Clinton Foundation Donor Wants His $1.5M Back In Sex Abuse Case

Attorneys representing Clinton Foundation donor and Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss are seeking his pound of flesh from Jacqueline Long, a woman who has publicly accused him of sexual abuse.

The high-profile Democratic donor’s attorneys filed a petition Aug. 4 seeking “harsh sanctions” against the Colorado woman following a June 8 The Daily Caller News Foundation article that reported her allegations. They claim Long violated the confidentiality provision of a $1.5 million settlement agreement the two signed in May 2013.

The Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia has scheduled a hearing this morning to determine the next step in the long-running saga.

The latest chapter began last December when Wyss gave a $5 million commitment to the Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings project to help women and girls, an effort personally championed by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

At the time, no one knew that Wyss had executed a $1.5 million settlement, in part over Long’s allegations he had sexually abused her.

Wyss’ attorneys asked the Philadelphia court to order Long to reimburse him for the $1.5 million he paid in the settlement, as well $68,000 in attorney fees, and a daily fine of $200 until payment is completed. Wyss also asked the court to imprison Long if she fails pay in full within 30 days.

Neither Wyss nor his lawyers have publicly denied Long’s abuse charges. Wyss attorney Carolyn Short merely described Long as a “disgruntled employee.”

Long was an employee of his HJW Foundation and his California vineyard. Her attorney alleged a week before the 2013 settlement that the case was about “personal physical injuries and physical sickness she suffered literally at the hands of Mr. Wyss.”

Via: Daily Caller

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Catholics Wrestle with Teachings as Gay Employees Dismissed

Pope Francis refined his vision for the church last week when he said long-spurned divorced and remarried Catholics should be welcomed with "open doors." And he has famously parsed centuries of thought on homosexuality into a five-word quip: "Who am I to judge?"

Yet the Archdiocese of Philadelphia opened its door only briefly when married gay teacher Margie Winters, trailed by supporters, arrived Monday with 23,000 petitions seeking reinstatement to her job at a Catholic elementary school.

"The school and the Sisters of Mercy allowed me to work there for eight years. Once the diocese was notified, something changed," said Winters, who was disappointed that a security guard, and not a church official, took her petitions at the chancery door.

Winters, 50, lost her job at Waldron Mercy Academy in June after a parent complained about her 2007 marriage to a woman. Her case highlights the shifting fault lines over gays in the church — and in church workplaces — just before the pope visits Philadelphia next month for the World Meeting of Families.

Jesuit-run Fordham University is standing by its theology chairman whose same-sex marriage made the New York Times wedding section this year, while Seton Hall University, with ties to the Newark, New Jersey, archdiocese, recently dismissed a chaplain who denounced gay bullying and later came out as gay.

Around the country, more than 50 people have reported losing their jobs at Catholic institutions since 2010 over their sexual orientation or identity, according to New Ways Ministries, an advocacy group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Catholics based in Mount Ranier, Maryland.

Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, wading into the issue amid Winters' case, stressed that Catholic schools are responsible for "teaching and witnessing the Catholic faith in a manner true to Catholic belief," referring to the church's condemnation of homosexual activity. He said the Mercy officials showed "character and common sense" for sticking to church teachings.

"A great number of people like to pick apart the remarks of the Holy Father and manipulate them to drive their own agendas," his spokesman, Ken Gavin, said Thursday in response to questions about the pope's latest comments. "Keeping the doors open does not mean that basic church teachings will be changed. ... The Holy Father has not given any signals that teaching on the meaning and sanctity of marriage will be changing."

Via: NewsMax

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Corruption's gripping the city and state

CALL IT A PANDEMIC of public corruption.

It's gripping Philadelphia and Pennsylvania.

Elected leaders are probed, charged, convicted, jailed, etc. in stupendously striking succession

.

A stark irony? The city and state where American democracy was born is setting the national pace for illegality in office.

You get the damage this causes, right?

It undermines faith in government, faith in politics, faith in all elected officials.

It spurs cynicism. It fuels frustration with those who fail at creating progress but succeed spectacularly at creating scandal.

And we wonder why voter turnout is at its lowest point in 72 years.

And, yeah, I know U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah has legal rights and presumed innocence until proven otherwise and blah, blah, blah.

But charges against him, including money laundering, bank fraud and bribery in "a racketeering conspiracy," sound like he was at the center of a "Fattah & Friends" mob family in which everyone got a taste.

I've known Fattah since the '80s, when he was a member of the Legislature.

I covered him when he ran for mayor. I wrote about his efforts, especially in education, in Congress. He knows how to work levers of government for good - and allegedly for evil.

In 1990, I wrote that as a freshman state senator he was a "hot prospect" who worked hard, pushed Philly issues and was "likely a future power."

I was right. I just forgot what power can do to too many who achieve it.

Let's not do the whole list. There's not enough space.

Let's just note: recently, four Philly state House members and a former Philly Traffic Court judge snagged in a "sting case"; another former Traffic Court judge busted for fixing tickets for bribes; a Philly state senator caught misusing funds.

Oh, but the ooze of awful doesn't stop at City Line Avenue.

The former mayor of Harrisburg was just indicted for racketeering, theft, bribery.

The current mayors of Reading and Allentown are under FBI investigations.

The former state treasurer, Rob McCord, resigned, pleaded guilty to extortion.

Two former state Supreme Court justices, Joan Orie Melvin and Seamus McCaffery, disgraced and gone from the state's highest bench.

The current state attorney general, Kathleen Kane, facing possible charges, alleged to have used secret grand jury material to embarrass a political foe.

All this in a state where a few years back, dozens of lawmakers, leaders and aides were caught in separate scandals, Bonusgate and Computergate, using millions in tax dollars for political gain.

There was a point when eight legislative leaders were in prison at the same time.

A national study from Indiana University in Bloomington puts Pennsylvania fifth among states for corruption, behind Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Illinois.

But the study's flawed. It stopped in 2008 and only counted federal charges. Since then and counting state charges, we must be at or near the top.

Think it matters?

A study by the nonpartisan Center for American Progress says three of the four most financially disadvantaged school districts in the nation are in Pennsylvania: Philadelphia, Reading and Allentown.

U.S. Census data say Philadelphia is the poorest big city in America, with the highest rate of deep poverty.

A Pew study puts Pennsylvania among the lowest states in job-creation.

Bad politics leads to bad policy.

And we have lots of bad politics. And party leaders and others who work so hard to raise so much money for campaign after campaign, year after year.

I wish that half that

 energy and effort was aimed at purifying the process. Campaign-contribution limits and term limits would be a start.

Gov. Wolf says Pennsylvania suffers a democracy deficit. I say it suffers an integrity deficit. The two are connected. And somebody should convene a summit.

Via: philly.com

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American Workers Subsidizing Unions With Tax Dollars

In St. Charles, IL, a teacher is paid $141,105 not to teach. In Philadelphia, “ghost employees” who don’t do work for the state collect benefits from the state. In Kalamazoo, MI a former teacher is collecting a government pension of $85,903 a year even though he didn’t teach his last 14 years, but instead worked as a union employee.

Called “release time,” or “official time” at the federal level, it’s a practice that allows public employees to conduct union business during working hours without loss of pay. These activities include negotiating contracts, lobbying, processing grievances, and attending union meetings and conferences.

According to Trey Kovacs, a policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, this racket has cost the federal government about $1 billion since 1998. Between 2008 and 2011, the fraud has increased from 2.9 million hours at a cost of $121 million to 3.4 million hours at a cost of $155 million.

School boards, which frequently consist of members bought and paid for by the teachers unions, are particularly guilty of this crime against the taxpayer. In CA, where the California Teachers Association wields great power, the situation is particularly egregious. Typically this scam is written into collective bargaining contracts and comes in different flavors. Sometimes the school district will pay for the cost of a sub if the teacher/union employee needs to do work for the union. In Los Angeles, page 6 of the teacher contract states that the United Teachers of Los Angeles “may request the release of designated employees from their regular duties with no loss of pay for the purpose of attending to UTLA matters, with the expense of the substitute or replacement to be borne by UTLA.”

Sounds fair, right? But it’s not.

The substitute invariably makes a lot less than the teacher/union employee and the taxpayer is sucking up the difference in pay. The teacher is also racking up pension time, (which is taxpayer-subsidized), while doing union work. And of course the students lose out by having frequent subs, who often are nothing more than placeholders.

In other districts, the union gets a completely free pass. Page 15 of Orange County’s Fountain Valley School District contract reads, “The Association (union) President or designee may utilize one (1) day per week for Association business. The District shall bear the cost of the substitutes.” So a classroom teacher of 15 years, who doubles as union president, makes an$89,731 yearly salary, or $485 a day. The taxpayer is also paying $100 a day for a sub which brings the total to $585 for one day of union business per week. Repeated over the 38 week teaching year, the taxpayer is on the hook for $22,230. And that amount does not include the thousands of dollars the employer (ultimately the taxpayer) has to pay for contributions to the teacher/union leader’s retirement fund, health benefits, unemployment insurance and workers compensation.

With over a thousand school districts in the state doing business like Los Angeles and Fountain Valley, we are talking about serious larceny.

Via: California Political Review

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Making Amtrak Compete Would Benefit All

The recent Amtrak derailment outside of Philadelphia, which killed eight people and injured over 200, is a somber reminder that quick action by Congress is necessary to prevent another passenger rail catastrophe. Amtrak is the sole operator of trains on the Northeast corridor between Washington, D.C., and Boston, and thus bears responsibility for providing safe passenger train travel. Yet, despite a posted 50-mph speed limit on that section of track, the train was traveling at 106 mph around a very tight turn. Amtrak’s contract to operate trains on the Northeast corridor should be terminated immediately. 

But wait. No such contract exists. Amtrak has an uncontested, indefinite monopoly on intercity train operations in the United States. The problem lies therein: Amtrak is unconstrained by the fear of losing its operational rights, and thus its revenue, regardless of safety or on-time performance. 

The corridor includes stops in such major population centers as Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and New York. It is highly profitable, with the tight population densities, moderate distances, and concentrated central business districts that are critical for successful passenger rail. The NEC should be a showcase for how the United States can deliver a self-sustaining, reliable, safe, and affordable high-speed passenger rail. The barrier is not geography or insufficient taxpayer spending but appalling, outdated federal rail policy. 

We can do better. One appealing solution is a public-private operating partnership, or PPOP. Under this approach, the NEC would be separated from the rest of Amtrak’s routes. The NEC already differs fundamentally from the rest of the passenger rail system. Amtrak owns most of the tracks and rights of way on the NEC, but utilizes freight train tracks in the rest of the country. 

A 2013 report from the Brookings Institution notes that the NEC routes, which carry some 11.4 million people each year, earn an operating profit of about $205 million annually. The rest of Amtrak’s nationwide network, however, hemorrhages cash. 

Under a PPOP, the right to maintain and operate NEC trains would be bid out at regular intervals of, say, 10 to 15 years. A PPOP concession contract would specify key aspects of service, such as rates, service frequency, and safety standards. Bidding would occur on the basis of the largest upfront concession payment an operator is willing to make for an exclusive operational right subject to the pre-set terms of service.  

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Three “Knockout” Attacks Reported In Philadelphia Area

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — “Knockout” attacks have been reported in several states around the country and now investigators believe three people have been attacked in our area.

Police in Lower Merion are investigating two attacks in the area, and Philadelphia detectives are investigating an attack in Northeast Philadelphia.

It’s a violent crime that in other parts of the country has proven fatal.

Videos from cities around the country show people being punched and beaten at random.

The attackers are calling their crimes a game, the goal being to knock out the victim with one punch.

Mark Cumberland is a victim of a “Knockout” assault.

“Someone asked me for a cigarette and by the time I got my hands out my pocket I was getting hit by four kids.”

He says, “It was hard seeing and I’m still having trouble breathing and swallowing.”

Via: CBS Philly

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Philly Poll Workers Only Cover Face In Obama Mural, Leave Logo And Quote Visible…

Of course it is illegal to campaign inside a polling place.

Via RNC Deputy Communications Director, Tim Miller:

Update:

Tim Miller@Timodc

Update: Election Judge in PA has ordered Obama mural in polling place covered up. Order here --> pic.twitter.com/bcCgpNbo

6 Nov 12

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Via: Weasel Zippers

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