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This is a verbatim transcript of Sen. Ford's remarks to reporters as she was leaving the Senate committee examining her election Thursday. "Nothing like this has ever happened before, that's why God is using me _ little old me _ to make needed laws that needed to be changed. It's not just affecting our state, it's going to affect our whole country with laws needing to have been change. They had to come upon a way to do it. What can they do but something like that? I think they're doing the very best that they can, my colleagues, I...

CHATTANOOGA - The Bureau of TennCare has been contacted by state and federal investigators, but officials aren't elaborating on what's being probed. "While we have reason to believe TennCare is not the focal point, the bureau has been contacted by the TBI and FBI," spokeswoman Marilyn Elam told the Chattanooga Times Free Press on Thursday. "We are fully cooperating with their investigation." A federal grand jury has been looking into the relationship between former Sen. John Ford and TennCare contractors Doral Dental and Omnicare. Earlier this year, the Memphis Democrat triggered a legislative review when it was discovered the companies...

Ophelia Ford won a razor-thin 20-vote victory in the Democratic primary for state Senate District 29 Thursday, while Terry Roland crushed his opponent in the Republican primary. Ford's win puts her a step closer to winning the state Senate seat her brother John Ford held for 31 years. He resigned following his indictment on federal bribery charges in May. Ophelia Ford will face Roland in the general election Sept. 15. "This is a joyous night," said Ford, 55, surrounded by family and friends at her campaign headquarters in the Southgate Shopping Center. "I want to say to all my opponents,...

Federal agents could have missed important clues in the investigation of Capitol Hill Corruption. But our NewsChannel 5 investigation uncovered some of those clues inside former chairman John Ford's desk on the Senate floor. And it's raising even more questions about what else agents might have missed. Our chief investigative reporter Phil Williams went looking where investigators did not go. It was a dramatic day back in May. Five current or former lawmakers were rounded up in a public corruption sting -- all part of the FBI's Operation Tennessee Waltz. Yet, despite images of agents roaming the halls of the...

NASHVILLE — A report from the state attorney general says that while John Ford was a state senator, he did consulting work inside Tennessee for a TennCare contractor, contradicting his contention that the work strictly involved out-of-state issues. The report, released today, was prepared by Attorney General Paul Summers for the Senate Ethics Committee concerning Ford, a Memphis Democrat indicted in May on bribery charges in a separate federal investigation. Ford was a consultant for Doral Dental through Managed Care Services Group, which paid him $236,000 as a partner in the firm at the same time he was in Senate....

Suspicions about bills played role in probe City school board member Michael Hooks Jr. confirmed that consultant-turned-FBI informant Tim Willis paid him fees from a Shelby County consulting contract. Hooks's $315 in fees appear among $33,000 in bills that Willis submitted to the county in 2001 through a controversial consulting deal with then-Juvenile Court Clerk Shep Wilbun. Suspicions about the bills played a role in a 2002 grand jury probe and helped pave the way for Willis to become a paid informant in another probe, Operation Tennessee Waltz. The FBI's Waltz sting netted bribery charges last month against five current...

Three state representatives and former state senator John Ford's sister are among 21 people interested in running for Ford's District 29 seat. The filing deadline is one week from today. Ford, first elected in 1974, resigned May 28 after being indicted on federal bribery charges in Operation Tennessee Waltz. Among those who've taken out qualifying petitions are Ford's sister, Ophelia Ford, and Democratic state Reps. John DeBerry Jr., Barbara Cooper and Henri Brooks. Ford, who filed her petition Wednesday, said she decided to run because of calls from her brother's constituents and because of her politically powerful family's support. "I've...

This would be considered a breaking "old" news story, but it's something you won't see anywhere else on the Internet. As I said yesterday, there are probably plenty of things in John Ford's past that we either don't know about or have just forgotten. This would fall into the latter category. This actually includes alleged troubles also involving former Congressman Harold Ford, Sr., father of current Congressman and Senate hopeful Harold Ford, Jr. I'm afraid that it's not just John Ford that Harold Ford, Jr. has to be concerned about...his father has plenty of problems that he should be worried...

This is a WorldNetDaily printer-friendly version of the article which follows. To view this item online, visit http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44534 Wednesday, June 1, 2005 Corruption, Tennessee-style Posted: June 1, 20051:00 a.m. Eastern By Joseph Farah © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com Back in the presidential election year of 2000, WorldNetDaily set out to give the nation a small taste of the widespread, institutionalized political corruption that spawned the career of Al Gore. The result was a monumental 18-part series that some Tennessee observers credited with costing the vice president his home state and the electoral votes he needed to win the presidency regardless of the controversy...

EX-Tennessee State Senator John Ford got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but he's not to blame. It's all the Government's fault, huh?The Tennessean doesn't allow posting, but here's the link:http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050608/NEWS0201/506080409

Two days after announcing she would not resign as chairman of the local Democratic Party or from her state Senate seat, Kathryn Bowers said Thursday evening she is quitting as party chairman. Bowers, who said nothing Thursday about her Senate seat, is one of seven lawmakers and political operatives indicted in a federal undercover corruption probe last week. "My attorney has advised me not to address those issues. But I will say to you that I am not guilty of those allegations," Bowers said to applause from a group of 40 Democrats meeting in Midtown. "Regardless of what my personal...

Africa's 36-year-old, last absolute monarch King Mswati III of Swaziland, has married a lecturer's daughter Noliqwa Ntentesa in a secret ceremony, making her his 11th wife. 21-year-old Noliqwa is pregnant with his 25th child, and under Swazi tradition a King can only marry a woman after she becomes pregnant. The King also plans to make two 17-year-old women as his 12th and 13th wives, and one of them is also pregnant, reports The Mirror. King Mswati is often accused for living in lavish palaces and having a luxurious lifestyle where more than one million of the people living in his...

MEMPHIS — Prosecutors prepared to ask a federal judge today to send former state Sen. John Ford back to jail to await trial on public corruption charges. Ford, a Memphis Democrat, was placed on house arrest Friday after a federal magistrate released him from custody on a $20,000 bond. Prosecutors appealed that decision to U.S. District Judge Daniel Breen. Breen could uphold the magistrate's ruling, modify it or send Ford back to jail to await a trail that could be months away. Prosecutors contend Ford has threatened to kill government witnesses and is a public danger. Ford, who was a...

NASHVILLE — A day before his resignation from the state Senate was announced, John Ford had submitted the paperwork that will entitle him to a $2,507 monthly state retirement check, an official said Tuesday. Ford's retirement was effective Sunday and will continue even if he is convicted on federal bribery and extortion charges levied against him, according to Ed Hennessee, director of the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System. The Legislature has passed two laws declaring that public officials convicted of a crime related to their official duties forfeit their retirement benefits, Hennessee said. But neither applies to Ford, who was elected...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A two-year FBI sting operation nicknamed the "Tennessee Waltz" has led to the arrest of several lawmakers. But the probe isn't the state's first dance with scandal. Government corruption cases dot the past three decades of Tennessee history. In the 1970s, the "TennPar" investigation found that associates of then-Gov. Ray Blanton were selling pardons, while another corruption probe in the late '80s and early '90s broke up illegal gambling rings run by bingo operators. Bruce Oppenheimer, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, noted that government scandals run in cycles but "you don't want this to be...

Rep. Harold Ford Jr. Files for Frist's Senate Seat NewsMax.com Wires Thursday, May 26, 2005 NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. filed the federal paperwork Wednesday to run for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist. The five-term congressman from Memphis is the second Democrat to enter the 2006 race. Frist has said he does not plan to seek a third term. "I'm excited. I'm ready to go," Ford said in telephone interview from Washington. He said his top issues will be energy reform, national security and education. Ford, 35, is a member of...

Vows to fight charges; faced possible ouster By Richard Locker Contact May 29, 2005 NASHVILLE -- John Ford resigned Saturday from the state Senate seat he held for 31 years -- to fight, he said, the federal bribery and extortion charges levied against him Thursday. The Memphis Democrat's resignation came as the Senate was preparing to remove him from office next month, legislative leaders said Saturday. Senate Speaker and Lt. Gov. John Wilder read Ford's two-sentence resignation letter when the Senate convened at 1 p.m. for the last day of the legislature's 2005 session. Dated Friday, it said: "Dear Governor...

NASHVILLE - In a rambling Senate speech and prayer, Lt. Gov. John Wilder said it was "wrong" for undercover agents to bait lawmakers with money. Wilder also revealed he was offered $300,000 years ago from a coal company that was seeking preferential treatment from the state. He was responding to the arrests Thursday of four sitting lawmakers and a former one in a federal bribery and extortion sting operation. Sens. John Ford and Kathryn Bowers of Memphis were absent from the Legislature Friday following their arrests. Sen. Ward Crutchfield and Rep. Chris Newton returned to Capitol Hill. Former Sen. Roscoe...

Nashville -- Powerful state Sen. John Ford, now under house arrest as he awaits trial in a federal corruption case, has resigned, according to a letter read Saturday by the lieutenant governor. "I plan to spend the rest of my time with my family clearing my name," Ford said in a letter read by Lt. Gov. John Wilder to the Senate. Ford, a member of the Senate for more than 30 years, was arrested Thursday as part of a two-year FBI sting operation nicknamed "Tennessee Waltz."

State Senator Under House Arrest in FBI's Sting Four Charged With Taking Payoffs, Threatening to Kill Witnesses By WOODY BAIRD, AP MEMPHIS, Tenn. (May 28) - A judge ordered that a state senator be placed under house arrest Friday over the objections of prosecutors, who played a video of the lawmaker watching an undercover agent count out $10,000 and an audiotape of him threatening a potential witness. The tapes were played at a bond hearing a day after Sen. John Ford was charged as part of a two-year FBI sting operation nicknamed "Tennessee Waltz." Ford is charged along with four...