Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Even though L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcon was convicted of four felonies this week, he’ll continue to receive his $116,000 annual pension, a newspaper reported Friday. There are some California jurisdictions that prohibit city employees convicted of felonies from receiving pensions. That’s not the case in Los Angeles, a worker in the city’s civilian retirement division told Los Angeles Daily News. Alarcon, 60, was convicted Wednesday of four counts of perjury and voter fraud for living outside Council District 7 and lying about his address on official documents. The councilman’s wife, Flora, was convicted of three...

Former Charlotte Mayor Patrick Cannon was expected to plead guilty Tuesday in a corruption case after an FBI sting recorded him accepting thousands of dollars in cash and airline tickets from undercover agents posing as businessmen, according to court documents. Cannon agreed to plead guilty to a single count of honest services wire fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to documents filed Monday at U.S. District Court. Cannon was set to appear Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge David Cayer. Cannon, 47, was arrested March 26 and the Democrat resigned...

A distraught young woman called (Democrat) Oregon Rep. David Wu's Portland office this spring, accusing him of an unwanted sexual encounter, according to multiple sources. When confronted, Wu acknowledged a sexual encounter to his senior aides but insisted it was consensual, the sources said. The woman is the daughter of a longtime friend and campaign donor. She apparently did not contact police at the time. One person who heard the voice mail described the woman as upset, breathing heavily and "distraught." In the voice mail, the young woman accused Wu of aggressive and unwanted sexual behavior, according to sources with...

Anthony Weiner, the US congressman who lied about lewd online exchanges with female admirers, was mired in further controversy on Tuesday, as women alleged he used his office to carry out the affairs. The married New York Democrat was under intense pressure as the reason he gave for not resigning – that he kept the sexual messages and pictures separate from his work – was challenged. A Las Vegas Blackjack dealer claimed he had called her for phone sex from a congressional line, while a pornographic actress alleged he offered to have someone from his "team" help her prepare misleading...

Wisconsin State Rep. Gordon Hintz told reporters today that his arrest for sexual misconduct is a distraction from larger issues facing the state. The Chicago Tribune reported: State Rep. Gordon Hintz says he is willing to take responsibility for his actions after he was cited this month for sexual misconduct. Records say the Oshkosh Democrat was arrested Feb. 10. The 37-year-old was accused of violating a City of Appleton ordinance of touching or offering to touch sexual parts. In a statement e-mailed to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Hintz says, “I am willing to take responsibility for my actions.” But he...

Police: Nev. Councilwoman Planned Murder-SuicidePage Last Updated: Wednesday January 26, 2011 5:40pm PST Police say a city councilwoman from Nevada found dead with her husband fatally shot him about an hour before calling 911 to report that she was going to kill herself. The Las Vegas Sun reported Wednesday that the bodies of Donna Fairchild and Bill Fairchild were found before dawn Tuesday at their home in Mesquite, about 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Donna Fairchild faced removal as the city's delegate to a regional business organization at a council meeting scheduled for the night of her death. Police...

KNOXVILLE - A Criminal Court jury this afternoon convicted former Knox County Community Services Director Cynthia Finch of two counts of felony forgery but acquitted her of fabricating evidence. The jurors found she was guilty of forging an invoice for $1,759, a Class D felony punishable by two to four years in prison. She also was convicted of forging an invoice under $500, a Class E felony that has a sentence of one to two years. Special Judge Jon Kerry Blackwood said sentencing would be set later. The jury acquitted her of fabricating evidence. The verdicts were returned after about...

KNOXVILLE - A former Knox County administrator is standing trial today on charges she offered up fake receipts to account for more than $2,000 in questionable expenses. Cynthia Finch, who served as community grants director under former Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, is being tried in Criminal Court on charges of forgery and fabricating evidence. Finch was indicted in 2009 and accused of fabricating receipts for about $2,200 in FedEx/Kinko's charges. The charges - two counts of forgery and one count of fabricating evidence - came after Finch's departure from the county's administration, a string of audits involving the county...

A federal criminal investigation targeting John Edwards is examining how much the two-time presidential candidate knew about money used to cover up his extramarital affair and out-of-wedlock child and whether he had other practices that pushed the bounds of campaign finance laws, people involved in the case have told The Associated Press.

"His campaign under siege after his wife's admission this week to falsifying federal tax returns, Congressman John Tierney said Friday he knew very little about her management of a bank account full of illegal gambling profits. "I couldn't tell you if there was $5 going through there or $500. It was her family's stuff," he said." "The kids, all teenagers, were a "handful." Their mother was also away in Florida receiving treatment for health issues. Besides Patrice, a young au pair was there for the kids. "She was part of the problem," Tierney said of the au pair. "She wasn't...

Los Angeles (AP) State Sen. Roderick Wright on Thursday was indicted on eight felony counts in connection with a probe into whether he lived outside his Southern California district since he was elected two years ago. An indictment unsealed Thursday charges Wright, 58, with five counts of voter fraud, two counts of perjury and one count of filing a false declaration of candidacy.

Washington (AP) Michigan Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick lost her bid for an 8th term yesterday, becoming the 8th incumbent lawmaker to be fired by a frustrated electorate.

HAMMOND, Ind. – A federal judge has ordered a former northern Indiana mayor and two ex-aides to pay $108 million in civil damages in an alleged sidewalks-for-votes scheme. The suit says former East Chicago Mayor Robert Pastrick and others spent $24 million in public money on private driveways, patios and walkways to court voters in 1999. Pastrick left office in 2004 and was never charged criminally.

Twenty-three people in Luzerne County — including a school superintendent, three county judges, four courthouse officials, and five school board members — have been charged so far in a variety of unrelated schemes. In the most egregious abuse of the public's trust, two judges are charged with taking $2.8 million in kickbacks to place youth offenders in for-profit detention facilities — a scandal known as "kids for cash." * * * Few in the coal region are surprised. Machine-style politics has flourished here for decades; government jobs and other taxpayer-funded goodies are often doled out to the politically connected, not...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and his wife, who already have a lien on their property for failing to pay more than $239,000 in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service, are now facing a second lien for more than $13,000, records show. Dellums, 73, and his wife, Cynthia, 55, who acts as his unpaid adviser, are named in an IRS lien filed with the Alameda County recorder's office Dec. 23 in the amount of $13,638. The lien, which says it is for tax year 2008, comes two months after the couple were slapped with a lien in Alameda County for failing...

Take it from those who have been there: Prison life is hard on people who need to be in control. Especially politicians accustomed to giving orders, cutting deals, spending millions - and getting their way. Former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo is due to report to federal prison tomorrow, assigned to serve his 55-month sentence at a low-security institution in Ashland, Ky. His attorneys have fought that, wanting Fumo placed closer to family in Philadelphia. What's definite, experts say, is that prisons specialize in turning people like Fumo from kings to peasants. In free society, his dominion included four homes,...

Former Queens Assemblyman Anthony Seminerio faces 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to taking secret payments from Jamaica Hospital officials. In a booming voice, the tough-on-crime Democrat put the finishing touches on a 30-year legislative career with three words: "Guilty, your honor." "I knew that my conduct was illegal and wrong, your honor," Seminerio told Manhattan Federal Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Wednesday. Seminerio, 74, resigned his seat representing Queens' 38th District Tuesday. Manhattan federal prosecutors say he pocketed more than $1 million in consulting fees by promising hospitals, nonprofits and others inside access in Albany.

A New York City councilman is being fined more than $24,000 for elections violations in three 2007 campaigns. The city's Campaign Finance Board said Councilman Mathieu Eugene racked up 29 violations. Those include failing to provide his bank statements, accepting five corporate contributions and using campaign funds for non-campaign related expenses.