYOR TOM LEPPERT WAS ON THE AGENDA. ITEM #21 FOR AN AUTHORIZATION TO NEGOTIATE AND ENTER INTO CONTRACT WITH TURNER CONSTRUCTION TO RENOVATE L.G. PINKSTON, THOMAS A. EDISON, AND AMELIA EARHART ALL IN WEST DALLAS.WTF.SHHHHHHH.LETS JUST SLIDE THIS THROUGH WHILE NO ONES LOOKING.THE DAILY PHALANX IS HOT on the trail!
per facebook
- Brandon P. Reed totaling $9,519,200 of taxpayer funded money.is this why he wanted to not raise taxes?3 minutes ago ·
Brandon P. Reed raping West Dallas, while its inhibitants result to robbing and drug dealing?2 minutes ago ·- Brandon P. Reed and Mayor Leppert lives in a house valued at more than $ 4 million on DCAD.
Are you sure your representing the citizens Mayor Tome?
Dallas and Beyond | First call for sponsorship of THE A.M.N MOVEMENT
Brandon Reed
A.M.N. Global Media
breed@thedailyphalanx.com
(214)-702-1508
P.O. Box 823554
Dallas
Texas - 75382
Date: 8th December 2010
RE: Bowie County Phalanx
To whomever it may concern,
A.M.N. Global Media, is an organization dedicated to keeping the people informed on breaking and local news. We are a small company in which we specialize in blogging, small town newspapers, canvassing, and flyers. Based in Dallas, Texas, our website has been up and running for 15 months. There is subsequent amount of traffic on our website; on an average we calculate the amount of traffic to our website from 500 to 1,000 clicks per day.
We are seeking sponsors who may be interested in having ads posted on our website. You will have great exposure from the amount of people that are reached daily by our mixture of social media, blogging, blog talk radio, and print media. If you do a Google search of Brandon P. Reed, Bowie County Phalanx, The Daily Phalanx, you will see that we are in the top five search engine. As a sponsor, your organization is sure to receive exposure from newspapers, media campaigns, website, print media, blog talk radio etc. You will also gain exposure from audiences attending our events. As a company dedicated to transparency and accountability, you are definitely an ideal partner for us in this venture.
We have several different packages for sponsorship, which we can email those out. You can choose how you would want to participate in the sponsorship of our organization and how you would like to help make the community we live in safer and more accountable.
We are looking forward to hearing from you. In case you have any inquiries you can contact us at the information given above. Thank you for taking the time to look over this information hopefully we will hear from you soon.
Yours sincerely,
Brandon P. Reed
President/CEO
Kamis, 16 Desember 2010
Wal-Mart raising prices on toys, squeezing more out of holidays
Wal-Mart raising prices on toys, squeezing more out of holidays
(Page 1 of 4)
By Matthew Boyle
Wednesday, Dec 15, 2010
Dec. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, raised prices on hundreds of toys this month, squeezing more out of sales during the biggest shopping period of the year.
Wal-Mart managers in the U.S. received instructions to mark up an average of 1,800 types of toys per store, according to a company e-mail dated Nov. 30 obtained by Bloomberg News. The e- mail didn't disclose specific increases. The prices were changed "to better enable your store and the company to have a successful financial month," according to the e-mail.
The directive from Wal-Mart, which has about 3,800 U.S. stores, told managers to do the markups as soon as possible. The move may help Chief Executive Officer Mike Duke fulfill his October prediction that sales in U.S. stores open at least a year will be positive this quarter, after six straight drops.
"In previous years Wal-Mart has come out and hammered everyone with unbelievably low toy prices," said Eric Johnson, director of the Center for Digital Strategies at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth in Hanover, New Hampshire. "They stepped away from that this year, and after Thanksgiving their prices have crept back up."
The price increases were due to temporary discounts on products, including toys, that ended Nov. 30, Ravi Jariwala, a spokesman for Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, said in an interview. He declined to elaborate on the message's reference to a successful financial month.
When the police knock down your door: more on the Richardson Raid
When the police knock down your door: more on the Richardson Raid: "
Vergil and Mark Richardson
By Alan Bean
Friends of Justice was first to bring you the troubling story of Mark and Vergil Richardson, but we certainly aren’t the last. First we had Wade Goodwyn’s excellent story for NPR’s All Things Considered, and now Jordan Smith of the Austin Chronicle is using the Richardson story as an entre into the strange world of no-knock searches for The Crime Report. Radley Balko, one of the experts interviewed for Smith’s story, reports that “the number of SWAT call-outs averaged 3,000 annual between the 1980s and 2005. Now the annual figure is roughly 50,000.”
When Police Break Down Your Door
Jordan Smith
December 15, 2010
An increase in the use of ‘no-knock’ warrants around the country has alarmed civil liberties advocates.
On Nov. 17, 2007, Vergil Richardson was sitting at a table in the house he owns in the small northeast Texas town of Clarksville, playing dominoes with several relatives, including his half-brother Kevin Calloway, when the front door exploded inward and the living room was flooded with police.
“They just broke into the house,” Vergil recalled recently. “They had guns on us and threw me down on the floor.”
Vergil asked Red River County Sheriff Terry Reed, who was present at the raid―and who was standing alongside the county’s elected prosecutor Val Varley, who was also wearing a flak jacket and carrying a large caliber rifle―to see a search warrant.
The sheriff pulled out a piece of paper, no larger than a Walmart receipt, flashed it toward Vergil’s face, then swiftly tucked it back in his pocket.
Outside the home, Vergil’s older brother, Mark was sitting in a car with a friend, talking. Looking out the window just before 10:30 that night, Mark saw the police coming. They swarmed past the car and up the walk, onto the porch of the house and then went through the door.
“They were dressed like a SWAT team” with black clothes and body armor, he recalled, and carried assault rifles and riot shields.
For some reason, Mark says, the cops didn’t realize anyone was actually sitting in the car. His friend was scared and did not want to get out, but he convinced her to get out of the car with him. At that moment, an officer standing nearby yelled at them to get down on the ground.
Inside the house, Vergil was panicking. He remembered thinking, “what is this?”
It didn’t take long for the answer to surface. A half-hour after the raid began, Vergil Richardson, then 38, Mark Richardson, 40, and Kevin Calloway, then 25, were taken to jail, where each was charged with manufacture of a controlled substance, intent to deliver drugs and organized crime.
Six hours earlier, an undercover policeman had allegedly purchased $200 worth of marijuana from Calloway. With that information, police had prepared a search warrant for the house in Clarksville where, police said, they found small amounts of cocaine and marijuana in the course of the night raid.
Charges Denied
Vergil at the time was the head coach of a high school basketball team in Texarkana, and was no longer living at the Clarksville house. He and Mark vociferously denied any involvement with drugs. And Calloway, who was renting the place from Vergil while going to school in nearby Paris, Texas, backed them up.
Calloway told police that neither of his half-brothers had any idea that he kept drugs in a storage shed behind the house. But the charges against Vergil and Mark were not withdrawn.
It took “three years of hell,” as Vergil and Mark would later describe it, for the charges to be finally dismissed.
But in the process, the case exposed what their lawyer would claim was an abuse of police search and seizure powers, under the so-called “no-knock warrant” procedure.
No-knock warrants are supposed to be reserved for potentially volatile situations where the element of surprise is essential to containing that potential violence. But, the incidence of no-knock warrants, often executed by Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams or SWAT-style narcotics squads – and often with very dangerous, and sometimes deadly, results—has also risen. Since the early 1980s, for example, 40 innocent bystanders have been killed during warrant executions. And according to 2006 research from the CATO Institute, over the previous 15 years there were roughly 200 instances where the raiding party hit the wrong house.
That has paralleled the rise in SWAT raids nationwide. According to CATO Institute Media Fellow Radley Balko, the number of SWAT call-outs averaged 3,000 annual between the 1980s and 2005. Now the annual figure is roughly 50,000.
When are searches legal?
Attorney Mark Lesher, who represented Mark Richardson on the state criminal charges, now represents both brothers in a federal civil rights suit against members of the Clarksville Police Department, the Red River Sheriff’s Office and County Attorney Val Varley.
In a recent interview with The Crime Report., he highlighted two serious problems with the 2007 raid at the Clarksville home.
First, and most striking, is that apparently neither the police nor the prosecutor had a valid search warrant at the time of the raid. According to court filings, the warrant was not issued until nearly 20 minutes after the raid began – which, he said, would explain why no one could produce a valid warrant when Vergil asked to see one.
Lesher said searching the house without a warrant was inexcusable. “You have the county attorney…the sheriff, the police chief” all present at the house, he said. “All three of the top policy-makers for law enforcement in the county are at that house, at that time. All three of them should (have known) that you need to show a search warrant when you get there.”
Prosecutor Varley did not respond to a request for an interview for this story.
Equally troubling, said Lesher, was that even if the warrant had been issued in a timely manner, it was still “defective as a matter of law,” he said.
[ED NOTE: for details of the warrants issued in the Clarksville raid, please click here and here.]
Complicated Law
“The area of search-and-seizure [law] is complicated, but you have to be able to specify articulable facts, from credible folks who are giving reliable information in order to legally justify the search,” Lesher continued, adding that in this case, the earlier pot buy from Calloway had not occurred at the Clarksville house, nor was there any information – credible or otherwise – to suggest that there were additional drugs to be found at the house, or that Calloway was a violent person.
Nonetheless, Lesher says, the county’s justice-of-the-peace signed off on a no-knock warrant, allowing the SWAT-style, heavily-armed coterie of local police to burst into the house without announcing their presence.
Similar questions have arisen in connection with other search-and-seizure raids elsewhere in the country―sometimes with deadly results. In November 2006, an Atlanta Police narcotics squad executing a no-knock warrant shot and killed 88-year-old Kathryn Johnston in her home.
Johnston, startled by the unannounced entry, had armed herself with a revolver, shooting several of the officers before she was shot in turn. (Each of the officers recovered from their injuries.)
Police claimed that that a confidential informant told them a drug dealer lived at the house. But the informant later came forward to say the police version of the story wasn’t true, and added that they had only contacted him after the shooting in order to justify their botched raid. The city of Atlanta this summer settled a federal lawsuit with Johnston’s family for $4.9 million.
More recently, in July 2008, Prince Georges County, Md., police shot and killed two family dogs inside the home of Berwyn Heights, Md., Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife Trinity Tomsic, during a no-knock raid at the couple’s home. Police thought the couple had someone send 32-pounds of marijuana to their home through the mail.
As it turned out, a delivery person in Arizona was responsible for the smuggling operation, which mailed pot to random addresses in Maryland to be picked up by members of the drug-dealing conspiracy.
Given the hit-and-miss success of SWAT-executed no-knock raids, the Cato Institute’s Balko, who is also a senior editor at Reason, a libertarian leaning monthly magazine, said it was lucky that no one inside the Clarksville home the night of the raid was killed,
“Imagine if they’d had a gun in the house for protection and someone was in the back of the house, heard the commotion, [didn't know what was going on] and came out with a gun,” he says. “He’d be dead.”
The Rubber-Stamp Warrant
Unfortunately, says Lesher, the Richardson case was not the first time he’s seen defective no-knock warrants in Red River County. At present, he has “about 10-12 other search warrant affidavits that are” equally as defective as the one in the Richardson case. It happens “all the time,” he says. “It’s called rubber-stamp.”
Despite the serious legal questions surrounding the raid, it took nearly three years for the charges against Vergil and Mark Richardson to be dismissed. Lesher was successful in having Varley recused from trying the case, but even after special appointed prosecutors from the Texas Office of Attorney General recommended that the charges against the brothers be dropped, District Judge John Miller refused to do so.
Lesher claims that Miller tried to make a deal with the attorneys: if they would drop the federal civil rights suit that Lesher had filed against the county and city officials―in which the brothers are seeking at least $2 million in compensation―Miller would then dismiss the state charges. The lawyers refused and Miller set a trial date. Miller did not respond to a request for an interview for this story.
It wasn’t until this October that Lesher and fellow attorney Clyde Lee (who was handling Vergil’s criminal case) were successful in having the charges dismissed. The attorneys had Judge Miller. The new judge, Robert Mohoney, swiftly approved the dismissals.
It was too late to save Vergil’s job, however. A week after the charges made local headlines, he says, his school district fired him. Since then he hasn’t been able to find a job.
“He’s been blackballed,” Lesher says. “Who’s going to have somebody accused of dealing dope [be] a coach for kids?”
All things considered, says Vergil, his half-brother Calloway got off fairly easy. While he and Mark were still trying to have the charges against them dismissed, Calloway was sentenced to 10 years probation. He went to drug rehab and has so far been successful on probation.
The experience has taken a psychological toll as well. Mark says he’s nervous ever time he sees a cop in his rearview mirror, and Vergil says he’s been battling with bouts of depression. Still, the brothers are adamant about pressing forward with their civil rights suit, hoping to stop the local law enforcers from doing the same thing to others.
Vergil says his half-brother Calloway’s involvement with drugs was wrong, “but what they did was wrong also.”
When innocent people become the victims of over-zealous law enforcement, he declares, “How can [the authorities responsible] not face the consequences?”
Jordan Smith is a staff writer for The Austin Chronicle, and a winner of the 2010 John Jay/HF Guggenheim Award for Excellence in Criminal Justice Journalism.
"Rabu, 15 Desember 2010
Texas along with 38 states reach agreement with Dannon on misleading advertising practces
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEDecember 15, 2010www.texasattorneygeneral.gov Subscribe to E-News CONTACTPress Office at(512) 463-2050 Texas, 38 States Resolve Investigation Into
Advertising Campaign That Overstated Yogurt Products' Health BenefitsDannon Co. agrees to injunction prohibiting false claims about its products DALLAS – Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and 38 other attorneys general today reached an agreement with Dannon Co., Inc. that resolves the states’ investigation into the yogurt manufacturer’s misleading and unlawful claims about the characteristics of its products.
According to court documents filed by the states, Dannon’s advertising, packaging and selling improperly overstated the health benefits of its Activia yogurts and DanActive dairy drinks. The defendant made statements that were not substantiated by reliable scientific evidence. Dannon also claimed that Activia could help prevent and treat diseases. Under state and federal law, manufacturers can only advertise the curative effects of approved drugs. They cannot associate those claims with food products. Dannon’s misrepresentations were repeatedly used in television commercials featuring actress Jamie Lee Curtis.Media linksAttorney General's lawsuit against
The Dannon Co.Final judgment and permanent injunction against The Dannon Co.
For example, Dannon claimed that Activia helped to regulate human digestive systems because it contained a bacterial strain with purported health benefits. Dannon trademarked this ingredient under the name Bifidus Regularis. Dannon also claimed Activia had antimicrobial benefits that could affect colon cancer. Those claims were improper because Dannon could not lawfully market the curative properties of unapproved drugs.
For example, Dannon claimed that Activia helped to regulate human digestive systems because it contained a bacterial strain with purported health benefits. Dannon trademarked this ingredient under the name Bifidus Regularis. Dannon also claimed Activia had antimicrobial benefits that could affect colon cancer. Those claims were improper because Dannon could not lawfully market the curative properties of unapproved drugs.
The attorneys general also disputed Dannon’s claims that ingesting one serving of Activia per day for two weeks improved intestinal transit time. In fact, most studies demonstrate a person benefits only when he or she consumes three servings per day for two weeks.
Under today’s injunction, Dannon must disclose that three servings of Activia per day – not one – are required for the advertised benefit of improved intestinal transit time. The states’ agreement prohibits Dannon from making future claims about its products unless those claims have been substantiated by legitimate scientific research.
Under today’s injunction, Dannon must disclose that three servings of Activia per day – not one – are required for the advertised benefit of improved intestinal transit time. The states’ agreement prohibits Dannon from making future claims about its products unless those claims have been substantiated by legitimate scientific research.
According to state investigators, Dannon also improperly claimed that its DanActive dairy drinks could help prevent colds, flus and diarrhea in children. Both claims were unlawful because DanActive has not been approved by the federal government as a drug. As with Activia, Dannon promoted DanActive as a product enriched with a probiotic bacterial strain that could improve the digestive system. Dannon trademarked this strain under the name L. casei Immunitas. The states’ injunction also prohibits Dannon from advertising that its products cure, treat, prevent or mitigate diseases.
Under the agreed final judgment filed today, Dannon agreed to pay $21 million to resolve the states’ investigation. Texas’ share will be $911,000. A previous class action case handled consumer restitution.
FOR OTHER ITEMS ASSOCIATED WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS, ACCESS OAG NEWS RELEASES ONLINE AT WWW.TEXASATTORNEYGENERAL.GOV.
FOR OTHER ITEMS ASSOCIATED WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS, ACCESS OAG NEWS RELEASES ONLINE AT WWW.TEXASATTORNEYGENERAL.GOV.
Dallas | City services schedule through the holidays!
City offices will be closed for business on Friday, December 24, Thursday, December 30, (Mandatory City Leave) and Friday, December 31, 2010.
City offices - Closed
Libraries - Closed
Parks & Recreation Recreation Centers and Administrative Offices: Closed Dec. 24, 25, 30, 31, Jan. 1 Municipal Golf Courses, Tennis Centers and Elm Fork Shooting Range: Closed Dec. 25
Animal Services Administration offices will be closed on December 24, 25, 30 and 31, 2010
Shelter will be open December 24 and 30th. Shelter will be closed December 25th and will close at 5 p.m. on December 31 and January 1st. Staff will be available to answer priority emergency calls in the field such as bites, vicious animals, trapped, and confined animals. All calls will be handled thru 311. Night drop kennels at the shelter are available 7 days after business hours and holidays.
3-1-1 Customer Help Line Customer Service Representatives will be available to take service-related urgent calls such as water main breaks, downed trees/limbs, signal lights out/down, animal control, etc. Water Customer Service will be closed. Routine service requests may be input via the web at http://www.dallascityhall.com/services/services.html
Police - Administrative offices-Closed Will operate on normal schedule
Dallas Fire Rescue - Administrative offices-Closed Will operate on a normal schedule
Municipal Courts - The Municipal Courts Building at 106 S. Harwood and 2014 Main will be closed. Mail payments are accepted with postmark dates honored. Magistrate & Proof or Plea Court will close December 23, 24, 27, 30, and 31st. Online payments may be made at www.dallascityhall.com. Attorney & Cash Bonds for Arrested Defendants will be processed 24 Hours/7Days a week (Including Holidays) at the Dallas Marshal’s Office, 1600 Chestnut Street, Dallas, Texas 75226
Sanitation The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on Christmas Eve Friday, December 24th. Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 22nd.
The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on New Year’s Eve Friday, December 31st. Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 29th.
FOR MORE CITY INFORMATION: www.dallascityhall.com
Sanitation OperationsNew Year’s WeekRecycling and Garbage will be collected• Monday for MONDAY customers• Tuesday for TUESDAY customers• Wednesday for FRIDAY customers• Thursday for THURSDAY customersBrush and Bulk Garbage will be collected• For Week 4 areas Monday-Thursday only, and on Fridayif necessary• To determine your collection week, input your address atwww.maps.dallascityhall.com and view “SanitationInformation”The Transfer Stations will be open normal hours Monday-Thursday and will be closed on Friday and Saturday.McCommas Bluff Landfill will be open normal hours Monday-Friday and will be closed on Saturday.For more information, call 3-1-1.
Recycling and Garbage will be collected• Monday for MONDAY customers• Tuesday for TUESDAY customers• Wednesday for FRIDAY customers• Thursday for THURSDAY customersBrush and Bulk Garbage will be collected• For Week 4 areas Monday-Thursday only, and on Fridayif necessary• To determine your collection week, input your address atwww.maps.dallascityhall.com and view “SanitationInformation”The Transfer Stations will be open normal hours Monday-Thursday and will be closed on Friday and Saturday.McCommas Bluff Landfill will be open normal hours Monday-Friday and will be closed on Saturday.For more information, call
City offices - Closed
Libraries - Closed
Parks & Recreation Recreation Centers and Administrative Offices: Closed Dec. 24, 25, 30, 31, Jan. 1 Municipal Golf Courses, Tennis Centers and Elm Fork Shooting Range: Closed Dec. 25
Animal Services Administration offices will be closed on December 24, 25, 30 and 31, 2010
Shelter will be open December 24 and 30th. Shelter will be closed December 25th and will close at 5 p.m. on December 31 and January 1st. Staff will be available to answer priority emergency calls in the field such as bites, vicious animals, trapped, and confined animals. All calls will be handled thru 311. Night drop kennels at the shelter are available 7 days after business hours and holidays.
3-1-1 Customer Help Line Customer Service Representatives will be available to take service-related urgent calls such as water main breaks, downed trees/limbs, signal lights out/down, animal control, etc. Water Customer Service will be closed. Routine service requests may be input via the web at http://www.dallascityhall.com/services/services.html
Police - Administrative offices-Closed Will operate on normal schedule
Dallas Fire Rescue - Administrative offices-Closed Will operate on a normal schedule
Municipal Courts - The Municipal Courts Building at 106 S. Harwood and 2014 Main will be closed. Mail payments are accepted with postmark dates honored. Magistrate & Proof or Plea Court will close December 23, 24, 27, 30, and 31st. Online payments may be made at www.dallascityhall.com. Attorney & Cash Bonds for Arrested Defendants will be processed 24 Hours/7Days a week (Including Holidays) at the Dallas Marshal’s Office, 1600 Chestnut Street, Dallas, Texas 75226
Sanitation The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on Christmas Eve Friday, December 24th. Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 22nd.
The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on New Year’s Eve Friday, December 31st. Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 29th.
FOR MORE CITY INFORMATION: www.dallascityhall.com
Sanitation OperationsNew Year’s WeekRecycling and Garbage will be collected• Monday for MONDAY customers• Tuesday for TUESDAY customers• Wednesday for FRIDAY customers• Thursday for THURSDAY customersBrush and Bulk Garbage will be collected• For Week 4 areas Monday-Thursday only, and on Fridayif necessary• To determine your collection week, input your address atwww.maps.dallascityhall.com and view “SanitationInformation”The Transfer Stations will be open normal hours Monday-Thursday and will be closed on Friday and Saturday.McCommas Bluff Landfill will be open normal hours Monday-Friday and will be closed on Saturday.For more information, call 3-1-1.
Recycling and Garbage will be collected• Monday for MONDAY customers• Tuesday for TUESDAY customers• Wednesday for FRIDAY customers• Thursday for THURSDAY customersBrush and Bulk Garbage will be collected• For Week 4 areas Monday-Thursday only, and on Fridayif necessary• To determine your collection week, input your address atwww.maps.dallascityhall.com and view “SanitationInformation”The Transfer Stations will be open normal hours Monday-Thursday and will be closed on Friday and Saturday.McCommas Bluff Landfill will be open normal hours Monday-Friday and will be closed on Saturday.For more information, call
Selasa, 14 Desember 2010
DISD | Public forum on trustee terms of office to be held Dec. 16
Below is information regarding a public hearing to extend term limits for DISD Trustees from 3 years to 4 years.Which, if passed would give the Dallas Citizens Council more power over our children's education.
The Dallas Citizens Council already has came and spoken in favor of this item. Today on the Robert Ashley show on KHVN(Heaven 97),"Kevin", a DISD employee boldly stated that the WHITES and the HISPANICS were tag teaming blacks, shutting them out of contracts, promotions, after school programs etc.
Trustee Bernadette Nuttall was also on the show, declaring that she needed help fighting injustices and blacks should participate more in what was going on at DISD.To be truthful with you, if you have children enrolled in DISD, you should attend the meeting and work to make a better future for your children and others children.
GET INVOLVED, like you involve yourselves into partying, clubbing, shopping, and other behaviors that aren't beneficial in society!
Announcements
|
It's Super Bowl Time!!!Are you ready for the National Sodomites' Event
It's Super Bowl Time!!!
(True Christians/Godly people would call it the National Toilet Bowl Event)
Are you ready for the National Sodomites' Event
Welcome to Dallas Texas...The Nation's Last Plantation City
Dallas, Texas...The Fascist Growing Socialist Gay City In The United States
Dallas, Texas...BIG D...Live Large, Think Big...We LOVE Viagra 'n Getting off!
Dallas, Texas...The Gayest Friendly City In the Nation. We love our children very much. If you're a pedophile, our courts will help you adopt one. Our childen are our Gay future, and our Pedophile future.
Dallas, Texas...Where Some Black and Hispanic Ministers, and Black and Hispanic Politicians are the Best Money Can Buy in Serving the WHITE man’s Interests. (We'll sell you the list. Royse West and John Wiley Price are at the top.)
Dallas, Texas...Where We Send Good Black Politicians To Prison, and Put Corrupt Black Politicians in Office.
Dallas, Texas...Our Limos Will Supply You with Whatever You Want to Satisfy Your Lust. The best prostitutes...Gay, Straight, Girls, Boys, Sheep, Cats...in the World are coming to town.
Dallas, Texas...Our Dallas Morning News MONOPOLY NEWSPAPER Always Lies For the Business Interests, and the Gay Interests. It's a Sodomite-Socialist-Fascist friendly paper. We have a "Dealy" for you, and We Know How to Hit "Belo" the belt.
Dallas, Texas...Where Our Media Keeps The Minorities, BLACKS-HISPANICS-MUSLIMS, Controlled With Hate Speech
Dallas, Texas...With 5000 Street Sleeping Homeless Because We Don't GIve a F**k! Downtown Dallas is today's Front-of-the Bus. We'll send them to jail if they bother you. Dallas doesn't waste its money on the homeless. Our Money is Better Spent Building the NEW BABYLON!
Dallas, Texas...Our Mayor Leppert is the Best Lying Mayor in the Nation. If You are a Heartless, Racist S.O.B., Only Interested in Money, Tom Leppert is your man.
Come on "Down" to Dallas...You can’t get much lower!!!
Dallas Loves Arrogant, Money Hungry Racists To Keep The Dallas Plantation Going!!!
Provided by the Richard P. Sheridan for Dallas City Council, Dist. 13 Campaign, Brandon P. Reed, Treasurer. August 23, 2010 Revised December 11, 2010. www.richardforditycouncil13@gmail.com 972-815-7570
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A CALL TO MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN...EXPOSE DALLAS WHITE (ALL CAPS) MAN!!!
Next Friday, December 17, Brian Potashnik will be sentenced for his role in the City Hall corruption case. Potashnik is the developer who paid certain individuals to get awarded low income housing projects from Dallas City Hall.
The day before the trial began Potashnik, who claimed to be innocent, switched to a guilty plea. He cut a deal with the FEDS. Was it a COINTELPRO DEAL? Was is a real "Dealy" for Potashnik, who had some corrupt dealings in L.A. before he came here?
As part of the plea, Potashnik gets to keep all the money he earned (stole), and his prison sentence will have a max term of 3.5 years.only
"....(potashnik) changed his tune the day before the public corruption trial began in order to protect his fortune and family" Dallas Morning News, July 28, 2009.
"Defense attorneys told jurors that Potashnik's high-powered lawyers were able to structure a deal for him, and one for his wife, who is also charged in the case, so that they will likely keep most of their millions. That is, they say, if he is able to convince prosecutors and the judge that he has offered substantial help in convicting the remaining five defendants".
"Defense attorneys told jurors that Potashnik's high-powered lawyers were able to structure a deal for him, and one for his wife, who is also charged in the case, so that they will likely keep most of their millions. That is, they say, if he is able to convince prosecutors and the judge that he has offered substantial help in convicting the remaining five defendants".
Meanwhile, former city council member Don Hill, who, if he is guilty ( appeal in progress), saw a maximum $100,000 to $200,000.
Both Hill, and his wife, Sheila Farrington, have been in out-of-state federal prisons for the last 9 months.
Potashnik was a friend of Laura Miller, who strongly promoted Potashnik, not only to Dallas, but also to San Antonio. Miller received political contributions in excess of $50,000 from Potashnik, some timed right before she was to vote in favor of his proposed projects.
As the trial neared, Laura Miller decided not to run for re-election, citing a desire to spend more time with her children. Has anyone seen or heard from Laura Miller lately, or is she still hiding out? Some in the know state that Miller cut a deal with the FEDS, getting her off the hook. If she didn't run for re-election, she wouldn't be prosecuted.
Mayor Laura Miller, and her husband Steve Wolens, in my opinion, will go down as the two most corrupt, and immoral politicians in Dallas, and Texas history. How many know that Steve Wolens, as a Texas legislator almost single-handedly deregulated Texas electric utility, changing electric rates from among the lowest in the nation, to now among the highest.
Laura Miller was notoriously known as "LIAR MILLER". Her political agenda/rhetoric went from providing the basic city services to giving Dallas, and it's tax money away to the Dallas WHITE elite establishment. It was Miller who let the Trinity project be changed from a park project, to a highway project. It was Miller who facilitiate the GAY agenda getting a strong foothold in Dallas. It was Miller who attacked the homeless, making downtown Dallas today's front of the bus. It was Miller who allowed the lie of the new homeless assistance center to take hold...THE NEW SHELTER IS A BILLBOARD AND HAS DONE LITTLE TO IMPROVE THE CONDITION OF THE HOMELESS TODAY. In fact it's worse today than it ever was! As a claimed democrat, why did at least 80% of the Black comunity hate her guts?
The conviction of Don and Sheila Hill, in the light of Potashnik virtually getting just a slap on the wrist, and Laura Miller getting totally off, is ANOTHER VERSION OF DALLAS WHITE MANS JUSTICE AGAINST THE BLACKS. And who controls what goes on in Dallas, who gets elected, and where our tax money goes...THE DALLAS CITIZENS COUNCIL, actually the Dallas CORPORATE Council. There aren't any real, hard working Dallas Citizens on the Dallas Citizens Council. THE MEMBERS ARE OF THE ELITE DALLAS KLAN, TAKING CARE OF THEIR OWN. Every social injustice in Dallas, with the racism, with the poverty, with the homelessness, with all the conflict over tax money is due to the control of the Dallas Citizens Council.
THE UPCOMING SENTENCING OF BRIAN POTASHNIK OFFERS THE REAL CITIZENS OF DALLAS, EXPECIALLY DALLAS BLACK COMMUNITY, PERHAPS A ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY TO EXPOSE THE CORRUPT, UNGODLY WHITE CABAL RUNNING DALLAS, AND BEGIN TO BRING JUSTICE TO THEM!
THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE GUILT OR INNOCENCE OF DON AND SHEILA HILL. THIS IS ABOUT THE HYPOCRACY OF THE SENTENCING. THIS IS ABOUT UN-EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER THE COMMON LAW, THE LAWS OF GOD.
A CALL TO MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN TO COME TO DALLAS TO EXPOSE THE "WHITE" MAN'S INJUSTICES.
To all who have contacts to Minister Farrahkan, please use them now. I KNOW OF NO BETTER CHRISTMAS PRESENT TO GIVE TO DALLAS' BLACK COMMUNITY THAN TO SERVE UP THE "WHITE MAN" (AND WHITE WOMAN LAURA MILLER) UP ON A SILVER PLATTER FOR CHRISTMAS DINNER!
Will this effect the Super Bowl? I pray it does, for it is again, the WHITE man who will primarily benefit from it. Just know, the majority of whites (all lower case) are not corrupt, nor racists. It's the all caps WHITE men, and their minions, we will be addressing.
Thank You!
Richard P. Sheridan, P.E.
Professional Engineer, N.Y.- Activist
Candidate for Dallas City Council, Dist 13
972-815-7570
Senin, 13 Desember 2010
Dallas Holiday Garbage & Recycling Collection
SERVICE ALERT: Dallas Holiday Garbage & Recycling Collection
Christmas Week (only)
The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on Christmas Eve Friday, December 24.
Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 22.
New Year’s Week (only)
The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on New Year’s Eve Friday, December 31.
Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 29.
Christmas Week (only)
The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on Christmas Eve Friday, December 24.
Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 22.
New Year’s Week (only)
The City of Dallas Sanitation department will NOT PlCK UP on New Year’s Eve Friday, December 31.
Customers whose garbage and recycling is normally picked up on FRIDAYS should instead put their materials out for collection on WEDNESDAY, December 29.
Jumat, 10 Desember 2010
Kamis, 09 Desember 2010
Dallas | Commendation of GOOD DPD officers
This blog normally exposes corruption, but today I want to personally COMMEND two good officers.Below is an email I sent to Dallas Police Chief David O. Brown.
Chief Brown,
I have to continuously remind the people in the community that there are good police officers and the incident on Red Bird Ln,where the officers helped save the mother and her children serves as a reminder that WE DO HAVE GOOD OFFICERS.I SUPPORT THE DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT!
story below.
Chief Brown,
I have to continuously remind the people in the community that there are good police officers and the incident on Red Bird Ln,where the officers helped save the mother and her children serves as a reminder that WE DO HAVE GOOD OFFICERS.I SUPPORT THE DALLAS POLICE DEPARTMENT!
story below.
Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer Speaks at the United Nations for International Anti-corruption Day
Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer Speaks at the United Nations for International Anti-corruption Day
New York ~ Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thank you, Georg, for that kind introduction. It is a great honor and privilege for me to join you, in these hallowed halls at the United Nations, to commemorate International Anti-Corruption Day.
Seven years ago, through Resolution 58/4, the U.N. General Assembly established December 9 as International Anti-Corruption Day, "to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the [U.N.] Convention [Against Corruption] in combating and preventing it." The U.N. Convention has proven to be an exceptionally important step forward in the worldwide battle against corruption, and International Anti-Corruption Day is a strong symbol of the global commitment to root it out. I am delighted to join you in this important celebration.
Together, we have made great progress since 2003. Yet, in spite of our collective efforts, corruption remains a scourge. President Obama has called the struggle against corruption, "one of the great struggles of our time." It is a worldwide problem, affecting countries rich and poor. The World Bank has estimated that over $1 trillion in bribes are paid worldwide each year, leading to what some experts estimate amounts to a 20 percent tax on foreign investment.
Corruption has particularly negative effects on emerging economies. When a developing country’s public officials routinely abuse their power for personal gain, its people suffer. Roads are not built, schools lie in ruin, and basic public services go unprovided. Moreover, when corruption takes hold in any nation, its political institutions tend to lose legitimacy, threatening democratic stability and the rule of law. Corruption also undermines the health of international markets, stifling competition and repelling foreign investment. Moreover, corruption is a "gateway crime," allowing money laundering, gang violence, terrorism, and other crimes to thrive. In short, corruption is a slow-growing cancer on society.
We have gathered here on International Anti-Corruption Day in part to raise awareness about corruption across the globe, and in part to celebrate how far we’ve come in the last seven years. But rather than congratulate ourselves for our successes, we must use this opportunity to challenge ourselves to do much more.
As Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, I am privileged to lead nearly 600 lawyers who work to enforce the nation’s federal criminal laws. Anti-corruption efforts are an essential part of our mission. Because, of course, we are not immune from corruption in the United States. Far from it. The struggle against corruption, while universal, begins at home, in each of our countries.
The United States recently submitted itself to a peer review by the OECD of its anti-corruption efforts. After a rigorous, six-month review process, the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions concluded that we enforce our foreign anti-bribery laws more vigorously than any other nation, and praised our robust, inter-agency enforcement efforts. But, in spite of our successes, the challenges we face have become even greater, particularly as world economies have become more inter-connected.
The Department of Justice has long recognized corruption as a transnational problem. And that is why we have taken a global, and comprehensive, approach to fighting it. First, regarding corruption here at home, the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice has a dedicated group of prosecutors – in the Public Integrity Section – whose sole task is to prosecute corruption cases involving federal, state, and local officials. The Public Integrity Section works in close partnership with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, as well as with federal prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country. To give you a sense of Public Integrity’s work, the Section recently convicted a former House of Representatives staff member and later lobbyist for conspiring to reward government officials in exchange for their official action; the conviction was part of a wide-ranging investigation in which, to date, 19 people have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial. The Public Integrity Section also recently indicted four Alabama state legislators and several local businessmen and lobbyists for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to buy and sell votes on a specific piece of state legislation. And the Section just successfully prosecuted the founder and president of a lobbying firm for making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal federal campaign contributions.
Regarding corruption abroad, our Fraud Section plays the leading role in enforcing on behalf of the United States the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (also known as the FCPA), which was the first effort of any nation to specifically criminalize the act of bribing foreign officials. As many of you are aware, we in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice have dramatically increased our FCPA enforcement over the past two years. As one metric, in the last year, we have imposed the most criminal penalties in FCPA-related cases in any single 12-month period ever – well over $1 billion. In addition, last year and this year combined, we have charged more than 50 individuals with FCPA-related offenses – compared, for example, with two individuals in 2004, and five individuals in 2005.
The Department of Justice’s role in prosecuting corruption at home and under the FCPA is well known to many of you. Indeed, I know that representatives of companies that have recently been prosecuted under the FCPA are in the audience today – a testament to their commitment to improve the way they do business abroad. What may be less familiar to you is the work that the Justice Department does together with foreign nations to help fight corruption on a global scale. This work takes primarily two forms: fostering international consensus to fight corruption; and building the capacity of foreign nations to do so.
First, as to building international consensus: The Criminal Division is proud to have participated in drafting the key anti-corruption document of our time – the U.N. Convention Against Corruption, the Convention that brings us here today. Under the leadership of the U.S. Department of State, the Criminal Division represented the Justice Department delegation in the negotiations leading up to the signing conference in Merida, Mexico, in December 2003 – sending experts from our Public Integrity Section, our Fraud Section, our Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, and our Office of International Affairs. We believed then that the Convention would become – and believe now that it is – an essential tool in the worldwide struggle to prevent and prosecute corruption.
As you know, the Convention’s several components make it the most comprehensive anti-corruption pact in existence. First, the Convention seeks to ensure that State Parties take steps to prevent corruption within their public and private sectors. It also contains substantive criminal provisions that require State Parties to criminalize certain corrupt conduct, such as bribery of domestic public officials. In addition, the Convention contains important international cooperation provisions, aimed at facilitating extraditions and making it easier for countries to provide one another with mutual legal assistance. Important asset recovery provisions also establish new mechanisms for the recovery of illicitly acquired assets. Finally, the Convention provides for State Parties to provide one another with technical assistance and establishes a Conference of the States Parties to improve cooperation among parties to the Convention, and to promote and review its implementation. Our Criminal Division experts, with their State Department counterparts, continue to participate actively in the Conference of States Parties.
It is no overstatement to say that the Convention has become the gold standard across the globe for countries serious about eliminating corruption. It has been critical not only in establishing an international consensus about how to fight corruption, but also in establishing a framework for building international capacity to do so. It is this framework that is relied upon by our Criminal Division offices that focus on capacity building abroad – known as OPDAT and ICITAP.
Since 1991, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, the Criminal Division’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training (or OPDAT) has placed legal advisors in dozens of countries around the world to work collaboratively with their counterpart prosecutors and judges on developing and sustaining effective criminal justice institutions. This past fiscal year, OPDAT had 55 resident legal advisors in 35 countries and staffed 674 programs involving 110 countries, including 55 programs devoted exclusively to anti-corruption efforts. With OPDAT, some of our most experienced prosecutors work to help build capacity in countries across the globe – from the Ukraine to Albania to Mexico. As just one example among many, OPDAT has recently been partnering with Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office to establish and support the work of a 50-prosecutor Anticorruption Task Force, including through a series of intensive training programs. The most recent of these trainings, in November, focused on solving problems common to corruption prosecutions, such as proving financial loss to the state and obtaining evidence from overseas.
Similarly, the Criminal Division’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (or ICITAP) has, since 1986, focused on improving law enforcement capacity abroad. As I mentioned, OPDAT is a program run by lawyers, for other lawyers - specifically, prosecutors and judges. ICITAP, by contrast, is staffed by law enforcement professionals, who have decades of experience at the federal, state and local levels. Like OPDAT, ICITAP has programs in dozens of countries, having trained nearly 30,000 foreign participants in the last fiscal year – in Iraq, Colombia, and Rwanda, among many others. Anti-corruption work is an important part of these police programs. As one example, in Peru this year, ICITAP assisted the national Congress with the revision of an outdated police conduct law. The revised law includes new penalties for corrupt and unethical behavior; standards for the investigation and discipline of police misconduct; and requirements for the annual evaluation of officers.
In short, the Department of Justice, along with the State Department, has devoted enormous resources to global anti-corruption efforts. And these efforts are, by design, intensely collaborative in nature. In working with foreign prosecutors, judges, and police to build the capacity to fight corruption, we are bound together in a global partnership, and the U.N. Convention Against Corruption is the common reference point for our work.
At the Department of Justice, as I have described, our anti-corruption efforts focus on criminal prosecution and capacity building. Where does the private sector fit into this fight? Many of you here today are from companies that participate in the U.N. Global Compact. You have therefore committed yourselves to conducting business according to the Compact’s Tenth Principle – to "work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery." Your participation in the Global Compact is an important step, and, along with your presence here, is concrete evidence of your commitment to the struggle against corruption.
Let me offer you, then, the following challenge: To lead the world’s anti-corruption efforts by example. I have been told that some companies complain that they do not understand what it means to violate the FCPA. This may be an acceptable legal argument to make or litigation position to advance. But I am asking you, my friends, to do more than try and test the edges of the law. I am asking you to conduct business responsibly across the globe, and to fulfill your commitment to work against corruption in all its forms. Indeed, you are on the front lines of this fight.
If you establish top-notch compliance programs in your organizations, we are bound to see progress. If you ensure that all your employees are properly trained in anti-corruption behavior, we are bound to see progress. And, perhaps most importantly, if you refuse to do business when doing business requires bribing government officials, then we are certainly bound to see progress.
Corruption is one of the most pressing problems the world faces. The Justice Department is working hard to fight it, both at home and with its partners abroad. I encourage you to make corruption your problem as well, and to own the task of eradicating it across the globe.
The Department of Justice is committed to this battle. I am personally committed to it. I hope you will be too. Because we can be strong partners in this fight. Thank you.
New York ~ Thursday, December 9, 2010
Thank you, Georg, for that kind introduction. It is a great honor and privilege for me to join you, in these hallowed halls at the United Nations, to commemorate International Anti-Corruption Day.
Seven years ago, through Resolution 58/4, the U.N. General Assembly established December 9 as International Anti-Corruption Day, "to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the [U.N.] Convention [Against Corruption] in combating and preventing it." The U.N. Convention has proven to be an exceptionally important step forward in the worldwide battle against corruption, and International Anti-Corruption Day is a strong symbol of the global commitment to root it out. I am delighted to join you in this important celebration.
Together, we have made great progress since 2003. Yet, in spite of our collective efforts, corruption remains a scourge. President Obama has called the struggle against corruption, "one of the great struggles of our time." It is a worldwide problem, affecting countries rich and poor. The World Bank has estimated that over $1 trillion in bribes are paid worldwide each year, leading to what some experts estimate amounts to a 20 percent tax on foreign investment.
Corruption has particularly negative effects on emerging economies. When a developing country’s public officials routinely abuse their power for personal gain, its people suffer. Roads are not built, schools lie in ruin, and basic public services go unprovided. Moreover, when corruption takes hold in any nation, its political institutions tend to lose legitimacy, threatening democratic stability and the rule of law. Corruption also undermines the health of international markets, stifling competition and repelling foreign investment. Moreover, corruption is a "gateway crime," allowing money laundering, gang violence, terrorism, and other crimes to thrive. In short, corruption is a slow-growing cancer on society.
We have gathered here on International Anti-Corruption Day in part to raise awareness about corruption across the globe, and in part to celebrate how far we’ve come in the last seven years. But rather than congratulate ourselves for our successes, we must use this opportunity to challenge ourselves to do much more.
As Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, I am privileged to lead nearly 600 lawyers who work to enforce the nation’s federal criminal laws. Anti-corruption efforts are an essential part of our mission. Because, of course, we are not immune from corruption in the United States. Far from it. The struggle against corruption, while universal, begins at home, in each of our countries.
The United States recently submitted itself to a peer review by the OECD of its anti-corruption efforts. After a rigorous, six-month review process, the OECD Working Group on Bribery in International Business Transactions concluded that we enforce our foreign anti-bribery laws more vigorously than any other nation, and praised our robust, inter-agency enforcement efforts. But, in spite of our successes, the challenges we face have become even greater, particularly as world economies have become more inter-connected.
The Department of Justice has long recognized corruption as a transnational problem. And that is why we have taken a global, and comprehensive, approach to fighting it. First, regarding corruption here at home, the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice has a dedicated group of prosecutors – in the Public Integrity Section – whose sole task is to prosecute corruption cases involving federal, state, and local officials. The Public Integrity Section works in close partnership with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, as well as with federal prosecutors in U.S. Attorneys’ Offices around the country. To give you a sense of Public Integrity’s work, the Section recently convicted a former House of Representatives staff member and later lobbyist for conspiring to reward government officials in exchange for their official action; the conviction was part of a wide-ranging investigation in which, to date, 19 people have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial. The Public Integrity Section also recently indicted four Alabama state legislators and several local businessmen and lobbyists for their roles in an alleged conspiracy to buy and sell votes on a specific piece of state legislation. And the Section just successfully prosecuted the founder and president of a lobbying firm for making hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal federal campaign contributions.
Regarding corruption abroad, our Fraud Section plays the leading role in enforcing on behalf of the United States the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (also known as the FCPA), which was the first effort of any nation to specifically criminalize the act of bribing foreign officials. As many of you are aware, we in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice have dramatically increased our FCPA enforcement over the past two years. As one metric, in the last year, we have imposed the most criminal penalties in FCPA-related cases in any single 12-month period ever – well over $1 billion. In addition, last year and this year combined, we have charged more than 50 individuals with FCPA-related offenses – compared, for example, with two individuals in 2004, and five individuals in 2005.
The Department of Justice’s role in prosecuting corruption at home and under the FCPA is well known to many of you. Indeed, I know that representatives of companies that have recently been prosecuted under the FCPA are in the audience today – a testament to their commitment to improve the way they do business abroad. What may be less familiar to you is the work that the Justice Department does together with foreign nations to help fight corruption on a global scale. This work takes primarily two forms: fostering international consensus to fight corruption; and building the capacity of foreign nations to do so.
First, as to building international consensus: The Criminal Division is proud to have participated in drafting the key anti-corruption document of our time – the U.N. Convention Against Corruption, the Convention that brings us here today. Under the leadership of the U.S. Department of State, the Criminal Division represented the Justice Department delegation in the negotiations leading up to the signing conference in Merida, Mexico, in December 2003 – sending experts from our Public Integrity Section, our Fraud Section, our Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, and our Office of International Affairs. We believed then that the Convention would become – and believe now that it is – an essential tool in the worldwide struggle to prevent and prosecute corruption.
As you know, the Convention’s several components make it the most comprehensive anti-corruption pact in existence. First, the Convention seeks to ensure that State Parties take steps to prevent corruption within their public and private sectors. It also contains substantive criminal provisions that require State Parties to criminalize certain corrupt conduct, such as bribery of domestic public officials. In addition, the Convention contains important international cooperation provisions, aimed at facilitating extraditions and making it easier for countries to provide one another with mutual legal assistance. Important asset recovery provisions also establish new mechanisms for the recovery of illicitly acquired assets. Finally, the Convention provides for State Parties to provide one another with technical assistance and establishes a Conference of the States Parties to improve cooperation among parties to the Convention, and to promote and review its implementation. Our Criminal Division experts, with their State Department counterparts, continue to participate actively in the Conference of States Parties.
It is no overstatement to say that the Convention has become the gold standard across the globe for countries serious about eliminating corruption. It has been critical not only in establishing an international consensus about how to fight corruption, but also in establishing a framework for building international capacity to do so. It is this framework that is relied upon by our Criminal Division offices that focus on capacity building abroad – known as OPDAT and ICITAP.
Since 1991, in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, the Criminal Division’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development Assistance and Training (or OPDAT) has placed legal advisors in dozens of countries around the world to work collaboratively with their counterpart prosecutors and judges on developing and sustaining effective criminal justice institutions. This past fiscal year, OPDAT had 55 resident legal advisors in 35 countries and staffed 674 programs involving 110 countries, including 55 programs devoted exclusively to anti-corruption efforts. With OPDAT, some of our most experienced prosecutors work to help build capacity in countries across the globe – from the Ukraine to Albania to Mexico. As just one example among many, OPDAT has recently been partnering with Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office to establish and support the work of a 50-prosecutor Anticorruption Task Force, including through a series of intensive training programs. The most recent of these trainings, in November, focused on solving problems common to corruption prosecutions, such as proving financial loss to the state and obtaining evidence from overseas.
Similarly, the Criminal Division’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (or ICITAP) has, since 1986, focused on improving law enforcement capacity abroad. As I mentioned, OPDAT is a program run by lawyers, for other lawyers - specifically, prosecutors and judges. ICITAP, by contrast, is staffed by law enforcement professionals, who have decades of experience at the federal, state and local levels. Like OPDAT, ICITAP has programs in dozens of countries, having trained nearly 30,000 foreign participants in the last fiscal year – in Iraq, Colombia, and Rwanda, among many others. Anti-corruption work is an important part of these police programs. As one example, in Peru this year, ICITAP assisted the national Congress with the revision of an outdated police conduct law. The revised law includes new penalties for corrupt and unethical behavior; standards for the investigation and discipline of police misconduct; and requirements for the annual evaluation of officers.
In short, the Department of Justice, along with the State Department, has devoted enormous resources to global anti-corruption efforts. And these efforts are, by design, intensely collaborative in nature. In working with foreign prosecutors, judges, and police to build the capacity to fight corruption, we are bound together in a global partnership, and the U.N. Convention Against Corruption is the common reference point for our work.
At the Department of Justice, as I have described, our anti-corruption efforts focus on criminal prosecution and capacity building. Where does the private sector fit into this fight? Many of you here today are from companies that participate in the U.N. Global Compact. You have therefore committed yourselves to conducting business according to the Compact’s Tenth Principle – to "work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery." Your participation in the Global Compact is an important step, and, along with your presence here, is concrete evidence of your commitment to the struggle against corruption.
Let me offer you, then, the following challenge: To lead the world’s anti-corruption efforts by example. I have been told that some companies complain that they do not understand what it means to violate the FCPA. This may be an acceptable legal argument to make or litigation position to advance. But I am asking you, my friends, to do more than try and test the edges of the law. I am asking you to conduct business responsibly across the globe, and to fulfill your commitment to work against corruption in all its forms. Indeed, you are on the front lines of this fight.
If you establish top-notch compliance programs in your organizations, we are bound to see progress. If you ensure that all your employees are properly trained in anti-corruption behavior, we are bound to see progress. And, perhaps most importantly, if you refuse to do business when doing business requires bribing government officials, then we are certainly bound to see progress.
Corruption is one of the most pressing problems the world faces. The Justice Department is working hard to fight it, both at home and with its partners abroad. I encourage you to make corruption your problem as well, and to own the task of eradicating it across the globe.
The Department of Justice is committed to this battle. I am personally committed to it. I hope you will be too. Because we can be strong partners in this fight. Thank you.
Selasa, 07 Desember 2010
Senin, 06 Desember 2010
Feels like WIKILEAKS right now?
Due to the fact that this blog is the VOICE for the community who go unheard of on a regular basis, it seems as though we're getting the respect of local officials because of our ability to receive the file folders in the grocery store parking lots.ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!
UK Citizen Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Bribe Nigerian Government Officials to Obtain Lucrative Contracts as Part of KBR Joint Venture Scheme
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, December 6, 2010
UK Citizen Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Bribe Nigerian Government Officials to Obtain Lucrative Contracts as Part of KBR Joint Venture Scheme
WASHINGTON – Wojciech J. Chodan, a former commercial vice president and consultant to a United Kingdom subsidiary of Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KBR), pleaded guilty today to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for his participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, the Department of Justice announced. The EPC contracts to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria, were valued at more than $6 billion.
Chodan, 72, a U.K. citizen, was extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States on Dec. 3, 2010, and pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Houston before U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA. Chodan was originally charged on Feb. 17, 2009. Sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 22, 2011. Chodan faces a maximum penalty of 60 months in prison on the conspiracy charge. As part of his plea agreement, Chodan agreed to forfeit $726,885.
KBR, Technip S.A. (Technip), Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V. (Snamprogetti) and a Japanese engineering and construction company were part of a four-company joint venture that was awarded four EPC contracts by Nigeria LNG Ltd. (NLNG) between 1995 and 2004 to build LNG facilities on Bonny Island. Chodan admitted that from approximately 1994 through June 2004, he and his co-conspirators agreed to pay bribes to Nigerian government officials, including top-level executive branch officials, in order to obtain and retain the EPC contracts. Chodan recommended and agreed to the joint venture’s hiring of two agents, Jeffrey Tesler and a Japanese trading company, to pay the bribes. During the course of the bribery scheme, the joint venture paid approximately $132 million to a Gibraltar corporation controlled by Tesler and more than $50 million to the Japanese trading company. At crucial junctures preceding the award of EPC contracts, Chodan and his co-conspirators met with successive holders of a top-level office in the executive branch of the Nigerian government to ask the office holders to designate a representative with whom the joint venture should negotiate the bribes to Nigerian government officials.
In related cases, KBR’s former CEO, Albert "Jack" Stanley, pleaded guilty in September 2008 to conspiring to violate the FCPA for his participation in the bribery scheme, while KBR’s successor company, Kellogg Brown & Root LLC, pleaded guilty in February 2009 to FCPA-related charges for its participation in the scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials. Kellogg Brown & Root LLC was ordered to pay a $402 million fine and to retain an independent compliance monitor for a three-year period to review the design and implementation of its compliance program. In addition, Tesler was indicted in February 2009 on FCPA-related charges for his alleged participation in the bribery scheme, and the United States has requested his extradition from the United Kingdom.
In another related criminal case, the department filed a deferred prosecution agreement and criminal information against Technip on June 28, 2010. According to that agreement, Technip agreed to pay a $240 million criminal penalty and to retain an independent compliance monitor for two years. On July 7, 2010, the department filed a deferred prosecution agreement and criminal information against Snamprogetti Netherlands BV, which also agreed to pay a $240 million criminal penalty.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief William J. Stuckwisch and Deputy Chief Patrick F. Stokes of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, with investigative assistance from the FBI-Houston Division. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance. Significant assistance was provided by the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and by authorities in France, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, including in particular the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office’s International Assistance and Anti-Corruption Units, the London Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police.
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday, December 6, 2010
UK Citizen Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Bribe Nigerian Government Officials to Obtain Lucrative Contracts as Part of KBR Joint Venture Scheme
WASHINGTON – Wojciech J. Chodan, a former commercial vice president and consultant to a United Kingdom subsidiary of Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KBR), pleaded guilty today to conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) for his participation in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, the Department of Justice announced. The EPC contracts to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria, were valued at more than $6 billion.
Chodan, 72, a U.K. citizen, was extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States on Dec. 3, 2010, and pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Houston before U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison to one count of conspiracy to violate the FCPA. Chodan was originally charged on Feb. 17, 2009. Sentencing has been scheduled for Feb. 22, 2011. Chodan faces a maximum penalty of 60 months in prison on the conspiracy charge. As part of his plea agreement, Chodan agreed to forfeit $726,885.
KBR, Technip S.A. (Technip), Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V. (Snamprogetti) and a Japanese engineering and construction company were part of a four-company joint venture that was awarded four EPC contracts by Nigeria LNG Ltd. (NLNG) between 1995 and 2004 to build LNG facilities on Bonny Island. Chodan admitted that from approximately 1994 through June 2004, he and his co-conspirators agreed to pay bribes to Nigerian government officials, including top-level executive branch officials, in order to obtain and retain the EPC contracts. Chodan recommended and agreed to the joint venture’s hiring of two agents, Jeffrey Tesler and a Japanese trading company, to pay the bribes. During the course of the bribery scheme, the joint venture paid approximately $132 million to a Gibraltar corporation controlled by Tesler and more than $50 million to the Japanese trading company. At crucial junctures preceding the award of EPC contracts, Chodan and his co-conspirators met with successive holders of a top-level office in the executive branch of the Nigerian government to ask the office holders to designate a representative with whom the joint venture should negotiate the bribes to Nigerian government officials.
In related cases, KBR’s former CEO, Albert "Jack" Stanley, pleaded guilty in September 2008 to conspiring to violate the FCPA for his participation in the bribery scheme, while KBR’s successor company, Kellogg Brown & Root LLC, pleaded guilty in February 2009 to FCPA-related charges for its participation in the scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials. Kellogg Brown & Root LLC was ordered to pay a $402 million fine and to retain an independent compliance monitor for a three-year period to review the design and implementation of its compliance program. In addition, Tesler was indicted in February 2009 on FCPA-related charges for his alleged participation in the bribery scheme, and the United States has requested his extradition from the United Kingdom.
In another related criminal case, the department filed a deferred prosecution agreement and criminal information against Technip on June 28, 2010. According to that agreement, Technip agreed to pay a $240 million criminal penalty and to retain an independent compliance monitor for two years. On July 7, 2010, the department filed a deferred prosecution agreement and criminal information against Snamprogetti Netherlands BV, which also agreed to pay a $240 million criminal penalty.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Chief William J. Stuckwisch and Deputy Chief Patrick F. Stokes of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, with investigative assistance from the FBI-Houston Division. The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs provided substantial assistance. Significant assistance was provided by the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and by authorities in France, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, including in particular the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office’s International Assistance and Anti-Corruption Units, the London Metropolitan Police and the City of London Police.
Minggu, 05 Desember 2010
Sabtu, 04 Desember 2010
Jumat, 03 Desember 2010
Northeast Houston residents protest HOA management
Northeast Houston residents protest HOA management: "A group of northeast Houston residents say they are holding a rally to protest the mismanagement of their neighborhood’s homeowners association."
CM Davis and community leaders join together for demolition of apartments in South Dallas
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Councilmember Carolyn R. Davis joins community for demolition; City to take down dilapidated apartments with long history of violations
What: A significant portion of the blighted south Dallas apartment complex, known as the Summer Breeze Apartments, will begin to be demolished as part of the City’s ongoing effort to crack down on multi-tenant complexes with long histories of violations. The complex consists of 23 four-plexes located on Hatcher Street and eight multi-family structures located onSouthland Street. The City has gained the authority to demolish seventy percent of the complex. Seven structures will be torn down in the first phase of demolition.
When City inspectors conducted a license inspection, the property failed after several violations were discovered including broken windows, exposed wiring, holes in walls, missing or inoperable smoke alarms and plumbing leaks.
“This property has been a nuisance in the community for a long time,” Councilmember Davis said. “Vagrants terrorized the complex, burned out units were safety hazards and several crimes took place on the properties.”
Once this case was referred to the City Attorney’s office, swift action was taken to use the legal process to mitigate the blight and gain the authority to tear down the structures. “This is another example of the City working with the community to take back our neighborhoods block by block,” Davis said.
Who: - Councilwoman Carolyn R. Davis
- Community members
When: 12 noon, Monday, Dec. 6
Where: 2655 Hatcher St.
Note: Media can park behind the structures, accessible off Myrtle just before Hatcher. There is no parking in front of the demolition site.
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