Wednesday, August 5, 2015

U.S. Republican Party presidential candidate Mark Everson, former commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), filed a complaint on Monday with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to challenge his exclusion from Thursday’s first Fox News Republican Party presidential debate. Everson argues his exclusion violates Title 11 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations in that debate hosts must not “structure the debates to promote or advance one candidate over another”, and must “use pre-established objective criteria to determine which candidates may participate in a debate.”

Everson served as Commissioner of the IRS from 2003 to 2007, during the George W. Bush administration. After his departure, he briefly served as CEO of the American Red Cross, worked in the cabinet of Indiana governor Mitch Daniels, and worked for the tax consulting firm alliantgroup. He announced his candidacy this past March with a sixteen-page open letter in which he outlined the six pillars of his campaign: amnesty for illegal immigrants, reinstatement of the military draft, a promise to serve only a single presidential term, and calls for tax reform, deficit reduction, and corporate responsibility.

Fox News claims Everson fails to meet the criteria it established for Thursday’s two debates. Only seventeen candidates meet the criteria, which require a candidate “consistently” be included in “recognized” opinion polls. The prime-time event features the top ten candidates by average polling percentage. The other seven participate in a separate debate just before the prime time event.

In his complaint, Everson urges the FEC to compel Fox News to include him in the second tier debate as the eighth participant.

Everson argues Fox News, in violation of Title 11, “structure[d] the debates to promote or advance one candidate over another” through a July 27 change to its criteria that replaced a pre-existing one percent polling threshold with a threshold admitting those “consistently” included in “recognized” polls. He alleges this was done to ensure the inclusion of the low-polling candidates former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former New York governor George Pataki, Senator Lindsey Graham, and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore, because Fox News recognizes these candidates as “major players.”

Furthermore, Everson argues the Fox News criteria are not “objective,” as Title 11 requires, because they fail to define the terms “consistently” and “recognized” when referring to polls. He asserts he was included in the Republican Party’s online straw poll in May and is the only candidate still listed on that poll who has been excluded from Thursday’s debate.

Election law expert Richard Winger, publisher of Ballot Access News, says Everson is “completely correct” in his challenge. However, he believes Everson only has a chance of success if he actually files a lawsuit rather than simply complaining to the FEC.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Indonesia are wrestling with a proposal that would allow developing nations to earn billions of dollars through carbon trading by leaving idle forests such as those in Borneo, the Amazon and Congo basins.

The news comes on the same day that it was announced that forest clearance in the Amazon Rainforest was falling compared to previous years.

Delegates from about 190 countries are negotiating a plan for private companies and wealthy nations to pay poorer nations to keep their forest intact. It is called the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation in Developing Countries, or REDD proposal.

Environmental scientists say tree cutting in tropical areas accounts for about 20 percent of all man-made carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming. Tropical forests soak up vast amounts of carbon dioxide; burning timber to clear land releases it.

Marcelo Furtado with Greenpeace in Brazil says the REDD plan is needed to fill gaps in the current Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to limit emissions of greenhouse gases which does not include ways to preserve forests.

“We would like to see, at the very least, a REDD mechanism moving forward, because we want to see countries taking action now. We don’t want to wait to 2013 to start seeing this action taking place. And this is something this convention, this group of countries could deliver,” said Furtado.

Frances Seymour, Director General for the Indonesia-based Center for International Forest Research, is concerned a premature REDD agreement could do more harm than good.

“Because in many forested countries, land tenure rights to forest lands and resources are either unclear or contested or both. And you can imagine that if a potential new income stream is available for those who can present themselves as owners of the forest, this could create conflict and create conditions under which some of the world’s poorest people, who are people who live in forests, could be pushed aside,” said Seymour.

Financial analysts are also cautious about the proposal.

Charlotte Streck, the director of Climate Focus, a Rotterdam-based consultancy, said investors are worried about how governments would monitor their forests and ensure the carbon stored in them remains intact.

“This is what makes the private sector nervous, because these are risks that they cannot hedge properly, and that they cannot evaluate in the same manner as the project related risks,” she said.

Conference delegates are still debating how to monitor the world’s remaining tropical forests, how to stop logging in one place without shifting the problem to another area, and how to estimate the amount of carbon in a piece of land.

Yvo de Boer, the U.N.’s climate change chief, said a REDD agreement is unlikely during this conference, but a group working on the details is making significant progress.

[edit]

Friday, June 16, 2006

Former American Idol winner Ruben Studdard has won a lawsuit and $2 million against his ex-manager Ronald W. Edwards and Edwards’ promotions company, Sez Inc. The lawsuit was for misappropriating the singer’s money and credit cards. The suit claimed Edwards misused more than $246,000 of the singer’s money. According to the judge’s ruling, Edwards stole money from Studdard’s checking and other bank accounts, improperly used his credit cards and even used Studdard’s money to repay a $10,000 bank loan.

Jefferson County Circuit Judge Scott Vowell awarded Studdard $500,000 for actual losses and another $1.5 million in punitive damages. Vowell dismissed Edwards’ promotions company from the suit because it was bankrupt and had no money or assets. Edwards filed a petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on June 17, 2005. Studdard has sold 2.2 million records, but because of the damage done to his credit by Edwards, it is now even hard for Ruben to buy a home, said Vowell.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Tuesday saw Philippines President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, direct Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) officials and Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez to investigate and charge the people involved in an alleged drug bribery attempt involving wealthy Filipino families. The president also instructed the chair of the Dangerous Drugs Board, Vicente Sotto III to keep in custody the drug suspects, the so-called ‘Alabang Boys’. This pending the DOJ‘s reinvestigation of the alleged P50-million bribe mess.

In September, Richard Santos Brodett, age 25, Jorge Jordana Joseph, age 22, and Joseph Ramirez Tecson, age 23, members of the “Alabang Boys”, were arrested in a series of buy-bust operations in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, and Cubao in Quezon City. 60 ecstasy tablets, small bags of marijuana and cocaine sachets were taken from the suspects by the drug agents. The three suspects underwent the DOJ’s preliminary investigation, but the drug case was dismissed by a draft resolution signed by 2 prosecutors from the National Prosecution Service on December 2.

In the challenged resolution, State Prosecutor John Resado, with the recommending approval of Senior State Prosecutor Philip I. Kimpo and Chief State Prosecutor Jovencito Zuño, noted that the police operatives conducted illegal arrests and unlawful warrantless searches on the vehicles of the three suspects. In addition, Joseph was “under the control of the PDEA agents without the presence of any counsel when information against respondent Tecson was extracted from him,” it added.

The PDEA has accused the suspect’s family members of attempting to pay a 50 million Philippine peso bribe to one of the DOJ prosecutors handling the drug case; in exchange the case was to be dismissed. PDEA Special Enforcement Service head Major Ferdinand Marcelino has revealed that the 50 million peso bribe offer to a DOJ prosecutor was merely the first attempt of three. The Tecson family reportedly offered him 3 million pesos which was later raised to 20 million for the release of the suspects. PDEA Legal and Prosecution Service lawyer Alvaro Lazaro affirmed Marcelino’s accusations, which, however, were all denied by the suspects’ families.

The Chief State Prosecutor, Jovencito Zuño, categorically dismissed accusations that 50 million pesos had changed hands, and that he and the prosecutors had been bribed. “It’s not true. That’s a big lie. They’re just speculating,” he said. Zuño has also alleged that the factual findings were first reviewed by state prosecutors Philip Quimpo and Misael Ladaga. The Justice Secretary has ordered the NBI to investigate not only the government prosecutors but also the PDEA.

According to PDEA chief, Ret. Gen. Dionisio Santiago, the “Alabang Boys” – Richard Santos Brodett, Jorge Jordana Joseph and Joseph Ramirez Tecson – are part of an international drug network. “This is a big group, and they use the Internet to get drugs from America. This operation may lead to a bigger one. They (Alabang Boys) are second in line. It’s hard to penetrate the second line,” Santiago explained. (DOJ) Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez on Thursday, however, has asked PDEA Director General Dionisio Santiago to submit evidence to show that money changed hands or had been paid to DOJ prosecutors handling the case amid the pending NBI probe of the matter.

Meanwhile, The Philippines Congress is set to hold Congressional hearings on the case with a view to introducing legislation. “This is a big scandal involving a government agency,” said House vice chairman of committee on illegal drugs, Representative Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City. He has said that the House of Representatives‘ probe will begin on January 5. The three suspects are still detained at the PDEA Quezon City detention centre.

The Senate of the Philippines is also set to conduct hearing on the bribery mess. According to Dangerous Drugs Board chair Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan, chair of the Senate committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, has agreed to lead a Senate inquiry investigating the 50-million peso drug bribe.

In a related drug bust operation, La Union Rep. Tomas Dumpit said that the buy-bust in his province had a ‘similar ending.’ “That’s very possible just like the case in Naguilian, La Union where a shabu (methamphetamine hydrochloride) laboratory was discovered in Barangay Bimotobot, Naguilian, La Union worth one trillion pesos but it was dismissed by the DOJ.” In July, a “shabu” laboratory was searched by the PDEA and the local police, who discovered eight truckloads of equipment and chemicals that could produce 180,000 kilograms of the prohibited drugs. La Union Bishop Artemio Rillera has recently petitioned the President to re-open the cases. On November 12, the DoJ three-member prosecution panel dismissed the cases against former Dagupan police chief Supt. Dionicio Borromeo, four policemen and the shabu laboratory lot owner. Because of the ‘Alabang Boys’ bribery mess, President Arroyo on Tuesday, ordered the reinvestigation of the shabu laboratory case.

This is not the first time that the Philippine judiciary and government had been involved in massive corruption. In the recent GSIS-Meralco bribery case, the High Court dismissed Associate Justice Vicente Q. Roxas, punished Associate Justice Jose L. Sabio, Jr. with 2 months suspension, and reprimanded 2 other CA Justices. In September 2006, Atty. Romeo Roxas accused Justice Minita Chico-Nazario of issuing a ruling for certain considerations, and calling the Supreme Court a “dispenser of injustice”. Roxas said her decision ordering him and one Santiago Pastor to return more than 17 million Philippine pesos to Antonio de Zuzuarregui Jr. was wrong and unjust. Roxas told Nazario: to “sleep well if you still can” and that she would be judged by the “Supreme Dispenser of Justice.” Roxas was cited for indirect contempt and fined 30,000 Philippine pesos.

In April 2007, Philippine Court of Appeals then Presiding Justice Ruben Reyes has ordered an investigation and a regular auditing and inventory of temporary restraining orders (TROs) issued by the 69 CA Justices. Reyes stated: “I will order a monthly or quarterly inventory of TROs, for transparency and to watch the movements of the so-called Dirty Dozen [the 12 most corrupt CA justices].” CJ Reynato Puno said that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez had not yet submitted the list and the Supreme Court was waiting for its delivery amid her formal investigation against the “Dirty Dozen.”

In September 2007, Lawyer Victor de la Serna has accused Justice Dante Tinga of accepting a 10-million bribe Philippine pesos in the Johnny Chan versus Carmelita Fudot lawsuit, regarding a land located in Doljo, Panglao, Bohol. De la Serna alleged that in the September 26, 2007 meeting, Chan, owner of Bellevue Hotel, paid Tinga 10 million Philippine pesos in exchange for a favorable decision. On September 13, 2007, Tinga penned a decision in favor of Chan’s Cattleya Land Inc., over Fudot, client of De La Serna. The court, however, upheld Tinga, and fined De La Serna 30,000 Philippine pesos for indirect contempt.

In September 2007, Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago has denied charges that she received 10-million Philippine pesos (US$ 224,000) bribe money (as published by The Daily Tribune, Malaya newspaper’s Amado Macasaet and Newsbreak, the previous week).

In January 2005, and December 2006, Philippines Social Weather Stations has released the results of its 2 surveys on corruption in the judiciary. It has reported that: a) “like 1995, 1/4 of lawyers said many/very many judges are corrupt. But (49%) stated that a judges received bribes, just 8% of lawyers admitted they reported the bribery, because they could not prove it. [Tables 8-9]; judges, however, said, just 7% call many/very many judges as corrupt[Tables 10-11] ;b) Judges see some corruption; proportions who said – many/very many corrupt judges or justices: 17% in reference to RTC judges, 14% to MTC judges, 12% to Court of Appeals justices, 4% i to Shari’a Court judges, 4% to Sandiganbayan justices and 2% in reference to Supreme Court justices [Table 15].”

According to the 2008 Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) report, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia and China are considered among the most corrupt Asian economies. “The Philippines is a sad case when it comes to corruption, and is probably no worse than in places like Indonesia and Thailand,” the report added. PERC has revealed that “the Philippines scored 9.0 out of a possible 10 points under a grading system used by PERC under which zero is the best score and 10 the worst.”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of the Philippines last week, has affirmed the conviction and 40 years imprisonment sentence of Zeng Wa Shui, a Chinese citizen and Maribel Lagman, his Filipino partner. On March 14, 1996, both had possession, in Angeles City, Pampanga, of more than 600 kilos of liquid shabu and more than 1,600 kilos of ephedrine hydrochloride, a main ingredient in the production of the drug.

Sunday, May 18, 2008

An HIV-positive man was sentenced to 35 years in prison Wednesday, one day after being convicted of harassment of a public servant for spitting into the eye and open mouth of a Dallas, Texas police officer in May 2006. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that no one has ever contracted HIV from saliva, and a gay-rights and AIDS advocacy group called the sentence excessive.

A Dallas County jury concluded that Willie Campbell’s act of spitting on policeman Dan Waller in 2006 constituted the use of his saliva as a deadly weapon. The incident occurred while Campbell, 42, was resisting arrest while being taken into custody for public intoxication.

“He turns and spits. He hits me in the eye and mouth. Then he told me he has AIDS. I immediately began looking for something to flush my eyes with,” said Waller to The Dallas Morning News.

Officer Waller responded after a bystander reported seeing an unconscious male lying outside a building. Dallas County prosecutors stated that Campbell attempted to fight paramedics and kicked the police officer who arrested him for public intoxication.

Prosecutors said that Campbell yelled that he was innocent during the trial, and claimed a police officer was lying. Campbell’s lawyer Russell Heinrichs said that because he had a history of convictions including similarly attacking two other police officers, biting inmates, and other offenses, he was indicted under a habitual offender statute. The statute increased his minimum sentence to 25 years in prison. Because the jury ruled that Campbell’s saliva was used as a deadly weapon, he will not be eligible for parole until completing at least half his sentence.

The organization Lambda Legal (Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund), which advocates for individuals living with HIV, says that saliva should not be considered a deadly weapon. Bebe Anderson, the HIV projects director at Lambda Legal, spoke with The Dallas Morning News about the sentence. “It’s been 25 years since the virus was identified, but there are still lots of fears,” said Anderson.

The Dallas County prosecutor who handled the trial, Jenni Morse, said that the deadly weapon finding was justified. “No matter how minuscule, there is some risk. That means there is the possibility of causing serious bodily injury or death,” said Morse. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins stated: “If you look at the facts of this case, it was clear that the defendant intended to cause serious bodily injury.”

A page at the CDC’s website, HIV and Its Transmission, states: “HIV has been found in saliva and tears in very low quantities from some AIDS patients.” The subsection “Saliva, Tears, and Sweat” concludes that: “Contact with saliva, tears, or sweat has never been shown to result in transmission of HIV.” On Friday the Dallas County Health Department released a statement explaining that HIV is most commonly spread through sexual contact, sharing needles, or transfusion from an infected blood product.