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Today's Pork Report

Your Daily Dose of Outrage

February 12, 2008

·         EARMARKS ON TRIAL:  Man convicted of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in earmarked federal funds

·         Traffic study finds Mississippi road earmark among the least needed transportation projects in area

·         Spokesperson dismisses any connection between timing of campaign fundraiser for Appropriations subcommittee chairman and his deadline for earmark requests

·         General Motors lobbyist commits to raising $100,000 for Senator Clinton’s campaign as she earmarks $8 million for his projects at GM

·         Local politicians disappointed with Congressman’s stand against earmarks; "We don't have time to play the political game and stand on principle when we really need the money."

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

http://newsminer.com/news/2008/feb/12/former-mayor-jim-hayes-found-guilty-16-counts/

Former Mayor Jim Hayes found guilty on 16 counts

By Chris Eshleman

A federal jury found former Fairbanks Mayor Jim Hayes guilty Monday of working with his wife to steal money from social-service grants between 2001 and 2005. The decision against Hayes, a church pastor and former three-term mayor, consisted of 16 guilty verdicts on counts that ranged from theft, conspiracy and money laundering to tax fraud.

Hayes sat subdued, his hands in his lap in the sparsely attended courthouse, as a federal judge read the verdict late Monday afternoon. He had taken the stand one week prior to deny the charges.

The verdicts convict Hayes of having a direct hand in misspending hundreds of thousands of dollars from almost $3 million in grants issued to his wife’s LOVE Social Services tutoring and mentoring center on personal items — things that included a big-screen plasma television for the couple’s home — and to help build a new church for his congregation, the Lily of the Valley Church of God in Christ.

Hayes is scheduled to be sentenced May 2. His wife, Murilda “Chris” Hayes, was absent from the courtroom and has already struck a deal with prosecutors on reduced charges. She will be sentenced later this winter.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said the government has no plans to pursue anyone else involved with either the church or the tutoring center.

“This is the only two people ever charged and implicated” in the case, she said. “It was the government’s theory all along that this was a two-person crime.”

The jury acquitted Hayes on four counts and was left deadlocked on an additional seven. It was left unclear what punishment the former mayor will face — District Judge John Sedwick, who presided over the case and attended by phone as the verdict was read Monday, gave no indication of potential jail time or criminal fines for Hayes, and Loeffler declined to speculate.

Hayes walked out of the downtown federal building, unaccompanied by his attorney, shortly after 5 p.m. He declined to comment when asked what legal steps he may take next or whether he could repay the money targeted by the government.

It took jurors almost five days of deliberations to convict Hayes, who was the sole witness to take the stand in his defense.

Hayes and his wife have commented little in public since federal investigators searched their home, the tutoring center and the church over two years ago. They also, under pressure, slowly retreated from public posts — Jim Hayes resigned his seat on the University of Alaska Board of Regents in April after Gov. Sarah Palin asked him to step down and some state lawmakers looked to have him impeached. Around two weeks later, Chris Hayes left the Alaska Human Rights Commission following a request from Palin, who had already removed her from the Alaska Workforce Investment Board.

The trial began in late January and ran into last week. It was dominated by the government’s case, as financial specialists and government investigators linked copies of checks, money orders and cashier’s checks — many found by investigators in Hayes’ office desk during the 2006 search — to withdrawals from the tutoring center.

The jury’s decision links the spending to the Lily of the Valley church, where Hayes has served as pastor since 1997. The church had started building its new 21,000-square-foot home a decade ago before the project’s price tag grew by some 40 percent, too fast for its budget to manage through identified sources.

Construction contractors, furniture store owners, and others told jurors last month they had been owed thousands of dollars on the project before Hayes finally came through with payments starting in late 2001.

As the trial moved on, prosecutors used witnesses to show money was slowly being funneled away from the $2.9 million in grants issued to the tutoring center, mostly to benefit the church through construction payments and, later, an audio projection system, furniture and gymnasium flooring.

Other witnesses consistently pointed to both Hayes and his wife as the financial heads of their respective organizations.

Loeffler credited a number of government agencies with cooperating to trace the spending.

“This was an example of law enforcement working together,” she said. “This was a long and difficult prosecution. I’m very proud of the team that put it together and I’m very pleased with the verdict.”

The paper trail introduced in court included documents that showed signs of outright fraud — cashier’s checks, for example, that had been altered in pen to disguise references to their original source, the tutoring center. And prosecutors and financial specialists introduced timelines showing that the church’s bank accounts had run dry at the time money from the tutoring center was transferred and payments to contractors went out, often on the same day.

The tutoring center was established in 2000 and was funded with five congressional social-service earmarks, steered to the nonprofit largely at the urging of U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens. It ran a slate of programs including summer education and sports camps. A call placed last week by the Daily News-Miner to the center’s phone number was met by a message that the number had been disconnected.

Evidence at the trial showed Chris Hayes and the nonprofit’s other signatories occasionally spent grant money outright on the church, which sits across the street from the tutoring center in South Fairbanks. The city of Fairbanks’ building official told jurors during the trial that city officials had confronted Jim Hayes after the former mayor’s 2001 retirement about a permit fee for the church project, a fee that had grown a year overdue. A $5,000 check from the tutoring center was sent to the city shortly thereafter to cover the bill.

The tax fraud convictions cover the years 2001 through 2004. The government had argued Hayes significantly understated his income on tax returns. A church deacon told jurors Hayes’ salary for his role as pastor had doubled, upon his request, to $800 a week when he left the mayor’s office. He had made more than $86,000 in his final full year as mayor.

The trial also provided a window into a pair of federal agencies’ oversight of congressionally-earmarked grants. Earmarks, funding mechanisms used to direct bites of larger federal spending bills toward individual projects like community centers or roads, have come under scrutiny from inside and outside Congress, and Palin has tried to distance the state of Alaska from the practice.

Stevens has said the agencies that distribute congressionally directed earmarks are responsible for monitoring the way they are spent. But managers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention said during the trial that they relied largely on the tutoring center to follow the rules when spending the money, as they do with other grant beneficiaries. The departments have difficulty scrutinizing spending from earmarked grants at the ground level, they said.

Hayes took the stand in his own defense one week ago. A founding member of the board of directors at his wife’s tutoring center, he suggested he’d been told by someone at HUD that his church could legally accept grant-funded contributions from the center. Prosecutors challenged his credibility and suggested his recollection was of a “phantom” government employee.

Jackson Clarion Ledger (Mississippi)

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080212/NEWS/802120370

Miss. 22 reroute loses favor

MDOT study estimates few cars would use road; findings could doom plan

By Elizabeth Crisp • elizabeth.crisp@clarionledger.com

A yet-to-be-released study of metro-area transportation patterns places a low priority on creating an alternate Canton-to-Edwards corridor, a controversial road project that has been in the works for the past year.

For months, Madison County residents - especially those who live in and near Flora - have spoken out against proposals for an alternate Mississippi 22 route.

The project has been presented as part of a larger interstate loop that would connect I-55 and I-20 at points around Jackson.

Preliminary results from the Mississippi Department of Transportation's Jackson Mobility Study estimate that in 2030 the Canton-to-Edwards portion of a loop would be traveled by less than 7,000 cars a day, according to documents obtained by The Clarion-Ledger.

The findings could mean the end of a $3.5 million federally funded environmental study in its early stages. MDOT environmental division engineer Claiborne Barnwell said research has been halted until the mobility study findings are officially released and MDOT decides what it wants to do.

The traffic findings rank the Canton-to-Edwards interstate corridor among the least needed transportation projects in the metro area, documents show.

While sections of that corridor could draw as few as 5,000 cars a day, officials expect more than 30,000 cars to travel the busiest portions of the loop by 2030.

The Canton-to-Edwards route could cost $240 million in today's market and could take up to 30 years to complete, according to MDOT estimates.

"It certainly wouldn't be something (MDOT) would spend money on," Barnwell said.

The final recommendation from the mobility study likely will be a scenario that includes planning for the rest of the loop but leaving the Canton-to-Edwards corridor out of the project.

With these findings, Flora Mayor Scott Greaves said he thinks officials should drop the Mississippi 22 environmental study and redirect the money that would have been spent on it.

"Hopefully, now they can take the remaining $2 million and use it toward the Reunion interchange and the Gluckstadt interchange. Those projects need it," he said.

Representatives of the Madison Hinds Preservation Committee, a grass-roots group made up of private citizens, met with Mississippi's congressional delegation Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 to discuss Mississippi 22.

Madison County supervisors also have asked Congress to halt the environmental study and redirect the funding to other projects.

Andy Stewart, chairman of the Preservation Committee, said his group has arranged meetings with MDOT officials, local officials and the Madison County Foundation.

Several years ago, officials started a push to widen Mississippi 22 to four lanes, but over time, efforts evolved to fit in the loop plans.

The Madison County Foundation initially lobbied Congress for the federal earmark in 2004.

Residents first saw large maps with three proposed routes at public meetings in November.

Many who attended the meetings expressed concern over how their properties would be affected and whether there was a need for a new interstate connecting I-55 and I-20 in that area.

The Transportation Department received more than 500 comments that overwhelmingly were opposed to the project, Barnwell said.

"They're spending $2 million on a project that's going nowhere," Stewart said. "We're just asking that this money be redirected to other areas of the county that need it."

The issue may not have to go before Congress again if state and local officials reach an agreement and legislators sign off on the funding switch, he said.

If the environmental study continues, it will not be completed until the end of 2009.

Throughout the process MDOT officials have cautioned, that the end result could be a "no-build" decision, especially since funding for the road construction has not been addressed.

"MDOT was just doing what someone told us to do," Barnwell said. "We got the earmark with the instructions to carry this out."

To comment on this story, call Elizabeth Crisp at (601) 942-9019.

 
 
Roll Call
February 11, 2008
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_92/kfiles/22026-1.html
 

Puttin’ on the Ritz

By Tory Newmyer and Kate Ackley,
Roll Call Staff


Heads up, defense contractors. It’s time to dust off those checkbooks. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense Chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) is holding his annual cattle call to raise campaign funds.

The event, staged as has become tradition in recent years in the ballroom of the Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City, is set for Feb. 27. Those hoping to get an earmark from the defense-spending poobah will note that’s about two weeks before appropriators hand in their own project requests.

Murtha spokesman Matt Mazonkey explained that his boss holds two events a year to benefit his re-election committee — the dinner in the spring, before Pennsylvania’s mid-April primary, and a breakfast in the fall. The late February date for the dinner has nothing to do with the earmark request deadline, he said.

Rather, it is timed to coincide with the anniversary of Murtha’s 1974 special election win that first sent him to Congress.

But last year provided some stark guidance for contractors lobbying Murtha’s office: Every private entity that received a special project from the Pennsylvania Democrat in last year’s defense spending bill had given him political money at some point since 2005. And of the $413,250 those PACs and employees contributed over that two and a half-year period, nearly a quarter of the sum — $100,750 — arrived in the two weeks leading up to last year’s original deadline for lawmakers to file their earmark requests, a Roll Call analysis found.

To attend “An Evening with Jack and Joyce Murtha,” as the event is officially known, supporters are asked to cough up $1,500 per person, or $5,000 per political action committee, according to a copy of the invite.

 
Washington Post
February 11, 2008
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/02/11/clinton_fundraiser_knows_whats.html 

Clinton Fundraiser Knows What's Good for GM

By Ann Marimow and Matthew Mosk

Democrat Hillary Clinton got a first-hand look at the assembly of a transmission for hybrid vehicles, slipping into the front seat of a hybrid version of a Chevy Tahoe while touring GM's transmission plant in suburban Baltimore this morning.

The plant was a smart choice for a campaign stop in advance of tomorrow's Maryland primary. As The Post reported in October, Clinton has secured $8 million in earmarks for General Motors for hybrid, hydrogen and fuel-cell research over the past four years. The latest installment came in May, when she announced that she had secured $3 million for GM in the fiscal 2008 Pentagon spending bill.

One of GM's main lobbyists on the issue is Steve Ricchetti, a deputy chief of staff in the Clinton White House and one of Hillary Clinton's "Hillraisers," individuals committed to raising at least $100,000 for her presidential campaign. As a donor, he has given $4,600, the maximum allowed, to Clinton's campaign.

Ricchetti's firm reported earning $120,000 in the first half of this year from lobbying for GM on issues that included the "development and promotion of hydrogen fuel cells and hybrid vehicles."

Ricchetti said in an interview last fall that he and his firm did not lobby Clinton on that specific earmark and he did not know how the funding was secured. Though his partners at times lobby Clinton's Senate office, Ricchetti said, he has decided not to do so because he still does political work for both Hillary and Bill Clinton.

Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said at the time that the senator does not consider contributions or fundraising when making official decisions. "One thing has nothing to do with the other," Singer said.

But GM's hybrid plant made for friendly terrain as Clinton toured Maryland this morning. She was escorted on the factory floor by plant manager Thomas Gallagher and GM powertrain vice president of global manufacturing John Buttermore. In the question-and-answer session, one worker told the New York senator that the so-called Big Three -- General Motors, Ford and Daimler Chrysler -- "really need your help because they can't afford to be competitive with foreign carmakers," in part because of the high cost of health care for workers.

Clinton assured the audience that as president, she would be a partner with both the companies and the unions.

"We've got to give some help to our Big Three when it comes to health-care costs, when it comes to financing the transition to these clean-energy vehicles," she said. "You've got to have a president who is actually going to work with GM, work with the union, make sure we do this right."

Hillary Clinton's campaign is interested in shifting gears. (Getty Images.)

http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/390229.html

Fresno County officials stand against Nunes' call to end earmarks

By Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Fresno County officials seeking $17 million in federal aid for nine local projects say they are disappointed that one of their local congressmen is putting principle above pragmatism.

Local lawmakers usually endorse such requests without hesitation. But Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, says he will no longer seek federal earmarked funding for projects that haven't been previously authorized. He calls this a matter of principle. Some of his constituents call it a mistake.

"We don't have time to play the political game and stand on principle when we really need the money," Reedley City Council Member Scott Brockett said Monday.

Brocket is one of 34 Fresno-area representatives making the county's annual lobbying trek to Capitol Hill this week. These lobbying trips usually follow a standard script, at least some of which could be rewritten by Nunes' self-imposed earmark moratorium.

"Earmarks are still a way of life, no matter what the other high-level conversations may be," said Barbara Goodwin, executive director of the Council of Fresno County Governments.

Some of the Fresno County projects span several congressional districts and are supported by other Valley lawmakers, who could ensure that they get funded. The city of Reedley, however, is entirely within Nunes' district, and Brockett said he feared Nunes' unwillingness to support a bridge improvement earmark could eliminate any chance of getting federal funding.

Earmarks typically refer to specified line items in an overall appropriations bill. In a classic example, Fresno County representatives are asking for $1.5 million in Justice Department funding to support a countywide anti-gang initiative dubbed "Never Give Up." The money would help pay for intelligence sharing, after-school programs, tattoo removals and other efforts targeting the 209 street and prison gangs identified in Fresno County.

The rest of the Fresno County wish list ranges from $500,000 to rebuild Reedley's Manning Avenue bridge to $3 million for completing construction of State Route 180 between Temperance and Academy avenues.

In some cases, Kerman Mayor Trinidad Rodriguez noted, Fresno County has already pledged its own money through the passage of the Measure C sales-tax measure.

"We need federal support," said James "Buzz" Burleson, chairman of the Economic Development Corp. Serving Fresno County. "It's only fair that the federal government participate in that project."

Like other Valley counties, Fresno County officials presented a common legislative wish listed under the "One Voice" nickname meant to denote political unanimity.

The "One Voice" visits typically include distributing colorful briefing materials and meetings with local lawmakers who rarely need selling.

The Fresno County sessions in the Cannon House Office Building on Monday became a little discordant, then, when Nunes' representatives made clear the congressman's concern over earmarks.

Nunes is alone among San Joaquin Valley House members in shunning unauthorized earmarks.

"Until this process is reformed, it's not worth participating in," Nunes told The Bee last week.

Nunes maintains the 11,000-plus earmarks approved by the Democrat-controlled Congress last year were distributed unfairly, and often included unworthy projects. No San Joaquin Valley lawmaker serves on the House Appropriations Committee, whose members get the lion's share of earmarks.

Nunes and other House Republicans have pressed unsuccessfully for a one-year, congresswide moratorium on earmarks, a proposal that Democrats dismiss as political grandstanding.

The other San Joaquin Valley lawmakers generally agree earmarking needs reform, but they tend to support requests from local government representatives.

Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said he didn't want to "unilaterally disarm" by failing to seek funding for local projects.

Recent congressional earmarks have included:

$267,000 for the Fresno Police Department to buy video cameras and mobile computers.

$123,000 to assist small schools serving Yosemite National Park employees.

$146,000 for an electronic medical system at Tulare County hospitals.

The reporter can be reached at mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com or (202) 383-0006.