Of Politics And Homelessness

Of Politics And Homelessness (Updated)

May 14, 2009

A group of Democratic elected officials gathered on the City Hall steps today to decry the Bloomberg administration's decision to start charging the working homeless rent to spend the night at shelters and vowed to introduce legislation to stop the practice.

Interestingly, the bill, which will change the 1997 state law that requires the city to do this, will be carried in the Senate by Dan Squadron, who was endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg last fall; and Assemblyman Keith Wright, who was aggressively wooed by two mayoral aides who hoped to land his endorsement for their boss.

Squadron, who is vice chair of the Senate Social Services Committee, called the practice of dunning homeless people "penny wise and pound foolish." Asked if it puts him in an awkward position to oppose the mayor on this, Squadron replied:

"I have not spoken to the mayor about this. The mayor and I agree on a lot, but we don't see eye-to-eye on everything. I hope he supported me because he knew I would take positions on issues that I believed were right."

Squadron declined to say whether he will be endorsing Comptroller Bill Thompson, who was also present for the event, against Bloomberg, adding: "I haven't even thought about the mayor's race."

Wright was a bit more outspoken in his opposition to the mayor's homeless shelter policy, calling it "draconian," "absolutely inhumane" and "certainly something that needs to cease and desist right now."

When I asked whether this might influence his endorsement in the mayor's race, Wright replied:

"I wasn't going to endorse him anyway. I'm not endorsing him. And just because someone shakes your hand and exchanges pleasantries with you, which is a change from the old Giuliani administration, it doesn't mean that his policies are good or better than his predecessor, and we're trying to seek changes in those old policies that his predecessor wanted and put forward and that he s now enforcing."

Wright said he has every intention of endorsing Thompson, calling him "one of the smartest persons I've ever known," adding: "We were, actually, classmates in college, and he has done a wonderful job as city comptroller and I think he'll do an even better job as the mayor of the City of New York ."

UPDATE: To clear up the "why now" question. The state, in a 2007 audit, noted that the city did not "offset the cost of homeless shelter payments with client income, as required per (OTDA) regulations." The city sought a waiver from this requirement, but it was denied.

The city fought the audit conclusion up until this year. But then the state threatened to withhold money from the city if it did not comply, and then made good on that threat - to the tune of $2.4 million, according to the mayor's office. So the administration started collecting "rent" payments as of May 1.

Wright On Bloomberg and the Homeless, Endorsing Thompson from Elizabeth Benjamin on Vimeo.

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The Mayor Has Been Deposed

The Mayor Has Been Deposed (Updated)

May 14, 2009

Here is the most recent complaint filed in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's discrimination lawsuit brought against Bloomberg LP, in connection which Mayor Bloomberg spent much of the day being deposed by attorneys.

The mayor is not a defendant in the suit, which is alleged to have taken place after he left the company he founded to run his first campaign in 2001.

At issue, however, is whether Bloomberg is responsible for what the EEOC, which has brought the suit on behald of 80+ women who are past and current employees of the firm, claims was a "systemic, top-down culture of discrimination."

Also in question: Exactly how much contact Bloomberg has continued to have with top executives at his company despite the fact that he has insisted he is no longer involved in running it.

"Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg prides himself as a hands on, detail-oriented owner, businessman and now Mayor," said Richard Roth, an attorney who is representing two of the women.

"Plaintiffs, who are 80 former pregnant females, allege the improprieties were serious, systematic and pervasive throughout his company."

"We are seeking to determine if and when Mayor Bloomberg became aware of these issues, whether they were happening under his watch, and if so, what he did about them, if anything. We are also questioning Mayor Bloomberg’s relationship with the company for the time period after he left the company and became the Mayor of New York City, and during which time he continues to own an overwhelming majority of the company."

"Unfortunately, I cannot comment on his deposition testimony. However, I can say that we will seek to have a second day of his deposition."

The pertinent passages start on P. 4.

UPDATE1: Actually, what appears below is the first half of the complaint. The second half is here.

UPDATE2: A statement from Bloomberg's attorney appears after the jump.

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Brooklyn Democrat Vito Lopez emerges Assembly's top hog in handing out pork dollars

• All Sections

BY Glenn Blain AND Robert Gearty
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Friday, May 15th 2009, 4:00 AM

Brooklyn Democrat Vito Lopez was the Assembly's most generous pork giver this year.

Lopez doled out $3.2 million in member items, topping all other individual Assembly members - even Speaker Sheldon Silver, a spending analysis shows.

"That is surprising," said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group, which analyzed the Assembly spending.

Lopez declined to comment. His spokesman, Jonathan Harkavy, said the totals were skewed by two large allocations: $2.1 million for a statewide neighborhood preservation program and $742,000 to the city Housing Authority for a tenant security program.

Those programs are usually funded through normal budget appropriations, but the fiscal crisis forced the Assembly to use member items to keep the programs running, Harkavy said.

Lopez's pork also included four grants totaling $155,000 to the Ridgewood-Bushwick Senior Citizens Council, which he founded.

Silver (D-Manhattan) allocated more than $8 million in grants, but much of that was done jointly with other lawmakers. Acting alone, Silver distributed $2.6 million, the research group said.

Among the grants was $1 million to the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. The council's CEO, William Rapfogel, is married to Silver's chief of staff.

Silver has defended member item funding, saying it supports much-needed programs.

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Organized Crime Politics & Finance

Could AG Cuomo team up with Federal prosecutors to invoke the RICO Act and bring down the Pensiongate mob?

by Gary Tilzer

As prosecutors across the country continue to put the pieces together of the Pensiongate scandal, it is becoming increasingly apparent that pay-for-play is not just a few isolated incidents in New York, but a vast multi-state criminal conspiracy carefully orchestrated by corrupt powerbrokers. Only in this case it isn’t a don or The Five Families running the con, it’s top elected officials across the country and their politically connected cronies.

The comparison between the Pensiongate co-conspirators and the mafia isn’t far-fetched. But whereas Jimmy Hoffa opened the Teamsters’ pension fund to the mob in exchange for political influence, in this case, Hank Morris and Company allegedly used their insiders’ influence to enrich themselves and their politician friends upon state and city pension funds in New York, California, Texas, New Mexico – and likely more to come.

Despite the geographic distance between the states, there seems to have been little division among the Pensiongate perps when it came to pocketing the hard-earned money of union workers. With Attorney General Cuomo’s announcement yesterday that an associate of Hank Morris’s, Julio Ramirez, has pled guilty to securities fraud – likely in exchange for his testimony against Morris – we’re almost certain to learn more about Morris’s involvement in Pensiongate in the near future. What is clear, according to the Daily News, is that “Morris, the indicted top political aide to former state Controller [sic] Alan Hevesi, had his tentacles in public pension funds from sea to shining sea.”

Ramirez was the middleman between the company he worked for, Dan Weinstein’s Los Angeles-based Wetherly Capital, and Morris’s company Searle & Co. In exchange for securing Wetherly $50 million to invest from New York State’s $122 billion pension fund, Morris and Ramirez pocked $630,000 in fees.

But Morris got more than just a one-time fee for opening New York State’s pension coffers to Weinstein and Wetherly. According to ProPublica, Wetherly also shared fees with Morris’s company for helping a private equity firm seal three multimillion dollar deals with California funds. The funds were the California Public Employees’ Retirement System – the nation’s biggest pension fund – the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, and the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions.

ProPublica also reports that Wetherly, founded by Dan Weinstein, a prominent Democratic fundraiser in California and former union political operative there, has made $230,000 in political contributions since the firm opened in 2001. While at least $56,000 of this money went to board members of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) or “candidates for positions such as state controller or treasurer with a seat on the board”, Wetherly also made sure to give generously to the overseers of New York’s pension funds. Since 2005, Wetherly and its clients have given $50,000 in contributions to New York City Comptroller William Thompson, who sits on the boards of the five New York City pension funds, and largely controls how these funds are administered.

Since Alan Hevesi resigned at the end of 2006 as State Comptroller as part of a guilty plea involving (amazingly) a different scandal than Pensiongate, Wetherly sought to maintain strong ties to New York State’s pension fund by donating $2,500 to Hevesi’s successor, current State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. “The donation came seven months after a Wetherly client, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners of Los Angeles, won a $50 million commitment from the fund, records show. A DiNapoli spokesman said the donation has since been returned because it violated the comptroller’s personal ethics standards and that DiNapoli’s office was not aware of Wetherly’s connection to the corruption scandal “until their name showed up” in the indictment [of Hank Morris].”

The Morris-Weinstein alliance is just a single strand of the tangled web of corruption and criminality that has ensnared so many of the nation’s largest pension funds. In a statement yesterday, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo hinted at the tremendous scope of his probe, “This investigation has uncovered a matrix of corruption, which grows more expansive and interconnected by the day.”

So entwined are the cast of characters behind Pensiongate that you need one of those pyramidal charts the F.B.I. uses in movies to rank its ‘most wanted’ to keep track of all their connections. It is the sheer magnitude of Cuomo’s investigation that makes RICO a natural fit to prosecute Pensiongate. While invoking the RICO Act would mean that Cuomo would have to partner with Federal authorities and in so doing likely cede overall control of the investigation, it is appearing increasingly necessary for him to do so in order to bring so many perpetrators across so many states to justice.

While the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (or RICO) is best known as the government’s most powerful weapon against the mob, the law has a much wider scope and has been used in such wide-ranging prosecutions as the 1984 criminal corruption case against the Key West Police Department and the insider trading case that sent financier Michael Milken to prison. By definition, RICO applies not to a specific criminal act, but a pattern of criminal activity relating to “any enterprise affecting interstate or foreign commerce.”
Julio Ramirez’s guilty plea is an important missing link in proving just how organized the interstate criminal enterprise of the Pensiongate perps really was (and perhaps continues to be). Another long strand connecting Morris to some of the other principals in the Pensiongate scandal began with Ramirez. According to Cuomo’s office, Ramirez also introduced Morris to Saul Meyer, the founder of Dallas-based Aldus Equity, a private equity advisor to public pension funds in New York State, New York City, California, and New Mexico.

According to SEC securities fraud charges filed on April 30th by Attorney General Cuomo against Aldus Equity, Meyer’s company paid Morris $320,000 in exchange for Aldus bring picked to manage $175 million of New York State’s pension fund. As the Daily News reported, “Cuomo and the SEC said Aldus was picked after another firm wouldn't pay Morris… "Aldus was chosen by the pension plan because of Aldus' willingess to illegally line the pockets of others," said James Clarkson, acting director of the SEC's New York regional office.”

After securing the initial $175 million investment from the New York State pension fund, Aldus returned to Comptroller Alan Hevesi’s office in 2006, this time walking away with an additional $200 million, or $375 million in total. On this occasion, alleges Cuomo’s suit against Aldus, Alan Hevesi’s son, former State Senator Dan Hevesi was the beneficiary of the quid pro quo. In exchange for continued access to the New York State pension fund, Aldus recommended that a $25 million deal for Catterson Partners be approved in New Mexico, netting Dan Hevesi a $250,000 fee.

With so many rich and powerful players embroiled in this massive scandal, who then is the “boss of all bosses” among the Pensiongate family? Hank Morris? Alan Hevesi? Steven Rattner? Bill Richardson? Bill Thompson? That’s still not clear. In this case, it seems more than likely that rather than a godfather, there were several captains working in tandem on their respective turfs, similar to the arrangement the mafia brokered in 1957 at the infamous Apalachian Meeting. Regardless, as the investigation continues to unfold, we’ll have a clearer portrait of who among the alleged co-conspirators was taking orders and who was giving them.

State Senate gives Pedro Espada one week to file all campaign finance reports

• All Sections

By Barbara Ross
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, May 12th 2009, 4:00 AM

Related News

Articles

• AG to probe Bx. pols after exposé by News

State Sentate leaders Monday gave Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. one week to file all his campaign finance reports, citing a "recurring failure" to do so exposed by the Daily News.

Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith (D-Queens) also ordered the Bronx Democrat to pay related fines within one week.

Smith's move comes a day after The News reported that eight months after winning the Democratic primary, Espada still has yet to file a single campaign report. He should have filed six, and now owes $13,553 in fines.

Espada promised to comply - on his own timetable.

He said he'd file campaign finance reports by July and would pay his fines once he gets "notification" from the state Board of Elections about exactly how much he owes. The board has repeatedly notified him of his delinquency in paying the fines.

It was unclear late Monday if this response will satisfy Smith, who had threatened unspecified "immediate action" against Espada if he doesn't comply.

Smith's spokesman, Austin Shafran, said his boss - who was made majority leader with Espada's help and has known about Espada's delinquency for months - has not determined what, if any, disciplinary action to take.

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Daily News finds 2 Bronx lawmakers have cozy ties to nonprofit organizations

By Robert Gearty and Barbara Ross

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Sunday, May 10th 2009, 4:00 AM

Pedro Espada Jr., winner of the 2008 Democratic primary

for state Senate from the west Bronx.

Hermann for News

New York State Assemblyman Peter Rivera, represents the

76th Assembly District in the Bronx.

(Page 1 of 3)

Welcome to the Bronx - where allegations of corruption and collusion seem to grow on trees.

In a twin probe, the Daily News has found two Democratic state lawmakers with close campaign ties to nonprofit groups that use taxpayer funds. Federal law bars nonprofits from giving money or resources to political campaigns.

One, Sen. Pedro Espada Jr., dubbed the Bronx's "Teflon Pol," has repeatedly dodged charges of using a publicly funded health clinic for political purposes.

The other, Assemblyman Peter Rivera, sponsored nearly $1.3 million to a nonprofit whose employees helped his campaigns.

The probe follows The News' revelations that former Bronx Borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr. did not pay an architect who designed Carrion's home renovation. Carrion had approved zoning changes and sponsored $7 million in tax money for a project the architect designed.

Carrion, now a White House deputy, recently paid the bill — two years after the job was done and after The News exposed the arrangement.

Here's what The News found about Rivera and Espada.

Espada's pals at health clinic

Pedro Espada is in the middle of another campaign funding mess.

After years of ducking charges that he uses the resources of his Soundview Health Clinic to promote his political campaigns, the Daily News found a new crop of such allegations again last fall.

In a bruising race in which he defeated incumbent Sen. Efrain Gonzalez Jr., many Soundview employees, medical vendors and Espada relatives who work for the clinic gave to his campaign.

Espada campaign literature printed in full-color on glossy paper was mailed to the same voters who got remarkably similar literature from Soundview.

One clinic ad featured four pictures of Espada, including one identical to the campaign literature; the same bulk mailing permit number appears on both campaign and clinic pamphlets.

Espada's campaign staff distributed leaflets at the same time and locations as Soundview clinic health fairs where staff distributed free condoms and food, including granola bars stamped "Vote for Pedro Espada."

In an interview, Espada — dressed in a pink shirt with monogrammed French cuffs, powder blue floral tie and matching pocket hankie — scoffed at the idea he uses the clinic to get elected.

"Soundview Health Clinic does not participate in political rallies. We participate in health fairs," he said. When clinic staff distributed free food, "you did not need to be a registered voter or even a citizen" to get some, he added.

Espada's effort to distinguish between his political and medical careers comes after years of the two being inseparable.

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Attorney General Andrew Cuomo eyeing Pedro Espada Jr., Peter Rivera

BY Barbara Ross
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, May 11th 2009

• Dark underbelly of Bronx politics

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo will investigate whether two Bronx lawmakers used nonprofit groups they control in order to dance around campaign laws.

Responding to Sunday's Daily News "State of Shame" report, Cuomo said he will scrutinize the relationships state Sen. Pedro Espada Jr. and Assemblyman Peter Rivera have with separate non-profit groups, a source told The News.

State probers are poised to:

- Focus on employees of the Soundview health clinic Espada runs in the Bronx, who were convicted of using clinic resources to benefit Espada's campaigns.

- Question whether Rivera's campaigns illegally benefited from the Neighborhood Enhancement for Training Services. He steered $1.3 million in taxpayer money to the group, where his son and top political aides worked.

The NETS bought and renovated one now-empty building, but it remains a mystery where the bulk of the public money went.

Both Democratic politicians insist they've done nothing wrong.

At least six Bronx politicians are under investigation for misusing public money or shady real estate deals.

Soundview paid the legal bills of five employees convicted of working on Espada's campaigns while on the clinic's dime. The clinic was allowed to cover the legal bills, as long as the employees paid it back.

Espada insists the employees refunded the clinic for the legal bills. Cuomo plans to order an audit to determine if Espada is telling the truth.

bross@nydailynews.com

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May 10, 2009 10:45 am US/Eastern

Obama Pokes Fun At Himself, Dems And GOP

'Rush Limbaugh Does Not Count As Troubled Asset,' Obama Says

WASHINGTON (AP) ―

President Barack Obama poked fun at himself and the Washington establishment Saturday night

It was the hottest ticket in town, a black-tie dinner gathering of Washington's political and media elite but Dick Cheney couldn't make it.

The former vice president was busy, President Barack Obama joked, working on his memoir tentatively titled, 'How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People.'

As the star attraction of Saturday night's star-studded annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, Obama enjoyed poking fun at his critics and the Republican Party. But his own administration, in power for just over 100 days, was also a target of the president's playful digs and one-liners.

"I believe my next hundred days will be so successful that I will be able to complete them in 72 days," he said to a roar of laughter. "And on my 73rd day, I will rest."

His chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, Obama observed, always has a hard time on Mother's Day.

"He's not used to saying the word 'day' after 'mother,'" Obama said.

The chairman of Republican National Committee, Michael Steele, was "in the house tonight," Obama noted. "Or as he would say, 'In the heezy.'"

"Michael for the last time, the Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout," Obama told Steele. "Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset, I'm sorry."

Obama made light of his frequent use of a teleprompter and poked fun at Vice President Joe Biden's habit of speaking off the cuff. And about the Democratic Party, Obama said his administration has helped in "bringing in fresh, young faces — like Arlen Specter." The 79-year-old Pennsylvania senator, a former Republican, switched parties last month.

Obama noted that he and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had once been political rivals. "These days," he assured the gathering at the Washington Hilton ballroom, "we could not be closer."

"In fact the second she got back from Mexico, she pulled me into a hug and said I should go down there myself."

Near the end of his talk, Obama turned serious and spoke of the financially struggling media industry, praising journalists for holding government officials accountable. "A government without newspapers, a government without a tough and vibrant media of all sorts is not an option for the United States of America," he said.

The president was the night's big draw, but not the only comedian.

Comic actress Wanda Sykes, the dinner's entertainer, teased Obama for giving the Queen of England an iPhone during a recent visit. And she mocked first lady Michelle Obama for patting the queen on the back "like she just slid into home plate — way to go, queen!"

Proceeds from this year's event go to feeding the hungry and funding journalism scholarships.

The correspondents' association donated $23,000 — some of it saved by skipping formal dessert at the dinner — and raised another $75,000 from several major media organizations for two food banks, So Others Might Eat and Share Our Strength.

Funding for the journalism scholarships remained at $132,000 a year, an expanded level set in 2008.

Along with the reporters, the $200-per-ticket dinner attracted plenty of VIPs from outside the Beltway.

Among those attending were Eva Longoria Parker, Ashton Kutcher, Christian Slater, Natalie Portman, Sting, Mariska Hargitay, Steven Spielberg and Jon Bon Jovi. Also there was Richard Phillips, who was held hostage by Somali pirates after his cargo ship was attacked.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Exposed: NYC Senator Who Doesn't Live In NYC

CBS 2 HD Finds Out Truth About Sen. Espada: He Represents Bronx But Lives In Wealthy Westchester Town

Espada Criticized For Blocking Deals To Solve MTA Woes

Reporting
Marcia Kramer

NEW YORK (CBS)

A CBS 2 HD investigation has uncovered the fact that state Sen. Pedro Espada, who represents the Bronx, lives nowhere near the Bronx.

It's hard to call Pedro Espada a man of the people.

The state senator from the Bronx has blocked any deal to solve the Metropolitan Transportation Authority budget problems.

That's strange because from his residence in Bedford Park he'd need to hop on the D train for about an hour to catch a train from Penn Station to Albany.

But that's not a problem for Espada because as CBS 2 HD found out he actually lives in Mamaroneck -- outside his district.

Believe it or not the man trying to disguise himself by wearing an orange ski hat is State Sen. Espada -- and he didn't want to talk to CBS 2 HD in the worst way.

CBS 2 HD: "Excuse me Sen. Espada, I wonder if I could talk to you about the MTA …"

Espada: "Please … please … please."

And with that Espada slammed the door.

Espada was so intent on not being seen he held a baby in front of his face as he pulled out of his driveway in Mamaroneck.

And that's the rub. Espada represents a Bronx senate district, but he lives in a nearly $700,000 home in Mamaroneck, that has been in his family since the 1990s.

"He's there a long time. Yeah, he's there all week," neighbor Benny Protano said.

CBS 2 HD undercover video found cars registered to Espada parked in his Mamaroneck driveway at night and again the next morning, indicating that he slept in Mamaroneck.

Espada does own a co-op in the Bronx -- at 325 East 201st St.

Members of the co-op board told CBS 2 HD that while Sen. Espada owns an apartment there he doesn't live here.

"I have never seen him in the building, not ever. I do my laundry in the building. I come and go with my 1-year-old. Unfortunately, I've never seen him here," resident Erin Cicalese said.

What concerns Cicalese and others in the Bronx neighborhood is that Espada is one of a handful of senators holding up an MTA bailout. They feel that a man who spends his time living in a leafy Westchester County suburb can't relate with their fears of steep fare hikes and service cuts promised by the MTA.

"I think that someone who lives in Mamaroneck probably just doesn't understand how that's going to impact working class people who live in the Bronx," Cicalese said.

By living in Mamaroneck Espada may have violated the law. Election law expert Guy Parisi said the state constitution says a lawmaker must live in the district 12 months before he runs and while serving.

"You gotta live there. You have to have a presence there," Parisi said, adding you can't just visit there every once in a while. "Not at all. Not at all and comply with the law.

So just being registered in a certain place is not enough?

"No, its not. If you don't sleep there it is not your domicile," Parisi said.

Through a spokesman Sen. Espada admitted to owning the Mamaroneck house for 18 years, but he claimed the Bronx co-op is his primary domicile.

He also said that when he is in Albany one of his cars is "always parked outside" Mamaroneck or the Bronx because he can only drive one car at a time.

But during the time CBS 2 HD watched Espada's Mamaroneck house both his cars were parked there.

Sen. Espada protest at landlord luncheon

Thumbnails Detail Comments

Tenants make their way to the Water Club where Sen. Espada was the guest of honor at the landlord luncheon.	Michael McKee from Tenants PAC (in hat) joined tenants from across NYC to proclaim "Espada is no friend to tenants!"	Cue the 1980s song from R&B one hit wonder, Rockwell. The first poster to correctly identify the singing brothers on the backup vocals gets a rent abatement!
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Tenants protest Espada, chair of the State Senate housing committee, for opposing the repeal of vacancy decontrol.	"Espada, escucha, estamos en la lucha." Ray pee te por favor?	CBS Channel 2 on the "Grill Espada beat."
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Wishful thinking on the part of tenants. Puerto Rico, soy tuyo!	Housing Here & Now Exec. Director Michelle O'Brien negotiates with the NYPD.	WNYC interviews a tenant leader.
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An unidentified Espada staff member looks on with dismay (not to be confused with the reflection of our trusty cameraman Lucas).	About 15 tenants stormed the luncheon before being pushed out by police and Club managers.	Channel 2 claims that Espada is living in Westchester and not in his Bronx district. Espada is the only senator who does not have a district office.
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We have until June 22, 2009 to pass rent reform. Onward to Albany!	There are over 1 million rent-regulated apartments, representing the most successful and largest source of affordable housing in the city.	Tenants held a press conference outside the luncheon as landlords look on.
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Joeseph Ferdinand from the North West Bronx Community Clergy Coalition.	Tenant leaders who live in Pedro Espada's district denounced the senator's cozy relationship with landlords.	Acorn rallies the troops to push for real rent reform.
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