Free Republic

Everything was for sale -- from politicians to kidneys. Separate federal probes targeting rogue rabbis in Brooklyn and corrupt public officials in New Jersey led to the arrests yesterday of 44 people, including three mayors and five religious leaders. All the suspects in both investigations were brought down by the same shady developer, who wore a wire for three years while he bought off politicians, passed supposedly dirty money for laundering and even arranged for a $160,000 kidney sale. "The list of names and titles of those arrested today sounds like a roster for a community leaders' meeting," said Weysan...

NEWARK, N.J. – An investigation into the sale of black-market kidneys and fake Gucci handbags evolved into a sweeping probe of political corruption in New Jersey, ensnaring more than 40 people Thursday, including three mayors, two state lawmakers and several rabbis. Even for a state with a rich history of graft, the scale of wrongdoing alleged was breathtaking. An FBI official called corruption "a cancer that is destroying the core values of this state." Federal prosecutors said the investigation initially focused on a money laundering network that operated between Brooklyn, N.Y.; Deal, N.J.; and Israel. The network is alleged to...

Forty-four people were arrested today in a New Jersey public corruption sweep. The group includes Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano III, Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith and state Assemblyman Daniel Van Pelt. Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez is charged with agreeing to accept an illegal cash payment.

A two-year corruption and international money-laundering investigation stretching from the Jersey Shore to Brooklyn to Israel and Switzerland culminated in the arrests of 44 people on Thursday, including three New Jersey mayors, two state assemblymen and five rabbis, the authorities said. The case apparently began with bank fraud charges against a member of an insular Syrian Jewish enclave centered in the seaside town of Deal, N.J. Eventually, stemming from that arrest, a federal informant posed as a crooked real estate developer offering cash bribes to obtain government approvals — and the case mushroomed into a political scandal that could rival...

Why has the New York Post omitted the party affiliation of New Jersey politicians that were arrested today? All the remainder Democrats were not indicated (excess of seven), and NONE indicated of the Rabbis, and many many more are missing whether Democrats or Republicans. However, TWO Republicans were conveniently indicated ... something is ROTTEN with Post Staff Writers.

We’ll hopefully know more about this story in a few hours, it seems, but for now, let’s give you at least the basics. The AP has reported (no link available) that FBI agents are sweeping across northern New Jersey on Thursday, making arrests in what reportedly is described as a major corruption probe. WNBC-TV in New York reported and showed images of the mayors of Hoboken and Secaucus being taken into FBI headquarters in Newark. The station also showed rabbis being taken into custody. The sweeps are reportedly taking place in Hudson, Bergen, Monmouth and Ocean counties.

Posted on Tue, Aug. 05, 2003 Macon mayor defends trip to Africa Ellis says Ghana could process city's parking tickets By Mike Donila Telegraph Staff Writer Macon Mayor Jack Ellis on Monday defended his plans to visit Africa, saying that his mission, in part, is to encourage Ghanian officials to import more goods from Middle Georgia. Ellis also said that during his weeklong trip he will lay the groundwork to possibly enable Macon's Ghanian sister city of Elmina to process local parking tickets. "Ghana is very important to the city, the state - even the region where we live. They...

The U.S. Conference of Mayors has declined President Obama’s invitation for a meeting at the White House on June 29. The mayors have not determined when, or even if, they will accept the invite an administration extended after Obama and Vice President Joe Biden skipped the mayors' annual meeting in Providence, R.I., earlier this month due to a local labor dispute involving firefighters. The White House cancelled plans for senior staff and Cabinet officials to attend the meeting the week before its kickoff, angering some of the nation’s mayors. The administration responded by inviting the mayors to Washington for a...

Mexico Drug Charges Against 7 Mayors, 20 Officials By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: June 19, 2009 MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexico levied organized crime and drug charges Thursday against seven mayors, the former state attorney general and 19 other officials in the western state of Michoacan for allegedly aiding a drug cartel. Three other mayors detained in raids across the state May 26 have not been charged, but will continue to be held pending investigations, officials said. The seven mayors are the largest group of Mexican elected officials arrested on drug charges in recent memory. They and the other suspects...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a message for Sacramento: hands off my dough. The mayor plans a high- profile lobbying trip to the state capitol Tuesday to protest potential confiscation of local government money by the nearly-bankrupt state government. Villaraigosa will be joined by mayors Jerry Sanders of San Diego and Miguel Pulido of Santa Ana. Villaraigosa's office said Monday that one state proposal to partly fill a $21.3 billion budget deficit would divert 8 percent of local government revenues to the state, which would reduce the Los Angeles general fund by $68 million. The...

DURHAM -- Mayor Bill Bell plans to visit Saudi Arabia next month. Its government will pick up his expenses. Bell will travel with 10 other mayors May 7-14, the city of Durham announced Monday. The mayors were invited by the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington. Bell said he was not sure how he was chosen for the trip, but he had spoken with representatives of the Saudi embassy during a trip to Washington for a mayors' conference. "They were very impressed with the Research Triangle Park and the universities and how we've been able to blend public private partnerships here,"...

Invoking his own name-and-shame policy, President Barack Obama warned the nation's mayors on Friday that he will "call them out" if they waste the money from his massive economic stimulus plan.

The U.S. Congress is likely to help cities' struggling economies not only through the stimulus bill it is expected to pass soon but through measures to boost the municipal bond market, Rep. Barney Frank told a mayors' meeting Sunday. Frank has put high on his agenda the creation of a bond insurer that the federal government would operate, and which would charge premiums based on the risk of bonds' defaults, he told Reuters. Most bonds do not default and, therefore, do not need insurance but "the market may still want it," said Frank, who heads the House Financial Services Committee....

President-elect Barack Obama met with the mayors of nine U.S. cities Thursday who together are asking the federal government to give them over $10.7 billion to finance various public works and maintenance projects. Among the mayors who met with Obama, Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz is asking for the most federal tax dollars, a total of $3.2 billion. His requests include $1.5 million to build the Grapeland Flowrider, a new water park attraction, and $100,000 to build dirt-bike trails. Miami also wants $94 million in federal tax dollars for parking garages at the Orange Bowl, and $20 million for work on...

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Mayors from across the country are in Madison this week for the Mayors Innovation Project summer conference. They'll be sharing ideas about how to run progressive communities in tight economic times. But they will, as well, be wondering whether they are going to have a partner in the federal government. That's something cities have lacked for the past eight years.This week in an interview with MayorTV, an initiative of the Drum Major Institute think tank to focus on urban leaders and issues, Santa Fe Mayor David Coss argues that the Bush/Cheney administration's response has been characterized by "ignorance" as opposed...

HOLLAND - The mayor of this small community 15 miles south of Temple said Tuesday the commission of which she is president is ready to take by the horns the Texas Department of Transportation and its controversial proposal, the Trans-Texas Corridor. Armed with an 80-page manual, “How to Fight the TTC,” and backed by two non-profits who say they protect private property rights, Holland mayor Mae Smith said rural Bell County is ready for a fight. “Bell County sits here like a stepchild and they’re cramming this corridor down our throats,” Ms. Smith said, regarding the commission’s relationship with TxDOT....

Melissa mayor mailing resolutions to fellow mayors to stop state from using gas tax funds for non-road projects BY DANNY GALLAGHER, McKinney Courier-Gazette Melissa Mayor David Dorman said he sits in his office everyday and watches as cars zoom down State Highway 121, a road that will soon start collecting tolls from drivers who use it to get to Dallas, McKinney, Frisco or the Dallas North Tollway and back again. Dorman said before that happens, he wants to know the roads his citizens and drivers are paying the state to use will be maintained and built with those funds. “I...

Using the Greenpeace-friendly term ‘dirty oil’ in reference to crude drawn from the sand, the leaders of some American cities took lines that sounded right out of Treehugging For Dummies, stopping just short of equating Alberta’s oil industry with the Final Event of Revelations.....

The US Conference of Mayors on Monday passed a resolution calling for a phasing out of bottled water by municipalities and promoting the importance of public water supplies. (snip) The mayors, meeting in Miami, approved a resolution proposed by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom along with 17 other large-city mayors to redirect taxpayer dollars from bottled water to other city services.