Posted on 04/24/2013 6:56:41 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder
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 lead firm in the three-firm consortium selected by the California High Speed Rail Authority.
Yes, Diane, it really does look that bad to us little people.
A High Low Bid
The Perini-Zachary-Parsons bid was the lowest received from the five consortia participating in the bidding process, but “low” is a relative term. The firms bid $985,142,530 to build the wildly anticipated first section of high speed rail track that will tie the megopolis of Madera to the global finance center of Fresno. Do the division, and you find that the low bid came in at a mere $35 million per mile.
And that doesn’t include the cost of rolling stock (that’s engines and cars to the normal among us). Nor does it include the cost of electrifying the route. Does it at least include the cost of land acquisition? No, it does not.
As this fiasco progress, remember that this $35 million per mile represents the best California can do on the section of track the High on Crack Speed Rail Authority selected to go first because it will be the cheapest.
http://crazifornia.com/2013/04/16/dirty-business-as-usual-at...
Some background on this company:
High-Speed Rail bidding practice questionable the winner’s checkered past has a proven record of high cost over runs. http://www.examiner.com/article/high-speed-rail-bidding-prac...
The Feds put together a task force to go after construction fraid, overruns and safety violations. Perini has been caught doing such things over and over again. They are absolutely ridiculous in California projects. It is like DBE fronting is a part of its business model. Overall fraud appears to be a part of that model also.
According to the Seattle News some of the Perini headlines read: “In February, Tutor-Saliba and Perini agreed to pay $19 million to settle racketeering and fraud allegations in a San Francisco airport project.” “In 2004, Perini agreed to pay the federal government $998,500 to settle fraud claims in the construction of an embassy building in Venezuela.” “The companies are embroiled in an 11 – year legal battle over $16 million in extra costs on a Los Angeles subway job.” “Perini sued for more than $170 million in cost overruns on three New York City projects during the 1990s before settling for about $22 million.” http://www.nationalbcc.org/index.php?option=com_content&view...
Some day they’re gonna die, and they can’t take it with them.
Hey Blum baby....start an oil company.....yeah...you can do it.
cracked = fracked.
And I was always under the impression that Louisiana was the poster child for graft, fraud and corruption. There is no rule of law anymore. We are rudderless, adrift as a country.
Richard Blum, the husband of California senator Diane Feinstein.Corruption, the other face of the Socialist coin.
Just ugly.
Thanks for the ping.
(shrug) California is thoroughly dominated by corrupt Democrat politicians and the lazy, corrupt, simple-minded elctorate that keeps it that way. So who is supposed to do anything about the corruption? Move along. Nothing to see here.
No surprise here,, the elite taking care of their own..
Blum as been integral to a lot of the disintegration of California and antion, he’s a money grubbing connected fool., he’s served as a Regent of the UC system,, look at all their great successes delivering bang for the buck, when it comes to hiring chancellors and professors,, he’s their man.
Forbes loves him too.. a gentle bio..
http://www.forbes.com/profile/richard-blum-2/
Colonialism lives..
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Richard Blum: The Man Behind California’s “Developing Economy”
http://theava.com/archives/3874
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On April 17, 2009, with the edifice of the global economy rotting under an architecture of monumental greed, war deficits, and official hubris, the University of California, Berkeley conducted a groundbreaking ceremony for its Richard C. Blum Center for Developing Economies. Before a throng of students, faculty, staff, and PR specialists affiliated with the Center’s new multi-UC campus “Global Poverty & Practice” program, the Blum Center’s namesake was joined on stage by one of the many political heavyweights he counts among his business partners, Al Gore. The former Vice President praised Blum as a long-time friend and cited the new institute as a key to solving the interlocking problems of global poverty and global climate change, two of the many vexing boogeymen threatening to destabilize the profit-making order.
To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, who published a book on the general subject in 1921, some of the greatest sociopaths in this country’s history have affixed their names to university buildings in an effort to burnish their reputations.
Richard Blum is a San Francisco-based finance capitalist presiding over a business empire that is, to say the least, expansive. Hedge funds? Blum owns one outright and wields a significant share of various others. Real estate? His primary investment vehicle, the $7 billion Blum Capital Partners, owns the largest real estate brokerage firm on the planet, CB Richard Ellis, of which Blum is chairman of the board. Construction? Until public scandal prompted him to sell off his holdings, Blum was a majority partner in a construction and engineering company that did billions in business with the US military among other government clients. Education? Try being the resident Alpha Regent of the largest public university system in the world, the University of California, while also being a primary owner of the world’s second-largest for-profit education firm, Career Education Corporation.
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