Posted on 10/10/2008 6:50:19 PM PDT by neverdem
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) -- Like many commuters, Ron Marino is incredulous about revelations that nearly every employee who asked for disability benefits after retiring from the nation's largest commuter railroad was granted them.
But Marino isn't the only one who is venting these days about the Long Island Rail Road.
Four separate investigations are under way after it was reported last month that more than 90 percent of Long Island Rail Road employees were granted disability payments by an obscure federal board, allowing them to collect huge payments every year.
The New York Post has dubbed this the ''Gravy Train Scandal.''
''I think it's ridiculous,'' Marino, a doctor, said Thursday morning while waiting for a train into New York City. ''There can't possibly be that many people disabled.''
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office confirmed Thursday that its investigation is proceeding with subpoenas to...
--SNIP--
Besides Cuomo, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn and the inspectors general of the Railroad Retirement Board and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the parent agency of the LIRR, also have begun reviews.
The investigations stem from a New York Times report that found that since 2000, about a quarter of a billion dollars in federal disability money has gone to LIRR retirees. The paper compared figures with the Metro-North Railroad, an MTA agency that runs trains to New York City's northern suburbs. Despite work forces of similar size, Metro-North had 32 cases of disability from arthritis and rheumatism between 2001 through 2007. The LIRR had 753.
In one year, Metro-North had just 2 cases. The LIRR had 118, the newspaper found.
And as state retirees, the LIRR alumni are entitled to perks such as free admission to state parks, including golf courses, where the Times found ''disabled'' former railroad workers spending their summer days walking 18 holes...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
AP: Scandal Rocks Nation’s Largest Commuter Railroad, Sarah Palin took a ride on this train....../sarc
Its Sarah’s fault.../sarc
It appears as though ALL of the retirees “got the memo.” LOL!
THOU SHALL NOT STEAL. Means neighbor should NOT steal from neighbor, it means Mankind should not ROB GOD, but it also means GOVERNMENT should not take MORE than the Levitical 10%. Gov’t TOO must abide by the Ten Commandments. God will take us to the WOODSHED if we don’t. David Wilkerson has been telling us all for a long time this is all past due.
lol...sounds like Gov. Paterson called for an investigation AFTER the feds raided the place! Well....you know what kind of politicians ‘legislate for Gravy Trains’...We should start looking for the ‘Names’!! Schumer + company.
whatever happened to the idea of an honest day’s pay for an honest days work? pigs at the trough.
I would chip in if building additional jails is appropriate...
...including members of the mystery "...obscure federal board" which empowered the fraud.
Hey, we're half way there. Only 50 % of Americans pay taxes
My father, who passed away last August, retired from the LIRR.
He always told me that everyone on the railroad had an angle and played fast and loose. Some of the guys he knew had managed to get all kinds of goodies when they retired.
Pop was an honest guy though, so he retired on just what he had earned.
He once walked five miles in a blizzard to open the Great Neck, NY ticket office. After just 2 trains ran they closed the line, so he slept in the office in order to be at his post the next day.
They don’t make ‘em like that any more folks.
A very apt allusion.
"All animals are equal; but some are more equal than others."
... until they worked the horse to death...
Schumer already trying to blame the docs...lol (typical dem)
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny—lirrdisability1010oct10,0,7280453.story
I’d like to see just who pushed the ‘legislation’ and got pay offs in Congress.
Schumer and the other dem in COVER-UP mode!
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-lirail1011,0,4922178.story
Video of presser...and cover-up in the making.
Barack 'Osama' on Rensselaer County ballots
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
Close, but the 10% was for the support of the Levites, the king(the government) could take as much as it wanted, and it did as per the warning given when the people decided they wanted a king.
yeah! let’s unionize everything in America so we can all get the same!
Need to raise their disability pay, so they can ride carts.
FDNY, NYPD as well as every other fire and PD in the country should be investigated for fraudulent disability next.
Thanks for the ping!
I grew up near the LIRR tracks, and within walking distance of the Westwood Station. The LIRR is one big mess of patronage and a workfare system for the dumb relatives of state and municipal employees.
Agreed. I must say, however, that NJT tends to do a better job operating in inclement weather than the LIRR or Metro North.
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