Hamilton County Judge Denies Charlie White's Motion For Post-Conviction Relief Based On Ineffective Counsel

Hamilton County Superior Court Judge Daniel Pfleging issued an order on December 23, two days before Christmas, denying former Secretary of State Charlie White's petition for post-conviction relief based on ineffective counsel he argues that he received from Carl Brizzi, who failed to put on a defense during a jury trial in 2012 that found him guilty on six of seven vote fraud-related charges special prosecutors brought against him. Judge Pfleging had earlier denied a number of arguments White had made for a new trial, which remain ripe for review at the appellate court level, in addition to the ineffective counsel argument. Those include the following:

• The fact that the state brought criminal charges against him to remove him from office instead of a quo warranto action;
• The fact that White was a de facto elected official the state could not have charged him with theft for drawing his salary as a duly-elected town council member in Fishers;
• Jurors were provided an erroneous legal definition of "residency" for voting purposes in determining whether he had improperly registered and voted in the wrong precinct in a single election;
• Jurors were provided erroneous jury instructions when the trial judge allowed a statute dealing with vote fraud that was clearly written to apply only in the plural to be applied singularly to convict White.
• The judge erred in allowing White to be convicted twice for the same offense rather than merging the offenses into a single offense as required by law; and
• White's equal protection rights were denied when he was convicted of a novel interpretation of Indiana's voter fraud laws that essentially created a class of one crime upon which the law was applied to him to obtain felony convictions that would force his removal him from office. 

The Indiana Law Blog has provided a copy of Judge Pfleging's Order, which you can view here. The Order essentially rubber stamps the views of special prosecutors Dan Sigler and John Dowd with respect to White's allegations that Brizzi provided ineffective counsel during his trial. Most objective legal observers agree that Brizz's representation of White during the trial was a total farce. Judge Pfleging saw no prejudice resulting from Brizzi's decision during voir dire to ask jurors if they agreed jury nullification was appropriate in a case involving a charges for which a prosecutor rarely, if ever, prosecutes a person for a technical violation of the law, implying to prospective jurors that White had violated the laws for which he had been charged. Pfleging reasoned that Brizzi didn't argue the inappropriate defense during the trial once the jurors were seated or during closing argument.

Brizzi refused to put on a defense because he believed that the state had failed to prove any of the charges against White. White claimed that Brizzi sprung that defense strategy on him at the last minute without discussing it with him. Super Bowl weekend in Indianapolis was also fast approaching at that point, although I'm sure that Brizzi's desire to take part in the big party downtown had nothing to do with his decision not to put on a case. Jurors in the case couldn't be put up at a hotel for sequestration because all area hotel rooms were booked up with out-of-town visitors attending the Super Bowl game Sunday night. They were instructed to continue deliberating into the wee hours of that weekend's Saturday after the case went to the jury shortly after mid-day on Friday, an instruction with which the trial court judge indicated the jurors did not object.

Brizzi mistakenly believed that all of the documentary evidence to which the parties had stipulated prior to trial that White had intended to offer to prove that he resided for voting registration purposes at his ex-wife's home at the time he registered to vote and cast a single ballot in one election using that registered voting address had actually been tendered at trial even though he never tendered any of the evidence during trial. In finding that Brizzi did not provide ineffective counsel, Judge Pfleging's findings of fact in his Order makes no mention of that glaring omission on Brizzi's part. Judge Pfleging's order draws negative inferences about virtually every potential witness Brizzi failed to call, including those who testified at the state Recount Commission hearing on White's behalf, which concluded that White had not violated Indiana's vote fraud statutes for purposes of qualifying as a candidate for office in 2010. In castigating White's expert GPS witness, the Order makes no issue of the substance of what his testimony would have been, which if offered, would have tended to prove White primarily resided at his ex-wife's home during the time in question. It should be pointed out that Judge Pfleging's daughter works at the same law firm that is defending Brizzi in the malpractice lawsuit White has filed against his former trial counsel. Judge Pfleging offered to recuse himself from hearing White's post-conviction relief petition due to the appearance of a conflict of interest but White's attorney waived his recusal offer.

White is going forward with his appeal to the Court of Appeals. That prospect should make many Republican and Democratic officials across the state of Indiana very uneasy if the convictions against White stand. Dozens and dozens of elected officials and candidates have handled their voting registration and balloting in the past based upon the same laws and court opinions upon which White relied but which this lone trial court in Hamilton County rejected in toto. White stands alone as the only candidate for office in the state's modern history to which a harsh, exacting residency standard has been applied for voting purposes. If the Charlie White standard had been applied to Evan Bayh and Richard Lugar, both would have faced multiple felony charges. In order to uphold the convictions against White, the appeals court will have to stand Indiana residency and vote fraud laws on their head, which in my opinion is precisely what these over zealous special prosecutors and the trial court permitted to happen in that courtroom in Hamilton County nearly two years ago.

Class Action Lawsuit Could Spell Big Trouble For Angie's List

A class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana charges key officers of Angie's List of defrauding investors who purchased stock in the company between between February 14, 2013 and October 23, 2013 by issuing  materially false and misleading statements regarding the strength of the company’s business model and its financial performance and future prospects and failed to disclose adverse effects on the company's prospects of becoming profitable. Named in the lawsuit are the company's CEO, William Oesterle, the company's co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer, Angie Hicks Bowman, current and past CFOs Charles Hundt and Robert Millard, and Thapur Manu, the recently-terminated Chief Information Officer.

The serious allegations contained in the lawsuit call into question the legitimacy of the subscription-based reviews of local service providers on the company's website because of its shifting business model, which increasingly relies on revenues it now derives from referral fees to those same service providers. According to the lawsuit, Angie's List this year began relying on offering free membership subscriptions in order to artificially boost the number of subscribers in order to mislead investors. This helped boost the price of the stock significantly during the period in question. Oesterle and the other officers cashed out many shares they owned during this period for a handsome profit. Ooesterle sold 486,400 shares of stock for more than $10.3 million, while the other officers collectively sold about $3 million of their personally-held shares of common stock "to the unsuspecting public at fraud-inflated prices."

At the same time, the company's assertion that "You can't pay to be on Angie's List" appears dubious based on the company's growing reliance on revenues it derives from service providers. The company has increasingly started relying on fees it collects from service providers (more than half of its revenues) in consideration for listing them more prominently on the company's website than service providers which don't pay the additional fees. In some instances, the lawsuit alleges that Angie's List "sometimes charges service providers hundreds of dollars for 'hot leads.'" Those costs are "passed along to . . . subscribers, increasing the prices consumers were paying and decreasing the benefit to them of using the website," the lawsuit alleges.

The entire legitimacy of the company's business model for service providers rated on its website is "called into question" as a result of the company "forcing service providers to pay high fees to be listed as highly rated service providers" the lawsuit contends. If service providers don't ante up and pay the high fees, they won't get customer referrals from the company's website. Even worse, the lawsuit claims that Angie's List  does not vet service providers listed and recommended on its website, "either for qualifications or for safety," which caused many subscribers to question the website's value and made them less willing to pay the subscription fees. The lawsuit claims the company's officers "lacked a reasonable basis" for positive statements they made to investors about the company's business model and its financial prospects.

Angie's List's stock price closed yesterday at $15.03 per share. The company's stock reached a high of $28.32 earlier this year before starting to slide the second half of this year. The stock has traded as low as $11.14 this year. After nearly 20 years in business, the company has yet to turn a profit during a single fiscal year.

Park Tudor Earned A "D" Last Year

It's the most expensive private schools in the state of Indiana where some of the wealthiest and most influential residents in the Indianapolis area send their children. So why did Park Tudor earn a "D" on recent report cards issued by the Indiana Department of Education to the state's schools? According to the Chalkbeat blog, the school's officials blame the poor grade on error.

Neal pointed to Park Tudor, an expensive and highly regarded private school in Indianapolis, which received a D grade despite 100 percent of its graduates going on to college and a slew of academic honors, as another example of a strange report card result.

Park Tudor spokeswoman Cathy Chapelle said its grade, too, was in error.

“The assessment grade reflects issues of reporting and communication, not of academic performance,” Chapelle said in a statement. “In fact, our academic standards and results are among the highest in the state. In 2013 alone, 201 Park Tudor students in grades 9-12 took a total of 490 Advanced Placement exams; 62% of the exams earned a score of 4 or 5 and over 87% earned a score of 3 or higher.”

Chapelle did not elaborate on what the school meant by “reporting and communication” or how it could have influenced Park Tudor’s grade.

If schools like Christel House and Park Tudor decide to appeal to the state board, would they prevail? Elsener was not encouraging, suggesting the best strategy might be just to move on.

“I think I’d say this year was a hiccup,” he said. “You have to decide where to put your best investment of time.”

Parents who send their children to Park Tudor pay tuition ranging from $15,330 to $18,830 per school year. Damn. It costs a hell of a lot of money to be an elitist. About one-third of the students receive financial assistance. The average financial assistance award is $9,000.

Indiana Court Of Appeals: Gender Bending Doesn't Void Marriage In Indiana

What's the status of a marriage entered into between a man and a woman in Indiana after one of the partners to the marriage changes genders? The answer may surprise you. According to an Indiana Court of Appeals' decision picked up on by the Indiana Law Blog this past week, the marriage remains valid and, unlike other same-sex married couples, the two spouses can petition in state court for dissolution of their marriage.

A trial court in Monroe County in In Re The Marriage of Melanie Davis and Angela Summers after originally granting a provisional order concerning the custody of the couple's child later determined that the marriage became void under Indiana law once David Summers ceased being a male and became Melanie Davis after changing the gender on his birth certificate. The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court, finding that there is nothing in Indiana law that permits a legal marriage to be voided after one of the parties to the marriage changes gender, effectively making it a same-sex marriage.

David Summers had been diagnosed with gender disorder after the couple's marriage in 1999 and the birth of their only child. He had his name legally changed to Melanie Davis in Marion Circuit Court in 2005, the same court from which he obtained an order changing the gender on his birth certificate from male to female three years later. The trial court found that the marriage became void when the circuit court ordered the gender change on Davis' birth certificate. A footnote in the Court of Appeals' decision notes that the decision on whether the Marion Circuit Court acted within the law in issuing an order to change the gender on Davis' birth certificate was not before the court in this case. Davis filed for divorce four years after the change in gender on her birth certificate and seven years after her change in name. The trial court, in denying the petition for dissolution petition, found that because the marriage became void once both parties became female, it lacked jurisdiction to dissolve it.

The trial court relied on the second part of Indiana's Defense of Marriage Act, which provides that "a marriage between persons of the same gender is void in Indiana even if the marriage is lawful in the place where it is solemnized." The Court of Appeals, rejected this reading of the statute, holding that it does not void a marriage that was initially valid in Indiana "simply because one of the parties to the marriage has changed his or her gender."

To conclude that the parties' marriage somehow became void when the gender was changed on Davis' birth certificate would permit David to effectively abandon her own child, even though the parties were validly married at the time of the child's birth and even though Davis is the child's father. It would also leave the parties' child without the protection afforded by Indiana's dissolution statutes with regard to parenting time and child support.

In summary, under the specific facts and circumstances before us in this case, a marriage between a man and a woman that was valid when it was entered into does not automatically become void when one of the parties has his or her birth certificate amended to indicate a change of gender. The statute prohibiting same-sex marriages does not apply to the particular set of circumstances in this case because the parties did not enter into a same-sex marriage in Indiana or into a same-sex marriage that was solemnized in another state. In addition, a marriage such as the one at issue here is not listed among those marriages declared void ab initio under applicable Indiana statutes, and would be improper to interpret the statute otherwise. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Big Surprise, Pay-To-Play Consultant Picks Airport Site As Most Suited Site For Criminal Justice Complex

Only in the corrupt pay-to-play world in which the City of Indianapolis conducts business could a consultant produce at taxpayers' expense a report claiming that the most suited site for building a half-billion dollar criminal justice complex would be next to the Indianapolis International Airport right on the county line on the far west side next to Hendricks County. That's precisely what the Star's Jon Murray is reporting that a useless report prepared by CB Richard Ellis is recommending.

That site is on the northwest corner of airport property — a stone’s throw from the Hendricks County line.

Although it is designated as the “preferred site,” scoring highest among 14 properties considered in a preliminary evaluation by real estate firm CBRE, the airport location already has critics.

Chief among them are several Marion Superior Court judges.

In short, they say it’s too far from Downtown and too inaccessible by existing public transit. Judge Mark Stoner, who presides over a major-felony court, envisions the danger posed by victims, witnesses, defendants and jurors from overlapping cases riding in the same bus to the outlying airport site from transfer points Downtown.

There is much to like in an airport site because the land already is tax-exempt and readily available, but Stoner says another issue should take precedence.

“This is a constitutional issue for us,” Stoner said. It’s about “the public’s right to have ready access to the court system.”

Other judges who have voiced worry about the airport site include Becky Pierson-Treacy, James Osborn and Circuit Judge Louis Rosenberg.

As soon as Mayor Greg Ballard recently announced this plan to rely entirely on a private developer to build, operate and maintain a massive new criminal justice system that envisioned moving the entire criminal justice apparatus out of downtown Indianapolis to a new location, I knew that this project was being driven entirely by one law firm that controls every major decision made in the mayor's office and one private contractor with whom Sheriff John Layton has become a bit too cozy.

Sheriff Layton let the cat out of the bag when he mouthed off to reporters that a site near the airport was preferable because it would make it more accessible for federal inmates who the federal government would pay to house at the jail, which could help offset costs for running the jail. The current private operator of Marion Co. Jail II, Corrections Corporation of America, which is expected to bid on the project, currently houses some federal inmates and immigration detainees at that jail under contract with the feds. Barnes & Thornburg, which is paid to advise Mayor Ballard and for all practical purposes exercises total control over his administration, also represents CCA regarding its current contract with the county to operate Jail II.

It is sickening beyond belief that our taxpayer dollars were used to pay money to a politically-connected consultant to produce a bogus report to stack the deck in favor of the private developer the downtown mafia has already decided behind closed doors is going to win this half-billion dollar project. This is the same consultant that the City agreed to pay at least a million bucks to assist it in relocating a downtown fire station, IFD headquarters and the Firefighter's Credit Union from their current location on Mass Avenue. The consultant came up with a site in Lockerbie owned by developer Joe Whitsett, who had previously committed to the neighborhood to build a suitable residential development on the parcel. The neighborhood exploded in outrage upon learning of the change in plans, and it was clear during a meeting with the neighborhood that this high-paid consultant had performed zero due diligence in picking that site other than to accommodate a backroom deal the Mayor's Office was trying to make with the developer regardless of what the neighborhood thought.

After much teeth gnashing, the Mayor's Office moved to Plan B to relocate the IFD headquarters and fire station to the site of the Red Cross, which had to be paid to relocate to a new site on Meridian Street, and the credit union had to be paid to relocate to another site near College and Mass Avenue, a move that will cost taxpayers more than double the original projected costs, keeping in mind the only reason for the deal in the first place was to free up a prime piece of land on Mass Ave for development by another pay-to-play developer to be partially funded by the city's taxpayers. None of these deals have anything to do with what's in the best interest of the public; they're always about what's going to make the most money for the pay-to-play developers who've paid off the politicians.

By moving the criminal justice complex out of downtown, the Mayor's Office will kill four birds with one stone. With the completion of the Eskanazi Hospital project, the pay-to-play contractors are demanding a large new public works project to perpetuate their racket. The project itself can be rigged to favor the private developer the Mayor's Office has already decided in consultation with the law firm client that is driving the project. The large payments to be made for decades to come assures a steady stream of money flowing into the downtown racket that benefits from the project. By moving the criminal justice complex outside of downtown, prime parcels of land housing the two jails and the Sheriff's Department can be redeveloped, naturally with taxpayer subsidies, to make even more money for the pay-to-play developers. And finally, by moving the criminal justice system out of the downtown area, the downtown mafia hopes that it can clear out what it views as the blight created by low-income whites and minorities who make up a disproportionate share of criminal offenders.

Mayor Ballard claims that the reason it makes sense to rely on a private developer to build, operate and maintain the new criminal justice system is because it can be accomplished without raising taxes. That's a claim that is not sustainable over time because anyone with a brain can figure out that undertaking the project in this fashion will cost taxpayers a lot more money over time. Radio talk show host Amos Brown did some simple math in his latest column to make this point:

Two years ago, a group analyzed what it would take to build a facility like this and they came up with an outrageous estimate of $500 million. Lucas Oil Stadium cost $750 million. So do they want us to believe this combination of courtrooms, jails and office space would cost almost as much as that stadium?

On “Afternoons with Amos,” Lotter said the sheriff and other government agencies currently spend some $19 million yearly on rent. Over a 30-year lease that comes to some $570 million.

But if the cost of constructing the new justice center is $500 million, that doesn’t include interest payments on the debt the private entity would have to obtain to build the facility. And it doesn’t include the 15 to 20 percent profit margin the private developer would charge to make their money on the deal.

Lotter’s rent projections are far too low.

Brown also raises in his column a valid concern about the negative economic impact moving the entire criminal justice complex out of downtown will have on area businesses. All the freed up space in the City-County Building will allow other employees to be consolidated into the building, resulting in more vacant commercial property downtown, which already has a high vacancy rate of 20%. Law firms, bail bond companies and other businesses located downtown only because that's where the criminal justice complex is currently located might also relocate out of downtown if the criminal justice complex is no longer located there. And of course, a central location for the criminal justice system makes it the best location for those it serves, but that's the least of the concerns of those pushing this project for their own self-serving ends.

Department Of Education Releases A To F Grades For State's Schools

The Department of Education released the A to F accountability grades for the state's schools today for the 2012-13 school year, and the grades indicate that statewide schools are performing better than the previous year. More than two-thirds (67%) of the state's schools received an A or B grade. That's up from 62% the previous school year. Even better, the percentage of schools earning a D or F grade fell from 20% to 16%. “These grades are a credit to the hard work of students, teachers, and families,” said Sarah O’Brien, District 4 representative to the board.  “It’s encouraging to see our schools make continued gains in student academic performance.”

Radio talk show host Amos Brown broke down the numbers for Indianapolis schools and, like the statewide results, he found improvement in the overall grades, although the city's charter schools fared worse than the previous year. Brown found 28 schools in the city receiving a failing grade, which is down from 36 the previous year. The number of failing charter schools in the city jumped to 7 from 4. The list of failing charter schools includes the Christel House Academy, which was the source of controversy that led to former Supt. of Education Tony Bennett's ouster from his new job in charge of Florida's schools after it was revealed that he changed last year's grading to improve the schools grade from a "C" to an "A." The Gulen-affiliated Indiana Math & Science Academy received a failing grade compared to the "B" grade it earned the previous school year.

Overall, six charter schools earned an "A" compared to fourteen earning a "D" (7) or "F"(7). Four of the failing charter schools in Indianapolis includes those administered by the Mayor's Office, while two are administered by Ball State University. Overall, six of the charter schools administered by the Mayor's Office earned an "A" compared to eight that earned a "D" or "F." Ball State's best charter school only earned a "C", while three earned a "D" in addition to the two earning an "F." Brown also found that the failing IPS schools taken over by Mayor Greg Ballard's Charter School Office (Arlington, Howe, Manuel and Emma Donnan) all received failing grades.

According to Chalkbeat, Christel Academy officials are blaming testing errors last spring for the school's failing grade this year. CEO Carey Dahncke claimed that 90% of the students who passed state tests the previous year but failed the most recent test were among the students bounced offline while the test was being administered. “That was the common element,” he said. “It is due to the testing disruptions.” The school's appeal of its failing grade was turned down by the state. Click here to use Chalkbeat's search engine to find out how schools across the state fared.

Ballard Blames Council For City's Lower Bond Rating

This week, S&P lowered the City of Indianapolis' bond rating two notches from AAA to AA. If you read the rating announcement, you understand why the rating was lowered. Firstly, S&P has adopted new standards for analyzing GO bond ratings for municipalities. Applying the new standards, the rating agency found the debt level being carried by the city was too high based on available revenues to pay its debt obligations.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Mayor Ballard reacted to the lowered bond rating by blaming the Democratic-controlled council for its failure to raise property taxes by eliminating the homestead property tax credit, which would have made a negligible difference in the city's financial situation. To piece together its latest budget for 2014, the city is tapping one-time sources to balance the budget.

What Ballard doesn't explain, which is largely the reason the city's bond rating has been lowered, is that he has continued the municipal financing scheme of expanding the areas of the city's tax base that are within a TIF district, thereby starving other municipal services of funding needed for basic operations. The growing tax revenues diverted into the TIF districts, now approaching 15% of the property tax base, are used to leverage more borrowing to finance more publicly-subsidized private development undertaken by contributors to Mayor Ballard's campaign committee. City-County Council President Maggie Lewis released a statement in response to Mayor Ballard's criticism of the council, which appears to recognize the role TIFs have played in worsening the city's credit worthiness.

“We are disappointed that Mayor Ballard would lay the blame for city’s credit rating downgrade at the feet of the City-County Council, particularly after we worked so closely with him to craft a budget that passed with bipartisan support.  For the last six years, Mayor Ballard has neglected to adequately finance and staff public safety in our city, and our citizens have been forced to deal with the consequences of his inaction every day.  Protecting our citizens is our number one priority, and Mayor Ballard signed off on this bipartisan plan with the 2014 budget.  Rather than revise the past, I, along with other Councillors, have been working on a new set of polices that will make the use of Tax Increment Financing in our city more transparent, disciplined, and responsible, as well as leading a study commission to identify public safety funding and staffing needs for the long term.   Working together on these kind of initiatives is the way forward.” 

I wish Lewis had put her words to action when Councilor Brian Mahern was pushing for TIF reforms and to put a break on establishing even more TIF districts after the council went to the trouble of having a report prepared that demonstrated the long-term havoc TIF districts were wreaking on the city's finances. If the council had listened to him, it would have never expanded the downtown TIF district and created the near-northside TIF district that ripped a new, giant-sized hole in the city's property tax base.

Citizens Energy CEO Earns Nearly $2 Million While Nonprofit Loses More Than $80 Million

It's supposed to operate as a nonprofit, public benefit corporation with a mission of providing public utilities to Indianapolis' citizens at an affordable cost, but Citizens Energy operates no differently than a fat-cat, privately-owned public utility looking to stiff utility consumers at every turn. The IBJ reports that Citizens Energy will report a loss of $81.3 million during its 2013 fiscal year despite seeing its operating revenue jump 15% to $711.5 million, but its CEO Carey Lykins will still earn nearly $2 million, down from the nearly $3 million he earned last year.

At least half of Citizens Energy's losses this year are attributable to a bad investment it made in ProLiance Energy, which it sold off for a huge loss this year. The utility is now seeking authorization from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to stick its utility consumers with yet another 13.3% increase in water rates and 21.6% increase in stormwater rates. These increases are, in effect, attributable to the overpayment Citizens Energy made to the City of Indianapolis to purchase the water and sewer utilities so that Mayor Greg Ballard would a have a half billion dollar pot to distribute to the pay-to-play contractors stuffing money in his pockets.

The City of Indianapolis screwed over the public more than a decade ago when it allowed the Indianapolis Water Company to be sold off to NiSource instead of Citizens Energy, which then ran the utility into the ground while selling off its most profitable assets before selling it back to the City of Indianapolis instead of Citizens Energy as required by state law for a premium, which in turn handed control of the utility to the French-owned Veolia (think Beurt SerVaas), costing Indianapolis ratepayers even more. Mayor Ballard then sold off the utility to Citizens Energy, which intentionally overpaid knowing that it could simply shove it up the assess of utility users again with higher rates. This is what happens when you have a totally corrupt state utility regulatory agency that doesn't give a damn about the utility consumers whose interests it's supposed to be protecting.

Ballard's Former Personal Assistant Pleads Guilty In Land Bank Scam

A former personal assistant to Mayor Greg Ballard and special projects manager for the Department of Metropolitan Development, John Hawkins, has pleaded guilty to one count of federal wire fraud in connection with kickbacks he received from the sale of abandoned property by the City's Land Bank to a nonprofit group according to the Star's Jon Murray. "The plea agreement says Hawkins’ potential penalty ranges from no time in prison to 20 years," Murray writes.

Four other persons charged in the scam are awaiting trial, including Reginald Walton, the Department's assistant director in charge of the City's abandoned property program. Three others awaiting trial include: David Johnson, 47, executive director of the Indiana Minority AIDS Coalition; Randall K. Sargent, 57, president of New Day Residential Development; and Aaron Reed, 35, Walton's partner in the for-profit Naptown Housing Group. The defendants face a number of charges, including wire fraud, bribery and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

UPDATE: It looks like Reginald Walton had cooked up another kickback scheme concerning a mowing contract for properties held by the Land Bank. The U.S. Attorney's Office also announced new charges against Walton and the mowing contractor, Mark Harsley, who was awarded a one-year, not-to-exceed contract of $40,000. Harsley has been employed as a legislative liaison for the Department of Workforce Development. According to the indictment against the two, Walton did not actually receive any kickbacks; rather, he had merely solicited them from Harsley. Walton was indicted last spring before Harsley received his first payment under the contract.

This is still small-time crap to give the impression that Hogsett's office is actually prosecuting public corruption. The big cases involving much larger sums of money go unprosecuted. Nobody cares about these affirmative action hires that Ballard only put on the city payroll to give the black community the impression he was doing something for them. Where was Olgen Williams and Greg Wilson while all this stuff was taking place? They put these hucksters in their jobs without regards to their qualifications. They've also been at the forefront in pushing an affirmative action plan for hiring persons with prior criminal records. How's that working for you, Greg?

Federal Judge Slaps Down President Obama For Governing By "Secret Law" In Document Disclosure Case

For the second time this week, a federal district court in D.C. has issued a stinging opinion against the Obama administration. On Monday, a federal district court judge appointed by President George W. Bush ruled that the NSA's bulk gathering of telephonic metadata involving the telephone records of all Americans violated the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Yesterday, a federal district court judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton ruled that the Obama administration's claim of executive communications privilege in refusing to release a document pertaining to foreign aid amounted to governing by "secret law."

The case involved a single document containing a presidential directive titled "Presidential Policy Development on Global Development" that was widely distributed within the executive branch of government. The White House had released a detailed fact sheet on the document "touting it as a 'first of its kind by a U.S. administration' that 'recognizes that development is vital to U.S. national security and is a strategic, economic, and moral imperative for the United States" and the President had spoken publicly about its contents Judge Ellen Huvelle noted in her opinion. The directive purported to "communicate policy relevant to national security and foreign relations" even though no part of the document was deemed classified or was there a claim of national security made when the Center for Effective Government filed a FOIA request with the State Department seeking its release. Instead, the administration claimed a presidential communications privilege exemption from disclosure when the group made its FOIA request in 2011.

In ruling against the claim of privilege, Judge Huvelle criticized the government for adopting "a cavalier attitude that the President should be permitted to convey orders throughout the Executive Branch without public oversight . . . to engage in what is in effect governance by 'secret law'" by claiming privilege under an exemption that was only intended for communications with the President's closest advisers. The administration's position conflicted with "the very purpose of FOIA . . . to permit access to official information long shielded unnecessarily from public view." To hold otherwise, she said would allow "no effective limitation on a President's ability to engage in 'secret law.'"

Former Child Care Worker Charged With Theft And Forgery

Marion Co. Prosecutor Terry Curry filed theft and forgery charges against Marsha Thompson, the former executive director of the Indiana Association for Child Care Resource and Referral. Her agency receives funding from the Family & Social Services Administration. She is accused of filing fraudulent time sheets and spending more than $6,800 for personal use. According to the complaint, Thompson used a credit card issued to her agency to buy an airplane ticket, motel room, restaurant meals, bar tabs and other personal expenses for her and her boyfriend. According to the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, state investigators learned of the theft and forgery while investigating another employee of the agency who told them about Thompson's use of the credit card for improper purposes. The fraudulent credit card charges allegedly began in January, 2011 and continued through March of this year. The fraudulent time sheets were submitted in June, 2012 according to the complaint.

Pence Supports State Police Collection Of Bulk Cellphone Data Without A Warrant

I can't same that I'm surprised by his comments, but Gov. Mike Pence has finally spoken out about a recent Indianapolis Star report on surveillance software purchased by the Indiana State Police earlier this year that permits the agency to capture in bulk cellphone data within a particular radius from where it is being operated without a warrant. Pence thinks the unwarranted, unconstitutional snooping is acceptable, showing just how willing he is to violate the oath he took as governor to uphold the constitution, not to mention the oath he took as an attorney admitted to practice law in this state.

Speaking with reporters, Pence said he met with police officials last Thursday for a briefing after an Indianapolis Star report revealed the agency had acquired a “Stingray” device for $373,995.

“I believe this technology is in the interest of public safety, and I believe it has enhanced our ability to both protect and save lives,” Pence told reporters. “I was informed that in the limited number of cases where this technology has been used that it has only been used with strict judicial oversight.”

But when pressed, Pence didn’t answer repeated questions about whether the agency obtains search warrants before turning on the devices.

Pence’s press secretary Kara Brooks referred further inquires about the devices to State Police spokesman Dave Bursten, who didn’t immediately return a message this morning from The Star.

Previously, Bursten has declined to answer questions about the devices and would not say whether the agency uses Stingrays without a search warrant.

The NSA compels telephone companies to turn over telelphonic metadata in bulk, a step it claims is necessary to protect national security interests, which today means protecting us from terrorists. A federal district court ruled this practice unconstitutional. Of course, most terrorists are funded, trained and directed by the CIA so their activities are curiously never detected in advance by the NSA's snooping. The accused Boston Marathon bombing suspects are perfect examples. Despite being sponsored for immigration to this country by an uncle who works for the CIA and being placed under constant monitoring by the FBI, the two young Tsarnaev brothers we are told somehow managed to build, place and detonate two "bombs" in an area crawling with police and extra security. (Yes, I deliberately put the word in quotes because only made-for-movie special effect bombs were exploded next to crisis actors who were paid to pretend to have suffered injuries, which is self-evident to anyone who views the video of the blast scenes with open eyes).

It's total nonsense for Pence to suggest that a civil police agency has any need to collect cell phone data in bulk for any legitimate law enforcement purpose. It's an unchecked fishing expedition of the worst order that can be used for all sorts of nefarious purposes, not the least of which includes spying on political enemies. No citizen of this state should trust the Indiana State Police to use this spying capability responsibly. Legislation is clearly needed to limit its use strictly to instances where it has obtained an order from a court based on a finding of probable cause, and to impose harsh penalties on those who would use it otherwise.

Incredible: Communist News Network (a/k/a CNN) Dismisses Importance Of NSA Court Decision Because It Disagrees With Attorney's Conservative Views

This interview segment from CNN yesterday demonstrates just how badly the media in this country have fallen under the control of our federal police state. CNN news anchor Don Lemon, an unaccomplished journalist and unabashed Obama supporter, along with the arrogant and grossly incompetent legal commentator, Jeffrey Toobin, do a tag team hit job on Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman, the attorney who successfully brought the lawsuit in the D.C. district court against the NSA's bulk collection of telephonic metadata that Judge Richard Leon ruled on Monday was unconstitutional. Because Klayman is a conservative who has questioned Obama's phony birth narrative, the two set out to delegitimize the importance of Judge Leon's ruling. Instead of discussing the importance of the ruling, the two set out to delegitimize it because they hold such disdain for Klayman's political views, exactly as Obama expects his unquestioning, hypnotized followers to react. When Klayman called the two out for who they really are, Lemon ordered Klayman's microphone cut and his video feed removed from the television screen. This is just another example of how dangerously close we are to losing our freedom in this country when a debate over such an importance issue as the Fourth Amendment is reduced to this gutter discourse.

ADM Decides To Move Corporate Headquarters To Chicago Without Tax Incentives

Archer Daniels Midland, the Decatur, Illinois-based agri-giant with a $27 billion market cap, sought $1.5 million in annual tax breaks from the state of Illinois under its EDGE credit program to relocate its corporate headquarters to Chicago. The special tax credit program requires legislative approval on a case-by-case basis in Illinois, and the state's Speaker for life, Rep. Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), balked at the plan given the state's poor financial condition. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that ADM will go forward with an announcement today of its relocation to Chicago where its CEO had already recently purchased a home without the tax credits. Legislative leaders in the Illinois House described ADM's demand, along with other recent corporate tax break demands as blackmail:

. . . Illinois House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie characterized the ask as anything but benign.

"It is essentially blackmailing the state," Currie told Young. "It essentially is saying if you don't jump to, if you don't go do this for us, we might think about going somewhere else."

Even if the legislature had rubber-stamped the deal, Gov. Pat Quinn said he wouldn't approve such a measure until the House and Senate dealt with public pension reform.

But after the Democratic-controlled legislature voted this month for sweeping changes to public employee pensions, legislators seemed to squirm in the politically awkward position of squeezing labor at the same time they were considering tax incentives for big corporations.

Incentives for ADM, chemical company Univar and the newly merged combo of Naperville-based OfficeMax and Office Depot of Boca Raton, Fla., got through the Senate but weren't acted upon by the House before adjournment for the year Dec. 3.

OfficeMax/Office Depot last week announced its plan to make its home in Florida, a move affecting 1,600.

Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan, the next day, suggested that a pattern of business executives threatening to leave Illinois unless they get tax incentives and politicians quickly responding has created an appearance of "corporate pay-to-play."

Madigan has called for overhauling a system that prompts companies to line up hat in hand at the Capitol.

"I find it very difficult to support tax giveaways for corporate CEOs and millionaire shareholders whose companies pay little in state taxes," Madigan, who is state Democratic chairman, said in a statement.

"I question our priorities when corporate handouts are demanded by companies that don't pay their fair share while middle-class families and taxpayers face an increasing number of burdens."

Madigan said the state "must resist the temptation to cave to corporate officials' demands every time they impose a deadline for payment in exchange for remaining in Illinois, and end the case-by-case system of introducing and debating legislation whenever a corporation is looking for free money from Illinois taxpayers."

From a logistical standpoint, Chicago was seen by many as ADM's logical choice for a headquarters all along, given its central location, educated workforce, transportation network and standing as an international hub.

But when Springfield balked at its incentives request, it toured other cities in the Midwest and beyond.

Asked several weeks ago what it would mean if ADM chose one of them instead, Emanuel rejected the question, instead focusing on what he thought would keep ADM in Illinois.

"ADM and their leadership will see what GE Transportation saw when they left western Pennsylvania and came to the city of Chicago," Emanuel said. "They thought it was an incredible business climate here in the city of Chicago. That's what I said to ADM and what I'd say to anybody."

It will be interesting to see how this debate plays out with the bidding among 21 states for Boeing's new 777X plant. Chicago is the corporate headquarters of Boeing and the state is among those vying to win the proposal. Chicago might view it as a partial victory for the city if the plant is built in neighboring Gary, Indiana as opposed to another state.

Indiana Supreme Court Decision Allows Rockport Deal To Go Forward, Utility Consumers Be Damned

It's going to make hundreds of millions of dollars for political cronies of former Gov. Mitch Daniels, but it will hit the wallets of the state's natural gas users hard as they are forced to pay higher utility rates to finance Leucadia's coal gasification plant at Rockport. The Indiana Supreme Court's decision today turning back an appeal by opponents of the project ensures that the corrupt deal that should have been investigated by the FBI will go forward. “We won a complete and total victory,” said Leucadia projct manager Mark Lubbers boasted to the media. Lubbers is a former gubernatorial assistant to Gov. Daniels who was able to work the one-sided deal for Leucadia while drawing a paycheck as a contract employee of the governor's office. Indiana utility consumers will pay the price for this corrupt deal for decades to come, but as long as Mitch's buddies get super rich the Keith Bulen way at your expense, that's all that matters. The Indiana General Assembly shares a great deal of the blame because of its utter failure to exercise independent judgment, let alone represent their constituents, by giving their approval to the deal.

District Court Judge's Ruling Gives Glimmer Of Hope The Constitution's Bill Of Rights Still Has Some Viability

Legal scholars learned in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence welcomed a decision by D.C. District Court Judge Richard Leon today in Klayman et al. v. Obama, et al. holding that the NSA's bulk collection and analysis of telephonic metadata is an unreasonable search and seizure. Judge Leon stayed a preliminary injunction pending a certain appeal by the government to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

While many would agree with Judge Leon's opinion, the ruling is particularly noteworthy because of the identity of the plaintiff who brought this case (not the ACLU) and the conservative background of the judge who decided it. The lead plaintiff, Judicial Watch's Larry Klayman, is a staunch conservative activist viewed as a pariah by liberals. Judge Leon is a conservative jurist nominated to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush on the day before 9/11. He's a former classmate of Justice Clarence Thomas at the College of the Holy Cross, earned his LLM degree from Harvard, taught law at St. John's University School of Law, and worked as a senior attorney in the Reagan Justice Department before working on the Select House Committee that investigated the Iran-Contra affair. He also worked for two major D.C. law firms immediately before his appointment to the federal bench.

The government argued that the Supreme Court's 1979 ruling in Smith v. Maryland squarely permitted the NSA's bulk collection of telephonic metadata.  In that case, police had installed a pen register without obtaining a warrant, which revealed that the suspect had placed a phone call to a robbery victim on one occasion. The Supreme Court held that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to the numbers dialed from his telephone because he voluntarily transmitted that information to the telephone company which maintained it as a business record. Judge Leon noted that the Supreme Court last year in U.S. v. Jones held that the placement of a GPS tracking device on a vehicle to track its movement for nearly a month without a warrant violated the defendant's reasonable expectation of privacy despite the fact that the Court had previously ruled in 1983 that a tracking beeper placed on a vehicle did not constitute a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Court distinguished the earlier case from the Jones decision because it was "a short-range, short-term tracking device" as opposed to "constant, month-long surveillance achieved with the GPS device attached to Jones' car."

Judge Leon noted that the NSA bulk data collection of telephonic metadata involved "the creation of a historical data base containing five years' worth of data" with the "very real prospect that the program will go on for as long as America is combating terrorism, which realistically could be forever!" "[T]he almost-Orwellian technology that allows the Government to store and analyze the phone data of every telephone user in the United States is unlike anything that could have been conceived in 1979," Leon reasoned. "The notion that the Government could collect similar data on hundreds of millions of people and retain that data for a five-year period, updating it with new data every day in perpetuity, was at best in 1979, the stuff of science fiction."

Judge Leon also persuasively distinguished 1979 as a time when people still relied on single land line phones in their home as opposed to today when multiple family members within a household carry cell phones everywhere they go that serve multiple purposes beyond simple use as a telephone. "Thirty years ago, streets were lined with pay phones. Thirty years ago, when people wanted to send "text messages," they wrote letters and attached postage stamps." He concluded, "Put simply, people in 2013 have an entirely different relationship with phones than they did thirty-four years ago . . . This rapid and monumental shift towards a cell phone-centric culture means that the metadata from each person's phone 'reflects a wealth of detail about her familial, political, professional, religious and sexual associations.'"

FBI Raids Louisiana Charter School With Ties To Gulen Movement

The FBI raided the offices of the Kenilworth Science & Technology charter school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana this past week according to the The Times Picayune. Like the Indiana Math & Science Academy charter schools in Indianapolis, the charter school in Kenilworth has ties to the controversial education movement inspired by Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish exile once accused of trying to overthrow the Turkish government who now resides in Pennsylvania under a grant of asylum. Gulen has amassed a multi-billion dollar fortune from explained sources while living in virtual seclusion in a rural Pennsylvania community, rarely appearing in public and primarily communicating to his followers through recorded video messages.

The FBI and school are not talking about the cause for this past week's raid, but a Philadelphia Inquirer report in 2011 indicated that the FBI was investigating whether teachers employed by schools associated with the Gulen movement are required to kick back part of their taxpayer-supported salaries to Hizmet, a Turkish Muslim movement.

The Gulen-affiliated charter schools have been criticized for hiring Turkish immigrant teachers the schools sponsor for H-1B non-immigrant visas and permanent resident status rather than hiring available American teachers. The Indiana Math & Science Academy's three charter schools in Indianapolis filed 37 applications for H-1B visas between 2001 and 2012, two of which were denied. It filed another 4 applications for green cards, two of which were denied during the same period.

Advance Indiana previously reported how many Indiana politicians and reporters have been wined and dined and taken on free trips to Turkey by a front group for the Gulen Movement, the Niagara Foundation, to promote the movement's agenda in the U.S. One of the group's leaders, Bilal Eksili, seems to show up wherever prominent Indiana politicians can be found to present awards to them for their past support and to have his photo taken with them, which he proudly displays on the group's website and his Twitter account, describing the politicians as his "friend." The organization had former Indiana Supt. of Education Tony Bennett, a big proponent of charter schools, wrapped around their finger.

Pence Confirms That Indiana Is Among 15 States Bidding To Land $10 Billion Boeing Plant

The Northwest Indiana Times' Dan Carden received confirmation from Gov. Mike Pence on our earlier speculation based on an "Indiana Legislative Insight" item about a rumored big economic development project in the works that Indiana is quietly competing with many other states to land a $10 billion proposed Boeing plant that would build the aviation company's new 400-seat, 777X plane and a site near the Gary airport is the preferred location. "We have had contact with them and discussions, but I won't comment further on those," Pence said. "I will tell you, every opportunity that we are given to tell Indiana's story and make the case for Indiana — we do." State Rep. Ed Soliday (R-Valparaiso), a retired airline pilot, makes the case for the Northwest Indiana site.

State Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said Indiana is the most logical place for Boeing to build the plane, given the state's strong manufacturing workforce and Purdue University's aeronautics programs — and Northwest Indiana boasts all the road, rail, port and airport connections Boeing is seeking.

"I'm enthused about what it could do for the Northwest Indiana economy, and I'm hoping we're the ones in consideration, because I think it could be great for us," Soliday said. "I could build you a good case for a Gary-area location."

Soliday, a pilot and former United Airlines executive, said the soon-to-be completed 8,900-foot runway at Gary/Chicago International Airport, which is already home to Boeing's Midwest corporate jet fleet, "is as good as 9,000."

Indianapolis, Terre Haute and Fort Wayne all have airport runways exceeding 9,000 feet, though none have the same road, rail and port connections as Northwest Indiana.

News Reports: Pence Will Name State Rep. Suzanne Crouch As New State Auditor

Various news reports indicate that Gov. Mike Pence will announce on Monday that he is appointing State Rep. Suzanne Crouch (R-Evansville) as the state's new state auditor to replace Dwayne Sawyer, the Brownsburg Town Council President he appointed to the job in August and then forced to resign last month for reasons he refuses to tell to the public. She's a full-time lawmaker who formerly served two terms as Vanderburgh County's auditor and one term as the Vanderburgh County GOP chairman. She's been a member of the House of Representatives since 1995. Her husband is an Evansville attorney. They have one daughter. This seems like a safe choice for Pence and she's qualified for the job unlike his last appointee.

Indiana In The Hunt For New Boeing Plant?

A number of states are competing to land a major Boeing aircraft manufacturing plant for the company's new 777-X long-haul aircraft. The opportunity to land the $10 billion investment and 8,500 high-paying jobs that go along with it has about a dozen states lobbying to win the prized economic development opportunity. Indiana is not among the states publicly identified as competing for the project, but an item in the latest edition of Ed Feigenbaum's "Indiana Legislative Insight" suggests Indiana is in the hunt for the new plant. "[W]e have exclusively learned Indiana is apparently among about one-dozen states (and one of the few that has remained entirely under the radar) competing for a huge economic development project," Feigenbaum writes.

The potential sites within Indiana are very limited. It must be close to an airport with a runway of at least 9,000 feet, have access to an international seaport and direct rail. Indianapolis has a suitable airport and prime land available nearby for the project but lacks access to a seaport, unlike Evansville and Gary, both of which have airports with runways just shy of the requirement according to Feigenbaum. The recent announcement this past week that Gary airport officials have entered into an agreement to privatize its airport might suggest a deal is in the works for that site. There's plenty of land and direct access to rail in Gary, not to mention its proximity to Boeing's corporate headquarters in Chicago.

Feigbenbaum suggests that this project is what's driving Gov. Mike Pence's decision to push legislation next year to eliminate or phase out the business personal property tax and emphasis on infrastructure and job skills improvement. He says Indiana would not be a contender for the project if it was not a right to work state. Other states have been very public in their bidding war to offer huge tax breaks and incentives to convince Boeing to land the project in their states. He thinks Indiana has won props with Boeing officials by respecting the corporate confidentiality agreement on the deal.

Lake County Election Board Dismisses Complaint Against McDermott

The Lake County Election Board yesterday dismissed a complaint Republican activist Eric Krieg filed against Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott, Jr. As I pointed out in a previous post, there is nothing in Indiana's campaign finance law that prohibits candidates from using campaign funds to pay family members for campaign-related work. Krieg's complaint challenged $334,000 in payments McDermott's campaign made to his wife to prepare his campaign finance reports. The payments, by any standard, were quite excessive. He probably could have found a CPA who would have prepared the reports for a fraction of the charge.

The election board also dismissed two other complaints Krieg included in his complaint. Krieg had questioned $6,000 McDermott's campaign had paid to David Woerpel to drive him to political events. A third complaint questioned the rent McDermott's campaign paid for office space. The campaign paid Pyramid Development $1,000 to rent office space in a building valued at between $500,000 and $1,000,000 and upon which annual property taxes of $23,000 are paid. Krieg believed that McDermott's campaign was receiving an unreported, in-kind contribution from the building's owner because the rent was too low. The Republican election board member, attorney William Fine, voted against dismissal of that complaint, which he believed had merit. "Mayor McDermott raises a lot of money,” Fine said. “I’m concerned there’s a lot of smoke there and may be fire. If we dismiss, that smoke will hang over this board for a long time."

McDermott shouldn't get too comfortable that he's in the clear. Krieg's questioning of his former political opponent's use of his county office for political purposes hit pay dirt after the FBI launched an investigation. Although Krieg lost his race to Lake County Surveyor George Van Til in the 2012 election, the FBI investigation culminated in criminal charges against him, which ended when Van Til recently agreed to plead guilty to charges of using government employees in his office to perform political work. Van Til also resigned from his office. He awaits sentencing by a federal judge.

McDermott should also be mindful of the fate of two prominent Illinois politicians just across the state line. Former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. and his wife, Chicago Alderman Sandra Jackson, pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal charges of using their respective campaign funds for personal use. Both were forced to resign from office. Rep. Jackson was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and ordered to repay $750,000 as restitution. His wife was ordered to serve 200 hours of community service and pay restitution of $22,000.

UPDATE: Somebody's reading:

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Obama Orders Another Drone Strike That Mistakenly Kills 15 Civilians In Yemen

The highlight of President Barack Obama's day is when he gets to issue an order to our military to release another drone into the airspace of a foreign country on a mission to kill people he believes are suspected of engaging in terrorism. He gets his rocks off watching snuff films of the deadly attacks. Talking to aides about targeted drone strikes, Obama said, "I'm really good at killing people," according to a book on the 2012 presidential campaign, "Double Down: Game Change 2012." His latest drone strike in Yemen missed its target and killed 15 people on their way to a wedding. And then clueless Americans wonder why so much of the world views the United States so negatively. From Reuters:

"An air strike missed its target and hit a wedding car convoy, ten people were killed immediately and another five who were injured died after being admitted to the hospital," one security official said.

Five more people were injured, the officials said.

The United States has stepped up drone strikes as part of a campaign against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), regarded by Washington as the most active wing of the militant network.

Yemen, AQAP's main stronghold, is among a handful of countries where the United States acknowledges using drones, although it does not comment on the practice.

Human Rights Watch said in a detailed report in August that U.S. missile strikes, including armed drone attacks, have killed dozens of civilians in Yemen.

Stabilizing the country, which is also struggling with southern separatists and northern rebels, is an international priority due to fears of disorder in a state that flanks top oil producer Saudi Arabia and major shipping lanes.

On Monday, missiles fired from a U.S. drone killed at least three people travelling in a car in eastern Yemen.

In other news, it turns out the government has been lying for years about an ex-FBI agent who went missing in Iran in 2007 on what was supposedly a private business trip. The Washington Post reports that government officials lied to Congress and the public when it denied the Iranian government's claim that Robert Levinson was a government spy employed by the CIA. The government now says that Levinson was sent on a rogue mission by CIA officials not authorized to run overseas operations. Both former Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton issued misleading public statements concerning Levinson in hopes they could diplomatically convince the Iranians to release him. The CIA disciplined several employees of the agency and paid $2.5 million to Levinson's wife and an additional $120,000 owed to her missing husband for the renewal of his contract. His whereabouts remain unknown, although the government suspects he is likely dead due to his age and poor health. A 54-second video of Levinson, who appeared in poor condition, surfaced in 2010.

More Details In Plane Crash That Claimed The Life Of Hawaii's Health Director

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has provided more details about the mysterious plane crash involving the state's controversial Department of Health Director who coordinated the release of President Barack Obama's long-form birth certificate in April, 2011 that remains a source of controversy due to troubling issues regarding its authenticity. The pilot and seven passengers aboard the single-engine commuter Cessna plane survived the crash that claimed the life of Health Director Loretta Fuddy, who was concluding a trip to the island of Molokai for an annual meeting she was statutorily required to attend for the Hansen's disease settlement located on the island.

The pilot, whose name officials refuse to release, claims the plane's engine suffered a catastrophic failure after he heard a large bang shortly after takeoff . The pilot told authorities that he was successful in getting life vests on the planes' eight passengers before it crashed into the ocean about a half-mile offshore. The pilot says that he decided to swim ashore after the passengers began to drift from the crash site. The Coast Guard says it received a distress call around 3:27 p.m. Wednesday afternoon from the pilot of another plane who saw the crash debris. Coast Guard and Maui Fire Rescue helicopters rescued the surviving passengers from the ocean.

The fatal injuries sustained by Fuddy are not mentioned in the news update. The pilot and the other seven passengers suffered no life-threatening injuries. Three passengers remained on the island after being treated and released. The pilot drove himself to a hospital for evaluation after being flown back to Honolulu. There were three other government employees on the plane who were identified, including Deputy Health Director Keith Yamamoto, Rosa Key, a National Park Service administrator at Kalaupapa and Key's husband, Jake. They were treated and released by emergency rescue workers. Two passengers on the plane were flown by helicopter to an airport on Oahu where they were transported to a local hospital, while one passenger was flown by helicopter directly to a hospital on Oahu.

The investigation of the plane crash is being handled by the National Transportation Safety Board and seems to have ended before it started. Eric Weiss, a spokesman for the NTSB, already cast doubt on whether the plane could ever be recovered from the ocean due to rough seas. The plane was owned by Richard Schuman of Makanai Kai Air. The Schuman family has operated various transportation-related businesses in Hawaii for more than a hundred years according to the company's website after emigrating to the islands from Germany. Schuman told the Star-Advertiser that he has known the pilot since 1996. He reportedly flew for Aloha Airlines until it went out of business in 2008. The pilot began working for Schuman's company full-time within the past year.

Naturally, the Star-Advertiser immediately dismissed any conspiracy speculation behind the plane's crash because the government should always be trusted to tell us the truth and launched an attack on "birthers" who speculated otherwise:

Skeptics turned to social media today to suggest that Obama had played some role in Fuddy's death. Twitter posts included: "The WH tying up loose ends?" "What did she really know?" and "R.I.P. Loretta Fuddy -- we'll know the truth about Barack Hussein Obama, regardless."

Donald Trump, a longtime doubter of Obama's birthplace, also weighed in on Twitter: "How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama's 'birth certificate' died in plane crash today. All others lived."

That reaction didn't surprise those who study conspiracy theorists.

Mark Fenster, University of Florida law professor who wrote a book on conspiracy theories, said adherents will search for evidence to support their beliefs, and each piece of news can give their theory new life.

"The theories themselves are a process of stitching together individual facts to form a larger narrative, and this is just one more fact that gets linked to the chain," Fenster said. 

Anyone who believes that Obama's birth certificate is fake will find a way to tie the plane crash to their beliefs, said Dan Cassino, professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.

It's unclear how many people ascribe to birther beliefs. But a poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University in January found that 36 percent of voters, including 64 percent of Republicans, believed Obama is hiding information about his background.

The Internet has made it easier to spread outlandish theories, Cassino said. Thirty years ago, if you tried to tell people about a farfetched belief, they'd ignore you, he said. But online, "you can go and find a community of people who all agree with you."

UPDATE: A local TV report out of Honolulu by KITV News has identified Clyde Kawasaki as the pilot of the plane. The pilot who discovered the downed plane after hearing the plane's transponder and alerting authorities described him as a very experienced pilot who he credited with saving passengers' lives. Interestingly, Kawasaki's name is not identified on the company's staff listing on its website as one of its pilots. A Linkedin page listing Kawasaki identifies him as a captain for Schuman Aviation who worked for Air Pacific/Fiji Airlines until last year.

Pence Wants To Increase Taxes On Individuals To Pay For Business Tax Cuts

I'm at a loss as to where Gov. Mike Pence is coming from in suggesting that somehow or another that Indiana businesses are at a disadvantage with other states when it comes to tax burdens. He recently announced that he would seek the elimination of the business personal property tax as part of his 2014 legislative agenda. Many legislators, Republican and Democrat alike, reacted negatively to the proposal because of the $1 billion void it would leave in funding for local governments. Only days after calling for the elimination of the business tax, he announced that he was making a $141 million cut in state spending to offset a shortfall in projected budget revenues. Now he says that he's open to raising local income taxes on individuals to make up for the elimination of the business personal property tax.

Gov. Mike Pence refused to rule out county income tax hikes as a replacement for the more than $1 billion Indiana schools and local governments stand to lose if he succeeds in eliminating the business personal property tax.

The Republican, who spent his first months in office fighting to reduce the state income tax rate, told reporters Wednesday that terminating property taxes on business and manufacturing equipment is the top item on his tax reform agenda, but he will leave the details to the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Pence repeatedly dodged follow-up questions asking if he'd accept a plan that calls for higher local income taxes if it meant eliminating the business personal property tax.

"I don't want to prejudge that debate; I want to be open to ideas in the legislative process," Pence said. "There's ... different kinds of taxes that could replace that, that wouldn't be such a barrier to economic growth."

The governor claims Indiana's business personal property tax — which produces 17.5 percent of Lake County's property tax revenue and 13.4 percent of Porter County's — discourages businesses from locating in the state, despite Indiana's otherwise top-rated business tax climate.

"I think most people know that the business personal property tax is a barrier to the kind of investment that creates jobs in Indiana," Pence said. "How we go about phasing that out is a subject of an important discussion in the state of Indiana, and I look forward to having that with people across the state and with their elected representatives in the upcoming session."

Pence's public positions are completely at odds with his incessant rhetoric about being an advocate for the middle class. To the contrary, his policies seem to be at war with the middle class. His refusal to set up a state health care exchange to implement the federal Affordable Care Act and his support of a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Greg Zoeller to render those Hoosiers who choose to enroll through the federal health care exchange set up in place of a state-run exchange for insurance coverage ineligible from receiving any subsidies they may qualify for under the federal law smacks at mean-spiritedness. Middle class Hoosiers are frightened to death for their economic well-being and Pence seems only concerned about doing whatever he can to pass out tax breaks and tax giveaways to businesses. His support of the $100 million tax giveaway to the Hulman-George family for its Indianapolis Motor Speedway against this backdrop drives the needle in deeper into an already raw nerve. Hell, he even provided a public subsidy for a daily flight service from Indianapolis to San Francisco for the benefit a single company in Indianapolis that has already received millions of dollars in state tax breaks. If this is what he defines as conservatism, count me out.

Sen. Lamar Alexander's Chief Of Staff Arrested On Child Porn Charges

Ryan Loskarn, chief of staff to Tennessee's Sen. Lamar Alexander (R), was arrested by U.S. postal inspectors for possession and distribution of child pornography. Sen. Alexander, expressing shock at news of Loskarn's arrest, initially placed him on unpaid leave but later fired him before the end of the day. Sen. Alexander is up for re-election next year and is facing a primary challenge by a Tea Party candidate, Joe Carr. In recent months, Alexander had become an outspoken opponent of President Obama's Affordable Care Act, urging changes in the law if not repeal. He has also been highly critical of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's leadership in the Senate, who he blamed for the Senate's dysfunction.

UPDATE: Talking Points Memo is reporting that Loskarn's arrest stems from a three-year child exploitation investigation originating in Canada known as Project Spade. More than 300 arrests have taken place around the world over the past several years, including 76 that have taken place in the United States. Pornographic videos of primarily young boys were being disseminated through the mail and the Internet by a movie production and distribution company in Toronto run by Brian Way. Loskarn allegedly made several purchases from the company between November 2010 and March 2011. It's not clear whether there is any connection between these arrests and those arrests and prosecutions announced in recent months by U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett here in Indiana, which included the arrests of two gay men who traveled from Australia to the U.S. with a young boy they had adopted who they were allowing to be sexually exploited and filmed by other male adults.

Hawaii Health Department Director Fingered In Obama Birth Certificate Fraud Lone Fatality In Airplane Crash

This has to be one of the most bizarre plane crashes. A small Cessna commuter plane carrying eight passengers and the pilot bound for Honolulu crashed off of Molokai's north shore in Hawaii late yesterday afternoon. Spotters initially reported finding eight passengers wearing lifevests in the water after one swam to shore, leading emergency response workers to believe everyone had survived the accident, including Hawaii's Department of Health Director Loretta Fuddy and her deputy director, Keith Yamamoto. The pilot of the airplane drove himself to the hospital after being flown back to Oahu.

Hours after the crash officials reported that Fuddy had perished in the crash. Some private investigators researching holes in the biographical narrative of President Barack Obama had previously fingered Fuddy as playing a key role in the forging of Obama's birth certificate. Investigators for a Cold Case Posse established by Maricopa County Sheriff  Joe Arpaio in Arizona have been quietly meeting with some members of Congress in recent months sharing the findings of its investigation, which it claims provides irrefutable proof that Obama's Hawaii birth certificate had been forged. Her unusual death will only further ignite conspiracy theories advanced by those the mainstream media has derisively dubbed as "birthers." The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports on unusual circumstances of the plane crash that claimed Fuddy's life:

Sometime before 4 p.m., a Honolulu-bound Cessna Grand Caravan carrying eight passengers and the pilot crashed about a half-mile off Molokai's north shore after taking off from Kalaupapa, officials said.

Richard Schuman, president of Makani Kai, said a pilot flying over the crash site about half-mile offshore observed eight passengers in the water with life vests, he said.

Soon after the crash, Schuman said "initial indications" were that everyone made it out of the aircraft, but a Maui Fire Department spokesman later confirmed that there was one fatality.

Maui Fire Services Chief Lee Mainaga said three survivors were taken to Oahu, three went to Molokai General Hospital and two declined treatment and remained on Kalaupapa.

Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said paramedics took two people -- a 74-year-old female and a 39-year-old male -- in stable condition to an Oahu hospital at about 6:30 p.m. from Honolulu Airport. A third person was medavaced directly to an Oahu hospital.

Schuman said the pilot survived and called him after the crash. The pilot was flown to Oahu and drove himself to the Queen's Medical Center to be checked out, Schuman said.

He said the pilot was "very experienced" and previously worked for Aloha Airlines.

Schuman said the plane took off from Kalaupapa for Oahu at about 3:45 p.m.

Fuddy became acting health director in January, after the governor's original nominee, Dr. Neal Palafox, withdrew his name at Abercrombie's request in January 2011. Just after being appointed and confirmed as director, Fuddy was involved in the release of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, at the president's request, in April 2011.

Besides Fuddy, Health Department Deputy Director Keith Yamamoto was also on board.

Yamamoto, dressed in blue swim trunks and a T-shirt, was seen being driven away from Makani Air's Honolulu Airport headquarters at about 7 p.m. 

A Coast Guard official confirmed nine people were on board, that one person swam to shore and that rescue crews pulled the other eight out of the water, but he would not give any details on their conditions.

Crews from the Coast Guard and a Maui Fire Department helicopter responded, with the Coast Guard sending helicopters and C-130 aircraft.

MFD officials said the plane went down about a half-mile northwest of Kalaupapa and eight people were seen in the water with lifevests.

A Health Department spokeswoman confirmed Fuddy and Yamamoto were on the flight, and had said early this evening that the department had been told that both had survived.

However confirmation of Fuddy's death came after 8 p.m . . .

Downtown Mafia Pushes New Privately-Owned Criminal Justice Complex To Fuel Their Racket

They've been highly successful in diverting billions of our tax dollars over the past several decades to line their own pockets so it comes as no surprise that the downtown mafia would have their compliant mayor endorse their latest plan to divert another billion or more to their pockets over the next few decades through the development of a new privately-owned criminal justice complex to house the City's criminal courts, jail and other criminal justice agencies. Mayor Greg Ballard's chief selling point is that a complex that could cost over a half billion dollars to build will be done without resorting to higher taxes. Future tax increases will come. He or his successor will just blame them on something else like property tax caps.

One of the early leading contenders for the latest and greatest project is Corrections Corporation of America. Conveniently, the law firm which operates the City of Indianapolis represents CCA, which already earns substantial fees for operating Marion County Jail II. You know the drill. The law firm orders Mayor Ballard to approve the plan as his taxpayer-paid adviser, it gets the taxpayer-funded Greater Indianapolis Progress Committee to publish a bogus report recommending the plan, the law firm ghost writes the solicitation of bids for the City in consultation with its client, sub-contractors favored by the downtown mafia get the cue and align with CCA's proposal, and after private negotiations the proposal selected will be the one represented by the law firm's client. We saw this process play out exactly this way with the privatization of the state's welfare services at an enormous cost to taxpayers and with disastrous consequences for those dependent on the services, even if it proved financially lucrative for the government vendor and the law firm representing it. And we saw this same process repeat itself with the privatization of the City's parking meter assets with similar outcomes.

Unless you are clueless, you know that it is impossible for a private developer to finance the construction of a public works project that will easily top a half billion dollars and then enter into a long-term agreement to maintain and operate that building under a lease-back arrangement at a cheaper cost than the county's building authority could issue long-term, low-interest tax-exempt bonds to build, own and operate that same complex of buildings. Unless the private operator has no intention of making any profits from its undertaking, it is an impossible feat. Even more perverse is the thought of a private company whose profits will be determined, in part, on the number of inmates housed at the jail having control of the same premises housing the offices and courtrooms of judges, court staff, prosecutors, public defenders, probation officers, community corrections and other related criminal justice agencies who play a role in determining the fate of criminal offenders. If you aren't bothered having a fox guard the chicken house, I suppose you wouldn't have any problem with this arrangement. This prospect has already reared its ugly head with Sheriff John Layton suggesting that he prefers the new complex to be built at the site of the old Indianapolis airport terminal so the jail can generate more revenues from housing federal inmates "by serving as a connection point for federal prisoners being transported across the country."

The one thing that is clear is that the downtown mafia has every intention of making sure the new complex is located outside downtown's mile square. Their motive for moving the new complex outside of downtown is self-evident. Of course they want to move out the undesirable lower-income minorities who currently flood into the downtown area daily as they move through the criminal justice system and who too frequently re-offend in nearby neighborhoods upon their release from one of the two existing jails downtown. After all, the City has invested heavily in attracting a higher class of professionals to move into upscale, taxpayer-subsidized housing, including its most recent investment in a high-rise luxury apartment building right next to the City-County Building whose prospective residents would rather not encounter so many grifters and drifters they view as a blight on downtown. And as we all know, downtown Indianapolis is the engine that drives all of Indiana. If it's good for downtown Indy, it's good for the entire state. Nothing more needs to be said. Debate over.