Free Republic

It is a shocking and emblematic photograph that could be of New York City's Boss Tweed, 140 years later: Jimmy Dimora, the most powerful man in Cuyahoga County politics, led away in manacles to FBI headquarters, to federal court, and into infamy. But the picture painted by the 177 pages in indictments made public Wednesday against eight suspects -- including Cuyahoga County commissioner Dimora and two county judges -- is even more shocking, alleging what could be one of the biggest local political-machine corruption cases in recent U.S. history.It also, for the first time, implicates a second commissioner, Peter Lawson...

California Democrat Has Championed Minority-Owned OneUnited on Capitol Hill and Criticized Its Government RegulatorsWhen Rep. Barney Frank was looking to aid a Boston-based lender last fall, the Massachusetts Democrat urged Maxine Waters, a colleague on the House Financial Services Committee, to "stay out of it," he says. The reason: Ms. Waters, a longtime congresswoman from California, had close ties to the minority-owned institution, OneUnited Bank. Ms. Waters and her husband have both held financial stakes in the bank. Until recently, her husband was a director. At the same time, Ms. Waters has publicly boosted OneUnited's executives and criticized its government...

A Maryland grand jury on Friday indicted Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon on 12 criminal counts, including theft and perjury, for alleged official misconduct beginning when she was a councilwoman. A number of the charges relate to gifts that prosecutors say Ms. Dixon received from developers, including her former boyfriend, Ronald Lipscomb, and didn't properly disclose. Mr. Lipscomb isn't named in the indictment but was charged with bribery this week in Baltimore. His lawyer has said he is innocent. In addition, the Maryland prosecutor's office charged that for four years Ms. Dixon misused holiday gift cards that were intended to be...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi plans to re-write House rules today to ensure that the Republican minority is unable to have any influence on legislation. Pelosi’s proposals are so draconian, and will so polarize the Capitol, that any thought President-elect Obama has of bipartisan cooperation will be rendered impossible before he even takes office. Pelosi’s rule changes -- which may be voted on today -- will reverse the fairness rules that were written around Newt Gingrich’s “Contract with America.” In reaction, the House Republican leadership is sending a letter today to Pelosi to object to changes to House Rules this week...

OBAMA-BUST: Bill Richardson will withdraw as Commerce secretary... Developing...

Panicked investors scrambled desperately yesterday to determine whether their life savings had been wiped out after a Wall Street legend allegedly admitted blowing as much as $50 billion in what is emerging as the largest Ponzi scheme in history. Among several big-name investors who trusted former Nasdaq Chairman Bernard L. Madoff with their cash were New York Mets owners Fred Wilpon and Saul Katz, who may have lost as much as $500 million in the scheme, sources said. New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg also confirmed he had invested money from his charitable organization through the 70-year-old Madoff's company, though he...

Some of America’s wealthiest socialites were facing ruin last night after the arrest of a Wall Street big hitter accused of the largest investor swindle perpetrated by one man. Shock and panic spread through the country clubs of Palm Beach and Long Island after Bernard Madoff, a trading powerbroker for more than four decades, allegedly confessed to a fraud that will cost his wealthy investors at least $50 billion – perhaps the largest swindle in Wall Street history. Mr Madoff, 70, a former Nasdaq stock chairman, was apparently turned in by his two sons and arrested on Thursday morning at...

In another move sure to undermine already fragile investor sentiment in the markets, world-class scumbag hedge-fund manager and former chairman of NASDAQ admitted to investigators and key employees that the $50 Billion managed by the firm was "basically a Ponzi scheme." Madoff also told investigators that there "was no innocent explanation" for his actions. "Madoff's investors included captains of industry, corporations -- some of which are publicly traded -- that used Madoff almost as a high-yielding cash management account, endowments, universities, foundations and, importantly, many high-profile funds of funds," said Douglas Kass, who heads hedge fund Seabreeze Partners Management. "It...

A lawyer who gave 100's of $thousands to Democrats is a tax cheat. Menachem "Melly" Lifshitz paid back $4.75M taxes, penalties, interest…..and promised to resign the state bar to stay out of jail. An investigation was conducted into charitable groups used in alleged tax frauds. Officials did not say if the Melly & Rochelle Lifshitz Charitable Trust, Nassau County, Lawrence, LI, is involved. The Trust has donated more than $250,000 to Orthodox Jewish charities. Lifshitz also donated to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. He is a partner at Berstein Liebhard & Lifshitz, a securities class-action law firm......