Showing posts with label Negligence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Negligence. Show all posts

June 12, 2016

U.S. Government Incompetence, Negligence, Cover-Ups, Abuse of Power




[From article]
America continues its devolution into a feudal society, with an overclass that lives by very different rules from those of the ordinary people, who labor mightily to pay the taxes that sustain the overclass in an existence untroubled by the concerns that preoccupy the serfs.
Getting fired for incompetence is far less of a worry than dying at your desk from a heart attack if you are a government bureaucrat. So is having your misbehavior exposed to the serfs. A pair of stories from the Daily Caller News Foundation illustrate the immunity from public accountability that shelters our masters.
Ethan Barton documents the effort made to prevent disclosure of the federal bureaucrat who caused the Gold King Mine disaster that polluted the Animus River and caused millions of dollars in damage.



Environmental Protection Agency worker Hays Griswold was in charge at the Gold King Mine in August 2015 when a three-million gallon flood of dangerous mine waste — including 880,000 pounds of toxic elements like lead and arsenic — poured into Colorado’s Animus River, turning it yellow for nearly a week and poisoning the drinking water source for residents of three states and the Navajo Nation.



But somebody contrived to remove critical details, including Griswold’s name, from an “independent” review of the disaster, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. Officials at the Department of the Interior – and perhaps EPA – had access to the draft.
Of course, nobody in the federal bureaucracy has suffered any consequences.
[N]o one has been punished for the disaster, which likely will ultimately cost state and federal taxpayers millions of dollars. The disaster also negatively affected the area’s farming and tourism industries and may even be linked to suicides.
In a second instance of protecting its own, the same Ethan Barton reports:
A U.S. attorney sexually harassed an ex-lover and former subordinate, then tried hiding the deed from federal investigators, a government watchdog reported Tuesday.



The unnamed U.S. attorney resigned during the investigation and was not prosecuted, the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) reported. The lovers’ genders weren’t identified.
The public is like mushrooms as far as the feds are concerned. We’re kept in the dark and covered in dung.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/06/feds_shield_misbehaving_bureaucrats_from_public_exposure_for_their_misdeeds.html

June 9, 2016
Feds shield misbehaving bureaucrats from public exposure for their misdeeds
By Thomas Lifson

June 4, 2016

New York City High School Principal Alledegly Did Not Report Gang Rape of Girl In School Bathroom



Principal Michael Wiltshire (right) is being investigated for not coming forward with allegations by a girl that she was raped by five Boys and Girls High School football players at the Brooklyn school (left).
Photo: Matthew McDermott (2); Ellis Kaplan

[From article]
Administrators at a troubled Brooklyn high school face potential firing for covering up allegations that a female student was raped by five football players in a locker room, The Post has learned.
The educators include Boys and Girls High School Principal Michael Wiltshire, who was publicly praised by Mayor Bill de Blasio last year but is currently eyeing a new job on Long Island.
An internal investigation by the Department of Education concluded last week that Wiltshire and two assistant principals failed to report the alleged mid-December gang rape after meeting with the girl and her mom, according to a source familiar with the probe’s findings.
Investigators also found the trio failed to report the suspected theft and use of a DOE credit card by students at Boys and Girls, the source said.
“We have clear reporting procedures to ensure incidents and misconduct are thoroughly addressed, and any failure to report is deeply concerning,” DOE spokeswoman Devora Kaye told The Post on Thursday.
[. . .]
DOE rules include a mandate that all employees who learn of alleged crimes committed by students that don’t pose an “immediate safety threat” are required to notify the principal, who “must, in turn, notify the police and the [school safety agent]” and the “appropriate superintendent.”
Principals also are required to file an incident report within 24 hours through the DOE’s Online Occurrence Reporting System.
Instead, Wiltshire and his assistants — Cami Wittingham and Sherlene Thomas-Hughes — questioned whether the girl consented to the locker room incident, the source familiar with the investigation said.
The NYPD’s Special Victims Division, which investigates sex crimes, has no record of a reported rape at the Bed-Stuy school during December, a police spokesman said. DOE officials said no charges were filed.
In addition, “nothing has been entered” into the DOE’s computer system, which is used to compile annual, state-mandated reports, the source familiar with the internal investigation said.
DOE Superintendent Michael Alcoff, who oversees Boys and Girls as part of de Blasio’s School Renewal Program to turn around 94 underperforming schools, learned about the alleged rape through an anonymous phone call following the principal’s meeting with the girl and her mom, the source said.
Wiltshire played dumb when Alcoff confronted him about the tipster’s call and denied knowing anything about the rape allegations, the source said.
Alcoff then blew the whistle, sparking a probe by the city schools’ Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon. His office referred the case to the DOE’s Office of Special Investigations.
Probers recommended that the DOE convene a “technical conference” with department lawyers to consider firing or otherwise disciplining the administrators, the source said.
Wiltshire was put in charge of Boys and Girls in 2014 to improve its dismal performance, which at the time included three straight F’s on its annual progress reports and a graduation rate of just 42 percent.
The deal included a $25,000 bonus for Wiltshire — who earns $182,000-plus annually — and an unusual arrangement that made him “master principal” at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Crown Heights, which he has run for the past 13 years.
At last year’s Boys and Girls graduation ceremony, de Blasio hailed Wiltshire’s performance there, which included boosting the graduation rate to 50 percent.
“What I have seen just over this last year from Principal Wiltshire is the kind of leadership that moves mountains, that inspires people, that changes things that people say couldn’t be changed,” de Blasio said.
Wiltshire recently interviewed for a new job as principal of Uniondale High School on Long Island and was planning to decide whether to accept it by the end of the city school year on June 28, DOE officials said.
A statement from the Uniondale school district said it was “currently in the process of interviewing candidates” and that “no decision has been made.”
Wiltshire refused to comment Thursday outside his home in Springfield Gardens, Queens, but later sent an email to The Post saying: “You can contact the superintendent’s office to verify the story. This is not true. Thank you.”
http://nypost.com/2016/06/02/principal-accused-of-covering-up-alleged-locker-room-gang-rape/

Principal accused of covering up alleged locker room gang rape
By Yoav Gonen and Bruce Golding
New York Post
June 2, 2016 | 11:30pm

June 2, 2016

Digital Intrusions at Federal Reserve



A man walks past the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington, D.C. December 16, 2015.

Politicians remain focused on getting re-elected, and stealing taxpayer money. Local police and US law enforcement agencies are unable to address cyber crime. Though government web sites are hacked as often as private corporations, individual citizens remain defenseless to computer crimes due to the negligence of governments. Clueless politicians continue to encourage more and more digital communications and information storage with little to no security.  

[From article]
The U.S. Federal Reserve detected more than 50 cyber breaches between 2011 and 2015, with several incidents described internally as 'espionage,' according to Fed records.
The central bank's staff suspected hackers or spies in many of the incidents, the records show. The Fed's computer systems play a critical role in global banking and hold confidential information on discussions about monetary policy that drives financial markets.
The cybersecurity reports, obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request, were heavily redacted by Fed officials to keep secret the central bank's security procedures.
The Fed declined to comment, and the redacted records do not say who hacked the bank's systems or whether they accessed sensitive information or stole money.
'Hacking is a major threat to the stability of the financial system. This data shows why,' said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. Lewis reviewed the files at the request of Reuters.
The records represent only a slice of all cyber attacks on the Fed because they include only cases involving the Washington-based Board of Governors, a federal agency that is subject to public records laws. Reuters did not have access to reports by local cybersecurity teams at the central bank's 12 privately owned regional branches.
The disclosure of breaches at the Fed comes at a time when cybersecurity at central banks worldwide is under scrutiny after hackers stole $81 million from a Bank Bangladesh account at the New York Fed.
Cyber thieves have targeted large financial institutions around the world, including America's largest bank JPMorgan, as well as smaller players like Ecuador's Banco del Austro and Vietnam's Tien Phong Bank.
Hacking attempts were cited in 140 of the 310 reports provided by the Fed's board. In some reports, the incidents were not classified in any way.
In eight information breaches between 2011 and 2013 - a time when the Fed's trading desk was buying massive amounts of bonds - Fed staff wrote that the cases involved 'malicious code,' referring to software used by hackers.
Four hacking incidents in 2012 were considered acts of 'espionage,' according to the records. Information was disclosed in at least two of those incidents, according to the records. In the other two incidents, the records did not indicate whether there was a breach.
In all, the Fed's national team of cybersecurity experts, which operates mostly out of New Jersey, identified 51 cases of 'information disclosure' involving the Fed's board. Separate reports showed a local team at the board registered four such incidents.
The cases of information disclosure can refer to a range of ways unauthorized people see Fed information, from hacking attacks to Fed emails sent to the wrong recipients, according to two former Fed cybersecurity staffers who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The former employees said that cyber attacks on the Fed are about as common as at other large financial institutions.
It was unclear if the espionage incidents involved foreign governments, as has been suspected in some hacks of federal agencies. Beginning in 2014, for instance, hackers stole more than 21 million background check records from the federal Office of Personnel Management, and U.S. officials attributed the breach to the Chinese government, an accusation denied by Beijing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3619638/Fed-records-dozens-cybersecurity-breaches.html

Hacked: Federal Reserve detected more than 50 cyber breaches between 2011 and 2015, including several described as 'espionage'
Reuters obtained the Federal Reserve's cybersecurity reports from 2011 to 2015 through a Freedom of Information Act request
Hacking attempts were cited in 140 of the 310 reports provided by the Fed
In eight information breaches between 2011 and 2013 Fed staff wrote that the cases involved 'malicious code,' referring to software used by hackers
Four hacking incidents in 2012 were considered acts of 'espionage'; Information was disclosed in at least two of those incidents
The central bank plays a critical role in global banking and holds confidential information on monetary policy that drives financial markets
By REUTERS
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 06:00 EST, 1 June 2016 | UPDATED: 12:44 EST, 1 June 2016

April 14, 2016

UK's Multicultural Teen Age Girl Sex Scandal With Muslim Recruiters




[From article]
For the past few decades, British authorities have been caught up in the pervasive meme of multiculturalism -- the falsehood that all cultures are equal and that to believe otherwise is to commit the worst modern day offense -- to be “racist.”
Under this fallacy, the British government in 2001 introduced a series of restrictive speech codes that criminalized criticism of Islam, followed by a Racial and Religious Hatred Bill imposing fines and even imprisonment for speech that “incited hatred against a person for their religious or racial background.”



These laws have victimized a number of Britons. Hoteliers Ben and Sharon Vogelenzang were prosecuted for “insulting” a Muslim guest. Liberty Great Britain party chairman Paul Weston was arrested on suspicion of racial harassment after publicly reading a passage critical of Muslims from Winston Churchill’s The River War. Dr. Vladislav Rogozov, a Czech-born, UK cardiac anesthesiologist, is being investigated by Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital for giving an online interview about his 2013 confrontation with a Muslim surgeon who refused to replace her blood-specked hijab with the proscribed, operating-theater headgear.
In this context and political climate, with racism conflated with religion – one specific religion – it is easy to see how government and public service employees would fear professional and legal repercussions (up to seven years in prison) merely for speaking up about criminal behavior by Muslims who justify their actions citing the Koran. In this way, teachers, police, child care workers, government officials and others have been silent about the growing menace of Muslim gangs who sexually groom and exploit children in the UK.
In his riveting book, Easy Meat: Inside Britain’s Grooming Gang Scandal (World Encounter Institute/New English Review Press, 2016. 328 pp., $17.20) author Peter McLoughlin explains how multiculturalism-inspired political correctness along with its companion, willful blindness concerning Islamic doctrine, has jeopardized the safety and well-being of children. McLoughlin posits that, since 1988, this nationwide sexploitation has resulted in the shattering of lives of between 100,000 to 1 million girls. The author documents how the fear of being deemed racist and facing criminal charges, dismissal or even threats of violence, has led to suppression of information and a stunning lack of intervention on behalf of young victims. In essence, an extensive, insidious operation that targets children for sexual grooming and enslavement has been covered up because of political correctness and fear of Muslim retribution.
[. . .]



In his research on Muslim groomers, McLoughlin uncovered an unusual distinction between them and non-Muslim pedophiles. Non-Muslim pedophiles are typically lone adults who groom children for sex in reclusive secrecy, worry about being prosecuted by law enforcement, meet accusations with defensive denial and worry about being discovered, shamed, and criticized by friends or relatives. Muslim perpetrators, however, work in gangs, see nothing wrong with their shariah-sanctioned activities, receive collusive support from their communities and feel they are above the law. During his investigations, McLoughlin found not one case of non-Muslim men grooming Muslim girls, although 95% of men in Britain are non-Muslims.
News coverage of the crimes has been mostly obfuscated by a complicit media that characterizes the overwhelmingly Muslim perpetrators as generic “Asians.” According to McLoughlin’s research, limited press coverage by mainly self-censoring journalists and lenient, if any, criminal charges have enabled the gangs to act with relative impunity since 1988.
The author describes how Muslim flesh-peddlers operate as part of a well-organized extensive network of taxi drivers, shop and restaurant owners, and security guards. Girls, mainly between the ages of 11 and 14, the majority from state-run children’s homes, are ensnared while traveling from school to home, at shopping malls, restaurants, bus stations and similar public venues. They are enticed with flattery, feigned friendship, gifts, alcohol and drugs. Alarmingly, a footnote in the book references a quotation from a city outreach worker with the Children’s Society who states, “every girl living in a children’s home in the city of Birmingham is being sexually exploited.”
[. . .]



He cites a 2007 expose, Mothers of Prevention by Julie Bindel, a feminist writer and founder of the legal reform group, Justice for Women.
Bindel estimated that a pimp can make $325,000 to $550,000 annually with one 16-year-old girl. From that, Bindel extrapolated that over the average 15-year-per-girl pimping period, the annual value of this criminal activity could amount to approximately £300 million or $425 million.
McLoughlin does a good job of portraying the frustration and desperation of victim’s families who have sought help to no avail for well over a decade from local councils, law enforcement, child care professionals and journalists. Remarkably, for the most part, UK authorities have failed to warn parents that young girls are at risk or to recommend extra supervision and vigilance. No organized programs to educate girls and parents exist and authorities have largely refused interviews with the media on the topic. Teachers and school administrators have failed to secure the school perimeter to stop sex grooming gangs from lying in wait for girls outside of school premises.
The author reports that police routinely dismiss parents’ concerns and have failed to set up surveillance operations at strategically significant locations. Police have even arrested parents for trying to save their children. In one such case, fathers, who were able to track down their daughters and tried to rescue them were arrested by police. In fact, McLoughlin discloses that law enforcement officers have actually returned wayward girls to their pimps.
McLoughlin reveals that local authorities – social workers, teachers’ unions, educational organizations and childcare agencies – have made no effort to intervene or draw public attention to the pervasive threat. He submits that feared charges of racism preclude their mandated responsibility for the protection of children. In fact, the author reports how major teachers' unions are behind an organization – Unite Against Fascism – that blocks the publicizing of the sex grooming gang phenomenon and its Muslim community participation.



In 2008, a taxpayer-funded national education film, My Dangerous Loverboy, commissioned by the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre, was produced ostensibly to warn and educate girls about generic sex grooming gangs. But no mention was made of Muslim involvement or the victims’ young ages. According to McLoughlin, the film has been difficult to obtain and has not been shown to the intended audience: girls, parents, social workers, police officers, school nurses, doctors, teachers, youth workers, sexual health practitioners. My own extensive, month-long efforts to locate a copy were unproductive and met with denials of the crimes’ Muslim connection.
In Easy Meat, McLoughlin laments the very limited prosecution of Muslim sex grooming and pimping crimes. In the rare instances of successful criminal litigation, typical sentences are minimal and usually partially served, if at all, despite existing sentencing guidelines. Gang members have been known to assert Muslim supremacy, make accusations of Muslim victimhood and racism, and threaten retaliation against the girls and their families. Some have clearly cited religious motivations for their crimes in court.
Astonishingly, few victims receive any special protection during the trials. Protection of defendants’ rights supersedes that of victims, even with child victims. The 1989 Children’s Act, a statute requiring the child’s welfare be the court’s paramount consideration, doesn’t seem to make the slightest difference in the proceedings and outcome. More distressing is the fact that the greater the Muslim population density in an area, the lower the conviction rate.
The backdrop for sexual grooming and enslavement of children lies in Islamic doctrines outlined by McLoughlin. He reviews the pervasive slave-taking history of Islam from the 7th century, as well as Islamic doctrine from the Koran citing Islam's view of non-Muslims, its treatment of women and sexual slaves, and the permissibility of sex with children by Mohammed’s example with his nine-year-old third wife, Aisha. McLoughlin explains how sex as rape has historically been used as a weapon of war to assert Islamic supremacy. Islamic doctrine encourages the rape and enslavement of non-Muslims, even with married infidel women as a legal and moral enterprise.
Further, the required first and foremost allegiance to the Umma, or Muslim community, and the inbred obligation of enmity toward non-Muslims facilitates the pimping of non-Muslim girls and hinders any attempts at exposing its criminality and eventual prosecution. Sexual slavery has historically been used as a religious weapon to advance the domination of Islam.
In Easy Meat, McLoughlin details how the sexploitation and enslavement of girls, once viewed as a great evil in Western society, has become a pervasive, routine, and almost pedestrian part of everyday life in the UK. On this issue, the courageous author effectively deals with the contention that Western civilization is fighting for its very existence in a clash between civilization and barbarism. His book serves as a grave warning for other countries as they consider increased levels of Muslim immigration.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/04/a_look_inside_britains_muslim_sex_grooming_gang_scandal.html

April 6, 2016
A Look Inside Britain's Muslim Sex Grooming Gang Scandal
By Janet Levy

April 12, 2016

Updated: Second Death At Massachusetts Nursing Home


Posted March 24, 2016 9:12 PM ET; Last updated April 12, 2016 8:53 PM ET


Woodbriar Health Center Does Not Sound Too Healthy

[From article]
Officials have imposed critical sanctions on a nursing home in Wilmington and blamed a second resident death on substandard care, according to The Boston Globe.
The Massachusetts Department of Health ordered Woodbriar Health Center to stop accepting new patients and recommended fines as high as $10,000 a day. Regulators also threatened to terminate Woodbriar from the Medicare and Medicaid programs—which pay most of the center’s bills—if conditions do not improve by April, according to the Globe.
The health agency’s recommendations came after investigators looked into the death of a resident who fell the night of Feb. 8 and was discovered dead the next morning. The state says the facility’s staff failed to follow physician’s instructions to regularly check on the resident throughout the night. Woodbriar was already under investigation for another resident’s death in December after a nursing aid improperly used a mechanical lift and dropped her.

https://www.boston.com/news/health/2016/03/24/after-second-death-wilmington-nursing-home

Regulators: Wilmington nursing home residents in ‘immediate jeopardy’
By Hunter Harris
March 24, 2016

* * *


Mary E. Meuse

[From article]
Mary Meuse was all set to visit her family on Christmas. Two days later, the 83-year-old resident of Woodbriar Health Center in Wilmington was dead.
A certified nursing assistant using a mechanical lift to move Meuse from her bed to a wheelchair Christmas morning violated a cardinal safety rule, according to a former Woodbriar staffer and a report the nursing home filed with Massachusetts regulators.
Most mechanical lifts require at least two people for safe operation, according to the Food and Drug Administration. But the 21-year-old nursing aide, with no assistance, improperly placed Meuse in the lift, according to the report, and Meuse slipped out, crashed to the ground, and broke both legs.
Meuse, who was on blood-thinning medication for heart problems, was not sent to a hospital until the next day. By then, she was bleeding internally. She died in the hospital Dec. 27.
The Christmas Day accident raises new concerns about the quality of care provided by the company that owns Woodbriar, Synergy Health Centers.
[. . .]
Those same records show that the wrong urinary catheters were ordered for one patient and that a nurse failed to wash her hands before giving medicine to another patient.
The Globe has previously reported that the New Jersey-based company was able to secure a license for Woodbriar with little scrutiny from regulators.
[. . .]
Meuse’s death certificate states she died from “complications of blunt force trauma” and pointed out that she was on blood-thinning medications for heart problems. The certificate noted that Meuse died as a direct result of her injuries.
Meuse’s daughter, Brenda Murray, said her younger sister, Sandra, visited the nursing home late Christmas afternoon and was assured by a staffer that X-rays taken after the accident showed no broken bones.
“We were told everything was OK,” Murray said.
It wasn’t until her phone rang at 8 a.m. the next day that she was told by a nursing home worker Meuse was in considerable pain and needed to go to the hospital immediately, Murray said.
“We didn’t find out her legs were broken until we got to the hospital,” Murray said.
Meuse, a retired nurse who once cared for nursing home residents, hadn’t wanted to create a fuss for her family on Christmas. A vibrant woman who loved all sorts of animals — she had a pet iguana in her assisted living apartment — Meuse said she didn’t want to be hospitalized on Christmas. On that point, Meuse’s family and the report Woodbriar submitted to state regulators agree.
Woodbriar’s report does not include a precise timeline of the events. It does, however, note that shortly after the accident, Woodbriar staff “advised” Meuse’s 22-year-old granddaughter, who was waiting to take her grandmother home for Christmas, that Meuse should be taken to the hospital for evaluation. The report notes that a staffer repeated the recommendation for hospitalization when the granddaughter called Murray to report what happened but says “all agreed with the resident’s wishes, and decided to remain at the facility.”
The report also indicates that the nursing home did not take X-rays until some time after the decision was made to not hospitalize Meuse on Christmas.
[. . .]
Serious injuries and deaths from falls in nursing homes are not unique to Synergy-owned facilities. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 1,800 deaths every year involving nursing home residents who fell.
But Woodbriar stands out, with nearly twice the state and national averages for the percent of falls resulting in major injuries among long-term residents, according to the latest data from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The numbers show that 5.9 percent of Woodbriar’s residents had a fall resulting in major injury, compared to 3 percent of nursing home residents statewide, between Oct. 1, 2014, and June 30, 2015. Synergy owned the nursing home during the final four months of that nine-month period.
[. . .]
Registered nurses receive substantially more training and education than other nurses and are generally expected to do more critical thinking on the job.
“Additionally, [Woodbriar is] below the national and state average for nurse-aide hours,” Haemer said. “This is concerning as nurse aides provide the hands-on support for most nursing homes.”
It was a nursing assistant, working alone, who dropped Meuse from the mechanical lift. Haemer said most manufacturers require at least two workers to operate a mechanical lift — one to ensure the resident is safely secured in the sling-style machine, while the other operates the controls.
Kay Lazar can be reached at Kay.Lazar (at) globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @GlobeKayLazar.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/01/18/death-resident-after-nursing-home-accident-raises-new-concerns-about-company/opPd0TMprgB21WN8Wmd6ZI/story.html

Death at Wilmington nursing home raises new questions
By Kay Lazar
Boston GLOBE STAFF
JANUARY 19, 2016

February 18, 2016

Fragile Harvard University Campus Police Censor Criticism About Role In Sexual Assault Complaint



'My hope is that no one else will have the experience that I had,' she added. 'I hear my story over and over and over again from different people.'

Forgot to mention that negligent training is actionable, i.e., the university can be sued for that for damages. While the Harvard University campus police fail to protect women students on campus they abuse their privileges by harassing a 70-year-old white male who they say is crazy. One black homosexual police employee or officer stalked me for more than 15 years even after my complaints to the university office of general counsel. The same officer called me a "space cadet" to my face showing his animosity toward persons he perceives as vulnerable. Moreover he is a black homosexual who claims victimhood abusing his police power attacking a vulnerable person. What a guy! 

[This comment was deleted by editors; second posting; appears HUPD is extremely fragile, cannot tolerate criticism]
When did state courts, local police stop accepting rape complaints? Did HUPD refer the complaint to the District Attorney for Middlesex? If not is this one more example of negligent training?

[Reply to other comment]
I posted a comment which was deleted that HUPD may be negligently trained if they did not refer this woman's complaint to the District Attorney for Middlesex. It is one more example of poor training of these police who nonsensically claim exclusive jurisdiction on Harvard University property. "HUPD, like man, must know its limitations." Paraphrasing Clint Eastwood as Dirty Harry.

[From article]
The suit traces several interactions Leader said she had with University administrators regarding sexual harassment over the course of about two years. According to the suit, Leader first reported Doe’s conduct to Harvard’s Office of Sexual Assault Prevention and Response in spring 2013, and again in September 2014. On Nov. 6, 2014, the suit states, Leader met with Cabot Resident Dean Tiffanie L. Ting and claimed that Doe had sexually harassed her in Cabot dining hall and cafe, among other places. The suit alleges that Ting discouraged Leader from filing a formal complaint and said Doe could not be moved from Cabot. Ting could not be reached for comment.
“I think that the biggest takeaway from the complaint is that she recorded multiple times not only that she was sexually assaulted, but that there was retaliatory and ongoing harassment from the perpetrator and his friends,” Zalkin said. “Notwithstanding, Harvard did nothing to protect her and make her feel safe on campus, which is basically the whole purpose of Title IX.”
[. . .]
Leader reported Doe to the Office of Sexual and Gender-Based Dispute Resolution in February 2015, prompting a formal investigation, and updated ODR investigators on Doe’s alleged retaliatory conduct—including threatening comments and increased presence at Leader’s workplace, Cabot Cafe—according to the suit. She also reported sexual assault to the Harvard University Police Department in April.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/2/18/lawsuit-sexual-harassment-2016/

Recent Graduate Sues Harvard Over Sexual Harassment Case
By ANDREW M. DUEHREN and DAPHNE C. THOMPSON
Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITERS
UPDATED: February 18, 2016, at 2:15 a.m.


* * *

Alyssa Leader, a recent Harvard graduate, has sued the Ivy League school over allegations she was forced to live in the same building as her ex-boyfriend after he sexually assaulted her during their relationship.

[From article]
A Harvard graduate is suing the school over allegations she was forced to live in the same building as her ex-boyfriend after he sexually assaulted her during their relationship.
Alyssa Leader, who left in 2015, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in Massachusetts claiming the Ivy League institution failed to act when she complained about the alleged abuser.
The lawsuit says Leader told campus officials that a male student who lived in her dorm had been sexually abusive while they dated but that Harvard refused to move him to another hall.
Leader says they failed to protect her from retaliation after she reported the abuse and one official even discouraged her from filing a formal complaint.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Leader said: 'Harvard has an institutional culture of ignoring and silencing people like me.
'My hope is that no one else will have the experience that I had,' she added. 'I hear my story over and over and over again from different people'
The lawsuit, seen by the Boston Globe, says Leader's alleged abuser got back at her by becoming threatening and irate when she resisted him.
He allegedly harassed her at her job in the dormitory cafe, and made threatening comments to her in the dining hall.
Despite her reports, she said, school officials did not issue a no-contact order and he was allowed to continue living in her dormitory.
Leader said she was also targeted by her friends, who would sit outside her job so she would have to pass by them when she left.
She said she was forced to carry pepper spray in her dormitory,
Living in constant fear, she never sat with her back to a door and blocked doors when she went in rooms on her own.
Harvard says it responds fairly to all allegations of sexual assault.
The alleged abuser was moved out of the dorm a month before Leader graduated.
She says it was too little too late.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3451803/Lawsuit-accuses-Harvard-mishandling-sex-assault-complaint.html

Harvard graduate sues the university claiming she was forced to live in the same dorm as ex-boyfriend who sexually abused her when they dated
Alyssa Leader filed a lawsuit against the Ivy League school on Tuesday
It claims they failed to act when she complained about the former partner
She told officials he was abusive to her, but they refused to move him
Leader claims he then retaliated by harassing her at a dormitory cafe
He would also allegedly make threatening comments in the dining room
The court documents say she lived in constant fear before graduating
By WILLS ROBINSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM and ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 16:21 EST, 17 February 2016 | UPDATED: 20:10 EST, 17 February 2016

January 5, 2016

Lawsuit Naming High Ranking Politicians, Prosecutors, Ignored by Mainstream Journalists



Brad Edwards, Attorney


Paul Cassell, Attorney

[From article]
the deal that handed out token punishment to the statutory rapist has been hidden from the public and from the victims themselves:
Federal prosecutors in Florida intentionally kept underage victims of billionaire perv Jeffrey Epstein in the dark about his plea deal, newly unsealed court papers reveal.
The documents also show prosecutors wanted to keep the extent of Epstein’s alleged sex crimes away from a judge reviewing the deal.
[. . .]



This plea involved the slap on the wrist sentence of 13 months -- and he got to spend his waking hours at his Palm Beach mansion. That is, he only had to check into his "jail" eight hours a day.
Note: Epstein slept in a vacant wing of the Palm Beach County Stockade, so he was spared the ordeal of interaction with other prisoners.
[. . .]
Ann Coulter saw the problem a year ago, speaking to Sean Hannity:
This is a really important story. And I so love that you're pitching it just as a Clinton sex scandal, but it is so much more than that. And it's appalling that the only place that covered it last night -- I watched TV, every station -- was Megyn Kelly. God bless her. At least we got it out there. This is not just a Clinton sex scandal; this is the elites getting cozy and covering up and protecting one another. It also involves the Bush administration, it involves Ken Starr, the lawyers for Epstein.
There are some facts that are absolutely known, there are some that are only allegations right now. But the basic story is that Jeffrey Epstein -- there's a major Palm Beach police investigation, a young girl, 15-year-old girl's mother went to Palm Beach police back in 2006 and said my daughter is being paid to have sex with this rich man in Palm Beach. Palm Beach police staged a very detailed investigation without Epstein's knowledge.


Recipient of Sweetheart Court Deal, Billionaire Jeff Epstein, BFF of Bill Clinton 

They went through his garbage, they get sworn statements from about a half-dozen of the victims as well as this slightly older girl who was procuring them. The evidence was quite strong and the same prosecutor that was going after Rush Limbaugh for back pain medication for two years wants to just give him a little ticket, just pay ten dollars and that's enough for having sex with these underage girls, that's of course statutory rape in Florida.
The Palm Beach police went mental after they staged this investigation and put all the evidence together. So they went to the federal government. That's where this case comes involved.
[. . .]



The prosecutors private's lives were investigated and according to the U.S. Attorney they were just pressured, jerked around, everything was appealed. Eventually they get Epstein to agree to plead guilty to a state charge, allegedly sentenced to 18 months, in fact it was 13 months and for 16 hours a day he was allowed to go to his mansion in Palm Beach. So he got basically no jail time. He is a registered sex offender.
[. . .]
A secret agreement was struck. The documents are under seal. A no prosecution agreement against not only Epstein but his lawyers and all these other friends of his. They are suing under that, they can open this case again. They could breach the no prosecution.
That case has been going on since 2008.
[. . .]
And the fact that thus far this has only been covered on Fox News is shocking. This is not a political thing. This is what MSNBC and the rest of the networks have been describing what they thought these fraternities, what they thought the [Duke] lacrosse rape [case was]. This is the elites circling the wagon and protecting a pederast. It's a shocking case and that's just the known facts.
[. . .]
Two teenage victimes of Palm Beach billionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have filed court papers asking to depose top federal officials who were involved in inking the secret deal that saved Epstein from serious federal charges.
[. . .]



The victims filed the motion, in part, because of a new argument Assistant U.S. Attorney Dexter Lee made during a routine status check hearing in November.
Lee said the girls aren’t really victims because they procured other minor girls for Epstein and received money for it so they’re not protected under the federal Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
[. . .]
Filed in 2008, the lawsuit says the U.S. Attorney’s Office violated the federal Crime Victim’s Rights Act by failing to confer with the victims before signing a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein in September 2007.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/01/the_sweetheart_deal_for_bill_clintons_orgy_island_pal_may_be_exposed_and_overturned.html

January 5, 2016
The sweetheart deal for Bill Clinton's Orgy Island pal may be exposed and overturned
By Thomas Lifson

December 17, 2015

White House Tries To Destroy American Civilization




[From article]
Since the beginning of the post World War II era there has been one constant that has been the stabilizing force in the world: the stature, power and influence of the United States. In the matter of a few short years the Obama presidency has deliberately and overwhelmingly eroded that distinction resulting in his goal of global instability.
[. . .]
Mankind always has and always will have as their preeminent trait the need to survive, and to that end human beings are susceptible to committing crimes and exploiting their fellow man. Thus any society will always have many failings, but the key measure of any civilization is what it does to control these tendencies and strive for an equitable culture. No nation or culture in history has done more to advance the well-being of mankind than the United States and Western civilization.
[. . .]



To Obama the radical jihadist movement is the tip of the spear to bring down Europe and the West.
Thus Obama and his fellow-travelers can justify bankrupting the country as well as promoting unfettered legal and illegal immigration as a necessary part of the re-making and absolution of the United States. He has no compunction in forcing Israel, as an outpost of Western civilization, to compromise and bend to all the demands of the Palestinians knowing those concessions will eventually spell the end of the Jewish state.
[. . .]
Any so-called minor terrorist attack within America and Europe is a mere inconvenience and understandable due to the past sins of the United States and the West. Meanwhile he willingly discards old allies in the Middle East while turning a blind eye and tacitly promoting the radicalization of many countries in the region.
[. . .]
The population of the continent is quickly aging as the result of a catastrophically negative birth rate -- the end product of nearly 115 million abortions since 1970. As a potential solution to this dilemma, the countries of Western Europe, over the years, have flung open their borders to immigration from Muslim nations in Africa and the Middle East. Germany is now welcoming with open arms a million and half unvetted Syrian Muslim refugees in the hope they will become assimilated and a source of future labor in order to maintain their economy and ballooning social programs. Yet nowhere in Europe over the past forty years have the Muslim populations truly assimilated nor will the overwhelming majority as their religion is anathema to western culture and values.
[. . .]
The most insidious trait of the world’s so-called “best and brightest” is that they are incapable of admitting their mistakes. Instead of dealing with the harsh realities of the world today, far too many seek shelter in promoting vague climate change theories that may or may not happen in the next 100 years. Until the narcissism and ideology of today’s global ruling class, particularly in America, are replaced by those willing to face reality and act accordingly, the world will continue to become an exceedingly dangerous place.
[. . .]
Instead what is needed is a potential president who can tame the Washington cartel, appreciates that the Constitution is a limit on government, understands that the most immediate enemy on the world stage the nation must confront is Islamic supremacy, and above all has the intelligence, demeanor, and ability to assume global leadership with quiet but firm self-confidence. The only candidate from either party that meets those criteria is Ted Cruz.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/12/barack_obama_and_the_end_of_western_civilization.html

December 15, 2015
Barack Obama and the End of Western Civilization
By Steve McCann

December 5, 2015

Homeland Security Failure. Is this Intentional Like White House Policies?




[From article]
It appears that the United States in incapable of reliably performing a basic level of functioning when it comes to vetting foreigners who want to come here. Case in point: When jihadist Tashfeen Malik filled out her K-1 visa application to come to the United States, she listed a fictitious address. Yet she was given a visa to come here. And in so doing, we helped her fulfill yet one more step that brought her closer to murdering and maiming Americans in the name of Allah, as she did this past Wednesday.
[. . .]

So Malik flew across our border despite lying on her visa application. And then her luck continued when a neighbor didn’t report suspicious activity at Farook’s and Malik’s home out of PC fear of profiling.
Where is Jeh Johnson, head of the Department of Homeland Security? He should be questioned about the ability of his department to perform the most basic of screening, but he has been entirely absent from the media since the shooting in San Bernardino began.
How pathetic have we become as a nation?

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/12/so_much_for_our_vetting_process.html

December 5, 2015
So much for our vetting process
By Carol Brown

December 4, 2015

Updated: Pistorius Convicted of Murder By Appeals Court, Overturns Lesser Conviction For Manslaughter


Posted September 11, 2014 9:38 PM ET; Last Updated December 4, 2015 4:04 PM ET


Reeva Steenkamp and Oscar Pistorius in February 2013.
Photo: Getty Images

[From article]
A South African appeals court on Thursday convicted Oscar Pistorius of murder, overturning a lower court’s conviction of the double-amputee Olympian on the lesser charge of manslaughter for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp to death in 2013.
Justice Lorimer Eric Leach of the Supreme Court of Appeal delivered the ruling by the five-judge appeals court in Bloemfontein and directed the trial court, the North Gauteng High Court, to impose sentence.
[. . .]
Leach said regardless of who might have been behind the door, Pistorius should have known someone could be killed if he fired.
“The identity of his victim is irrelevant to his guilt,” the judge said.
Under the concept of “dolus eventualis” in South African law, a person can be convicted of murder if they foresaw the possibility of someone dying through their actions and went ahead anyway.
Reeva Steenkamp’s mother, June, sat quietly in the courtroom during the announcement, which was carried on TV. Pistorius was not there.
http://nypost.com/2015/12/03/appeals-court-convicts-oscar-pistorius-of-murder/

Appeals court convicts Oscar Pistorius of murder
By Associated Press
New York Post
December 3, 2015 | 4:53am

* * *

[From article]
In a lengthy verdict phase climaxing Oscar Pistorius’ trial, the judge said Thursday he can’t be found guilty of murder but that he was negligent in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp, raising the possibility he’ll be convicted of culpable homicide.
Judge Thokozile Masipa said she felt the double-amputee Olympian acted negligently when he fatally shot Steenkamp through a toilet door in his home in the predawn hours of Valentine’s Day last year. In a moment of high drama, she then stopped reading out her judgment in the six-month-long trial and adjourned until Friday.
[. . .]
Culpable homicide normally carries a five-year jail sentence in South Africa when a firearm is used, but it can be changed by a judge depending on the specific circumstances of the killing.

http://nypost.com/2014/09/11/prosectuors-have-not-proven-murder-charge-for-pistorius-judge/

Blade Runner skates on murder charge
By Associated Press
New York Post
September 11, 2014 | 6:49am

August 7, 2015

EPA Dumps Toxic Waste Water Into Colorado River. Your Tax Dollars At Work


Colorado River, Painted Orange By the EPA

[From article]
The Environmental Protection Agency, the federal agency committed to protecting “human health and the environment,” jeopardized both Wednesday by accidentally releasing one million gallons of wastewater into Colorado’s Animas River.
EPA bureaucrats were using heavy machinery to nose around the Gold King Mine near Durango, Colorado, when they triggered the release of wastewater containing heavy metals like zinc, iron, and copper.
The Denver Post reported that residents of Durango “gathered along the Animas River to watch as the blue waters turned a thick, radiant orange and yellow just after 8 p.m., nearly 34 hours after the spill started.”
“The river looks pretty nasty,” Deputy Stephen Lowrance of the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office told the Post. “It doesn’t look like water; it just looks like sludge.”

http://freebeacon.com/issues/epa-dumps-one-million-gallons-of-wastewater-into-colorado-river/

EPA Dumps One Million Gallons of Wastewater Into Colorado River
BY: Blake Seitz
August 7, 2015 1:44 pm

July 7, 2015

Netanyahu Warns of Intentionally Negligent White House



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sounds the alarm.

[From article]
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Western powers had “collapsed” to nearly every single Iranian demand so far in the nuclear talks.
“[W]hat’s coming out of the nuclear talks in Vienna is not a breakthrough, it’s a breakdown,” Netanyahu said. He warned that the Western powers were about to sign a deal that put Iran on track to becoming a nuclear power, and that handed the regime billions of dollars to fund its terror operations around the globe, as well as its brutal war to defend the Assad regime in Syria.
[. . .]
In recent days, the Obama administration has been forced to acknowledge that Iran failed to comply with some terms of the interim agreement under which talks are being conducted. The White House has also reportedly yielded on issues that it once said were core objective of any deal. It will allow Iran to forego, or limit, inspections of military sites and known nuclear research facilities. It will not insist that Iran report all of its previous nuclear violations–without which there will be no baseline to measure compliance with a new deal. And it will hand Iran billions of dollars in sanctions relief up front.
The Obama administration has made clear that it is committed to a deal at any price. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes recently said: “We believe that the kiss of the nuke deal will turn the Iranian frog into a handsome prince.”

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/07/05/final-push-for-iran-deal-as-netanyahu-blasts-western-collapse/

FINAL PUSH FOR IRAN DEAL AS NETANYAHU BLASTS WESTERN ‘COLLAPSE’by JOEL B. POLLAK
5 Jul 2015

June 26, 2015

UK Police Knew For Five Years About Muslim Men Sex Trafficking Young White Girls, Did Nothing




[From article]
West Midlands Police knew five years ago that Asian grooming gangs were targeting children outside schools across the city - but failed to make the threat public.
Documents obtained by the Birmingham Mail show the force were aware pupils were at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) back in 2010.
The confidential report, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act, also shows police were worried about community tensions if the abuse from predominantly Pakistani grooming gangs was made public.
The West Midlands Police document entitled Problem Profile, Operation Protection is from March 2010 and highlights how grooming had been directed specifically at schools and children’s homes.
In one heavily redacted passage, entitled ‘Schools’, it states: “In (redacted) a teacher at a (redacted) that a group of Asian males were approaching pupils at the school gate and grooming them. Strong anecdotal evidence shows this MO (modus operandi) is being used across the force.”
[. . .]
The 2010 report said police had identified a potential 139 victims, 78 per cent of whom were white while more than half were aged 13 to 15. Half of all victims lived within parental homes, while 41 per cent lived in care.
The report said of the 75 grooming suspects identified, a large proportion were from a Pakistani background and a significant proportion were likely to be from a Muslim background.
[. . .]
In an October 2009 police report obtained by the Birmingham Mail, a lack of trust between police and social workers was highlighted and some of their unsympathetic attitudes to vulnerable runaways.

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/police-knew-grooming-gangs-were-9518461

Police knew grooming gangs were targeting Birmingham schools five years ago but did not alert public
13:38, 24 JUNE 2015
BY JEANETTE OLDHAM
Confidential documents also show West Midlands force was concerned about community tensions because of link to Pakistani men

* * *

[From article]
They did nothing and they still do nothing. One of the victims did a comprehensive interview with me here and here. She had over 100 names of rapists and traffickers, but the police “didn’t have time” to take all the names.
When I was being regularly abused by the Muslim men, my school knew about it. They eventually made me transfer to a part-time school because I was out so much. The men would come and take me out of the school, sometimes in the morning just as school was starting. It was high school, so they don’t stop you leaving when the gate is open.
They school never questioned who was taking her out or why. They did nothing. But they did ban Robert Spencer and me from visiting the UK, because our presence would not be “conducive to the public good.” Got that?
“The predominant offender profile of Pakistani Muslim males… combined with the predominant victim profile of white females has the potential to cause significant community tensions.” In other words, don’t say anything about this, because if you do, you’ll be charged with “racism.” The British authorities, all over the country, let the Muslim rape gangs — which were operating according to the Qur’an’s permission of men to take sex slaves (4:3, 4:24, 23:1-6, 33:50) — operate with impunity. Better societal death than charges of “Islamophobia.” Carve that on Britain’s tombstone.

http://pamelageller.com/2015/06/muslim-rape-gangs-were-targeting-schools-5-years-ago-did-nothing.html/

“UK cops knew Muslim rape gangs were targeting schools 5 years ago, did nothing,” BY Robert Spencer, June 25, 2015
Muslim Rape gangs were targeting schools 5 years ago, authorities did nothing
ByPamela Geller
on June 25, 2015

June 12, 2015

NYC Man, 22, Held Without Trial For Three Years in NYC Kills Himself



Kalief Browder, 22, Took His Own Life After Being Held Three Years Without Trial In Rikers Island, NYC Jail

[From article]
In May 2010, 10 days before Kalief’s 17th birthday, he and a friend were arrested after a man accused them of stealing his backpack and Kalief of striking him in the face, which led to Kalief being charged with robbery, grand larceny and assault.
His friend was not held behind bars. Although Kalief insisted he’d done nothing wrong, a judge set his bail at $3,000, a sum his parents were unable to raise, because he was on probation. After his indictment, another judge ordered him held without bail because of his probationary status. He was locked up in the vast city jail on Rikers Island — for three years — awaiting a trial that never came.
He was held in solitary confinement for about two years, punishment for fighting and other infractions, his lawyer Paul Prestia told me.
A security video from inside Rikers showed him being slammed to the ground and pummeled by a correction officer as his hands were cuffed behind his back. Another showed him being beaten by about 10 teen inmates.
[. . .]
A prosecutor offered him a deal allowing him to plead guilty to felonies in exchange for a sentence of 3½ years in prison, then 2 ½.
Then a judge offered to let him plead guilty to two misdemeanors and go free immediately.
In each case, he refused. He wanted to stand trial.
Then by 2013, the guy who’d accused Kalief and his pal of robbing him had returned to Mexico and could not be located by authorities.
Charges were dropped. Kalief was sent home.
But he never really was free.

http://nypost.com/2015/06/11/the-tragedy-of-kalief-browder-must-never-happen-again/

The tragedy of Kalief Browder must never happen again
By Andrea Peyser
New York Post
June 11, 2015 | 11:19pm

June 11, 2015

White House Negligence Enabled Chinese Hackers To Steal Government Employees Personal Information




Chinese hackers obtained all personnel records of U.S. government employees. No one knows what they will do with this information. The misguided White House demanded that all medical records be online using taxpayer funds to encourage medical facilities and professionals to place the information online. In another level of clueless public officials making policy the Cambridge City Council (and other governmental bodies) encouraged Wi-Fi nodes be installed across the city to allow everyone to enjoy access to the internet. There was no discussion of the lack of security of using this new technology. My queries to city officials who are teaching people to use Facebook without explaining how their information is a business went unanswered. Be prepared for any and all of your personal information being available to anyone with evil intent as easily as it is to those with good intentions. 

[From article]
Hackers stole personnel data and Social Security numbers for every federal employee, a government worker union said Thursday, asserting that the cyber theft of U.S. employee information was more damaging than the Obama administration has acknowledged.
[. . .]
The OPM data file contains the records of non-military, non-intelligence executive branch employees, which covers most federal civilian employees but not, for example, members of Congress and their staffs.
The union believes the hackers stole military records and veterans' status information, address, birth date, job and pay history, health insurance, life insurance and pension information; and age, gender and race data
[. . .]



"We believe that Social Security numbers were not encrypted, a cybersecurity failure that is absolutely indefensible and outrageous," Cox said in the letter. The union called the breach "an abysmal failure on the part of the agency to guard data that has been entrusted to it by the federal workforce."
Samuel Schumach, an OPM spokesman, said that "for security reasons, we will not discuss specifics of the information that might have been compromised."
The central personnel data file contains up to 780 separate pieces of information about an employee.
[. . .]
In the Senate on Thursday, Democrats blocked a Republican effort to add a cybersecurity bill to a sweeping defense measure. The vote was 56-40, four votes short of the number necessary.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOVERNMENT_HACKED?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-11-15-58-33

Jun 11, 8:09 PM EDT
UNION: HACKERS HAVE PERSONNEL DATA ON EVERY FEDERAL EMPLOYEE
BY KEN DILANIAN
AP INTELLIGENCE WRITER

May 26, 2015

IRS Records Hacked, 100,000 Taxpayers At Risk




IRS is getting hacked. Consider the government's forcing medical records being placed online as part of the new health insurance law. That enables theft of medical information which can be more threatening, to the health and lives of the patients. Minimal concerns expressed by politicians, medical professionals and patient advocates. Is there anything imposed by the White House that benefits ordinary American taxpayers and voters? 

[From article]
Sophisticated criminals used an online service run by the IRS to access personal tax information from more than 100,000 taxpayers, part an elaborate scheme to steal identities and claim fraudulent tax refunds, the IRS said Tuesday.
The thieves accessed a system called "Get Transcript," where taxpayers can get tax returns and other filings from previous years. In order to access the information, the thieves cleared a security screen that required knowledge about the taxpayer, including Social Security number, date of birth, tax filing status and street address, the IRS said."We're confident that these are not amateurs," said IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. "These actually are organized crime syndicates that not only we but everybody in the financial industry are dealing with."
Koskinen wouldn't say whether investigators believe the criminals are based overseas — or where they obtained enough personal information about the taxpayers to access their returns. The IRS has launched a criminal investigation. The agency's inspector general is also investigating.
Identity thieves, both foreign and domestic, have stepped up their efforts in recent years to claim fraudulent tax refunds. The agency estimates it paid out $5.8 billion in fraudulent refunds to identity thieves in 2013.
"Eighty percent of the of the identity theft we're dealing with and refund fraud is related to organized crime here and around the world," Koskinen said. "These are extremely sophisticated criminals with access to a tremendous amount of data."
[. . .]



Thieves can also use the information to claim fraudulent tax refunds in the future.
[. . .]
Tax returns can include a host of personal information that can help someone steal an identity, including Social Security numbers and birthdates of dependents and spouses. The IRS said the thieves appeared to already have a lot of personal information about the victims.
The IRS said it is notifying taxpayers whose information was accessed.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/apnewsbreak-irs-thieves-stole-tax-info-100000-31317464

APNewsBreak: IRS Says Thieves Stole Tax Info From 100,000
WASHINGTON
May 26, 2015, 5:59 PM ET
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
Associated Press

May 21, 2015

Few Find Journalists Trustworthy




[From article]
Yet Stephanopoulos had the gall while interviewing Clinton Cash author Peter Schweizer to question his findings based on Schweizer serving as a “consultant to the Office of Presidential Speechwriting in the White House” over a two-year period. “This is an indication of your partisan interest,” Stephanopoulos reminded Schweizer. Yet no comment about the interviewer’s own “partisan interest.” Not just the Clinton Foundation contributions, but also his participation in a daily conference call with the White House and Democrat political operatives. And his days in the Clinton White House, not as a consultant but as a high level campaign operative, press secretary, and senior policy advisor to President Bill Clinton. Whose wife happens to be running for President. Who has the greater “partisan interest” here?



[. . .]
Stephanpoulos is not simply a commentator. He is the chief anchor at ABC News, the face of ABC News, using his position to defend the Clintons and castigate their critics. He might as well be chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Stephanopoulos isn’t the only one. MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews was Democrat Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill’s chief of staff. The late Tim Russert, anchor of Meet the Press, was Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s chief of staff.
[. . .]



Is it any wonder only 6 percent of voters rate the news media as very trustworthy?

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/05/stephanopouloss_long_history_of_mixing_journalism_and_politics.html

May 19, 2015
Stephanopoulos's Long History of Mixing Journalism and Politics
By Brian C Joondeph

Evidence of Corruption of Obama-Clinton Regarding Benghazi Massacre




[From article]
Years ago, Judicial Watch served Freedom of Information Act requests relating to Benghazi on the Defense Department and the State Department. The Obama administration stonewalled, as always, so Judicial Watch eventually had to sue to enforce its rights under FOIA. That lawsuit has been going on for more than two years, as the Obama administration continued to resist producing relevant documents. Finally, on September 9, 2014, a federal court in the District of Columbia ordered the State and Defense Departments to produce certain additional documents. Those documents have been trickling in to Judicial Watch, heavily redacted.
Despite the redactions, some of the documents are bombshells. This one was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the White House’s National Security Council on September 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack. It says, among other things:
The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 atacks on the World Trade Center buildings.
[. . .]
This report also describes the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for the Benghazi attack:
The attack on the American consulate in Benghazi was planned and executed by the Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BOAR).
[. . .]



It has long been rumored that Ambassador Chris Stevens was in Benghazi for reasons having to do with the flow of weapons out of that city:
Weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the Port of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The weapons shipped during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s, and 125 mm and 155mm howitzers missiles.
During the immediate aftermath of, and following the uncertainty caused by, the downfall of the (Qaddafi) regime in October 2011 and up until early September of 2012, weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles located in Benghazi, Libya were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the ports of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The Syrian ports were chosen due to the small amount of cargo traffic transiting these two ports. The ships used to transport the weapons were medium-sized and able to hold 10 or less shipping containers of cargo.
This DIA report, dated August 2012, is intensely interesting. It describes the situation in Syria and warns against the rise of the Islamic State:
The deterioration of the situation has dire consequences on the Iraqi situation and are as follows:
This creates the ideal atmosphere for AQI [al Qaeda Iraq] to return to its old pockets in Mosul and Ramadi, and will provide a renewed momentum under the presumption of unifying the jihad among Sunni Iraq and Syria, and the rest of the Sunnis in the Arab world against what it considers one enemy, the dissenters. ISI could also declare an Islamic state through its union with other terrorist organizations in Iraq and Syria, which will create grave danger in regards to unifying Iraq and the protection of its territory.
[. . .]



The belated release of these critically important documents, years after the fact, illustrates the success of the Obama administration’s stonewall strategy. Multiple investigations of the Benghazi attack have been carried out, and, while they have uncovered considerable evidence of malfeasance on the part of Hillary Clinton and others in the Obama administration, President Obama and his minions have succeeded in hiding much, perhaps most, of the most relevant evidence. In fact, it seems likely that key evidence has been destroyed, redacted or otherwise hidden, and never will come to light. This is, in my view, one of the more troubling aspects of the comprehensive corruption of the Obama administration.

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/05/the-truth-about-benghazi-slowly-emerges.php

POSTED ON MAY 18, 2015
BY JOHN HINDERAKER
THE TRUTH ABOUT BENGHAZI SLOWLY EMERGES

May 19, 2015

New York Mayor Uses Taxpayer Resources to Travel, and Visit Other Cities





De Blasio imitates Massachusetts elected officials who focus on other states and the national government rather than address state or local issues. The Cambridge City Council and the previous three state attorneys generals are known for this diversion of attention and taxpayer resources.

[From article]
Bill de Blasio is one transcendent guy.
“We believed it would be transcendent to just have respectful dialogue, to have management respect labor, labor respect management,” he said last December of the magical act known as “negotiating union contracts.”
“I think it’s going to have a transcendent impact on a whole swath of Brooklyn,” he said in March about the future of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
“A real transcendent figure in terms of serving the veterans of this city,” he said in August of his appointee to run the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs.
Oh, and in 2014, as The Wall Street Journal noted in tracking his profligate use of the word, de Blasio said, “This is not a political event, but I’ll make an observation about the political process. Chirlane and I know that last year was a transcendent year for this city.”
[. . .]
Among the definitions of transcendent are these: “Beyond or above the range of normal or merely physical human experience.” “Existing apart from and not subject to the limitations of the material universe.” “Not realizable in experience.”
[. . .]
Hey, Bill, when you’re done fixing income disparities, telling Nebraskans you’re one of them and singing “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?” do you think you could come back to New York and fix some potholes?
New Yorkers pay, by far, the highest taxes in the state. Which buys us the worst roads in the state, according to a report from research group TRIP.
Worse than Buffalo. Worse than Albany. New York City should not rank lower than Albany in any category except maybe “most elected officials currently under indictment.”
[. . .]
Governing a city of 8 million souls isn’t easy. Many bright men have tried and failed.
De Blasio, though, isn’t even trying. He seems to think he was hired to do something much more transcendent than mere governance.
[. . .]
Billy Blazes seems to think he was elected head of the New York Chapter of the National Progressivism Caucus. “I also have to participate in changing the national debate,” he declared this week. Says who? By a margin of 46% to 42%, New Yorkers said in a poll that de Blasio is spending too much time on non-New York issues.

http://nypost.com/2015/05/17/de-blasio-thinks-hes-above-petty-concerns-like-nyc/

De Blasio thinks he’s above fixing NYC’s problems
By Kyle Smith
New York Post
May 17, 2015 | 6:00am

May 14, 2015

Secret Service Agent Being Investigated For Drinking On Duty Retires



Marc Connolly


[From article]
The decision by Marc Connolly comes ahead of the public release of a report concluding that he and a colleague were likely impaired by alcohol on the night of March 4 as they drove into a temporary barricade and into an active crime scene, according to government officials briefed on the matter.
The findings of the report, scheduled to be released Thursday, prompted Secret Service Director Joseph P. Clancy to place both men on administrative leave pending further punishments, the officials said.
[. . .]
Secret Service officers on duty at the White House that night told investigators they believed one or both men were under the influence based on their odd behavior, the report will say. Some officers reported that the agents smelled of alcohol.
[. . .]
The investigation also found that numerous high-ranking Secret Service supervisors chose not to report the incident, and that it was omitted from a daily report of significant events at the compound provided to Clancy.
The officials’ silence left Clancy, the newly named Secret Service director, in the dark for five days while rumors of the incident spread among current and former Secret Service employees.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-agent-retiring-amid-probe-into-conduct-at-white-house/2015/05/13/86de428c-f806-11e4-a13c-193b1241d51a_story.html

Secret Service agent retiring amid probe into conduct at White House
By Carol D. Leonnig
May 13, 2015 at 6:48 PM