New York City Police Bust 18 Corporate and Media Executives, Three Dealers In Major Cocaine Bust

The investigation is believed to have begun after successful investment banker Thomas J Hughes (above) jumped to his death from his 24th floor luxury Manhattan apartment in May 2015.

[From article]
A Fox Business Network producer, a Chipotle executive and an associate at Merrill Lynch are among a group of 18 high-flyers who have been arrested after a massive New York cocaine ring was cracked.
Katie Welnhofer, 29, who works on 'Mornings with Maria' on Fox Business, and the Mexican fast food chain's Chief Marketing and Development Officer, Mark Crumpacker, 53, have been indicted after the operation.


Katie Welnhofer, 29, who works on 'Mornings with Maria' on Fox Business, has been arrested as part of a huge crackdown on cocaine buyers in New York.

Christopher Dodson, 28, a client associate at Merrill Lynch, and his brother Austin, 24, an associate at real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, were also arrested.
Underwriting consultant Christian Jewett, 31, Marwood Group senior associate Kyle Holmes, 27, tax accountant Roman Yoffe, 36, and Huffington Post blogger and education professional Alexander Mallory, 31, were also among those indicted.
They were all charged with the criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree, according to court documents seen by Daily Mail Online.
It followed a year-long investigation into a massive drug ring that sold $75,000 worth of cocaine and operated from the Lower East Side
Three kingpins Kenny 'Jay' Hernandez, Felix Nunez and Oscar Almonte were also arrested.
They allegedly used livery services to deliver cocaine to customers throughout Manhattan.
The probe is believed to have begun after investment banker Thomas Hughes jumped to his death from his 24th floor luxury apartment in May last year.
Reports suggest police found the number of his dealer on his cell phone when they searched his home.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said: 'Drug dealers profit by sowing seeds of addiction that destroy lives, families, and communities.
'We are dedicated to stemming both the supply and demand for dangerous narcotics, and the crime that accompanies the market for illegal drugs.'
Hernandez oversaw the ring and personally conducted the vast majority of the sales, including eleven separate sales to undercover detectives.
As detailed in the indictment, members of the ring allegedly used car services to deliver the drugs to buyers, including to delis, restaurants, bars, apartments, hotels, and the buyers’ workplaces.
The defendants delivered to locations across Manhattan, including the Lower East Side, the Upper East Side, Chelsea, the Financial District, and Midtown, as well as areas of Brooklyn and Queens. Many of the sales took place in delis or Duane Reade and CVS pharmacies.
Customers generally paid between $200 and $300 per transaction.
Welnhofer and the Dodsons were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Thursday morning.
According to the indictment, Welnhofer made two purchases of cocaine - one in March and one in May - to an address on West 25th Street.
The producer was led into the court in a jumpsuit with handcuffs and with her hair pulled back. She was held on $15,000 bail.
According to her Facebook profile, Welnhofer is from Wilmette, Illinois. Before joining Fox Business, where she produces for 'Money Honey' Maria Bartiromo, she worked for One World Sports.
The Northwestern University graduate has also been a producer of Good Morning America and had stints at Inside Edition and CNBC.
In November 2014, she attended Eric Trump and Lara Yunaska's lavish wedding.
At the time she and Lara were colleagues at Inside Edition. It is not believed that she and the Trumps remain friends but she does still post on his social media pages.
It is her 30th birthday on Friday.
[. . .]
Christopher Dodson made at least 17 purchases of cocaine between January and May this year. Many of the transactions occurred in Duane Reade pharmacies.
His brother Austin bought cocaine twice - one in February and once in March. According to the indictment, the March purchase was made at a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan.
Both Austin and Christopher Dodson played lacrosse at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania after graduating from the elite Landon School.
Austin met his girlfriend Rosalin Savoie, 23, a marketing co-ordinator with Rimmel London, at Dickinson, where she played soccer.
Savoie, of Bethel, Connecticut, was pictured picking him after he posted bail on Thursday evening.
Roman Yoffe, 36, a tax accountant, also appeared in court as his pregnant wife sat in the public gallery.
He made at least seven cocaine purchases that were delivered to his Water Street place of work, according to the indictment. One was made in a Gristedes supermarket.
Mark Crumpacker, 53, was named Chipotle's first Chief Marketing Officer in January 2009.
According to his LinkedIn page he oversees all of the company's marketing functions including advertising, design, events, public relations, social media, and research.
Sources told Daily Mail Online Crumpracker is set to surrender in the next couple of days.
He made six purchases between January and May, all delivered to his home on West 13th Street in the West Village. Many were made in February and March of 2016, the height of his busy tax season.
In 2013, Crumpacker was named Chipotle's Chief Development Officer and now leads the company's real estate, design, construction and facilities functions worldwide.
Prior to joining Chipotle, he was the founder, CEO and Creative Director at Sequence, a San Francisco-based branding and interactive agency.
Mallory has blogged on Huffington Post, went to Manhattan's Fieldston school before Williams and also founded the company Competitive Edge Tutoring.
He made seven purchases between March and May this year, five at a CVS pharmacy near Washington Square Park and two at his home address in the West Village.
Kyle Holmes, 27, of Astoria, Queens, a Senior Associate at healthcare focused financial services firm the Marwood Group, was also indicted.
He made at least six purchases of cocaine between January and April. One purchase, in March, was delivered to the Quality Italian restaurant on West 57th Street.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3668574/Fox-Business-producer-Chipotle-executive-arrested-huge-cocaine-bust-New-York.html

Young, rich - and busted: Fox producer, Chipotle executive, Merrill banker, Wall Street accountant, Cushman & Wakefield broker and HuffPo blogger cuffed after year-long Manhattan cocaine sting
Katie Welnhofer, 29, who works on Mornings with Maria, was arrested
Mark Crumpacker, 53, Chipotle's CMO, has also been indicted
Sources told Daily Mail Online he will surrender in the next few days
They were two of 18 alleged drug dealers collared as part of the operation
Christopher Dodson, a client associate at Merrill Lynch, and his real estate professional brother were also indicted
It followed a year-long undercover investigation by New York City cops
Three kingpins allegedly used livery services to delivery the cocaine around Manhattan and to Brooklyn
The deals are said to have gone down in multiple locations, including CVS and Duane Reade pharmacies and a Gristedes supermarket
Some of them also had the cocaine delivered to their homes and offices
By WILLS ROBINSON and KHALEDA RAHMAN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 13:03 EST, 30 June 2016 | UPDATED: 10:39 EST, 1 July 2016

Is A Not For Profit Corporation With a $37 billion Endowment A Lobbyist?

Will this procedure include lobbyists from the homosexual lobby, the women's lobby, the black racism lobby, the ACLU, CAIR, CCTV, and other special interest groups who derive much consideration from the City Councilors they lobby? What about the zoning lawyers? They are usually experts to who the City councilors and zoning board and planning board members defer during hearings and council meetings. Then there is the community organization with a $37 billion endowment, the training school for ministers, Harvard University.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/4/6/lobbying-bill-divides-council/

Lobbying Bill Reveals City Council Split
By JOSHUA J. FLORENCE and SAMUEL VASQUEZ,

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
April 6, 2016

CEO Of Energy Corporation, Dies In Car Accident, Day After He Was Indicted

[From article]
Aubrey McClendon, the founder and former CEO of oil and gas giant Chesapeake Energy, died Wednesday in a single-car crash in Oklahoma City, a day after he was charged with bid-rigging in the energy markets.
McClendon, 56, was driving at a “high rate of speed” at about 9 a.m. when he drove through a grassy area and crashed head-on into a wall, dying instantly in a 2013 Chevy Tahoe, Oklahoma City police Capt. Paco Balderrama said at a press conference.
The car erupted into a fireball after, charring the crushed hull of the vehicle, according to photos of the scene.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the crash was an accident.
McClendon’s death comes one day after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of conspiring to rig the price of oil and gas leases in Oklahoma.
“While serving as CEO of a major oil and gas company, the defendant formed and led a conspiracy to suppress prices paid to leaseholders in northwest Oklahoma,” US Assistant Attorney General Bill Baer said in a statement Tuesday.

http://nypost.com/2016/03/02/ex-chesapeake-ceo-dies-in-car-crash-day-after-indictment/

Energy mogul dies in fiery car crash day after indictment
By Kevin Dugan
New York Post
March 2, 2016 | 3:19pm

Ronald Reagan Remembered, GE Moves To Boston

Ronald Reagan Spokesman For GE

1-8-07
The GE Years: What Made Reagan Reagan
by Thomas W. Evans
The Education of Ronald Reagan: The General Electric Years and the Untold Story of his Conversion to Conservatism,

Ronald Reagan :"served as host of the General Electric Theater on television. His contract also called for him to spend a quarter of his eight years (1954-1962) with the company touring the forty states and 139 plants of GE’s far-flung decentralized corporate domain, addressing 250,000 employees and their neighbors.

[From article]
General Electric Co. announced on Wednesday that it will be moving its headquarters from Fairfield, Conn., to Boston, starting this summer.
[. . .]
GE has been based on a 68-acre suburban campus in Fairfield since 1974. Its new home will be built in Boston's Seaport District, with the full move to be completed by 2018.
The $130 billion global industrial giant said it has been weighing a headquarters move for more than three years. That search may have become more urgent after a 2015 state budget raised taxes on corporations.
[. . .]
Although the tax breaks are generous, they were not the key reasons for GE's choice of Boston.
GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt said the company was looking for "an ecosystem that shares our aspirations. Greater Boston is home to 55 colleges and universities. Massachusetts spends more on research & development than any other region in the world, and Boston attracts a diverse, technologically fluent workforce."
GE also said Boston offered "connections with the world." That can be read as: Logan International Airport. Unlike Fairfield, Boston offers nonstop flights to London, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tokyo, Santiago and many other global destinations.
New York officials had hoped to attract GE, but the company said it not only is pulling out of Connecticut but will be selling its offices at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan.
[. . .]
Boston's advantages showed up in another way on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve gave it a pat on the back in its Beige Book, an eight-times-a-year report on growth.
The Beige Book described Boston's economic activity as "upbeat."
Fed researchers concluded that while the New York and Kansas City regions were essentially flat, other parts of the country were reporting growth and Boston was particularly healthy.

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/13/462960233/ge-brings-things-to-life-in-boston-lights-out-in-connecticut

GE Brings Things To Life In Boston; Lights Out In Connecticut
Updated January 13, 20167:00 PM ET
Published January 13, 20165:34 PM ET






MARILYN GEEWAX

Use of Corporations For Boycotts

Does that mean that when Macy's and Amazon boycotted Donald Trump a stockholder can sue them? When employees of universities, tax exempt corporations, use their property for similar political activity isn't that too a violation of IRS, Treasury Department tax laws and state revenue laws? And what about the PR flack for the White House stating in unequivocal terms that Trump is not qualified to be president while the flack was working in the White House. Isn't that an illegal use of public property, an act defined as political activity? Not that violating laws is any concern to this lawless administration? 

[From blog]

On December 2, The Wall Street Journal published an Op-Ed by law school professors Eugene Kontorovich and Steven Davidoff Solomon, “Those Israel Boycotts Are Illegal.” In it, the professors take on the increasingly frequent boycott resolutions under consideration at –and approved by many– academic associations such as the American Anthropological Association and the American Studies Association. They note:
The moral myopia and academic perversity of these boycotts have been widely discussed. Less well understood is that in many cases they also are illegal. Under corporate law, an organization, including a nonprofit, can do only what is permitted under the purposes specified in its charter.
Boycott resolutions that are beyond the powers of an organization are void, and individual members can sue to have a court declare them invalid. The individuals serving on the boards of these organizations may be liable for damages.
[…]
Saying that organizations cannot act beyond the purposes specified in their charters is no mere legal nitpicking. The charter is an explicit contract with members, declaring that their money will be dedicated to agreed-upon goals and that their group will not turn into a motorcycle club or a political party.
On its face, an academic boycott undermines academic freedom, a broad-based education and the exchange of ideas. That’s stupid. Holding only Israel to some imaginary standard and holding Israeli academics responsible for Israeli policy, whatever one thinks of it, is clearly immoral. Academic associations don’t seem to care about this. A couple of well-prosecuted lawsuits might, however, make them take notice.

Posted by SC at December 3, 2015 12:28 PM

http://blog.camera.org/archives/2015/12/academic_boycotts_of_israel_no.html

December 03, 2015
Academic Boycotts of Israel Not Just Stupid and Immoral, Also Illegal

Conservatives Oppose Patent Reform Bills, Which Would Harm Individual Inventors

[From article]
“For that reason, Conservatives should be wary when elected officials start talking about reforming the patent system. Certainly, some targeted changes may be warranted on occasion, but, as we have seen time and again, the leadership in Washington thinks every problem, large or small needs ‘comprehensive’ reform and overhaul. Obamacare and Dodd-Frank are just a couple of example,” the letter reads.
There are currently two patent reform bills circulating in the House and the Senate, The Innovation Act and PATENT Act, respectively.
Supports of the legislation say it will update intellectual property laws to reign in “patent trolls” — mostly shell companies that buy up vague patents with the intent of suing other companies for infringement.
Opponents of the bills say they impose overreaching standards that patent litigation that would make it hard for small innovators to protect their property rights. They argue the legislation favors major tech companies like Google and Apple.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/aug/27/edwin-meese-reagans-ag-joins-fight-against-patent-/

Edwin Meese, Reagan’s AG, joins fight against patent reform
By Kellan Howell
The Washington Times
Thursday, August 27, 2015

Corporations Conduct Surveillance Assisting Government, Book Excerpt

[From article]
If you have a Gmail account, you can check for yourself. You can look at your search history for any time you were logged in. It goes back for as long as you’ve had the account, probably for years. Do it; you’ll be surprised. It’s more intimate than if you’d sent Google your diary. And while Google lets you see it, you have no rights to delete anything you don’t want there.
There are other sources of intimate data and metadata. Records of your purchasing habits reveal a lot about who you are. Your tweets tell the world what time you wake up in the morning, and what time you go to bed each night. Your buddy lists and address books reveal your political affiliation and sexual orientation. Your email headers reveal who is central to your professional, social, and romantic life.

Excerpted from DATA AND GOLIATH: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World by Bruce Schneier. Copyright © 2015 by Bruce Schneier. With permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

http://www.wired.com/2015/03/data-and-goliath-nsa-metadata-spying-your-secrets/
BRUCE SCHNEIER

SECURITY 03.25.15
4:22 PM
NSA DOESN’T NEED TO SPY ON YOUR CALLS TO LEARN YOUR Secrets

How Al Sharpton Makes Money From Corporations

Does that mean that Obama, Holder, Jeh Johnson, Charles Rangel are not race hustlers?

[From article]
Want to influence a casino bid? Polish your corporate image? Not be labeled a racist?
Then you need to pay Al Sharpton.
For more than a decade, corporations have shelled out thousands of dollars in donations and consulting fees to Sharpton’s National Action Network. What they get in return is the reverend’s supposed sway in the black community or, more often, his silence.
[. . .]



“Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him. Put simply, Sharpton specializes in shakedowns,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal & Policy Center, a Virginia-based watchdog group that has produced a book on Sharpton.
[. . .]
In 2008, Plainfield Asset Management, a Greenwich, Conn.-based hedge fund, made a $500,000 contribution to New York nonprofit Education Reform Now. That money was immediately funneled to the National Action Network.
The donation raised eyebrows. Although the money was ostensibly to support NAN’s efforts to bring “educational equality,” it also came at a time that Plainfield was trying to get a lucrative gambling deal in New York.
[. . .]



Sharpton raised $1 million for NAN at his 60th birthday bash in October, with donations rolling in from unions and a corporate roster of contributors including AT&T, McDonald’s, Verizon and Walmart.
Companies have long gotten in line to pay Sharpton. Macy’s and Pfizer have forked over thousands to NAN, as have General Motors, American Honda and Chrysler.
[. . .]
NAN had repeatedly and without success asked GM for donations for six years beginning in August 2000, a GM spokesman told The Post. Then, in 2006, Sharpton threatened a boycott of GM over the planned closing of an African-American-owned dealership in The Bronx. He picketed outside GM’s Fifth Avenue headquarters. GM wrote checks to NAN for $5,000 in 2007 and another $5,000 in 2008.
Sharpton targeted American Honda in 2003 for not hiring enough African-Americans in management positions.
[. . .]
Sharpton landed a gig as a $25,000-a-year adviser to Pepsi after he threatened a consumer boycott of the soda company in 1998, saying its ads did not portray African-Americans. He held the position until 2007

http://nypost.com/2015/01/04/how-sharpton-gets-paid-to-not-cry-racism-at-corporations/

How Sharpton gets paid to not cry ‘racism’ at corporations
By Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein
January 4, 2015 | 12:23am
New York Post

Tort System Demanded SONY Withdraw Film

[From article]
This column is about a tort system that is dedicated not to justice but to making lawyers richer, and it comes not only at the price of American prosperity but at the cost of our liberty as well.
Certainly, Sony has a yellow streak
[. . .]
So Sony, even if it wasn’t inclined toward submissiveness, had no choice but to cave-in to the Norks and pull The Interview. We have created a tort system that gave it no other choice.
[. . .]
Sony is a business; its duty isn’t to fight for our principles but to preserve and expand shareholder value. We veterans all swore to die, if necessary, to defend our Constitution, but Sony didn’t.
[. . .]
We conservatives have a pretty constrained view of the proper role of the federal government, but if its portfolio includes anything it must include defending Americans who come under attack by a foreign government while exercising their right of free speech within the United States.
But Sony was at a disadvantage because they had to rely on President Obama, who seemed bothered by the fact that this arose on the day he wanted the media narrative to focus on his footsie-playing with the Caribbean hereditary communist monarchy rather than on the antics of the Asian hereditary communist monarchy. Obama, as is his tradition, did nothing, which is what America’s enemies have come to expect. Sony was therefore utterly alone.
[. . .]
the present tort system is designed to do one thing and one thing only – make trial lawyers rich.
[. . .]
Do you feel comfortable with placing the fate of everything you worked for and built over the years in the hands of a bunch of strangers whose only qualification for the job is U.S. citizenship and a pulse? Well, that’s what our tort system does.
[. . .]
many defendants find it’s cheaper just to pay off these parasites rather than keep covering the huge bills defense attorneys like me have to send them month after month. It’s a racket and a scam, and we ought to drive a stake through its heart.
[. . .]
Start with “loser pays,” and since most plaintiff don’t have the kind of money to repay defendants when their crummy case loses, make them put down a hefty deposit on the post-judgment attorney’s fees award before filing. Will that dissuade people from filing lawsuits? Heck yeah – but hey, if your case is so awesome, get your lawyer to write a check and deposit it with the court.
Also, end awards of damages for pain and suffering – just end them. Gone. Make tort law about tangible economic losses. And watch the majority of trial lawyers have to go get real jobs.

http://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2014/12/22/dont-blame-sonyblame-obama-and-the-tort-system-n1934189

Don’t Blame Sony – Blame Obama and the Tort System
Kurt Schlichter
Dec 22, 2014

FBI Reveals, Duh! Domestic Institutions Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

Here's an idea. There are hundreds of programmers creating apps for city governments across the nation. Do you think any of them may be anarchists, or criminals? Duh! Here's another. For the past eight years Harvard University IT employees, and criminals employed by local police tampered with my home computer. Do you think that police and academic hackers can thwart attacks from other nations? Just asking. With no plan, clueless officials fund creation of more and more digital systems that remain vulnerable. More evidence that leadership positions in government, corporations and universities are being filled by weak persons with relaxed rectitude. See, Roger Morris's book, Partners in Power, about the Clintons. 

[From article]
“If you have a device connected to the Internet, you can’t ever have high confidence that you’re safe,” he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/9/fbi-director-us-vulnerable-major-cyberattack/

FBI director: U.S. vulnerable to major cyberattack
By Phillip Swarts
The Washington Times
Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Harvard University, US Corporations Sponsor Anti Israeli Panel

Informative comments
[From article]
My invitation to “Harvard Arab Weekend” promised to provide a “mosaic of perspectives and insights on the most pressing issues in the Arab world.” Many of the panels appeared worthy of the conference’s corporate support from McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bank Audi, Strategy&, and the energy giant Shell. And yet featured prominently on the conference agenda was a panel devoted to the destruction of Israel: “The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement: Accomplishments, Tactics and Lessons.”
[. . .]
The panel’s moderator, Ahmed Alkhateeb, began by noting that a primary goal of the BDS movement is “promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties” in what is today Israel. As President Barack Obama pointed out in 2008, this goal stands in opposition to a “two state solution” and “would extinguish Israel as a Jewish State.” And in an op-ed published in Al Akhbar newspaper, Cal State professor As’ad AbuKhalil, an outspoken advocate of the BDS movement, affirmed that “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel.” This is the “unambiguous goal…[and] there should not be an equivocation on the subject.”
[. . .]
Student organizers of the panel told me that Chomsky would provide the “anti-BDS” perspective, and he was introduced as the only voice on the panel to be critical of BDS “tactics.” But Chomsky would have none of it: “It’s interesting that I’m introduced as someone that has criticized BDS tactics; actually I have strongly advocated for BDS.”
Chomsky also encouraged anti-Israel activists to take a phased approach toward the annihilation of Israel as a Jewish state: “The one-state option is a good idea in the long run but there’s only one way that I can imagine we can reach it, and that’s in stages.”
[. . .]
Harvard administrators allowed an event promoting an end to the national existence of the Jewish people to take place under Harvard’s auspices;

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/18/harvard-bds-panel-support/

Reckless Sponsorship of Anti-Israelism
By SARA K. GREENBERG
November 18, 2014

Fierce Grocery Competition

[From article]
This year Kroger, the US's largest supermarket chain, will pass $100bn revenue mark, despite having no presence overseas. This local chain has now enjoyed 43 consecutive quarters of growth. Walmart has taken note and is trying to get back into smaller, urban supermarkets after spending years trying to kill them off.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/oct/05/supermarkets-discounters-europe-us-china-japan

Brutal competition batters supermarkets the world over
As discount chains knock spots off Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, and Morrisons in the UK, grocers in Europe and further afield are suffering too. Observer writers check out shopping struggles from Berlin to Beijing
Observer writers check out shopping struggles from Berlin to Beijing
The Observer

Saturday 4 October 2014

Tech Companies Impatient With Congress, Poiliticians

[From article]
Immigration reform — a key demand for a sector struggling to bring in skilled foreign developers and techies — has died a slow and painful death since the 2012 election, when congressional action seemed imminent.
Patent reform, another major issue for tech companies who dread dealing with the "trolls" that file harassing lawsuits merely to extract a costly settlement, is also dead. Tough negotiations in the Senate were torpedoed by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in May.

http://thehill.com/policy/technology/216824-tech-frustration-with-congress-boils-over

Tech's frustration with Congress boils over
By Julian Hattem 09/07/14 10:00 AM EDT

Market Basket Resumes Operations After Cousins Settle

Back to work: Employees embrace near a poster welcoming customers back to the stores on Thursday.

[From article]
A beloved grocery chain CEO who was ousted from the company by his cousin - causing a six week standoff between management and thousands of workers - has struck a deal to return to the helm.
Arthur T. Demoulas has reportedly made a $1.5 billion offer to buy out the part of the New England-based chain Market Basket controlled by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas.
When Arthur T. - whom employees likened to George Bailey in 'It's a Wonderful Life' for putting people before profits - was ousted by a board of directors controlled by Arthur S. Demoulas in June, workers refused to work and marched the streets in protest.


Warehouse employees failed to make deliveries to the stores in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, leaving shelves bare and costing millions in lost revenue.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2736661/Victory-beloved-It-s-Wonderful-Life-boss-Fired-CEO-buys-grocery-company-employees-walked-six-weeks-save-job.html

Victory for beloved 'It's a Wonderful Life boss': Fired CEO buys grocery company back after all his employees walked out for six weeks to save his job
Arthur T. Demoulas has made a $1.5 billion offer to buy out the part of Market Basket controlled by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas
It comes after a board of directors controlled by Arthur S. ousted Arthur T. in June - sparking protests and walkouts by employees
Staff demanded Arthur T. be reinstated and refused to make deliveries or re-stock shelves, leading to empty stores and tens of millions in lost revenue
Workers likened Arthur T. to George Bailey in the movie 'It's a Wonderful Life', saying he has long put 'people before profits'
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and LYDIA WARREN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 07:52 EST, 28 August 2014 | UPDATED: 10:53 EST, 28 August 2014

Reality of Tax Code, Exposing Obama's Tax Lies

[From article]
Taxes are only one reason that companies relocate abroad. When President Obama uses labor regulators to attack businesses pursuing strategies he finds objectionable, when Elizabeth Warren proposes to employ the SEC as a weapon in her own endless political vendetta, when the IRS is targeting politically unpopular organizations, a forward-thinking firm with any level of financial and political sophistication might decide it would rather deal with Switzerland’s FINMA or the Central Bank of Ireland than with the people who inflicted Dodd-Frank on the world.
[. . .]
We might do any number of things to improve our economic situation, from education reform — an absolute necessity for our future prosperity — to stabilizing our public finances and allowing our national energy renaissance room to flourish to its full potential. What stands between us and those worthy goals is Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi — and, not least, Barack Obama, whose idea of patriotism is a strange and unaccountable one.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/383887/bismarck-potomac-editors

JULY 28, 2014 4:00 AM
Bismarck on the Potomac
By The Editors

Proposal To Eliminate Corporate Income Taxes

[From article]
the 35 percent U.S. corporate income tax.
Britain’s corporate income tax is 20 percent, and Pfizer stands to save over $1 billion a year by moving there.
In what are called “inversions,” dozens of U.S. companies have bought up foreign rivals, and then moved abroad to countries with lower tax rates, cutting revenue to the U.S. Treasury.
But Pfizer is far and away the biggest.
[. . .]
How could we make up for the lost revenue to government?
Simple. The corporate income tax last year produced $273 billion, less than a tenth of federal revenue. Imports, which kill U.S. jobs and subtract from GDP, totaled $2.7 trillion last year.
Put a 10 percent tariff on imports, and the abolition of the U.S. corporate income tax becomes a revenue-neutral proposal.
[. . .]
Two decades ago, Ross Perot and this writer joined Ralph and the head of the AFL-CIO to stop NAFTA, a trade deal backed by America’s corporate elite and its army of mercenaries on Capitol Hill.
Congress voted with corporate America — against the country.
Result: 20 years of the largest trade deficits in U.S. history. Transnational corporations have prospered beyond the dreams of avarice, as Middle America has seen its wages frozen for a generation.
[. . .]
For America never voted for NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, mass immigration, amnesty, or more H-1Bs to come take the jobs of our workers. These votes have been forced upon members of Congress by leaders carrying out their assignments from corporate America and its PACs, which reward the compliant with campaign checks.
Both parties now feed at the same K Street and Wall Street troughs. Both have oligarchs contributing tens of millions to parties and politicians who do their bidding.

http://buchanan.org/blog/abolish-corporate-income-tax-6399

Abolish the Corporate Income Tax!
Tuesday - May 13, 2014 at 1:17 am
Pat Buchanan

Drug Corporations Join Police Creating Rules To Take Freedom

This unidentified press release, likely a product of police PR flacks and a lobbyist for drug corporations announces new rules for taking the freedom of vulnerable persons. (no byline, "Cambridge Police begin new training for mental health responses," May 20, 2014, CAMBRIDGE Chronicle) NAMI promotes a deceptive image as being a civil rights advocate for mental patients. Formed as a parents organization it morphed into a lobbyist funded by drug corporations ($11 million or more each year from drug companies) to promote drug treatment. Here is an example of how thoroughly drug corporate interests control treatment and incarceration of troubled individuals. Notice there is no mention of any disability advocates to protect the rights of vulnerable citizens. None of the many taxpayer funded agencies with well paid attorneys contributed to the creation of this protocol for taking the freedom of citizens. There are no assurances of the Right to Due Process as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. It is one more example of how unelected corporate lobbyists make policy, and run government agencies, now police agencies too, who can take freedom and life with no accountability. It is one more dangerous step in the elimination of freedom in this country. The Nazi doctors and Stalin's psychiatrists extensively used psychiatry to silence dissent and criticism, and to incarcerate political activists. Due to dumbed down journalists and the general population the image psychiatrists in America have, is that their genes have been cleansed of mendacity, greed and sadism. They show contempt for laws which regulate their behavior, and abuse humans as control freaks with limitless power, while they speak of love for their vulnerable clients. The state legislature writes laws determining when and how police can take the freedom of civilians. This is a dangerous effort in the name of good.  It needs scrutiny by disability rights attorneys. 

[From article]
Funded through a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, police departments in Cambridge and Somerville, working with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, developed the CIT-TTAC regional program to provide 40 hours of CIT training for police officers, while fostering partnerships between law enforcement and community human services providers, to improve law enforcement response to people with mental illness.
[. . .]
"We laud the Department of Mental Health and our partners — the Cambridge and Somerville Police departments — for their leadership and for serving as a model for communities across the commonwealth," said June Binney, director of the NAMI Mass Criminal Justice Program.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140520/NEWS/140529723

Cambridge Police begin new training for mental health responses
Posted May. 20, 2014 @ 12:13 pm
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Free Speech Only For What I Like To Hear?

[From article]
When the Supreme Court declared in 2010 that both unions and corporations had a right to buy political ads, that was considered outrageous by the Left. President Obama called the decision “devastating” and said it “will open the floodgates for special interests.”
Those unfamiliar with political rhetoric may not know that “special interests” mean people who support your opponents. One’s own organized supporters — such as labor unions supporting President Obama — are never called “special interests.”
All politicians are against “special interests,” by definition. They all want their own supporters to have the right to free speech, but not those individuals and groups so benighted as to support their opponents.
[. . .]
If truth-in-packaging laws applied to Congress, a campaign-finance law would have to be labeled an “Incumbents Protection Act.”
[. . .]
It is fascinating to see how some people — in both politics and the media — can depict their own narrow self-interest as a holy crusade for the greater good of society. The ability of the human mind to rationalize is one of the wonders of the world.

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/375247/halo-selfishness-thomas-sowell

APRIL 8, 2014 12:00 AM
A Halo for Selfishness
Campaign-finance laws are a scam to protect incumbents.
By Thomas Sowell

Harvard Endowment Profited From Corrupt Foreign Corporation?

[From article]
Scolopax is wholly owned by Phemus Corporation, a subsidiary of the Harvard Management Company that invests on its behalf. According to University tax filings, Scolopax had assets of over $126 million in 2011. Phemus Corporation’sassets totaled more than $4.2 billion in 2012, the last year for which information is publicly available.
University spokesperson Kevin Galvin said that Secu’s relationship with Scolopax and the University ended in December 2012. The alleged transactions occurred between 2007 and 2009.

So does that mean that Harvard University may have profited from illegal transactions? 

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/1/29/harvard-timber-contractor-bribes/#

Former Harvard Timber Contractor Accused of Bribery, Money Laundering
By CHRISTINE Y. CAHILL, 

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
January 28, 2014

Ralph Nader At Harvard Law School

[From article]
Right now, 90 percent of grads represent 10 percent of the people. The vast majority of lawyers represent a minority of upper-income people or corporations.
[. . .]
Harvard Law School is the leader. If Harvard does it, it’s more likely others will consider doing it,
[. . .]
Corporation against people. The corporations have obtained so much power over government, elections, education, the tax system, over workers. They have the power to weaken labor unions. They have the money to put up to do that and the people don’t. You have a corporate state where you have diffusion of corruption. You can see it everywhere. That’s the biggest imbalance. These large corps are planning almost everything. They plan our government, our elections, our environment
[. . .]
The more wealth and power that’s concentrated in the hands of the few, the more corrupt a society will be.

OK, so Ralph Nader spent his life trying to make the United States a more equitable nation. But here he raises questions about his loyalty to Harvard Law School. He says he wants to reform the law school and it graduates and students. He makes two questionable assertions. One is that because "Harvard Law School is the leader. If Harvard does it it's more likely others will consider doing it." That assumes that others wait for Harvard Law School to show the the way. Many lawyers from other law schools, and many law schools have public interest clinics for students and for practicing lawyers.  Then he describes the problem of the power of corporations over government, elections, the tax system, over workers." Dies he include Harvard University officially known as the President and Fellows of Harvard College? Harvard has an endowment of $32 billion. They control the city, state and US government agencies in Massachusetts. They have enormous influence in Washington DC as well. Since Harvard has his loyalty why not direct some of his concerns at Harvard a corporation with some of that enormous power and influence?

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x529847598/Q-A-Ralph-Nader-shakes-up-Harvard-

Law-School
Q&A: Ralph Nader ‘shakes up’ Harvard Law School
By Erin Baldassari/ebaldassari (at) wickedlocal.com
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted Nov 05, 2013 @ 11:31 AM