Americans for Political Change

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The Michigan Democratic Party has accused Republican Senate candidate Clark Durant of illegally profiting off a “sponsor-a-child” charity.

The charity, Genesis Foundation, was created to provide tuition for children attending Cornerstone Schools, a system of nonprofit schools Durant co-founded in Detroit. But tax returns showed that about 95 percent of all funds donated to the charity go directly to Durant and his daughter, Hope Durant Loomis.

“For that reason it does not appear that this Foundation is organized and operating as a tax-exempt charitable organization,” attorney Tammie Tischler explained in an IRS complaint filed on behalf of Democrats Monday. “Contributions come in from two donors and go directly to Mr. Durant and Ms. Loomis as compensation for program services.”

She said the Genesis Foundation “appears to be a complete sham organization.”

“Non-profit law prohibits the use of charitable assets for the private interests of founders, family members and board members,” Tischler concluded. “This is a blatant violation of the laws governing non-profit organizations.”

New administration same old corruption in New York:

Boss Tweed

New York State’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics will keep secret the vast majority of millionaire donors who funded a lobbying group that promotes Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

The board decided Tuesday that a law passed a year ago requires revealing only donors to lobbying groups since July 1.

The Committee to Save New York has spent more than $10 million in an unprecedented, campaign-like TV ad blitz supporting Cuomo. Now it won’t have to reveal most of its contributors dating to December 2010.

The committee has helped boost Cuomo’s popularity through ads touting his accomplishments.

It recently received $2 million from gambling interests as Cuomo sought to expand casino gambling.

Common Cause has said the measure gives lobbyists a “grace period” from a law that the general public doesn’t get.

FBI agents are seeking evidence of bribery, fraud, extortion and money laundering as they investigate the mayor of New Jersey’s capital city.

Agents last week searched City Hall offices and the homes of Mayor Tony Mack, his brother and a campaign donor.

Mack’s two years in office have been marked by accusations of cronyism and mismanagement. The Democrat’s only public comment has been to say he has not violated the public trust.

Mack is out of town on vacation and is due to return on Monday.

via Tony Mack Investigation: FBI Seeks Evidence Against Trenton Mayor.

As the Justice Department weighs the possibility of criminal charges in the unfolding Libor rate-setting scandal, it may want to consider the record of the Swiss banking giant UBS.

At UBS, a series of immunity, nonprosecution and deferred prosecution agreements in recent years — evidently the government’s preferred approach to corporate crime — seems to have had scant, if any, deterrent effect.

via NYT: UBS Has Impressive Record Of Attracting Scandal, Avoiding Consequences.

Of course not. They always find a to get around restrictions on their corruption. It’s all a charade. Congress will do whatever it pleases while pretending to do the people’s work:

It was a rare show of bipartisanship — President Barack Obama, flanked by Democrats and Republicans in April, signing into law a bill that would ban insider trading on Capitol Hill. The measure, known as the STOCK Act, had passed the House and Senate at warp speed.

“The powerful shouldn’t get to create one set of rules for themselves and another set of rules for everybody else,” the president said at the time.

Lawmakers proclaimed that the bill, officially called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, would restore trust in government. It also applied new rules to some employees of the executive branch.

But CNN uncovered that the law that members of Congress thought they voted for earlier this year isn’t exactly as advertised. A loophole could still allow family members of some lawmakers to profit from inside information.

The operator of an oil pipeline that cracked in 2010 and gushed nearly a million gallons of oil into a Michigan creek and river failed to make repairs and take appropriate action after recognizing structural problems several years earlier, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday.

The agency said Enbridge Inc. took more than 17 hours to shut down operations after the 30-inch-diameter pipeline ruptured and released crude oil into a wetland area near Marshall, Michigan, said NTSB Chairwoman Deborah A.P. Hersman. The NTSB, which often investigates plane and bus crashes, also monitors pipeline accidents.

According to the NTSB, the incident was the largest oil spill in the Midwestern United States. Federal officials say cleanup costs have exceeded $800 million.

via Feds: Operator knew of pipeline problems years before Michigan oil spill – CNN.com.

Bill Johnson had a very short-lived career as the CEO of Duke Energy. In a controversial merger with Progress Energy, which was completed on Monday, Johnson was asked to resign by the company’s board of directors. With the merger, Duke Energy is now the country’s largest provider of electricity.

Johnson signed a contract with Duke Energy, which included a compensation package and a ‘golden parachute,’ on June 27th. Despite the fact that his tenure was all of one day, there’s a good chance the company will be held to the golden parachute, which is worth as much as $44.4 million.

via Energy CEO Could Make $44 Million – After Quitting On First Day | Addicting Info.

A politician will do anything to get votes. Now they are using profanity. By uttering vulgarities they hope to become popular in the this age of reality TV in where obscenity is fashionable:

What the $?&(! is going on with our politicians?

The mayors of New York and Philadelphia and the governor of New Jersey let loose with a few choice vulgarities over the past two weeks in otherwise G-rated public settings, including a town-hall meeting and a City Hall event.

And all three men knew full well the microphone was on.

While foul language has been uttered in politics before, the blue streak is making some wonder whether it reflects the coarsening effects of pop culture in this reality-TV era of “Jersey Shore” and “The Real Housewives,” a decline in public discourse, a desire by politicians to come across as average Joes, or just a really hot summer.

Politicians have ceased to be public servants and have become CEOs:

Former President Bill Clinton commanded the largest speaking fees of his career in 2011, earning $13.4 million and exceeding his previous record by 25%.

Clinton’s fees were detailed in Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s annual financial disclosure report, released Monday. A CNN analysis of those records shows that the former commander-in-chief has earned $89 million from paid speeches since leaving the White House in January 2001.

Barclays’ rate-fixing scandal claimed its biggest casualty so far: Chief Executive Robert E. Diamond Jr., who resigned on the eve of a new investigation into the bank’s operations by a committee of the British Parliament.

After resisting pressure to leave, Diamond resigned Tuesday and left immediately, a week after the bank announced it would pay $453 million in fines to U.S. and British authorities for its attempts to manipulate key interest rates, including the London interbank offered rate, or LIBOR.

Following Diamond out the door hours later was Jerry del Missier, appointed only last month as chief operating officer. They left only a day after Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius said he would step down as soon as a successor was named.

via Barclays CEO resigns amid rate-fixing scandal – latimes.com.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/03/us-utilities-jpmorgan-ferc-idUSBRE8620LK20120703

U.S. energy regulators have subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase & Co to produce 25 internal emails as part of an investigation into whether the bank manipulated electricity markets in California and the Midwest.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which has recently stepped up its efforts to end manipulation of U.S. power markets, filed a petition in federal court on Monday to require the bank to produce emails from 2010 and 2011 as part of a formal investigation into the bank’s power trading.

GlaxoSmithKline was socked with $3 billion in fines by US authorities Monday over charges it marketed drugs for unauthorized uses, held back safety data, and cheated the government’s Medicaid program.

In a longstanding case that officials said bared the ugly underside of the US pharmaceutical industry, GSK was also accused of paying kickbacks to doctors, paying for expensive trips and other benefits, to gain their support for the drugs the company was pushing.

via GlaxoSmithKline fined $3 bn in US – Yahoo! News.

http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/1O08q-WGBj0/

Source:

Shares of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) tumbled in premarket trading Thursday as a published report said the bank’s losses on a bad trade may be as much as $9 billion — far higher than the estimated $2 billion loss disclosed last month.

In May, JPMorgan said the loss came from trading in credit derivatives designed to hedge against financial risk, and not to make a profit for the New York bank.

The New York Times, citing sources it did not identify by name, said the losses have grown recently as JPMorgan has been unwinding its positions. The newspaper said its sources were current and former traders and executives at JPMorgan, which is the largest bank in the U.S. by assets.

The charge that the Obama administration coordinated with the health-care industry in 2009 — during the Obamacare fight — to send a good chunk of business to the consulting firm founded by presidential adviser David Axelrod has resurfaced in the news media, with the House Energy and Commerce Committee recently releasing a barrage of emails showing communications between the administration and the industry sent ahead of the push for Obama’s health care overhaul.

At issue is whether the White House worked with officials inside the industry to form the outside group, “Healthy Economy Now,” which ran pro-Obamacare ads with the help of Axelrod’s former political consulting firm, AKPD Message and Media.

via Emails: White House sent health care work to Axelrod’s firm | The Daily Caller.