So what's it like in your town?

[c.inquisition]

From the Philadelphia Inquirer

"Ethics Board efficacy questioned

The panel, rounding out its first year, serves mostly at the mayor's mercy.

By Marcia Gelbart

Inquirer Staff Writer
After almost a year of guiding city employees on what's right and what's wrong, Mayor Street's Board of Ethics still struggles against criticism that it is beholden to his works and wishes.

The advisory board gets a check mark for reviewing 3,302 financial-disclosure statements filed by city employees; educating 137 cabinet members, department heads and their deputies on what's ethical; and readying a Web site with a top-10 list of what every city employee should know about ethics.

But in spite of its actions, it functions largely at the mercy of the mayor, who has let a vacant seat on the five-member board go unfilled for seven months. Moreover, the Rev. James Allen said in July that he had resigned from the board, so now two of the seats are empty."

Full Article - http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12279823.htm

Two board members missing, one employee and a $330,000 a year budget? For what? Your town have these issues as well?

 

[no1tovote4]

I don't live in a town...

 

[GotZoom]

Memphis Tennessee - E-Cycle is a bogus company set up by the FBI with the sole purpose of finding political members who would be willing to take a bribe to influence legislastion.

Barry Myers, Roscoe Dixon timeline:

June 2003, Barry Myers had a conversation indicating that Roscoe Dixon needed to be paid money to support legislation.

January 2004, Roscoe Dixon discussed legislation with an E-Cycle representative. Dixon filed a bill concerning surplus electronic equipment.

February 2004, Myers and Dixon had a conversation with a person representing E-Cycle. Dixon was told that more money would be available. Dixon told the representative to "work through Barry (Myers), keep Barry happy." During a meeting, a total of $6,000 was paid to Dixon and Myers. Dixon received $1,000, Myers got the rest.

March 2004, Roscoe Dixon received $1,500 for his assistance.

May 2004, Barry Myers received a $2,000 payment and told the E-Cycle representative that Dixon "is solidly on board" and would do anything needed.

Charles Love, Ward Crutchfield timeline:

July 2004, Charles Love had a telephone conversation with an E-Cycle representative and indicated he could deliver cash to Senator Ward Crutchfield.

August 2004, Love had a meeting in Memphis with E-Cycle representatives and told them they would get more attention if they had "gifts to bear. He said he would initially need about $15,000 for legislators and that Crutchfield would need more than others.

September 2004, Love, Crutchfield and an E-Cycle representative met in Chattanooga. Love later told the E-Cycle representative Crutchfield "would need three." $6,500 was wired to Charles Love's bank account. Love then paid Crutchfield $2,500 on behalf of E-Cycle. Crutchfield told an E-Cycle representative he would co-sponsor the bill. Love told E-Cycle Crutchfield needed more money.

October 2004, Love told an E-Cycle representative Crutchfield agreed to be paid an additional $2,000. Crutchfield received that amount in cash from Charles Love.

February 2005, Crutchfield met with an E-Cycle representative and was given two envelopes, each containing $1,500.

Barry Myers, Kathryn Bowers timeline:

June 2003, Barry Myers told an individual Kathryn Bowers needed to be paid money in order to support legislation.

February 2004, Kathryn Bowers was introduced to a representative of E-Cycle and discussed a bill concerning the disposal of outdated computer equipment.

March 2004, Barry Myers stated to an individual that Kathryn Bowers "wants some money" and was "asking for three." Bowers had a conversation with a representative of E-Cycle concerning the payment. Myers indicated Bowers would not accept money directly from the E-Cycle representative. Myers received $3,000 from the E-Cycle representative and passed it on to Kathryn Bowers.

April 2004, Kathryn Bowers had a telephone conversation with an E-Cycle representative and said she would sponsor a bill to benefit the company.

August 2004, Kathryn Bowers received $2,000 in cash from an E-Cycle representative. She agreed to use her official letterhead recommending E-Cycle.

October 2004, Bowers received $5,000.

January, 2005, Bowers received $1,500 and co-sponsored House Bill 0038.

John Ford timeline:

April 2004, Senator John Ford met a representative from E-Cycle Management. During the conversation, Ford stated he was "the guy that makes the deals."

July 2004, Senator Ford said he would need $3,000-$5,000 per month for his assistance.

August 2004, John Ford received $10,000 in cash as two months payment for drafting the legislation.

September 2004, John Ford and an E-Cycle representative discussed legislation. Ford received $5,000 in cash for filing the bill and making sure it passed.

October 2004, John Ford received $5000 in payment for drafting and sponsoring the legislation.

November 2004, When asked by an E-Cycle representative if he needed anything, John Ford said "send me a little money." Eight days later he received $5,000 as further payment.

December 2004, Senator Ford received $5,000.

January 2005, Senator Ford filed Senate Bill 0094 as a companion to House Bill 0038. He received a $5,000 cash payment.

February 2005, Senator Ford received $5,000. John Ford threatened the representative from E-Cycle saying that if the individual was working with the FBI, Ford would shoot him.

March 2005, John Ford received $5,000 in cash. Ford threatened an individual by indicating that if someone was trying to set him up he would shoot and kill that person so there would be no witnesses. An E-Cycle representative asked Ford to put the bill on hold. Ford then received an additional $5,000 in cash.

April 2005, John Ford received $5,000 to delay the bill. Ford told an individual he hoped he and his partner were okay because while he did not mind shooting the "partner," he did not want to shoot the individual to whom he was speaking.

Charles Love, Chris Newton timeline:

July 2004, Charles Love had a telephone conversation with an E-Cycle representative and indicated he could deliver cash to Chris Newton.

August 2004, Charles Love had a meeting in Memphis with E-Cycle representatives and suggested they would get more attention if they had "gifts to bear." Love said he would need approximately $15,000 and that Chris Newton would need more money than others.

September 2004, Charles Love, Chris Newton and an E-Cycle representative met in Chattanooga and discussed payments. Charles Love indicated Chris Newton would need $1,500 to support the bill. Charles Love received a wire transfer in the amount of $6,500. Chris Newton received $1,500 in two equal payments.

October 2004, Charles Love drove to Memphis and received an envelope from an E-Cycle representative bearing the initials "C.N." and containing $1,000 for Chris Newton.

November 2004, Chris Newton met with an E-Cycle representative.

January 2005, Chris Newton filed House Bill 0038, a bill beneficial to E-Cycle.

-------

More about John Ford:

Ford seemed to relish his legislative immunity and has been a frequent sight along Interstate 40 between Memphis and Nashville, often driving at speeds well in excess of 100 miles per hour (160 km/h). This practice caused him some difficulty in 1990, when he was accused of shooting at a truck driver while driving at this speed; an all-white jury in rural West Tennessee eventually acquitted him of any wrongdoing in this matter. Later in the 1990s he was accused of pulling a gun on a work crew of the MLG&W utility; for this he eventually accepted a plea bargain resulting in 250 hours community service time.

Rumor and innuendo long continued to swirl about Ford. In early 2005 it was revealed that a bill which he sponsored changing the way in which child support payments were figured was of great benefit to him personally, due to the complex nature of his personal life. He shared his life with both a former wife and a mistress expecting children by him simultaneously (one had previously been charged with assaulting the other), alternating his time between two separate residences (neither of which was located in the district he represents, although the funeral home, which is his legal residence, is). The existence of yet another child from a previous extramarital relationship with a third woman was revealed as well. In another circumstance touted by detractors as an ethical violation, Ford had also co-sponsored a bill preventing furniture dealers and others who were not licensed funeral directors from selling caskets, which his critics pointed to as an obvious conflict of interest, since Ford and other funeral directors would be the sole beneficiaries of such legislation, and any benefit to the consuming public deriving from such a bill was difficult, if not impossible, to demonstrate. In April 2005 the Tennnessee Registry of Election Finance found Ford to be guilty of having used campaign funds to pay for a daughter's rather elaborate wedding reception; the amount of the fine, $10,000, was considerably larger than the amount of fines typically levied by the body, but critics pointed out that it was still considerably less than the amount of campaign funds spent on the reception ($15,000+). Ford's defense was that a large number of the people invited to the reception, at least 100, were constituents and hence the event was held at least in part to aid his relationships with them.

Hearings were also held in 2005 about whether Ford's apparent failure to disclose considerable sums of consultancy fees paid him by some insurance concerns involved with TennCare constituted an ethical violation. Ford stated that such a failure was inadvertent and that the fees were for helping the companies get contracts similar to those with TennCare in other states and were not bribery for his assistance in getting them the Tennessee contracts.

On May 26, 2005, one day after his nephew announced his candidacy for the United States Senate, Ford was arrested by the FBI, along with two other Tennessee state senators, a Tennesseee state representative, a former state senator, a Chattanooga school board member, and an African American political activist, for alledged participation in a bribery scheme utilizing a "sting" operation involving a bogus electronics recycling company lobbying for favorable treatment under state law. The other politicians were released on bond; Ford, who puportedly was heard on tape saying words to the effect of, "If you're working for the FBI, I'll shoot you," to one of the agents involved in the sting, was held overnight at the Federal Detention Facility in Mason, Tennessee, about 30 miles northwest of Memphis. As a condition of the bail he was allowed to make the next day, he was required to surrender his passport, not carry a firearm, and not leave West Tennessee (technically, not to leave the federal court's Western District of Tennessee, coextenisve with West Tennessee except that it also includes Perry County in Middle Tennessee as well). He was also ordered to appear again in court on May 31, which he did; at this hearing the government's request to revoke or increase his bail was denied but the terms of his house arrest were continued unmodified.

----

New City Slogan:

Memphis - Our Officials Have More Baby's Mommas Than Yours

 

[c.inquisition]

Our Officials Have More Baby's Mommas Than Yours

I swear that if I had the time to cut and paste everything, you'd think we lived in twin cities. COMMON SITUATION: PHILADELPHIA AND MEMPHIS HAVE DISPROPORTIONATE NUMBERS OF LAWYERS.

 

[GotZoom]

And we can't forget out:

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A debate over calls to rename "Confederate" parks in downtown Memphis got some participants a little worked up.

Joining speakers before a committee of the Center City Commission, Memphis resident Perry Steele said he wants a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest removed from a park beside Union Avenue, one of the city's main downtown streets.

Steele held up a copy of an old photograph apparently showing a crowd of onlookers at the lynching of a black. "Any of your forepeople in here?" Steele asked, drawing jeers from the meeting audience Thursday night.

After the Civil War, Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He is buried in "Forrest Park" under a statue of him on horseback.

County Commissioner Walter Bailey, who wants three downtown parks renamed, presided over the meeting. Committee members will make a recommendation on the renaming request to the full Center City Commission, a quasi-government board that promotes downtown development.

The commission will then make a recommendation to the City Council, which is the only body with the power to change park names.

Proponents of the changes also want to rename "Confederate Park" and "Jefferson Davis Park" along the Memphis riverfront.

Of the 40 speakers addressing the committee, 27 spoke for the name changes and 13 spoke against.

"This is our history - good, bad and indifferent," said Memphis resident Tom Sheddan. "Let's put this to rest and remember this is our past and we can't change it."

Delano Hollowell said the parks are more about the culture of the past than about history.

"It was a culture that oppressed people - black people," he said. "Nathan Bedford Forrest can stand in history but not in the park."

Calls for changing the park names have come up several times over the years but little has come of them other then arguments and debates.

H. K. Edgerton, a former NAACP chapter president from Asheville, N.C., showed up for the meeting wearing a Confederate Army uniform and said the parks should remain as they are.

Edgerton has campaigned nationally for more recognition of black soldiers who fought for the Confederacy.

Earlier Thursday, Edgerton marched around the Forrest statue waving a Confederate flag.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/ncwire_news/story/2489010p-8892698c.html
--
Although, I must say that our mayor (African-American) spoke today saying that it is solely up to him if the parks are to be renamed. He said that he wants to leave the names as they are; they are part of history - like it or not.

Trust me....everyone in this city is shocked.

 

[no1tovote4]

The nearest Large City to me is Denver:

They put Spanish Porn Cartoons at the reach of children in their Public Libraries:

http://www.khow.com/hosts/peterboyles.html


(scroll down a bit to see some pictures of the milder stuff. Some of the "cartoons" depict violent rape and murder...

 

[c.inquisition]

They put Spanish Porn Cartoons at the reach of children in their Public Libraries:

Viva la revoluccion.

 

[dilloduck]

Unfortunately I could so on for ever but from the conspicuously apparent blue country in the middle a sea of red in South central Texas--
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/marvinolasky/printmo20030508.shtml

 

[William Joyce]

COMMON SITUATION: PHILADELPHIA AND MEMPHIS HAVE DISPROPORTIONATE NUMBERS OF LAWYERS.

And blacks.