Free Republic

Posted on Mon, Oct. 20, 2003 STREET, BACKERS CRY PLOT By CHRIS BRENNAN brennac@phillynews.com THE CAMPAIGN by Mayor Street and his supporters to portray a federal probe as a sinister plot designed to derail his re-election ratcheted up over the weekend. Ronald A. White, a Street campaign contributor with lucrative city contracts whose law office was raided last week by the FBI, on Saturday night lashed out at the federal investigators. Asked why he was swept up in the probe of possible City Hall corruption, White railed: "Because I am a black man in America doing what I think needs...

Posted on Sun, Oct. 19, 2003 Inquiry puts race factor at campaign's forefront By Thomas Fitzgerald Inquirer Staff Writer Everybody knew that race would be a significant issue in the campaign for mayor of Philadelphia, with a white Republican taking on a black Democratic incumbent. Now, it has effectively become the only issue. The discovery of an FBI bug in Mayor Street's office Oct. 7 and a federal investigation into possible municipal corruption has completely changed the dynamic of the campaign and, in the process, deepened long-existing fissures between black and white Philadelphians. With the election only two weeks away...

Posted on Sun, Oct. 19, 2003 Street ally's firm hired to do work that city already was performing By Linda K. Harris, Clea Benson and Craig R. McCoy Inquirer Staff Writers A company raided by the FBI as part of its far-reaching Philadelphia corruption probe was paid $60,000 by the Street administration to collect delinquent property taxes that the city's lawyers were already busy collecting. An Inquirer review of city contracts and other documents raises questions about the city's dealings with Keystone Information & Financial Services, a company operated by Imam Shamsud-din Ali, a political ally of Mayor Street's. The...

Posted on Sat, Oct. 18, 2003 FEDS SUBPOENA PHA RECORDS, COMPUTERS By DAVE DAVIES, MARK MCDONALD & EARNI YOUNG daviesd@phillynews.com The federal corruption probe that led to a bug being installed in Mayor Street's office continues to spread, as federal agents have subpoenaed documents and personal computing devices from the Philadelphia Housing Authority and several private businesses. PHA officials confirmed yesterday that the feds want records of about 30 companies and individuals the authority does business with - including lawyer Ron White, a Street friend and supporter whose Center City law office was raided Thursday. The mayor condemned the surprise...

Posted on Sat, Oct. 18, 2003 TRUMPING THE RACE CARD KATZ RIPS STREET OVER CLAIM THAT FEDS ARE PREJUDICED AGAINST HIM By ERIN EINHORN, MARK McDONALD & EARNI YOUNG eeinhorn@phillynews.com SAM KATZ CAME out swinging yesterday, accusing Mayor Street of making a "blatant appeal to race" and "cynically injecting the issue of race into a federal investigation about corruption." As news of buggings and subpoenas dominated the coverage of the mayor's race, Katz had, until yesterday, largely stayed out of it, offering only measured or tepid responses to questions about the ongoing federal probe. But maybe because his poll numbers...

AS A former federal prosecutor and former senior Justice Department official, and lifelong Democrats, we are appalled at the response of local and national Democrats like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to the discovery of sophisticated FBI bugging equipment in Mayor Street's office. All we've heard from these individuals are cynical and conspiratorial accusations and inferences of a nefarious plot by the "Bush-Ashcroft Justice Department" to smear the mayor right before the election. At best, such allegations show utter ignorance of the strict federal laws and procedures governing electronic surveillance; at worst, they are an intentional effort to mislead the...

FBI Raids 3 City Agencies, Street Fund-raiser's Office By Anthony S. Twyman, Nathan Gorenstein and Emilie LounsberryInquirer Staff Writers       Ratcheting up the federal investigation that has engulfed the mayoral election, FBI agents crisscrossed Center City yesterday to search three city agencies and the office of a lawyer who is a top political ally of Mayor Street's and has earned millions from municipal legal work.   The extraordinary raids targeted the city Finance Department, the city treasurer's office, and the city Board of Pensions and Retirement, as well as the law office of Ronald A. White, a major...

Judge limited FBI's eavesdroppingBy Mark Fazlollah, Rose Ciotta and Emilie LounsberryInquirer Staff Writers The bugging lasted only two weeks.The device used to eavesdrop on conversations in Mayor Street's City Hall office was secretly planted about two weeks before Philadelphia police discovered it in the ceiling, people familiar with the investigation said yesterday.The bugging was limited in another important way: FBI agents were not permitted to listen in on all of the dozens of people who met with the mayor, but only to conversations involving a short list of visitors, the sources said yesterday.The judge who approved the bugging signed off...

DOCUMENTS DESTROYED AS FEDERAL PROBE AT FACILITY INTENSIFIED By DAVE DAVIES A PHILADELPHIA airport employee told the Daily News yesterday that he saw documents being shredded at the airport's maintenance administration office earlier this summer as a federal investigation into a $13 million contract intensified. "I witnessed it myself," said the employee, a veteran white-collar professional who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I saw them shredding documents twice." It isn't yet clear whether the grand-jury investigation of the Philadelphia airport maintenance contract is what led the FBI to bug Mayor Street's office, but activity in the airport probe has heightened...

Posted on Sun, Oct. 12, 2003 A Campaign in Turmoil By Thomas Fitzgerald Inquirer Staff Writer Mayor Street and Republican challenger Sam Katz have spent nine months testing their messages with polls and focus groups, raising money, shooting television commercials, and making speeches. None of that may matter anymore. The discovery of an FBI bug in the mayor's office last week has inextricably altered a campaign that should be winding up for a carefully scripted finale. Now, nothing seems certain. Both camps are scrambling to make sense of the new landscape even as time rapidly runs out. "There is no...

Posted on Sat, Oct. 11, 2003 FEDS GET MORE CITY DATA TAKE DOCUMENTS ON MINORITY BIZ AGENCY, 2 MORE STREET MINI-COMPUTERS By CHRIS BRENNAN & MARK MCDONALD brennac@phillynews.com THE STREET administration, already tainted by an FBI investigation into suspected public corruption, has surrendered documents from the city's Minority Business Enterprise Council to federal agents, it was learned yesterday. MBEC, which certifies minority ownership of companies that do business with the city, qualified the mayor's brother, Milton Street, for a $1.1 million baggage contract at the airport that is part of a federal grand jury probe. It's not known what connection,...

Posted on Fri, Oct. 10, 2003 FBI SEIZURE ADDS TO THE MYSTERY FEDS TOOK STREET'S MINI-COMPUTER JUST AS MAYOR Street appeared to be climbing out, he sank deeper. Street acknowledged yesterday that FBI agents have confiscated one of his BlackBerry mini-computers, and two law-enforcement sources confirmed that Street is the subject - although not the target - of a grand jury investigation. Federal agents asked for the mayor's BlackBerry, which transmits and stores e-mails, when they came to City Hall on Tuesday, after the discovery of an FBI listening device in the mayor's ceiling. Street said last night after his...

Thursday, Oct 09, 2003 Posted on Thu, Oct. 09, 2003 MAYOR NO TARGET BUT FEW KNOW OR WILL SAY WHAT'S UP WITH BUG By DAVE DAVIES & CHRIS BRENNAN daviesd@phillynews.com Yong Kim / Daily News Mayor Street's office in City Hall, where listening device was found Tuesday after police conducted routine sweep. MAYOR STREET said last night that he's been assured he is not the target of the FBI investigation that led to the installation of an electronic bug in his City Hall office. But that doesn't necessarily mean Street is in the clear. Neither Street nor federal prosecutors would...

FBI Steps Up ProbeBy Emilie Lounsberry, Mark Fazlollah and Clea BensonInquirer Staff Writers A wide-ranging federal investigation of alleged corruption in City Hall broke into the open yesterday, as FBI agents seized records from people with political ties to Mayor Street.In several searches across the city, federal agents rushed to preserve possible evidence the day after Philadelphia police found a listening device that the FBI had planted in the ceiling of Street's City Hall office.Yesterday morning, agents raided a small financial firm run by two Street supporters, including one of Philadelphia's most prominent Muslim leaders. Under Street's administration, the firm...

October 9, 2003 U.S. Bug in Mayor's Office Roils Philadelphia RaceBy JAMES DAO hiladelphia and federal officials said on Wednesday that a listening device found in Mayor John F. Street's office in City Hall had been planted by F.B.I. agents in an investigation. Mr. Street, a first-term Democrat, is locked in a bitter race for re-election with a Republican businessman, Sam Katz, and the discovery of one or more bugs in the office on Tuesday morning further roiled the race. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States attorney's office in Philadelphia have declined to explain the purpose or target...

Posted on Wed, Oct. 08, 2003 Mayor Street's office buggedBy Thomas J. Gibbons Jr., Leonard N. Fleming and Craig R. McCoyInquirer Staff Writers A sophisticated electronic listening device with multiple microphones was found yesterday morning hidden in the ceiling of Mayor Street's City Hall office.Within hours, the FBI said that the eavesdropping device was not related to the mayor's race, but declined to explain how it knew that so quickly.Pressed whether federal investigators themselves might have planted the bug, FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi said the agency "would not confirm or deny" whether that was the case.Street emerged from his...

Posted on Fri, Sep. 26, 2003 John Baer | STREET PINNING HOPES ON NUMBERS?BLACKS, DEMS OUTNUMBER WHITES, REPUBLICANSBy John Baerbaerj@phillynews.com MAYBE THERE'S a reason John Street's campaign so often seems in fiery freefall.(Phony letters, alleged firebombs, brother boil ups, alleged gun goons, mayoral meltdowns, etc.)Maybe when Street snarls at AFSCME saying he's gonna win, "with you or without you," he knows whereof he speaks.And maybe the reason this unlikeable pol down in the polls runs and rants the way he does is simply fact he knows...ta da!...da numbas!In other words, maybe the maybes are all in the math.A close...

Mayoral candidates take gloves off earlyBy Thomas FitzgeraldInquirer Staff Writer Sam Katz unveiled a sober proposal to crack down on "pinstripe patronage" yesterday - but a few words at the end of his press conference ignited the kind of rhetorical warfare not usually seen until just before an election.Mayor Street's campaign is "out of control," Katz said, responding to questions about tactics. "They're engaged in character assassination. I'd urge the campaign to get out of the gutter."For good measure, Katz said it was not surprising that Street's campaign press secretary had come under fire for attack letters his wife wrote...

Posted on Wed, Jun. 18, 2003 Milton Street looks for a lawyer to rescue deal By Thomas Fitzgerald, Inquirer Staff Writer MICHAEL S. WIRTZ / Inquirer Milton Street, at his office in Delaware County, believes his brother will go to court to stop his deal to be a contractor with the airport. He argues that it is not improper nor any of the mayor's business. In a white-stucco office building in Essington, the computers were booted up yesterday morning, the bare walls shone under fluorescent lights, and the empty bins in the garage awaited spare parts for airport baggage carousels....

(Philadelphia Mayor) Street condemns official's remarks (anti-Semite) Hanford Jones' complaint was considered anti-Semitic. His city job is protected by civil-service rules.By Thomas Fitzgerald and Leonard N. FlemingInquirer Staff Writers Mayor Street yesterday condemned a city official who complained that too many developers competing for city projects were Jewish, saying the remarks violated the mayor's standard of "respect and acceptance for all people."Hanford Jones will keep his job as coordinator with the Minority Business Enterprise Council - he is protected by civil-service rules - albeit with tight restrictions on his duties, administration officials said."The administration stands for inclusion, not exclusion," Street...