Free Republic

A criminal investigation into whether lucrative state pension business was being traded for campaign contributions to Gov. Blagojevich has developed a Hollywood storyline: Federal authorities want to know if an investment firm then co-owned by the Oscar-winning producer of "Million Dollar Baby" was pushed to donate money to Blagojevich as it vied for a $220 million state deal, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. The producer, Tom Rosenberg, and Capri/Capital Advisors were approached in 2004 about contributing to the governor and were told it was a condition for securing investment funds from the state Teachers' Retirement System, sources familiar with the...

Investigative Report: Another Clinton Scandal Coming? Posted August 13, 2004 By Paul M. Rodriguez Hillary Clinton is flying high within the Democratic Party as a marquee star that many hope will launch a presidential run in 2008 or 2012 or join up as a vice presidential contender. But previously unknown federal documents outlining potentially serious election law violations could spell trouble for the junior senator from New York and some high-fliers in the Democratic Party. At the same time, according to legal and federal law enforcement sources who have spoken to Insight on condition of anonymity, the failure to pursue...

<p>By April 30, the Republican National Committee (RNC) already had spent $115 million of the $180 million it had raised since the beginning of last year. For the president's sake, the RNC had better hope the money was spent wisely. The latest reports issued by the Federal Election Commission summarizing fund-raising and spending patterns of President Bush, Sen. John Kerry, the RNC and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) paint a picture that White House strategists clearly had not envisioned last fall.</p>

House arrest for lawmaker extradited to US MIAMI: A Philippine lawmaker accused of tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions to US politicians can post bail but will be under 24-hour house arrest in Florida until trial, a US judge ruled on Tuesday. Despite arguments from US prosecutors that Mark Jimenez should be kept in jail because he might flee and “cannot be trusted,” US Magistrate Ted Bandstra set a series of conditions meant to allow the congressman to be freed but keep him on a tight leash. Jimenez, who turned 56 on Tuesday, arrived in Miami on Sunday to...

After the events of Sept. 11, Al Gore must have hoped no one remembered. But someone did. On Sept. 20, 2001, the Boston Globe broke the story of how the so-called Gore Commission had failed in its mission to address airline safety. The Globe claimed this failure "represents the clearest recent public example of the success that airlines have long had in defeating calls for more oversight." The Globe traced that failure to a series of campaign donations from the airlines to the Democratic National Committee in 1996 in the wake of the crash of TWA Flight 800. Although on...

<p>In a blow to candidates seeking public campaign financing, a Supreme Judicial Court justice ruled yesterday that the court cannot order funding for the voter-approved Clean Elections Law without legislative action.</p> <p>The ruling, issued by Justice Martha B. Sosman, found that only the Legislature can appropriate funds from the state treasury under the Massachusetts Constitution. The SJC had previously raised the possibility of circumventing the House and Senate to fund candidates, but yesterday's ruling dashed that hope, at least for now.</p>