Ex-city manager among 8 arrested in Calif. scandal

By JOHN ROGERS, Associated Press Writer – 54 mins ago

LOS ANGELES – The mayor and ex-city manager of the Los Angeles suburb of Bell were among eight current and former city officials arrested Tuesday in a corruption scandal that authorities said cost the blue-collar city more than $5.5 million in excessive salaries and illegal personal loans.

The district attorney's office said several former and current City Council members were taken into custody along with ex-city manager Robert Rizzo and Mayor Oscar Hernandez.

"This, needless to say, is corruption on steroids," District Attorney Steve Cooley said at a news conference, standing next to a display of pictures of the suspects.

Rizzo, who was making nearly $800,000 a year, was booked on 53 counts of misappropriation of public funds and conflict of interest. He was expected to be arraigned Wednesday, with officials seeking bail of $3.2 million.

Rizzo could face several years in prison if convicted, Cooley said. Messages left at Rizzo's home and with his attorney were not immediately returned.

Others taken into custody were former assistant city manager Angela Spaccia, Vice Mayor Teresa Jacobo, council members George Mirabal and Luis Artiga, and former council members George Cole and Victor Bello.

Requested bail amounts ranged from $377,500 for Spaccia to $130,000 for Cole, based on the amounts each was accused of misappropriating in the city where one in six people live in poverty.

Former Police Chief Randy Adams, who was also scrutinized in the salary scandal, was not arrested.

Cooley, who knew Adams when he was the police chief in Glendale, said Adams was paid $457,000 a year but there was no evidence he obtained that salary illegally.

"Being paid excessive salaries is not a crime," Cooley said. "Illegally obtaining those salaries is a crime."

Prosecutors allege the suspects misappropriated more than $5.5 million.

The complaint said Rizzo made $4.3 million by paying himself through different employment contracts that were not approved by the City Council, and that council members paid themselves a combined $1.25 million for what Cooley called "phantom meetings" of various city boards and agencies.

Rizzo also was accused of giving $1.9 million in loans to himself, Spaccia, Hernandez, Artiga and dozens of others, authorities said.

Cooley said his office had been investigating the officials since March — four months before the public learned they were paying themselves huge salaries to run the city of 40,000 people.

"They used the taxes of the hardworking citizens of Bell as their own piggy bank, which they looted," the district attorney said.

He added that his investigators have pored over more than 60,000 pages of documents and more people could be charged.

Most of the arrests went smoothly, though police briefly used a battering ram at the home of Hernandez before he responded and opened the door. The door was not knocked down.

The suspects were booked into county facilities and will be kept away from other inmates for their protection, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

The arrests were the latest twist in a scandal that emerged in July with the disclosure that Rizzo was paid almost twice the salary of President Barack Obama.

It also was revealed that Adams was making $150,000 more than the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, and Spaccia was paid $376,288. Four of the five City Council members paid themselves nearly $100,000 a year for their part-time service.

Rizzo, Adams and Spaccia resigned and the council members reduced their salaries to about $8,000 following the disclosures and angry public reaction.

The four council members are currently the target of a recall.

Bell's interim chief administrative officer Pedro Carrillo said the arrests marked a sad day for the city.

"It is clear that Rizzo and Spaccia were at the root of the cancer that has afflicted the city," he said.

Last week, Attorney General Jerry Brown sued eight current and former officials of Bell, accusing them of defrauding taxpayers by granting themselves salaries he said were far higher than warranted for the jobs they were doing.

Artiga was not named in the lawsuit but Adams was.

Earlier this month Bell officials confirmed the city was also the target of a racial profiling investigation by the federal government for allegedly targeting young Hispanic drivers for traffic stops to raise revenue.

___

Associated Press Writer Thomas Watkins contributed to this report.

Bailey Comment:

Come on people pull your heads out of the sand! Do you really think this is only happening in California? It is happening everywhere.  Everywhere you let politicians control your tax dollars. To them it is like letting a kid loose in a candy store with the understanding the kid can have as much of anything they want. What do you really expect that kid to say to you, no thanks. Yeah right! 

Obama Goes to Church After Newsmax, Huckabee Story Monday, 20 Sep 2010 10:17 AM By: Jim Meyers

On Friday, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said in an exclusive Newsmax interview that President Obama could deal with doubts about his faith by “leading the example of attending worship.”

The former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate also slammed President Obama, saying he has been treating Muslims better than Jews and Christians. [See story and video: Huckabee: Obama Treats Muslims Better Than Jew, Christians.]

Huckabee's complaint apparently shook up the White House over the weekend.

On Sunday, Obama attended services at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, just the third time he has worshipped in public since he took office.

Politico.com columnist Ben Smith noted the connection, suggesting that the Newsmax story motivated Obama's sudden interest in church.

Smith quoted from Huckabee’s Newsmax interview and provided a link to a website that excerpted a key portion of the interview.

Smith wrote on Sunday: “Since arriving in Washington as president, Obama — who was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago — has largely chosen not to attend public church services because of the possible disruptions his presence, and the increased security, would cause a congregation.

“At the Values Voter Summit on Saturday, Mike Huckabee was quoted as saying that Obama could quell rumors about his faith by ‘leading the example of attending worship’ and mentioned that Obama once talked of finding a home church in Washington. ‘I hope he’s still mapping that out,’ Huckabee said.”

In his Newsmax interview, Huckabee was asked about a recent poll showing that a fifth of Americans are not sure that Obama is actually a Christian.

Huckabee said: “Well, it would be helpful if he would participate in things like the National Day of Prayer that all the other Presidents have participated in.

"He certainly was downtown to host a Ramadan dinner.

“But you know, I'm not going to question his faith or whether he's a Christian or not, but it certainly would be helpful if he would show a little love to the people who are unapologetically Christian, and I think there's some things [like] being part of the National Day of Prayer that would go a long way toward that, and leading the example of attending worship.

“He said one of his highest priorities when he got to Washington would be to find a church. I hope he's still mapping that out.”

www.newsmax.com

Bailey Comment:
The old saying goes "a snake can shed its skin, but its still a snake."

Huckabee: Obama Treats Muslims Better Than Jews, Christians

Potential presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says he isn’t going to question President Barack Obama’s faith, but notes that “it certainly would be helpful if he would show a little love to the people that are unapologetically Christian.”

The former Arkansas governor, who was a GOP presidential candidate in 2008, also would like the president to attend a National Day of Prayer.Asked about Obama’s outreach to Muslims, Huckabee said during an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV: “I don’t mind him reaching out to Muslims as long as he’s reaching out to them in the same way that he’s reaching out to Christians or people who are Jewish. But what I’ve seen is that he has chastised the Jewish people for wanting to have neighborhoods for their children to grow up in. He’s certainly not been overwhelmingly kind to Christians who have a real conscience issue with things like abortion.”
Huckabee, who was in Washington to speak at the Values Voters Summit, said Republicans nationwide are keyed up for the midterms.

Asked where tea party support might land if he and Sarah Palin sought vied for the GOP nomination for 2012, Huckabee demurred, saying: “Well, you’ve asked me to go from being a politician to a prophet and I’m not one so I’m not even venturing there to make that prediction.”

The Values Voter Summit, which began Thursday and ends Sunday morning, is the fifth annual such gathering of conservative activists and politicians. Sponsors include the legislative arm of the Family Research Council, the legislative wing of the American Family Association, and the Heritage Foundation, among others.
Bailey Comments:

I also found it very strange that all Obama seems to be preaching to us Americans is to have religious tolerance  towards the Muslims. I have never heard or read about him preaching the same about Jews and Christians. It sure looks to me as if he is favoring Islam over all of the other religions! I would not be surprised if he has" In God We Trust " removed in from our currency.

Democrats and Republicans

Democrats and Republicans seem to be amazed that the Tea party candidates are beating them so easily! Well if the politicians of both of these parties would come down to earth and join the rest of us Americans they would see that the majority of us are sick to death of this business as usual in our governments. It all started when we were shown by our government that the big banks and large corporations were more important to bail out then the American People. I don't know about you, but my credit cards APR hasn't went down any! As a matter of fact it has gotten even worse. But guess what? The big banks and corporations are doing just fine, how about you?

Stupid People

On the radio going to work the other morning, I listened as they were talking about a preacher of a church here in America that was going to burn the Koran on 9-11. I thought to myself what a idiot. Then later on in the afternoon I watched on tv as these people that worshipped the Koran protested the burning of it while they were burning the American Flag. I thought what a bunch of stupid people.

League of American Voters

Dear Fellow American: After Glenn Beck's incredibly successful Restoring Honor rally, many in the mainstream media are out to smear the Fox News host.
In fact, the media lies began before his rally was over — by claiming that only "tens of thousands" showed up for his national rally. Photographic evidence demonstrates the crowd was in the hundreds of thousands.
But it gets worse.
Liberal blogs are even claiming that Beck is a secret Nazi.
Here's what one far left blogger wrote about Glenn Beck's rally: "It reflects the advance of the neo-Nazi movement, which has always been latent in the country to the North and has acquired new vigor since 2000 - coincidentally the year of George W. Bush's arrival at the White House. The defeat of Germany in the Second World War and the physical passing of Hitler didn't mean the demise of Nazism."
Even The New York Times got into the act, claiming that Beck's humorous book cover pictured him wearing a "Nazi-like uniform."
The truth: Beck was dressed in a Stalinist uniform from the old Soviet days. He wore it to poke fun at the far left for their Orwellian political correctness.
The truth about this was no surprise to Newsmax Magazine readers.
In a recent interview, Glenn told Newsmax Magazine exactly why he dressed up in that Stalinist uniform and why he is taking on the whole establishment to take back America.
It was a stunning interview. Shocking in some ways. Beck reveals his fears of a coming "Reichstag" moment here in America.     newsmax.com

Comments by Bailey

Has anyone except for me noticed that anybody that says anything negative about President Obama is a Nazi, Racist, Non-Progressive, Childish, imbecile, that doesn’t know what’s good for them? And that every move or idea that he comes up with is what is best for you! The man can walk on water and when he farts it smells like perfume.

Michelle Obama hosts first White House dance event

WASHINGTON – The stately White House East Room, home to many a bill signing and ceremonial gathering, becomes a stage Tuesday for pirouettes, jetes, gravity-defying leaps and maybe even some bumps and grinds as Michelle Obama inaugurates a new dance series.

Dancers of all types — ballet, modern, hip hop and Broadway — take over the room, first for an afternoon workshop, during which students from around the country will have the chance to work with some of the biggest names in dance.

Then, after a short break, the students return to see their mentors perform in an hour-long, star-studded show. Even Broadway's young "Billy Elliot" will be there — four Billys actually, from the show's rotating cast.

But the main attraction is the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and that's because its celebrated artistic director, Judith Jamison, soon to retire after two decades in the job, is the honoree of the event.

"What a rare opportunity, to be invited by your country's first lady to be honored like this," Jamison said in a weekend interview. "I've been to the White House a couple of times before, but this event is totally unique. It's so terribly important to recognize this art form and to understand how important it is to the fabric of this country."

Click image to see photos of the White House dance event

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

"This will be another clarion call to people: Pay attention to your arts!" Jamison said. "My dancers are so excited."

The 67-year-old Jamison is an icon of the dance world. She joined the Ailey company in 1965 and became the choreographer's muse, her dramatic power as a dancer epitomized in the unforgettable 1971 solo piece "Cry." In 1989, after Ailey's death, she took over as artistic director. She is scheduled to step down in 2011.

Tuesday's program is directed by Damian Woetzel, the recently retired star of the New York City Ballet who is on the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. He had a dizzying array of choices from which to cull an hour of the country's best dance. And he said it wasn't exactly hard to find dancers, no matter that the event comes just after a summer vacation weekend.

"Everyone was so excited to be a part of this," Woetzel said in an interview. "It's really an exciting opportunity to present the variety of dance in this country. And the student component makes it especially unique. It's a great way to start the school year."

Though the Obamas have spotlighted many varieties of music since they came to the White House — there have been events celebrating Latin music, rock, jazz, country, classical and Broadway show tunes — the dance world might have felt ignored, until now.

But Michelle Obama seems to be a dance fan. Jamison noted proudly that the Obamas and their daughters spent one of their first nights out as first family taking in an Ailey performance at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

"They came backstage, took pictures — the dancers were thrilled," she said.

Also on the program Tuesday: the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Broadway's "Billy Elliot the Musical," TheWashington Ballet, Super Cr3w and the New York City Ballet.

The students are from dance schools around the country: The Alvin Ailey School, Ballet Hispanico, Cab Calloway School of the Arts, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Chicago Multicultural Dance Center and others. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100907/ap_on_en_ot/us_white_house_dance_1

Bailey Comment:

All of this is just fine and dandy!  But my question is while I'm out working to pay my own bills, how are the Obama's going to pay for all of the above? I didn't think that Michelle or Barrack together made enough money to pay for stuff like this? Oh thats right, someone else is footing the bill and I wonder who that someone else will be!

It just keeps going on and on and on and on!!

Democrats and liberals accuse voters of temper tantrums at their own peril

Eugene Robinson, under the guise of nonpartisan criticism, says the anger and resentment that voters feel toward Democrats is nothing more than more than a childish temper tantrum.  It’s not that they are reacting rationally and predictably to the Democrats’ arrogance and elitism. No, according to Eugene Robinson, the only possible reason is the voters’ out-of-control emotions.  

The American people are angry because President Obama presented himself as a centrist during the campaign, but upon taking office almost immediately started governing as a radical leftist. They are angry because Obama promoted and the Democrats in Congress passed a nearly one trillion dollar stimulus package because they said it was necessary to keep unemployment below 8 percent; it sent the unemployment rate soaring to nearly 10 percent . Voters are angry because those same Democrats blatantly ignored them and passed ObamaCare when they made it crystal clear they didn’t it. None of this is on Robinson’s radar screen; instead, he chalks it up to voters being irrational. The Democrats and the liberals who support them dismiss the voters again at their own peril. 

Bailey Comment: 

When someone takes money out of your wallet and spends it like they have a non ending supply of it on nothing but junk, it would make anyone mad! Then you tell them over and over to stop it and they act like they don't hear you or could care less, sure I would get mad and throw a fit, what kind of normal person wouldn't?