O'Malley facing legal questions about buying governor's mansion furnishings at 'junk' prices

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley is facing questions about whether he violated state ethics rules when buying furniture from the governor’s mansion at cut-rate prices before his departure.

A Maryland assistant attorney general on Friday asked a state ethics commission to rule on whether O’Malley’s purchases violated rules on state property, according to documents obtained by The Baltimore Sun, which first reported the story.
O'Malley and his wife, Catherine O'Malley, reportedly paid $9,638 for 54 pieces of furniture that originally cost taxpayers $62,000.
The O’Malley administration’s Department of General Services sold the items after declaring them "junk." But an agency rule prohibits the preferential sale of state property to government officials, according to the paper.
The agency also allegedly permitted the sale without seeking bids or notifying the public that the items were for sale.
O’Malley and his wife, a Baltimore District Court judge, reportedly earned a combined $270,000 in state salaries last year.
Representatives for O'Malley, who retired as governor in January because of term limits, said he followed proper procedures and that the furniture was authorized to be discarded.
Among the purchased items were armoires, beds, chairs, desks, lamps, mirrors, ottomans and tables, according to The Sun, in a remarkably detailed, 1,596-word story.
The furniture was used in the residential sections of the mansion, not the public areas. But the sum of the items reportedly was essentially equal to most of the mansion’s taxpayer-purchased furnishings.
The depreciation formula for the items was devised by the Annapolis Capital Complex.
According to the inventory list, the O'Malleys paid $449 for a leather couch that the state bought in 2007 for $2,247; $739 for an armoire that the state paid $3,695 for in 2007; and $764 for a second armoire that the state paid $3,822 for in 2007.
John Griffin, O'Malley's former chief of staff, who spoke on behalf of the former governor, told The Sun that he thinks proper procedure was followed.
Former Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich Jr. faced similar scrutiny after purchasing furniture when he left office in 2008, but to a lesser extent. He paid the state $992 for 21 furnishings that had cost the state $9,904.
Ehrlich, a Republican, purchased mostly low-cost linens, mattresses, pillows, lamps and bunk beds used by his two sons, at prices also set a depreciation formula.

Democrats end summer meeting with no resolution to support Obama's Iran deal

The Democratic National Committee reportedly failed this weekend to pass a resolution supporting President Obama’s Iran nuclear deal, with Congress set to vote on the issue as early as next week.

Florida Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the committee chairwoman, prevented the resolution from being considered at the group’s summer meeting this weekend in Minneapolis, sources told The Washington Post, which first reported the story.
Obama and his White House team have worked diligently to get enough Capitol Hill votes for the resolution to pass, amid strong opposition from the Republican-controlled House and Senate.
Vice President Biden, in fact, spoke with DNC members on a conference call Wednesday to help garner support. And the group failing to pass such a resolution is largely being considered at setback for what would likely become Obama’s signature foreign policy victory.
Some congressional Democrats who are Jewish also oppose the deal, fearing it will put Israel at greater risk of attack by neighbor and bitter rival Iran. Among them is New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, who is expected to become the next Senate Democratic leader.
If the deal is approved, the United States and five other world powers would lift billions of dollars in crippling economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for the rogue nation curtailing its nuclear-development program.
The House and Senate are expected to have enough votes to pass a resolution of disapproval for the deal. However, Obama will almost assuredly veto the resolution, and neither chamber is projected to have the two-thirds majority needed to override the presidential veto.
The Post reports two conflicting arguments about why perhaps members didn’t vote on the resolution -- that procedural issues prevented a vote or it was thwarted by Wasserman Schultz, who is Jewish and whose south Florida district has many Jewish voters.
No such proposal was drafted in advance of the meeting, and the one presented failed to qualify as an emergency procedure, The Post reported, according to sources.
Still, at least 160 committee members signed an alternative “Special Letter to the President" in which they pledged their support for Obama's leadership in the negotiations and agreed that placing strict limits on Iran's nuclear program is “an important victory for diplomacy.”
The letter was prepared by James Zogby, the co-chairman of the group's Resolutions Committee.
Zogby and Christine Pelosi, chairwoman of the California Democratic Party Women’s Caucus, made a blog post Saturday on the Huffington Post website in which they listed the names of those who have so far signed the letter.
Wasserman Schultz, who has not said whether she will vote in favor of the Iran agreement, was not listed among those who signed the letter.
If Wasserman Schultz indeed blocked the vote, this would not be the first time she has faced criticism about putting her political future ahead of the party’s.
As far back as 2012, Obama political advisers had purportedly taken steps to replace Wasserman Schultz as chairwoman, and her relationship with the White House has since been strained.

Ohio lawmakers slam Obama plans to rename Mt. McKinley 'Denali' during Alaska trip

Ohio lawmakers reacted angrily Sunday to the White House's announcement that President Obama would formally rename Alaska's Mt. McKinley — North America's highest peak — "Denali" during his trip to The Last Frontier this week.

"Mount McKinley ... has held the name of our nation's 25th President for over 100 years," Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, said in a statement. "This landmark is a testament to his countless years of service to our country." Gibbs also described Obama's action as "constitutional overreach", saying that an act of Congress was required to rename the mountain because a law formally naming it after McKinley was passed in 1917.
"This political stunt is insulting to all Ohioans, and I will be working with the House Committee on Natural Resources to determine what can be done to prevent this action," Gibbs said.
The Ohio delegation's disappointment at the decision cut across party lines.
"We must retain this national landmark's name in order to honor the legacy of this great American president and patriot," Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, whose district includes McKinley's hometown of Niles, in eastern Ohio.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, also blasted the decision as "yet another example of the President going around Congress", while House Speaker John Boehner said the naming of the mountain after McKinley was "a testament to [the 25th president's] great legacy .. I am deeply disappointed in this decision.
The state of Alaska has had a standing request to change the name to "Denali"  — a native Athabascan word meaning "the high one"  — dating back to 1975, when the legislature passed a resolution and then-Gov. Jay Hammond appealed to the federal government.
But those efforts and legislation in Congress have been stymied by members of Ohio's congressional delegation. Even when Mount McKinley National Park was renamed Denali National Park in 1980, the federal government retained Mount McKinley as the name of the actual peak, which rises 20,320 feet above sea level.
"With our own sense of reverence for this place, we are officially renaming the mountain Denali in recognition of the traditions of Alaska Natives and the strong support of the people of Alaska," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
The White House cited Jewell's authority to change the name, and Jewell issued a secretarial order officially changing it to Denali. The Interior Department said the U.S. Board on Geographic Names had been deferring to Congress since 1977, and cited a 1947 law that allows the Interior Department to change names unilaterally when the board fails to act "within a reasonable time." The board shares responsibility with the Interior Department for naming such landmarks.
In 1896, a prospector in the mountains of central Alaska named the range after William McKinley upon learning that he had been nominated as a candidate for U.S. president.
McKinley became the country’s 25th president and was assassinated in 1901, six months into his second term. The 20,000-foot-tall peak had been previously known as Denali -- generally believed to be central to the Athabascan tribe's creation story and the site of significant cultural importance to many Alaska natives, according to the White House.
Denali also is an Athabascan word meaning "the high one" and is widely used across the state today, according to the White House.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who had pushed legislation for years to change the name, said Alaskans were "honored" to recognize the mountain as Denali.
"I'd like to thank the president for working with us to achieve this significant change to show honor, respect, and gratitude to the Athabascan people of Alaska," Murkowski said in a video message recorded atop the mountain's Ruth Glacier, with cloudy snow-capped peaks behind her.
Obama will not personally visit the peak during his stay in Alaska, which runs through Wednesday. He'll spend much of the trip in Anchorage, south of the peak, where he will attend a State Department-sponsored meeting on climate change, titled GLACIER/Global Leadership in the Arctic Conference.
The conference will bring together foreign ministers of Arctic nations and key non-Arctic states with scientists, policymakers and stakeholders from Alaska and the Arctic, the White House said.
“The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world and is experiencing the consequences,” the White House also said Sunday.
Supporters of the global warming theory say those changes include higher average temperatures and less winter sea ice, which is allowing for heavy storm surges that the sea ice once kept at bay, the White House said.
On Monday, Obama is scheduled to meet with leaders from the Alaska native community along with Gov. Bill Walker, Lt. Governor Byron Mallott and Murkowski to discuss ways to strengthen cooperation between the federal government and Alaska native tribes. Among the issues scheduled to be discussed is management strategies for fish and wildlife.

Martin O'Malley ex-governor Cartoon

O'Malley, Sander criticize small Democratic debate schedule, suggest its rigged to favor Clinton

Two top Democratic candidates in the 2016 White House race suggested Friday night that party leaders have rigged the debate schedule in favor of frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

“Only four debates … before voters in our earliest states make their decision,” Martin O’Malley, a former Maryland governor, said at the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in Minneapolis. “This sort of rigged process has never been attempted before.”
O’Malley is particularly concerned about the party having just one sanctioned debate each in Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states in which primary votes are cast.
“That’s all we can afford?” O’Malley asked. “Is this how the Democratic Party selects its nominee?”
He also argued that limiting the total number of sanctioned Democratic debates to six, including two after the Iowa and New Hampshire votes, is allowing the rhetoric of Republicans candidates to go largely unchallenged.
“Republicans traffic in immigrant hate,” said O’Malley, who has been critical of the debate schedule since it was announced in early August. “We need debate.”
However, he made clear to reporters afterward that he thought the schedule helps Clinton.
Fellow 2016 Democratic challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders, Vermont Independent, was also at the summer meeting and told The Washington Post that he agrees with O’Malley’s argument that the DNC has rigged the debate process.
Sanders has recently been gaining ground on Clinton, but he and O’Malley need debates to get out their message because neither has the estimated tens of million that Clinton has to spend on advertising.
And most political strategists think that frontrunners have the most to lose in debates because they are under constant attack by the challengers.
The wildcard in the Democratic primary is whether Vice President Biden enters the race.
Donors and other Biden backers have been ramping up efforts.
Josh Alcorn, senior adviser for the super-PAC Draft Biden 2016, told Fox News on Sunday that Biden has the potential backing but would have to enter the race before the first debate, Oct. 13, to catch up with the other candidates.
“He may not have the financial resources, but there is a ground swell of support,” Alcorn said. “I think having the vice president on that debate stage is an important part of the campaign.”
The DNC has said its candidates are being given ample opportunity to be on the same stage to debate, defending the schedule.
Clinton has 47.8 percent of the vote, compared to 26.3 percent of Sanders, 14 percent for Vice President Biden, 1.5 percent for O’Malley and 1.3 percent for former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, according to an averaging of polls by the nonpartisan website RealClearPoltics.com.

Texas investigators search for motive behind killing of sheriff's deputy

Texas investigators were trying to determine on Sunday what may have motivated a 30-year-old man accused of ambushing a suburban Houston sheriff’s deputy filling his patrol car with gas in what authorities believe was a targeted killing.

Shannon J. Miles was charged Saturday with capital murder in the killing of Darren Goforth, 47, a 10-year veteran of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Goforth had gone to the station in Cypress, a middle-class to upper-middle class suburban area of Harris County that is unincorporated and located northwest of Houston, after responding to a routine car accident earlier Friday.
Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said the attack was “clearly unprovoked,” and there is no evidence so far that Goforth knew Miles. Investigators have no information from Miles that would shed light on his motive, Hickman said.
"Our assumption is that he was a target because he wore a uniform," the sheriff said.
The killing has brought out strong emotions from the local law enforcement community, with Hickman likening it to the heightened tension over the treatment of African-Americans by police.
The nationwide "Black Lives Matter" movement formed after the killing of a black man by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, has sought sweeping reforms of policing. Related protests erupted recently in Texas after a 28-year-old Chicago area black woman, Sandra Bland, was found dead in a county jail about 50 miles northwest of Houston three days after her arrest on a traffic violation. Texas authorities said she committed suicide but her family is skeptical that she would have taken her own life.
Hickman and Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson on Saturday pushed back against police criticism, saying there must not be open warfare on law enforcement officials.
"We've heard Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter. Well, cops' lives matter, too," Hickman said.
Local law enforcement officers were worried after the Goforth killing that others could be targeted, he said.
"It gives us some peace knowing that this individual is no longer at large and that he wasn't somebody that would be targeting the rest of the community," Hickman said.
Miles is likely to be arraigned in court on Monday.

Bush fundraisers exit campaign amid sagging poll numbers, Miami says move voluntary

Three of Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s fundraising consultants have left the campaign, Fox News confirmed Saturday.

The consultants are Kris Money, Trey McCarley and Debbie Alexander, and they voluntarily left the campaign Friday, according to multiple sources.
Politico first reported the departures and suggested they were the result of personality conflicts and concerns about the strength of the campaign.
However, a Bush campaign source attempted Saturday to minimize the impact of the departures by saying the consultants remain involved in multiple projects outside of the campaign.
In addition, Bush spokesman Tim Miller told Fox News: "Governor Bush has the widest and deepest fundraising operation of any candidate in the field.”
He also said Ann Herberger, a longtime aide with more than two decades of experience in state and national politics, will continue to lead fundraising operations at campaign headquarters in Miami.
Bush, a former Florida governor, was the 2016 GOP presumptive frontrunner. And he had a superior fundraising advantage over essentially all of the other candidates in the party’s huge primary field, in large part because of his family name and connections with Washington Republicans.
Bush and the super-PAC Right to Rise raised a combined $114 million in the first quarter of this year, according to federal records, meeting often-talked-about expectations that the operation could indeed raise that much money.
However, Bush’s poll number have steadily declined since billionaire businessman and first-time candidate Donald Trump entered the race in mid-June.
"This is the time of year that campaigns make staffing changes before settling a final team going forward," Joe Desilets, a Republican strategist and managing partner at the Washington firm 21st & Main, said Saturday. "Jeb is far and away the fundraising leader in the race and has announced other major fundraisers joining his team. ... If Jeb starts dropping in fundraising, it may prove to be a bigger deal, but ... I don't see this as a major problem going forward."
Bush led the GOP field in mid-July with 17.8 percent of the vote, but is now at 9.8 percent, behind Trump at 23.5 percent and retired Dr. Ben Carson at 10.3 percent.
Trump has aggressively and consistently attacked Bush as the frontrunner, criticizing several of his positions including those on immigration and federal spending on women’s health.
Trump’s attacks have also been more personal, saying Bush is “low energy.”
Meanwhile, Bush appears to be taking a non-confrontational approach by largely not responding to the attacks and referring to himself as a “joyful tortoise."
Money, McCarley and Alexander will continue to work for Right to Rise, sources also told Fox News.

Sanders gains on Clinton in latest Iowa poll

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is continuing to gain on Hillary Clinton in Iowa, and is now within 7 points of the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race, according to a newly released poll.

Clinton remains the first choice of 37 percent of likely Democratic caucus-goers, while sanders is the pick for 30 percent, according to the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics Iowa Poll released Saturday.
"It looks like what people call the era of inevitability is over,” said Pollster J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Co., which conducted the poll. “[Clinton] has lost a third of the support that she had in May, so anytime you lose that much that quickly it’s a wake-up call."
This is the first time the former secretary of state has seen her support fall under 50 percent among Democrats. The most recent Iowa Poll in May had Clinton leading the field with 57 percent, Sanders at 16 percent and Biden at 8 percent.
"What this new poll shows is that the more Iowans get to know Bernie, the better they like him and what he stands for," Sanders' spokesman Michael Braggs said. "We've seen the same thing in New Hampshire and across the country."
Vice President Joe Biden remains a choice among caucus-goers, even though he has yet to decide if he plans to run. Biden captured 14 percent of the vote, way ahead of candidates Martin O’Malley with 3 percent, Jim Webb at 2 percent, and Lincoln Chafee at 1 percent.
Biden also has the highest favorable rating among the field at 79 percent, compared with 77 percent for Clinton and 73 percent for Sanders.
Sanders’ poll numbers are also being buoyed by a group of voters similar to the ones attracted to President Obama in 2008: young people, liberals and first-time caucus-goers. In the latest poll, Sanders draws 50 percent of the support of those under the age of 45, well above Clinton’s 27 percent and Biden’s 8 percent.
While Clinton’s support has continually dropped among Iowa caucusgoers from 56 percent in January to 37 percent in the latest poll, Steve McMahon, a Virginia-based Democratic strategist told the Des Moines Register, "it's still early, and Hillary Clinton's done this before. She knows what it takes to win."