Thursday, October 28, 2010

Buffalo, N.Y. Teachers Spend $9M in Taxpayer Cash in '09 on Cosmetic Surgery

Another reason to banish unions in America. Have these people no shame?



BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Buffalo teachers left taxpayers on the hook for nearly $9 million worth of cosmetic surgery last year, according to the state-appointed authority overseeing public school finances.

The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority found that last year's costs for elective procedures such as chemical peels and other skin treatments were up $8 million over 2004's $1 million tab for cosmetic surgery.

The procedures, provided under the teachers' union contract, accounted for 9 percent of the district's total spending on health benefits for employees and retirees, The Buffalo News reported Thursday.

About 10,000 school employees are eligible for the benefit. District officials said teachers or their dependents accounted for 90 percent of the approximately 500 people who received cosmetic surgery last year.

Barbara J. Smith, the district's chief financial officer, said those 500 people represent less than 2 percent of those covered by health insurance through the district -- a figure she estimated works out to an average of nearly $18,000 in elective procedures last year per employee who used the benefit.

The president of the Buffalo Teachers Federation said the union has agreed to give up the benefit in the next contract and said teachers may be simply rushing to use the benefit while they can.

"We've already told them we're going to give [it] up in these negotiations," Philip Rumore, president of the teacher union, told the newspaper. "We've told everybody it's going to be gone in the next contract."

Board of Education member Christopher Jacobs said the cost increase "smacks of abuse" and is asking the district and the city comptroller to investigate.

Smith told the newspaper that the issue of the rider came up during the district's budget talks last spring.

"We asked the unions to forgo the cosmetic surgery rider for one year, so we could use the money to reduce the number of layoffs," she told the newspaper. "They weren't interested."

Rumore said the benefit is a negotiated item -- one that his union is willing to give up only as part of contract negotiations, which he expects to begin by the end of the year.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

NSA’s Newest Recruiters: Cartoon-Leopard Twins

National Security Administration uses cartoon propaganda to manipulate young children into spying on each other for the government.


Dudes and dudettes: You know what’s totally radical? Reading your neighbors’ e-mail! So don’t you wanna be a junior National Security Agency deputy?

If so, the surveillance and cryptology crew at NSA has the right online companions for you: Cy and Cyndi, a pair of anthropomorphic snow leopards now kickin’ it with the CryptoKids, the Puzzle Palace’s team of cartoon animal hackers. Known as the CyberTwins and unveiled by NSA yesterday, Cy and Cyndi wear gaming headgear, talk into their hands-free mobile devices, and teach youths about proper online hygiene, all on the NSA website’s kids page, which actually exists.

Arriving in time for (the second half of) National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the CyberTwins have a backstory to appeal to military kids: Their mom is a government engineer, their dad is an Army computer scientist, and they “love to talk with other kids who love computers and cyber space as much as they do.”

That fits them right in with the other CryptoKids — a goateed turtle named T-Top whose uncle works for a computer manufacturer, Sergeant Sam the eagle who joined the military out of high school — who guide real-live youth through online crypto-themed puzzles and brainteasers. (Only one thing’s missing from the CryptoTwins’ rollout: cybersecurity tips for the underage.)

All this is a reminder that the most informative element of any spy agency’s website is its Kiddie Korner, where spycraft meets the schoolyard for an awkward, barely appropriate encounter. The CIA offers a world-explorer videogame starring Carmen Sandiego–esque junior officer Ava Shoephone, a trenchcoated operative who throws out trivia questions from the agency’s World Factbook.

The National Counterterrorism Center introduces you to “your NCTC friends,” Becker the Eagle and Little Lady Liberty. And the FBI has games — represented by an icon of the old Nintendo cartridges — like Special Agent Undercover, in which grade-school kids disguise themselves with mustaches to fool people.

As Noah Shachtman wrote a couple of years ago, only the government knows how earnest or how absurd these sites are intended to be. They do, however, inculcate the message that a career in spycraft is totally extreme. “Cryptology is making and breaking codes. It’s so cool,” NSA’s kids page explains. “You might be part of the next generation of America’s codemakers and codebreakers.” 

Then again, is a kid precocious enough to spend time on a surveillance and crypto agency’s website really going to be impressed by a snow leopard with a BlueTooth in her ear?

Hot off the press! Updated image shows real names of CryptoKids

Article by Spencer Ackerman, Courtesy of Wired.com

Friday, October 22, 2010

League of Women Voters Gets Schooled by True Americans (Video)

Some Americans are tired of being told that God and Patriotism have no place in this country. At a recent debate between left wing Rep. Melissa Bean and her GOP challenger Joe Walsh, the League of Women Voters didn’t want to begin the proceedings with the Pledge of Allegiance. The audience had a different view of things. 

If you think something is not brewing in America, you can't smell the coffee!

Colgate Accused of Stealing Thousand-Year-Old Toothpaste

Another case of Big Business squeezing profits from the pockets of the disadvantaged. Thankfully the truth is out on this one and Colgate Palmolive will not be able to put the toothpaste back into the tube.

 
 A legal dispute between the U.S. and India over a herbal toothpaste was leaving a bitter aftertaste between the two countries Thursday, with Colgate Palmolive accused of filing a bogus patent.

Colgate, the world’s largest producer of toothpaste, patented a toothcleaning powder in the hope that it would take the multibillion-dollar Indian oral hygiene market by storm.

However, Indian activists claim that the patent is bogus because the ingredients -- including clove oil, camphor, black pepper and spearmint -- have been used for the same purpose for hundreds, “if not thousands,” of years on the subcontinent.

The dispute is likely to become a test case for who owns India’s folk medicines -- a repository potentially worth billions.
The American household goods giant was granted the patent in the U.S. in June for what it claimed was a groundbreaking “red herbal dentifrice.” The patent, the Indian activists allege, is the latest act of “biopiracy” - whereby Western corporations plunder techniques, plants or genes used in the emerging world for centuries, for commercial profit.

“This toothpowder is classical in origin,” said Devender Triguna, the president of the Association of Manufactures of Ayurvedic Medicines, an Indian body that promotes traditional remedies. It is demanding that the Indian government take legal action against Colgate.

“The ingredients date back to antiquity. They have been used by the common Indian man for thousands of years. So how can it possibly be patented?” Triguna asked.

Colgate did not respond to a request for comment. However, its patent filing argues that the use of red iron oxide, which is less abrasive than ingredients in traditional toothpaste, is new.

The case is the latest to anger India as it becomes increasingly vocal over the alleged pillaging of its ancient knowledge for commercial gain. It is one of 17 nations to form the Group of Like-Minded Megadiverse Countries, an alliance that has accused richer countries of tapping the emerging world’s natural resources for medicines and cosmetics without paying royalties.

India is in the process of creating 34 million webpages to document its ancient medicinal techniques to stop them from being claimed by foreign profiteers.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

BOONDOGGLE IN THE MOTOR CITY - DETROIT'S TRAIN TO NOWHERE (Video)


Once again corrupt politicians are directing taxpayer's dollars to their pet projects instead of for the overall good of the people. This latest "pig in a poke" is a $500 million light rail project for the nearly abandoned city of Detroit. What's next you ask? A bridge to Hawaii? Don't bet against it..


Detroit has become a place Hollywood directors come for great wreckage shots. One quarter of the city's 140 square miles are deserted. Detroit public school students boast the nation’s worst reading scores, the products of a corruption-ridden school system that recently flirted with bankruptcy

Detroit bested Baltimore in 2009 to take the dreaded “murder capital” title. It may also be the worst place in the country to have a heart attack: prepare to wait half an hour for an ambulance.

In a town lacking essential services, what do local leaders and federal politicians have in mind for helping the city? What's needed to hoist Detroit back to its 1950 heyday, when it was America's fourth largest city, with more than double its current population?

Why...light rail, of course!

The Motor City is moving ahead with a plan to build a 9.3-mile light rail line that will run from downtown Detroit to the edge of the suburbs. It’ll cost an estimated $500 million. Three-quarters of the bill will be paid by federal taxpayers, with the rest picked up by a consortium of foundations and businesses.

If built, the project will end up on the Mackinac Center's list of government-subsidized white elephants touted as “crucial to Detroit’s comeback,” its “rebirth,” and pivotal to “turning things around." In reality, it’ll just be another train to nowhere, much like Detroit’s existing light rail line, the unfortunately named "People Mover,” which operates at 2.5% of capacity.

For more on Detroit’s light rail folly, check out Reason Foundation’s Adrian Moore and Shikha Dalmia's rebuttal to PBS’s recent documentary, “Beyond the Motor City,” which laid out the case that light rail can, yes, "revive" Detroit. 

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Merkel: German Multiculturalism 'Utterly Failed'. [A Dire Warning for the US]


Germany's attempt to create a multicultural society has "utterly failed," Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday, adding fuel to a debate over immigration and Islam polarizing her conservative camp.

Speaking to a meeting of young members of her Christian Democrats (CDU), Merkel said allowing people of different cultural backgrounds to live side by side without integrating had not worked in a country that is home to some four million Muslims.

"This (multicultural) approach has failed, utterly failed," Merkel told the meeting in Potsdam, south of Berlin.

Merkel faces pressure from within her CDU to take a tougher line on immigrants who don't show a willingness to adapt to German society and her comments appeared intended to pacify her critics.

She said too little had been required of immigrants in the past and repeated her usual line that they should learn German in order to get by in school and have opportunities on the labor market.

The debate over foreigners in Germany has shifted since former central banker Thilo Sarrazin published a book accusing Muslim immigrants of lowering the intelligence of German society.

Sarrazin was censured for his views and dismissed from the Bundesbank, but his book proved highly popular and polls showed a majority of Germans agreed with the thrust of his arguments. To see rest of Reuters article click here

Citizens of the United States take heed of what is happening in Germany, France and other countries where liberal immigrations polices have torn the fabric of those nations. The US is on the precipice of a cultural divisiveness never imagined by the Founding Fathers.

Theodore Roosevelt’s prescient warning in 1907 should have defined our nation’s immigration policies. Instead the majority our leaders in subsequent years have sold out their country for votes and popularity.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American ... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag ... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language ... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." - Theodore Roosevelt

Wake Up America. The Writing Is On The Wall!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

B*tch Pelosi's Family Goes Along for Ride — on Taxpayer Dime


 House Speaker Nancy (The B*tch) Pelosi may have a lot of speaking to do to talk her way out of this: Even her grandsons are military jet-setters when, Judicial Watch suggests, she could be taking taxpayers for a ride, according to the Beltway Confidential blog in The Examiner of Washington, D.C. The grandsons, as well as Pelosi’s daughter and son-in-law were among family members and staffers who took tax-paid trips on military aircraft between March 2, 2009, and June 7, 2010, according to documents Judicial Watch uncovered after filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the government.

The two grandsons, daughter, and son-in-law were on the June 20, 2009, flight from Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County, Md., to San Francisco, where Pelosi lives, the documents show. This past July, one of the grandsons flew with the speaker from Andres to Travis Air Force Base near San Francisco.


Pelosi's jet-trip tally for the period was 85, according to the documents Judicial Watch obtained as the result of a Jan. 25, 2009, Freedom of Information Act request.


Previous documents the nonprofit watchdog group obtained show that Pelosi's travel "cost the United States Air Force $2,100,744.59 over a two-year period — $101,429.14 of which was for in-flight expenses, including food and alcohol," the Examiner quoted Judicial Watch as reporting.


“Pelosi’s abusive use of military aircraft demonstrates a shocking lack of regard for the American taxpayer and the men and women who serve in the U.S. Air Force. Speaker Pelosi may have a frequent flyer record for taxpayer-financed luxury jet travel,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.


Article courtesy of Newsmax 

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Do We Need to Replace the Income Tax with A Fair Tax?

There has been much discussion about replacing the Income Tax with some other form of tax. While this idea has been around for a while and most of the people supporting it are well meaning, I want to examine if a replacement is needed.
 
How will the Government Survive?
I talk to groups from coast to coast and many of them absolutely believe the government would fail if the income tax were repealed. This is a common idea and one that certainly appears to be sound. But this is based on a misconception that the income tax is most of the federal government’s take in taxes. On information, from the US Government Accounting Office, the personal income tax is only 43% for 2009. You pay a lot of taxes without considering the income tax. This shows that the income tax is no where near 100% of the federal tax money.

Free Enterprise Society wants to eliminate the income tax due to fraud and deception of the income tax. We also want to restore the adherence to the US Constitution. This means that we want it followed and those that do not follow it - punished.

In my opinion the government can get by without the income tax if we limit the federal government to the US Constitution, which is what we intend to do. The federal government needs some tough love. No elected official has been held accountable for lying, cheating, or stealing for some time. But this era of corruption is ending and many elected officials may find themselves behind bars in the near future. Americans are going to demand very strict accountability in the future.

Would a Sales Tax be Constitutional?
The replacement taxes such as National Sales Tax, Fair Tax, VAT tax, being considered now, do not appear to be constitutional. Would it be a fair statement to say that congress has used and abused every taxing power in the Constitution? I believe so. Then it would follow that if these alternative taxes were constitutional, we would already have them. The congress would need to ask us to vote the congress additional taxing powers to implement any of the above taxes. This would be a serious mistake on our part.

I am not totally against a new tax providing it conforms with the US Constitution, but I am against giving the government a pass for lying to us for nearly 100 years collecting a tax we did not owe. I am against replacing one invalid tax for another unconstitutional one. Also, just because the government has had illegal spending in its budget for so long, that does not mean we need to continue illegal expenditures. If we want the government to follow the Constitution, then there is no room for exceptions. That is what we have today -- 
Exceptions to the Constitution resulting in practically no Constitution.

The government can survive with constitutional taxes providing it’s expenditures are constitutional also. From the 2009 expenditures it appears that 60% or more of the money spent by government does not conform with Article 1 Section 10 of the US Constitution.

Will the Income Tax go Away?
Anyone that believes the income tax will be replaced by some new tax and we will never see the income tax again is in denial. Simply watching what has been done in the past will show the government’s intent. The income tax may go away for one or two years but then it be will brought back again. 

You will be told that it is being brought back on a very limited basis and that the average American (you) will never know it’s there. These were the words used in 1913 when purportedly passing the 16th amendment.

Can This Be Done Overnight?
The income tax would need to be phased out over maybe 10 years and that would allow for the workforce to adjust from government jobs to private jobs. ( There would be tons of unfilled jobs in the private sector. ) The elected officials would have to really (not lip service) clean up the waste or go to jail. There are 1,000,000’s of government workers today that are not needed or are in unconstitutional positions.

More Taxes Would Mean More Irresponsible Behavior
The government wants to double your taxes. Even if we allowed this, the government would just find ways to double the budget again and then taking more away from us AGAIN in more new taxes. 

Details from the US Government Accounting Office show that, in 2009, the US collected 2.1 Trillion dollars in taxes. But, the government spent 3.5 Trillion Dollars in the same year. Arghhhhh. No matter what the American People give, government will irresponsibly spend more and more. This stops here! This stops now!

Friday, October 8, 2010

Despite Clinton Pledge, State Dept. to Pay Out Billions More to Mercenary Soldiers


Get ready to meet America’s new mercenaries. They could be the same as the old ones.

A new multibillion-dollar private security contract to protect U.S. diplomats is “about to drop” as early as this week, say two State Department sources, who requested anonymity because the contract is not yet finalized and they are not authorized to speak with the press.

So much for Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s one-time campaign pledge to ban “private mercenary firms.”

Neither source would say which private security firms have won the four-year contract or how much it will ultimately be worth. The last Worldwide Protective Services contract, awarded in 2005, went to Blackwater, Triple Canopy and DynCorp. Rough estimates place that contract’s value at $2.2 billion.

This one is likely to be even more lucrative. That’s because this time, the reduction and forthcoming withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq is causing the State Department to splurge on private security.

A senior department official told the congressional Wartime Contracting Commission in June that the department requires “between 6,000 and 7,000 security contractors” in Iraq, up from its current 2,700 armed guards. And that doesn’t even take into account those needed to guard the expanded U.S. civilian presence in Afghanistan.

Mo’ mercs, mo’ money. And mo’ danger: This year, for the first time, U.S. contractor deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded troop deaths, ProPublica found.

But the mercs involved could be the same ones as last time. In a nod to open-government practices, State has pledged to pick six security companies to receive the Worldwide Protective Services contract, double the current three. But that doesn’t mean the firms who won the last time around can’t potentially re-up — including Blackwater.

The deadline to award the contract is Thursday, Sept. 30, but it’s unclear whether the department will meet its long-announced goal. State is finalizing the contract right now, so if it doesn’t drop Thursday — the last day of the fiscal year — it’ll be soon afterward.

A State Department official confirmed in April that “any company, including Xe Services [another name for Blackwater] and its subsidiary companies, [may] submit a proposal in response to an acquisition process established on the basis of full and open competition.”

Despite the slayings of civilians at Nisour Square in Iraq in 2007 — which got Blackwater de-certified by the Iraqi government — and on the road in Kabul in 2009, no federal acquisition official has ever recommended that Blackwater be barred from bidding on government contracts. That means it would violate federal law to prevent Blackwater from entering a bid.

A company spokeswoman told me last year that Blackwater intended to bid on the next round of Worldwide Protective Services, although it does not show up on the contract solicitation’s list of current vendors under any of its myriad business names.

And while the contract may almost be in place, its oversight won’t. Last week, the contracting commission’s co-chairman told a House panel that even if the State Department can afford its merc surge in Iraq, “it is not clear that it has the trained personnel to manage and oversee contract performance of a kind that has already shown the potential for creating tragic incidents and frayed relations with host countries.”

In other words, expect more wasted money — and the possibility of more Nisour Squares.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

20 Government Workers With Super-Sized Pay


My Fellow Americans..haven't you had enough?? These crooks who WORK FOR YOU are robbing you blind. YOU have the power to have laws put in place to prosecute and imprison these leeches!


State and local government budgets are by all accounts in dire straits.  Last year, collectively, they faced a $100 billion budget shortfall.  After 12 months of belt tightening, emergency aid, layoffs and tax hikes, things are even worse.  The Center on Budget  and Policy Priorities said in a report this year that the gap could be $140 billion. And last week, respected analyst Meredith Whitney suggested that state governments will collapse unless the federal government offers a trillion-dollar bailout  that will rival the bank bailout of 2008.

And yet, across America, many government workers are getting rich off taxpayer-funded salaries. City managers get free luxury cars, firefighters get half-million-dollar lump payments and, in California, one city worker is being paid $500,000 annually during retirement.  In New York state, $100,000 salaries can’t be called rich, but at a time when unemployment remains near 10 percent, there are 99,000 state and local workers bringing home six figure salaries.

Two weeks ago we published a survey of government workers with super-sized salaries and invited Red Tape Chronicles readers to do some digging.  You weren’t shy.  More than 1,000 tips came streaming in via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and this blog, and we researched each one.  Here are the best – or worst -- examples you sent.

1. Phoenix – double-dipping top cop

GovtSalPhoenix
Two frequent causes of outsized government worker pay are so-called “double-dipping” and lump sum retirement payouts due to banked sick time, vacation and other benefits. In the case of Phoenix top cop Jack Harris, we have both.  Harris retired from his post as police chief in 2007, receiving a one-time payment of $562,000 and beginning to draw his annual pension of $90,000. Two weeks later, the city rehired him as its “public safety manager” – critics say he’s doing exactly the same job -- at a base salary of $193,000 per year.  While it’s common around the country for police officers and other government workers to retire, collect their pension and keep working, the state of Arizona passed a law specifically banning the practice earlier this decade.  Conservative think tank Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County on behalf of a local resident, alleging the Harris is breaking this law.

“It appears that the senior law enforcement official in the city is gaming the system,” said Judicial Watch’s Christopher Farrell.  “That is deeply corrosive to the whole sense of the rule of law.” Farrell said he doesn’t spite Harris his pension, but both the end-run of state law and the high salary – particularly at a time when Phoenix police were threatened with hundreds of layoffs – are egregious, Farrell said.  “It’s a gag reflex kind of thing.”

David Leibowitz, spokesman for Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, said that Judicial Watch’s lawsuit is politically motivated and maintained that Harris’ compensation is in line with police chief pay in other major U.S. cities.

“The chief has served the city of Phoenix for many years. He’s incredibly well qualified and his salary and total compensation is well within line with the largest cities in America,” Leibowitz said. 

Phoenix is America’s fifth-largest city. The seventh-largest, San Antonio, pays Police Chief William McManus $183,000. Philadelphia, which is nearly the same size as Phoenix, pays Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey $195,000, though his pay will be cut to $187,500 this year.

Leibowitz said the method for arriving at Harris’ salary shouldn’t be a consideration.

“You (should) look at the overall money you are spending … and put it in context of the results you are getting,” he said. “It’s really cost effective. … We want people in Phoenix to believe they live in the safest large city in America.”

Meanwhile, Phoenix pays a pretty penny to many other uniformed officers.  There are 180 police officers and firefighters earning more than $100,000 annually. And fully 90 percent of the agency’s budget goes to salaries, according to AZCentral.com.

2. In California:  A pension check and an unemployment check ?As we’ve seen, it’s common for government workers to quit, collect a pension, and then go back to work.  What happens when these double dippers get laid off due to budget constraints? In California, they collect unemployment checks, discovered recently thanks to some great reporting by the Sacramento Bee. There’s no hard data on these special kinds of double dippers, but to give you a flavor, reporter Robert Lewis found that  53 former sheriff’s deputies in Sacramento County collected a total of $300,000 in unemployment benefits last year, along with their regular pensions.

3. In Illinois suburb, a $435K parks director with a $166K pensionThere is little debate about the ticking time bomb of state government pension obligations, which total an estimated $2 trillion nationwide. How did that number get so high so fast? In many cases, pension loopholes are exploited, exploited and exploited again. In Highland Park, Ill., a northern Chicago suburb, park district Executive Director Ralph Volpe and the local parks commission provide an instructive example.  Volpe’s salary in 2008 was $164,000, but the commission added $270,000 in bonuses. That raise was nice, but even nicer was the step up in his pension, which is based on an his last-year salary. The bonuses helped bump Volpe’s pension up by more than $50,000 per year.  The $166,000 he’ll make annually now that he’s retired exceeds his top base salary for the job. Residents forced three parks commissioners to resign after the deal was exposed by the Chicago Tribune, but they still have to pay Volpe for life.

3. In Bellwood, Ill., $250,000 for life
Meanwhile, west of Chicago, Roy McCampbell, a retired city administrator in Bellwood,  earned $472,000 in 2009 – tops for any municipal worker in the state. His base salary was a modest $129,000, but that was beefed up by a series of enhancements, including $126,000 for unused sick and vacation days. Salary sleuths should take a close look at government workers’ vacation and sick day provisions. They are often a contract sweetener used to disguise the real cost of a contract. McCampbell’s last-year windfall raised his pension by $70,000 per year.  He now holds the top pension payout in Illinois,  $250,000 annually.  That’s more than the price of most single-family homes in Bellwood, a primarily African-American, working-class town of 20,000 with a per capita income of $24,000 and an average home value under $200,000. Of the 138 homes recently sold in the town, according to Zilliow.com, the top price was $182,000.

4. Miami – Amid budget  crisis, average salary is $100,000How bad are things in Miami? Earlier this year County Manager George Burgess sent a memo out urging employees to stop buying bottled water.  This came as the city was facing a $118 million budget shortfall and the mayor was calling for nearly 200 staff layoffs.
Meanwhile, Burgess’ salary and benefits package totaled $425,000 last year. It includes use of a 2010 Infiniti M35, which cost taxpayers $30,000 for a three-year lease, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Miami has plenty of well-paid employees. Nearly 100 earn more than $200,000 per year, costing  the city $23 million annually, according to a 2009 analysis by the Biscayne Times (pdf).  And 1,751 of the city’s 3,964 workers earn six-figure paychecks. Fully 80 percent of the city’s budget is devoted to salaries, a crushing amount that leaves precious little for parks or road improvements.

5. Laughlin, Nev. – Burning down, or burning through cash?
Laughlin is a tiny Nevada border gambling town, a little Las Vegas for Northern Arizona residents. Not including tourists, the city had a population of 7,000 during the last Census.  Last year its top 10 employees pulled in nearly $3 million in pay, making it a perfect example of another bane of taxpayers– overtime pay. 

As KLAS-TV in Nevada noted in a recent story about excessive overtime pay, “One might expect the town of Laughlin to be a blazing inferno.”  One Laughlin firefighter alone earned $92,000 in overtime pay last year.

Laughlin is in Clark County, which also includes Las Vegas.  Other firefighters from around the county are also well compensated.  The two top earners, who collected $474,000 and $444,000, were firefighters who won large disability payments, according to KLAS. 

The nearby city of Henderson, also in Clark County, generates some heavy paystubs, too.  The assistant city attorney earned $550,000, including $433,000 in a one-time payout;  the city attorney earned $435,000, $350,000 of it in a one-time payout, and a fire battalion chief earned $400,000, almost all from a one-time payout.  Not to be outdone, North Las Vegas’ assistant fire chief earned $661,000.

6. Clarkstown, N.Y. -- an average salary of $150,000Clarkstown, N.Y., is a pretty town of 85,000 about an hour north of New York City.  But an ugly taxpayer revolt is under way there, in part because of police salaries.  Disclosures that retiring police Capt. Thomas Purtill pulled down $543,000 last year  –- tops for all municipal workers in New York state -- led to creation of the “Disgusted Taxpayers of Clarktown” political action committee and an organization called simply “Clarkstown Taxpayers.”

Purtill’s earnings included a one-time $250,000 payout to settle a dispute over  sick pay.  According to the local Journal News newspaper, Purtill injured his back in 2006 and was only able to work two days per week until he retired.  In 2008, he earned $335,000.

Purtill wasn’t alone: Four of the top 10 municipal workers among the state’s 1,500 municipalities were Clarkstown cops. Nearly 150 of Clarkstown’s 173-member police force earned six figure salaries in 2009, not including overtime, for an average salary of $151,000.

8. Norfolk, Va.-- a great $29,000 a year jobTwelve years ago, Jill McGlone, an employee of the Norfolk Community Services Board, was placed on administrative leave during a personnel investigation.  She never set foot in the office again, but no one seemed to notice. McGlone continued to draw paychecks – including regular raises – for 12 years, until her story was brought to light this year. Her salary last year was $29,000. Local officials are befuddled by the incident, and five employees have lost their jobs since McGlone’s no-show job came to light. A criminal investigation has begun, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

The city manager of Norfolk earns $213,000 in base salary, by the way, according to data collected by the Pilot.  Two assistant city managers split $300,000, and two assistants to the city manager earn about $90,000 in base pay while serving the city of 230,000.

9. Jefferson County, Ala. -- money flushed down the sewer
In Alabama, Jefferson County Attorney Jeff Sewell earns $375,000. Given that his county is in the biggest financial mess in the entire country and the nation’s biggest-ever government bankruptcy  is looming, the salary doesn’t look too bad. It looks like an outright bargain compared to the $500-per-hour salary being paid to John S. Young, a court-appointed receiver who’s trying to figure out how the county will catch up on $500 million in default payments.  In case you’re wondering, $500 per hour equals roughly a $1 million annual salary, assuming he puts in 40 hours a week and takes two weeks vacation.

Jefferson County, which includes Birmingham, started down the road to perdition in 1994, when it was sued over a failing sewer system.  The county began construction of a new one to satisfy a judgment, but costs ballooned to $3 billion. Unable to service the debt, the county turned to Wall Street for help. Investment banks sold officials on credit default swaps and other tricky funding mechanisms.  We all know how that worked out. In this case, the county ended up with swaps that made it liable for nearly $6 billion.  Now Jefferson County is in danger of becoming America’s largest government bankruptcy in history – shattering the old record of $1.7 billion set by Orange County, Calif., in 1994. 

Incidentally, nearly two dozen government officials have been jailed over shady deals and alleged bribery by brokers competing for the county’s business.

Bloomberg ran an excellent history of the doomed project earlier this year, including this tragic sentence:

"Through a long series of ill-conceived financial transactions, the sewer ratepayers of Jefferson County have been saddled with a debt of roughly $11,491 per residential sewer customer.” Bad Wall Street bets raised the city’s interest on debt from 3 percent to 10 percent almost overnight, increasing its debt service payment from $10 million to $23 million, which is why the county simply can’t pay its bills.
Young, who left a private sector water company job that brought him $1.6 million in 2008 to take on the receivership, told local journalists that he was worth it, as he expected to negotiate significant interest and fee discounts from creditors
"I know I have more value than the price they're paying me,” he told John Archibald of the Birmingham News.

10. Pahrump, Nev. – Heidi Fleiss, a DA, and two crashes, DUI in one dayRobert Beckett’s job is to prosecute crimes in an almost-forgotten part of Nevada called Nye County that borders Death Valley.  At $105,000 annually, his pay is set by the state, and doesn’t sound egregious for an attorney with 16 years on the job.  But Beckett allegedly helped himself to additional funding and committed other crimes, making his salary seem quite excessive.

In 2008, midway through his fourth term, Beckett crashed a county-owned Ford Expedition in the desert near Shoshone, Calif.  Six hours later, he crashed a Dodge pickup truck on the same highway. Soon after, he failed a breath alcohol test, according to the Associated Press.

Then, in May, he was arrested in his office and charged with 20 counts of fraudulent appropriation of property for allegedly raiding a “bad check fund.” Nevertheless, he continued his campaign for election to a fifth term before losing in a June primary.

The pressure was apparently too much for him. In September, former famed Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss – who now operates a laundry business in Pahrump -- called police to report a suspicious vehicle parked near her home. Inside was Beckett, police say, asleep behind the wheel of a county-issued vehicle.  Beckett later failed a breath test and was arrested.

“I feel bad for the guy, but drunk driving is like shooting a gun in a crowd of people,” Fleiss reportedly told the Pahrump Valley Times. “If I’d known it was him, I never would have called the police. I would have told him to lay down in the guest house and sleep it off.”

Utah
11. Utah Transit Authority John Inglish
Utah is among the most forward-thinking mass transit states in the United States, as Salt Lake boasts a modern and rapidly expanding light rail system that is the envy of many cities. Still, General Manager John Inglish’s salary of $350,000 last year -- exceeded the pay of top transportation bosses in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver and Phoenix.  Inglish even makes more than the head of the highly scrutinized Washington, D.C., Metro system chief John Catoe, who was paid $315,000 annually before stepping down earlier this year.  And it’s roughly equal to New York City transportation chief Jay Walder’s, who is currently facing calls to accept a salary cut amid fare hikes and service cuts.

CALIFORNIA – A special section
Bell, Calif. started the era of outrage over public servant pay with revelations that the city manager was earning $800,000 per year. That story spurred several news outfits and bloggers to hunt for the second highest-paid government worker in California.  As is the case with these things, it all depends on how you count.  So we’ve included a representative sample of highly compensated public officials. Many of them came to light because the League of California Cities, in response to the Bell incident, conducted a statewide survey of city manager compensation, which it released on Sept. 10.  Aware of the target this placed on their backs, many managers included extensive explanations in the “special issues” field, which makes for amusing reading if you have the time. In all, 16 city managers pulled down more than $300,000 in salary last year, the survey found.

12. Escondido City Manager Clay Phillips is not the best paid city manager, though his base salary of $225,000 is nothing to sneeze at.  But his contract is typical, and offers benefits most workers could only dream of, inflating the city’s cost of his employment to $326,000. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, he receives than 14 weeks of paid time off every year, along with a $9,000 auto allowance, a $1,000 computer stipend, a full $15,000 contribution to his 401 (k), and a life insurance policy.  As another perk, he’s allowed to bring his spouse on up to three conference trips every year, all expenses paid.  His contract also has a clause that is somewhat like the “franchise player” status in the NFL. His salary can never drop below the third-highest city manager in San Diego County.

13. Bruce Channing of Laguna Hills is one of 16 city managers reporting salaries north of $300,000 – Channing earned $321,000. His municipality of 33,000 also provides him with use of a $60,000 Toyota Sequoia SUV. A local report suggests his benefits package is worth more than $400,000, but Channing disputes that.

14. Stephen H. Williams of Palmdale, earned $367,518, making him appear to be the top-paid city manager in post-Bell California.  But he indicated in his disclosure that his salary appeared to be inflated because that amount included a “Banked Leave Time Cashout of $93,360.05,” a “Stipend for Waiving Health” worth $600, an auto allowance worth $7,200 and $1,508 in life insurance premiums.

15. Joe Tait of San Juan Capistrano, a relatively small hamlet of 36,000, earned $324,000 last year, but didn’t initially show up on the high-salary radar because he actually holds two jobs with that city – city manager and utilities director. Both pay him less than $200,000 per year.  City officials defended the arrangement, according to the Orange County Register, by saying Tait actually saves them money.

16. Vernon -- Tait has nothing on Bruce Malkenhorst, however, who until recently held five jobs in the industrial the city of Vernon – population 96. He served as manager, clerk, treasurer,  finance director, redevelopment director and utilities director. Now retired, Malkenhorst is the state’s top pensioner, collecting $500,000 per year. He’s but one of 24 California retirees receiving more than $200,000 annually, and one of nearly 5,000 earning six-figure pensions.  While Malkenhorst cashes the checks, he is awaiting trial on charges he embezzled $60,000 while in office.  Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times has reported that Malkenhorst’s salary has actually been underreported, and that in 2005 he actually earned $910,000.

17. San Ramon -- Since Malkenhorst is retired, the title of highest paid city manager could fall to Herbert Moniz, who helps run San Ramon, a town of 64,000 in Contra Cost County. Moniz earned $359,000 last year, after receiving a 10 percent raise in 2008, according to the local Patch.com site. He presides over a payroll of 582  – 101 of whom earned more than $100,000 last year.  Meanwhile, the city is cutting services: drop-in fees at senior centers are going up, street sweeping has been reduced to once per month, landscaping has been cut back and the city’s aquatic center will close more often next year, according to a newsletter recently sent to residents recently.

18.  San Francisco  - Of course, city managers aren’t the only California city employees with salaries that appear outsized.  In San Francisco, there is considerable consternation over the salary of Deputy Police Chief Charles Keohane, who retired in the middle of 2009 but still ended up as the highest-paid city worker, earning $516,000 with one-time payouts for vacation and sick days.  Asked how he felt about it, Keohane told the San Francisco Chronicle, “Not so good, if it's going to get my name in the paper."
Keohane was hardly alone in the six-figure ranks of city employees, however. Six city workers eclipsed $300,000 (including four police officers) and nearly 100 earned $200,000. In all, nearly 10,000 San Francisco workers – or one-third of the workforce -- earned $100,000 or more last year, when including overtime pay. While we’re in the City by the Bay, we can also mention that one in five of the city’s 5,000 transit workers – who are employed by a separate agency -- also eclipses $100,000,too.

19. Avenal, Calif.  -- It might easy to miss an entirely different set of well-paid government employees – those who work in special agencies or commissions. Fortunately, Red Tape readers sent in plenty of examples. Here’s one: Timothy Malan, chief dentist of the state correctional facility in Avenal.  Being a dentist to prisoners is probably an awful job, but he’s well compensated –earning $621,000 last year.  In fact, The Washington Times reported that 37 state dentists earned $290,000 or more last year.

20. State Compensation Insurance Fund – The more arcane and obscure the agency, the more likely you’ll find surprisingly large paychecks, like the one granted to Janet Frank for running the state’s workers comp program – she earned $1.6 million during a two-year stint.  In one of the most dramatic stories of paycheck inflation as you’ll ever read, Los Angeles Times reporter Michael Rothfeld reported how an agency already rocked by scandal recruited a top-notch candidate with a $450,000 salary and a $140,000 signing bonus in 2008. By the time those expensive two years had passed, Frank had somehow accumulated $107,000 worth of unused vacation days when she cashed out and went home to Colorado.

It’s not too late for you to get in on the fun.  Here’s a list of some resources to get you started. Find out how many six-figure salaries your tax dollars are supporting.

STATE AND LOCAL PAY LOOKUP WEB SITES

If your state/city isn’t listed here, try these two compendiums:
and

Friday, October 1, 2010

U.S. Worsens Mexican Violence by Returning Criminal Aliens to Border Cities, Mexican Mayors Say

Just so we don't confuse this issue, can this possibly be correct? Mexico wants the US to keep their bad guys because if we return them, they will cause trouble in Mexico?

WAKE UP AMERICA!! If our administration isn't telling Mexico to take a flying leap, we have completely lost our minds (and cojones)!


A coalition of Mexican mayors has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes in the U.S. to Mexican border cities, saying the deportations are contributing to Mexican border violence.

The request was made at a recent San Diego conference in which the mayors of four Mexican border cities and one U.S. mayor, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, gathered to discuss cross-border issues.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes blamed U.S. deportation policy for contributing to his city's violence, saying that of the 80,000 people deported to Juarez in the past three years, 28,000 had U.S. criminal records -- including 7,000 convicted rapists and 2,000 convicted murderers.

Those criminal deportees, he said, have contributed to the violence in Juarez, which has reported more than 2,200 murders this year. Reyes and the other Mexican mayors said that when the U.S. deports criminals back to Mexico, it should fly them to their hometowns, not just bus them to the border.

But critics in America say the Mexican lawmakers are simply trying to pass the buck to the U.S. and its taxpayers. They say the Mexicans should take responsibility for their criminals, who are putting both Mexican and American lives in danger.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transports a majority of Mexican criminal aliens back to Mexico on buses. Since they're often held in U.S. detention centers near the border prior to deportation, busing them to Mexican border cities is much less expensive than flying them to the interior of the country.

Those convicted of crimes in the U.S. are required first to fulfill "any sentence imposed by the U.S. courts,"  ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice told FoxNews.com. 

She said all of the deportees are then inspected by Mexican immigration authorities when they arrive in Mexico, and if they are wanted for crimes in Mexico, they are also met by representatives from the Mexican Attorney General’s Office. 

But if they don't have charges pending against them in Mexico, they are free men and women once they cross the border regardless of what they have done in the U.S. 
Despite that, ICE says it recognizes the threat posed by Mexico's cartel-related crime and has been working closely with Mexican authorities to address it.

"Earlier this year, ICE suspended the removal of Mexican nationals with criminal records to Ciudad Juarez," Kice said. "…In addition to dedicating unprecedented manpower, technology and infrastructure resources to the border, ICE has also collaborated with Mexico to adapt its removal procedures in response to safety considerations."

And while criminal aliens continue to be repatriated to Mexico at other locations along the border, Kice said, "those removals are coordinated closely with Mexican authorities and advance notification is provided prior to the return of convicted violent offenders."

Juan Hernandez, founder of the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas and former director of Mexico's Presidential Office for Mexicans, says he's spoken to the border city mayors, and they don't believe the U.S. is doing enough.

"Mexico believes that individuals who commit crimes in the United States should be prosecuted in the United States and not sent to Mexico to continue their performing of crimes," he told FoxNews.com.

Critics of the Mexican lawmakers say the U.S. is prosecuting the criminals in question, and if Mexico wants to keep them out of its border towns, then it should be up to Mexico to lock them up or transport them elsewhere.

"It's almost perverse that foreign officials would blame us for sending their criminals back to their country. Sovereignty entails responsibility. This country needs to take responsibility for its own criminals, and other countries -- Mexico included -- need to take responsibility for their own criminals and deal with them," Ira Mehlman, spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told FoxNews.com.

But Hernandez, a dual citizen of both the U.S. and Mexico, says the U.S. can't wash its hands of this issue.

"The border will never totally be shut down because we don't want that to happen in the United States. Mexico is our second most important trading partner, there are close to one million people crossing legally every day between Mexico and the United States," Hernandez told FoxNews.com. "So we can be strict to the letter of the law and say these criminals are Mexico's problem, but it's not just their problem because it will come back to haunt the United States."

Melhman says in some cases it may be worth spending the extra time and money to fly criminals to the Mexican interior to lower the risk of them coming back over the border. But that decision, he says, needs to be made because it's deemed to be in the best interest of the U.S., not because of pressure from Mexico.

"Every day, American citizens are victimized by illegal alien criminals because, for political reasons, our government refuses to enforce immigration laws," he said. "…We need to put resources into protecting our own interests and making sure violence doesn't spread across our border."

Asked whether ICE planned to make any changes to its deportation policy since the conference, Kice simply said, "While ICE has suspended criminal alien removals to Cuidad Juarez, criminal aliens continue to be repatriated to Mexico at other locations along the border and to the interior of the country."