DaveRalis.com | The Daily Rant

Subprime mortgaging our future

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:34:16 PDT

You just knew George W. Bush wouldn't leave the White House without yet another calamity befalling our nation.

Now, Bush and his cronies want taxpayers to pay for the bad lending practices of investment bankers - to the tune of nearly $1 trillion.

You may quibble that the quoted price of backstopping Wall Street is actually an estimated $700 billion. But that's just the legislative limit.

Pessimists say absolving financial firms of their red ink could cost at least an additional $300 billion or possibly another $1.1 trillion.

And none of that money will go toward helping folks stay in their homes or prevent new foreclosures.

You might even say it can't be helped. That the plan is needed to avert a depression rivaling the great one that hobbled our nation in the 1930s.

I say that's not only inevitable now, but was highly predictable given the Enron and Worldcom scandals during Bush's first term and his continuing to hypocritically espouse "free markets" and deregulation while letting credit card companies charge usery rates and nearly eliminating personal bankruptcy protections.

Bailing out Wall Street at the expense of Main Street is yet another serious mistake from an administration that only makes historically big ones - like invading Iraq based on a lie.

After eight years of squandering our treasury and mismanaging our country with almost no Congressional oversight, Bush has already nearly doubled the national debt. And that's before this latest fiasco.

Don't believe me?

On the day Bush was sworn in, Jan. 20, 2001, the national debt stood at $5.7 trillion ($5,727,776,738,304.64 to be precise), according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Today, the debt stands at $9.7 trillion ($9,785,866,165,910.40).

We're told we can't afford to build new schools.

We're told we can't afford highway improvements and that we should sell them off to foreign companies.

We're told we can't afford national health care, and to push for it is tantamount to communism.

Yet, Bush is willing to print money and devalue the dollar to nothing - not to mention risk rampant inflation - for this?

But while Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are busy greenmailing Congress for the bailout - as if the $4.3 million Goldman Sachs spent lobbying this year wasn't enough - even members of the President's own party aren't buying the lie this time.

"This massive bailout is not a solution. It is financial socialism and it's un-American," Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky, said today.

The Hall of Fame pitcher (and former Philadelphia Phillie) certainly should know a spit ball when he sees one.

Where the hell have you been?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:56:49 PDT

Dear readers,

Sorry I haven't written sooner. Been a bit busy. Changed real jobs recently, moving from phillyBurbs.com to Philly.com.

There were lots of reasons for the change and I won't go into them all here. If you know me, ask me sometime over a beer.

Needlesstosay, I've gone from the suburbs of my youth to the city of my birth after years in the gun and Bible clinging hinterland of northeast Pennsylvania. Thanks Barack Obama for reducing my career even more than I did.

President Bush takes a laissez-faire approach with the economy (except when banks threaten failure after making bad loans.)

I used to take one with my career.

Que sera, sera.

I'll be back writing again soon. We've got lots to talk about.

I apologize Mr. DeWeese

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:16:42 PDT

Only my second blog back from a long hiatus and I find myself unprecentedly apologizing to the still-somewhat-honorable H. William DeWeese, majority leader of the Pennsylvania House.

Not bad.

DeWeese was not indicted by a state grand jury last week as another blogger predicted he might be.

Instead, state Attorney General Tom Corbett completed the first phase of his investigation by filing charges against former Beaver County legislator Mike Veon, Rep. Sean Ramaley, D-Beaver, and 10 former or suspended House Democratic staffers for taxpayer-funded bonuses paid to legislative staffers for campaign work as well as other political work done on the taxpayers' dime.

All were arraigned in Harrisburg on Friday.

Among them was Mike Manzo, DeWeese's former chief of staff, who also faces charges of handing a do-nothing job to Angela Bertugli, a former office intern he was "shtupping," as Inquirer columnist Stu Bykofky called it.

The Pittsburgh Tribune Review has even run a profile of the former small-town beauty queen. In that article, DeWeese, the loquacious House party leader and family friend who brought Bertugli to Harrisburg, was at a loss for words. "I'm heartbroken," he said Friday in an e-mail to the newspaper.

Before you go feeling sorry for the guy, factor this into your thinking:

DeWeese and Veon were the only two state representatives who voted against repealing the pay raise lawmakers gave themselves in 2005.
They have also been among the chief supporters of casino gambling in Pennsylvania and were important cogs in the fledgling industry's lobbying and campaign contribution efforts.
DeWeese has said he acted aboveboard in all matters and expects to be cleared. He has portrayed himself, in public statements and through subordinates, as a hands-off leader who left the details to Veon, according to the Tribune-Review.

That's karma, Bill. What you put out into the ether will inevitably come back and bite hard.

I don't know whether to congratulate Corbett for not overreaching and arraigning DeWeese without the Bonusgate evidence to back it up, or whether another prosecutorial shoe may eventually drop from the Feds.

Lord knows, it would be long overdue. Slotsylvania needs an anema, not just a sex scandal.

That's because Corbett, who eyes the governors' mansion himself, accepted at least $35,000 in campaign contributions from a now-indicted slots parlor owner, Louis DeNaples, while running for attorney general.

Corbett says he won't give the money back unless DeNaples is convicted of lying to the state Gambling Control Board about his association with two mob bosses and two political fixers.

The Bonusgate scandal is but an ice cube compared to the titantic iceberg of legalized corruption the DeNaples case represents. Not only did Corbett, the state's top law enforcement officer, take money from DeNaples, so did Gov. Ed Rendell, judges, lawmakers and party leaders on both sides of the aisle.

In fact, DeNaples spread more than $1 million in campaign cash around in the years running up to the midnight passage of the 2004 law that legalized slot machine gambling in Pennsylvania and his eventual state license to operate the $415 million Mount Airy Casino Resort in the Poconos.

However, the Dauphin County District Attorney's case against the Dunmore billionaire isn't proceeding nearly as fast as DeNaples' case against him and the media.

To prove their assertion that grand jury leaks have tainted the case against their client, DeNaples' lawyers have subpoenaed 15 reporters from six news organizations - including 10 from The Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News. Lawyers for the news organizations have asked the judge to throw out all the subpoenas for journalists, saying that the state's shield law protects them from having to identify confidential sources.

The shield law states that no reporter "shall be required to disclose the source of any information procured or obtained by such person, in any legal proceeding, trial or investigation before any government unit."

On top of this travesty taking place in a mysteriously closed court, DeNaples' attorney, former federal prosecutor Sal Cognetti Jr., was able to legally obtain the cell phone records for the Dauphin County district attorney, his chief deputy, and two troopers assigned to an organized-crime unit without telling the prosecutors or police.

Francis Chardo, the first assistant prosecutor in Dauphin County and one of the prosecutors whose records were disclosed, was outraged. "This could get somebody killed," Chardo said of the precedent being set.

Cognetti successfully prosecuted DeNaples for felony fraud as an assistant U.S. attorney back in the '70s. He was also one of two law enforcement officials to vouch for him when he applied for his slots parlor license.

The other was U.S. Attorney Thomas Marino, who was supposed to be building a new federal case against DeNaples when the former felon used him as a reference for his casino license. Marino then quit his public post and joined DeNaples' legal team.

The biggest story never told?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 07:23:37 PDT

Pssst. Hey Slotsylvania, I'm back. No, that isn't the big news. Just thought I'd give myself a plug for a second.

The biggest news story ignored by the state media over the July 4th holiday weekend was the reported indictments of state House Majority Leader H. William "Bill" DeWeese and Mike Veon, a former House Minority Whip and Democratic rat-fucker turned casino and tobacco lobbyist after voters threw him out of office.

So far, blogger and writer Bill Keisling is the only one to have part of the story, noting, "Prosecutors are expected to make public the charges against Majority Leader DeWeese and others within the next week or so."

Guess, they didn't want to interfere with all those good news cycles over the holiday weekend about Pennsylvania leaders actually passing a budget on time for a change. Or step on the tear-stained shoes of departing state Sen. Vince Fumo, who left the public stage last week amid health concerns and a federal indictment of his own to fight.

Of course, that could just be my "the incompetent media is a conspiracy" theory. Nobody else has printed a glimmer about the potential grand jury indictments since last month, according to a Google news search.

But I'm willing to give Keisling the benefit of the doubt on this - and apologize later if need be. The novelist and owner of yardbird.com previously broke the news that Gov. Ed Rendell had secretly hired his former law firm, Ballard Spahr, to handle the closed-door bidding and now-dead long-term leasing of the Turnpike.

According to Keisling, a grand jury investigation into legislative bonuses has blossomed into a wide-ranging inquiry throughout state government.

DeWeese and Veon, the only two nitwits to vote against repealing the 2005 legislative pay raise (before DeWeese caved and left Veon hanging), are probably being named because of allegations they paid taxpayer-funded bonuses to their legislative staffers for performing political work.

If true, the two main architects behind slot machine gambling in Pennsylvania - and the chief forces pushing for full casino gambling - are now both politically tainted. And suddenly, the governor finds himself and his staff answering a lot of tough questions about corruption.

DeWeese has said he acted aboveboard in all matters and expects to be cleared. He has portrayed himself, in public statements and through subordinates, as a hands-off leader who left the details to Veon, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

I should be ecstatic. For years now, I've been calling for someone - preferably the Feds - to do this very same thing. However, I'll stop just short of singing Handel's "Hallelujah!" chorus.

That's because state Attorney General Tom Corbett, the guy who may be driving this freewheeling grand jury with an eye on the governor's chair (You reading me Pat Meehan?), has already painted himself with the same corrupt brush with which Rendell has become a master.

Rendell, a Democrat, and Corbett, a Republican, both accepted large political contributions from Dunmore billionaire and former federal felon Louis DeNaples in the run-up to the awarding of his slots license.

A Dauphin County grand jury indicted DeNaples last year for lying to the state Gaming Control Board about his alleged ties to organized crime figures. The local prosecutor was given Corbett's blessing, even though the state's chief law enforcement officer has a seven-attorney corruption taskforce in part because of legalized slots gambling.

State campaign finance records are shoddy even though they're computerized public records. But my research found Gov. Ed Rendell received at least $115,000 from DeNaples in campaign donations between 2000 and 2004, and Corbett, the state's top prosecutor, accepted at least $35,000.

Spokesmen for both officials have said they won't give the money back unless DeNaples is convicted. Other recipients of DeNaples' contributions included top state lawmakers, party groups and judges.

Cappy: High court collusion claims 'preposterous'

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:05:38 PDT

Slotsylvania former chief justice Ralph Cappy plans to vigorously defend himself from a lawsuit filed by the League of Women Voters, telling the Associated Press its allegation that he negotiated a deal to exchange judicial raises for state Supreme Court approval of a 2004 law legalizing slot machines is "preposterous."

The lawsuit filed Monday by the League reiterates many of the assertion raised in a 2006 suit filed by the League and Common Cause, alleging the high court played tit-for-tat with lawmakers, bartering favorable rulings for more funding and pay hikes.

That case was chucked out by a federal judge, who erroneously claimed the issue was made moot when the pay raises passed in 2005 were rescinded after a public outcry. However, the Supreme Court later ruled that the while the Legislature had the power to raise judicial salaries, it did not have the power to lower them. So, the state judges got their pay raises after all.

The League's new suit cites comments from an anonymous state senator as proof that the one or more justices traded or used as leverage a favorable ruling in the previous lawsuit as part of secret negotiations between Cappy and legislative leaders.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille said in a statement that the League's new suit "slanders the entire Supreme Court of Pennsylvania with baseless and irresponsible charges." House Republican leader, Sam Smith of Jefferson County, said the league "should be ashamed to be involved in this kind of speculation and abuse of process."

The evidence may be flimsy, but I have no doubt it happened.

Cappy was way too involved with the pay raise issue, openly admitted to closed door discussions with top lawmakers, wrote opinion pieces for newspapers in favor of it and eventual had to recuse himself from the judicial pay raise case.

Why else do you think the Supremes let stand the slots law, whose passage clearly violated the state Constitutional provision requiring a public comment period and three approvals on the floor of the House?

The 145-page slots bill was inserted into an unrelated two paragraph measure requiring background checks for harness racing employees which had already been approved twice by the House. It was then brought to the floor late at night, without any debate on the eve of a July 4 holiday recess.

That's the main reason why I now call this state Slotsylvania, because we have the best justice and laws that lobbying money can buy.

But don't take my word for it. To read the lawsuit for yourself in pdf format, click here.

Highway robbery

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:38:43 PDT

Sorry folks. I was forced to take the last month off from blogging here to concentrate on some work projects as well as to fix some server issues.

And although I'm dead dog tired tonight, it seems fitting for me to make my return on the very day Gov. Ed Rendell flouted Pennsylvania's normal processes by accepting secret bids to lease the turnpike away for 75 years.

Fast Eddie did more shoveling during his press conference Monday to "unveil" the three bids than he would have if he was breaking ground for a new highway.

Not that the state will ever gain enough money to do that from the $12.8 billion high bid submitted by Abertis Infraestructuras, a Spanish group that operates highways in Europe, and Citigroup Inc., the biggest U.S. bank by assets.

Rendell openly admitted the state won't get anywhere near the $1.7 billion annually it needs to fix its decrepit highways and bridges - a testament to how poorly Rendell and the Legislature have run things.

Yet, Rendell said, "To me it seems like a slam dunk." Kind of like the Bush Administration's initial assessment of invading Iraq.

Only in Pennsylvania could the governor get away with bypassing the voters without a referendum, run a secret bidding process and then make legislators choose between accepting the winning lease or new tolls on Interstate 80.

Although this is the largest highway ever to be privatized, we still don't know how many unionized state workers will be laid off instead of actually fixing the turnpike.

What a bad joke. Here's hoping the lawmakers see through this scheme that only enriches the bond counsels - and the lawyers of Rendell's former law firm - while turning Pennsylvania into a banana republic.

LWV files another federal lawsuit over slots

The League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania sued Ralph Cappy, the former state Supreme Court chief justice on Monday, alleging that the high court upheld the state's slot-machine gambling law in exchange for approval of a judicial pay raise, according to the Associated Press.

The 17-page suit cites an allegation by an unnamed senator that Cappy told legislators of one particular caucus during a meeting that "he needed the pay raise to secure the votes of Republican justices" on cases important to them.

Cappy, who was too chicken to stand for a retention election and retired from the bench on Jan. 6, did not immediately respond to a message left at his Pittsburgh law office Monday.

This isn't the first time this allegation has been raised. The league joined with Common Cause in suing Cappy, Rendell and top lawmakers in 2006, arguing that they played tit-for-tat, exchanging pay raises for a judicial rubberstamp on a 2004 law legalizing slot machines that was illegally approved.

State lawmakers gutted an existing bill that had already been approved twice and then forced the bill to the floor for a vote without the required public comment period late at night on the eve of a July 4 holiday recess in 2004.

But U.S. Middle District Judge Yvette Kane dismissed the case without prejudice and without ruling on its merits. Instead, she said the whole matter was moot because the Legislature was forced to rescind the pay raises after a public outcry.

She was wrong.

While the lawmakers' pay raises were rescinded later in 2005, the state Supreme Court - sans Cappy who recused himself - forced the state to continue them for all judges, including themselves.

The League was dead-set against slots gambling and remains firm against further expansion. Its lawsuit comes as the House may take up a bill (H.B. 2121) next month from Majority Leader H. William DeWeese that would turn the state's 14 slots parlors into full fledged casinos.

The effort to approve table games is moving forward even though perjury charges have been filed against slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples for lying about his ties to mob bosses and political fixers.

DeNaples, a Dunmore billionaire and former federal felon, reportedly gave more than $1.1 million to the campains of top state politicians - including at least $115,000 to Rendell, at least $35,000 to state Attorney General Tom Corbett and hundreds of thousands more to key lawmakers and party groups on both sides of the aisle, including some publicly opposed to slot machines - to get slots gambling legalized in 2004 and to buy enough influence to get his own license two years later.

Reputed mob boss likely turning state's evidence in Slotsylvania

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 18:27:44 PDT

I've long dreaded this weird, but important moment in Slotsylvania history - and I'm not talking about the nation's temporary focus on this state for the heated Democratic primary in the U.S. presidential race.

Reputed Northeastern Pennsylvania mob boss Billy D'Elia pleaded guilty today to just one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of witness tampering. He had been facing nearly two dozen counts as a result of a federal investigation.

D'Elia, 61, was charged in May 2006 with laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug proceeds and five months later additional charges were added after he tried to have a witness in the case killed.

His attorney, James Swetz, declined to tell the Associated Press whether there was a plea agreement or whether D'Elia agreed to cooperate in other cases.

However, D'Elia has testified once already, in front of a Dauphin County grand jury last year. It then recommended perjury charges against Mount Airy Casino Resort owner Louis DeNaples and took the unusual step of asking for reforms to the state's slots gambling system.

The DeNaples case is beginning to rock Slotsylvania to its political core, leading some Republican state lawmakers to call for a special bipartisan committee with subpoena power to investigate his licensing.

The Dunmore billionaire and former federal felon reportedly gave more than $1.1 million to the state's top politicians - including at least $115,000 to Gov. Ed Rendell, at least $35,000 to state Attorney General Tom Corbett and hundreds of thousands more to key lawmakers and party groups on both sides of the aisle, including some publicly opposed to slot machines - to get slots gambling legalized in 2004 and to buy enough influence to get his own license two years later.

Asked by the Scranton Times-Tribune in 2006 why he gave so many campaign contributions to the state's top brass, the landfill owner, banker and auto parts dealer replied, "It's more like building a customer base and spreading goodwill. It's business."

To date, the governor and the state's top prosecutor have publicly refused to return DeNaples' money, saying through their government-hired spokesmen that DeNaples is innocent until proven guilty.

Meanwhile, DeNaples spent $67,375 last year on lobbyists to sway lawmakers into passing a bill to turn the state's 14 slots parlors into full fledged casinos. That bill, H.B. 2121, was written by House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese but has been stuck in the Gaming Oversight Committee for more than a year.

Corbett and his seven-attorney government corruption unit are not prosecuting DeNaples. Instead, Corbett says he let Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marisco do it.

DeNaples, 67, has long been rumored to have had mob connections, and was even cited in a report of the now-defunct Pennsylvania Crime Commission. He has denied any wrong doing.

DeNaples has hired high-priced lawyers and a spokesman with ties to the governor to defend him. They've launched a public smear campaign with lead defense attorney, Richard Sprague of Philadelphia, citing grand jury leaks to the media as proof Marsico is headline grabbing. The county prosecutor denies the assertion.

Swetz, D'Elia's attorney, has previously said his client would have been willing to testify before the Gaming Control Board before DeNaples was licensed, but was never subpoenaed.

Former control board chairman Tad Decker, a college buddy of Gov. Rendell who appointed him, has said he was told D'Elia would refuse to cooperate if called, but refused to say who told him.

Decker has also publicly denied testimony from state police Commissioner Jeffrey Miller that he knew or should have known state police were investigating DeNaples for perjury before the Gaming Control Board voted unanimously to grant him a license on Dec. 20, 2006.

Decker's old law firm, Cozen O'Connor, which he has since returned to head, was subsequently hired by DeNaples to handle the financing of his slots parlor.

DeNaples was indicted Jan. 30, 2008, three months after opening his $412 million slots parlor at the site of the former Mount Airy Lodge, a once-famous lover's resort. The Gaming Control Board has since barred DeNaples from his own casino and his share of its proceeds until the charges are resolved.

The grand jury found DeNaples lied to the control board behind closed doors about his relationship with D'Elia; D'Elia's former boss, the late mafia don Russell Bufalino; and two corrupt political fixers in Philadelphia, based partly upon D'Elia's testimony and federal wiretaps.

D'Elia is said to be a mediator among mob families. The Feds say he met frequently with Philadelphia mobsters and had frequent contacts with western Pennsylvania and New York families.

DeNaples told the Gaming Control Board that he and D'Elia were merely acquaintances. But D'Elia told the grand jury they've been long-time friends, even to the point where DeNaples attended his daughter's wedding.

Attorneys for DeNaples dispute D'Elia's assertion, claiming he lied to the grand jury. As proof, Sprague has cited D'Elia's claim that DeNaples gave him his late father's rosary beads as a symbol of their friendship. The beads were buried with the elder DeNaples, Sprague told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

DeNaples' spokesman, Kevin Feeley, on Friday accused prosecutors of giving D'Elia a sweetheart deal in exchange for his testimony against DeNaples.

"It's clear to us that he's getting a deal to cooperate because he's the foundation of their case," Feeley said. "It is stunning that the government would agree to give a deal to a guy who allegedly tried to murder a witness."

Feeley also called D'Elia a liar. "It's clear he's willing to say anything if it helps him get a deal."

U.S. Attorney Martin Carlson declined to respond to Feeley's accusations Friday, issuing a press release that thanked state and federal law enforcement officials but said little about D'Elia's plea. He cited "sealing orders" entered by the court as his reason.

DeNaples' perjury case has yet to be scheduled for trial. His attorneys have asked the state Supreme Court to intervene, arguing Marsico overstepped his authority and the grand jury that issued the indictment was not properly empanelled.

D'Elia will be sentenced in June, when we may find out what, if any, deal he cut. He now faces up to 30 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

On DeNaples' legal team, but away from the criminal case involving DeNaples, are four former federal prosecutors.

One of them is former Assistant U.S. Attorney Sal Cognetti Jr., who successfully prosecuted DeNaples for a government fraud conspiracy 30 years ago. He is now defending DeNaples' friend, the Rev. Joseph Sica, who also faces perjury charges. The grand jury claimed the Scranton priest lied to them about DeNaples' mob ties.

DeNaples also hired former U.S. Attorney Tom Marino, Carlson's predecessor. who was supposed to be building a federal case against DeNaples in 2006 when he secretedly vouched for his good character as a law enforcement reference on DeNaples' slots parlor license.

Marino recused himself from the federal probe when word of his support of DeNaples leaked last year. He later resigned to take a job as DeNaples' in-house counsel.

DeNaples also hired Peter Vaira, a former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, and J. Alan Johnson, a former U.S. attorney in Pittsburgh, to assure the control board that DeNaples had no relationships with organized crime figures.

MORE ABOUT BILLY D'ELIA AND LOUIS DENAPLES
For more about Louis DeNaples and to read my complete take on this long-predicted Slotsylvania snafu, click here. For more about Billy D'Elia, click here.

Spinning the wheels of injustice in Slotsylvania

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 19:33:04 PDT

I couldn't resist writing that headline after reading today's editorial in the Towanda Daily Review, which calls Pennsylvania's slots parlor licensing system "a game of chance in terms of reliability and integrity" because of the Louis DeNaples mess.

"The scandalous failure of several state agencies to cooperate, as the Gaming Control Board considered Dunmore businessman Louis DeNaples' application to operate the Mount Airy Casino Resort, must be the last such breach of the public trust."

I'll go that paper one step further and say it should never have happened in the first place.

It wouldn't have, had state law had prevented the billionaire from buying more than $1.1 million worth of influence among the state's top politicians despite his admitted federal felony in 1978.

Gov. Ed Rendell accepted at least $115,000 and state Attorney General Tom Corbett took at least $35,000 from DeNaples in campaign contributions. Neither will give it back now that DeNaples has been indicted for perjury.

A Dauphin County grand jury found he lied to the state Gaming Control Board during his closed-door licensing hearing about his relationship with two reputed mob bosses and two corrupt political fixers. DeNaples has denied any wrongdoing, but has been barred from his own casino pending the outcome of the criminal case.

Republican lawmakers, who are in the minority in the state House, have started a call for reforming the state's four-year-old law legalizing slot machine gambling. They also want a bipartisan committee to investigate DeNaples' licensing.

However, the bill to create that committee, House Resolution 652, still isn't posted online for the public to read. Is it any wonder that the Republicans are also decrying largely partisan efforts to block them?

"For all the grousing by lawmakers about the regulatory failure, they are responsible for creating a structure that compromised the independence of the investigative machinery responsible for licensing investigations and, potentially, of board members themselves," the Daily Review's editorial says.

I couldn't agree more.

Legalized gambling was a major change in Pennsylvania and should have been put to the voters in the form of a referendum. Instead, it was snuck into existence by gutting an existing bill and then ramrodded through the Legislature in the middle of the night on the eve of a July 4 holiday recess.

The newspaper also says, "Reforms now will be crucial not only regarding the determination of licenses for the remaining slots parlors authorized by the law, but for the inevitable future expansion of the gambling industry."

I dispute the inevitability of further gambling expansion.

Although House Bill 2121 is already pending to turn the 14 slots parlors - seven of which are already operating - into full casinos, Slotsylvania has yet to provide statewide property tax reductions for all homeowners, much less real tax reform.

Funding those tax cuts was the alleged public good behind slot machine gambling in the first place. Just because our lawmakers spend like drunken sailors and are now addicted to this revenue stream doesn't mean we should further feed their addiction. That's how New Jersey landed in budget trouble despite 30 years of gambling in Atlantic City.

Yet, even as America teeters on the edge of a recession, Pennsylvania's slots parlors continue to reap big profits. "What does this tell us?" state Rep. Paul Clymer (R-Bucks County) wrote in a letter to the editors of multiple newspapers today.

"It tells me that the path to addiction has a stronger hold on recreational gamblers than previously thought, because even though more and more people are carpooling, dining in and forgoing luxury vacations in an effort to save money, they are still spending money on the one-armed bandits."

The letter from Clymer, the minority chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee, also calls for passage of his own bill, H.B. 783. It would require "each licensed gaming entity that offers patrons total rewards cards that track the amount of money and time spent gaming in order to determine the value of provisions or complimentary services to their patrons issue monthly statements that list patrons' gaming winnings and losses."

Clymer's bill has been stuck in his own committee for more than a year now. In fact, the oversight committee hasn't passed a single slots reform bill in that time under Chairman Harold James (D-Philadelphia).

"I encourage all citizens, as we face a sluggish economy and rising unemployment rates, to be smart about their finances and stick to a budget when it comes to recreational expenses," Clymer wrote. "Your money is better spent elsewhere than at a multi-billion dollar casino that has the odds in its favor...."

MORE ABOUT LOUIS DENAPLES
For more about Louis DeNaples and to read my complete take on this long-predicted Slotsylvania snafu, click here.

Smaller Slotsylvania cities may get some hush money

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 15:34:26 PDT

A Senate committee that regulates Pennsylvania's slot machine parlors unanimously approved a bill that will give smaller Pennsylvania cities and towns, like Scranton and Johnstown, a taste of the gambling profits before Philly and Pittsburgh can grab more.

The 2004 slots law mandated 5 percent of annual slots revenue go into a fund for economic development and tourism. Much of the money is already going to pay for the Philadelphia Convention Center expansion, improvements at Pittsburgh International Airport and constructing the new Pittsburgh Penguins hockey arena.

So much so, that Philly and Pittsburgh can't get a quarter more from the fund for another 10 years.

However, a bill penned by state Sen. John Wozniak (D-Cambria) and approved by the Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee on Monday would change that portion of the law from a 10-year wait, to requiring that up to $1.5 billion of slots revenue be split up among other municipalities before the state's two largest cities can claim more of the fund.

That's one way to keep the rest of the state from getting too jealous and reconsidring its stance on legalized gambling. Hush money in its truest sense for the land between the two large cities, which James Carville has called Alabama.

Or as Wozniak told Times-Shamrock newspapers, "The bill adds another layer of confidence for small-town Pennsylvania that big cities will not again jump ahead of them in line for help with projects." .

His bill must now clear the Senate Appropriations Committee before it can be called for a vote.

Meanwhile, the two large cities are still far from gambling meccas. Pittsburgh's slots parlor - Majestic Star - isn't slated to open until mid-2009 and the opening of two Philadelphia casinos, Foxwoods and SugarHouse, is delayed by neighborhood opposition.

In fact, the whole Louis DeNaples licensing mess may long be over before Philly's casinos start raking in the dough. Not

Candidates looking to replace retiring state Sen. Vince Fumo (D-Philadelphia), one of the architects of the slots law, are all over the place on the matter.

The lone Republican running, Jack Morley, wants both slots parlors built immediately, according to the Philly Daily News.

Among the Democrats: Community activist Anne Dicker, who helped found Casino-Free Philadelphia, doesn't want them build them at all. Attorney Larry Farnese wants public hearings on possibly moving them someplace else in the city. And union business manager John Dougherty wants the neighbors satisfied before the slots parlors are built.

The trio will face each other in the April 22 primary.

Pressure building in Slotsylvania House for DeNaples probe

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:44:52 PDT

"It seems like we're not getting the truth here," state Rep. Curt Schroder (R-East Brandywine) told the Daily Local News of Chester County last week.

That's why Shroder and other Republican lawmakers are throwing in behind House Resolution 652. It reportedly calls for creating a select committee with subpoena powers to to examine the process that awarded a state license to indicted slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples.

I'd love to link directly to the resolution and tell you all about it.

But in typical Slotsylvania fashion, HR 652 still isn't posted online for the public to read. It isn't among a list of pending resolutions even though 12 others have been added since it was introduced last week.

That isn't what's supposed to happen when something controversial gets introduced in the Legislature. Just look at this example, which also happens to reference a fictional House Bill 652.

If passed by the House, HR 652 would reportedly create a select committee composed of 10 members, including the majority and minority chairs of the Gaming Oversight Committee, two appointments each from the majority and minority leaders, and four appointments by the speaker - two Republicans and two Democrats.

The committee would hold hearings, take testimony and issue subpoenas to compel testimony or produce documents, records or other information deemed appropriate.

Any person appearing before the committee would be put under oath or affirmation. Any person refusing to testify or produce requested records would be subject to penalties. The committee would have 90 days to complete its work.

That work is includes figuring who was telling the truth: State Police Commissioner Jeffrey B. Miller, who testified on March 4 that the state Gaming Control Board knew or should have known DeNaples was under investigation for perjury before he was granted a license, or former Control Board Chairman Thomas "Tad" Decker who has publicly stated they didn't.

The board unanimously approved a license for DeNaples on Dec. 20, 2006, ignoring DeNaples' near-three-decades old felony, a complaint that he sold a Hurricane Katrina-wrecked tractor trailer for hauling instead of scrap as well as his rumored ties to mob figures.

DeNaples was indicted Jan. 30 on four charges of lying to the gaming board about his relationship with two reputed Northeastern Pennsylvania mob bosses and two corrupt political fixers in Philadelphia.

He has denied any wrong-doing, but has been barred from his own $412 million Mount Airy Casino and its profits.

"I think we have to get to the bottom of this," said Shroder, a member of the House Gaming Oversight Committee. We can't just say, 'Oh, we'll do better next time.' We really have to restore the public's confidence in this whole operation."

Shroder could start by asking state Rep. Harold James (D-Philadelphia), the majority chairman of the oversight committee, why he hasn't called for hearings himself. Or ask James why the committee hasn't moved a single slots gambling reform bill in more than a year.

Ditto for state Sen. Jane Earll, an Erie Republican who heads the Senate Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee and has similarly stymied reform efforts there.

Earll also stopped an effort last October to put state police in charge of slot licensee background investigations, saying, "I don't see any glaring problems that have been brought to light by today's testimony that we need to rush to fix."

As The Citizens Voice of Wilkes-Barre said in its editorial on Sunday, "Finding the truth is a matter of accountability to the public."

MORE ABOUT LOUIS DENAPLES
For more about Louis DeNaples and to read my complete take on this long-predicted Slotsylvania snafu, click here.

Billion dollar Ed's no-bid contracts anger lawmakers

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:19:37 PDT

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has awarded more than $1 billion worth of state contracts to private companies - including hiring his former law firm to handle the secret leasing of the state turnpike - without going through a public bidding process, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reported Sunday.

Even worse, the money spent by Rendell between 2003 and 2008 cannot be compared to the spending of previous governors because state officials say they can't find the records, the newspaper reported.

What makes Rendell's practice different than his predecessors is the large dollar value of today's no-bid contracts, his unwillingness to disclose certain details and a May 2007 contract to his former practice, Ballard, Spahr, Anderson & Ingersoll, for $1.8 million.

The Ballard Spahr hiring has become a lightning rod in the past week with an increasing number of lawmakers questioning the contract not only because of Rendell's relationship to Ballard Spahr, but also because two former Rendell aides now are Ballard Spahr partners - brothers-in-law Adrian King and John Estey.

Estey was Rendell's chief of staff and a senior adviser until last month and King was deputy chief of staff until 2005. Estey, as chief of staff, recommended hiring Ballard Spahr, according to Rendell's General Counsel Barbara Adams. King now is working on the turnpike lease for the law firm in secret.

Rendell has defended the hiring, saying the firm is uniquely qualified because the company has experience in tax-related issues. Adams said she selected the firm because it is a Pennsylvania firm and because of its reputation. She said she was not told by the governor to hire Ballard Spahr.

House Minority Leader Sam Smith (R-Jefferson County) last week said the Ballard Spahr contract has the "appearance of a conflict."

So much so that Republicans are drafting a slew of bills requiring better public accountability.

House Minority Policy Chairman Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny County) said legislation is being written that would prevent Rendell, and future governors, from doling out contracts worth more than $100,000 without greater scrutiny.

State Senate Majority Whip Jane Orie (R-Allegheny County) wants to use legislation she co-sponsored last fall to establish stricter guidelines. The bill is modeled after a law Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter pushed through in 2005 as a councilman. The law makes businesses ineligible for no-bid city contracts if they contribute more than $10,000 a year to a city official's campaign.

Ballard Spahr's hiring was first disclosed by blogger Bill Keisling on yardbird.com two weeks ago. His reporting found the firm had started work on privatizing the turnpike even before the execution of a signed contract last year.

Since then, dozens of Ballard Spahr attorneys have billed the state for work on the turnpike, including include Kenneth M. Jarin, a Rendell campaign contributor ($40,000), a partner in Ballard Spahr and the husband of state Treasurer Robin L. Wiessmann. The couple live in Newtown, Bucks County.

Jarin is also treasurer for the Democratic Governors' Association, which gave Rendell $462,000 for his gubernatorial campaign in 2002. In 2005, Rendell named him to the Board of Governors for the State System of Higher Education, which he now chairs.

Jarin billed the Commonwealth at a rate of $531.25 an hour for 46.5 hours of work, a total of $24,703.15, in April and May 2007. before Ballard Spahr's contract was finalized on May 23, 2007, Keisling found.

DeNaples fights back; key lawmaker in trouble in Slotsylvania

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:24:29 PDT

Now it's indicted slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples' turn to fight back.

On Thursday, the Dunmore billionaire gave a copy of his own FBI file to the state Gaming Control Board. He initially refused to do that during the background check for his license, even though he requested it through the Federal Freedom of Information Act.

Kevin Feeley, DeNaples' spokesman, blamed the discrepancy on the FBI's failure to release the entire file to DeNaples in a timely manner. Since then, the FBI has supplied the entire file to DeNaples' attorneys, Feeley said. In response to a recent request from the gaming board, the lawyers gave it to the agency.

DeNaples' lawyer, Richard A. Sprague of Philadelphia, told the Inquirer the perjury case against his client rests on lies told by reputed Northeastern Pennsylvania mob boss Billy D'Elia.

Sprague said D'Elia lied when he told the grand jury that the D'Elia-DeNaples family relationship ran so deep that DeNaples gave his father's rosary beads to D'Elia after the elder DeNaples passed away. The rosary beads were black, not green, and are buried with the elder DeNaples, Sprague told the newspaper's editorial board.

Sprague also attacked D'Elia's testimony cited in the grand jury's Jan. 30 presentment that D'Elia's predecessor, the late Russell Bufalino, gave DeNaples the ring he was wearing after DeNaples complimented it while the pair were at the C&C Club in the early 1970s.

It never happened, said Sprague, who had asked to meet with the Inquirer's editorial board to complain about the way the newspaper's editorials had characterized DeNaples, who maintains his innocence. He has been barred from his own casino - and its profits - pending the outcome of the criminal case.

State police filed the four perjury charges against DeNaples, 67, accusing him of lying to Gaming Control Board agents about the extent of his relationships with D'Elia, Bufalino and two men at the center of a federal probe into corruption involving Philadelphia City Hall.

And before you go thinking DeNaples' was framed, remember he pleaded no contest to a federal felony in a 1978 fraud case, gave more than $1.1 million to the state's top elected officials in the years before he received his license, and FBI wiretaps are being used as evidence against him.

None of that also explains whether DeNaples attended the 1999 wedding of D'Elia's daughter, as D'Elia has also claimed. Stands to reason that if there was no friendly connection between the two of them, DeNaples might just have sent a gift and well wishes.

Better hope the feds, state police and/or Dauphin County prosecutors are going through the wedding album right now looking for DeNaples in group shots.

Nor does it explain why Tad Decker, the former chairman of the gaming board, refused to call D'Elia as a witness before the board unanimously voted to grant him a license on Dec. 20, 2006.

Decker told the Allentown Morning Call that someone - he refused to say who - told him that D'Elia would merely have evoked his fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination if called. It wasn't D'Elia's lawyer, who said his client is eager to testify on this matter.

Decker and other Gaming Control Board members knew or should have known that the state police were investigating DeNaples for perjury before they issued him a license, according to testimony state police commander Jeffrey Miller gave the Legislature during budget hearings last month.

Since then, you can understand why Republicans in the Legislature are salivating for an official probe into DeNaples' licensing by a bipartisan committee with subpoena power. They also want reform for the state's four-year-old slots law.

One of the biggest impediments to slots reform, though, has been state Rep. Harold James (D-Philadelphia), majority chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee. He has refused to move any slots-related legislation out of his committee for more than a year.

But the wheels in Slotsylvania go round and round - and James may now be hardpressed to win re-election this year.

According to the Inquirer: The state Supreme Court issued a three-sentence order Thursday overturning a ruling by Commonwealth Court Judge Doris A. Smith-Ribner and ordered her to consider a challenge against James's nominating petitions, seeking to have him thrown off the April 22 primary ballot.

The original deadline for submitting signatures was Feb. 12, and the deadline for challenging them was seven days later.

But a raging snowstorm in central Pennsylvania kept some candidates from reaching the state election bureau in time, and Gov. Rendell extended the filing deadline from 5 p.m. on Feb. 12 to noon on Feb. 14. Challenges were due seven days later.

James's opponent, Kenyatta Johnson, challenged James's petitions on grounds that he improperly listed himself as the person circulating his petitions, when in fact they were circulated by other people.

Johnson filed the challenge in mid-afternoon on Feb. 21. James's attorney, John Sabatina, contended that the challenge should have been filed before noon. Ribner-Smith agreed and dismissed the challenge, without hearing any of Johnson's evidence on the alleged petition problems.

The Supreme Court disagreed, ruling yesterday that the challenge had been "timely filed" and remanding the James case for a hearing next Wednesday.

There is no known direct connection between DeNaples and state Rep. James.

However, one of James' biggest political contributors over the years was former state Rep. Mike Veon, who gave him a total of $5,000. Although Veon is now a lobbyist in Harrisburg for gambling and other interests, as a lawmaker he received at least $60,000 in contributions from DeNaples.

Veon also was head of the House Democratic Campaign Committee and used that position to push for gambling expansion along with now-House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, who reportedly received $5,000 in contributions from DeNaples.

James' committee is sitting on a bill DeWeese wrote, H.B. 2121, which would turn all of the state's 14 slots parlors - seven of which are already operating - into full fledged casinos.

MORE ABOUT LOUIS DENAPLES
For more about Louis DeNaples and to read my complete take on this long-predicted Slotsylvania snafu, click here.

Slotsylvania GOP lawmakers: Let's have an inquiry, please

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:19:02 PDT

Some Republican state representatives want a bipartisan committee with subpoena power to probe what the state Gaming Control Board knew and when in the licensing of slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples.

DeNaples, a Dunmore billionaire, was indicted Jan. 30 on four counts of perjury for allegedly lying to the board about his ties to two reputed mobsters and two political fixers. He has denied any wrongdoing.

Ditto with Gaming Control Board members, who claim they were never told state police were investigating DeNaples before they unanimously issued him a license on Dec. 20, 2006.

Their statements, however, appear to contradict testimony from Col. Jeffrey Miller, commander of the state police, who said the board should have known about the criminal investigation because its own privately-hired investigators were the ones who tipped the troopers to the possible perjury.

"We have two state agencies saying two diametrically opposed things," state Rep. Curt Schroder (R-Chester) told the Scranton Times-Tribune. He plans to introduce a bill to create the a 10-member special bipartisan committee as soon as lawmakers return to session from their Easter break on March 31.

Schroder and other Republicans lawmakers, including Doug Reichley of Lehigh, Mike Vereb of Montgomery and House Minority Leader Sam Smith of Punxsutawney, hope public pressure will force Democratic leaders to establish the committee or at least help them win enough rank-and-file votes from the other side to pass the resolution.

"What we are trying to do is restore the confidence of the public and the integrity of this (licensing) process," said Rep. Ron Marsico, R-Dauphin, cousin to Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico Jr., who filed the perjury charges in January against DeNaples. "The whole process since the beginning of 2004 is in question."

Vereb agreed, telling the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Mount Airy has a cloud over it. This is a cancer, and we have to attack this cancer ever way possible."

The Republicans are critical of the House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman Harold James (D-Philadelphia) for only taking up bingo bills during the past 14 months and House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia), for not allowing more questioning of Gaming Board members during recent budget hearings.

However, they denied they are pursuing a political witch hunt designed to embarrass Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell, a big backer of slots who received at least $115,000 in campaign contributions from DeNaples, or the gaming board, three of whose seven members Rendell selected.

Yet, Reichley said the onus is now on the majority because "The House Democratic leadership has shielded the Gaming Board from further inquiries."

MORE ABOUT LOUIS DENAPLES
For more about Louis DeNaples and to read my complete take on this long-predicted Slotsylvania snafu, click here.

Appointing Pa. appelate judges a really bad idea

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:49:47 PDT

As bad as the judiciary can be in Pennsylvania - and I'm talking supremely bad in the case of our highest court, the one thing you could always say is we're the ones who elected them.

Maybe not for long, though.

Proponents of appointing statewide appeals courts judges launched a new effort Tuesday and plan to introduce bills in both the House and the Senate to make it a reality.

Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts and other groups propose merit selection for Supreme Court justices and judges on the Superior and Commonwealth courts. County judges would remain elected.

The proposed legislation would create a 14-member public commission to screen applicants for a list of potential nominees for the governor to consider. The governor would submit a choice from that list to the Senate, and judges who get confirmed would face an up-or-down retention election four years later and every decade afterward.

The idea of merit selection has garnered support from Gov. Ed Rendell, the League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

But former gubernatorial candidate and activist Russ Diamond is against it because the people on the commission recommending names to the governor would themselves be subject to a politicized appointment process.

I couldn't agree more.

I think we've seen quite enough of our elected elite serve themselves through appointees that owe them homage. Just look at the loyal old boys/girls network that runs our state Gaming Control Board. It's high-powered patronage run amok.

Bending and subverting the judiciary to the will of the highly partisan Legislature is no improvement. In fact, it's a complete betrayal of our state Constitution, which mandated that voters elect those who will eventually judge them.

That's not to say that the current system couldn't use some tweaking.

For instance, I'm all in favor of fundraising limits for judiciary candidates, an idea that's been kicked around in Harrisburg for more than 20 years.

But going hand and hand with that, both the bar association and the state Supreme Court must lift their prohibition on judicial candiates from expressing their political views.

The legal limitations on what judge candidates can say has made their campaigns more of a popularity contest than "American Idol." Statewide judge candidates sell themselves to raise millions to spend on TV and radio ads just to get some voter identification before election day.

Or as Lynn Marks, executive Director of Pennsylvanians for Modern Courts, said today, "I'm not saying that any of these judges are influenced, but the perception out there is staggering."

Personally, I'd rather have judges oweing loyalty and possible favors to a few private sector special interests than consistently bowing to the will of their lawmaker patrons.

Purposely crying poor in Pennsylvania

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 18:37:40 PDT

Pennsylvania's Legislature spent $308 million on itself in 2006-07 and stashed another $241.5 million in different piggy banks for future spending.

The lawmakers have been doing the same thing annually for decades, calling their surplus the "continuing appropriation" and arguing the extra cash serves as a buffer in case the governor gets tough during budget talks.

The last time that happened was 20 years ago when Gov. Bob Casey vetoed operating money for Senate Republicans during a drawn-out budget fight, leaving them unable to pay their employees.

Given that, is overbudgeting, overtaxing and stashing the extra cash merely prudent planning?

Hardly, according to state Rep. Josh Shapiro (D-Montgomery County), who chairs the Legislative Audit Advisory Commission.

The commission voted unanimously Monday to approve the 2006-07 audit. Afterward, Shapiro said he believes the Legislature's surplus should be limited to two or three months of its annual appropriation, about $80 million.

Doing so would free up about $160 million annually for other purposes, like providing property tax relief or health coverage for the state's 800,000 uninsured.

House speaker Dennis O'Brien agrees in theory, but not on the dollar amount.

"At a time when money is tight for critical needs throughout state government, it would be a tremendous act of good faith by the Legislature to cut back on the money it's holding for contingencies and make at least $100 million available for programs that are urgently needed," O'Brien said in a press release later in the day.

And unlike everything else in Harrisburg, the desire to cut the surplus isn't partisan.

Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware) said basically the same thing when they announced a plan on Feb. 5, 2007 to slash legislative reserves by at least $75 million. So far, their plan has gone nowhere.

No other state department operates like the Legislature. All offices in the executive and judicial branches either have to spend their appropriations or return the excess to the state's general fund. Some even take pride in saving the state money.

Meanwhile, critics call the Legislature's continuing surplus a slush fund and note legislative leaders tapped it in 2005 to temporarily provide pay raises to lawmakers who decided to collect it before facing re-election despite a provision in the state Constitution barring the practice. After statewide outrage, the pay raise was repealed that November.

The surplus money is still subject to shell games, though.

For example, the audit says the General Assembly surplus shrank from $215 million in 2005-06 to $211 million last year. But that's only because $32 million was moved into a new category for future spending commitments, without which the surplus would have grown last year by about 12 percent.

Still, those type of fiscal shennanigans can yield temporary positive PR. Some early headlines on St. Patrick's Day said the surplus actually decreased.

"I think there's new will to budget more responsibly and be more accountable to the taxpayers," Shapiro said.

This in the same state that makes you wait weeks to find out what your legislator spent money on and which hasn't post the audit on the state Legislature's Web site?

Ernst & Young, which prepared the audit, recommended committee and leadership checking accounts be consolidated under the House Comptroller's Office, similar to how the Senate clerk's office operates.

The audit reportedly found "significant deficiencies" in controls over House checking accounts for House committees and caucus leaders, who do not always document a specific business or legislative purpose for each expense item. As a result, the Internal Revenue Service could classify the payments as income rather than expense reimbursement.

Yet another reason to do away with the very idea of caucuses. That's where the actual haggling over bills takes place in Pennsylvania because the Legislature granted itself an exemption to the state's Open Meetings or Sunshine Law.

Smerconish: Legalize hookers

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:51:45 PDT

Right-wing Philly radio talk show host Michael Smerconish has gone off the deep end, again, saying in light of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's downfall he hopes America may soon be ready to grow up and debate decriminalizing the sex industry.

Smerconish quotes extensively from Spitzer's mentor, constitutional law professor Alan Dershowitz of all people, in his Sunday column in the Philadelphia Daily News.

"Twenty years from now, people will look back at this and say, 'What? Somebody had to resign or be indicted because he went and paid for an adult prostitute who was making $5,000 an hour?' Where's the victim here?" Dershowitz told him.

Smerconish does him one better, writing, "It's time to bring the world's oldest profession aboveboard in communities willing to allow it, clean up the trade, and clamp down on the exploitation. Let government share in the revenue, but otherwise stay out of the private affairs of consenting adults."

I'm no prude. But while that may seem very European and progressive, there's just one flaw in the logic of both men.

Britain and other European countries are, in fact, currently debating whether to start prosecuting male Johns, instead of the women they hire in an effort to curb human trafficking.

And if you don't think human trafficking occurs in the U.S., you're sadly mistaken. According to U.S. government estimates, about 800,000 to 900,000 men, women and children are trafficked each year across international borders worldwide for sex and other purposes; approximately 18,000 to 20,000 of those victims are trafficked into the United States itself.

The victim here isn't the man's career and potential public embarassment in the newspaper, but the young woman who is spreading her legs for money - no matter what price she is paid. All this would change is her pimp.

The law should regard any woman who decides to whore herself for money as a sex slave, no matter if she's doing it willingly and isn't hooked on drugs or alcohol. Money is addicting too and this is not an occupation to which young girls should aspire.

Just ask Ashley Alexandra Dupre, Spitzer's call girl, now. She is claiming through her lawyer that the New York Times' and Associated Press' use of photos from her myspace page violated her right to privacy and potential copyright laws.

Hustler Publisher Larry Flynt also told the AP Friday that he e-mailed Dupre, offering her $1 million to pose nude for his magazine, but hasn't heard back so far.

Frankly, given our state government's failure to responsibly regulate its fledgling slots parlor industry, I would never want prostitution to be legal in Slotsylvania. One vice is enough.

And to think, four years ago when the law legalizing slots gambling passed without any public debate, I joked, "All the Legislature has to do now is sell off the liquor stores so that booze flows freely, add some dice and card games, and let people wear concealed, unlicensed firearms to protect themselves from the social ills the rest will create. And then, voila, we have the Wild West all over again."

I completely forgot the horizontal refreshment. How rude of me.

Time to put the blinders on in Slotsylvania

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 20:28:42 PDT

We may never know who lied - the state police commander or the former chairman of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board - if key lawmakers like Jane Earll get their way.

After first denying there was a problem with the way the state licenses its slots parlor owners, Earll (R-Erie) now says she's willing to hold hearings in light of the four perjury charges filed against slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples.

However, she does not want them to be about the conflicting testimony of state officials on how DeNaples got his license because "I'm not sure where that (investigation) gets us constructively."

As chairwoman of the Senate's Community, Economic and Recreational Development Committee, Earll is crafting the Senate GOP's plans to address the matter. "I have no desire to turn any of this into a side circus," she said.

Oops, too late.

The time for that was before the Gaming Control Board members unanimously handed DeNaples a license after a grand jury says he allegedly lied to the board about his ties to two reputed mobsters and two political fixers.

Adding to this freaky show is the fact that before DeNaples received his license he gave as much as $1.1 million an campaign contributions to the state's top officials. Among them, Gov. Ed Rendell and state Attorney Tom Corbett, who have refused to return DeNaples' money since his indictment.

The Dunmore billionaire and former federal felon has denied any wrongdoing, but has been barred from the $412 million Mt. Airy Casino Resort he owns until the charges are resolved.

Earll, whose district is home to Presque Isle Downs & Casino, voted to legalize slot machines in 2004. As chairwoman, she has refused to bring any reform legislation up for a vote in her committee for more than a year - defying many within her party who have called for change.

She also stopped an effort last October - three months before DeNaples' indictment - to put state police in charge of slot licensee background investigations, saying, "I don't see any glaring problems that have been brought to light by today's testimony that we need to rush to fix."

This being Slotsylvania, she's clearly trying to sweep things under the rug, telling the Associated Press that the conflicting accounts about what was shared between the gaming board and state police while vetting DeNaples is akin to "he said, she said."

It's much more than that.

Col. Jeffrey Miller, the Pennsylvania State Police commissioner, testified March 4 before the Senate and House Appropriations Committees that at least some of the state's seven Control Board members knew the state police were investigating DeNaples for lying to them, but they publicly voted to award him a slots parlor license anyway on Dec. 20, 2006.

In fact, Miller said, the board's own privately-hired background investigators were the ones who tipped the staties and the Feds off in the first place. (The Feds' case was later thrown for a loop when prosecuting U.S. Attorney Tom Marino left office and took a job with DeNaples.)

The Control Board's former chairman, attorney Thomas A. "Tad" Decker, has denied that the control board knew DeNaples was lying. "We didn't send a perjury referral," Decker told the Scranton Times-Tribune on March 7. "This is just flat out not true."

Yet, Sen. Robert J. Mellow, the Democratic leader from Lackawanna County and a longtime friend of DeNaples, called any Senate perjury investigation a "slippery slope."

"All we'll be doing is taking up our time policing (testimony) as opposed to doing public policy," Mellow, who voted for the slots law, told the AP.

However, Republican House leader Sam Smith, of Jefferson County, "It's hard to look at that stuff and not think, 'Somebody isn't being 100 percent truthful here.'"

Some lawmakers say they believe that lying to a legislative committee is a crime. Good luck proving that, since none of the PGCB members were sworn in during their House appropriations hearing last month.

It was an oversight and a mistake, David Atkinson, a committee spokesman, said then.

Sixty-eight House Republicans signed a letter to House Appropriations Chairman Dwight Evans (D-Philadelphia) this week asking the Appropriations Committee chairman to recall the Control Board members. "The members and the public deserve to be told honest and truthful answers from this regulatory agency." says the letter, which was released Friday

Like Earll, House Gaming Oversight Committee Chairman Harold James (D-Philadelphia) has been slow to call for hearings into the DeNaples' matter, even though Evans testified he asked him to look into it last month. James told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review this week he is gathering information from both agencies and will call a hearing to look into it.

And just like Earll, James hasn't let any slots law reform bills comes up in his committee for more than a year.

Meanwhile, slots parlor owners - including DeNaples, may be barred by law from contributing to political campaigns, but are still allowed to lobby lawmakers largely in secret.

Things are getting so ugly in Slotsylvania, that politicians here can no longer point at Louisiana as more corrupt than they are, wrotes Allentown Morning Call columnist Paul Carpenter.

"The entire slots scam was ballyhooed from the start as a razzle-dazzle way to ease local school taxes," Carpenter wrote. "That was the worst fraud of all."

MORE ABOUT LOUIS DENAPLES
For more about Louis DeNaples and to read my complete take on this long-predicted Slotsylvania snafu, click here.

Thy casinos' will be done, thy kingdom come in Slotsylvania?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 21:54:01 PDT

FOLLOW UP FRIDAY - Pennsylvania's casinos are likely spending their easily-earned lobbying money right now battling a proposed statewide ban on indoor smoking. But good luck trying to prove it.

The state's online database of lobbying expenditures doesn't allow you to search by the subject of what is being lobbyed for or against.

Nor do the lobbyists have to spell out who they gave gifts to, just their basic purpose and who their clients are. Sometimes, the lobbyists even ignore doing that.

The state's lobbying disclosure law doesn't require immediate disclosure either, just a quarterly expense report if the lobbyist spent more than $2,500. The next reports, covering Jan. 1 to March 31, aren't due until April 30th.

Meanwhile, state lawmakers and other officials don't have to file their annual statements of financial interests - reports spelling out what gifts they've received and what conflicts of interest they've had - until May 1.

By then, the indoor smoking ban debate may be over.

Even an annual report to the General Assembly outlining lobbying activities in 2007 with detailed information on registered principals, lobbying firms and lobbyists has not been posted online for the public to read.

And everyone in Slotsylvania simply shrugs and accepts it.

Is it any wonder Gov. Ed Rendell and state Attorney General Tom Corbett feel safe in refusing to give back denotions from a slots parlor owner who has since been indicted for lying about his mob ties?

Can't anyone in Harrisburg say pay-to-play?

I do know, thanks to my own research, that the casino companies spent at least $2.6 million last year to lobby the Legislature and Rendell's administration.

And I suspect lots of lobbying is going on right now because the slots parlors want a special state exemption from a proposed indoor smoking ban - even as Senate Bill 246 is being re-crafted by a panel of lawmakers as a compromise between competing bills that passed in the House and Senate last year.

Other gambling states such as New Jersey and Connecticut are pondering outright smoking bans in their casinos.

Their reason? Atlantic City baccarat dealer Kam Wong was awarded about $150,000 as disability pay and lost wages last month as worker's compensation - and additional amounts for future medical care - for the lung cancer she developed after 10 years of breathing secondhand smoke at the former Claridge Casino Hotel.

But during testimony before the state House and Senate conference committee on Thursday, casino owners pointed to dips in slot machine revenues at Delaware casinos after that state went smoke-free. Those casinos only recovered after they expanded to 24 hours of operation and added machines.

"The baseline went down 20 percent, and it's taken six years to get back," said David Jonas, president of Philadelphia Park Casino. If that happens here, the Legislature's goal of homeowner property tax cuts would be undermined, he and his industry colleagues said.

State Rep. Mike Gerber, a champion of a law with as few exceptions as possible, countered by accusing casino owners of "asking us to put your profits before the health of your workers and your patrons."

But Jonas also argued, "We understand the health hazards of direct smoking and the concerns expressed about secondhand smoke. A blanket smoking ban on casinos would be a disaster for the industry. ... You cannot burden the casino industry with an unnecessary obstacle to providing the revenue that you need [for property tax relief]."

Committee Chairman Stewart Greenleaf (R-Montgomery) said the committee will begin its final deliberations at a public meeting scheduled for April 1.

Meanwhile, Quakertown - one of the largest towns in Greenleaf's district - last week became the latest of a growing number of municipalities across the state to locally ban smoking outdoors in their parks. Anyone caught lighting a pipe, cigar or cigarette faces a fine of up to $600 or 30 days in jail.

Jack's back!

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:18:52 PDT

He may still be on parole after a decade in jail, but Dr. Jack Kevorkian is now planning a run for Congress even though it usual works the other way around.

Yep, Dr. Death now wants to become Congressman Death (I-Michigan) because "we need some honesty and sincerity instead of corrupt government in Washington."

Let's not let a little thing like mass murder spoil the fun.

Kevorkian, 79, claims to have helped at least 130 people die from 1990 until 1998 - the year he was charged in the death of Thomas Youk, a 52-year-old Oakland County man with Lou Gehrig's disease. He was released from prison in June 2007 after serving the minimum of his 10- to 25-year sentence for second-degree murder

Kevorkian has promised not to help in any other assisted suicides and could go back to prison if he did.

Although I actually agree with Kevorkian's stance on the right of self-(de)termination, I can only imagine the reaction of his rookie Congressional colleagues in the class of 2008.

"Hey," they might say, "didn't that old geezer kill a guy half a generation ago?"

You better believe they'll listen to what he has to say. In fact, if he wins, I'd recommend making him Parliamentarian.

Who's going to mess with a near-octagenarian who has a true passion for pulling the plug on people?

In fact, it's only a shame he could be paroled in time for the Terri Schiavo case.

I can think of no one more qualified to debate the subject. He would have made ex-U.S. Senator Rick Santorum pay for intervening, rather than waiting for us Pennsylvania voters to turn him out of office.

If Kevorkian does make it to Capitol Hill, either George W. Bush or the next president might even name him Ambassador to Euthanasia. ("You know, that big (in)continent to the right.")

Empires fall

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:15:59 PDT

Twas a dark day for the Vince of Darkness and the sheriff of Wall Street Wednesday, proving once more that pride cometh before the fall.

Not only did state Sen. Vincent Fumo announce he won't seek re-election after 30 years in the Pennsylvania Legislature, but the powerful appropriations committee veteran also learned the tax bill on his Philly mansion just quadrupled.

Surprisingly, Fumo, 64, who suffered a heart attack two weeks ago after undergoing back surgery just a few days before, did not blame his physical ailments for his decision to quit the race. So don't go thinking the obstinate pug saw the light - and dead relatives beckoning.

Instead, Fumo cited the stress of trying to defend a 139-count federal indictment against him for allegedly extorting $17 million from PECO/Exelon for a non-profit group in his district and then trying to cover it up.

"I simply do not think it is right for me to ask the voters who have put their faith in me all these years ... to continue voting for me one more time while there is a cloud hanging over my head," a somber Fumo said.

He routinely used Senate employees to attend to matters at his Victorian-style mansion in Philadelphia, a beach house in New Jersey and a farm outside Harrisburg, the indictment against Fumo says. He also allegedly ordered Senate employees to destroy e-mail correspondence on his computers after he became aware of the investigation.

A trial is scheduled for September. Fumo, of course, maintains his innocence.

This will be the feds' third swing at Fumo. He has beaten criminal charges twice before, including once when the trial judge vacated the conviction in 1981.

The feds get an intentional walk for forcing New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer from office without even bringing charges against him for patronizing high-priced hookers and bringing them across state lines.

"I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people's work," Spitzer said, his weary-looking wife, Silda, standing at his side, again, as the corruption-fighting politician once known as Mr. Clean answered for his actions for the second time in three days.

Private failings, what a nice euphamism for spending a reported $80,000 for sex. It was a spectacular collapse for a man who cultivated an image as a hard-nosed politician hell-bent on cleansing the state of corruption.

Spitzer served two terms as New York attorney general, earning the nickname "Sheriff of Wall Street" for pursuing white collar criminals and was elected governor with a record share of the vote in 2006. The tall, athletic, square-jawed Spitzer was sometimes mentioned as a potential candidate for president.

Still, I guess it's better than getting a blowjob from an intern and claiming you didn't actually have sex (Bill Clinton), or putting your unqualified man-crush in charge of your state's Homeland Security and then allegedly getting extorted by him (Jim McGreevey).

Spitzer's resignation made him the 22nd governor in U.S. history to fall from grace. A dozen resigned just like he did and 10 were forcibly removed, according to Stateline.org.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell told the Radio Pennsylvania Network that if anyone had told him that a governor would get caught up in a call-girl scandal, Spitzer would have been his "50th pick out of 50 governors. ... You never know what lurks in a person's personal life."

This from the same governor who accepted at least $115,000 in campaign contributions from an indicted slots parlor owner with reputed mob ties and won't give the money back?

Later in the day, Rendell stood next to Fumo as he ended his political career.

It's time like these that I remember what Will Rogers said. "I am not a member of any organized party - I am a Democrat."

Lobbyists spent $53.5M on N.J. lawmakers in '07

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:19:08 PDT

Lobbyists spent $53.5 million last year trying to sway New Jersey lawmakers, down $1.8 million from 2006, a new state report says.

I'd love to give you comparable numbers for Pennsylvania, but they don't exist. More on that in a bit.

Out of all that money, the lobbyists only passed $31,666 in direct benefits to New Jersey lawmakers, down from $45,500 in 2006 and from $79,509 in 1997, according to the records. Under state law, benefit passing includes meals, entertainment, gifts, travel and lodging.

The biggest recipient of that surprisingly small largesse was Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, chairman of the Assembly committee overseeing telecommunications and utilities. He accepted $1,126 in gifts last year from lobbyists. All but $280 came from industries he oversees, according to the Associated Press.

Still, Ev Liebman, of the watchdog group New Jersey Citizen Action, told the AP, "It's very troubling when we have a system that allows special interests and their money to dominate the legislative process and to get the kind of access to legislators, particularly powerful legislators, that's simply not available to rate payers, those of us who pay the bills."

Across the Delaware River, Pennsylvania no longer breaks down its total lobbying numbers for the public to inspect thanks to a two-year-old lobbyist disclosure law, which appears to have done more to obfuscate lobbying expenditures than it did to expose them.

Pennsylvania does now have an online database of quarterly expense reports filed by lobbyists, but the regulations on how the lobbyists should fill out the state-mandated forms still are not finalized.

I do know, thanks to an Associated Press analysis of the state data, that lobbyists spent $37 million in Pennsylvania during the first six months of 2007, of which nearly $1 million went to state officials for meals, plane tickets, hotel rooms and other gifts.

Now, multiply that by two and compare it to the $31,666 spent by lobbyists in New Jersey.

What's the difference between the two states? New Jersey's law requires that every gift to a legislator from a lobbyist must be spelled out along with the exact amount of money spent.

Pennsylvania's law does not.

Am I wrong to think the Legislature and Gov. Ed Rendell's administration are selling us out, and to say that we now have the best government lobbying money can secretly buy?

For example, Pennsylvania offered the movie industry this year a 25 percent tax credit on TV shows and films that spend at least 60 percent of their total budget in the Commonwealth. The program's cost is capped at $75 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

How did Hollywood qualify for the break? Lobbyists Leslie Merrill McCombs, a former Fox TV reporter in Pittsburgh, and Mike Veon, a once-powerful Democratic state representative from Beaver County, lobbied for it on behalf of Lionsgate, a leading independent film and TV production company based in Santa Monica, Calif.

That isn't what angered state Sen. Jeffrey Piccola, chairman of the Senate State Government Committee, though.

It's the fact that McCombs didn't publicly declare that she was working on behalf of Lionsgate in her quarterly reports until after the tax break was granted. McCombs called it a "technical and brief noncompliance" that was later corrected.

"Clearly, we cannot permit lobbyists to hide what is spent on influencing the Governor and members of the General Assembly," Piccola (R-Dauphin) said in a Sept. 5 written statement. "Accountability is the key to reestablishing the public's trust in government. People who influence the law should not be above it."

Piccola's committee hired private investigators for $120 an hour to probe whether loopholes in the state's lobbying and ethics laws were exploited and to see if Veon violated a state prohibition against former lawmakwers lobbying their colleagues within a year of leaving office.

Veon was voted out of office in November 2006 after being the lone lawmaker in the state to vote against repealing the 2005 legislative pay raise. He filed to lobby on behalf of Lionsgate six months later, but state records say he didn't spend a dime.

In an e-mail to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Veon said, "I am confident that any review of the facts and the record will find that at no time ... have I lobbied anyone in the House of Representatives."

Meanwhile, McCombs lashed out at Piccola for suggesting she had an inappropriate relationship with Gov. Rendell. The governor has said he is friends with McCombs, her husband and son and has attended Pittsburgh-area sporting events with the family.

All of this was meant as but an illustration. The $75 million tax break is mere chump change by comparison to what's at stake by expanding the state's fledgling slot machine gamling industry so that it includes table games.

I did a cursory examination of the database last month and found that gambling interests spent at least $2.6 million last year to lobby lawmakers and Rendell's administration.

I say at least, because I suspect more money - possibly a lot more - is hidden from public view by virtue of gambling interests hiring one lobbyist, who in turn hired another.

Two final thoughts: Why didn't Piccola refer the movie tax break case to state Attorney General Tom Corbett, whose office has a seven-attorney public corruption unit? After all, Corbett is also leading a committee that's spent the last year drafting the disclosure regulations the lobbyists will follow?

In an unrelated ethics matter, though, Corbett said this week he would not return at least $35,000 worth of campaign contributions from now-indicted slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples. Despite a grand jury investigation last year, DeNaples spent $67,375 last year lobbying for "casino gambling."

Given all that, is there any wonder why there's a lack of leadership on reforming the state slots law in the Legislature?

D.A. to Slotsylvania A.G.: Return DeNaples' money

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:47:09 PDT

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli is calling on state Attorney General Tom Corbett to return all campaign contributions he received from now-indicted slots parlor owner Louis DeNaples.

"It is completely unacceptable to have the state's chief law enforcement officer financially tied to a person who is under indictment by a Pennsylvania grand jury for perjury, allegedly for lying about his ties to the mob and organized crime in order to obtain a gaming license," Morganelli wrote in a press release that arrived uninvited in my e-mail this morning. "Mr. Corbett's recalcitrance compromises the integrity of the Office of Attorney General."

Now put what Morganelli wrote through this prism: Morganelli is the lone announced Democrat running for state Attorney General. Corbett, the Republican incumbent, has already announced he's seeking re-election.

Corbett has refused to return DeNaples' campaign contributions to his first campaign, saying through his spokesman that DeNaples has not been convicted of perjury.

DeNaples did, however, plead no contest to a federal felony 30 years ago on a charge that he defrauded the federal government of $525,000 for cleanup work associated with Hurricane Agnes - a crime that did not bar him from obtaining a slots parlor license from the state Gaming Control Board.

Before he got the license, though, the Dunmore billionaire spread a lot of money around among the state's top elected officials. My research flound contributions from DeNaples of at least $679,375, but the state's records online are incomplete - perhaps purposely so. Some newspapers have reported that DeNaples' contributions topped $1.1 million.

At least $35,000 of DeNaples' money went to Corbett's campaign, state records show. Morganelli cites an additional $5,000 contribution to Corbett on Jan. 20, 2005, which I've been unable to verify. He also cites a Philadelphia Inquirer report that says Corbett received $55,000.

Regardless of the amount, Morganelli is troubled that Corbett has not given the money back because the Attorney General's position is one in which even the appearance of a potential conflict of interest can cause problems.

While I agree with Morganelli's premise, I think he's playing politics with an issue that should transcend politics. This is about doing the right thing ethically, whether or not the law says the contributions were legal.

Corbett should never have accepted the money from a known felon with long-rumored mob ties, no matter how rich and generous he is. But since he did, Corbett should have given the money back as soon as DeNaples was indicted. To do less calls into question his character and the character of his office.

Now, Corbett's opened himself up to political games and, dare I say, possible federal investigation.

And before you ask, I am a registered Democrat but not an ardent one. I am, however, a rod-ass when it comes to issues of good government and ethics, something I have in common with many Republican friends.

That's why I'm also calling on Gov. Ed Rendell, a Democrat, to give back the money DeNaples gave him, which amounted to at least $115,000. Fast Eddie set the bar by accepting that cash and is still sitting on $2.25 million even though he can't run for a third straight term as governor.

It's also why I agree with the Harrisburg Patriot-News blogger Brett Lieberman, who admonished Morganelli for failing to disclose his candidacy for attorney general in the same e-mail he sent statewide this morning attacking Corbett.

Rules are rules. As a district attorney, Morganelli should know that better than most.

Finally, it's also why I stand firmly against slots gambling in this state. Not because I'm anti-gambling, I actually love blackjack and poker, but because the law was passed in such an underhanded manner, bypassing all public comment, and then rammed through the Legislature by some of the state lawmakers who took campaign contributions from DeNaples.

ANOTHER VOICE IN PENNS WOODS, ANOTHER SCANDAL

I've been around a while as a blogger, but I must admit I was unfamiliar with the Web site yardbird.com until today.

On it, writer Bill Keisling posted today, "Gov. Ed Rendell has awarded his former law firm an extremely lucrative contract to act as special counsel in the proposed privatization of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and related matters, including the proposed change of Interstate 80 into a toll road.

"The law firm, Ballard, Spahr, Andrews and Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, has billed the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania approximately $1.8 million for turnpike privatization and related legal work from March 1, 2007 to January 8, 2008, state records show. An additional invoice has been submitted in February, bringing the actual total costs to date closer to $2 million."

I won't ruin the rest of it for you, other than to say Kiesling calls it a "no-bid, no-contract contract." Nice.

Full text of Morganelli's press release

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:28:51 PDT

Since Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli sent his press release via e-mail, but did not post it on his Web site, I'd thought I'd print the whole thing for you to read his rather lengthy argument.

The underlined portions were emphasized by Morganelli, not by me. It's verbatim, except I cleaned up a few extra spaces here and there.

FOR RELEASE: Monday March 10, 2008

Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli Says AG Tom Corbett Compromises Integrity of Office of Attorney General By Failing To Cut Financial Ties To Alleged Mob Associate Louis DeNaples

Today, I am requesting Attorney General Tom Corbett to immediately return all monies, which appear to be somewhere between $40,000 - $55,000 , that were contributed to him by Mr. Louis DeNaples and any entities controlled by Mr. DeNaples including, but not limited to, RAM Consultants and D& L Realty. It is completely unacceptable to have the state's chief law enforcement officer financially tied to a person who is under indictment by a Pennsylvania grand jury for perjury, allegedly for lying about his ties to the mob and organized crime in order to obtain a gaming license. Mr. Corbett's recalcitrance compromises the integrity of the Office of Attorney General.

First, let me make one point perfectly clear: Mr. Denaples IS INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, and THE CHARGES AGAINST HIM ARE ONLY, AT THIS POINT, ALLEGATIONS. I do not know Mr. DeNaples and have no opinion of him. My concerns today are not about Mr. DeNaples who is entitled to due process, but about our Attorney General. It is astonishing that our Attorney General sees no problem with the chief law enforcement officer of the state keeping large amounts of money given to him by a person who is now indicted for perjury, allegedly for lying about his ties to the mob and organized crime in order to obtain a gaming license which Mr. Corbett oversees as Attorney General.

Here are the facts:

1. Pennsylvania law at 4 Pa.CSA 1517 (c.1) provides that the Attorney General has the PRIMARY authority to investigate and institute criminal proceedings under the gaming law. In fact, the legislature specifically authorized the creation of a gaming unit in OAG. Although the law recognizes that each individual District Attorney ALSO has powers to investigate and institute criminal proceedings (4 Pa.CSA 1517(d)(1)), the law SPECIFICALLY grants the authority to the AG and creates the "gaming unit" in OAG. See also 4 Pa.CSA 1517 (d)(2).

2. In 2004 and 2005, Tom Corbett received a number of separate campaign contributions from Mr. Louis DeNaples. Campaign records show that Mr. Corbett received the following contributions:

January 27, 2004 - $10,000 from D&L Realty
April 15, 2004 - $25,000 from D&L Realty
January 20, 2005- $5,000 from D&L Realty

Online campaign records may not be complete , and contributions to Mr. Corbett totaling $55,000 were reported in the Philadelphia Inquierer on September 16, 2007 by reporter Craig McCoy. The largest single contribution received by Mr. Corbett on April 15, 2004, was less than 3 months BEFORE the slots law was passed on July 5, 2004. The contribution to Mr. Corbett on January 20, 2005 was just 2 days after the day Mr. Corbett was sworn in as Attorney General and well after the slots law had passed giving oversight of gaming law to the Attorney General. Once Mr. DeNaples applied for a casino license, Mr. DeNaples was barred by law from making campaign contributions. But DeNaples was smart enough to make all the contributions BEFORE applying, gaining favor with Mr. Corbett, the chief law enforcement officer of Pennsylvania specifically charged with gaming enforcement.

3. On March 2, 2008, Sharon Smith of the Patriot News reported that Attorney General Corbett defiantly refuses to return the large campaign contributions received from Mr.Louis DeNaples who is presently under indictment by a Pennsylvania grand jury for perjury, allegedly for lying under oath about his ties to the mob and organized crime in order to gain a slots license. Mr. Corbett's refusal to cut his financial ties with the alleged mob associate was also reported by the Pittsburgh Tribune Review on March 9, 2008.

Clearly, the financial ties between Mr. Corbett and Mr. Denaples has been and will continue to be troublesome for the integrity and independence of the OAG. It has in effect handicapped the Attorney General in his legal duty to oversee gaming. For example, Attorney General Corbett had authority to investigate Mr. DeNaples for perjury, but chose to permit Dauphin County DA Ed Marsico to pursue the matter. Mr. Corbett's spokesman has said that the large amounts of money Mr. Cobett received from Mr. DeNaples played no role in Mr. Corbett's deferral to DA Marsico. But how can the public be so assured? There is an appearance that the Corbett/DeNaples connection hampered the Attorney General. There is an appearance of impropriety. The public deserves to hear in detail, directly from Mr. Corbett, and NOT his spokesperson, on why he passed on the DeNaples alleged perjury matter. Was it the money he got from Mr. DeNaples? A friendship? Some other reason?

Another question that needs to be answered is why the state police brought the DeNaples case to the DA instead of the AG. WHY? Or did, perhaps, the state police bring the case to the AG and he declined? The DA of Dauphin County Ed Marsico appears to be doing the heavy lifting on DeNaples and other gambling related matters. It has been reported that DA Marsico was asked to handle prosecutions of several individuals who ran afoul of the gambling act's provisions regulating political campaign contributions. Mr. Marsico reportedly said that these "minor" cases were settled with regulatory fines and without criminal charges. If this is so, why is DA Marsico handling these matters when AG Corbett is primarily charged with gaming enforcement and has a specific unit in the OAG to do so?

The Corbett/DeNaples financial tie also hampers the OAG going forward. On Sunday March 9, 2008, the Pittburgh Tribune Review rightly called for an investigation into the clearly inconsistent testimony between state police officials and others regarding the issuing of the license to Mr. DeNaples. Unfortunately, the Tribune-Review's call for the Attorney General to investigate cannot occur until Mr. Corbett gives back the DeNaples money. Mr. Corbett cannot ignore the clear conflict of interest he has relative to any investigations related to the DeNaples license.

It is perplexing why AG Corbett continues to fail to recognize conflicts of interest. Just like the BonusGate investigation where he is also severely conflicted and continues to jeopardize the ultimate outcome of any prosecutions, here again Mr. Corbett is allowing campaign cash to affect his duties. Mr. Corbett cannot have it both ways. He cannot continue to scoop up large campaign contributions from people he has an obligation to investigate. Mr. Corbett's non-recognition of the cloud that now hangs over the OAG is incomprehensible. If Mr. DeNaples is truly connected to organized crime figures as alleged, should the Attorney General also be so connected by a $55,000 campaign contribution? Again, I am not questioning Mr. Corbett's integrity. But I do again question his judgement in failing to recognize that he should give back all the money he received from Mr. DeNaples.

Lastly, Mr. Corbett may argue that Mr. DeNaples gave money to many officials of both political parties and that all contributions were, at the time, legal. Such an argument fails to appreciate the unique nature of the Office of Attorney General. Unlike other recipients of campaign funds from Mr. DeNaples, the Attorney General is the state's chief law enforcement officer. Also unlike the other recipients, the AG is uniquely and specifically charged with gaming oversight. Clearly, Mr. Corbett, as the chief law enforcement officer of Pennsylvania, must immediately give back all money received from Mr. DeNaples. He must disconnect the OAG from any relationship with a person who now stands indicted as associated with organized crime. And, Mr. Corbett must answer why he has declined to date to investigate the circumstances surrounding the issuing of the gaming license to Mr. DeNaples and the apparent conflicting testimony that has surfaced regarding same.

Contact: John Morganelli 610-248-7701

Something stinks in Slotsylvania

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 20:59:16 PDT

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is now calling on state Attorney General Tom Corbett to conduct "a thorough investigation" into whether it was the state police or the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board that screwed up before Louis DeNaples was issued a slots parlor license.

"Everybody's pointing fingers at everybody else. But, clearly, the truth is not being served," the newspaper's Saturday editorial says.

I doubt the truth would be served if Corbett did launch a probe with his unproven seven-attorney gambling corruption unit.

That's because Corbett accepted at least $35,000 in campaign contributions from DeNaples, a Dunmore billionaire and admitted felon who now stands accused of perjury for lying about his alleged ties to two reputed mobsters and two political fixers.

Corbett, who is up for re-election this year, has "no plans to give the money back," his spokesman, Kevin Harley, told the Harrisburg Patriot News little more than a week ago.

Pressure is beginning to build, though, on him, Gov. Ed Rendell, state lawmakers and judges to give back the $1.1 million DeNaples gave their campaigns until he got his slots parlor license, according to the Tribune-Review.

My research says DeNaples contributed at least $679,335. The Scranton Times-Tribune puts DeNaples' contributions at $1,002,950.

"There was never anything hidden about" the contributions, DeNaples' spokesman Kevin Feeley told the Tribune-Review. "They were ... recorded under the proper campaign election law guidelines. They are perfectly legitimate."

They were also recorded shoddily by high-ranking state officials, the Department of State or both. For instance, newspapers often quote the amount of DeNaples' money that went to Corbett as $25,000.

However, a $10,000 donation by D&L Realty, one of DeNaples' many companies, to Friends of Tom Corbett on Jan. 27, 2004 does not appear in the state's online contribution database. It does, however, show up in that campaign committee's finance report with no mention in subsequent reports of the money being returned.

"There's only one good rule," Larry Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia, told the Tribune-Review, "Return the money by certified mail, immediately."

But Harley insists Corbett won't return the cash, nor will he recuse himself from any investigations involving DeNaples. "If an issue came up ... we would investigate it," he told the Tribune-Review.

Corbett has denied a conflict of interest exists and said he opted to let Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico pursue the perjury case against DeNaples because he had already prosecuted a couple of slots parlor applicants who illegally gave contributions after the state passed the law legalizing slot machines in 2004. They each received civil fines.

Corbett has a seven-lawyer corruption unit, which was established with slots gambling in mind. But it has yet to prosecute a single casino-related corruption case in two years.

Yet, Corbett said on Feb. 28, 2006, "By creating a Public Corruption Unit, the Attorney General's Office is putting a spotlight on investigating and prosecuting public corruption cases at a crucial time in our state's history when slot machines and casino gaming is about to become reality."

By the way, the Feds were also interested in DeNaples. But while his office was probing DeNaples, Tom Marino, the U.S. Attorney for Central Pennsylvania, was one of two legal references that DeNaples used on his slots parlor application. Marino recused himself when the information leaked publicly, resigned his office and now works directly for DeNaples.

Former Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey summed the situation up nicely in the Tribune-Review, "To have contributions going to people who could have an influence on a license and have the gaming board ignore all signs along the way just stinks."

State Sen. Jake Corman told the newspaper that Corbett should probe, if necessary, but first Corman wants the state Senate to take a whack at finding out if either the state police or Gaming Control Board was being untruthful in testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee about DeNaples.

"At a minimum someone has not been honest with this committee," said Corman, a Centre County Republican. "Someone made a decision to turn a blind eye on this DeNaples matter."

Sen. John Rafferty, whose Law & Justice Committee oversees the state police, is planning a hearing. He wants to do it with Sen. Jane Earll, R-Erie, who chairs a gambling oversight panel. Rafferty, R-Chester County, is viewed as pro state police. Earll, who has a casino in her district, is viewed as pro-gaming.

Earll stopped an effort last October to put state police in charge of slot licensee background investigations, saying, "I don't see any glaring problems that have been brought to light by today's testimony that we need to rush to fix."

She also has not let any slots reform legislation out of her committee in more than a year now.

It shouldn't be such a shock considering lawmakers are still being lobbied hard by the gambling industry - to the tune of at least $2.6 million last year, my research shows.

That includes the parent company of DeNaples' slots parlor, Mount Airy #1 L.L.C, which spent $67,375 lobbying lawmakers for "casino gambling" through the Philadelphia firm of S.R. Wojdak & Associates LP.

MORE ABOUT LOUIS DENAPLES
For more about Louis DeNaples and to read my complete take on this long-predicted Slotsylvania snafu, click here.

Oh, Snap! What have you done to your site now?

noreply@blogger.com (Dave Ralis) — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 19:33:28 PST

I love new Web technology, as you can tell from the new pop-up windows that now activate everytime you linger over most of the hyperlinks on my Web site.

Try it: Pa. Gambling Videos

They're not ads, folks. Although there is an ad-driven component to it.

They're snapshots, little windows previewing the web page that the hyperlink points to. If you click on them, they will pop open up slightly to give you an even bigger preview.

If you like what you see, click on it or the hyperlink and it will activate in a new browser's window.

Let me know what you think in the comments section of this post.

If you truly hate the pop-ups and want to turn them off, simply point your mouse on the little cog wheel, wait for the dropdown menu and hit "disable."