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Massachusetts lawmakers probe ex-Gov. Patrick's reported secret travel fund

If your governor had a secret travel fund worth tens of millions of dollars used to jet set to Japan, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, wouldn't you want to know about it? 
That's the question put to Massachusetts residents this week after revelations former Gov. Deval Patrick used off-the-record bookkeeping to conceal more than $37.5 million driven to a secret fund to pay for trips to promote Massachusetts abroad.
Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature have begun their probe of the former Democratic governor turned hedge fund manager for Bain Capital, once headed up by his fellow former Gov. Mitt Romney.
As uncovered by the Boston Herald on Friday, the former governor reportedly enjoyed dozens of trade missions abroad at public expense but without legislative approval. His administration is purported to have shoveled as much as $27 million into off-budget accounts from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, Massport and the Mass Tech Collaborative, all quasi-independent agencies.
Both Massport, the state's port authority, and Mass Tech Collaborative, the venture seeking to bring Israeli tech firms to Massachusetts, paid $1.75 million for Patrick's trade trips.
This amount includes $535,558 for hotels, $332,193 for airfare, $305,976 for limos and more than $175,000 on other expenses.

IRS Finds 6,400 Lois Lerner Emails But Won't Hand Em Over

The Internal Revenue Service may have found 6,400 emails from Lois Lerner, who oversaw the tax agency’s Exempt Organizations Unit, but the government agency has no plans to share.  
Attorneys from the Department of Justice representing the IRS say the emails won’t be shared because the service is making sure that none of them are duplicates. Lerner is at the center of a scandal in which the tax agency denied special tax status to conservative groups. Her emails have been sought by members of Congress and conservative groups alike.
One of those groups, Judicial Watch, has been seeking emails as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed two years ago.  Originally, the IRS said the email trail was permanently lost because the computer drive that contained it crashed. However, the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration or TIGTA, was able to retrieve 6,400 emails which it has subsequently sent to the agency. It is these emails that the IRS wants to check for duplicates.
However, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton, has said that the inspector general’s office has already checked for copies. “Even though TIGTA already identified and removed emails that were duplicates, the IRS is in ‘the process of conducting further manual deduplication of the 6,400’ emails, rather than reviewing them in response to Judicial Watch’s FOIA requests that are more than two years old now,” Fitton told The Daily Caller. “Our legal team will continue pursuing all necessary and available legal options to hold the IRS accountable for its flagrant abuse of power.”
Applications for tax exempt status were held up by the IRS for weeks and months as the president sought re-election. Lerner has subsequently retired and, before claiming her 5^th amendment rights to prevent self-incrimination she claimed her own innocence on the matter.
This is the latest cloud swirling around the IRS which just last week announced plans to combat future cyber-attacks after thieves stole the personal information of 100,000 taxpayers earlier this year.

Reporter says Clinton camp denying him access to events

The simmering dispute over media access to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign erupted again Monday when a reporter for DailyMail.com was told by the campaign he couldn’t attend her events in New Hampshire.
David Martosko, a reporter for DailyMail.com, a website affiliated with the Daily Mail in London, said the Clinton camp said his newspaper wasn’t part of the official group -- known as the print pool -- that covers the White House on a rotating basis. As a result, he was blocked Monday from covering her events in person for the pool.
The campaign said it is trying to resolve the issue. However, it denied any suggestion that Martosko was denied access because of his newspaper’s critical coverage of Clinton.
“The Daily Mail can sensationalize [the incident] as they see fit for their readers, but that's what happened," a Clinton aide told Fox News.
Major media organizations in Clinton’s traveling press pool issued a statement Monday night defending Martosko and rejecting any attempt by the Clinton campaign to “dictate” who covers the candidate.
“We haven't yet had a clear explanation about why the pool reporter for today's events was denied access,” said the statement signed by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Tribune Publishing, among others.
“But any attempt by the campaign to dictate who is in the pool is unacceptable.”
Most presidential campaigns essentially follow the procedures outlined by the White House Correspondents Association. To accommodate the frequent media crush, a newspaper reporter, a photographer and a TV crew, known as the pool, covers an event. Then the details are widely shared via email to reporters and others.
However, in covering Clinton, a group of 14 news organizations, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, have formed to cover events and share the information on a limited basis.
Group members argue that those who don’t share the expenses of covering a campaign shouldn’t have immediate access to the information, or “pool reports.”
While the Clinton camp has implied the Daily Mail is not among the 14, The Huffington Post reports that the paper is part of the special Clinton pool.
Still, this is not the first time a member of the foreign press has complained about being excluded from covering Clinton up close.
“My feeling is that some people have established the rules and that we haven’t been part of the discussion,” a reporter for the French TV network Canal Plus recently told The Post. “I went to Iowa to cover [Clinton’s] first event. I only saw her van. … I am fighting for equality and access for all.”
The Clinton camp on Monday also said: "We have been working to create an equitable system, and have had some concerns expressed by foreign outlets about not being a part of the rotation.”
A DailyMail.com spokesperson on Monday afternoon confirmed that Martosko was denied access to the Clinton event and kept from boarding a van that her campaign is using to transport pool reporters around New Hampshire. However, the campaign has yet to provide a full explanation, considering Martosko was scheduled to be the designated print pool reporter, the spokesperson also said.
Martosko tweeted: “For those of you asking: What I've seen online re: today is accurate, and I intend to report here whether they want me to or not."

ISIS routed by Kurdish fighters in Syrian border town

U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters took control of a strategic town on the Syria-Turkey border Monday, forcing ISIS militants to flee and cutting off a key supply line to the self-proclaimed caliphate's capital.
The Washington Post reported that the main Kurdish fighting force, known as the YPG, backed by affiliated Syrian rebels, had captured the town of Tal Abyad, claiming control of the town center by nightfall Monday. The Post also reported that the advancing forces had cut off ISIS' escape route from the town, surrounding it from the east, south, and west.
The loss of Tal Abyad, some 50 miles north of Raqqa, the capital of ISIS' self-declared caliphate, is the extremists' biggest setback since Kurdish fighters took control of the border town of Kobani near Turkey, after fighting IS for months. The Kurdish victory deprives ISIS of a direct route for bringing in foreign militants and supplies, and links the Kurds' two fronts, putting even more pressure on Raqqa.
An anti-ISIS media collective based in Raqqa said the extremists had set up checkpoints in the center of the city on Monday and installed security cameras in a main square.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed to the Associated Press the that Kurdish fighters had "almost full control" of Tal Abyad by Monday evening, and had taken command of the border crossing with Turkey. It said some 40 Islamic State militants were targeted by U.S.-led airstrikes as they tried to flee south.
An AP photographer in Akcakale, on the Turkish side of the border, saw several dozen YPG fighters waving their yellow triangular flag and flashing victory signs. Earlier, several dozen Kurdish gunmen were seen running up a hill, moving west.
A few people on the Syrian side of the border were seen raising the green, white and red flag of the Free Syrian Army before being apprehended by Turkish security after they broke a hole in the border fence. A contingent of Free Syrian Army fighters is battling alongside the Kurds in an effective alliance against ISIS called "Burkan al-Furat," or Volcano of the Euphrates.
Earlier, Kurdish units marching west from Kobani and others marching east from the Kurdish town of Ras al-Ayn met up in the village of Qaysariyeh, some two miles south of Tal Abyad as they encircled the town from three sides, leaving Turkey as the only outlet.
As with the Kurdish victory in Kobani, the YPG fighters' advance under the cover of the U.S-led air campaign highlighted the decisive importance of combining airstrikes with the presence of a cohesive and motivated ally on the ground — so clearly absent in Iraq and other parts of Syria.
With most of Syria now controlled by either ISIS or forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, the U.S. has found a reliable partner in the YPG, a group of moderate, mostly secular Kurdish militiamen driven by revolutionary fervor and the desire for self-rule.
Since the beginning of the year, they have wrested back more than 500 mostly Kurdish and Christian towns in northeastern Syria, as well as strategic mountains seized earlier by the Islamic State group. They have recently pushed into Raqqa province, an ISIS stronghold where Tal Abyad is located.
The Kurdish advance has caused the displacement of more than 16,000 people who fled to Turkey in the past two weeks. On Monday, up to 3,000 more refugees arrived at the Akcakale border crossing, according to Turkish state-run TRT television. An AP photographer saw large numbers of people at the border and thick smoke billowing as U.S.-led coalition aircraft targeted IS militants in Tal Abyad.
As Kurdish fighters push deeper into ISIS strongholds in northern Syria, tensions with ethnic Arabs and Turkmen in the region have risen.
On Monday, more than a dozen Syrian rebel groups accused the Kurdish fighters of deliberately displacing thousands of Arabs and Turkmen from Tal Abyad and the western countryside of predominantly Kurdish Hassakeh province. In a statement, they accused the YPG of committing "ethnic cleansing" — a charge strongly denied by the Kurds.
The accusation, which was not backed by evidence of ethnic or sectarian killings, threatened to escalate tensions between ethnic Arabs and Kurds as the Kurdish fighters conquer more territory in northern Syria.
"YPG forces ... have implemented a new sectarian and ethnic cleansing campaign against Sunni Arabs and Turkmen under the cover of coalition airstrikes which have contributed bombardment, terrorizing civilians and forcing them to flee their villages," the statement issued by rebel and militant groups said.
The 15 rebel groups, including the powerful ultraconservative Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, said the alleged ethnic cleansing was concentrated in Hassakeh province and in Tal Abyad, and was part of a plan by the Kurdish Democratic Party, or PYD, to partition Syria. The YPG, or People's Protection Units, is the armed wing of the PYD. The movement is affiliated with the Kurdish PKK, which has waged a long and bloody insurgency in southeastern Turkey.
The statement echoed comments last week by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"On our border, in Tal Abyad, the West, which is conducting aerial bombings against Arabs and Turkmen, is unfortunately positioning terrorist members of the PYD and PKK in their place," Erdogan said.
Khalil, the YPG spokesman, strongly refuted the claim, and seeking to calm nerves, said the YPG is a Syrian national group whose battles are directed solely against ISIS.
"We say to residents of Tal Abyad, there is no reason for you to cross to another country (Turkey). Our towns are open to you, you are our people and you will return to your towns, villages and properties," he said.
He pledged that the YPG will not interfere in administering Tal Abyad once it falls, leaving it to civilian committees.

Greed Cartoon

Bush's pre-announcement party Sunday includes logo unveiling, online video

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Sunday ended what little mystery remains about his big, upcoming announcement -- unveiling a presidential campaign logo and releasing an online video.
Bush is scheduled to announce Monday that he will seek the 2016 Republican nomination for president -- joining a deep and diverse field of ten other GOP candidates.
The roughly 3-minute video, titled “Making a Difference,” relies on several first-person accounts from Floridians who portray Bush as a politician who “cares about helping people and getting results that allow everyone the opportunity to achieve their dreams,” according to his campaign.
“Bush instituted the first voucher program in the United States to give low-income kids an opportunity to go to a private school,” says one resident, Denisha Merriweather, of Jacksonville. “Out of my immediate family, I am the first person to graduate from high school. And then I went on to graduate from college.”
Bush then says: “So many people could do so much better if we fixed a few things. My core beliefs start with the premise that the most vulnerable in our society should be in the front of the line, not the back. And as governor, I had a chance to act on that core belief.”
Bush unveiled his logo -- “Jeb! 2016” -- on his Twitter account.
The 62-year-old Bush -- whose father, George H.W. Bush, and brother, George W. Bush, were president -- was an early front-runner.
Though he remains near the top of most polls, he shares that space with several other GOP contenders, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whom he mentored, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is expected to officially join the race the second week in July.
Bush’s announcement in December that he was exploring a 2016 run alone had the power to kick off the campaign.
In the ensuing six months, Bush has likely shattered fundraising records. And he just completed a well-reviewed trip through Europe.
However, supporters had hoped that by now Bush would hold a commanding position in the unwieldy Republican field, which also included two other U.S. senators, Texas’ Ted Cruz and Kentucky’s Rand Paul, as well as two social conservatives, retired Dr. Ben Carson and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and ex-Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, the party’s only female candidate.
"I know that I'm going to have to go earn this," Bush said this past week. "It's a lot of work and I'm excited about the prospects of this. It's a long haul. You start wherever you start, and you end a long way away from where we are today, so I just urge everybody to be a little more patient about this."
He plans to make his candidacy official during a Monday afternoon speech and rally at Miami Dade College, the nation's largest university.
Bush has failed to scare any potential rival from the race, except perhaps 2012 nominee Mitt Romney. He is unpopular among some of his party's most passionate voters and little known beyond his home state despite the Bush name.
"I thought Jeb would take up all the oxygen," said Ohio Gov. John Kasich. "He hasn't." Emboldened by Bush's slow rise, Kasich acknowledged this weekend that he is stepping up preparations for a possible campaign.
He and a few others are still deciding whether to join a field that could end up just shy of 20.
But few among them entered the race with such a high expectations of success as did Bush. Those expectations have seemed a burden at times.
Take, for example, the question of whether Bush will report raising $100 million for his campaign in the first six months of the year.
Lost amid the "will he or won't he" is that Bush probably will have taken in far more than anyone else.
Romney said this weekend that he would not be surprised to learn that Bush had scooped up twice that of all the other GOP candidates combined.
"By all appearances, he's raised a lot of money," Romney said, praising Bush's "experienced and capable team." "At this stage, that's a very important thing to do."
Even if he does not reach the $100 million mark, Bush will have amassed more in six months than Romney and his allies at a super political action committee raised for the entire year before the 2012 election.
By contrast, a senior adviser to Walker expects he will raise roughly $25 million through the end of June. The adviser spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal fundraising details.
Romney's former fundraising chief, Spencer Zwick, said despite Bush likely commanding lead in the fundraising race, it's not clear how much of an advantage he will hold over the field.
"You don't need $100 million to run a primary," Zwick said. He suggested that multiple candidates would have the resources "to go the distance," adding that "it doesn't feel like anybody owns the dominant position."
Bush took lots of questions this past week about a supposed shake-up at campaign headquarters, even though only one member of his senior team -- who remains on Bush's staff -- was affected. The attention exasperated Bush: "It's June, for crying out loud," he told reporters while in Berlin. "We've got a long way to go."
Still, Bush's first six months back in politics since leaving the governor's office in 2007 have been underwhelming at times.
His low-key speaking style often leaves something to be desired, particularly when compared with some opponents. He sometimes gets snippy during long campaign days. While detailed policy questions are often his strength, he struggled for several days last month to answer a predictable question about the war in Iraq that his brother, former President George W. Bush, waged.
"He would be an excellent president no doubt, but how far he can go in the process remains to be seen," said John Rakolta Jr., the CEO of a Michigan construction company and a leading Romney donor.
In his speech Monday, Bush planned to make the case that those involved in creating Washington's problems cannot fix them. The point is designed to jab the Republican senators -- including political protégé˜ in Florida, Marco Rubio -- in the race.
Meanwhile, an allied super PAC fueled by Bush's fundraising haul is developing an advertising strategy that will promote Bush's record in Florida and attack his rivals.

Spokane NAACP leader cancels meeting amid furor

The leader of the Spokane NAACP, Rachel Dolezal, canceled a chapter meeting Monday where she was expected to speak about the furor sparked over her racial identity.
Her parents have said she has falsely portrayed herself as black for years.
Dolezal sent out an email Sunday cancelling the meeting "due to the need to continue discussion with regional and national NAACP leaders." Some, however, questioned whether she had the power to do so.
KREM-TV in Spokane, quoting from an email thread sent to NAACP members, says the head of the chapter's executive committee questioned whether Dolezal had the right to arbitrarily cancel the meeting.
Some are planning a demonstration Monday night calling for Dolezal to step down.