LaGuardia workers want more perks

From The Forum:

An act of civil disobedience outside of Queens’ LaGuardia Airport landed several elected officials, community leaders and airport workers in the back of a police truck after they called for equality in remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr. The group held a booming rally Monday morning centered on poor working conditions and unfair wages near the airport and then marched down the nearby 94th Street bridge to block traffic, where the arrests followed.

Some of those handcuffed included U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Manhattan), City Council members Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) and Ruben Wills (D-Jamaica) along with 29 others, the Jackson Heights 115th Precinct said.

“The City Council stands untied to support you, airport workers, in your demands for dignified work and respect,” said Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito alongside colleagues Councilmen Costa Constantinides (D-Astoria), I. Daneek Miller (D-Jamaica) and Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton). “We have seen a mobilization across this nation of fast food workers, car wash workers and now airport workers. We will ensure that we stand with you.”

The protests were in support of the service workers union 32BJ SEIU, which organized petitions signed by more than 2,000 workers demanding MLK Day become a paid holiday, but to no avail. Union President Hector Figueroa, who was also arrested, said the airlines and Port Authority have refused to listen to workers’ pleas for the simplest of perks, such as paid sick days and wages above $8 an hour.

Ever notice that pols only turn out en masse for a rally when a union is involved?

He just doesn't know when to quit

From NY1:

Charles Rangel was first elected to Congress the year the Beatles broke up. John Lindsay was mayor, and the nation's Environmental Protection Agency was born.

Now, Rangel said Thursday that he is seeking a 23rd term to help implement President Barack Obama's agenda.

"There's a lot of work that the president has started that we haven't had an opportunity to complete," he said.

If Rangel and the president see eye-to-eye on policy, they haven't always had the smoothest personal relationship. Obama once stated publicly that the dean of New York's congressional delegation should "end his career with dignity" when facing an ethics scandal. Privately, Obama has reportedly said much worse things.

"I don't have any problems with this president," Rangel said. "I have a problem with our economy. I've got a problem with the homeless, the jobless and the hopeless."

Two years ago, Rangel faced a primary challenge from state Senator Adriano Espaillat. The district became more Latino when it was redrawn in 2012. While Rangel won that race, it was close, with Espaillat not conceding for two weeks.

Espaillat is stopping just short of publicly saying he's running again.

Fat lady hasn't sung for Charlie yet

From NY Magazine:

This week's New York primary truly was the biggest fight of Representative Charlie Rangel's career — and it still isn't over. State Sentator Adriano Espaillat conceded defeat on Tuesday night following reports that the the 21-term congressman was ahead by double digits. However, as more results came in, Rangel's lead dwindled to a little over 1,000 votes out of the nearly 39,000 counted. Now Espaillat's supporters are calling for an investigation into the results, saying that when all is said and done, their candidate may still manage to unseat Rangel.

The Associated Press reported on Wednesday that, in contrast to preliminary results, Rangel only had a 2.8 percent lead with returns from 33 precincts and paper affidavit ballots yet to be counted. By the next day, results from 32 of the district's 506 precincts still hadn't been reported and the New York City Board of Elections had yet to provide an explanation.

On Thursday afternoon, about 30 Espaillat supporters held a protest outside of Rangel's Harlem office and demanded that the Board of Elections release more information about the vote. The Daily News reports that City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez also held a press conference, telling reporters that a large number of uncounted affidavit ballots are from his home district, where Espaillat is particularly popular.

Rangel has to pay the piper

From the NY Post:

Scandal-scarred Rep. Charlie Rangel has agreed to pay a $23,000 fine for using a rent-stabilized apartment as a campaign office, The Post has learned.

Rangel, a Democrat now seeking his 22nd term representing Harlem, entered into an agreement with the Federal Election Commission to pay the fine.

“There was the determination that they had, in fact, violated the law,” said Kenneth Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, which filed the complaint against Rangel with the FEC.

The FEC found Rangel signed a rental agreement with “full knowledge” the unit was rent stabilized.

In fact, he leased four rent-stabilized apartments in his luxury Harlem building, and used a 10th-floor one-bedroom as a campaign office, in violation of city and state rules that say rent-stabilized units can be used only as a primary residence.

Rangel was paying a paltry $630 per month for the apartment, whose market value was $1,700.

Turner sworn into Congress

Charlie in more hot water

From the NY Post:

The Federal Election Commission is investigating a complaint that Rep. Charles Rangel improperly used his National Leadership PAC to fund his legal defense on ethics charges for which he was censured Thursday, The Post has learned.

The FEC is acting on a complaint by the National Legal and Policy Center filed after The Post reported last month that Rangel paid nearly $400,000 from his PAC.

Lawmakers are only allowed to use money in their individual campaign funds for legal fees, or they can set up legal defense funds for such costs.

Rangel appeared before the House Ethics Committee last month saying he could no longer afford legal counsel after already burning through $2 million.

The center expects to file a second complaint this week contending that Rangel's PAC money included at least $195,000 in donations from lobbyists with business before the House Ways & Means Committee, of which he is a member.

Charlie unhappy with censure but Dems not defending him

From the NY Post:

A day after suffering the humiliation of having the House ethics committee recommend he get a formal censure, Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel isn't getting any lifelines from the White House or from powerful Democratic allies.

With a House floor vote set to come up after Thanksgiving on censure, Vice President Joe Biden said the decision was "hard to argue against."

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens) said committee Democrats might have gone for censure -- the strongest punishment short of outright expulsion -- because "they want to avoid a floor fight" with Republicans, who could have tried to force the graver punishment if the committee had gone for a wrist slap or reprimand.

Rangel had been hoping for a lesser punishment, but instead he got hit with a report calling for censure and ordering him to pay back taxes after being found guilty of 11 charges.

Rangel's Harlem political allies seemed resigned that the punishment of censure would stick but insisted that the stinging rebuke would not damage the congressman's standing among his uptown constituents.

Rangel found guilty of 11 ethics charges

From Fox News:

WASHINGTON -- A House ethics panel has found Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York guilty on 11 counts of breaking House rules.

The full ethics committee will next conduct a hearing on the appropriate punishment for the former chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. The committee will then make a recommendation to the House.

Possible punishments include a House vote deploring Rangel's conduct, a fine and denial of privileges.

The eight-member ethics panel had sat as a jury to judge Rangel's conduct. The 80-year-old congressman from Harlem was charged with 13 counts of financial and fundraising wrongdoing.

(Now think back to primary night when all the corrupt Dems stood on stage with him. Including our next governor and those who would like to be our next mayor. And don't forget about that lavish fundraiser...)

Charlie cries poverty at hearing

From the Daily News:

The top lawyer on the House panel weighing ethics charges against embattled Harlem Rep. Charlie Rangel said Monday he found "no evidence of corruption."

"Do I believe that based on the record that Congressman Rangel took steps to benefit himself based on his position in Congress? No," head counsel Blake Chisam said.

"I believe that the congressman, quite frankly, was overzealous in many of the things he did. And sloppy in his personal finances."

Chisam's remarks were good news for Rangel, who has been hit with 13 ethics charges.

But the raspy-voiced Democrat wasn't in the chamber to hear Chisam - he stormed out just as the hearing was getting underway and his staffers said he would not return.

Despite having had months to prepare, Rangel showed up without a lawyer and claimed he was too broke to hire one.

Rangel said he paid some $2 million to Washington law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder before they parted company last month - and needed time to raise another $1 million to hire new lawyers for this hearing.

Rangel's pet charity is kinda shady

From the NY Post:

Us Rep. Charles Rangel's pet nonprofit, the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, controls hundreds of millions in taxpayer cash but defiantly refuses to explain its spending.

The group's tax forms are incomplete, and it has yet to release its 2009 annual report. Questions are stonewalled.

Asked about its $2.7 million loan to the troubled Alianza Dominicana for its delayed multimillion-dollar Triangle Building headquarters, UMEZ's lawyer said it was "an internal matter."

The note came due Oct. 9, but Blair Duncan would not say whether the loan was paid -- only that the UMEZ "was working with the borrower."

The UMEZ last spring approved a separate $2.6 million grant to Alianza to finish the inside of the Triangle Building, despite the objections of one of its own financial executives. That grant is now held up pending a review by its board.

Alianza CEO Moises Perez was recently forced by the city to take an unpaid leave of absence over allegations of self-dealing and financial mismanagement of the social-services nonprofit.

The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone has been in business since 1995 and is one of nine such zones created under legislation written by Rangel (D-Harlem). Their mission is to spur development in inner cities.

The UMEZ was funded with $249 million in federal, state and city money. The group has spent about 80 percent of it.

Among the bigger projects it has helped fund are the Harlem USA mall on 125th Street and the new East River Plaza.

A former UMEZ employee said the organization funds its friends and "friends of Charlie's," calling it "influence-peddling at its most basic level."

Rangel charity in trouble

From the NY Post:

Alianza Dominicana, the troubled Washington Heights nonprofit with ties to Rep. Charles Rangel, got hit with a $192,000 invoice after a state audit turned up multiple instances of improper billing, The Post has learned.

The state Office of Children and Family Services audited the nonprofit in 2005, the year it received about $1.2 million in federal funds to run after-school and healthy-living programs for at-risk kids and families, state documents show.

Alianza Dominicana claimed partial salary reimbursements for about eight staffers who actually had multiple job responsibilities beyond the project that was funded by federal welfare dollars, the state found.

The state denied $111,350 in "personal service costs" and "fringe benefits" that Alianza had on its books.

The nonprofit also claimed to have spent nearly $3,000 to bring local kids to the movies, but when state investigators pressed for names of children in that program, there were none, state documents show.

In total, Alianza was ordered to repay the state $192,304 for improperly claimed welfare funds, according to the state. The organization is making regular payments, said a spokesperson for the Office of Children and Family Services.

Alianza's city funding -- $60 million in recent years -- was abruptly cut off this summer after the city Department of Investigation launched a probe.

Alianza Dominicana's executive director, Moises Perez, who did not return a call for comment Friday, has agreed to take an unpaid leave during the city's probe.

Election update

The people of Queens (AKA sheeple) have unsurprisingly re-elected the same tired old shit in the local primaries. Every single incumbent won.

Here was the best moment of last night:



(Click here if video won't play)

Further investigation of "Honest Joe" Crowley

From the NY Post:

House ethics investigators yesterday recommended a full-blown probe of whether influential Queens Rep. Joe Crowley improperly solicited donations from corporate executives just before voting on legislation overhauling Wall Street.

The independent Office of Congressional Ethics urged the House ethics panel to investigate the actions of Crowley, along with GOP Reps. Tom Price of Georgia and John Campbell of California.

At the same time, five other lawmakers were cleared of wrongdoing.

Crowley, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, also is chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, and a close adviser to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The scrutiny centers on a series of fund-raisers -- including one Crowley attended last Dec. 10, at which he collected thousands of dollars from financial power brokers before returning to the Capitol to vote against a series of amendments that would have imposed tougher restrictions on Wall Street.

Crowley was reported to have received at least $23,500 before the vote.

Crowley denied wrongdoing.

"Congressman Crowley has always complied with the letter and spirit of all rules regarding fundraising and standards of conduct," a spokeswoman said.

Crowley has been a staunch defender of Harlem Rep. Charles Rangel, who is charged with 13 ethics violations. Crowley co-hosted Rangel's 80th-birthday fund-raiser at The Plaza hotel last month.

Hizzoner the fundraiser

From the NY Times:

This summer, a bevy of aspiring elected officials have received the coveted invitation to be feted at private wines-and-dines at the mayor’s Upper East Side town house.

In recent weeks, the parade of politicians has included Mark S. Kirk, an Illinois Republican running for Senate; Daniel M. Donovan Jr., a Republican candidate for state attorney general; and Michael E. McMahon, a Democratic congressman from New York.

The candidates, who typically leave with a promised $2,300 check from the mayor (the federal limit) and pledges from other invited guests, represent a range of ideologies, but many share the mayor’s views on issues like gun control and charter schools, and have reputations for bucking the party line.

In using his power as a political fund-raiser, Mr. Bloomberg is attempting to kick-start his third-term agenda by accelerating change in Albany and Washington.

He's not thinking much of Charles Rangel these days, though.

Rangel slapped with 13 charges

From the NY Post:

The House ethics panel threw the book at Rep. Charles Rangel yesterday, charging him with 13 violations, in an action that rocked the Capitol and set up a possible corruption trial in the midst of the election season.

The devastating charges, detailed in a 40-page report, are an embarrassing last act to the Harlem Democrat's 40-year career as a congressional powerhouse and dean of the New York delegation.

The ethics committee found after an exhaustive two-year investigation that Rangel had a "pattern of indifference or disregard for the laws, rules and regulations of the United States and the House of Representatives."

The seriousness of the charges threatened to turn Rangel into a political liability for Democrats. They were leveled after fellow party members turned up the pressure on him to make a deal so the issue might go away.

In fact, Rangel's lawyers reached a plea deal with lawyers for the committee, people familiar with the talks said, but Republicans on the panel said it was too late.

If no agreement is worked out, Rangel would face a House trial starting next month, with a range of punishments ranging from censure to expulsion.

Sorry, Charlie!

From the AP:

A House investigative committee on Thursday charged New York Rep. Charles Rangel with multiple ethics violations, dealing a serious blow to the former Ways and Means chairman and complicating Democrats' election-year outlook.

The panel did not immediately specify the charges against the Democrat, who has served in the House for some 40 years and is fourth in seniority. The charges by a four-member panel of the House ethics committee sends the case to a House trial, where a separate eight-member panel of Republicans and Democrats will decide whether the violations can be proved by clear and convincing evidence.

The timing of the announcement ensures that a public airing of Rangel's ethical woes will stretch into the fall campaign, and Republicans are certain to make it an issue as they try to capture majority control of the House. Speaker Nancy Pelosi had once promised to "drain the swamp" of ethical misdeeds by lawmakers in arguing that Democrats should be in charge.

Friends of Charlie

This pretty much says it all...



But the Daily News has more.

Charlie looks for one more win

From the NY Times:

Suddenly, the genial, gravelly voiced prince of Harlem became a symbol of malfeasance and self-dealing Washington insiderism. Republicans talked of building their midterm election strategy around him. Democrats returned his campaign contributions. And Mr. Rangel, 79, relinquished the chairmanship of the powerful Ways and Means Committee.

But back in his Congressional district, a very different attitude has emerged: a fierce determination that Mr. Rangel, whatever his transgressions, should end his public life on his own terms and be given one last term.

“When it’s time for him to go, he will make that decision,” said Jackie Rowe Adams, 62, a Parks Department employee and union local leader who grew up in Harlem. “He’ll leave gracefully.”

“That time,” she said, “is not now.”

Wrong, lady. When it's time for him to go, the VOTERS will make that decision. That time very well may be now. He may leave gracefully or he may be sent packing. I'm hoping for the latter.

Meeks introduces bill to stop ethics board

From the NY Post:

Embattled Rep. Gregory Meeks wants to muzzle the independent ethics watchdogs that Democrats unleashed after taking control of Congress.

Meeks (D-Queens), who is being probed by the feds for missing charity money and other possible wrongdoing, co-sponsored a bill that would rein in the new Office of Congressional Ethics.

Another New Yorker, Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-Brooklyn), also was among the 20 lawmakers who signed on to the bill that was quietly introduced last week.

All the co-sponsors are members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Neither Meeks' nor Clarke's offices responded to questions about the legislation.

The bill would make it harder for the office to open investigations.

It also would stop the office, which does not have power to sanction lawmakers but serves an advisory role, from publicizing its referrals to the more powerful House Ethics Committee.

The office "is currently the accuser, judge, and jury. This isn't the case in the American justice system, and it shouldn't be so in Congress," said Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio), the bill's chief sponsor.

The citizen-run ethics panel has whacked at least eight Congressional Black Caucus members, including Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem).

Congressmembers pushing statehood for Puerto Rico

From the Daily News:

The House on Thursday approved a bill that could move Puerto Rico to statehood - exposing a rare and bitter rift between New York members from the island territory.

Bronx Democratic Rep. Jose Serrano backed the measure, calling it a vital step to ending colonial rule, even as his usual ally, Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-Brooklyn) blasted it as a "disgrace," "shameful" and "appalling."

The measure offers Puerto Rico - a U.S. territory for 112 years - a two-step vote.

The first would ask whether Puerto Ricans - including those living in the States - like the current territorial commonwealth status or if they want change.

If the vote is for change, a second vote would ask what change they want.
Velazquez and Harlem Rep. Charlie Rangel, whose father was Puerto Rican, said the measure was a backdoor move to a statehood vote on the island that has failed three times in the past.

"It is baffling that the statehood option, which lost in 1967, in 1993 and again in 1998, is now allowed to scheme its way to victory," Velazquez said.

Before the debate, the bill had offered three options for change: statehood, independence or an independent "free association" like three other former U.S. territories.

Velazquez argued that if keeping the current status was no longer on the ballot, statehood - always the second choice in the past - would win by default.

She favors a Puerto Rican constitutional convention.

Velazquez managed to win an amendment to add keeping the status quo to the choices.

Wow, was this one of the most pressing issues that Americans faced when choosing their leaders last November? No.

But it would bring in more electoral votes for Democrats. Notice how there are 2 referendums on this planned for the island but none for Americans.

Tweeding on the national level.