Even Before Fort Lee Lane Closings, Port Authority Was a Christie Tool

By KATE ZERNIKE and MATT FLEGENHEIMER MARCH 11, 2014

Bill Baroni, left, then deputy executive director of the Port Authority, and Mayor Michael Gonnelli of Secaucus with a piece of steel from the World Trade Center ruins in 2012. Credit Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey Journal, via Landov

For a state that lost hundreds of lives on Sept. 11, the gifts were emotionally resonant: pieces of steel from the ruins of the World Trade Center. They were presented by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to 20 carefully chosen New Jersey mayors who sat atop a list of 100 whose endorsements Gov. Chris Christie hoped to win.

At photo opportunities around the mangled pieces of steel, Bill Baroni, Mr. Christie’s top staff appointee at the Port Authority, told audiences how many people wanted a similar remnant of the destroyed buildings, and how special these mayors were.

Mayors lower on the list of 100 — such as Mark Sokolich, of Fort Lee, at No. 45 — received other Port Authority perquisites: an intimate tour of the National September 11 Memorial, or the new World Trade Center construction site, or Port Authority money for jobs programs or new firefighting equipment, even in towns far from the port.

Mr. Christie and his allies at the Port Authority are now entangled in a scandal over the closing of lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge — apparently a politically motivated move aimed at Mr. Sokolich, who had declined to endorse the governor. But long before the lane closings, the Port Authority — a bistate government agency financed by tolls and taxes — had already been turned into a de facto political operation for Governor Christie, a review of the agency’s operations since Mr. Christie took office suggests.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gov. Chris Christie with Bill Baroni, right, and David Samson, the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, at a 2011 conference in Trenton on New Jersey transportation. Credit Julio Cortez/Associated Press

Turning wreckage of the twin towers into politically motivated gifts before Mr. Christie’s 2013 re-election was only one example. The authority became a means to reward friends (or hire them) and punish adversaries, and a bank to be used when Mr. Christie sought to avoid raising taxes. Major policy initiatives, such as instituting a large toll and fare increase in 2011, were treated like political campaigns to burnish the governor’s image.

These maneuvers emboldened the Christie team, former Port Authority colleagues say, to close down the lanes on the world’s busiest bridge — ensnaring them in state and federal investigations.

Mr. Christie’s allies at the agency were public, even proud, about their mandate to reshape the agency.

Shortly after he was hired by Mr. Baroni to be director of interstate capital projects, David Wildstein walked into a colleague’s office at the agency’s headquarters on Park Avenue South in Manhattan and gestured toward the window. “You know, that used to be Tammany Hall,” he said, referring to the New York Film Academy below on East 17th Street, according to a person who witnessed the scene. “That’s the seat of all corruption in New York.”

Waiting a beat, he added, “And the Port Authority is right here.”

Jobs for an Inner Circle

The Port Authority was formed in the 1920's to run the various ports, tunnels and bridges shared by New York and New Jersey, with each state choosing its own administrators and directors, who were supposed to work together.

As chairman of the board of commissioners, Mr. Christie appointed David Samson, a well-connected former state attorney general who had led the governor’s transition team. When Mr. Christie appointed Mr. Baroni, a state senator who had been a loyal Christie lieutenant, as deputy executive director soon after he was elected in 2009, the governor noted that the agency offered “significant opportunities for funding projects in the State of New Jersey.”

Mr. Baroni delighted in his role as the agency’s chief ambassador in his home state, where he often headlined local officials’ events to publicize Port Authority projects in their towns. “For the Port Authority, the World Trade Center wasn’t just a building that we built,” he said in a speech in 2011. 

“It was our home.”

“Its rebuilding is a passion to the Port Authority, and it’s a passion to our governor and lieutenant governor,” he added.

Remarks like that rankled New York colleagues at the Port Authority, who felt a tug of war with New Jersey over money to rebuild the site after Mr. Christie’s allies conveyed a clear rule: If New York got something, New Jersey had to get something, too. In exchange for the World Trade Center, for example, New Jersey secured projects including the $1 billion raising of the Bayonne Bridge and the rebuilding of the Pulaski Skyway — an unusual undertaking for the Port Authority, because it does not connect the two states.

Mr. Baroni’s lawyer did not return calls seeking comment, and Mr. Wildstein’s lawyer declined to comment.

Mr. Wildstein, a onetime anonymous political blogger who, like Mr. Baroni, has resigned in the wake of the lane closings, was hired in 2010 and quickly developed a reputation as the governor’s enforcer at the agency. He was known to schedule meetings with subordinates early on Monday mornings — never specifying the topic, leaving them to fret for the weekend — then cancel. He seemed to appear from nowhere in officials’ doorways, staring until they invited him in.

Mr. Wildstein helped end the practice of letting former Port Authority commissioners have free tolls for life, after Mr. Christie had railed against it.

The Port Authority had long been accused of patronage, something longtime agency employees said that the Christie administration had continued.

The administration recommended dozens of people with close ties to the governor or his inner circle — often without relevant experience — for jobs at the agency. These hires included a gourmet food broker and longtime Republican donor, who was given a job as a financial analyst, and the co-author of Mr. Baroni’s self-help book, “Fat Kid Got Fit: And So Can You!” — who received a part-time job as publications editor that paid more than $50,000 per year.

A Problem-Solver

Mr. Christie also used the agency to help him out of political jams. When he came into office, his state’s Transportation Trust Fund, traditionally financed by the gas tax, was nearly empty. But Mr. Christie, as a candidate, had pledged not to raise taxes. The Port Authority’s involvement in a major project, it turned out, presented a perfect solution.

In 2010, Mr. Christie canceled construction on a planned railroad tunnel under the Hudson River that would have eased congestion for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains, and used $1.8 billion that the Port Authority had planned to spend on it to fill the trust fund.

As a Republican administration in a blue state, the governor’s team began considering strategies for his re-election early in his first term.

The agency’s spending served Mr. Christie well as he campaigned, all with an eye to building a broad coalition that would allow him to seek the Republican nomination for president. The governor’s push for projects like raising the roadbed of the Bayonne Bridge helped win endorsements from unions that had backed his opponent in 2009. The agency spent millions of dollars on projects in towns Mr. Christie wanted to win. For example, $25 million went to a new PATH station in Harrison, where Mayor Raymond J. McDonough became the first Democratic official to endorse Mr. Christie.

Christie News Conference on Bridge Flap

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said he took no part in the lane closings at the George Washington Bridge, but acknowledged the involvement of some of his close aides. 

Mr. Baroni, often accompanied by Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, one of Mr. Christie’s top aides, delivered the World Trade Center steel to communities like Secaucus and Tenafly where the campaign sought endorsements. Mr. Baroni also frequently gave tours of the construction site, with guest lists that included Democrats whose support the governor was seeking. A tour last year on Aug. 23 included Mr. McDonough, and Dawn Zimmer, the Democratic mayor of Hoboken; the governor’s campaign wanted her to support Mr. Christie — or at least, not endorse his Democratic opponent.

Some tour attendees detected a subtext during their visits. “I viewed it as trying to build relationships and make us feel like we had a place at the table,” said Richard LaBarbiera, the Democratic mayor of Paramus, N.J., “with a possible end in mind.”

Mr. LaBarbiera added that when he informed the campaign that he would not endorse the governor, his relationship with the administration did not change.

Toll Threats

Perhaps the boldest use of the Port Authority as a political tool, a complex sleight-of-hand that raised questions at the time but succeeded anyway, involved large toll increases at the Hudson River crossings in 2011, at the end of Mr. Christie’s first year in office. The episode has recently drawn scrutiny in several major New Jersey newspapers.

At the time, the agency wanted to raise money on the bond markets. But it was becoming apparent that it would not be able to raise enough without a toll increase.

No governor wants to raise tolls, even by an agency shared with a neighboring state. But the issue was particularly nettlesome for Mr. Christie because he had branded himself a fiscal conservative.

An account fleshed out by several participants describes what was essentially a political campaign to convince voters that Mr. Christie had lowered the tolls rather than maneuvered to raise them. While officials in New York signed off on the maneuver, the participants said, the Christie administration was the driving force.

Mr. Baroni took charge. He set up a confidential war room on the 15th floor of the building on Park Avenue South and put restrictions on who could enter. Inside, agency employees ran numbers for various proposed increases, and set up computers to monitor news coverage of the plan.

The initial projection for car tolls had been an increase of $4, spread over two years. But on Aug. 3, Mr. Wildstein, Mr. Baroni and Mr. Samson went to Trenton and met with the governor and five senior staff members, including his chief of staff, his chief counsel, and Deborah Gramiccioni, the head of the authorities unit (who was named to Mr. Baroni’s post at the Port Authority when he resigned as the bridge scandal burgeoned in December).

Mr. Christie instructed the group to propose a plan for a $6 increase for cars by 2014. He told them that he would publicly rail against it, and that the agency would then agree to a lower number, easing the inevitable political fallout while still getting new income, according to a person who was briefed by an attendee on the participants and what was said.

The possibility of a similar ploy — announce an outrageously high increase, and then knock it down — had been considered before toll increases were proposed in November 2007, in a meeting between Port Authority officials and the administration of Gov. Jon S. Corzine, according to two people involved in the discussions, but it was dismissed as too contrived.

Not this time. The plan was announced three days after the meeting in Trenton, on Aug. 6, a Friday afternoon. Within two hours, Mr. Christie and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York produced a joint statement expressing “obvious and significant concerns.” Mr. Christie described his first reaction as, “Are you kidding me?”

The day before the Port Authority board was to vote on the increase, Mr. Christie and Mr. Cuomo released a letter declaring that they had found a way to lower the toll increases — for cars, the cost would go up $4.50 by 2015, rather than $6 by 2014. “We are pleased that our work together resulted in lowering of the original toll increase,” they said.

The board approved the increase unanimously.

Shouts After Whispers

Among Mr. Christie’s allies at the agency, the campaign was considered a success. Mr. Baroni hung a photograph of participants on his office wall.

It was not quite over. The travel organization AAA sued, but was blocked when it tried to gain access to communications between the agency and the governor’s office.

The transportation committee of the New Jersey State Assembly also tried and similarly failed to obtain information. But this effort led to what could be the longest-lasting significance of the toll-increase ploy: The Assembly was given subpoena power, which it eventually used to gather evidence in the recent lane-closing scandal, including the infamous email from one of Mr. Christie’s aides that read, “Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee.”

In April 2012, Mr. Baroni went to Washington to answer questions from a committee hearing called by the late Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, a Democrat and frequent critic of the governor. The hearing devolved into a shouting match.

Aides to Mr. Christie cheered Mr. Baroni’s performance. In private, though, Mr. Baroni expressed ambivalence about the confrontation with Mr. Lautenberg. He sent word through mutual friends to people on Mr. Lautenberg’s staff that he regretted the scene.

The instructions, he explained, had come from Trenton.

McDonald’s Manager To Sick Employee: ‘Just Put A Bullet In Your Head’

By Rika Christensen

A manager at a Chicago McDonald’s told an employee to just put a bullet in her head after she asked to go home following a diabetic episode on the job. Image: 28704869

A manager of a Chicago McDonald’s told employee Carmen Navarrette to put a bullet in her head for being sick. Navarrette is diabetic, and had asked to go home after having a severe diabetic episode.

Navarrette, who’s been an employee at that McDonald’s for nine years, went to the Workers Organizing Committee of Chicago with the incident.

She also told her story to the Organizing Committee for Chicago Women Caucus, where there were similar stories from other people. That’s prompted a rally on Saturday, where workers were demanding an end to verbal abuse and respect from their managers. Several Chicago aldermen attended the rally as well.

So far, McDonald’s corporate hasn’t commented on the matter. Last year, they began cracking down on staff and managers for poor customer service. One in five customer complaints has to do with not receiving friendly or speedy service, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal. As yet, though, there’s little evidence that they’ve been pressing their franchisees to train managers to treat employees better.

Disrespect isn’t unique to this particular McDonald’s.

Another Chicago McDonald’s is under fire for poor employee treatment, age discrimination, unsanitary conditions, and failure to provide proper safety equipment. Centro De Trabajadores Unidos (CTU) Immigrant Worker Project says that several women at the McDonald’s at 92^nd and Commercial Avenue, on Chicago’s south side, frequently deal with verbal abuse, along with stress so bad it affects their health outside of work.

In 2013, CTU was pressuring that McDonald’s restaurant to sit down with them and work something out so that workers would receive better treatment. At the time of their posting, the restaurant had not responded to their letters.

McDonald’s might benefit more from treating their workers with some decency.

Perhaps the problem is deeper than just rude workers. It can be very hard to put a smile on your face when not only does your boss treat you like you’re nothing, but customers do also. Business Insider has a list of McDonald’s horror stories from 2012, and most of them have to do with customers.

There are a few that have to do with bad working conditions.

Perhaps the problem is, at least in part, our society’s disdain for fast-food workers. You see it all over the place, especially when talking about raising the minimum wage.

These jobs are low-skill, requiring minimal training, and for some reason we associate that with a person’s worth as a human being. If they were better people, they’d have better jobs. Since they don’t, there must be something wrong with them that just makes them “beneath” the rest of us.

It’s not just customers who think it’s their right to step all over a fast-food worker like they aren’t human. As Navarrette’s story shows, the managers and franchisees do it, too.

The Wall Street Journal article discusses how trying to raise the level of customer service across the board has had limited success. One McDonald’s franchisee said, “I think it’s an ongoing problem, and always will be.”

The question there is, why? The franchisees are addressing the issue by increasing staffing and introducing new order systems to speed things up. Why doesn’t employee treatment factor into this at all?

Employee engagement and well-being brings in a higher profit margin.

Organizations that actively participate in employee well-being and engagement, and invest time and energy in providing good working environments, tend to see greater returns and greater profits than companies who treat their employees like mere cogs in a machine. This isn’t something that only applies to certain industries; it’s true across all industries. It isn’t necessarily about wages, either.

Treating employees with respect, and letting them know their value to the organization as a whole, can go a very long way towards how well they perform.

But even if the returns were small, treating your employees with disrespect is just bad management.

Anybody who’s so disrespectful that they would tell an employee to put a bullet in their head because they’re sick shouldn’t be a manager to begin with.

This McDonald’s manager really should just be fired for that.

There’s no information available as to how often Navarrette was absent from work due to her diabetes. If it was quite frequent, then frustration on the part of her manager is to be expected.

However, that absolutely does not give him the right to tell her she should kill herself. If her health is causing that much of a problem with her attendance or performance on the job, then he needs to schedule a meeting with her to discuss her options (including things like light duty, and possibly disability).

If, however, her diabetes is not causing problems with her attendance and on-the-job performance, then his behavior is even worse because that level of frustration is entirely unwarranted. But regardless, no manager, no matter how frustrated they are, has the right tell anyone to just put a bullet in their heads.

Navarrette has a petition on Moveon.org regarding her situation, and the situation of all McDonald’s workers who’ve had to endure abuse from their managers. If McDonald’s is serious about improving their customer service, technology is only one step. They need to better train their franchisees to ensure store managers are leaders, and not just overseers.

Ralph Nader’s unwarranted presidential advice

Earning the title of Ed Schultz's Pretender, failed Green Party Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader pens an unsolicited, negative letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders.

 

Hundreds of Native Women Missing in Canada

New database lists 824 murdered, missing native women in Canada

By Mary Agnes Welch

TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Enlarge Image

Vigils for murdered and missing aboriginal women are held regularly at the Manitoba legislature. New research puts the total in this province at 111. Photo Store

 

Some of the names are familiar, such as Cherisse Houle, the 17-year-old found lying face down in a creek just outside Winnipeg.

Some are forgotten, such as Constance Cameron, whose murder 30 years ago has never been solved.

Enlarge Image

Constance Cameron, murdered in 1984

Canada's Missing and Murdered Women

As part of her PhD thesis, federal civil servant Maryanne Pearce created her own database of missing and murdered women in Canada, cross-referencing newspaper articles, police websites and reports, court documents and other public sources. We’ve created an online database based on Appendix F of her thesis – a list of more than 3,300 cases of missing or dead Canadian women. See the database.

MANITOBA'S MISSING AND MURDERED ABORIGINAL WOMEN AND GIRLS

• 111 missing or murdered dating back to Jean Mocharski's murder near the Alexander Docks in 1961.
• 83 aboriginal women have been murdered over the last 50 years. About a third of the murders are unsolved.
• 28 women are missing, including 18 in the last decade.
• 10 children (aged 11 and under) were murdered, including Phoenix Sinclair.
• 20 is the average age of the missing and murdered women (among those whose ages are known).
• 6 women were murdered by their husband or boyfriend.

-- Source: An Awkward Silence: Missing And Murdered Vulnerable Women And The Canadian Justice System, Maryanne Pearce, 2013.

Related Items

1. Articles

   • Mounties review hundreds of missing, murdered aboriginal women cases

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Cherisse Houle, murdered in 2009

Enlarge Image

Helen Betty Osborne, murdered in 1971 (CANADIAN PRESS)

One name is famous -- Helen Betty Osborne, whose death is emblematic of violent racism in Manitoba.

Those names and hundreds more appear on a new public database, the first of its kind, created by an Ottawa researcher. It pegs the number of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada at 824.

That's significantly higher than the widely used and often-criticized number of 582, cobbled together by the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC).

The NWAC's list was never public and could not be scrutinized or validated, but it helped catapult the issue of violence against indigenous women onto the national agenda.

The new research, which dug deeper into the past and the public record, shows the number of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Manitoba is 111, up from NWAC's oft-quoted figure of 79.

"I'm not shocked at the number and I know the community is not going to be shocked at the number because we've always said it was more," said Nahanni Fontaine, the province's special adviser on aboriginal women's issues. "And of course, each year, tragically, those numbers go up."

The new database is the first comprehensive and fully public list of missing and murdered aboriginal women, but activists in Ontario are working on a similar one for that province. The database was created by federal civil servant Maryanne Pearce and forms part of her PhD thesis for the University of Ottawa's law school.

The thesis, along with the database, were submitted last fall and are available online.

To gather a complete list of names, Pearce spent seven years cross-referencing newspaper articles, police websites and reports, court documents and other public sources, much as the NWAC did.
Pearce identified thousands of missing and murdered women and was able to determine 824 were Inuit, Métis or First Nations. Her list includes 115 Manitoba women, but further research suggests four young women listed as missing have been found, two recently.

Pearce could not be reached for comment this week, but her thesis advisers are two well-regarded experts in aboriginal law and social science research.

When contacted about Pearce's work, they called it "excellent."

Among her findings, Pearce found 80 per cent of missing or murdered aboriginal women were not in the sex trade. That's despite the perception most cases involve prostitutes or women engaged in high-risk behaviour.

The perception that many missing or murdered women put themselves in harm's way has been used to unfairly discount the problem, said Derek Nepinak, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

Shawna Ferris, a University of Manitoba gender studies professor, agreed, saying much of the reporting on missing and murdered aboriginal women focuses on whether the victims are involved in the sex trade. Mug shots and details of a woman's street life or addictions don't help to cultivate
 public concern.

"Shouldn't we be aiming for a city where regardless of the trials people are going through, they're not killed?"

Nepinak said a comprehensive list that can been tested and validated makes it difficult for government, especially Ottawa, to sidestep the issue, and helps bolster the case for a national inquiry into the epidemic of violence against aboriginal women.

"We've only scratched the surface of what happened here," Nepinak said.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

College Board announces SAT overhaul

Chris Hayes discusses the newly announced overhaul of the SATs with NYU’s Pedro Noguera, Seppy Basili of Kaplan Test Prep, and education activist Julie Cavanagh.

12 Common Dreams and What They Supposedly Mean

By Meredith Danko

Despite Freud’s well-documented beliefs, dream interpretation isn’t a straightforward method. In fact, the majority of modern scientists and psychologists accept dreams and their meanings as unsolved mysteries. Regardless, there are some extremely common dreams that we all keep having.

Though most psychologists disagree with the current state of dream interpretation, people still choose to consult so-called dream experts. Often times, these analysts disagree. To get a clear picture, we will examine the viewpoints of four authors. Lauri Loewenberg has written three books on this topic and has appeared on The Dr. Oz Show and Anderson Cooper 360. Ian Wallace is a dream psychologist who wrote The Complete A to Z Dictionary of Dreams. Russell Grant published The Illustrated Dream Dictionary, which connects symbols in dreams with waking life. Finally, Lauren Lawrence has a New York Daily News column on dream analysis and was the host of the show Celebrity Nightmares Decoded. Based on these four sources, here are 12 common dreams and interpretations. 

1. Falling

Loewenberg calls this dream a “red flag from your subconscious.” She believes this dream is common in people who are having a major life problem with work, relationships, or elsewhere. Grant’s work concurs with this viewpoint, even citing the same examples.

2. Teeth falling out

The experts greatly disagree on this one. Wallace views teeth as a symbol of power and confidence. This dream is supposedly a sign that something happened in the dreamer’s life that has caused him or her to lose confidence. According to Grant, teeth are a bad omen and represent a broken relationship. Lawrence has a Freudian answer to this dream. For women, she believes the dream is an example of wish-fulfillment—they want to become pregnant. For men, it is a desire for sexual stimulation.

3. Showing up to work or school naked

The experts largely agree that this dream represents vulnerability and anxiety. Wallace’s research reveals that this dream is “common to people who have accepted a promotion, gone off to a new job, or who are coming into public view.”

4. Test-taking

Lawrence has observed that only perfectionists tend to have recurring stressful test-taking dreams. She alleges that the dream reminds a person to stay alert. Loewenberg believes that in adults, these dreams draw parallels between school and a job. Because both places see a lot of pressure-filled situations, Loewenberg associates this dream with work stress.

5. Dying

Lawrence’s interpretation is that this dream “reveals the wish to terminate something in life: a relationship, a job, a career path, or even the past.” Grant’s dictionary emphasizes that this dream is not necessarily a nightmare. Rather, he repeatedly states that it is a dream meant to encourage a person to embark on a new endeavor or fresh start.

6. Meeting a celebrity

Getty Images

Wallace names this as one of the dreams his clients have the most. He believes the actual celebrity is relevant and may reveal what talents the dreamer values. In Dream on It, Loewenberg writes that celebrities are a symbol of a personal need for recognition.

7. Being chased

Despite the nightmarish feel of this dream, Wallace considers it a positive sign. He believes that this dream is supposed to encourage the dreamer to finally face a problem that has been hanging over his or her head. Loewenberg encounters this dream more often in women than men.

8. Partner is cheating

Most of these authorities agree that this dream should not be taken as clairvoyance. According to Loewenberg, “The cheating dream happens when your mate is spending too much time and attention on something that does not involve you.” Similarly, Lawrence notes a lack of trust in a romantic relationship tends to spark this dream.

9. Showing up late to something 

This dream might be a sign that someone is overwhelmed and doing too much, according to Wallace. On a related note, Grant interprets this lateness as a warning: “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

10. Flying

Wallace claims that the dream encourages a person to let go of current issues and allow things to ”fall naturally into place.” Similarly, flying is a sign that there is an out of control situation in real life, according to Grant.

See Also: 6 Surprising Things That Can Influence Your Dreams

11. Being pregnant

Grant understands this dream as a sign that the dreamer is having problems. Lawrence views it as a need, either to start a creative project or become a parent. Or the dream may be representative of a new idea that has recently come to the person, as Loewenberg believes.

12. Driving an out-of-control vehicle

The interpretations of this dream are just as cliché as expected. For example, Wallace writes, “You may feel that you don’t have enough control on your road to success.” Grant warns that this is a sign that a current bad habit may become a long-term problem.

All images courtesy of Thinkstock unless otherwise noted.

‘I Am Prepared To Run For President Of The United States’

By Alan Colmes

The prepared person is Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, hinted in November that he’d look at 2016.

…Sanders has begun talking with savvy progressive political strategists, traveling to unexpected locations such as Alabama and entertaining the process questions that this most issue-focused member of the Senate has traditionally avoided.

In some senses, Sanders is the unlikeliest of prospects: an independent who caucuses with the Democrats in the Senate but has never joined the party, a democratic socialist in a country where many politicians fear the label “liberal,” an outspoken critic of the economic, environmental and social status quo who rips “the ruling class” and calls out the Koch brothers by name. Yet, he has served as the mayor of his state’s largest city, beaten a Republican incumbent for the US House, won and held a historically Republican Senate seat and served longer as an independent member of Congress than anyone else. And he says his political instincts tell him America is ready for a “political revolution.”

The big question is whether Sanders runs as an independent, which he is, or as a Democrat, a party with which he caucuses, but with which he many differences.

……there is no question that the Democratic Party in general remains far too dependent on big-money interests, that it is not fighting vigorously for working-class families, and that there are some members of the Democratic Party whose views are not terribly different from some of the Republicans. That’s absolutely the case. But the dilemma is that, if you run outside of the Democratic Party, then what you’re doing—and you have to think hard about this—you’re not just running a race for president, you’re really running to build an entire political movement.

And what is wrong with the nominee-apparent, Hillary Clinton?

…the same old same old [Clinton administration Secretary of the Treasury] Robert Rubin type of economics, or centrist politics, or continued dependence on big money, or unfettered free-trade, that is not what this country needs ideologically. That is not the type of policy that we need. And it is certainly not going to be the politics that galvanizes the tens of millions of people today who are thoroughly alienated and disgusted with the status quo.

A middle-finger salute for the fracking king

By Jim Hightower

 

Listen to this Commentary

Rex Tillerson is mad. In fact, Fracking Mad.

This 61 year old farmer from Bartonville, Texas is another victim of Big Oil's fracking boom that has invaded people's homes and lives from upstate New York to Southern California. Polluted air, contaminated water, depleted aquifers, multiple health problems, and even an inexplicable epidemic of earthquakes are a few of the side effects caused by this massively-destructive drilling process.

But the frackers hadn't counted on Rex getting mad, speaking out, and suing the bastards. What ticked off Tillerson was the erection of a 160-foot-tall water tower built by a company that can provide millions of gallons of water for fracking gas wells. But Rex is no environmentalist, so his objection is not to the waste and contamination of people's water, nor does he object at all to fracking.

Rather, he's hopping mad because the 15-story tower stands above the tree line on his 83-acre, $5-million horse farm, spoiling his view.

Tillerson, you see, is not just some local dirt farmer. He says he and his wife moved here to have a weekend getaway so they can enjoy the rural lifestyle. He's not a farmer, at all – unless you count "farming the government" and harvesting billions of dollars in special tax breaks and subsidies. Rex (whose name means "king" in Latin), is the $40-million-a-year CEO of Exxon Mobil. Now, guess which oil giant is the biggest fracker in the USA. Right? Exxon Mobil.

So what we have here is a case of "phallic justice" – an upright, cylindrical water tower that's part of the fracking infrastructure, symbolically extending the middle-finger salute to Exxon's CEO every time he visits his horsey farm. How fitting that a guy who’s gained a personal fortune from the ugliness of fracking now has some of that ugliness right in his face.

"Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson gets 15 percent raise to $40.3 million," www.dallasnews.com, April 12, 2013.

"Exxon CEO Joins Suit Citing Fracking Concerns," www.wsj.com, February 20, 2014.

"Colorado Becomes First State to Regulate Methane Emissions From Fracking," www.alternet.org, February 25, 2014.

"Water tower suit involving Exxon's CEO prompts a fracking fracas," www.star-telegram.com, February 24, 2014.

"Exxon CEO Comes Out Against Fracking Project Because It Will Affect His Property Values," www.thinkprogress.org, February 21, 2014.

Staying Safe in a Dangerous World

Click to enlarge

The One Rich Guy Who Owns Everything

CEO sues to keep fracking away from backyard

Chris Hayes looks at Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson’s lawsuit tied to fracking.

Mitch McConnell Tastes His Own Medicine in Attack Ad by Senate Conservatives Fund

By Brad Friedman

This is what politics now looks like inside the Republican Party, where Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is staring down the double barrels of a very aggressive "Tea Party" primary challenge from Matt Bevin, and then a very close contest with Democratic general election candidate and Kentucky Sec. of State Alison Lundergan Grimes...



Remember, that ad is by fellow Republicans. In other words, the ridiculous and toxic (if too often effective) tactics they've been using for years against Democrats are now being deployed against each other.

As Josh Marshall said when flagging the ad above, "I guess you make your own bed." Or, perhaps, as the most most haunting movie ad ever said: "The call is coming from inside the house."

Good luck with that, Republicans. You are what you eat.

Scott Walker's weak attempt to avoid controversy

Wisconsin Govenor Scott Walker desperately tries to bury details of a new scandal, as his past actions against unions makes headlines. Ed Schultz and panel discuss.

President Obama says no to Social Security cuts

President Obama is doing what critics have urged him to do for years: he’s saying what he wants. His new budget will say no to austerity and no to Social Security cuts. Richard Wolffe and Joy Reid discuss.

Super Mario Bros 3 Hacked To Feature Save Game Functionality

By Cauterize

Super Mario Bros 3 is without a doubt one of the greatest games ever made - but can how can you improve a near flawless classic? One Nintendo NES fan decided to bring new functionality to the 1988 platformer, by introducing something retro gamers with busy lives will appreciate - built in save game functionality.

This simple yet effective ROM hack is the latest patch to hit the retro gaming scene, and one that will solve many classic gaming headaches. Given how expansive Super Mario Bros 3's many worlds are, the ability to power off the console and resume the action much later on is something we can all make use of.

Having said that, seasoned retro gamers will no doubt be questioning the point of using this ROM hack, especially when most Nintendo NES emulators out there support save states. The difference here is that owners of Nintendo NES flash cartridges (such as the Everdrive N8) wanting the more authentic experience can now make the most of this improved classic on the original hardware - saving their progress throughout the Mushroom World.
As usual, to enjoy this ROM enhancement patch you will need to have an original Super Mario Bros 3 Nintendo NES ROM file to which you can apply this patch to. Full instructions on how to patch this ROM can be found within the download, or you can refer to this handy ROM patching guide on YouTube.

 Download Super Mario Bros 3 Save Game Patch

Here’s What Happens in Florida When A Black Man Stands His Ground

By Curtis F

Photo from Michael Giles’ family via a petition to commute his sentence on Change.Org. Click here to sign.

It’s an unfortunate fact that certain states’ “Stand Your Ground” laws are getting tested more and more these days. In fact, in Florida alone, deaths that are ruled as “justifiable homicides” increased 283% between the time the law was enacted and 2010. This is now a sad reality, but many people would claim that the law is a good one since it allows people to defend themselves when they believe their lives are in danger. Much like the Jim Crow laws of the past, however, “Stand Your Ground” is beginning to look more and more like a racially biased law disguised in the cloak of legal necessity.

An obvious case of “Stand Your Ground.”

In what is quickly becoming a rallying call against the racial bias of “Stand Your Ground” laws, a young U.S. airman, Michael Giles, was sentenced to 25 years in a Florida prison after shooting a man, who happened to be attacking him, in the leg. That’s right:  no death actually occurred in the incident, but Giles was sentenced to 25 years. What makes this even more disheartening is the fact that, in an unrelated case, a Missouri man only received 20 years for actually murdering a man who was only leaving a residence.

The Giles case began when the young man, who had just finished out a second tour in the Middle East, went to a nightclub with his friends. At the club, a fight suddenly broke out outside between 30 to 40 different individuals. The young man was not even part of the fight, but fearing for his safety since he couldn’t find his friends, he retrieved a gun from his vehicle, which he had a concealed carry permit for, placed it in his pocket, and went to find his buddies.

A random attack on an innocent victim

While searching for his friends, a stranger came out of nowhere and punched Giles to the ground. This assailant even admitted that he planned on punching the first person that he came upon. In an obvious act of self defense — what “Stand Your Ground” laws are supposedly for — Giles shot his assailant in the leg. Unfortunately, several fragments broke away from the bullet and injured two others.

The young father of three, who was looking forward to a promising career in the military, was quickly arrested, charged with second-degree attempted murder, and convicted of a lesser charge which landed him in prison for what equates to a life sentence. Somehow, Jack Campbell, a Florida assistant attorney general, was able to look at the jury with a straight face and say:

“There is no self-defense that is applicable based on the evidence that’s before the jury.”

Because an admission from the “victim” saying that he randomly attacked Giles doesn’t prove Giles needed to defend himself.
Oh, wait.

Are “Stand Your Ground” laws rotten to the core?

Sadly, Giles isn’t the first to fall victim to a system that seems to pick and choose when it will apply the “Stand your Ground” doctrine. In fact, public outcry occurred when Marissa Alexander, a Florida mother, was sentenced to 20 years for firing a warning shot at her husband after the two had been engaged in a physical altercation. Even worse is the sad realization that there was a history of domestic violence against the woman who was defending herself. Fortunately, she will get a retrial, but when looking at Florida’s statistics related to the law, it’s not promising that a different verdict will be reached.

In fact, a recent article listing statistics related to Florida’s “Stand your Ground” law shows some disturbing trends. While around 70% of all individuals who use the defense are exonerated, the numbers prove that the law is more geared to protecting white individuals. This can be seen by the fact that 73% of people who kill an African-American and use the defense are freed. Conversely, only 59% of individuals who invoke the defense after killing a white person get the same treatment.
Anyone who isn’t blinded by some form of prejudice would literally have to be mentally defunct to not recognize the Giles case as an open-and-shut instance of “Stand your Ground,” but unfortunately, gun rights advocates aren’t screaming for his release. This task has been left to his parents, who are both veterans, and Americans who are demanding some form of justice. Sadly, Governor Rick Scott is ignoring demands for clemency, and this is even after nearly 80,000 people (as of Feb. 17) have signed a petition demanding action.

You can sign the petition here.

How to Disassemble Vita Game Cartridges, by Yifan Lu

By wololo

A useful piece of advice for the hardware tinkerers among us, directly from Yifan Lu.

If you’ve been following Yifan Lu’s work, or, more recently, the various ongoing hardware hacks by katsu (His HDMI output mod, his attempts to exploit the Vita NAND, his dual firmware boot prototype), you know we’re quite excited to see any progress on the hardware side of the force.
Opening a Vita cartridge in itself is not useful, but for those of you willing to dig deeper in the internals of the Vita, looking into the game cartridges is one more step you might want to take. Yifan Lu’s technique might be obvious to those who have been looking into these cartridges for a while, but if you’re curious and don’t want to permanently damage your game, you might want to follow his “how to”:

If you take a look at the top right or left corner of the game cart, you can see a line of where the two halves of the plastic was glued together. Locate the upper left corner and, with a sharp knife, push the blade into the line on the corner until you have a small dent. Then, move the knife downwards and wiggle the knife until you loosen the glue for the entire left side of the cart. Then keep moving the knife down and when you hit the bottom of the cart, turn and lose about half the bottom edge of the cart. Now you can use your fingers to spread the two halves apart (but be careful not to use too much force and tear the glue from the other two edges), and you can either shake the memory chip out or use a pair of tweezers.

As usual, Yifan Lu shares some cool pictures on his blog, where more details can be found (link below).

Source Yifan Lu

Based on the information from his blog, and Katsu’s recent work, Yifan also explains how games could potentially be dumped with standard NAND dumping techniques. He mentions this is probably as close to piracy as he’s ever gonna get, so I wouldn’t expect any additional information on that front from him.

If you were to follow the pinout, you can see that it appears to be a standard NAND pinout (not eMMC and not Memory Stick Duo). I have not tested this, but I believe this means you can use NANDWay or any other NAND dumping technique (there’s lots for PS3 and Xbox 360) provided you attach to the right pins. I suspect that the Vita communicates with the game cart through the SD protocol with an additional line for a security interface, but that is just speculation. If that were the case, having one-to-one dumps would not allow you to create clone games. Regardless, I will not be looking too much into game carts because they are so closely tied with piracy.

NANDWay can be downloaded here as part of the NORway tool.

Pinout for Vita cartridge – Katsu

Source Yifan Lu

Don Tollefson Turns Himself In, Faces Fraud Charges

By NBC10.Com Staff

A former Philadelphia sportscaster sat in jail Tuesday night after turning himself into authorities for allegedly cheating charities out of more than $100,000.

During an arraignment scheduled to begin at noon, Magisterial District Judge Daniel J. Finello set bail for 61 year old Donald Tollefson at $250,000, according to court records. 

Unable to post the required 10 percent, the former sportscaster for 6 ABC and FOX 29 was held at the Bucks County jail.

Tollefson faces first- and third-degree felonies and misdemeanors and will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 27, court records show.

The charges arose after some Eagles fans told police they never received the tickets and other items they purchased at charity auctions.

"He scammed us with a smile on his face," said Cindy Moffitt. "He put himself right up there with God and Santa Claus as far as I'm concerned."

She bought a $500 package to attend an Eagles game in Denver when she attended the Officer Brad Fox Foundation 5K Run in April 2012.

But, Moffitt says, the day she was supposed to travel to Colorado for the game, Tollefson told her there were no tickets.

"I thought if I don't stop this, it is going to continue," said Moffitt, who was initially hestitant to go  to the police. "He hasn't even said he's sorry."

Tollefson, who acknowledged his addiction issues during the arraignment by telling the judge he has been sober for 131 days, did not address the charges.

"We look forward to our day in court," said Tollefson's attorney, Michael McGovern. "We expect at the end of these proceedings he will be exonerated of all these charges."

Shortly after the arraignment began Tuesday, the Bucks County District Attorney's Office asked any potential victims to contact them.

Anyone who believes they may have been victimized by Donald Tollefson, please call Warminster Detective Bonargo: 215-343-0100, 215-672-1000

— Bucks Co DA's Office (@BucksDa) February 18, 2014

The NBC10 Investigators first reported that Don Tollefson was expected to surrender in Bucks County Tuesday on counts including theft, fraud and solicitation charges.

"The evidence to date shows that Tollefson, over the past three years, fraudulently solicited money for charities -- including the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania, the Salvation Army, and the Brad Fox Foundation -- then misappropriated that money. The investigation shows Tollefson victimized more than 100 individuals and misappropriated more than $100,000."

In January, a Montgomery County judge told Tollefson to pay up $3,300 to an Allentown couple he promised a Super Bowl trip to. That was just one of a slew of promised trips that were allegedly never delivered.

Earlier, police confirmed they investigated the former Philadelphia sportscaster after questions surfaced about his charity and Eagles tickets promised to people who made donations.

Warminster Police, along with the Bucks County District Attorney's Office and the State Bureau of Corporations & Charitable Organizations took a look at Tollefson's alleged actions.

Tollefson, who was a broadcaster for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011 and 2012, has done fundraising for disadvantaged children for more than a decade. During his fundraising, Tollefson often auctioned off Eagles tickets, not receiving public complaints at first. 

Last January however when Anthony Taormina, a manager for an East Norriton bowling alley, claimed he bought six ticket packages for Eagles away games for about $4,500 at Tollefson’s Wounded Warriors fundraiser.

“I figured the money was going toward the charity,” he said. “I was going to get two nights at a hotel, two tickets to the game and airfare for two people to go.”

Taormina says he never received the ticket package.

Micki Keane also says she bought tickets at the same event.

“We thought it was a great opportunity for the wounded warrior,” she said. “I have a nephew in Afghanistan.”

Keane claimed tickets never materialized, even after she sent an angry email to Tollefson claiming he “did not delay in charging $4,500” to her credit card. Keane also said the money was charged to a different charity, “Winning Ways Education,” instead of “Wounded Warriors.”

“He did eventually call me back and said he was sorry,” Keane said. “He said because of the change in leadership at the Eagles there were some issues. But he said he would take care of it.”

Tollefson also served as the emcee for the Officer Brad Fox Foundation 5K Run in Warminster in April 2012. The foundation’s Facebook page posted a message claiming Tollefson promised half the proceeds from selling ticket packages would go to the foundation. However, the latest posting states, “We want to note we have not received any donations from Don Tollefson.”

Barbara Terra says she spent $500 on a deal Tollefson offered during the event to go to an Eagles game in Denver.

"Nicest guy in the world when you talk to him," she said. "But he's a flat out liar. He continually kept saying he'd get back to me and that he'd have it by Wednesday night at 10 o'clock. I emailed him to let him know I was still waiting on my husband's information. And then... we heard the trip was off."

Mark Sandor, says he met Tollefson in July at a Wounded Warriors charity event in Avalon, N.J. 

Sandor says he paid $1,800 in a silent auction to get 2014 season tickets for the Eagles.

Sandor claims his credit card was charged two days later but after several back and forth emails with Tollefson, there were red flags that something was wrong.

"The receipt here is for Winning Ways but the donation's coordinator is One Child Saved," Sandor said. "I don't necessarily know what that is because the whole event was Wounded Warriors. It almost leaves me speechless. We all trusted him."

Lou Berman, president of Louie's Voice, an organization raising awareness on autism, says he and a fellow board member bought tickets to the British Open and the US Open for 2014 at an event Tollefson was emceeing. After paying $4,500, Berman claims they received nothing.

"We received no receipt, itinerary, travel arrangements, confirmation, not even a thank you card," Berman wrote in a released statement. "One of these trips we were going to raffle to raise money for our new foundation 'Louie’s Voice' that provides assistance to children and families that suffer from Autism.  Our toy drive will likely be canceled this year as we don’t have the funds to put on the event, because we were hoping to auction the trip to raise money. We are devastated that this has happened to us.  So many children who suffer from autism will be disappointed."

Eagles management received several calls in relation to Tollefson.

“We have spoken with Don Tollefson and have expressed our concerns about this situation,” said an Eagles spokesperson last fall. “To be clear, the Philadelphia Eagles do not have any affiliation with Mr. Tollefson and he was not authorized to use our trademarked logo.”

NBC10 tried to reach Tollefson for comment. He has not yet gotten back to us however. Earlier, Tollefson denied the allegations against him while speaking to the Times Herald.

“The trips weren’t held up to the standard they had been before,” he told the paper. “I made a personal decision not to do them this year. “

State officials also say none of the five charities Tollefson was associated with are registered. If a charity collects less than $25,000 a year, registration is not required.

Any potential victims that haven't come forward at this point can contact Warminster Township Police Det. John Bonargo at (215) 343-0100 or (215) 672-1000.

As the police investigation continues, Keane says she just wants her money back.

“Everybody makes mistakes,” Keane said. “But, refund our money.”

Jury reaches partial verdict in Dunn trial

The “Disrupt” panel discusses the jury deliberations in the murder trial of Michael Dunn, after the jury reached a verdict on four out of the five of the charges against Dunn.

Defense attorney: Dunn in ‘disbelief’ over verdict

 

Watch Michael Dunn’s defense attorney Cory Strolla make a statement on the verdict in his client’s murder trial.

 

 

Corey: Won’t ‘back off’ from Dunn retrial

 

Watch the entire statement from Florida State Attorney Angela Corey on the Michael Dunn verdict.

 

 

Sanders: Dunn could serve ‘consecutive or concurrent’ sentences

 

NBC’s Kerry Sanders reports on what could happen next in the sentencing for Michael Dunn.

 

GOP senator tries to influence union vote

Sen. Bob Corker attempts to intimidate workers at the Chattanooga Volkswagen plant, hours before a crucial vote to join the UAW. Ed Schultz and workers discuss.

 

Billion dollar baby: Tom Perkins

Earning the title of Ed Schultz's "Pretender," glorified billionaire Tom Perkins once again whines about the liberals taking all the money from the rich.