Free Republic

Dirty Business as Usual at California High Speed Rail From the article: Out of the entire universe of those who could have won the first phase construction contract for California’s high speed rail boondoggle, who would stand out as the last person who would win it if there were no political patronage. Put another way, who is the most likely person to win it if there is political patronage? Both questions have the same answer: Richard Blum, the husband of California senator Diane Feinstein. So, who won the contract? Blum, of course, as the principle owner of Tutor Perini, the...

Griffin just reported that during John Brennan's hearing, Senators are asking if Obama, The State Department and the Defense Department.. WERE ARMING SYRIAN REBELS VIA WEAPONS OUT OF LIBYA. Now Leon Penetta is admitting he and Hillary REQUESTED to do this. Even though Hillary said in her hearing she knew nothing about it. Hillary has been caught in a HUGE lie!

Amazing detail in Brian Stelter's reporting on the sale of Current TV to Al-Jazeera: "Al Jazeera did not disclose the purchase price, but people with direct knowledge of the deal pegged it at around $500 million, indicating a $100 million payout for Mr. Gore, who owned 20 percent of Current. Mr. Gore and his partners were eager to complete the deal by Dec. 31, lest it be subject to higher tax rates that took effect on Jan. 1, according to several people who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. But the deal was not signed...

Current TV CEO Joel Hyatt just confirmed the sale in a memo to staffers. “Getting this transaction done was very difficult,” he writes. (Read the network’s official statement after the original break of the story.) Since Time Warner Cable would not consent to the sale “Current will no longer be carried on TWC. This is unfortunate, but I am confident that Al Jazeera America will earn significant additional carriage in the months and years ahead.” Time Warner Cable says that it is “removing the service as quickly as possible.” The loss of the No. 2 cable operator will hurt: Time...

As I noted earlier today, Al-Jazeera has been dubbed "the most powerful voice of the Muslim Brotherhood." And Pamela Geller has noted that "Al Jazeera is the leading terrorist propaganda organization in the world. Jihad murder mastermind Anwar al-Awlaki has praised Al Jazeera, and several years ago one of its most prominent reporters was arrested on terror charges. Al Jazeera also has for years been the recipient of numerous Al Qaeda videos featuring bin Laden, Zawahiri, and American traitor Adam Gadahn. Yet they never seem to be able to trace where these videos are coming from. They have repeatedly been...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are among the 15 wealthiest members of Congress, according to a new survey. The annual rankings by Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, showed the two San Francisco Democrats have a combined worth of at least $68 million, and potentially much more. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, tops the list with a minimum net worth of $306 million, roughly 4,000 times greater than the average American household. His wife, Linda, is the daughter of Lowry Mays, founder and CEO of Clear Channel Communications. No. 3 on the list, Rep. Darrell Issa,...

As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares to decamp from Sacramento on Jan. 3, he has displayed zealous determination to complete what critics say will be among the worst deals the state has ever made: the sale of 11 premier state office complexes to a group of politically connected private investors. ...California would pocket about $1.3 billion after debt is paid off, but would then be a tenant in the same buildings. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, the deal would cost taxpayers $6 billion over 35 years. ....Two prominent Bay Area lawyers sued to halt the sale, and the state...

Sen. Dianne Feinstein may have violated Senate ethics rules by introducing legislation in January that indirectly benefited her husband. The legislation authorized that $25 billion of taxpayer money be given to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to help finance an FDIC proposal to avoid home foreclosures by promoting loan workouts and increasing federal loan guarantees, The Washington Times reports. The Democratic California senator’s husband, Richard Blum, is chairman of the board of commercial real estate colossus CB Richard Ellis (CBRE). When Feinstein introduced her bill, the FDIC had just signed a contract with the firm to unload foreclosed properties for...

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein today dismissed as "nonsense" allegations that her efforts to bolster funding for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which protects bank depositors, aided her husband Richard Blum's real estate firm. The story by the conservative Washington Times, which appeared today, said that Feinstein's bill to increase FDIC funding by $25 billion arrived shortly after the agency awarded CB Richard Ellis Group, where Blum is chairman of the board, a contract to sell foreclosed houses. Blum's firm won the contract through competitive bidding. The purpose of the contract was to help the FDIC dispose of foreclosed properties it...

Feinstein sought $25 billion for agency that awarded contract to spouse On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate...

California senator sought $25 billion for a government agency that had awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties. On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms, the Washington Times reported on Tuesday. Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the...

On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct...

On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. Mrs. Feinstein’s intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn’t a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct...

On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs with jurisdiction over FDIC; and the agency is supposed to operate from money it raises from bank-paid insurance payments - not direct...

Senate husband's firm cashes in on crisis Feinstein sought $25 billion for agency that awarded contract to spouse By Chuck Neubauer THE WASHINGTON TIMES Tuesday, April 21, 2009 On the day the new Congress convened this year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to route $25 billion in taxpayer money to a government agency that had just awarded her husband's real estate firm a lucrative contract to sell foreclosed properties at compensation rates higher than the industry norms. Mrs. Feinstein's intervention on behalf of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was unusual: the California Democrat isn't a member of the Senate Committee...

San Francisco financier Richard Blum has built his reputation - and his multimillion-dollar fortune - by swooping in and turning around troubled corporations. His first major coup was putting together a partnership in 1968 to buy the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus for about $8 million - and then selling it for $40 million four years later. So it surprised no one that Blum adopted an alpha dog approach when he became chairman of the UC Board of Regents last year in the aftermath of the university's widely publicized management meltdown. And he's gotten results: the imminent departure...

Lawrence Summers, the controversial former president of Harvard University, has been replaced as the planned speaker at a UC Board of Regents dinner next week after complaints from faculty members. "(UC Regents) Chairman Richard Blum and Dr. Summers talked last Thursday and agreed that the regents would have a different speaker," Trey Davis, director of special projects for the UC system, said Saturday. Davis was unable to say whether a protest letter signed by more than 300 people from the university system had any effect on the decision to find a different speaker for the regents' dinner in Sacramento on...

Feinstein's FuryUp against the big media spin machine By Peter Byrne 29 weeks later: Following the fallout from Metro's investigation of Sen. Feinstein. I AM PLEASED to announce that my national exposé of Sen. Dianne Feinstein's conflict of interest has been selected as one of the 25 most underreported stories of 2007 by Project Censored, headquartered at Sonoma State University. I cherish this award because it means I am doing my job as an investigative reporter. Stories that the mainstream media ignore often reveal truths about our system of governance that editors at corporate daily newspapers work overtime to cover...

Auditor under fire reaps big profitsFirm has been criticized for rejecting many hospital Medicare claims in state. By David Whitney - Bee Washington Bureau Published 12:00 am PDT Friday, August 3, 2007 WASHINGTON -- PRG-Schultz International, the Atlanta auditing company under fire for its sweeping rejection of claims for California Medicare patients cared for by rehabilitation hospitals, announced soaring second-quarter profits Thursday. The announcement came a day after members of the California congressional delegation met with audit overseers in a heated meeting in which they complained that PRG-Schultz's wholesale rejection of claims is enriching its bottom line while jeopardizing health...

WASHINGTON – During much of the time that Sen. Dianne Feinstein was a leader on the Senate subcommittee overseeing the Pentagon's military construction budget, her husband was heavily invested in companies holding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts generated by the subcommittee's activities. The California Democrat denied that she helped her husband's companies in any way with contracts and said the Senate ethics committee approved the arrangement. But she declined to discuss the value of the contracts or release the ethics ruling. Feinstein also declined to be interviewed on the subject, relying instead on a spokesman. These questions arose...