January 30, 2019

John Podesta says Hillary Clinton is not running in 2020, rejects reports as 'media catnip'

Source: New York Daily News

The Democratic 2020 primaries just became a little less crowded.

John Podesta on Tuesday refuted reports that Hillary Clinton is considering a bid to challenge President Trump in the next general election.

“Media catnip,” the former Clinton campaign chairman told the Daily News in an email.

During an earlier appearance on CNN, Podesta was more expansive.


Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-pol-podesta-clinton-2020-trump-20190129-story.html

January 30, 2019

Husband and wife set up sham marriages between U.S. citizens and immigrants, feds allege

A husband-and-wife team masterminded a sham marriage conspiracy, pairing foreign-born immigrants in Brooklyn and Staten Island with American citizens willing to marry them for cash, federal prosecutors allege.

William Jacobson, 60, and his wife, Marta Medvedeva, 68, would pair immigrants with potential spouses, provide bogus paperwork and train them on how to fool officials during immigration interviews, the feds allege. They’d charge foreign nationals about $30,000, and pass some of that money off to the citizens they were marrying, prosecutors said.

Federal agents arrested the couple Tuesday. Jacobson, a U.S. citizen by birth, lives in Brooklyn. Medvedeva, a Ukranian native who became a citizen in 2014 after marrying Jacobson in 2008, lives in Queens.

FBI agents started wiretapping Jacobson’s phone in November — a month after an informant wired for video and sound met with the couple in Brooklyn and offered to marry an immigrant woman for $5,000, according to court documents.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-metro-sham-marriage-ring-busted-20190129-story.html

January 30, 2019

Former NYS AG Schneiderman used campaign cash to defend against abuse allegations

NEW YORK (AP) — Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman used nearly $340,000 in political campaign funds to pay the law firm that represented him during an investigation of allegations that he physically abused several women, according to campaign finance reports reviewed by The Associated Press.

The practice is legal, but reform activists say Schneiderman and other politicians are exploiting lax campaign finance rules.

"By and large, if you are an elected official, you can use your campaign contributions as a Get Out of Jail Free card," said Blair Horner, the executive director of the New York Public Interest Research Group.

Schneiderman's re-election committee, Schneiderman 2018, began paying the Clayman & Rosenberg LLP law firm the week after his abrupt May 7 resignation from office, the records show. The last payment was made Dec. 7, a month after a special prosecutor closed the investigation without filing charges.

Read more: https://www.syracuse.com/politics/2019/01/former-nys-ag-schneiderman-used-campaign-cash-to-defend-against-abuse-allegations.html

January 30, 2019

Bayside man and five others charged in six-year scheme to traffic $30 million in untaxed cigarettes

A man from Bayside and five others could each face up to 10 years in prison for allegedly conspiring to traffic over $30 million in contraband cigarettes, federal prosecutors announced Jan. 24.

The office of United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that the six suspects were arrested Jan. 23 and are set to appear in court on Jan. 31.

According to the allegations in the indictment, Bayside resident Yue Juan Chen, 41, Brooklyn residents Shao Jun Guo, 42, Shui Ying Lin, 43 and Wo Kit Cheng, 44 and Manhattan residents Jian Jiang Feng and Zhurong Gao, 66, “engaged in a scheme to smuggle and traffic $30 million of untaxed cigarettes in the United States to avoid at least $30 million in taxes.”

Information from the indictment said that the suspects’ illegal activity took place from June 2013 through January 2019.

Read more: https://www.timesledger.com/stories/2019/5/untaxedcigarettes_2019_02_01_q.html

January 30, 2019

'Run, Bernie, Run'?: N.H. Progressives Divided By Another Bernie Sanders Bid

by Asma Khalid Jan. 30, 2019


In the summer of 2015, before Bernie Sanders had staff on the ground in New Hampshire, Elizabeth Ropp, a 42-year-old acupuncturist, was making homemade signs for the Vermont senator.

"Bernie inspired me because as somebody who's lived without health insurance for most of my adult life, I want there to be a single payer health care system," she said.

She was disappointed Sanders wasn't the nominee, and is convinced that if he had been, Donald Trump would not be president today.

"I want to see Bernie run again in 2020," said Ropp. "We need Bernie to run even if the field is crowded."

Read more: https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/689742354/run-bernie-run-n-h-progressives-divided-by-another-bernie-sanders-bid

January 30, 2019

After long battle, New York passes Child Victims Act

ALBANY — The state Legislature, buoyed by the recent Democratic takeover of the Senate chamber, on Monday voted overwhelmingly to pass the Child Victims Act, ending a more than decade-long political battle between survivors of childhood sexual abuse and some of the institutions that have been accused of trying to cover it up.

In an extraordinary turnabout, every Republican member of the state Senate — whose leaders had for years blocked the legislation from being voted on in their chamber — threw their support to the bill, which passed unanimously. A short time later, the state Assembly voted 130-3 in favor of the measure, which Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said he will be sign into law in the coming days.

Many state lawmakers gave emotional remarks as they cast their votes, some revealing abuse they had suffered as children and recounting how it can take victims years or even decades to come to terms with what happened or to gain the courage to tell someone about it.

Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan, a chief sponsor of the bill, at times choked up as he recounted the years-long efforts of advocates and victims to get the legislation passed. He took a shot at his Republican colleagues who wanted to include a provision creating a special fund to compensate victims who may have been abused by a relative or in other situations where litigation may not be an option.

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Acknowledge-the-harm-Cuomo-says-to-child-13566759.php

January 30, 2019

Cuomo feuds with Catholic Church over abortion bill

ALBANY — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hit back at the Catholic Church on Tuesday, blaming its lobbying arm for opposing the abortion protections enacted last week and also the Child Victims Act, which passed the Legislature on Monday.

"To the Catholic Church, I am, I am sorry about the situation," Cuomo said earlier this week. "I'm not sorry about my position."

The New York State Catholic Conference spent millions of dollars in the last decade to garner legislative opposition to the Child Victims Act, a bill that will extend the statute of limitations for those accused of childhood sexual abuse.

The conference withdrew its opposition to the bill last week, after it was clear that it would pass the overwhelmingly Democratic Legislature on Monday.

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Cuomo-takes-heat-from-Catholics-for-abortion-bill-13567240.php

January 30, 2019

Mayor Kelly cites unity in state of Saratoga Springs message

SARATOGA SPRINGS - Mayor Meg Kelly told a small crowd of Saratogians on Tuesday night that under her leadership city officials "have worked together like never before."

Guided by the theme of unity, her second State of the City message was echoed by four city commissioners. They specifically pointed to the August fire at City Hall which caused $10 million worth of damage. All spoke about the city's ability to get back up and running in days after relocating to the city's Recreation Center.

They also teamed up to achieve other goals like breaking ground on affordable housing projects and securing grant fund for other projects, including the restoration of Universal Preservation Hall. They also noted the camaraderie will extend to the future as the city completes the refurbishment of City Hall and searches for property on the east side of the city for a third fire station.

As the Mayor described how she spent her year, it was clear that much of what she accomplished was internal.

Read more: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Mayor-Kelly-cites-unity-in-state-of-Saratoga-13572046.php

January 30, 2019

Armed Man Disrupts Houston Library During Drag Queen Storytime

James "Doc" Green Sr. recounted the incident for his Facebook following on Jan. 28 (screen grab from Greene's video).


HOUSTON -- A Drag Queen Storytime protester allegedly trespassed in the Freed-Montrose Library this weekend after previously being banned from the premises.

James “Doc” Greene Sr., who was issued a trespassing warning last month by the Houston Public Library (HPL) stating he could no longer visit its Montrose location, was detained, disarmed, and escorted out by police on Saturday, Jan. 26, for entering the building and refusing to leave.

Jodi Silva, a spokesperson for the Houston Police Department, said Greene entered the library branch at 1:45 p.m., about 15 minutes before its monthly storytime that features drag queens reading picture books to children and their parents. Library management requested police intervention when Greene would not leave the building.

“A manager asked us for assistance because [Greene] was banned from the library, and would not leave when he was asked,” Silva says. “He was previously banned for filming children at the library, and has been known to cause disturbances. Several officers had to escort him out.”

Read more (it's worth it): http://www.outsmartmagazine.com/2019/01/armed-man-disrupts-houston-library-during-drag-queen-storytime/

January 30, 2019

LULAC Sues Over Texas Voter Citizenship Review, Calls It "Election-Related 'Witch Hunt'"

A Latino civil rights group is suing top Texas officials over what the organization says is an “election-related ‘witch hunt’” designed to intimidate legitimately registered voters by asking them to prove their citizenship.

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Antonio, lawyers for the League of United Latin American Citizens’ national and Texas arms alleged that Texas Secretary of State David Whitley and Attorney General Ken Paxton violated a portion of the federal Voting Rights Act that prohibits the intimidation of voters.

They point to an advisory issued Friday in which Whitley’s office said it was flagging individuals who had provided the Texas Department of Public Safety with some form of documentation — including a work visa or a green card — that showed they were not citizens when they were obtaining driver’s licenses or ID cards. The state put the number of registered voters who fell into that category at approximately 95,000 — 58,000 of whom had voted in one or more elections from 1996 to 2018.

In its announcement, the secretary of state’s office said it had immediately turned over the data to Paxton’s office. On the same day, Paxton posted the news on Twitter prefaced with “VOTER FRAUD ALERT,” the lawyers noted in the lawsuit.

Read more: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/2019/01/29/319803/lulac-sues-over-texas-voter-citizenship-review-calls-it-election-related-witch-hunt/

Galveston County rushes to the front of the line indicating that they will send out notices to those on the list.