Currently viewing the tag: “board.”
(Eugene Volokh)
Here’s the Ohio ACLU’s statement, on the national ACLU’s Web site:
Today, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio expressed disappointment and concern over the cancellation of an event to be hosted by the Mansfield North Central Ohio Tea Party Association at Mansfield Senior High School on Monday, March 28, 2011. After consultation with city police, Mansfield City Schools Superintendent Dan Freund withdrew permission for the event over safety concerns on Monday morning. A coalition of advocacy groups opposed to the message of the keynote speaker was scheduled to host a press conference later that afternoon.The scheduled speaker was Usama Dakdok, and the Tea Party described his talk as “reveal[ing] the ways we are not just losing our freedoms, but that we are surrendering them to our enemy, radical Islam.” Civil rights groups claimed Dakdok’s message was anti-Islam and divisive.
“While we might disagree with the message of the speaker, they have a right like any other group to fully air their views, without interference by government officials. Public officials — Sheriff and Superintendent included, have a duty to provide a safe venue for all speakers. Shutting down an event because some individual or group does not like the message is dangerous to a free society and the democratic process,” said ACLU of Ohio Executive Director Christine Link.
“Those offended by the message of this group or any other must instead answer offensive speech with more speech, not suppression,” added Link. “Now is the time for groups protesting the speaker to amplify their message, not shut down their opponent.” …
The Mansfield News Journal reports on how the speech in the alternate venue went:
The tea party group was able to arrange an alternate location for the Monday speaking event, an office complex at 1456 Park Avenue West. More than 350 people crowded into the space to hear Dakdok. Tea party members receptive to the lecture bumped elbows with concerned listeners from the Mansfield chapter of the NAACP and the Islamic Society of Mansfield.Dakdok’s 150-minute lecture prompted a few outbursts but no major public disturbances.
On the other hand — a 150-minute lecture? There ought to be a law against that. For past posts on this event, see here and here.
We move from NLRB to NMB: It’s an alphabet soup to choke on.
Big Labor continues to bask from the blessings of the Obama administration. Until the National Meditation Board changed the rules last year, a majority of workers in union elections not a majority of workers voting, were needed to unionize a workforce. The NMB has become another union shill-thanks to President Obama’s appointments to it.
Yesterday news came that Big Labor “won” an election-the reservations and fleet employees at AirTran Airways are now represented by the machinists’ union, the Workforce Fairness Institute blog tells us.
The NMB released results from that election, 994 voted for the union, 870 voted against it, but 36 percent did not vote.
Fortunately, the House of Representatives will soon vote on the FAA Reauthorization Bill that will overturn the new NMB rule on elections.
Let’s hope the House returns fairness to union elections.
Big Labor contributed a fortune in cash to elect Obama. SEIU alone spent $ 60 million.
Related posts:
Workforce Fairness Institute: NLRB continues Big Labor bailout
SEIU prez: Union spent $ 60.7 million to elect Obama
Technorati tags: 
SEIU labor unions organized laborDemocrats Obama business
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has selected a former prosecutor who currently heads the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence as the new chair of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.
At a press conference this morning, Erika M. Tindill of New Haven said she accepts the governor’s offer to lead the board “with great humility and a great eagerness.” The position pays $ 132,600 annually.
The board is an autonomous state agency that has the authority to grant pardons for criminal convictions and to grant parole to appropriate offenders. It came under close scrutiny in the aftermath of the Cheshire killings. State officials acknowledged they had not been following a law passed in 1997 that required prosecutors to send the state Board of Pardons and Paroles a sentencing transcript for each inmate jailed more than two years.
The board is currently led by former state Rep. Robert Farr of West Hartford, who won praise for his handling of post-Cheshire attempts to reform the system.
But Malloy said today that more must be done. ”That is not to say that Mr. Farr hasn’t done what he was asked to do by the prior administration,” the governor said. “On the other hand, we’re spending a lot of money to build a technology system to support pardons and paroles…and I thought the moment was an appropriate one to bring up a different balance of talents.”
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has selected a former prosecutor who currently heads the Connecticut Coalition Against Domestic Violence as the new chair of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles.
At a press conference this morning, Erika M. Tindill of New Haven said she accepts the governor’s offer to lead the board “with great humility and a great eagerness.” The position pays $ 132,600 annually.
The board is an autonomous state agency that has the authority to grant pardons for criminal convictions and to grant parole to appropriate offenders. It came under close scrutiny in the aftermath of the Cheshire killings. State officials acknowledged they had not been following a law passed in 1997 that required prosecutors to send the state Board of Pardons and Paroles a sentencing transcript for each inmate jailed more than two years.
The board is currently led by former state Rep. Robert Farr of West Hartford, who won praise for his handling of post-Cheshire attempts to reform the system.
But Malloy said today that more must be done. ”That is not to say that Mr. Farr hasn’t done what he was asked to do by the prior administration,” the governor said. “On the other hand, we’re spending a lot of money to build a technology system to support pardons and paroles…and I thought the moment was an appropriate one to bring up a different balance of talents.”
Just months after ending an eight year long term as governor, Jennifer Granholm has joined the Dow Chemical board of directors.
In announcing her new role Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris said that Ganholm has a “demonstrated track record of cultivating many public-sector and private-sector collaborations that have laid the groundwork for profitable and sustainable growth for 21st century manufacturing.”
The Midland Daily News reports:
Granholm’s appointment may seem a natural fit for Dow, a Michigan company that has invested heavily in clean energy fields such as solar and battery technology as the company has transformed itself in recent years. As governor, Granholm made multiple stops in Midland to highlight hundreds of millions in state tax incentives for Dow and its subsidiaries for clean energy projects that have boosted job opportunities in the region.
Tax breaks aren’t the only way the Granholm administration helped Dow Chemical.
Dow is responsible for a 52 mile long plume of chemical contamination that stretches from its Midland plant through the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers and into Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay.
In her role as governor Granholm argued against having the federal government declare the contaminated area a Superfund site — a move that could have allowed for relocation of people living in the contaminated zone.
Group provides insights into female consumer…
B&C – Breaking News
Whew! I thought this day would never come. The anonymous big wigs who provide us with the sense of the paper have finally figured out their position on Obama’s “war of choice” after much martini related discussion, and we find out that they are “concerned”
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has long been a thug and a murderer who has never paid for his many crimes, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. The United Nations Security Council resolution authorized member nations to take “all necessary measures” to protect civilians and was perhaps the only hope of stopping him from slaughtering thousands more.
Broken record time: Resolution 1441, and the slaughter of Iraqi citizens.
The resolution was an extraordinary moment in recent history. The United Nations, the United States and the Europeans dithered for an agonizingly long time and then — with the rebels’ last redoubt, Benghazi, about to fall — acted with astonishing speed to endorse a robust mandate that goes far beyond a simple no-fly zone. More extraordinary was that the call to action was led by France and Britain and invited by the Arab League.
Resolution 1441 was passed at the UN almost two months after Bush asked them for it.
American commanders on Monday claimed success in attacking Libyan air defenses and command and control operations. Over the weekend, there were strikes against Libyan aircraft on the ground, forces headed toward Benghazi and even Colonel Qaddafi’s compound in Tripoli. Colonel Qaddafi remained defiant and announced plans to arm one million loyalists. He gathered women and children as human shields at his compound. On Monday, his forces drove rebels back from the strategically important town Ajdabiya.
Remember when the Leftists were supportive of all the human shields that Saddam was using?
There is much to concern us. President Obama correctly agreed to deploy American forces only when persuaded that other nations would share the responsibility and the cost of enforcing international law. The United States is already bogged down in two wars. It can’t be seen as intervening unilaterally in another Muslim nation. But even with multinational support, it should not have to shoulder the brunt of this conflict.
Sigh. Boilerplate Liberal talking points. Over 40 nations were part of the Coalition during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Many Muslim countries were involved. Let’s skip to the end, shall we?
There is no perfect formula for military intervention. It must be used sparingly — not in Bahrain or Yemen, even though we condemn the violence against protesters in both countries. Libya is a specific case: Muammar el-Qaddafi is erratic, widely reviled, armed with mustard gas and has a history of supporting terrorism. If he is allowed to crush the opposition, it would chill pro-democracy movements across the Arab world.
Let’s try that again
Iraq is a specific case: Saddam Hussein is erratic, widely reviled, armed with mustard gas and has a history of supporting terrorism. If he is allowed to crush the opposition…..
Iraq had enormous stockpiles of chlorine, which could be used to make chlorine and mustard gases. There were terrorist bases all over Iraq, and Saddam paid families $ 25,000 for a child to suicide themselves in Israel. Some members of Al-Qaeda did flee to Iraq, such as Zarqawi. He crushed the Kurds and others. He murdered, tortured, and raped his citizens. So, I guess the Fish Wrap is saying that Iraq was a good and just war.
We’ll see if the Fish Wrap’s support holds up if things turn a bit sour.
Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach.
Since the Arab League approval of intervention in Libya was key in getting UN approval, it was no small thing then the Arab League condemned that same intervention in Libya over the weekend.
But for now, at least, things look like they are back on track and the Arab League is again supportive of the Western airstrikes against Libya:
Arab League head Amr Moussa has qualified comments he made criticizing the reported civilian toll from Western airstrikes in Libya, telling reporters in Cairo on Monday that the Arab League and the U.N. Security Council are “united” on the need to protect civilians.
“[The Arab League] respects the U.N. Security Council resolution, and there is no contradiction,” Moussa said.
“We will continue working to protect civilians, and we will ask everybody to take this into consideration in any military operation,” he added.”We have received assurances that these issues, especially the protection of civilians, will remain a unanimous goal for the U.N. and the Arab League.”
The Arab League seems to have started having doubts after Libyan reports of 64 civilians being killed by the strikes. The problem is-the number of alleged victims of the Western attacks is unsubstantiated.
As it is, the Arab League has put itself into a delicate situation: on the one hand, the members of the the League want to appear to be supportive of the popular will of the people of Libya; on the other hand, many of these same countries are dealing with and trying to control popular protests in their own countries.
I’ve suggested before that one reason for the Arab League wanting to get involved may be that Amr Moussa, the Arab League’s secretary general, has announced he is planning to run in the Egyptian presidential election. After all, how would it look to Egyptians if Moussa was perceived as being weak in responding to Egypt’s fellow-protesters? All the more so, considering the fact that Egypt itself has been quietly aiding the Libyan rebels, while Syria-which opposes foreign intervention in Libya-has been helping Gaddafi.
If the Arab League thought this was going to be cut and dried, they have instead learned their first lesson in international affairs: when in doubt, stay out.
Technorati Tag: Libya and Arab League.
In Part 1 of this story, I shared two videos — here and here — as well as a description of events related to a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper’s late-night Feb. 15, 2006 visit to the St. Peters, Mo., home of 85-year-old Dolores Sherman. Below, I pick up the story of my investigation.
After speaking with Sherman March 9, I contacted the Missouri Gaming Commission’s headquarters in Jefferson City, Mo., with several questions, trying to find answers as to why a trooper, who said he worked for the commission, visited her home:
1. Is it normal for an MGC officer, in uniform, to visit the residence of an 80-year-old citizen at 8:15 p.m. to ask questions about her driving record, about her medical condition and for the name of her personal physician(s)?
2. Under what circumstances might an MGC officer’s visit to a citizen’s private residence be warranted?
3. Must MGC provide a citizen any form of notice in advance of such a visit? If so, please describe.
4. Does your agency have any record, report or other file related to any visit by an MGC officer to Mrs. Sherman’s home Feb. 15, 2006? If “yes,” are you willing to produce such a file or, at a minimum, disclose (a) the name of the officer who visited Mrs. Sherman’s home and (b) the circumstances that warranted that officer paying a visit to Mrs. Sherman’s home?
Upon receiving my questions via e-mail, gaming commission spokesperson LeAnn McCarthy referred me to Missouri State Highway Patrol General Counsel, Andrew Briscoe. The agency’s “official” response, however, was provided by Lt. John Hotz, a spokesperson for MSHP’s Public Information and Education Division (MSHP PIED):
Mr. McCarty,
I believe these questions have previously been addressed via Ms. Sherman’s contact with law enforcement personnel. If you are making a sunshine request as a member of the media, you will need to make a formal request through our custodian of records. Her name is Lieutenant Keverne McCullom and her number is….
At this point, I had two options: I could submit a Sunshine Law request to MSHP in an effort to obtain any reports, records or files they have on Sherman; or I could contact Sherman and request copies of her Sunshine Law-related correspondence with MSHP. I chose the second option, suspecting I could get the information from Sherman more quickly and at a lower cost than that the state might charge.
At approximately 7 p.m., March 10, 2011, I visited Sherman’s home and she gave me copies of her correspondence with MSHP — evidence of more than a dozen unsuccessful attempts she had made via e-mail and stamped mail to obtain any record, report or file that might offer justification for a highway patrol or gaming commission trooper visiting her home hours after 8 o’clock in the evening Feb. 15, 2006.
The fact that her attempts were unsuccessful leads me to conclude that either the trooper’s visit was indeed part of some state government-level conspiracy to impugn the reputation of Sherman or the trooper was acting in a rogue manner by doing a favor for someone on the local scene who wanted Sherman to keep quiet about what had happened to her with their approval, tacit or otherwise. For several reasons, I suspect — and hope — it was the latter, but would welcome reader input.
In addition to copies of her correspondence with MSHP, Sherman provided me other information:
First, Sherman gave me a copy of the audiotape recording of her face-to-face conversation with the trooper — the same one who left the aforementioned and previously-described business card — insider her home that night just over five years ago. When I listened to the recording (on a cassette tape), I found it substantiated nearly everything she described about the trooper’s visit to her home. Only the events that took place before the trooper entered the house and while the trooper was in the garage were not recorded.
Second, Sherman shared a stack of information about her contentious relationship with City of St. Peters officials which, she said, stemmed from similarly difficult relations with her neighbors — both in and out of court — that, by themselves, would make for a lengthy series of posts. But I digress.
Third, Sherman allowed me to photograph the actual business card — a four-color card, no less — which she said the trooper had given her.
Fourth, Sherman showed me a copy of her driving record, a copy of which she obtained from the License Bureau at 2495 Raymond Drive in St. Charles, Mo., Sept. 1, 2010.
Is there more to the story? Sherman thinks there is, and I agree. Because she covered much of it in her April 22, 2010, appearance before the Board of Aldermen, I won’t rehash it in this space. There’s simply not enough time in the day. Instead, I’ll close by focusing on several aspects of this case that seem indisputable, but about which the world may never know the complete truth:
(1) A Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper, who works at least part-time for the Missouri Gaming Commission at St. Louis-area casino, visited Sherman’s home the night of Feb. 15, 2006, on the premise that he was investigating her driving record, and he left his business card;
(2) The Missouri State Highway Patrol denies having any record, report or file related to a trooper visiting Sherman’s home Feb. 15, 2006, or any reason why it would be appropriate or necessary for a trooper to make such a visit;
(3) Sherman’s relationship with officials at the City of St. Peters was, and remains today, extremely contentious;
(4) Someone — perhaps, several someones — is not telling the whole truth about the case, and I don’t get the feeling Sherman is lying; and
(5) Sherman, a widow, mother of two and grandmother of two, seems to believe winning a seat on the St. Peters Board of Aldermen will put her one step closer to finding answers.
The University of Connecticut is seeking a tuition increase of 2.5 percent for the next academic year, and the school trustees are expected to vote on the increase next week.
Two months after 85-year-old Dolores Sherman announced her name would appear on the ballot April 5 as a candidate for a seat on the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen, the first-time office seeker posted a video on YouTube containing some stinging accusations and calling for an external investigation of an incident that involved a state trooper visiting her home.
Before viewing that video, however, it would probably be instructive to view the video below that appeared in a Jan. 11 post on this blog. It offers an overview of Sherman’s candidacy announcement Jan. 11.
Now, fast-forward to the video Sherman released March 9, a five-and-a-half-minute effort that highlights her appearance at the Board of Alderman meeting April 22, 2010.
At the popular video-sharing site, the video is accompanied by a lengthy description, an excerpt of which appears below:
This video clip shows that some members of the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen didn’t take Dolores Sherman seriously when she spoke during the “Citizen’s Petitions and Comments” of their meeting April 22, 2010. Almost a year later, they might be having second thoughts.
On Jan. 11, 2011, Sherman announced she is running for one of two Ward One seats on the board in the City of St. Peters (Mo.), the city in which she says she was prosecuted more than five years earlier for a crime she didn’t commit.
Not only was Sherman sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $ 125 in fines and other costs, but she was ordered to take “Anger Management” classes and dubbed “The Potato Lady” by a local newspaper reporter.
Almost two months later, Sherman released this video of the meeting during which she spoke for almost eight minutes and highlighted allegations that she was the victim of serious wrongdoing involving an officer of the Missouri State Gaming Commission, the wife of one city employee and the wife of at least one sitting member of the board.
After Sherman left the podium and exited the chamber, several members of the board can be heard laughing and at least one could be heard saying, “Hard act to follow.”
After the laughter died down, Alderman Reitmeyer took the microphone and read a flyer about the city’s then-upcoming festival, the Old Town Picnic, which took place June 18-19.
After receiving a copy of Sherman’s news release about the video, I contacted her by phone and asked if she had evidence to support her claim that a trooper from the Missouri Gaming Commission had visited her home Feb. 15, 2006. In response, the small business owner said she had in her possession a business card she had received from the trooper that night and an audiotape of a large portion of her conversation with the trooper. More on that later.
Next, I asked Sherman to describe her experience with the trooper in her home:
She said the trooper arrived in a marked, white patrol car. It was a warm day for February. She saw him walking up the driveway through her glass front door and feared the worst — that one of her adult sons had died in a car accident or something like that — and went out on the front porch to meet him.
The trooper, she recalled, said he was doing an investigation regarding her driving record and began probing her for details behind the investigation. Having just had major surgery that caused her to be laid up for several weeks and unable to drive or leave her home, she found his questioning odd to say the least. Moreover, she said her driving record was clean.
She continued, saying the trooper asked if they could go inside her home. In pain from the stitches holding her together after surgery, she wanted badly to sit down and agreed to let the trooper come inside.
Once inside, she said the trooper began giving her the “third degree” and asking for her driver’s license, proof of insurance and the names of her private physicians — and she had had several, including a surgeon and a cardiologist. She showed him her driver’s license and insurance, but not the names of her physicians. Why? She suspected the trooper was somehow involved in an unscrupulous effort to have her deemed incompetent to manage her affairs.
Angered but in pain, she said, she demanded the trooper provide her some form of identification, and he handed her a business card. She described the card as having a Missouri State Highway Patrol seal in the upper left corner and, in the upper right portion of the card, the address of the MSHP’s Troop C Headquarters on South Mason Road in St. Louis. The trooper’s name and badge number appeared in the lower left third of the card.
Though there was no mention of the Missouri Gaming Commission on the card, Sherman said the trooper told her that he worked evenings, 4 to 8 p.m., at the gaming commission’s office at a casino in the St. Louis area [Note: Though Sherman gave me the name and exact location of the casino, I’m opting to withhold it so as not to besmirch the reputations of any troopers not involved in this scandal].
Soon after she told him she was going to record their conversation, she explained, he asked to go into her attached garage to look at her car — and to be out of range of her not-very-portable cassette recorder.
They went out to the garage, she said, and the trooper asked where all the scratches on her car came from. She responded by telling him the car was sent to her by her son who wanted her to have a car with airbags — something her old car did not have.
Next, she said, he told her he was going next door to speak to her neighbors who, as she mentioned in her video, were involved in a card game with friends.
When the trooper came back, she said, she asked him for a copy of whatever document it was that prompted his visit. In response, he told her to have her attorney subpoena the record. And then he left.
Immediately following my conversation with Sherman, I looked up the phone number for the gaming commission office at the location she specified and placed a call. When my call was answered, I asked for the trooper by name as it appears on the card (a copy of which Sherman faxed to me), the person who answered — a receptionist, I suspect — told me he was “in” and transferred my call to his extension.
When the trooper didn’t answer his phone, my call went to his voice mailbox. After listening to his recorded message and paying particular attention to his voice, I opted not to leave a message of my own. Instead, I contacted the gaming commission’s headquarters in Jefferson City, Mo., with several questions.
Part 2 Coming Tomorrow.
Two months after 85-year-old Dolores Sherman announced her name would appear on the ballot April 5 as a candidate for a seat on the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen, the first-time office seeker posted a video on YouTube containing some stinging accusations and calling for an external investigation of an incident that involved a state trooper visiting her home.
Before viewing that video, however, it would probably be instructive to view the video below that appeared in a Jan. 11 post on this blog. It offers an overview of Sherman’s candidacy announcement Jan. 11.
Now, fast-forward to the video Sherman released March 9, a five-and-a-half-minute effort that highlights her appearance at the Board of Alderman meeting April 22, 2010.
At the popular video-sharing site, the video is accompanied by a lengthy description, an excerpt of which appears below:
This video clip shows that some members of the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen didn’t take Dolores Sherman seriously when she spoke during the “Citizen’s Petitions and Comments” of their meeting April 22, 2010. Almost a year later, they might be having second thoughts.
On Jan. 11, 2011, Sherman announced she is running for one of two Ward One seats on the board in the City of St. Peters (Mo.), the city in which she says she was prosecuted more than five years earlier for a crime she didn’t commit.
Not only was Sherman sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $ 125 in fines and other costs, but she was ordered to take “Anger Management” classes and dubbed “The Potato Lady” by a local newspaper reporter.
Almost two months later, Sherman released this video of the meeting during which she spoke for almost eight minutes and highlighted allegations that she was the victim of serious wrongdoing involving an officer of the Missouri State Gaming Commission, the wife of one city employee and the wife of at least one sitting member of the board.
After Sherman left the podium and exited the chamber, several members of the board can be heard laughing and at least one could be heard saying, “Hard act to follow.”
After the laughter died down, Alderman Reitmeyer took the microphone and read a flyer about the city’s then-upcoming festival, the Old Town Picnic, which took place June 18-19.
After receiving a copy of Sherman’s news release about the video, I contacted her by phone and asked if she had evidence to support her claim that a trooper from the Missouri Gaming Commission had visited her home Feb. 15, 2006. In response, the small business owner said she had in her possession a business card she had received from the trooper that night and an audiotape of a large portion of her conversation with the trooper. More on that later.
Next, I asked Sherman to describe her experience with the trooper in her home:
She said the trooper arrived in a marked, white patrol car. It was a warm day for February. She saw him walking up the driveway through her glass front door and feared the worst — that one of her adult sons had died in a car accident or something like that — and went out on the front porch to meet him.
The trooper, she recalled, said he was doing an investigation regarding her driving record and began probing her for details behind the investigation. Having just had major surgery that caused her to be laid up for several weeks and unable to drive or leave her home, she found his questioning odd to say the least. Moreover, she said her driving record was clean.
She continued, saying the trooper asked if they could go inside her home. In pain from the stitches holding her together after surgery, she wanted badly to sit down and agreed to let the trooper come inside.
Once inside, she said the trooper began giving her the “third degree” and asking for her driver’s license, proof of insurance and the names of her private physicians — and she had had several, including a surgeon and a cardiologist. She showed him her driver’s license and insurance, but not the names of her physicians. Why? She suspected the trooper was somehow involved in an unscrupulous effort to have her deemed incompetent to manage her affairs.
Angered but in pain, she said, she demanded the trooper provide her some form of identification, and he handed her a business card. She described the card as having a Missouri State Highway Patrol seal in the upper left corner and, in the upper right portion of the card, the address of the MSHP’s Troop C Headquarters on South Mason Road in St. Louis. The trooper’s name and badge number appeared in the lower left third of the card.
Though there was no mention of the Missouri Gaming Commission on the card, Sherman said the trooper told her that he worked evenings, 4 to 8 p.m., at the gaming commission’s office at a casino in the St. Louis area [Note: Though Sherman gave me the name and exact location of the casino, I’m opting to withhold it so as not to besmirch the reputations of any troopers not involved in this scandal].
Soon after she told him she was going to record their conversation, she explained, he asked to go into her attached garage to look at her car — and to be out of range of her not-very-portable cassette recorder.
They went out to the garage, she said, and the trooper asked where all the scratches on her car came from. She responded by telling him the car was sent to her by her son who wanted her to have a car with airbags — something her old car did not have.
Next, she said, he told her he was going next door to speak to her neighbors who, as she mentioned in her video, were involved in a card game with friends.
When the trooper came back, she said, she asked him for a copy of whatever document it was that prompted his visit. In response, he told her to have her attorney subpoena the record. And then he left.
Immediately following my conversation with Sherman, I looked up the phone number for the gaming commission office at the location she specified and placed a call. When my call was answered, I asked for the trooper by name as it appears on the card (a copy of which Sherman faxed to me), the person who answered — a receptionist, I suspect — told me he was “in” and transferred my call to his extension.
When the trooper didn’t answer his phone, my call went to his voice mailbox. After listening to his recorded message and paying particular attention to his voice, I opted not to leave a message of my own. Instead, I contacted the gaming commission’s headquarters in Jefferson City, Mo., with several questions.
Part 2 Coming Tomorrow.
Two months after 85-year-old Dolores Sherman announced her name would appear on the ballot April 5 as a candidate for a seat on the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen, the first-time office seeker posted a video on YouTube containing some stinging accusations and calling for an external investigation of an incident that involved a state trooper visiting her home.
Before viewing that video, however, it would probably be instructive to view the video below that appeared in a Jan. 11 post on this blog. It offers an overview of Sherman’s candidacy announcement Jan. 11.
Now, fast-forward to the video Sherman released March 9, a five-and-a-half-minute effort that highlights her appearance at the Board of Alderman meeting April 22, 2010.
At the popular video-sharing site, the video is accompanied by a lengthy description, an excerpt of which appears below:
This video clip shows that some members of the St. Peters (Mo.) Board of Aldermen didn’t take Dolores Sherman seriously when she spoke during the “Citizen’s Petitions and Comments” of their meeting April 22, 2010. Almost a year later, they might be having second thoughts.
On Jan. 11, 2011, Sherman announced she is running for one of two Ward One seats on the board in the City of St. Peters (Mo.), the city in which she says she was prosecuted more than five years earlier for a crime she didn’t commit.
Not only was Sherman sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $ 125 in fines and other costs, but she was ordered to take “Anger Management” classes and dubbed “The Potato Lady” by a local newspaper reporter.
Almost two months later, Sherman released this video of the meeting during which she spoke for almost eight minutes and highlighted allegations that she was the victim of serious wrongdoing involving an officer of the Missouri State Gaming Commission, the wife of one city employee and the wife of at least one sitting member of the board.
After Sherman left the podium and exited the chamber, several members of the board can be heard laughing and at least one could be heard saying, “Hard act to follow.”
After the laughter died down, Alderman Reitmeyer took the microphone and read a flyer about the city’s then-upcoming festival, the Old Town Picnic, which took place June 18-19.
After receiving a copy of Sherman’s news release about the video, I contacted her by phone and asked if she had evidence to support her claim that a trooper from the Missouri Gaming Commission had visited her home Feb. 15, 2006. In response, the small business owner said she had in her possession a business card she had received from the trooper that night and an audiotape of a large portion of her conversation with the trooper. More on that later.
Next, I asked Sherman to describe her experience with the trooper in her home:
She said the trooper arrived in a marked, white patrol car. It was a warm day for February. She saw him walking up the driveway through her glass front door and feared the worst — that one of her adult sons had died in a car accident or something like that — and went out on the front porch to meet him.
The trooper, she recalled, said he was doing an investigation regarding her driving record and began probing her for details behind the investigation. Having just had major surgery that caused her to be laid up for several weeks and unable to drive or leave her home, she found his questioning odd to say the least. Moreover, she said her driving record was clean.
She continued, saying the trooper asked if they could go inside her home. In pain from the stitches holding her together after surgery, she wanted badly to sit down and agreed to let the trooper come inside.
Once inside, she said the trooper began giving her the “third degree” and asking for her driver’s license, proof of insurance and the names of her private physicians — and she had had several, including a surgeon and a cardiologist. She showed him her driver’s license and insurance, but not the names of her physicians. Why? She suspected the trooper was somehow involved in an unscrupulous effort to have her deemed incompetent to manage her affairs.
Angered but in pain, she said, she demanded the trooper provide her some form of identification, and he handed her a business card. She described the card as having a Missouri State Highway Patrol seal in the upper left corner and, in the upper right portion of the card, the address of the MSHP’s Troop C Headquarters on South Mason Road in St. Louis. The trooper’s name and badge number appeared in the lower left third of the card.
Though there was no mention of the Missouri Gaming Commission on the card, Sherman said the trooper told her that he worked evenings, 4 to 8 p.m., at the gaming commission’s office at a casino in the St. Louis area [Note: Though Sherman gave me the name and exact location of the casino, I’m opting to withhold it so as not to besmirch the reputations of any troopers not involved in this scandal].
Soon after she told him she was going to record their conversation, she explained, he asked to go into her attached garage to look at her car — and to be out of range of her not-very-portable cassette recorder.
They went out to the garage, she said, and the trooper asked where all the scratches on her car came from. She responded by telling him the car was sent to her by her son who wanted her to have a car with airbags — something her old car did not have.
Next, she said, he told her he was going next door to speak to her neighbors who, as she mentioned in her video, were involved in a card game with friends.
When the trooper came back, she said, she asked him for a copy of whatever document it was that prompted his visit. In response, he told her to have her attorney subpoena the record. And then he left.
Immediately following my conversation with Sherman, I looked up the phone number for the gaming commission office at the location she specified and placed a call. When my call was answered, I asked for the trooper by name as it appears on the card (a copy of which Sherman faxed to me), the person who answered — a receptionist, I suspect — told me he was “in” and transferred my call to his extension.
When the trooper didn’t answer his phone, my call went to his voice mailbox. After listening to his recorded message and paying particular attention to his voice, I opted not to leave a message of my own. Instead, I contacted the gaming commission’s headquarters in Jefferson City, Mo., with several questions.
Part 2 Coming Tomorrow.
Danielle Kurtzleben at U.S. News & World Report crunched some numbers of federal campaign contributions and discovered that the NPR Board and the board of the NPR Foundation are — surprise, surprise — much more likely to donate to Democrats.
A review of campaign finance data found that NPR board members' campaign contributions have sharply favored Democrats. Since 2004, members of the boards of NPR and the NPR Foundation, the public broadcaster's fundraising arm, have contributed nearly $ 2.2 million to federal candidates, parties, and PACs, of which $ 1.95 million, or 89 percent, has gone to Democratic candidates and liberal-leaning political action committees.
Officers and trustees of the NPR Foundation, which has no control over the organization's programming, have given substantially to national political campaigns in recent years. According to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, this group's members (as listed on NPR's most recent available annual report, from fiscal year 2008) have given almost $ 2.1 million to political campaigns in the last eight years. Fully 89 percent of this giving was to Democrats and progressive organizations. These figures include all federal contributions since the 2004 election cycle, the first in which "soft money" contributions were banned. "Soft money" refers to money given to a party for non-campaign activities, which until being banned in 2002 were unlimited and largely unregulated.
A majority of contributions from members of NPR's Board of Directors have likewise gone to Democrats. This board comprises 10 NPR station managers, the NPR president, the NPR Foundation president, and five prominent members of the public, selected by the board and confirmed by member stations. Political contributions by these station managers have been virtually nonexistent, and there are also no recorded political contributions from either Ron Schiller or Vivian Schiller. Of the five public board members, however, giving has been far more Democratic than Republican, with nearly 95 percent of the group's $ 106,000 in contributions going to Democrats or progressive committees. Three of these members have given exclusively to Democrats since the start of 2003, though in amounts less than $ 5,000 each. One member, Carol Cartwright, has given $ 4,100 to Republicans and $ 700 to Democrats. But the biggest giver, John A. Herrmann, Jr., has given $ 82,500 to candidates and committees since 2003, 98 percent of it to Democrats.
Kurtzleben concludes that since the actual board of the Corporation of Public Broadcasting was mostly appointed by President Bush, their "cumulative giving since 2003 totals over $ 100,000, nearly three-quarters of which has gone to Republicans ."
**Written by Doug Powers
Alternate headline: Progressives 11% More Inclined to Jump on “Defund NPR” Bandwagon
Conservatives have long complained that the public broadcaster has a liberal bias, a charge NPR’s defenders have denied. In at least one regard, however, NPR’s board and fundraisers have, as a whole, shown a marked lean to the left in recent years: political contributions. A review of campaign finance data found that NPR board members’ campaign contributions have sharply favored Democrats. Since 2004, members of the boards of NPR and the NPR Foundation, the public broadcaster’s fundraising arm, have contributed nearly $ 2.2 million to federal candidates, parties, and PACs, of which $ 1.95 million, or 89 percent, has gone to Democratic candidates and liberal-leaning political action committees.
Imagine the hectic scene inside the NPR board room. By now they’ve heard that one in every ten dollars that august body donated to politicians and political causes may well have been handed to somebody with a stated goal of using a crowbar to pry NPR’s lips from the public teat. It’s possible that any right-leaning heretics in their midst are being rooted out as we speak and may well be on their way to a mandatory summer reeducation at Camp Totenberg or else face the Board expulsion committee (everybody knows that Republicans can’t be trusted to help guide and maintain an unbiased media operation). But granted this is all just speculation.
(h/t Newsbusters)
**Written by Doug Powers
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