Sunday, January 31, 2010

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Reader Supported News | 30 January 10 AM

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Reader Supported News


Bob Herbert in his New York Times column writes, "I had lunch with Howard Zinn just a few weeks ago: 'A Radical Treasure.'" | Hans Blix was the chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq prior to the US-UK invasion in 2003, he said he doubted that weapons of mass destruction existed and urged caution. He is speaking out again now: "Hans Blix: Blair's Blind Faith in Intelligence," the Guardian UK. | Laughing at the notion that the Taliban can be bought or bribed, Ron Moreau with Sami Yousafzai for Newsweek: "Taliban Fighters: Not for Sale." -- ma/RSN

Bob Herbert | A Radical Treasure

By Bob Herbert, The New York Times | I had lunch with Howard Zinn just a few weeks ago, and I've seldom had more fun while talking about so many matters that were unreservedly unpleasant: the sorry state of government and politics in the US, the tragic futility of our escalation in Afghanistan, the plight of working people in an economy rigged to benefit the rich and powerful.
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Hans Blix | Blair's Blind Faith in Intelligence

By Hans Blix, Guardian UK | A month before the war, I told Tony Blair it would be absurd if 250,000 troops were to invade Iraq and find no WMD. So it was.
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Ron Moreau | Taliban Fighters: Not for Sale

By Ron Moreau, Newsweek | My Newsweek colleague Sami Yousafzai laughs at the notion that the Taliban can be bought or bribed. Few journalists, officials, or analysts know the Taliban the way he does.
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Saturday, January 30, 2010

Employees: Espada Pays Some $1.87 An Hour

CBS 2 Has Learned How Powerful Senate Majority Leader Has Allegedly Ignored Minimum Wage Laws At His Health Clubs

NEW YORK (CBS) ― Can you imagine trying to live off a salary of less than $2 an hour?

Embattled Bronx Sen. Pedro Espada is again under investigation. This time he's accused of luring impoverished members of his community to work as janitors at his health clinics, and paying them way below minimum wage.

Oh the hypocrisy.

Espada went to an upstate duck farm recently to take up the cause of migrant workers and demand they get fair pay and good treatment.

"What you're doing here is absolutely criminal," Espada said.

Pity that he apparently doesn't feel the same way about people working as janitors at Soundview Health Clinics, which Espada owns.

CBS 2 HD has learned that a company he controls that provides custodial services at Soundview was apparently running a sham internship program where workers received no training and were paid dramatically below minimum wage.

CBS 2 HD: "How much were you paid?"

Carlos Gonzalez: "I was paid $150."

That's $150 for two weeks work -- 80 hours at $1.87 an hour. The state minimum wage is $7.25.

Gonzalez is one of about 40 people reportedly sucked into the program with grandiose promises -- good training and a good job.

One person CBS 2 HD spoke with was also an intern, but was so afraid of Espada that the person asked to be disguised.

"We have no time off more than our lunch time," the person said. "If we even take a little five-minute break off, the supervisor goes 'You standing away? You standing up? Why you standing up? Find something to do!" We were pushed."

What about the promised training?

"All she had taught me was keep the bucket straight when you are filling it up with water," Gonzalez said, adding that he was stunned when they didn't teach him anything, "I was shocked. I mean I thought I was going there to get prepped and it was like I worked for nothing."

CBS 2 HD: "Did anybody show you how to do anything?"

Intern: "No."

CBS 2 HD: "Never?"

Intern: "Never."

CBS 2 HD: "Did you feel that that was right?"

Intern: "No, I didn't feel it was right because at times the supervisor would get on me to say you didn't do this good, you didn't do this good, you know, and I asked, well you didn't show me how to do it, do anything."

The interns said Espada's son, Pedro G. Espada, runs the program. He and two other Soundview employees have been subpoenaed by state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to answer questions about the internships and potential labor law violations.

Senator Espada has repeatedly said he has done nothing wrong and that the Cuomo probe is nothing but a witch hunt.

Late Monday Sen. Espada claimed the program is for people who have had trouble with the law and are seeking a second chance.

He said the money they got was for transportation and lunch.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Bloomberg's Draconian Budget


Video by: Rafael Martínez Alequín

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

The Way We Were

NOTE: While waiting for Mayor Bloomberg's budget proposals, due tomorrow, we thought we might delve into some of the city's political history, considering that many of you were not yet in existence when these events occurred. We are prepared to answer your questions on any matters we discuss, realizing that some of them raise issues more complex than those we relatively briefly enumerate here.

See full size image

Unions Took Place Of Political Clubs

By Henry J. Stern
January 27, 2010

The most important year in New York City politics in the postwar era was 1961. It was on September 7th of that year that Mayor Robert F. Wagner, seeking a third term, defeated State Comptroller Arthur Levitt, who was the candidate of Carmine DeSapio (the Tammany leader) and the Democratic Party leaders in the other four boroughs.

Along with Wagner, Comptroller Abraham D. Beame and Council President Paul Screvane were elected, having defeated the Democratic party leaders' choices in the September primary. Beame at the time was the city's Budget Director, and Screvane was Sanitation Commissioner, having risen through the ranks of that department. They campaigned as career civil servants, not clubhouse politicians. Certain political rules pertaining to ethnicity and geography were nonetheless observed: Wagner, of Irish and German ancestry, was from the Yorkville section of Manhattan, Beame, who was Jewish, came from Brooklyn (at least politically; he was born in London), and Screvane, an Italian-American, lived in Queens.

At that time, 48 years ago, the three dominant voting groups in the city were the Irish, the Italians and the Jews. Today they would be whites, blacks and Latinos. One effect of the diminution in power of political bosses is the disappearance of slates: candidates for various offices running together with the same political sponsorship, but with varying ethnic and geographic roots. BTW, in 1965, when Screvane lost the Democratic mayoral primary to Abe Beame, his unsuccessful running mate for Council President was Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Beame was defeated in the general election by John V. Lindsay, the Republican-Liberal candidate. In that race, the talented William F. Buckley, Jr. ran on the Conservative Party line.

The Democratic county leaders remain, however, important in the selection of judges, both by county-wide judicial conventions for Supreme Court justices (a practice recently upheld by the United States Supreme Court) and by local district elections (for Civil Court judges). Criminal and Family Court judges are appointed by the Mayor. The county leaders' inability to dictate the result of mayoral elections by no means indicates that they are out of business. The Republican county leaders have the power to decide whether Democrats or independents (like Mayor Bloomberg) can seek their nomination. All parties can exclude non-party enrollees from their primaries.

By voter registration, New York City is overwhelmingly Democratic. Yet, hard as it is to believe, the Democratic organization has lost the last FIVE consecutive mayoral elections, two to Mayor Giuliani (1993 and 1997) and three to Mayor Bloomberg (2001, 2005 and 2009). The Democrats have tried all types of candidates in their effort to retain or regain the mayoralty: Mayor Dinkins, Ruth Messinger, Mark Green, Fernando Ferrer and Bill Thompson. All lost.

One reason for this strange result in what is essentially a one-party town is that the voters make independent judgments on mayoral candidates, based on their opinions of the candidates, which derive in large part from media reporting over the years. But beyond the mayoralty, Republicans and independents have not contested other city offices vigorously. In 2001 and 2005, at Bloomberg's direction, the Republican party did not name any candidates for Comptroller and Public Advocate. In 2009, when the Republican county leaders insisted on slate mates for Bloomberg, the party picked unknowns whom Bloomberg promptly said had no chance to be elected, which was true but scarcely encouraging.

One good thing about the City of New York is that it cannot be gerrymandered. Its boundaries are known and defined, and have been the same since the first mayoral election in 1897, which was won by the Tammany candidate, Robert van Wyck, who is now an expressway to Kennedy (ne Idlewild) airport. The runner-up in that election was the Citizens Union candidate, Seth Low, who had been president of Columbia University and Mayor of Brooklyn. The Republican candidate, Benjamin F. Tracy, who had been secretary of the navy during the administration of Benjamin Harrison (1889-93), came in third. In the next mayoral election, in 1901, Low, running on the Fusion party ticket, defeated Democrat Edward M. Shepard, for whom the main building of City College has been named.

United States Senate seats from every state also defy the gerrymander, as do the state-wide elected officials, Governor, Lieutenant Governor, State Comptroller and Attorney General. The Congressional districts and the state legislature are redistricted every ten years, following the Federal decennial census. This gives the legislative leaders considerable power over other elected officials, whose districts can be shaped without their consent. When the state loses Representatives in Congress as the result of the census, as has happened in the seven censuses since 1940, and will happen again in 2011, the question of whose seat to abolish is particularly difficult to resolve, as is the issue of which party will bear the loss.

Most people do not realize today how different city government was as recently as fifty years ago, when many positions in city government, especially those which were not overly taxing, were filled on the basis of recommendations from Democratic county and district leaders. When an official died, retired or resigned, the political club from which he came was often asked to recommend a successor, the job being regarded to a greater or lesser extent as the property of the club. This system flew in the face of the concept of meritocracy, selecting the person best able to do the job. But doing the job was the duty of the civil service, and the political appointees in an agency were not subject either to competitive examinations or performance evaluation. Many were no shows, appearing only on pay day. This was before direct deposit.

I will never forget what one Parks employee said to me in 1966, when I was executive director of the department during the administration of Mayor Lindsay and Commissioner Thomas Hoving. "Newbold Morris (Mayor Wagners parks chief) was a good commissioner. He never interfered with the Department."

The transition from political to mayoral control of city departments has not occurred in all departments at the same pace. At the old Board, now Department of Education, it took state legislation in 2002 to give the mayor control of the board and its most important function, the selection of a chancellor. Before then, the Borough Presidents appointed the majority of the board, and the chancellor was subject to more parochial and political interests, including board involvement with personnel selection and promotion. In addition, the power of the teachers' and supervisors' unions was difficult to overestimate.

The role of unions and their political influence has increased enormously throughout the city. Unions influence employee discipline because they represent accused wrongdoers. That is their assigned task, but it creates friction between agency heads and union officials, who generally do not want to see their members punished. To some extent, the intensity of union representation can depend on the employees activity or participation in the union. On the other hand, if the union did not represent the employees, one would have to create another agency for that purpose, which would mean additional expense. The union does have an interest in seeing that employees' rights are observed. It is part of an (not the) American dilemma to protect people without contesting every case, rather than having the outcome depend on the skill of the advocate. Yesterday on C-Span, we heard a new word "Mirandizing". Is that happening here?

To sum up the last half century: Apart from the enormous expansion of the budget, in part caused by inflation, in part by additional services, the most important change has been the decline of clubhouse politics and the rise of union power, sometimes affecting the day to day operations of agencies. In some departments, this is not a problem at all. In others, the relationship is comparable to that of landlords and tenants. The challenge of doing more with less resources will not be met without the cooperation of city employees, which will be hard to achieve in the universal me-first culture which characterizes so many workplaces.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

VideoBy Rafael Martínez Alequín
Borough President Rubén Diaz Jr. Annouced 4 millions grant to train workers for Green Economy

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Source says Andrew Cuomo will announce plans to run for New York Governor in March

Originally Published:Saturday, January 23rd 2010, 9:01 PM
Updated: Sunday, January 24th 2010, 2:39 AM

Sources close to Andrew Cuomo say he's ready to run for governor, but that won't announce his plans until March.
Karp/Bloomberg News
Sources close to Andrew Cuomo say he's ready to run for governor, but that won't announce his plans until March.

New York's state attorney general is set to take on Gov. Paterson in the Democratic primary, a source close to Cuomo told the Daily News.

Cuomo spokesman Richard Bamberger declined comment, but a source close to Cuomo told The News, "He will make an announcement at the end of March. And what he will say is that he intends to run for governor. ... He thinks there are a lot of problems in the state and he thinks he can help solve them."

That source is not alone. On Wednesday, a day after Republican Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in Massachusetts, Stuart Applebaum of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Workers Union urged Cuomo to run, saying Paterson "is not the strongest candidate."

Upstate party chief Larry Bulman went further, saying, "Let's not run a third-string quarterback if there is a first-string quarterback in the game. We should be talking to Andrew Cuomo."

"I'm focused on being attorney general," said Cuomo.

Though he's played coy on his intentions, the 52-year-old Cuomo - the son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo - has been laying the groundwork for months. He's crisscrossed the state over the past year, meeting Democratic leaders from Buffalo to Brooklyn and attending fund-raisers - for himself and many others.

There was no clearer sign of Cuomo's strategy than at Paterson's recent State of the State Address, where Cuomo appeared buoyant, confident and self-assured as poll-challenged Paterson tried to sell his plans.

Baruch College public affairs professor Doug Muzzio said Cuomo "is playing it smart" by waiting to announce his intentions. Muzzio said that gives him two more months to garner favorable publicity as attorney general while ducking upcoming contentious budget talks, which must be concluded by April 1.

"Assuming he's going to run, why announce now?" Muzzio asked. "He becomes a target. This makes perfect political and strategic sense."

Cuomo, who abandoned a primary race for governor against Carl McCall in 2002, was elected attorney general in 2006 on the same ticket as former Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

Insiders say Cuomo began seriously training his sights on the governor's chair after Spitzer resigned in March 2008 amid a hooker scandal.

As lieutenant governor, Paterson took over but, after the briefest of honeymoons, he stumbled badly and his ratings plunged. Paterson soon lost the confidence of many Democrats - including President Obama - and Cuomo emerged as the overwhelming choice.

In the latest polls, Cuomo has a 64% job approval rating compared with Paterson's 31%. Cuomo also has $16 million in his war chest, while the governor has just $3 million.

jmolloy@nydailynews.com

With Kenneth Lovett

This Is a Must See!! US Contractors sent to Haiti to Kill Cvilians


Saturday, January 23, 2010

John Edwards the Poverty Pimp














John Edwards decided to follow up his admission of what everyone already knew by going to Haiti to participate in relief efforts. Coincidentally, cameras followed him!
Edwards is still convinced people will believe him if he continues pretending to give a shit about poverty.

Not only do people not care about poverty in general, but they also have trouble believing in the sincerity of a ridiculous phony egomaniac who constantly lies about everything. He seriously told the White House that he wanted them to, who knows, announce his Haiti visit, or endorse it, or something. According to Marc Ambinder, "this declaration was met with silence."

John Edwards is a hilarious narcissism monster.
Send an email to Alex Pareene, the author of this post, at alexp@gawker.com.


(article courtesy of http://www.gawker.com/)

Scott Brown's Hand Maiden

















www.gawker.com

Republican Savior's Wife Starred Half-Naked in Music Video About Handjobs
We have now seen every member of Senator-elect Scott Brown's family in some state of undress. Here's wife Gail Huff in a bikini, coaxing a tube of sunscreen to metaphoric orgasm, in a music video from 1982.
Digney Fignus' "Girl with a Curious Hand" proves hastily-elected political upstarts are the only kind of politician worth having, in terms of embarrassing detritus they forgot to scrub from the internet. (If you care about effective governance, meh.) Before she was a Boston news anchor (and now a senator's wife) Gail Huff was the pouty, tousled-hair video girl who romps in the ocean, sheds her bikini top, and creates sexual innuendo by squeezing a tube of sunscreen, making it squirt all over the place.


E-ZPass Double Standard or Racism

video by:Rafael Martínez Alequín

Councilman Charles Barron upset at Speaker Quinns for replacing him as Chairman of Council's Higher Education Committee



The City Council Rules Committee voted 7-to-0 to approve the new committee assignments, including the replacement of Charles Barron as Higher Education chairman with newcomer Ydanis Rodriguez.

Video by Rafael Martínez Alequín

Friday, January 22, 2010

E-ZPass Double Standard or Plain Racism


Elected officials, E-ZPass customers, union members protes discrimination agains Spanish Speaking E-ZPass Workers.


Video by: Rafael Martínez Alequín

Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.'s son subpoenaed by AG Andrew Cuomo in labor probe

Originally Published:Thursday, January 21st 2010, 3:45 PM
Updated: Thursday, January 21st 2010, 4:22 PM

Pedro G. Espada (r.) has been subpoenaed to testify about his father, state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.'s, for-profit management business, the Daily News has learned.
Lombard for News
Pedro G. Espada (r.) has been subpoenaed to testify about his father, state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr.'s, for-profit management business, the Daily News has learned.

ALBANY - The son of embattled Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr. and two others were subpoenaed Thursday by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office, the Daily News has learned.

The subpoenas order Pedro G. Espada and two other employees of his father's for-profit management company to testify before Cuomo investigators next week, sources with knowledge of the subpoenas said.

The younger Espada is believed to be the closest person to the senator called in by investigators since the Cuomo investigation began nine months ago.

The probe has seemingly expanded as the new subpoenas pertain to "an ongoing labor issue" at Soundview Management Enterprises, which was founded by Sen. Espada in 2007.

Reached by phone, Pedro G. Espada said little before referring all questions to his father's press office.

Asked if he received a subpoena from Cuomo's office, the younger Espada said, "If I did, I am unaware of it."

Court papers filed last week by Cuomo's office cited potential labor law violations at the senator's management company, including a scheme to boost profits by cheating workers.

Sources said Thursday that investigators are looking specifically into whether Sen. Espada's company underreported hours that employees worked - and whether employees were paid minimum wage.

Sen. Espada (D-Bronx) is the sole proprietor of Soundview Management.

The company was hired in early 2008 for $33,000 a month to provide janitorial services to Soundview HealthCare Network, a group of non-profit health clinics which Espada also founded.

"It's starting to boil over," one source said of the probe.

Sen. Espada has repeatedly maintained he has done nothing wrong and last week dismissed Cuomo's probe into him as a political witch-hunt.

Calling himself the state's highest-ranking Hispanic elected official, he injected ethnicity into the fight by accusing Cuomo of using him "as his personal political piñata."

Thursday's subpoenas are for "administrative testimony," not an order to appear before a grand jury, sources said.

Pedro G. Espada and the other Soundview Management employees will likely be asked for the first time about the other legal issues dogging the senator.

Cuomo's office last week asked a judge to compel Sen. Espada and Soundview to cooperate with previous subpoenas.

The court filing said that Cuomo's office has found "extensive evidence" of potentially illegal actions by the senator and the companies he controls.

The contract between Espada's health care network and management firm "allowed Mr. Espada to effectively siphon off and otherwise divert money from Soundview [health centers] for Mr. Espada's own personal and political benefit," the papers say.

The papers also revealed that Sen. Espada's management company's payroll spiked dramatically just before the 2008 election - and went down afterward.

His son worked on the campaign even as he was listed as working full-time for both Soundview and the management company, the court papers reveal. His wages from the management firm nearly doubled as the election drew closer.

He stopped appearing on the management company payroll after the election.

Pedro G. Espada also briefly made headlines after he was hired by the Senate Democrats to a $120,000-a-year job soon after his father became majority leader. He quit shortly thereafter.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Bloomberg's State of the City: We're Doing Great, And My Programs Will Make Things Even Better

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meanbloomberg.jpg
Mayor Bloomberg gave his annual State of the City Address in Queens today, and to hear him tell it, everything is going great. He celebrated "new jobs at Kaufman Studios," and "new ball fields and facilities at Queensbridge Park." He did admit there was a recession; "I know how worried people are," he said. He described the mood of the citizenry as "proud of our progress but fully aware that it's not enough." That doesn't match up with what we've been hearing, which is more like, "terrified by our terrible unemployment, but fully aware that it's not as bad as it's going to get," but we probably travel in different circles than does the Mayor.

Mostly there was a lot of vague gush along the lines of "fighting poverty and homelessness with more innovative new ideas," etc. The first concrete proposal the Mayor offered for improving civic life was to expand the citizen-spying Lower Manhattan Security Initiative into midtown Manhattan.

The Mayor also told us about someone who lost her job and, thanks to a Workforce1 Center computer training program, got an even better job! Again, this sounds suspicious from what we've heard about city job training schemes, but we admit it's not impossible.

Bloomberg proposed to "help struggling immigrants right here in our own backyard" with better language and job training, which will be nice for them, and for the large companies who will employ them at low wages. He offered New Yorkers "a new public-private loan pool that will offer them a fresh start if they commit to sound financial practices," which sounds like a credit counseling scheme -- maybe he means this to be a moneymaker for the city.

There were some ideas that sounded good. There was an "NYC Safe Start" program for which Bloomberg has found five banks and five credits unions who will offer accounts that "won't require minimum balances, and they won't charge hidden fees," which is so much better than what evil monsters like Chase and Citibank offer that we can't believe he really means it. Also, a private-public partnership will create a "$10 million mortgage assistance fund that will help up to 1,000 middle-class families refinance their mortgages on reasonable terms." Someone will make a profit on this, we imagine, but it may be less obscene and ruinous to homeowners than what's going on out there now.

Bloomberg promised to build on the city's small-business assistance via New Business Acceleration Teams, to buy up more decrepit housing and make it into sound, affordable housing, to effect new programs for youthful offenders, etc. It mostly sounded familiar to us, but maybe we're just jaded. The Drum Major Institute's John Petro complains that Bloomberg doesn't "acknowledge that residents require more than just minimum-wage employment to survive and thrive," and proposes solutions like a living wage and a real affordable housing program -- which are also familiar to us, but only from dreams and liberal position papers. At this point we're almost resentful toward Petro for reminding us that we ever believed we'd get anything like that. Unless, of course, the next billionaire to rule us has a soft spot.

Pedro Espada, at MLK Event, Compares Self to Martin Luther King

espadashocked.jpgYesterday, the Bronx News Network reports, a memorial "Walk for Peace to End Gun and Youth Violence" was held in honor of Martin Luther King in The Bronx; Pedro Espada was there, marching behind a banner that bore the likenesses of Dr. King and himself. The march ended at First Union Baptist Church, where Espada spoke. Alluding to the recent investigation of his health care network by attorney general Andrew Cuomo, Espada told the crowd, "People forget that Martin Luther King, at age 39 [when he died], was not heralded by the press... He was not deemed to be a man of the people. We must recall that as we read our daily papers and study the news of the day."

Give him credit: the man has balls. Bob Kappstatter at the Daily News thinks Espada could get out from under Cuomo's investigation; a colleague suggests Espada's use of his non-profits to enrich his for-profit company is "a shanda, but it's not illegal."

Last Thursday Espada's son was sentenced for muscling video gadfly Rafael Martinez Alequin at a campaign event in 2008: Alejandro Espada, 30, got a conditional discharge and was made to pay for Alequin's video camera, which he broke in the fracas.


Monday, January 18, 2010

Request for A Special Prosecutor in the assault case of RAFAEL MARTINEZ ALEQUIN . . . . Denied

The following statement was read at the Bronx Criminal Court on January 14th . Requesting that a special prosecutor be appointed for this case. I am asking that the Bronx District attorney be removed from my case because the DA's election lawyer is also the lawyer for the father of the man who assaulted me. The lawyer, Stanley K. Schlein, a well known lobbying is representing Senator Pedro Espada, he was the lawyer representing D.A. Johson against accusations that he live in Westchester County. Sound familiar? (see article by Sam Roberts NY Times July 26, 2005).Pedro Espada Jr. live in Westchester County too. (See article on the NY Times, June 26, 2008, by Nicholas Confesore). In view of the relationship between attorney Stanley K. Schlein, Senator Pedro Espada, Bronx District Attorney, Robert T. Johnson, and the Bronx Democratic party machine the case against Alejandro Espada, in the interest of justice should be investigate by special prosecutor.

Judge Joseph Dawson denies the request, and let Espada to go with a slap on the wrist.

In light of the AG investigation of Espada I am in contact with lawyer to see if this relationship between the DA and Pedro Espada violated my constitutional rights as an American citizen, lets alone a journalist



IMPACT STATEMENT OF RAFAEL MARTINEZ ALEQUIN

TO THE HONORABLE JUDGE JOSEPH DAWSON
Bronx Criminal Court

January 14, 2010

Your Honor in the name of Justice you must appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and make the proper charges in this case. The same political machine that supports Senator Espada is critical for the reelection of the Bronx DA. In fact the political operative who works for Espada represented the Bronx DA in a case where he was acused of not living in the Bronx.

I am appalled at the way our County legal system allowed Alejandro Espada to get away with a simple “slap on the wrist.” This is not just my opinion. A recent Daily News article on this case also used the term “slap on the wrist.” Even considering my limited understanding of the criminal justice system, Alejandro should have been convicted of assault. Pedro Espada Jr., who avoided even being charged, should have been convicted of being an accessory to a crime. He encouraged his son, Alejandro to attack me. And then, as I was being assaulted, he said to me “this is to teach you manners papa”. All this was captured in the video I provided to the prosecutors. At no time did Pedro Espada Jr. attempt to restrain his son from the vicious attack on me. In fact, he ignored my plea for help and instead acted like a vigilante. This is unbecoming of a person in high office. See video below.

Video: Rafael Martínez Alequin

Prior to the September 7, 2008 incident, Ms. Marzetta Harris, an Espada protégé and campaign worker, threatened me and said that her brother “will put you in a body bag”. This was in connection with my questioning Pedro Espada Jr., as to why he was using employees of the Soundview Health Center to collect petitions for the primary of September 11, 2008 as they distributed food to potential voters.

A matter such as this should be given the highest degree of attention. This case is representative of more than harassment. Clearly, this was an assault against an innocent victim, a member of the press, who believes in our democratic principles and freedom of speech. Perhaps this is contrary to what the Espadas believe. It is interesting to note that the Espadas also attempted to bribe me if I remained quiet about the attack. They offered to pay for the camera, if I did not pursue the legal option. And now, this court is considering entering a judgment that would allow Alejandro Espada to walk away from his responsibilities by paying for the camera, just as he wished. This deal made by Espada only recognizes the harm done to my property. (I was surprised to learn that the 50th Precinct Officer opted to file a complaint about my video camera being broken when, in fact, I was viciously attacked and assaulted. The 50th Precinct officers call EMT to take me to Montefiore Hospital). What of the harm to me personally? And what about the potentially chilling effect on the press? It is unfortunate that a politician can resort to these actions and not be held fully accountable. I would consider the decision not to charge Alejandro with assault as well as the decision not to charge Senator Espada with being an accessory, to be a travesty of justice.

Throughout my career as a journalist, I have often asked politicians such as Dinkins, Giuliani, Bloomberg, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Mario Cuomo, George Pataki and others pointed questions. While they did not always like my questions, no one threatened, harassed or assaulted me—Until now.

The assault upon me is a culmination of a long standing campaign by Pedro Espada Jr., to suppress inquiries pertaining to his legal residence; and misappropriation of public funds. There are indications that he used monies in conjunction with agency employees that were paid from his publicly funded health center for his political ventures, among other irregularities.

I am pleased that this assault case was brought to this court, and that Alejandro Espada partially admitted to his guilt. Unfortunately, Senator Pedro Espada Jr., was not charged, although he was just as guilty. He encouraged his son to beat up on a 76 year old man. In addition, the statement of Ms. Marzetta Harris who threatened to take my life is also of concern to me. Therefore, I would implore the court to consider a more appropriate and justifiable ruling on this case; considering all of the mentioned variables involved. The ruling of $432.00 takes no account of the emotional and physical damages that I suffered. It also sets a precedent wherein politicians can resort to suppression of the press in order to remain in or gain power.

Beyond this, I would respectfully ask the court, law enforcement personnel and all who are privy to this statement to maintain a watchful eye on Senator Pedro Espada Jr. The public is deserving of full disclosure and better representation in the state Senate.

I urge Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and the Bronx District Attorney to continue to vigorously pursue their investigation of Senator Espada.
An evolution in the birthers and teabaggers? Joan Walsh points out that Republican candidate for senator from Massachusetts Scott Brown says he doesn't know if Obama's parents were married when they had him.

You always knew what they called him in private, but here it is in public.

Supreme Court to rule on famed death penalty case

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court is expected on Tuesday to issue its latest decision on the fate of Mumia Abu-Jamal, arguably America's most famous death-row inmate, convicted of slaying a Philadelphia policeman, a crime he denies committing.

The court is due to rule on an appeal by the Philadelphia district attorney who is seeking to have Abu-Jamal executed and bring an end to a decades-long legal saga the inmate, a former journalist, wrote about while in prison.

Abu-Jamal, now 55, was convicted in 1982 of killing officer Daniel Faulkner on December 9, 1981. He has become an international cause celebre for the anti-death penalty movement whose supporters argue strenuously he did not receive a fair trial.

His backers say he was framed by police, that prosecution witnesses were coerced into false testimony and that ballistics evidence shows Abu-Jamal did not shoot Faulkner but that the murder was committed by another man who fled the scene.

Supporters also claim that Abu-Jamal, who is black, was the victim of a racist and notoriously pro-prosecution trial judge, the now-deceased Albert Sabo, who was overheard to say, "Yeah, and I'm going to help them fry the nigger," according to an affidavit by a court stenographer.

Faulkner's widow, Maureen, and Philadelphia's Fraternal Order of Police oppose any clemency for Abu-Jamal, arguing his conviction has been upheld repeatedly by numerous courts, including the Supreme Court, over three decades.

They note that bullet fragments taken from Faulkner's body match the ammunition from the gun carried by Abu-Jamal who was earning his living as a taxi driver at the time of the killing.

If the Supreme Court rules in his favor, Abu-Jamal would get a new jury trial on the sentencing, but not his conviction.

But a defeat is likely to send the case back to an appeals court, whose ruling would be based on a new Supreme Court decision on jury instructions in another case, said his attorney, Robert R. Bryan.

Abu-Jamal has been in solitary confinement on death row since the conviction, and has been held since 1995 in a western Pennsylvania prison where he has written books and contributed to international journals and radio shows.

Outside the United States, Abu-Jamal's backers include the human rights group Amnesty International, which in 2000 called for a new trial, arguing his conviction and sentence followed "contradictory and incomplete evidence" in a trial that failed to meet minimum international standards of justice.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Rush Limbaugh enters race to the bottom on Haiti

That Rush Limbaugh could claim the Haitian tragedy was 'made to order' for Obama shows how crazed the US right has become

In the race to say something stupid about the tragedy in Haiti, the competition has been fierce. A proud British entry, John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, spent a full five minutes yesterday waffling on the Today Programme in response to an increasingly bewildered John Humphrys asking him how he reconciled belief in a loving God with the devastation. Then another man of the cloth, US Christian fundamentalist preacher Pat Robertson, weighed in with a history lesson: back in the 19th century, the Haitian people "got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French. True story. And so, the devil said, OK it's a deal."

And while it is easy, and even necessary, for the sake of sanity, to remind ourselves that Pat Robertson is a deluded old man who also thought that the attacks on the World Trade Centre were divine retribution for the legalisation of abortion and gay marriage, and that Hurricane Katrina was just God's way of evening up the score after too much bonne temps roulez on Bourbon Street, the same can't be said of the most promising entrant so far in this dismal race to the bottom. Rush Limbaugh may be a recovering painkiller addict, but he's also the chief ideologue of the Republican party in the US. With his fellow shock-jock Glenn Beck, Limbaugh has waged a fierce and largely successful campaign to drive the few remaining moderates out of the party. So when he says that Americans should feel no need to contribute to Haitian Earthquake relief, since "We've already donated to Haiti. It's called the US income tax," it matters.

Limbaugh has his own pathology, and you don't have to be Sigmund Freud to think that a man in whose luggage DEA agents found a bottle of Viagra on his way back from a trip to the Dominican Republic might have picked another way to express his disdain for the Haitian people than by observing last year: "Haiti? You can't even pick up a prostitute down there without genuine fear of Aids." But crude racism – the same crude racism that scotched Limbaugh's plans to buy the St Louis Rams football team – is only part of what's going on here.

It's true that a certain kind of white person will never forgive the Haitians for freeing themselves from the French – just as another kind of person, white or black, will recall that same glorious history as one of the reasons not to write off Haiti or the Haitians. (And if you have any interest in the history, I urge you to read CLR James's great The Black Jacobins, published more than 50 years ago and still one of the best books about Haiti ever written.) But it's also a sign of how crazed the American right has become that Limbaugh could claim the Haitian earthquake was "made to order" for Obama because it would allow the president to "burnish his credibility … with both light-skinned and black-skinned" African Americans.

Now there are plenty of reasons to be disappointed with Obama – we write about them every week in the Nation. But you'd need more than a serious OxyContin habit to think Obama needs any burnishing among African Americans. No, what Rush is really doing is what he gets paid for: speaking aloud the things his millions of dittohead followers would love to say, but know they shouldn't. Will this make some Americans switch him off? It would be pretty to think so. Even prettier to think that millions more will be outraged enough to give to Haitian relief.

But you needn't remain a bystander in this fight. Limbaugh's employer, Premier Radio, is a subsidiary of Clear Channel, the largest provider of outdoor advertising in the UK. It would probably be unlawful to scribble "Shut Up Rush" on all their billboards, but you could certainly make your feelings known by telephone (+4420 7478 2200) to their offices at Golden Square – or via their corporate website.

Gunning for the Working Families Party Landlords, lawyers fire at will

By Tom Robbins

Tuesday, January 12th 2010 at 3:57pm

The party's tougher legal test is being conducted by the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office which last month subpoenaed financial records from the WFP and all of its city candidates. Nailing political party chieftains for corruption has been an Olympic-level prosecutorial sport for decades. Mug shots of Democratic party bosses Meade Esposito, Stanley Friedman, Clarence Norman, and Nassau GOP chief Joe Margiotta are just some of those gracing the scrapbooks. But this is the first time in memory that a local political party itself has been the target of a public corruption probe. Figuring out how money is handled by those wonderful "housekeeping" committees of all the major parties has always been a challenge, but they don't appear to have ever drawn the attention of the big game hunters at the U.S. attorney's office.

That's not to say that the WFP is a model of organizational clarity. Its cluttered third-floor offices on Nevins Street off Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn house the party, its for-profit campaign firm, and at least one nonprofit group. Downstairs is the community group, Acorn, which engages in some of the same political campaigns and whose leaders overlap with the party. Small wonder that when Edward Isaac Dovere, a reporter for the publication City Hall, wrote a series of articles voicing suspicions that things were badly amiss at the WFP, even many who never made it through the dense pieces assumed that so much smoke had to indicate fire lurking somewhere or other.

Actually, the WFP's biggest flaws are hardly indictable offenses. Its leaders tend to lapse into the arrogant lingo of the old-school bosses they seek to replace. They talk about taking political "scalps" just to show that they know how it's done; diligent legislators outside the inner circles of power are dismissed as "irrelevant." But then you have to figure that FDR's team—the one that changed America—suffered its own share of swollen egos.

The party's tougher legal test is being conducted by the Manhattan U.S. attorney's office which last month subpoenaed financial records from the WFP and all of its city candidates. Nailing political party chieftains for corruption has been an Olympic-level prosecutorial sport for decades. Mug shots of Democratic party bosses Meade Esposito, Stanley Friedman, Clarence Norman, and Nassau GOP chief Joe Margiotta are just some of those gracing the scrapbooks. But this is the first time in memory that a local political party itself has been the target of a public corruption probe. Figuring out how money is handled by those wonderful "housekeeping" committees of all the major parties has always been a challenge, but they don't appear to have ever drawn the attention of the big game hunters at the U.S. attorney's office.

That's not to say that the WFP is a model of organizational clarity. Its cluttered third-floor offices on Nevins Street off Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn house the party, its for-profit campaign firm, and at least one nonprofit group. Downstairs is the community group, Acorn, which engages in some of the same political campaigns and whose leaders overlap with the party. Small wonder that when Edward Isaac Dovere, a reporter for the publication City Hall, wrote a series of articles voicing suspicions that things were badly amiss at the WFP, even many who never made it through the dense pieces assumed that so much smoke had to indicate fire lurking somewhere or other.

Actually, the WFP's biggest flaws are hardly indictable offenses. Its leaders tend to lapse into the arrogant lingo of the old-school bosses they seek to replace. They talk about taking political "scalps" just to show that they know how it's done; diligent legislators outside the inner circles of power are dismissed as "irrelevant." But then you have to figure that FDR's team—the one that changed America—suffered its own share of swollen egos.

trobbins@villagevoice.com


'Baby Doc' Speaks

by Eric Pape


BS Top - Pape Duvalier Haiti

Olivier Laban Mattei, AFP / Getty Images In an exclusive email to The Daily Beast, Jean-Claude Duvalier, who fled Haiti for France in 1986, offered quake victims comfort and an $8 million pledge of support.

Reclusive former Haitian ruler Jean-Claude Duvalier has lived in France since he fled his homeland nearly a quarter-century ago. But Duvalier, famously known as “Baby Doc,” emerged from the shadows via email late Friday night. In an exclusive email to The Daily Beast’s Eric Pape, Duvalier offered comforting words in the aftermath of the earthquake that leveled the country he once led, lauding the international “wave of solidarity,” and asking Swiss authorities to direct $8 million to emergency relief efforts.

In "these hours of great national distress," the 59-year-old Jean-Claude Duvalier promised his "complete solidarity" with those who are suffering. He called on Swiss authorities to transfer all of the money from the foundation named for his late mother, Simone Ovide Duvalier, to the American Red Cross for the Haitian relief effort. (It is unlikely that Duvalier has control over the funds he's pledging; more likely, he's hoping to persuade the Swiss government to do a good deed with money his family once controlled.)

“In this moment of pain and of mourning, I must assure you of my absolute solidarity,” Duvalier wrote.

In the 438-word French-language statement (the whole message is in italics below)—which came in response to a solicitation for comment about the tragedy—Duvalier’s secretariat sent an email late Friday night entitled: Message de Solidarité au peuple haïtien de M. Jean-Claude Duvalier, à la suite du séisme du 12 janvier 2010. (A woman from his secretariat previously left a telephone message saying that Duvalier was too “very shocked” and too “crushed” to speak in person, but she suggested that he might respond by email.)

The Daily Beast’s Full Haiti Coverage

“Baby Doc” was installed in power in 1971 following the death of his father, François Duvalier. (“Papa Doc” projected an all-powerful aura, winning elections by absurd margins, and he later proclaimed himself president for life. His strongman regime was blamed for many thousands of deaths.)

His son held power until 1986, when, faced with a popular revolt over corruption and a crumbling economy—which stood in stark contrast to Baby Doc's decadent lifestyle—the Reagan administration facilitated his flight into exile and he settled in France (although he never gained formal asylum). Initially, “Baby Doc’s” presence here spurred numerous reports about the exiled leader’s high life—and his wife’s spend-friendly ways, but their bitter divorce in the mid-1990s is said to have cost him his fortune. He reportedly now stays in an inexpensive Parisian apartment with another wife.

After Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned in 2004, Duvalier announced that he would run for president, but didn’t follow through—apparently because Haitian law requires that candidates appear in person to register. Later, in a rare address played on Haitian radio in 2007, Duvalier offered an apology to Haiti and suggested that he wanted to return home. President René Préval noted that while Duvalier was legally permitted to return, he would face the courts over abuses committed by his regime. Duvalier hasn’t gone home—yet.

While his potential return has long been a divisive issue, some of his comments about the earthquake are far more consensual. Especially his final one: “God save Haiti!”

Here is a translation of his full message:

Message of Solidarity toward the Haitian people by Mr. Jean-Claude Duvalier, following the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Dear compatriots,

It is with great horror and a profound emotion, but also with a very great concern, that I have monitored the murderous and devastating consequences of the terrible earthquake that has so piteously struck our country.

In these hours of great national distress, my thoughts go out to the wounded, the victims, particularly the children and the youth, and their families and loved ones.

In this moment of pain and of mourning, I must assure you of my absolute solidarity, and I address to families so cruelly tested, my sincere condolences and my deepest sympathies.

I also address my gratitude to all of the mobilized rescue teams for the remarkable work that they accomplish in extremely difficult conditions.

I would like to express my sincere thanks and encourage the tremendous wave of solidarity that all Haitians around the world are showing, and of which the international community is associating itself fully. This community should rest assured of my deep gratitude.

Faced yet again with this heavy and appalling toll inflicted on the people and the land of Haiti, the entire nation must mobilize to overcome these woes.

In spite of the gravity of the situation, I wish to tell you of my hope and my conviction that Haiti will once again find its way, thanks to an exceptional mobilization of the life forces of our country [and] with the assistance of the international community, the path toward a true reconstruction.

Haitian People, I know your extraordinary courage, selflessness, and the sacrifices that you are all capable of to save our country. The painful moments that we live are calling out to a sense of national sacrifice. In these particularly dramatic circumstances for our country, I must express all of my solidarity and my support.

I officially ask Swiss authorities to immediately transfer the entirety of the assets of the Foundation in the name of my late Mother Simone Ovide Duvalier ($8 million) to the American Red Cross with an eye toward bringing emergency assistance, primarily to the populations of the cities of Léogane—the birthplace of my late mother, Carrefourthe birthplace of my late father, and Port-au-Prince, where I was born, as well as Gressier, Pétion-Ville, Jacmel, les Cayes, Petit Goave, Grand Goave...

I have immediately taken measures so that an initial emergency aid of scope reaches Port-au-Prince as soon as possible, and a considerable benevolent network is mobilized to help the population in distress.

To the destitute families, to the homeless, to the affected areas, to the children and the youth, I send a broad message of fraternity (brotherhood) and of solidarity amid this very cruel test.

God save Haiti!

Until next time.

Jean-Claude Duvalier.

Paris, January 15, 2010.

Eric Pape has reported on Europe and the Mediterranean region for Newsweek magazine since 2003. He is co-author of the graphic novel Shake Girl, which was inspired by one of his articles. He is based in Paris. Follow him at twitter.com/ericpape

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Hook this crook: Democrats must kick Pedro Espada out of state Senate leadership

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Editorials

Thursday, January 14th 2010, 4:00 AM

It's increasingly obvious that state Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada is a taxpayer-fleecing, subpoena-ducking con artist.

If Senate Democrats want any credibility as ethics reformers, they need to strip him of his lofty title and privileges. Unless and until that happens, they're guilty of harboring a fugitive.

The case for shunning Espada became overwhelming yesterday when Attorney General Andrew Cuomo went public with fresh outrages from his probe of the Bronx pol.

Cuomo says he has evidence that Espada illegally siphoned money from his chain of nonprofit health clinics into a for-profit business he owned, which in turn he used to finance his 2008 Senate campaign. If the AG is right, this would mean Espada was lining his own pockets - and advancing his political career - with tax dollars meant to provide health care for the poor.

If that weren't bad enough, Espada is also stonewalling Cuomo by refusing to comply with subpoenas - after vowing full cooperation, of course.

That behavior alone justifies the Dems dumping him as majority leader.

Meanwhile, Espada remains in hot water for allegedly lying on grant applications to the state Health Department, for living in Westchester County instead of his Bronx district, for violating campaign finance laws - and the list goes on.

Those are just the pending probes. To review:

In 1996, he was punished for election fraud.

In 2002, during a previous Senate stint, he was caught funneling state money to his own clinics, which at the time were paying him more than $200,000 a year.

In 2004, three of his employees pleaded guilty to using clinic funds to finance (you guessed it) Espada's political campaign.

Clearly, this guy cannot help himself. But Senate Democrats can help themselves - if they undo the colossal mistake of putting a known crook in the upper echelons of their command.

Every day they tolerate him is another nail in their political coffins.

Evidence mounting of shady dealings by Sen Espada and his companies, court papers claim

Thursday, January 14th 2010, 9:37 AM

Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., pictured speaking on the steps of City Hall, is under increasing pressure to come clean about alleged financial irregularities involving his companies
Smith for News
Senate Majority Leader Pedro Espada Jr., pictured speaking on the steps of City Hall, is under increasing pressure to come clean about alleged financial irregularities involving his companies

ALBANY - Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office has found "extensive evidence" of potentially illegal and improper actions by embattled Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and the companies he controls, court papers show.

Portions of a potential legal case against Espada were outlined for the first time Wednesday in a bombshell filing, asking a judge to compel Espada to cooperate with a subpoena.

In papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Cuomo's office charged that Espada has not complied with a subpoena issued Aug. 25 to a management company he created and controls, Soundview Management Enterprises.

The for-profit company was created in late 2007 and hired early the next year for $33,000-a-month to provide janitorial services to Soundview HealthCare Network, which Espada also created.

According to the papers, Cuomo's office has been investigating Soundview's parent company, Comprehensive Community Development Corp., for nine months.

Espada, in a statement released by his office, dismissed the filing as "an Andrew Cuomo witch-hunt driven by his political ambitions."

But Cuomo's office in the filing says it has found "extensive evidence of potential violations" of the state not-for-profit corporation law by Soundview Healthcare and a number of its officers, including Espada, who is its president and CEO.

The contract between the senator's health care network and the management company "allowed Mr. Espada to effectively siphon off and otherwise divert money from Soundview (health centers) for Mr. Espada's own personal and political benefit," the papers say.

Documents obtained by Cuomo's office show that "significant portions" of the funds paid by Soundview to the management company went toward paying Espada's campaign expenses.

Such expenses included printing, campaign office rent, and personnel costs.

The papers allege that Soundview, either directly or indirectly through Espada's management company, paid expenses related to the senator's campaign and paid workers who were dispatched to work on the campaign - all in direct violation of not-for-profit laws.

The contract between Soundview and Espada's management company is also "improper," Cuomo's office alleges.

Espada's management company was paid $400,000 per year to provide maintenance services to Soundview, even though board minutes show no valid reason for the awarding of the contract, according to the court filing.

Before the contract was awarded, maintenance services were provided by Soundview itself.

Further, Cuomo's office is investigating potential labor law violations at Espada's management company, including a scheme to boost company profits at the expense of the employees.

Possible tax liability issues concerning Espada and his companies are also part of the probe, according to the paperwork.

Espada, though, claims he has turned over "tens of thousands of documents that were requested."

Calling himself the state's highest ranking Hispanic elected official, Espada injected ethnicity into the fight by accusing Cuomo of using him "as his personal political pinata."

"I will not be distracted by this," he said, citing a litany of legislative priorities that include ethics reform.

The Daily News last week reported that Cuomo stepped up his probe of Espada by issuing a new subpoena to the state Senate.

Cuomo's office is seeking a broad range of materials related to the Soundview Health Care Network and Espada's legislative member items, three sources said.

The subpoena, served to the secretary of the Senate's office, asks for information about Espada's financial disclosure forms and Senate expenses, the sources said.

It seeks all mobile communications like e-mails, text messages and cell phone records for Espada and his staff.

Investigators are believed to be probing how Espada operates Soundview, how the network is funded, and whether he mixed Senate expenses with his Soundview role.

There are also questions about whether Espada omitted information from financial disclosure forms filed with the state.

Espada last year gave $1.77 million in taxpayer money he controlled to the New Bronx Chamber of Commerce.

The organization asked for just $50,000 and ultimately rejected Espada's taxpayer-funded gift.

The gift came after Senate Democrats rejected Espada's bid for $2 million for two non-profits linked to Soundview, Green Eco. Energy Inc. and Bronx Human services Council Inc.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Cuomo Has 'Extensive Evidence' Of Illegal Actions By Espada

January 13, 2010 11:12 AM

By Elizabeth Benjamin




AG Andrew Cuomo's office has found "extensive evidence" of illegal and improper actions by embattled Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and the companies he controls, DN Albany Bureau Chief Ken Lovett reports.

Portions of a potential legal case against Espada were outlined this morning in a bombshell filing Cuomo's office made in Manhattan Supreme Court that asked a judge to compel Espada to cooperate with a subpoena.

In the papers, Cuomo's office charged that Espada has not complied with a subpoena issued Aug. 25 to a management company he created and entirely controls, Soundview Management Enterprises.

(This is not to be confused with the subpoena served by Cuomo on the Senate last week that sought information about Espada's member items as well as his financial disclosure forms, text messages and cell phone records).

The for-profit company was created in late 2007 and hired early the next year for $33,000 a month to provide janitorial services to Soundview HealthCare Network, which Espada also created and serves as its president and CEO.

According to the papers, which appear in full after the jump, Cuomo’s office has been investigating Soundview's parent company, Comprehensive Community Development Corp. for nine months.

Cuomo’s office says it has found “extensive evidence of potential violations” of the state not-for-profit corporation law by Soundview Healthcare and a number of its officers, including Espada, who is its president and CEO.

The contract between the senator's health care network and the management company "allowed Mr. Espada to effectively siphon off and otherwise divert money from Soundview (health centers) for Mr. Espada’s own personal and political benefit,” the papers say.

Documents obtained by Cuomo’s office show that “significant portions” of the funds paid by Soundview to the management company went toward paying Espada’s campaign expenses.

Such expenses included printing, campaign office rent, and personnel costs.

The papers allege that Soundview, either directly or indirectly, through Espada’s management company paid expenses related to the senator’s campaign and paid workers who were dispatched to work on the campaign - all in direct violation of not-for-profit laws.

The contract between Soundview and Espada’s management company is also “improper,” Cuomo’s office alleges.

Espada’s management company was paid $400,000 per year to provide maintenance services to Sound view even though board minutes show no valid reason for the awarding of the contract, according to the court filing.

Before the contract was awarded, maintenance services were provided by Soundview itself.

Further, Cuomo’s office is investigating potential labor law violations at Espada’s management company, including a scheme to boost company profits at the expense of the employees.

Possible tax liability issues concerning Espada and his companies are also part of the probe, according to the paperwork.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2010/01/cuomo-has-extensive-evidence-o.html#ixzz0cW9wMRxx