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There's, like, a major corporate financial scandal goin' down, dude. Some greed-head wheeler-dealer took almost a million in government funds intended for children and Alzheimer's patients and put the money into a private start-up company. The money was supposed to be a loan, but the loan was never repaid, Now, the nonprofit is broke and under investigation for "significant inappropriate transaction and falsified documents." And, you know, like, the mainstream corporate media? They're paying no attention to the story, man. Children and Alzheimer's patients get the short end of the stick while fat-cat private interests line their pockets -- only...

AL Franken says 20,000 poor kids and old people weren't the only victims of an exec who allegedly arranged a Bronx charity's mega-buck "loan" to Air America. "About three weeks into the life of Air America, I became an involuntary investor — I stopped being paid," Franken told listeners yesterday on WLIB (1190 AM). It was the first time the all-liberal network's biggest star addressed at length a controversial $875,000 loan from the disgraced — and now de-funded — Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club. Since The Post first reported the story on July 30, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced...

If you thought Air America's sleazy scandal involving $875,000 in taxpayer funds meant for a Bronx-based nonprofit had begun to fade into the background, guess again. Because the mainstream media ignored the story, public awareness has instead built up slowly. Yesterday, "Air America" was the most requested term at blog search engine Technorati, and we don't believe it's due to a sudden interest in Franken's political views.

Air America is holding a contest "to come up with the most creative and/or funny bumper stickers to get the word out about Air America Radio." I'm sure The Radio Equalizer would have some clever entries for this...

Doug MacEachern of the Arizona Republic covers the Air Ameriscam news blackout at the New York Times:"A scandal below the radar."

The comedian Al Franken, Air America Radio's most prominent host, said yesterday that he did not know whether the hundreds of thousands of dollars apparently lent to the radio network by a Bronx social-service organization had indeed been relayed to Air America by Evan Montvel Cohen. Mr. Cohen simultaneously served as director of the liberal network and development director of the nonprofit Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club.

AIR ENRON By Michelle Malkin   ·   August 02, 2005 05:57 AM David Lombino of The New York Sun continues to move the Air America story forward. According to Lombino's latest article, Al Franken revealed that Air America's current owners have known about the loan from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club for some time: Mr. Franken said he has learned details of the story only in the last week. He said Piquant LLC, current owner and operator of the radio network, found a record of the transfers while conducting a "forensic" investigation into the finances of the previous owner, Progress...

The comedian Al Franken, Air America Radio's most prominent host, said yesterday that he did not know whether the hundreds of thousands of dollars apparently lent to the radio network by a Bronx social-service organization had indeed been relayed to Air America by Evan Montvel Cohen. SNIP Mr. Franken said he has learned details of the story only in the last week. He said Piquant LLC, current owner and operator of the radio network, found a record of the transfers while conducting a "forensic" investigation into the finances of the previous owner, Progress Media, which was run by Mr. Cohen....

Here's a pop quiz: If you're running Air America Radio right about now, are you A) horrified your dirty secrets are being aired by bloggers and others, or B) thrilled, knowing it will shortly be back to business as usual, since the mainstream media has decided to look the other way at your network's past dirty dealings and recent conflicting statements.

  Air Enron (Michelle Malkin)  -- According to Lombino's latest article, Air America's current owners have known about ... a large cash infusion from Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, a non-profit organization funded primarily by government grants.  Despite the near-total MSM blackout, this story just keeps getting more and more interesting.  Previous:Air Deadbeat: the saga continuesThe Air America loopholeAir America is scramblingAir America: Don't blame usAir America: Stealing from poor kids?!    RADIO MAN CATCHES $TATIC (con man blamed for Air America $500K snafu) -- A top staffer at the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in The Bronx "conned" the...

<p>Did Al Franken's liberal radio network Air America divert city money for the elderly and inner-city children to itself? That's the question people should be asking this week after the revelation that the New York Department of Investigation is looking into whether hundreds of thousands of dollars were illegally transferred from a Bronx community center to Air America. Only a community paper and a few Internet bloggers seem interested in what could be an egregious case of illegal funneling of tax dollars to a private, partisan organization.</p>

The New York Sun takes on the Air America story today and advances it by leaps and bounds, talking with the president of the non-profit which had its money taken by Air America founder Evan Cohen. It turns out that Cohen didn't just get money for the netlet, but also managed to get plenty for his own pockets as well while sitting on the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club board: Initially, members of the executive committee viewed Mr. Cohen fondly because he had thrown a tremendously successful fund-raising affair for Gloria Wise in Manhattan last year. They recalled being...

Tuesday, August 2 Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt pulling Air Ameriscam threadsOnce again doing the job of mainstream media, these two biggies of the blogosphere, Michelle Malkin and Hugh Hewitt, spent a couple of segments earlier this afternoon comparing notes on the Gloria Wise/Air America scandal, which appears to have the liberal radio network getting their startup financing literally out of the hands of a boys and girls club in the Bronx. Here's the interview:HH: Michelle, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt show.MM: Thanks for having me back, Hugh, and thanks for helping force this story into the mainstream....

For a change, Al Franken sounded serious and didn't want a fistfight. He didn't seem to know much about Air America Radio's loan scandal speaking to the New York Sun Monday, and said he had just learned the details last week. In sum, he sounded a lot like the politicians he plays "gotcha" with. Maybe Mr. Franken's ambitions for Norm Coleman's seat in the Senate are sobering him up a bit. He didn't know whether former Air America director and nonprofit executive Evan Cohen had transferred inner-city childrens' money to Air America, nor whether the money had been used for...

I am sure you all have wondered why none of the usual urban liberal shakedown artists have chimed in on the Air America Scandal (Air America Under Investigation- Possibly Funded with Non-Profit Grant Money) Well, Michelle Malkin breaks it down for us so clearly that anyone can see that it’s all about the Benjamins! (That’s money for those of you who are Ebonically challenged.) Read More... Craig DeLuz Visit The Home of Uncommon Sense... www.craigdeluz.com

Officials at the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club — under investigation for lending Air America radio nearly $900,000 — yesterday demanded that the left-wing network start repaying the money. "Air America reached a legal agreement to have that loan repaid in full," beginning this summer, said Martta Rose, a spokeswoman for the Club, which is the subject of a probe by the city Department of Investigation. Air America said it put on hold plans to pay back the money because Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club was shut down by the city......."We're waiting for direction from investigators on how...

Big Fat Yawn Media: Rush Limbaugh's prescription drug troubles were splashed all over the media. Yet a financial scandal rocking a leftist radio network rates no coverage. The mainstream media, fixated on bringing down Karl Rove, have so far deemed apparent funding irregularities at Air America unworthy of note. But that doesn't make them any less of story. Here's the gist, according to The New York Sun -- which is giving the scandal the coverage it deserves -- and a few others, mostly bloggers and columnists, who are providing a public service: New York City's Department of Investigation is looking...

Air America's foot-dragging on repaying $875,000 borrowed from a beleaguered Boys & Girls Club in The Bronx has nothing to do with a probe of the club's controversial loans, city investigators said yesterday. Officials at the ultra-liberal radio network have repeatedly said Air America intends to repay the money, but claimed they put those plans on hold because of the city probe. "We're waiting for directions from the investigators on how to proceed," Air America spokeswoman Jamie Horn said........... But the Department of Investigation said there is nothing to prevent the radio network from repaying its debt immediately. "DOI has...

WHAT DID AL FRANKEN KNOW, and when did he know it? When Air America launched last year, it was the beneficiary of more free publicity than any radio show or network launch had ever received. So desperate was the mainstream media to find some left-leaning response to the Limbaugh-led revolution in talk radio that the many and obvious flaws in the network's offerings went largely unreported. Those of us who have been around radio studios for a few years know, though, that launch hype and selective reading of Arbitron results can never mask the key question: Is a show profitable?...

August 03, 2005 A Deafening Silence on Air America Air America--or Air Scamerica, or Air Enron--is engulfed in scandal. It now appears clear that the far-left radio network obtained critical funding by misappropriating money earmarked for poor children and Alzheimer's victims from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, a nonprofit organization. For the latest, read Hugh Hewitt's interview of Michelle Malkin on Hugh's show last night; Radio Blogger (Hugh's producer, Duane Patterson) has the transcript. Hugh and Michelle have both been delving into the scandal. Hugh has tried to contact members of the Gloria Wise board of directors; all...