fraud

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Update On Investigation Of ATF For Waste And Fraud

October 11, 2021 by 1 Comment

Catherine Herridge of CBS News had an update on her investigation into waste and fraud at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. She reported that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has become involved. Sen. Grassley is the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is very serious on protecting whistleblowers in government.

Sen. Grassley has now sent letters demanding answers to Attorney General Merrick Garland and BATFE Acting Director Marvin Richardson. He has also sent a letter asking the Office of Personnel Management about their suspension of BATFE’s ability to classify certain law enforcement positions. All the letters were quite detailed and indicated his office had significant knowledge of the affair.

It should be remembered that Sen. Grassley was one of the very first politicians that demanded an investigation into Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker. He worked closely with then-Chair of the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee Darrell Issa to get answers.

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Waste And Fraud At ATF?

October 6, 2021 by

The CBS Evening News ran an investigative report on Tuesday, October 5th, that featured a whistleblower accusing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives of waste and fraud. The whistleblower alleges that BATFE paid a large number of administrative people an extra 25% for supposedly being available on call for law enforcement operations. The problem is that this certification was false. When the whistleblower brought it to the attention of higher ups and management, he got lower performance evaluations that led to his termination. Given how hard it is to fire any one in Federal employment, it seems BATFE went out of their way to terminate this whistleblower.

I am somewhat surprised that CBS News ran any report that was critical of BATFE. However, the reporter, Catherine Herridge, did come over to CBS from Fox.

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Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors Adds A New Member

October 3, 2020 by 3 Comments

Rochester, New York Mayor Lovely Warren was indicted today on two felony counts of campaign fraud. The charges were announced by Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley. Warren is a member of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

From the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle:

The first charge is for first-degree scheme to defraud; the second is an election law offense for illegally coordinating activities and expenditures.

The grand jury indictment is connected to Warren’s 2017 mayoral re-election campaign. Warren has adamantly refused any wrongdoing in the matter.

Warren and two campaign associates also indicted Friday will be arraigned at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, in front of Cayuga County Judge Thomas Leone in Monroe County. 

If convicted of the felony charges, Warren would be removed from office under state law. The maximum sentence would be 16 months to four years in prison, but Warren would be unlikely to be incarcerated. Her pension could be forfeited, however, if the matter is determined to be a crime related to public office, and she also could lose her law license.

Albert Jones, her campaign treasurer, and Rosalind Brooks-Harris, treasurer of her PAC and the city’s finance director, were also indicted.

Warren is claiming any transfers between her campaign and her political action committee that broke the law were “unintentional errors”. However, according to former lobbyist Robert Scott Gaddy, he and a campaign finance lawyer alerted her to the illegality issue and she “intentionally disregarded the advice.”

I’ve lost count of the number of mayors who belong to Bloomberg’s group that have been indicted. I’m sure the tally is high enough to make even the most jaded politician blush.

Below is DA Doorley’s press conference announcing the charges:

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BOLO

December 2, 2013 by 7 Comments

BOLO is an acronym often used by law enforcement to mean “be on the lookout”. It is often used by cops (or cop shows) to mean a stolen car or a criminal suspect. If you are a concealed carry permit holder living or visiting North Carolina, I might suggest another thing to be on the lookout for.

This is all that is required to post a store or restaurant against the carrying of firearms. While other states may require more explicit or more extensive measures to post a premises, North Carolina does not. Carrying a firearm on a posted premises is a Class 1 misdemeanor in North Carolina.

It seems that not only are the gun prohibitionists trying to encourage owners to post their premises but some of their activists are taking it upon themselves to “unofficially” post the business. Sean Sorrentino at An NC Gun Blog has the full story of a business in Greensboro that was “posted” by one of these activists.

Fortunately, the gun owner who was buying dinner at this establishment questioned why they had “posted” their premises. Not only had the business not done this but by going through their security tapes they were able to identify the anti-gun activist who had done it.

My suggestion if you do see one of these decals on the door of your favorite store or restaurant is to ask to speak to the management. It may turn out that they aren’t anti-gun but rather are victims of a hoax perpetrated by gun prohibitionists. If so, I’d suggest contacting Grass Roots North Carolina with the information. Their contact info is here.

And if the business is really posting their premises and is anti-gun, report that information to GRNC’s High Risk Restaurant Project.

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Sgt Dick Blumenthal, USMCR, wannabe-Vietnam Vet

May 21, 2010 by

As I noted in an earlier post, my Dad was an Army veteran of both WWII and Vietnam. He served two tours of duty in South Vietnam as a Master Sgt with the Corps of Engineers.

The first tour was in 1967-68 at Cam Ranh Bay. I have pictures of him somewhere dressed up in tiger-stripe camo with white facings playing Santa Claus to Vietnamese kids. They chose him because he had white hair. He was 48 when he left to go to Vietnam. His second tour was in 1969-70 and he was with a road building batallion in both the Central Highlands and the Mekong Delta region.

When your Dad is gone for two years of your childhood serving in a war zone and then some slimey politician fraudulently claims to have served in Vietnam to burnish his credentials, you can understand my anger and disgust with Connecticut AG and US Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal.

William Saletan in the online magazine Slate has a blistering critique of Blumenthal. James Taranto, in his Best of the Web column for the Wall Street Journal, nails it better than I could.

He’ll fight for Connecticut’s families just like he fought back in his Marine days, when he led the glorious Toys for Tots campaign during Vietnam.

Not that I have anything against Toys for Tots but as the Virtual Stepdaughter always says, “Just saying”.