Left-wing ‘Watchdog’ Group Turns on Obama Admin, Demands Investigation into EPA Chief Lisa Jackson’s Secret Emails

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photo credit: USACEpublicaffairsLiberal group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a self-described “watchdog” organization, has turned on President Barack Obama’s administration for its handling of EPA administrator Lisa Jackson’s alleged use of secret email accounts.

On Tuesday, CREW demanded the EPA’s inspector general, Arthur Elkins, investigate Jackson and other EPA employees for using the accounts.

CREW executive director Melanie Sloan said in a statement announcing the demand that Jackson’s “practice of using fictitious email accounts to conduct official EPA business, shielding the contents from public view, conflicts directly with her responsibility to follow federal records law.”

“The fact that others may have engaged in such conduct before her tenure is no justification,” Sloan said. “‘Everybody does it,’ is an excuse for kindergarteners, not cabinet officials.”

“Complying with the Federal Records Act is not optional,” Sloan added. “The EPA’s illegal and devious practices undermine the ability of Congress, outside watchdog groups, and citizens alike to request and receive full information from the agency. The IG should investigate immediately to ensure messages are being properly saved and learn what, exactly, it is that Administrator Jackson and other EPA employees are trying to hide from the American public.”

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Michigan Jail Cell Was Web Porn Executive’s VIP Office

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photo credit: adam jonesFor more than 18 months, Francis A. Sharrak was able to manage his multimillion-dollar Internet porn and strip club business using just a laptop computer and a telephone.

And he was able to do it all from his secluded office space in downtown Detroit — a VIP cell at the Wayne County Jail.

Sharrak, 44, of Farmington Hills, was awaiting sentencing on federal tax evasion charges when he was locked up in Wayne County in August 2010. Health problems and numerous requests for delays kept him there until May 2012.

He was serving as his own lawyer and asked for the laptop computer to prepare his arguments for his sentencing, court records show. But he wasn’t supposed to have it.

“Now, I am the first one ever to have a computer in the history of this jail,” Sharrak boasted to a female friend in a recorded phone call from his jail cell in January 2011. Federal prosecutors used the transcribed jail house call to further their argument to a judge that Sharrak should receive a high-end sentence because they said he failed to learn his lesson and repeatedly broke the rules.

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More Americans Will Use Food Stamps For Thanksgiving This Year Than Ever Before

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More Americans will use food stamps to buy their Thanksgiving dinner this year than ever before, according to a new report from the nonprofit government watchdog group The Sunlight Foundation.

The Food Stamp Challenge, which challenges higher-income families to live as if they are on food stamps, estimates that a person on food stamps has a budget of about $1.25 per meal. In other words, a family on food stamps must buy an entire meal per person for less than the cost of an average cup of coffee.

Usage of food stamps among low and no-income families has spiked since the collapse of the U.S. financial system four years ago. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, average participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp program, has increased 70 percent since 2007. And economists have warned that usage of food stamps won’t go down until unemployment improves.

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Revealed: Remote Control Used to Set off Indiana House Explosion

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Police in Indiana investigating a deadly house explosion now say that it is likely that someone intentionally released gas and remotely set off the blast that killed a young couple.

According to officials, whoever is behind the explosion used an altered pipe or stove to fill the house at 8349 Fieldfare Way in Richmond Hill with gas and then ignited it with a small spark, setting off a chain of explosions that destroyed a total of five houses and damaged 81 others.

A source told The Indianapolis Star on Tuesday that remote denotation was likely used in the November 10 which has been classified as a homicide this week.

The blast killed 34-year-old John Dion Longworth and 36-year-old Jennifer Longworth, who lived next door to the home which believed to have been was pumped with gas.

According to experts, the spark that set of the explosions could have been activated from the outside using a remote control commonly used to turn on an electrical device such as a TV or air conditioner.

Jay Siegel, a forensic and investigative consultant, told The Star that the detonation would have occurred when the concentration of gas inside the home reached 10 per cent.

The revelations come amid a flurry of rumors regarding arrests being made and suspects being taken in for questioning in the case that have since been disproved by top police officials.

Indianapolis police Captain Craig Converse said that investigators are currently busy interviewing people and following tips. Another law enforcement official said that two people were interviewed Tuesday, but neither was arrested or charged.

Police also said they served a warrant to obtain property, and another warrant to obtain fingerprints, but declined to identify the recipients of the two documents.

Investigators had taken into possession and inspected a white van that was allegedly spotted in the neighborhood on the afternoon of the explosion, but declined to reveal the identity of the vehicle’s owner or its connection to the case.

On Monday, authorities launched a homicide investigation into the case. Indianapolis Homeland Security Director Gary Coons made the announcement after meeting with residents of the subdivision where the November 10 blast occurred and just hours after funerals were held for the two victims.

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Sen. Vitter Alleges Obama Administration Hiding Internal Discussions on Carbon Tax

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photo credit: miiler_centerSen. David Vitter (R-La.) accused the Obama administration on Tuesday of shielding possible discussions on a carbon tax from the public.

Vitter, a top Republican on the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner alleging the administration is hammering out details for a carbon tax proposal.

Vitter questioned Treasury’s denial of a Freedom of Information Act request from the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute think tank. The think tank sued Treasury last week for not releasing emails from the agency’s Office of Energy and Environment that contained the word “carbon.”

“A plan to tax carbon would inevitably be a tax on the public, so, by definition, every responsive record would on its face significantly inform the public,” Vitter wrote.

A Treasury official told The Hill that the agency had not received Vitter’s letter.

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US Senate to Vote on Outrageous Bill to Allow Fed’s to Read Your Email Without a Warrant

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leahyA Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans’ e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans’ e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

Leahy’s rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission — to access Americans’ e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge. (CNET obtained the revised draft from a source involved in the negotiations with Leahy.)

It’s an abrupt departure from Leahy’s earlier approach, which required police to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill “provides enhanced privacy protections for American consumers by… requiring that the government obtain a search warrant.”

Leahy had planned a vote on an earlier version of his bill, designed to update a pair of 1980s-vintage surveillance laws, in late September. But after law enforcement groups including the National District Attorneys’ Association and the National Sheriffs’ Association organizations objected to the legislation and asked him to “reconsider acting” on it, Leahy pushed back the vote and reworked the bill as a package of amendments to be offered next Thursday. The package (PDF) is a substitute for H.R. 2471, which the House of Representatives already has approved.

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SEIU Worker Asks Members To Falsify Signatures To Sink Anti-Union Measure

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The Service International Employees Union – the same union that will be shutting down traffic around Los Angeles International Airport on Thanksgiving Eve – has admitted that a staffer requested that union members stack a legal petition with fake names to sink it. The petition is the brainchild of former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who wants to put a measure revising public service employee union pensions on the ballot.

Today, SEIU acknowledged that one of its work site organizers had violated the law in order to push its agenda. The SEIU 721 union spokesman explained:

SEIU 721 in no way recommends that its members or anyone else falsify signatures on any petition. We are firmly against that kind of behavior. The email in question was sent without the knowledge of the union’s leadership. The person who sent the email has been disciplined for his action.

According to Thompson, the email probably reached “very few” members. Thompson added that it was sent from a personal, not a work email, and wasn’t an official union communication. Yeah, right.

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Rand Paul Mulling 2016 Run?

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photo credit: gage skidmoreKentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul is hinting that he may run for president in 2016.

“Am I interested in thinking about that? Yes,” Paul, the son of retiring Texas congressman and three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul, said when asked by ABC’s Jonathan Karl if he might explore his own presidential bid in four years.

Paul added that he wants “to be part of the national debate,” but said he is not ready to make the final decision to run.

“I am different than some in that I am not going to deny that I am interested,” Paul said. “I’m not going to deny that I think we have to go a different direction because we’re just not winning.”

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More Than 300 D.C. Public Employees Busted in Unemployment Fraud Scheme

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The District said Monday that hundreds of city workers took nearly $2 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits, a scandal that roiled the D.C. government earlier this year and prompted widespread firings and criminal charges.

Lisa Mallory, the director of the D.C. Department of Employment Services, told the D.C. Council that her agency had detected $1.9 million in overpayments to District workers who collected unemployment benefits while on the city’s payroll.

“This probe continues to be ongoing,” said Mallory, who has credited access to a specialized database for the initial detection of the fraud.
Mallory’s department has referred 318 cases to the District’s inspector general, some of which have resulted in civil lawsuits and criminal prosecutions. Other cases are pending.

“Many of these individuals did lose their employment,” Mallory said. “There are several cases in front of the U.S. attorney, and those will take their course.”

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Gallup: Americans Who Think We’ll Be Worse Off in 4 Yrs Doubled in 4 Yrs

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photo credit: donkeyhotey(CNSNews) – The percentage of Americans who think America will be worse off in four years has more than doubled in the four years since Barack Obama was first inaugurated as president, according to the Gallup poll.

In a survey conducted Jan. 9-11, 2009–concluding just nine days before Barack Obama’s first inauguration as president–Gallup asked American adults: “Do you think the country will be better off or worse off four years from now?”

At that time, 72 percent said the country would be better off, 20 percent said it would be worse off, 4 percent said it would be the same, and 4 percent said they had no opinion.

This time, only 54 percent said they believed the country would be better off in four years, while 41 percent said they believed it would be worse off, 3 percent said it would be the same, and 2 percent said they had no opinion.

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